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My Android S2 is out of memory and unable to update apps. Specifically it is currently using nearly all of the paltry 2gb partitioned for apps.

I'm reading that you can issue *#9900# in the dialer, and select menu 2, that this will clean the dumpstate files. I get Unable to process request.

My phone is rooted so when I go to terminal and ls -l on /data/log, I'm showing no .log files but several dumpstate.tar.gz files. Is it safe to nuke these tar.gz files?

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  • Just as a remark: According to this answer (and to several others as well), it's rather *#9900#. Typo here – or in general? // Also see: data/log folder causes “internal storage has run out of space” message and Can I delete the log files on my device? Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 13:20
  • That was a type-o in my post. I used the asterisk on the keypad. Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 13:57
  • I read those posts before making my own. When others refer to deleting log files, they are referring to /data/log/*.log files. I'm not showing any *.log files on my device - only *.tar.gz files. Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 14:01
  • Try extracting one of those (e.g. pulling it to your computer and opening them with Winzip or tar xzf *.tar.gz) to see what's within. I bet the contents turn out being *.log files, which are just "archived". Everything inside "log directories" should be safe to delete; of course you're free to make a backup first to be absolutely safe. Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 15:04
  • Deleted the files and rebooted - no problems so far. Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 15:54

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Data in "log directories" should generally be safe to delete, as they are mainly intended for debugging purposes. The files having an .tar.gz extension simply means they are archived (see: tar (computing) at Wikipedia); if you copy them to your computer for investigation (e.g. using Winzip on a Windows machine, or the command-line tar xzf <filename>) will probably show those files contain *.log files.

If you want to be on the safe side, make a backup first. But I very much doubt you'll ever need those files again.

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