[Toon49]

hi i'm new here and just got a playbook the other week. i have a 16gb playbook, have 6.5gb of apps and videos installed but am down to 2.6gb free space. I don't know much about this but is this right? I understand the os and pre loaded apps take up space but this does seem quite a lot. What usually takes up the most space?
thanks in advance

[rmah]

How much space did you have to begin with? I think mine was around 14.7. I think videos will tend to take up the most space (if you have movies). Large apps can be around 400-500 mb each.

[BB_Bmore]

How many videos do you have? gosh we soooo need otg... I would have got a 32g but they only had 16,i hope it dont come back to bite me in the !!

[Toon49]

i do have a few big apps counted them upand about 2.5gb worth. Also have 3 videos which are about 1gb each so 3gb altogether. I alsowould have got the 32gb one but none were in stock!

[Toon49]

oh and i also had 14.7gb to start

[zorecati]

oh and i also had 14.7gb to start

This is normal since what the manufacturer calculates the size of a megabyte differently than the os.

[rmah]

Is there a chance that you tried transferring large files over wifi but the transfer was stopped? Alternately, did you perhaps transfer some files that had codecs that aren't supported by the PB?

In both cases, you'll have files that are on your pb which aren't viewable but will take up space. You wouldn't notice these unless you accessed your files via pc/mac/file browsing app, as they (as in the case of videos) don't show up in your list under 'Videos'.

[Toon49]

would these show up on air browser on the playbook? I don't think i have anything extra could there possibly be anything hidden.

[cntrydncr223]

subscribed

[rmah]

would these show up on air browser on the playbook? I don't think i have anything extra could there possibly be anything hidden.

I'm not sure, to be honest. The ~7.5 odd gigs is an awful lot to go unaccounted for. I would check things out on your desktop via usb or wifi to see if there are any extra files lying around (maybe accidental/incomplete transfers?).

[justincase1911]

If your worried about filling up your PBs drive, you might want to pick up a GoFlex Satellite 500gb wifi hard drive. I got one last week and it seems to work pretty well with my PB. Now I keep all the big stuff like video on the Satellite which clears up a lot of space on my PB.

I know this doesn't answer your question about the unexplained used space, but I thought I would throw this out there.

[justincase1911]

Oooo, just thought about something I've been wondering for a while. When you delete an app, does any of its data remain on the hard drive? If it does, that could explain some of the used space.

[peter9477]

Oooo, just thought about something I've been wondering for a while. When you delete an app, does any of its data remain on the hard drive? If it does, that could explain some of the used space.

It appears it can remain there briefly, but gets cleaned up shortly after or at least by the next time you restart. I based this statement on observations made while experimenting with the backup problem (where apps which have thousands of files can prevent an Application Data backup from succeeding).

Aside from the brief delay, all code and app-private data is removed when you remove it. None of the data the app may have written into your "shared" folders (e.g. the "documents" or "misc" folders) is removed.

[justincase1911]

It appears it can remain there briefly, but gets cleaned up shortly after or at least by the next time you restart. I based this statement on observations made while experimenting with the backup problem (where apps which have thousands of files can prevent an Application Data backup from succeeding).

Aside from the brief delay, all code and app-private data is removed when you remove it. None of the data the app may have written into your "shared" folders (e.g. the "documents" or "misc" folders) is removed.

Good to know. Thanx

[BB_Bmore]

I like the idea of the separate hard drive. I didnt know it existed for a playbook until just now. Thanks!

[Toon49]

I'm not sure, to be honest. The ~7.5 odd gigs is an awful lot to go unaccounted for. I would check things out on your desktop via usb or wifi to see if there are any extra files lying around (maybe accidental/incomplete transfers?).

thanks i've looked on the computer and the only things i see are the videos. It does not even show the apps i have. Are files hidden or am i doing something wrong? thanks

[Neil9800]

glad i came across thus thread.

i have the 16gb version and was wondering about lost space.

when i first switched mine on it had 11.9gb of space available. this was at first ever full boot.

so how much of the original 16gb is lost to the file allocation table?

how much space is taken up by the os excluding anything i have installed extra?

what can i remove and where is it?

