Storage details - other category

[Dancsi31]

i have this problem on my Lumia 820 (8GB internal storage + 16 GB MicroSD card), but I was able to free up some space with this app.
Download and install Shrink Storage from the marketplace (free app). Run it and just follow the 4 steps. I had 1,55 GB used by Other and after using this app, the Other went down from 1,55 GB to 1,01 GB (so the app removed almost 600 MB of unused/crap/temp files) which is not bad. If it doesn't work for the 1st time (for example, the free space didn't changed that much), just load the app again and redo the 4 steps a second time.

I also changed the email download/sync time for both of my email accounts (Hotmail/MSN and Google) from unlimited/no limit to 3-7 days (max 2 weeks) or if you don't use the Google email app on your phone (like me, only for sync Contacts), you can uncheck Email and Calendar from the Google account setting, leaving only Contacts as sync. Yuo can free up 100-200 MB with this too. I also disabled Skydrive's auto upload feature (for videos and photos) too in the phone.

 

[sheldork]

Double post :sweaty:

 

[sheldork]

When is the announced update coming to all the nokia windows phone 8 devices?
I am not able to install zuma (198 mb) on my lumia 820.

I have free disk space of 1.26 gb which I reclaimed by getting rid of almost every app that I ever installed which holds more than 20 mb.... (Good God, I AM that desperate to install Zuma)
Edit:

I installed asphalt 5 and uninstalled it, got 1.27 GB space now, but still can't install it.

 

[Dancsi31]

I received the 1308 update (Nokia Lumia 820 aswell) this Monday if I remember correctly, over Wifi. I installed it and in Settings, there is now a Storage Checking tool at the end of the settings list (just under Network+)

You can now delete unused files from the phone (including in the Other category)

When is the announced update coming to all the nokia windows phone 8 devices?
I am not able to install zuma (198 mb) on my lumia 820.

I have free disk space of 1.26 gb which I reclaimed by getting rid of almost every app that I ever installed which holds more than 20 mb.... (Good God, I AM that desperate to install Zuma)
Edit:

I installed asphalt 5 and uninstalled it, got 1.27 GB space now, but still can't install it.

 

[Exotic Hadron]

Gentlemen, could it be the same issue we are aware of for Windows 8? Since both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 share same core the issue could be same here. The known fact is: Windows keeps ALL the unpacked versions of APPX files installed ever in %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps folder. That's a hidden folder with the ACL owned by the special TrustedInstaller SID, but if you look at it under an elevated process such as Windows Explorer, or, easier, FAR Manager, you'll see the folder holds multiple copies of same apps:

Moreover, uninstalling apps does NOT clean the app folders, they are kept there in the %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps folder. Could it be the same issue with Windows Phone, I wonder?

So it could be, Windows Phone keeps all unpacked XAP files there, in the phone's memory and marks it as 'Other' (because they aren't really apps, they are SFXes, only unpacked or deflated). All in all, what seems to happen when you install an app or update it:
1. Windows stores its XAP to phone's memory and keeps it for the sake of recovery
2. XAP are also unpacked into their program folder
3. When you update an app, it downloads a new XAP, stores it, and unpacks to its own program folder, keeping both the old program folder and its corresponding XAP intact. That's each and every time you update an app.
4. When you uninstall an app, Windows unregisters its contracts in Windows registry, removes some XAML files that represent the entry point for the app, but that's it, it does not remove any other content, neither it removes any assemblies.

So what I suggest for the time being (that all is my assumption I don't know if any piece of it could be true by any chance):
1. Try installing/updating apps from a SD card ONLY (when your phone supports it).
So instead of tapping Install/Update, do the following:
1. Go to windowsphone.com and download a XAP from there.
2. Save the downloaded XAP somewhere on your PC (it is not possible for some reason to download right to the SD card).
3. Copy the downloaded XAP to the SD card (you can copy to the root of the card, or you can create a folder on the SD card, like .\Apps, and place the XAP there).
4. Wait for some time (I don't know how much, that's all mystic when Windows does a refresh to scan the SD card) and open the Market app.
5. Now you'll see the SD Card category added in the end of the list of standard apps, music, etc. categories.
6. Open that category and you'll see (or you won't when Windows did not a lookup for the XAPs on your media yet) the copied XAP archives there; install from there by setting a check box next to apps).

