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[Q] Missing Internal SD

Hey sorry if this is posted somewhere else but I dont know where to look and I looked on google for you guys who want to post that google thing.
Anyways, after installing roms from CM7 or even eagle, my internal sd card does not show up in file or root explorer. Its shown in the storage sections but not where i can access the information on there from the phone's file system.
When i restore back to stock (but rooted) rom its back to normal!

Its there, just hidden and named emmc. This is why root explorer is a must own app, it allows to see tons of hidden files you would otherwise not see. I'm sure there's other free apps that can do the same but root explorer has saved me from so many headaches it was an instant buy in market.
The 1 major gripe I ever had with this phone was the way they partitioned the internal storage, whoever decided that was a complete moron!
Edit:
Look under mnt/emmc with root explorer
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Thanks but how do I use it for normal everyday stuff? I guess i cant with CM7?

Sure you can, just move stuff from sdcard to mnt/emmc with root explorer. I know its a pain and one of the reasons I started a request thread to see if there was a way to bind/combine both partitions into 1 so we'd all have more internal space for installing apps/games.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Hey thanks for the insight, I will just keep my reg ota with root until a much better version comes out.

jetbruceli said:
Hey thanks for the insight, I will just keep my reg ota with root until a much better version comes out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use an external sdcard with your g2x, or do you use only the internal? There is a potentially easy solution if you want to use CM7 and keep the internal card as your primary. I'll tell you how step by step, but depending on if you use an external card and what you use it for, more or less steps will be involved. So I'll wait for your answer so I can give you the right response.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Well I have a 32 gb SD installed but like having the internal for apps and clockwork roms
sent from my anti IPhone device

jetbruceli said:
Well I have a 32 gb SD installed but like having the internal for apps and clockwork roms
sent from my anti IPhone device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally prefer to keep my backups and personal data on an external/removable sdcard. Its safer that way in case anything happens to the phones internal memory, all my documents and backups are safe and I can put my sdcard into my computer or another phone to retrieve it. Also, I'd much rather have 32gb of storage for all that rather than the 5gb you'll have with the internal card.
That said, its personal preference and always good to have options. Here's how I have mine setup with CM7 (I'll explain how to achieve the setup you want in a moment):
- My external removable card is mounted at /mnt/sdcard. This is the default setup of CM7.
- My internal sdcard (emmc) is mounted at /mnt/sdcard/_OtherSD. CM7 default is to mount it at /mnt/emmc, which means if I have photos, music and movies stored there they wont show up in some of my apps. By having it mounted to a directory inside my /mnt/sdcard directory, any app that looks at my external sdcard will also see what's stored on the internal sdcard. This is similar to the stock setup, except that with stock the external card is mounted as /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD.
But if you want the internal to be your primary sdcard then here are a couple of fixes for you. The quickest fix is this:
- Go to Settings > Cyanogenmod settings > Application
- Select "Use internal storage"
- Reboot phone
- Now your internal card will be mounted at /mnt/sdcard and your external card at /mnt/emmc
- This makes your internal card your main sdcard but leaves you external card mostly unusable because of its mount point.
So if you are like me and you like for things to be labeled properly and usable then continue reading. This works with CM7 (it wont work with stock), and I also recommend having root explorer (from the Market). My instructions will be specific to root explorer, although you can use any root text editor you want. You will need to edit 2 files (/system/build.prop and /system/etc/vold.fstab):
- Using root explorer navigate to your /system directory.
- At the top of the screen select "Mount R/W"
- Scroll down and find the /system/build.prop file. Long-press on it and select to open in text editor.
- Scroll about halfway down the file and find the section that says "
# Mount the internal SD card, too
- Where it says "ro.additionalmounts=" specify a directory by typing its full path. I use /mnt/sdcard/_OtherSD. This is the mount point you will use in the vold.fstab file (which you'll edit in a moment)
- The very next line says "ro.vold.switchablepair=" .. These are the mount points that get swapped when you enable that setting in CM7. Change the options to match the mount points you will want to use. So for me it says "/mnt/sdcard,/mnt/sdcard/_OtherSD" ... of course no quotation marks.
- Select Menu > Save & Exit. One nice feature of root explorer is that it automatically saves your original file as a backup in case there are any problems.
- Now navigate to /system/etc
- Make sure the directory is still mounted as R/W, scroll down and open the file /system/etc/vold.fstab. This file specifies where both the external and internal sdcards are actually mounted. Each drive/device has its own entry.
- Find the line that starts with dev_mount emmc /mnt/emmc" and change it to match the mount point you created in the build.prop file. So for me I change it to "dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard/_OtherSD"
- Select Menu > Save & Exit
- Reboot phone
Now when you use the CM7 settings option to use internal storage, it will swap them but still keep one mounted within the other so any music, pics, videos you have will be usable by all your apps.
****PLEASE NOTE**** -- These changes will be overwritten if you flash a new nightly.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Thanks a million! I will try just having access is good.
I have root explorer and I use file expert.
You said ur on cm7? Or are u on a custom version like eagle? I keep flipping between reg stock, cm7, miui and eagle. Just can't tell which is the best for everyday use.
But really thanks for all the info!
sent from my anti IPhone device

