[Q] Can't Delete Files from gallery3d

[Keeha]

The issue:
I upgraded to Jelly Bean 4.1.2. Eventually (within hours) I was unable to open the Gallery to view photos; the error message: "Not enough space. Delete unnecessary items such as downloaded software, pictures, videos and documents"; screen shots cannot be saved to the internal memory; images from within MMS messages cannot be viewed; neither Kies or TitaniumPro will allow me to perform a backup.

After attempting to "Clear data" (successful) and "Clear cache" (unsuccessful; cache remains full after hitting radio button) from Application Manager --> All --> Gallery, I noticed that my cache supposedly contains 88.17GB of data, which is WAY more storage than my phone has available. I went searching for these files, and their location is /sdcard/Android/data/com.sec.androud.gallery3d/cache.

Assumptions (and we all know what those do...):
-If I'm able to delete these files, it will solve the aforementioned issues.

-This is as a result of the auto-syncing of photos within my Google account; I believe this is supported by the fact that I was initially able to open the gallery post-update, but as the files continued to sync and the cache got too large, it disallowed my opening of the gallery.

-Other folks have had similar issues, and a factory reset did not resolve their problem (so it won't resolve mine).

Attempted fixes:
-I disabled syncing Picasa and photo albums from my Google account.

-In addition to the offending files (a parent folder and files named with symbol/wingding characters; many of the files supposedly contain 3.5GB worth of data... totaling the 88+GB of data), I was unable to delete anything from within the cache folder (which included Picasa folders) in MyFiles. As a result, I rooted my phone with Framaroot 1.6.0, enabled Root Explorer in ES File Explorer and changed all the permissions available to RW and restarted the phone. The files still "cannot be deleted".

Please help.

Phone info:
Samsung Galaxy SII i777
Android version 4.1.2
Baseband version I777UCMD8

 

[creepyncrawly]

I don't want to make any assumptions before I offer suggestions. So...

Did you upgrade via Kies?

What kind of experience do you have modifying phones, if any?

 

[Keeha]

Did you upgrade via Kies?
What kind of experience do you have modifying phones, if any?

I did upgrade via Kies. I've little experience modifying phones, but I'm willing to put in a little leg-work to figure out how. If I could save my SMS/MMS messages and phone log in this process, that'd be great. That said, I'd rather put off buying a new phone, so I can live with it if I lose the data.

 

[creepyncrawly]

I'm not sure what went wrong with the Kies update, but as far as I know, there is no easy way to correct the problem. Actually, most of the people who frequent this forum are using custom firmware, rather than stock. In general, when things go wrong with a flash, (or update in your case), it is much easier to just re-flash. Of course, if you are an experienced developer, you can look at the log files and determine what went wrong, but even then fixing it is questionable.

You will most likely find that if you perform a wipe data/factory reset in 3e recovery and then perform a fresh Odin install of the firmware, you will have no problems. You can stay with the stock 4.1.2 UCMD8 firmware, or you can install the custom firmware of your choice. If you opt for custom firmware, there are a number of choices. Since you are accustomed to running stock, you may be more comfortable with a rom that uses Samsung Touchwiz as a base rather than one that is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). I run SHOstock3 which is modified from the latest Samsung firmware for the International SGSII and is also 4.1.2 based. It is extremely stable and has many many features that you do not have with stock.

Since you are rooted, you should install Titanium Backup and do a complete backup of all your applications in it. You will then be able to restore application data so that you don't lose anything. With it you can also restore your SMS & MMS messages, and possibly wifi access points, call logs, and bookmarks of the stock browser. I'm not sure about the last three if you would be changing to a different base. I think the call log would restore from stock to SHOstock3 since they are similar applications.

If you will be flashing firmware in the future, you should consider purchasing Titanium Backup Pro, which gives you batch restore along with some other features. It is very tedious restoring things one application at a time.

Also, before you wipe and re-flash firmware, you could first install a custom kernel and do a nandroid backup. Titanium Backup will read and can restore things selectively from a nandroid backup so you would have access later to additional items if you need them.

Hope that's helpful and if you have any questions, just ask. You can find a lot of resources in my signature, including a link to the Download Repository.

Oh, and the call log is not your address book. Titanium Backup will not restore that, but you can save it in Google and restore it from Google which is what most people do, or I believe you can find a stand alone backup program for it.

 

[..::R::A::M::..]

Simple Solution:
1. Download your current ROM .zip file -- in my case ShoStock3 4.0 zip
2. Reboot into Recovery Mode
3. Locate your zip file -- in my case extSD card
4. Run your ROM .zip file -- no need to do a full wipe or anything.. Just run the zip file
5. Reboot once the installation finishes
6. ENJOY!

YEAH! to my first post!