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"Application is not installed on your phone" after moving apps to SD on Froyo

"Application is not installed on your phone" after moving apps to SD on Froyo
hey guys,
first of all i searched the forum but didn't find anything like my problem
(i run Froyo on non-rooted Nexus One)
so, i moved several apps to SD using that ADB command to change default install location from internal memory to SD. everything worked and apps were running smoothly. then my battery went dead during the night and when i switched the phone on in the morning i see icons with green robot for all those apps moved to SD. and if i try running them i get "application is not installed on your phone" error message. thou apps are still on the SD. it seems that my phone erased the part of the data of those apps stored in the internal memory.. which sucks.
anyone faced such a problem so far? i wonder if it's possible to solve without reinstalling all the apps..
many thx in advance.
Cheers.

It happened on my phone too, just removed battery for few minutes.
Looks like a bug.

dpds said:
hey guys,
first of all i searched the forum but didn't find anything like my problem
(i run Froyo on non-rooted Nexus One)
so, i moved several apps to SD using that ADB command to change default install location from internal memory to SD. everything worked and apps were running smoothly. then my battery went dead during the night and when i switched the phone on in the morning i see icons with green robot for all those apps moved to SD. and if i try running them i get "application is not installed on your phone" error message. thou apps are still on the SD. it seems that my phone erased the part of the data of those apps stored in the internal memory.. which sucks.
anyone faced such a problem so far? i wonder if it's possible to solve without reinstalling all the apps..
many thx in advance.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forcing the apps to install to SD will break them. In order for applications to be successfully moved to the SD card in Froyo, they must have an appropriate flag set on them from the developer. If the application isn't updated with this flag, it will not work by default from the SD card.
The ADB command should work fine (I think) once all apps are updated, but until then it will just cause problems like what you're seeing.

codesplice said:
Forcing the apps to install to SD will break them. In order for applications to be successfully moved to the SD card in Froyo, they must have an appropriate flag set on them from the developer. If the application isn't updated with this flag, it will not work by default from the SD card.
The ADB command should work fine (I think) once all apps are updated, but until then it will just cause problems like what you're seeing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What app in the market currently supports apps 2 sd?

ram130 said:
What app in the market currently supports apps 2 sd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, as I'm currently unable to access the market (being deployed will do that). There is a thread on the subject though, which is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=687659

codesplice said:
Not sure, as I'm currently unable to access the market (being deployed will do that). There is a thread on the subject though, which is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=687659
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THanks man!!

I set the installation location to SD via ADB and restored my apps via Titanium Backup. Here's what I found.
Apps will occasionly seem to have dissapeared (from App page + download page from the market) seems intermittent and seems to correct itself.
If you mount the SD card via USB then obviously your phone can't access the apps, after unmounting it takes a little time for the system to correct itself (my recommendation is to turn the screen off and on again).
Keep any widget app you are going to use on the phone's storage (i.e. install app, then move it back to phone via the 'applications' menu).
Shortcuts to apps will revert to a generic green/white robot icon, but they will still work (not when the SD card is mounted via usb though obviously).
Basically any application/live wallpapers or anything else that you expect to run live (constantly) should be moved to the phones memory.

bumskins said:
I set the installation location to SD via ADB and restored my apps via Titanium Backup. Here's what I found.
Apps will occasionly seem to have dissapeared (from App page + download page from the market) seems intermittent and seems to correct itself.
If you mount the SD card via USB then obviously your phone can't access the apps, after unmounting it takes a little time for the system to correct itself (my recommendation is to turn the screen off and on again).
Keep any widget app you are going to use on the phone's storage (i.e. install app, then move it back to phone via the 'applications' menu).
Shortcuts to apps will revert to a generic green/white robot icon, but they will still work (not when the SD card is mounted via usb though obviously).
Basically any application/live wallpapers or anything else that you expect to run live (constantly) should be moved to the phones memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how I've been using it, also when you reboot the phone, I give it a minute to calculate the applications on the SD card and load them into the phone memory. (Notice if you go to App settings while you can't access the application, they are all there and being "calculated."