jetbruceli said:
Thanks a million! I will try just having access is good.
I have root explorer and I use file expert.
You said ur on cm7? Or are u on a custom version like eagle? I keep flipping between reg stock, cm7, miui and eagle. Just can't tell which is the best for everyday use.
But really thanks for all the info!
sent from my anti IPhone device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just plain CM7. I think I'm using nightly 144. The method should be the same or similar on other cm7-based roms. It just won't work on stock-based roms because the changes to the files get overwritten when you reboot.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

d12unk13astard said:
Its there, just hidden and named emmc. This is why root explorer is a must own app, it allows to see tons of hidden files you would otherwise not see. I'm sure there's other free apps that can do the same but root explorer has saved me from so many headaches it was an instant buy in market.
The 1 major gripe I ever had with this phone was the way they partitioned the internal storage, whoever decided that was a complete moron!
Edit:
Look under mnt/emmc with root explorer
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying to edit the vold.stab etc on my phone forever trying to get that to work and I haven't gotten it figured out (still a Linux noob, probably always will be). I realize most people seem to prefer the already available options to remount it inside the external SD card or vice versa, but honestly I really just want it combined with the internal memory. Others say that is pointless because 1.5GB should be plenty of space, but honestly if I were to install all the apps on my Transformer onto my phone, my phone would almost immediately run out of internal space.

JaiaV said:
I've been trying to edit the vold.stab etc on my phone forever trying to get that to work and I haven't gotten it figured out (still a Linux noob, probably always will be). I realize most people seem to prefer the already available options to remount it inside the external SD card or vice versa, but honestly I really just want it combined with the internal memory. Others say that is pointless because 1.5GB should be plenty of space, but honestly if I were to install all the apps on my Transformer onto my phone, my phone would almost immediately run out of internal space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder what would happen if the phone was physically repartitioned ... I don't know enough of how Android works to know what effects that would have. Obviously the disk is just a disk and you can create whatever partition sizes you want. Is the OS designed to look for a certain number of partitions and partition sizes on each phone? Or will it just use what's there?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

JaiaV said:
I've been trying to edit the vold.stab etc on my phone forever trying to get that to work and I haven't gotten it figured out (still a Linux noob, probably always will be). I realize most people seem to prefer the already available options to remount it inside the external SD card or vice versa, but honestly I really just want it combined with the internal memory. Others say that is pointless because 1.5GB should be plenty of space, but honestly if I were to install all the apps on my Transformer onto my phone, my phone would almost immediately run out of internal space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found an app that has made the 1.5gb internal storage manageable, look in the market for link2sd. Basicly it allows you to move any app/game to the extra partition on your sdcard(I made a 4gb partition) I'm amazed how stable it runs! After trying numerous apps2sd programs and them being unstable plus running out of internal space too quickly, link2sd is a godsend! It allows even dalvik cache moving to SD extra and batch selecting/deselecting for ultra quick installs. I can't reccommend this app enough for people having internal storage space problems.
As for the internal SD card being combined with the 1.5gb storage I put up a request thread on it hoping a Dev would know how to.. until that happens tho link2sd has made me proud.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265540
Internal storage partition
Some of the asshats on that thread made me laugh with their ignorance.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

