Database Info

Applications to SD - WITHOUT PARTITONING (BETA TEST)

I'm looking for beta testers for a new App2SD implementation that does not require your MicroSD card to be partitioned which is potentially unsafe and can result in a loss of your data. If you'd like to test this new implementation before it's release here on XDA shoot me an email at [email protected] with what firmware and version you're using.
More information will be released after I get a few positive beta tests out of the way.

loopback device, eh?
I tried that a while back but never could get the loopback driver to load early enough in the boot process reliably.
Hope you have better luck than I did.

As [email protected] pointed out to me a while ago, this is not a good idea for security reasons. If your loopback file sits on the FAT partition, it is accessible by all of the apps, it can be read, overwritten and deleted by a rogue app bypassing the entire android security model. If this is what you intend to do, it's probably not "safer".

Hey, shot you an email. Ready to try it out. But only for beta.
Hit me up, I have no apps to lose.
But security? Idk just let me know whats up.

what happens when you mount the SD card to your computer?

I'd like to try it, but i don't yet have a class6 sd card. Is that necessary?

i'd be willing to give this a shot. I have no data to lose as well.

southsko said:
what happens when you mount the SD card to your computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. Won't all your apps disappear when you mount the SD?

This smells fishy not many app developers with 1 post can this be someone testing their new exploit/virus?No offense to original poster im just sayin....???
Edit:Sorry to OP clearly not a virus,and good luck on getting it stable I will gladly donate to your cause partitioning is a pain!

don't be a jackass, many people have had great ideas and decided to come to XDA to share them. just because you are a complete idiot who can't program does not mean that the OP is too.
@@OP
you are playing with fire my dear friend. i don't think that mounting your apps on the FAT32 partition is a good idea at all. not only because it would allow any program to access and write without asking android permission first, but because it would allow people to mount the SDcard and steal paid apps even easier. i beg of you please rethink your idea

I imagine the phone would be crashing when the phone is mounted to the computer. lol. just kidding. =]

tubaking182 said:
don't be a jackass, many people have had great ideas and decided to come to XDA to share them. just because you are a complete idiot who can't program does not mean that the OP is too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WTF?Just came back to edit my post and put that its for real cause like I should have done first I found this http://noderat.com/loop2sd/.But as for your insults who the hell are you?How the f**k do you know what I can or can not do?I was posting in the first place to start trying be more active in the forums no reason for you to be a **** anyways,I was tryin to help people not get what I thought may have been a virus was that really that bad?

i'm not sure that is 100% true. when i mount my phone(apps2sd) my phone decides to mount the ext2 partion and the FAT32 partition, i am using ubuntu so my computer is able to read the partition, but my phone doesn't crash(i've yet to try running an app while mounted though)

Android can acces the sdcard while mounted.
Try terminal emulator.

crotalusfreak said:
This smells fishy not many app developers with 1 post can this be someone testing their new exploit/virus?No offense to original poster im just sayin....???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, take it from someone who has many posts and 15 years of unix experience, it is a bad idea.
Most of the devs here had this same idea, but as I mention in my previous post, this is opening yourself up to many bad security issues. To all those who answer, "I have no data to lose", that's fine as a beta tester. But what's the point in beta testing something that cannot be safely used by anyone who does have data (or apps) to lose?
I should point out to those who perhaps do not realize some the consequences of my original post, that it is not just a potential data loss problem, but a potential arbitrary code execution vulnerability. If an application manages to replace the loopback file with a new loopback file, it could inject altered common applications. If this succeeds, it means that previously trusted applications which have been granted privileges (or root using the various su apps) at install time, could be replaced with trojan versions which can have complete control over your system... steal your passwords... reflash your bootloader and literally install a permanent trojan... brick your phone... <insert other scary things besides data loss here>.
It's your phone, do what you want. I just figured that I would re-post that this not a new idea, but one that has been rejected by those of us with unix experience who realize the consequences. If you are just messing around, go ahead, it's not likely to hurt your phone. But, as a general method to build upon and be depended on, this should not have a future. If this becomes common practice, it is highly likely that exploits will be written to take advantage of this vulnerability.
So, if you are asking yourself if something is fishy, yes something is: it's a logical idea which seems great on the surface, but it has an unfortunate flaw.
Note: I am not suggesting malicious intent on the OP's part, just that they may not have thought of the consequences of suggesting this as a common method to do apps2sd. And if the OP (or someone else) is able to point out a method to avoid the things I warn against I will happily retract my statements (if I agree that this method would indeed work) since this method has some obvious benefits. However sadly, I think that is highly unlikely.

