PART OF THIS TUTORIAL REQUIRES NAND ACCESS, DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING WHICH YOU ARE NOT INSTRUCTED TO. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR BRICKED CONSOLE.

So please, follow directions carefully.

Before starting, I'd like to greatly thank the GBA Temp user godreborn (along with all other users who provided useful information) for initially helping me through this problem, as at the time there was little-to-no information about it, at least that was easily discover-able. This tutorial is based upon the thread which he assisted me in here, back in late 2017.

Even though this isn't an extremely prevalent issue, and one could follow the initial thread I made awhile back. I thought it'd be worthwhile to gather up the scattered answers within that thread and convert it into a proper tutorial format for future Wii U homebrew users to follow, during their early/learning phases. As installing games, DLC, and official/unofficial VC titles is one of the most popular things to do.

Every time I have a failed install, I just go into system settings and to data management, and it automatically recognizes the incomplete installs and erases them every time.
If this could save someone from a bricked console, then it's worth to try this way first

As pointed out in the replies section by Cylent1, before deciding to go through with this process, it is worthwhile to try the option the Wii U's built in data management menu prompts you with when/if it recognizes that there is an unfinished installation.


Overview:
Hi, this tutorial will walk you through the steps necessary to delete a game (update, DLC, etc.) which failed to fully install to the system NAND or connected USB storage device, using FTPiiU Everywhere. Depending on the size of the game, the amount of additional times you attempt the installation or how much of the installation was completed before the install failed, the reduced storage space may go unnoticed for awhile. If this occurred multiple times though, you probably realized the bar indicating used space increased (or, an increase in OS load times, a side effect of having a close to full NAND). If you recognized something was off, you probably browsed through data manager and looked for the culprit. You'll soon discover however, incomplete installs of such content will not be properly indexed by the normal data manager under system settings, making them absent from the list, and hence being unable to delete them this way.

Why and when would this occur you may ask?

1. You used tools such as WUP installer GX2, the y-mod variant (or similar tools), which can't identify currently available space on your storage medium and underestimated the size of a game (thanks NSMBU + NSLU bonus videos).
   
2. You turned off your console, or unplugged your USB storage device while content was installing. Once you initiate a game install, there is no mechanism provided to stop it.
3. You encountered some generic, unexplainable error. Forcing you to halt the install and try again, leaving leftover garbage data.

If you've only ever used the eShop for game installations this should never happen, but of course there may be circumstance which I'm unaware of.

Prerequisites:

• For FTPiiU Everywhere to work properly, you MUST boot into your preferred CFW FIRST (CBHC user don't need to worry about this as the patches are applied upon powering on your console).

• The concerned contents titleID. While really nothing should be in this folder unless its a failed, or incomplete install (which deleting won't cause any harm). I still recommend making sure that the titleIDs present in the folder we will access match content which you previously attempted to install. You can view the list of game, update, DLC etc. titleIDs here.

• The correct FTPiiU Everywhere release for you CFW variant. CBHC/Haxchi requires a specific version for example, Mocha CFW seems to be able to use that version too, but not the other way around. But just to be safe, I recommend using the one which is meant for your specific CFW. FTPiiU Everywhere for Mocha CFW, FTPiiU Everywhere for CBHC/Haxchi

• An FTP client. For people using Windows, you may use file explorer, but I recommend downloading a third party application such as WinSCP or Filezilla. Filezilla being available for MacOS and Linux as well. For this example I will be using WinSCP.

With all that covered, we can now proceed with the actual instructions:


Preparing your console:

1. First, turn on your console (with the USB storage device plugged in, if that is where you attempted to install the content which failed), next access the Homebrew Launcher using your preferred method
2. Once in the Homebrew Launcher, boot into your preferred CFW (CBHC users can ignore this). After your console reboots and you reach the Wii U menu again, go back to the Homebrew Launcher and start the version of FTPiiU Everywhere that corresponds to your currently applied CFW.
3. Once the application starts, take note of your Wii U's IP address presented to you on both the TV and Gamepad. Unless you assign your local addresses manually, this will change from time to time. So if for whatever reason you attempt this again at a later date, your consoles address will most likely have changed. At this point, you may leave your console be. You will not need to physically interact with it until we are finished.

Connecting to your Wii U via an FTP client:

1. Open your preferred FTP client application (I will be using WinSCP) and enter in the your Wii U's IP address (only change the port number if it is not already set to 21), select the correct protocol (plain old FTP), with no encryption and make sure to check off the "Anonymous login" box. Then click login.
   
