Android 14 still doesn’t calculate the device’s memory usage correctly

The amount of built-in storage available on the best Android phones has increased significantly over the past few years, with some OEMs stopping offering affordable 64GB models even on low-end models. That’s partly because memory requirements for the Android operating system and the app ecosystem it supports have also increased. However, Android worryingly miscalculates the amount of storage taken up by system components and also uses unconventional units of measurement.

We often rely on Android’s memory usage utility to find apps and files that are taking up memory space so we can uninstall or delete them if necessary. However, Android expert Mishaal Rahman was discovered that Google’s calculations about the amount of space consumed by Android system components were flawed. He executes shell commands to create a 3GB file in /data/media/0 storage folder, this is not the file path used for Android system files. However, analysis of the phone’s memory shows a clear 3GB increase accordingly System title, showing that the operating system suddenly became larger.

User-generated fake files increase system memory usage in Android

This happens because Android calculates the system’s storage capacity as the capacity that has been used by anything other than those in other categories in the storage breakdown, including audio, videos, pictures, documents, trash and games. This means System the header in the break does not only include Android system files. Android 14 also uses this dangerously flawed logic to calculate memory usage. Furthermore, Google’s Files app also shows similar memory usage of Android system components, perhaps because it uses the same questionable allocation logic.

How Android calculates system memory usage

According to the link, all other Android skins use flawed calculations of used storage, but Samsung is said to have fixed this issue with the One UI 6 update. After running these same ADB command as in the previous test, Rahman was able to confirm the increased usage appearing in the section Other files header in the storage analysis section, instead of the System header.

One UI 6 correctly identified user-created files in the memory analysis section

Rahman also highlighted another small but important anomaly in how Android calculates memory usage and how smartphone manufacturers advertise it. Most people think of their phone’s storage capacity in bytes, which can be expressed as powers of 10. A gigabyte has 1000³ bytes, and smartphone manufacturers advertise the capacity. Storage amount in gigabytes. Meanwhile, Android measures internal storage capacity gibibytethere are 1024³ bytes, as it is expressed as a power of 2. The result is that 1 gigabyte (GB) is equal to 0.93 gibibytes (GiB).

Because of this difference in units, smartphone users may believe that the installed Android operating system takes up more gigabytes than it actually does. Combined with miscalculations of memory usage, the average Android user may believe items are taking up more memory than they actually do. Google needs to update Android’s logic to calculate the amount of storage used by system components, and quantify everything in consumer-friendly gigabytes, which all manufacturers use. Smartphone hardware is used. However, we may have to wait for a major Android update to bring this change.