Why is MCOC asking for 7.51GB free space for update?

ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
What the title says.
Each update, the space requirement increases even though neither the update nor even the entire app itself uses even half of that space. It was 1GB, then 2, 3, 4 and last update asked for 6GB. Wtf is going on?

My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro running Android 13 and I'm sick of this bs.

Comments

  • peixemacacopeixemacaco Member Posts: 2,955 ★★★★
    Chikel said:

    What the title says.
    Each update, the space requirement increases even though neither the update nor even the entire app itself uses even half of that space. It was 1GB, then 2, 3, 4 and last update asked for 6GB. Wtf is going on?

    My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro running Android 13 and I'm sick of this bs.

    Mine ,required 4.5 GB on Moto G9 Play Android for a file download on PlayStore of 300mb.

    After installed the space required is almost the same as before.

    So, why ask for such huge space?
  • SummonerNRSummonerNR Member, Guardian Posts: 12,749 Guardian
    (2 issues)

    (1) Can’t recall how much larger of space my last FULL DOWNLOAD required.
    But keep in mind that the storage usage of MCOC will creep up over the months, probably full of “cached” stuff from prior months that are not even part of the current game anymore.

    As in, the last time I deleted and reinstalled from scratch, the game was up to maybe 3.5 or 4 GB space used. After re-downloading from scratch it was maybe only 2 GB space used afterwards.

    So it does benefit to do a complete reinstall every now and again (just make sure you have a linked Kabam ID, or linked Game/Play Center usage).

    (2) the PlayStore size of 300 MB that you mentioned is probably because that is the initial “kickstarter” portion of the App that initially gets loaded. Think of it like the PC “Install Shield” downloader, which then proceeds to download the rest of the program separately.

    After that, the rest of the Update is downloaded separately, directly via Google PlayStore (or Apple AppStore), and not from whichever alternate Play Store (like Huawei) you may try to be side-loading it from (thus the issues 1-2 years ago when Kabam started doing downloads that way)
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
    edited July 9

    (2 issues)

    (1) Can’t recall how much larger of space my last FULL DOWNLOAD required.
    But keep in mind that the storage usage of MCOC will creep up over the months, probably full of “cached” stuff from prior months that are not even part of the current game anymore.

    As in, the last time I deleted and reinstalled from scratch, the game was up to maybe 3.5 or 4 GB space used. After re-downloading from scratch it was maybe only 2 GB space used afterwards.

    So it does benefit to do a complete reinstall every now and again (just make sure you have a linked Kabam ID, or linked Game/Play Center usage).

    (2) the PlayStore size of 300 MB that you mentioned is probably because that is the initial “kickstarter” portion of the App that initially gets loaded. Think of it like the PC “Install Shield” downloader, which then proceeds to download the rest of the program separately.

    After that, the rest of the Update is downloaded separately, directly via Google PlayStore (or Apple AppStore), and not from whichever alternate Play Store (like Huawei) you may try to be side-loading it from (thus the issues 1-2 years ago when Kabam started doing downloads that way)

    Nope, the size of the update is 368mb and the entire size of the app is 3.14GB. Significantly less than the 7.5GB it was demanding for whatever reason.

    It finally downloaded after I freed up around 4GB but this shouldn't have happened in the first place. It doesn't happen with any other app except MCOC
  • PikoluPikolu Member, Guardian Posts: 7,721 Guardian
    Chikel said:

    (2 issues)

    (1) Can’t recall how much larger of space my last FULL DOWNLOAD required.
    But keep in mind that the storage usage of MCOC will creep up over the months, probably full of “cached” stuff from prior months that are not even part of the current game anymore.

    As in, the last time I deleted and reinstalled from scratch, the game was up to maybe 3.5 or 4 GB space used. After re-downloading from scratch it was maybe only 2 GB space used afterwards.

    So it does benefit to do a complete reinstall every now and again (just make sure you have a linked Kabam ID, or linked Game/Play Center usage).

