Help "Low on space" warning???

[RBEmerson]

For about the last day, I've getting a "Low on space" warning, with about 100Mb free according to the internal storage bar from SD & Phone Storage.

I've moved all the apps that will live on the SD (24Gb free there) and killed off some unused "phone" only apps. I deleted all of the updates on the bloatware and still no joy. I deleted a bunch of photos and that didn't help. I did add an app with a specialized clock display yesterday, but removing that didn't fix the problem.

Now what? The phone's been fine for about a year and now this... gngh!!!

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

After all that stuff you did is when you have 100MB free?

I would delete your text messages. That has done it for people in the past. You can back them up to your SD card with SMS Backup and Restore and restore them later if that doesn't do the trick.

You could try a cache cleaner to free up some space. I like this one (some people use two or more to really be thorough!)

Or you could try a leaner ROM like CM7 (I think is pretty lean).

Do you know how many user apps you have installed? I have over 100 with 465MB of free space still!

EDIT:
You say you "killed off" some apps. What exactly do you mean by that? Are you rooted? Did you actually delete them/uninstall them?

 

[RBEmerson]

Thanks for the advice, Rev! I was hoping you'd have an idea or two.

I climbed back up to 130+ Mb after clearing out data in a number of apps. That cleared the alarm but 130Mb free out of 1Gb?!? You're right about the text messages - there's room for outright deletion there. I don't text much but still, there's some dead space there. Thanks, too, for the lead on cache cleaning. My first two guesses for the cause of the problem remain a) bad garbage collection and b) some form of malware. But then, I don't check free storage all that often as I try to move almost everything to the 32Gb SD (24Gb free there).

 

[valorian]

Do you send lots of emails? This too can take up internal memory space. I don't see malware causing low memory. When clearing out text messages start with any MMS youe have sent or received.

 

[RBEmerson]

Added:
No rooting on this DINC2 - although I'm sorely tempted to try it just to lose the bloatware. The "killed" apps were uninstalled - sloppy wording on my part.

As to the number of apps, is there a handy tool to count up phone-stored and SD-stored apps? App management looking at "All" gives the combined number; I suppose I could count up SD-only apps and subtract that from All apps... sigh... that's so much like work. Anyway, I'm probably on the low side for the number of apps - they have to really earn their keep or they're gone. Or never make it onto the phone to start with.

E-mails: more come in than go out. I do toss the fluff after a few days. NTL, I weed stuff out again.

No MMS texting to speak of.

 

[RBEmerson]

I cleared caches, tossed a lot of texts and e-mails, and... 131-129Mb free.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Yeah buddy, you either need to get rid of a few apps or root!


EDIT: OK, so need is a strong word.

 

[RBEmerson]

Sigh... the apps that need to go away are the bloatware apps (Golf, Slacker, NFL, Navigator all come to mind readily), which means rooting. And I really don't want to wind up with a brick by mistake.

 

[RBEmerson]

Sigh... again...

I stopped at a local VZW store and, as part of the discussion, grumped about the "Low on space" problem. The rep said it's a now-known problem with Incredibles and VZW and HTC are working on it. In short, the internal storage report is wrong. The was no ETA for the fix given. However, the OTA update that's just shown up has me wondering if just maybe the "low on space" issue is being handled, too. We'll see in a few minutes, when the update finishes.

BTW, the only recommended short-term fix is... wait for it... here it comes... a factory data reset. :banghead:

 

[RBEmerson]

The new OTA update that hit on 15 June has done nothing to clear up the memory leak issue. At this point, it's been sitting in my phone for 12 hours and during that time I did a reset and I did a roaming update (*22899) which also forces a reset. No new free memory has shown up.

I'm aggressively using a cache cleaner to free up some space - so far, so good on that front. However, keep in mind there's a "gotcha" with this strategy: apps that cache data to speed things up (e.g., web browsers) will now demand that data. That is, empty cache may slow down some activities (as the cache is re-filled) and increase data consumption (collection of the data lost from the cache). The question becomes "which matters more, having more available phone storage, or having lower data consumption?" I'm opting for "more storage" because I saw updates fail for lack of space (e.g., Astrid to-do list app refused to update because of the "low on space" condition).

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

I wonder...
what do apps like SystemPanel say about your memory/space? Do they tell you the same thing as your native settings?

There has got to be a way besides the Factory Reset to free that up for you! Especially if it is just reading the space available wrong.

 

[RBEmerson]

I tried SystemPanelLite and... no change. It also says slightly more than 75% of the 1Gb is taken up. I just used it to end the Google Play app - that was good for gaining 20Mb right there. Bottom line: whatever is going on is real enough to give consistent results across multiple tools reporting the state of storage.

Factory Data Reset is, IMHO, the equivalent of closing and reopening Windows in hopes of fixing things. It works just often enough to fool people into thinking this is a productive exercise, even though it's probably not all that productive.

 

[BamaDave]

I'm having the same problem on mine. I feel like I have the original Incredible all over again. UGH.

 

[RBEmerson]

This is feeling more and more like the clock app misadventure. The problem is reproducible, HTC and VZW acknowledge it exists, but there's no fix on the horizon. Which is why, when I return to the States next week (now in Germany), the DINC2 is going dark and a Razr Maxx takes its place. I can't lose VZW but good-bye HTC. "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."; "I won't get fooled again" (The Who).

 

[BamaDave]

I rooted my phone this weekend and flashed CyanogenMod (stable version). Trashed all of the Verizon Crapware... reinstalled almost everything I had on the phone before... and now I have 900 MB of free space in internal memory rather than the 100 MB the phone thought I had before rooting and wiping. I can't believe that Verizon's bloatware and a few games I didn't reinstall would account for 800 MB of space!

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

I rooted my phone this weekend and flashed CyanogenMod (stable version). Trashed all of the Verizon Crapware... reinstalled almost everything I had on the phone before... and now I have 900 MB of free space in internal memory rather than the 100 MB the phone thought I had before rooting and wiping. I can't believe that Verizon's bloatware and a few games I didn't reinstall would account for 800 MB of space!

Sense was a huge part of that too. CM is a very light (sized) ROM.

But it is impressive isn't it?

 

[BamaDave]

Sense was a huge part of that too. CM is a very light (sized) ROM.

But it is impressive isn't it?

That makes sense. No pun intended.

Anyone know how much space Sense uses? Cuz I now have 0.92 GB of space; whereas, I only had 0.1 GB before rooting.

 

[scary alien]

Hey guys, let's not drift too far away from the OP's original issue.

Thanks and cheers!

 

[Winkley]

I've had that problem a lot. Usually I can just clear the data from my Facebook. Last year, that didn't cut it, so I deleted my contacts and had them repopulate from Gmail. I'm running into the problem again and just found this cure for rooted users. Since I'm new, I can't post URLs, but here it is:

forum.xda-developers (dot com) /showthread.php?t=1488351