2. Once you have successfully logged in, a list of directories like this should appear (make sure you are in the root (/) directory):
   

Locating and deleting the failed installs:

For content on the NAND:
For content which failed to install during installation to the system NAND, follow these steps:

1. Start by following the path to this folder, from the root directory select: storage_mlc --> usr --> import.
2. Once you reach the import folder, certain users will branch off to other directories depending on what type of content failed to install. The titleID database I linked to earlier in the article is a good resource for figuring out the correct folder to go into next (if you've had multiple types of failed installs). Different kinds of content have different ID's representing them. Since I am going to assume that the majority of people would have encountered a problem with full game installs, I will use them as an example. For instance, if Mario Kart 8 failed to install you'd see a folder within import called 00050000. This folder will be holding any full (eShop/retail) games which did not successfully install. Even though we will be deleting the folder holding the affecting content, I urge you to enter the folder anyway to make sure the game/s which failed to install have their titleIDs listed in there. Again, as an example the US release of Mario Kart 8 would have a titleID of: 1010EC00.
3. Here I have provided a list of the titleID types which can appear in this folder:

00050000 eShop title
00050002 eShop title demo / Kiosk Interactive Demo
0005000C eShop title DLC
0005000E eShop title update

Again, like I stated above. Once you have entered the correct parent folder for the type/s of content which failed to install and verified that the correct titleIDs are located within it. You may go back to the import folder, right click on once of the folders in the list above and delete the folder for titleID type containing said content. Depending on the total size of the game and when the failure occurred during installation, the process could take awhile. I strongly recommend waiting at your computer and watching the deletion process until it's done, as sometimes an error will occur. If so, simply dismiss it, and restart the process again. It most likely complete the second time around.

If the process complete without errors and upon refreshing the directory the folder which you deleted is no longer there, CONGRATULATIONS, you have followed all directions and successfully completed the tutorial. All you need to do is exit out of FTPiiU Everywhere by pressing the home button and then power off your console. Upon next boot up, check data management under system settings and you should see your reclaimed space.


For content on a USB storage device
For content which failed to install during installation to the external USB storage device, the steps required are nearly identical to those followed for the NAND process:

1. Instead, follow this path from the root directory: storage_usb --> usr --> import. After you navigate to this directory, the same exact process from the NAND steps can be applied. So the following will be a copy & paste from above, but with a different titleID example.
2. Once you reach the import folder, certain users will branch off to other directories depending on what type of content failed to install. The titleID database I linked to earlier in the article is a good resource for figuring out the correct folder to go into next (if you've had multiple types of failed installs). Different kinds of content have different ID's representing them. This time around I will use DLC content as an example. For instance, if Mario Kart 8's DLC failed to install you'd see a folder within import called 0005000C. This folder will be holding any DLC for games which did not successfully install. Even though we will be deleting the folder holding the affecting content, I urge you to enter the folder anyway to make sure the game/s DLC which failed to install have their titleIDs listed in there. Again, as an example the US release of Mario Kart 8's DLC would have a titleID of: 1010EC00 under the 0005000C folder.
3. Here I have provided the la list of titleID types which can appear in this folder:

00050000 eShop title
00050002 eShop title demo / Kiosk Interactive Demo
0005000C eShop title DLC
0005000E eShop title update


Again, like I stated above. Once you have entered the correct parent folder for the type/s of content which failed to install and verified that the correct titleIDs are located within it. You may go back to the import folder, right click on once of the folders in the list above and delete the folder for titleID type containing said content. Depending on the total size of the game and when the failure occurred during installation, the process of deleting content from a USB storage device should be fairly quicker than the same from the system NAND, but it still could take awhile. I strongly recommend waiting at your computer and watching the deletion process until it's done, as sometimes an error will occur. If so, simply dismiss it, and restart the process again. It most likely complete the second time around.

If the process complete without errors and upon refreshing the directory the folder which you deleted is no longer there, CONGRATULATIONS, you have followed all directions and successfully completed the tutorial. All you need to do is exit out of FTPiiU Everywhere by pressing the home button and then power off your console. Upon next boot up, check data management under system settings and you should see your reclaimed space.


The time for new tutorials in the Wii U section of the forums has come and gone, as by now most have moved along to the Switch homebrew scene, but this console is home to some astounding games, homebrew developments (lots of respect for those who developed the applications and exploits which made all this possible) and continues to remain very appealing to me and many others, never quite having it's full potential tapped into.


If you have suggestions for content to add, correct, change or remove please let me know. Thanks for reading.

 

[Deleted User]

love doing this things

 

[Cylent1]

Every time I have a failed install, I just go into system settings and to data management, and it automatically recognizes the incomplete installs and erases them every time.
If this could save someone from a bricked console, then it's worth to try this way first

 

[Ron_Harrison]

Every time I have a failed install, I just go into system settings and to data management, and it automatically recognizes the incomplete installs and erases them every time.
If this could save someone from a bricked console, then it's worth to try this way first

Yes, I agree and I'll add it to the beginning of the tutorial. Personally, I never tried doing it as that message appeared in the data management menu before anything ever failed, and when I manually deleted the failed game the message was still present, so I guess it varies. I've also heard that sometimes when letting it perform that process, it will never actually complete and keeps progressing forever. It was definitely worthwhile to mention though, thanks for commenting.