    (2) the PlayStore size of 300 MB that you mentioned is probably because that is the initial “kickstarter” portion of the App that initially gets loaded. Think of it like the PC “Install Shield” downloader, which then proceeds to download the rest of the program separately.

    After that, the rest of the Update is downloaded separately, directly via Google PlayStore (or Apple AppStore), and not from whichever alternate Play Store (like Huawei) you may try to be side-loading it from (thus the issues 1-2 years ago when Kabam started doing downloads that way)

    Nope, the size of the update is 368mb and the entire size of the app is 3.14GB. Significantly less than the 7.5GB it was demanding for whatever reason.

    It finally downloaded after I freed up around 4GB but this shouldn't have happened in the first place. It doesn't happen with any other app except MCOC
    My best theory, from 1 minute of research, is that is the size of the installer of the update. So your phone needs the space of your app, the space of the updater, and probably the space of the entire app again as the installer installs a new app onto your phone and replaces the old one.

    If someone who actually works in mobile development (or at least does more research than me) wants to chime in, feel free.
  • Windows10Windows10 Member Posts: 54
    It's time fo MCOC to turn PC guys!
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
    New update (210mb) and the space requirements increased by almost 1GB. I wonder if it at some point it will demand more space than my phone has available.

    Wtf is wrong with this app? @kabam crashed
  • BringPopcornBringPopcorn Member Posts: 5,106 ★★★★★
    Chikel said:

    New update (210mb) and the space requirements increased by almost 1GB. I wonder if it at some point it will demand more space than my phone has available.

    Wtf is wrong with this app? @kabam crashed

    ... Dude 800mb a available, a device upgrade is due...
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★

    Chikel said:

    New update (210mb) and the space requirements increased by almost 1GB. I wonder if it at some point it will demand more space than my phone has available.

    Wtf is wrong with this app? @kabam crashed

    ... Dude 800mb a available, a device upgrade is due...
    Where did you see 800mb? It says 8.44GB free space required there.
  • BringPopcornBringPopcorn Member Posts: 5,106 ★★★★★
    Lol i thought I saw 0.84ish GB my bad
    Well something aint right with that device...
  • PT_99PT_99 Member Posts: 4,496 ★★★★★
    edited July 23
    Chikel said:

    What the title says.
    Each update, the space requirement increases even though neither the update nor even the entire app itself uses even half of that space. It was 1GB, then 2, 3, 4 and last update asked for 6GB. Wtf is going on?

    My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro running Android 13 and I'm sick of this bs.

    Same phone, never had this issue,
    Are you using extra memory card? 🤣
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★

    Lol i thought I saw 0.84ish GB my bad
    Well something aint right with that device...

    It's not the phone but MCOC. Every other app installs and updates without issues
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
    PT_99 said:

    Chikel said:

    What the title says.
    Each update, the space requirement increases even though neither the update nor even the entire app itself uses even half of that space. It was 1GB, then 2, 3, 4 and last update asked for 6GB. Wtf is going on?

    My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro running Android 13 and I'm sick of this bs.

    Same phone, never had this issue,
    Are you using extra memory card? 🤣
    Nah. I'm not using any external storage
  • Maat1985Maat1985 Member Posts: 2,396 ★★★★
    its like i have 300gb of pictures on my hard drive in one folder, and i want to move them to another folder on the same drive.
    i only have 100gb of free space, it will not let me do it. even though the exact same space will be taken as they are staying on the same drive.
    i need to do it bit by bit.
    as it essentially copies the files and then deletes them.
    it does this so that if anything interrupts it there is less chance of losing data

    same thing when it updates the app.
    or any program.
    it creates a backup copy of the existing app, then it installs the new update and then deletes the backup.
    it does this so that it can roll back if any errors.

