How to Shrink-A-OS

**Dubkid420** · 11-11-2009, 10:27 AM

Well seeing as I already have done the whole shrinking thing should I just wipe and install the new shrunken version now? I already have everything backed up using BBSAK. Would it be okay to go ahead and wipe and install the shrink?

**buckifvr** · 11-11-2009, 11:02 AM

Prior to trying to install a Shrinked OS, has your phone been functioning pretty well, or have you had serious problems? The reason I ask is because wiping is a controversial issue. Wiping has become a fad, but is not recommended as a routine step to upgrading if your phone is functioning okay. Wiping by itself can sometimes cause more problems, and should only be considered if your phone is having serious issues. If your phone has been functioning well, I would take the less risky route. I would not recommend wiping your phone, I would recommend downgrading then reupgrading. If you decide to "wipe", do so at your own risk. It may be okay, but it might not. Just my opinion, I know others will disagree with me.

**Dubkid420** · 11-11-2009, 02:01 PM

Did the wipe. Worked just fine. Not sure what is so hard about that...lol. Once I had it going it was really no sweat and seemed relatively risk-free for the most part. Anyway, I am now sitting happily at 52.2MB with 10+ 3rd party apps. installed. Phone is far smoother in function as well. It is indeed VERY noticeable.

**buckifvr** · 11-11-2009, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Dubkid420

Did the wipe. Worked just fine. Not sure what is so hard about that...lol. Once I had it going it was really no sweat and seemed relatively risk-free for the most part. Anyway, I am now sitting happily at 52.2MB with 10+ 3rd party apps. installed. Phone is far smoother in function as well. It is indeed VERY noticeable.

I'm glad everything worked out for you. I never said wiping was hard to do, but posed some risk. I have read many accounts of folks wiping their phones and it caused other problems (most of which I wouldn't know how to help them). I also have read many accounts of folks wiping their phone and everything worked out great (like you). I've also read messages from some Crackberry Gods that don't recommend routine wiping of a phone for simple OS upgrades. Personally, I will only recommend something that I know will work, and won't cause serious problems to someone elses phone. But like I said earlier, I'm glad it all worked out good for you.

**pinhead875** · 11-20-2009, 01:07 PM

Very helpful, thank you!!

**wotenk** · 11-24-2009, 03:53 PM

I did everything in the tutorial that you said, except for the first couple steps and gained 1-2 MB. I'm already running .328, do I need to delete that from my BB before I load the new "shrinked" version?

I noticed everything in the Shrink-A-OS program I pretty much had deleted anyways, does that mean I'm not going to see a difference in MB on my BB?

According to the program I did take the OS from 84.39 to 48.69.

BTW, I sit at about 20mb with 10 apps.

**buckifvr** · 11-24-2009, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by wotenk

I did everything in the tutorial that you said, except for the first couple steps and gained 1-2 MB. I'm already running .328, do I need to delete that from my BB before I load the new "shrinked" version?

I noticed everything in the Shrink-A-OS program I pretty much had deleted anyways, does that mean I'm not going to see a difference in MB on my BB?

According to the program I did take the OS from 84.39 to 48.69.

BTW, I sit at about 20mb with 10 apps.

ce

If you already have 328 loaded on your phone, then using my tutorial will not remove files already on your phone. I recommend downgrading to OS 148 or 151. Then upgrading to Shrinked 328.

**wotenk** · 11-25-2009, 10:48 AM

That's what I figured. May give that a shot and see how it turns out.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**BN1221** · 12-07-2009, 11:16 AM

I did the shrink OS on my Curve 8530 with OS 5. I don't think OS 5 behaves well shrunked. The minute I got my data plan online visual voicemail, all the facebook and IM junk came back. Now - it looks like its pointers to download it but I want even that gone. Am I out of luck?

**buckifvr** · 12-07-2009, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by BN1221

I did the shrink OS on my Curve 8530 with OS 5. I don't think OS 5 behaves well shrunked. The minute I got my data plan online visual voicemail, all the facebook and IM junk came back. Now - it looks like its pointers to download it but I want even that gone. Am I out of luck?

OS 5 works fine when Shrunk. If I understand you correctly, after you installed a Shrinked OS you still get icons for FB, and all the IM services. I think those icons are pushed my your carrier and are just links to download those apps. If that is what they are, they cannot be removed. What most people do is hide them. They are not full apps, just links and do not utilize much device memory. If that is what they are then you are out of luck.

**MuDvAyNe** · 12-09-2009, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by buckifvr

ce

If you already have 328 loaded on your phone, then using my tutorial will not remove files already on your phone. I recommend downgrading to OS 148 or 151. Then upgrading to Shrinked 328.

So wait even if I wipe my phone I should revert back to 4.7?!?!

**buckifvr** · 12-09-2009, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by MuDvAyNe

So wait even if I wipe my phone I should revert back to 4.7?!?!

Personally, I would not "wipe" your phone. I know it is popular, and a lot of people will swear by it. But you also hear of a lot of people having problems after "wiping" a phone. The Crackberry Gods do not recommend routine "wiping" of a phone prior to upgrading OS. They recommend "wiping" a phone only if you are having serious problems with it. If your phone is working and you want to upgrade your OS then "wiping" is not necessary. "Wiping" is controversial, and some will disagree with me. Personally, I got my Storm on day 1, upgraded through all the leaks and official OS's and have never wiped my phone, and it works great. Bottom line - "Wipe" with caution.

To answer your question, if you "wipe" you device I do not think you need to downgrade to 4.7. You do need to make sure that your Shrinked OS is the only OS on your PC prior to installing it on your phone. Good Luck.

