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I searched on the web and stack exchange forums a lot. But, could not find a solution therefore I am posting a question at last.

I have a Micro max canvas Plus2. My external SD-card is of 3.63 GB capacity but, 2.8 GB of space itself is occupied by a 'hpns' folder. This folder contains a couple of log files, one of them named 'exception'.

This is a huge bugger, since I have only 200 MB of my personally stored files(photos,music etc.) and I am not allowed to store more files because the hpns folder is hogging all the space in external SD-card. Same hpns named folder, by the way, is also present in the internal SD-card also, worth 500 MB.

So, kindly tell me if it is safe to delete this folder from external SD-card? Also, how to make sure this folder is not created again automatically?

Thank you in advance!

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  • Note: Error messages like SD-card full, cannot take photo or external SD-card showing its full even though you have stored clearly much less etc..type of problems may be very well due to this hpns folder or another such hidden folder LOST.DIR in android. These hidden system folders are grater than 200-300 MB in size due to their log files. But, it will not show in storage in settings. Although, I searched and found out that deleting contents of LOST.DIR folder is not harmful, but could not find out about 'hpns' folder.
    – Logan
    Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 5:43

3 Answers 3

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I asked the same question to Micromax support and I got email from them ,

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your Email, we would like to inform you that HPNS files are the temp file which will be create on the uses of internet.

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    Thanks for the update, Sanil! In that case, it should be safe to empty the directory from time to time (or at least remove "files older than X"). Additionally, I'd recontact them asking why they don't do that cleanup by themselves, or at least provide some obvious option for the end-user to do so. Some "expiry" setting in their app would be the prefered way. Also, the directory should have a more obvious name to make that clear.
    – Izzy
    Commented Nov 8, 2013 at 12:12
  • Even I asked the same and they telling there is no solution for it and telling me if you use internet logs will be created and I made a esclation for it and waiting for the solution .
    – Sanil G
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 17:33
  • Sorry for my directness, but that's bullsh.. oops. Using the internet does not require to create logs anywhere. I didn't have such a folder on any of my devices, and they even can be operated without SDCard – still being able to access the internet (try it to prove it! I bet it works on your device as well). Guess you just were talking to some call-center clerk; they often only have a catalog of answers to refer to (I experienced that every time I called LG). Your choice to escalate was absolutely correct. With some luck they give it to their techs.
    – Izzy
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 20:34
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First, files on SDCard shouldn't be essential for the system to live, in general – though there are exceptions, like when you moved , you shouldn't remove the folder they are moved to (which is a different hidden one named .android_secure). In general, you should even be able to completely remove the card, and the system should still work as usual.

Now for your two special folders.

One is explained easily, as it is a standard folder: LOST.DIR (on FAT; on most other file systems the corresponding folder is called LOST+FOUND, see What is the purpose of the lost+found folder in Linux and Unix?) in short is used by the file system checker (fsck, the equivalent to chkdsk on Windows) to store data blocks which lost their mapping to a given file. This can happen e.g. when the file system is not cleanly unmounted (the system crashed, or you simply removed the battery while it was running). As each file system has its own "lost folder", if you don't miss anything from your SDCard it's safe to empty this directory.

As for the hpns folder it's hard to say what it is. I never heard of such, so it's no "Android standard folder" but rather must belong to a specific application. I'd recommend to copy (backup) its content to your computer, and then delete it from the card. According to your description, it seems to hold nothing but logs, so I expect no trouble. If you find no side-effects for a couple or days/weeks, it should be safe to delete those backed-up files. And if some app is complaining, you can simply put back those files (and as a side-effect finally know which app the directory belongs to).

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They are just the log files... You can delete the Files in the hpns folder through file manager. Switch Off your mobile phone and restart. You will find your Memory card free.

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