Problems with updates and low storage

[Yaroslav95]

Hi! I am having some problems on the way updates are being managed on Windows 10 Mobile. Yesterday my phone decided that it would be a good idea to download updates without my consent (as always) but the problem is that my phone didn't have enough space for the updates, so instead of notifying me about that first, and then proceed to download the updates when there would be enough space, it decided it would be a good idea to download updates anyway.

Now I'm stuck in a situation where I have no storage left at all for anything, and it is asking me to free like 950MB, which I could only do if I delete all the apps that are on the phone storage, since I can't move all of them to the SD card. Some apps, like WhatsApp - which I use daily, can't even function anymore because of this. I mean, I didn't even wanted the updates in the first place.

Obviously I don't want to delete all my apps, so I would like to know if there's a way to delete the update files and prevent Windows 10 Mobile from downloading them again, or maybe a way for Windows 10 to store the update files in the SD card. I really feel like the update system in Windows Phones as well as in Windows PCs is broken and not really thought through.

My phone is a Lumia 550 with 8GB phone storage. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[AV2RY]

Why dont you connect your phone to PC and copy your media files there. Then delete them from the phone. Install update, and then move back your files

 

[Yaroslav95]

The problem is that all my media files are in my SD card. Besides the few apps I can't move to the SD card or delete (WhatsApp, Telegram, my bank's app, Windows' default apps etc.) there's nothing else on my phone's storage.

 

[AV2RY]

The problem is that all my media files are in my SD card. Besides the few apps I can't move to the SD card or delete (WhatsApp, Telegram, my bank's app, Windows' default apps etc.) there's nothing else on my phone's storage.

Delete WhatsApp, it's probably taking ?300mb. Then reinstall it when you are done. If you want backup WhatsApp, use OneDrive

 

[EspHack]

you can stop them now there's a thread on XDA about interop unlock for x50 lumias, so all you have to do is set your device model as 920 and done

 

[Yaroslav95]

Delete WhatsApp, it's probably taking ?300mb. Then reinstall it when you are done. If you want backup WhatsApp, use OneDrive

I wouldn't have written in this forum if I would have settled on that solution (like I didn't think about that before). My point is that I do not want to uninstall and reinstall apps everytime my ******** phone decides it's a good idea to update (even though there's no space for them).

So I am looking for a more permanent solution, i.e. ban updates from downloading and installing without my permission and/or delete/move the update files.

 

[Yaroslav95]

you can stop them now there's a thread on XDA about interop unlock for x50 lumias, so all you have to do is set your device model as 920 and done

Thanks a lot for being the first on prodiving an actual and useful answer. Do you have a link to the thread?

 

[EspHack]

vcREG: lumia reg editor + interop unlock. No… | Windows 10 Mobile

not sure if the newest interoptools app can do it by one click, but you will need it anyway https://mega.nz/#F!iZMhSSzI!sGQy4V12ubfvT8Abm2Uo1g

after that go into interoptools > registry browser > local machine > system > platform > targeting > phonemodelname change that entry to lumia 920 and thats it, no more updates until you revert to 550

be aware that I haven't done that myself since I dont have a x50 device nor have I seen anyone do that but logic says it must work just like it does for my older phones

 

[AV2RY]

Originally posted by Yaroslav95

Originally Posted by AV2RY
Delete WhatsApp, it's probably taking ?300mb. Then reinstall it when you are done. If you want backup WhatsApp, use OneDrive

I wouldn't have written in this forum if I would have settled on that solution (like I didn't think about that before). My point is that I do not want to uninstall and reinstall apps everytime my ******** phone decides it's a good idea to update (even though there's no space for them).

So I am looking for a more permanent solution, i.e. ban updates from downloading and installing without my permission and/or delete/move the update files.

