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Blossom · 11-17-2011, 05:16 PM

This question has popped up a few times here and other places so I thought I would try to explain to those who are new to Android how it works.

The Kindle Fire has 8GB of Memory but only 6GB is available for content.

What you may not know is Android has two parts to its Memory.

There is an Internal Memory & External Memory. Depending on the device some External Memory refers to the SD Card Slot as some tablets, phones and Kindle Fire comes with a built in SD Card.

Think of them as Partitions like you would on a Hard Drive.
The Kindle Fire would have three.

1. System files 2GB
(Android O/S)

2. Apps 1GB
This is where your apps are mostly installed.

3. App Content & User Content 5GB
Books, Videos, Pictures and some app files.

Depending on the developer, alot of apps put files in both places, Internal & External memory. Then some apps are installed on the External memory only.

This does make a limitation on how many apps you can have installed because of 1GB or as on my phone 256MB. Though I doubt anyone would used up 1GB of storage for apps on the KF as that would be alot of apps!

So really only 5GB is available for sideloading content such as movies, books, videos...etc. That 5GB can be shared with some app content as well.

As far as I can tell unless rooted you don't have access to the Internal memory. Now on my phone I use a program Apps2SD which moves apps to External memory or in my phone's case it's SD Card if the developer allows it. This has been disabled on The Fire.

I have no idea where the downloaded Amazon content goes maybe someone with a rooted Fire can tell us. I do think books go in the Books folder but as for where the Cache\Temp files is located I'm not sure yet how that works. On my phone I use a cleaner as it can get quite large. More research is needed to see how Amazon has modified the Fire to handle this.

Just remember when you plug the KF into your PC it will only show the External Memory. Not your Internal memory.
So it will show 5GB not 6GB.

I hope this answers some people questions so they don't think the device is defective.

11-17-2011, 05:16 PM	#1
Blossom Treasure Seeker Posts: 18,708 Karma: 26026435 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kobo HD Glo, Kindles, Kindle Fires, Andriod Devices	About The Kindle Fire's Memory This question has popped up a few times here and other places so I thought I would try to explain to those who are new to Android how it works. The Kindle Fire has 8GB of Memory but only 6GB is available for content. What you may not know is Android has two parts to its Memory. There is an Internal Memory & External Memory. Depending on the device some External Memory refers to the SD Card Slot as some tablets, phones and Kindle Fire comes with a built in SD Card. Think of them as Partitions like you would on a Hard Drive. The Kindle Fire would have three. 1. System files 2GB (Android O/S) 2. Apps 1GB This is where your apps are mostly installed. 3. App Content & User Content 5GB Books, Videos, Pictures and some app files. Depending on the developer, alot of apps put files in both places, Internal & External memory. Then some apps are installed on the External memory only. This does make a limitation on how many apps you can have installed because of 1GB or as on my phone 256MB. Though I doubt anyone would used up 1GB of storage for apps on the KF as that would be alot of apps! So really only 5GB is available for sideloading content such as movies, books, videos...etc. That 5GB can be shared with some app content as well. As far as I can tell unless rooted you don't have access to the Internal memory. Now on my phone I use a program Apps2SD which moves apps to External memory or in my phone's case it's SD Card if the developer allows it. This has been disabled on The Fire. I have no idea where the downloaded Amazon content goes maybe someone with a rooted Fire can tell us. I do think books go in the Books folder but as for where the Cache\Temp files is located I'm not sure yet how that works. On my phone I use a cleaner as it can get quite large. More research is needed to see how Amazon has modified the Fire to handle this. Just remember when you plug the KF into your PC it will only show the External Memory. Not your Internal memory. So it will show 5GB not 6GB. I hope this answers some people questions so they don't think the device is defective. Last edited by Blossom; 11-17-2011 at 06:23 PM.