[Q] [Request] Need a way to boot 2nd partition (SDext) during boot time

Hi there,
So my N1 is rooted and has SuperOSR rom installed. The native app2sd that comes with the rom failed to work, so I disabled it and went back to the method I was using on CM7, Link2sd. I need a method to move apps/cache/lib files to sd-ext, as the tiny internal storage on the N1 is insufficient to hold even a 10th of the apps (and their data) that I have installed. And Link2sd has, at least in the past, been the perfect option to do so.
At first, all seemed well after installing and setting up Link2sd. Mount scripts were created with no problems, apps/cache/lib files all moved over to sd-ext without a hitch. Everything was going really well. Until I rebooted. Then, all hell broke loose.
The problem is this - for some reason, the second partition (sd-ext) is not being mounted during boot time. I'm not sure why, as this is exactly what the Link2sd mount scripts are supposed to accomplish. A Link2sd "mount warning" notice confirmed this problem, saying that "since 2nd partition was not mounted during boot time, linked apps will be invisible to the system until quick reboot". Indeed, every app that I had linked was not visible to the system, and most widgets on my homescreen showed only the message "problem displaying widget".
Luckily, a way to temporarily fix this is by simply quick-rebooting the rom. This will get the linked apps to show up again. But the problem is, widgets are still dead, input method gets reset (goes back from Swiftkey to native Android keyboard), and SMS gets reset back to the standard android SMS app. Of course, all of this can be changed back, but it takes time and effort to load each individual widget and restore each individual input/sms setting. It's really not practical every time you have to reboot your phone that you have to:
1. Quick-reboot the rom
2. Change input method back to Swiftkey
3. Manually restore every widget on your home screens
4. Change sms app back to Go sms.
So, my question is, how do I avoid having to do all this? I've already tried the "re-create mount scripts" option on Link2sd, but it doesn't matter. Still have the same errors upon rebooting phone every time. I'm pretty sure this means that the Link2sd mount scripts are either not being created correctly, or are being deleted every time the phone reboots. How do I fix this? Trying to get in contact with the developer of the app (bakpinar) has proven unsuccessful.
Does anyone know of any other scripts that I can flash/install that will successfully and consistently mount the 2nd partition (sd-ext) during boot time? I'm fairly certain that this is all I need, as everything else with Link2sd has been working correctly. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Ok, so since I haven't gotten any responses on this, I'm going to attempt two methods that i THINK might remedy this issue. The first one is this:
Method 1:
1. Full wipe and reinstall of SuperOSR rom
2. Format sd-ext to ext3 filesystem (found out that rom's native app2sd program wouldn't work due to my sd-ext partition being FAT32)
3. Enable rom's native apps2sd option upon booting.
4. Reboot
5. Install Link2sd from market, enable dex/lib file linking ONLY (native apps2sd program only moves app files, not dex or lib). Going to be interesting to see what link2sd says about the mounting scripts...
6. Reboot, collect results.
The 2nd method I'm going to try is this.
1. Full wipe and reinstall of SuperOSR rom.
2. Flash DTAPPS
3. Boot into ROM
4. Download and install test applications
5. Collect results
I'm not sure if either of these methods will work, however I know the 2nd method worked for CM. I will update a bit later as to which method (if any) fixed the issue. Sorry for the double post.

I commented to the ROM cook nelo360 a while back that there are some strange sd-ext mounting issues. If you look at the dmesg as it boots, it does post some strange error messages. Essentially, ext3 mounts as ext2, and ext4 mounts as ext3. Despite it not mounting as the proper format type, it still works.
Since the ROM is pulled off of AOSP, as CM is too, sort of, much of the same apps2sd apps probably work decently well.
Definitely need an ext3 or ext4 partition. As I'm understanding your post, that did not happen initially, and is crucial to many apps2ext to work, including the built-in one.

Really? Ext4 as 3 and ext3 as 2? Well that would explain why Link2sd was having issues. Hmm.
What I ended up doing was fully wiping the phone, flashing the rom, and then immediately afterwards flashing DTAPPS. Using the GUI interface found on the market, I moved apps to sd-ext and cache to sd-ext as well. The result has been mixed. While there was noticeably more space initially to install apps (something like 190mb internal), that space has declined at almost as fast a rate as when I had no apps2ext of any sort installed at all. This makes me think that while DTAPPS successfully moved some of the initially installed apps over to the sd-ext, it hasn't been moving any new ones i've installed or their cache files. I tried re-moving apps/cache with the gui interface and by using the old-fashioned terminal emulator method, but had no success. Still looking at about 100mb free space on internal. Considering that I only have about 1/4 of the apps installed that I usually have installed on my phone at any given time (I use A LOT of apps), it's become apparent that soon I am going to run out of space again.
As I can't find any method to fix this, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it quits with this ROM and try something else. Which is a real shame, because stability-wise this ROM beats Cyanogenmod and other ROMS I've tried hands down, while not sacrificing many features. I guess for a user who doesn't use a lot of apps or need a lot of space for them, this ROM would be ideal. Unfortunately, I'm not that type of user.

