Horrible Memory management. Please help. - Windows Phone 8 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I love my Windows Phone a lot. Everything about it is just great. Size of the screen, resolution, Music+Videos hub, Office etc etc.
But, there is an issue. A very serious one. Memory Management.
Recently, Nokia launched an exclusive N.O.A.V 3 FREE version for India for a limited time. I couldn't get it, in spite of being in India AND having a WP8. Why? Low Memory.
I wanted Asphalt 7, as it is really low priced (lower than Asphalt 5) but I can't get it. Why? Low Memory.
Tumblr is a great looking app. Lovely Live Tiles, but...BUT, at a cost. Memory.
I have deleted a lot many apps as I don't need them anymore or were just plain bad. But it has left a permanent mark on the OS. It has consumed space which a deleted app should release when deleted. But no. I still see the app name, with the memory consumed. So, those bytes are now rendered useless. Again, the same problem, Memory.
I would really appreciate any help to free those used bytes so that I can get on with my life and get better apps. I am now even scared to the extent I don't download apps I know I won't be using after a while.
What a gorgeous OS, what a great user friendly UI, how beautifully smooth and fast, but all comes down to one very basic and fundamental flaw. Memory.
And no, I am not hard-resetting my phone.

I thought asphalt 7 was available for 512mb devices...
http://www.wpcentral.com/asphalt-7-heat-updated-reduces-file-size

GH0ST DR0NE said:
I love my Windows Phone a lot. Everything about it is just great. Size of the screen, resolution, Music+Videos hub, Office etc etc.
But, there is an issue. A very serious one. Memory Management.
Recently, Nokia launched an exclusive N.O.A.V 3 FREE version for India for a limited time. I couldn't get it, in spite of being in India AND having a WP8. Why? Low Memory.
I wanted Asphalt 7, as it is really low priced (lower than Asphalt 5) but I can't get it. Why? Low Memory.
Tumblr is a great looking app. Lovely Live Tiles, but...BUT, at a cost. Memory.
I have deleted a lot many apps as I don't need them anymore or were just plain bad. But it has left a permanent mark on the OS. It has consumed space which a deleted app should release when deleted. But no. I still see the app name, with the memory consumed. So, those bytes are now rendered useless. Again, the same problem, Memory.
I would really appreciate any help to free those used bytes so that I can get on with my life and get better apps. I am now even scared to the extent I don't download apps I know I won't be using after a while.
What a gorgeous OS, what a great user friendly UI, how beautifully smooth and fast, but all comes down to one very basic and fundamental flaw. Memory.
And no, I am not hard-resetting my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're referring to the low RAM of your phone, you may try this,
Thanks,

I... *think* he means storage (not RAM).
I don't know what he means about "It has consumed space which a deleted app should release when deleted. But no. I still see the app name, with the memory consumed"; that part makes no sense. Deleted apps are removed and consume no storage on the phone. It's not even like "normal" Windows where installed programs occasionally don't clean up after themselves; the app manager on WP takes care of all installation and removal, and there's nothing left after it does so.

GoodDayToDie said:
I... *think* he means storage (not RAM).
I don't know what he means about "It has consumed space which a deleted app should release when deleted. But no. I still see the app name, with the memory consumed"; that part makes no sense. Deleted apps are removed and consume no storage on the phone. It's not even like "normal" Windows where installed programs occasionally don't clean up after themselves; the app manager on WP takes care of all installation and removal, and there's nothing left after it does so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was referring to memory and NOT RAM. And sorry, my bad, when I uninstalled the Bloomberg App, I still saw it in the Storage Check app consuming memory. But it isn't there today. I removed the Flikr Wallpaper app and it was gone in no time from the Storage Check app.
But, why isn't my Free Space increasing? It still says 1.5 GB free in spite of many apps removed. Also, there is a very mysterious 'Other' category eating up about 978 MB. And even Temp Files dont go all the way down to zero. If I say 'clear' to Temp Files when it is 500MB, after clearing its 388 MB.
I need to empty some space man.

