Database Info

[Q] Install Apps on MicroSD/SD

Has there been any announcement on the ability to install apps on the external media on the TF? It seems strange that this is possible for Android 2.2, but not 3.0.

I think this is mostly due to the fluid state of the partitions of the operating system in 3.0 On 2.x the /system and /data are set sizes so to free up some some space for more apps. On 3.x if more space is needed, it alloactes more space so app2sd is not needed

I guess in honeycomb you don't really need app2sd any more... you already have the whole 16gb available for apps

worthless microsd
i bought the 16gb version and a 32gb microsd card thinking it would be a cheaper way to have more storage. Instead it seems the external storage doesn't serve much of a purpose leaving me a little disappointed. I assumed Android was already supporting multiple storage locations but I guess that was removed in 3.0. Ideally I would love to be able to use Gallery to sync my picasa albums but if I did that I would end up with no free space on the main drive.

Gallery and most apps that came installed on the transformer have no problem scanning the microsd. Also more and more apps are letting you manually choose where you can have the information located (moboplayer, titanium backup). I hooked up a 1tb external drive with 600 Gb of music and movies and had no problem playing any of them. But boy did that suck the battery down quick.
I guess it depends on what your trying to do, if nothing else send an email to the developer and ask them if they could add support for additional locations

I know some custom ROMs for other tablets have offered optional methods for changing the mount points of internal and external storage. For example, setting the external card to mount at /sdcard and leaving internal storage for /Removable/microSD. I asked about this in dev forum last week but no takers.
sent from a device using an app

With 3.0 google finally got smart. Apps are installed to your internal memory the same as everything else. So you have 16/32GB for apps and everything else, and then you have your SD card in addition to that.
So having all that internal memory makes Apps2SD useless.
You'll see froyo apps2sd in ice cream sandwich most likely for older devices most likely, but in honeycomb it's gone.

Wait what? So does this mean you cannot install apps you download from the market on the microsd?

stcardinal said:
Wait what? So does this mean you cannot install apps you download from the market on the microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you cannot - though why would you need to? Unlike earlier versions of Android, you don't have a fixed partition size to install apps to, so A2SD is largely pointless (in my opinion anyway - your mileage may vary!).
Regards,
Dave

lordgodgeneral said:
Gallery and most apps that came installed on the transformer have no problem scanning the microsd. Also more and more apps are letting you manually choose where you can have the information located (moboplayer, titanium backup). I hooked up a 1tb external drive with 600 Gb of music and movies and had no problem playing any of them. But boy did that suck the battery down quick.
I guess it depends on what your trying to do, if nothing else send an email to the developer and ask them if they could add support for additional locations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Gallery my issue is that I have all my photos online with Picasa, so I take advantage of the 'Offline' option to auto download some of my photos. The problem is I have no control over where these offline folders are stored, and it would be impossible for me to have all my photos available offline on the internal storage.
I am surprised at the lack of control over where I can store stuff, but I guess its better than not even having the option for external storage like IOS devices. Currently though it appears that I purchased a MicroSD card for nothing as it doesn't fit my needs.

Worst case scenario: if you have root, you could replace the directory Gallery uses for the Offline photos with a symlink to a directory on the (micro)SD Card. You might need to put a ".nomedia" file in that directory (to keep the media scanner from indexing those files and thinking they should /also/ be in the gallery), but it'll work long as you leave the sdcard in whenever Gallery is open.

magicpork said:
I guess in honeycomb you don't really need app2sd any more... you already have the whole 16gb available for apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great! I always hated worrying about whether something was installed on the current SD card.