maxisma said:
Android can acces the sdcard while mounted.
Try terminal emulator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it can't. It can only access the empty mountpoint.

If you want to do this, there IS a way to make it work SAFELY....
Find the functions that control sdcard mounting and unmounting and FIX it so that it will mount an ext2 first partition. Then forget about the whole loopback thing as thats not going to do anyone any good... If you do it like this, then unionfs it, then unmounting the sdcard should safely vanish the apps that are stored on the card (leaving the internally stored apps), might crash the launcher, but that'll restart immediately and won't even error out.
A second step in the right direction would be to find the place where programs are detected from, which currently looks in /data/app, /data/app-private, /system/app, so it can clearly handle loading software from multiple locations -- add in a new path. Or maybe link app-private to /sdcard... A little more challenging would be to allow it look in multiple locations for thing that are ALL currently in /data/data and /data/dalvik-cache.
And then when its done, submit a patch for the source.

Wow what a response. Here's a few key bulletpoints:
I'm not a forum poster, not the kinda person for it but I have been on XDA Dream since I got my pre-launch G1 as a CSR.
There are potential security flaws with the current ext2 method of a2sd, and bypassing root to mount the ext2 partition is possible.
a2sd is not stable in any format, so it's a use at your own risk until android improves kinda deal.
I'm not cool enough to write a virus, but thank you for the ego boost
Anybody using a third-party firmware is not safe nor secure. If you're reading this forum you're not safe nor secure. The idea of homebrew roms is to add extra features that are not in Android to begin with and with that comes security risks. No ROM is ever perfect but I'd trust a Google or T-Mobile rom with my security before any homebrew-anything.So yes it's use at your own risk
This has the same results for mounting on a PC as MarcusMaximus's a2sd.sh
This doesn't really make it any easier to steal paid apps, it's always been easy and always will be but this doesn't change it.
If you guys have other questions shoot me an email, like I said I don't really do much forum-posting (never had much of anything to say, maybe this'll change all that)
[email protected]

JakeEv said:
I'd like to try it, but i don't yet have a class6 sd card. Is that necessary?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The faster the better but I've done it with the stock card that came in the G1 as well as a Class 6.

id try it since i can not get apps2sd to work.
[email protected]
using JF 1.51

Install App From another Android?

I got my self the hero, and my wife the Moment. I am slightly jealous of the hardware she has..but that aside, I am in love with my Hero.
However, she does have one app that i really want and the market place does not have. I assume this is an app installed by sprint.
It is Photo and Video uploader. You set an email address or other location and after a video or photo is taken, it automatically uploads the photo to the predetermined destination. GREAT FOR BACKING UP PICTURES! But, her camera hardware blows. 3.2 MP and it is sooo slow. So picture quality is no where near that of the Hero's 5 MP.
So the real question here - -
Can I ADB into her phone and just take the .APK and ODEX file for this app and push it to my phone? Is it that easy???

Some apps are that easy. Give it a try and find out! The worst thing you'll get is some force closes.
However most stock apps require files from /system/lib that help run that apk. And they don't have the same naming convention therefore you won't know which one(s) it is amongst the 100s there. But I always say try and see what happens.

And if it works upload that .apk for the rest of us!

Thinking out loud here...well..you get the point.
Could I copy all of system/lib and only copy the files that dont already exist?
That could be a giant waste of space though, and it could still rely on a file that I have, not just one that isn't there....
Also since I am not "installing" the app, could Apps2SD hinder me? I am not entirely sure how a2sd works other than tricking the phone into using the SD card as a partition and unioning it with the existing part.
I love how open android is supposed to be, but how the darn manufacturers kill us with the different platform crap.

thedudejdog said:
And if it works upload that .apk for the rest of us!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am I aloud to do that? I have seen XDA Mods get on to some people about uploading APK's. I guess I should read the EULA for that app before I do?

