Database Info

[Q] What are the files inside .android_secure?

i seem to have over 1 GB of wasted space in that folder .android_secure
any 1 got a clue if those are safe to delete?

I've never found that deleting anything on my SD card caused major problems for the phone, including .android_secure. Of course, that folder has never been 1 GB in size for me, either, so I suppose your results may vary. Really, though, all the system stuff is in the protected internal storage, so I doubt you'll do much worse than delete media files or whatever apps you've moved to the SD card, if that. I say give it a shot and see what happens. Of course, I take no responsibility for anything that does go wrong if you do. >.>

apparently those are Apps settings or something along the lines
i flashed SuperAOS and during the wiping process it showed it was deleting .android_secure

App2sd
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.

If you move an app to the SD card via the official (2.2+) method, this is where (most of it) goes.

Hi,
I recently flashed a new ROM and had to do a full wipe including factory reset. I copied some apps to SD, and indeed I see that the .android_secure folder has a lot in it, taking up space. I installed all apps again from market on the new ROM install, and they all say they can be copied to SD again, so they don't take information from the previously installed bits on the SD card. Is it safe to delete everything in this folder?
EDIT: I have an HTC Hero, but only noticed when I posted this that this is a Samsung Nexus S thread. I'm guessing that this is not that big a deal?

mikebel3 said:
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.
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Click to collapse
sorry to revive this thread after so long, but does this folder also store the app data? In other words, for games like plants vs zombies or angry birds etc, if I copy the corresponding files over to my new phone (after installing PVZ/AB on the new phone of course), does it also copy over my progress?
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)

jj14 said:
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup?

suksit said:
Titanium Backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't that only for rooted phones?

[Q] How to Backup my Data

I have been told I need to do a "Factory Data Reset" to a) clear out phantom crap-data from my built-in storage (now at 4% free space), and b) stop my phone from random double SMS posts.
I see several Market options for backup but none look very appealing nor do they guarantee to backup everything. Several require your phone to be rooted (mine isn't). Free apps don't backup everything and paid apps only back up the the SD Card but mine is nearly full.
Some on this forum say they can do it all by hand but I have no idea how.
Can't I just plug it into my laptop and move the files over?
This is my first Android phone and I would like to eventually ROOT the phone but I am not there yet. Perhaps this is the next step towards being comfortable doing that.

Some Market Apps, like MyBackup Pro, will back up to the "cloud" but at a price: MyBackup Pro comes with 50MB of free cloud storage, which you can upgrade to 250MB for $1 per month or 1GB for $2 per month.

ncmacasl said:
I have been told I need to do a "Factory Data Reset" to a) clear out phantom crap-data from my built-in storage (now at 4% free space), and b) stop my phone from random double SMS posts.
I see several Market options for backup but none look very appealing nor do they guarantee to backup everything. Free apps don't backup everything and paid apps only back up the the SD Card but mine is nearly full.
Some on this forum say they can do it all by hand but I have no idea how.
Can't I just plug it into my laptop and move the files over?
This is my first Android phone and I would like to eventually ROOT the phone but I am not there yet. Perhaps this is the next step towards being comfortable doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
titanium backup pro works very well

tylermaciaszek said:
titanium backup pro works very well
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Click to collapse
But doesn't that only work for ROOTED phones?

ncmacasl said:
But doesn't that only work for ROOTED phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats right sorry forgot you werent rooted
try this vv
http://free-mobile-messenger.com/2011/03/09/backup-everything-1-0-apk/

And that app only saves to the SD card. Mine is FULL

Where do you want to save it to? anywhere but the sdcard will be wiped in any sort of flashing, making it a useless backup. the only logical place to backup your data is your sdcard, and then copying that backup to your computer.

How do I safely move stuff off the SD Card to make more room for the backup?How much room will the backup take? Does the backup only backup the Phone storage or also the SD Storage? (FYI, I have Astro File Manager)

Backing up the sdcard would be an oxymoron, as trying to backup your sdcard to your sdcard would never work, that would be like trying to make 1 + something try to be less than 1. You can plug your phone in as a Mass Storage Device, which will use your phone essentially as a flash drive, and you can add or delete as you please. If you're worried about deleting something, copy it to your computer rather than deleting it outright. Backing up should take about 500 MB if you're using Nandroid, but you're not rooted, and I'm not familiar with the posted backup. Backing up without rooting is very difficult

sduvick said:
...Backing up without rooting is very difficult
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Yeah that is why I am posting. many of us non-root-ers want to be able to do this, and also, aren't you supposed to backup your system BEFORE you attempt to ROOT? How does everyone else do it??
OK So I Sideload everything from the SD Card to the laptop, then delete everything from the SD Card, then backup the phone storage stuff to the SD Card, then move THAT File/folder to the laptop.
Is that right??

Rooting is non-invasive, I've never backed up before rooting. Rooting just edits permissions on one file, which no non-rooted backup app can backup anyways.
If you wanted to backup that way, then yes, that would work, but if you're looking to backup before you root, I would say don't even bother, as it will not backup the phone system anyways, as no non-rooted app can do that.

