insufficient storage available for Android device

[NAC]

A billion hits come up when I search for "insufficient storage available", mostly to android forums. None of the cures I found helped me.

The device is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, claims to have 4.2 gigs of device memory used, and 422 megs of device memory free. The 32 gig memory card is almost entirely emtpy. Yet with every app that I try to install, I get the "insufficient storage available" error. I've tried to install link2SD, which some sources say will solve the problem, and that app is under a meg yet I can't install it.

Can anyone help?
My only hope left is to throw the thing in the trash and buy an iPad.

 

[Crono]

Try removing/uninstalling some apps to clear up some storage first before attempting to install link2SD.

Otherwise you can try backing up the data on your phone and do a full reset.

 

[NAC]

I've uninstalled a bunch of things - hence I now have 422 megs of space available. Or so it tells me.

 

[Crono]

I've uninstalled a bunch of things - hence I now have 422 megs of space available. Or so it tells me.

It's possible the internal storage is corrupted or the OS is otherwise messed up (I'm not an expert, just my guess).

I would do a full reset, and if that doesn't fix it, I would look to have it replaced if it's under warranty.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Instead of link2sd use foldermount to move the in-app downloads to the SD card. Get like a gig free.

 

[NAC]

I'm not sure what you mean by foldermount. But I have it connected to my PC... I guess I can just delete stuff directly from the device this way. If all else fails, I'll restore to factory settings.

I'd sure like to know where the heck the 422 megs of space is.

 

[Crono]

I'm not sure what you mean by foldermount. But I have it connected to my PC... I guess I can just delete stuff directly from the device this way. If all else fails, I'll restore to factory settings.

I'd sure like to know where the heck the 422 megs of space is.

It's an app for rooted Android phones.
And yes, you can clear files manually, but the fact that 422 MB is supposed to be free and it isn't means you might want to restore to factory just to be sure you don't have any space issues later.

 

[lopri]

I had a similar experience with my N7 when I was a total noon on Android and didn't understand the file system at all. In my case it was me that was the culprit in that I was fiddling with the app-to-sd style function of 3rd party app. More specifically I tried to manually assign where each and every appears being installed.

Problem went away when I realized the virtual nature of Android file system and left everything "auto."


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[XenIneX]

Possibly a full cache partition. If you have a custom bootloader installed, clear the cache and Dalvik cache.

 

[benzylic]

Possibly a full cache partition. If you have a custom bootloader installed, clear the cache and Dalvik cache.

I had a POS android phone and this would sometimes work for me. You might also try to clear the Play Store cache from phone settings, and maybe the data. If you clear the data, you'll have to relogin in I think but thats no big deal.

 

[gorcorps]

I ran into a problem like this. Never could isolate the issue 100%, but believe it came down to not completely erasing the device after some rom changes. I made sure to reformat everything I could entirely before installing another rom and it never happened again.

 

[Hunt3rj2]

It's probably the cache partition.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Last time I had this problem, it was because of a billion old NANDROID backups for old ROMS. The new ROM picked up that the space was used, but couldn't tell me what for.

Of course this may only apply if you're rooted.

 

[preapps]

You might have to check for the virus or some apps which are taking a large space on your device. By using factory resetting you can clear up the data stored and can start working from a crash. I also had the same problem and at the end of applying all possible techniques I had to do so.