    also you should be keeping free space anyway as drives slow down when there is less free space as it becomes harder and harder for cached data and to find free space when needed. this was a bigger thing back in the day of mechanical hard drives but still holds true to some extent.
  • Qwerty112211Qwerty112211 Member Posts: 40
    Please clean up older versions of the game there's no reason for a game to require 5-7gb of storage that's totally insane do u have any idea how many ch space that is!!
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
    Maat1985 said:

    its like i have 300gb of pictures on my hard drive in one folder, and i want to move them to another folder on the same drive.
    i only have 100gb of free space, it will not let me do it. even though the exact same space will be taken as they are staying on the same drive.
    i need to do it bit by bit.
    as it essentially copies the files and then deletes them.
    it does this so that if anything interrupts it there is less chance of losing data

    same thing when it updates the app.
    or any program.
    it creates a backup copy of the existing app, then it installs the new update and then deletes the backup.
    it does this so that it can roll back if any errors.

    also you should be keeping free space anyway as drives slow down when there is less free space as it becomes harder and harder for cached data and to find free space when needed. this was a bigger thing back in the day of mechanical hard drives but still holds true to some extent.

    That's not how app updates work. At least literally every other app other than MCOC.
    Even in the unlikely possibility that it works like, it's still demanding more than twice the amount of space the entire app occupies
  • DaddriedaDaddrieda Member Posts: 1,639 ★★★★
    So the first download from the playstore is the app file information to be able to download and allow it to exist in your home screen or wherever you wish to place the app on a specific spot on a specific Home Screen and that is? What? 300mb just for an app download? So it makes sense.
    The second download happens INSIDE the app and that download file information is information of all of the contents, informations of the collectable champions and so on and that makes even more sense. With that explained then it’s only natural that the more the game grows then the larger game file will be.

    Why it differs from the Apple version I can’t explain unless somehow found a way to compress the file or found a way to get all the necessary download information in one go and finish. I can see that my Apple Mcoc app version cost 2,04GB to download.

    Sometimes I play on a Samsung device and I can tell that the quality differs from each as it seems to be more richer quality colours and so on in a Samsung while in Apple it’s kind of an watered down version 🤷🏽‍♂️
  • Feeney234Feeney234 Member Posts: 1,202 ★★★★
    Chikel said:

    What the title says.
    Each update, the space requirement increases even though neither the update nor even the entire app itself uses even half of that space. It was 1GB, then 2, 3, 4 and last update asked for 6GB. Wtf is going on?

    My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro running Android 13 and I'm sick of this bs.

    I've had mt phone for almost 3 years and my storage isn't even 40% full. Time to free up some space maybe?
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Member, Guardian Posts: 19,654 Guardian
    Chikel said:

    Maat1985 said:

    its like i have 300gb of pictures on my hard drive in one folder, and i want to move them to another folder on the same drive.
    i only have 100gb of free space, it will not let me do it. even though the exact same space will be taken as they are staying on the same drive.
    i need to do it bit by bit.
    as it essentially copies the files and then deletes them.
    it does this so that if anything interrupts it there is less chance of losing data

    same thing when it updates the app.
    or any program.
    it creates a backup copy of the existing app, then it installs the new update and then deletes the backup.
    it does this so that it can roll back if any errors.

    also you should be keeping free space anyway as drives slow down when there is less free space as it becomes harder and harder for cached data and to find free space when needed. this was a bigger thing back in the day of mechanical hard drives but still holds true to some extent.

    That's not how app updates work. At least literally every other app other than MCOC.
    Even in the unlikely possibility that it works like, it's still demanding more than twice the amount of space the entire app occupies
    I'm not an Android expert, but my understanding of how Android does app installs and updates is that (and this is slightly different from how iOS does it) app updates have an installer, and then a separate set of resource files. The file size listed in the Google play store is just for the installer, not for the resource files. A Google Play app can have a small installer, but several gigabytes of additional resource files. So the amount of space required for installation or update can be wildly different from the installer size for some applications.