GH0ST DR0NE said:
I was referring to memory and NOT RAM. And sorry, my bad, when I uninstalled the Bloomberg App, I still saw it in the Storage Check app consuming memory. But it isn't there today. I removed the Flikr Wallpaper app and it was gone in no time from the Storage Check app.
But, why isn't my Free Space increasing? It still says 1.5 GB free in spite of many apps removed. Also, there is a very mysterious 'Other' category eating up about 978 MB. And even Temp Files dont go all the way down to zero. If I say 'clear' to Temp Files when it is 500MB, after clearing its 388 MB.
I need to empty some space man.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Shrink Storage App, and try to delete the search history.
Addition: IMO, if you are installing a large app and was interrupted and never continued the installation, the portion you initially downloaded remain on your phone. Its hard to remove that file.
FYI, that Other on storage is a windows bug.
Thank you,

"RAM" is Random Access Memory, and is commonly just called memory. If you want to refer to persistent storage, you should generally use another term. NAND (for NAND Flash, the type of storage used in phones), Flash, SSD, HDD (technically inaccurate for a phone but not confusing), or simply "storage" are all good options for what you apparently meant.
Most apps are tiny (less than 5 megs, often under 1 meg) and removing them will not affect your free space noticably. Larger apps should be more visible, though it may take a few minutes for the app manager to finish cleaning up after them. As for "Other", that's mostly stuff like the local email cache (reduce the number of folders you sync and how long you store mail for to reduce this value) and downloaded files and so on.

To be honest I will never buy a phone with less than 16GB storage, 8GB or even 4GB on WP8 is just a joke, Never had this problem with my WP7 Lumia.
The other storage issue is a problem which will hopefully be rectified in an upcoming update, Even with 32 GB on my Lumia I still have nearly 1GB other storage after using Storage Check/Clean up, I believe it is from uploading pics to Sky Drive and of course other temp stuff but it would be great to be able to free this space, Fingers crossed it will get sorted soon

AndyFZ1S said:
To be honest I will never buy a phone with less than 16GB storage, 8GB or even 4GB on WP8 is just a joke, Never had this problem with my WP7 Lumia.
The other storage issue is a problem which will hopefully be rectified in an upcoming update, Even with 32 GB on my Lumia I still have nearly 1GB other storage after using Storage Check/Clean up, I believe it is from uploading pics to Sky Drive and of course other temp stuff but it would be great to be able to free this space, Fingers crossed it will get sorted soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, less than 8gb WP8 will be useless if other on storage will not be fixed.
Some news says that the other on storage will have an improvement on this coming GDR2 update, I doubt that it will be totally fixed, since they say that its just an improvement.
I think No, I did'nt use skydrive, but the other on storage, grew up to almost 1gb.
History on Internet Explorer/Search also contributes to the growth of the Other on storage, deleting history may free up a 100mb/wk on my WP.
Thank you,

My 521 has 8gb and still has like 3gbs of space left. I have a bunch of games and a couple of albums on the SD card.
Sent from my RM-917_nam_usa_100 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Related

[Q] internal memory usage list?

As many others have, I frequently run into a lack of internal memory on my nexus. I only ever have about 20 mb free. So today I decided to try and figure out what takes up all my internal mem.
I have a stock, non rooted phone running 83d.
I use apps 2sd and dolphin browser with cache on sd
I went to apps2sd and added up all the package sizes of the apps on my phone memory, came up to about 93mb. Yet I only have about 20mb free. That means about 70mb is being used up by other crap. Phone and contact storage is only 2mb each. So what is eating my memory and how can I find out? is there an app that'll chart out internal memory usage by app/file?
Disk Usage, from the market may help...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Imbalance said:
As many others have, I frequently run into a lack of internal memory on my nexus. I only ever have about 20 mb free. So today I decided to try and figure out what takes up all my internal mem.
I have a stock, non rooted phone running 83d.
I use apps 2sd and dolphin browser with cache on sd
I went to apps2sd and added up all the package sizes of the apps on my phone memory, came up to about 93mb. Yet I only have about 20mb free. That means about 70mb is being used up by other crap. Phone and contact storage is only 2mb each. So what is eating my memory and how can I find out? is there an app that'll chart out internal memory usage by app/file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
93mb of apps is just for the actual app .apk file. app data takes a HUGE amount of space.
most things i've got left on the phone don't really have much associated data from the ones i've checked anyway. Still, can't believe there's no app to show internal mem usage. There's tons of them for the SDcard... Also, diskusage is only for sdcard. I'd still like an easy way to see what's taking up all my internal mem and decide if i want to uninstall it or clear the data or whatever.
As soon as you open diskusage, it asks if you wanna see internal or external...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
I like this disk usage app,i find it interesting how the developer used the tap to com on the different layouts and how data is used

