Source
r/AndroidQuestions•
HP40

System Data is using more than half of the space on my new phone

OP Replied

I'm new to android. I got my first android, a LG Escape 2, about a week or two ago and it was working great, I was loving my first taste of android. But then it told me that I didn't have much space left. As I only had 8GB of internal storage, I thought it could be remedied with an SD card.

I went out and bought an SD card, then I moved as many apps and files as I could to the 32GB I now had. Okay, all done; I had more than enough space to download apps instead of being limited, right?

Well now "System Data" is taking up more than 5GB of space on my phone and I've moved all that I can to the SD card. I don't have enough space to download literally anything and I'm not really willing to do a hard reset and lose all of my (small amount of) apps and files.

What can I do? Or is this normal?

Posted Mar 21, 2016, 8:28 PM UTC

611
Kytosion88•

Aside from rooting the phone and deleting some of the useless apps pre-installed onto the system, you can't do much about it.

It is normal for the system to take up that much, since the carrier and manufacturer fill up low-end devices so there's little room to actually be utilized. The Android OS takes up roughly 3-4GB on its own, then the manufacturer and carrier throws all their stuff on it.

I recommend buying a phone with at least 32GB of internal storage.

4
HP40OP•

Is there anything I can do to remove the bloatware without rooting my phone and voiding the warranty?

1
Kytosion88•

No. Even if you were to remove (deleting the files) the bloatware from the system, the space wouldn't be usable as it's apart of the system partition of the phone. The only option to make that space available would be to repartion the phone, which is a tedious and complex job if you're not familiar with Android.

1
HP40OP•

How about a way I can use more of the SD card or make it so downloaded apps don't go through the internal storage?

Sorry, I'm new to this so these might be stupid questions.

1
Kytosion88•

What version of Android is it running? If it is running the latest (6.0 Marshmallow), you can make the SD card the internal storage (the SD card will be used for everything, and nothing will be stored on the actual internal storage).

2
TheLeEdward•

This is a problem I'm dealing with myself. I have a LG G Stylo that has 16g internal memory. Then a few months after I got it, I suddenly started running low on space. So I uninstalled a ton of apps I didn't use very often. Then again, low on space. I moved and deleted pics and videos. Better. Then low space again. I noticed System Data slowly growing over time. Then suddenly it's ~6g. This is difficult to deal with because I can't save squat directly to my 32g SD card because of no permission crap. So I have to move everything from internal to external. Why all the sudden, this system data, is bigger than all the apps I have. It was about 4g not too long ago. Now it is on the edge of 6g. How is this? Why would you spell a phone with 16g internal memory when you eventually can only use ~10g or less. Same with my sisters phone. She can't do anything because all her 8g phone can hold is this system data crap. I found little help on this with Google. The stuff I got this phone for can't be done because of this. Well anyway, is there really not much that can be done about this? Did op get this dealt with after all?

3
HP40OP•

I never managed to "fix" it. I just kind of deal with it and keep only essential apps on my phone. Every once in a while I open file manager and move everything I can into the SD card

Good luck with your phone

2
LawfuI•

Generally your OS is going to take up a lot of space on your phone.

You are suggested to buy phones with high internal memory, to combat the lack of space after your OS deducts what it needs.

16-32 gb phones are the best, wheres older 4-8 gb phones are going to run into this problem quite a bit.

You can't really do anything about it, except move everything to your SD and just install new apps on your internal storage, then move them to SD again.

Some phones however, have the option of letting you install apps directly onto your SD.

1