If rooting is so "non-invasive" then why do you read so many warnings that if you don't do it **JUST RIGHT** you can totally BRICK your phone??

Also what do you mean by "not backup the phone system"?

Rooting can't brick your phone, flashing kernels and bootloaders can. The actual phone files, the operating system files, cannot be backed up by a non-rooted phone, as they are privileged. Rooting only installs the SuperUser.apk to manage super user rights, as well as changing the privileges on the system's super user binary so that you as a user can use it. all that to say, it's not a big deal to root, but what you do once you get root is what can cause issues. And if you brick yourself, no backup is going to help you, as by definition, bricking is beyond repair.

[Q] how to send app to sd card

my phone is rooted and when i go to manage apps...it doesnt give me the opition to move to sd card...?...why not...and how do i move the cache for like my maps and other apps to my sd card...any help would be nice...thanks in advance...

Market app. Apps2sd.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Also Titanium Backup will give you that choice, as well as a ton of other options, like to make a backup copy of apps and their data to the sd card. Flashed my phone and restored all my programs with saved passwords data and everything using this program. The ROM I have now automatically installs all apps to the sd card unless they are required to be on the internal mem. :)

Farlander said:
Also Titanium Backup will give you that choice, as well as a ton of other options, like to make a backup copy of apps and their data to the sd card. Flashed my phone and restored all my programs with saved passwords data and everything using this program. The ROM I have now automatically installs all apps to the sd card unless they are required to be on the internal mem. :)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will check that out...thanks...i used app2sd it works pretty good...but how can/do i earse apps...uninsall isnt highlighted as an opition...and if it is...it only uninstalls the update...not the app...cause i want to get rid of apps like...layers...drive smart...tmobile tv...ya know the usless apps...if you have any advice id be very happy to hear....thanks in advance...

Titanium backup removes system apps.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

What do I NEED to keep on my SD card?

I'm trying to clean up my SD card and free up some space. I have some files on there that I am wondering if I need to leave them, or if I can store them on my computer instead.
I always have 2 roms on there.
Synergy_backup_HWkeys_signed.zip (I think that has something to do with my IEMI backup)
MB1 modem
MF1 modem
SuperSU_bootloader_fixed.zip
triangleAway-v2.37.zip
The tibu backup folder......is there only one (the most recent back up in there)
Anything else I can delete that you can think of?
Thanks so much!

Sdcard as in internal or external sd? If external, I doubt there are many apps that see it besides music/vids/pics apps. If internal then if that's all you cherish, everything else can be deleted. I'd save pics/vids but to each his own. Some folders will be rebuilt if you're flashing a rom as well.

You can delete the modems and the SU zip, you won't need those anymore. And I don't know about you but I have 1 TiBu folder which only holds my most recent backups. And if you are referring to an Ext SD Card then you can be liberal with what you delete, no important system data should be going there
If you're responding to me, make sure to quote me so I get an immediate email

You should be able to delete everything (if you don't want pics, etc). However, I remember there was some sort of bin file or something like that on the top most layer of files. I tried deleting it (after opening it and not finding any data), and it messed everything up to the point where I had to reflash the ROM. To this day, I don't know where it came from. But now whenever I reflash a ROM I completely wipe my internal card to get rid of any weird files that may still be around.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Lag and bad performance when running out of storage

As the tilte is saying, whenever there's less than 100 mb of internal storgare the performance just dies. Even scrolling is laggy. I've used multiple ROMs (CM 11, 10.1, 9/SlimKat/SlimSaber/BeanStalk) but no luck. I've also used Greenify and it hasn't helped. I only install the apps I really need : Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Shazam, Hangouts, Youtube, Viber. That's it ! I even uninstall wallpapers and ringtones, plus all the apps that could be moved to the SD card are moved.
Does anyone have any suggestions ? Maybe increasing the internal storage on KitKat ? Or are there any tweaks I'm not aware of ?
Thanks in advance.

First backup your SD card. And then create external partition type ext4, using TWRP recovery and only TWRP (If you use any other tools, you will not be able to backup sd-ext using TWRP, and this is from my experience).
Next, get Link2SD app, and create mount scripts, reboot, set Auto linking checked and (also App, Library, and Dalvik checked). And link App, Library, and Dalvik files to sd-ext. If you paid for Link2SD+, you will be able to link internal data too. A warning though, keep important apps that starts up with android on internal memory such as launchers to prevent lag. Depending on what class your SD card, you might not notice any lag at all. I still have the 16GB that came with the phone, and it is not really fast, it is laggy but not much.
I know I will be lashed for saying this, but get Lucky Patcher (use it for legal stuff only, lol) and ODEX all your system files. Custom roms are unoptimized due to the need to have resource hooks and hacking the system files or debugging them. Creating Optimized dexs, they will occupy less memory and become faster. You will notice a significant improvement in speed.
Currently, I have SlimKat 4.4.4, 2.5GB sd-ext ext4 partition (~1.5GB used) and have 204MB free on internal. And around 143-145 apps installed ranging from few hundreds of KBs to tens of MBs. And the system is snappy.
Another warning if you use Titanium Backup, if you batch restore many apps at once, Link2SD might not be able to catch up linking apps as soon as Titanium Backup finish restoring the apps with data, causing memory go low or Titanium Backup freeze. A solution to this, only restore chunks of 10 or 15 apps at once, and wait till Link2SD done linking all of the apps.
After you are satisfied with the results, go to TWRP and backup EVERYTHING including sd-ext. EXCEPT "EFS" partition (if it does show up), which you might get bad IMEI number if you restore EFS again. You can enable compression to the backup, which helpfully compressed the ~2300MB files to ~1300MB for me.
Good luck. :good:

Thanks mate ! Gonna try ASAP !

