Device memory full in xperia L

[PietuJ]

Hi.

I have a problem with my xperia L. Device memory gets full with normal usage after a couple of weeks. After it gets full, the phone is almost impossible to use; album doesn't work, new updates will not install, phone resets itself, cannot install new programs.. ETC. The only way out is, in my opinion, to make a "factory reset". But this is not how it should go with a mobile phone..

I am completely sure that this is somekind of a software bug, because my work mate is having exactly same symptoms with his phone and some other users have complained this in this forum with other words. For example:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/140571

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/144006

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/141173

Somebody explained that this is because the album app is somehow broken, other explanation would be that the phone doesn't know how to refresh the temp files...

Now I have some questions for Sony:

1. Do you recognize this problem?

2. How are you going to tackle it and what is the schedule?

3. Also, when tackling this problem, will you repair the camera software too?

Then, I would like to know if there are other users having the same problem.. By the way, the system version is 15.0.A.1.31

[swaminathan]

---

@inyo wrote:

Dear friends,

I'm from chile and got this phone a week ago. Everything was going ok untill saturday night. On sunday morning the phantom low memory issue appeared, I searched a lot to find an answer on the web. Couldn't get to any real solution or specific source for the problem, some people claim it was spotify others the walkman app. I did clean the cache, erased thumbnails (By the way, that memory leak affect internal sd partition not internal memory) and looked everywhere to free that missing space. 

At the end, I rooted the phone (Don't care to void warranty, my carriers customer service) and download from google play "root browser" app to access internal memory system files, start looking in every folder for the files that where using the leaked memory till I found them. I went to the following directory in the internal memory partition (you can only get access to it by rooting your phone) 

/data/core

I found several files named ".android.chrome.55748 (any given number) ",they where massive, over 100 MB each. Took the shot and deleted them. 

The problem was solved for me. In my case it was google chrome that caused the issue. I will turn chrome into user app with "link2sd" app and see if the issue persist. If it does i will delete the files again uninstall chrome and star using another browser and hope for the issue not to take it's revenge.

I know that many of you don't want to void your warranty by rooting your phone,so I hope that this can help others to solve the issue while wating for a real solution from sony, cause it's clearly a bug from their android stock rom dealing with the files found in the folder I mention above.

If anyone is already root user and has got this issue search the directory and post if he founds there the leaked memory files, try to post from which app they belong so if someone in sony is reading this thread he might do his work and solve this issue.

Exito

---

Hi Johan(admin),

i think there is no need of further investigations by sony team,as the cause for the problem has been identified..

we are expecting a quick response about fixing this issue from your side..please reply..

[fuddylint74]

Well done to the users who found a fix for this problem, even if it involves voiding the warranty.
The lack of response by sony to this thread shows you how they value their customers.
I can guarantee their next update won't fix this problem. I'm going to continue using XL
until it dies then destroy it and try to forget I ever purchased any product from sony.

[icandoit]

Guys..

This is working for me so far. @Sashank suggested this already and it shouldn't mess up the warranty.

- Remove all Pre-installed media widgets (Walkman, Album, Movie)

- Clear the Cache and Data of these media Apps and Force Stop and Disable them (Album can be force stop only).

- Get a file manager that can view hidden files (I am using File Manager V.1.16.0 by Rhythm Software)

- Go to SD0/DCIM. You will find a folder with the name .thumbnail, delete all thumbnail files. (I saw a huge 900mb .thumbnail file here).

- Restart the phone. (Did not even need to reset or clear the whole SD0 memory)

- Get a new app to view pictures, videos and songs. (I am using Quickpic and RocketPlayer, no video player yet. You can change the settings in Quickpic to where it would not store any thumbnail or use cache memory, makes it a little slower to load pics but as long as it works, im fine.).

It's been 2 days and I have not seen any movement on my Internal Memory/SD size. I will continue to monitor for a few more days and if it doesnt budge a bit, i am keeping these apps. Again, i am not using Spotify so that cannot be the reason for my phone's mem leak.

(NOTE: After i disabled the Walkman and Movie, I cannot find the apps on my Menu Screen - dont know where it went but i can still see the apk using my file manager)

Hope this will work....

[Once-Oregano]

A request to the Community Manager: Can you please make some sort of statement by now to demonstrate a semblance of repect to us forum posters? It's not my intention to put you under undue pressure: There are clearly many Xperia Care threads and many different models of Xperia device, each with its own bugs, peculiarities and issues, that need to be addressed by and that demand the input of an undoubtedly finite number of forum managers.

Is it not unacceptable to you though that the many Xperia L (a 2013 release, don't forget) users contributing to this forum are being left alone for so long to thrash out potential sources of this Device Memory leak, left to consider such things for example as whether having Wifi and/or mobile data in various states of on or off in a variety of circumstances may or may not be causing the problem? Are we not entitled to expect that device functions like Wifi and mobile data should "just work" without crapping all over the front lawn while doing what they're meant to be doing?

Aren't we owed some kind of update by now on how Xperia engineers intend (if at all) to take this issue by the horns? Contributors to this thread have done and keep doing their level best, some exceeding themselves, in efforts to diagnose the problem. Many very plausible potential causes have been put forward (for example regarding the buildup of core dump files). It's clear from the contributions too that, despite Spotify, Chrome and Walkman being (seemingly) the main culprits, there are many apps of different types that may or may not be randomly triggering this fatal Xperia L defect.

