Help HTC Desire - Internal Memory Capacity Issue

[danielvago]

I know very little of this, and a bit of googling didn't really educate me about the dalvik cache, or how / if it should be cleared every now and then.

The most obvious thing I found was the app Flikie Wallpaper HD. I had deleted it before, but there it was, on my internal memory, in all its 4-5 MB glory. Deleted!

 

[SUroot]

I know very little of this, and a bit of googling didn't really educate me about the dalvik cache, or how / if it should be cleared every now and then.

The most obvious thing I found was the app Flikie Wallpaper HD. I had deleted it before, but there it was, on my internal memory, in all its 4-5 MB glory. Deleted!

Dalvik cache us like a windows registry. It's kind of like the app settings. Clear it and it will build up again at next boot

 

[danielvago]

Do you have to be rooted to clear it? I couldn't find out how to clear it on mine.

 

[SUroot]

Actually yes you do, but its only useful if things are going wrong. When you reboot, it will rebuild the cache back up to the same size it was before clearing.

Also, if you have a custom rom, chances are you have done so for space and gone for apps2sd+. This makes the internal memory extend into an EXT partition on teh SD card, so apps and dalvik cache move there too. App Cache always remains on internal memory.

Apps2sd+ was until recently, the most effective way of saving internal memory and in many respects still is. Its tried and tested.

There is a new kind on the block though. Data2sd, but this is still in its infancy and not stable for everyone.

 

[tehterminator]

I think the Internal Memory is buggy or any thing else.
Today I wanted to install some good games from Market.

I had 25Mbs Free. -- Yaa I know Thats bad

So I installed HomeRun Battle 3D, played it for a while and noticed Low Memory Indicator, Immediately On uninstalling My Internal Memory was 20 Mbs, then I cleared DATA of Facebook App, Internet, Gmail, Now I had 33 Mbs of Internal Storage.

Later I installed Crazy SnowBoarding to SD card, and Tank Hero Beta both to SD card and uninstaling GMail App and Voice Search App both 5 Mbs now the Memory had dipped to 17 Mbs,

Any one knows whats going on.

It has been 3 months now That I am Using My Desire, and I never saw 50 Mbs of Free Space. This makes me totally Unhappy.

Also I want to add
I have FlashPlayer 10.9 Mbs, Maps 9.86 Mbs, Facebook App 5.14 MB, Market 5.11 MB, Lookout 2.27 MB, TeamViewer 1.8MB, Google Search 1.3MB, Youtube 1.3MB, HTC Sync 1.21 MB and Remaining Apps With total 1 MB of Storage. I dont think that Uses even 50 Mbs. So what is 512 MB ROM all about.

 

[trulskaare]

I've had this problem too. I was down to the 14-something mb limit where the notifier alerts you that you're low on space. I use app2sd, but as stated previously, apps on the sd card also take up phone space. I noticed that Google Earth took up 30+mb on my sd card, so I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it before moving it back to the sd card. It now takes up less space and I have 30+mb free on my phone. Google earth only takes up 16.08mb now. What the hell were those other 15mb??? I suggest uninstalling large apps and reinstalling them.

 

[SUroot]

Has anybody found a fix for this that doesn't require rooting??? SO frustrating!

No. Well nothing worthwhile or long lasting anyway.

Whats taking up your space? I think Contacts Storage has a "memory" leak.

 

[angusbradley]

This wasn't obvious to me, but a quick run of the DiskUSage app, showed that lots of apps I had moved to SD using app2sd, were still taking up internal memory.

So a quick uninstall of apps supposedly installed on the SD card like skype and mediafly, gave me 5Mb internal memory back.

Am now going through apps that say they are installed on SD, and trashing them...

Will gingerbread fix this insane issue?! every week I run out of space.

 

[Deleted User]

Certain parts of apps need to remain on internal memory for them to function, which makes sense because when you power up the phone from off, the SD card is the last thing it prepares for use.

 

[tobydjones]

From observation, "Low on space" is triggered when Internal storage is below 10%. So, the answer is to remove some data (eg apps or cache). My problem is that it's not clear what Internal storage contains. My investigation:

Quick System Info:
Location......... Total/Free
SD.............. 3.69Gb/ 3.32Gb
A2SD............. 113Mb/41.67Mb
Internal storage. 148Mb/19.26Mb
System storage... 250Mb/ 336Kb
System cache...... 40Mb/32.94Mb
Memory........... 415Mb/86.12Mb

Disk Usage:
Data and Cache.. 187.6Mb
>Applications... 107.1Mb
>System data..... 28.4Mb
>Free space...... 52.2Mb

My assumption is that DU's "Data and Cache" equates to QSI's "Internal storage" + "System cache". However "Applications" and "System data" do not map onto "Internal storage" and "System cache".

DU splits "Applications" into folders, so I could go through and find out how much memory goes to apks, data and dalvikCache, but there's no information as to what "System data" holds.

All that is to lead to the question "What does Internal Storage actually hold, and how do I get a list?"

Thanks

Toby

 

[acwman]

You can look on the android market for a free app called DiskUsage.

You can check the App storage on the phone.. Mine has a total of 147.6MB

There are a couple of apps on mine which take up a lot of space..

ie Apps such as
Adobe flash takes 11MB
Google Maps 9.3 MB
Facebook 8.27
Skype 6.75 MB
etc.....

System takes 29.8 MB of storage aswell...

Not really alot left

 

[tobydjones]

DiskUsage shows Applications use 107.2Mb, but Quick System Info shows 128.74Mb of Internal storage used. What is using that other 21.54Mb? I'd prefer to reduce that instead of deleting apps!

