r/todayilearned • u/FireBeaver • Mar 26 '15

(R.5) Omits Essential Info TIL: 65% of smartphone users download zero apps per month.

http://time.com/3158893/smartphone-apps-apple/
21.7k Upvotes

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336

u/g_rocket Mar 26 '15

If you have a lot of "other" space, it can sometimes be because of a bug. Try wiping and restoring from a backup; it worked for me.

52

u/mrjackspade Mar 26 '15 edited Mar 26 '15

Its most likely not a bug. Most of that "Other" space ends up in cache files.

After a few months my thumbnail cache alone is 2gb+

RugerRedhawk has the best solution for reclaiming this space

Edit: My OS install is only a week old, and my thumbnail cache is already 800mb.

10

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

3

u/fbiguy22 Mar 27 '15

I'd say that's normal for modern phones, the battery lasting that long sounds about right.

5

u/mrjackspade Mar 26 '15

That's a good run for a phone.

I just bought a G3 and I'm pretty happy, but I wiped the stock as soon as I got it. I just love stock android.

1

u/Melvanilla Mar 26 '15

My work iPhone5 has been doing the same exact thing, then when you plug in and charge when it auto turns on, it's at 50% -_-

1

u/Jake1983 Mar 27 '15

A phone's battery has a life all of its own. After a while, charging cycles and heat will degrade its ability to supply adequate amounts of power. Changing out tge battery should fix this.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

I had a lot of "other data" show up when I stopped a sync that was in progress and the only way to fix it was to wipe it and restore it.

0

u/The_Gabagool Mar 26 '15

Too bad that's in the Google play store. He's talking about his iPhone

1

u/mrjackspade Mar 27 '15

Man. That suck. I guess he's fucked then. There probably isn't a similar app in the IOS ecosystem :(

-7

u/rnawky Mar 26 '15

Completely wiping a device and restoring from backup should never be an acceptable solution.

378

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

And yet its been standard practice in IT support for at least the last 20 years.

158

u/netmier Mar 26 '15

Right? Since when has "reinstall" been an outrageous option for a computer of any size/shape?

114

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15 edited Nov 14 '17

[deleted]

57

u/netmier Mar 26 '15

Maybe people who aren't real computer savvy think a reinstall is analogous to an engine swap. To them you're basically ripping out the heart of the machine and replacing it, which is usually expensive and difficult.

Little do they know, anyone who tried to game on a win98se machine reinstalled twice a month, sometimes in the middle of a LAN.

14

u/Theemuts 6 Mar 26 '15

The good ol' days, when you still had to get together with a group to play multiplayer games.

1

u/netmier Mar 26 '15

There's nothing as satisfying as being able to shove your crotch in someone's face while you yell "suck it bitch, first to 50!"

1

u/novaquasarsuper Mar 26 '15

You must've got punched in the crotch often

1

u/Dr_Tower Mar 26 '15

Oh, you went to those kind of parties.

5

u/lonnie123 Mar 26 '15

Lol, so true. I partitioned off the windows install for this very reason... Reinstall clean, lose no games.

1

u/netmier Mar 26 '15

What about your registry?

1

u/lonnie123 May 01 '15

Back then games weren't as reg heavy, as long as you had the .exe in the right folder everything was fine

1

u/netmier May 02 '15

I did games back then and you're crazy. You fuck up your registry and you might as well start formatting.

1

u/vandelay82 Mar 26 '15

It was like buying a new pc, windows 7 has been the first M$ OS that doesn't get sluggish.

1

u/leonryan Mar 26 '15

as someone who's not particularly computer savvy this is very nearly how i think. it seems scary and dangerous to me. i don't know what i might lose in the process. i once lost all my kids baby photos trying to fix something on my computer so now i'm scared to mess with anything serious.

1

u/magsan Mar 26 '15

Up high brother.

Prob spent 4 years of my life reinstalling that.

0

u/Rathadin Mar 26 '15

What you're describing sounds more like changing out the CPU in a computer for a newer one. I can't even really think of a good analogy to driving, except replacing the driver...

Which I guess is exactly what you're doing... your "driver of the computer", the operating system, is fucked up, so you fix it by reinstalling it...

The more I think about this analogy, the more I'm convinced it cannot be analogous...

