Troubles and doubts about future using my FP2

[Evleine]

Hi everyone,
I have been struggling with using my FP2 the past months. I notice that the internal storage is full a lot. I keep emptying it as far as I can. Yet I am not using so many apps on my phone. And I delete as many pictures as I can. I am now using my phone for 2 years. Have already replaced the screen (was my own fault, I had dropped it). Then I replaced the front camera and the headphone thing. I am now learning how to use a micro sd. I am not quite sure if I am doing it right, since the internal storage has not grown. And much of the google apps cannot be replaced onto the micro sd. At least I do not know how.

Now my microphone uhm…the one used to be able to speak to someone, or to record a voice message. That microphone stopped functioning. People just hear cracking noise and a wind-noice, they do not hear me. So now I would need to replace yet another part.
And my screen is showing coloured dots sometimes. The whole screen is then filled with square dots. I can still use it, yet it can be annowying. And the normal camera might need replacement too I feel.

So now I am wondering what to do. Replace everything and hoop that all will be fine? Or …well…I might have had enough of all the frustration. Yet I do love the philosphy and feel sad if I need to find another phone.

Do you have any tips on how you deal with this? Anyone recognizing what I am facing? And how did you deal with it.
Thanks

[BertG]

Hi,
The problem with filling up the space might be due to the phone-cache. E.g. when you update an app, the apk-file of the new version remains in the cache after the update is completed. You can manually delete those files using a file manager or use an app to clean the cache.
Regarding the microSD card: the card can be used as internal storage or external. I would highly recommend to not use it as internal storage.
Take a look at this wiki:

A little guide to... using SD cards

Android 6 introduced new options for using an SD card in your phone. When you format an SD card or insert a new SD card, you’ll have two options: Internal/phone/adopted storage or external/portable storage. The option that most closely matches older Android versions is the external option. There are a couple of things to take into account when choosing which option works best for you: TL;DR: Formatting as internal will allow you to store apps on it and have it encrypted with the system interna…

[BeMiGro]

@BertG

i,
The problem with filling up the space might be due to the phone-cache.

That might be the case, but would need a lot of apps to be installed (and often updated).

Another reason could be some app storing many big files in internal memory. Apps falling into this category are e.g. Whatsapp (pictures, audios & videos received), Spotify (songs stored for offline listening) and the like.
Since at least for some of those apps it is not possible to change standard storage to external SD, the only option might be to export the files (e.g. to Gallery if that one can use ext. SD) and/or delete the files from the respective app.

[Dr_Cool]

Use the DiskUsage app to find out what is occupying your memory. I’m a power user and still have plenty of memory left, both internal and SD. One of the great things about the Fairphone 2 is that it was designed with plenty of internal memory, what isn’t always the case with popular smartphone models.

[Evleine]

Hi, Thanks! I noticed that I cannot move any google apps of some other apps to the External Storage option. So I now use the internal option. Do you have any tips on how I can move stuff to an external storage SD?

[Evleine]

Hi Dr-Cool. I tried the Diskusage app. Managed to increase the internal data. Yet I have no clue which stuff shown in the Diskusage app I can safely remove. I mean I can try and see what happends but what if removing a certain folder make my phone to disfuntion? How can I know what to remove safely?

[Evleine]

Hi all, Thanks for replying. I read only tips on increasing the internal storage. I understand that the other imbalances on my phone are up to me to deal with. I am now, unfortunately, at the point where I have to admit that I do not want to pay another 100 euro’s to replace parts on my phone, because I am uncertain that that makes my phone function in a good way for another 2-3 years. Having to replace stuff every year is still not so very fair, or environment friendly. So I am, unfortunately again, now looking into other options. …

[Dr_Cool]

Ah, this is the hard part. Sorry for not being able to give you a straight answer. Some apps leave junk behind when uninstalled, you will need to guess based on the names of files and directories, etc. You may want to rename a directory before deleting it permanently so you can revert the changes if necessary, but it may break a few apps. In any case, if you have backups, you should always be able to reinstall something that goes awry. No simple solution, sorry.

[ElKrasso]

A very easy solution for storage managing is “files” from google, available at the Playstore. The interface is very easy to deal with and you are not able to break anything.