Apps for checking memory space show far less flash memory on my smartphone than should be installed according to the manufacturer. What’s going on there?
My smartphone warns me that it’s running out of storage space. I then checked the storage space using several apps. Surprisingly, however, all of these programs show me massively less flash memory than specified by the manufacturer. This also applies to other smartphones that I then checked. About a quarter of the promised space is missing. What’s going on there?
The built-in flash memory of smartphones is actually not fully usable for applications. A portion goes for recovery partitions from which you can reset the device to factory settings. Another part goes for the operating system itself. Most of these diagnostic apps still recognize the operating system part, but they do not see the hidden recovery partitions. The memory size displayed in the device settings corresponds to the manufacturer’s specifications, but does not differentiate between usable and hidden memory.
The effect does not occur with an additional MicroSD card, only a very small part is used for the file system. Again, some apps reporting a slightly higher value than others is because some use a gigabyte as 10243 Show bytes (GibiByte) other than 10003 (gigabytes, decimal).
