Can someone please explain the SD Card issue to me.... - Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
What exactly is the problem? Im thinking of getting the focus and I keep hearing these SD card issues but what "exactly" is the problem? I understand that once you put it in, your SD card is done, and that if you want to remove it you have to wipe everything, I understand all that, but what are the problems that arise? I have a 16gb micro sd that I have used on all my devices no problem, do files get corrupted or something? Does it just not read it?
There aren't any problems in that sense. The only real "problem" is that not all MicroSD cards work with WP7. In addition, hot-swapping isn't supported, because in effect, the MicroSD's memory is added to the internal memory, and the system then doesn't differentiate between storing on the sd card and that that's built into the phone, and thus stuff is spread all over all of them.
There aren't any "problems" as such that I know of though.
On an ending note - WP7 is awesome ^__^ Honestly the best user experience I've ever had with a phone (esp. having come from Android >.<) ^__^
loading a microSD card will turn it into a secure card. once this happens no other device will even read it (except a nokia n8) making it extremely difficult to format if it doesn't work nicely with windows phone 7. That is the main issue. rest already mentioned.
GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.
Quicksilver4648 said:
GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
SD Card DRM is in the spec, it is only given to people who license it. That's what WP7 uses. It's locks down the storage system with a DRM key and that's why other devices (barring Nokias) can't see it - most SD Card clients don't support SD Card DRM.
Nokia (Symbian, and maybe Maemo, but I'm unsure on that) is the only other mobile OS that supports it, and that's why it can reformat the card (but cannot read any data on it, of course, since it doesn't have the decryption key). When you power on the phone, the WP7 pre-boot environment unlocks the card via a key on the device the same way you unlock an encrypted system drive on a PC. If a device cannot supply this key, they cannot mount the card.
If you swap the card, you have to hard reset the device because the storage is spanned and the decryption key on the device no longer corresponds to the SD card in the device (but due to spanned storage the device would malfunction even if it were to boot up). The new card is encrypted and added to the pool on a hard reset, and the [new] key is put on the device so that it can be mounted when the device is powered on.
It's pretty damn simple, and has been written in plain English in many threads; yet people still FAIL to understand it.
Have you ever thought there must be a reason why they call them SECURE Digital Cards? Or did you think Secure = taking it out one device and just plugging it into the other and taking the data off of it?
The Storage in WP7 was never meant to be swappable. Microsoft has always said it would not be. It's your own business if you want to play around swapping cards like Russian Roulette.
As far as which work with WP7. It requires higher Random I/O speeds than most SD Cards provide, and that doesn't correspond to Class Type. Also, a card can work fine for sometimes weeks at a time and then start to fail, so replacing it yourself is at your own risk.
And most manufacturers and carriers will void you warranty if you mess with the SD Card.
In that respect using memory cards is nonsense on WP7.
If you cannot do what you want with this, what was a rule and still is a rule on the market today,
they should just build devices with inbuilt memory like iPhone and don't talk about memory cards anymore. That would be simple.
Current situation is a mess.
So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.
williammel said:
So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they only pulled it because MS wants to do official testing and release an official list.
refer to this webpage for more info: http://mobilitydigest.com/the-sd-cards-that-dodont-work-with-windows-phone/
Here it is in KB form from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831
N8ter said:
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a figure of speech. I know Microsoft didn't break any real "rules". This is what I posted:
Quicksilver4648 said:
...
What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
...
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I said "rules" I implied "expectations". Microsoft did nothing wrong, outside of communicating with the end users, with how WP7 manages MicroSD cards.
And I clearly know why certain MicroSD cards will or wont work. I just didn't feel like explaining it because it would take a lot of time.
It's time to start expecting people to use these technologies in a secure manner.
The media industry does not support platforms that leave them open to be attacked by software pirates.
Information is power, and no one likes their info stolen.
There are many reasons.
iOS phones encrypt their storate. And the reason why they don't support external storage cards is probably the same reason why Microsoft uses the SD-DRM and encrypts the WP7 storage.
