I see a lot of talk about the memory and how much is available. but I was wondering about installation of apps-
1, Where are they installed to?
2. How much room is there for them?
3. Is this shared with the RAM memory?
I'm keen to upgrade to an Android phone, but if the app storage is small then this would put me off.
So far app storage for me has not been a problem and I have been downloading a few. I have 102MB still free. Not sure how much was there to begin with though...
The memory for app storage is separate from the RAM - like it should be on WiMo and Symbian handsets.
If you root the Hero you can store apps on the SD card, though I have not done this.
I think unless you go on a download frenzy, you will be fine.
Most apps will allow storage of their cache / data on the SD in their settings menu - such as FeedR (RSS feed app), Twidroid (Twitter app) etc.
it really is nothing to worry about...i had to test a magic for my work a few months ago and one of the tests was to fill the internal memory and then try and use the phone...they'd had issues with windows mobile obviously....and it took over 130 apps installed before it got anywhere near full and still it worked fine for standard use.
seriously, unless you are installing EVERYTHING, then you'll be fine!
That puts my mind at rest. Thank you.
If you do run out of memory, you could always root it. Not that im advocating that or anything ;P
TI Backup is showing I have 456 apps installed which includes everything that came with the phone. I hear there is no limit (my old windows 6.5 phone was limited to 50 apps...after that all of the apps disappeared from the deinstall menu and you had to manually delete something to see them all again). Everything is installed to the internal card, nothing installed on the external SD card. I still have almost 9 gigs of free space so it is conceivable that 1500 apps is possible, though the phone may start to slow down at some point. With TI backup eating space along with the phone's built in android backup turned on I don't know how much of the free space will be eaten up.
So anyone over the 450 number?
There is a smaller area of the SD card put aside for apps..
sent from my rooted,
and chillin, canadian Motorola Atrix
I was on 448 but just downloaded another 3 to break 450. TiBu reporting 451 now. LOL
Beamed in from WinBorg 4G via XDA Premium app
I don't see why you can't have as many apps as will fit on the internal storage...
marko! said:
There is a smaller area of the SD card put aside for apps..
sent from my rooted,
and chillin, canadian Motorola Atrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a way to increase the size?
Tibu says I only have 204....best start downloading so app's....lol
space for apps
If there is a finite amout of space available for apps then there is definitely an upper limit to how many apps can be installed. i may be close to the limit since i tried installing a large app from amazon and received a message saying there was insufficient space. After I deinstalled Angry Birds Rio the nessage went away and the app installed. So to increase the amount of available space for apps you either have to increase the amount of allocated space for apps (whereever that directory is), delete other optional files like pics and music, or perhaps reformat.....I remember seeing soem sort of reformat option somewhere...maybe this post belongs in the dev forum since they are savvy with the system.
panflute said:
If there is a finite amout of space available for apps then there is definitely an upper limit to how many apps can be installed. i may be close to the limit since i tried installing a large app from amazon and received a message saying there was insufficient space. After I deinstalled Angry Birds Rio the nessage went away and the app installed. So to increase the amount of available space for apps you either have to increase the amount of allocated space for apps (whereever that directory is), delete other optional files like pics and music, or perhaps reformat.....I remember seeing soem sort of reformat option somewhere...maybe this post belongs in the dev forum since they are savvy with the system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you need Apps2sd.
Yes. I just got apps to SD. I didn't know any apps were on the SD card, I am still curious exactly.how much space is available on the phone. I'll have to copy over the apps to my 2nd SD card.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Fuhu's Nabi 2 comes with 8 GB of internal storage, but the actual space available for app install evaporates quickly. Here are a few tips from my experience that may help you figure out possible space hogs.
Part of the problem is due to the Nabi 2's file storage system. Instead of its external storage being located at /mnt/sdcard, it is instead at /mnt/sdcard2. This causes problems as many programs will assume they are saving to the external drive at sdcard, but are instead using precious space on the limited internal drive.
