Applications

Storage issues

On a system with small internal storage and optional external storage (microSD card), storage issues may occur because a lot of applications and their data can’t be stored in the external storage.

It’s not possible to store WhatsApp app or data in the external storage. It requires manual deletion of data. To delete all data go to Settings -> Storage. Open Misc, check WhatsApp and click on delete icon. To backup the data (most importantly, the Media directory), access the internal storage file system by connecting to a PC, Windows is easier. Then copy the required directories. This way one can also delete selectively and/or move this data to the microSD card.

Facebook messenger app tends to accumulate a lot of data too. To delete, go to Settings -> Storage. Open Misc, check com.facebook.orca and click on delete icon.

Periodically: Go to Settings -> Storage and click on Move data to microSD card, until it’s not possible to move any further data.

When accessing the internal storage by connecting the cellphone to a Windows computer via USB, the file operations are prone to failure without warning. Check the sizes of the source and destination directories, and try to test a few of the copied files to ensure they were succesfully copied.

For this reason, when backing up the WhatsApp media directory to other location, it’s better to just copy to a new directory instead of trying to update a previously backed up directory.

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