My better half has a Sony Xperia M4 Aqua with 8GB* internal storage, she is constantly getting notifications that the phone apps are out of date but there is not enough storage on the flash memory to update the apps.

I have put a 16GB micro SD card into the phone but even after i have transferred all photos and media over the phone is still struggling for space.

Some Apps are on the SD card too but it seems like these need to updated on the flash memory then be transferred back over to the SD card again which is possibly where the problem lies.

Any one got any tips or advice on what i could do?
A list of bloat wear that can go?
Should i just confine the phone to the drawer and try and pick up a Moto g with 16GB storage?

* of that 8GB storage Android system and pre-installed apps seems to take up 7+GB

Factory reset. Run the update. Reinstall apps.

If all photo’s/media are on the memory card can you not erase the memory, update the OS and reinstall the apps you want?
This is exactly why I stick with the vanilla phones now like Nexus 5X, no shit on there I never use/need!

Check the photos folder for thumbnails. Last time I was hitting weird storage issues, over half the phone’s memory was taken up with thumbnail images for long-deleted pictures going back years.

Some Apps are on the SD card too but it seems like these need to updated on the flash memory then be transferred back over to the SD card again which is possibly where the problem lies.

That doesn’t seem right to me. Some apps are locked to the SD – typically anything that needs to be present on boot, like apps that provide widgets.

One other thing to try before a factory reset, go to settings, storage, then press on cached data and clear that.

Wow, quick responses, I was not expecting this – she has just gone out with her phone and won’t be back till later this afternoon i’ll take a good look then and see if i can check off some of the above.

Just looked on mine and I have nearly 2.5gb on cached data, usually clear it every couple of weeks.

My better half has a Sony Xperia M4 Aqua with 8GB* internal storage, she is constantly getting notifications that the phone apps are out of date but there is not enough storage on the flash memory to update the apps.

Yes I had this exact phone, A phone so inadequate that it didn’t have the storage to install its own updates, yet FULL of useless crap from Sony. Also, the bootloader on mine was locked down so phone couldn’t be rooted to get rid of the bloatware and install a slimmed-down ROM.

I had everything set to use SD card (photos, docs and every possible app) and cleared out cached data regularly. It made little practical difference. I had to run minimal apps, and nothing storage-hungry. No Pinterest, no games, etc. If I wanted to install a new app, or run updates, I would have to delete an app first, then try to reinstall it later.

Absolute joke of a phone.

In the end I bit the bullet and bought myself a proper phone that actually works. I was going to keep the M4 as a “spare” to take out on my bike etc, but in reality I never have, and, now you have reminded me, will probably cut it in half with an angle grinder today 🙂

@hebdencyclist

Seems a shame to take an angle grinder to it, apart from the 8GB flash storage the rest of the spec of the phone is alright.

If only there was a way for the phone to see some of the SD card as internal storage.

Another convert to Nexus phones for this reason. No bloatware, no need for external storage. Cheaper android phones are not very good – just built to look cool and be cheap.

Right then,
I have just got her phone back, cleared the cached data and transferred as many of the apps tot eh SD card as possible. There is now an outstanding 881MB of available space on the phone. There is however 26.34GB of available space on the memory card.

I have exactly the same issues with my (nearly) brand new Galaxy J5, 8GB. Downgraded from an S5 which I now bitterly regret. Also have a huge Micro SD card which is set to store photos etc. Also have to shift apps back on to it on a weekly basis when they reinstall themselves on to the internal memory. Sends you scatty!!

It’s just constant firefighting – as above, uninstall apps, run updates, reinstall apps, empty caches, swear a lot and probably eventually buy a half decent phone 🙁

Download and run ccleaner

In my very limited Android experience older version 5.1 expanding memory via SD doesn’t apply to apps only to photos and video. As I understand it more recent versions you can put apps on the SD card

I’ve just noticed the phone is running Android 5.0 which could be updated to 6.0 if i do the update via a computer and some companion software – anyone know if 6.0 is better or worse for memory usage and adaptability to sore more stuff on a SD card?

Whatsapp user? Check those folders. Quite ridiculous way of storing any images or videos received or sent. For example, if you received a picture then forwarded it to 10 friends, android saves 10 copies of the picture in the Sent folders. Absolutely pointless.

