Why does Android show more space used in internal storage than what adds up in the details?

Question

I have a Moto G (3g) with Android 6. I noticed that When I go to Settings>Storage>Internal Storage, it shows that 2.85GB are being used out of 11.81GB. However, If I add up the storage shown for each category, the results are less than what is shown as total usage.
This are the values shown:





Apps: 1.25GB



Images: 10.74MB



Videos: 0.00 B



Audio: 0.00 B



Misc.:1.62MB



Cache: 6.97MB





I have used several tools (like Storage Space) and they all show the same.



I used DiskUsage and it shows a "System data" used storage, that fills in the gap.



I know Android has a system partition, but this "System data" is shown in the data partition.



Why does this happen? What is stored in "System Data"?


— Cesar Hernandez | Sources

Answer

DiskUsage is giving you the correct information. Per the developer of DiskUsage:



System data consists of several things:



  1. Unpacked dalvik bytecodes corresponding to your installed apks. If you install app on external storage, it still consumes space on your data partition.



  2. Crash dumps stored in tombstones directory.



  3. Any other data or settings android store on your device.




This data is hidden and DiskUsage can't easily identify how much space each of this consume. Usually (1) consumes most, so if you want to cleanup some space you may want to delete apps on external storage.



http://androidforums.com/threads/disk-usage.181747/


— ND Geek | Sources

Q & A

How safe is it to upgrade apps using Aptoid?
Contacts sync stuck updating on Moto E 2G
How to import an existing mmssms.db to an Android Virtual Device?
Is it possible to use external hard drives with USB OTG?
How to mount an external USB drive on a Sony Z3?
Uninstall via adb without root
What is the difference between Samsung 4 files(Repairing firmware) and Single firmware file for flashing?
Android phone constantly loses Wi-Fi connection
How to root cyanogen OS? (On Wileyfox swift)
Is it dangerous to change or remove company-brand boot logo?
How does one enforce a secure lockscreen on Android mail clients?
Tasker - Play video using MX Player while another is currently playing
My adoptable storage is full. How can I move the data to a bigger MicroSD card?
swapping of data between sim card
How do I simulate menu button on Android 6?
Does "ifconfig wlan0 dhcp status" work for Android?
Battery settings seem to be missing in Cyanogenmod 13
Unable to activate USB debugging after upgrading to Android 5.1.1
Disable autocorrect from specific application
Nova Launcher: Lost the App Drawer Icon

Topics

2D Engines   3D Engines   9-Patch   Action Bars   Activities   ADB   Advertisements   Analytics   Animations   ANR   AOP   API   APK   APT   Architecture   Audio   Autocomplete   Background Processing   Backward Compatibility   Badges   Bar Codes   Benchmarking   Bitmaps   Bluetooth   Blur Effects   Bread Crumbs   BRMS   Browser Extensions   Build Systems   Bundles   Buttons   Caching   Camera   Canvas   Cards   Carousels   Changelog   Checkboxes   Cloud Storages   Color Analysis   Color Pickers   Colors   Comet/Push   Compass Sensors   Conferences   Content Providers   Continuous Integration   Crash Reports   Credit Cards   Credits   CSV   Curl/Flip   Data Binding   Data Generators   Data Structures   Database   Database Browsers   Date &   Debugging   Decompilers   Deep Links   Dependency Injections   Design   Design Patterns   Dex   Dialogs   Distributed Computing   Distribution Platforms   Download Managers   Drawables   Emoji   Emulators   EPUB   Equalizers &   Event Buses   Exception Handling   Face Recognition   Feedback &   File System   File/Directory   Fingerprint   Floating Action   Fonts   Forms   Fragments   FRP   FSM   Functional Programming   Gamepads   Games   Geocaching   Gestures   GIF   Glow Pad   Gradle Plugins   Graphics   Grid Views   Highlighting   HTML   HTTP Mocking   Icons   IDE   IDE Plugins   Image Croppers   Image Loaders   Image Pickers   Image Processing   Image Views   Instrumentation   Intents   Job Schedulers   JSON   Keyboard   Kotlin   Layouts   Library Demos   List View   List Views   Localization   Location   Lock Patterns   Logcat   Logging   Mails   Maps   Markdown   Mathematics   Maven Plugins   MBaaS   Media   Menus   Messaging   MIME   Mobile Web   Native Image   Navigation   NDK   Networking   NFC   NoSQL   Number Pickers   OAuth   Object Mocking   OCR Engines   OpenGL   ORM   Other Pickers   Parallax List   Parcelables   Particle Systems   Password Inputs   PDF   Permissions   Physics Engines   Platforms   Plugin Frameworks   Preferences   Progress Indicators   ProGuard   Properties   Protocol Buffer   Pull To   Purchases   Push/Pull   QR Codes   Quick Return   Radio Buttons   Range Bars   Ratings   Recycler Views   Resources   REST   Ripple Effects   RSS   Screenshots   Scripting   Scroll Views   SDK   Search Inputs   Security   Sensors   Services   Showcase Views   Signatures   Sliding Panels   Snackbars   SOAP   Social Networks   Spannable   Spinners   Splash Screens   SSH   Static Analysis   Status Bars   Styling   SVG   System   Tags   Task Managers   TDD &   Template Engines   Testing   Testing Tools   Text Formatting   Text Views   Text Watchers   Text-to   Toasts   Toolkits For   Tools   Tooltips   Trainings   TV   Twitter   Updaters   USB   User Stories   Utils   Validation   Video   View Adapters   View Pagers   Views   Watch Face   Wearable Data   Wearables   Weather   Web Tools   Web Views   WebRTC   WebSockets   Wheel Widgets   Wi-Fi   Widgets   Windows   Wizards   XML   XMPP   YAML   ZIP Codes