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tl;dr version: having the 'low space' warning on your Android phone results in the rejection of SMS messages. Even when there's actually e.g. >10mb of storage a

tl;dr version: having the 'low space' warning on your Android phone results in the rejection of SMS messages. Even when there's actually e.g. >10mb of storage available. The bug has been present since 2009 and appears not to have been fixed yet by Google.

andrewbadera 16y ago
I get the low space message with what seems like a fairly limited number of apps installed, caches cleared and as much as possible pushed to SD ... what is the actual capacity there? HTC Incredible in my case ...
- sssparkkk 16y ago
  Similar situation here, I recently freed up several mb's as well; but nonetheless started to receive the low space notification again a few days later (not having installed anything in the meantime). The fact that this subsequently results in missed SMS messages is inexcusable IMO.
- joelhaasnoot 16y ago
  This app is great if you're rooted. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aac.cachemate.demo&feature=search_result https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aac.cachemate.demo... Otherwise, I find AppBrain great to be able to easily see space usage and move stuff to SD. I have a Samsung Galaxy Spica (not S, a european phone), and the limit is at about 15 MB when I get warnings. That's hundreds of SMSes... Then again, the Gmail cache eats MBs like a dog eats dogfood: easily 3MB.
- Aissen 16y ago
  AFAIK, HTC Incredible has a bug that makes this warning appear even if you have 800MB+ of free space. The joy of forks… http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/is-your-droid-incredible-low-on-disk-space/2163 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/is-your-droid-incredible-lo...
jrockway 16y ago
appears not to have been fixed yet by Google Or by anyone whining on the bug tracker who say this issue is ruining their life.
- DrJokepu 16y ago
  I really don't think that the "if you're not happy about a bug, fix it or shut up" mentality in open source projects is very helpful. Obviously solving issues like this is considerably more difficult and time consuming than complaining about them and many people complaining about them don't have the time and/or skills to solve them. However, they are real, existing issues that bother users and not complaining about them will not make them magically go away. This, over time, can lead to the alienation of the users and can seriously hurt the project.
  - bobds 16y ago
    I think that part of jrockway's point is that at least some of the people complaining on a bug tracker, have the skills to help.
    - runjake 16y ago
      It seemed more like he was trolling to me. Everyone who complained on this bug paid for Android as a commercial product. I may be a master Linux debugger, but I'm not about to debug every little appliance/automobile issue I have because there's a bug in it's embedded Linux subsystem. I never thought I'd see the day when people would use OSS as a defense for a commercial product not getting fixed. Especially when I suspect that the component involved isn't actually open source.
      - jrockway 16y ago
        You most definitely didn't buy Android from Google. The OEM bought Android from Google. Then your carrier bought the phone with Android from that OEM. Then you bought the phone from the carrier. By the time it gets to this point; what's in AOSP and what's on your handset are only very distantly related. On the other hand, if you are running AOSP on your phone, then you did that all by yourself after cloning it from their public git repository. Remember, Google is not to blame for bugs in Android. Your carrier is. (And most of the time, they're the ones who break it. This case is probably something that can be solved by Google, but apparently the OEMs and carriers are not prioritizing it above adding NASCAR apps and changing all the colors. And that is who is getting your money.)

andrewbadera 16y ago

I get the low space message with what seems like a fairly limited number of apps installed, caches cleared and as much as possible pushed to SD ... what is the actual capacity there? HTC Incredible in my case ...

sssparkkk 16y ago
Similar situation here, I recently freed up several mb's as well; but nonetheless started to receive the low space notification again a few days later (not having installed anything in the meantime). The fact that this subsequently results in missed SMS messages is inexcusable IMO.
joelhaasnoot 16y ago
This app is great if you're rooted. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aac.cachemate.demo&feature=search_result https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aac.cachemate.demo... Otherwise, I find AppBrain great to be able to easily see space usage and move stuff to SD. I have a Samsung Galaxy Spica (not S, a european phone), and the limit is at about 15 MB when I get warnings. That's hundreds of SMSes... Then again, the Gmail cache eats MBs like a dog eats dogfood: easily 3MB.
Aissen 16y ago
AFAIK, HTC Incredible has a bug that makes this warning appear even if you have 800MB+ of free space. The joy of forks… http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/is-your-droid-incredible-low-on-disk-space/2163 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/is-your-droid-incredible-lo...

jrockway 16y ago

appears not to have been fixed yet by Google Or by anyone whining on the bug tracker who say this issue is ruining their life.

DrJokepu 16y ago
I really don't think that the "if you're not happy about a bug, fix it or shut up" mentality in open source projects is very helpful. Obviously solving issues like this is considerably more difficult and time consuming than complaining about them and many people complaining about them don't have the time and/or skills to solve them. However, they are real, existing issues that bother users and not complaining about them will not make them magically go away. This, over time, can lead to the alienation of the users and can seriously hurt the project.
- bobds 16y ago
  I think that part of jrockway's point is that at least some of the people complaining on a bug tracker, have the skills to help.
  - runjake 16y ago
    It seemed more like he was trolling to me. Everyone who complained on this bug paid for Android as a commercial product. I may be a master Linux debugger, but I'm not about to debug every little appliance/automobile issue I have because there's a bug in it's embedded Linux subsystem. I never thought I'd see the day when people would use OSS as a defense for a commercial product not getting fixed. Especially when I suspect that the component involved isn't actually open source.
    - jrockway 16y ago
      You most definitely didn't buy Android from Google. The OEM bought Android from Google. Then your carrier bought the phone with Android from that OEM. Then you bought the phone from the carrier. By the time it gets to this point; what's in AOSP and what's on your handset are only very distantly related. On the other hand, if you are running AOSP on your phone, then you did that all by yourself after cloning it from their public git repository. Remember, Google is not to blame for bugs in Android. Your carrier is. (And most of the time, they're the ones who break it. This case is probably something that can be solved by Google, but apparently the OEMs and carriers are not prioritizing it above adding NASCAR apps and changing all the colors. And that is who is getting your money.)