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What happens when you send apps to the SD Card

Ok. I need help and I've looked everywhere and tried everything I know. This is the 3rd Atrix that this has happened to me and I can't imagine it is something I did to 3 separate Atrixes.
My question is what happens to programs that are moved to the SD Card - which for the Atrix is an internal storage area known as the Media Area?
What happens is that I install lots of apps that I find useful and fun. I move the larger ones over to the SD Card(Media Area). Which was all good for a couple of days. Then today I tried to update a couple of apps and one of them hung. Meaning it downloaded and said it was installing but just kept trying to install. From that point on, anything I had moved to the SD Card(Media Area) will not load. When I start a program that tells me the number of apps installed and where, it does not list any on the SD Card. When I go to the app manager in settings menu, ALL the apps that are installed on the main memory keep saying "Computing..." where it should say what size the file is. And of course any that I moved to the SD Card are not listed.
On top of this, I can't install anything from the market. I can press the button to install, but it doesn't do anything. Just sits there. When I try to push an app from the market on the web it downloads, but doesn't install.
I can navigate on the SD Card(Media Area) and move, copy, delete files all I want there so it isn't a problem with the SD Card(Media Area)
Now on my other Atrix phones, I reflashed the original sbf and that didn't help. I also tried the wipe data to restore factory settings. I have it rooted now, so if there is something I can do to it while rooted, that would be nice. I have Root Explorer and can navigate around. Where on the SD Card would the apps have been moved? I can't seem to find them.
Now someone smarter than me must know what is going on to install apps and move them. Is there a database that lists the apps in Android that has gotten corrupt? Can I rebuild it? Is it something else?
Is this an Android problem or an Atrix problem?
I'd appreciate any help before I take the Atrix back. I like the phone and would like to keep it, but this is ridiculous.
EDIT : I should also mention that I installed the Amazon App Store and tried to install something from there. It downloads and asks to install. Then it says that it is installing, but the install progress bar just stays there and nothing happens after that.
EDIT 2 : I also have tried to unmount the Internal SD Card (Media Area) and it hangs the phone. Even though I can access anything in that Media Area. Makes me think a file has gotten corrupted in the Android system, but I wouldn't know which one.

Apps disappearing after reboot?! [CM6]

Ive had a weird problem the last day or so, when I reboot my device, apps mysteriously go missing. Each time I reboot, like 5 or 6 different apps disappear. This only happens to SD card apps though. This started happening a few days ago but yesterday it got alot worse AFTER I had reformatted my card. Could there be something wrong with my SD card? The apps still appear to be installed in "manage applications" but they look like "com.aac.cachemate.demo" as the name of the app, instead of "Cachemate" and etc...?

did you use link2sd ?

com....whatever in manage applications usually means, that the apk file is missing, while the application data is present
the mess as described, can be seen if your ext partition is mounted too late ...
nadlabak has some fix about it
https://github.com/nadlabak/android...mmit/e5b9b3195687e04af7a7929f8637e77e1efae9a1
but i can't remember where is part of setting the property, after checking and mounting the whole card ...

nikctsh said:
did you use link2sd ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not, I used the standard apps2sd built into CM6. Every time I reboot, different apps are missing and then some come back that were missing the time before...They all still appear in manage applications though so they might be intact but I'm not sure if all are, they show up with the default generic android icon, and weird names. "mobi.mgeek.tunnybrowser." (Dolphin Browser) and "net.flixter.android" (Flixter) etc...The storage sizes of the missing apps appear to be different then they are supposed to be. (Maybe)

(This might have something to do with it) Yesterday for hours (before I reformatted) the phone was stuck at "Preparing SD card, checking for errors" so I went online and followed the suggestion an xda member who suggested in another thread to delete the "fsck_msdos" file from "system /bin" which disables the SD card check to see if the SD card has been properly mounted and checked. It seemed to fix my other SD card issue for the rest of the day. could this be related?

