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[Q] - Move to SD enabled for (almost) all apps by?

Noticed today I'm able to move almost all of my apps to SD and not just the supported ones without having done anything but installing a rooted stock ROM and some standard goodies (SU, BusyBox, ROM Manager and Titanium Backup). Wondering if it was enabled by any of the above? the rooted ROM? or the stock ROM?

any takers?

Titanium backup, in "batch", has option to move all apps to either sd or internal memory.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda premium

It's not true A2SD. Just a bunch of buggy symlinks in /data and incomprehensible files in /sdcard/.android-secure that Google is trying to pass off as A2SD.
Sent from a message in a bottle.

blackknightavalon said:
It's not true A2SD. Just a bunch of buggy symlinks in /data and incomprehensible files in /sdcard/.android-secure that Google is trying to pass off as A2SD.
Sent from a message in a bottle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. i rooted my phone right after the first stock boot so i couldn't tell if it came that way. It's just odd coming from 2.2 that everything all of a sudden is now movable, despite being not true a2sd.

psychedel!k said:
thanks. i rooted my phone right after the first stock boot so i couldn't tell if it came that way. It's just odd coming from 2.2 that everything all of a sudden is now movable, despite being not true a2sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know. Just because a bunch of people find hitting "partition SD card" in ClockworkMod Recovery too difficult doesn't mean those of us who want the full potential of our phones unlocked should suffer, but we're stuck until someone finds us the mountpoint for sd-ext.

blackknightavalon said:
I know. Just because a bunch of people find hitting "partition SD card" in ClockworkMod Recovery too difficult doesn't mean those of us who want the full potential of our phones unlocked should suffer, but we're stuck until someone finds us the mountpoint for sd-ext.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you all need to check out link2sd (free app) it will let you install apps to ext partition. I myself use it and have a 8gb ext3 partition with over 550+ apps/games installed. It also lets you decide if you want to move dalvikcache and library files to ext to save more internal space. I used mini tool partition app on my pc to create a larger ext partition then cwm would allow.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

d12unk13astard said:
you all need to check out link2sd (free app) it will let you install apps to ext partition. I myself use it and have a 8gb ext3 partition with over 550+ apps/games installed. It also lets you decide if you want to move dalvikcache and library files to ext to save more internal space. I used mini tool partition app on my pc to create a larger ext partition then cwm would allow.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I'll try it on my days off. Thanks for the tip!
Sent from a message in a bottle.

blackknightavalon said:
..we're stuck until someone finds us the mountpoint for sd-ext.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry can you explain how and where we're stuck on and is that specific to our device?

blackknightavalon said:
I know. Just because a bunch of people find hitting "partition SD card" in ClockworkMod Recovery too difficult doesn't mean those of us who want the full potential of our phones unlocked should suffer, but we're stuck until someone finds us the mountpoint for sd-ext.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
psychedel!k said:
sorry can you explain how and where we're stuck on and is that specific to our device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WIP Memory Address Listing
You need to know where to put and access the data, explicitly, in order to be able to use that location.
Android does this by using mount-points, which translates to the memory address where it should be looking for the information.
The thread I linked to is one I started so that we can discover them all, and what mount points correspond to what memory address.
Please make sure to read post number 8 in the thread by dhkr234 which spells out a good caution about using memory addresses directly and why you should be using mount points instead.
If anyone makes any headway in learning anything we don't know so far, please post it in that thread so we can get a comprehensive listing of mount points and what memory addresses they correspond to.
I've been extremely busy on other projects, but if someone is going to come by and make A2SD available for us, having a road-map for them to follow already sitting here will make their life a lot easier. ( ...and maybe encourage someone to do it because the info is sitting there. )
...and yes, it is specific to our device. Every device addresses the internal memory differently and that makes the mount-points unique to each and every device.

gotcha, so...piecing this all together, does that mean that a true A2SD shouldn't rely on symlink at all and Link2SD (what d12unk13astard recommended) is essentially just another hack?