I don't know how Symbian handles its storage, but I'm pretty sure that OS at least supports Encrypting the file system on SD cards. It supports pretty much everything ele.
Right, let me give my own perspective on this.
Until recently I was a WM6 user. I regularly upgraded my phone, and the last one was an HD2. WM phones never came with any real amount of storage, just a piffling amount of internal memory (what, 500MB?). I was therefore faced with the added cost and hassle of having to purchase a memory card and insert it into the phone. This was a bit like buying a PC without a hard disk and having to buy and install your own. It was an added hassle and expense.
Once you had your SD card inserted, you were then faced with the decision of where to store the data for each of your apps. Take email - do you store all your emails and attachments on the internal memory, thus using up a good chunk of that precious resource, but having it work quickly, or do you store it all on the SD card, where there's a lot more room but it's slow and clunky, and if anyone steals your phone they can pop the card out and get at the data? When you install apps, you're again given the choice of where to install it. Do you go for the speed of internal storage? Do you put it on the SD card, knowing if you ever pop out the card, your app will be unavailable? Decisions, decisions.... Too much damned complexity. The average user shouldn't be faced with these choices, if I install an app, it should just go on the phone wherever, period.
Not only that, once my card was in there, I never once removed it. The majority of my apps were on it, my emails, and all my media. I totally filled it with media. Popping out that card would more or less break my phone. My apps wouldn't work, my emails would be missing......so I never did. Nor did I ever use it as a mass storage drive....because there was never any free space on it. Instead I had a 32GB USB memory key hanging from my keychain - that was my portable mass storage solution.
Not only this, if I wanted to put media onto the card, I had to connect to the PC and drag and drop my stuff directly onto the phone. What a hassle! Doing this didn't optimize the size of the photos for the phone's screen. It didn't drop the bitrate of my mp3s, it didn't convert videos to the right size and format. All that had to be done manually, and I never bothered, so my media took up a lot more room than it had to. So inefficient.
So, given that I never removed the card, and that doing so would hose my phone, and that it was always full, so never got used as mass storage, and that it was insecure, and an added expense and hassle, and putting media on the card was a manual process, what would I have done in a next generation phone to cure all these issues?
Well, I would have made sure the phone came with plenty of onboard memory, and I would have removed the distinction between internal memory and the "card" so it was all one storage container. I would have secured the memory so even if it could be removed, the data couldn't be read in another device. I would have made sure the memory was fast enough to deal properly with a modern OS. I would automate the process of converting and downsizing media by using software on the PC to automatically perform those tasks. I'd also make the process wireless and fully automatic. I'd.......oh wait, that's what Microsoft already did in WP7.
So I'm happy, even if you lot ain't.
I just got 2 Focus's for the Wife and I. Using the SD card sticky in the Focus forum here as a general help, I purchased a PNY 8Gb C4 for the Wifes, and a Patriot 16Gb C2 for mine (Frys, and the Patroit was the last one in the store from the Display! No one buys C2 anymore).
The back overlay on both devices mentions memory cards, and quick startup quide shows you how to install them and what happens if you remove them.
I put the Cards in last night (phones just arrived yesterday), formatted (hold the Power/Camera/Vol Down at the same time, answer questions) and in a few seconds each system was formated. Both are working fine right now.
Right now though doesn't mean much, many in the SD thread are having issues after several weeks, though it seems it more prevalent with the 32Gb cards. YMMV...
What I find goofy about the whole thing is that it has been stated that 7 needs random read/write, which is not measured by class rating, and can vary even within the same type of card, but very few people have posted numbers showing that they tested their cards at all before gleefully sacrificing them to the hungry maw of the Focus. Seriously guys, do more testing and post more numbers before rendering your cards unreadable to a PC. It'll help us all to better understand what works and what doesn't.
This bites.. I always knew that the card inside the wp7 was secured, but I always had faith in the power of this forum. Especially in recovery situations. Now I have lost a lot of irreplaceable data, like dozens of pictures of my young child. It seems I had a little too much faith.
Thank you for this information. it was very helpful. I have already moved away from Windows phones to android, and am going to start using nandroid. Hopefully this won't happen again.
Related
Formatting the SDCard from a 7 Trophy
How can I format the SD Card from my old 7 Trophy. Because the damn thing is damaged beyond repair I butchered the thing and want to use the sdcard in my android phone. Can someone explain how I can format the card? In my pc the card isn't recognized even in the maintenance tools there is nothing.
Use a Symbian device to format the card Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
You need a partioning program. Don't remember the exact name if the program but you can search the hd2 wp7 forum and look for the thread on dual booting android. The programs in there will work. Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
reeg420 said: You need a partioning program. Don't remember the exact name if the program but you can search the hd2 wp7 forum and look for the thread on dual booting android. The programs in there will work. Click to expand... Click to collapse Partitioning won't work. (The way an HD2 running WP7 uses the SD card is different from how a native WP7 uses the SD card, so the experience on an HD2 does not inform the experience on a native WP7 device.) Using a Symbian phone is still the only known way at this point.
Symbian is Nokia? I have a E65 but in this it says the card is damaged or something like that (its in german). Even diskmgmt.msc shows only an empty line without any partitions.
Drake008 said: How can I format the SD Card from my old 7 Trophy. Because the damn thing is damaged beyond repair I butchered the thing and want to use the sdcard in my android phone. Can someone explain how I can format the card? In my pc the card isn't recognized even in the maintenance tools there is nothing. Click to expand... Click to collapse I'm in the same situation and did a pretty thorough research, so here's what I found: WP7 uses the hardware encryption functionality of SD cards. That's why the memory is not even recognized by Windows, no matter what app you use for that matters. Nokia' Symbian smartphones also implement this functionality so they are able to format the card (but not read its contents since they are password protected) Don't get misled by people claiming that they have successfully low-level formatted their cards with Panasonic's Sd format app. Those are likely to be users of HD2 devices so those cards didn't come out of an actual WP7 device. Bottom line: You need a Symbian Nokia Smartphone to format the card. Search this forum for the precise instruction that you need to follow on the Nokia device to be able to format the card. Some has reported some other devices being able to format the cards, such as photo cameras, but again it's very likely that those cards did not come out of a real WP7 device. The dilemma is that an 8 gb micro sdhc card may not worth the effort of finding somebody with a Nokia device.
octaedro7 said: Bottom line: You need a Symbian Nokia Smartphone to format the card. Search this forum for the precise instruction that you need to follow on the Nokia device to be able to format the card. Some has reported some other devices being able to format the cards, such as photo cameras, but again it's very likely that those cards did not come out of a real WP7 device. The dilemma is that an 8 gb micro sdhc card may not worth the effort of finding somebody with a Nokia device. Click to expand... Click to collapse Just a dumb question isn't it the problem that the system the card goes in supports the hardware encryption functionality of SD cards? Wouldnt any older device that didn't support hardware encryption work ? Say a old Moto phone with SD support? I'm tempted to upgrade mine to 32gb from 16gb just to try this to see if one of the dozen + devices that support SD(with a MicroSD adapter) or MicroSD that I have will do it. Crap, even my Wii has a SD slot. Maybe this is this wrong disucsion for this but, I am really wondering what is blocking it. If a device does not support hardware encryption, it should just show the drive as a invalid file system and be able to format it.
is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ?
ohgood said: is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ? Click to expand... Click to collapse of course it can... oy vey. Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Well I have a Nokia device but the card wont allow tro format itself either in that phone. So what can I do to use th e8gb card from the WP7 in my android now. that I wont buy a new one for a fortune of around 12 Euro is completly clear. Isn't there a program for reprogramming the sdcard from sandisk anywhere. You that kind of program which is only available in the factory of sandisk etc. to kill that damn card and recreate it.
ohgood said: is this correct, that wp7 can't format and setup a microsd card for itts own use ? Click to expand... Click to collapse Sure, a WP7 can format it's own memory card, there's no issue there. The problem starts when you want to reuse the card, hence format it again without the encryption layer. Drake008 said: Well I have a Nokia device but the card wont allow tro format itself either in that phone. So what can I do to use th e8gb card from the WP7 in my android now. that I wont buy a new one for a fortune of around 12 Euro is completly clear. Isn't there a program for reprogramming the sdcard from sandisk anywhere. You that kind of program which is only available in the factory of sandisk etc. to kill that damn card and recreate it. Click to expand... Click to collapse Again, the encryption we are dealing with is done through hardware, meaning that a WP7 phone has a hardware component in charge of the encryption, so do certain symbian Nokia phones (you can search and find which ones, the Nx line on top of my head). Not every nokia phone with a microsd slot will do the trick. Bottom line you need a device hardware-capable of dealing with this encryption in order to be able to re-format a WP7 card but this time without any encryption.
WP7 lock cards via internal SD2.0 protection feature (CMD42). It's done inside SD card. So after removing card from WP7 phone, you need find device which can detect that card is locked and which can apply force erase to it. Unfortunately, most device can't handle this feature. WP7 on LEO is using unlocked card to allow use Android / other OS together with WP7.
Thanks ! It has help me a lot
Hi, I also got your problem and just got my answer by trial and error. Format won't help since it won't unlock your sd card and won't delete the internal protection. You need to do the following: 1. start linux (install ubuntu besides windows or something) 2. put card in computer 3. unmount sd card with "umount" 4. format sd card with "mke2fs /location-of-sd-card/" 5. go to windows and format as fat32 or just put it in your phone. 6. thank me Windows or your phone will say it's broken or something and will repair. The mango security is no more and your sd card is revived.
SD Card Formatting After Mango Update
I just upgraded the SD Card in my Venue Pro to 32GB, and was wondering if I Could format my 16GB Sandisk that was in it before Mango upgrade. I followed each step but was unable to proceed. Please any help would be appreciated. Or please point me to a Thread I can follow. Thanks
This probably belongs in the Q&A forum, since it's not at all development related, but... WP7 MicroSD cards use a security feature (the "S" in "SD") to lock the card to the phone, so its data can't be read by anything else. However, this process also means that the majority of SD card readers can't access the card at all, even to format it. You need a tool that can remove the security mode. I've heard such tools exist for Linux and Windows, or if you have a Symbian-based device they can supposedly do it too.
GoodDayToDie said: This probably belongs in the Q&A forum, since it's not at all development related, but... WP7 MicroSD cards use a security feature (the "S" in "SD") to lock the card to the phone, so its data can't be read by anything else. However, this process also means that the majority of SD card readers can't access the card at all, even to format it. You need a tool that can remove the security mode. I've heard such tools exist for Linux and Windows, or if you have a Symbian-based device they can supposedly do it too. Click to expand... Click to collapse Sorry about posting it in the wrong place. I appreciate the tips. I have tried all of the suggestions on the forums except for the Nokia phone as I do not have one. But I will keep it around anyway, just incase in the future someone comes up with something. This is really a sad thing. U paid good money for this card.
Yeah, the whole experience with microSD cards in WP7 is pretty lame. They weren't supposed to be user-accessible, so apparently MS put no effort into making the experience of changing them pleasant. That's really too bad, because all the first gen devices (except a gen1.5 DVP) ship with really crappy capacity. The fact that it is technically epandable is going to override the difficulty of doing so for a lot of people when the retail size is so small.
Sad Still have no means of formatting the card. Really wanted to use this with my Camera. :-(. Hope someone comes up with a way or refer to some Linux Distro that allow for it to be formatted.
Hi, I also got your problem and just got my answer by trial and error. 1. start linux 2. put card in computer 3. unmount sd card with "umount" 4. format sd card with "mke2fs /location-of-sd-card/" 5. go to windows and format as fat32 or just put it in your phone. Windows or your phone will say it's broken or something and will repair. The mango security is no more and your sd card is revived.
Local Storage, SD Storage & MicroSD Storage
Hello, was hoping someone could help me or possibly explain how the Storage is structured on the 300T. You have Local, SD & MicroSD storage. On my Evo3D phone I have Local and MicroSD and when I use my Cloud Service it stores everything on the MicroSD. On my 300T when I use my Cloud Service it stores everthing on the Internal SD storage instead of the removable MicroSD card. I have heard that once you fill up the SD storage it will overflow onto the removable MicroSD, is this true? Basically, I want to store games and Tablet data on the local and Internal SD storage and have all my music and movies on the removable MicroSD. Are there was to do this?
Unless there is a option in the app you are using that you can change where it puts the multimedia files you download from it you will have to move them to the removable Micro SD yourself. However I wouldn't think anything would default to the removable MicroSD because they probably think the internal sd IS the external memory. allowing your external MicroSD to not get cluttered. I don't have much experience with tablets or ICS so I could be wrong.
I would like to get it to download apps to SD instead of internal I'm having a problem on my TF300T All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card! Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal. Thanks in advance nordis,
nordis2010 said: I'm having a problem on my TF300T All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card! Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal. Thanks in advance nordis, Click to expand... Click to collapse By default on ICS everything goes to the sd card. I believe there is a rooted option to move some apps to sd card, but I'm not sure. check out this thread. Starting on that page and for a little bit there is some discussion on it. As I stated in that thread. I would like to know what apps people are installing that take up that much space.
I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point? As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night. I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast. My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full. Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA
nordis2010 said: I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point? As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night. I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast. My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full. Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA Click to expand... Click to collapse I'm not sure if these apps work but try them out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wOSwiY29tLndvbmd4bWluZy5hbmRyb2lkLmFwcDJzZCJd https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwxLDEwOSwibW9iaS5pbmZvbGlmZS5hcHAyc2QiXQ..
Cool It never occurred to me to just check the app store lol! Thanks for that. Guess my brain is a bit laggy today, spent all night getting this rooted. Actually rooting it was beyond simple, the real issue was with Java not being recognized by Windows, so I couldn't run ADB. All it came down to was the Environment Variable, once set it could see the application and load the usb drivers. Then after getting it loaded I had to play with it, so went to sleep got up a hour later to go to work hehe. Anyway thanks for the responses, this forum has been a God Sent! nordis,
There's no way without root is there? Sent from my R800i using XDA
KindaUndisputed said: There's no way without root is there? Sent from my R800i using XDA Click to expand... Click to collapse Nope, some of the data from the apps are stored in /root/data/data.... You'll need root to move them (in our case ICS, in gingerbread you were able to do this unrooted). Did it work nordis?
Wasn't at system when you sent that last response. Hi, Sorry was going back n forth between work and home. I have a couple of them pulled down, all with very similar names. A couple look really promising. I will post it once I'm finished but it looks like the majority of these will allow me to move everything that I want to move off of the internal storage and on to the SD card. Well all except the XDA forums, for some reason those all state internal only. Not a big deal though. If I can move the GPS apps off the internal storage, and my ForEx apps I think I'm good. nordis, ---------- Post added at 01:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 AM ---------- This sucks, Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036 I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now. Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless! This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me. If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these. I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store!
nordis2010 said: This sucks, Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036 I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now. Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless! This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me. If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these. I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store! Click to expand... Click to collapse So, I'm guessing the apps didn't work. Suggestion why don't you just download the maps for your current State, there's really no need to download all the maps from USA, if you're not using them everyday. If you ever need to go to another state just download the maps for that state before going. This will help you save some space. You could also consider getting the 32GB version. The only way to fill the 12gb of free space is installing about 15 Dark Meadows apps (approx. 800MB each). The larger size regular games (non THD) take around 50-100 MBs, meaning that you have space for 120 games (12GBs). This would be completely ridiculous since no one plays that much games, I have about 10 installed right now and I only play like three of them (and I'm a gamer). Unused data should be freed, if you don't want to lose the data on those apps you barely use you can run Titanium backup to back up your data and transfer the data to your pc for later use if needed. Every media you have (videos, photos, music, etc.) you can store them in the external SD card. Still I understand your frustration, we should be able to transfer stuff to our card without any hassle. AFAIK this isn't just an ASUS problem but an overal ICS problem.
