I was looking to improve the disk usage analyzer page in system settings as, other than for the apps, it doesn't give a detailed view of your phone's disk status.

Especially, I don't like the "Other files" section because that's too generic and a user might not understand what it stands for (I discovered today that it refers only to files inside user home directory that are not in another category) so my general goal is to spli that category into more detailed ones.

Initially I thought to add "anbox" and "libertine" as new categories, because I don't like them grouped under "other files", and that's already a handy improvement.

Documents and Downloads folder are included under "Other files", I'd split them too into dedicated categories.

.cache, .config and .local folders are also included under "other files". I'm not sure if it makes sense to have a dedicated category for each of them, maybe it makes more sense to group them under "Used by apps". Also it'd be cool to say for each app sizes of cache, data and config (in addition to instilled size) and let you clean them like in UTTT (with proper warning dialogs to confirm).

It'd be cool also a button to Manage each category, but idk how this could be properly implemented: libertine will open libertine settings, but others? Opening the file manager at a specific location won't improve it much imho... Other that that, opening music app or docviewer is a chance too but those apps don't have a dedicated UI to manage disk space. OK you can sort files in docviewer by size, but you can have files under Documents which aren't in docviewer list... So I'll leave this out for the moment, if someone else doesn't have a better idea.

what about app development API? the trend now is to move to qqc2 (with its suru style) but it's missing some important components that are present only in uitk (which is going to be deprecated)
Ergo is not ready yet
my short term solution/workaround/proposal is to extend the qqc2 suru style (transforming it in a minimal toolkit) adding components such as Icon, Action, UbuntuShape, ListItem (for swipe right/left)
I'd like aslo to contribute for the future sdk/APIs but since there isn't an official roadmap idk if it is worth to invest in a direction that (maybe) won't be the official one, so I'm asking what you think about this, thanks guys!

here is it! I took quite everything from suru-icon-theme. the video image could be not visible with SuruDark, but this was the color from video mimetype. in the music and models/templates I experimented a bit more with gradients making the back part of the folder more different from the near front part, a bit of contrast in addition...

what about a bottom edge in the lock screen with shortcuts for frequent use features?

So this afternoon i managed to move .cache, .config and .local/share folders under "used by apps" from "other files" (minus .cache/libertine-container of course)

And got a working backend to get cache, config and data sizes for each app (the UI needs improvements, I know I'm open for suggestion on how should I display those values)

@PINE64 idk if someone else already asked those question:
is there a plan for an IR LED in the PinePhone?
what about spare parts for the PinePhone? I think mostly about the screen (LCD and touchscreen) and the battery, will Pine64 sell them?
Thank you for this fantastic project!

I don't know how Content Hub works so maybe this idea couldn't be done atm.
there is a default app to open what we are trying to open. the blue progress bar last something like 5-10 seconds and after that, that default app is opened, otherwise the user can swipe to open it immediately or press the "X" to stop the progress bar. or maybe something like to answer the phone, swipe right to open, left to stop the progress bar
tapping on another app listed below opens that app and dragging that app over the default app makes the app dragged the new default one
this is way more complex than now and maybe not too intuitive but @CiberSheep told to go bananas and that's the result lol

I have a Bq Aquaris E4.5 with broken touchscreen (some dead zones and quite often the whole screen dies needing a reboot) an all sensors broken: mostly unusable, lying in a drawer atm...
so I bought a Nexus 5, whose power button decided to detach itself and the hack I made to use it without the button doesn't work well and it's quite intricate. also the image on the screen started moving up and down, especially when charging it. I used it as a daily driver since few weeks ago when I replaced it with a Lumia 1020...
I don't want to steal a phone to someone that needs it more than me but if you have a spare one, I'd like to receive it!

I managed to place correctly all the GUI bits to clear the app data. The actual erase will come next!

@dad_and_alive sure there is one. it's called Activity Tracker and I am one of the two developers who forked the project from another (now inactive) dev and now we're maintaining it

@klh mine is the forerunner 935. It can sync through wifi or BT. Since I already have a Garmin account, after syncing via wifi I can see all the things from the website, so I'd use the core features from there. Might just need to be disconnected from the phone to switch to wifi but idk, it isn't explicit from the watch what it is using during sync...
I might try sniffing if I find some time, thanks for the link, I'll read it! Tbh I don't know which sensitive data it could contain that I don't want to share, aside from notifications which I can send dummy messages by myself: heart rate, step count, etc... I mean, what someone would ever do with them? Anyway I'll try to have a look at the content before sharing if it's human readable, thanks!