Whoa, easy there. You said your WhatsApp (and other apps) isn't functioning. I gave you simple [maybe] solution to at least get that back to work - install update, then reinstall app. I do not know how to stop updates, mine (925) never did that, just says update is available and never downloads until I do manually

 

[EspHack]

Whoa, easy there. You said your WhatsApp (and other apps) isn't functioning. I gave you simple [maybe] solution to at least get that back to work - install update, then reinstall app. I do not know how to stop updates, mine (925) never did that, just says update is available and never downloads until I do manually

thats on 10586, 14393 will simply warn you about an imminent restart, if you're lucky enough to see the warning, sometimes you will simply find the phone with spinning gears

 

[TechFreak1]

thats on 10586, 14393 will simply warn you about an imminent restart, if you're lucky enough to see the warning, sometimes you will simply find the phone with spinning gears

As such was the case when I went away on holiday... these updates sure make for a "fun" experience :grincry:.

@Yaroslav95, currently there is no way other than interop unlocking your phone to "defer" / stop updates.

 

[Yaroslav95]

Whoa, easy there. You said your WhatsApp (and other apps) isn't functioning. I gave you simple [maybe] solution to at least get that back to work - install update, then reinstall app. I do not know how to stop updates, mine (925) never did that, just says update is available and never downloads until I do manually

Sorry if I seemed rude. Well the reason that WhatsApp isn't working, it's not in the sense that the app itself will refuse to open or work, but that there's not even space enough for the text messages, so I can't receive or send any messages. And yeah, in Windows 8/10 pre-Anniversay Update you could choose when to download the updates, but it seems like it isn't the case anymore.

As such was the case when I went away on holiday... these updates sure make for a "fun" experience :grincry:.

@Yaroslav95, currently there is no way other than interop unlocking your phone to "defer" / stop updates.

With the current state of afairs, I am more than willing to risk bricking my phone.

I don't get this trend that's been going on for the last couple of years of forcing people to download and install updates. It should be the people's choice to do so. I really think this could be considered a violation of our freedom of choice as customers (I mean, yeah, I know, we agreed to some licence "terms & conditions", but like we have another choice). I believe that customers shouldn't be forced to install updates whenever Microsoft, Google or Apple; or any other software/hardware vendor decides, different people have different needs.

In the end I think they should just create reasons so that customers feel compelled to update, and not force them to do so.

 

[TechFreak1]

With the current state of afairs, I am more than willing to risk bricking my phone.

I don't get this trend that's been going on for the last couple of years of forcing people to download and install updates. It should be the people's choice to do so. I really think this could be considered a violation of our freedom of choice as customers (I mean, yeah, I know, we agreed to some licence "terms & conditions", but like we have another choice). I believe that customers shouldn't be forced to install updates whenever Microsoft, Google or Apple; or any other software/hardware vendor decides, different people have different needs.

In the end I think they should just create reasons so that customers feel compelled to update, and not force them to do so.

They are approaching this model for I believe for several reasons, I shall outline two below:
1) In order to leverage user voice interaction with Bots and subsequently the AI they will need to collect voice data which will always encompass addresses, contact names, numbers and other personal data. So it is paramount that security and privacy is attended to asap therefore by relying on users to update on their own can leave them vulnerable to exploits.

On the flipside, pretty much all terms that you sign upto these days allow companies to change their TOS without prior notice. Only to provide you notice after the terms have changed. They can easily embed additional telemetry with subsequent updates, telemetry is always be a double edged sword - it depends how it is used.

2) It allows for them to have base line O/S thus keeping fragmentation as low as possible therefore in theory allowing them to be able rectify issues easily but in reality that is not the case.

However when you combine poor planning and frequent auto updates you may end up a lot more fragmentation as like PC's not everyone uses the same combination of applications (or ROMS - true for android).

Never the less I agree that users should be given the choice to update especially with Phones (I can see the reasons behind), I have had not very pleasant experiences with WaaS on my phone. However that is just my experience whereas others have had no issues at all so your mileage will vary.

 

[EspHack]

They are approaching this model for I believe for several reasons, I shall outline two below:
1) In order to leverage user voice interaction with Bots and subsequently the AI they will need to collect voice data which will always encompass addresses, contact names, numbers and other personal data. So it is paramount that security and privacy is attended to asap therefore by relying on users to update on their own can leave them vulnerable to exploits.

On the flipside, pretty much all terms that you sign upto these days allow companies to change their TOS without prior notice. Only to provide you notice after the terms have changed. They can easily embed additional telemetry with subsequent updates, telemetry is always be a double edged sword - it depends how it is used.