I also discovered recently that due to the latest android update, my podcast app wont save downloaded episodes on the SD card. All held internally due to the new Android rules. Deleting them freed up 6Gb!

Same phone, same issue. It is a joke, hate the phone. I regularly run Ccleaner, which does the trick. But because many Apps can’t be run from the SD card, I have the absolute minimum number of Apps

I’m on android 6 here – and on Moto G can use the memory card as internal memory. I have 40gb internal now. 8)

Eldest _oab has the Sony the op has – full of bloat ware and nothing like as good as the various MotoG incarnations in the house…

@hebdencyclist

Seems a shame to take an angle grinder to it

Yep what I left out is that the phone also developed a number of hardware faults. Namely a spontaneously cracked screen (known issue) and an intermittent fault with the SIM mount (known issue) that meant that, regularly and for no reason, the phone would decide that there was no SIM in it. Even though there was.

The phone is no practical use any more, plus I’m paranoid about my data, so angle grinder it is 🙂

I’ve just noticed the phone is running Android 5.0 which could be updated to 6.0 if i do the update via a computer and some companion software – anyone know if 6.0 is better or worse for memory usage and adaptability to sore more stuff on a SD card?

You may run into problems if you want to load a ROM that isn’t an official Sony update. I found that the bootloader was locked and couldn’t be unlocked on my M4, which prevents sideloading. Which sucks. This is how an Apple user must feel all the time 😀

On the other hand, if it is an official Sony update, you’ll find that the phone doesn’t have the space to run it 😀

@hebdencyclist

Quick update on this, i found THIS site and it looks like it is possible to set a portion of your sd card as adoptive storage. I have just done it after a few hours of pulling my hair out.

Before you get greedy it seems to work best if you figure out what proportion 8GB of the sd card storage is and make that and only that 8GB the adoptive bit, the rest stays as external (im figuring i can shove the pictures and music etc to this)

My missus phone is now saying it had 9GB of available storage so hopefully it will have a little room to breath when updating and installing apps etc.

Some quirks i used to get it to work
In Developer Options I enabled OEM Unlock as well as USB Debugging and i had to set the USB configuration to RNDIS to get the partition to work.

You could try *#9900#

I had this issue a while back. The problem I think was that every time you drop or connect to WiFi it writes a log. This clears the log.

Had this phone too , biggest pile of *’%&# ever. Also had the cracked screen that Sony deny is a problem it was resigned to the bin after 8 months I wouldn’t even give it to my 5 year old .

Buy a cheap Chinese phone on eBay just do some google searches for positive reviews first.

A couple of days in and it seems to be working ok.

If it stops working or something goes wrong i’ll just stump up the £150 for a Moto G4 in 16GB for her.

I’m on android 6 here – and on Moto G can use the memory card as internal memory. I have 40gb internal now.

Thanks for this – just bought a Moto G4 a couple of days ago. Just configured a 64GB card as internal memory, and hey presto, a 70GB plus internal memory phone.

If it stops working or something goes wrong i’ll just stump up the £150 for a Moto G4 in 16GB for her.

Just got one of these, very impressed so far. Screen resolution is indistinguishable from my work Samsung S6 Edge, but the camera in low light is somewhat worse. £150 is a bargain.

Have the same heap of junk – bought in a pinch from Virgin after my old phone died.
Exact same issues, not enough memory for its own operating system, “loses” the Sim card and SD card retaining clip is broken, overheats and shuts off, restarts itself at random…and I’ve still got to pay for it for another 6 months. It’s been sitting in the drawer since it was 6 weeks old as it’s completely unusable and Virgin didn’t want to know.

Moto G4 looks like a bargain, is it any good?

My wife had the same phone with the same problems. Manually deleting the whatsapp cache helped. Will try your link also.

@ Import,

The spec of the moto g4 looks good, it appears to have lost the IP rating of the moto g 3rd gen (i have one of these i use as my work phone) but other aspects seem better.

I thing i am liking more and more is the moto phones come with plain android and no additional stuff. This means things like the adoptive storage of android 6 are available with that version where as with the Sony M4 Aqua you need to prick about to activate that functionality.