Lumia 920 - storage problems

[Ianl1]

Getting some strange issues with my phone storage. Apologies if that has already been answered but I had a search and couldn't see an answer.

I keep getting messages to say that my phone has no space left, but that makes no sense. When I look at phone storage, all my apps, photos, system files etc add up to about 15GB, but yet it says that I have used 29GB. Is there some memory leak that causes this to happen?

I've tried deleting apps, photos, videos, temporary files, but nothing gets me close to freeing up that 15GB.
I've tried downloading a few apps, such as Shrink Storage (which didn't load) and Storage Cleaner (which did nothing) but nothing works.

Anyone any ideas how to reclaim that memory??

Thanks

 

[Nerdy Woman]

This does not sound good. It's possible that you've installed an app that is abusing your phone. Since you had the problem prior to installing Shrink Storage and Storage Cleaner - both of which may have done something, but not what you wanted them to do (I'd avoid 3rd-party apps that mess with the file system) - it may be some other app.

It sounds like it might be time to rebuild your phone. Since you didn't mention the OS version, I'll assume you're running 8.0 and not the 8.1 Developer Preview. It's not as painful as it sounds. Windowsphone.com has a list of every app you've ever installed and after rebuilding, it's easy to reinstall all those apps. Sign in to windowsphone.com with the same ID you use on your phone (click where it says Explore My Phone - not very intuitive that), then hover on your name and go to Purchase History. Go look now if you've never seen it. It will reassure you that this will be good.

Start by backing up your phone. In the settings, there's a backup setting that will automatically send your phone's information to OneDrive.

Download the Nokia Software Recovery Tool. I can't post a link in the Ask a Question forum (locked down to prevent spammers), but if you search for that here in WPC, there was an article about that published in February that provides more information and a link to the Nokia site. It does require installation on a PC and a USB connection to your phone.

In the about setting, scroll to the bottom and choose Reset your phone. There's more information at windowsphone dot com in the How-To section. Go to Support and Troubleshooting (look for the big blue square with a wrench icon). Under the Choose a Category heading, don't click the droplist arrow. The 3rd question down is "how do I restart my phone..." Click that. In the list on the left, select Reset My Phone.

After resetting, see if all that vacant space is available. You may not need to go through the recovery tool. Now, reinstall apps one at a time, this time starting with the newest first (skipping the two storage apps you mentioned), and check storage after each one. I suggest reversing the installation sequence because if this problem started recently and is caused by an app, you'll find it sooner. Uninstalling it may not fix the issue and you might have to reset and reinstall apps again...

If it does turn out to be an app, please report it to Microsoft using the report app link in the Windows Phone store.