d12unk13astard said:
I found an app that has made the 1.5gb internal storage manageable, look in the market for link2sd. Basicly it allows you to move any app/game to the extra partition on your sdcard(I made a 4gb partition) I'm amazed how stable it runs! After trying numerous apps2sd programs and them being unstable plus running out of internal space too quickly, link2sd is a godsend! It allows even dalvik cache moving to SD extra and batch selecting/deselecting for ultra quick installs. I can't reccommend this app enough for people having internal storage space problems.
As for the internal SD card being combined with the 1.5gb storage I put up a request thread on it hoping a Dev would know how to.. until that happens tho link2sd has made me proud.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265540
Internal storage partition
Some of the asshats on that thread made me laugh with their ignorance.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can move apps to external storage by default with CM7. This is not the solution I am looking for , but thank you for trying.

JaiaV said:
I can move apps to external storage by default with CM7. This is not the solution I am looking for , but thank you for trying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference between apps2sd which your using and link2sd which i'm using is that with apps2sd your internal memory will run out much faster then if using link2sd which can also move dalvikcache to sd ext. I've already moved 300 apps/games to sd ext with link2sd and still have over 1gb of internal storage, try doing that with apps2sd
Edit: forgot to mention link2sd is a free app in market.

[TWEAK][MOD][FIX][CM7] sdcard Switcharoo!

CyanogenMod 7 sdcard Switcharoo tweak/mod/fix!
When i first got CM7 on my Infuse I immediately came across an annoying problem (at least for me). Like all AT&T customers, my phone came with an external SD card with 2gb of storage and the phone itself has 16gb of internal storage. So i noticed that by default, my 2gb external sdcard was the mnt/sdcard directory that all my apps use and mnt\emmc was my internal 16gb. For me that sucked because all my Titanium Backups were in my internal sdcard and I coudnt move it to my external because of memory insufficiency. So i decided i would mod the ROM to switch these sdcard directories and have 16gb instead of 2gb in my mnt\sdcard directory.
So, to make this simpler for me and you, suppose:
----------------------------
Internal sdcard (16gb) = A
External sdcard (2gb) = B
----------------------------
A is by default in mnt\emmc
B is by default in mnt\sdcard
----------------------------
The problem with the above statements is that 2gb is not enough to make it my default sdcard. Apps like Titanium Backup, Dropbox, Camera and tons of others (like games) always store things in mnt\sdcard and they can rarely be configured to store elsewhere (at least to my knowledge).
So to solve the problem i edited the mnt\system\etc\vold.fstab file. This file just contains some random gibberish about where the sdcards mount to. So i switched the mounting directories of the two sdcards A and B. So far all i had to do is copy over the apps stored in my external to the new external mount (mnt\emmc).
So in short the only thing this changes is: (the before and after pic)
Before:
mnt\emmc is internal 16gb
mnt\sdcard is external 2gb
After:
mnt\emmc is external 2gb
mnt\sdcard is internal 16gb
Now, if lets say you had your apps stored in A and used my tweak. You would have to copy your apps over to B because thats the new A. Confusing i know...im trying. lol
So here is the procedure:
0. Download the attachment below and unzip it in your phone somewhere
1. Make sure you have root explorer or similar app
2. Using your explorer app mount mnt\system\ R/W
3. Navigate to vold.fstab file in mnt\system\etc
4. Rename the file to vold.fstab.bak (to keep it backed up)
5. Now find the directory where you downloaded and put my new vold.fstab file
6. Copy my new vold.fstab file to mnt\system\etc and paste
7. Reboot phone.
If you encounter difficulties, then undo the process by first deleting my modded vold.fstab and then renaming your old vold.fstab.bak to vold.fstab and then rebooting.
Also, Keep in mind that this is for CM7 users. Don't use it if you don't know what CM7 is or don't use CM7 port. Cheers, hope this helps someone.

A much easier solution:
Go to Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application
Uncheck "Use internal storage"
Reboot.

