Jimmy's Blog

Android Market error on downloading (Error Downloading. There is insufficient space on the device.)

by jimmy on Oct.15, 2011, under English, My Life

Today suddenly when I want to download an application from my Android tablet, I receiving this error : “Error Downloading xyzxyz. There is insufficient space on the device.”
It’s only displaying the error on downloading application with big size.

After browsing around, I found out that the cache folder (that I assume used by the market) is using small partition (around 20mb in my case).

So to solve this we need to change it to bigger partition.

  1. You gonna need Android Terminal Simulator or equivalent terminal app. This will also require your Android rooted.
  2. Type ’su’ (root permission request will be showned, you need to approve it).
  3. Type ‘cd /’
  4. Type ‘umount /cache’
  5. Type ‘mount -o rw,remount -t rootfs rootfs /’ (to set the folder access to rw – read write)
  6. Type ‘rmdir /cache’ (delete cache folder)
  7. I personally using root explorer to do point 5-6
  8. Type ‘mkdir /sdcard/cache’
  9. Type ‘ln -s /sdcard/cache /cache’ (to link cache folder to /sdcard/cache – which shoud have bigger partition size)

Done.
Try to rerun your Android Market and download big applications

Related posts:

  1. Got Android [Gingerbread] and want to run J2ME JAD/JAR (emulate J2ME app)?

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23 Comments for this entry

  • Dragos

    Hi,

    Any workaround for unrooted phones?

    Thanks!

  • DuckyVader

    Whenever I type in umount /cache and hit enter, It says can’t umount /cache: Device or resource busy.

  • jimmy

    @Dragos: mount/unmount will require root access, no idea about workaround for unrooted phone..

    @DuckyVader: strange, have you try restart the android then directly go to terminal.. and make sure there’s no service running accessing the folder

  • JS7

    @DuckyVader
    Just do the forced unmount option: umount -f /cache

  • Wrexx

    I tried the above steps, I get the error can’t forcibly umount cache: Device or resource busy

  • JS7

    @Wrexx

    Try a lazy unmount. ‘umount -l /cache’

  • Wrexx

    I tried that too, didn’t end up working for me either… I ended up blowing up the phone and installing a fresh/recent CM7 nightly build for my phone. Then the first thing I ran was this, and all is fine now… :) Thank you for the assist though…

  • AD3

    Whenever I get to the line where I have to enter “unmount /cache”, it says, “unmount: not found”. I have tried with both the -f and the -l, but neither of these work for me. Any ideas?

  • JS7

    @AD3

    Yes sir, it is umount, not unmount! Hope this helps!

  • AD3

    Thanks so much for the correction! ;-) It works now!

  • Damien

    Thanks man. Great solution very clearly laid out for linux noobs like me :-)

    well, actually 20 years ago I knew my way around unix… but have been since Redmondofied ;-)

  • Bjarke

    Hi I’ve tried this, and now I am unable to pull updates from Android Market, it just closes down, or it says theres a download error, and after that, the programs I have tried to update is listed under uninstalled programs in the market, despite they are still installed on my phone. Do you have a solution for this?

  • jimmy

    @Bjarke:
    is it happen to all application?
    how if you reinstall the application?

  • Bjarke

    I suppose it has happened to all my app’s, so far it has been alle the app’s i’ve tried to update.

  • Damien

    Hi,

    This worked.
    … then however, A week later I had the same error come up. I repeated the steps above and it fixed it again.

    Can you think of anything that would have reset the settings? I wonder if “Market” does it?

  • Joe

    Thank you! This fixed my issue with the “insufficient space” error. Thanks so much!

  • jimmy

    @Bjarke:
    Not sure how to solve it since I don’t experience that. Update on my Galaxy Tab 7 is normal

    @Damien:
    Same as above this issue might on specific device/rom only

  • shah

    guys all went gud for me bt im unable to go thru 6th step.
    whenevr i got thru rmdir /cache it always says rmdir failed for /cache,Read-only file system.

    can any1 help me on dis plz…
    im facing dis problem for so long tried everything written on other posts but cudnt find a solution.
    plzz help!!!!!

  • yoong

    Do I need to type the symbols too? arghh…It makes me crazy enough! All I have type and I press enter it says: not found. someone please help me TT

  • bking007

    It worked temporarily. After the reboot, same problem again. Any permanent fix for this?

  • 3la2

    it worked with my HTC Inspire but it effected my “Aptoide” application, it stopped downloading, until i rebooted the phone when the Android Market stopped working again and got my “Aptoide” back. any idea how to fix it permanently (even after rebooting)and keep both markets ?

  • jimmy

    @yoong: you can try hacker keyboard or other keyboard that have ‘tab’ it will help you autocomplete the command/directory name

    @bking007 & @3la2: what’s your phone? From the comment I see some is experience like you guys, it got reset after reboot which I don’t experience.
    Not sure about this Aptoide application strange behavior though

  • gabe

    I have an HTC Evo 4g, and started receiving this problem two weeks ago(had myy phone for over a year). The steps above work wonders, but like bking007, I have to repeat this after a reboot, and am also wondering of a permanent fix.

    This didn’t start for me until I upgraded to the “Google Play Store” from the “Android Market.” Could it be coincidental?

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