[Q] Insufficient Storage Available problem

bluesmantj · Mar 29, 2014

OK, so I know... lousy first post... But, I just want a bit of overall guidance because I think I might be doing something fundamentally wrong and I'm hoping to fix that. So first let me say thanks for all the awesome ROMS and lot of cool fixes and ideas, I always check here first and appreciate the work you guys are doing!

I have had no fear in installing ROMs, I rooted as soon as my warranty was void at verizon. I love my old DInc! But, I can only install like 20 total apps now, and I think I've done something wrong or am doing something wrong.

Here's the history of what I've been doing.
Stock, Virtuous, CM6, CM7.2, CM7.2... It was here where I started to run into the low memory. All the forms said for this I should ext4all the dalvik cache. so I grabbed that file and installed it. The memory warning went away, but things got really ugly choppy and slow with a bunch of FC's. So I decided to change things up, and went to try an ICS ROM (I think albinoman) and installed a couple times... and I didn't wipe the dalvik cache before doing this. though I did wipe the factory data and cache. After this I noticed that a lot of things remained on my phone (wifi passwords, pictures, etc... like I hadn't erased any data). Soon after finding some bugs that drove me crazy, I upgraded to a CarbonRom (Thanks zachf714!) I loved it, but it seemed like I couldn't install as much as I used to on CM7.2... and maybe I can't... But I'd run into low memory things again and again, and eventually got it down to basically google apps, facebook, and a couple podcast/radio and the essential video apps for chromecast. Well, I wanted to try kit kat out, and I had started to run out of memory again, so I went in and grabbed the new CM11 and installed it, This time I wiped dalvik, factory data, and cache before install. It was amazing like a brand new phone... Only this time 2 of my previous apps were unable to install because I had "insufficient storage available". So I pushed as much as I could to the SD card, and that still didn't help eventually it was so out of space that the launcher would crash immediately after reboot. So I tried to reinstall everything, wiped all three, installed the rom, ext4all, then GAPPS... This time facebook ran out of space before it could even install. So I went back and tried again but without the ext4all... and now facebook and google voice run out of space before I can get htem installed...

So I guess the question is, what the heck am I doing wrong in my clear? I seem to constantly be shrinking the available space on my phone for apps. I know that it's a limited thing and has been a problem for the DInc, but how do I fix this? Do I just go into the file system and start rm-rf in the file structure? I don't even have (nor can I try) to install games at this point, and I fear logging into apps in fear that I'll shrink the space even more. And by all means feel free to point me to the "installing a custom ROM, You're doing it wrong!" thread that is in front of my nose and I'm missing. I've got 5Gb of space on my SD and ~3GB of free space on the phone itself... So I'm at a loss and that's why it's acting this way, and that's why I'm asking for help. Would I be better off going back to CM7.2 or trying to keep going with the newer ROMS?

Thanks again for any help and advice you have.

bluesmantj · Apr 3, 2014

OK well let me ask something differently then and maybe I can get some help. Being that I'm new I need 9 new posts before I can go to the devs page and ask there anyway...

Does anyone know what folders/files are critical to keep on the device? I can nuke the rest and try again.

Would starting with a blank SD card make difference?

Thanks again.

tydiamond11 · Apr 4, 2014

Well not really the external sd card is only for apps moved to sd card. You should just fully flash and start over. That is what I have had to do. I hope this helps you out.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 07:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 PM ----------

bluesmantj said:
OK, so I know... lousy first post... But, I just want a bit of overall guidance because I think I might be doing something fundamentally wrong and I'm hoping to fix that. So first let me say thanks for all the awesome ROMS and lot of cool fixes and ideas, I always check here first and appreciate the work you guys are doing!

I have had no fear in installing ROMs, I rooted as soon as my warranty was void at verizon. I love my old DInc! But, I can only install like 20 total apps now, and I think I've done something wrong or am doing something wrong.