    Games like MCOC will in general require a lot more resources than other apps: this can explain why this issue seems to be more pronounced with MCOC than other apps.

    Why it appears to be asking for over twice the space of the footprint of the game may be due to a combination of compressing and thinning. Resource files for both iOS and Android tend to be compressed, and when you have compressed files you need space for the compressed archives plus additional space for the decompressed files. So let's say MCOC takes up 3GB on a particular Android phone (more on that in a sec) but the download is compressed say three to one and thus is only 1GB - to make it quicker to download. The phone now needs at least 4GB, 1GB for the downloaded file, and then three more GB to hold the decompressed resources. Once they are decompressed they can be moved to where they are supposed to go and then they won't be taking up additional space, but for at least a moment the phone needs to hold the original game files, the downloaded update file, and the decompressed versions of the update files.

    On top of that, both Android and iOS have features that allow an app to have all the files necessary to run on all the different kinds of devices it could run on, but then delete the ones it doesn't need on the particular device it is actually on. So it is possible for an app that takes up 3GB on your device to come from an app that is actually 4GB big, say, and it is only 3GB on your particular phone because 1GB of stuff was removed due to being unnecessary. This is sometimes referred to as app thinning.

    When you factor all of this together, that can explain the high free space requirements in theory. First, the Google Play store lists only a tiny fraction of the size of the actual update. The actual update is much larger, but that size is not listed. The actual update includes an installer and one or more compressed content files. The phone needs enough space to download the installer, and the compressed content files, and have enough free space to decompress the compressed files. And a little bit more for things like temp files and scratch space for the installer itself to actually run. And on top of that the update files can be larger than you might expect by just looking at the size of the app on your phone, because the size of the app on your phone might be smaller than the complete app is, to support additional files that are required to support other kinds of devices, and were deleted from your phone once they were determined to be unnecessary.
  • peixemacacopeixemacaco Member Posts: 2,955 ★★★★
    Suffered today to free 4.5 gb... But is updated
  • MoeyTehrMoeyTehr Member Posts: 455 ★★
    The trick I've learned is to uninstall the game and then reinstall. Sucks to have to redownload the game every month but it's the only consistent solution that I've found.
  • Asher1_1Asher1_1 Member Posts: 631 ★★★
    Uninstall then re-download

    Just wondering when the game was 1gb how many champs were there ?? How many quest were there(act 8, necro etc )??
    How can u add that many content + champ without taking some space ??
  • captain_rogerscaptain_rogers Member Posts: 9,507 ★★★★★
    A similar issue for me. I have 10 Gb free space in my device, and when I tried to install mcoc on my phone, it said "Not enough space". I have cleared all my cache and stuff but still got the message. Ended up deleting two other games for updating this one lol.

    Not sure whether it's a problem from playstore side or kabam side.
  • ChikelChikel Member Posts: 2,106 ★★★★
    DNA3000 said:

    Chikel said:

    Maat1985 said:

    its like i have 300gb of pictures on my hard drive in one folder, and i want to move them to another folder on the same drive.
    i only have 100gb of free space, it will not let me do it. even though the exact same space will be taken as they are staying on the same drive.
    i need to do it bit by bit.
    as it essentially copies the files and then deletes them.
    it does this so that if anything interrupts it there is less chance of losing data

    same thing when it updates the app.
    or any program.
    it creates a backup copy of the existing app, then it installs the new update and then deletes the backup.
    it does this so that it can roll back if any errors.

    also you should be keeping free space anyway as drives slow down when there is less free space as it becomes harder and harder for cached data and to find free space when needed. this was a bigger thing back in the day of mechanical hard drives but still holds true to some extent.

    That's not how app updates work. At least literally every other app other than MCOC.
    Even in the unlikely possibility that it works like, it's still demanding more than twice the amount of space the entire app occupies
    I'm not an Android expert, but my understanding of how Android does app installs and updates is that (and this is slightly different from how iOS does it) app updates have an installer, and then a separate set of resource files. The file size listed in the Google play store is just for the installer, not for the resource files. A Google Play app can have a small installer, but several gigabytes of additional resource files. So the amount of space required for installation or update can be wildly different from the installer size for some applications.