There are a couple different work-around rooted options, but at this time they seem to me a bit like a bandage. If you feel like tackling these more advanced drive swapping options, see Root External 2 Internal SD (How-to for Nabi 2 by e2950) and DirectoryBind by slig (How-to for Nabi 2 by Clarkiss). Root External 2 Internal SD swaps the two. DirectoryBind causes apps to install their extra data to sdcard2.
The first thing to do when you've got a failure to install an app due to insufficient space is to check the device's storage. Get there by accessing Android's Settings, Storage, and when the graph and list come up on the right, touch Apps. You can sort by app size or by alphabetical. Sort by size and the list will show which apps are taking the most space. Another way to get to the same place is via Android's Settings, Apps, and select All at the top.
A. Easiest is removing unwanted demos and preinstalled apps. Touch the name of the app and select Uninstall. I am unsure if this will require root or not. I didn't try while still unrooted and don't know if some apps are locked in by Fuhu.
B. My first space hog was actually the Gallery. One of the first things we do after getting recovery and root on the Nabi 2 is to install GApps. In doing so, Google's Gallery replaces Fuhu's. I have uploaded many Picasa albums over time and, using my Google account on my son's Nabi 2, syncronized and downloaded 300 MB onto the internal storage.
Unsync and clear Google Gallery:
1. Open Android's Settings, Accounts & sync, [Your Google Account], Uncheck Sync Google Photos
2. Settings, Storage, Apps (All), Gallery, Force Stop, Clear Data
3. Reboot
After rebooting, the downloaded albums and photos Google had sync'd will be gone, freeing up precious internal space.
Update: More picture/video space hogging was found in /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails There were two thumbnail files adding up to 277MB hiding out.
C. Having multiple rooted android devices, one of the first things I set up after rooting is Titanium Backup (TB). Normally, TB saves its backed up files to sdcard. But, because sdcard is the Nabi 2's space constricted internal storage, this causes a problem quickly. The solution is to change TB's backup storage location. This can save hundreds of MBs. This was the first problem I tackled, so I don't remember how much
1. In Titanium Backup, open Preferences, Backup storage location
2. Change the default location from /mnt/sdcard/TitaniumBackup to /mnt/sdcard[BOLD]2[/BOLD]/TitaniumBackup
TB will handle copying your contents from the old directory to the new one.
D. My next surprise space hog was cloud storage app Box. Hogging a respectable 138 MB of files apparently sync'd/cached, this one was easy to clear.
1. In Box, open Settings, and touch Clear Cache under the Folder Activity heading.
These are basic, simple, and temporary tips which will only free a little more space to allow installation of that one last app you mean to get on your Nabi 2. Any other suggestions would be more than welcome.
I'm hoping that as the Nabi community matures and XDA grants us our own subforum (hint: lets do our best to stoke more Nabi 2 threads), that solutions are created to truly fix the lack of space to make this device pain free and open up its true potential.
Sent from my NABI2-NV7A using xda premium
Bait-Fish said:
....
There are a couple different work-around rooted options, but at this time they seem to me a bit like a bandage. If you feel like tackling these more advanced drive swapping options, see Root External 2 Internal SD (How-to for Nabi 2 by e2950) and DirectoryBind by slig (How-to for Nabi 2 by Clarkiss). Root External 2 Internal SD swaps the two. DirectoryBind causes apps to install their extra data to sdcard2.
....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This Root External 2 Internal SD (How-to for Nabi 2 by e2950) works great with my Nabi2. But does not work on boot. Does anybody knows why?
arvati said:
This Root External 2 Internal SD (How-to for Nabi 2 by e2950) works great with my Nabi2. But does not work on boot. Does anybody knows why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried and tried myself too and never got it to work at boot or really even swap over the storage in any usable way. I have since given up on that.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk HD
Bait-Fish said:
I tried and tried myself too and never got it to work at boot or really even swap over the storage in any usable way. I have since given up on that.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
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I finally got it to work at boot and looked like everything was ok. Watched as I added apps and such, seemed that 80% of everything still installed to original Internal storage. Only real change was anything I downloaded went straight on micro sdcard. I also gave up.