PVD04 said:
A much easier solution:
Go to Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Application
Uncheck "Use internal storage"
Reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, i understand what you are saying. But you, like others dont get what im after. i dont care where my apps go. i want my mnt\sdcard to be 16gb not 2gb. end of story.

Mohammad_Adib said:
No, i understand what you are saying. But you, like others dont get what im after. i dont care where my apps go. i want my mnt\sdcard to be 16gb not 2gb. end of story.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand exactly what you are after. Unchecking "Use internal storage" mounts the internal storage as mnt\sdcard. There is no reason to do it any other way.

My /mnt/sdcard is the internal memory and my 4GB microsd is my external storage been like that from stock and I have all of my important stuff on the external for obvious reasons. Don't know why you would need this am I missing something?
Infused with Android DNA

PVD04 said:
I understand exactly what you are after. Unchecking "Use internal storage" mounts the internal storage as mnt\sdcard. There is no reason to do it any other way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly right - unchecking internal storage does exactly what your tweak does.

I have a 16 gig SD internal and external and I prefer using external which is default, when my phone had to be redone due to bad flash, I loss everything on my internal. Even if I checked something wrong it still feels safer using external last I checked 16gig cards are like 25 bux. I want 32gig next. Sounds to me like a poor attempt to get status here. Try on a group less educated then xda. I feel offended by this trick.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

This might be useless for CM7 users but what about MIUI users, don't CM7 and MIUI use the same kernel?
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

i just got a 16gb external card to replace the OEM supplied 2gb sdcard.
Also Titanium allows you to change the backup folder location.

Cool. thanks for telling me. but that never worked for me. so this did and i dont care how u guys do it as long as the results are the same.

I thought that emmc was the external memory card? Because I have a 16 GB external and CM7 reads it as EMMC
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium

Cm7 switchs external and internal so it is like every phone since not all phones have 16gb internal. I don't really use internal.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

8gb internal storage solutions

So I got the Moto G 1gb, 8 gigs of internal storage version.
I love this phone so far and I've pretty much set it up how I'd like it, but the 8gb internal storage has turned into an issue.
I got Appmanager III, moved pretty much everything to my 32 gig external, but I still have only like 600 mb to spare on the internal, with well over half of the external left over.
Is there another app that will allow me to move all the app data left over in the internal over to the external?
If that's not enough, I'd also be interested in knowing if there's any way I can force the system to use the external as the main storage for all the OS functions. I already used adb to set all the default downloads to the external.
Finally, I'd like to know if custom ROMs like cyanogenmod would use up less storage than the stock OS, or at least let me use more of my internal by reducing the amount of bloatware (why can i NOT get rid of google movies or google+??? come ON)
I'm rooted and have installed twrp so both root and custom recovery solutions are welcome. Thanks for your time and help!

If it were me, I'd make a Nandroid with TWRP on the external as well as a backup with Titanium and then use Titanium to delete unwanted bloatware. Wouldn't that help?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

bruce7373 said:
If it were me, I'd make a Nandroid with TWRP on the external as well as a backup with Titanium and then use Titanium to delete unwanted bloatware. Wouldn't that help?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System apps, ie those that come with the phone such as google movies, live in the system partition. If they are updated then the update lives in the internal storage. Uninstalling via titanium will of course free up both system and internal storage space.
However just disabling them will be sufficient, this will remove all updates from internal storage and just leave the apk in the system partition. Its the internal storage that you want to be less full as this is where user apps, pictures etc all reside (assuming you haven't yet moved them to an SD card).
Disabling is less drastic than uninstalling and is maybe the preferred option in case you otherwise uninstall something that breaks your phone.

I've tried that, but for whatever reason if I disable, say, google play movie or whatever, my phone eventually ends up redownloading them? It's really odd and honestly pretty annoying.
I'd still like to know if there's any way to keep all the main app data on the external or something though. Are Cyanogenmod ROMs installers smaller? I don't need THAT much more space to feel comfortable, having 1 gigabyte would be ok with me. I just don't like having like 600 MB free at most...
EDIT: If I can just move the app data for a few games and Google Chrome, that should fix it, too. Those seem to be the real space hogs, so if I can move those I should be able to handle everything else
EDIT EDIT: Would an app like Link2SD work for this phone or has no one tested that yet?

