Database Info

just a thought (bring us light)

me and my friend where talking about useing the sd card as a additional RAM or a source of temp memeory like a pagefile/swap file. is it possable at all? JF i know your man and possibly thought of this. if this can be done apps would be bigger and better!

I am nearly positive it couldn't be used as a ram extension at all, and it really is pointless to use it as a temp memory, since the internal phone memory transfers at nearly the same speed as the sd card, unless it's class 6 or class 8.
Sorry to bring your hopes down.

just create a linux swap partition on the SDcard, and use mount to mount it. boom, instant virtual memory, really do not see why it wouldnt work.
However, it IS a bad idea, as it will be DOG slow going out to the SDCARD, i mean, HD swap is already terrible (you feel it when you start swapping out), so I would say not a great idea.

I think the next big thing smartphones will support is hardrive and ram upgrades. That would be so piff... imagine iff u can keep updating you smartphone internaly to keep up with the times? I.e= " yes sir 3g is not supported on your phone, but if u want to buy the 3g mini-pci (lol) adapter u can 3g away 2day " lmao, I wud have a stain in my pants if I herd that sentence

Running RAM from the SDCard... is it possible?

I did a search but I only have a phone to do this from so hopefully I didn't miss it.
Is it possible to make ram run off of the SDCard in a new partition (or even a current partition) simalar to Readyboost for vista? With all these home screen apps taking up so much RAM is would be helpful.
I am what you would call an advanced noob at this so don't flame me if I'm totally off.

I don't believe android supports something like this, this is sort of like Virtual Memory in Windows. However, the effectiveness of this isn't very good, moreover, the speed of the SD card or even support for this feature is... unknown. So, for now, I'm going to have to say I don't think so.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=483110&highlight=swap

Yeah, it's in the market now too. I haven't tried it out though, I don't want to make my microSD card last even less now... =P

axion68 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=483110&highlight=swap
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Click to collapse
Thank you for that.

amgupt01 said:
Yeah, it's in the market now too. I haven't tried it out though, I don't want to make my microSD card last even less now... =P
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Click to collapse
Any idea how much less?

mmafighter077 said:
Any idea how much less?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linux swap partitions aren't designed for flash memory like Readyboost is. Microsoft says Readyboost is designed to make your memory last at least 10 years with moderate use, but Linux swap might stress it more. MicroSDs are really cheap though.

nm page didn't load right, i thought i was the first post with useful info.

mmafighter077 said:
Any idea how much less?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should still last you years.
Each sector on flash media can be written to something like 10,000 times. After that's worn out, I believe it just ignores that sector. Meaning when your mem stick starts dying, you'll just have less space available to you.
I currently run my notebook with a Compact Flash card in the notebooks built in CF slot, and run my swap file on that. It's been a while, and it still hasn't died.

It's quite a long time - a sector isn't written 10,000 times sequentially, the hardware in the chip moves the writes around to avoid wearing out any single element (wear levelling), and if any single element does go it'll just ignore it, as you mentioned.
Any modern SD is likely to outlive the phone, basically. I've got entire computers running off SD and I've never had a failure (hard drives fail way more often, due to their mechanical nature).

my android is running off a SD card.

Will This Trend Continue?

Manufacturers are removing the ability to take out the battery and add your own micro SD cards, will this trend continue?
Will Google step in put a stop to that like they did when manufactures began locking down too many bootloaders?

Don_Perrignon said:
Manufacturers are removing the ability to take out the battery and add your own micro SD cards, will this trend continue?
Will Google step in put a stop to that like they did when manufactures began locking down too many bootloaders?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that Google will try to put a stop to the MicroSD issue; the Galaxy Nexus has no MicroSD slot and I find it hard to believe that Google was not involved in that decision.
Regarding the replaceable battery, I believe that this is an issue for too few users for Google to step in. A lot of people never have to do a battery pull and many (including me) have never bought a spare battery. Can't really see the point in batteries not being easily replaceable, though, but that doesn't matter.
I think this trend will continue.

I really wish it wouldn't , what if the phone stalls ? We would need the battery pull to fix ****
This was sent from a Galaxy Ace. Problem?

I want to know whether the news is true....

