[HOW TO] Fix the "Low on space" problem (in plain English)

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IvanMata

New member
Mar 30, 2012
3
0
WiFi and Camera problems =(

Hi!

Is there a way to revert this?

Everything worked just fine for the "low space" alert, but now I can't get the WiFi to access Internet (it connects, but no Internet access).

Besides, camera is Black & White only =S
 

tpayne2345

Senior Member
Sep 27, 2011
398
111
thanks a ton! my only hitch was when I ran the Flash clockworkmod recovery, the first time I got "An error occurred while attempting to run privileged command" but after running it again, it worked.. everything else was flawless and no more "Low space" annoyance

:D
 

joeyz400

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2012
111
3
New York
Thanks cmlusco you have been a great help. I will try the kernel but I have no clue about radio's so I will leave that alone for now.

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------

How do you flash your kernels, do you use Kernel Update Utility 0.9? What is the best way to try out a kenel? Thanks in advance.

---------- Post added at 09:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------

I know I am asking a lot but what do you think the best, most stable GINGERBREAD SCENSE Roms?
•IceCream Sense
•TeeROM Rockin' Stock
•Carbonite Fusion
•sic*CENSORED* Sense
•Stock+
•McSense - Gingersense
•Inc Ultimate
•Touch Of Blue
•Stock OTA 4.06.605.2
•Stock GB
 

cmlusco

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2010
3,244
968
Michigan City, IN
Thanks cmlusco you have been a great help. I will try the kernel but I have no clue about radio's so I will leave that alone for now.

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------

How do you flash your kernels, do you use Kernel Update Utility 0.9? What is the best way to try out a kenel? Thanks in advance.

---------- Post added at 09:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------

I know I am asking a lot but what do you think the best, most stable GINGERBREAD SCENSE Roms?
•IceCream Sense
•TeeROM Rockin' Stock
•Carbonite Fusion
•sic*CENSORED* Sense
•Stock+
•McSense - Gingersense
•Inc Ultimate
•Touch Of Blue
•Stock OTA 4.06.605.2
•Stock GB

Just find a compatible kernel for your rom, place the zip on your sd and flash thru recovery.

As for roms i have not used all you listed but in my opinion stock+ or touch of blue are stable and fast. They are based off the latest ota, and have several nifty enhancements to make life easier. But really you just have to try them and see what suits you best.
 

funkpod

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2010
780
61
so this is awesome. 100%. i think i will try this tonight or tomorrow. i'm sick, ain't nothing better to do;).

questions:

1. so, the Unrevoked directions will work, even though I heard that Unrevoked doesn't work for Gingerbread, 2.3.4? just double checking.
i am currently UNROOTED, and never have been rooted.

2. what happens if i need to unroot? can i use Unrevoked to unroot, and go back to factory? will my phone freak out because all of these apps are in the /data/data partition, then?

thank you again. i usually just clear out my facebook, g+ apps, and texts. this time, nothing works. hopefully this will go seamlessly and i'll be rocking out my incredible like no one's business.
 
Last edited:

funkpod

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2010
780
61
oh, and another question. THis problem is only fixed w/ the "Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip," correct? That is a ROM based off of Gingersense, i believe, right? let me know if i'm wrong.

if it is, that means the low storage problem is only fixed w/ that ROM? so, if i load another ROM on, then it wouldn't necessarily be fixed anymore, right?

Being that it's called Gingersense, again, correct me if i'm wrong, it's pretty much like stock Gingerbread, right?

Thanks for the help, guys. Might do this tonight...
 

joeyz400

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2012
111
3
New York
I did this and all went well then I flashed a new ROM. Do I have to do this again or are my settings the same? Because I tried to do it again to check and when I hit call after ##778# nothing happens now.

You can actually acomplish that without rooting.

Open dial pad and type ##778# and hit call.

Select edit mode and enter six zeros (000000) as the password.

Select security and look for S.IP DUN username, it should look something like this YourNumber@dun.vzw3g.com. Change it to be YourNumber@vzw3g.com, just remove the "dun.".

Back out to the main menu and select M.IP Default Profile. Look for DUN NAI and change it to be YourNumner@vzw3g.com, remove the "dun."

Hit the menu button and select commit modifications. Your phone will reboot.

