Help Can't Find More than 10GB Supposedly on my SD Card

[taveuni13]

I have a Galaxy Tab 4 with a 16GB SD card. Recently I was warned that some of my apps couldn't update due to a full SD card. So, I got ES File Explorer and the Analyzer says I have over 11GB of "Other" files, as in not pictures, not videos, etc. I have gone through every single file using ES File Explorer and can't find any files that have even more than a couple hundred MB in them.

I have already gone through the procedure of clearing my cache, to no avail.

How do I find this "other" 11GB of data? Is there a better file explorer I can use to track this down?

Thanks!

 

[androidmachine]

I use Memory Map to map out which files take the most memory.

 

[taveuni13]

Thanks. I tried that and found about 250mb in my Spotify cache, but that still fails to explain the vast bulk of my issue. I am attaching screen shots of the ES analyzer, still showing over 11gb of "other" files (top right) and the Memory Map that says I now have 750 odd mb free, but graphically that appears to me to be more than half of the total available then?

Seems like I am still missing something major here. Hidden files? System files of some kind? I don't feel like I have all that many apps on this device. Pretty much same as my phone and not having this issue.

 

[androidmachine]

Did you format the SD card fat32?

 

[taveuni13]

I never formatted it at all. Just been using the tablet OOB since I bought it in June.

 

[androidmachine]

Ok. Just so we're on the same page here: is the SD card you are talking about a physical card that sits in a slot in the tablet and that you can remove, or are we talking about internal memory (also sometimes called an SD card)?

 

[taveuni13]

Well, maybe we're getting somewhere now. ES Explorer refers to it as the SD card but now for the first time I pried open the little Micro SD slot cover and there's nothing in there. So, perhaps we are talking about internal memory and I just need to get myself a card?

 

[androidmachine]

Yes, it's internal memory. Getting an SD card would help, but there is still the mystery of where the 11 gb went. I have a 16 gb tablet. Roughly 4 gb of the memory is taken up by system files and such and I have 12 gb free.

It appears to me that the missing 11 gb are system files or at least the system partition. I say that because they don't show up on the memory map (and they won't unless you are rooted). That is a huge amount, and I'm at a loss to explain it.

One thing that getting an SD card won't do is give you more room for apps. You will have more storage space for music, movies, books, pictures, etc. but you won't get app space because apps and their data, at least in part, have to be on the internal memory (data for sure). The exception to this rule would be if you are rooted, then you could partition the SD card and use part or all of it as an extension of the internal memory. I wouldn't recommend it unless you know precisely what you are doing though.

I will think about this some more, and if I come up with anything I will post it. Hopefully, others will chime in as well.

 

[androidmachine]

Take a look at this app and see what it reports: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cls.partition&hl=en

 

[androidmachine]

I thought about this some more, and I don't think that ES File Explorer is showing you what you have overall, especially the /data partition and the /system partition. One reason I say this is because ES F.E. shows only 5.14 mb of apps. Unless you have cleaned out all your apps then that means that ES F.E. is not showing /data. Similarly, it is not showing /system. It is only showing /storage/emulated/0. So your apps + system apps and files = 11 gb somehow. The remainder is what is available to you for storage.

 

[taveuni13]

That tool helped a lot, thank you. I used it to clear the cache on all my apps (which I thought I had already done, but apparently not) and now my "other" files as shown in ES F.E. is down to less than 5GB. Amazing the cache can accumulate that much junk.

Think I am probably good to go now. Thanks again, I appreciate the help very much.

 

[Mark Peterson]

Try to format your Sd card.

 

[androidmachine]

That tool helped a lot, thank you. I used it to clear the cache on all my apps (which I thought I had already done, but apparently not) and now my "other" files as shown in ES F.E. is down to less than 5GB. Amazing the cache can accumulate that much junk.

Think I am probably good to go now. Thanks again, I appreciate the help very much.

Great! Less than 5 gb sounds more like system files and such because that's about what it is for me. I'm really glad the tool helped.