Hdd space shrinking fast on my Firetv box

[Modify_inc]

FireTV Box Gen 1
S/W: 51.1.6.3 Rooted

About a week ago, I noticed I only had about 1.56 GB of space left on my box. I assumed Kodi was the culprit, so I removed much of Kodi's data, thumbnails, addons, etc. I got Kodi down to around 600 MB, but realized the extra space gained wasn't much, putting the storage capacity at 1.63 GB. So I removed a couple of apps leaving only 4 or 5 that together may take up 50 MB. I don't use anything on the Firetv but Kodi, so I can't figure out what is eating up all my space, and it has gotten worse. It now shows I only have 873 MB of 5.49 GB, yet Kodi is only using about 750 MB.

Running ES File Explorer's SD Card Analyzer shows that under the heading: Others - 3.73 GB is used. The problem is it will not let me view what is in it or delete any of it. I would love to know what is consuming all of this space. I tried other apps like, CCleaner, and SD Maid but they didn't even recognize this 3.73 GB of unaccounted data.

Any suggestions as to how to identify where all my storage space is going, and mostly, free it back up? I realize the OS uses some of the storage space, but I don't recall it ever being this much.

Thank you

 

[retyre]

Any suggestions as to how to identify where all my storage space is going, and mostly, free it back up? I realize the OS uses some of the storage space, but I don't recall it ever being this much.

I had a similar issue with my AFTV2 (see my post earlier in this forum). Clearly, the issue is in /data. Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d 1
This will list the disk usage by directory. The biggest hogs will usually be: data, app, dalvik-cache, and media. Go to each of those directories and check the du. Rinse and repeat. In my case, it was the FTV Launcher (in particular, the file /data/data/com.amazon.tv.launcher/databases/mbcache.db). Yours could be different, but the disk usage will reveal the problem. If it's not obvious, compare the output of du -h -d 1 every 24 hours or so (you could cat it to a file) and you will find the culprit.

 

[Modify_inc]

I had a similar issue with my AFTV2 (see my post earlier in this forum). Clearly, the issue is in /data. Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d 1
This will list the disk usage by directory. The biggest hogs will usually be: data, app, dalvik-cache, and media. Go to each of those directories and check the du. Rinse and repeat. In my case, it was the FTV Launcher (in particular, the file /data/data/com.amazon.tv.launcher/databases/mbcache.db). Yours could be different, but the disk usage will reveal the problem. If it's not obvious, compare the output of du -h -d 1 every 24 hours or so (you could cat it to a file) and you will find the culprit.

Thank you very much!

The mbcache.db was also my culprit, at 3.11 GB. I deleted it and I now have 3.96 GB of free space. That size just seems ridiculous for a database. Not sure what caused it to get so big, but it had to go.

 

[JeffDC]

Go to that directory and run the following as root in a shell: du -h -d

I'm not very familiar with FTV yet. Would you share just how to do that? I have an unrooted FTV2/5.2.1.1.

Thank you.

---------- Post added at 06:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:11 AM ----------

Thank you very much!

The mbcache.db was also my culprit, at 3.11 GB. I deleted it and I now have 3.96 GB of free space. That size just seems ridiculous for a database. Not sure what caused it to get so big, but it had to go.

Do you know what mbcache.db is created by?

 

[notsed]

That's so weird. This just started happening to me about a week ago with the same box and software. I also thought it was Kodi so I removed it and started from scratch, but that didn't solve the problem. I usually start with around ~2 GB free, but after watching a movie or show for a while (or sometimes doing nothing at all) the little box would pop up telling me to remove apps because I'm running out of space. It would often take hours for my free space to go back to normal and rebooting the box didn't help.

Thanks for the command, retyre. I'll give it a try next time this happens.

 

[lowbee]

This works. Thanks

 

[bula1ca]

erased

 

[YOgun27]

Can someone please list step by step how to access and delete the mbcache.db file? Thanks

 

[GenericAsianGuy]

Can someone please list step by step how to access and delete the mbcache.db file? Thanks

This worked for me: https://www.andryou.com/2017/01/04/amazon-fire-tv-fix-low-storage-error/

 

[cardboardbox]

thanks for asking this question and for the replies. Exactly what I came here looking for!

 

[YOgun27]

I successfully deleted the mbcache.db file, and now I can't get most of my apps to work on the Fire TV, even if I use Firestarter. I tried to put the mbcache.db file back, and even tried a factory reset to no avail. Can somebody tell me how to get the Fire TV back to it's previous state, where I can access apps like Amazon Prime Video?