magicpork said:
I guess in honeycomb you don't really need app2sd any more... you already have the whole 16gb available for apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(I'm Not having a go at the above poster).
Thats all well and good but if you use Googlemaps (Navigation) with the offline maps ala Htc Desire and others You can quickly use several gig of space.
add to that Copilot maps 2.5Gb or Aura 2.2Gb and that 16Gb dosn't seem so big, lol..
I bought a 32Gb SD Card for the Dock and now know that its a waste of time as you have to manually open any music or films as they dont appear in the Gallery etc.
I also bought a 32Gb Micro SD Card for the tablet which is where I want to put Downloads and the Gallery Also the Navigation Maps. But the apps wont see the data so again why have them.
So all in all extra storage appears to be a waste of time.
Hopefully some of the Guru's here can sort this out as Its crazy to have all this available space and not be able to use it.

foxmeister said:
No you cannot - though why would you need to? Unlike earlier versions of Android, you don't have a fixed partition size to install apps to, so A2SD is largely pointless (in my opinion anyway - your mileage may vary!).
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
640kb should be enough for anybody.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

AlexTheStampede said:
640kb should be enough for anybody.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was, at the time!
Regards,
Dave

jjal09 said:
With Gallery my issue is that I have all my photos online with Picasa, so I take advantage of the 'Offline' option to auto download some of my photos. The problem is I have no control over where these offline folders are stored, and it would be impossible for me to have all my photos available offline on the internal storage.
I am surprised at the lack of control over where I can store stuff, but I guess its better than not even having the option for external storage like IOS devices. Currently though it appears that I purchased a MicroSD card for nothing as it doesn't fit my needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lordgodgeneral already answered this when you brought it up the first time, but it is simple to transfer any of your media files over to the SD card. Yes when you first download your pics they will be stored on internal memory, but you can manually move them over to the sd card and they will still be recognized by the transformer. I believe the stock file manager will work for this, but I personally use root explorer.

jjal09 said:
With Gallery my issue is that I have all my photos online with Picasa, so I take advantage of the 'Offline' option to auto download some of my photos. The problem is I have no control over where these offline folders are stored, and it would be impossible for me to have all my photos available offline on the internal storage.
I am surprised at the lack of control over where I can store stuff, but I guess its better than not even having the option for external storage like IOS devices. Currently though it appears that I purchased a MicroSD card for nothing as it doesn't fit my needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That has more to do with the app itself. If an app lets you set where it saves, it'll work.

It may be possible to have all the internal storage dedicated to apps (/data) and point /sdcard to the removable micro SD card with some fstab modifications. I'll try this tonight and see what happens.

HD GAMES????
ok guys i see last post was on june but do you realise that the new HD games coming out are about nearly 1 g of space some? there must be a freaking way to install apps or games on SD card omfg wy do i want extenral storage to keep mi fotos and music? this is bull**** guys pls lets get some way to have our games or programs that occupie more than 700mb out of internal memory there must be some way... pls scratch your brain ask friends ask parents ask teachers this is very serious....
Best regards... TF user... rooted ofcourse

jesseibiza said:
ok guys i see last post was on june but do you realise that the new HD games coming out are about nearly 1 g of space some? there must be a freaking way to install apps or games on SD card omfg wy do i want extenral storage to keep mi fotos and music? this is bull**** guys pls lets get some way to have our games or programs that occupie more than 700mb out of internal memory there must be some way... pls scratch your brain ask friends ask parents ask teachers this is very serious....
Best regards... TF user... rooted ofcourse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ithink its better to loose the games if somthing damages your internal storage. I have the 32 gb Transformer and thats more than enough for games. You can not play 30 games at the same time and if you bakup your game and gamedata you can uninstal a game and install it again if you whant to play it.
I dont understand why people always ask for intstall something on Micro SD card. Intrenal storage is much faster than a card.
Sent from my Revolver powered Asus Transformer TF101 with Tapatalk

[Q] Internal Storage 2gb?!