[Q] Low Internal Memory - 3 Days

Has anybody come across a problem with low memory after 3 days of use. This is with stock rom and unrooted. Barely 20 apps installed. What in the world could be eating up on the memory i wonder This is definitely the first for me and this is my 4th Android device.
Any apps or way to find out which app is taking up all the memory? Yesterday i checked and it was 600 plus MB free. Now it's only 67.8MB free. WTF
Something definetly not right. I have a lot more apps installed.
Have you accidently installed all your media files ie mp3s, videos onto the phone memory?
Sent from my mobile
Nup....it's in the memory card. Even if i did, i could not have copied so much mp3 and i for sure did not copy any video's.
Is there any way to find out which app is taking up all the memory? I'm using my Sensation and i have more then 40 apps yet it still have some 500 plus MB.
How in the world did i lose 500 to 600 MB to apps on my device.....what's worse.....i don't even know which app. Damn
Anybody has suggestions.....appreciate it
Scann69 said:
Nup....it's in the memory card. Even if i did, i could not have copied so much mp3 and i for sure did not copy any video's.
Is there any way to find out which app is taking up all the memory? I'm using my Sensation and i have more then 40 apps yet it still have some 500 plus MB.
How in the world did i lose 500 to 600 MB to apps on my device.....what's worse.....i don't even know which app. Damn
Anybody has suggestions.....appreciate it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try to factory reset your IS.
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA App
Scann69 said:
Has anybody come across a problem with low memory after 3 days of use. This is with stock rom and unrooted. Barely 20 apps installed. What in the world could be eating up on the memory i wonder This is definitely the first for me and this is my 4th Android device.
Any apps or way to find out which app is taking up all the memory? Yesterday i checked and it was 600 plus MB free. Now it's only 67.8MB free. WTF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications, it should show you how much space each program is taking up. Does anything look unusual on that screen?
I've checked in the manage apps but nothing unusual. Running apps are normal. Nothing very huge. Guess i will have to root the IS to find out what is eating up all the memory
Am trying not to do a factory reset. Would like to find out what apps are killing my phone memory so i can avoid that app. My first guess is Papago
So i finally figured out what app was taking up all my internal memory....Contact Storage was taking up 886MB.
It only had 442 contacts in it.....anybody knows why it would take up so much contact storage space?? Care to share?