I wonder if it could help anyhow, but who knows.

On top of that, on Windows 8, every app has its own isolated folder where it keeps its work files, like Mail keeps every attachment you've ever received, IE keeps its own cache which is separate from the cache used by the Internet Explorer Desktop. That's a lot to learn about Windows and it seems like it has many features that haven't yet been finished. Say you have defeated DLL hell problem, well welcome, %systemroot%\WinSxS and %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps that both keep a gazillion of different versions of assemblies used by .NET applications. Hope MSFT is aware of this and is working on it.

How do you like this on Windows 8:

That's the versioning history of all versions of ADBE Flash ever been installed to my system. While it only proves for the fact that ADBE is probably the worst software maker known to date, it gets you puzzled why would Windows need to keep all the versions when I can't revert to them?
Who would say there's nothing like that in Windows Phone 8 provided that both are the same operating system?

I would say, I'd tested apps on a virtual emulation software before installing them to your physical phone, but I won't do that because you can't get real-life experience working with phone app on a PC.

What I did not get from reading this thread: does the software reset help here? In my view it should help, as it removes every user app, but does it actually help?

 

[DenniSundaY]

I think it is the same problem too. In WP8 it also copies apps and hide it into a folder which grows and grows. But it isn't app copies alone, it is also collecting app data, app cash memory (everytime I watch youtube my other storage grows enormously), photos and video's and much more. As if it is copying all data you are using! My other is now 5,83Gb in size! It is ridiculous! And I can't take it down anymore with the shrink storage app. If they aren't solving this in the first wp8 update...

 

[DenniSundaY]

Now it grew over 6gb and I can't shrink it anymore. I really hate this! Come on Microsoft, do something!

 

[Exotic Hadron]

Okay, I seem to have got the point and the workaround to this issue.

The trick below worked like a charm for me. The Other category dropped from 2.93 Gbytes to a tiny 81.79 Mbytes just in a single restart.

CAUSE

The Camera roll app has a defect that leads the JPG files (it seems to be the only extension affected) to be duplicated to the IsolatedStorage folder for the Camera Roll app each time the app calls a method that has something to do with JPG files, such as SavePictureToCameraRoll.
//I may be wrong in exact reason but there seems to be a bug in Camera Roll.

SOLUTION

1. Plug the phone to the PC.
2. Create a custom folder on the storage such as, for example, Photos
   

   Computer\Samsung ATIV S\SD card\Photos

   WARNING This folder will be used to store JPG files moved from Camera Roll's default folder. Importantly, you won't miss your moved photos in the Photos app on the Start screen. The phone periodically scans your storage for presence of JPG files no matter where they are and what is the name of the folder they are stored in and adds the discovered folder to the folder list of Photos app.
   NOTE: Depending on the whether the phone comes with SD Card or it has internal storage only, you have to open either Phone or SD card node in the file manager on Windows PC.
3. Open the .\Pictures\Camera Roll\ folder such as:
   

   Computer\Samsung ATIV S\SD card\Pictures\Camera Roll

4. Select all the JPG files in the Cameral Roll folder by pressing Ctrl+A and cut the pictures from there by pressing Ctrl+Z.
5. Return to the custom created folder Photos and paste the cut pictures to there by pressing Ctrl+V. This will move all the JPG files from the Camera Roll folder to the custom Photos folder.
6. Restart the phone by pressing the phone's power button and sliding the screen down to confirm the shutdown. When the phone is turned off, start it again. Check the Other storage when Windows is started.
7. Mine Other has dropped by 2.8 Gbytes and now shows 81.79 Mbytes (!)

References
MediaLibrary's SavePictureToCameraRoll behavior on WP8
zeekhan786's post
marcomura's post.

