Browser hogging internal phone storage? - Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Ever since I updated my nexus to Froyo, when I'm using the browser itll start to take up all of my available memory causing me to get the low storage warning and sometimes stop me from getting text messages. The only way to free back up the memory is to go force close the browser, which is sometimes using up to 80 mb of data. Ive already tried a factory data reset and also went into the recovery and wiped and clear the cache. I never had this problem in 2.1 and its really annoying. anyone got any ideas? thanks.

forceclosing the browser wont clear up cache.... scroll down instead of forceclosing, and hit clear cache. dont do it through recovery

I am having this problem too D:

Yeah, the browser doesn't seem to limit cache, although I've never seen it use 80M. Most I've seen is 7M. I just clear cache through the Applications list, although in Froyo you can do it directly in the browser now.

if you visit the google forums, the android team has changed the browser in 2.2 to cache the pages you have open in your browser much more aggressively, so that when you go back to the browser the phone doesnt need to refresh the network and reload the page. i posted a link to the google topic before. but what this means is that the browser now takes up huge amounts of space as time goes on. killing it does bring back the space. personally i like this change, but i can see why it might suck for some people.
here's the link
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2171

Anyone who is having this issue, go here and click the star to vote for this issue: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1068

i posted against this issue, because i happen to like what they did to the new browser. god forbid they go back to the old way, it was not good.

I agree, the browser is better this way in some regards, but it needs to LIMIT what it does... If you don't manually clear cache it'll easily take 8+ megs of storage!

khaytsus said:
I agree, the browser is better this way in some regards, but it needs to LIMIT what it does... If you don't manually clear cache it'll easily take 8+ megs of storage!
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but its not the cache, its just a temporary storage usage. if you force close the browser, it regains back that storage. at least for me it does. my actual cache in the browser never changes, and hovers around 7mb.

Aaaand we're not using A2SD why???

RogerPodacter said:
but its not the cache, its just a temporary storage usage. if you force close the browser, it regains back that storage. at least for me it does. my actual cache in the browser never changes, and hovers around 7mb.
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Ah, sorry, I got off topic then.. I was talking specifically about the browser cache, which for me varies between 4-8.5M it seems.. and I clear it because otherwise I'm <20M
Christopher3712 said:
Aaaand we're not using A2SD why???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because not everyone is rooted running non-stock roms?

Simple solution
Friend was having the same issue but this was pre-froyo.
Found out that after viewing articles on the news and weather app and also viewing webpages she was just hitting the home softkey to return to the main page. This was causing new window after new window of fully loaded websites to be cached out of memory and into storage.
Although i agree there should be a caching limit on the browser there should also be an effort from the end user to close the unused windows when done (easily done through the windows menu). Also after using the news and weather app and any other app that uses the browser to display pages, it should be good practice to use the back button and not the home key.
I've always done that and now my girlfriend does it and guess what... its not an issue anymore.

Cabarnacus said:
Friend was having the same issue but this was pre-froyo.
Found out that after viewing articles on the news and weather app and also viewing webpages she was just hitting the home softkey to return to the main page. This was causing new window after new window of fully loaded websites to be cached out of memory and into storage.
Although i agree there should be a caching limit on the browser there should also be an effort from the end user to close the unused windows when done (easily done through the windows menu). Also after using the news and weather app and any other app that uses the browser to display pages, it should be good practice to use the back button and not the home key.
I've always done that and now my girlfriend does it and guess what... its not an issue anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except that you can't use the back button in the browser if you've been browsing a lot, you'll be going backwards through a bunch of pages. And if you've logged in, you can't go past that at all as it'll want to repost data etc...
One could close the window I suppose, which would load a default homepage, then go back, but that's tedious.