One problem I've found is that with any automatic apps2sd/ext system is the control of what is actually on the SD vs. internal memory is hard to work out.
With the built in apps2sd, which you seem to have trouble with, not every app was transferred to ext. I found that with the built in system, my internal memory kept dropping until it hit 25 mb or so. However, it never really dropped below that. Everything I kept installing probably went to the ext partition. I installed a lot of apps, and it wasn't an issue. (But you're right, it may not be as many as you want).
I didn't have a great way to check this though. Root explorer showed both the data/apps/ folder and the sdcard/ext folder linked together, so it just listed everything together. I'd have loved a way to actually manually transfer whatever apps were on internal memory to ext, but never found an easy way to do so, or even to confirm what was in which directory.
So even though it looks like the internal memory is steadily and quickly dropping, if you continue to install, and have the two directories appropriately linked (sorry, I don't know what the difference between all the different kinds of scripting apps2sd are), I don't think you'll run out of space as quickly as you think you will.

[Q] Corrupted filesystem or what?

Recently I have problem with apps/games that become corrupted after a while and dont know whats going on with the phone.
In Manage Applications some of the apps/games become greyed out and displayed 0 kb. Even I uninstalled all those greyed out apps and after a reboot. They come back again in manage applications.
What can causing those corrupted apps/games?
Mine phone are rooted + cwm and stock Nordic ROM.

had you used anything like apps2sd to move the apps to/from the sd card?
ive had it happen on my old hd2 but this was due to a failed retore from a backup and apps not being linked in correctly

Richy99 said:
had you used anything like apps2sd to move the apps to/from the sd card?
ive had it happen on my old hd2 but this was due to a failed retore from a backup and apps not being linked in correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, never used any app2sd before and never move any app/game to mine external sd either.
Even I reinstalled all those greyed out at manage applications and uninstall it directly. After reboot, it still there and I just dont know whats happening.
Ex, I installed tip off basketball game from market, play it for few minutes and after a moment. The game get corrupted and displayed as 0kb greyed out.
That apps dispalyed as SD in screenshot means, thay are installed on internal memory SD and not external_sd location.
Any got a clue whats going on?

possibly a corrupt system, might want to back it up and wipe it clean

Keeps rebooting with SD in

OK here is the deal.
I have a Note with rooted stock ROM KKA and many apps (300+ probably).
This has probably led to some random reboots, sometimes it rebooted 5 times in a row, sometimes I get 10 days without a reboot.
This led me to start toying with new ROMs etc. ...but I didn't even begin.
I use Mobile Odin Pro for most of these things, so I used it to flash franco #8 kernel to have a "better" kernel for my needs (plus CWM that I didn't have up to that point - just root).
Now, maybe it is some app updates, maybe it is that I extensively move apps to SD (always using Note's own app manager), maybe that I used that kernel, but "somewhere at that point" Note reboots REALLY REALLY got worse to the point that I cannot use it.
I did change the kernel to CF-Root (which is actually like stock + CWM) for KKA, but didn't improve things.
Note boots, I get to the normal Android screen but seems that it refreshes 2-3 times until it freezes and then Note either completely reboots (I get white text "Galaxy Note" etc.) or does some kind of "soft reboot" where I get a black screen and Android normal screen with my clock etc. comes back up. Then after a while the same, even if I am doing something else (moved away from the main screen). Also not all the times I get a request for my SIM PIN (just some times), leading to believe that either radio stays "on" during that "reboot" or doesn't get initialized properly.
I've noticed that it is DIRECTLY related to my SD being in the device or not. When I remove it (with device off - of course), Note boots ok and keeps working (although lacks a tone of my apps).
I have fully surface tested the SD. It is a Samsung (I got Samsung on purpose) 32GB C10. Doesn't seem to be "hardware" related.
Since I have CWM (and root of course) is there any debugging info I could read somewhere, most probably a boot log or something that COULD lead me to the problem? It could be a misbihaving app running during boot and being on SD (although I did try not to move such apps in SD). It could be related to the kernels I tried.
I didn't plan to wipe my device before official ICS.
Unfortunately I don't have proper backup either. (misbihaving Kies - I did make a CWM backup but it was already with the problem)
Any help appreciated.

