Help Why did my htc Wildfire lose memory last night?

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

I had the phone for a month now having never had an Android phone before. I had read many posts about internal memory and just thought that I would not let it get low enough to be a problem until it created one!

I have downloaded various apps with Google map/navigation and Facebook taking up the largest sizes. Unfortunately, these cannot be moved to the SD card (the maps on the N95 were solely on it and took up about 190Mb!) like the apps can and have been. For the last week or so, the memory has dropped to around 18Mb by clearing caches etc and was the case when I went to bed after a spot of "cleaning".

I was woken at 2pm by a notification and turned the phone down but when I woke up the phone was stuck in sleep mode. I removed the battery and switched back on to discover the phone only had 0.98Mb left! Nothing had updated as these are set to be done manually and it was only a handful of tiny emails that had come down. So I have a few questions:

- Where did 17Mb of internal memory go overnight? Having never been anywhere near that low I cant get anywhere close to back to where it was
- No apps have been downloaded for nearly two weeks so if I have to start deleting them, why? And will this need to be done regularly until there are none left?
- What does "clear data" do in the manage apps section where the cache is cleared from? I haven't done these and are they all safe to clear or are there some that should be left? Can games data be stored on the SD?

What I am struggling to understand is that I have totalled EVERYTHING I have downloaded to be 70Mb according to the downloaded list and should be manageable. My contacts size is 7.5Mb so not too bad so anything I else I should look for? I will investigate the SDK option on another thread but need to find out why I lost this lot first.

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

Hmmm...I think it's something called amnesia

Just joking!!
If you have 'Background Data' ticked, your phone will continuously downloads data from Facebook, google+, news, maps also I think...whatever app that requires a sync. I think maybe that's where your memory got lost. Check and see if you can also uninstall any app update which can use a big chunk of space (don't do it for google play store or it will start giving problems)

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

Haha, would have been nice if it was!

I have unchecked the bakground task thing and will see what it does. Without really trying, I got the memory up to 2.1Mb and after an hour was 1.5Mb without touching the phone. Apps like Facebook are set to update every 8 hours or so but I think it may be constant. I have freed up nearly 1Mb by clearing the data from Facebook and I can get another 1Mb from the HTC sense version but am worried it may cause problems.

Can I safely clear data from any app or best to leave certain ones?

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

Garawa said:
Haha, would have been nice if it was!

I have unchecked the bakground task thing and will see what it does. Without really trying, I got the memory up to 2.1Mb and after an hour was 1.5Mb without touching the phone. Apps like Facebook are set to update every 8 hours or so but I think it may be constant. I have freed up nearly 1Mb by clearing the data from Facebook and I can get another 1Mb from the HTC sense version but am worried it may cause problems.

Can I safely clear data from any app or best to leave certain ones?

I have done it a few times...What it does is that it deletes pretty much any saved data. It's like you just downloaded the app. Which means you need to feed in your loggin details and passwords all over again...Up to you!
Are your contacts synced with facebook? That also takes some space...

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

I think the contacts are synced with Facebook, would that be the "for htc sense" version and I should leave it alone as opposed to the app for the site itself which I have already cleared? I cant really see the point myself of having 2 separate programmes however they have been synced from day one without too much trouble so its just what happened last night.

Caro332 said:
I have done it a few times...What it does is that it deletes pretty much any saved data. It's like you just downloaded the app. Which means you need to feed in your loggin details and passwords all over again...Up to you!

I don't mind having to re-enter passwords etc (in fact it is almost preferable) but I would be annoyed to lose any sort of functionality of the app that was tailored to me. Things like game data could easily be exported to the SD card so top scores etc are kept but I don't think that is possible.

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

Garawa said:
I don't mind having to re-enter passwords etc (in fact it is almost preferable) but I would be annoyed to lose any sort of functionality of the app that was tailored to me. Things like game data could easily be exported to the SD card so top scores etc are kept but I don't think that is possible.

Unfortunately, you will lose that as well...

What I was thinking is that you lost your memory in one go. Which makes me think that:
either there is a setting which has changed and caused this
or you downloaded an app which is somehow taking all the space

Have you done anything different just before this happens?

As for facebook, both apps will do the same. There should be a setting which allows you to stop syncing. Plus if you go to your contact list, there should also be an option to remove all linked contacts. that should also save some space...

Other option is to root your phone...

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

I would rather not go down the rooting option. Haven't downloaded any new apps in over a week and I don't recall changing any settings.

