My Moto G5 died due to this last year. Had it since release. Had to change the external storage once due to a SanDisk card going bad (which happens to me quite often with this brand...) but eventually it died due to the non-replaceable internal storage increasingly corrupting to the point of no longer booting.

Thank you for response, that Moto G5 has much more space compared to my Sony Xperia E3 with 4 GB (2 GB for /system, 2 GB for /data). Theoretically, higher capacity flash should last longer, but then there are also usage patterns that could vary wildly between individuals and who know what other factors. AFAIK one is supposed to leave some decent amount of free space for wear leveling to be more effective.

Storage mediums eventually always let you down. I keep checking occasionally what model I'd get when the old one gives up. I imagine whatever one may pick these days won't be as hackable as older models. And so many models are bigger and heavier these days, I prefer smaller and lighter. Oh well, it is what it is.

Cheap phones is just that, cheap. I know this from my work.

Just get decent phones and have a care about it. If have no choice, don't depend on cheap phone like it is reliable. This is what ruined mother's SD card data in a beat up cheap phone. Still not gotten a chance to figure out how to extract the data.

Cheers,

sndwv wrote on 2024-07-08, 08:25:

My Moto G5 died due to this last year. Had it since release. Had to change the external storage once due to a SanDisk card going bad (which happens to me quite often with this brand...) but eventually it died due to the non-replaceable internal storage increasingly corrupting to the point of no longer booting.

From what I read, this model has a tendency to corrupt its internal flash to the point of not booting beyond the bootloader.

In some cases, at least, the flash itself is not damaged and the phone can be reflashed with a factory image. I did that to recover a friend's G5 last year. It still works fine, so far.

I did try that, but the issues came back almost immediately, so I checked it off as being the hardware. Also it worsened over time in an erratic pattern, which to me also seemed hardware related.

That said, the OS size outgrew the storage capacity, with it being 90% full most of the time and me downloading and moving files and caching videos, which could promote corruption as well. But also put a lot of wear on the cells and prevented wear leveling, so who knows.

I'm a bit tight on storage with Xperia E3 as well, hovering between 130 MB and 180 MB free space. One time recently something in the OS glitched and was almost on zero for a short while...

It was updated to Android 7.1.2, specifically LineageOS 14 (unofficial port) from stock 4.4, so can run some newer stuff. This OS really likes inflating /data/dalvik-cache (and seems to update those files often), from my experimenting with Android x86 for PCs in the past, this seems to have improved in Android 8 regarding space usage. I balance usage of internal storage with making good use of /system partition, have some must-have apps loaded there as well, only have about 64 MB of free space there. Play Store is disabled as it just makes life miserable, I update apps manually, some regularly, some less regularly, some not at all, depends on level of personal involvement with or the nature of the app. I make sure I never have 2 copies of the apps, so never one in /system and updated one in /data, which is usually the case on Android when letting things as they are.

The phone was a cheaper lower-end model, had it for most of my 20s (on an unrelated note, I'm not thrilled about being in the 30s). Case is a bit damaged by the sides and the cover is also held on by tape due to my clumsiness (ended up on the ground few times...), I managed to get a bit more careful with time, can't let it take any more damage. Quite happy with it, most of usage is web browsing and occasional SMS/call. I do mind the battery and am aware full charge for prolonged period is bad, though it did spend some hours in the past at that capacity. Since I also use it to give my desktop PC access to the internet (USB tethering), Advanced Charging Controller is a must.

Holding up so far (knocks on wood). In real life, I rarely see anyone with an older model, everyone seem to have newer ones with multiple cameras.