How is the internal space managed?


eXtremeDevil

Members
Jun 13, 2020
23
15
Hi, this is probably a silly question, in the sense that the answer is simple, and yet right now I'm a bit lost. My total internal storage capacity, according to Windows when my phone is plugged, is 226gb. Also according to Windows, and file managers on Android, all the content is taking 180gb. So far so good. But on Windows I see free space: 16gb. So, 226 - 180 = 46. Removing the 16gb free, that leaves me with something unknown taking 30gb. Is it the system, the apps, the apps data? If it's the system, I think 30gb is way too much. If it's the apps, also I think it's too much. If it's the app's data, that's actually OK, but I thought that data is usually on the internal storage. If not, were could it be?

I think this is a mix of all the three, but, to be certain, I would like to know a way to check the system size, the apps size and the apps data size. Can this be done? Thanks!

EDIT

OK, just found out that system is taking about 14gb and this is already excluded from the total capacity shown on Windows, so, I still don't know where the 30gb occupied space may be coming from.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for making a new post instead of an edit, but there's new info and I think it should be separated. So, I've been playing around with the df and du command, and here are the results. I've deleted a 40GB folder from internal memory so forget about the numbers on the first post:

df output:

Code:
Filesystem                      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/data/media                     226G  160G   67G  71% /mnt/runtime/default/emulated

du output:

Code:
104M    /data/adb
36K     /data/anr
14K     /data/apex
13G     /data/app
3.5K    /data/app-asec
3.5K    /data/app-ephemeral
3.5K    /data/app-lib
3.5K    /data/app-private
3.5K    /data/app-staging
0       /data/app-tmp
1.3M    /data/backup
3.5K    /data/bootchart
14K     /data/cache
906M    /data/dalvik-cache
9.2G    /data/data
0       /data/data-tmp
3.5K    /data/dpm
11K     /data/drm
3.5K    /data/extm
7.0K    /data/gsi
1.4M    /data/local
3.5K    /data/lost+found
18M     /data/magisk_backup_7d97454e4da0aa16d84783dfc5b6e31f1ca44c15
131G    /data/media
3.5K    /data/mediadrm
25M     /data/misc
66K     /data/misc_ce
105K    /data/misc_de
3.5K    /data/miui
2.8M    /data/mqsas
11K     /data/nfc
3.5K    /data/ota
3.5K    /data/ota_package
3.5K    /data/per_boot
3.5K    /data/preloads
12K     /data/property
11K     /data/rclone
260K    /data/resource-cache
40K     /data/rollback
3.5K    /data/rollback-observer
4.5K    /data/ru.bkqovrzm.cvkvlilxi
4.5K    /data/ru.guhkdbvd.bioxbkqve
4.5K    /data/ru.tsglwgsm.qdvpylesc
3.5K    /data/sdcard
7.5K    /data/server_configurable_flags
3.5K    /data/ss
59M     /data/system
4.0M    /data/system_ce
289K    /data/system_de
3.5K    /data/tmp
18K     /data/tombstones
27K     /data/unencrypted
306M    /data/user
805M    /data/user_de
168M    /data/vendor
18K     /data/vendor_ce
7.5M    /data/vendor_de
156G    total

I have a couple of questions here. Is it the /data/media from df equal to /data folder? If they are, according to df there are 160GB occupied, but according to du theres 156GB in use. Where are the 4GB left?

Also, if those paths does not relate to the same thing, according to df there are 160GB occupied on "/data/media", but according to du theres 131GB in use in "/data/media". Where are the 29GB left?

I hope my questions make sense. I feel like I'm missing something here about how spaces a partitions work on Android, so let's hope someone can clarify me that.

Thanks!