...right... all those experts, yet not even a hint...

While I can't really help with the issue ... I'd just try a different SD to make 110% sure there's no issue with the current one, although it appears to be ok.
If you think it's an app all you can do is install or remove them one by one to find the one (or more) misbehaving, you can't really expect anyone to pinpoint THE ONE with just the info "I have 300+ apps" at hand, can you ?

No, of course.
But it would help if someone could give me a way to read a log or something. It is Linux under the sheets ain't it?

Try logcat App from market or logcollector. you can also collect logs from Android commander.
Adb command to get logs
Enable USB debugging
Connect Data cable
Open command prompt and get into adb command folder
and type this command
adb shell logcat log.txt
it ll create a text file in the same folder.

Thanks for the info.
In the meantime I found out but putting all SD apps in a subfolder and putting them back in (with new reboot each time) few by few, that indeed some (few) apps create the problem. I haven't EXACTLY pinpointed yet and I am not sure if a certain... mix is to blame, but it's better to loose maybe 10 apps than have this mess.
I plan to wipe and do some more selective app instalation after ICS is officially out for Note.

NLS said:
OK here is the deal.
I have a Note with rooted stock ROM KKA and many apps (300+ probably).
This has probably led to some random reboots, sometimes it rebooted 5 times in a row, sometimes I get 10 days without a reboot.
This led me to start toying with new ROMs etc. ...but I didn't even begin.
I use Mobile Odin Pro for most of these things, so I used it to flash franco #8 kernel to have a "better" kernel for my needs (plus CWM that I didn't have up to that point - just root).
Now, maybe it is some app updates, maybe it is that I extensively move apps to SD (always using Note's own app manager), maybe that I used that kernel, but "somewhere at that point" Note reboots REALLY REALLY got worse to the point that I cannot use it.
I did change the kernel to CF-Root (which is actually like stock + CWM) for KKA, but didn't improve things.
Note boots, I get to the normal Android screen but seems that it refreshes 2-3 times until it freezes and then Note either completely reboots (I get white text "Galaxy Note" etc.) or does some kind of "soft reboot" where I get a black screen and Android normal screen with my clock etc. comes back up. Then after a while the same, even if I am doing something else (moved away from the main screen). Also not all the times I get a request for my SIM PIN (just some times), leading to believe that either radio stays "on" during that "reboot" or doesn't get initialized properly.
I've noticed that it is DIRECTLY related to my SD being in the device or not. When I remove it (with device off - of course), Note boots ok and keeps working (although lacks a tone of my apps).
I have fully surface tested the SD. It is a Samsung (I got Samsung on purpose) 32GB C10. Doesn't seem to be "hardware" related.
Since I have CWM (and root of course) is there any debugging info I could read somewhere, most probably a boot log or something that COULD lead me to the problem? It could be a misbihaving app running during boot and being on SD (although I did try not to move such apps in SD). It could be related to the kernels I tried.
I didn't plan to wipe my device before official ICS.
Unfortunately I don't have proper backup either. (misbihaving Kies - I did make a CWM backup but it was already with the problem)
Any help appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Try doing the following if you have CWM recovery installed. Reboot into recovery -go to advanced, clean cache and fix permissions. That should resolve your issue.
B
Ash

Sorry to be late on this, but I can confirm from my own experience that after a certain number of apps transferred on SD, I got soft bootloop too.
To stop that madness, I had to boot my Note without its external microsd card, and uninstall some of the transferred apps. Thereafter I could boot even with card. But eventually I chose to keep almost all apps in internal memory, and externalize only those 2-3 which are really huge (including the Ebook update from Samsung which takes some 30 megabytes itself).
Ernesto de Bernardis
[from my Galaxy Note]

hi there, same issue here, but mine occurs even when installed on the internal sd.I had my own thread but couldn’t fined it.attached is my catlog :

ashT1971 said:
Hi
Try doing the following if you have CWM recovery installed. Reboot into recovery -go to advanced, clean cache and fix permissions. That should resolve your issue.
B
Ash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
didn't help,but thx anyways.

as it seems that no body is wiling to help,I'm gonna share my investigations results :
-results are the same in ICS roms.
-it seems that this happens when the number of installed goes over 100 (or something close to it) no matter in the int-sd or ext-sd.
-stock rom and kernel and clean install doesn't make any difference.
-during the media initialization phone goes extra hot and battery drains very fast.
so in conclusion I think it's either hardware related think or OS restriction...
any further help or comment is highly appreciated.