Now just use the stock 3g mobile hotspot app. When you first open it it will say you have to have a subscription and pay, just procede you will not be charged, and verizion is none the wiser. I have been doing this my self for over a year now.
 

cmlusco

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2010
3,244
968
Michigan City, IN
I did this and all went well then I flashed a new ROM. Do I have to do this again or are my settings the same? Because I tried to do it again to check and when I hit call after ##778# nothing happens now.

That will stick through rom flashes, but not factory resets or ruu's. If you have to reactivate or do a *228 option 1, then you will have to change it again. Some roms dont play well with ##778#.
 
Last edited:

funkpod

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2010
780
61
do i need to uninstall the Android SDK tools, etc? in addition to double twist, pdanet, etc.
 

cmlusco

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2010
3,244
968
Michigan City, IN
oh, and another question. THis problem is only fixed w/ the "Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip," correct? That is a ROM based off of Gingersense, i believe, right? let me know if i'm wrong.

if it is, that means the low storage problem is only fixed w/ that ROM? so, if i load another ROM on, then it wouldn't necessarily be fixed anymore, right?

Being that it's called Gingersense, again, correct me if i'm wrong, it's pretty much like stock Gingerbread, right?

Thanks for the help, guys. Might do this tonight...

Ext4 is a mod not a rom. It only works with sense and miui roms based off of gingerbread. If you flash a new gingerbread based rom, you will also have to flash the ext4 mod again. This is the only way i know of to fix the low space issue, without clearing and deting stuff.
 

funkpod

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2010
780
61
hey, do i need to try and get the Low Storage Notification off of my phone before rooting? Unrevoked has a warning that if my phone is not working perfectly, it could ruin phone. just checking.
 

cmlusco

Senior Member
Nov 20, 2010
3,244
968
Michigan City, IN
hey, do i need to try and get the Low Storage Notification off of my phone before rooting? Unrevoked has a warning that if my phone is not working perfectly, it could ruin phone. just checking.

Not sure if you need to or not, but it wouldnt hurt to just to be on the safe side. Mabey uninstall a couple large games, or clear the cache on your apps, especially facebook, twitter, messaging, email.
 

funkpod

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2010
780
61
okay, i'll try that. i can't seem to get it to go away now, deleting A LOT of stuff. still there.

resetting phone, hopefully that'll make it go away.
 

joeyz400

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2012
111
3
New York
It seems Touch of Blue dosn't play well with ##778# command. Is there a way around this to use my phone as an acess point for free?
 

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    The Problem
    The HTC Droid Incredible shows a "Low on space: Phone storage space is getting low" warning despite having gobs of space free because the "Application data storage" folder (also known as /data/data) that is shared by all apps on the phone is only 150mb in size. As soon as only 10% of this folder is available, the warning appears. If it gets too much lower, apps stop responding and the phone crashes.

    The Story
    After many months of clearing app data, uninstalling apps, resetting my phone, and generally walking on eggshells trying to keep my data storage under the limit, I was getting ready to upgrade my device. I would search every few weeks to see if anyone had solved the problem, but all I found were more people stuck in my boat, and I was ready to give up. But then I stumbled across a series of threads on xda-developers.com that gave me new hope. In the course of one night, I learned from scratch how to root my phone, and I applied a fix that increased the "Application data storage" folder to a whopping 750mb. I am now able to download as many apps as I'd like and not have to worry about clearing out app data ever again.

    However, it took a bit of scouring the forums and reading various guides to figure out how to do all this. Some of the items are quite technical in nature, and some of the guides skip steps that more experienced users would know how to do already. So I joined the forum to write this guide for the "regular" users out there like myself. My goal is to explain in plain English how to fix this nagging issue once and for all and to consolidate all the relevant info and files into one place. If you find this useful, please share this with others so we can all fully enjoy our phones!

    The Credits
    I did not invent any of the steps, tools, or methods I am about to describe. Hats off to the following people for supplying all the info and files I needed to fix the problem and write this how-to thread. Please let me know if I've missed anyone that should be mentioned and I will add them.
    • vbhines for the "New to Modding/Rooting" guide
    • The unrevoked team for their excellent one-click rooting software and drivers
    • dreamersipaq for the guide to rooting an Incredible
    • scotty1223 for the guide to rooting a 2.3.4 Incredible
    • jermaine151 for the "no data limit" mod that actually fixes the problem
    • cmlusco and tiny4579 for all their help answering questions and troubleshooting in this thread

    The Ingredients
    Here's what you'll need to perform this fix:
    • An HTC Incredible (obviously) with an SD card
    • A micro USB cable (you can use the one you charge your phone with)
    • A computer with a USB port and internet access (PC, Mac, or Linux)
    • An hour of free time

    The Fix

    Step 1: Read the "New to Modding/Rooting" guide so you know what you're getting into and can understand the terminology: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=744807

    Step 2: Back up your contacts, pictures, etc. This guide is safe for your phone and will not erase any of your data if you follow it correctly, but it never hurts to back things up just in case.