Here's the history of what I've been doing.
Stock, Virtuous, CM6, CM7.2, CM7.2... It was here where I started to run into the low memory. All the forms said for this I should ext4all the dalvik cache. so I grabbed that file and installed it. The memory warning went away, but things got really ugly choppy and slow with a bunch of FC's. So I decided to change things up, and went to try an ICS ROM (I think albinoman) and installed a couple times... and I didn't wipe the dalvik cache before doing this. though I did wipe the factory data and cache. After this I noticed that a lot of things remained on my phone (wifi passwords, pictures, etc... like I hadn't erased any data). Soon after finding some bugs that drove me crazy, I upgraded to a CarbonRom (Thanks zachf714!) I loved it, but it seemed like I couldn't install as much as I used to on CM7.2... and maybe I can't... But I'd run into low memory things again and again, and eventually got it down to basically google apps, facebook, and a couple podcast/radio and the essential video apps for chromecast. Well, I wanted to try kit kat out, and I had started to run out of memory again, so I went in and grabbed the new CM11 and installed it, This time I wiped dalvik, factory data, and cache before install. It was amazing like a brand new phone... Only this time 2 of my previous apps were unable to install because I had "insufficient storage available". So I pushed as much as I could to the SD card, and that still didn't help eventually it was so out of space that the launcher would crash immediately after reboot. So I tried to reinstall everything, wiped all three, installed the rom, ext4all, then GAPPS... This time facebook ran out of space before it could even install. So I went back and tried again but without the ext4all... and now facebook and google voice run out of space before I can get htem installed...

So I guess the question is, what the heck am I doing wrong in my clear? I seem to constantly be shrinking the available space on my phone for apps. I know that it's a limited thing and has been a problem for the DInc, but how do I fix this? Do I just go into the file system and start rm-rf in the file structure? I don't even have (nor can I try) to install games at this point, and I fear logging into apps in fear that I'll shrink the space even more. And by all means feel free to point me to the "installing a custom ROM, You're doing it wrong!" thread that is in front of my nose and I'm missing. I've got 5Gb of space on my SD and ~3GB of free space on the phone itself... So I'm at a loss and that's why it's acting this way, and that's why I'm asking for help. Would I be better off going back to CM7.2 or trying to keep going with the newer ROMS?

Thanks again for any help and advice you have.

but the idea of what is happening here is not making sence I do not get why a full wipe and full reflash would not fix your issue here if you are doing it all right.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

tiny4579 · Apr 4, 2014

From terminal:

df /data/data
df /data

And tell me what they report.

The Inc has a small /data/data partition so that could be the problem. But if a full wipe doesn't fix it I don't know. Maybe the hardware is going bad but I'm not sure.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · Apr 5, 2014

tiny4579 said:
From terminal:

df /data/data
df /data

And tell me what they report.

The Inc has a small /data/data partition so that could be the problem. But if a full wipe doesn't fix it I don't know. Maybe the hardware is going bad but I'm not sure.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

Looks like it's time to get a new phone then huh... So What I've got free is:

/data size 748M Used 496.4M Free 251.6M
/data/data 149 118.4 and 30.6

So I guess I'm just running out of room and need to pick my apps a little more wisely then huh?

Thanks for your help!

tiny4579 · Apr 5, 2014

bluesmantj said:
Looks like it's time to get a new phone then huh... So What I've got free is:

/data size 748M Used 496.4M Free 251.6M
/data/data 149 118.4 and 30.6

So I guess I'm just running out of room and need to pick my apps a little more wisely then huh?

Thanks for your help!

Do you have chrome installed? It's an app data hog.

When /data/data fills up or gets close to doing so there start to be issues and that might be the cause of your issue.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · Apr 5, 2014

tiny4579 said:
Do you have chrome installed? It's an app data hog.

When /data/data fills up or gets close to doing so there start to be issues and that might be the cause of your issue.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

No I don't have chrome installed... right now all I can keep on it are 24 apps (If you want the list I'll message it to you)

I can't even get Google+ or facebook to fit anymore

tiny4579 · Apr 5, 2014

bluesmantj said:
No I don't have chrome installed... right now all I can keep on it are 24 apps (If you want the list I'll message it to you)

I can't even get Google+ or facebook to fit anymore

Can you do a factory reset from recovery (backup if you want to keep your apps for any reason) and then run the commands again? I'm curious if there's an issue with the partitions and they're not clearing. It seems weird that 24 apps would fill up 130MB of /data/data and 500MB of /data. Oh, contact storage and calls/text messages use up /data/data as well.

