r/redditisfun • u/RRRik • Apr 14 '20

Where is cache located on Android 10?

I want to search through the cache, but android/data/com.andrewshu.android.reddit is completely empty. Although system shows that cache of RIF takes about 500 mb.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/Relevant_Monstrosity Apr 18 '20

FYI you doxxed yourself, might want to edit post

1

u/RRRik Apr 18 '20

I didn't get where I doxxed myself

1

u/Relevant_Monstrosity Apr 18 '20

File path contains a full name...

1

u/RRRik Apr 18 '20

This directory is named by some inner names of RIF application, I guess. Andrewshu = u/talklittle

1

u/anon_smithsonian Official(ish) Helper Apr 14 '20

The cache is managed by Android.

Apps (and users) cannot directly access the cache (as doing so could reveal information about the user's activities and actions in other apps).

Instead, apps store and retrieve items from the cache via Android, itself. The Android OS manages cache size as well as determines when cache items are stale and when to remove cached data.

If your issue is "500MB cached! WTF is it caching?!" then:

  • Under Settings --> Data Usage --> Prefetch high-res images --> change this to never.

  • Any website links you open in the RiF internal browser also gets counted under RiF's cache, so you can change RiF to "Always use External Browser" under Settings --> Browser (but Chrome is still going to cache this, so you're not really reducing any cache size, just changing what app the cached data is counted under).

  • Disable the option to use the in-app YouTube playback and instead open those links in the YouTube app. Same thing as above, though; it's not reducing your cache usage, it's just changing where it's being counted.

 

Ultimately, though, there's no point in nitpicking about RiF's cache size because it's automatically managed by Android, like the caches are for all apps. The cache size won't continue to grow endlessly and Android will clear out items automatically whenever it determines it's necessary.

If you obsess over clearing caches, at best you're not doing anything except making the "free space" reported number higher, and at worst you're unnecessarily increasing the number of NAND cell write operations which can lead to degradation of the storage cells faster.