Kcarpenter said:
Thinking out loud here...well..you get the point.
Could I copy all of system/lib and only copy the files that dont already exist?
That could be a giant waste of space though, and it could still rely on a file that I have, not just one that isn't there....
Also since I am not "installing" the app, could Apps2SD hinder me? I am not entirely sure how a2sd works other than tricking the phone into using the SD card as a partition and unioning it with the existing part.
I love how open android is supposed to be, but how the darn manufacturers kill us with the different platform crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Copying the ../lib/ over and not replacing existing files could work. lol. As for apps2sd... you kind of have two ways you can try installing this. Without copying the lib and all that just try putting the apk on to your sdcard and browsing to it using astro or linda (a file manager) and click on the apk and installing it. See if it errors out or fails. If it does, THEN try copying it and the odex to /system/app (if it has an odex I'm pretty confident you won't be able to install it using package manager). If that still fails then you can go crazy and trying copying the lib ha.
Kcarpenter said:
Am I aloud to do that? I have seen XDA Mods get on to some people about uploading APK's. I guess I should read the EULA for that app before I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't remember if I read it on here or ppcgeeks but I believe officially the only stock apk's not allowed is quick office. But don't quote me on that.

So I hooked up to the Moment through ADB last night.
Found out really quickly that I can SU with it....
There is a "non permanent" hack out there to become root, but I tried it and still couldn't mount the file system to copy from it.
Any ideas guys?
From what I understand the Moment uses an FS16? file System? Something Odd that non of the other droids seem to be using.

Just an Idea, thought I would throw it out there.
Does the temporary root allow for running applications as root an the device itself?
There is an app in the market called root explorer that allows copy/paste/cut/delete from the system/app folder.
It may be possible to use that app to copy the needed filed to your sdcard and then extract them from there.
This would all be contingent on the app being able to mount the directory as r/w though, so who knows, worth a shot though i guess.

rockcrawler said:
Just an Idea, thought I would throw it out there.
Does the temporary root allow for running applications as root an the device itself?
There is an app in the market called root explorer that allows copy/paste/cut/delete from the system/app folder.
It may be possible to use that app to copy the needed filed to your sdcard and then extract them from there.
This would all be contingent on the app being able to mount the directory as r/w though, so who knows, worth a shot though i guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This root doesn't allow you to run Root apps. not sure why, seems like root would be root.
After some reading, the root method that is being used on the Moment is not the safest. Apparently if you skip a step you have a brick. And with no Nandroid backup at the moment(pun?) I would HATE to attempt it. Apparently though Root sticks until you reboot. There is an INit. script that runs and resets the permisions.
I know, "Don't skips steps and you'll be ok"
I may get brave and try it tonight...

as far as I can tell you cannot install this app on the hero. I'm not sure what the app is called and unless it starts in the /data folder it is under the system dumps
http://www.4shared.com/file/149766091/c3a7ee61/momentsystem.html

nelson8403 said:
as far as I can tell you cannot install this app on the hero. I'm not sure what the app is called and unless it starts in the /data folder it is under the system dumps
http://www.4shared.com/file/149766091/c3a7ee61/momentsystem.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROCK ON! Thanks for the link to the dump, I hadn't thought about looking around in one of these.
I will post what I find out.

WOOT IT WORKS!!!!!
So any how the application is in that Dump under apps, its only an APK
xms-android-1.0.42-prod.apk
If you are interested in what it does:
You setup predetermined "places" Flikr, FB, EMAIL, what ever.
Any picture or video you take automatically gets put in an upload queue and it sent to your predetermined places.
I am using it for back up, I have 2 kids and sometimes the cell phone is the quickest way to snap a great picture. Keeping these pictures in mutltiple places, like your 7 gig google account, is a nifty way to backup.
I am waiting for a Mod to get back to me if I can post the APK or not. I don't want to get in trouble.

wonder if their youtube app has better picture quality than ours?