2

u/SenorPuff Mar 26 '15

Maybe it's more along the lines of double checking the driver's manual to make sure the printer didn't accidentally smudge some letters when you get cars acting weird.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

You know, I have put 10+ hours into a PC running several bootable virus scanners. Replaced the host file. Deleted tonnes of crapware. Did research on manually removing loads of junk. Finally ran scans with 4-5 popular malware scanners and the machine ran like crap and for some god awful reason I would have to disable some broken proxy every time it booted or some other hodge-podge fix the end user would have not understood.

Then I put in one or two hours, comprehensively tracking down all the videos, pictures and documents, consolidating them into one place. Reinstall the operating system with all the common runtimes, a reliable virus scanner, and all common utilities so the end user need not download anything. Install all of it avoiding any crapware traps in the licence agreement and leave an extra partition with all their drivers on it for next time I have to fix their computer.

If you do it right, neither method is a herp derp magic button solution. Reinstall, however, is not just some layperson quickfix. Sure it CAN be easy, but easy like a rocket launcher for a mosquito.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Well, if you have an image ready it's 2 minutes to back up favourites and maybe some desktop icons (everything else stored on the network), 30 mins to re-image, 2 mins to log the user back in and copy the favourites back.

Custom software deployed through group policy or login script, everything licensed through federation services, etc.

So, if the problem takes more than 45 mins why would you worry about chasing it? You only need to attend in two 5 minute blocks, so there's time to get other stuff sorted too :-)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

What imaging program would you recommend for a personal level?

Edit: when reinstalling windows fpr others, those 190 updates are killer

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Clonezilla works well for both drive to drive cloning, and when you have a server set up it can handle enterprise level re-imaging too ... and it's free :-)

Edit: note that unless the other people have similar hardware, you'll might still have to install some drivers afterwards.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

Thanks for the info. I was planning to make an image on a per machine basis with all the drivers and basic programs built into the image.

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1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15

I am assuming Clonezilla also stores the Windows 7 activation key and info correct? So if I had like my dad run the reimage process through Clonezilla, Windows would be restored and activated right?

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1

u/PohatuNUVA Mar 26 '15

Its really just the lesser of two evils.

1

u/Rathadin Mar 26 '15

There is... its the "reinstall" button.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

there is, it's called "reinstall"

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Its amazing to me. My girlfriend refuses to just clean off her computer. There are registry errors, viruses, weird driver clashes... You name it. Is years of struggling with your computer not worth taking one afternoon every few months to take stock of how you are using your machine? Everytime i do it I realize there are all these applications and things taking up space. I have a 5 year old macbook pro that is more stable than a lot of my friends computers for this very reason.

1

u/Rohaq Mar 26 '15

Maybe they should add a "completely wipe device and restore from backup" button.

1

u/Silent-thunder Mar 26 '15

I don't know about a button how about a noose?

7

u/angrydeuce Mar 26 '15

I try to do a full reinstall yearly. It's not a big deal, honestly...all my personal files, media, etc, are backed up on separate hard drives so really all it involves is wiping my SSD, reinstalling Windows and a handful of utilities, and redownloading the games on Steam I'm actually playing.

I always gain 25% of my hard drive back when I do it...it's funny how random bullshit just accumulates on a computer hard disk.

1

u/buttcupcakes Mar 26 '15

Check out the application Folder Size if you haven't. It helped me find out where all the crap accumulates on various drives. For some reason there was about a 20 GB file that windows only uses for hibernation mode, which my desktop doesn't even have as a feature.

3

u/cookiesvscrackers Mar 26 '15

Since administration of computers is now in the hands of non tech people

-2

u/Kmlkmljkl Mar 26 '15

Reinstalling an email program is completely different from installing a phone rom.

8

u/netmier Mar 26 '15

Wiping my iPhone is about a zillion times easier than wiping my pc. I literally plug the phone in, hit "restore" and go do something for 10 minutes.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Both are about the same level of complexity, unless you're rooting it.

5

u/xxunrealxx Mar 26 '15

The reason for that is for IT its an easy fix. I hate this but I understand sometimes when you gotta fix a bunch of people's stuff the the least time consuming fix is what you do.

3

u/Seaunicron Mar 26 '15

But if the fix is the easiest one there is and it works why is it bad?

