Low Space - Where does the internal memory go?

[ravisghosh]

Almost all of us have had this issue of low memory and there are lot of suggestions about clearing cache, moving apps to sd, etc. However, the problem of memory seems to lie somewhere else.

Here is my free memory status:

After clear data/cache aka factory reset - 95 mb.
After restoring all user apps (total 17) with MyBackup - 52 mb.
After syncing Google Contacts - 46 mb.

So at the end of having a completely working phone, I have 45 mb free internal memory. Now, after a few days, I have new update for the apps which I update. Ideally, the new version of the app should just replace the old one and not consume additional space. Practically, what happens is space is not released from old version of app.

Hence, after updating couple of apps, your free internal memory is all consumed.

Does anyone know where does it goes and how can we get it back?

A bad solution: For the time being, to get space back all we can do is backup all aps, clear data/cache from recovery, and restore all apps. Though this gets you all your settings and apps, but you still need to set couple of things and many a times market links are lost.

We would need a better solution for it.

[swordfish123]

We have only 145mb of /data. So after 17 apps i feel 45mb is ok. But still depends on the app size and the amount of data it stores. Dalvik cache is the one which stores lot of data. You should move it sd card 2nd partition using some programs like Link2SD or Apps2SD or that option is present in Samdroid Tools aswell.

Lately i have been moving apps to /system folder to free up space in /data.

For people who want to try read below.
The apps which are present as part of your ROM will usually be in /system/app/. When you update these the app from market (for eg Gmail) will get installed in /data/app which renders the app in /system/app useless. It is just using the space.

in adb shell type

df -h

This will show how much space is left on /system and /data. You can then go to /system/app and delete unwanted apps that came in your ROM and apps that were present in your ROM and later updated from market. You can also move some apps which have big apk size in /data/app/ to /system/app. Also delete the dalvik-cache of moved apps in /data/dalvik-cache. Or just go to recovery and clear dalvik-cache. It will rebuild again.

in adb shell

cd /system/app/
remount rw             //give write permission
rm <apkname.apk>   //deletes the app
remount ro
//reboot your phone and clear dalvik cache
//this will only freeup /system. Its of not much use. Your /data will still remain same.


//if you want to move apps from data to system
remount rw
cd /data/app/
cp <apkname.apk> /system/app/
chmod 644 /system/app/<apkname.apk>
//if the same app was there in your ROM then find the apk name and delete it aswell 
remount ro
//reboot to recovery and clear dalvik-cache

[lrfrog]

Great explanation swordfish123. Dalvik-cache is really taking a BIG amount of space on our devices.
About moving updated applications from /data/app to /system/app, consider trying the app I specially developed for that purpose, It does that automatically for you (basically the same commands you wrote on your post). It still has some incompatibilities with some devices but works well on our Spica as is it my dev-phone. Be aware that some (rare) apps does not like to be moved to /system/app.
Apps2ROM (ROOT) - Move your updated applications to System ROM

[ravisghosh]

Thanks Swordfish for the wonderful explanation.

I know that if you update a system app, it would just put the apk in /data folder and retain the apk in /system folder resulting in a decrease of internal space. However, if you update a user app, still there is a decrease in internal space though the new version is replacing the apk in /data folder. Is the old version of user app saved somewhere? Can we delete it somehow.

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 PM ----------

Irfrog - Your app is wonderful. However, at times, it will reboot the system but will not move the app. Also, I have failed to move app from system to user app. Any pointers on that?