natediggity · Apr 11, 2014

Sounds similar to me. I can only fit about 30 apps. Most are small but I do have chrome. I swear I had more before jumping to 4.x. That is why I was considering a datamedia build but I haven't had time lately to play with it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · Apr 23, 2014

tiny4579 said:
Can you do a factory reset from recovery (backup if you want to keep your apps for any reason) and then run the commands again? I'm curious if there's an issue with the partitions and they're not clearing. It seems weird that 24 apps would fill up 130MB of /data/data and 500MB of /data. Oh, contact storage and calls/text messages use up /data/data as well.

Sorry this took forever for me to get around to, just been short on time recently thanks again for the help!

Ok factory reset from phone complete.
into recovery
wipe dalvik
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache
wipe dalvik again (just for good measure)

install cm11
install gapps... I'll report back as issues come around.

bluesmantj · Apr 23, 2014

bluesmantj said:
Sorry this took forever for me to get around to, just been short on time recently thanks again for the help!

Ok factory reset from phone complete.
into recovery
wipe dalvik
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache
wipe dalvik again (just for good measure)

install cm11
install gapps... I'll report back as issues come around.

Well... Everything looked nice and fresh on the first go... Then one app hung on install, so I restarted the phone. When I did my old wallpaper returned, so I quickly went to check the gallery and look for the photos that should have been erased in the factory wipe... But they are all still there like nothing happened.

So even though it's currently installing apps... I have zero faith that I get through all of them before I run out of usable space again.

tiny4579 · Apr 24, 2014

bluesmantj said:
Well... Everything looked nice and fresh on the first go... Then one app hung on install, so I restarted the phone. When I did my old wallpaper returned, so I quickly went to check the gallery and look for the photos that should have been erased in the factory wipe... But they are all still there like nothing happened.

So even though it's currently installing apps... I have zero faith that I get through all of them before I run out of usable space again.

You didn't run the commands I asked you to after the factory reset and reboot.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · Apr 24, 2014

tiny4579 said:
You didn't run the commands I asked you to after the factory reset and reboot.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

Riiiight... those commands.... guess I just read that wrong sorry.

Right now I have
/data size 748M Used 625.2M Free 122.9M
/data/data size 149M Used 103.4M Free 45.6M

This is after all the apps restored themselves... this time though I did manage to get G+ and Facebook up, but I havent' logged into all the apps yet, so I'm assuming they stay at base size until log in (such as maps, netflix, hbogo, etc...). I did a couple things different, I am no longer syncing all the contacts from my 3 google accounts, and I eliminated an app that I probably won't use as much anymore.

I don't have time again right now to re-wipe the phone but I'll try that right after a wipe in the next couple days. Just so I don't mess up again, I should factory wipe, cache wipe, dalvik wipe, install cm11 and gapps, but then as soon as terminal emulator loads back up run those commands to see if it actually cleared things, or should I stop all the restore from google and pull only terminal emulator for this? What's going to be the most diagnostic?

Do you think switching from clockwork recovery to TWRP make a difference? Do you have a preference in one over the other?

tiny4579 · Apr 25, 2014

bluesmantj said:
Riiiight... those commands.... guess I just read that wrong sorry.

Right now I have
/data size 748M Used 625.2M Free 122.9M
/data/data size 149M Used 103.4M Free 45.6M

This is after all the apps restored themselves... this time though I did manage to get G+ and Facebook up, but I havent' logged into all the apps yet, so I'm assuming they stay at base size until log in (such as maps, netflix, hbogo, etc...). I did a couple things different, I am no longer syncing all the contacts from my 3 google accounts, and I eliminated an app that I probably won't use as much anymore.

I don't have time again right now to re-wipe the phone but I'll try that right after a wipe in the next couple days. Just so I don't mess up again, I should factory wipe, cache wipe, dalvik wipe, install cm11 and gapps, but then as soon as terminal emulator loads back up run those commands to see if it actually cleared things, or should I stop all the restore from google and pull only terminal emulator for this? What's going to be the most diagnostic?

