• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Low on space | Phone storage is getting low.

jamoosh

Android Enthusiast
Dec 8, 2010
299
49
Hi forum,

I continually have been receiving this message the last few days on my phone. "Low on space. Phone storage is low." Though, I'm not sure to which storage the notification pop-ups and notification bar messages are referring, as the LG Optimus Elite has a partitioning structure that is beguiling to me. I have cleared the app caches with a cache clearing program and uninstalled some unnecessary apps. I also have several apps frozen with Titanium Backup.

Here are the sysinfo details.

System storage: 90 MB Free / 354 MB total | 74%
"SD card": 1.13 GB Free / 1.93 GB total | 41 %
Internal storage: 127 MB Free / 890 MB total | 85%
System cache: 219 MB Free / 228 MB total | 3 %
RAM memory: 118 MB Free / 359 MB total | 66 %%

I have an external 8GB SDHC card also. That has something like 7GB free.

Should I try and move some things to the internal or external SD cards, respectively? Do I need to factory reset settings? To which partition are the apps even stored on by default?
Any information or clarification would be largely appreciated.

Thanks.
 
It's probably talking about your internal storage. I would move some apps from there to your "internal sd card". If you have a file manager you can poke around on /mnt/sdcard and get rid of or move some things.

Make sure you tell Titanium Backup to save to your external sd card. It defaults to your internal. Make sure that your camera is saving pictures to your external sd card and move any pictures from internal to external. Just make sure anything that can use your external card is using your external card.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jamoosh
Upvote 0
Thanks for your reply, Dark One. I do have TB and Camera set to default to external storage. If I move apps to SD card through the settings interface or through an app2sd type app will it default to the internal SD card? I guess I've been a little confused about that.

Thanks again.

It's probably talking about your internal storage. I would move some apps from there to your "internal sd card". If you have a file manager you can poke around on /mnt/sdcard and get rid of or move some things.

Make sure you tell Titanium Backup to save to your external sd card. It defaults to your internal. Make sure that your camera is saving pictures to your external sd card and move any pictures from internal to external. Just make sure anything that can use your external card is using your external card.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks for your reply, Dark One. I do have TB and Camera set to default to external storage. If I move apps to SD card through the settings interface or through an app2sd type app will it default to the internal SD card? I guess I've been a little confused about that.

Thanks again.

Yes. Moving apps to SD will move them to the internal memory (also called internal sd), freeing up app storage. On the Elite it wont say move to sd in the settings/applications manager, it will say move to internal memory. You can't move apps to the external SD card natively. It will also help to backup some rarely used apps or frozen apps and delete them with TiBu. Note that removing system apps will not free up internal app storage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jamoosh
Upvote 0
Thanks. Problem solved.

Yes. Moving apps to SD will move them to the internal memory (also called internal sd), freeing up app storage. On the Elite it wont say move to sd in the settings/applications manager, it will say move to internal memory. You can't move apps to the external SD card natively. It will also help to backup some rarely used apps or frozen apps and delete them with TiBu. Note that removing system apps will not free up internal app storage.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones