Problem with android d/l?

[bohemian]

A sister came to use our broadband to d/l a video. She has an android tablet (ours are ios).  It would not d/l. It is the video for this week's midweek meeting.

It d/l fine on our ipads.

We looked at her tablet and she has hundreds of videos and magazines downloaded, so we were showing her how to delete them. She thought that she could only send them back to the cloud if she were on the internet. We deleted a lot of watchtowers and videos but we still could not d/l the video.

Has anyone else had problems? Or any advice to offer?

[The Deej]

This has come up with my mother in law a couple of times, in fact she has actually just bought new tablets when the other ones stop "working" We have tried to tell her that she needs to delete videos that are watched and not just be downloading everything that is available.  She literally had hundreds of videos on her tablet.  When we tell her this it's like we are asking her to throw actual physical literature in the garbage.  To the point she starts to get almost offended. 

 

What a lot of the friends don't seem to realize is that our devices, be it computers, tablets and phones, all have a space restriction when it comes to what we put on them.  It really doesn't matter how big the space is on a device, if you keep adding stuff it will eventually cause problems.  Electronic devices have a working threshold for storage and memory that if exceeded will seriously start to slow the system down, and eventually if no housekeeping is done will render it virtually useless.  

 

The last time she brought her device to me I basically just deleted the Library app, then went in and deleted every single video that she had downloaded and had her start all over.  And guess what?  Yep the device started working again.  On my own devices I am continually getting rid of stuff that we have already seen, or have used for meetings in order to keep my computer, tablet, and phone running as fast as possible.  And keep in mind that when you delete a video, you can always download or watch again, but this way you have freed up the device to work as it was intended.

 

Think of it like a glass of water, the closer the water gets to the top the slower you have to walk with it in order to not spill it.  As it reaches the brim, it is nearly impossible to even move without spilling it.  A half full glass is way easier to manage than one that is too full.  Probably not the best analogy,  but you get the idea.  

 

Now all of this being said, it does take patience when helping some of the friends realize this.  So we want to first and foremost not make them feel like they did something wrong or that they are not smart when it comes to these things.  It's easy to get frustrated and want to just take over, but if we take the time to show them how to do maintenance on their own devices, in the long run it will work out just fine.  Kind of like that saying "If you teach a man to fish"  If we help our dear friends to learn how to do these things then not only will they be able to help themselves but they will also be able to share what they know with others.   😉

[bohemian]

Thanks Deric. That is what we said to her. I explained that it was like a one-way-street; the videos etc can only move down from the server to her device, she doesn't have to 'send it back up'! Just delete it, you can get it again later.

Also, I told he the tablet was like a pint pot (her father kept a pub) and she was trying to put a quart into it.

She is in her 80's and a faithful pioneer sister, but she does sometimes have her own ideas about things. We love her dearly.

[Hippo]

14 hours ago, bohemian said:

A sister came to use our broadband to d/l a video. She has an android tablet (ours are ios).  It would not d/l. It is the video for this week's midweek meeting.

It d/l fine on our ipads.

We looked at her tablet and she has hundreds of videos and magazines downloaded, so we were showing her how to delete them. She thought that she could only send them back to the cloud if she were on the internet. We deleted a lot of watchtowers and videos but we still could not d/l the video.

Has anyone else had problems? Or any advice to offer?

I'd suggest that she doesn't have enough space on her android to download the video. I've 64 GB on this Android phone.

But my older android phone only has space enough to have JW Library. The Bible. And a couple of publications for the ministry. It won't download a video. 

 

I use that one in the ministry as I removed the SIM and only download on WiFi. . 

[jwhess]

Many Android devices allow the use of a Micro-SD card to be inserted to expand the memory storage available.  If this device has an SD card slot and a new or larger card be inserted and store the videos or whatever in this new memory area?  If it was a 32 GB device you might be able to add 32 or 64 GB more to the total.

[The Deej]

10 hours ago, jwhess said:

Many Android devices allow the use of a Micro-SD card to be inserted to expand the memory storage available.  If this device has an SD card slot and a new or larger card be inserted and store the videos or whatever in this new memory area?  If it was a 32 GB device you might be able to add 32 or 64 GB more to the total.

Good point John, yes my phone has a 128 GB card and my tablet has a 64 but again having more space just means that it will take longer to fill up if not kept cleaned.  I've seen some of the friends buy the cheap tablets with 8g's of space only to have it fill up in just a few short months.  So at the very least I always tell the friends to buy a device with as much on-board space as they can afford and look for devices that have expansions slots, but I still let them know that space is still space and it will eventually fill up and cause issues if unchecked.  For regular files like word docs and pdf's and schedules, I use One-drive to hold them, that way its synced across all devices and doesn't take up memory.  Another thing to let the friends know, if you do have a micro sd card, make sure to point the saved location in the library app so that it downloads videos to the card.  That will also help.  Its in the settings of the library app.  That way your device will have a better chance of running smoother...longer 😉

[jwhess]

9 hours ago, The Deej said:

Good point John, yes my phone has a 128 GB card and my tablet has a 64 but again having more space just means that it will take longer to fill up if not kept cleaned.  I've seen some of the friends buy the cheap tablets with 8g's of space only to have it fill up in just a few short months.  So at the very least I always tell the friends to buy a device with as much on-board space as they can afford and look for devices that have expansions slots, but I still let them know that space is still space and it will eventually fill up and cause issues if unchecked.  For regular files like word docs and pdf's and schedules, I use One-drive to hold them, that way its synced across all devices and doesn't take up memory.  Another thing to let the friends know, if you do have a micro sd card, make sure to point the saved location in the library app so that it downloads videos to the card.  That will also help.  Its in the settings of the library app.  That way your device will have a better chance of running smoother...longer 😉

Good advice.  I had downloaded every available publication and media (low-med resolution) and about a year ago I noticed that it took about 80 GB to store it all.  I have much more space than that so I don't delete any of it.