[Berryful]

I have a problem and I don't know what to do. Right now I have 18,049,264 bytes of free space. This is after I did everything in the thread instructing on how to increase your file free. It's enough to keep my BB running fairly smoothly, but the thing is... I have no applications on my phone whatsoever. I deleted BB Messenger and everything just to keep enough memory on my phone. This kind of defeats the purpose of a BlackBerry, no? Is there anything else I can do about this or do I have to just deal with the lack of memory?

Thanks in advance!

[BuddyL]

Anything less than 12 is when you should worry. If you're over 18 you don't have to concerned with a lack of memory.

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[joe003]

I'll encourage our addicts familiar with your model of BB to further assist you. Telling you how to work your memory in the 8330 really wouldn't be that useful.

Best of luck to you!

[doctorlove316]

Do you have a bunch or saved emails, messages, or sms messages that need deleted? Do you have a lot of media stored on the device that could be moved to a media card? Seems strange that with no apps on there your memory is so low.

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[Kaylajoy21]

Lots of pics? Ringers? Music? This can eat up memory too. Are you using a memory card? If not, I would get one.

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[patrick.waugh]

I have a problem and I don't know what to do.

Which is what exactly?

Right now I have 18,049,264 bytes of free space. This is after I did everything in the thread instructing on how to increase your file free. It's enough to keep my BB running fairly smoothly, but the thing is... I have no applications on my phone whatsoever. I deleted BB Messenger and everything just to keep enough memory on my phone.

Seems you are telling me what your "solution" was, and from this I guess what you are trying to say is that you believed you had a low memory problem. However, you tell us nothing about what makes you believe this.

When you go to the doctor, you don't tell him your diagnosis and ask him for medicine, you go to him and tell him your symptoms (the problem you are having), and let him tell you what is wrong and how to treat the problem.

Many Blackberry users believe that "File free" is "free memory" and have created many myths about what is the line below which one should be concerned. However, these user myths are just that and not based on facts, only anecdotal experience which fails to take into consideration the actual design and implementation of the OS and other factors they are not taking into consideration due to a lack of knowledge.

As software on your Blackberry works, it consumes and releases memory. The memory which it releases is "marked" as "collectable" (by a garbage collector) so that at some point it may be returned to the "free store" of memory. Such memory is available but not part of the "file free" reported until it is collected which happens only when your Blackberry either requires it, or periodically during long idle times.

Your Blackberry OS is highly optimized and is usually able to collect such memory without you being interrupted, but occasionally if you use memory intensive programs you might notice a long pause with the hour glass for 1-2 seconds as a complete garbage collection is run. However, as this would be triggered by an app running out of memory, you will generally not see it hit your free store as it is then immediatly allocated to the app which trigger the GC due to a lack of available memory.

This kind of defeats the purpose of a BlackBerry, no? Is there anything else I can do about this or do I have to just deal with the lack of memory?

You don't have a lack of memory. Most likely you are complaining because you have symptoms which you have assumed are due to a lack of memory, such as slow response.

More than likely, like many users with this issue, you just have failed to realize that you are not closing out applications, but rather leaving them running in the background. New users often make this mistake because they hit the END key instead of ESC, for example with the Browser.

If you press ALT-ESC you will see these applications which you have left open, and can bring them to the foreground to close them properly (with the menu to be sure).

The blackberry can only run so much at once.

Patrick

[CipherDias]

if U R at 18,xxx,xxx,xxx then u R fine! Below 12 is considered as bad...

[noaim]

Many Blackberry users believe that "File free" is "free memory" and have created many myths about what is the line below which one should be concerned. However, these user myths are just that and not based on facts, only anecdotal experience which fails to take into consideration the actual design and implementation of the OS and other factors they are not taking into consideration due to a lack of knowledge.

As software on your Blackberry works, it consumes and releases memory. The memory which it releases is "marked" as "collectable" (by a garbage collector) so that at some point it may be returned to the "free store" of memory. Such memory is available but not part of the "file free" reported until it is collected which happens only when your Blackberry either requires it, or periodically during long idle times.


Patrick

I very much agree that this is how its supposed to work "technically" but this isn't always the case..

if you install apps and drop it down to about 9 before anything is running try running 1 thing for a bit..

it will run like complete garbage..

the way the bb works that space is semi like ram... the problem also.. isn't only with how much you leave open... but can also be problem to memory leaks in apps.. which if they exist can cause problems even after closed you should know this your programmer.. (I know this isn't applying to the OP cause he removed most apps)

I really like how you wrote it out though its a deep explanation of the way its "meant" to work.. unfortunately it doesn't always work as intended.. and dropping below certain amounts definitely shows hindrances in performance regardless...

[skullgame45]

I just ran a test on my Pearl last week. Have 4 3rd party apps, few games, tons of messages, emails etc. and ran my memory all the way down to 2 bytes of File Free without any problems. Even when I hit the 2 byte mark, I still wasn't losing anything. Every once in a while it would run sluggish but not very often. All this was using 4.2 software. If I remember correctly, the times it ran sluggish were when I forgot to close my apps. I wouldn't recommend anyone doing this but I just felt like doing it for ishs and giggles. All I'm saying is that it can be done! You can go below the suggested 12 bytes.

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[Branta]

I very much agree that this is how its supposed to work "technically" but this isn't always the case..

if you install apps and drop it down to about 9 before anything is running try running 1 thing for a bit..

it will run like complete garbage..

This is exactly what Patrick said. The reason your '9M free' example runs like a snail on weed is that you are running your single 'user' application alongside all the mandatory and internal processes, AND the Memory Manager (garbage collection) which kicked in automatically around 12M free.

the way the bb works that space is semi like ram... the problem also.. isn't only with how much you leave open... but can also be problem to memory leaks in apps.. which if they exist can cause problems even after closed you should know this your programmer.. (I know this isn't applying to the OP cause he removed most apps)

Yes, if you have buggy apps which leak memory the only way to release the leaked memory is a reboot (battery pull). Garbage collection can never recover memory which is marked as allocated unless the parent application surrenders it. Leaked memory is often orphaned with the parent long gone, so it can never be deallocated.

[skyjackal]

With my Pearl I had several apps installed and one or two themes. My file free ran about 15-16 most of the time. The advice I got here was that 12 is the number you should worry about. I wouldn't be concerned unless you drop below 12 or start to notice obvious performance slow-down. Good luck!

[luvitlo]

You deleted BBM and everything and that low. I deleted the stuff I don't use but kept yahoo messanger, BBM, tasks, memo, brickbreaker, and several others and I am at 20xxxxxx after a battery pull oh and I added crackberry launcher and one other app. What did you keep that takes so much space?

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