Despite me using the external2internal app and it LOOKING like it was all swapped in the settings under data, the apps still all seem to go on the original tiny internal sd card and also when you use settings to look at installed apps, the free space it quotes tallies with the internal card, not the swapped-large-external card.
I can only assume something has gone a bit wrong in the settings of the app.
I dont understand how the nabi2 settings sees huge space under "storage" but tiny space under "apps" its as if the external2internal app has only swapped the two cards for "some" of the nabi's setup/brain
Any ideas please?
I was never able to get Ext2Int working properly so I abandoned that route.
Something that does work for me is [APP][ROOT] FolderMount - Link folders from internal SD to external to free space. It doesn't swap the internal for external outright, but does allow you to move specific data hogs to sdcard2. I still need to do a little walk through on it. . .
FM can move files from the original location to the destination of your choice if the files don't require root permissions. If they do, you have to move the files using a root file explorer of your choice.
FM will not work for moving apps due to its inherent time delay before actually changing the link to the new location. It's 30 seconds to 3 minutes after boot.
Sent from my VS910 4G using Tapatalk 2
Bait-Fish said:
I was never able to get Ext2Int working properly so I abandoned that route.
Something that does work for me is [APP][ROOT] FolderMount - Link folders from internal SD to external to free space. It doesn't swap the internal for external outright, but does allow you to move specific data hogs to sdcard2. I still need to do a little walk through on it. . .
FM can move files from the original location to the destination of your choice if the files don't require root permissions. If they do, you have to move the files using a root file explorer of your choice.
FM will not work for moving apps due to its inherent time delay before actually changing the link to the new location. It's 30 seconds to 3 minutes after boot.
Sent from my VS910 4G using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Thanks very much, Im not sure if that would work for me as most of my little boys apps are pretty small in size, most around the 20mb mark, with a few being 100mb so its not the big games or datahogs thats a problem, its the sheer weight of numbers of how many of these small apps he has installed.
So Im not sure if FM would actually be able to move any of his apps over to the external and actually work.
Even though he has so many apps, selective removing isnt a solution as he remembers them all. He is autistic trust me he remembers them hehe
Thanks and all help is appreciated.
Alex
DiskUsage is a good app to visually find large data stores. On my phone, I found Amazon caching all of the apps it had downloaded but I cancelled the installation on, over 1.5 GB! I don't use Amazon the same way on the Nabi though.
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reply
nice..
Bait-Fish said:
DiskUsage is a good app to visually find large data stores. On my phone, I found Amazon caching all of the apps it had downloaded but I cancelled the installation on, over 1.5 GB! I don't use Amazon the same way on the Nabi though.
Sent from my VS910 4G using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I had a look at diskusage but honestly I am so noobish that I couldnt quite tell exactly what it was explaining to me.
Looking on things like data or apps there were things listed that almost seemed twice and also some noted as apk's and I wasnt sure if this was the game itself, of if it was the apk file that installed the game and the tablet is storing the apk's as well as the installed games.
As a beginer at this kind of thing, its quite hard to get your head around it all.
And we have now officially run out of space and trying to magane through as best we can.
Thanks for the suggestion
Alex
The actual APKs, not good to move with FolderMount. But, if there's a bit of data in /data/data, /data/obb, /android, FolderMount can move that to your external storage, freeing space for more apps. At least you looked into it. My son has a couple apps that take 100s of MBs of data. That makes freeing space easy.
Sent from my VS910 4G using Tapatalk 2
Bait-Fish said:
The actual APKs, not good to move with FolderMount. But, if there's a bit of data in /data/data, /data/obb, /android, FolderMount can move that to your external storage, freeing space for more apps. At least you looked into it. My son has a couple apps that take 100s of MBs of data. That makes freeing space easy.
Sent from my VS910 4G using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Thanks Ill have a look at that data aspect when I can next get the tablet off of him, Thanks I appreciate the advice.
Dont think Ive seen the obb folder...