memory FREE space remain problem

hi
my HD7 (8GB) has mango 8773 not unlocked.never done any jailbreak or unlock and just tryed to keep up2date with ZUNE at orginal HTC roms.
but :
in my SETTINGs it shows that i have 1.08GB free
and
in ZUNE tells that 284.3MB remain !
my reserve space is 4%
can any one tells me where is mine ~700MB space plz ?
khepelesibilo said:
hi
my HD7 (8GB) has mango 8773 not unlocked.never done any jailbreak or unlock and just tryed to keep up2date with ZUNE at orginal HTC roms.
but :
in my SETTINGs it shows that i have 1.08GB free
and
in ZUNE tells that 284.3MB remain !
my reserve space is 4%
can any one tells me where is mine ~700MB space plz ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More than likely it's being used... I'll try to explain!
The RAM memory is basically where your OS is stored and it uses the RAM to actually run the OS and other various processes of the device. The ROM memory is used to store system applications...apps that cannot be moved to the SD card. (or they wouldn't function correctly) Even the apps that you download and that are on the SD card will still use some of the internal memory. ROM is also being used for and by contacts, text messages, cache and so on. So the discrepancy that your seeing is literally the memory that is locked away for use by the system. Your memory isn't really missing, you just can't see it and it's being used.
xdrc45 said:
More than likely it's being used... I'll try to explain!
The RAM memory is basically where your OS is stored and it uses the RAM to actually run the OS and other various processes of the device. The ROM memory is used to store system applications...apps that cannot be moved to the SD card. (or they wouldn't function correctly) Even the apps that you download and that are on the SD card will still use some of the internal memory. ROM is also being used for and by contacts, text messages, cache and so on. So the discrepancy that your seeing is literally the memory that is locked away for use by the system. Your memory isn't really missing, you just can't see it and it's being used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tnx for your reply, but my problem is , if that memory is used, why phone says i have 1.08GB free, and if it is not used, why ZUNE tells i have 285MB free ?
and if it takes by some thing like temporary internet files , how can i clear them.
and remember phone says total storage=7.20GB , i think he gets as much as he need from 8GB
which one is true ? 1.08GB or 285MB ?
khepelesibilo said:
tnx for your reply, but my problem is , if that memory is used, why phone says i have 1.08GB free, and if it is not used, why ZUNE tells i have 285MB free ?
and if it takes by some thing like temporary internet files , how can i clear them.
and remember phone says total storage=7.20GB , i think he gets as much as he need from 8GB
which one is true ? 1.08GB or 285MB ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure...I'd say that your device would be the most accurate of the two. I have the 32gb SD card in mine and have 29gb available storage.
Do you have alot of music,video, pics and SMS on your device? You might want to think about upgrading your SD card to a 16gb or 32gb. I just upgraded mine from the 16gb to a 32gb and its running faster than it ever has. Boots super quick and loads apps and really fast too.
Other than going into IE setting and deleting the history, cookies and temp files and deleting some text messages, I don't think there's a cache cleaner that you can get for it as of yet on a non-unlocked device!
Download this app, System View and it will tell you, available storage status and a lot more. I think it will give you a better idea of what the used/free memory availability is and you can compare it with what you already have.
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/7abbac8f-068c-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8
in first post i forgot to say system view also shows 1GB but some times ago ZUNE tells mine phone have 0MB free and didnt do SYNC ! i forced to uninstall some program and try again !
i have around 100~200MB picture and music , and all other is programm.
changing memory or factory reset or ... takes so many time for me to install all again !
also i think i paid enough mony for WINPHONE
khepelesibilo said:
in first post i forgot to say system view also shows 1GB but some times ago ZUNE tells mine phone have 0MB free and didnt do SYNC ! i forced to uninstall some program and try again !
i have around 100~200MB picture and music , and all other is programm.
changing memory or factory reset or ... takes so many time for me to install all again !
also i think i paid enough mony for WINPHONE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the enough money invested, Lol... If your device and System View both say you have 1GB of memory left, then I'd say that's more accurate than Zune but your device still needs that reserved space to operate everything. As far as freeing up space, even though you don't have very much memory used with pics, video and music, you could up load them to SkyDrive and free it up from the actual memory on the device but 200MG isn't much. Unfortunately I don't think that there is much of a option other than deleting some of your apps or upgrading the SD card at this point to gain any substantial amount of memory.
Change the amount of reserved space to 1% in Zune. The phone doesn't subtract the reserved spec, only Zune does.
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

[Q] Half of my internal storage is missing

OK, so I have no idea what happened. All of a sudden my space was used up. Which I thought was pretty strange. When I look in settings, I'm only using about half of what I have. However, the other half of my internal storage is just unavailable. My tablet knows how much space it has total, however adding up my used space does not yield a number matching my total space.
As long as everyone understands lol, can someone tell me how to fix this?
Anyone?
NexusGazer said:
Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the app DiskUsage to see if what if anything is using up your storage.
Also try booting without a microSD in the tablet. I've seen it that a bad card caused this.
OK, so I downloaded disk usage. Apparently, 11 GB is taken up by Android. This seems strange to me.
NexusGazer said:
OK, so I downloaded disk usage. Apparently, 11 GB is taken up by Android. This seems strange to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems you used a different app. I meant the one by Ivan Volosyuk.
But if you have ES File Explorer or File Manager HD, they also can show you what's taking up storage down to the file level.
Either you have a lot of forgotten nandroids on there on some huge log files left over. Dig and drill down...
Ok, so I downloaded the one you meant. And this illustrates the problem to be system data. 11GB of it to be precise. What is in there for me to clear out? And where do I clear it from?
Sent from my K00C using XDA Free mobile app
Are you rooted?
If not all the stuff in green is inaccessible to you. I'm running a debloated custom rom and my System section is about 9 GB. Your's is 12 GB (1 mib = 1050 kb roughly). Could well be that non-removable apps (aside from necessary system files) take up the difference. Nothing you can do about that without root.
But I see a pretty good chunk occupying media, especially your Android folder is pretty hefty. That is where your app data lives. The most interesting part is cut off in your screenshot. You got some game installed with a very large footprint in terms of cache. Check out the size of your Android/obb folder!!!! Mine is empty!
Swipe to the right in DiskUsage and check what's taking up the space. Pinch in/out to see details.
Man, this app is great! I'm so glad I discovered it for you
Move anything not crucial like pictures, videos to your microSD. Uninstall apps you don't use anymore, especially games.
berndblb said:
Are you rooted?
If not all the stuff in green is inaccessible to you. I'm running a debloated custom rom and my System section is about 9 GB. Your's is 12 GB (1 mib = 1050 kb roughly). Could well be that non-removable apps (aside from necessary system files) take up the difference. Nothing you can do about that without root.
But I see a pretty good chunk occupying media, especially your Android folder is pretty hefty. That is where your app data lives. The most interesting part is cut off in your screenshot. You got some game installed with a very large footprint in terms of cache. Check out the size of your Android/obb folder!!!! Mine is empty!
Swipe to the right in DiskUsage and check what's taking up the space. Pinch in/out to see details.
Man, this app is great! I'm so glad I discovered it for you
Move anything not crucial like pictures, videos to your microSD. Uninstall apps you don't use anymore, especially games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have root. I am running CyanogenMod on my tablet as a matter of fact. Was a real pita getting there thanks to Asus but I managed with help from XDA.
As for the Android folder, I checked it out, and I am an idiot. GTA San Andreas, KOTOR, Bards Tale. That's 7.5 gb right there. I didn't realize there was so much extra after the fact with them.
Thanks for the app suggestion. I am adding it to me toolbox.