Is it not completely unaccetpable to you that so many of your customers should now be tiptoeing around their XLs, afraid (to invoke a metaphor) of setting loose the bull in the fragile china shop that their phone has essentially turned out to be for them? My XL is currently memory-stable (i.e. not leaking Device Memory) in the two or three weeks since I last did a factory reset, but only because I have not reinstalled Spotify and now I, like all the XL users here who have added "Me Too" to the initial post, are now exercising caution about installing any new software at all, for fear that it may be the app to trigger the memory leak again.

How do you intend addressing this mass insecurity amongst your Xperia L customers?

No, our Ls are not Z1s. Given the absence of much Sony-side attention to speak of about this issue, are we left to conclude therefore, that because our phones cost less than half (although not by a great deal less than half mind you) the price of the flagship Xperia phones, we are not actually entitled to think of ours as life-enhancing devices at all, but should instead see them rather as tinderboxes, prone to randomly burst into flames in our hands at any given moment?

The last sentence contained another metaphor by the way.

If your customers are to be left to stew en masse in their sub-functional XLs, how do you expect us to believe that investing in another Xperia family smartphone will result in a happier ending? I've been with you since converting four phones and almost ten years ago to a Sony Ericsson Cybershot handset. I was excited when I read the Xperia L's specs this spring and again when I first got my hands on it in late May. I thought for a while that I may have landed the perfect mid-ranger. That excitement has diminished by now and I find myself realising there are many plump fish in the 2013 smartphone sea besides Sony.

Oh, before I forget, the third paragraph from the top probably contained a metaphor too, just FYI.

[fuddylint74]

Well put Oregano. Time will tell whether they give an adequate response to this. Bear in mind

that sony and other phone companies have very inadequate communication structures and therefore will

alienate a lot of their customers. Xperia S is a case in point. Was a flagship phone last year and basically

forgotten within a few months. I suspect that sony personel writing on these forums either aren't told

if a fix is imminent or they actually can't disclose any information about a fix.

Sony is far too fragmented and often the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The service centres are a mess

and the staff working there won't listen to your problem. Their fix for everything is a reset or a motherboard replacement because they aren't trained to know specifically about certain problems. 

[nsaravanas]

Am also facing this problem.

Any workaround for this issue?

Yesterday I reset my mobile today this problem started to occupy my device memory.

Sent mail to Sony no reply till now.

I'll never buy Sony products hereafter worst customer support.

[StefanosK27]

I''m here also to report I'm having this issue as for today, that is the day I started using Spotify (although I 've had it installed for a while, I just today started using it and downloaded some music).

I obviously haven't read all the previous posts, so I would appreciate it if someone gave me a sum up!

Thank you.

[hmart]

ashwin21 said Don't have spotify, still facing the problem

icandoit said I am not using Spotify

So it seems the problem is independent of Spotify.

[hmart]

I've just read the permission from some Sony applications and says:

Para mejorar el rendimiento y reducir el uso de la memoria, algunos de estos permisos están disponibles para WALKMAN porque se ejecuta en el mismo proceso que Llamadas recientes, Reloj mundial, Widget de clima, Fotografías y videos, Relojes, Herramientas, Notas, Inicio de Xperia y Contactos Principales.

1. Some had problems with Walkman, others Photographs, others videos. Well they are all in the same process.

2. Someone else said the problem stopped disabling Google Chrome.

3. Someone said removing thumbnails from the DCIM folder resolved the issue and the pictures widget.

4. Someone talked about stopping and relaunching after cleaning caché some Medium Storage application.

5. Someone talked about problems with using STAMINA MODE.

6. Spotify

Well I'm trying everything. #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5 didn't solve the issue for me. Spotify I don't know, at this time I have restored the phone for third time and this time I disabled 48 preinstalled applications because I'm really tired. I have tried everything that other people said and nothing seems to work.

So I go further and disabled all from Google, Sony and all others applications that I think I don't need. The only application I'm missing is Google Maps and perhaps Google Search Voice.

From Google:
- Chrome
- Search Voice
- Gmail
- Play Services
- Talk
- Google+
- Maps
- YouTube
- Picasa Uploader
- Talkback

From Sony:
- Devices
- Movies
- SensMe slideshow
- Smart Connect
- Sony Select
- Walkman

- Xperia AppShare
- Xperia Calendar Sync
- Xperia FB Setup
- Xperia Friends' Music
- Xperia Link
- Xperia Music Likes
- Xperia Proxy
- Xperia Social Engine Photos
- Xperia Social Enfine Sharing
- Xperia Twitter Setup

From Android:
- Email
- News & weather

From Cell Phone Network Opertator
- 15 applications

I haven't uninstalled ALBUM from SONY because I can't and also because I don't know which other application I can used instead. There is one called F-Stop that seems ok, but until now I'm not having problems using it.

Is too recent, just a few hours. I don't really know.

[StefanosK27]

Let me post my screenshot:

This is AFTER I closed and deleted lots of my stuff. By the way, this is greek.

Should I wait for an official fix, or should I root my phone? What's your take?

Thank you.