I was really excited about the new HTC One X, did lots of research on it and watched plenty of reviews. I was already convinced that I was going to buy it, however I went to a store to test it out today, and found out that they still had that internal storage(2gb) and external storage(now they call it phone storage)... I was disappointed. I was told that the Galaxy Nexus did not have this option anymore you could use all of the 16gb/32gb to dl apps and store everything else. The main reason I wanted to switch from my HTC Desire HD is because I only had 1gb of internal storage. I am a heavy app user, every single time I want to try a new app or update me current apps, my phone just tells me that I have low internal memory space. I had to delete my emails, my msgs, and a lot of my games. If I didnt make space in my internal memory I wouldnt be able to sync my accounts or update my apps.
Anyways I just want someone to clarify to me that the whole internal storage for the HTC One X work the same way as the Galaxy Nexus or Iphone 4S. Or is it still the same like the HTC Desire, that you can only use 2gb to store dl apps. I know that you can move games into the sd cards but widgets, emails, msgs and saved games must be in the internal storage.

rickywz said:
I was really excited about the new HTC One X, did lots of research on it and watched plenty of reviews. I was already convinced that I was going to buy it, however I went to a store to test it out today, and found out that they still had that internal storage(2gb) and external storage(now they call it phone storage)... I was disappointed. I was told that the Galaxy Nexus did not have this option anymore you could use all of the 16gb/32gb to dl apps and store everything else. The main reason I wanted to switch from my HTC Desire HD is because I only had 1gb of internal storage. I am a heavy app user, every single time I want to try a new app or update me current apps, my phone just tells me that I have low internal memory space. I had to delete my emails, my msgs, and a lot of my games. If I didnt make space in my internal memory I wouldnt be able to sync my accounts or update my apps.
Anyways I just want someone to clarify to me that the whole internal storage for the HTC One X work the same way as the Galaxy Nexus or Iphone 4S. Or is it still the same like the HTC Desire, that you can only use 2gb to store dl apps. I know that you can move games into the sd cards but widgets, emails, msgs and saved games must be in the internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the 16gb is seperated into 3 sections: the system (or OS), the 2gb app partition your mentioning, and about 10gb of free space.
the system partition cannot be touched (normally), the rest works together. the 2gb is for the apps themselves (think .exe) and can use and saved data to run the app on the 10gb (think .bin).
In other words, an app on the iphone is say, 20mb. well that is probably a 500kb app (.exe) with 19.5mg of supporting data (.bin). on an iphone it just shows 20mb being used.
An android, on the other hand, will use the 2gb partition for the 500kb app, but use the 10gb for the 19.5mb data.
this is not true on all apps but most and all updated and new ones.
in the end, you'll have ALOT of space, just not unlimited, but what does? also note, the one x us version only has 16gb without sdcard expansion (gay). so many people will have to be smart. keep photo's uploaded to photoshop, dropbox, photobucket, ect. use google music to keep audio. use dropbox for nandroids, videos, and other big files. learn how to use vnc. if you learn all of your resources, you'll find that you have plenty of space.
reference
1gb=1000mb
1mb=1000kb
16gb=16000mb=16000000kb

This is what I am kind of upset about, if I know I am paying for a phone that has 32gb I dont want to be limited to only being able to use 2gb out of 32gb :S. Right now I have the HTC Desire HD, which gives 1gb of internal storage, I am a very heavy app user, and I have tons of email accounts. These past few months I have been deleting a lot of my apps, and deleting a lot of my emails just to update my current apps and to be able to sync my accounts. It would have been much better if it was like the Galaxy Nexus or the Iphone. Anyways thx for clearing it up for me. Now I know that the HTC One X also works like the HTC Desire HD (storage wise) I am struggling with only 1gb of internal storage, I dont think an extra 1gb will help me with what I want, especially with new apps, and more updates for the current apps.

rickywz said:
This is what I am kind of upset about, if I know I am paying for a phone that has 32gb I dont want to be limited to only being able to use 2gb out of 32gb :S. Right now I have the HTC Desire HD, which gives 1gb of internal storage, I am a very heavy app user, and I have tons of email accounts. These past few months I have been deleting a lot of my apps, and deleting a lot of my emails just to update my current apps and to be able to sync my accounts. It would have been much better if it was like the Galaxy Nexus or the Iphone. Anyways thx for clearing it up for me. Now I know that the HTC One X also works like the HTC Desire HD (storage wise) I am struggling with only 1gb of internal storage, I dont think an extra 1gb will help me with what I want, especially with new apps, and more updates for the current apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always.... use sd-ext partitions?

Hunt3r.j2 said:
You could always.... use sd-ext partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for the One X there is no option for an external SD card, and even if that was the case, all the data of apps, maps, emails, msgs, apps with widget, etc all of those have to be stored in the internal memory...

rickywz said:
Not for the One X there is no option for an external SD card, and even if that was the case, all the data of apps, maps, emails, msgs, apps with widget, etc all of those have to be stored in the internal memory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'm saying you do a link between /data/app and an ext partition on part of the internal storage that functions as a microSD card.
Another possibility is using a custom hboot that changes the phone to use MTP and place the virtual sdcard into the data partition, but this would require extensive changes to the phone software in the way of recoveries and Roms.

Hunt3r.j2 said:
No, I'm saying you do a link between /data/app and an ext partition on part of the internal storage that functions as a microSD card.
Another possibility is using a custom hboot that changes the phone to use MTP and place the virtual sdcard into the data partition, but this would require extensive changes to the phone software in the way of recoveries and Roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"link between /data/app and an ext partition on part of the internal storage that functions as a microSD card"
How do I do partition it? and will there be a downside of doing that? i.e. slowing down the phone?
making the phone to use MTP will be the best for me ( like the GN) that way I will be able to make use of the whole 25gb for apps without worrying about the internal memory getting full.

Bump.......
the first question ever posted on our hox forum, ain't it special

Local Storage, SD Storage & MicroSD Storage

Hello, was hoping someone could help me or possibly explain how the Storage is structured on the 300T.
You have Local, SD & MicroSD storage. On my Evo3D phone I have Local and MicroSD and when I use my Cloud Service it stores everything on the MicroSD. On my 300T when I use my Cloud Service it stores everthing on the Internal SD storage instead of the removable MicroSD card. I have heard that once you fill up the SD storage it will overflow onto the removable MicroSD, is this true?
Basically, I want to store games and Tablet data on the local and Internal SD storage and have all my music and movies on the removable MicroSD. Are there was to do this?

Unless there is a option in the app you are using that you can change where it puts the multimedia files you download from it you will have to move them to the removable Micro SD yourself.
However I wouldn't think anything would default to the removable MicroSD because they probably think the internal sd IS the external memory. allowing your external MicroSD to not get cluttered.
I don't have much experience with tablets or ICS so I could be wrong.

I would like to get it to download apps to SD instead of internal
I'm having a problem on my TF300T
All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card!
Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal.
Thanks in advance
nordis,

nordis2010 said:
I'm having a problem on my TF300T
All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card!
Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal.
Thanks in advance
nordis,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default on ICS everything goes to the sd card. I believe there is a rooted option to move some apps to sd card, but I'm not sure. check out this thread. Starting on that page and for a little bit there is some discussion on it.
As I stated in that thread. I would like to know what apps people are installing that take up that much space.

I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point?
As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and
pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night.
I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast.
My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA

nordis2010 said:
I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point?
As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and
pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night.
I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast.
My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if these apps work but try them out:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wOSwiY29tLndvbmd4bWluZy5hbmRyb2lkLmFwcDJzZCJd
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwxLDEwOSwibW9iaS5pbmZvbGlmZS5hcHAyc2QiXQ..

Cool
It never occurred to me to just check the app store lol!
Thanks for that. Guess my brain is a bit laggy today, spent all night
getting this rooted.
Actually rooting it was beyond simple, the real issue was with Java not being recognized by Windows, so I couldn't run ADB.
All it came down to was the Environment Variable, once set it could see
the application and load the usb drivers. Then after getting it loaded I had to play with it, so went to sleep got up a hour later to go to work hehe.
Anyway thanks for the responses, this forum has been a God Sent!
nordis,

There's no way without root is there?
Sent from my R800i using XDA

KindaUndisputed said:
There's no way without root is there?
Sent from my R800i using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, some of the data from the apps are stored in /root/data/data.... You'll need root to move them (in our case ICS, in gingerbread you were able to do this unrooted). Did it work nordis?