BrianDigital said:
wonder if their youtube app has better picture quality than ours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will let you know in a few minutes. As soon as I get done with my WiFi teether I will compare the two. Pretty sure they should be the same.
EDIT: I am not sure if it is hardware or not. Running the same youTube video side by side - Our HERO has better color quality, Deeper blacker. The Moment has slightly sharper edges to the pictures, not quite as blurry. the moment does not go "Full Screen" for videos either which could be contributing to the sharper look to things. My assumption would be that this is a difference in the hardware. Quality of youTube videos seems to have diminished over the years anyways, none of the really look "good" any more. Probably in an effort to save bandwidth.
However, if you want to take a look personally, I will post the APK for you. Just please don't blame me if you forget to back up the original and want to revert....I love disclaimers.

I was trying to use that picture uploader, for me it stalls on picking a new location. Wonder if it is because I am on gutted rom and missing some pointers somewhere

BrianDigital said:
I was trying to use that picture uploader, for me it stalls on picking a new location. Wonder if it is because I am on gutted rom and missing some pointers somewhere
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using MoDaCo + Optimizations w/ ZipAlign. Not sure if its worth the switch for you or not.
I have never used Gutted so I do not know what it offers/doesn't have.

Gutted is as vanilla as our Rom can get. It's quick too

that's pretty cool and sounds like a great idea for backing up pics so what all would I need to do to get this and install it I have root access already

Kcarpenter said:
WOOT IT WORKS!!!!!
So any how the application is in that Dump under apps, its only an APK
xms-android-1.0.42-prod.apk
If you are interested in what it does:
You setup predetermined "places" Flikr, FB, EMAIL, what ever.
Any picture or video you take automatically gets put in an upload queue and it sent to your predetermined places.
I am using it for back up, I have 2 kids and sometimes the cell phone is the quickest way to snap a great picture. Keeping these pictures in mutltiple places, like your 7 gig google account, is a nifty way to backup.
I am waiting for a Mod to get back to me if I can post the APK or not. I don't want to get in trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow... that's a really cool program... and just so you know, you can "install" it using adb and it still works fine
Code:
adb install xms-android-1.0.42-prod.apk
Then it will install in /data/apps (or if you have apps2sd, on the sdcard under /system/sd/apps)
Works great on the Sprint Hero and MoDaCo ROM

Kcarpenter said:
I am waiting for a Mod to get back to me if I can post the APK or not. I don't want to get in trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only rule regarding it would be
6. Do not post warez.
If a piece of software requires you to pay to use it, either pay or find your cracks and serials somewhere else. We do not accept warez nor do we permit any member to promote or describe ways in which Warez, cracks, serial codes or other means of avoiding payment, can be obtained.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which your app doesn't fit in to. Posting it is not outside of the rules and should be fine.

Garminfone ro.secure=0!

I cracked the img format for Garminfones... started out by looking at the format of the file and it turns out the only difference is the loader addresses.
Took the stock recovery and disabled security, which worked. Then modified the boot.img to disable security and had the filesystems mount rw by default and flashed it to the recovery partition. Booted into recovery mode and viola... security disabled. Now it is time to flash it to the boot partition and cross fingers.
Now I just need to figure out how to compile a working recovery mode... preferrably one that can be activated by keypress. Not sure how to do that part. I can only get to recovery and bootloader mode after booting into the os.
I should have a working mkbooting soon so I don't have to hex edit the generated img files.

Well done!
I look forward to any progress reports that you make.
Are you using the official or leaked version of the 2.1 Eclair?

The official and leaked versions are equal.
And I did find out that we do have fastboot It's the blue screen that you get when you hold UP+POWER, or do adb reboot bootloader... two different messages on the screen. I can get fastboot to accept a reboot-bootloader command, but I'm having some issues actually getting any information out of it or flashing something like a boot image.
To get it to respond, you do:
fastboot -i 0x091E <command>
the -i makes it specify the Vendor ID, since fastboot only accepts a few vendors by default.
I also found out that I don't have to rebuild the mkbootimg program... if you add --base 0x1AC00000, then the load addresses match up in the resulting img file.