Just share my experience , when I was in 2.1 , I used link2sd , and if I boot without sdcard , all my linked apps will happen like that , I think maybe this is the same case as apps2sd . So , what I do is just uninstalled all those apps , and reinstalled some of it ( it's quite annoying to reinstall over 100 apps ) . As you said , all those apps remained as it's package name , so I'm kinda sure our case is almost the same . But when I was in 2.2 , once I booted with sdcard inserted , but after boot completed , all my user apps dissapear , yes , ALL . But anyway , after scan for sdcard problem in OR , all my apps recovered , with no force close , just like nothing happen during the last boot . So also , try to scan for sdcard problem in OR .

It says my card is mounted (about half of my sd card apps show up) but when I bring up the gallery, it says "SD card unmounted or not present." When I try to unmount it in settings, it never unmounts, I just click "unmount" and nothing happens....

donovanx3 said:
It says my card is mounted (about half of my sd card apps show up) but when I bring up the gallery, it says "SD card unmounted or not present." When I try to unmount it in settings, it never unmounts, I just click "unmount" and nothing happens....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like you have corruption in your sdcard filesystem. I would take your sdcard out, put it directly into a Windows PC and run chkdsk (alternately fsck.msdos on a linux PC).

Mioze7Ae said:
It sounds like you have corruption in your sdcard filesystem. I would take your sdcard out, put it directly into a Windows PC and run chkdsk (alternately fsck.msdos on a linux PC).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I will run a chkdsk when I get some time to sit down at the computer later. I think it probably is corruption.

Mioze7Ae said:
It sounds like you have corruption in your sdcard filesystem. I would take your sdcard out, put it directly into a Windows PC and run chkdsk (alternately fsck.msdos on a linux PC).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD card fixed with error checking in windows!! Thanks!

Fast Boot option may be the culprit
The advice about checking SD card on Windows or Linux sounds good and I will keep it in mind, but I did not need to fix this sort of problem. I am not familiar with CyanogenMod (CM) in any version, but if it has a fast boot option, read on...
CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////
Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.
I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.
I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.
//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.
Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).
The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).
I will report back here on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1873670
(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (although this thread appears to be the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins) :angel:

Sorry for opening up old thread. My HDC Note3 clone phone having the same/similar issue. The phone have 8G ROM which partition into 2 different name, internal phone (1G) and SD card (5G). Whatever Apps that I install on the SD card will disappear from home menu every-time I re-boot using the power button. However, it it still there when the phone do their own reboot due to something
I try unchecked "Fast Boot" but disappearing act still happen. Any suggestion to resolve the issue?

[Q] Memory issues

Hi,
I have a question and I am hoping you can help me solve it. I purchased a Galaxy S Blaze 4G for my wife. I downloaded the "hide it pro" app from the google store for this phone. Before all this, I have performed a factory reset. I have an 8GB microSD card installed in the device as well. I have never had a problem with installing the app, transferring of personal files which are mostly videos, until this phone. I used to have a Mytouch and had no problems, and I now have an HTC ONE which I definitely dont have any problems. So I'm thinking it may be the phone. (Galaxy S Blaze) With multiple attempts, I have downloaded the app, have gone into the settings and tried even to move the app to the SD card, after I tried transferring less than 2GB worth of files to the app which was about 20/24 files, I would try to go back into the gallery and the phone indicates that "not enough memory, please delete some items." Again, I have never had a problem with this. Can you please help? It seems as though it is saving it to the actual device, instead of the memory card where it originally was to be transfered from to the actual App. Before I started doing anything, the "System storage was 83.25/1.12GB, USB storage was 0.0/1.40GB, and SD card showed 222MB/7.39GB. After installing the app and trying to transfer the files, i went back into the Task Manager/Storage and it now showed that the USB storage was maxed out at 1.40/1.40GB and SD card showed 222/7.39GB still. What do I have to do? The app also worked fine on her old Galaxy SII before she broke the screen. Thats the only reason I purchased this for her. She loves Samsung products, just couldnt afford the S4. Can you gimme some hints on how to resolve?
Sincerely,
Peteypete43