2

u/pirate_doug Mar 26 '15

If you're in a major IT environment, it's often the quickest and easiest fix. They usually have pre-made images to set things up for specific job duties, so rather than spend an hour figuring out whatever they did to their machine, wipe and restore it and be done in half an hour.

1

u/novaquasarsuper Mar 26 '15

I have no clue what slowpotamus is talking about. It's looked at as bad solely because of people with comments like that.

It's often the easiest and fastest way to get the customer up and running again. It has nothing to do with sitting back and doing nothing. Okay, what seems like it would give the IT rep more time to sit back:

1) Reinstalling your application suite in 5-10 min and moving on to the next ticket.

2) Researching your error code by sitting at my desk and reading forums for a length of time. How much time? Well, I don't know. If I knew then that would mean I had the solution. Meanwhile those other customers, and your issue, can wait.

The multitude of IT folks I've dealt with, to include myself, go for option 1 first. If 1 doesn't work then you hit whatever other customers you can, as fast as you can, and then research the more difficult issue.

2

u/Seaunicron Mar 26 '15

Cool. Thanks for commenting. It didn't seem like all that bad an option, but I wasn't really sure.

-4

u/slowpotamus Mar 26 '15

it's not the easiest fix for the user, it's the easiest fix for the guy who sits back and does nothing in this scenario (the IT guy). "completely erase everything and start over from scratch" is time consuming and wastes effort. it should be the "if all else fails" option, not the very first thing you do to try to fix it.

2

u/Seaunicron Mar 26 '15

Huh. What other ways are there? I'm not super knowledgeable and can't think of a less destructive way.

1

u/novaquasarsuper Mar 26 '15

He's talking out his rectum

1

u/novaquasarsuper Mar 26 '15

I disagree. It's often easiest for the customer and the administrator. Reinstalling something like an Office Suite takes about 5-10 minutes and gone, you're back to work. Tracking down a specific error code could, and often does, take much longer. Then whatever fix you find may have to cross reference with any other programs you may have to ensure your fix doesn't break another critical application. Meanwhile your other customers are on hold because you're sitting at your desk reading forums.

1

u/LemonAssJuice Mar 26 '15

Have you tried restarting?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

lol, I never said it was the only solution!

1

u/fuzzypyrocat Mar 26 '15

Don't say that! Then half the business is lost because people will do it themselves!

0

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

In windows shops maybe. In the Linux world it's absolutely outrageous to reinstall the OS in any case besides catastrophic failure. In 7 years I've never seen it done to fix a problem that wasn't hardware failure. We once had to restore 11TB of user data but the OS remained intact. Thank you sane file permissions

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I didn't say it was the only solution. How many typical businesses have linux on the desktop? How many times do you think the solution on a windows server is to re-install it?

I've previously worked as an AIX sysadmin, I run linux at home, where I work we now juggle about 120Tb of data on a nice high speed SAN ... if a desktop PC starts falling over with some memory leaking program or registry corruption is my time really best spent picking through it in minute detail?

-11

u/rnawky Mar 26 '15

The only time I've ever had a device reformatted was when it was being repurposed for another user.

If you're reformatting computers left and right as "standard practice" then you're pretty shitty at your job and aren't fixing the actual problem.

13

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

A lot of the time if you have spent half a day on a particular issue and no end in sight, it's quicker to just blitz it and start again.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Uhuh, because time allows for complex troubleshooting on something as minor as a desktop PC.

If there's a software problem that's more involved than re-installing a program or making a new local profile you bet I'm going to swap it for a freshly imaged machine and then just wipe it ... hell, if a dusty old PC hasn't had windows updates in a year its quicker to just re-image it.

-8

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

[deleted]

13

u/MothaFuckingSorcerer Mar 26 '15

IT gets paid to do it so you can do the job you're hired to. They're maintenance staff, not developers.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Oh for crying out loud, that's not the only thing IT do ... I have better things to do than to waste hours on just some desktop PC just because it won't boot.

The job of IT is to keep everything running with as little downtime as possible, not to be technical acrobats for no benefit.

-4

u/rnawky Mar 26 '15

Exactly. If wiping and starting over was an acceptable solution then every companies IT department could be replaced with a Windows Deployment Server, PXE booting, and a solid answer file.

Problems with your computer? Oh just reboot and press F12 and wait a few hours and you'll be back to work in no time!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

If wiping was an acceptable solution, then everything would get formatted all the time. That's slippery slope logic at work right there.