khaytsus said:
Except that you can't use the back button in the browser if you've been browsing a lot, you'll be going backwards through a bunch of pages. And if you've logged in, you can't go past that at all as it'll want to repost data etc...
One could close the window I suppose, which would load a default homepage, then go back, but that's tedious.
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Click to collapse
Tedious? Thats almost as bad as that YouTube review of the Nexus where one guy said he had to move his hand "All the way up to the top of the phone" just to switch it on. (Surely we've all seen it?)
I wouldn't say tedious, just something to get used to. Sadly Google aren't quite there with their Google MindReader beta for Android but until then menus and manually closing windows work just fine ;-)

Cabarnacus said:
Tedious? Thats almost as bad as that YouTube review of the Nexus where one guy said he had to move his hand "All the way up to the top of the phone" just to switch it on. (Surely we've all seen it?)
I wouldn't say tedious, just something to get used to. Sadly Google aren't quite there with their Google MindReader beta for Android but until then menus and manually closing windows work just fine ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Steps to properly exit browser
Menu button
Select Windows option
X on all open Windows
Back Button
Not exactly "move hand to top of phone".
And again, my major complaint is about the lack of a limited browser cache, ie: html, css, images, cached for later reload. It grows over 8M, that's really too much IMO. Should be able to limit it, in which case I'd likely limit it to 2-3M myself and see how it worked out.

khaytsus said:
Except that you can't use the back button in the browser if you've been browsing a lot, you'll be going backwards through a bunch of pages. And if you've logged in, you can't go past that at all as it'll want to repost data etc...
One could close the window I suppose, which would load a default homepage, then go back, but that's tedious.
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Click to collapse
Actually I do that quite a bit. But you don't even have to. After you close all windows, it defaults to open a last page (Google home in my case), then just hit home cause there's nothing left to cache anyway, so back button or home button does the same thing, makes no difference.

hmm in my case it's also not the cache which makes the problems, but the "Data" of the browser app.
It easily exceeds 28MB!
And cache is only at 600kb, so clearing cache doesn't help.
Clearing the data helps. but it will delete all your bookmarks and other settings which is bull****.
Force closing the browser didn't help too (it helped in the past but interestingly not today).

Browser can not be installed on sd card. System updates can not be installed on external memory.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
hmm in my case it's also not the cache which makes the problems, but the "Data" of the browser app.
It easily exceeds 28MB!
And cache is only at 600kb, so clearing cache doesn't help.
Clearing the data helps. but it will delete all your bookmarks and other settings which is bull****.
Force closing the browser didn't help too (it helped in the past but interestingly not today).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? From apps, manage, all, find browser. Clear cache there. That does not clear up your 28M in ram?

Related

browser not using cache?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why our browsers have to reload the page even though you are just going "back" one page. For example, if I visit Gizmodo, then go to engadget, then back to Gizmodo, my browser has to reload the page instead of using the cache. It seems as if the cache is barely used (granted the reload is a little quicker, but not much).
Is there a tweak or program that can make this better? It is really frustrating, especially if you are trying to browse a page and accidentally hit the wrong link, which requires you to fumble for stop and oft times requires a reload (this is one reason I miss the Hero browser, because it had a stop button in the address bar).
Hmm, I've noticed this as well. Perhaps Android thinks you need to refresh the page? I know with apps like Opera Mini, pages back (somewhere around 10) are completely stored which is a very nice feature, but as to why Android doesn't do this, is a mystery .
I know the larger files, like images and chunks of text, are saved to the cache, but not whole pages. That would get pretty big after a while, and would slow down the browser because of access times. It's the time the Browser takes to draw the page is what's creating the lag. Look at Opera Mini again, the page loads instantly because it's zoomed out first, then you zoom in.
try "steel" browser.
@ phuthanvinh: I have tried "Steel", but it really isn't any better.
@lukekirstein, yeah, that is one nice thing about Opera. It loads cached pages almost instantly in most instances. When I need quick information, I always turn to Opera. If I want to browse for pleasure, then I use the Android browser.
It would be awesome if a Developer could implement some type of Webkit add-on that forces cache of the whole page.
I just wonder if the "lag" is not caused by redownloading, but rather stems from Android using software-based graphics decoding instead of using the onboard graphics chip. At least that is what I have heard.
I have the same issue and it's very annoying when I'm using google reader!
Have you find a solution?
Does anyone have a solution to prevent android browser to reload pages already load in a tab after I come back from another tab?

