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Original poster

I am so fed up with lack of memory on HTC

22 replies

ThinkingOfMoving · 13/10/2011 11:40

sigh

(warning, somewhat geeky ramble)

I have been a big advocate of HCT & Android, and am on my third HTC phone (well the first was the T-mobile G1, but essentially it was an HTC product). This one is a Wildfire S, bought mid-contract because my Wildfire was playing up and needed sent away for weeks to repair, had some Tesco vouchers and got the 'S' in purple. My mum has taken the now repaired Wildfire (whole other thread).

The reason I loved Android so much was the effortless syncing with Google, contacts and calendar in particular. Yet for some reason the internal memory on HTC phones is so low, and comes out of the box pre-clogged up with inbuilt rubbish that I'll never use but can't get rid of (without 'rooting' it or some such techy term that looks scary and invalidates warranty).

So it seems that if your phone drops below a certain internal memory, apps will just stop syncing without warning. I have reset factory data and got syncing back, but now I am too scared to reinstall all the fun apps that make a smartphone fun and worth having! Just sticking to essential productivity ones. And I have been moving everything I can to SD card, regularly clearing out sms and photos, but just running the apps seems to cause memory to fall ridiculously low...

Am I too heavy a user for a budget Android phone? Although googling suggests this is an issue with ALL HTC phones.

DH has an iphone & ipad. I have a Macbook and we have a family iMac. I have a year left of contract to run before I can jump ship. Now that iCloud is out, should I just get an iPhone? I am a cheapskate though, and haven't paid more than £15 pm for years.

What to do - have even considered buying myself out of contract but have recently lost job and cannot justify it. Hate not having my calendar working properly though.

Any advice welcome (although I'll be amazed if anyone reads this far!)

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 12:05

have you considered adding a memory card to it?

It supports up to 32 GB microSD

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 12:11

edit, sorry, I see you already have one. Is it already max size?

I have a wildfire, it's plenty for me. But you have to remember to delete stuff you've viwed/listened to.

I don't think their synchroniser is very good, my old SonyEricsson was much better. There is a new version of the synchoniser that downloaded itself this week.

I found it tends to copy your entire "My Music" or whatever, so I had to create a sub-directory with only the stuff I wanted to copy. As you know, photos and videoclips can take up a lot of space.

You can also connect it as a "disk drive" and I suppose delete big files you don't need.

We don't know how much "fun stuff" you have on it, or how big it is, though.

Original poster

ThinkingOfMoving · 13/10/2011 12:30

Thanks for the reply Piglet!

OK, the SD card I have is plenty big enough and nowhere near full. I have NO music, keep around 20 photos at one time before moving to computer, same for the very occasional short video clip I take - I don't download anything to watch or listen to at all.

Fun apps: google sky map, angry birds, alchemy, cut the rope, maybe 4 or 5 others for the kids. (all gone at the moment). Things like Tesco shopping, faster SMS app, retro camera, sms backup, shortcut app, evernote and google docs. I did have a couple of calendar widgets but won't get those again, the HTC one is fine. I think I did accidentally download pdfs a couple of times (trying to see train times etc, ended up downloading timetables) but they are gone now and I don't know why they wouldn't go on SD card anyway.

All apps that can run on SD card have been moved. Still the internal memory drops and I don't know why, googling it seems to be a common problem. It was the issue with my wildfire too, I thought it was a fault then but I am not sure now, it seems to be common but not universal? What do you have on yours if you don't mind me asking?

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 15:18

next to nothing

Having worked in tech trades I don't find it novel or exciting. And I usually have a PC to hand. I just use the weather, news feeds, email, calendar, a few pics. I have occasionally downloaded radio progs to listen to when away from home, but can't usually be bothered (The BBC player doesn't usually work on Android).

Android Apps are not security-screened before being published (like iPhone are); and I don't have a proper internet security package on the phone, and (you might not know that) when you're on wifi, your data is not encrypted so might get stolen.

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 15:23

p.s. did you download the new synch?