Suggestion. Move all apps first to phone. Format the card. Retain all system related apps like ROM manager, backup, memory cleaner, browser, camera etc. on phone itself. Move other apps which are likely to remain live all the time to internal sd card. Move the balance to external sd card. Thus helped with a similar problem on windows phone 7.
If the above doesn't help, try freezing batches of apps using an app like bloat freezer to zero down on the problem.
Sometimes, an erroneous movement of system cache to external card also causes this problem.
Ash
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

solution to your apps 2 sd move problem
See some of my previous posts by doing a search where i have referred to this problem and also the solution.
Basically the note is sh1t at moving apps to sd card. Especially after the apps count goes above hundred or so. Many times the phone software tells that the app is moved to sd card but it has been moved in a faulty manner and subsequently the phone starts reboot loops which is only solved by pulling out the sd card and deleting the affected apps which are always apps that have been moved to sd card.
Presently have 352 apps on my phone and it is working fine but this has been after many many many frustrating moments at trial and error and realising the samsung galaxy note is sh1t at moving apps to sd card and finding work arounds which are slow but work.
Your solution to the problem,
remove the auto update feature for any app on the android market or elsewhere if that app has been moved to sd card.
uninstall sd card or pull it out battery and then remove card reboot loops prevent uninstalling card. my phone sometimes went into reboot loops for 8hours at a stertch with the phone being unusable through out.
go to the application manager (from samsung and not the android one) and select from drop down list to sort apps by size and delete all apps that are shown as having a size of 4kb / 8kb / 12kb (when actual size is many times bigger)
reinstall sd card and restart phone and phone will work fine if you have deleted all apps of the sizes mentioned above.
then to prevent the problem from recurring again always manually update any apps that have been moved to sd card ONE AT A TIME other wise problem recurs without fail as this phone is **** at moving apps to sd after a hundred or so app are on phone
you can auto update any apps that have not been moved to sd
keep apps on phone if they are to do with file managers / browsers / camera apps etc
the above has been deduced by me by trial and error and months of frustration with the sh1t apps 2 sd move capabilities of this phone
DONT BATCH MOVE apps to sd using apps like app2sdmove etc as the problem will recur and move any app manually one by one if you have loads of apps
Following the above method my phone works fine now with about 352 apps but occassionally when i accidentally autoupdate a few apps together that have been moved to sd card then the problem recurs and i have to delete apps as mentioned above and reinstal then works fine. But it is a f*cking pain reinstalling many apps manually one by one but no option due to the crap capabilities of this phone for the purposes of apps2sd move.
I dont face this problem with two of my lower specced android phones
Also this phone gets internal memory errors when about 200mb is free and freezes over when about 190mb left. Where as my old htc desire with poorer hardware used to work fine even when 4-5mb free on 2.1 firmware and needed 15mb free with 2.2 firmware but the note with much better hardware struggles when 200mb is free.
Presently using my above tried and tested advice i have about 1.65gb of apps on internal memory (352 apps) and with 72 apps moved to card with rest on phone even though a further 75 can be moved to card i have opted not to move them due to the disability of this phone to move them properly without getting reboot loops and phone is working fine but lags for home button presses. Cant wait for ICS and hoping that this situation hopefully gets resolved or will have to upgrade sooner than intended originally as fed up with the apps2sd move 'disability' of this phone. I would be surprised if any other android phone had a ****tier apps 2 sd move capability like this phone has. I am pleased about the rest of the phone but the limitation is irritating as have had to repeatedly uninstall and reinstall apps. But now that i know the limitation it is a bit easier to work around as mentioned above.

Has your problem been resolved following the advice I gave yesterday?

Well the problem stopped when I moves some of the apps to a folder in SD card (so they couldn't be "seen" by the OS) until... yesterday when it started again (possibly after some app updates).
I will probably do the same (move them off to a folder and back to install position few by few) until ICS comes and I wipe my phone (and reinstall fewer apps).
BTW, wiping caches and rebuilding permisions did not help.

