✏ How to solve a "insufficient storage" error on your FP

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Continuing the discussion from Insufficient storage error even after partition upgrade for FP1:

I’m creating a new topic for people who are affected by the infamous "insufficient storage" problem explicitly persisting AFTER the unified storage upgrade. I guess there is more than one solution to the problem, so feel free to give your own solution in this wiki. (Use the “Edit” button in the top right of this post.)

Error log: (happend to @therob, 19.10.2015)
1.) FP1 OS 1.6 with 1+12GB storage layout --> TitaniumBackup backup of all Data + Apps
2.) Manual FP OS update to 1.8.7 with 1+12GB storage layout (by accident)
3.) FP OS internal “Storage Upgrader” to 13GB storage layout
4.) Tried to restore all Apps+Data with TitaniumBackup.
Problems:

  • For some apps (seems randomly) the following error message popped up, although there is more than 12GB free storage available (some apps could be restore, some not…).
  • Also fresh installations via PlayStore are randomly not possible.
  • Restoring of “Data only” with TB worked (incl. for some system settings/apps)
  • It seems not directly related to the apk-size of the restoring app
  • Moving and renaming the TitaniumBackup folder back to default (sdcard0/TitaniumBackup) did not solve the problem permanently

Error messages (for better searcheability):

  • [EN] Insufficient storage" /
    "Out of space. AppXYZ couldn't be installed. Free up some space and try again. [CANCEL][Manage apps]"
  • [DE] “Nicht genügend Speicherplatz” / “Nicht genügend Speicher verfügbar” /
    Kein freier Speicher vorhanden. AppXYZ konnte nicht installiert werden. Setzen Sie Speicherplatz frei und versuchen Sie es erneut.
    [Apps verwalten][Abbrechen]
    Error message looks similar to:

Solution 1:
@FFFan wrote a very concise explanation how he/she dealt with the problem, successfully. I quote:

  1. Install the Link2SD app at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buak.Link2SD.
  2. Run Link2SD, allowing the ‘Superuser Request’ (just once, or for 10 minutes).
  3. Go to settings (the three little dots in the upper right corner) and choose ‘settings’.
  4. Under section ‘Native App2SD Settings’, choose ‘install location’ > ‘Internal’. (I haven’t tried ‘External’, but if this setting means apps will be moved/stored to your external SD card, it could be worth a try…)
  5. It is even safe to uninstall the app - otherwise you might be faced with the occasional ‘Superuser Request’ by Link2SD out of the blue. Even after uninstall, the memory bug will be gone for good.

Worked for me:
Solution 1: @therob, @FFFan

Solution 1a
I looked for instructions for installing Link2SD and thought those found at https://www.noypigeeks.com/android/tutorial-a-guide-to-link2sd/ were the clearest. Note that these require you to partition your SD card before installing Link2SD and that this will reformat your card so you have to back up the files on it first. I found that it was possible to do this by connecting my Fairphone 1 to the computer using a USB connection and choosing USB storage. There is no real guidance for how big the partitions should be; I went for the maximum suggestion of 2GB on my 32GB card, but I wonder if this was too small. [A couple of months later I concluded that it is too small and that I should have made a much more generous partition of at least twice that size. I have now used the Mini Tool Partition Wizard to shrink the FAT32 partition on the SD card and increase the Ext2 partition to 10GB, which may be overkill. If you do this, be sure to back up everything of value on the SD card beforehand. I also uninstalled all the linked apps beforehand, though I’m not sure that that was necessary and had the unexpected consequence that I lost some apps because the new versions are not compatible with Android 4.2.2.]

Once you have partitioned the SD card and installed Link2SD, then you can choose external ext 2 as your install location and move apps to that partition. The FAQ page for LInk2SD at http://www.link2sd.info/faq explains why using apps in that partition may be the best policy.

I am really a novice but as I have had a storage problem with FP1 I thought I would share it with anyone else who has a similar problem. @JMB

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