Original poster

ThinkingOfMoving · 13/10/2011 19:16

I'm freelance, so things like Google Docs and Evernote are really, really handy - I don't want to do without them. I am not sure if I downloaded the new sync or not, how would I know? I don't recall it updating automatically, or inviting me to download anything - but then it wouldn't, because memory was too low.

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 19:29

it offers to download to the PC when you start HTCSync on the PC

The App loads to the PC, I don't know if it updates the phone as well - it might, I didn't notice it. It did seems to run better.

PigletJohn · 13/10/2011 19:31

just checked, mine says "version 3.0.5579"

Try "Help" "Check Update" on the PC

Original poster

ThinkingOfMoving · 13/10/2011 22:49

I only ever connect it to the computer (Mac) to shift photos off it quickly, it syncs wirelessly with Google Calendar - or it does, until it drops below an unspecified internal memory. I've never synced by connecting it, I wonder if I can and that would help?

Thanks so much for chatting to me about this! It is working now, so maybe I should just go with it and do a reset every now and then. I have got into the habit of only keeping the current fad game app, and will really keep an eye on not overloading it with other gubbins.

OP posts:

TechnoViking · 14/10/2011 08:48

I use my HTC Desire for everything. I, too, have moved everything possible to SD card and still my phone memory is full.

It's annoying that anything downloaded and installed from Android Marketplace can't be installed directly onto SC card.

I work in IT too and love HTC devices, but phone memory is a real bugbear.

Acekicker · 14/10/2011 11:25

I share your pain... I've got the Desire and have had a couple of low memory warnings on that. I do love the phone though.

I removed Flash from mine last week after the MASSIVE update that seemed to be forced through. That's helped a lot and might be worth considering if you don't need Flash very often.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 11:32

I have the same problem on my htc desire. A nearly empty sd card and phone is full. No music, no photos and only six apps on the phone, other apps are on the sd card. I've even cleared the cache as googling suggests that may help and it did a smidgen but not enough.

I think getting an iPhone will help even more.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 11:32

My desire is so full that I can't download the update.

PigletJohn · 14/10/2011 12:04

I connected my HTC to the PC with its USB cable, and the update downloaded to the PC, then I sunk to the phone.

Have you been able to update HTCsynch on your PC?

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 12:18

I don't think I've ever tried updating HTCSynch on my PC. I've never connected my phone to my PC since I got it.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 12:19

When I try and download the update to the phone it says tehre isn't enough space so not sure doing it on the computer first would help.

PigletJohn · 14/10/2011 12:26

"VivaLeBeaver
I don't think I've ever tried updating HTCSynch on my PC. I've never connected my phone to my PC since I got it."

Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on.

You know you want to.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 12:35

I'm scared.....off to find lead

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 12:39

Synchronisation has failed.

VivaLeBeaver · 14/10/2011 12:40

Failed again, no idea why. Probably not enough bloody space.

PigletJohn · 14/10/2011 13:14

Yours might not be the same, but on mine, the PC can download HTCsynch off the phone the first time it is connected, then HTCSynch on the computer will search for an update, and update the app, on the PC, without the phone needing to be connected.

Afterwards, whenever you connect the phone to the PC, it tries to start HTCsynch on the PC. Periodically when HTCsynch starts on the PC, it goes and looks for an update on its own. Or by clicking "Help" on HTCsynch, it has an option for "Check Update"

You can also download HTCsynch onto the PC even without connecting the phone first. Once it is installed, it looks for a connected phone when you start it. Might be worth trying. The dowload can be accessed by your PC via
www.htc.com/europe/help/?p_id=316

(there are also troubleshooting guides, instructions and stuff)

You can also connect the phone as a disk drive instead of via HTCsynch, and then you can use Windows Explorer to look at the directories and see what files are on it, might give some clues.

As I have not experienced the problem you describe, I had better keep quiet for a bit.

wellwisher · 15/10/2011 14:57

This drives me crazy too (HTC Desire). Uninstalling Flash has helped, as has the App 2 SD Free app...

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