ASUS ZenFone 2 update bug eats up gigabytes of storage

The ZenFone 2 is probably one of the most notable smartphones to come from ASUS, depending on which model you get. One of the first smartphones to bear 4 GB of RAM and paired with an Intel processor, the smartphone proved to be quite the beast and at a fraction of the price of its peers. However, an update pushed via OTA may have just made it turned it into the most unusable smartphone, with an errant log file growing uncontrollably to the point of eating up almost all available storage space on the ZenFone 2.

Owners of the ZenFone 2, at least one of which marked his as the 4 GB RAM ZE551ML model, noticed that their free storage space was conspicuously disappearing over time. No amount of resetting the smartphone fixed the issue and they would inevitably end up with almost no free space left. Almost comically, Android's own storage app wouldn't reveal what was eating up space.

After some amount of investigation, rooting, and resetting, it was discovered that the culprit was a certain data/logs/modemcrash log file that just kept growing and growing. The behavior was believed to have started after an OTA update that ASUS pushed. That is why no amount of reseting fixes the problem permanently as the bug is found in the OTA itself.

Usually, knowing the culprit would have been enough, but the sad tale continues. As the log file belongs to the system, it cannot be deleted as a regular user. It would need to be done by a superuser, a.k.a. root. In short, users will have to root their devices if they need to delete the file, possibly voiding their warranty in the process. The slightly good news is that, once deleted, the problem is practically fixed.

ASUS seems to be aware of the issue and has marked one bug report as "Processing". Some users reported that they have received communication from ASUS promising that an upcoming firmware update will fix the issue for good. The bug might not be a scary, potential security threat like Stagefright but given the actual threat of non-functional devices, ASUS better get this fix out quickly. It should also be a lesson for the OEM to take extra care in pushing updates to prevent such a fiasco from ever happening again.

VIA: Android Police