How does Android deal with storage?

bit · May 31, 2018

I've had a Tab S for a while, originally used as a teaching tool so I didn't bother rooting it or whatever and have happily used it since. However at the time I could only afford the 16gb version, so after a year or so I bought an SD card for it. However recently I've been constantly running into "Your storage device is full can't update apps" etc etc. It said I had about 500mb left free. So I go and move some of my apps (with application manager) from internal to the SD card. It now says "300mb being used on external SD" or whatever. I did this with about 2gb worth of apps yet the system claims I only freed up 300mb? And today it says I cannot update my apps that are on the SD card since my internal has once again reached it's limit (despite not installing any new apps). The built in storage whatever says 13.6gb are being taken up by my apps, so I tap on that which takes me to Application Manager, so being as autistic as I am over these things I added up each app listed there and it totals about 11gb (it's actually a bit less but i'm giving it some leeway here).

So like, where's my data going? Why can't I update an app that is supposed to be on my SD card since my internal magically says its full again? Why didn't I actually clear up a lot of space when I transferred the apps? Is there data that has to be kept on internal or is being kept there that the system just isn't bothering to mention since they figure I wouldn't care or notice? Is android just doing dumb stuff about how it counts data?

Should I just back up everything important and root and install a custom rom? What else can I really do at this point? I'm mostly just frustrated that no matter what I do I can't free up space.

Darkseth · May 31, 2018

It probably only moves certain "app data" over (like Login information, Cache etc). The app itself stays on the internal storage.

One of the reasons, why Internal storage is not always replaceable by an SD Card^^

It does sound stupid but.. try something like Clean Master. usually you don't need it, but it can free some space quite good, because some junk keeps collecting for no reason. had some times where it freed me like 2-3gb~

Donut417 · June 1, 2018

8 hours ago, bit said:

I've had a Tab S for a while, originally used as a teaching tool so I didn't bother rooting it or whatever and have happily used it since. However at the time I could only afford the 16gb version, so after a year or so I bought an SD card for it. However recently I've been constantly running into "Your storage device is full can't update apps" etc etc. It said I had about 500mb left free. So I go and move some of my apps (with application manager) from internal to the SD card. It now says "300mb being used on external SD" or whatever. I did this with about 2gb worth of apps yet the system claims I only freed up 300mb? And today it says I cannot update my apps that are on the SD card since my internal has once again reached it's limit (despite not installing any new apps). The built in storage whatever says 13.6gb are being taken up by my apps, so I tap on that which takes me to Application Manager, so being as autistic as I am over these things I added up each app listed there and it totals about 11gb (it's actually a bit less but i'm giving it some leeway here).

So like, where's my data going? Why can't I update an app that is supposed to be on my SD card since my internal magically says its full again? Why didn't I actually clear up a lot of space when I transferred the apps? Is there data that has to be kept on internal or is being kept there that the system just isn't bothering to mention since they figure I wouldn't care or notice? Is android just doing dumb stuff about how it counts data?

Should I just back up everything important and root and install a custom rom? What else can I really do at this point? I'm mostly just frustrated that no matter what I do I can't free up space.

Stock Android (Directly from Google) has no SD card support. Its the 3rd party guys like Samsung that add the support in. Many devices wont even let you move apps to SD card, as SD cards of lower quality can cause slow downs. Generally as far as SD cards are concerned, when I had a phone that used one, I would put pictures, videos and music on them. App always went on internal storage.