3GB of internal storage is lost

Question

I have a Sony Xperia SL with 32 GB internal storage from which 25 GB is available for user. When I bought the phone, everything was OK. but last month I found out that there is only 1GB left free, when sum of the files in the memory was only 21GB. I deleted some files and reduced the filled capacity to 10GB. However, I still have only 12GB free on my device. It sounds like 3GB of my storage is lost. (I have checked LOST.DIR and, for those who want to know, I have considered the thumbnail files when I summed up the files)

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Have you checked with our storage tag-wiki already – and especially followed-up to My space used and free space doesn't add up? Also take a look at the questions in the linked/related section here and on that question. See if any of the solutions applies to your case (if so, please answer your own question; otherwise [edit] your question and tell us what you've tried and where you're stuck). Good luck! — Izzy, Jun 22 '15 at 16:07
You can use Periscope to look for folders and files which take the most space.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.karlhendrikse.android.Periscope — , Jun 22 '15 at 18:38
How do you calculate file size? Note that there are two different units that used to calculate storage size and file size: metric Gigabyte and binary Gigabyte (often rendered as Gibibyte). A 21.9 GiB for example is roughly equal to 23.5 GB. — Lie Ryan, Jun 23 '15 at 02:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 05 '20 at 21:09

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Caching may be the problem. Cache and especially dalvik-cache sometimes can be really big. Cache can be deleted however dalvik-cache is can't be deleted if your phone is not rooted or you can uninstall some app anyway.

edited Nov 05 '20 at 21:09

End Anti-Semitic Hate

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answered Nov 02 '20 at 07:29

Jtnqr

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TechMod · Answer 2 · 2015-06-22T17:47:35.597

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You should consider that applications can be space-intensive. Take the Facebook-application for instance. It consumed up to 2GB on my phone.

edited Jun 22 '15 at 17:47

answered Jun 22 '15 at 15:51

TechMod

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 22 '15 at 18:23

When things with storage go awry I use DiskUsage. It uses a graphical interface (hardware or software rendering), very intuitive. You can scan (look at) multiple areas. With this app you will be able to isolate (locate) the problem. After finding the space hog, you can delete within the app or use a file manager to perform more complicated tasks. Root will allow viewing system locations.

I don't work/publish/design/develop/etc. on this app, nor do I receive any compensation for anything related to this app. It's just very useful

As always perform a backup before deleting anything

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 22 '15 at 20:33

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Some times the dump files may eat up our storage space. Try using apps to clean up this space. I would recommend you sdmaid app which is free in play store. Its basically for rooted phone but works totally fine with unrooted ones too.

answered Jun 22 '15 at 20:33

kernal42

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 22 '15 at 21:14

It might be some directories itself where the space ist lost. If you deleted a lot of files in a directory, the space is freed, but the space for directory entries is not reduced. You can help yourself with this (in a terminal):

mv dirname dirname.old
mkdir dirname
mv dirname.old/* dirname
rmdir dirname.old

This should give you back the lost space.

3GB of internal storage is lost

5 Answers5

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