phone storage on htc desire

[wullie1967]

Hi can anyone help me to keep my phone stroage down, i have the low space symble on top of the phone and have went into manage my apps and moved all the ones i can over to sd card i have about 11.78mb left on my internal phone storage and the symble on my phone wont go away, i have plenty sd storage left

 

[womb raider]

Try clearing the cache on some of the apps using up the most space.

You can either download a cache cleaner from the Market or go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, click the menu button and 'sort by size' and then select each app individually and click the 'clear cache' button for each.

That should hopefully clear you some space!

 

[ducky1979]

or have a good look at the rooting sub forum, its a lot easier than you think provided you read all you can and ask lots of questions, then you can choose a rom you like, even stick with sense if you prefer and have the ability to have a2sd+ ive got about 90 apps installed and still got 60mb of free memory.

 

[stuggyduggy]

Can I join with many other users to express my irritation & dissatisfaction at the memory limitations of the HTC Desire. I have had my phone for just about 12m.

This phone has 512Mb Rom. On my phone I have 156 apps installed of which only 28 with a total size of 103Mb are downloaded - the rest being pre-installed. All the apps - 14 with a total size of 52Gb which allow it have been transferred to the SD card. The phone has recently for the third tine started bleating about lack of memory & could not complete the last set of application updates because of this. The phone is currently showing just18Mb of free memory with all caches empty. This means that the operating system plus pre-loaded & non uninstallable apps plus whatever user date etc is held in ROM is around 444Mb which is 87% of the available ROM. That is crazy - no wonder HTC are working hard to shoe-horn Gingerbread (Android 2.3) onto the phone. Presumably on the basis that operating system updates always grow then this will further squeeze the available ROM. Post Gingerbread I would expect the phone will squeal every tine it is asked to do anything apart from basic operations.

The memory on this model was seriously underspecified for little reason bearing in mind how cheap memory is - currently circa

 

[ducky1979]

Provided you read all you can about rooting you should have no problems, but before you do we need to know what network your with and if your phone is branded, also are you gsm or cdma, (does your phone have a sim card?)
The method you ask with regard to moving apps to SD does work but it will render any widgets not to work as it needs to be on the phones internal memory to work, when you root you have to create an ext partition on the SD card, ext is essentially a Linux based file system so the phone sees it as part of the phones internal memory, after you have rooted most roms support a2sd+ which uses the ext to store apps, in addition you can also move the Davlik cache (app cache) to this partion which creates even more room on internal, and because the phone sees this as internal all widgets work, the lack of memory on the desire was my main reason for rooting and I've never looked back, but read the faq's in the rooting sub forum, and get an idea of the process and the pros and cons, ask lots of questions and maybe soon you too can enjoy endless memory, as rooting only unlocks an endless amount of modding possible on the desire.

 

[amlothi]

Can I join with many other users to express my irritation & dissatisfaction at the memory limitations of the HTC Desire. I have had my phone for just about 12m.

This phone has 512Mb Rom. On my phone I have 156 apps installed of which only 28 with a total size of 103Mb are downloaded - the rest being pre-installed.

The memory on this model was seriously underspecified for little reason bearing in mind how cheap memory is -

So, your problem is mostly with the provider you bought the phone from (which installed a bunch of crapware) and not really with HTC. Yes, HTC decided how much memory to put in the phone. (You decided to buy a phone with these specs.)


The rest of your questions about rooting are all answered in the FAQs (see the Rooting forum). Read through those. If you still have specific questions that aren't answered there, you may post in that forum and lots of people will be willing to help you.

 

[Harry2]

Hi can anyone help me to keep my phone stroage down, i have the low space symble on top of the phone and have went into manage my apps and moved all the ones i can over to sd card i have about 11.78mb left on my internal phone storage and the symble on my phone wont go away, i have plenty sd storage left

Clear the wastebaskets of your mail accounts and restart your Desire.

Harry

 

[stuggyduggy]

Thanks for your responses. Picking up the points raised.
I've deleted the content of all mail folders - not much there so only gave me about 500k back.
The phone was purchased new & unbranded, it's on the Vodafone network but I cannot sees any applications which I'd link to Vodafone so I don't think the phone has been loaded up with Vodafone stuff after purchase - there are of course loads of HTC applications which cannot be deleted & I see these as the problem area.
Agreed I purchased a phone with this spec. but I don't remember any serious concerns being expressed 12m ago that the spec. was so inadequate. HTC must have been aware that the phone memory capacity was marginal. Legal phrases like fitness for purpose come to mind.
Thanks to ducky1979 for the useful summary about moving apps to SD. I think on balance I'll explore this procedure as the next step. I'll read up about rooting but the concept worries me unless it's definitely reversible me as I might well want to dispose of the phone in the next 12m & I suspect rooting will reduce its value.