psychedel!k said:
gotcha, so...piecing this all together, does that mean that a true A2SD shouldn't rely on symlink at all and Link2SD (what d12unk13astard recommended) is essentially just another hack?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real A2SD is not "just another hack," it's one of the ORIGINAL post-root hacks pioneers like JesusFreke came up with. It allows you to put your apps on an EXT partition of your SD card, and you can resize that partition if your computer runs a Linux distribution.

blackknightavalon said:
The real A2SD is not "just another hack," it's one of the ORIGINAL post-root hacks pioneers like JesusFreke came up with. It allows you to put your apps on an EXT partition of your SD card, and you can resize that partition if your computer runs a Linux distribution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that i got, and sorry for being a pain..so then what difference does having a mountpoint or not make?

psychedel!k said:
that i got, and sorry for being a pain..so then what difference does having a mountpoint or not make?
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Click to collapse
Read the previous posts.

psychedel!k said:
that i got, and sorry for being a pain..so then what difference does having a mountpoint or not make?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either:
blackknightavalon said:
Read the previous posts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or read this one again:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19163237&postcount=8
dhkr234 said it good there.
I linked so someone who wants more of an explanation can follow and read up.
In short, you can very easily write to the wrong memory address.
This means:
Installing some silly game over parts of both your boot partition and recovery partition would give you a cool slide-paperweight.
Mount points prevent this from happening by ensuring the data is written to the proper memory addresses.

[Q] /data purpose?

Caution, ROM flashing newbie.
Hey,
I'm currently considering to flash a ROM on my S5830 (running Cyanogen 7.2 Stable currently) and one of the steps is to mount /data, which I thought could be done in mounts&storage in CWM recovery. My question is what the purpose of this is. Maybe because ROM related data is stored there? Thanks!
P.S. Yes, I have searched the answer for this and no, I couldn't find it.
I'm asking this, so I'll know what its use is, so I'll hopefully can solve related problems elsewhen.

The /data partition contains much of the data pertaining to user settings, contacts, applications, etc. If you were to perform a factory reset, this is the partition in your phone's internal storage that gets wiped clean.

Hmm, okay, but why is /data completely empty when I open it with ES File Explorer (hidden files shown)? And why is this unmounted by default if it's this important? Thanks in advance!
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app

That's because your file manager needs root permission to list the contents. In Terminal Emulator, run "su root" followed by "ls /data", and you'll see lots of stuff in there.
Sent from my SPH-D710

YellowApple said:
That's because your file manager needs root permission to list the contents. In Terminal Emulator, run "su root" followed by "ls /data", and you'll see lots of stuff in there.
Sent from my SPH-D710
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks for your quick and clear help, appreciate it.
Only one more thing: why is it unmounted by default, and if it's unmounted, why can I still view it? I think I misunderstand what mounted is.
Currently playing with my Ace S5830 running Cyanogen 7.2 Stable

Remcotjuuh said:
Many thanks for your quick and clear help, appreciate it.
Only one more thing: why is it unmounted by default, and if it's unmounted, why can I still view it? I think I misunderstand what mounted is.
Currently playing with my Ace S5830 running Cyanogen 7.2 Stable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question. Do you have a link to the directions you're trying to follow for reference? The flashing directions are likely referring to mounting the /data folder/partition outside of the normal Android OS (i.e. via ClockworkMod or from a computer). By default /data should be mounted and accessible from Android (assuming you're using root privileges with your file manager or the "ls" command), else you won't have access to most of your contacts, settings, etc.

YellowApple said:
Good question. Do you have a link to the directions you're trying to follow for reference? The flashing directions are likely referring to mounting the /data folder/partition outside of the normal Android OS (i.e. via ClockworkMod or from a computer). By default /data should be mounted and accessible from Android (assuming you're using root privileges with your file manager or the "ls" command), else you won't have access to most of your contacts, settings, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1808856
Here's it. The installation procedure can be found under Installation procedure, and mount data really is emphasized. And yes, I can mount /data in CWM recovery under mounts and storage, which gives me the impression it's unmounted now. Actually, the only thing which I CAN unmount is /cache. The others, /data, /system, /sdcard and/ sd-ext, all have the option to be mounted.
And after enabling root access in ES file explorer I indeed could view /data