Wasn't at system when you sent that last response.
Hi,
Sorry was going back n forth between work and home.
I have a couple of them pulled down, all with very similar names.
A couple look really promising. I will post it once I'm finished but it looks
like the majority of these will allow me to move everything that I want to
move off of the internal storage and on to the SD card.
Well all except the XDA forums, for some reason those all state internal only.
Not a big deal though. If I can move the GPS apps off the internal storage, and
my ForEx apps I think I'm good.
nordis,
---------- Post added at 01:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 AM ----------
This sucks,
Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036
I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now.
Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless!
This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me.
If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these.
I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store!

nordis2010 said:
This sucks,
Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036
I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now.
Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless!
This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me.
If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these.
I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I'm guessing the apps didn't work. Suggestion why don't you just download the maps for your current State, there's really no need to download all the maps from USA, if you're not using them everyday. If you ever need to go to another state just download the maps for that state before going. This will help you save some space. You could also consider getting the 32GB version. The only way to fill the 12gb of free space is installing about 15 Dark Meadows apps (approx. 800MB each). The larger size regular games (non THD) take around 50-100 MBs, meaning that you have space for 120 games (12GBs). This would be completely ridiculous since no one plays that much games, I have about 10 installed right now and I only play like three of them (and I'm a gamer).
Unused data should be freed, if you don't want to lose the data on those apps you barely use you can run Titanium backup to back up your data and transfer the data to your pc for later use if needed. Every media you have (videos, photos, music, etc.) you can store them in the external SD card.
Still I understand your frustration, we should be able to transfer stuff to our card without any hassle. AFAIK this isn't just an ASUS problem but an overal ICS problem.

I know
I did for just my state an the surrounding states I live near.
For the past couple of days I had been looking at running some small app on the SD card, they jump you through hoops and loops going through some partition process for the Micro SD card.
However I think I can do this right on a Windows 7 system with the Drive Management utilities built into Windows, and a Micro SD to USB reader.
Which I already have, I used for my sons DS way back, I put the card in it, through it in the system, it see's it, and tells me that it can be read, formatted, partitioned the whole 9 yards. So I will try it at work today and let you know how it turns out. If this can be partitioned this way, and then use one of these apps L2SD or something like that then it's a very simple solution.
Sorry I will post the exact name of the app I was looking at once I have tested this if it works. Along with detailed instructions.
Thanks again for all the help.
nordis,

I'm linked it all works I used a SD to USB adapter in Windows
Hi,
I'm linked and you can set it up to use the SD Card as the default for downloads now.
First things you need to do this.
You have to be have Root access on your device before you can do any of this. You have to make sure you go into settings on your device and Enable USB Debugging before you start any of this.
1. You need to partition your Micro SD Card. I used the a SD to USB Adapter, and Partitioned my 32GB Card the SD Card on a Windows 7 system as follows.
Set the 1st partition to 1GB. Set the second partition to use the remainder of the card. Download "EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition" it's free, you pull it down from www.download.com
2. You need a boot loader this is what that 1st 1GB partition is for. I used
bootice you can download it from here free http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-ireneuszp/downloads/detail?name=bootice_0.9.2011.0512.rar
This is all you need to do with this app. Run Bootice, go "Parts Manage" > "ReFormat USB disk" (don't worry, it won't "format" the USB) > choose the dropdown option for your new first partition > click "Set Accessible" and it's done already! After that you can just click cancel/close/etc.
3. Download and run Link2SD from the Android Market, you can actually do this step first. Also this app is free.
Here is a Guide I found online for Link2SD. http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/12/12/link2sd-guide-never-worry-about-internal-memory-limits-again/
This guide shows you how to move apps, No proprietary system apps, but those are note the ones you really have to worry about taking up space anyway. It also shows you how to go into the Link2SD settings and make your Micro SD Card your default download location from places that auto install applications like the Android Market. Very nice, this was exactly what I needed, I'm very pleased with this so far.
I have to give another thank you to jgaf for this, he pointed me in the direction of the Link 2 SD software in the first place, very much appreciated!
Sorry it took me so long to post this after I got setup it's been a busy weekend though.
Good luck.
nordis