[ralfyguy]

glad i came across thus thread.

i have the 16gb version and was wondering about lost space.

when i first switched mine on it had 11.9gb of space available. this was at first ever full boot.

so how much of the original 16gb is lost to the file allocation table?

how much space is taken up by the os excluding anything i have installed extra?

what can i remove and where is it?

That's pretty much what I had on mine after first power up. I wonder about this stuff myself.
I suppose the capacity claims of storage in devices is pretty much as pathetic as mpg on car's window stickers.

[Neil9800]

How much space did you have to begin with? I think mine was around 14.7. I think videos will tend to take up the most space (if you have movies). Large apps can be around 400-500 mb each.

so how is it possible thst you had 14.7gb free yet i had only 11.9gb free?

[apengue1]

I had 14.7gb of space when i first got the PB. the 1.3gb goes to apps and software and everything.. this is normal with all devices.

1.
Basically you have to make sure you don't have any files on your PB that don't show up normally. AIR Browser WILL show these files so go through all your files and check if you have something that takes up space that you don't normally see on the PB.

For example: if you transfer a video to your playbook which is a format unsupported by the device, it will not show up when you launch the videos app as it does not recognize it BUT it doesn't mean its not on your device, so the first thing you should do is to check AIR Browser for anything you may have missed.

Also make sure your calculations of whats taking up space is correct.

2. Reset the device. I've noticed that when i upgrade my apps, like NFS for example, the 291mb update file is only ADDED to my PB. Once I reboot it (to reboot, press power button + volume up and down buttons at the same time until you see red light)

3. If ever you interrupted a file transfer, it sometimes happens the PB thinks these files were transferred, and so that reflects in the amount of storage you have left. If this is the case and you cannot find these files anywhere using file explorer on your pc through wifi sharing or through air browser or through DM, and if you have tried all the steps above, you probably need to wipe the device and reload/restore. Hopefully you have a nice backup lying around somewhere.

[webadpro]

If your worried about filling up your PBs drive, you might want to pick up a GoFlex Satellite 500gb wifi hard drive. I got one last week and it seems to work pretty well with my PB. Now I keep all the big stuff like video on the Satellite which clears up a lot of space on my PB.

I know this doesn't answer your question about the unexplained used space, but I thought I would throw this out there.

Hi,

I see that you bought the GoFlex HD, just wondering, when connected can you still surf the net or its either the HD or WIfi internet?

Thanks

[Neil9800]

@apengue1

unfortunately i dont have a backup yet.

in terms of reloading the os, how easy is it?

[Decile]

Options (bezel swipe from the top) > About > Hardware.

14.7 GB is the standard amount for the ''16 GB''-version I guess. However I'm not running into storage problems at all, I got Asphalt 6 HD (which is one GIANT app), Angry Birds, Machinarium and about 200 MB of music, and still going strong with 11.1 GB Free Storage

Btw, is there a ''cloud storage'' form factor available for the PlayBook? I really love using BlueBox to share files between my PC, PB and BB, however I need to download them first to use them. It's still nice to not have to do that separately, but kinda defeats the purpose.

[apengue1]

@apengue1

unfortunately i dont have a backup yet.

in terms of reloading the os, how easy is it?

Well it would be really nice to have had a backup..

The reason I may see a problem with backing up your device now and then reloading OS, is that you would restore the backup which has a file somewhere that takes up unwanted space which is what you do not want.

As for reloading the OS it is simple, although without a backup, you would pretty much have a PB that is an exact replica of when you first received it and went through the setup process.

Simply go into the playbooks options and i believe it is under 'security'. You need to find the button that says 'wipe device'. This will delete everything off your playbook and when it reboots itself, it will take you through the same setup process you went through when you first got your playbook.

Its important to back up your device regularly, at least monthly so that you have previous working versions of your device, it can save a whole lot of time if ever something like this happened. To back up your device simply launch desktop manager and click backup (while your PB is connected via usb, of course).

[Neil9800]

right. hang on. just checked about > hardware and it says 14.7gb.

i missed that one before.

so if i have a total of 14.7gb available where is the other 2.8gb? how much is the os?