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So, I recently got a notification that space was running out on my 128GB phone. Looking at the segmentation then, the system files was taking about 45 GB data while my other stuff was taking around 75GB. Pretty normal so far, and I thought, okay, why don't I move my photos over to my desktop, which I did. Freed up around 15 GB and I went on my day.

However, soon enough, I get notified I am running out of space again. This time, I looked and the system files section was taking around maybe, 60 something GB? I thought, that's strange, I just cleared all my photos. What's going on! So I went on deleting apps. I ended up almost deleting everything, just to find that system will grow to consume it within hours. Feeling defeated, I decided to wipe my phone using the option within settings.

So, all was well with backing up and wiping, and I set up the phone again and all that. All went well until I woke up next morning, just to find that I am running out of space again... I was quite shocked. So I wondered, maybe it's something with the apps I installed. So after the phone was almost non responsive complete because of space issues, I did a second wipe. I restored the back up this time, while leaving out some of my other large games that was initially taking up around 35 GB total. I was suspecting games are usually culprit if something's wrong, but wrong. Storage kept increasing after the second wipe and half a day later, got my storage running out again. Which forces me to do a third wipe.

Before my third wipe, I read online that persistent viruses can sometimes nest within the back up. So this time around, I reinstalled my phone without restoring anything. I also only installed malwarebytes and arrow file manager to explore what's going on. I took the precaution too not to add any google accounts except one and completely avoided wifi at initial set up until malwarebytes is up. And unfortunately, the system file size growing issue still persisted. Within half a day, I got this: system file bloating issue

Running out of options here... Any suggestions how I can bust open what's in system files to see what's going on? Or if anyone feels compelled to help me look more into this, I can help provide logs using methods you peeps proposes. For now, I already ordered a temporary cheap phone, so this phone will be available for multiple wipes until I figure out how to reflash a factory image I am trying to get from the manufacturer. Thanks!

Isa
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  • Does this answer your question? How disk space is used on Android device? – Irfan Latif Sep 29 '21 at 17:43
  • No, I am interested specifically in system, not apps. Also, the side question here actually is, why does system increases like that without doing anything. Plus, the link sent doesn't really help tell you how to secure root access to get the directory of the system portions, which will be helpful for me to figure out what might be the culprits doing things within system files. I have not rooted my phone and it is not unlocked. – Isa Sep 29 '21 at 17:50
  • The second last sentence: This system usage is shown as "System".... It's not possible to understand a part of it without looking at the whole picture, which mostly users are not interested in though :) – Irfan Latif Sep 29 '21 at 17:55
  • First, I don't know enough to run the commands you did. Can you explain that? Second, you simply said system is data/system* and data/misc*, but what's in them you didn't explain. It wasn't people are not interested, it's that most people will read it but don't even understand what you wrote. Plus, if the whole point is to understand everything behind it, what's the point of asking for help? I can spend a month on research and learn about it, but that defeats the purpose of asking questions about an issue to resolve it sooner than I can myself, instead of learning all concepts behind it. – Isa Sep 29 '21 at 18:09
  • because your "system" storage increased from 45 gb to 60 gb after you deleted 15 gb pictures - I believe your gallery app has trash can (which is probably synced to https://photos.google.com) – alecxs Sep 29 '21 at 20:42
  • @Isa "System" is not /data/system* and /data/misc* alone, it's the whole /data filesystem used except the shared storage (/data/media). The pace at which the space is being occupied indicates that it could be some sort of logs growing up. But without root it can't be investigated with certainty. Though ADB might be able able to access some of the directories inside /data, or possibly some system APIs can be used. – Irfan Latif Sep 29 '21 at 20:58
  • @alecxs The transfer was not made over the air, and my google photos trash can is empty as a result. Either way, that wouldn't explain at all why system files still continue to grow after each complete wipe. But thanks for telling me about the emulator, I never knew much about android at all and it's all new to me. I was trying to type the commands that Irfan has so let me see what happens with it. Ty! – Isa Sep 29 '21 at 23:11
  • Try DiskUsage and post a screenshot of the file distribution. Though, without root access, unfortunately it cannot access the internal storage which might be more relevant for this issue. – Andrew T. Sep 30 '21 at 02:49
  • my suspected was something is syncing huge data from cloud, as I understand it started growing after adding one google account and enabling wifi. Of course if that also happen without any internet connection at all, it is some serious issue. complete reinstall of ROM/firmware will stop it. Very interesting case, maybe let logcat run (although it's a hassle to analyze logs) – alecxs Sep 30 '21 at 07:39
  • Just an update, the manufacturer actually allowed me to use codes to get to the OEM logs. And apparently, it's not an OEM log problem since none of them were on. We will be flashing the device sometime this week. – Isa Oct 18 '21 at 16:01
  • @AndrewT. I actually used that DiskUsage thing and it the system still appears as a block since the phone was not rooted. – Isa Oct 18 '21 at 16:02
  • @alecxs I can probably run logcat and post it if you are interested. But I am flashing it regardless with the manufacturer's help over the next few days if all goes well. – Isa Oct 18 '21 at 16:02

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