Good to hear nordis now you can keep your TF300Ts Maybe you should make a new thread with the steps you did to get it working, so other people can find it easily.

Good idea.
Just have to finish some other things up and I will
move the details over to a new thread.
nordis,

Done, I posted it in the main Q&A section. Cleaned it up a bit, added a couple of lines where I thought people may have some questions. I hope it's pretty straight forward for everyone. I went through all this like a breeze when I partitioned my card this way, hopefully every one else will as well.

Get the 32gb version of the 300.
If you can fill up 30gb with apps, you need to learn to not keep everything you don't really use.
Put your music, movies, and photos on the Sd card, you won't have a problem with app space.
The 32gb version is only $20 more. It's not like you can't afford it.

Wasn't aware of it at the time, and they don't offer it at Best Buy
When I purchased the ones I was getting I just went to Best Buy so I could get them right then.
Didn't want to wait or order them off the net, and all that Best Buy sells apparently is the 16GB version. I wasn't aware at the time that there even was a 32GB version.
However I would fill that up eventually as well. It's just not good business marketing to make a device with such a limitation in the first place. You should be able to download, and install apps where you want them and need them.
Anyway situation is resolved for me now I'm happy.
nordis,

Suggestions on how to deal with Comixologies lack of SD storage support?

My internal storage is maxed out. I have already moved everything I possibly can to my SD card.
I am thinking about merging the internal and SD storage, but have read that will cause tablet efficiency to drop. I am not sure how much. I am on the last update from Samsung which is 5.0.2 but am willing to root and try another ROM. Open to suggestions.
Thanks.
*Comixology is a digital comic book reader and store. They only allow comics to be downloaded to internal storage. If the comics get moved, the app will not read them.
Most comics are getting HD upgrades which is compounding the issue. I can use the browser site, but comics load slow, and flipping through pages too fast seem to break the site and the comic page will hang up and not load. The app is much faster and has a better page preview system. Plus I travel a lot so the app is the best course for me. I am in the comic industry and need access to the comics quickly and efficiently. I also live abroad (not in the US where most of the comics are from) and move quite often so purchasing paper versions is often not an option.
Some comics can be downloaded as a PDF (I think all image and quite a few inidies). I have already downloaded them and moved them to the SD and deleted them from the internal, but still am maxed out on space.
Digital Dark Horse allows comics to be downloaded to external storage. But their app is not as nice to use as Comixology, so I would prefer to buy DH titles on comixology as well.

That is one of the problems with Android tablets and phones. Since some programs insist on loading their stuff on internal memory, when it gets full you are out of luck. They do that to keep you from copying their stuff and selling or giving it away.

treetopsranch said:
That is one of the problems with Android tablets and phones. Since some programs insist on loading their stuff on internal memory, when it gets full you are out of luck. They do that to keep you from copying their stuff and selling or giving it away.
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Thanks Treetopsranch. And yes, I am aware of the issue and the reasons for some time now. Unfortunately the consequences are just now catching up to me. Several messages a year to comixology always gets the same response. We are not implementing it at this time but will pass this on to the developers so they are aware of the issue.

Have you tried folder mount? I used it for making my music player think that my music is in the internal storage.

fvig2001 said:
Have you tried folder mount? I used it for making my music player think that my music is in the internal storage.
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I have not tried folder mount. You mean like this one?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount&hl=en
Sounds promising. I am rooted so I can give this a try. Thanks for the suggestion and I will post my results.
edit: Can't add the app. Out of space....Gonna have to get to this after work today ?