If someone is willing to host it, I can share the modified boot.img that sets ro.secure=0 and mounts the filesystems RW by default.

Hey, just joined to reply to this thread. Is it possible for you to upload to a file-sharing site such as megaupload, fileserve, etc.
I'm just getting into this whole rooting/modifying stuff. I used z4root to root my A50 and have installed superuser. I have deleted some of the carrier .apks but am thinking I should have made a back-up before doing so. I also bought setcpu from the market before finding out the Qualcomm chip does not allow overclocking.
Can I ask what the point of modifying the boot image is? Is this the first step in being able to install custom roms to the phone?
Anyway, appreciate the effort you guys have put in to modifying the phone.

You get a higher level of access, along with things like being able to customize parts of the phone, in my case enabling read/write by default. I also am planning on playing a bit, like remapping partitions... the instructions are in the init.rc file.
Always take a dump_image (or remount all mtd partitions as read only and just use cat to dump the mtd partitions). Also tar up each of the root folders (and files) in case you need quick access to any files you may have deleted. If you need a system app back and you don't have a backup, you have to reflash 2.1 again. Very important... if you care about the Garmin map software, make sure to get the /storage folder, including the one in it named .System... you can recover the maps, vehicles, etc by using two different Garmin web update windows programs-- one for the system stuff and one for the maps. Better safe than sorry.

any news on this
What would we need to be able to overclock?

I spent a good portion of the day yesterday rooting and installing CyanogenMod on my fiance's MyTouch Slide, and I have to say, it was amazing. It's a lot more than just a throwing around some custom default apps, cleaning up bloatware, even adding some kernel modules... I can do all of that on my rooted Garminfone just fine. It also had the Android 2.3 base, and it has polish and refinements that just can't be done without a custom built ROM.
I bought my Garminfone on purpose, even knowing that it shipped with Android 1.6, even knowing that the interface was awful, even knowing that the device wasn't going to sell as well as I wished it would. I bought it for it's offline maps, and for it's fantastic GPS. Things have improved since I bought my device... Android 2.1 was released, an improved user interface arrived, I gained root access and was able to clean up some stuff, etc. etc. But none of that prevented me from being jealous yesterday after seeing CyanogenMod. Further, Cyanogen has experience with preserving apps through the process of installing his mod for the first time; He did it when Google first sent him the Cease and Desist letter barring him from packaging CyanogenMod with Google Apps. I'm not sure HOW he did it, and I don't care, but I do think that it's very possible for him to do just that again with our Garmin Maps and the associated apps.
For these reasons, I suggest that we could have our cake, and we could eat it too: Have a modern OS (Based on Android 2.3), have a clean, unified interface, with no bloatware AND our maps... Cyanogen is not known for making his mod for phones he doesnt own. Further, as we all know, ours was possibly the worst selling and least popular android device ever released to market. While I consider myself versed in the ways of Linux, I am not a developer. I run Gentoo, and have the associated skills, and I will contribute in any way I know how, but hacking is not my forte. I can't expect brilliant minds to work for any project for nothing. Therefore, I am putting my money where my mouth is... I'm going to take all the money from my weekly paycheck that I can afford, and I'm going to donate it to that project. It won't be much... I am a starving college kid, after all... but it will be generous within my means. I am also going to post a reference to this thread everywhere I know how... My contribution might be small, but the community might be able to get something together that is mighty.
Visit topic 5864-garminfone on their forums to add your support.
(Edit: They moved my post, I have corrected this with the correct forum topic)

[Q] Android Developers, why are you treating my SD card like a garbage can?

