I have a Samsung J7 Prime phone. Purchased in 2018. Has not worked correctly for quite some time now. I am coming from a series of terrible “customer service” experiences with Tmobile, hoping the internet community is actually helpful. Thank you in advance!
About my usage - I’m a PC person. I use my phone mostly for phone stuff and camera stuff. Yes, it’s an older model. Yes, it will need to be replaced eventually. No, I don’t like being forced into it.
The problem - I have 16GB of internal storage on my device. This is enough for my photos, the handful of apps I use, my contacts, and more. However, for quite a while now, something has been taking up GBs of space on my phone. I am forced to delete most of my pictures so I can take more. I have been forced to delete core apps I use often to make space for photos of precious family moments.
Of the 16GB of storage on my phone, I have 1.3GB of images. I have 818MB of apps. And it claims there is 13.5GB of something in my phone, leaving me with a mere 2.5GB of open space (because I just dumped 2GB of photos). Accounting for the measly 2 GB of space I am actually using, that’s like 11GB of … I have no idea what.
What I have already tried - I’ve disabled or uninstalled every app I can live without (including many core apps I should be able to use), I’ve dumped the system logs, I’ve cleared every cache, deleted all the app data. I know someone else with the same problem - they tried a factory reset and that did nothing to resolve the problem. I have called Tmobile’s support and had a series of terrible, abusive experiences. I’ve used my PC to go in and look at the (visible) system folders to try to find what that extra even is. I’ve deleted text messages and unused contacts.
What Tmobile has told me so far - I have been told by Tmobile employees that “everyone knows the tmobile software updates fill the storage on your phone” and that there’s nothing I can do about it, and the only option is to buy a brand new phone from them, that this is normal and expected and something they force on users all the time as simply the way they do business. Call me old (they did) but that isn’t how technology is supposed to work. I do not pay the cell phone carrier to fill my storage space to force more money out of me.
Please help. I’ve been with Tmobile for like 9 years. I treat my phone well. I pay my bills. I just want a phone that has storage space for photos of my children, and so I can access a few basic apps. I already paid for the privilege, and I cannot afford a new phone.
