[Q] "Device Memory" issues in Xperia L, 4.1.2 Stock OS etc (Rooted)

I'm using Xperia L with Stock OS 4.1.2, Stock Kernel etc. It had been showing me some memory problems in the last few days. So after a lot of searching around I finally rooted my phone to get to the bottom of this matter. I've only rooted the phone and haven't changed anything else. The bootloader is still locked (if that matters). After a lot of searching around I still haven't found out what exactly is consuming all this space.

- It's not the gallery app. I've already applied the thumbnails fix.
- Not the walkman app. I've disabled it and cleared the cache (user apps + system apps) using Titanium Backup
- Used Android Cleaner app - deleted Log files, everything that it could clear
- Lost.Dir was already empty when I checked it (Yes I'm rooted and I can see other system folders)
- Haven't installed Spotify
- Haven't tried clearing the Delvic Cache because I read that it extracts a file from every apx installed on your phone. So even if you were to clean it up it would get recreated on starting the phone. So this clearing is only required when you're installing a new ROM

I was still trying to find where all that space is going. Finally after a lot of trial and error I came across something interesting. DiskUsage when run on Data Folder under Root seems to shows the actual breakup of that "Device Memory" that we see under settings.




So my question is:

1) Is the "Device Memory" = App files + Data files + Cache Files + Delvic Cache ? From this screenshot this is what I'm concluding.

2) If 1 is true then it seems Xperia L is very limited for installing Apps. What are my options to deal with this so that I can install loads of apps?

Joery360 said:

The Xperia L has two partition of 4 GB each

Device Memory
~ 2,5 GB reserved for system (Android, Pre-installed apps)
~ 1,5 GB usable by user to install apps & data for all apps

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I checked out the contents of the Apps folder present in this 1.5 GB space. It seems like all the apps are present here. The pre-installed as well as user-installed. Not positive here but maybe the 1.5GB space is present for all Apps and the 2.5GB is present for other stuff like videos, photos etc.

you cannot move the data of those apps to the internal storage. (There are apps to move data to the internal storage but they require root)

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I did notice that under Settings > Apps we have the option to "Move apps to Internal storage" and then move them back again to "Phone Memory". If all that is actually getting moved is only that Apps section (aka 369 GB) then I doubt that would be of much use in freeing up space.

There must be other ways to go so one can start installing apps again.

Joery360 said:

Consider ro ot ing to remove unwanted system apps, a start should be to remove all pre installed apps that are available in the Play Store. Because when you update an pre installed app (eg. Chrome) you have the old version in /system/app and the updated version in /data/app.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm wondering if there are any other options. It would be great if I could get some alternatives. I'm not much keen on uninstalling the system apps actually. It would free up very little space IMO which would quickly get filled up soon. I'm looking for a more permanent solution.

1) I know that Link2SD is one option. But not sure whether that would help here.

2) I read somewhere that the Xperia L official update fixes this memory bug. But it's not yet confirmed. Any ideas whether that is true?

3) I have a rooted phone but can I still install the new update or do I need to unroot my phone? And what happens after update?

4) Is it possible to increase the "Device Memory"? If yes, then how?