memory usage

[Guest damole]

Hi

When I bought my Optimus 2X the specs read, 512MB RAM, 8GB internal storage. I have since added a 32 GB microSD card.

Now recently I purchased N.O.V.A. 3 from Gameloft which installed OK. Since then I bought Ashphalt 7 which refused to install with the error, 'There is insufficient space on the device'. Now a new update for N.O.V.A. 3 has been released and I get the same message. I even uninstalled N.O.V.A. 3 and another game and tried to install Ashphalt 7 but received the same message and now I can't even install N.O.V.A. 3 anymore.

So my question is about what the numbers in the applications and storage on the phone mean.

In SD card and phone storage in the Settings menu, my phone shows:

SD card : total space 29.71GB, available space 25.64GB

Internal SD card 5.5GB, available sace 1.20GB

Internal storage: available space 0.99GB

In the Applications menu:

All shows, internal storage:423MB used, 1.0GB free

On SD card shows, SD card storage 4.3GB used, 1.2GB free

What is the difference between internal storage and internal SD card. When I move applications to SD card, is it moving them to the internal or external SD card?

cheers

damole

[Guest mankian]

Hi

The phone has a few different storage area... they are as follows:

System, typically ~300mb, this holds the operating system only and you can not see it.

Data, typically 1.5GB, this holds all your downloaded applications and settings for these applications. This would be "Internal Storage"

Internal SD, 5.5GB, as it says on the tin. It acts as an SD card but it is completely internal to the phone. I guess its so you can take photos/etc without having to buy an SD card.

External SD, again as it says on the tin. The SD card that you installed into your phone.

So I hope that explains the difference between Internal and Internal SD. When you move an application to SD card I ASSUME it means external SD but someone else will need to confirm this.

Finally I have no idea why you have an out of memory error. 1GB of free Internal Storage is more than plenty for any app!!! The only thing I can think of is that your Cache has become full. To empty it is quite difficult unless you know a thing or two about the phone?

[Guest damole]

Thanks for the reply.

I will post a question on the Gameloft forums to try and find out why the games won't install.

cheers

damole

[Guest Almahadeus]

These Game take loads of space with their additional downloads. Just install the game normally than start the additional download for a small bit only (like a 100mb) to create the additional data folders on your internal SD. Following that use a great app called (Directory Bind) that you can google and download from XDA Developers to just move your additional download folders onto your external SD card and resume your downloads. I have 8 gameloft games running on my 2X with no problems.

[Guest damole]

Actually I get this error just downloading the stub app from Google Play. I never get as far as the additional download stage.

[Guest mankian]

You need to clear your /cache partition I think...

Is your phone rooted? If so, do you have clockworkmod installed?

If you are not rooted the only way is a factory reset.

If you are rooted, install Rom Manager (free) from google play and flash clockworkmod recovery. Then reboot into the recovery and use the menu to wipe your CACHE partition (do not wipe anything else)

[Guest Almahadeus]

Actually I get this error just downloading the stub app from Google Play. I never get as far as the additional download stage.

Then just move your previously downloaded data onto the external SD using 'Directory Bind' first to make some space for the new stuff.

[Guest damole]

Sorry for the late response, I'd been away and then moving countries so no time to do anything about this so thanks for the suggestions.

I just factory reset the phone in July to solve a wireless hotspot problem, the suggestion was from LG support, it worked. I'm not sure how the cache works in Android and whether it should be cleared automatically periodicaly or has something gone awry with my phone.

I had also been waiting on an ICS update from LG before rooting the phone but as that always seem to be at the end of the rainbow I'm now planning, to root my phone after I've read and educated myself properly about how it works.

I used to be a NextStep programmer in the distant past which is BSD Unix based so once I get into it I'm sure it will be fairly straightforward.

cheers

damole

[Guest damole]

I finally rooted my phone and installed ClockworkMod. I wiped the cache partition but I'm still getting the same error when trying to install.

[Guest damole]

After waiting a while for official LG ICS, seeing it released but not for my UK carphonewarehouse model yet I decided to install Cyanogenmod 7.2. Now everything is working fine and I can install my new games.

Strangely, although I had read about this somewhere, the internal SD and external SD are now reversed so /mnt/sdcard is the external card, previously accessed via a link and the internal card is /mnt/emmc. Now I re-installed all my apps from TitaniumBackup and everything is on the external card and nothing on the internal. It actually works quite well because the internal was getting full of games on the old stock Gingerbread.

Of course it means I'm stuck having to keep this card in the phone all the time. As I've read something about a new filesystem for ICS I'm sure all this has been sorted out. It always surprised how many things after having them, seem like they should have always been there from the beginning. Soon I'll be back home and have plenty of time to get to know the Android OS properly and hopefully create my first app.

cheers

Aidan

Edited January 7, 2013 by damole