Help Internal Storage Full of "Other" Files

mcknigs · May 22, 2020

My file manager reports that 23 of 24 gig of internal storage is in use. I'm trying to clean it up. I can only find about a gig's worth of data. Somewhere I stumbled across a display that showed storage used by file type (can't find it now) that showed 22 gig used by "other" files. I'm trying to figure out what that is and how to delete those.

I've read some things that suggest that files recently deleted to make room sit in an inaccessible trash can for 7 days before they're deleted. Is it possible that's what this is?

I suspect this is more than Galaxy S7 issue, but I thought I'd start here first.

TIA

svim · May 22, 2020

mcknigs said:
....
I've read some things that suggest that files recently deleted to make room sit in an inaccessible trash can for 7 days before they're deleted. Is it possible that's what this is?

Seven days? A Trash Can? From a third-party app perhaps but as an Android default? That's quite a revelation. I'd check your sources for validity.
Could you please post links to verify? Is this a from an article or random postings from reader comments to an article?.

Hadron · May 22, 2020

Yeah, I'm afraid that sounds like whoever wrote that was either very unclear about what they meant or has no clue how Android works.

Anyway all that "other" means is "not a file type we recognise as media, app, or one of the small number of categories we list here". That can be anything at all, from crazy app caches, downloaded maps, obb files stored by games, or even the system partitions themselves. It's essentially a useless category since it lumps pure junk and vital data together. I'd try finding a decent third party app to find out what is actually using the space (I find DiskUsage useful, but there are others).

mcknigs · May 22, 2020

Hadron said:
Yeah, I'm afraid that sounds like whoever wrote that was either very unclear about what they meant or has no clue how Android works.

Anyway all that "other" means is "not a file type we recognise as media, app, or one of the small number of categories we list here". That can be anything at all, from crazy app caches, downloaded maps, obb files stored by games, or even the system partitions themselves. It's essentially a useless category since it lumps pure junk and vital data together. I'd try finding a decent third party app to find out what is actually using the space (I find DiskUsage useful, but there are others).

Thanks. I've deleted everything I can find and dumped all the cache from the biggest-offender apps. I've searched for files using the native file manager on the phone and over a cable from my PC. Whatever it is appears to be hidden. I'm wondering if it's a malware thing.

mcknigs · May 22, 2020

svim said:
Seven days? A Trash Can? From a third-party app perhaps but as an Android default? That's quite a revelation. I'd check your sources for validity.
Could you please post links to verify? Is this a from an article or random postings from reader comments to an article?.

This was in a forum response that came up in a search for my problem. Might have been this forum but I didn't find it by searching within this web site. I might be able to find it again. I admit, the respondent may have been wrong.

In any case, I still would like to figure out how to delete whatever apparently-hidden files are taking up 23/24ths of my internal storage.

Hadron · May 22, 2020

mcknigs said:
Thanks. I've deleted everything I can find and dumped all the cache from the biggest-offender apps. I've searched for files using the native file manager on the phone and over a cable from my PC. Whatever it is appears to be hidden. I'm wondering if it's a malware thing.

Malware is the first thing people think of and almost always not the actual cause.

I suggested using a third party storage app because they often give better information than the system menu. In the worst case they may just confirm that it's a waste of time using the system file manager (which can't see all of the storage), but it should be possible to find some clues.

mcknigs · May 23, 2020

Hadron said:
Yeah, I'm afraid that sounds like whoever wrote that was either very unclear about what they meant or has no clue how Android works.

Anyway all that "other" means is "not a file type we recognise as media, app, or one of the small number of categories we list here". That can be anything at all, from crazy app caches, downloaded maps, obb files stored by games, or even the system partitions themselves. It's essentially a useless category since it lumps pure junk and vital data together. I'd try finding a decent third party app to find out what is actually using the space (I find DiskUsage useful, but there are others).

I installed DiskUsage but it wouldn't let me look at internal files, only the SD card. I'd welcome other suggestions.

svim · May 23, 2020

Try restarting your S7 into its Safe Mode, and then try to access your phone's internal storage again:
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-g930f-galaxy-s7/safe-mode/

Use your Settings >> Storage menu (not actual location path of the Storage menu in a Samsung but wherever its nested into in the Settings menu) and try viewing the contents listing of 'Other'
Or if you're using the My Files app (the default Samsung file manager, or whatever file manager app you are using), did you enable any 'hidden files' option in the app's Settings menu? Most file manager apps don't have this enabled by default. Although it's not definitive your problem is due to a hidden file or folder it should be enabled just to eliminate that point.

mcknigs · May 27, 2020

svim said:
Try restarting your S7 into its Safe Mode, and then try to access your phone's internal storage again:
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-g930f-galaxy-s7/safe-mode/

Use your Settings >> Storage menu (not actual location path of the Storage menu in a Samsung but wherever its nested into in the Settings menu) and try viewing the contents listing of 'Other'
Or if you're using the My Files app (the default Samsung file manager, or whatever file manager app you are using), did you enable any 'hidden files' option in the app's Settings menu? Most file manager apps don't have this enabled by default. Although it's not definitive your problem is due to a hidden file or folder it should be enabled just to eliminate that point.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I did have the Samsung file manager set to not hide files. I tried rebooting in safe mode to see whether I would find anything I couldn't see before. I don't think I saw anything new. I did find about 4 gig of files in download directory in internal storage. Deleting those gave me some extra breathing room.

MrJavi · May 27, 2020

If you able to squeeze another 5Mb to you phone then SD consider an app called "SD Maid". Just be careful not to delete important files in the process

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.thedarken.sdm

Fred O · Aug 24, 2021

mcknigs said:
My file manager reports that 23 of 24 gig of internal storage is in use. I'm trying to clean it up. I can only find about a gig's worth of data. Somewhere I stumbled across a display that showed storage used by file type (can't find it now) that showed 22 gig used by "other" files. I'm trying to figure out what that is and how to delete those.

I've read some things that suggest that files recently deleted to make room sit in an inaccessible trash can for 7 days before they're deleted. Is it possible that's what this is?

I suspect this is more than Galaxy S7 issue, but I thought I'd start here first.

TIA

I had same problem. Eventually tried diskusage, it seems to not access phone storage but actually does. this was the only thing that identified that telegram was using up about 7G for videos. I moved them to SD card then erased them from phone storage in diskusage (at least I think that's what got rid of them) and solved problem for now, Now looking for an app that can move apps to SD card to spread the load.
Correction, eventually the tgram vids did show up on my computer file explorer when I plugged in to the phone, but at first they did'nt and connection to phone kept crashing so by the time I saw them on the computer I already had deleted them but computer didn't see it yet!
Update: I then got "Files to SD card" which successfully moved telegram and other files to SD, and telegram still seems to work the same so it didn't mess it up. But Tgram app itself seems to still be on the phone storage.
Groping aroudn in the dark with this, but mission accomplished more or less coz now have 6.5G free and a way to try to fix if it clogs up again. Before this nothing was working, couldn't even take pics with the camera.

clubchuck · Oct 12, 2021

I have the same issue. No idea what the “other” storage is. Any ideas?

Help Internal Storage Full of "Other" Files

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