peteypete43 said:
Hi,
I have a question and I am hoping you can help me solve it. I purchased a Galaxy S Blaze 4G for my wife. I downloaded the "hide it pro" app from the google store for this phone. Before all this, I have performed a factory reset. I have an 8GB microSD card installed in the device as well. I have never had a problem with installing the app, transferring of personal files which are mostly videos, until this phone. I used to have a Mytouch and had no problems, and I now have an HTC ONE which I definitely dont have any problems. So I'm thinking it may be the phone. (Galaxy S Blaze) With multiple attempts, I have downloaded the app, have gone into the settings and tried even to move the app to the SD card, after I tried transferring less than 2GB worth of files to the app which was about 20/24 files, I would try to go back into the gallery and the phone indicates that "not enough memory, please delete some items." Again, I have never had a problem with this. Can you please help? It seems as though it is saving it to the actual device, instead of the memory card where it originally was to be transfered from to the actual App. Before I started doing anything, the "System storage was 83.25/1.12GB, USB storage was 0.0/1.40GB, and SD card showed 222MB/7.39GB. After installing the app and trying to transfer the files, i went back into the Task Manager/Storage and it now showed that the USB storage was maxed out at 1.40/1.40GB and SD card showed 222/7.39GB still. What do I have to do? The app also worked fine on her old Galaxy SII before she broke the screen. Thats the only reason I purchased this for her. She loves Samsung products, just couldnt afford the S4. Can you gimme some hints on how to resolve?
Sincerely,
Peteypete43
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which os are you running? If you are on stock ICS your SD card is located at /sdcard/external_sd. If you are on cm10 or 10.2 the 8gb card is located at /external_sd or /storage/sdcard1
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

[Q] USB storage says it mounts, but it doesn't really. It lies!

I have moved an SDCard to a new phone with Android 4.4.
Since that time I cannot see the camera files when connected mass storage in a windows 7 machine. The files that are visible on the computer are from last year, before the move of the card to a new phone. They are all on the SDCard, removable. I removed the SDCard from the phone and all the old files are there.
The camera app is apparently saving new pictures to internal storage. Which does not mount USB.
I should say, a while ago my internal storage got full and I went through and selected "Move to SDCard" on most apps. I don't think that is related, but I am no expert.
I have two camera items in gallery. I can see all the files, new and old, and can send any of them with an SMS message. No problems. When I removed the SDCard gallery only had one camera item.
So to troubleshoot, I have downloaded ESFileExplorer. That can see all the files.
But when I connect to USB and enable USB storage, I can only see the removable card. To test I removed the SDCard from the phone and installed it in a card reader, I can see all the files now.
I do notice one difference now, when I connect the phone to USB with no SDCard installed I get the usual message to enable USB storage, and I click the button, it chuggs, and goes back eventually to the same message, and the USB storage is indeed not mounted. So the stock phone with no SDCard will not mount USB storage, though it offers to.
I have two notifications in the notification pane, one "USB connected" with the robot and the button "turn on usb storage".
I also have a different notification "connected as mass storage" which when selected has four entries, SDCard, which is selected, and PTP, MTP and Charging.
But it seems even though SDCard in checked, it's not actually mounted for some reason.
Any ideas, or is the idea of putting an SDCard in an android phone now a bad idea because of this?
My reading indicates this might be a problem introduced with the permissions changes with KitKat. If so, they really need to fix that. But judging on all the fighting on security issues on Bugzilla which results is just plain wrong development decisions, well, I get it. But I just had to ask you guys who probably actually know.

Firstly, try to be more concise when have problems, post the things you have tried in numbers or columns so somebody who might want to help can quickly know what you have tried and suggest something.
I did not read past your 2nd paragraph.
Secondly, I had a problem with my own sdcard, a kingston 16gb, in the past. Long story short, it became unreadable in my phone. Try to connect it to a PC, if you have an adapter, and back your files there.
The only solution for me was formatting it in my PC. After the format, it works for now.
I also switched phones, formerly a phone running CM11, now a phone running stock Sony 4.4 firmware.
Lastly, it might have to do with the fact that, whatever phone you switched to, some folder naming causes issue for the OS to read.
Again, back your files up, format the SD card.

