Insufficient Storage Available Error message in Google Play when installing

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android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
Hi,

I've developed the dreaded Insufficient Storage Available Error when downloading and installing apps from the Google Play store. Also get a similar message when trying to install sideloaded apps. "Out of space, free up some space and try again."

I've got a 16GB phone, and still have like 8GB free on the internal SD card. I'm running CleanRom 2.0. This is very annoying. I've rebooted, tried uninstalling some bigger apps, and nothing works. I'd rather not have to reinstall everything and wipe my phone.

Can anyone help?
 

TexasAggie97

Senior Member
Mar 31, 2011
327
42
I can't really help other than complain about the same issue on my Epic 4G running SleeperROM. I had to clear out some of the larger apps, install updates, then reinstall the larger ones in order to "update" them.

My problem occurs when my remaining internal storage falls below 50MB.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda app-developers app
 

annoyingduck

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2012
3,265
1,947
Boston, MA Area
Try to clear data from the play store in the application manager. If that doesn't work, clear it again along with Google services framework. You'll need to sign in to your Google account again.
See if that works, did for me on my galaxy player 5.0

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises
 

android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
Try to clear data from the play store in the application manager. If that doesn't work, clear it again along with Google services framework. You'll need to sign in to your Google account again.
See if that works, did for me on my galaxy player 5.0

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises

Clearing data from Play didn't work, and doing both, now I get a cannot find service error in Google Play. rebooting fixed that problem, but I still can't download and install new apps.
 
Last edited:

annoyingduck

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2012
3,265
1,947
Boston, MA Area
Wow, something bad going on here. Is your main Google account set correctly in the main settings menu?

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:30 PM ----------

What does it say now when trying to get an app? Same storage message or something different?

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises
 
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android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
Wow, something bad going on here. Is your main Google account set correctly in the main settings menu?

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:30 PM ----------

What does it say now when trying to get an app? Same storage message or something different?

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises

Same message. What's weird is that some apps will download and install, others will not.
 

annoyingduck

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2012
3,265
1,947
Boston, MA Area
This is really looking like a wipe/reinstall situation. If you have titanium, it's easy wiping. Just do apps/data though, not system data as whatever bug you have may be imbedded in the system data. All you'll need to do is add your accounts, widgets and system settings.

Your call, but if it were me I'd wipe cache and dalvik, and reflash the rom to see if that would fix it before wiping/resetting.

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises
 

android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
This is really looking like a wipe/reinstall situation. If you have titanium, it's easy wiping. Just do apps/data though, not system data as whatever bug you have may be imbedded in the system data. All you'll need to do is add your accounts, widgets and system settings.

Your call, but if it were me I'd wipe cache and dalvik, and reflash the rom to see if that would fix it before wiping/resetting.

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises

Yeah, it happened one other time, when I was running an early Route 66 build, and then reflashed to Synergy, and it fixed it. But I'd really like to understand what's going on, as I can't be always reflashing ROM's. I do have Titanium, but it's not trivial to do it, and it takes some time to do the reflash carefully.

Any other ideas?
 
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annoyingduck

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2012
3,265
1,947
Boston, MA Area
I'm not sure about clean rom, but I'm on synergy and I just wipe cache / dakvik, reflash rom and that's it. All my apps and data stay intact and any bugs are cleaned up. 5 min process.
But not sure with clean rom, as synergy is on a nightly status where dirty flashing is okay. You'll need to find out if a clean rom reflash wipes data.
But a clean flash/titanium restore is done in 20 min total (with paid titanium). I do it all the time, it's become routine.

Sent from my VZW GS3 running Synergy/Trinity/Dark Horse Rises
 
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hyunge

Senior Member
Sep 16, 2012
59
31
i solved my same issue like this

I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.
 

android94301

Senior Member
May 28, 2012
208
134
I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.

I ended up just reinstalling an update to my ROM CleanRom 2.5. That fixed it for now.
 

Blutdroid

Member
Oct 29, 2012
9
0
I'm getting the same error, rooted and running the latest Cyanogenmod 10.

So far I've tried all of these steps and nothing has worked:

Clear cache and dalvik cache.
Delete market framerwork data and google data.
There are no odex files to delete.
I cannot sideload apps, so Luckypatcher doesn't work
I restored through Clockworkmod recovery to a save before this happened.
I cannot backup through CWM or Titaniumbackup (or anything like those) because I get the insufficient storage error.

If I have to do a wipe, what steps should I go through if that is the last resort so as not to lose anything (other than the obvious backup data still saved)?
 