Hi Tazzypilar, Yes Link2Sd wil work wery well. All wat you have to do is to install MiniTool Partition Wizzard Professional on your PC, then put your micro SD card in the cardreader on your desktop or laptop to make two partitions on your SdMicro card (card must be class 10). Start program MiniTool Partition Wizzard Professional and look for your microSD card on the list with disks. Right click on your removable disk (micro sd card) and you can resize your first Fat32 partition and make it smaller for at least 2 GB. After that you will have 2 GB unused space behind this Fat32 partition. Now click with right mouse on this unused space and choose „Create“ new partition and make it ext4 file system partition. You will be prompt „Are you sure that you want to make ext4 partiton because Windows can't see it ?“ and answare „Yes“ . So, one partition will be Fat32 and you can make it as big as you like depending on the size of your MicroSd card and second should be at least 2GB (or greater - also may be smaller, it's up to you) ext4 partition and there you will move your apps from the internal phone memory.
That's all, after that you have to install Link2Sd from playstore and link apps you like to move to your SdCard. Succes ! If you have more questions jut ask !
Greetz !
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Where did my storage go?
Just asked my self a very similar questions
I attachment a screen shot
From the 8gb 3,5 go to Android system
So 4,5gb for internal I thought., but no.
I installed about 2gb of apps and 200mb cache.
Ah I forgot to mention that this is a fresh install after factory reset and still I am missing alot of storage see screen shot
Is this normal? I am on stock not rooted with some apps already moved to SD Any ideas?

Upgrade to android M, use external SD as internal card
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.

sandipkc7 said:
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am glad you brought this up, guess what I am already on M and using the SD card feature, unfortunately I can only a small portion of the apps move to the SD card the rest stays internal

Look for posts on link2sd, it needs to be a fast card and then formatted using both std FAT and ext (linux) partitions. Then you can move almost everything.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Though Im using LG H502F. Correct me if Im wrong but I think thats because the internal storage is emulated. Ive been using Link2SD and it works well. I can link app data and external data to the mounted partition. The only difference I noticed was... When opening the app it takes a couple of second or more compared to the unlinked apps... Anyways. Try to check if your storage is emulated. If it is, then that 3GB available space for a stock rom is as good as it gets. Mine have 8GB rom but the end user is only 3GB something.
Sent from my LG-H502 using XDA-Developers mobile app

merlin2380 said:
I am glad you brought this up, guess what I am already on M and using the SD card feature, unfortunately I can only a small portion of the apps move to the SD card the rest stays internal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In android M you can "transform" your sd card in internal memory (in Settings>Storage>SdCard>Definitions). If you have a fast 32 Gb card, you can format it to internal and it is as you have 32 Gb internal memory, but your sdcard must "live" with your phone (can't be used as sdcard in other device).
I think that is what @sandipkc7 means.

I did that not very usefull

merlin2380 said:
I did that not very usefull
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried internal storage option in marshmallow and at first i taught it was rubbish, but i kinda left sdcard alone and install another ROM.
So stuff on my internal storage was nowhere to be found. I installed latest recovery (TWRP) Flashed another rom and this is where things started to get interesting.
When i first converted sdcard to use as internal storage my phone was still eating up the internal memory 8GB on the phone.
Now however android system decided to do away with internal 8GB memory and use sdcard as a main storage. my photos are stored there and all data i noticed that almost everything is installed on sdcard now. so my storage is not vanishing away. I have about 1.7GB used on there.
There are some apps that can be moved manually to sdcard storage (converted to internal) - for example some of the system apps and most of google apps stay in phones memory not on sdcard and they can't be moved manually.
So my advise is covert your card to internal memory and then do factory reset or install another ROM.
Option 2 as mentioned above in posts is to use app called Link2SD - it is worth to opt for paid version which gives you more options of what to copy to 2nd partiton of your sdcard.
i have amazon fire 7 (£50 tablet) setup with option 2 - same storage 8GB. It works well. due to lack of marshmallow for this device i cannot use internal sd as an option. I have 2GB used there and rest sits on sdcard. i have installed few resource (storage) hugging apps - 1.2 GB, 2 GB each (gameloft games) - all moved to sd with link2sd app.
on my moto g 2015 i use android build in solution and it works well. You have to keep in mind that with this solution you can't simply copy files to your computer. Sdcard is encrypted at device level and it can only be access via your phone. However you can use any wifi file transfer app to copy some files over or via phones hotspot (i use droid over wifi or web pc suite to name few).
hope this helped a little