Yup. Since Droid Ace v2 has files that go in /data (you can tell by the presence of a "data" folder in the root of the ROM's zip if you open it up with a file manager), it needs /data to be explicitly mounted prior to install, since it has to put stuff in there. Most ROMs I've used (like CyanogenMod) only use the /system partition (unless you install gapps).
Not sure why the update script doesn't do the mounting, but since I'm no developer (yet), there might be a very legitimate reason for that.
Sent from my SPH-D710

YellowApple said:
Yup. Since Droid Ace v2 has files that go in /data (you can tell by the presence of a "data" folder in the root of the ROM's zip if you open it up with a file manager), it needs /data to be explicitly mounted prior to install, since it has to put stuff in there. Most ROMs I've used (like CyanogenMod) only use the /system partition (unless you install gapps).
Not sure why the update script doesn't do the mounting, but since I'm no developer (yet), there might be a very legitimate reason for that.
Sent from my SPH-D710
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Click to collapse
That makes sence. One more thing then. As my previous ROM was Cyanogen, I also installed gapps, but I can't remember I mounted /data at that time, and installation simply succeeded. Any thoughts? Maybe because I installed gapps after flashing Cyanogen.

Sorry for the late response. It's possible that the Google Apps update package *does* mount /data in its scripts; I have yet to look into it. Or perhaps it does some intermediate thing where they plop some temp installer somewhere and have Android run said installer. I'll have to find that out
Sent from my SPH-D710

I think I got it. I thought that when flashing the ROM one of the lines said mounting /data, so that could have been part of the scripts.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Can't move apps with Link2SD

I have tried to move apps to sdcard with Link2SD and other similar apps. It fails and says that I can't move them because my device has a primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage.

Here is a screenshot of the message

Howdy!
as far as I have found out (and been following this problem on and off since I got my plus a few months ago) there is no proper way to move apps to your SD card. Best solution (and the one I am using) is to partition your SD Card then use Link2SD to link apps on your SD. You can set it up to do so automatically for every new app you install. As for partitioning I found this guide the best since I'd never attempted it before but it works really well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2126363
Good luck and hope this helps a little!

Thanks a lot

lance2355 said:
Howdy!
as far as I have found out (and been following this problem on and off since I got my plus a few months ago) there is no proper way to move apps to your SD card. Best solution (and the one I am using) is to partition your SD Card then use Link2SD to link apps on your SD. You can set it up to do so automatically for every new app you install. As for partitioning I found this guide the best since I'd never attempted it before but it works really well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2126363
Good luck and hope this helps a little!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do we need to root phone for that?
If yes then what's the point of making partitions.
Sent from my GT-I9105 using xda app-developers app

fayez107 said:
Do we need to root phone for that?
If yes then what's the point of making partitions.
Sent from my GT-I9105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my phone was rooted anyway but I think Link2SD needs it. As to why exactly it needs to be partitioned I can only tell you that when my card wasn't partitioned as suggested in the guide I linked then Link2SD wouldn't even offer to link the apps. I am no expert as I pointed out but this was a solution that worked for me. It may well be someone else found something better that doesn't require partitioning. To my knowledge doing things this way requires root AND the partitioned SD card.

lance2355 said:
Well, my phone was rooted anyway but I think Link2SD needs it. As to why exactly it needs to be partitioned I can only tell you that when my card wasn't partitioned as suggested in the guide I linked then Link2SD wouldn't even offer to link the apps. I am no expert as I pointed out but this was a solution that worked for me. It may well be someone else found something better that doesn't require partitioning. To my knowledge doing things this way requires root AND the partitioned SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try Apps to SD? Ill be rooting very soon and see what happens. If none works then last stop would be to make partition.
Okay I did root my phone successfully. Still cant move apps. Now going to do this partition system. Hope it works !

