[Free] Storage Truth [Tool] - The answer to most asked question! Now with RAM Truth!

[EarlyMon]

It's been going on for years - our forum and others continue to receive hundreds of requests every day from new and experienced Android users led into confusion over their device storage, with questions like these:

• I have a 32 GB SD card, why can't I install all of the apps I want? It keeps telling me I'm out of space!
  
• I have a 4 GB phone, I don't have that many apps, but it says I'm out of space again. WHY?
  
• I have an 8 GB tablet and I can't make heads or tails out of what's up! I've looked at my settings and it says I have all sorts of storage! What the heck is up here?
  
• And the follow-on questions - Is it broken? Did I get ripped off?

Sound familiar?

I bet it does, it's probably hit all of us at some point - and is still hitting people every day.

The truth is that apps telling you about your storage fall into one of two categories:

• Apps trying to be too friendly in helping you, designed really to tell you about your media storage
  
• Apps that bury the real information inside screens and popups that try to tell you everything about your phone

The problem is simple:

• The first type of app is not telling you the right story
  
• By the time you understand the second type, you already know the answers
  
• The deck is stacked against you, it's a complicated mess

For the last few years, I've been advising people to get under the hood and gave out step-by-step Linux commands.

But that was not always effective:

• Scary for a lot of people
  
• Complicated
  
• Difficult to read
  
• Information overload

So, I sat down and designed an app to tell you once and for all the truth about your storage, using the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth by doing a probe of the Linux under the hood in your Android device.

In no time flat, I decided that it needed to be an absolutely simple, beautiful, and understandable way to get you the information you need.

And I know better than to take on everything by myself when I'm surrounded by a community of experts.

So, I called on my friend, @scary alien, and asked for his help - and he came through in a big way! (So big I insisted that he call it his, but he insisted that I take credit - or blame? - along with him, lol. )

The results are shockingly simple and we call it Storage Truth.

• EASY to understand!
  
• Instructions about what is going on with your storage spelled out right at the top!
  
• Focused to just give the facts that you care about for your app storage and how big your system is!
  
• Evaluated by Google to support over 8000 possible devices, and not work on ZERO of them!
  
• Requires no special permissions - at all!
  
• Contains no ads, trackers, lookers, peepers, pop-ups, notifications or anything else you don't want!
  
• Just the truth - the Storage Truth!

Get it in the Play Store -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.storagetruth

Spoiler: And that's not all -

Did I mention that it automatically copies the info to your clipboard?

You can share it in the forums without a screen shot! Just use the quote tool on your mobile browser, choose the CODE tags, and copy the infomation in!

Storage Truth

Your actual operating system also uses other storage areas, not shown, for your radio hardware and other secure functions. All app information is stored under /data, and apps you add or update are installed to /data/app. Simulated internal and actual external SD cards are not shown.


/system:

     size:      2641M
     used:      1481M
     free:      1160M


/data:

     size:     25532M
     used:     15050M
     free:     10482M


Device Info:

   Android: 4.4.2
   Device:  htc_m8whl
   Model:   831C
   Maker:   HTC

 

[EarlyMon]

And it occurred to me - what about your simulated internal and actual external SD cards?

Why didn't we include those?

Because as I mentioned earlier, there are many apps for that and it's likely that your phone will tell you as well.

But some apps are better than others.

And I mentioned that most want to tell you about your media anyway.

But what about something like Storage Truth for your other storage?

If you want one with a graphical breakdown of those storage areas that Storage Truth does not show, with the absolute minimum in required permissions - just access to storage and the sd, that's it - then I found one I'm happy to recommend personally and @scary alien agrees.

Check out "DiskUsage"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage

When it launches, you get to choose which of the two storages to examine - if you have both - and an interesting choice for rooted access.

If you choose rooted access, you need go no further and actually give root permission - but - you can see the long list of the hidden system areas including your radio firmware.

I can tell at a glance that the tool is making the same sort of clever Linux probes that we did in Storage Truth.

And that's why we didn't for this area.

Storage Truth tells you what you need to know about the /system and the space available for your apps and system app updates.

DiskUsage tells the rest of the story.

There's no overlap between the two for normal users, so there's no waste in using the two together.

Pro Tip - unpinch to zoom in and see as much detail on your other storage as you like.

Hope this helps!

PS - you don't need to rate DiskUsage before the first use - just tap your back button.

 

[scary alien]

As one of the topics heartily discussed in this informative thread and specifically starting in this post, real, clear, and useful information about your device's RAM is hard to come by.

@EarlyMon and I have tried to address this need by creating a simple app, RAM Truth.

It will display the following breakdown of your RAM's layout:

RAM Size (on the title bar)

Reserved: A reserved/hidden area that includes the below-kernel fixed allocations like DMA buffers, RAM for the baseband radios, CPU(s), GPU, etc. Due to the diverse nature of small-RAM devices, we can only claim better than 99% accuracy here and in the total.

User: The visible (non-hidden) portion of physical RAM available for use by the system.

Active: The amount of physical RAM currently in use by the system.

Available: The amount of physical RAM left unused or used as cache memory.

Hibernating: The amount of physical RAM used as cache memory and using no CPU or power resources. Other apps may be hibernating and written to storage rather than remaining in RAM.

Idle: The amount of physical RAM left unused by the system.​

We hope you find this app informative and useful.



Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.ramtruth