This has been bothering me for quite a while, so I conjured a little story to help sooth my frustration.
Lets say my Android device is the new tenant of a nicely formated loft, this loft being 16gb of square space. To commemorate this new exciting space my device throws a house party. Most of the Apps he invites are pretty well behaved, but some start spilling drinks, then puking on the carpet, then having an orgy, then bukkake-ing the root directory. After discovering such acts, the device politely requests the disruptive guests force quit and leave. "I need more space on my phone." the device replied as each questioned on their way out. To his disbelief, NONE of the Apps cleaned up their mess! Even worse it seems some of the classier Apps, though more organized seem to have been influenced too. Unfortunately the device is forced to live with it, as the police force stopped responding to calls in his neighborhood. One man tries, but it always returns to a mess.
I hope that entertained someone.

i know exactly how you feel... there is at least 7 unused folders just wasting space on my phone. not to mention random mp3's hidden deep within my phone...

PhxkinMassacre said:
i know exactly how you feel... there is at least 7 unused folders just wasting space on my phone. not to mention random mp3's hidden deep within my phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you understand about the unused folders and NOT the bukkake-ing!!

hello, nice story!
I won't say that I am even close to being a developer but I do develop some apps and the thing that I wan't to point out is that apps do not run when they are installed or uninstalled. It's not each application job to clear up the mess it may have created but package manager's which apparently leaves some files be just in case you would like to reinstall the app later(?)...
I would propose to look for a more efficient package manager or doorman/janitor for your loft

That's why I don't invite the guy whos only existence is to make farting noises!

Very good point. However, one thing I don't know is if uninstalling through the market cleans up the SD card better than using a third party mass uninstall app. Something you may want to experiment with.

Back at it again...
Here I am again, and I still don't flippin get it!
After reading some of your comments I realized my main point kind of got glazed over(no pun intended @Scudderb)
My big issue is that there's no hierarchy in place for this crap. In windows, program files are stored in the 'Program Files' directory. In Android (and I credit google and the developers for this sloppy BS) Apps are just throwing all their **** in with my stuff on the ROOT.
How is this acceptable. Seriously, HOW? And if its all cache files and/or temporary documents than WHY THE **** ISN'T ALL THIS CRAP BEING PUT INTO A TEMP/CACHE FOLDER.
I'm PISSED! Why does every app I install get to put their own folder on the ROOT WITH the FOLDERS and FILES that actually matter to me ex: like my music, pictures, movies, documents (OH and by the way, a lot of apps developers do a REALLY ****ty job with their NAMING CONVENTIONS so the folders being created may or may not even look related to the app that put it there!)
::end rant::
My apologies for the colorful language, folder structure and hierarchy are something I design as a web designer so when I see this crap going on in my phone like the inmates are running the asylum... I get angry.
Today I was cleaning up my SD card for the umteen'th time, and found that Foursquare was dumping its temp files directly onto the root of my directory. I blew my top and had to get it out of my system... so..
A MESSAGE TO ALL THE APPS PULLING THESE SHENANIGANS: GROW UP!

The problem here is that it's hard to do it right
For custom data, files are supposed to be saved into "/data/data/com.appname/blah" (that's from the top of my head, could differ slightly). That's the directory to use for data files, but there's one big issue with it: it's on the internal memory storage. We all know that internal memory on Android (without custom ROMs) is.. limited. That's probably why most devs are using SD for larger files.
There's also the "Android/data/com.package_name.blah/blah" directory on the SD card. This directory should be used by apps to store files into and is automatically deleted when the user removes the associated app (but only when you're running Froyo or greater).
The issue with this approach is that users (and developers too, when testing the app) will lose all their data when removing an old version of a specific app. Let's say there's a bug with the Market again and the app suddenly gets uninstalled. User will have to reinstall, result: data will be all gone. That's only one of the many doom scenarios.
I can't speak for other developers, but that's more or less the reason why I started to use a common directory outside of the preferred ones when I was doing apps. It's not a great situation, I fully agree. But would you rather have your data accidentally deleted?
If anyone knows a good way to get around this issue, I'd love to know more about it...

orly
Thanks for the reply @Stripeymilk
I can think of multiple solutions:
#1 Development community adopts a universal directory for files deemed 'User' or 'Save' data that should be stored for future use. (or Google creates this for developers)
#2 Development community adopts the practice of allowing users to pick the directory users want to store an apps data in. (prompt at app's first start)
#3 Store files/data in the cloud.
#4 Users dump trash in the lobbys/living-rooms of developer's and see how quickly they find a solution.
#5 USE THE "Android/data/com.package_name.blah/" FOLDER WHEN ALL YOU'RE REALLY DOING IS STORING CACHE/TEMP FILES!!!
BOTTOM LINE: Its not hard to do it right, Its just hard to get people to do it.