I know I did for just my state an the surrounding states I live near. For the past couple of days I had been looking at running some small app on the SD card, they jump you through hoops and loops going through some partition process for the Micro SD card. However I think I can do this right on a Windows 7 system with the Drive Management utilities built into Windows, and a Micro SD to USB reader. Which I already have, I used for my sons DS way back, I put the card in it, through it in the system, it see's it, and tells me that it can be read, formatted, partitioned the whole 9 yards. So I will try it at work today and let you know how it turns out. If this can be partitioned this way, and then use one of these apps L2SD or something like that then it's a very simple solution. Sorry I will post the exact name of the app I was looking at once I have tested this if it works. Along with detailed instructions. Thanks again for all the help. nordis,
I'm linked it all works I used a SD to USB adapter in Windows Hi, I'm linked and you can set it up to use the SD Card as the default for downloads now. First things you need to do this. You have to be have Root access on your device before you can do any of this. You have to make sure you go into settings on your device and Enable USB Debugging before you start any of this. 1. You need to partition your Micro SD Card. I used the a SD to USB Adapter, and Partitioned my 32GB Card the SD Card on a Windows 7 system as follows. Set the 1st partition to 1GB. Set the second partition to use the remainder of the card. Download "EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition" it's free, you pull it down from www.download.com 2. You need a boot loader this is what that 1st 1GB partition is for. I used bootice you can download it from here free http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-ireneuszp/downloads/detail?name=bootice_0.9.2011.0512.rar This is all you need to do with this app. Run Bootice, go "Parts Manage" > "ReFormat USB disk" (don't worry, it won't "format" the USB) > choose the dropdown option for your new first partition > click "Set Accessible" and it's done already! After that you can just click cancel/close/etc. 3. Download and run Link2SD from the Android Market, you can actually do this step first. Also this app is free. Here is a Guide I found online for Link2SD. http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/12/12/link2sd-guide-never-worry-about-internal-memory-limits-again/ This guide shows you how to move apps, No proprietary system apps, but those are note the ones you really have to worry about taking up space anyway. It also shows you how to go into the Link2SD settings and make your Micro SD Card your default download location from places that auto install applications like the Android Market. Very nice, this was exactly what I needed, I'm very pleased with this so far. I have to give another thank you to jgaf for this, he pointed me in the direction of the Link 2 SD software in the first place, very much appreciated! Sorry it took me so long to post this after I got setup it's been a busy weekend though. Good luck. nordis
Good to hear nordis now you can keep your TF300Ts Maybe you should make a new thread with the steps you did to get it working, so other people can find it easily.
Good idea. Just have to finish some other things up and I will move the details over to a new thread. nordis,
Done, I posted it in the main Q&A section. Cleaned it up a bit, added a couple of lines where I thought people may have some questions. I hope it's pretty straight forward for everyone. I went through all this like a breeze when I partitioned my card this way, hopefully every one else will as well.
Get the 32gb version of the 300. If you can fill up 30gb with apps, you need to learn to not keep everything you don't really use. Put your music, movies, and photos on the Sd card, you won't have a problem with app space. The 32gb version is only $20 more. It's not like you can't afford it.