sandipkc7 said:
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
honestly, its not worth it to use sdcard as internal, despite the micro sd card being fast, it made my phone ridiculously slow..............

marsrolled said:
honestly, its not worth it to use sdcard as internal, despite the micro sd card being fast, it made my phone ridiculously slow..............
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because of this slow down i did a reset to default settings. This did help and now the phone works much better, just make sure you always have 500MB empty on the internal storage, anything less and tbe phone performance goes down imediatly.
All the talking about this no so vreat sdcardinteral storage feature was too much for my 32 GB samsung evo micro sd card, it died less than 6 months of service. This was already the 2nd from the evo series that hung up on me and let me to dataloss thanks to google drive all was backedup
I will now root the phone and get a custom rom, probaply cm offical

Did you ever find out how to recover that lost 2GB? I have the exact same problem and managed to maybe find the 2GB in the /data folder; however it is sys locked and I'm not ready to root a brand new phone yet.
I have 8 apps installed (not counting google/motorola pre-installed) on my Moto G3 and showing 3.72GB used of 4.53GB available internal. It then shows 1.36 GB used by apps, 1.71 MB by cache. Other 2GB is a mystery?Device storage shows only 16GB used of 37GB availabe due to SD card.

T-Mobile LG G5 SD Card (adoptive storage or regular SD) how to make it default

In the past on my Android phones, primarily LG, I have had SD cards installed and they became the default storage location for download, DCIM, images saved from any program, etc. Now I have the G5 and it seems to be quite different. I have an SD card installed and it seems there is no way to make it the default location as it has been in the past. I understand that adoptive storage can be made to work to use the SD card for more 'internal' RAM but I have had two issues with this, 1. I can't see the phone with ADB when connected to my PC and 2. I can't seem to find adoptive storage instructions that work. I am not new to LG or Android phone but this one has me a bit confused. Can adoptive storage be used on the T-Mobile G5 and/or can the SD card be made the default location for the G5 to store things, like DCIM, downloads, etc like all the LG phones in the past?
Thanks,
T.E

I was able to get adoptable storage going, discovered there's a typo in Paul O'Brien's article, once I fixed that I was set to jet. This is an edit from Paul's article here:
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
1. BACK UP THE DATA YOU HAVE ON YOUR MICROSD CARD. Your card will be formatted by this process, so make sure you have saved any pictures, videos etc. from your card to your PC before you start.
2. Decide how you want to split your card. You can either commit 100% of the card to internal storage, or split between internal storage and conventional SD. This option is useful if you like to unplug your card and put it in your PC. I would probably recommend committing the whole card.
3. Umount the sdcard before connecting it in debug mode to your pc.
4. Open your command window / terminal on your computer and type the 'adb shell' command (with your phone connected of course). You will need to enable USB debugging in developer settings (which in turn is displayed by tapping the build number of the device 5 times) in order to see the option.
5. Type 'sm list-disks' to list the disks available for adoption. It'll look something like below - take note of the disk ID (disk:179:160 in this example).
6. Partition the disk. For this we use the 'sm partition DISK TYPE RATIO' command. For example, to partition the disk above as fully adopted storage (aka private) I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179,160 private'. If I wanted a 50/50 split between adopted and regular, I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179,160 mixed 50'. Easy right?
7. This took almost no time at all for me.
8. Go to the sdcard in storage and move data to it. This will then merge the space on the card and the internal storage.
HTH.

Ok, first problem first. I have the SDK installed, debug mode on and phone connected. I can see the file system on the phone but ADB DEVICES returns nothing. Until I can get that resolve I can't even do the rest.