Dyelon

Senior Member
Jul 27, 2011
868
73
GB
meettomy.site
I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.

thanks SO much for posting this....saved me from banging my head for more than the hour I already did...I really appreciate it
 

robRA71

New member
Sep 29, 2010
1
10
I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.

I couldn't install or update any apps, but for some reason I could download link2sd.

Once I installed it, opened the app went to settings off the Menu then 'Install location'.

It was set to 'External' set it to 'Automatic' then exited the app.

Now I was able to download again. Thanks for sharing the fix. :good:
 

XxHghlndxX

Member
Sep 30, 2012
6
5
had the same issue...

I couldn't install or update any apps, but for some reason I could download link2sd.

Once I installed it, opened the app went to settings off the Menu then 'Install location'.

It was set to 'External' set it to 'Automatic' then exited the app.

Now I was able to download again. Thanks for sharing the fix. :good:

This helped me out a lot! Thanks
 

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  • 25
    i solved my same issue like this

    I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.
    10
    I was able to fix my issue by using ES File Explorer and going to /data/app. Then I deleted the .apk of the app that was giving my the error. Then I went to the Google Play Store and updated the app. It let me download the update and install it too. Problem fixed... hope this helps other people too.
    10
    I had the same message come up, driving me nuts, banging my head on phone, when I looked into link2sd settings, I had it set to store on external card and had errors...changed it to Auto and the error message went away...apps still linked to external card.

    I couldn't install or update any apps, but for some reason I could download link2sd.

    Once I installed it, opened the app went to settings off the Menu then 'Install location'.

    It was set to 'External' set it to 'Automatic' then exited the app.

    Now I was able to download again. Thanks for sharing the fix. :good:
    8
    Here's how I solved it

    I had the same problem and solved it. I had link2sd installed and it had "Auto Link" turned ON. Turning it OFF fixed the problem.

    Good luck ;
    6
    What worked for me...

    What's weird is that some apps will download and install, others will not.

    Note: My fix worked, in large part because, I have a rooted system with busybox properly installed (allowing me to use su, find, and grep, as well as letting me remount /system r/w and r/o). Also, I have a terminal app on my Android as well. You can't even view the contents of the /data directory if you are not root.

    I had this exact same problem with Advanced Task Killer by rechild.

    I began to suspect that there were some "leftovers" from this app on my device that could not be overwritten by the Android package installer.

    So, in a rooted adb shell, I searched my entire system for .apk files like this (if your busybox doesn't have sym-linked applets, you make have to use "busybox find" and "busybox grep"):
    Code:
    find / | grep '\.apk$' > /data/local/tmp/apklocate.txt

    Then skimmed the results with:
    Code:
    less /data/local/tmp/apklocate.txt

    When that produced nothing, I tried a different approach. I looked in /data/app/ and /data/data for leftovers by skimming their contents with ls. Then I pulled out a different android with Advanced Task Killer by rechild installed. From it, I determined that the package name for this app was com.rechild.andvancedtaskkiller.

    So I decided to search /data/app/ and /data/data/ with ls and grep. I tried /data/app first (if ls -la doesn't work on your android, try ls -l -a or busybox ls -l -a):
    Code:
    cd /data/app/
    ls -la | grep rechild
    and got:
    Code:
    com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller-1.odex

    Whoa, there! I found an odex file WITHOUT a corresponding apk. I pretty much knew this was the source of my problem, but I went ahead and searched /data/data/ and /data/app for other "leftovers" from this app.

    From there, the solution was simple (again, this whole solution assumes you are in a terminal on your device as root):
    Code:
    cd /data/app/
    rm com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller-1.odex
    Please note that this was very presumptuous on my part. I ASSUMED I wouldn't ever need that odex file again. While I was right, it would have MUCH safer for me to move this file somewhere else with a different filename somewhere else in the /data folder heirarchy with something like:
    Code:
    mv /data/app/com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller-1.odex /data/com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller-1.odex.deletemelater
    Please also note that I did NOT suggest moving it to a sdcard folder. That's because FAT32 partitions (like those on Android SD cards) do NOT preserve ownership and permissions of files. A tar backup of the file would have also been a safe idea, as tar files do preserve ownership and permissions of the archive files (unless you explicitly instruct them not to on the command line).

    And last, but not least:
    Picked up Android, went into Google Play, searched for Advance Task Killer, and installed it (error free)! ;)

    (If my rambling helped you, please hit the Thanks button!)