 

[SUroot]

App data

 

[tobydjones]

App data

I'm sorry Dan, I think I'm missing something here.
DiskUsage breaks each app down into apk, data, cache and dalvikCache.
The total for that comes to 107.4Mb.
So if 128.74Mb of Internal Memory has been used, according to Quick System Info, what is taking up 21.54Mb?
Wouldn't App data have been included by DiskUsage already?
Whatever it is, how do I get a list?
Or am I mis-understanding something?

Thanks,
Toby

 

[Vicdude]

I was going mad, my memory used to loose about 1 Mb a day without installing or anything. If I just left it un attended for a week I'm sure it would fill itself up
I just got rid of Google earth. I thought that this was stored on my SD card and investigating the advice from an earlier post to un install and re install large apps even if they were on the SD card, my memory jumped from 16Mb to 47Mb
I never actually use Google earth as the satellite view in google maps suffices for my needs so I have decided not to bother re installing.
Massive jump though, 16Mb, deleted an App from the SD card and freed up 31 Mb.... go figure.
Just out of interest, I have re installed just to check and and the file size for Google Earth is only 22.14Mb now I moved it to SD and the internal memory plummeted from 47Mb down to 21!!! I've uninstalled and I'll let you boffins figure that one out!!!

 

[SUroot]

disk usage isn't very accurate from what I found.

 

[tobydjones]

disk usage isn't very accurate from what I found.

How do you suggest checking what's in Internal Memory please? Is it accessible as a folder in Astro for example? I'm a software dev, so I don't mind connecting via a teminal session or something else esoteric if that'll give an accurate answer.

 

[SUroot]

I haven't found any way to get a concise breakdown of what is in the /data partition.

If you know linux commands that would give this information, if you mounted /data via adb shell, perhaps those linux commands work? Adb shell is a basic linux command line functionality. Very cut down so not all commands work, but you never know..

 

[miles_t]

So not just me having a daily battle with my HTC Desire memory!!

The bottom line is that although it's a fantastic phone the memory is not enough simple as that. In the long term I will NEVER buy a phone that doesn't have way more storage than I will ever need.

In the meantime these are the tips I can offer (for non rooted)

1/ The new version of Apps2SD (free) has a Cache clearer. The cache seems to grow very quickly in some apps (market is terrible). Using cache clearer frees up space MB at a time.

2/ If you have Gmail or similar, keep the amount of days synched to minimum, saves a bit of space.

3/ Facebook - data used grows and grows, delete data (settings > manage apps > Select App > Clear Data) when you need some extra space for new app.

4/ Remember that although Apps2SD transfers some of files its not all sometimes up to 50% are taken up on phone memory, a right pain that is!

5/ This is a strange one. I uninstalled Adobe Flash player to free up 10mb and I can still play all flash games I have tried and have not had one single failure when running video from web page?? So maybe this app doesn't actually giive much advantage. Id be interested in what content I can't now access since removing it?

 

[Deleted User]

3/ Facebook - data used grows and grows, delete data (settings > manage apps > Select App > Clear Data) when you need some extra space for new app.

The Facebook app is weak in a lot of areas and this trend continues in the the way the app stores things as data instead of cache, so when you clear the data it signs you out of Facebook and resets your settings.

 

[Cerin_Thilakan]

The Facebook app is weak in a lot of areas and this trend continues in the the way the app stores things as data instead of cache, so when you clear the data it signs you out of Facebook and resets your settings.

I dont know if any1 ova here have faced this issue. I was running way out of space on my internal storage. It was showing around 8mb remaining. When i check into the storage details i found the whole contacts storage have eaten up around 60mb. I had synced my facebook and gmail accounts to the contacts. Thats the reason why it was picking up all unnecessary contacts and eating space. I deleted all the contacts and entered only the required ones.Now i have around 65mb in my phone storage...

 

[TimMatrix]

I would love to have 32GB of RAM on my computer!!! I know apple delievers a mac pro with 32GB RAM if you add 3550$ on the basic price


"App 2 SD" you can move your downloaded apps to the ass-d card.

Interesting point... 32Gb RAM computer, when most PCs are around 6Gb or so with 64-bit Windows.

Very good point there....

 

[mmceorange]

Same problem here (thus my searching and finding this forum).

Has anybody considered physically upgrading the rom memory chip? I am pretty good with soldering tiny components, so this wouldnt scare me much if I knew that it would work... I cant find anyone doing so, but maybe somebody else might?

 

[dronertron]

My move from iphone to Android was going so well until I hit this problem. I am still convinced Android is right for me but the Desire has been a let down due to this. I think in every other aspect it is a brilliant phone. I have rooted my phone and was reading the apps2sd+ FAQ but I just don't think I have the will to see it through. I'm thinking my time spent fiddling with that would be better spent reseting my phone, putting it on Ebay and getting a better Android phone. So my question is what are the alternatives to the Desire without the memory issues?

I'm thinking either the Galaxy S (this appeals more to me because of SD slot), Nexus S or waiting for the Atrix.

Is anyone else considering different hardware because of this issue?

 

[SUroot]

If you're already rooted, thats the hard bit done. All you need now is to partition your SD card and flash a rooted stock rom with a2sd support. The hard bit is already done and we will definitely offer you help in the rooting forum. I guarantee you would have done this and resolved all your memory issues and then you would have a fantastic phone.

If you are set upon getting a new phone, i wouldnt recommend a Galaxy S. You will be upset by the build quality and how it feels in your hand compared to the desire.