Can anyone tell me how to get the T-Mobile LG G5 to be recognized by ADB?

Resolved and I believe I have the adoptable storage working now.

If this is done with a somewhat slow SD card will it have a negative impact on the entire system?

btothec said:
If this is done with a somewhat slow SD card will it have a negative impact on the entire system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe. Please correct me if I'm wrong but adoptable storage tries to only put stuff on the sdcard that will live comfortably there. Nothing system related will go there, so worse case an app takes longer to launch.

scottricketts said:
Maybe. Please correct me if I'm wrong but adoptable storage tries to only put stuff on the sdcard that will live comfortably there. Nothing system related will go there, so worse case an app takes longer to launch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using a 64gb Class 10 and have not noticed any significant change in performance.

scottricketts said:
I was able to get adoptable storage going, discovered there's a typo in Paul O'Brien's article, once I fixed that I was set to jet. This is an edit from Paul's article here:
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
1. BACK UP THE DATA YOU HAVE ON YOUR MICROSD CARD. Your card will be formatted by this process, so make sure you have saved any pictures, videos etc. from your card to your PC before you start.
2. Decide how you want to split your card. You can either commit 100% of the card to internal storage, or split between internal storage and conventional SD. This option is useful if you like to unplug your card and put it in your PC. I would probably recommend committing the whole card.
3. Umount the sdcard before connecting it in debug mode to your pc.
4. Open your command window / terminal on your computer and type the 'adb shell' command (with your phone connected of course). You will need to enable USB debugging in developer settings (which in turn is displayed by tapping the build number of the device 5 times) in order to see the option.
5. Type 'sm list-disks' to list the disks available for adoption. It'll look something like below - take note of the disk ID (disk:179:160 in this example).
6. Partition the disk. For this we use the 'sm partition DISK TYPE RATIO' command. For example, to partition the disk above as fully adopted storage (aka private) I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179,160 private'. If I wanted a 50/50 split between adopted and regular, I'd use the command 'sm partition disk:179,160 mixed 50'. Easy right?
7. This took almost no time at all for me.
8. Go to the sdcard in storage and move data to it. This will then merge the space on the card and the internal storage.
HTH.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can this be undone? What happens if you remove the sdcard? Is it still readable in a PC, so the files could be recovered if the phone died?

Click on the sdcard then select make portable storage. No clue what happens if you take it out other than some programs won't work.

kchannel9 said:
Can this be undone? What happens if you remove the sdcard? Is it still readable in a PC, so the files could be recovered if the phone died?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it gets encrypted you won't be able to read it in a PC.
Sent from my LG-H830 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Can someone that had done it please post pics of how is it supposed to look like once you do the process, the reason I asked is bc under storage I can see the storage as one but in many google apps I only the the the 32gb of storage and no 211gb like on the storage settings. Thanks in advance

TheEditor said:
Ok, first problem first. I have the SDK installed, debug mode on and phone connected. I can see the file system on the phone but ADB DEVICES returns nothing. Until I can get that resolve I can't even do the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you do it im having the same issue?!?!?!?!

TheEditor said:
Resolved and I believe I have the adoptable storage working now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you fix the adb shell problem?!?!?!
---------- Post added at 12:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 AM ----------
i get this when i type in adb shell
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Dawid>adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device '(null)' not found
C:\Users\Dawid>
what do i do? how do I fix this?

you guys have adoptable storage working? do you guys like it? Yay Or Nay? i have it working fully no problems just i havent formatted my sd card yet. wondering if its worth doing.

How to set up SD Card as Internal Storage?

I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this

Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing

sautom said:
Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're right about that. I've installed programs on USB sticks that can be quite sluggish. Then again I've had a number of system maintenance utilities on flash drives for years that aren't and still perform fine. Then they don't get used for hours on a day to day basis.
I moved a number of apps on my old Galaxy Ace to a micro sd card though, most used was the Poweramp music player that's always performed well.
And I've got the card now, so I may as well try to get it set as internal and just see how it performs over time. Thanks for you feedback sautom.