Rebel_X said:
First backup your SD card. And then create external partition type ext4, using TWRP recovery and only TWRP (If you use any other tools, you will not be able to backup sd-ext using TWRP, and this is from my experience)....
Good luck. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, thanks for writing this. Now, just a quick question, did you have had problems with apps disappearing after a update?
This begin happening like a month or so ago. After an app auto-update, it disappear, and I have to recreate the mount script on Link2SD and reboot for it to appear again. Now I disable auto-update, android only notify me of updates. Then I remove the links of the app to update on Link2SD, then update the app, and then I create the links again.
I have my device set up exactly how I like it, but I'm thinking about erasing my phone and starting up again.

llinkll said:
First, thanks for writing this. Now, just a quick question, did you have had problems with apps disappearing after a update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this happened to me long time ago when I used an older version of Link2SD. The newer version promised that it fixed Apps disappearing after booting. But, if that happens to you, you can fix this easily by "Relink all app files" from Link2SD to find any unlinked apps that are supposed to be linked and then reboot or soft reboot from Link2SD. Or you can "Clear 2nd Partition" and/or Dalvik cache to delete the apps that disappeared and reinstall them again. But an answer to your question, I didn't have any apps disappear on me when I started clean.
Also, for anyone deciding on ODEXing system files. Choose a ROM that have enough free space in system partition to do so. Some roms have less than 8MB in system partition (CM11!) which can cause problems when doing so. SlimKat 4.4.4 is really slim, you have over 40MB free in system partition. If you want to keep the ROM you are using, you can free more space in system partition by converting the Keyboard app to a user app, that is another 40MBs free (and if you did that, you have to reselect the Keyboard from Language input in settings, by un-ticking/re-ticking the checkbox, also don't link the Keyboard app to 2nd partition, it can cause lag). I noticed if you have less than 5MB in system partition, the performance of the phone suffers greatly.
From using Link2SD to view storage information, you will notice that Data partition and Cache partition are the same (I could be wrong here, but that what it seems to be). So it is important to have more free space in the Data partition.

Rebel_X said:
First backup your SD card. And then create external partition type ext4, using TWRP recovery and only TWRP (If you use any other tools, you will not be able to backup sd-ext using TWRP, and this is from my experience).
Next, get Link2SD app, and create mount scripts, reboot, set Auto linking checked and (also App, Library, and Dalvik checked). And link App, Library, and Dalvik files to sd-ext. If you paid for Link2SD+, you will be able to link internal data too. A warning though, keep important apps that starts up with android on internal memory such as launchers to prevent lag. Depending on what class your SD card, you might not notice any lag at all. I still have the 16GB that came with the phone, and it is not really fast, it is laggy but not much.
I know I will be lashed for saying this, but get Lucky Patcher (use it for legal stuff only, lol) and ODEX all your system files. Custom roms are unoptimized due to the need to have resource hooks and hacking the system files or debugging them. Creating Optimized dexs, they will occupy less memory and become faster. You will notice a significant improvement in speed.
Currently, I have SlimKat 4.4.4, 2.5GB sd-ext ext4 partition (~1.5GB used) and have 204MB free on internal. And around 143-145 apps installed ranging from few hundreds of KBs to tens of MBs. And the system is snappy.
Another warning if you use Titanium Backup, if you batch restore many apps at once, Link2SD might not be able to catch up linking apps as soon as Titanium Backup finish restoring the apps with data, causing memory go low or Titanium Backup freeze. A solution to this, only restore chunks of 10 or 15 apps at once, and wait till Link2SD done linking all of the apps.
After you are satisfied with the results, go to TWRP and backup EVERYTHING including sd-ext. EXCEPT "EFS" partition (if it does show up), which you might get bad IMEI number if you restore EFS again. You can enable compression to the backup, which helpfully compressed the ~2300MB files to ~1300MB for me.
Good luck. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude? what if uninstall my lucky patcher? is the odex file still there?

DerPuGNa said:
dude? what if uninstall my lucky patcher? is the odex file still there?
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Click to collapse
I don't think that will affect ODEX files at all.
LoL, every time I read your username I read it as "Danganronpa" (Japanese word for bullet time) as the great Anime show (an adaptation of the PSP game). Please don't take that offensively :good:

Thanks !!!! Gonna report back with the performance !
Intial thoughts : *Very* good.