Please somebody test it and get us know if it worked for you; I am starting to think that's being just a temporary solution until Windows discovers the moved JPG and caches them again.

 

[Squatting Hen]

I did the above but it did nothing to my "Other" storage. I had 5.41 GB in Other before I moved everything and I still have 5.41 GB after.

I moved everything from my camera roll and saved pictures over to a new folder I created here: my computer\my phone\phone\photos

After nothing changed, I put everything back into the camera roll folder and restarted. The other storage did not change.


*For another trial, I also removed all of my .jpg files off of my phone and placed them in a folder on my computer. I then restarted my phone. My other storage was reduced from 5.41 GB to 5.38 GB.


It appears this .jpg issue is not present on my phone. I take tons of pictures and videos. I think the Other glich has more to do with Skydrive.

 

[Exotic Hadron]

I'd quote Mark Chamberlain:

The bug report I am seeing suggests that the code fix performs a move instead of a copy if the camera roll is in main isolated storage, but does a copy if the user chose the SD card as the default location to store photos.

So it looks like those of us storing photos on SD card are in bad luck unless we choose to store photos on the main phone's memory...

@Squatting Hen
What are the build numbers of your OS/firmware? Do I understand like you are using Lumia 9xx?

 

[boxa72]

Microsoft have known about this issue since WP8 launched!! The ONLY peepz trying to do something about it have been Nokia! Its NOT even Nokia's responsibility as its an OS problem. If anyone with a brain at MS had been listening, they would have done something to fix this with the very first update!!! I been with Nokia from day one but I feel MS is tarnishing them coz of their inability to listen to customers

 

[Squatting Hen]

@Squatting Hen
What are the build numbers of your OS/firmware? Do I understand like you are using Lumia 9xx?

OS: 8.0.10211.204
Firmware: 1232.5962.1314.0001
Nokia 920

 

[Pakhtun]

This is extremely frustrating... I have an 8GB HTC 8X and its becoming useless... time to whip out my iphone and wait till MS gets their act together or back to IOS if they cant figure it out... oh well, MS deserved a chance... gave it and beginning to regret it...

 

[Pakhtun]

Hope this link helps others suffering from the Others Folders Storage Curse . It is related to Skydrive storage, great explanation...

 

[Technoloay]

A friend of mine has a Lumia 620. The 'Other' storage in his 620 increases daily by 200 +- 30 MB (mine doesn't increase daily by that much!!). He has to factory reset his Lumia every single month becase of this issue.. !!

 

[Squatting Hen]

Hope this link helps others suffering from the Others Folders Storage Curse . It is related to Skydrive storage, great explanation...

This did not adjust my Other size. I removed all of my photos from Skydrive (moved them to my PC). I did a soft reset of my phone and my other storage is still at 4.27GB.

 

[MDak280]

This did not adjust my Other size. I removed all of my photos from Skydrive (moved them to my PC). I did a soft reset of my phone and my other storage is still at 4.27GB.

Yeah, I did the same and my other continues to grow...

 

[Nejcooo]

this is just crazy! thanks to ******* time lapse cam (Time-Lapse Cam | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)) i got over 3gb of unknown ****, and there's no way to remove it! they better fix this soon or this is my last windows phone

im 100% sure this application did this. and there's no way to remove it. this is first time that i wish that windows phone would be open source os

 

[DennisvdG]

this is just crazy! thanks to ******* time lapse cam (Time-Lapse Cam | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)) i got over 3gb of unknown ****, and there's no way to remove it! they better fix this soon or this is my last windows phone

That's not so bad, I got up to a staggering 21 gb's of other storage! I did a hard reset a couple of weeks ago because I was going mad lol

 

[Nejcooo]

That's not so bad, I got up to a staggering 21 gb's of other storage! I did a hard reset a couple of weeks ago because I was going mad lol

****! i have 620 with only 8gb of storage and i dont want to hard reset it. i have too much stuff on it and it would take me an age to install everything back