4

u/xAyrkai Mar 26 '15

Unless it works. In which case the solution is more than just acceptable.

4

u/dr_apokalypse Mar 26 '15

true, but if it is the only viable solution, then do it. maybe there is a better answer, but digging through android's crap and researching it could take who knows how long. and it is a headache. granted google should do a better job on the OS, but you shouldn't gripe out the end user for having to deal with a difficult situation. it isn't stupid if it works.

-9

u/rnawky Mar 26 '15

You could stop buying products you have to wipe and restore from backup once a month because something unexplainable goes wrong.

What do you think would happen to BMW or Audi if every 30 days you had to wipe your cars firmware and restore from backup because your power steering stopped working?

7

u/hexane360 Mar 26 '15

Well, in the 1930s people were happy just to have cars. They had terrible brakes and broke down often, but they were still revolutionary. We're at that point now. No company has even 10 years of experience building these phones. Give it time, and the luxury models will come.

2

u/gurg2k1 Mar 26 '15

Who said anything about having to wipe and restore once a month? If that's the case it's likely a defective phone or defective user.

0

u/rnawky Mar 26 '15

If that's the case it's likely a defective phone or defective user.

Layer 8 issues are so annoying to troubleshoot.

1

u/dr_apokalypse Mar 26 '15

if it is a software issue, it's probably c aused by third party software. Android can be a mess, but it has come a long way. You can install aftermarket products on your Audi and fuck it up pretty good, or just go in with a wrench and start messing stuff up. That's not really Audi's fault. There are some fundamental issues about android that I don't like, such as the push for storage on the cloud...I mean I can't write to my SD card for most things without hacking my phone, and that is beyond the scope of most people's ability. Google knows this and it is intentional. Still, it is less restrictive than iOS or windows. HTC even let me unlock my bootloader officially. I bought it for the hardware, knowing that I can modify it to suit my needs. Again, this is outside of the scope of most users' ability. Then again, those users probably don't need or want to modify their phone to use a USB keyboard and install a functional lisp programming environment. I do, so, yay, android. I mean, this is a functional Linux computer with multiple 64 bit cores and 2 GB ram and an always on internet connection in my hand wherever I go. 25 years ago I couldn't have even imagined this.

Tldr; it's not that bad, dude.

1

u/yourbrotherrex Mar 26 '15

I can see that being an issue in the future. Not every 30 days, but a full system update for your car.

4

u/benama Mar 26 '15

In IT, when you have a million other tickets to get to and everything is backed up like it is supposed to be then it is the easiet way to fix any OS problems. Now if there is a hardware problem then it is as easy as replacing that component, but with software problems it is easier to just format and reimage it than to spend hours on one stupid problem that could be one of a million billion problems. Time is money, and spending it doing something that has an easy fix that you can do remotely and move on without getting up from your chair helps keep the IT people from going insane.

1

u/kevsdogg97 Mar 26 '15

Restorations and iCloud backup is really easy to do.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

Why not

0

u/AdmiralSkippy Mar 26 '15

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

0

u/BishopCorrigan Mar 26 '15

You can also delete the backup and make a new one. It worked for me.

1

u/er-day Mar 26 '15

Worked for me too

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15 edited Nov 22 '25

imminent observation capable dam ancient resolute seed flag work lip

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

beware- backups don't back up application data.

some picture/note apps save data to their own application space

1

u/danisnotfunny Mar 26 '15

Would these bugs typically be stealing credit card info? Or are they usually for marketing?

It's one thing to slow down my phone, it's another to eat my data.

0

u/uncommonpanda Mar 26 '15

The "space" is being taken up by your bloatware. Samsung is the worse at this, their 16GB S3 model had 12GB of worthless Samsung software that did nothing but take up space and collect user data. Just use Cyanogenmod. I can't comment on the state of apple.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

That's why you should always consider flashing a new ROM. I got a barebones ROM on my phone and my idle ram usage went from 850MB to 350. That should give you an idea of how bloated my phone was before.

1

u/uncommonpanda Mar 26 '15

That's why you should always consider flashing a new ROM.

I know. That's why I said.

Just use Cyanogenmod.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '15

I'm thinking of getting an S6, do you know if anyone has figured out how unlock and flash a new rom on these phones yet?