Do you think switching from clockwork recovery to TWRP make a difference? Do you have a preference in one over the other?

If you're worried about that time to restore after a wipe you can take a backup and wipe and run those commands from terminal emulator before signing into google. Then after getting the needed info restore your backup.

Clockwork vs TWRP comes down to personal preference. They both implement the same recovery commands and probably also use the same exact wipe commands internally. So there's no real difference other than ui. TWRP has had some funky builds on the inc though so I recommend clockworkmod for the Inc.

Fyi factory reset clears dalvik and cache too so no need to do those separately.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · Apr 28, 2014

tiny4579 said:
If you're worried about that time to restore after a wipe you can take a backup and wipe and run those commands from terminal emulator before signing into google. Then after getting the needed info restore your backup.

Clockwork vs TWRP comes down to personal preference. They both implement the same recovery commands and probably also use the same exact wipe commands internally. So there's no real difference other than ui. TWRP has had some funky builds on the inc though so I recommend clockworkmod for the Inc.

Fyi factory reset clears dalvik and cache too so no need to do those separately.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Oh cool, never thought of that, I've only ever upgraded as a result of running out of space or things slowing down so I've never really wanted to back up and restore those before.

Right... So factory wipe
install cm11/gapps
only terminal emulator installed...

/data size 748M Used 109.8M Free 638.2M
/data/data size 149M Used 29.3M Free 119.7M

Although this is a huge decrease...
connecting as USB shows that basically all of the files on the phone itself remain, so the factory reset essentially doesn't wipe any of the data from the phone?????

Thanks again!

bluesmantj · Apr 28, 2014

When I did the restore, it brought back things for me, but caused a severe amount of instability and everything force quit on me. lost my launchers can't get to apps... and it keeps auto quitting google media services every 5 seconds... not sure if this is indicative of a different problem or just how precarious everything is on my device. Anyway, factory reset, and now back to the google restore...

Oh... a couple more questions.

1) when I factory restore this way it should wipe out other data like my set up wifi networks? (it doesn't)
2) what about other app data? things like my sonos app after the factor reset didn't even need to be set up again... I find this odd

tiny4579 · Apr 28, 2014

bluesmantj said:
When I did the restore, it brought back things for me, but caused a severe amount of instability and everything force quit on me. lost my launchers can't get to apps... and it keeps auto quitting google media services every 5 seconds... not sure if this is indicative of a different problem or just how precarious everything is on my device. Anyway, factory reset, and now back to the google restore...

Oh... a couple more questions.

1) when I factory restore this way it should wipe out other data like my set up wifi networks? (it doesn't)
2) what about other app data? things like my sonos app after the factor reset didn't even need to be set up again... I find this odd

If you factory reset, you should have zero apps aside from the apps built into the Rom and gapps and all your settings reset. If that's not that case something is wrong.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

bluesmantj · May 4, 2014

tiny4579 said:
If you factory reset, you should have zero apps aside from the apps built into the Rom and gapps and all your settings reset. If that's not that case something is wrong.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

Well.. that's good to know, looks like I won't be able to just factory reset and pass the phone along when I'm done with it... Gonna have to take a hammer and giant magnet to it! Did the memory look better on the reset though?

zachf714 · May 5, 2014

bluesmantj said:
Well.. that's good to know, looks like I won't be able to just factory reset and pass the phone along when I'm done with it... Gonna have to take a hammer and giant magnet to it! Did the memory look better on the reset though?

putting a magnet to a piece of flash storage does not destroy it, also from that used info it looks like it is just the data from the gapps... Try going into recovery and doing an advanced wipe, then checking everything but external sd and swiping to wipe

TyeDyeHumps · Sep 23, 2014

So it seems like we never really came to a solution here.

Has anyone tried increasing the sizes of these partitions. The /data/data only being 150mb is really limiting. Facebook likes to take 50mbs on it's own. I wondered if it would be possible to increase the storage of the internal partition and that /data/data folder. For most of us the purchasing of a large SD card for storing music and pictures and stuff is no big deal, if I could devote more of the internal storage to applications that would be awesome.

[Q] Insufficient Storage Available problem

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