To be honest, I really don't get this now at all! Being new to these, it is likely (like most technology) any issues just stop of their own accord, but I have been going down the delete data route and after a few it stood at 3.1Mb. I deleted ebay's data and I had 1.9Mb, how can that be??????!!!!!!! Two minutes later, the low memory sign came up and it showed 1.6Mb. I backed-up and went back in and it was 1.5Mb!!! It's haemoraging in front of my eyes without me doing a blooming thing! All syncing is off so nothing should be using it in the background.

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

Looks like your phone has a life on its own...
I did some research and I found this:
http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-v/480778-losing-internal-memory.html
Might help you.
And I also read that if you play games such as Angrybirds, it stores a lot of data too. So if you have been playing games...maybe that's your culprit

Gremaldin · Apr 25, 2012

Did you try rebooting your phone? It sometimes works for me. If nothing else works and you are unwilling to root, you can try doing a factory reset. If you do this, you will loose all contacts, apps, app data, etc, and the phone will be just like it was when you got it. So be sure to make proper backups before doing this. This is what HTC will most probably do if you take it to a service center too.

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

Have rebooted a few times and sometimes it even went down afterwards! Would rather explore all options first before a factory reset - had my N95 for 4 years without ever having needing to one!

I have cleared all caches and data from all general non-phone specific apps and got it up to 12Mb so will see what happens next. However......

URGENT HELP NEEDED! Messages and people now keep saying they have had to close unexpectedly. I now cannot send messages or view contacts even now there is enough space to do so. I have not altered any data in the contacts or messages app so what has changed???

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

Wow...I'm wondering...could this be some sort of virus?
I think you should try factory reset now... your contacts should be saves into your Google account but just in case you can export to your sim card.

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

I only download via market place and don't open emails I am unsure of but to be sure I am just running Norton as it is on my phone. It came up clean.

Need to figure out how to back-up to the PC. I think its through htc Sync but haven't used it yet so not sure.

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

Going to hard reset now. Trying to backup is getting worse so time to give up! As the people function isn't working it means I cannot backup either to SD or Google. I cannot also send messages or call but can receive them. The only thing I have done is copied all the files from the phone memory to a folder on the pc - I hope that will be everything I need as it is my only hope!

Constantly getting touch has stopped working, tell htc amongst the ones above. It is deteriating in front of my eyes! Hope I don't have to do this every month!

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

UPDATES FOR THIS WOULD BE WELCOME!

I checked another page before doing the hard reset and found an option to clear the phone cache in the same way as a factory reset. IT WORKED! At least all the error messages have stopped and I have my contacts etc back! This still leaves the initial problem.

I now have 9.8Mb (it was 9.1Mb when I first went in but miles better than 0.98) of internal memory. Clearly I need to find more but its not far off the original 13Mb from last night however that figure had all the caches etc full and so with them clean its a fair way off.

- I have a googlemail account that changed to a gmail account days after setting it up - does this take up space as only a factory reset will remove it?
- Should the internal memory fluctuate quite so much? I noticed early on that it would go down 6Mb if I downloaded a 4Mb app and it would still leave 3Mb once moved to the SD card.
- Can I move apps I don't wish to lose off the phone, even if it means the phone cannot see them but are on the SD card ready should I need to reinstall them?
- I cannot tell if my error messages were from clearing data but they coincided with it. What is safe and what must be left alone?

I am a bit concerned that over-night it might do the same, hoping switching off the syncing will stop that. Does anyone have any ideas as to where approx 10Mb may have gone overnight and any tricks to maintain it?

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

Get this! Had to re-enable the sync background tasks option as I lost the ability to change my clock etc (although I have diabled Facebook etc) and my memory went UP to 11Mb. I am so confused it is unreal right now!

Garawa · Apr 25, 2012

Latest update:
I uninstalled Facebook - took the memory to 20Mb
I then uninstalled twitter - to the phone memory to 22Mb
I then deleted 3.3Mb of internet cache - took the memory back down to 19Mb!!!!

Have I got a faulty phone here?

Caro332 · Apr 25, 2012

I think there might be an app which is eating away all your memory. I'm not sure what else to suggest...

Tell me more about Norton...Because I have a friend who downloaded it on his WFS and the phone kept lagging and hanging...
Does Norton make any backups by any chance? Do any of your apps make any backup? If yes, then maybe it goes to your internal memory instead of the SD card.
Can you give a list of all your apps?

