important info about your internal memory and market memory usage

[loner]

Google's official answer:http://www.google.com/support/forum/...c8cf5448&hl=en

Thanks for bringing up this discussion. Sadly, there isn't currently a way to manually clear the cache from the Market app. We're looking to add this into the next client update.

As it stands, this cache will be freed when your device gets low on disk space - so you when you need it most you will get it back. But this isn't a good experience so we're trying to fix it soon.

Thanks,
Robin

[smoger]

thanks loner,.. i figured it worked like that.. and i was only guessing.

maybe it's because i'm a software engineer and it only seemed logical to me for that to be the case..

[shaky777]

Thanks, Shaky! (May I call you Shaky? )

You've put a lot of time and effort into researching and reporting this and I really appreciate it! Now my 71 MB seems a LOT bigger than it used to be!

Thanks again,

Reg

yes, you can call me shaky, lets just keep an eye on this...

[Maximosis]

why cant you just clear the Cache? hopefully they will drop a update that cleans it for you.

[shaky777]

just clearing cache does not work cuz you can't clear cache data on the market app... tried that already....remember we are not talking about the web browser

[RegGuheert]

RegGuheert: can you outline the specifics of Android's disk cleanup for me? You clearly know more about how the OS maintains the hardware than I do...

What I do know is that many customers are struggling with low storage after having the phone for only a couple of weeks, just as I predicted a week or so before the release. I also know that several here have reported that the phone comes to a crawl when the storage gets very low.

Given that, I'm not going to give Google the benefit of the doubt that they have thoroughly considered the performance implications of driving the available FLASH storage to near zero. It seems clear that Google (and HTC) did not put enough thought into the application storage needs of this product and they now need to go and take a VERY close look at it.

It kind of reminds me of the problem that NASA has with the FLASH memory on the Mars rovers. Those little Androids became largely non-functional after only a couple of days on the surface. Fortunately, they were able to recover by deleting most of the data stored in FLASH. (The difference there was that the Mars rovers were able to transfer most of their data somewhere else. We are not currently allowed to do that.)

[shaky777]

Yes, but I don't think we are talking about internal RAM here. We are talking about internal storage, which is FLASH. Unfortunately, FLASH storage tends to get very, very slow when it is fragmented. Filling a storage medium to its limit is what leads to a high level of fragmentation. I think Shaky777 is on the right path by bringing it all back to factory settings and then adding as little as is necessary.

i know it shouldn't be like this, but since we don't have another choice right now i go with it, so make a good app list>reset>and download all in one shot...

[MobileMan]

A minor issue that should have been thought out before the phone came out. Now its becoming a problem for some or a lot of G1 owners.

[shaky777]

also i will recommend to clear your cache data from the wed browser as often as you can to preserve your internal memory, i notice that every time i accessed the web i took 1mb out of my memory, now i need to check how much it takes when i use the web constantly with out cleaning cache data...

[Gary.Lavin]

This brings up the concept of a backup solution. I saw a video where a guy loses his G1 and simply logs in to a new phone and he is up and running. How real is that? Do we need a backup solution? I spend hours getting mine dialled in, does any of that stay?