On 10/01/2016 01:32, Bob Blick wrote:
> I've been experimenting and think I mostly know what Android does.
>
> When you download a new app it comes in a package file and Android
> installs from that. It doesn't delete the package, so the total storage
> you lose is about double the download size, because you have the
> installed app and the package both occupying storage.
The .apk file is a .zip file renamed.
Simply the app file is copied in the apps folder and remains in his format.=
 It's=20
decompressed on fly, without "static" decompression.
But can exists some other data or library that can be downloaded "transpare=
ntly"=20
during the install.
You have the "double copy" only for apps that you download and than install=
..

>
> If you then update that app, the new package is downloaded and Android
> installs from that, overwriting the installed app. The old download
> package is deleted at some (unknown) point. so you don't really use up
> more storage (except the update is probably a little bigger than the
> previous version).
Note that some apps can use a lot of data space, eg. Skype uses, on my phon=
e,=20
near 300MB!

>
> It's a slightly different story for factory-installed apps. There's a
> factory package file and the corresponding installed app, but when you
> update the app it doesn't delete the factory package file. That means
> you now have two package files instead of one. Every update after that
> will leave you with the factory package file, the latest update package,
> and the installed app.

With some apps (eg. Titanium Backup) you can "integrate" updates to roms. Y=
es,=20
to ROM!
So this operation is potentially dangerous, I broke one of my device (Asus=
=20
Fonepad 7, with Intel cpu) and had to reinstall completely the firmware. Wi=
th=20
other device I had no problem, freeing a lot of space...
        Nic


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