Gremaldin · Apr 26, 2012

Garawa said:
- I have a googlemail account that changed to a gmail account days after setting it up - does this take up space as only a factory reset will remove it?

Yes, but maybe a few KB at most. You can unlink any accounts from your phone at any time by going to settings, though it wont give you any noticeable amount of space. The gmail app will automatically sync your latest emails, but it will only account for maybe 0.5MB. You can prevent this by turning off sync for your google account in settings.

Garawa said:
- Should the internal memory fluctuate quite so much? I noticed early on that it would go down 6Mb if I downloaded a 4Mb app and it would still leave 3Mb once moved to the SD card.

When you download an app, you only download its installation file, or apk. Most apps need other files to work, like dalvik cache, library files, data, cache, etc. When you move an app to your memory card, only the apk gets moved.

Garawa said:
- Can I move apps I don't wish to lose off the phone, even if it means the phone cannot see them but are on the SD card ready should I need to reinstall them?

That wont help. You'll need to reinstall them. When doing a factory reset, the phone also deletes the app files in your memory card. Even if you remove your memory card and do a factory reset, those apps wont work because the whole app isn't on the memory card, and the app isn't in the phones registry anyway so it doesn't know its there.

Clearing cache is a good way to save internal memory. Some apps support caching to memory card. For most apps like facebook, browser, gmail, etc, clearing data is safe.

Garawa · Apr 26, 2012

Thanks, I didn't realise it also alters the SD card. Thought I could use it like a shelf to retrieve stuff from!

Caro332 I reckon it was Facebook. I tried the internet site and it is exactly the same although I probably now won't get notifications which isn't a bad thing as the phone kept beeping like mad at 2 in the morning showing me old notifications I cleared ages ago. The 2nd night was when it went haywire. Before I went to bed, the 19Mb had risen to 24Mb and its 23Mb now so I am going to keep fingers crossed it was a glitch and the massive app failure from yesterday afternoon just coincided with me clearing data but actually stemmed from the original issue causing issues.

Regarding Norton, I have no problems since it went on. I only have the free version and it scans downloads to check safety and scans the phone for virus' - the paid for version would be nice to get the web safety feature but this will do me. I think they are about to announce an all in on epackage that covers everything so will wait and see.

Alice I think I may have to put up with doing it all the hard way. There are quite a few apps that could be really useful and I installed MyBackup just so that I could ensure I could put the phone back again if this were to happen again. I really need to clear space and not add more and must get into the habit of better housekeeper FAR more regularly. In fact I can envisage "cleaning" more times than I do the house!

Caro332 · Apr 26, 2012

Hope it helped!!
You might want to look at this to free more memory:

http://androidforums.com/htc-wildfire-s/469775-forcing-apps-install-sd-card-without-root.html

Garawa · Apr 26, 2012

I did see that actually when researching before I posted. I will DEFINITELY give that a go when I am feeling braver - I'm still heavy breathing after yesterday's shambles!

swerver32 · Apr 26, 2012

Garawa said:
Thanks, I didn't realise it also alters the SD card. Thought I could use it like a shelf to retrieve stuff from!

If you root, you can use titanium backup to do that. It will store the app and data, and can be restored whenever you like. With this phone's horrible internal memory, it's almost mandatory. That evo v can't come fast enough...

One other thought... this morning I had a notice that there was a system update, to the tune of 27 MB. I wasn't sure if that meant it was going to take all that space in addition to what the system uses now, or if it was just replacing current parts of the system, but since I only have 34MB free, I didn't install it. Maybe yours installed the update automatically? Try checking for updates, if there is none, maybe that means you already got updated? I'm not sure. Right now when I do "check now", the update is still waiting, but I don't know if they necessarily roll these out to everyone at the same time.

Garawa · Apr 27, 2012

I don't believe any updates have come down. The phone is still sitting at 23Mb so I am more erring towards the phone having a paddy after Facebook retrieved a ton of stuff. Of course, if it happens again I may have to review that!

It still has funny moments though. Memory at 23Mb, I use the internet and check after and I now have 28Mb free! I clear a 5Mb cache and it drops back down to 23Mb free! Weird!

Caro332 · Apr 27, 2012

lol. Looks like you phone works on reverse now...
Which version of Android do you have? if you don't have 2.3.5, get it updated and it will free a bunch of memory...

On the bright side, it looks like it's more stable now

Garawa · Apr 27, 2012

I have 2.3.5 but unfortunately I am on T-mobile in the UK and they like to wait until another 3 versions have passed and been tested to death before releasing an older one!

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