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My HTC One M8 internal memory is almost full (15.40 out of 16). The phone says it's mostly applications. But when I connect it to my computer, go to Internal Storage and add the sizes of all directories, the total is about 3 gigabytes.

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    Check your settings, storage menu.
    – xangua
    Jan 29, 2016 at 18:57
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    What you see from your computer is just a little part of the storage you have access to. It doesn't include the space where apps are installed, where their data reside, where their cache is, where the system settings are stored, where the system logs are written to, and so on. It's like you see the showroom of a shop, it doesn't tell you how much there's in stock in the rooms behind it belonging to that shop.
    – Izzy ♦
    Jan 29, 2016 at 19:08
  • Yes that's where I checked it. It says my applications are using 13GB. But I just downloaded DiskUsage and it seems that I have ~4GB applications and roughly 8GB system files (OS). Does that make sense? Does the OS use so much space?
    – lfk
    Jan 29, 2016 at 19:09
  • Depending how bloated the OS is, it may occupy from barely 4 to 10GB or more.
    – xangua
    Jan 29, 2016 at 19:15
  • The confusing part is, when I go to Storage in Settings, it says Google Music is taking 8GB. However DiskUsage says Google Music is using 200MB (which makes sense, because the downloaded music is actually on external storage). So I don't know if I will actually get 8GB of free space if I deleted Google Music (which I'd rather not try for obvious reasons)
    – lfk
    Jan 29, 2016 at 19:20

2 Answers 2

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Devices have different partitions for different purposes. Data storage is bigger because you will need to store your pictures etc. BUT the partition that your device uses for apps is always limited. You might want to move some apps to sd if you are able to. For example here is the partition table to a Samsung Galaxy S5:

aboot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p6
apnhlos -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
backup -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p18
boot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
cache -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p24
carrier -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p25
dbi -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p4
ddr -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p5
efs -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p12
fota -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p17
fsc -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p19
fsg -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
modem -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
modemst1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p13
modemst2 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p14
pad -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
param -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p11
persdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p22
persist -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p21
recovery -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p16
rpm -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p7
sbl1 -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
ssd -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p20
system -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p23
tz -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
userdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p26

Hope this helps.

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  • I think mentioning the list of partitions doesn't help solving or even explaining the problem. One thing that you can add in your answer is to show what kind of things are consuming internal storage which OP cannot see from PC using MTP. A screenshot of a disk analyzer type app in work in your phone could help OP proceed and understand their own problem and fix it. :-)
    – Firelord ♦
    Nov 30, 2018 at 12:45
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In most Android phones, the application data is also saved in a hidden data directory which is part of internal storage.

You can free up that space by clearing app cache and data and removing useless apps.

You can go to settings > applications > app_name and see how much data it has stored.

Warning: clearing app data will make the app behave as if it's just freshly installed and never used.

You can also clear your social media apps directory like whatsapp and Facebook folder to make more space

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