I doubt that the MicroSD capability will be lost since so many potential customers opt for another device, since the other device has the MicroSD slot, thus the market sets the trends.
Vendor wise - the less user accessible parts the better for them, resulting in less warranty cases and more profit for them.
However. As the NAND memory sizes increase and production costs decrease we are bound to see more high end devices with 32GB storage and even more and so the requirement for the MicroSD card slot may turn out to be irrelevant.
And on the grounds of the replaceable battery - There isn't much of a competition on the battery market OEM batteries are still 90% of the sales and the only reason to swap batteries would be when on the go and no other means of charging the device.
In the most cases, extended capacity charging packs cost maybe 10% more than the OEM battery off of ebay.
But as time goes along we shall see.

I hope this trend stops. I like the ability to add more space by buying an SD card. And, yes it is true we never buy a spare battery, but if my phone freezes or something like that I can pull out the battery turn it on again and it works.

Frankly i don't care. When the phone is build right it's fine with me.
I will not marry it and spend the rest of my life with it. Every 1-2 years i buy a new one.
If even the battery is gone rouge and you can't put it out that doesn't mean you can't change it in service......
Regardless the SD, well i listen to music most of the time and 16 GB is enough for me. Some games, some books etc. Don't wanna carry 1TB in the pocket

How do you solve the need to do a battery pull with non replacable batteries?
However, while the counties these manufactures come from and sell to have consistent electricity and not having extra batteries is somewhat ok, there are a few countries that still need manufacturers to not go that route yet. I just spent the last year in a country that doesn't give its people consistent electricity. There were times that I needed multiple batteries.
I see one of the reasons why BlackBerry is still hot in that county, because better OSs take much more energy.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA

My x8 can take its own battery out kidding,battery can be changed.but the phone seal plan doesn't kake sense.then microSD companies will have less earnage.I just buyed a 16 gb class 10 microSD for 30 $.
Sent from my E15i using XDA

I don't mind having a non-removable battery if they improve battery life enough to make the phone last a day or two, but I would still prefer having removable memory. I thought 16gb was enough until I started trying out different roms and the backups filled my card fast...
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA

In some ways, I can see benefits of non removable batteries - all-in-one form factor means there are less parts to come loose etc. I've had battery covers that slide off all too easily in my pocket before. Probably also allows manufacturers to trim down the size of phones a bit, as the battery doesn't have to be in an easily accessible position, so it can fit between other components more so etc.
But the lack of micro SD seems silly to me. Sure, give plenty of internal storage, but still give the option for more, some people will need it. A micro SD slot isn't going to greatly add to the cost of manufacturing the phone, nor will it take up too much space in the phone physically.
Personally, I like having both removable battery and micro SD card slot (on my phone, micro SD is essential given the puny internal storage - about 50MB free for installing apps etc. when I got it)

I could *probably* live with non-replaceable battery *if* the phone's built-in battery had life comparable to a 3600mAH battery today, but worry about establishing it as a norm. Manufacturers just can't be trusted to not trim and trim and trim their battery capacity year after year in the holy name of satisfying "design queens" who aren't happy unless their new phone is as thin & light at the latest abomination from Apple.
IMHO, the *ideal* compromise would be *two* batteries... one that's a user-swappable 3-for-$10 1700mAH commodity on eBay, and a built-in battery that fills every cubic millimeter of open space with lithium ion gel.
I value microSD partly as a convenient medium for rom images, but mostly as the closest thing to user-repurposable GPIO lines (and SPI bus) you can get in a new Android phone. IOIO & ADK are nice, but USB has latency, and I get warm fuzzies from being able to touch and program "bare metal". And it's hard to beat the cost of a hacked micro-SD card w/soldered on wires running through a hole drilled in the back controlling your 'bot without spending $65-80 for an ADK board. Wires and solder are cheaper & have better latency

I never used a spare battery on any of my phones ever nor do I know any of my friends ho did so either. Manufaturers can make a stronger sturdier device and have more space inside (for lets say a little bigger battery) if it's non replaceable.
Same goes for the microsd. I think it uses a lot more space to have a nand + card reader + microsd + space to access microsd then to have a bigger nand.