Almost out of space, but not that many apps?

I'm trying to figure out why my phone is so low on space. I hardly have any apps installed, but it still says I have about 6MB free. Some of the apps have downloaded extra things they need to run (like this translator app), but all of that is stored on the SD card to my knowledge.
What is the fastest way, short of naming off every app I have to you guys, that I can figure out what files or files are taking up so much space on my phone?
go to settings, applications, manage applications ..there hit menu and sort by size .. you might find out that your browser and market cache are huge. select them and hit clear cache
turboyo said:
go to settings, applications, manage applications ..there hit menu and sort by size .. you might find out that your browser and market cache are huge. select them and hit clear cache
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Click to collapse
yea the cache for many apps can do that to you
simplest way to avoid that is by moving cache to the sd card (just search for a guide, there are many )
Well surprisingly, no cache was that big (just a couple of megs). I can't really figure out what's so big on this thing.
Bkid001 said:
Well surprisingly, no cache was that big (just a couple of megs). I can't really figure out what's so big on this thing.
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Click to collapse
do you use the google maps a lot? When you organized it by size were there many apps over a meg?
Root your phone and use Apps2SD and stop worrying about the lack of space.
Have you used any kind of program to backup your apps before a flash? The only way I know of fixing it is to get into recovery and do a FRESH wipe and fresh reinstall, then manualy add all your apps back. Should clear things up.

How to Stop Browser Reloads??

I have tried to ignore this issue but it's gotten to be such a huge pain in the ass that I have to ask. Every time I open a new browser window (tabbed browsing) or use another app even for a split second and switch back to the browser, the whole page reloads -- wtf?? Pisses the hell out of me.
Does that happen to everyone else too?
I'm running Cyanogen 4.2.5, with an 8 GB fat/ext3/linux-swap partitioned SD card. I have very few apps, and am always running 30+ MB free according to TasKiller. The browser reloads even happen when I kill all other tasks except for the browser.
Is there a way to minimize or stop the browser reloads from happening altogether?
Always Happens for me too.
This is pretty ridiculous. I can be on a single webpage, press home for literally 1 second, then go back to browser and it'll reload. (With no other apps open). Grrr
The worst part is the page is 90% visible, so why does it need to fully reload?? (You can press Stop, but then it continues reloading and leaves you with a white screen.)
There has to be a way to stop this?
This is ridiculous
Paul22000 said:
This is ridiculous
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Click to collapse
so is this

Easy way to quit browser? Am I missing something?