Wasn't aware of it at the time, and they don't offer it at Best Buy When I purchased the ones I was getting I just went to Best Buy so I could get them right then. Didn't want to wait or order them off the net, and all that Best Buy sells apparently is the 16GB version. I wasn't aware at the time that there even was a 32GB version. However I would fill that up eventually as well. It's just not good business marketing to make a device with such a limitation in the first place. You should be able to download, and install apps where you want them and need them. Anyway situation is resolved for me now I'm happy. nordis,
So..what is the function of the extSD card now? What can I use it for?
Since KitKat doesn't allow movement of photos, apps, etc. to the SD card? Now I'm wondering what is the use of my SD card cause I can't move anything to it? I don't use music on mine due to the battery life. I have a lot of photos, not sure if I need to delete now or what. I don't want to root. Thanks! My parents are also going to get a phone w/ only 1.3 GB usable storage. And not sure what to do with photos because I can't move them to SD cards. Also, I'm not able to save documents or recording I created to my SD card anymore. That was a reason why I bought the lowest internal space for a tablet I have. ANy tips?
Hahahalalala said: Since KitKat doesn't allow movement of photos, apps, etc. to the SD card? Now I'm wondering what is the use of my SD card cause I can't move anything to it? I don't use music on mine due to the battery life. I have a lot of photos, not sure if I need to delete now or what. I don't want to root. Thanks! My parents are also going to get a phone w/ only 1.3 GB usable storage. And not sure what to do with photos because I can't move them to SD cards. Also, I'm not able to save documents or recording I created to my SD card anymore. That was a reason why I bought the lowest internal space for a tablet I have. ANy tips? Click to expand... Click to collapse I had read some really long and interesting articles and many posts about unhappy consumers concerning this issue with KitKat 4.4 and others are still wondering what it is Google is trying to do as it seems it is all based on a more secure system for our phones security wise and as for privacy and information especially when it comes to APPs that we tend to install and these APPs always wanting access to your phones information things that are very much personal. IE: Contacts, Emails, File Placement as to what the APP installs and where it installs things too. The problem is Google did not care to inform the Public on these changes in KitKat 4.4 OS and how the SD Card is for the most part becoming some what obsolete. Many upgrading their low end cell phones that have little internal memory/storage and now using KitKat 4.4 and not knowing nothing to these critical changes of the SD Card and all that will effect their every day use of apps and gadgets such as the camera, music player, the storing of personal files etc... My own suggestions, people can try a custom ROM or Kernel but of course there is always the warranty issue if your cell phone product is new and voiding your warranty. Avoid buying a cell phone with KitKat on it or avoid upgrading to KitKat for the time being to see what Google does and if they are going to listen to the general public and change things or not who knows... All things to think about now and in the future. - orbit My 2 Cents
I am extremely disgusted by the internal SD card. Why?
Hello all, It seems that nowadays all vendors decide to go with the approach to have a virtual SD card that uses an emulated filesystem to make us feel happy in case we do not have a real SD card. I honestly do not understand the reasoning behind this so I am reaching out to you to let me know what you think the reason is. For now I can see the following pros and cons of this approach: Pros: Have SD card support in case you do not have a real one and you have an app that requires it. Cons: You no longer can move applications to external SD card on most devices (all that I have tried). The application data (obb) that is essentially the largest thing an app can offer goes directly to the internal SD card and you can not move it to the external SD card. You are now even restricted by what you can write on the external SD card because if not there is a security issue. That's also a thing that I do not understand that is conveniently not explained and just implemented. Your CPU cycles are used to process the data yet once more just so that you can have the luxury of an emulated file system. The fuse filesystem in most devices lacks some basic features like links. Essentially the internal SD card seems like a Huge hack to me. Why is that? Even just the name gives it all away. "Internal SD card". That is not an SD card. It's not even a separate flash chip. Not even a separate partition on most devices. There is times where this is just a folder in your userdata partition made to look like an SD card by the magic of fuse. The only reason I could find for this monstrosity is that there is some kind of compatibility issue with some apps in case you do not have an SD card and so that's why they came up with this. So please let me know what the big idea that I seem to be missing here is as to why this humongous hack is needed. Thanks in advance! Cheers, Sakis