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Lenovo Tab 4 Plus 8 - Unexplained high storage use

BernardP

Golden Member
Lenovo Tab 4 Plus 8 - Unexplained high storage use

I got my new Lenovo Tab 4 Plus 8 a couple of weeks ago. It's running Nougat 7.1.1 After initial setup, I uninstalled some apps, mostly the Microsoft Office trialware and Skype. When I finished this, I had about 7.8 GB of used space on the 16 GB eMMC. I installed only one small new app (Libby Library Reader: 6.9 MB).

Then I ran the latest system update that was waiting to be downloaded. I saw that the update was a bit less than 600 MB. I left the tablet to itself, and somehow, it fell into sleep mode during the update. The update finished installing when I woke the tablet 30 minutes later.

And then, bad surprise: Used space has jumped to 8.9 GB. I checked everyting, emptied the cache, there are no videos, pictures or even thumbnails on the device. It is as squeaky clean as I can make it.

It doesn't seem to make sense that the system update has eaten up so much disk space. It doesn't make sense that the near-stock Android version on the Tab 4 is eating almost 9 GB, especially after Office apps have been removed.

I have thought about doing a factory reset, but saw that the reset will keep the updates, so this would likely not solve the high storage use.

Do I have a problem or is such high used space normal for a Tab 4 Plus on which there is nothing except default system and app files?
 
It is probably the systems apps updates that taking app the storage. I believe android keeps the base version of the system app that was included with the ROM and stores the update separately. I know someone who has a 8gb phone that immediately drop down to 300mb free space after updating the system apps. Removing the updates from the systems apps frees up 3+gb of storage
 
Thanks zebrax, it makes sense. I have disabled apps I won't be using, and each time I got a dialog box asking me if I want to revert to factory configuration. Doing this has allowed me to reclaim about 500 GB. Of course, there are some apps I want to keep updated.

I guess those bargain-basement 8GB phones are a no-no...
 
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