EmoBoiix3 said:
I really wish it wouldn't , what if the phone stalls ? We would need the battery pull to fix ****
This was sent from a Galaxy Ace. Problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think when there are no removable battries, the way to enact a battery pull is to press and hold the power button for instances of 15 secs? At least that's what I have for my Android-run-Cowon which have irremovable battery.

i think its a thing from the manufacturer and there are advantages for the case, but i dont like it.

I don't like the idea of not having a removable battery / SD card. After the degradation of a battery I would opt to have the option to replace the battery myself rather than send it in for warranty work. Especially when I have sensitive information on my phone.

gtdtm said:
until I started trying out different roms and the backups filled my card fast...
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Delete some backups, you shouldn't need so many.

I've got mixed feelings About non removable storage, on one hand the extra space for "stuff" is nice but on the other hand if USB On the Go really takes off then most people will probably use their existing memory sticks whatever to just quickly plug in if they really need the extra headroom for say a backup or some massive clump of files. And with how everything is more and more commonly stored in the "googleverse" for say your docs music and all that guff the only bottleneck then is mobile data limits assuming you're off Wi-fi.
Batteries are a different story if they're not easily accessible but still changeable with a tear down I don't see the problem with that too much. It allows manufactures to in theory be more inventive with their form factors and placement for all those adorable little android organs.
Anyhow that's my two cents.

Edit: @I am Marino...
I do delete my backups and keep only one or two, but with that, boot manager and various other apps I find myself with just a couple gb left at any given time. If I didn't have expandable memory I wouldn't be too happy. As It is I can see myself upgrading in the near future without having to spend loads.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA

Having a weeeeird SD card issue.

Alright so I recently bought a 32gb sd card so I could put the rest of my music on my phone. And I transfered all my music on to it. Put it in my phone. And all of the sudden half of it is deleted? So I thought I was crazy and put it back in my laptop and sure enough half of it wasn't there. So I transferred the music again by selecting all the music instead of just moving the folder.. Waited till it was done. Checked to make sure it was all there and put it back in my phone.. Sure enough half of it has been deleted again. I'm on Embryo 6.5, I use player pro as my music player, and the card is a SanDisk 32gb.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

Sounds like you're either trying to move too much at one time, or you have a bad card. The ROM is really irrelevant as you have been putting the SD directly into the computer.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

I've moved a lot more to different storage devices and never had a problem. Like I said, it disappears when I put the card into the phone. I did it again and threw it in my tablet this time, and it all showed. It's definitely a phone issue. The card is fine.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

Sounds like it's not rebuilding the database. Are you trying to read it with the player or with a file explorer?

hechoen said:
Sounds like it's not rebuilding the database. Are you trying to read it with the player or with a file explorer?
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Click to collapse
Both. The music files are gone. It shows them gone when I put it back into my laptop also. As soon as the card goes in the phone, it deletes them for some reason.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

Bad SD card..

mahanddeem said:
Bad SD card..
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Click to collapse
Yep, sounds that way. There is a huge problem with counterfeit and sub-quality SD and Micro SD cards these days. It is so huge of a problem that many of the cards that are sold from Amazon, E-bay, and Brick-and-mortar stores are fakes. Its so hard to buy a legit SD card these days because the fake or altered cards are actually in OEM packaging or at least it looks very similar to OEM packaging. Many times defective cards or lower capacity / lower class cards are being physically altered to appear like more expensive cards. It seems to mostly be a problem with the class 10 cards. Sometimes people don't even know they are getting screwed because the cards usually work for the purpose that they use them for, but if checked (and some never do) the actually specs of the card fall way short. Many of these cards fail quickly as well. To add to the problem, certain phones "like" certain cards better than others. So one card may work well, and another card (same manufacturer, class, and capacity) doesn't work well at all. It's a crap shoot even if the card is good quality and legit. So, sometimes you just have to go through a few before you can get one that works well or just get lucky with buying one card that happens to work well. I purchased 2 cards that were counterfeit before I learned of the problem. Both were supposed to be 32 GB class 10 San disk cards and were marked as such. One was from Amazon and one was from Radio shack. I noticed a problem with both because while I was taking video in very fine mode, the phone would lock up when recording to SD card. Both fine and normal video modes worked and very fine video mode worked with no problem when saved to internal or when saved to another SD card I have (16 GB class 10 PNY). The problem was that both of the San disk cards were recording data at a rate that was too slow for very fine video and certainly way slower than a class 10 card. So, they were fake or altered to appear to be a better class card than they were. Just check Amazon reviews for most 32 GB class 10 cards (manufacturer doesn't matter) and you will see several benchmark reviews that show how bad these cards can be. Good luck, the best advice I can give is never trust an SD card with important info and ALWAYS back all data up...TWICE!