When I plug the nabi into the PC lead and it pops up like an SD drive on my PC, there does seem to be a lot of folders that people mention that I dont seem to be able to see. Possibly like a kind of hidden folder? Also the size of the SD looked at through the PC always shows as much smaller than it is.
So Im really thinking that there is a chunk of the internal-sd card, or internal memory, that is hidden from the basic pc cable connection. Is that right and if-so how am I able to see that area to be able to back it up and/or be able to mess with it?
Thanks
Alex
I don't have a Nabi 2 anymore but have any of you used the app Link2sd? I've been using it on another 4 gig device and works really well. You have not split your micro sdcard into 2 partitions. Link2sd uses the second partition and you use the first as your micro sdcard. When you click Link app to SD, it moves it, then open app and see if it runs OK. If not you'll have to click move to SD to put it back so it will work.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I957 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Yes. That and FolderMount are what keep my son's Nabi functional.
A 2 GB partition was a bit small for me though. For anyone that goes that route and had a large SD (64 GB), give the Link2SD partition at least 3 GB. I had to start over after doing it the first time.
Or, count and calculate the apps you mean to move them add extra space for future expansion. That'd be the smart way
Sent from my SCH-I545 Dev Edition using Tapatalk 2
Im really dumb on these things and am terrified of busting my sons nabi (he relies upon it so much now).
So does this move the whole app, or just the data bits of the app? I heard that the bigger apps that are heavy on data move well, but the smaller apps that are mostly just the apk dont always move. Almost all my sons apps are the small kind. So Im not sure if this will still work.
Also, we hardly have anything at all to put on our external sd, we only bought it because we thought we could get apps on it. So is there any reason not to put a huge partition on the sd for the program? Our sd is 32gb, so I guess formats at about 28gb, so I was thinking of having the partition 25gb
Thanks for all the thoughts and help people.
PS: Is foldermount necessary as well? Or can I just try this with Link2SD? Im nervous enough about trying to learn one new software but integrating two at the same time concerns me somewhat.
Thanks
Alex
Some thoughts.
Honestly, from my experience with both, do Link to SD with a respectable partition. Something big enough to grow into, maybe 5 GB. Or, 10 since you say you have a lot of external SD space, but that is surely overkill since the apps data will burst your internal before the apps exceed 10 GB.
That allows you to move the largest apps to the external. Their data will still be on the internal though. That will be your next headache.
I find my FolderMount pairs frequently unpinned and I have to log into Daddy mode and re-enable them. I think that would not be good for you, alexbobspoons. When the FolderMount pairs are not enabled, some of the larger data apps (Mini Motor or My First Trainz Set) will download their data again when my son tries to play them (to internal since the pair is not active). My four year old will tell me now so I can straighten it out. I use FolderMount to move the entire /sdcard/android/data and /sdcard/android/obb folders to the external.
But, like I said, focus on Link to SD and that should free some storage pretty well. I found it a bit more difficult than FolderMount. Also, I am unsure how Link to SD plays into making a nandroid, if it's all copied and restored properly. I haven't really tried that yet.
Update: And again, FolderMount was not linking my pairs this morning. I haven't tried to ask for help on that issue since the Nabi's storage is all funked up by default. FolderMount had an update so I will see if that changes anything. Also of note, I haven't upgraded to the latest Nabi update either.
While I was in there, I checked that I used all 2 GB I alloted for Link to SD (I should have done at least 4 GB) on the external. FolderMount has about 7 GB on the external.
Sent from my SCH-I545 Dev Edition using Tapatalk 2
Hi thanks again for the advice.
Am I right in thinking that most apps are composed of just two components, one component being the apk itself (which can be moved to external using link2sd), the other being the data (which can be moved to external using foldermount).
Is this right??
If-so, then IF I am using the disk-usage app correctly, then almost all of my sons apps are in the apk bracket with hardly any usage on the data aspect.
So if this is the case, then I wouldnt much need to use foldermount, and would simply need a huge partition on the external SD to have all the apps (apk's?) moved to. If that is the case, then I dont think I would bust the nabi2's internal memory with the data as theres hardly any of it.