NLS said:
Well the problem stopped when I moves some of the apps to a folder in SD card (so they couldn't be "seen" by the OS) until... yesterday when it started again (possibly after some app updates).
I will probably do the same (move them off to a folder and back to install position few by few) until ICS comes and I wipe my phone (and reinstall fewer apps).
BTW, wiping caches and rebuilding permisions did not help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to move to SD only apps which do not start at boot and do not run in background. Works for me.

bubblesmoney said:
Has your problem been resolved following the advice I gave yesterday?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
definitely thx a lot.

NLS said:
Well the problem stopped when I moves some of the apps to a folder in SD card (so they couldn't be "seen" by the OS) until... yesterday when it started again (possibly after app updates).
I will probably do the same (move them off to a folder and back to install position few by few) until ICS comes and I wipe my phone (and reinstall fewer apps).
BTW, wiping caches and rebuilding permisions did not help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't bother creating folders and making apps useless etc. just follow my advice mentioned in previous posts in this and other threads and your device will work fine with more than Three hundred apps. It just works around the crap sd move capabilities of this phone. Just hope some people from Samsung see this thread as this problem is easily reproducible and predictable.

debernardis said:
Try to move to SD only apps which do not start at boot and do not run in background. Works for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I do. Maybe I missed some.
If there was some easy logging on this phone I would know...

bubblesmoney said:
Don't bother creating folders and making apps useless etc. just follow my advice mentioned in previous posts in this and other threads and your device will work fine with more than Three hundred apps. It just works around the crap sd move capabilities of this phone. Just hope some people from Samsung see this thread as this problem is easily reproducible and predictable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do. Needs time and I don't have it.

[Q] ExistenZ Ultra 3.1.5

Did a search but could not find this issue and cannot post on dev thread for ROM so i posting here if wrong place i sorry.
OK the issue, after updating to 3.0 of ultra i cant update any apps as it keeps spitting out "Insufficient Storage Available" which is a crock of ..........as i have 1.57GB out of a total of 5.37GB available on internal plus external sd card with 12GB available but not relevant as apps on internal with 1.57GB available. Have updated to 3.1.5 but still the same and also unable to install any apps, yet i have less apps on it now than prior the 3.0 as i was generally running under a GB space before. Memory running at about 300MB out of 840MB
Any help or pointers or criticism for not searching far and wide enough to find a answer gracefully accepted
Churchnilled

Clear playstore datas in settings/apps/all
Also reboot a few times, wipe dalvik cache and cache.

No Joy
Thank you kind Sir for your superb roms and your help.
I did as you said but am still having the same problem.
Anything else i can try?

Have you made full wipe before installing eXistenZ??
Have you made backups via CWM Recovery before??
For example I have made a backup with CWM recovery which wasn't seen by other recoveries or system himself.
I had to install CWM recovery once again and only this one seen two backups which take me about more than 2GB internal storage.
After fresh install (with full wipes, also internal storage) fresh eXistenZ + 22 apps which I have installed after I have 4.05GB free space on internal storage and no problems with install anything.

Narrowing it down a bit
smogf said:
Have you made full wipe before installing eXistenZ??
Have you made backups via CWM Recovery before??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thank you for the reply,
I have not used CWM to create backup's i have only ever used Titanium but the issue is slightly different as the amount of free space is correct.
I think i have narrowed it down somewhat as i am able to install apps from Play store that have never been on the phone before the issue appears to be apps that are already on the phone can not be updated, i have uninstalled ones needing updating except for Chrome and NDR Utils as it wont allow me to uninstall them so i have frozen them for time being, i then rebooted and tried to reinstall them but even with them uninstalled it is still spitting out the "insufficient Storage" error
so my thinking is something is being left from uninstalling that is causing the issue as like i said above i can install anything else from Play store that has not been on phone before, for example i installed links2sd after it spat out the insufficient storage error for a previously installed app i tried installing again i have plenty of internal storage available for apps and it letting me install stuff that not been on phone before but wont let me update or reinstall stuff on or has been on phone before.
After doing some searching i found others having similar issues with different phones and roms etc but thus far all the solutions to those have not worked for me.
I know i could just easily wipe and start a fresh but to me thats defeating the object and takes so long even with all the backups etc, it just a real PITA to start afresh so i sooner search,read,beg,ask etc etc and exhaust every other avenue before admitting defeat and wiping.