Where did all my storage go

I have used a reported 6gig out of 11 on my /sdcard0, and yet when I run sd analyst in es explorer it doesn't add up as you can see in the attachment.
Sd analyst seems to be correct because I don't have any huge games installed. So where did all my storage go?
Its all the apps Samsung puts on there that you cant delete.
If somebody starts a class action lawsuit on this device like they did with the iPad I am all over it. Its not even remotely fair that a 16gig device has 8.9gig free because of 3+ gigs of bloatware you cant delete.
I have an SD card, but the lack of app space is concerning me.
Except I'm not running touch wiz. I'm running a CM12 ROM. Any way if I'm reading it right, this is just counting /storage/emulated/legacy the user data partition. Very weird.
barth2 said:
Except I'm not running touch wiz. I'm running a CM12 ROM. Any way if I'm reading it right, this is just counting /storage/emulated/legacy the user data partition. Very weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That does not make sense? I hope one of the Devs can come up with the answer to this mystery!
Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't it that if you root your device and get a rom let's say CM, as far as I know CM doesn't eat up a lot of space meaning depending on the contents of that rom, that 3gb bloat ware should be gone right?? Also this is what frustrates me with Samsung, we just can't have the option to write over to SD cards which I know can be a liability but look at the what we need to deal with. There's no 32gb version in my country so I'm always cramped up for space and I hate it, having to remove apps and games just to get by.
Sent from my SM-T805
Well I wiped my internal memory (drastic measure) and started over and now it looks correct. Not sure what was behind it.
More information would be great here. I know there's an incredible amount of Google bloat on these devices, but perhaps there is some information missing from the ES File Explorer results. I'd recommend downloading a dedicated app cache cleaner and a dedicated storage analyst app to get an accurate idea of all the things that are taking up storage. Some of the biggest offenders are browsers, but the one I've seen eat up a whole gigabyte on unknowing users' phones is usually the sneaky Google+.
Storage analyzer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.levelokment.storageanalyser
1Tap Cleaner
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.acc.free
steelbrachen said:
with Samsung, we just can't have the option to write over to SD cards which I know can be a liability but look at the what we need to deal with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, with Google Android Kitkat, it was decided that apps should only be allowed to write to their own sandboxed folders on the SD card anyway. Samsung has always been pretty good about at least allowing file management via a first party app, and even managing which apps can use the SD card are listed in the application manager, so I fail to see how Samsung is at fault here. (Meanwhile, in addition to demanding restrictions across the board to SD cards in Kitkat and then Lollipop, Google's more focused on forcing a social network on their users than writing a file manager for all the devices that DO have SD cards... or providing any decent AOSP apps in general.)
Sent from my Galaxy S5
Without going into too much detail the amount of available space is affected by the partition layout of the device. Esp with cm or custom rom that only takes up a couple hundred mb; the system partition ends up with a lot of unused space. If you were willing the modify your default partition table you could reclaim some usable space. Though I would place this in the advanced user grouping and would not recommend attempting it.

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