# Low memory on Kindle Fire First Generation



## Suncoast (Mar 3, 2013)

I have a Kindle Fire First Generation with 2 books, one magazine, 20 apps and 200 songs.  Got message that I am low on memory and yes, I am.  I've been told to reset to factory defaults but I am reluctant to do this.  I've tried rebooting, no help.  Can I really be low on memory or is the message I get an error?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

According to the specs on Amazon, the 2nd generation (nonHD) fire has 5.5GB available for content. The original probably has the same amount of on board memory, so what it can hold should be about the same. But I'm not sure about relative files sizes. My understanding, however, is that Video and pictures take up a lot of space, songs and audiobooks less so but still much more than books and magazines.

You might try clearing the cache and such like. . . .there should be options under settings.

A factory reset will remove all your content and then you can just load back what you want.

ETA:
Just found this on the original fire product page (which I have access to because I had bought one):

*On Device Storage* 8GB internal (approximately 6GB available for user content). That's enough for 80 apps, plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.

So, really, you shouldn't be that low. Not sure what else to tell you. . . . .I'm guessing there are some artifacts somewhere. I'd think a restart should clear them out, but you say you've tried that and it didn't.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Suncoast said:


> I have a Kindle Fire First Generation with 2 books, one magazine, 20 apps and 200 songs. Got message that I am low on memory and yes, I am. I've been told to reset to factory defaults but I am reluctant to do this. I've tried rebooting, no help. Can I really be low on memory or is the message I get an error?


That doesn't sound right to me. I also have the original Kindle Fire. I just counted, I have 164 songs on it, 3 movies, at least 180 books. I still have over 2gb left of memory. I don't have any photos on it and no magazines either, but I can't imagine those would take up that much space. Also, 40 apps.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

I don't have a fire, but I do have an Android tablet and they're basically the same thing.

I'll explain what you'd do on Android, hopefully you can find the same things on the Fire where they differ... if not, I'm sure one of the Fire owners on here can help.

First of all, you need to realise that there are two types of memory in an android device - there is RAM (which is used like the memory in your PC, to run applications and store your application data) and there is Flash memory (which is like your PC's hard disk, where applications and content are stored).

The Fire has 512MB of RAM and 8GB of Flash - of which about 5.5GB is available.

You first need to work out which you are short of. Settings...Storage is a good start, this will tell you how much is used and free in "Internal Storage" - RAM  - and "Internal SD" or "NAND Flash" - Flash memory. You can tell which is which by looking at the total space for each. It will also tell you (at least it does in Android) if the Flash is used by apps or content.

If you're short of RAM, you need to look in Settings... Apps...Running and work out which apps are using the storage. Some apps only use a small amount of RAM, some use a lot even if they are not running - because they start background services. You might have to decide to uninstall something.

If you're short on Flash and it's used by apps, look in Settings...Apps...On SD card and look through to see how much Flash (ie disk space) each app is using. Again, you may have to remove some apps.

If you're short on Flash and it's used by content, what I would do on a tablet in these circumstances is to install one of the file manager apps (I quite like X-Plore). You can then have a look at the files that are occupying the flash memory - just like you'd use Explorer on a PC to look at what is filling up your hard disk - and then you can decide what to delete.


Sizes of content files is a very variable thing... if a magazine contains scans of every page of the paper magazine, for instance, it can be over 200MB in size or even more. If songs are encoded at a high bit-rate, they can be 10-20MB each - 200 of those is 4GB!

If you need more help, try to work out what the biggest things are that are using space and list them in a post and we'll try and work out what they are.


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## Suncoast (Mar 3, 2013)

Thanks to everyone who responded.  I think I will have to reset to factory defaults at some point.  There's a memory glitch somewhere and hopefully resetting will clear this up.


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## Suncoast (Mar 3, 2013)

It's Suncoast and I was able to clear up internal storage without resetting to factory defaults.  Downloaded the Clean Master app.  Very easy to use and in no time I now have 3.37 GB used of 5.37GB available.  However, this app may mess up audible books.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

A link to the app Suncoast used. . . .thanks for the rec -- it looks pretty well reviewed over all.


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