 

[Y314K]

I successfully deleted the mbcache.db file, and now I can't get most of my apps to work on the Fire TV, even if I use Firestarter. I tried to put the mbcache.db file back, and even tried a factory reset to no avail. Can somebody tell me how to get the Fire TV back to it's previous state, where I can access apps like Amazon Prime Video?

I upgraded to PreRooted FireOS 5 when I encountered the same problem after deleting some .dB files. Although my problem was only with YouTube.

 

[Modify_inc]

I had locked my mscache.db back in January using the command chmod 0 mscache.db due to the massive space it was taking up. The Loading...Please wait message on the main page wasn't a big deal since I didn't use any of it.

Well, I finally got around to installing TWRP, which I then installed the pre-release 5.2.1.2_r1 update. It seemed to install without any issues, though I noticed I still had the Loading...Please Wait message, and the menu interface still looked the same as before. It doesn't look anything like the new interface as on the Gen 2 boxes (Isn't it suppose to?) Thinking it may have something to do with the mbcache.db still being locked, I checked the permissions on it and noticed it still had no permissions. Assuming the permissions should be the same as the other databases in the same folder, I typed chmod 660 mbcache.db. I verified it changed and confirmed the permissions matched with the other files in the database folder. I rebooted the box, and yet I still have the same continuous Loading... message, which always eventually says "We are currently unable to contact our servers."

Now that I have the mbcache.db unlocked, should I try reinstalling 5.2.1.2_r1 over itself or does someone have a better idea? Is it even safe to install the same version over itself?

Update: I confirmed the database files are being written to because the timestamps have changed from the previous date of 2017-01-03 to 2017-07-08 (current date).

Thank you

 

[YOgun27]

I upgraded to PreRooted FireOS 5 when I encountered the same problem after deleting some .dB files. Although my problem was only with YouTube.

Thanks for the input. Do you know where I can find a guide to upgrade to PreRooted FireOS 5? I can't seem to find it on AFTVnews.

 

[Y314K]

Thanks for the input. Do you know where I can find a guide to upgrade to PreRooted FireOS 5? I can't seem to find it on AFTVnews.

Everything I know is based on this guide:

http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-install-twrp-custom-recovery-on-a-rooted-fire-tv-1/


But I expand about my experience on updating from FireOS 3 to FireOS 5 from the 4th post here:


https://xdaforums.com/fire-tv/help/help-to-unroot-fire-tv-to-original-t3612898

Read the whole guide tread. And don't get started until you know what you are doing. Everybody's starting point is different. So everybody needs to mod the Guide to their situation.

 

[YOgun27]

New issue, I've updated and downgraded many times. Now when I try to upgrade to 51.1.6.3 from 51.1.6.2 I get an error message when trying to push the zip file. Here is the log:
root@android:/ # adb push /Users/user1/update.zip /sdcard/
cannot stat '/Users/user1/update.zip': No such file or directory
I've searched similar problems, and tried every fix I can think of to no avail. Is it possible to get this zip file in the sdcard directory any other way??

 

[Y314K]

New issue, I've updated and downgraded many times. Now when I try to upgrade to 51.1.6.3 from 51.1.6.2 I get an error message when trying to push the zip file. Here is the log:
root@android:/ # adb push /Users/user1/update.zip /sdcard/
cannot stat '/Users/user1/update.zip': No such file or directory
I've searched similar problems, and tried every fix I can think of to no avail. Is it possible to get this zip file in the sdcard directory any other way??

I normally just use a Fat32 USB drive with all the files I'll need organized in separate clearly labeled folders.

 

[YOgun27]

I normally just use a Fat32 USB drive with all the files I'll need organized in separate clearly labeled folders.

Do you mean put the zip file on a USB drive, which I then plug into the Fire TV? If so, I do I then get to the boot loader screen if the USB drive is occupying where I would plug in the keyboard?

 

[Y314K]

Do you mean put the zip file on a USB drive, which I then plug into the Fire TV? If so, I do I then get to the boot loader screen if the USB drive is occupying where I would plug in the keyboard?

I use a powerless USB hub to connect both at the same time.

 

[YOgun27]

I use a powerless USB hub to connect both at the same time.

thanks, I've made some progress and was able to use your program to update to 51.1.6.3. I also used the Downloader program to transfer TWRP 3.0.0-7.img. However now, i don't know how to install that without ADB. And when I put in the dd command, it says no such file or directory. Is there any other way to run this command?

Also, i can't seem to get out of root@android, even if I run "adb shell" command. Could that be the issue?