 

[AmandaRose]

I've also heard that sometimes when letting it perform that process, it will never actually complete and keeps progressing forever. It was definitely worthwhile to mention though, thanks for commenting.

If it's stuck processing forever there is a simple fix you just goto the eshop and download anything so it's probably easier to just download a demo and once the demo is downloaded just go back into data management and you can delete the curupted software and it won't endlessly process anymore. With that done you can then delete the demo

 

[Ron_Harrison]

If it's stuck processing forever there is a simple fix you just goto the eshop and download anything so it's probably easier to just download a demo and once the demo is downloaded just go back into data management and you can delete the curupted software and it won't endlessly process anymore. With that done you can then delete the demo

Aha, interesting, I haven’t ever tried that before. I feel like I’ve seen that method mentioned on this forum somewhere, but I can’t quite recall in which thread. If this ever happens to me again, I’ll have to give that a try instead. Thanks for the information.

 

[AmandaRose]

Aha, interesting, I haven’t ever tried that before. I feel like I’ve seen that method mentioned on this forum somewhere, but I can’t quite recall in which thread. If this ever happens to me again, I’ll have to give that a try instead. Thanks for the information.

Yep I have mentioned it in various threads as have some other users it works perfectly.

 

[Somari128]

I tried to use the in settings unused data deleter but the gb text was still red why is that

 

[godreborn]

I tried to use the in settings unused data deleter but the gb text was still red why is that

what do you mean? the import folder is a temp folder where content goes before being moved to the final destination. if it's stuck, try downloading a demo from the eshop. that usually fixes the indexer.

 

[Somari128]

I'm trying that now I'll let you know if that worked

 

[Somari128]

And I already uninstalled cbhc so if this doesn't work I might restore the console

 

[Somari128]

If I restored the wii u would the vwii restore too?

 

[godreborn]

If I restored the wii u would the vwii restore too?

The vwii is separate.

 

[Somari128]

The vwii is separate.

How do I restore that

 

[godreborn]

decaffiinator iirc.

 

[Somari128]

decaffiinator iirc.

Thanks

 

[chargeaxfr]

Wondering if anyone has run into this...
When installing some titles to USB storage using WUP Installer GX2, I ran into some instances where the installer would seem to hang part-way. The background bubble animation wouldnt stop, but the progress bar would show no progress. Trying to install those same titles now, the progress bar stays at zero. The storage management menu of the Wii U detects that there are unnecessary files on the USB, but it fails to delete them.
Using the method from this post, I can see the files in the import folder, but they don't seem to want to delete. Using Filezilla, if I right click the "00050000" folder and select "Delete", Filezilla works on deleting them, and I get a "550 Success" response from the FTPiiU side for each file, but the files are still there.
I notice I don't get the "550 Success" response from a file I can delete, like install files on the SD card. I also tried WinSCP, and I get the impression it sees the "550 Success" as some kind of error.
Has anyone else run into this, and is there a solution to "unstick" these files so I can delete them? I also looked briefly to see if there was a local file manager available to run on the Wii U directly, thinking that might be another way to delete the files, but it seems one does not exist.

 

[godreborn]

Wondering if anyone has run into this...
When installing some titles to USB storage using WUP Installer GX2, I ran into some instances where the installer would seem to hang part-way. The background bubble animation wouldnt stop, but the progress bar would show no progress. Trying to install those same titles now, the progress bar stays at zero. The storage management menu of the Wii U detects that there are unnecessary files on the USB, but it fails to delete them.
Using the method from this post, I can see the files in the import folder, but they don't seem to want to delete. Using Filezilla, if I right click the "00050000" folder and select "Delete", Filezilla works on deleting them, and I get a "550 Success" response from the FTPiiU side for each file, but the files are still there.
I notice I don't get the "550 Success" response from a file I can delete, like install files on the SD card. I also tried WinSCP, and I get the impression it sees the "550 Success" as some kind of error.
Has anyone else run into this, and is there a solution to "unstick" these files so I can delete them? I also looked briefly to see if there was a local file manager available to run on the Wii U directly, thinking that might be another way to delete the files, but it seems one does not exist.

try changing the permissions to 755 of the file, then delete. that might work.

 

[chargeaxfr]

try changing the permissions to 755 of the file, then delete. that might work.

Thanks for the suggestion. I also tried changing the permissions to 777, as 755 is already set on these files. However the permissions will not change either. They stay at 755.

 

[V10lator]

@chargeaxfr Is this on a flash drive? If so it might be damaged. Use a USB HDD next time.