OK, this may be kind of a dumb question but...Why isn't there a quick way to quit browser? Menu--->Quit like with Pandora would be a useful addition IMO. Right now, there is no reliable way to quickly quit the browser other than hitting back however many times is needed until the browser quits. Or, menu--->windows--->X on the open windows--->once a new window opens up the hit the back button again. Seriously, it doesn't make sense.
ummm try the home button.
Sleeepy2 said:
ummm try the home button.
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I don't want it to continue running in the background though.
staunty said:
I don't want it to continue running in the background though.
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Use advance task manager or some kind of task killer to kill it.
staunty said:
I don't want it to continue running in the background though.
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Click to collapse
Android will kill/clean it up when the ram is needed.
Why not just let android do what it does and kill it when it's necessary?
Sleeepy2 said:
Android will kill/clean it up when the ram is needed.
Why not just let android do what it does and kill it when it's necessary?
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Click to collapse
While correct I find android deals with backing out of an app and pressing home differently.
Home says try to keep the apps state.
Backing out says I no longer need this app.
Neither kill the process but the second will be chosen first if more memory is needed. So by using back in general I find it more likely when I need multiple apps in ram they will both/all stay there.
The browser of course overrides the default back function to a web browser's back button unless you are on the first page of a window/tab.. so it can be harder to tell the OS you are done with it.
However even so don't use a task killer on the browser I find it causes some things to become out of place and make the memory issue worse as the day goes on.
If fact just don't use a task killer!! If things are going slow and you have swap. . Reduce or remove swap. If you have comp cache above the cm default same applies.. if you are tired of waiting on the home screen to reload, try keep home in ram.
Dolphin browser has exit with or without clearing cache on long press of back.. hopefully it 'backs' and nothing fancy. (Well unless you asked it to clean the cache)
ezterry said:
While correct I find android deals with backing out of an app and pressing home differently.
Home says try to keep the apps state.
Backing out says I no longer need this app.
Neither kill the process but the second will be chosen first if more memory is needed. So by using back in general I find it more likely when I need multiple apps in ram they will both/all stay there.
The browser of course overrides the default back function to a web browser's back button unless you are on the first page of a window/tab.. so it can be harder to tell the OS you are done with it.
However even so don't use a task killer on the browser I find it causes some things to become out of place and make the memory issue worse as the day goes on.
If fact just don't use a task killer!! If things are going slow and you have swap. . Reduce or remove swap. If you have comp cache above the cm default same applies.. if you are tired of waiting on the home screen to reload, try keep home in ram.
Dolphin browser has exit with or without clearing cache on long press of back.. hopefully it 'backs' and nothing fancy. (Well unless you asked it to clean the cache)
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Click to collapse
What he said. I don't use a task killer anymore. I could get the quit function on dolphin browser but I don't understand why it isn't a standard function on the stock browsers.

[Q] Why does Browser data sometimes become huge?

I usually keep my N1 at around 30-50 MB free of internal storage, which is enough to have everything I want loaded on, but it's tough to free up much more space than that without uninstalling apps or moving to SD the apps that shouldn't be moved.
So anyway, today my phone suddenly dropped down to 13 MB left and the culprit appeared to be Browser data - suddenly over 46 MB! The cache was already cleared. I went through with Root Explorer and found that the largest file was located in:
/data/data/com.android.browser/app_thumbnails
For some reason a 31.5 MB file had made it into this directory, and Android clearly is not smart enough to clean it up. Anyway I deleted the offending file via Root Explorer and now it's happy.
Any thoughts on how to keep the browser from ballooning like this? I didn't want to delete all browser data because of bookmarks, cookies etc.
because in 2.2 froyo google updated the browser to temporarily store the entire contents of the page you are browsing into memory such that if you lost data connection, the page could be reloaded without the data connection. so when you have a few tabs open in the browser, or a very large site open, all contents are temporarily being stored for just in case.
if you were to close out all the tabs, kill the browser, all would return to normal. often times my browser hits up over 80MB because i have tons of pages open. i just kill all my tabs and the low space warnings go right away.
its a trade off, i dont mind it cause its better than the old way, but the trade off is we suffer with low storage.
I'll try closing tabs next time, but I swear I'd already closed all the tabs and still the bloat persisted across reboots...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
also delete the browser cache if you want to clear the pron vid, that stuff can take up quite a bit of space
cmstlist said:
I'll try closing tabs next time, but I swear I'd already closed all the tabs and still the bloat persisted across reboots...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
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Click to collapse
when this happens to me, occasionally i kill all the tabs and it takes a small bit of time for it to appear back to normal, but never more than a minute or so. but if i close the tabs, then force close the browser, it for sure instantly clears the used space back.
if its happening to you across reboots, then might be something completely different.
FYI i havent cleared my browser cache since July last year hehh, and i use the browser like a madman. i wonder how much space i'd get back if i did?
I find that when space is low, it automatically empties the browser cache to zero. In the scenario I described above, the cache was already empty.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

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