Yes that one

fvig2001 said:
Yes that one
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Oogely Moogely! I transferred 13 gigs of comics to my external SD and they all open no problem at all. No lag or anything from what I can tell. I am now downloading the other 120 comics I had to remove to make space for new comics. (Some of those are single issue and some are graphic novels)
This is soooo helpful cause I am in the middle of making a comic and being able to access old "30 Days of Night" comics I had deleted is what I need when I get stuck or not sure how to go about something. Ahhh the access. And not using the horribly slow browser interface.
For anyone else: The data does not show on your internal storage when you check storage from your devices settings menu. It does show if you use something like DiskUsage. Diskusage also says it scanned %178 of my internal storage, so I guess it just adds what is not really there in the scan % but also says I have no free space, which I do. About %50 free space now.
EDIT: Just realized that comixology does not download comics in the background when the tablet goes to sleep. So you have to keep the screen on I guess. I couldn't find a setting for this in the app. Not sure if there is something under tablet settings.
If I find any drawback from this app I will post them here.

Well, how comes that you need them all at the same time? Why not download and delete them separately?

macmobile said:
Well, how comes that you need them all at the same time? Why not download and delete them separately?
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Well, I'm a comic artist and I often need reference or ideas from my peers. It helps me keep my art fresh and less stagnant. So when I remember how Tocchini colored an underwater scene in LOW, or how Samnee used a cool panel layout in Blackwidow, I can quickly reference what I need. The browser sucks for this because it is super slow and the page index is not as nice. Also, my tablet is my 2nd monitor so that is where the comics are the most useful.

Ah, I see, very interesting, but this seems to be a very specific use case most consumers don't depend on.

macmobile said:
Ah, I see, very interesting, but this seems to be a very specific use case most consumers don't depend on.
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I agree. But, re-downloading every time you want to read something, even for a consumer, is still ****ty. I am not sure what your point is though.

michaelsammler said:
I agree. But, re-downloading every time you want to read something, even for a consumer, is still ****ty. I am not sure what your point is though.
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Of course it would be better if you can choose yourself where to save your comics. But a normal use case looks like this: download on demand, read, delete, next.

200MB free is considered low on storage?

My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it. Is there a fix? It seems to me like Google has no real interest in fixing major issues with Android that have existed practically since the beginning like devices being "low on storage" while Android is the top mobile OS. Perhaps if something like Pinephone would actually succeed & give Android some competition Google would care & address the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)

tsaxda said:
My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it.
the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)
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Well yeah, 200MB is definitely low on storage. And this message can certainly be annoying but it's not a bug, but a "security" mesure, if you need to take a photo or something, or if an app needs more space to run, it'd be a good thing to have 200MB leftover.

Nowadays apps can take >200Mb just for cache so yeah, it's considered nothing. I personally try to keep at least 1GB free.
Have you checked your storage whether something can be deleted? This is a great app for showing you storage use

You can put in up to a 256 gb SD card, what are you waiting for?
Use internal memory for the OS, programs and downloads (temporarily).
Use the SD card as the data drive.

Yeh, Up to 256 gb SD card should work a treat...

galaxys said:
Yeh, Up to 256 gb SD card should work a treat...
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10+ takes up to 1 tb, put a Lexar .5 tb V30 in it for $75. Not too shabby... daul drives are a beautiful thing. Can do a full reload now with no PC and little or no internet connection; completely self contained.

Very cool indeed!

galaxys said:
Very cool indeed!
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The newer generations of Samsung's are capable of very faster read/write times on a fast sd card.
The 10+ shows no lag when using media files off the card. Literally have over 200 albums stored as .wav files there and movies too.
Provides a little bit of a buffer too from malware getting into the data; I've picked off a couple in the downloads folder before they got going including a jpeg. The whole card is backed up on the PC and a 2nd hdd... just in case.
Lol, have an old Dell e6400 laptop I picked up cheap. Just realized 3 weeks ago I could swap out the DVD/CD player for a hot swappable hdd insert tray... $100 latter it now has a 2tb data drive. Split the page file between the two for now, OS and data speeds are a lot better.
You can -never- have too many internal bays on any device, only not enough.

blackhawk said:
Use the SD card as the data drive.
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What do you mean by "set it as the data drive"?

