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

[NitinH]

I am getting same problem with my Xperia L mobile phone,
device application memory shows full every time even I uninstall all application from my phone, this problem comes in latest firmware also  (See in screen shot), It needs restor factory every 15 days to work smothly with fewer applications (10-15 applications only).

My friend had Xperia S phone having same firmware bield number but this kind of problem not observed. He installed more than 30 applications in his Xperia S and still 700MB application memory is free.

Please do needful SONY XPERIA L DEVELOPERS to resolve this issue.

[Pakillo73]

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@Johan wrote:

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@Johan wrote:

Could you please send me your details in a PM, and I will forward this.

Make a relevant topic and include the following.

Name:
Phone nr:
E-mail:
Country:
Operator:
Product(s):
IMEI nr:
Build number:

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I'm sorry to hear that you are still experiencing this problem but I can't see that any of you have sent me any information about this via PM?

If you send me the info I previously requested I can help out be forward this further on.

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I did it yesterday, please take a bit of your time on this.

[Johan]

Thank you guys for submitting your details to me over PM. I have now forwarded this further on and I will get back to you as soon as I have any news about this.

[proterra]

Exact same issue with version 15.0.A.2.17, on Virgin Mobile UK.
Phoned Sony today who told me to do a software update via my computer, haven't done this yet due to a lack of time this afternoon.
Looking at the storage on the phone, it seems to be storing all the apps on "Device Memory", and ignoring the "Internal Storage". My Device Memory is showing 165MB available, whereas the Internal Storage is showing 3.97GB available. I also have an 8GB SD card installed, which is completely empty.
This isn't good enough Sony.

[MarcisB]

The problem is that "phone storage" is only 1.5GB and there are some preloaded apps from Sony inside already.

Also it has been used for caches, thumbnails, Android temp files, map caches etc etc etc.

Google Play app uses it for it's downloads and updates. Thus if your free space in this storage falls below 200MBs, Android starts acting weird, you can't install or update any apps from Play market until you free up more than 200MBs. But not all apps can be moved to "internal storage" (that's second data partition in phone, ~4.5GBs) and what's worse - you just can't move apps to external SD card, because there is no such option!

You can only move pictures, videos and music to SD card.

There are some tricks in internet allowing you to swap internal and external SD cards but they require rooting and not all customers are technically advanced to do so. Plus, it is not guaranteed that everything will function correctly.

Why Sony decided to divide internal memory is beyond me. Previously our family had HTC phones - Desire HD and Incredible S, both of them had entire internal memory available as one partition thus allowing apps to be moved to SD card easily thus freeing up internal memory.

I guess it be for some reason, but it leads to some very unpleasant consequences.

[FrankVincent]

In the whitepaper for Xperia L there is a section which describes the memory design.

http://dl-developer.sonymobile.com/documentation/whitepapers/Xperia_L_WP_3.pdf

Personally I'm still confused what's going on in this device after reading it...

As a comparison, if you look into the White paper for Xperia SP it seems to have the same memory design as Xperi L.

But Xperia SP doesn't seems to have this problem reported in this forum.

That tells me it's probably not a design issue but a bug in Xperia L software!

BTW...

I also have this issue with memory full and have sent my details with PM.

[bogumillaska]

Same issue. I sent my details via PM.

[proterra]

Just spoke to Sony again. (Their number in the UK is 08705237237 perhaps if we panther phone lines with this they might start taking it seriously)
They confirmed that "Device Memory" is where the apps are stored and the other storage spaces are for pictures, music etc. They said they'd pass feedback to the developers to try and have something fixed on future updates, but again, didn't seem too bothered about the issue. When I put the point across that the phone isn't fit for purpose as an Android device, they just told me to take it back to the retailer and get a new one. Not a very good attitude for a massive, what I perceived to be, reliable company especially with the amount of advertising they are spewing out on the Xperia handsets.
I'm off to E-Mail the CEO office to see if I can get any sense out of them.

[proterra]

@Frank, that white paper is quite interesting...
The way it is described, is the way memory works on most, if not all Android phones. It seems to me that the "System Memory" should be locked, and invisible (hence all the rubbish that Sony put on there to begin with can't be deleted) and the apps should be going on to the "Device Memory" which the paper describes as the C drive on your computer, but they've made a mess of it... I'm sure someone who has rooted their phone could confirm this.

[MarcisB]

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Please note that in Sony Mobile 2013 products, “Internal Storage” is now the combination of what was
previously known as “Phone Memory” (for applications and their data – also previously known as “/
data”) and “Internal Storage” (for user’s content – also previously known as “/sdcard”). The reason for
this change is to make the use of available memory more flexible, and also to enable the optional
encryption of user’s content.

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Seems to me that they did not get this part straight. It is not done in Xperia L.

And as far my (very limited) knowledge of Android goes, there is no way to join both partitions unless whole memory inside the phone is completely wiped, losing all data.