Database Info

[Q] uneven and inaccurate instructions.

As a newcomer to the world of android (I just migrated from iPhone 4), I must confess that the multitude of advice and recommendations from the advise givers are clouded with wrong advice and misleading recommendations.
I am very knowledgeable in computers, and was quite knowledgeable with the various iPhones I owned. but with the Galaxy S (Captivate) I just purchased I am ready to give up....
Is there anybody kind enough who can explain to me why is it that I am unable to access my phone from my computer (W7x64 nor from my MacBook).
I was able to root the phone and even flash it with the Froyo, Cognition 2.2 Beta 5.5, from the phone itself (using the online advice from the Cognition web site), but can not access the phone, thus unable to move files to the SDCARD root directory.

download the kies mini application from samsung.com
install it, which will install the drivers needed.
then go to settings->application->usb and select usb storage.
then go to touchwiz home screen only, and plug in your phone.
easy peasy...
if you have another launcher in place, turn on usb debugging under the development section of applications in settings and then plug it in... then pull down notification from top and select usb.. it will ask you to mount.
boom... done and done.

Semi wrong info is given above. For a mac(I also have a pro) you should just have to turn on usb debygging mode under application settings. You will not be able to control the phone as easily as with the iphone but you will have access to your sd card and internal memory.
No need for drives but you will need to mount it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

And on a pc, enable usb debugging in settings-applications-development. Then pull down the notification screen and press the option that says something like select to copy files. You can then access the internal and external sd cards as drives on your computer.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

mobius911 said:
And on a pc, enable usb debugging in settings-applications-development. Then pull down the notification screen and press the option that says something like select to copy files. You can then access the internal and external sd cards as drives on your computer.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you don't need to enable USB debugging, you just select the option to "always ask" or "mass storage" and then you get the pull down option to mount the drive to copy files.

alphadog00 said:
Actually, you don't need to enable USB debugging, you just select the option to "always ask" or "mass storage" and then you get the pull down option to mount the drive to copy files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interestingly that option stopped working for me many ROMs ago. Not sure why, bu the only way I could do it was using the debugging route. I am currently on Cognition 2.2Beta5.5, so I decided to check mass storage since I hadn't tried it in a while. It worked! So if anyway else out there can't do it using "always ask" or "mass storage", then the debugging method can be used as an alternate. Thanks for bringing this up.
And as a general comment on the original title of the post, things move fast. What was accurate for one person on his/her phone at one particular moment may not be the best or even the right way to do it on your phone, in your situation, with whatever ROM you are running. So if you want to hack your phone then expect to have to spend a lot of time reading and perhaps even making a few mistakes along the way.

Sd Corruption in DesireZ

Hi,
just to advise:
i bought a microSDHC 8gb kingmax Class10,that i swapped with the supplied
one but after only 10 hours of my desire's use, i had a message "sd card appears as read only etc" so it's corrupted(not yet having time to format it on my laptop)
So i put my Sandisk 8gb class4 back, so far 24hours still functionnal
so perhaps a defective one

This has happened to me using my G2. I have gone through 3 SD cards and lost some very important data. It has gone as far as completely killing 2 of them and not being read by computers or data recovery machines designed to get the data back...

Superthrust said:
This has happened to me using my G2. I have gone through 3 SD cards and lost some very important data. It has gone as far as completely killing 2 of them and not being read by computers or data recovery machines designed to get the data back...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here
a couple of days ago my 16GB SD card went compltely unusable, not recognized by windows or any repairing tool
and yes I always dismount the card from the phone after unplugging the USB cable

Hi, perhaps you could tell us what brands/size were involved(editing your post) if you dont mind
@gtrab : i a newbie for android, is that important to unmount the card after unplugging the usb(shouldnt it be rather before ;-) ?

invasion13 said:
Hi, perhaps you could tell us what brands/size were involved(editing your post) if you dont mind
@gtrab : i a newbie for android, is that important to unmount the card after unplugging the usb(shouldnt it be rather before ;-) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL yes I meant "before"
and yes, it is important to unmount any USB thumb drive or USB card reader before removing it from a Windows PC
I am not sure if this is related or not, but I found Windows trying to use the card to "accelerate windows performance" or something like that (its an option that pops up when any USB gets connected, I never enable it, but I found a windows-related file there and I just deleted it)

gtrab said:
..
and yes, it is important to unmount any USB thumb drive or USB card reader before removing it from a Windows PC
I am not sure if this is related or not, but I found Windows trying to use the card to "accelerate windows performance" or something like that (its an option that pops up when any USB gets connected, I never enable it, but I found a windows-related file there and I just deleted it)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your tips, it could be useful to avoid corruption

