[Q] Shrinking memory?

[Gadgetguy2005]

Hello all, last night when I went to sleep I had about 1.5 GB free on my internal storage.

This morning I woke up and it was full (1MB free).

Wifi was off overnight.

What happened? Any ideas?

This is a wifi only shield with the most uptodate lollipop version.

Thank you all

 

[primetechv2]

You can analyze your SD card with ES File Explorer or check which apps are hogging the most internal storage from your settings. Both of those ideas come to mind right about now.

Sent from my Galaxy S5

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

You can analyze your SD card with ES File Explorer or check which apps are hogging the most internal storage from your settings. Both of those ideas come to mind right about now.

Sent from my Galaxy S5

Thank you. I tried ES File Explorer - and according to it - I have in fact only a tiny amount of free space - but all folders are small. So if I add them up (estimating manually) there is no way that the total of them fills up the whole internal memory card.

Is it possible that there is a large file or folder sitting somewhere, but it is not seen by ES File explorer?

Most of the large apps are moved (with folder mount) to the external SD card.

Now I removed a few apps that were on the internal sd card. I should have about 4GB free now - but have only about 1 GB free. No idea where the space is.

I am totally puzzled...

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

A question. I am using now the "Disk Usage" app.

It shows that I am using 3.7GB for apps - makes sense.

It also shows that my system data is over 6GB.

When I try to see what is inside system that takes up that space, the app crashes with the following message: java error: no more data

Can please someone tell me how big is your system folder when using the free Disk Usage app?

How can I check what is taking space in the system folder?

 

[primetechv2]

Which disk usage app is this? Disk Usage by AndUtil? DiskUsage? Neither of these have anywhere you can see where system space has been used.
ES File Explorer, like the other options, says I have 11.95GB disk space total, between what I've used and what's still left.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

Which disk usage app is this? Disk Usage by AndUtil? Disk Usage? Neither of these have anywhere you can see where system space has been used.
ES File Explorer, like the other options, says I have 11.95GB disk space total, between what I've used and what's still left.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The app is called DiskUsage - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en

 

[An Droid]

With Folder Mount, even though you've moved files to the external SD, they're still linked to the internal storage and will report as used space unfortunately (even though they're not actually taking up space on the internal).

If you detach the pairs, you should see the free space revealed.

Also, the hidden (cache?) file in the thumbnails folder in the DCIM folder always seems to be excessively large (showing up as 3.5GB on my shield )

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

With Folder Mount, even though you've moved files to the external SD, they're still linked to the internal storage and will report as used space unfortunately (even though they're not actually taking up space on the internal).

If you detach the pairs, you should see the free space revealed.

Also, the hidden (cache?) file in the thumbnails folder in the DCIM folder always seems to be excessively large (showing up as 3.5GB on my shield )

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

Thank you. I switched foldermount off to ensure that the data I get is accurate.

I also deleted the contents of the dcim folder but no real impact.

I will do a factory reset now . that should solve this I hope

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

Thank you. I switched foldermount off to ensure that the data I get is accurate.

I also deleted the contents of the dcim folder but no real impact.

I will do a factory reset now . that should solve this I hope

OK. After factory reset and reinstalling ALL apps I have 6GB free. (where before I had 1.5GB available)

Problem seems to be solved for now - but I still dont have the faintest idea what has happened.

 

[oliwek]

Did you scan your storage with ES file explorer (see in Tools in ES, there is a free storage analyzer)? I was also thinking about DCIM thumbnails, a recursive storage eater on my devices, but it could be another app cache : pocket, Google play books, there are many... but you should see this in settings/applications (filter by app size).

 

[aenews]

OK. After factory reset and reinstalling ALL apps I have 6GB free. (where before I had 1.5GB available)

Problem seems to be solved for now - but I still dont have the faintest idea what has happened.

Disk and Storage Analyzer Pro is the best tool I've found, though I'm sure there are others.

 

[Gadgetguy2005]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I have used various tools (from ES File Explorer to various folder size apps) - and I was unable to find the culprit.

Some applications actually suggested I have 5GB free (based on adding up the storage used) - while my Shield told me I had only 1.5GB.

I think the problem was with a file in the system area (which many folder size apps do not diagnose well).

A factory reset solved this - and for now all is good.

If it ever happens again (I hope not!) I will do more digging.

 

[aenews]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I have used various tools (from ES File Explorer to various folder size apps) - and I was unable to find the culprit.

Some applications actually suggested I have 5GB free (based on adding up the storage used) - while my Shield told me I had only 1.5GB.

I think the problem was with a file in the system area (which many folder size apps do not diagnose well).

A factory reset solved this - and for now all is good.

If it ever happens again (I hope not!) I will do more digging.

The app I was talking about can read the entire /data partition and sees everything. I'm sure other apps may have this functionality as well though I love this one's UI.