Was considering a WP8 phone until I read about this "other" storage issue...

[ChazUK]

Can WP8 users here comment on how this is affecting you:
http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8/210460-what-about-other-storage-section.html

Let's get started:
Got my Lumia 820 as a Christmas present, and I'm really satisfied of it. Cool phone etc.

BUT something still bothers me.
You may have already noticed the presence of an "Other" section in the storage parameters.

Mine currently weighs "only" 650MB cause I did reset my phone a few hours ago.

This section grows when you install apps, or use them.
It contains cache files, and other things. Actually, it contains everything that is not either music, videos, pictures, or apps root files.
Following the Microsoft Support, it also contains some app datas.

The matter about this section, is that it grows, but doesn't decrease.
For example:
You install a 150MB app. Other will grow by 50MB (it is an example, I don't know about that)
When you delete the app, Other won't return to 0MB, it will actually weighs around 40MB (I did test with Galaga Legions DX, and other apps)
But, if you install the same app again, Other will just go from 40MB to 50MB.

It seems like some files stay on the phone, and can be used again if you install the app a second time.

What bothers me is that we have no way to clean it. So it doesn't stop growing.
Apparently, the only way to delete these files is to reset the phone.

Now, I was going to be ultra cheap and go for the HTC 8s as it's on offer for a very low price and I was under the impression that the fact it only has 4gb of internal memory didn't matter as I could whack a 32GB card in it for media but it seems this "other" folder builds up space on the system memory, regardless of where media is stored and can only be cleared with a full wipe of the phone.

These posts:

This "other storage" issue is a pain in the ass. I just had to uninstall 19 apps on my phone simply to do the Portico update on my Lumia 810...and it's still yelling about low phone memory. I'm curious what the 495.47 MB is in Music & Videos catagory. I have all of my music and pictures and videos on my microsd card. Oh, it just failed again. There's 563.84 MB of apps now. and 48 Kilobytes of free space.

my other section fluctuates between 7-9gb. this is ****ed up! i want that space back

Are WP8 users here being affected by this "other" folder issue and how are you managing with it?

If there is nothing that can be done to clear this space other than a full wipe (especially considering devices with 4GB of onboard storage would run out of room rather quickly) it'll be enough to make me skip the platform entirely.

Anyone want to chime in?

 

[throAU]

win8 is big

iphone takes 2 gig for the OS as well, which is nowhere near as bad, but you're still not getting the full storage for your own use.

only real solution is to by the version of the phone with more storage or use SD card...

 

[ChazUK]

win8 is big

iphone takes 2 gig for the OS as well, which is nowhere near as bad, but you're still not getting the full storage for your own use.

only real solution is to by the version of the phone with more storage or use SD card...

From what I've read in that thread, simply putting music or pictures on the SD card will cause the "other" data folder to grow meaning that no matter how much space you have left on the SD card, once "other" is full there is no way to reclaim that space from the system memory unless you reset the phone. Some people are reporting crashes once the "other" space full too.

There must be some caching gong on from media on the SD card (thumbnails, album art, metadata) causing the system space to fill up but it'd be nice if you could trim it down by running something so it removed un-needed items from the phone.

I didn't really want to spend over the odds on a higher-end Windows Phone just to maintain a usable phone. Even my lowly Xperia U can have app cache cleared to reclaim space when I'd need to.

Hopefully this will be something MS addresses in future.

 

[scott craft]

I have the Lumia 822 on Verizon. I've never looked at it before, but my other is 3.02 GB. This makes me wonder what's in there. System only takes 1.91 GB and I have 1.26 GB for apps. This is definitely something to be concerned about on phones with 4 or 8 GB of storage.

 

[ChazUK]

Thanks Scott.

Looks like I'll be saving up some more pennies before I take the plunge then to go for a higher end model (or to see what Microsoft do about this if it is a bug)

 

[scott craft]

I'm going to read through the entire thread you posted and see what those guys come up with. I love WP, especially WP8, but these little bugs and glitches drive me crazy. Hopefully Microsoft gets these things sorted out pretty soon. This stuff takes away from an otherwise pleasant user experience.

 

[3bs]

I guess this affects my 8X too