    Step 3a: Make sure your phone is decently charged. (at least 50%)

    Step 3b: Make sure your phone isn't currently showing the "low on space" error. Delete some apps or data until the error goes away. You don't want to go through all this effort only to have your phone crash halfway through!

    Step 4: Uninstall HTC sync software from your computer. Also make sure you are not running any software that communicates to your phone using USB, such as PDANet or DoubleTwist. If you haven't had to plug your phone into your computer to do anything prior to now, you're probably OK.

    Step 5: On your phone, go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development and put a check in the "USB debugging" box.

    Step 6: Plug your phone into your computer, select "Charge Only", select "remember my selection", click "Done", and then unplug your phone.

    Step 7: If you are on a Windows PC, follow this user-friendly guide to install the USB drivers you'll need: http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/windows_hboot_driver_install

    When I did this step, I actually found my Android entry from the first screenshot in the guide under "Android Phone" and it did not say "Android 1.0". Don't worry, you can still use this entry to continue with the next step in the guide to "Update Driver Software".

    Mac and Linux users can skip this step.

    Step 8: Root your phone. This step is a bit more involved, so be sure to read the directions carefully. On your phone, go to Menu -> Settings -> About phone -> Software information and look at what it says under "Android version" at the top.

    If it says 2.3.4, do this:
    • Download Clockwork 5.0.2.0: http://dinc.does-it.net/Recoveries/CWM_5.0.2.0/PB31IMG.zip (link updated 6/22/12)
    • Extract the recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-inc.img from the zip file and put it somewhere you'll remember.
    • Download Unrevoked 3.22 (this is intentionally NOT the latest version): http://dinc.does-it.net/Unrevoked/Unrevoked_3.22.exe (link updated 6/22/12)
    • Run Unrevoked_3.22.exe
    • Inside the program, go to File -> Custom Recovery and select the .img file from above. At the bottom of the program window, it should now say "Recovery: Custom" and "Waiting for device"
    • Plug in your phone and wait while Unrevoked runs automatically. It will reboot your phone several times and will take some time, so be patient!
    • Once it's done, unplug your phone and ensure that a "Superuser Permissions" application is inside your app drawer. Don't run it. Instead, go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All, scroll down to "Superuser Permissions", click it, then click "Clear data". Return back Home.

    If it says anything other than 2.3.4, do this:
    • Download Unrevoked 3.32: http://www.unrevoked.com/recovery/
    • Run reflash_package.exe. It may start up right away, or it may ask you to extract the files. Put them somewhere you can find, and once the extraction is done, find and run reflash.exe.
    • Plug in your phone and wait while Unrevoked runs automatically. It will reboot your phone several times and will take some time, so be patient!

    After the above steps, everyone should do this:
    • Launch the Android Market and search for "ROM Manager". The first result should be "ROM Manager" by ClockworkMod and it should have a picture of a top hat above a gear as its icon. Click it, then click "Download", then "Accept & download". If it is already installed, you can just return Home.
    • Once ROM Manager has finished installing, launch it and select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" (the first option). Confirm your phone model (HTC Incredible). A window will pop up asking for root permissions - click to allow it.
    • Optional: After the download completes, scroll down and click "Backup Current ROM". You may need a lot of space free on your SD card to perform this backup depending on what you have on your phone. Once you create this backup, you can use ROM Manager to fully restore your phone (including all apps, data, and settings) in case anything goes wrong. This can take a significant amount of time, so again, be patient!

    If all went well, your phone should be exactly the same as it was before, except you now have a couple new apps, and more importantly, root access!

    Step 9: On your phone, go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development and uncheck the "USB debugging" box.

