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Android/Smartphone memory issues

Segnosaur

Penultimate Amazing
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
21,080
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Canada, eh?
Here is a question...

I have an older Android (Motorola) cell phone. Its about 5 years old at this point.

It was never a high-end phone, but I'm not a person who necessarily needs the latest and greatest technology. (Yeah, I'm a luddite.) It supposedly has 32GB of memory, which should (in theory) be enough for me. But I keep running short on memory.

Here's the problem... the biggest user of memory seems to be Chrome. When I go into storage settings it has:
App size: 22.5MB
User Data: 5.91GB
Cache: 26.66MB

I clear the cache regularly. The problem is the user data.

Why exactly is user data taking up so much space? (I know I will eventually have to clear it out, but I just hate to worry about redoing any passwords it might have stored in user data.)

Unfortunately, the version of Android I have doesn't allow you to selectively clear out stored memory, nor does it give you a break down of what the memory is used for. (I have a friend who's smart phone does give them a break down.... "clear cookies/clear history/etc." but my phone doesn't do that.)
 
If you cannot fix it to your satisfaction, buy another phone. Do not spend any money on it.
If you are worried about losing passwords then ensure it is saved to the cloud, then go into Chrome settings and delete everything.
 
"Documents & Data" in Chrome can take up a fair bit of space. Mine take up 500-odd MB.

Can you find the list of documents? (I'm on iPhone/iPad so can't help with that bit.) Maybe there are some needing deleting.
 
Not a huge fan of chrome- it seems to be quite 'memory hungry' on android (my old phone only has 16gb of ram, and I ended up deleting chrome to run firefox, its a lot less memory hungry on small phones...)
Probably not what you wanted to hear, but it was the only solution I found that worked with my phone...
 
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I'd be more concerned about using a 5 year old phone with security issues if used on the web, is Motorola still releasing security updates for it?

ETA: Does it have an SD card slot? If so you can use "Adoptable storage". I found I had to use that with my 32Gb android tablet, otherwise I was constantly running out of storage.
 
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I'd be more concerned about using a 5 year old phone with security issues if used on the web, is Motorola still releasing security updates for it?

ETA: Does it have an SD card slot? If so you can use "Adoptable storage". I found I had to use that with my 32Gb android tablet, otherwise I was constantly running out of storage.
Looks at my 2009 Sony and laughs
(it's secure- its browsers that old that it wont even work at all anymore- surprisingly, kindle still works and downloads ebooks (gotta use the wifi at home though- it's that old that the cell service doesn't exist here any more for it)
Makes a good ebook reader/music player though...
 

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Unfortunately, the version of Android I have doesn't allow you to selectively clear out stored memory, nor does it give you a break down of what the memory is used for. (I have a friend who's smart phone does give them a break down.... "clear cookies/clear history/etc." but my phone doesn't do that.)
You should be able to go through Settings > Apps > Chrome and find a memory\cache entry that'll allow you a "clear" option.
Although depending how much important information you have on the phone you may want to, as Darat says, upgrade, especially if you use it for your primary e-mail
 
Phone tech moves forward without the permission of luddites. I am one.

The G2 service is gone, G3 phones are on the way out as G5 becomes king and later versions are developing.
Providers rent only so much space on towers and stay with the stuff with the most users.

I use older phones to the bitter end making them wifi tablets in the last leg of it.
But now my Android 4 Galaxytab2 is useless online as it's browser and memory size aren't adequate for even basic stuff. It became a Solitaire and Mahjong platform. It's in perfect condition.

That Andy 6 phones are getting useless, Andy 9 G3 still holding but can't do some newer apps.
It's the size of the RAM/storage. The ones that hold on longer can use the SD card as extension to phone storage.
 
"Documents & Data" in Chrome can take up a fair bit of space. Mine take up 500-odd MB.

Can you find the list of documents? (I'm on iPhone/iPad so can't help with that bit.) Maybe there are some needing deleting.
There is a separate list of documents that I can access, that I clear out regularly. (I assume chrome is also downloading files that I can't see...)
 
You should be able to go through Settings > Apps > Chrome and find a memory\cache entry that'll allow you a "clear" option.
Although depending how much important information you have on the phone you may want to, as Darat says, upgrade, especially if you use it for your primary e-mail
There is a clear option... but like I said, this version of Android doesn't give you the option to select exactly what you're clearing... just nukes everything. (Which may be the alternative I go with...)
 
I'd be more concerned about using a 5 year old phone with security issues if used on the web, is Motorola still releasing security updates for it?
Yes, it still regularly gets patched. (I sometimes have to clear all my cache space to get it to install the updates but it does work.)
ETA: Does it have an SD card slot? If so you can use "Adoptable storage". I found I had to use that with my 32Gb android tablet, otherwise I was constantly running out of storage.
It does have an SD card, and I have managed to move photos onto it, which helped to a degree, until Chrome got more and more hungry.

(My older phone allowed me to actually move applications to the SD card, which was great, but newer versions of Android don't seem to allow that.)
 
Have a look at Android Go. Might be useful on older, lower spec handsets.
Interesting.. never heard of Android Go.

(Although it does specify that its designed for phones with <2GB, and mine is a lot bigger... its just the one memory hungry app that seems to be the problem.
 
Yes, it still regularly gets patched. (I sometimes have to clear all my cache space to get it to install the updates but it does work.)

It does have an SD card, and I have managed to move photos onto it, which helped to a degree, until Chrome got more and more hungry.

(My older phone allowed me to actually move applications to the SD card, which was great, but newer versions of Android don't seem to allow that.)
Yeah electing to install or move apps to the SD card was removed quite a few versions ago.

However adoptive memory means the phone will add the SD capacity to the phone's capacity. It is then transparent to apps and yourself. But you need to decide to use Adoptive memory when you first put in a new SD card and once committed you are stuck with it. Because of this if you are going to use adoptive memory ensure it's a good reliable manufacturer of SD cards.
 
My issues were 2GB RAM wasn't enough to get some pages to load. 16GB storage won't take much if you allow automatic updates on the unit.

I strip out social media, games and app stores save one. Disallow updates and use the phone storage (now 128GB + 128GB SD)
for pictures and video storage.

The previous phone is 4/32+64GB and works fine. The main use is as a tablet and video camera. It too is stripped of bloatware as deep as possible.
 

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