TakuSkan said:
I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Also, if performance is important to you, then you won't like this option, using sdcard as internal is slower, the only "gain" in using this is the system has more storage to use. There is no gain on performance, you actually lose there.
I don't recommend using sdcard as internal storage though. There are way too many issues that come along with using this kind of modification. A lot of times, the sdcard gets corrupted, then the real issues start when you try to fix it, usually, the device won't function properly, the data on the sdcard gets lost/corrupted, just to name a couple of the many possible issues. It isn't exactly "easy" to fix this when it happens, depending on what goes wrong, sometimes it can't be fixed.
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Droidriven said:
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?

TakuSkan said:
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
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Droidriven said:
I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DCIM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
Can ES File Explorer access shared folders on a Windows PC? Amaze sets up an FTP server, but I don't see where it can access files on a Windows system.
EDIT: Seems it can: How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone

TakuSkan said:
Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DICM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
When you connect the device to PC, you should see a USB icon in the status bar on the device, pull down notification panel, it should have a notification that takes you to your USB options.
Or, when you connect the device, you might get a pop-up menu on your device that has settings for USB options.
It varies from one device to another and one android version to another.
Do you have USB debugging enabled in developer options?
Also, if you do some reading about everything that the ES File Explorer app can do, you'll see that it can be used to transfer files to/from PC via more than a few options, including wirelessly/remotely.
It has several things it can do and different ways to connect when connecting/connected to other devices, including smart TV and others. It can also be used as a server or even be used to create a hotspot.
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Droidriven said:
You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.

TakuSkan said:
Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
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Droidriven said:
I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it may be because this was a T-Mobile phone and that they may have disabled some functions like "adoptable storage" which doesn't seem to be present, as well as maybe setting permissions to prevent access to certain system folders.
I've even found that I have to change the extensions of some files like ini files to txt before I can drag and drop from Windows Explorer via a USB connection to just a few folders on Android.
It is a bit nutz. Rooting would probably solve the problem. But I'm not ready to go there yet. There may be an answer for getting the Windows > Android file viewing and writing yet. But at least for the moment I can copy both ways with the Amaze File Manager.

Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow

TakuSkan said:
Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
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Droidriven said:
It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?

TakuSkan said:
I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried running the command without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
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Droidriven said:
Have you tried running the xommand without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly the information I've been after Droidriven. That sounds like the perfect way to differentiate default internal memory from an SD addon. I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd card, installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage? My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down. Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files

TakuSkan said:
I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd cardm installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right.
TakuSkan said:
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, it will see all one space with no way to "store here instead of there" that I know of. The OS uses the entire space as it sees fit.
TakuSkan said:
My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what it will do, this is the common cause of sdcard formatted as internal getting burned out, they aren't meant to do all that writing/rewriting/overwriting/deleting constantly. Frequent activity kills it in the end, hence, my original post warning against the downsides to using external as internal. Once external is incorporated into internal, if the external gets corrupted, the OS won't boot or operate, potentially making a terrible mess to get the device recovered but not the external sdcard, it's toast at that point, along with everything that was stored on it, in some cases, the device can't be recovered either, due to lack of software support or publicly available downloadable firmware.
TakuSkan said:
Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be possible somehow, but it probably requires root and some other apps that use root to make the needed modifications to direct data where you want it stored. I'm not sure it's possible though because, as I said previously, the OS sees internal and external as one complete partition, with no way to "see" a difference between them because they no longer have differing disk designations.
In my honest opinion(based on my exposure and experience with various devices that have used this as an option and the issues they have had along the way), using external as internal is too risky and shouldn't be used. Oddly, Adoptable Storage works better on devices that have better hardware and plenty of internal storage than it does on lower end devices with limited hardware and limited storage, the lower, limited devices are typically the ones that end up having issues. I know, this seems counter-intuitive since the better devices don't need the extra internal storage and the lower devices do need the extra internal storage, but we both know that flash memory is very unreliable for continuous write/delete/rewrite and is doomed to fail.
Could you possibly consider some kind of OTG storage, wireless USB drive or some kind of "cloud" storage or FTP setup?
You should be able to direct your downloads, your pics and your recordings to the folder of your choice when downloaded/created instead of having to move them after. I'm not certain you need to do this just to be able to use your external to store data.
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