2) It allows for them to have base line O/S thus keeping fragmentation as low as possible therefore in theory allowing them to be able rectify issues easily but in reality that is not the case.

However when you combine poor planning and frequent auto updates you may end up a lot more fragmentation as like PC's not everyone uses the same combination of applications (or ROMS - true for android).

Never the less I agree that users should be given the choice to update especially with Phones (I can see the reasons behind), I have had not very pleasant experiences with WaaS on my phone. However that is just my experience whereas others have had no issues at all so your mileage will vary.

well dont "leverage" any of that on devices that are not up to date on "secure" software then, thats it, the store on pc asks you to get the latests cumulative in order to get X game, that's common sense right there

and you just auto-answered the 2th, it could actually create more fragmentation, you see, it used to be that the enthusiast community was on the latest or close to latest software while the rest of the world would stay at whatever version the device shipped with, so essentially you would have everyone on vanilla 10240 & 10586 & 14393, but now it further splits up into 50~ minor .xxx cumulatives for each version, each average joe getting fed up and asking his geek friend for a solution (disabling wuservice) so now I'm pretty confident they have very big chunks of people on random "old" builds and minor build revisions

 

[TechFreak1]

well dont "leverage" any of that on devices that are not up to date on "secure" software then, thats it, the store on pc asks you to get the latests cumulative in order to get X game, that's common sense right there

.

Well, that also means pinging users to say either after each update is rolled to and getting their machines to send anonymized software version data or once a month to avoid "leveraging" devices that are not update to date. To the untrained eye such requests will look malicious i.e. the ill-researched forbes article.

and you just auto-answered the 2th, it could actually create more fragmentation, you see, it used to be that the enthusiast community was on the latest or close to latest software while the rest of the world would stay at whatever version the device shipped with, so essentially you would have everyone on vanilla 10240 & 10586 & 14393, but now it further splits up into 50~ minor .xxx cumulatives for each version, each average joe getting fed up and asking his geek friend for a solution (disabling wuservice) so now I'm pretty confident they have very big chunks of people on random "old" builds and minor build revisions.

and you just auto-answered the 2th, it could actually create more fragmentation, you see, it used to be that the enthusiast community was on the latest or close to latest software while the rest of the world would stay at whatever version the device shipped with, so essentially you would have everyone on vanilla 10240 & 10586 & 14393, but now it further splits up into 50~ minor .xxx cumulatives for each version, each average joe getting fed up and asking his geek friend for a solution (disabling wuservice) so now I'm pretty confident they have very big chunks of people on random "old" builds and minor build revisions

Yes, I auto answered - I gave you both sizes of the coin.

It is important to look at every single angle in order to determine the best possible outcome however no amount of planning will make anything foolproof.

In regards to fragmentation there is another element that needs to be considered and these are the cheap laptops / notebooks that ship with 32gigs of storage. Where in reality the user only has less then 10 gigs to store any data including updates therefore such atrocious decisions need to stop.

Microsoft has to mandate that minimum storage space is 64 gigs going forward as I do not see them stopping this Windows as a service mentality anytime soon as it's become their core philosophy.

There are insane number of these cheap laptops that cannot update due to the lack of space.

In terms people on various build revisions and random "old" builds that will always be the case for a) the aforesaid reason b) not all updates are "user friendly" due to the insane combinations of hardware on the market and in use.

 

[EspHack]

well they dont seem to care, 8gb phones and 32gb or even 16gb tablets have to endure this nightmare, not to mention lots of hardware configurations and even popular OEM computers where a certain hardware has a newer driver available which causes total mayhem and WU just keeps pushing it, with the optional tool that hides them -TEMPORARILY- with their reason being that the driver maker will fix it later, oh good luck with that and a 3 year old laptop

this forced update method is helping no one, it was always possible and normally the most common case to see WU in full auto mode for most people's computers, if updates were actually helping at least 90% of the time, then there would be no argument against them being mandatory, why would anyone go and mess with the default auto update mode if it was actually doing good?

 

[EspHack]

I found out you can delete temporary store/update files just like on pc, heres a nice guide [GUIDE] Delete "Temporary files and Pre… | Windows 10 Development and Hacking

this finishes solving your problem OP

 

[beachedwhale42]

No longer works. There is no Phone/Data directory.