system storage full?

[blubot]

hey there,
after having moved all my apps (the ones that can be moved) to the SD card, and after having cleaned my cache with (app2sd/cache cleaner), I still end up with having 1.43GB out of 1.97GB used up in my system storage.
I have 29apps on the external SD and 31apps on the phone - does that seem right?
what else could I do to reduce my system storage?
thanks for your suggestions.

SII LTE - GT-I9210
Android v.2.3.6

 

[lucky013]

Sounds like you need a bigger boat.

 

[Digital Controller]

Hey there blubot, you could try rooting your device so you can just put all of your apps on the SD external, that way you could have maximum space for your internal storage.

Here is a link that shows some basic tips on saving storage space too: Maximizing Storage on Your Android Phone

Hope this helps

 

[valorian]

Do you send lots of emails? Emails are stored on the system memory. Also check to be sure you don't have any photos stored in Internal memory.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

Do you have music, pictures, or videos on the internal memory instead of the SD card??

 

[chanchan05]

those apps seem huge, I don't think just 31 apps would take up that much. I have like over 100 apps and all of them on system storage with 1.63GB taken app. What apps are those eating your storage?

 

[Digital Controller]

those apps seem huge, I don't think just 31 apps would take up that much. I have like over 100 apps and all of them on system storage with 1.63GB taken app. What apps are those eating your storage?

He could have large games like Angry birds or World of Goo taking up a lot of his space.

 

[chanchan05]

He could have large games like Angry birds or World of Goo taking up a lot of his space.

Angry Birds is just 20mb. Bad Piggies 30mb. That still does not account for the other 1.38GB used by another 29 apps. I just checked. I have 173 apps including games i my phone taking up 1.64GB. I am really curious.

Since the OP only has 31 apps, could he check menu>settings>applications>manage apps>download tab. Check how much memory each app is actually using. Maybe it doesn't add up. And what apps exactly do you have?

 

[Digital Controller]

Maybe he has music on his phone that he forgot about????

 

[chanchan05]

Maybe he has music on his phone that he forgot about????

Music doesn't go into system storage, it goes to the internal SD. I see you have a nexus. How you handle stuff on Nexus phones usually don't translate the same way into non-Nexus, but the other way around usually works.

Nexus don't have paritions on onboard memory. Manufacturer skinned devices pre-4.0.4 does though.

 

[Digital Controller]

Music doesn't go into system storage, it goes to the internal SD. I see you have a nexus. How you handle stuff on Nexus phones usually don't translate the same way into non-Nexus, but the other way around usually works.

Nexus don't have paritions on onboard memory. Manufacturer skinned devices pre-4.0.4 does though.

I know that it doesn't have partitions.

And it's been 2 years since i have dealt with an SD card / Internal Storage, and i found it painful to deal with on my Incredible, because i, too, ran into the problem of not having enough space, but by rooting my phone i just put everything on the SD Card

 

[chanchan05]

Newer devices or those updated to 4.0.4 don't have partitions anymore. My Tab lost partitions after updating.

 

[oopsibrokeit]

Root your phone rid yourself of bloatware and facebook is a behemoth that grows with each friend

 

[blubot]

Thanks for all your replies. Let me get back one by one:
@valorian: generally i don't send too many emails w the device and storage is set to external. all my photos are on external
@Mostly Harmless: i dont have any music on the device. all pics, vids are stored on external
@Digital Controller: not yet comfy with rooting, no i don't have any music on it
@chanchan05: just checked, all my 31apps on internal take up 199MB...but how can I actually see whats taking up all that space 143GB of 1.97GB on system storage?

here a list of my apps on internal: facebook,googlemaps,kiesair,adobeflash,drive,whatsapp,swiftkeytrial3,googleplay,twitter,K-9mail,tuneInradio,antivirus,enjoyhiking,gmail,dropbox,voicesearch,onavo,8tracks,googleplayservices,flashlight,spiegelonline,seesmicping,samsungpushservice,wifimanager,planefinerfree,streetview,mygallery,dataon-off,bluetoothon-off,wifion-off,calendarwidget



I just checked again, here is what doesnt add up: many other preinstalled apps like: camera, googlehub,googlenews&messanger,memo,polaris,tags,youtube,taskmanager,talk,navigation,mini diary...and a lot more...are not showing up at all on the internal or external SD...so I am assuming that those apps have been installed into the system memory.

how can i actually see whats being used by system memory?

I am guessing now the only way out is rooting?

 

[chanchan05]

The preinstalled apps shouldn't take up 1.43GB.

To see how much each app actually uses, including the preinstalled bloat:

menu>settings>applications>manage apps>go to the "all" tab (look at top of screen under notification bar). That tab contains all apps including preinstalled apps like camera and contacts. Try adding them all up. I'll bet they won't reach 1.43GB and the other data you are seeing are just app cache data (which AFAIK should automatically be erased should you need more space).

 

[nickdalzell]

Things like market data, call logs, text messages and other app data adds up. Treating a "low disk space" notification I noticed tons of seemingly innocuous apps using a boatload of data. Such as call logs taking up 4mb! Go to settings-->applications-->manage applications and look at each one, and be surprised. Some have "uninstall updates" too, which meant I just updated them to get rid of the annoying little market update available icon but didn't need the update to keep using the app. The updates alone can take up large chunks of data

 

[blubot]

late add on, but better than never: just found out that 'CONTACTS STORAGE' is taking up 1.08GB, which explains everything now. Except, I cannot move it to SD. Can I only move to SD once i root or is there any other way?

 

[nickdalzell]

Clear data and disable contact sync, this was a issue especially if you got lots of Facebook friends, it will try and add every single one to your local contact storage