I have a Garmin, which I don't know how common they are in the community, but let's see what others have to say.
I also have to mention that mine syncs with my home wifi too, so the most useful features would be notification from the phone and music control.
If someone is willing to help me I could try to sniff BT traffic or whatever needed, but I have no idea what to do on my own

@danfro The code is at
https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/lomiri-system-settings/-/tree/github/fork/mymike00/xenial_-_better-disk-usage. I guess it needs a rebase and something may conflit with the other PR I did adding new categories in the storage bar, but I'm not sure.
And then I would read this forum thread again, honestly I don't remember the details but it could be some minor UI/UX things needed some adjustment.

Let me know if you (or someone else) start working on this, so that we won't double the work if I'll work on this too, and I'll do the same. Thanks

Hi @danfro ! Yeah, I'm sorry but I'm less motivated in developing for UT than few years ago :loudly_crying_face:, even though I still follow and contribute to this fantastic project!
It's on my to do list and I'd like to say I'll work on it soon, but that would be rather unrealistic...

@domubpkm actually it just got merged yesterday, so it should be the next devel image and next rc one this week!

@jonius Do you mind giving a hand with this?

@flohack said in Improve system settings disk usage analyzer:

• First it should read "Used by Ubuntu Touch"

Oh yeah, of course! How did we missed that one :grinning_face_with_sweat: ?

• "Reserved space" new category: Total Space - size of userdata partition, lets say 27GB remain

I think then people will start asking what is it reserved for... To be honest I don't like this naming that much but if you think it suits the category I'll go for it. Maybe I can put a little icon that opens a little popup that explains the partition thing

• "Used by Ubuntu Touch" the file /data/ubuntu.img if it exists plus the size of the /data/cache folder - lets say its 3.4GB

I'll need to sort out how to do

Rest remains the same I think. On some devices ubuntu.img will not be there because their system partition is large enough to host that file. But, unfortunately, on some devices system partition is lets say only 2.5GB, too small, and it cannot be used. That space is kinda wasted then.

How this should be handled then?

Thank you for your inputs on this Flo

@danfro said in Improve system settings disk usage analyzer:

So, finally testing this on my phone. Very nice!

A few things to think about:

• we should move storage to a separate point in the main screen (has been said here before I think)

An idea was to put an app icon in the homepage that would open a page with the app list (no bar for the whole storage), and leave the Storage page under About with only the global storage bar and its categories and a button to "Manage Apps". Idk If this could be implemented easily but I think it would be the cleanest thing to do.

• could the buttons be made wider? Then only the label is going to change. The buttons changing size looks "dizzy".

The issue is that with different languages, button gets different sizes so I can't know which length is enough... I can put a hidden button with the wider text and take the width from it, but it seems a bit hackish... What about a small animation when it changes the width? Otherwise the size can be put outside the button...

• I am not sure if we need to paint a "refreshing list" somehow after clearing something. I cleared the cache of one app and it disappeared. Panic. After thinking for a second, sure it moved down the list. But I guess users are always wary when deleting things.

Oh you mean an animation for the listitem going down? I hope it could be done. I am afraid the model is resetting itself completely and so the ListView doesn't know anymore the index of the app before the cleaning... I'll try to make it happen

• when multiselecting, I like how the apps are listed at the bottom. But here could we maybe rename the button to "proceed" or so? Then the user does not need to worry about what is going to be deleted but will expect another prompt/choice (that is coming after pressing the button).

Yeah, I was afraid of that. Initially I put "Clear..." that usually indicates that the action is not immediate but a dialog would open instead, but then the button gets too longer imho and there is fewer space for the app list... An icon could not be very clear but maybe I'm wrong...

• the multiselect dialog could do with a space between the "Which type of data..." and the list of apps. Or maybe place them in brackets? "... selected apps (list of apps)?"

Sure, some space would improve readability

• if nothing is selected in expanded view, tapping on the (disabled) "clear" button does collapse the view. That feels not natural? Maybe do nothing there?

Ah ofc. Since the button is disabled the tap event is propagated to the ListItem which then collapses... I can put a MouseArea over the button that, when the button is disabled, stops the event from propagating to the ListItem

Just some thoughts. Maybe too nutpicking. No real need to change things. More suggestions if others feel the same, then we can think about it.

No, I'm very pleased to hear such detailed suggestions! Since the core functionality are there, now it's time to do this little graphic improvements :winking_face:

If I discover more, I will come back. Enjoying it now I am...

Great! Next time if you tag me in the message I'll get notified and reply you sooner :thumbs_up_light_skin_tone:

@CiberSheep said in Improve system settings disk usage analyzer:

@mymike Ouh, it's getting a lot better on every iteration good work

Thanks!

Off topic: I have a new favorite word: Orologio

ahahah :face_with_tears_of_joy:

I managed to get things working for bulk cleaning, but the GUI can still be improved. What do you think?