The problem is I factory reset because of being low on storage, & left off a lot of the apps I had before & I'm still every bit as low on storage as I was before if not more. What am I supposed to do when I'm not the one at fault for my phone being low on storage? I would root so I could rip out all of the samsung bloat but A. I can't afford to buy a new phone should something go wrong, & B. I don't think the galaxy On5 has a 1-click root which means having to use a windows computer which I don't have.

Android phones have an in-built feature known as Adoptable Storage, which enables users to add an extra layer of storage space for music, pictures, videos, files, and so on.
The interesting thing is that the Adoptable Storage feature allows SD cards to serve as a permanent internal storage medium. This means that everything you save on your phone will be moved to the external storage (SD card) you mounted, and not your phone's internal storage. With SD cards in play, you never have to worry about your phone's storage getting full, and developing lagging problems.

I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible. I remember Google saying when they gave the first presentation on android that they wouldn't allow preinstalled, un-removable, then they did, & still do.

tsaxda said:
The problem is I factory reset because of being low on storage, & left off a lot of the apps I had before & I'm still every bit as low on storage as I was before if not more. What am I supposed to do when I'm not the one at fault for my phone being low on storage? I would root so I could rip out all of the samsung bloat but A. I can't afford to buy a new phone should something go wrong, & B. I don't think the galaxy On5 has a 1-click root which means having to use a windows computer which I don't have.
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I use 20gb just for apps, caches and a tempory download folder. So if you 16gb of memory yeah I see the issue and had to trim the the tree with S4+ before.
Use this package disabler:
Home - Package Disabler
The only NON-root solution that let’s you disable any unwanted packages that come pre-installed / installed with your phone / tablet.
www.packagedisabler.com
Disable crap you don't need and then use that same app to clear it's data. The app is still there just not running and sucking up memory by adding more via data/cache.
Clear browser cache regularly, limit the phone to two browsers max. Clear data regularly on gmaps if you don't need that data or disable if you don't use it. Police the caches regularly, SD Maid (16mb) does a good job.
As for your music, vids, documents, pics, put all of that on an SD card.
Although you can use the SD card as internal memory as jwoegerbauer points out it's best not to unless you can't avoid it. You may have to though if you can't live without some of those large user installed apps.
I could cut my 10+ down to 14gb internal if I had too... so can you.
There are apps I rarely use. As pointed out already you should have at least 1gb of free space preferably 2gb or more head room.
Sort it out as what you're doing now isn't good Android husbandry.

tsaxda said:
I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible.
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Not on your model without root apperantly.
How to adopt SD card as internal storage on Samsung devices?
I recently upgraded to 6.0.1 Marshmallow on my Galaxy S5 and I would like to adopt an SD card as internal storage. However, there is no option to do this. When I format the SD card, there is no "
android.stackexchange.com
It can cause operational issues anyway including crashes. Try to use the KISS (keep it simple studip) principle whenever possible to limit things that can go wrong.

tsaxda said:
I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible. I remember Google saying when they gave the first presentation on android that they wouldn't allow preinstalled, un-removable, then they did, & still do.
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Whether Adoptable Storage is default feature on a phone or not can easily queried with following ADB command sequence:
Code:
adb devices
adb shell "sm has-adoptable"
If true is returned than phone has this feature.

tsaxda said:
My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it. Is there a fix? It seems to me like Google has no real interest in fixing major issues with Android that have existed practically since the beginning like devices being "low on storage" while Android is the top mobile OS. Perhaps if something like Pinephone would actually succeed & give Android some competition Google would care & address the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)
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Click to collapse
200mb its nothing storage broh