 

[ducky1979]

If you do decide to root you can put it back to how it is now, if you power off the phone and then hold the volume down button and hold power you will boot into what is called hboot, write down all the info on the screen and let me know what it says. Rooting won't devalue the phone, infact it could make it more desirable, but as I say it can be unrooted very easily.

 

[OhBoyWhatHaveIDone]

Thanks for your responses. Picking up the points raised.
I've deleted the content of all mail folders - not much there so only gave me about 500k back.
The phone was purchased new & unbranded, it's on the Vodafone network but I cannot sees any applications which I'd link to Vodafone so I don't think the phone has been loaded up with Vodafone stuff after purchase - there are of course loads of HTC applications which cannot be deleted & I see these as the problem area.
Agreed I purchased a phone with this spec. but I don't remember any serious concerns being expressed 12m ago that the spec. was so inadequate. HTC must have been aware that the phone memory capacity was marginal. Legal phrases like fitness for purpose come to mind.
Thanks to ducky1979 for the useful summary about moving apps to SD. I think on balance I'll explore this procedure as the next step. I'll read up about rooting but the concept worries me unless it's definitely reversible me as I might well want to dispose of the phone in the next 12m & I suspect rooting will reduce its value.

I definitely recommend rooting... it's a bit fiddly but if you read the guides it's not difficult. You can take a backup of your phone as it currently is and restore the backup from the SD card. You can also keep this backup on your PC in case anything happens to your SD card.

I totally agree that the Desire's storage is totally inadequate. I don't accept the argument that 'you bought it with those specs'. My Desire was my 1st smartphone and I had no reason to think that the storage would run out after installing a handful of apps.

That said, you can get round it by rooting - I don't see why it would devalue your phone - if anything it will increase the value!

Apps2SD+ does not increase the internal storage but it moves a lot more to your SD card, so adding applications only uses a minimal amount of phone storage.

 

[Hadron]

The phone is currently showing just18Mb of free memory with all caches empty. This means that the operating system plus pre-loaded & non uninstallable apps plus whatever user date etc is held in ROM is around 444Mb which is 87% of the available ROM. That is crazy - no wonder HTC are working hard to shoe-horn Gingerbread (Android 2.3) onto the phone. Presumably on the basis that operating system updates always grow then this will further squeeze the available ROM. Post Gingerbread I would expect the phone will squeal every tine it is asked to do anything apart from basic operations.

It's not quite like that. The system software, HTC Sense and pre-installed apps live in a 250 MB storage partition (/system), so HTC's problem with Gingerbread is to fit the update into that same space. In fact Gingerbread itself isn't noticably larger than Froyo, and I've run Gingerbread ROMs that would fit in 1/3 of this space, so I think their problem must be with their own software rather than the Android update itself.

The Gingerbread update should actually help a little, since the "move to SD" feature in GB moves a bit more of the app than the Froyo version (especially noticable for some large apps).

However, I agree completely that the phone doesn't have enough storage. The /data partition, what the phone reports as the internal storage, has to include all user apps, data from all apps plus the files associated with the Java Virtual Machine use to run them ("dalvik cache"), and is only 148 MB in size (the remainder of the physical storage being the /cache partition).

As others have said, if you are prepared to root the phone you can fix this completely (and I mean completely). But it's not for everyone, and you shouldn't need to do it for something as basic as this(*), so yes, they messed-up in this respect.

(*) Though TBH I would anyway - just the way I am...

 

[Hadron]

There are of course loads of HTC applications which cannot be deleted & I see these as the problem area.

Actually deleting those won't free up space - those live in a different storage partition from user apps and data, so removing them may clean up the phone but won't give you any more user space.

It is possible to take advantage of the space freed by using a ROM without this stuff, but that's a more advanced topic (needing more than just root), and I'd personally recommend approaching these things one step at a time and doing only what you need and are comfortable with. But to illustrate, my current ROM is less than half the size of HTCs, so I've reallocated some of the /system space (ROM) to /data (user storage), and now have more than twice the usable internal storage of a stock Desire in addition to the a2sd that Ducky describes, and really don't have to worry about space any more.

 

[ianj7748]

Hi Ducky,
Can I take you up on your offer as well?? My phone says:

BRAVO PUT1 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-0.93.0001
MICROP-031d
TOUCH PANEL-STNT0101
RADIO-5.11.05.27
Aug 10 2010,17:52:18

HBOOT (in blue box)

<VOL UP> to previous item
<VOL DOWN> to next item
<POWER> to select item

FASTBOOT (in blue box)
RECOVERY (green)
CLEAR STORAGE (black)
SIMLOCK (blue)

END
( ) is for info.

Thanks in anticipation - constantly get memory low icon and think the phone is great apart from the memory so hopefully this root will solve the problem.
Make it as dummie proof as poss??