You make it sound so easy
1) I'm all for it, but Google needs to put its weight behind an approach like that because otherwise people will say "I like /Data better than /data or /Mydata or /MyData". It's a bit like coding conventions: everyone wants to be different.
2) Good for techy people, not so good for "normal" users. Could make it easier with a small "file manager", but that's too much work for indie devs. Could be a nice idea for a new open source project though.
3) Great idea, could actually work if the associated account would be created automatically (like in Cut the Rope for Android with Scoreloop), but:
- The backup functionality in Android for storing data in the cloud is available for API level 8 and greater, making it of not so much use when you're targeting API level 5 or 6 and greater. Could be fixed by using something like Google Storage combined with Jets3t instead, but that would be useless for apps written in C++, like many games are.
- Cloud storage isn't free. Developers can't pay for that as it would be too expensive. If every Android user would've gotten free cloud storage from Google it could be a nice alternative, but (yeah, there's always a but) most current users don't have that.
4) If you're prepared to send your trash by plane to another country, go for it!
5) Agreed. Useful for temp data.

I'm not trying to make it sound easy, believe me I know how it isn't. I'm trying to make it sound simple, because really.. it is...
In response:
1) I agree and this is exactly what I mean by the real hard part is getting people to do it. This requires widespread endorsement by developers big and small - that this is a 'best practice' that should be adhered to. I think the gate swings both ways though.
example: Twitter didn't invent hash tags, their users did, and with its widespread adoption, Twitter adopted/implemented it too.
2) Another good point, though this process can be curated to drive the user in the right direction (holding their hand). The XBOX 360 does this for every game you play, the first thing it does is ask you which storage device you want to use for game saves.
example: in combination with solution # 1, the default folder the app saves to could be '/data/theAppsName' and the prompt could say "This app saves files to your SD CARD in '/data/theAppName'. Would you like to choose a new location?" [Yes] [No] [?]. The [Yes] option brings up a simple file manager, the [No] option uses that location, the [?] option brings up an easy to understand write up on what its asking and why its asking it.
3) We'll get there eventually, my point really was if you've got the resources, why not. Its a solution better than #1 and #2
4) I plan on sending human clones to create trash individually and exponentially
5) AMIRITE~!
In all seriousness though, thank you @Stripeymilk for taking the time to go in depth and have a conversation about this. I seriously think it doesn't take an act of Godogle to solve this (to what I beleive) is a big issue!

I can't agree more with you.
As developer (Windows, iSeries) I try to make my programs as structured and readable as possible. The same goes for the files and folders used used by the programs, but sadly, even with all the available resources, some people (colleagues) make a complete mess of it, cause "that's not/less important", as long as the program does what it's intended to do ...
It's all about the resources and people using them the right way!

Cool, didn't know about the hash tags on Twitter
Well, we're on a great site here with developers on it. If everyone here would adhere to the same standard, it could at least be a nice push to make the Android SD card world a better place.
What's the directory we're going to settle on? Any pros and cons?

[Q] I believe I discovered a new spy program.

I've always known that my girlfriend's ex was stalking her using her phone. The problem was we could never find the physical proof in the phone.
I found some emulated partitions on her grab when I was going through it trying to find out what was using all the storage up. Anyway it looks good like he was able to link an emulated preload partition to the real one, the code says from what I could tell from the manifest.xml, to use the same files as before but adds some new abilities and special parameters.
Anyway the reason I know for sure that it was him, I gave up looking along time ago, is this a#$#@le left a trace by using the URL he has for his very successful 3d animation business as the proxy server to receive collected files.
My knowledge is minimal but I learn quickly. I'm afraid of screwing up any evidence, and I don't think I can trust the local law enforcement to handle this properly. Can anyone help me understand what I am looking at?