That's way when it comes to these things I always buy after I make sure I can return a defective item..

A bad sd card doesn't explain why it works fine in my tablet. Then music deletes when I throw it in my phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

It was definitely Embryo. I switched to Rogers latest CM fix and everything is working fine now. All music is there, nothing is deleted randomly.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

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Backing up to Samsung account problem with SD card

I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?

mikeyaj said:
I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have wifi turned on?

yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card

mikeyaj said:
yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a 200Gb card with loads of images and music and don't have any issues. Did you disable any services with Package Disabler pro? That might be an issue as when you restore a backup from the cloud you have to re-enable all services.

Could be a fake SD card. Did you buy it from a reputable seller? Fake cards can be incredibly slow or take ages to scan contents because they often use shady tactics to make the card appear to be 128Gb for example when accessed on a phone or PC while in reality being much smaller in capacity (2-16gb etc). These fake cards can look incredibly convincing too so dont be fooled by an elaborate copy.

Here's an app from the Play Store that can check if you have a counterfeit sdcard, SD Insight. The app isn't compatible with the S8 but if you have an older phone you can test your sdcard.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi

Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages

mikeyaj said:
Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If its been with you for at least 3 phone cycles, was the speed ever really that good to begin with? It sounds like it may be an older card perhaps. Keep in mind, technology moves quick.
If you happen to be using a card that was cheap/midrange only a couple years ago, it would stand to reason that it may be underwhelming and feeling pretty slow by today's standards.
Download an app along the lines of "A1 SD Bench" and run a test for me. Post your Read/Write speed results in here for us when you're finished.
If the result of this test is poor you may want to look at the newer UHS-I supported cards if speed is becoming an issue.

I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why even bother posting if you "you can't be bothered to test the issue?"

Because I decided I wanted to.
I tend to do what I want and considering the card is in 100% working order what's the point.
If times have changed and I've gotten to answer that it's old tech I can replace it with newer tech.
Thanks for your help but I can assure you I'll post what I want, when I want, how I want. I don't have to do anything I don't want to when I've already been told the card is old tech

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes, I figured that was the case. It will be interesting to know if that new card solves your problem. If you still want to run a quick benchmark on your old card its not as involved as it sounds. If you use the app I recommended before you just choose your SD card in the UI and it should only take a few minutes to run a speed test.

Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

My 2 year old 200Gb card:
Read 1692.00MB/s
Write 14.81MB/s

mikeyaj said:
Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.

xeathpk said:
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it isn't slow
it's perfect for listening to music from and saving all pics to. perfect to the point of there would be no need to change the card. exceptional performance.
why the s8 has issues trying to calculate the amount of music on it to back-up even when i've toggled it NOT to backup music is a bit of a stupid upgrade on the s8 when the s7 was fine.
maybe samsung haven't figured out that most sd card users just throw pics, film and music on it so it doesn't need to be super fast as they've toggled off the backup option. seems to be a really strange software decision to try and calculated stuff to back up you don't want backing up lol

Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:

xeathpk said:
Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used it all an excuse to buy the 256gb card though.
Is the one I've bought any good?
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

Its quick as hell. "Up to 95MB/s Read and 90MB/s Write speed with UHS-I, Class 10 and U3 compatibility."
It should serve you well for quite a while I'd imagine. Even I'm tempted to get one right now.
Waterproof (IEC 60529, IPX7)
Temperature-proof
X-ray-proof
Magnetic-proof
10 year warranty
Not bad, not bad.

I've never had a Samsung card . Always had the sandisk ones