Storage Space Issue, need Help! Downgrading my Firmware

[Blind X]

Hi everyone!

 

P.S: Sorry for a lengthy post

 

I have this device "Sony Xperia X Performance" from the year 2016 updated to android 8.0 Oreo which still works like a champ for daily use as it has a 'Snapdragon 820' and has decent battery backup which is why I don't want to dump it. However am having an issue for quite some time now with it. My device's storage space is running out and I have no idea as to why that is happening. I figured out that my System is taking 11Gbs of space which is quite a lot for android. Another 8Gb of space is being taken by Apps alot of which is Japanese bloatware which I can't uninstall so I have disabled it and 3Gbs of space is being taken by files which has WhatsApp Databases and some other stuff.

 

So now I am left with 7Gbs of storage out of 31Gb which is not enough for my WhatsApp images and videos which I cant move to SD Card. However images and videos from my camera are moved to an Sd Card as well as the music and movies.

 

Sony also has disabled the option to format card as internal so I have no options here too.

 

I tried everything to recover some space on my internal storage and failed to do so. I even tried deleting cache for apps that I frequently use which free up around 1.5-2Gbs of space but its use less as they fill up again in a week.

 

Now I don't want 15Gb of more space on this phone which I know is not possible. It will be more than enough for me if somehow I am able to free 6-8Gbs of storage as it will remove the Storage space running out error and my WhatsApp Images, Videos and Documents don't need more than that as I keep deleting them quite often.

 

So now the only way I can think of is downgrading my android firmware back to the stock android 6.0 and somehow make storage taken by the system back to the usual 3-4Gb apart from apps. I think that the journey to Android Oreo is what makes my System take 11Gbs of space as I had to upgrade it to 7.0 Nougat before Oreo. So jumping back to 6.0 Marshmallow is what will get mo to 4Gbs of space taken by the system which I know will be enough for me as I am not a power user and for simple day to day use and WhatsApp it will be enough.

 

Please tell me if I am mistaken with what I think and If I am right please briefly guide me as to how I could achieve my goal.

 

Any help in this regard will be highly appreciated. 

[rcmaehl]

• Backup everything
• Unlock bootloader (this will wipe and reset your device)
• Root using this guide
• Consider switching to Lineage and a newer android version
• Nuke the preinstalled apps
• Install and Run SDMaid

[paddy-stone]

Jesus, 32GB storage is pants... I have trouble keeping my 128GB storage sufficiently empty. I do have the option of using a microSD for Android storage, BUT I would lose 1 sim slot as it['s a shared slot, and unfortunately where I live I need both sims to cover the areas I frequent as there are dead zones.

I have just picked up a USB type-C + USB 3.1 gen 2 type-A card reader though, and have some other USB type C USB drives to help with this... would that be an option for you, using a USB OTG device?

[RageTester]

There are file managers that allow changing the default file directories, but I haven't found a perfect solution yet.

[Blind X]

10 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Have WhatsApp back up everything to the cloud. Back up everything important to your computer or external drive.

 

Remove phone unlock password. Remove all Google accounts attached to your phone. And then do a complete wipe.

 

This is probably your best chance at freeing up as much storage as possible.

 

Good luck. Perhaps next time get a phone that exceeds the internal storage you need.

By 'wipe' do you mean factory data reset?

 

Its worth to give it a shot as I am annoyed of the space issue but do you think it will do the work? I don't need to free up alot of storage as I said 6-8Gbs is good enough.

 

And I know that I don't need more than 32Gigs as Internal storage as all what I use my phone is for calling, watching movies, using youtube and whatsapp so more than 32Gbs don't make any sense. Also I didn't had any problem back when I had android 6 as it didn't took that much space.

[Blind X]

11 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

• Backup everything
• Unlock bootloader (this will wipe your devices)
• Root following this guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-x-performance/how-to/guide-stock-kernel-root-twrp-drm-fix-41-t3711837
• Consider switching to Lineage and a newer android version: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-x-performance/development/rc-lineage-16-0-xperia-x-performance-t4078375
• Nuke the preinstalled apps
• Run SDMaid

Its too much for me to understand. I don't even know the meaning of alot of terms here but since you say it this confidently it makes me think that it will do the work for sure.

 

However I will need a little help here. Can you guide me through this procedure and tell me what I am actually doing?

[Blind X]

14 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Jesus, 32GB storage is pants... I have trouble keeping my 128GB storage sufficiently empty. I do have the option of using a microSD for Android storage, BUT I would lose 1 sim slot as it['s a shared slot, and unfortunately where I live I need both sims to cover the areas I frequent as there are dead zones.

I have just picked up a USB type-C + USB 3.1 gen 2 type-A card reader though, and have some other USB type C USB drives to help with this... would that be an option for you, using a USB OTG device?

 

As I said

5 minutes ago, Blind X said:

I know that I don't need more than 32Gigs as Internal storage as all what I use my phone is for calling, watching movies, using youtube and whatsapp so more than 32Gbs don't make any sense. Also I didn't had any problem back when I had android 6 as it didn't took that much space.

 

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, Blind X said:

 

As I said

 

Well you "said" that after I posted, so had no way of seeing that did I.

[RageTester]

Cure for current problem and not the cause: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.bukacek.filestosdcard&hl=en_US

Files To SD Card app

[Blind X]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

Well you "said" that after I posted, so had no way of seeing that did I.

 

Ok well, sorry about that 

35 minutes ago, Blind X said:

Now I don't want 15Gb of more space on this phone which I know is not possible. It will be more than enough for me if somehow I am able to free 6-8Gbs of storage as it will remove the Storage space running out error and my WhatsApp Images, Videos and Documents don't need more than that as I keep deleting them quite often.

I really didn't ran into this issue back when the system wasn't taking this much space and I am not a fan of android 8.0 that I would allow giving my precious space to it. All I want is what I had back then, a smooth experience, and probably won't upgrade my android unless I have a phone that has 64Gb of internal storage or more

[Blind X]

13 minutes ago, RageTester said:

Cure for current problem and not the cause: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.bukacek.filestosdcard&hl=en_US

Files To SD Card app

Thank you for mentioning this app. Seems to work as I am using it right now to transfer my files to sd card. If things go successful I will then connect my phone to pc and delete the files from my Internal storage.

 

Thanks once again as if everything goes well I had free up around 10 Gigs of storage

[Blind X]

2 hours ago, RageTester said:

Cure for current problem and not the cause: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.bukacek.filestosdcard&hl=en_US

Files To SD Card app

OK so I figured out that my DCIM folder was using 6Gbs of space but when I look into it there were about 100 files totaling at around a 200Mbs so I enabled to the option too see if there were any hidden files and I found a '.thumbnail' folder within the DCIM folder in which there were 2400 images and 2 files with some unknown extension which were aqquiring 2.7Gbs of space each. I deleted them and they were gone but surprisingly it had absolutely no affect on my storage space. I was standing right where I was and moving my whatsapp files will take alot of time and its only 5Gbs but 28k items so its quite painful.

[Blind X]

2 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

• Backup everything
• Unlock bootloader (this will wipe and reset your device)
• Root using this guide
• Consider switching to Lineage and a newer android version
• Nuke the preinstalled apps
• Install and Run SDMaid

I was reading thorough about what you mentioned and I came to knew that I can't unlock my bootloader since it says in 'Bootloader unlock allowed: No' in the service info menu of my device.

 

The other steps comes after it and it seems like I can't root without unlocking my bootloader either. So can u tell me how can I proceed or is there no other way?