No internal storage eb aosp help

To enable intern storage you press the menu button in the storage section in settings but I only get the computer USB option, I am using latest version of aosp eb/harsh kernel. Plz help
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA

Nothing guys? maybe cuz i was on phone I didn't elaborate enough, I do not have the option for internal storage, when I go into settings/storage and press the menu button on the phone for the pop up I am only getting the usb computer media tranfer thing where the option for external/internal storage is supposed to also be next to it. or are there any tother solutions ty

You asked in the eb thread that was the proper place, csm responded (like their team will normally do) and its not available in aosp. You were looking in the correct area though, next time if the option isn't there, its cause it isn't available lol.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

I read in that thread that it was in there, now that I think about it that might of been the first ics, not aosp, owell ill just wait till it gets added. Is it possible for it to be done manually? I know of the thing where u change the 9 into an 8, but I checked through my file manager and its already an 8 meaning that internal storage should be set to main. :|

I've never looked into it, the only thing I knew was what you just stated, I have a class 6 external 16GB, so I rely on that.

Weird problem connecting TF700T to any PCs

This is a really weird problem and I can't figure out how to fix it
It's a rooted TF700T with JB
if I plug it to any computers (I tested 3 different pcs), they recognize it but both my sdcard and removable mini sd don't seem to be updated. I mean they have the files I had long time ago before rooting it.
if I use my sdcard on my SIII and plug it to the pc, everything works correctly
So what I have to do to move files from my pc to my tablet is very annoying, you know what I mean
everything else on my tablet works perfectly
what can it be?

Just an idea that might help or not:
- Go to Settings -> Apps -> All -> Media Storage
- click "Force Stop" and then "Clear Data"
- Reboot your tablet
- Wait 5 to 10 minutes for the media database to rebuild
- Try again to connect to the PC
Tell us if it worked!

This ^^, as it sounds like a media scanner problem. The filesystem on ICS/JB is no longer mounted to the computer itself, but is transparently made available through the MTP protocol (i.e., when you connect the TF700, it is not mounted as a USB Mass Storage device ("USB memory stick mode"), but as a device -- your computer is not seeing files anymore, but is given the most recent file list (if all is working as it should, which it apparently is not in your case). That list is generated by the Media Scanner, and the above procedure should make the TF700 index your files anew.

Thanks guys but it's still not working
now if I enter both the sdcard and the mini sd folder on my pc, they are totally empty
thanks!

Epilol said:
Thanks guys but it's still not working
now if I enter both the sdcard and the mini sd folder on my pc, they are totally empty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, goal partially reached - no more old files displayed!
Did you wait long enough for the database to rebuild?
- Go to Settings -> Apps -> All -> Media Storage
- Check if the used data size looks reasonable (it should be several megabytes, depending on how many files you have)

_that said:
Well, goal partially reached - no more old files displayed!
Did you wait long enough for the database to rebuild?
- Go to Settings -> Apps -> All -> Media Storage
- Check if the used data size looks reasonable (it should be several megabytes, depending on how many files you have)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks m8
Well the problem is that the size isn't reasonable. It's only 400kb
I tried to delete it and reboot many times, but it's still around 400kb
Edit: I downloaded an app on playstore and now it's 2 mb and it works...
The only problem is that it's still not working for my mini sd, how can i fix it? thanks ^^
Edit: now everything works,
thanks a lot for you help!

Epilol said:
thanks m8
Well the problem is that the size isn't reasonable. It's only 400kb
I tried to delete it and reboot many times, but it's still around 400kb
Edit: I downloaded an app on playstore and now it's 2 mb and it works...
The only problem is that it's still not working for my mini sd, how can i fix it? thanks ^^
Edit: now everything works,
thanks a lot for you help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I have not encountered this problem on the TF700 -- I did on the SGS2 a few times -- for the sake of people coming into this thread, could you please update and tell us which app saved your bacon? Thanks!

[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?