    Games like MCOC will in general require a lot more resources than other apps: this can explain why this issue seems to be more pronounced with MCOC than other apps.

    Why it appears to be asking for over twice the space of the footprint of the game may be due to a combination of compressing and thinning. Resource files for both iOS and Android tend to be compressed, and when you have compressed files you need space for the compressed archives plus additional space for the decompressed files. So let's say MCOC takes up 3GB on a particular Android phone (more on that in a sec) but the download is compressed say three to one and thus is only 1GB - to make it quicker to download. The phone now needs at least 4GB, 1GB for the downloaded file, and then three more GB to hold the decompressed resources. Once they are decompressed they can be moved to where they are supposed to go and then they won't be taking up additional space, but for at least a moment the phone needs to hold the original game files, the downloaded update file, and the decompressed versions of the update files.

    On top of that, both Android and iOS have features that allow an app to have all the files necessary to run on all the different kinds of devices it could run on, but then delete the ones it doesn't need on the particular device it is actually on. So it is possible for an app that takes up 3GB on your device to come from an app that is actually 4GB big, say, and it is only 3GB on your particular phone because 1GB of stuff was removed due to being unnecessary. This is sometimes referred to as app thinning.

    When you factor all of this together, that can explain the high free space requirements in theory. First, the Google Play store lists only a tiny fraction of the size of the actual update. The actual update is much larger, but that size is not listed. The actual update includes an installer and one or more compressed content files. The phone needs enough space to download the installer, and the compressed content files, and have enough free space to decompress the compressed files. And a little bit more for things like temp files and scratch space for the installer itself to actually run. And on top of that the update files can be larger than you might expect by just looking at the size of the app on your phone, because the size of the app on your phone might be smaller than the complete app is, to support additional files that are required to support other kinds of devices, and were deleted from your phone once they were determined to be unnecessary.
    Nah. I don't think it's the problem here. Androi updates on Google Play have shifted away from the installer to a model where they simply download and patch the necessary parts of the app. That has led to a drastic reduction in the size of updates.

    Also when MCOC or some other app downloads additional files, it shows up in the notification bar. MCOC only does that for fresh installs and occasionally for monthly updates. It's not doing that for patch updates.

    The size of this update is 210Mb (Google shows update size differently from app size and you can view exactly how much space an app takes in your phone. In my case it's 3.16GB) I honestly doubt they're compressing gigabytes of files to 210mb. In my rough observation, there seems to be a bug where MCOC demands an arbitrary amount of space but if you free up slightly above the space it takes in your phone then clear Google Play data, it installs.

    I have other apps and games in my phone and none of them do this. Not even Call of Duty, the famous space hogger. It's an MCOC-specific issue.
  • peixemacacopeixemacaco Member Posts: 2,955 ★★★★
    MoeyTehr said:

    The trick I've learned is to uninstall the game and then reinstall. Sucks to have to redownload the game every month but it's the only consistent solution that I've found.

    No need to worry if something disappears?

    Mcoc different than other apps have 8+ years of hard progression
  • DaddriedaDaddrieda Member Posts: 1,639 ★★★★

    MoeyTehr said:

    The trick I've learned is to uninstall the game and then reinstall. Sucks to have to redownload the game every month but it's the only consistent solution that I've found.

    No need to worry if something disappears?

    Mcoc different than other apps have 8+ years of hard progression
    For me nothing goes away because I made an kabam ID to the main account. So I simply just use that kabam ID to log in at any devices or after a clean reinstall so no progression is lost at all. The only progression that could cause a loss is that if you don’t have an kabam ID or something that can connect to your android account. With android account I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s similar to my IOS using gamecenter.
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