Insufficient Storage Error

[Seachild]

Have a new Android 12 with 16gb memory, 512gb storage, and Snapdragon 888 processor. Have only used 14.2gb of storage so far but anytime I try to download anything else that will get it up to or past 16gb I get error message even though there's 497.8gb remaining. I've tried clearing caches, downgrading Google Play, and using CCleaner. I refuse to use SD card as matter of principle since it shouldn't be necessary. What can be done to fix error?

 

[mikedt]

What exact device have you got there, make and model, and where did you buy it? Because that might give me better idea of what the storage problem could be.

 

[Hadron]

Seconded.

And in case you don't know why "where did you buy it?" is important, it's because we need to work out whether the phone really is what you think it is: sadly there are "fake" phones out there, some of which are sold as genuine high-spec devices but actually have much lower specs than they claim to have, and that is a possible explanation for what you are seeing. You can't use the phone's Settings to confirm anything about such devices because they will be programmed to lie, though the baseband version often provides a clue (that's harder for them to spoof and more obscure to most people, so they don't usually bother. Hence if the baseband version says "MTK" (MediaTek) and the phone claims to have a Snapdragon processor that is a give-away). Otherwise it's a mix of circumstantial evidence (phones bought through a major retail chain are likely to be real, phones bought through eBay or Alibaba are much more risky, a price that's suspiciously low for the specification should be regarded as, well, suspicious) or, if the phone claims to be a major brand model, looking for things that aren't quite right. Perhaps an app like CPU-Z could give some clues, but I've never had a fake phone in my hands to test it on.

Anyway I hope that isn't the case, but it is the commonest cause of such problems so we do need to check that first (since if that is the case the only thing you can do is try to get a refund).

 

[Seachild]

It is a P50 Pro bought from Wish.com and does not show a name brand. It states that it has 512gb storage. Now I'm fearing that isn't the case after reading these replies. Can't get a refund since the email I used to sign up for Wish is no good anymore that had the shipping & receiving validation emails and don't remember the seller's name I bought from. There are many sellers with similar or same phones so I guess it's just 132 dollars lost. Thank you for the help.

 

[Hadron]

Hmm, that is suspicious. Huawei make a phone they call the P50 Pro which has a variant with similar specs (512GB storage, 12GB RAM rather than 16GB, and a Snapdragon 888 SoC), but that sells for 10 times the price you paid. I don't believe that anyone is selling a phone that really has those specs for that price, so I suspect that if you investigate the device you'll find it's actually something a lot less powerful - sadly the old adage about "if it looks too good to be true..." very much applies to internet marketplace sellers. I don't know wish.com (they've little if any presence on my side of the Atlantic), but I don't suppose they take any responsibility for stuff sold through them? Not that that would help if you can't retrieve the purchasing information I guess. It's likely that the seller in question has already closed down that account and re-opened one in another name (that's a common pattern for scam sellers on other markeplaces).

I'd be curious about what it really was, but that's just curiosity, nothing more. We've recently seen Android 4 devices sold as Android 10, but I don't think I've seen anything quite as blatant as a 16GB phone sold as 512GB (though I have seen 16GB microSD cards sold as 1TB cards back before 1TB microSD cards even existed!).

 

[Seachild]

I used CPU-Z and here's what it shows:
Model: P50 Pro, Manufacturer: Alps, Board: Qualcomm 888, Screen Size 7.3, Screen Res: 3200x2400, Screen Density: 321 DPI, Total RAM: 16384, Available RAM: 12288 (75%), Internal Storage: 512.00GB, Available Storage: 499.24 (97%).

It's good to know the app has verified that the specs are actually valid(though slightly off on remaining storage and reviews have shown app can be slightly off on numbers but no big deal). Now I'm back to original problem of fixing Insufficient Storage error.

 

[Hadron]

Unfortunately I'm still suspicious. I just don't believe that anyone is selling an 888 with half a gig of storage for 130 dollars, soI find it more likely that they can trick CPU-Z. Plus when I tried to look up the specs of the alps P50 Pro one thing I found was this, which is not at all encouraging but is consistent with having only 16GB storage (it doesn't list storage, but the RAM and SoC are consistent with that level), while another site gave a different but still low spec list here. But the main thing is that the manufacturer is "alps": they manufactur a wide range of low-spec fake devices, which is not a good sign.

 

[Seachild]

Guess I'll just get some external storage after all. Easiest solution at this point. Thank you for the troubleshooting.

 

[mikedt]

It is a P50 Pro bought from Wish.com and does not show a name brand. It states that it has 512gb storage. Now I'm fearing that isn't the case after reading these replies. Can't get a refund since the email I used to sign up for Wish is no good anymore that had the shipping & receiving validation emails and don't remember the seller's name I bought from. There are many sellers with similar or same phones so I guess it's just 132 dollars lost. Thank you for the help.

Yeh, 100% sure that's a knock-off. "P50 Pro" is trying to sound like a premium Huawei or Honor device. The actual storage, is likely only 8GB or 16GB, and the processor is very probably some cheap MediaTek, and NOT Snapdragon 888.

There was another phone that's sold by Wish came up on AF a few weeks ago, that actually had a fake Android version in it. Made out to be Android 9, which it was actually Android 4.x(which is obsolete, and not supported by Google and most apps now)...
https://androidforums.com/threads/xgody-9t-pro-not-loading-apps.1338590/

And I'm thinking the Android 12 version on that P50 Pro is suspect as well. If you can, suggest you post the "Android security patch level", "Baseband version", and "Kernel version". and we might be able to tell exactly what you've got there. Because these are things that might not be faked.

 

[Seachild]

Security Patch Level: 2021-09-05
Kernel Version 4.4.83 (37119)

Did not find anything called Baseband anywhere.

 

[Hadron]

Baseband is the firmware for the radio interfaces, so it will certainly have one. Some phones put it a level or two down in the software information. I've never heard of one that outright hides it, though I would never rule anything out.

But kernel version 4.4.82 is found in Android 7.1 or Android 8.0, so that's definitely not Android 12. My phone, which is running Android 12.0, is based on kernel version 5.4.129.

 

[Davdi]

Have a look at this review of a Fake Samsung Galaxy S20 ultra 5G

The reviewer also lists some apps that reveal the true specs of the phone. - try them on your phone and post the results please.

 

[Seachild]

Found app called Fake Device Test on Google Play and it validated that my phone is indeed a fake. Has Android 8 rather than 12, resolution is 1600 x 720 rather than 3200 x 2400, storage is 12.98gb rather than 512gb, 4 cores rather than 10, ARM v.7 processor rather than Snapdragon, memory 2.04gb rather than 16.

Since it was only money I had to buy a phone you can imagine how much I would enjoy just 5 minutes alone with the seller. Should have been suspicious when trying to download games on Google Play and most were "not compatible with your version". Live and learn.

The above video was very illuminating plus I didn't know phones had kill switches. Thank you everyone for the help.

 

[Antrel]

It's good that you discovered the fact of buying a fake phone before you lost important data. After all, some files are very difficult to recover, even with the help of special software. This is a very good lesson for the future: you cannot buy a phone several times cheaper than the market price without unpleasant surprises.