fayez107 said:
Did you try Apps to SD? Ill be rooting very soon and see what happens. If none works then last stop would be to make partition.
Okay I did root my phone successfully. Still cant move apps. Now going to do this partition system. Hope it works !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I tried Apps to SD as well but without success. You get exactly the message as the OP said here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42863865&postcount=2
Same goes for Link2SD however once you partitioned it at least offers you to link the apps. But like I said that only happened after I did the partitioning. Beforehand it would not even offer that.
I am not entirely sure what or why Samsung did what they did in kinda blocking the moving of apps to an external card but it it really blows considering that you only get a somewhat limited amount of storage to begin with.

lance2355 said:
Yeah, I tried Apps to SD as well but without success. You get exactly the message as the OP said here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42863865&postcount=2
Same goes for Link2SD however once you partitioned it at least offers you to link the apps. But like I said that only happened after I did the partitioning. Beforehand it would not even offer that.
I am not entirely sure what or why Samsung did what they did in kinda blocking the moving of apps to an external card but it it really blows considering that you only get a somewhat limited amount of storage to begin with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello again brother. Same here. Before partitioning there was not any option to create link even.
I did the partitioning stuff did work. I can successfully transfer my apps into the ext2 partition i created. (Btw which partition format did you go with?)
How ever I believe folder mount is still a better option as it does not require you to create partitions and works directly such as you enter a brand new card without partition and move apps into card and then it links it. But the only drawback is you need to purchase the app :

fayez107 said:
Hello again brother. Same here. Before partitioning there was not any option to create link even.
I did the partitioning stuff did work. I can successfully transfer my apps into the ext2 partition i created. (Btw which partition format did you go with?)
How ever I believe folder mount is still a better option as it does not require you to create partitions and works directly such as you enter a brand new card without partition and move apps into card and then it links it. But the only drawback is you need to purchase the app :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used ext4 for my partition. And I hadn't heard of Folder Mount until you mentioned it. Will have to check it out. Can you actually move stuff if you use that?

lance2355 said:
I used ext4 for my partition. And I hadn't heard of Folder Mount until you mentioned it. Will have to check it out. Can you actually move stuff if you use that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well ext4 didn't work for me idky though ext2 did and it worked. But creating partitions is pure junk and it would reduce the life and speed of your card (its something i believe) so I deleted the partitions and brought my card into original format.
And yes man Folder Mount is something we need ! It does exactly what both of us want. Simply move all the app data from internal memory to external memory and as soon as you move you have empty space on your internal storage and external storage is occupied. Its simple and very clear and easy to use. Just 3 clicks i believe and its done. And another good stuff is it will show you how much an app is occupying internal space and then moves it into SD card and also doesn't show important system apps to move as moving them creates problem.
There's a free version to try which would allow you to move 3 apps only and if you want more then buy the app for 2 Dollars.
Its developed by @madmack. Do check it out. The sad part for me is I dont have a credit card nor Paypal is available in my country
And i need this app badly !

[Q] What does Mounting System, Data and Cache mean?

I am a newbie into this rooting and upgrading stuffs on my android phone. Iv rooted, installed custom ROMs etc etc and tinkered with my phone a lot of times. I am also a curious learner. could anyone please tell me what exactly mounting storage, mounting data or mounting cache mean. Iv mounted and unmounted them alot of times going by the guidelines provided for the specific installations. Would be nice if i actually know why i am doing it Also Kindly let me on what actions can be performed or not performed when.they are mounted/ unmounted thank you.
#wannabeDeveloper

if you want to install a custom rom, sometimes a procedure for mounting tell you, it's like you open a permission to install that rom to your device
Sorry for my bad english

Achesh97 said:
I am a newbie into this rooting and upgrading stuffs on my android phone. Iv rooted, installed custom ROMs etc etc and tinkered with my phone a lot of times. I am also a curious learner. could anyone please tell me what exactly mounting storage, mounting data or mounting cache mean. Iv mounted and unmounted them alot of times going by the guidelines provided for the specific installations. Would be nice if i actually know why i am doing it Also Kindly let me on what actions can be performed or not performed when.they are mounted/ unmounted thank you.
#wannabeDeveloper
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mounting is the point where you can edit the files in the folder that you mount, it similar to that of mounting drives.
Similarly there are mounting such as when you use root explorers you can mount them as read/write or read only.
A Linux user can explain you in the best way, coz they usually mount their partitions as drives to work on them.
Hit thanks rather than typing it now Free

zipperX said:
if you want to install a custom rom, sometimes a procedure for mounting tell you, it's like you open a permission to install that rom to your device
Sorry for my bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your English is fine
so everytime you have to perform an update or flashing anything, you have to make sure that all the three are mounted? rigjt?

