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My Galaxy Tablet 10.1 has almost 14 GB of storage. Currently, it's about 13.5 GB full of stuff, but I have no idea what. Recently, when I have tried to install some apps, I get an error saying there is not enough space.

I have tried to clear out all unneeded apps, and cleared the data from apps I do have. For example, the Firefox app had the most data, at about 100 MB, so I cleared it out, but the difference was negligible. All my downloaded apps combined are nowhere near 1GB in total.

My device is rooted, and I have ES File explorer, so I went looking to see if there were any log files taking up space, but after extensive searches, I can't find any log files more than a few kilobytes in size.

I can't figure out what is taking up all the space on my tablet. How can I clean it up?

Questioner
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6 Answers6

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The entire Android System is extremely Storage Intensive.
When trying to understand the seriousness of the dilemma, you must investigate how Android takes up so much compared to other operating systems.

Let's begin by looking at the very first stage of Android - Booting. boot animation

Here we can see that the Entire Animation on Start-up is actually a ZIP folder filled with Images - if you compare this to Windows using a simple BMP image - you'll start to see how the simple boot animation can take over 100 times the space requirements.

NOW we'll look at a single applications images,
Each APK file has every image it needs inside the RES folder of the source - this RES folder seperates all Screen Sizes on Different platforms res folder

As you can see, Android uses a seperate folder of images for every single screen size - comparing this to other software platforms, you can see that this takes about 14 times the space compared to Resizing Larger images with scaling.

This is built-in as the default programming option, however you can just resize the images in runtime.

THESE 2 Examples should bring light to the way Android handles storage space requirements.

Empire of E
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If you go to storage in settings, you can see a basic breakdown, I'm guessing apps wont be the biggest, however look to see if pictures and videos; audio; downloads; cache or misc. is taking up a lot of space and click on the relevant entry to have further actions (clearing cache, deleting downloads, etc..).

If this option isn't available in settings (it is in aosp, but may not be in touchwiz), try searching the play store for a comparable app (see @user284oo6).

ollie299792458
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  • This may have worked. Under Storage -> Misc there was a file caled 0 that was 9 GB in size. I took a chance on deleting it, and my tablet seems to be running fine. I hope it wasn't important, but I can't imagine any one file that needs to be 9GB in size. – Questioner Aug 18 '14 at 15:48
  • It wont have been, the important files are hidden or in app data, if this solved your problem you could mark it as the solution, happy to help – ollie299792458 Aug 18 '14 at 15:50
  • I just wanted to give it a little time to make sure I hadn't broken anything. But if you're sure it isn't some kind of critical system file, I guess we're good. Thanks for the help! – Questioner Aug 18 '14 at 15:51
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Clear the cache in settings >> storage then try. Sometimes Google Play will stop apps from installing when you have low space but if you clear your cache then you should be crime until you have to clear it again or when you actually run our of space.

Lucas
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If nothing helps, please consider your deleted items might went to Trash so you thought you delete some files, but those are moved to Trash on your Android device. To clean your Trash and set nothing goes there or choose the holding duration:

To check the Trash on your Android device:

  1. Go to Gallery
  2. Click on three dots on top-right corner
  3. Click on Trash
  4. Click on Empty on top-right corner
  5. On pop-up section, click on Empty Trash with some items will be permanently deleted. (Be sure if you want to delete them really)

To set Trash duration to delay the delete procedure:

  1. Go to Gallery
  2. Click on three dots on top-right corner
  3. Click on Setting
  4. Advanced > Trash > de-activate as gray color (Keep for 15 days e.t.c.)
  5. Turn off Trash, all set.
Bay
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  • I am not able to find trash option. I check on android pie 9 and android 5. Trash option not available. – aliz lopaz Mar 15 '21 at 09:02
  • From Samsung Galaxy Store : Samsung Gallery --> You should have this app on your Android device to use Trash feature. Probably, it seems to me that your mobile phone's brand name is different than Samsung. – Bay Mar 16 '21 at 10:17
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I found large unnecessary files in: [...MyName]\Android\obb\com.ea.game.nfs14_row - there were two large files each almost 1 GB [such like main.1420.com.ea.game.nfs14_row.obb ] Did it by connecting tablet to computer, and checking all hidden files. At first tried clear cache, clear big files (audio, video) but nothing helped. Even did not understand which files take such size because system shows little app size. Blame my five year old for installing and reinstalling too much apps :)

kestutis
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You can take backup and erase data. When I did this on android 10. It free up around 4 Gb.

You can backup WhatsApp and photo on google. You can get free space.

aliz lopaz
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