Help Some help needed for new Galaxy SII owner

[Evil Ash]

Hey there, I'm a new Galaxy SII T989 owner, I've only had it for a couple of weeks so far and I love it! ... and I've already managed to run out of space for apps, and there comes my plea for help

I've taken full use of the Google play store app sale these last couple of days, buying about 50-something apps, using the "buy now, check if they're any good later" philosophy . Problem came already a few days ago when I started getting "error downloading" messages and "low on space" messages when buying new apps on the store, because ofcourse google store keeps forcing every app to download on my phone even if I dont have any space left

Checking my Storage under Settings I have just 175MB available system storage out of the 1.97GB, and 7.69/11.25 USB Storage, but I see no way to move my apps to the so-called USB storage?? Or, for that matter, set USB Storage as the default download location...

So I have a number of questions, so why not flood my first post with them right away right?

1. How if possible do I move stuff from the "internal storage" to "usb storage"? When I try to go Applications and try to "move to SD card" on some of the apps it's saying 'you dont have an sd card'... I haven't had time to buy an SD card yet...
If I go to manage applications, there are plenty of apps showing under 'on SD card', with "USB storage" showing on the bottom of the page... so apparently in some ways USB storage is counted as SD card storage, but in others not... very confusing!

2. What's the point with the system storage & usb storage anyway, I thought the SII simply had 16GB of storage period? Are they actually separate hardware wise? Or is it just an internal sd card of sorts split into a 2GB and a 11GB partition?

3. When turning on the phone now the frickin google store keeps trying to download every single app that failed earlier, again, giving me like 20 error messages & low on space messages, SIGH Is there any way to avoid this?? I checked the settings menu in the google store and couldn't find any option to 'do not download apps automatically'?! You'd think this really shouldn't be rocket science

4. I noticed that I can't uninstall the Asphalt 6 game demo I got with the phone, which according to My Applications only takes up 292KB space, but I know it did like a 500MB download when I first tried the game (thinking it was the full game, it didn't say anything about just being a demo), and now I can't even uninstall the thing... So apparently you can't trust how much space Applications says an app takes?

Checking Files, there's a Gameloft -> Games -> GloftA6HP folder in there that's apparently 0.9GB big, I wonder if that's stored on my 1.97GB system storage or the 11.25GB USB storage portion... but I'd rather not just remove a folder directly in the file system and cause other problems with the OS (if that's even possible, haven't tried)... There's also a usbStorage folder, but that one is empty...

Any help very much appreciated!

 

[Atma]

Hi Evil Ash and welcome to the forums. :hello:

You're not the only one storage confuses. I was confused when I first got my phone and it still rather confuses me.

If anyone has a clearer explanation feel free to jump in.

As I understand, yes, the 16gb is partitioned. You have about 617mb space for the OS and system apps. The 2gb 'device memory' space is for app storage. The 12gb USB Internal storage is for app data and other media (pics, etc.). When you move or install an app to the external sd card, it moves the data.

T-Mobile comes with a lot of bloatware and they are installed as system apps which can't be uninstalled unless you are rooted and using the app Titanium Backup. Asphalt is one of these apps.

The only way I know to stop Play Store downloading is to open it then press your menu button and select my apps. Choose each app and then stop it downloading.

 

[Evil Ash]

Hi Evil Ash and welcome to the forums. :hello:

You're not the only one storage confuses. I was confused when I first got my phone and it still rather confuses me.

If anyone has a clearer explanation feel free to jump in.

As I understand, yes, the 16gb is partitioned. You have about 617mb space for the OS and system apps. The 2gb 'device memory' space is for app storage. The 12gb USB Internal storage is for app data and other media (pics, etc.). When you move or install an app to the external sd card, it moves the data.

T-Mobile comes with a lot of bloatware and they are installed as system apps which can't be uninstalled unless you are rooted and using the app Titanium Backup. Asphalt is one of these apps.

The only way I know to stop Play Store downloading is to open it then press your menu button and select my apps. Choose each app and then stop it downloading.

Hi Atmazzz and thanks for the reply! So basically what you're saying is there's nothing to do about the 2gb "partition" for apps and the 12gb for data/pics etc? Wonder what their reasoning was for that, if it's all the same physical storage, why split it into a small 2gb for all your apps and a much much bigger one for data/pics etc, instead of just having one ~13gb partition? And, I guess the additional ~3gb are somehow used for Android OS and other stuff you will never be able to see/use

So until I get a bigger SD card I will have to uninstall some apps to get more space for new apps back then?

So unless I want to root the phone and lose my warranty etc, I can't uninstall the 1GB Asphalt game demo that T-mobile put on there? I was afraid that's how it was, but how does that make any sense? Why would T-mobile want to force me to keep 1GB of some game demo forever on 1/16th of the total space on the phone I hope that's not 0.9GB of space taken up on my 2GB system storage right?

Speaking of which, how do I know/check whether something is stored in the 2GB storage or the 11GB storage? So I at least know what I need to remove to get more available space? I'm guessing I can remove all those .apk files in "Download" right? But they're probably all in the 11GB storage because I couldn't see a difference in available space when removing a couple of those...

So IF I would root the phone and get Titanium backup, and uninstall Asphalt 6, would it remove the entire 0.9GB or just the 292KB that Applications is showing as size for Asphalt 6? Otherwise, is it safe to just remove that "Gameloft -> Games -> GloftA6HP" folder that I noticed in the Files app? Assuming it will let me...

 

[Atma]

Go to settings > applications. Select either the downloaded or all tab. Look down at the bottom of the screen you will see it says Device memory. That's your 2gb space. Tap the On SD Card tab. Look at the bottom where it says USB storage. That's your 12gb internal storage. Those apps can be moved to your external sd card. If boxes are checked, they are already on your external sd card.

When you uninstall an app, it should remove the app and the data.

Do you have an external sd card now?

The Gameloft thing, I can't remember what that is. I have been running rooted stock OS almost since I bought this phone about 6 months ago. I removed almost all of the bloat apps T-Mobile had on here. Yes, rooting technically voids the warranty, but its very easy to unroot.

If you are running ICS you can also disable apps. Check this thread for a good description of that.

When you get an external sd card, check out an app like App 2 SD. I don't think you need to be rooted to use this.