shadowcore said:
Firstly, try to be more concise when have problems, post the things you have tried in numbers or columns so somebody who might want to help can quickly know what you have tried and suggest something.
I did not read past your 2nd paragraph..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. Well, then thanks for the response.
shadowcore said:
Secondly, I had a problem with my own sdcard, a kingston 16gb, in the past. Long story short, it became unreadable in my phone. Try to connect it to a PC, if you have an adapter, and back your files there.
The only solution for me was formatting it in my PC. After the format, it works for now.
I also switched phones, formerly a phone running CM11, now a phone running stock Sony 4.4 firmware.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, the card is readable on a pc, and on the phone. It's hard for me to think that is the answer. I did all that, and posted it.
shadowcore said:
Lastly, it might have to do with the fact that, whatever phone you switched to, some folder naming causes issue for the OS to read.
Again, back your files up, format the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that's an idea.
Before I try that I will see if anyone else has any ideas.
But that doesn't explain why the USB storage does not mount when I connect USB with the SDCard removed from the phone. It tries but never mounts. I think that is a clue.
I was gonna post a link to esr's "how to ask questions the smart way", but I don't have enough rep to post the outside link to catb.org.
I do try to follow that approach, and though I am new here I am NOT new to forums. I have been doing this, well, longer by far than most. A lot.

Well, still no change. I may just get another SDCard, put that in and see if that one exhibits the problem.

Virtual?
I did get another SDCARD, no difference.
I need to find the issue here.
I noticed I have two camera items in gallary, one has a camera icon and one has a folder icon.
The one with the camera icon only contains old pictures, from before migration.
The one with a file folder icon contains current pictures, taken by this phone.
When I plug into a computer as USB storage, only the old one mounts, the one with the camera icon. The new pictures (folder icon in gallery) do not mount.
Clearly this seems like a virtual filesystem that has it's pointers slightly wrong.
The camera app is saving it's photos in a directory that is not mounted when USB storage is used. It's not in the SDCARD, but it is in the internal memory.
The camera subdir that is a folder icon should be the one mounting as USB storage, and the other folder should be virtualized as a part of that.
I guess the problem is Kitkat does not save camera pictures on the SDCARD if available, as previous android versions did.
Can anyone suggest steps to isolate this problem?

[Q] z3 deleted files & renamed folders on SD

Hi all
Today i took my Samsung 64GB SD card out of my Samsung Note Pro 12.2 (after unmounting the card first of course!) and put it in my Xperia Z3, but upon viewing the contents of the card I see that 99% of the photos, videos and music that was on there has been deleted. The card shows as having 59.9GB free space. The data that I have lost totals roughly 40GB.
Also, the folder names have been altered, for example "music" has become "music.7" and "photo" has become "photo.3".
Can anyone explain why this may have happened, and if there is a way of recovering the data?
Since the data loss i havent used the card, aside from putting it back in the Note Pro 12.2 in the hope that the data would show on this device. It didnt.
I would be gutted if there is no way of retrieving my family photos and videos.
And yes, i know I you'll all say i should have backed up, but funnily enough I took the card out of the Note Pro 12.2 to begin doing just that! how ironic.

If it didn't work in the z3 I'd have put it back in the note to retrace my steps. Files don't just disappear without cause. I always turn my device off when I pull the card. Plus being that it's "android", could there be a (godforbid) sync issue?

tweker said:
If it didn't work in the z3 I'd have put it back in the note to retrace my steps. Files don't just disappear without cause. I always turn my device off when I pull the card. Plus being that it's "android", could there be a (godforbid) sync issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, well as i said above I did just that. Saw that the z3 showed an almost blank card and put it back in the note.
Aside from the data loss I am also intrigued how the folder names became changed from the moment just before I unmounted the card to when i put it in the z3. What on earth would have caused that?!

Sorry to hear that really. Tbh, it has to be a note issue being that when you unmounted and removed it that is when it happened. I would go through all it's settings to see if it or an apk installed has some weird permissions. Don't you just love android? I find it fascinating if not quite the child-like OS. Not enough transparency or control whatsoever.

afaik android doesn't have many issues with viruses but it might have been one.
or
the files are stored to a cloud and aren't on your card but online somewhere (an app uploaded them for you)
or
the files have been compressed (unlikely since i don't believe you can compress 50gb to 10gb)
anyways, you can try several sd card recovery tools
https://www.google.de/search?q=sd+c...f-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=3r8mVazTCszcavmGgCA