**MuDvAyNe** · 12-09-2009, 09:44 AM

The main reason I wiped was because my memory was getting destroyed on 5.0. A week ago I randomly lost 7mb of app memory and can't seem to get it back. After the wipe and reinstalling all my apps its back up to 24mb (Most I've had in a while). Prior to the memory loss I was booting up at 18mb. It's been about 12 hours since the install and I lost 6mb, so I am back down to 18mb. The memory usage on this phone is unbelievable.

**buckifvr** · 12-09-2009, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by MuDvAyNe

The main reason I wiped was because my memory was getting destroyed on 5.0. A week ago I randomly lost 7mb of app memory and can't seem to get it back. After the wipe and reinstalling all my apps its back up to 24mb (Most I've had in a while). Prior to the memory loss I was booting up at 18mb. It's been about 12 hours since the install and I lost 6mb, so I am back down to 18mb. The memory usage on this phone is unbelievable.

I would recommend uninstalling all your third-party apps including any custom themes. Then reinstall one app, and then watch it to see if it is the source of your serious memory leak. Do this one by one and hopefully you can identify the app(s) that are causing the problem.

**_X_** · 12-10-2009, 12:35 PM

Mods please make this a sticky the tutorial was very helpful.

Okay I went through the whole process of downgrading to 4.7-151 then shrinking the 5.0-328 OS.

It's hard to tell if I've gotten any memory freed because of it.

When I first upgraded, when 5.0 was released I upgraded from 151 to 328. I when from having 25MB free to 10MB free.

I did a wipe and had 40MB then after re-installing all my apps I was back down to 15MB. But the memory leaks take me down to 3MB rather quick. I've lasted 3days tops without having to reboot.

Now I've gone through the whole downgrade, shrink, and upgraded. The tool said I saved 40MB.

The install was interesting I lost more than half of my apps and I am at 40MB. Let's see what I get when I re-install all of my apps

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> UPDATE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
After installing all of my apps and a few large ones I've had to delete -- to make room

I'm at 24MB

I was at 30MB when I replicated what I had prior to the shrink. That means I was able to save 15MB of memory. Very nice this should help with the stability of the phone.

=X=

**buckifvr** · 12-11-2009, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by _X_

Mods please make this a sticky the tutorial was very helpful.

Okay I went through the whole process of downgrading to 4.7-151 then shrinking the 5.0-328 OS.

It's hard to tell if I've gotten any memory freed because of it.

When I first upgraded, when 5.0 was released I upgraded from 151 to 328. I when from having 25MB free to 10MB free.

I did a wipe and had 40MB then after re-installing all my apps I was back down to 15MB. But the memory leaks take me down to 3MB rather quick. I've lasted 3days tops without having to reboot.

Now I've gone through the whole downgrade, shrink, and upgraded. The tool said I saved 40MB.

The install was interesting I lost more than half of my apps and I am at 40MB. Let's see what I get when I re-install all of my apps

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> UPDATE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
After installing all of my apps and a few large ones I've had to delete -- to make room

I'm at 24MB

I was at 30MB when I replicated what I had prior to the shrink. That means I was able to save 15MB of memory. Very nice this should help with the stability of the phone.

=X=

I'm glad you found this guide helpful.

**MuDvAyNe** · 12-14-2009, 10:27 AM

Just a little feedback. I was booting up with 24mb. The first few days. Now when I do a battery pull I am at 18mb. Nothing has changed on my ohone. I have randomly lost 6mb. I really hate .328

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**_X_** · 12-14-2009, 01:43 PM

Arg! I had the shrinked OS running for 2 days. Then my desktop manager notified me there was an update. When I accepted the update it restored all of the files I removed back on my OS.

Is there anyway to prevent an update from doing this?

**buckifvr** · 12-14-2009, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by _X_

Arg! I had the shrinked OS running for 2 days. Then my desktop manager notified me there was an update. When I accepted the update it restored all of the files I removed back on my OS.

Is there anyway to prevent an update from doing this?

BUMMER!!!!! X you gotta do it again! Tip - do NOT update your Shrinked OS via DM.

**mobiledevice** · 12-14-2009, 04:35 PM

what I don't understand is how I'm able to shrink out 30-35 megs of OS space, and then when it actually gets to my phone, I've only saved about 15-20.

it's like the megs reported in SAO don't directly translate to megs in the phone's memory

**Jwirtz89** · 01-03-2010, 09:25 PM

Am I able to use this to delete junk currently on my OS (5.0.0.419)?

**buckifvr** · 01-03-2010, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Jwirtz89

Am I able to use this to delete junk currently on my OS (5.0.0.419)?

what do you mean by junk currently on your os? This doesn't remove "junk" directly from the OS on your phone. Rather this is meant to remove unwanted "junk" from an OS prior to installing onto your phone.

**Jwirtz89** · 01-03-2010, 09:35 PM

Junk as in VCast, Flickr, etc. And I was just wondering if there is a way to just have it remove the stuff from my OS without having to completely reinstall the OS onto my phone.

**buckifvr** · 01-03-2010, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by Jwirtz89

Junk as in VCast, Flickr, etc. And I was just wondering if there is a way to just have it remove the stuff from my OS without having to completely reinstall the OS onto my phone.

Alot of those type of icons are just links to install the apps. Those cannot be removed because they are pushed out by Verizon. Best you can do is hide the icons.

**Jwirtz89** · 01-03-2010, 09:49 PM

Damn. I hide those in a junk folder but would still prefer them to be gone completely lol. Does shrinking the OS free up app space at all?
Also, how is that m[i]berry theme?