    Step 10: Apply the Fix. This is the step you've been waiting for!
    • Go to this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1623038, click the link for the EXT4All files in the first post, download "Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip", and put it somewhere you'll remember. You can also go directly to this URL to download the file: http://dinc.does-it.net/EXT4_Mods/ (links updated 6/22/12)
    • Plug your phone into your computer, bring down the notification bar, select the "USB connection type" item, select "Disk drive", and click Done.
    • On your computer, find your phone's SD card. If you're unsure which drive is your SD card, look at how big each drive is. The drive that has a size of 6.59GB is the phone's internal memory, so the other drive is the SD card. The SD card that comes with the Incredible is 1.83GB in size, but yours may be different if you bought your own SD card.
    • Move "Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip" from your computer to the SD card. Do not put it inside any folders.
    • After the file has finished moving, bring down the notifications bar, select the "USB connection type" item, select "Charge only", then click done.
    • Unplug your phone from your computer.
    • Launch ROM Manager from your app drawer and click "Reboot into Recovery" (the second option). Click "OK" to proceed.
    • After the phone reboots, you will now see a black screen with some blue options on it. Use the volume buttons on the left to scroll down to "install zip from sdcard" and click the optical trackpad button at the bottom of the phone to select it.
    • Click "choose zip from sdcard" (the first option)
    • Scroll down to the very bottom and select "Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip"
    • Scroll down to "Yes - Install Convert2Ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik.zip" and click it. This step will take some time to complete, and the progress bar may not move at all. Be patient!
    • Once it is done, click the power button at the top of your phone until you're back at the main menu, then select "Reboot system" (the first option). If you hit power too many times and end up with a blank screen, just hit power one more time and you'll see the menu.

    When the phone is done rebooting after this last step, verify that the fix worked by going to Menu -> Settings -> SD & phone storage and look at the "Application data storage" section. It should now say that the "Total space" is 748mb!

    At this point you can run happily through an open field, shout from the highest mountaintop, or just shed a tear of joy, because you can now install tons of apps and let them accumulate all the data they want. Enjoy!

    P.S. Please let me know if any of these steps are incorrect or unclear so I can fix them. Thanks!

    Troubleshooting
    Here are a couple of issues people have come across while doing the steps in this guide, along with the solutions. Thanks to cmlusco for these helpful answers!

    The guide says my phone should have rebooted back to the main screen, but I'm on a black screen with a bunch of blue options!
    If you're on this step and the guide doesn't say you need to be here yet, just use the volume buttons to scroll to the "Reboot System Now" option and click the optical trackpad. Then you can continue on with the guide!

    I'm stuck on a black screen with white bars on the side!
    If your phone is "s-off", reflash the recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-inc.img file from Step #8 using hboot. To get to hboot, turn your phone off, hold the "volume down" button, and turn it back on. Keep holding the "volume down" button until you get to the menu where you can flash the .img file.

    If your phone is not "s-off" or you have no idea what "s-off" means, run Unrevoked again with the same .img file from Step #8.

    In either case, you should be able to continue using the guide from where you left off!

    My phone keeps rebooting over and over and I can't do anything!
    Pull out the battery, wait for 15 seconds, and put it back in and turn the phone back on. If it still keeps rebooting, pull out/re-insert the battery again, go into hboot (see above answer) and try the following steps. You can stop as soon as one of them works!

    1. Restore a backup that you made in a previous step (if you have one).
    2. Reflash the .img file from Step #8.
    3. Flash the .img file here: http://dinc.does-it.net/wildstang83_inc_4.08.605.2_11232011.zip (note: this one will take you back to stock, so you'll have to start the guide over).

    I'm still stuck!
    If all else fails, please post your issue in this thread so someone can help you out. You can also try restoring your backup (you made a backup, right??) and starting over from the top. Good luck!
    5
    I'm going to use the downgrade-and-reflash method to root my 2.3.4 Incredible and after reading the forums have spent the supper hour looking around for Unrevoked 3.22. There was a megaupload site that always says bandwidth is exceeded, and one more that I found where everything is in a language I can't decipher.
    Does anybody have a working link to 3.22? All I want is to turn on my stupid wireless hotspot so my wife can use her Ipad in teh car without having to pay Verizon another $30 a month for access to data I already have. Argh!

    Thanks,
    Ryan

    You can actually acomplish that without rooting.

    Open dial pad and type ##778# and hit call.

    Select edit mode and enter six zeros (000000) as the password.