Thanks
ianj

 

[ianj7748]

Sorry should have added in case it makes a difference:
on 3 network unlocked
Internal Available space: 14.78MB
16gb memory card with most of my apps on there showing 13.49GB available.
Android 2.2
Kernel 2.6.32.15-gf5a401c
Build number 2.29.405.5 CL293415 release-keys
Software 2.29.405.5

ianj

 

[Hadron]

A PVT-1 device should be no problem, no special measures needed for those. Read the FAQs and guides from the root forum sticky post - there's a link in my sig. But basically "unrevoked" (version 3.21 is best) will root with no problems.

One possible catch is that your storage is already very low, which might cause problems for unrevoked. You can try it as is, but if it doesn't work then clearing a bit of space first might be the answer.

 

[Usta]

As Hadron has explained, the internal storage is low in Desire, but it's mostly the HTC Sense that takes so much space. Many of us have rooted and discarded the Sense UI for purer Gingerbread Android. The result is a much smaller ROM and consequently more space allocated for applications.

Here is a simple comparison (ignoring cache allocation):
HTC default internal storage allocation - 250MB System storage, 148MB Applications storage.
Oxygen r2 internal storage allocation - 100MB System storage, 333MB Applications storage.


For those that still don't want to root, try the solution here to force move apps to SD card: http://androidforums.com/desire-tip...ore-most-apps-sd-without-root-simplified.html

Otherwise, root and never worry about internal storage again.

 

[ianj7748]

OK, got rooted ok with Superuser permission, so then downloaded CM7 to SD card, back into 'power/volume' set up and went through update to CM7 etc. All seemed OK and went to reboot but now it just sits with a white screen and HTC in the middle. No keys work, have to take out battery.
Any help? er please !!

 

[Hadron]

Did you do a factory reset first? You need to - settings from the HTC Sense ROM will not be compatible with CM7.

What we do next depends on what backups you've made. We should probably move detailed discussion of this into the root forum, to keep this thread on topic.

The key thing for others who might be interested in doing this to know is that the guides in the root forum (linked in the "all about rooting" sticky post) have all of the information you need to avoid this type of problem.

 

[ianj7748]

Somehow got CM7 working - now how do I get back to restore my original set-up screens etc - or is there a ' sense ' set up I can flash (don't like the set-up of CM7!- sorry).
Ian

 

[Hadron]

Ah, I'd just typed a PM to describe all the options for getting it going, depending on what backups you'd made. But if you've got CM7 booted you don't need that now

CM7 doesn't have Sense. You can choose different launchers - there are several on the market, and the "show us your homescreens" thread shows some of the things you can do with them. But if you want actual Sense then you need to choose a Sense ROM. Look in the "desire index" thread at XDA and you'll find a list of options.

If you did take a backup from recovery (a "nandroid" backup) before installing CM7 you just boot back into recovery and restore from it, and you are back with your old setup, apps and data. If you didn't do this, then in future please do so before flashing any ROMs, updates or mods - if anything goes wrong, this is the simplest and least painful way of fixing it.

 

[ianj7748]

Thanks Hadron, I had a nandroid backup which thankfully I had done properly!! so back with my HTC screen and 15mb memory - will try again tomorrow with a 'sense' ROM.
PS: don't go too far from your PC please!
Really grateful for all the input on this forum.

 

[dan55]

hi all,

agree - desire doesnt have enough space imo - considering the number of apps you need to run on it to get best out of functionality

btw: just cleared my EE mail trash folder and saved 6m so that is good

btw: if you never use sense (ie use other launchers) can it be removed?

im guessing if yes, that is part of the rooting/rom'ing activity

will have to do that sometime - almost did it before - but wasnt sure that my backup had caught the dalvik stuff :/

cheers
dan

 

[DNick]

hi all,

agree - desire doesnt have enough space imo - considering the number of apps you need to run on it to get best out of functionality

btw: just cleared my EE mail trash folder and saved 6m so that is good

btw: if you never use sense (ie use other launchers) can it be removed?

im guessing if yes, that is part of the rooting/rom'ing activity

will have to do that sometime - almost did it before - but wasnt sure that my backup had caught the dalvik stuff :/

cheers
dan

Just fyi, even if you use another launcher doesn't mean you don't use sense. I just rooted and flashed oxygen, and even though I use launcher pro, i still miss sense. Things like linking a contact to their Facebook page, the dialer, even the keyboard are all part of sense.

 

[SUroot]

You can link to Facebook in oxygen. The keyboard is the one element that is not part of sense. Best keyboard imo and use it on every Rom. Go to the toolbox download tread in my Sig

 

[DNick]

You can link to Facebook in oxygen. The keyboard is the one element that is not part of sense. Best keyboard imo and use it on every Rom. Go to the toolbox download tread in my Sig

Not to hijack the thread, how do you link to facebook?