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[Verizon] Clockwork mod "blobs"

ymDroid

Well-Known Member
Apr 4, 2010
245
39
Northern Virginia
I'm trying to clean up my phone and make space and one of the things I noticed that takes up 4 gigs is this file in Clockwork called blobs.

I went through many of them and they all seem like cached items that have been on the phone. Is this a part my nandroids?

Is this a folder I can deleted? I don't remember having this folder in the past.

My storage all seems like a cluster f*** now that I flashed 4.2.1. There's an sdcard file, a storage file, an sdcard0 file, a emulated storage file, etc...and they all seem to go to the same place. What a mess...I'm running XenonHD_RC3.

It seems like I went from 15 gigs of storage space to 4 gigs overnight.

I used to keep 2-4 nandriods on the phone just in case, but I've had to delete all but 1 to keep myself from going empty. This is why the lack of an sdcard expansion slot sucks.

So TL,DR...can I delete this blob folder?
 
I read on XDA that the blobs are part of the nandroids now. It's so the nandroids themselves aren't as big and take as long to create. If you do delete the blobs it renders the nandroids that use them useless. Here's a link to the thread. I'm having the same space issue and it sucks.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1952366

Edit:
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/36155-my-blob-folder-for-cwm-is-almost-10gig/

Just found this thread. Basically, if you delete a back up, or move it or whatever, then some blobs are not used, but not deleted. But you can clear them in recovery mode. Check the 4th post for more detailed instructions.
 
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I'm not 100% on this but - I deleted all my nandroids, then selected "free unused backup data" (in CWM, btw).

I think this deleted the unnecessary blobs. Then I did a nandroid after all of this and it looks like the amount of space taken up is about right.

I also used ROM Manager and its Backup Download server feature to download flashable zip backups to my PC. I got a replacement for my Galaxy Nexus a couple days ago and did this to restore my settings and what not. So far so good.
 
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I imported nandroids and downloaded the flashable zips to my computer, then cleaned unused backups. Nothing really freed up space, so I just switched to TWRP and deleted CWM folders. Freed up 15GB of space. CWM has been such a hassle lately, I've just given up.

If you didn't delete the old nandroids before freeing up unused backup space I don't think it does anything. I think you need to delete the old (or maybe all) nandroids then do the freeing up space thing.
 
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My storage all seems like a cluster f*** now that I flashed 4.2.1. There's an sdcard file, a storage file, an sdcard0 file, a emulated storage file, etc...and they all seem to go to the same place. What a mess...

This. On this note... Get yourself a (good) root file browser and navigate to "/data/media/0". This is the ACTUAL mount point of your SD card... Do all of your file fixing here, and the changes take effect universally.
 
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If you didn't delete the old nandroids before freeing up unused backup space I don't think it does anything. I think you need to delete the old (or maybe all) nandroids then do the freeing up space thing.

Did that. Nothing. I really, really tried to stick with CM, since it was the only recovery I've ever used, but I don't like this blob stuff at all. I don't really see any benefit to it besides making you pay for the ROM Manager premium so you can download Nandroids to your computer. The backups still take forever and end up taking up all your internal storage. If CM ever moves back to the old style backups I'll think about switching back.
 
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Did that. Nothing. I really, really tried to stick with CM, since it was the only recovery I've ever used, but I don't like this blob stuff at all. I don't really see any benefit to it besides making you pay for the ROM Manager premium so you can download Nandroids to your computer. The backups still take forever and end up taking up all your internal storage. If CM ever moves back to the old style backups I'll think about switching back.

Something might be off then, because in theory, this way is supposed to be quicker and take up less space.

Instead of backing up the entire phone again, it checks each file against the blob files to see if they are already backed up. This way it only saves changes and new files. When I delete the old backups, then free up space (and also when you create new backups, it is supposed to automatically free up unnecessary space) the space taken up seems right.

EDIT: If you flashed Android 4.2 while you had those nandroids saved then that is what happened. My CWM recovery opens /data/media/ by default and I'd assume it also stores backups here. What the rest of my phone sees as "sdcard" is not the same as "data/media/" anymore.

You'd have to delete all nandroids, delete blob files, and just create a fresh one. Or move them all but I'd assume there's a chance it still wouldn't see them correctly.
 
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Something might be off then, because in theory, this way is supposed to be quicker and take up less space.



EDIT: If you flashed Android 4.2 while you had those nandroids saved then that is what happened. My CWM recovery opens /data/media/ by default and I'd assume it also stores backups here. What the rest of my phone sees as "sdcard" is not the same as "data/media/" anymore.

That's what happened. I always keep a backup from when I first root on my phone, just in case. Didn't even think about the file directory changing stuff around being the problem. Well, whats done is done and as long as TWRP works, I'll be fine.
 
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That's what happened. I always keep a backup from when I first root on my phone, just in case. Didn't even think about the file directory changing stuff around being the problem. Well, whats done is done and as long as TWRP works, I'll be fine.

I almost went to TWRP over this, too. But CWM is all I've ever known and I fear change.
 
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Since I switched to TWRP, CWM will no longer do the back ups anyway, right, ? So whats the use of having blobs or CWM folder or files it on the phone? I deleted all the blobs and gained 5GBs of space. I have a clean TWRP nandroid. I guess there is a procedure for reinstalling CWM and if I want to go back to stock, I will have to do that (I have that nandroid saved on my computer). Since I have rooted last April, I have never gone backwards!!

Rock on

Go Niners!!

billd
 
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Since I switched to TWRP, CWM will no longer do the back ups anyway, right, ? So whats the use of having blobs or CWM folder or files it on the phone? I deleted all the blobs and gained 5GBs of space. I have a clean TWRP nandroid. I guess there is a procedure for reinstalling CWM and if I want to go back to stock, I will have to do that (I have that nandroid saved on my computer). Since I have rooted last April, I have never gone backwards!!

Rock on

Go Niners!!

billd

You use one or the other, if you have TWRP flashed then CWM doesn't exist as your recovery anymore. CWM is easy to reinstall, you can just install ROM Manager and have it flash the latest CWM Recovery for you.
 
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