    Select security and look for S.IP DUN username, it should look something like this YourNumber@dun.vzw3g.com. Change it to be YourNumber@vzw3g.com, just remove the "dun.".

    Back out to the main menu and select M.IP Default Profile. Look for DUN NAI and change it to be YourNumner@vzw3g.com, remove the "dun."

    Hit the menu button and select commit modifications. Your phone will reboot.

    Now just use the stock 3g mobile hotspot app. When you first open it it will say you have to have a subscription and pay, just procede you will not be charged, and verizion is none the wiser. I have been doing this my self for over a year now.
    2
    Did this ever happen? Could it?

    No i dont think so. & Yes it could be done with a little work. But why, whats wrong with ext4? Ext4 is faster than stock ext3.

    EDIT: I edited the ext4 no data limit mod to not convert to ext4 and instead just move /datadata to /data/data. It has been tested and does work, but still FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK! And always do a backup first. :)
    http://dinc.does-it.net/EXT4_Mods/No_Data_Limit_Mod.zip
    1
    Potential Alternate Solution

    Soniclude that was a great very detailed write up. Here is another option that I found that seems to also solve the dreaded low disk space...

    Since you clearly outlined the steps for rooting your device, I wont go into that. But, why stop at fixing one of the most annoying stock problems. Rooting is half the battle to flashing a new rom - which is precisely what I did to stop the LDS issue.

    I used to use CM7 and then flashed over to MIUI but recently I flashed the best rom I have used to date - ICS-Dinc AOKP (]http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1475936) which is a full fledged ICS port for your OG Dinc.

    Since then I have not received any LDS errors (although I have not been using this ROM that long) but I would assume that it would be similar to my lengthy experience with CM7, in which I never got the LDS warning.

    Here is what my device displays as available space for applications
    View attachment 895332
    As you can see I have used 144MB with 604MB free for a total of 748MB, identified as internal storage.

    Also, just so you can see that this ROM is not an ICS overlay and is truly a port, here is the device info
    View attachment 895331

    72ls1's (the dev for ICS-Dinc AOKP) has some really good directions and make the process very easy.

    For those that are interested and need a few more additional details, here are a few things that helped me:
    1. Make sure you have backup your device data, this includes your apps, contacts (you should be just setting all contacts to sync with your gmail account to begin with), messages and email settings. Use an app like Titanium Backup for apps; Backup and Restore app for messages; Call Log Restore for calling

    2. Download the zip files outline in the ROM posting of your chocie to your sdcard; They should be placed at the top level of your sdcard, meaning not in another folder. The zip files for ICS-Dinc AOK include the ICS-Dinc zip, Gapps (use this one gapps-ics-20120207-signed.zip - http://goo-inside.me/gapps/gapps-ics-20120207-signed.zip), and Tiamat Kernel

    3. In Recovery make a backup of your device (in case you need to flash back due to an error)

    4. Within Recovery prior to flashing the rom make sure to unmount data, sdcard and cache

    5. Then clear cache and dalivik-cache (this one is under the advanced options)

    6. Do a factory reset

    7. Install from zip in the following order: ICS-Dinc AOK V.02, Gapps, Tiamat

    8. Reset your device

    Now go enjoy the goodness of a fresh ice cream sandwich!

    Hope this helps anyone else out there in either the low disk space issue or that is having questions about flashing a rom.
    1
    before you do anything, you need to have the bootloader unlocked, downgraded to froyo 2.2, rooted and then have CWM recovery installed-from CWM you can flash alternate ROMS and the low space fix. I don;t know if those old methods like unrevoked forever still work. even on the incredibleforum where it originated says it;s been depreciated. HTC did issue some updates that may have rendered them obsolete. since you say you are already on 2.34, it seems like your phones are updated past the point where those methods would work

    all the info you need should be in this thread. it;s an involved process but it is worth doing. i looked for an easy 1 click way to root my phones(i have 3) but there was none.

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1600904

    i did it on a windows xp pc which required some drivers to be installed.

    by the way, the easiest way to clear up the low space issue is to delete any excess text messages. more than likely, your daughter saves every text message conversation she has ever gotten or sent. that;s one app that whose data grows over time. another is to move whatever apps that can be to sdcard. of course these are very temporary solutions that have limited lifespan. worse case scenario, you will pass the threshold where your phone can recover free space and become non functional requiring your phone to need a factory reset anyway.