Recovering App Space

[hwcheng]

I brought my milestone :motdroidhoriz: for service. For security concern, I wipe it out after taking it back. Something interesting happens:

After re-installing previously installed apps, I have an extra 40mb recovered. Don't know why? :icon_ banana:

Any inspiration? Possibly the space has been "occupied" by "uninstalled apps" and not released after uninstallation. Any tool that help to recover? Can't find any in the forum, seemingly... :icon_eek:

umm... to be more specific, the app space use reported from 153mb to 113mb. And well, the number of installed app is 63. Anyone dares to try to replicate the same?... :heart:

 

[jsh1120]

I'm guessing that the recovered space represents the data and cache that had accumulated from your apps' operations.

 

[hwcheng]

I'm guessing that the recovered space represents the data and cache that had accumulated from your apps' operations.

Yes, I guess so. But shouldn't that be all removed during uninstall?

 

[jsh1120]

I'm guessing that the recovered space represents the data and cache that had accumulated from your apps' operations.

Yes, I guess so. But shouldn't that be all removed during uninstall?

Uh, no... If you use Astro (or some other file explorer) you may well find folders for apps you uninstalled a long, long time ago. My assumption is that this is the intended operation to deal with instances in which you uninstall/reinstall an app and want to save the user data.

You didn't say how you "wiped" your phone but when you reinstalled the apps you may have overridden that behavior. Say with a "hard reset?"

Of course, another explanation may be that the older versions of apps you had on your phone are larger than the more recent ones you reinstalled or that you simply installed the same number of apps, but not exactly the same ones.

By the way, you might want to check out www.appbrain.com to keep a list of all your apps installed from the market. It makes reconfiguring your phone much easier if you have to do so. There's a small app on your phone that synchs with a list maintained on the website.

 

[Sweettooth]

This is more or less on topic but I read in another thread that you can gain back small amounts of space using Astro. All you do is back up your apps to your SD card, uninstall them, then reinstall them. I have noticed a minute space increase but there's a downside and a bit of irony.

The downside is obviously whatever you uninstall takes all your progress with it; if it's a standard app then you're likely ok, but if it's a game then you're SOL.

The irony is that most of the "big" apps which are normally the graphically intensive games, are somehow locked and can't be backed up. Like I said, it's not going to gain you back a lot of space but it was an interesting find.

 

[hwcheng]

I'm guessing that the recovered space represents the data and cache that had accumulated from your apps' operations.

Yes, I guess so. But shouldn't that be all removed during uninstall?

Uh, no... If you use Astro (or some other file explorer) you may well find folders for apps you uninstalled a long, long time ago. My assumption is that this is the intended operation to deal with instances in which you uninstall/reinstall an app and want to save the user data.

You didn't say how you "wiped" your phone but when you reinstalled the apps you may have overridden that behavior. Say with a "hard reset?"

I did a factory reset for security. I restored all apps using a backup program, which backed up only .apks.

Are there any tools to remove those unwanted data/cache? I'm not rooted.