parkourkarthik said:
Mounting is the point where you can edit the files in the folder that you mount, it similar to that of mounting drives.
Similarly there are mounting such as when you use root explorers you can mount them as read/write or read only.
A Linux user can explain you in the best way, coz they usually mount their partitions as drives to work on them.
Hit thanks rather than typing it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You there so whenever i have to flash a zip file or particularly an update, i have to mount everything? and what should be their states before rebooting? like mounted or unmounted?

Achesh97 said:
Thank You there so whenever i have to flash a zip file or particularly an update, i have to mount everything? and what should be their states before rebooting? like mounted or unmounted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need of mounting everytime you flash.
Mostly the zip files itself contains scripts to mount your partition, they do the job theirself.
In rare cases the developer of the flashable zip file would recommend you to mount the partitions required, in those cases only you need to mount through CWM
Hit thanks rather than typing it now Free

Link2sd lost 2nd partition (f2fs)

While working with Link2sd, I moved a ton of apps to the SD's 2nd partition, using f2fs file system. Rebooting the phone (XT926 - 4.4.2 - rooted), the 2nd partition was no longer accessable and, of course, the apps vanished. Worse, I can't re-install some of them. I get the "not enough storage" gripe. Short of doing an FDR, is there any hope of recovering the data or at least making it possible to re-install the lost apps? FWIW, I tried reading the SD under Win7 (nothing found, of course) and SuSE Linux with f2fs.tools installed. Still nothing.
How SOL am I?

I did an FDR.
It looks as though EXT3 is a workable choice. Right? Wrong?

I posted following is posted at the end of Working CWM Recovery for LOCKED 183.46.15 + Deodex and more
[... I]t appears that two related problems have shown up. And those error messages lead to 2 points.
A) Apps like Link2SD and Apps2SD, which move data from the internal "SD" to a real SD, fail to work. The errors all feature some form of the mount failing.
B) busybox isn't visible to these apps.
Busybox is located in /system/xbin. The link apps try to mount a second partition on the external SD. The mount utility is supplied by busybox. The errors say that /sbin/busybox can't be found. I think the system PATH is supposed to make calls to /sbin/busybox resolve to /system/xbin/busybox. I created a symlink from /system/xbin/busybox to /sbin/busybox. That changed the nature of the error messages somewhat but otherwise didn't correct the "mounts don't work" problem. After rebooting the phone, the symlink had to be created again as it wasn't present after the reboot.
I spent a lot of time with the Apps2SD developer (no reply from the Link2SD developer), trying to figure out what was going wrong. At the end of the day (literally), the problem was, in her mind, the ROM. Of course the ROM in the MAXX HD is locked up, so that can't be the source of the problem. But... is it possible that deodexing, or at least the process that installed the deodexing mod, subtly broke something related to busybox?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't much to be added here except to ask if anyone has used one of the "link to SD" apps successfully.

RBEmerson said:
While working with Link2sd, I moved a ton of apps to the SD's 2nd partition, using f2fs file system. Rebooting the phone (XT926 - 4.4.2 - rooted), the 2nd partition was no longer accessable and, of course, the apps vanished. Worse, I can't re-install some of them. I get the "not enough storage" gripe. Short of doing an FDR, is there any hope of recovering the data or at least making it possible to re-install the lost apps? FWIW, I tried reading the SD under Win7 (nothing found, of course) and SuSE Linux with f2fs.tools installed. Still nothing.
How SOL am I?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Eon_62i using XDA Free mobile app

You don't say... [/wink]

So does Link2SD not work with f2fs? I get "Second partition not found"