Am I then right in thinking that after moving all the stuff via link2sd that my internal memory would be almost all empty, and all I need to do in future is 1: Buy new app and download, 2:Link2sd the new app, 3:Hand tablet back to son and all done.
Am I understanding it all correctly so-far please?
Thanks
Alex
PS: You mention nandriod.... whats nandroid?? Thanks.
Yes. apks are the apps. You've got the idea.
A nandroid is a term used for the backup image made while in custom recovery (TWRP on our Nabi 2s). It's like ghosting your PC. If you mess up after, you typically can restore that backup nandroid and make it like nothing ever happened.
I'm guessing the apps moved with Link to SD will not exist when the external SD is ejected. And, not backed up in the nandroid.
Ok thanks for that.
Well I have a spare 32gb sd card so my plan is:
1: Backup the nabi using twerp onto my existing sd card
2: format and prepare new sd card
3: remove ext2sd app in case it conflicts
4: put new sd card into nabi
5: Install link2sd
6: attempt to move apps over onto the external sd and see what happens
hopefully, the internal memory should get nice and empty, while the external memory slowly fills with the other stuff.
Then if it works, I can download all his missing apps and move each one to external sd
Fingers crossed.
Cheers
Alex
alexbobspoons said:
Ok thanks for that.
hopefully, the internal memory should get nice and empty, while the external memory slowly fills with the other stuff.
Then if it works, I can download all his missing apps and move each one to external sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alex,
Were you met with success? I'd like to clear out my daughter's Nabi 2, but I'll go your route if it worked. Also, has anyone found a way to save pictures or videos to the CD card by default?
I've seen many posts about low internal storage space, but none of the solutions that I have seen seem to work. I've attached two screenshots to try to show the issue.
Basically, even on a fresh install of a ROM, it shows roughly 2gb of free space internally. After what few apps that I use, it shows around 1GB free. I've checked and can't seem to find any CWM backups or anything taking up the extra space. I coudl be looking in the wrong area, but everywhere I have tried turns up nothing. When I use "Disk Usage" it shows that "System Data" is using up about 7GB out of ~9.9GB of internal storage.
Where is the other 6GB that should be showing up in Disk Usage? It shows up under Storage in the Android settings menu, but then it shows a bunch of files in Miscellaneous that I can only assume are the system data files previously mentioned.
It almost seems like the phone is split into two partitions (which from what I understand, is true) but instead of writing the ROM to the system partition, it is instead installing the ROM and running it from what would have been the 9GB or so of usable space that's supposed to be available to users.
Am I missing something obvious here? What could be causing this? As you can see from teh screenshots, the apps, music, pics, etc are hardly taking up any space at all, yet there is very little space available.
Actually, I guess this was my screwup. I thought that I had deleted all of my CWM backups. Turns out I seemed to have missed one that had about 6+GB of files in it. No idea how I missed it the first few times through. But unfortunately, I can't delete posts here at xda. At least I got my space back though!
Sony ****ed up on this. See, this phone has an 8GB Internal storage. But 4 is used by Android, about 1 and a half by the apps pre installed, but because of the fact that you can't download anything from Play when I reach 500MB left in storage, I'm left with 2GB or so. Now I got an SD card, a 64GB one, to deal with this very problem. Now I'm a gamer, so naturally I wanna download some games. Obviously, games take a bit more space than your average app. So the solution is to have it install to external by default, that is the SD card. But for whatever reason, despite having 60GB left, I apparently have no space in external, I can't install anything. So the first thing I try is to, and painfully so, delete enough things on the internal to fit this smaller 500MB game. And it works. Clearly, it thinks the internal is the external, and so does all apps that show what is internal and external. Apparently I have two externals. Google Play isn't the only problem. If a game is looking for the data to it, which is typically found in obb, even if I have it in the actual SD card it searches in the internal thinking it's the external. Even the OS itself, the settings app, gets confused. Reading that, for an example, 500MB of the app is on the external, when it really still is on the internal. So how do I solve this? I'm willing to root if necessary.