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My hard drive on my smartphone has 100 MB free, and the app I'm trying to install is 2 MB.

I just recently deleted apps totalling to about 88.3 MB, and the computed size has already been adjusted, and is displayed on the screen.

However, I have to wait 10 or 15 minutes to install it.

It's as if the updated, computed space is not registered in some way to the operating system immediately.

It's Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, no root, no unlocked; factory pre-set all the way(not for long though).

So, basically, is that the problem? Why do I have to wait a while after uninstalling apps, and re-computing space availability to above par to install a new, extremely small app, to actually work?

Is this all the OS's fault, or is something else at play here(e.g., hard drive or circuit-level operations reigning outside the control of just the OS software)?

Because if the re-computed size is what it's going to be, at least let the end-user know that rather than give the impression that you have the available space, but it won't install anything.

Izzy
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  • How much is "plenty of space", applied to the device's internal storage? I've just added the insufficient-memory tag to your question. Please take a look at its tag-wiki: As soon as free space on internal storage drops below ~25 MB, that error is triggered during new installs (i.e. that includes the new space required). If there's more than 30 MB free currently (taking into account the additional requirements), you might try whether a reboot "updates some stats" to fix it. – Izzy Oct 10 '13 at 10:59

3 Answers3

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This can be caused by having any partition full, so you can try clearing your cache and other partitions that might be full. I'm guessing it's the cache since it clears out by itself.

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If you root your device, then you can do the following to get more free space to install more apps.

  1. Install DiskUsage
  2. Run DiskUsage and choose [Root required] -> "/Data"...

Then you will see how much storage "/data/data" and "/data/dalvik-cache" uses. As far as I know you can delete the content of them both and reboot without having any problems or losing anything other then temp files. I have done this several times.

To delete the content of any file inside /Data, you will need a root file explorer, not all of them out there works. I am using "CyanogenMod File Manager", but that's not on Google Play.

Hope this helps.

GAThrawn
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patchie
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Rebooting your phone may fix temporary anomalies, but if the app storage location is full you may need to do more. Note that many devices also have a data storage location, which can contain some of the app data.

Try an app like App Manager (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd) to see how much space is left and, if you have a SD card (which may have a slot, or may be permanently inside your phone), you might be able to move some apps from "phone" storage to "sd card" storage. Phone storage is at a premium, so if you can move some apps to the SD card you'll be better off. Not all apps let you move them, though.

ProjectJourneyman
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