So, it is as the title says: my Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) is filled up. Not with apps, but with "System Memory". The device only has 8 GB of storage, and about ~48%+ of that (3.3 GB) is used by System Memory. Well, apps fill 4 GB, but that is why I have removed about 20% of the system apps (like Google, Hangouts, and many more).
What do I do? How do I get rid of extreme amounts of space used?
There's a new software called Universal Android Debloater Download Universal Android Debloater. It removes bloatwares on any Android phones by using ADB.
By removing bloatware you can get rid of unnecessary system memory.
The main goal is to improve battery performance and privacy by removing unnecessary and obscure system apps. This can also contribute to improve security by reducing the attack surface.
Packages are as well documented as possible in order to provide a better understanding of what you can delete or not. The worst thing which could happen is removing an essential system package needed during boot causing then an unfortunate bootloop. After about 5 failed system boots, the phone will automatically reboot in recovery mode and you'll have to perform a FACTORY RESET. So make a backup first!
You can also root your device and take control in your hand. Remove unnecessary applications.
Even you can install a custom rom, most of the custom roms have a bare minimum apps so less storage usage
To clear the system memory, you would have to delete the app and then re-install it from the Google Play Store.
The "system memory" Is where the Android OS is installed so there is no possibility to delete that
Just to be clear, you can't get rid of system memory but you can disable some apps that comes with the phone. I've answered something like this Here on how to free up space on your device
Cheers :)
I have a Samsung s9 plus and the app that was taking up all my storage was My files (ironically). I went to settings/apps/My Files/Storage and the data was a whopping 6GB. I hit Clear Data and freed up the space. I'm not sure why a file browser would need to hold on to that much data, but it's working fine without it.
My phone use system memory 120 GB. and apps around 6 GB so I have only 2 GB left. I try clear clash, delete some apps it's increase about 2 GB. so I do this...
it's take some times but I gain about 80% free space (more than 80 GB)
My system storage size would not stop increasing on my Android 12 Pixel 4a (similar situation to the OP). I was able to reclaim it by saving large dummy files into the free storage (on the user side, internal storage) and then removing them again.
Pick a large file you have at hand: movie, Linux ISO, Android ROM, etc. Create multiple folders inside the internal storage with dummy names and copy the same file into each one of the folders. You will see the system storage size shrink as you use more and more space on the user side. Once the system storage has shrunk a bit you can copy the next batch of files. Rinse and repeat.
In my case I started with a system storage using 72 GB of my 128 GB memory and ended up with only 14 GB of system storage, hence freeing almost 60 GB. I found out that Android would free 1 GB when the storage is full so I worked with around 700 MB of files at a time.
I found out that using a FTP server on my phone and uploading the file from my PC slowed down the process in a way that Android could keep up with the copy and free enough storage in time for the next file. Hence I prepared a large amount of files on my PC and let it run for one hour, until a warning popped up that my phone is running out of storage. I had to fiddle a bit because many apps would crash at this point but after freeing some storage the phone resumed normal operation.
The rationale behind this mechanism is that Android (at least recent versions) will make use of all the free storage it can grab for its internal use, especially cache for system components. Many people already hint at this behavior on the Internet and recommend clearing the app cache, which I did with no result. The catch is that while the user can empty the cache of user installed apps the cache of system components cannot be cleared without rooting the phone or doing a factory reset and none are practical for daily use. I guessed that Android will give up that storage whenever the user needs it and it worked.
So at the end the system storage size continuously increasing is probably not an issue which requires fixing. It's unfortunate and inconvenient though that Android shows the internal storage as full when it's actually not and presses the user to delete "useless" pictures and videos instead of cleaning up all the mess inside the system storage.
This issue is documented in different places:
