Please forgive me should a similar thread exist somewhere on these forums; if one does, I have yet to find it after several weeks of poring through the various threads.
What I am looking for is some insight and/or suggestions regarding the proper uses of the external microSD card that can be inserted into the Viewsonic G-tablet. When I look at "Settings"-->"SD card & device settings" there appears to be two distinct memory options; 1) An SD card with ~13 GB of available space and 2) Internal storage with ~1.5GB of available space. What I do not see, is my 8GB microSD card that I've inserted into the tablet.
I have ES File Explorer installed and it recognizes SDCARD and SDCARD2 when I explore and navigate to find them. Again, I do not seem to be able to see the 8GB microSD card I've inserted into the tablet.
I know the 8GB microSD card works as I've tested it using my computer.
Once I solve this problem, I'm looking for best practices for how to use the external microSD card to store music and video files in order to keep internal space available as necessary.
Any assistance or insight would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
SDCARD2 is your external micro sdcard
thebadfrog said:
SDCARD2 is your external micro sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if that is the case, why is my 8GB microSD card showing us as having ~13 GB of available space?
You have 16gb internal on the tablet. 2gb is reserved for system/apps and 13gb is for additional file storage. Settings does not display your microsd card storage at all.
Here's how I understand Gtab storage
adamczykon said:
Well, if that is the case, why is my 8GB microSD card showing us as having ~13 GB of available space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The G-tablet is unlike other Android devices in the way it uses and reports internal storage. It allows users access to ~13GB of internal storage and refers to that location as /sdcard. I think that the remaining storage space is partitioned for system files and applications, and is not available through the /sdcard location.
The external microSD card slot is available in a folder named /sdcard2. The card MUST be formatted in FAT32, or it won't read. If you use the ES file manager, you should be able to see it.
Now here's the rub... you can't access /sdcard2 through most apps. Android apps are generally designed to only access /sdcard, (which, on most devices, is the external microSD card).
Now here's the OTHER RUB:
When you plug your g-tab into a PC via usb, it automatically mounts the /sdcard folder. You need special software and tricks to access the /sdcard2 location through USB. I've never done this.
And here's my advice for using the external microSD card:
1. Format it using FAT32
2. Use ES File manager to access it
3. To transfer files to it you can connect to a shared folder over a wireless LAN using ES, or you can use a card reader and transfer directly from your PC
4. MortPlayer is a music player that can access /sdcard2
5. To play video from /sdcard2, browse to your movie file with ES and then select your media player (I use Rockplayer)
6. NEVER feed your /sdcard2 after midnight
Have fun!
I Like how cyanogen rom had Evreything displayed right. Too bad it has too many bugs for my tastes :s
hi, im Geoff.
recently after flashing the stock 4.0.3 ICS firmware, flashing a old bootloader and using my own USB Jig and resetting
the flash counter for kernels, i finally flashed JellyBean 4.1.2 Original Firmware from Samsung. my mobile is Galaxy S2 i9100.
my problem is i recently bought a 16GB micro sd card and inserted it into my phone before i could install any app onto my phone.
then i installed few apps and games from the Google Play Store. then i noticed the external sd card have about 120 mb of used
memory. but i only had about 20 mb of data that i copied onto it that were certain zip files and nothing else. i noticed that when i install
any app, then go to applications and move to SD Card option [which previously copied apps to the internal SD Card/USB storage],
is now actually moving the apps to the External SD Card. So if I unmount the external SD Card or remove it, none of my installed apps appear.
My external SD Card is meant for songs and movies. I want my internal SD Card to store all my apps so that i can remove my External
SD Card when ever i want to and swap it or not use it at all.
I also removed the external SD Card and then installed a new app, then use the move app to SD Card option. I got a error message,
saying something like insufficient memory/space.
my doubt is, apps are trying to be moved to the internal sd card but because they cannot be moved, they are being copied to the
external sd card.
any help is appretiated. btw i have rooted my phone by doing the temporary update of CWM from the stock recovery using the update from
external card method. then i also installed SuperSU. so its rooted and i didn't have to flash a kernel to root.
[update] im gonna provide some new info here:
I have a Android folder in my Internal SD Card [sdcard0]
and ".android_secure" in my External SD Card [extSdCard]
/mnt contains
asec [software files stored on the internal memory/ not internal SD Card or sdcard0]
obb [empty]
secure/asec [software moved using move to sdcard option. these files get copied to the extSdCard and not the sdcard0]
.lfs
and the sdcard and extSdCard links.
If I remove my External SD Card and try to move apps to the Internal SD Card using the move to sdcard button in application settings,
I get the insufficient memory error.
Also when I use the move to SD Card button in Application Settings, it shows the file being moved to the USB Storage [which is supposed to be
the internal sd card or sdcard0], yet it actually is being copied into my external SD Card or extSdCard.
What apps/games?
A lot of app data is stored on SD card, whether the core files and executable are on the internal or not, so that may just be cache stuff etc... One way to check is to remove the SD card then try to run whichever apps, I am willing to bet they still run.
orangekid said:
What apps/games?
A lot of app data is stored on SD card, whether the core files and executable are on the internal or not, so that may just be cache stuff etc... One way to check is to remove the SD card then try to run whichever apps, I am willing to bet they still run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use the move to sd card for most apps/games. apart from 1-2 apps that dont have that option, about 10 apps+games have the option to be moved to the SD Card. And i used that option. But I am positive they got copied to the External SD Card because after I remove the
External SD Card, all the apps disappear.
Also when i then try installing new apps to the phone and then try to move them again [without the external sd card in its slot],
i get the error message of insufficient space/memory.[i have 8GB+ empty space in the internal SD Card]
its really annoying me
TitanHack said:
i use the move to sd card for most apps/games. apart from 1-2 apps that dont have that option, about 10 apps+games have the option to be moved to the SD Card. And i used that option. But I am positive they got copied to the External SD Card because after I remove the
External SD Card, all the apps disappear.
Also when i then try installing new apps to the phone and then try to move them again [without the external sd card in its slot],
i get the error message of insufficient space/memory.[i have 8GB+ empty space in the internal SD Card]
its really annoying me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have an option enabled in app settings to install all to SD, check your app settings in system settings.
orangekid said:
Sounds like you have an option enabled in app settings to install all to SD, check your app settings in system settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have gone through everything in settings. I cant find any option where I can actually select weather to install all to SD.
I appretiate you trying to help me out. I hope i find a solution to this problem.
Initailly I felt that it cound be some code causing the apps to move to the external sd card instead of the internal one. But after I got
the error message that I have insufficient space [with the external sd card removed ], even tho I have plenty of space, about 8GB+,
on the internal sd card...so I dont think this is due to any code somewhere pointing to install into the external SD card.
I read somewhere that when the internal sd card is full and no more apps can be installed, the new apps go to the external sd card by default.
Something like that is happening to me, except my internal sd card is fine.
I updated my first post with more info to help diagnose and solve the problem. ty to all trying to help me.
bump
[reserved]
I would back up the stuff you want from SD and from your ROM (to your computer), then go to recovery, full wipe + cache + dalvik, then format external SD, then reboot into system, then restore what you want.
orangekid said:
I would back up the stuff you want from SD and from your ROM (to your computer), then go to recovery, full wipe + cache + dalvik, then format external SD, then reboot into system, then restore what you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey man ty for not giving up on me ive not been well and then got so busy recently....
i did what you asked. i even accidently wiped the system folder from cwm recovery. it went into a boot loop or whatever it is called.
i re-flashed the official samsung jellybean firmware 4.1.2 on my i9100. then again cleant delvic + cache +used data. yet the problem
persists.
i noticed that the android folder is being created in the internal sd card. but that android folder has very small amount of the app
files stored on it. the major chunk is in android_secure which is only being stord on the external sdcard.
when i go to mnt folder in root i see two folders named asec and secure.
1."asec" contains apps stored on internal memory [not internal sd card]
and 2. "secure" contains a "asec" folder which stores app stored on the external sdcard.
i believe somewhere the code which should point the android_secure folder to the internal sdcard is pointing to store apps on the
external sd card. perhaps you guys can show me how i can change the folder path of android secure. then it will behave like
default, the way is was meant to behave.
You might need to repartition your system.
I'll see else we can come up with later today, in the mean time, try to maybe use TWRP instead and a different ROM
little more info
orangekid said:
You might need to repartition your system.
I'll see else we can come up with later today, in the mean time, try to maybe use TWRP instead and a different ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i click move to sdcard in the application settings/menu, it shows USB data filling up.
that USB data is supposed to be my USB drive or my Internal SD Card. And the external sdcard shows up
as 0 KB of data. But actually the files are being copied to the external sdcard and not internal.
now if we think the android system cannot access the internal sdcard, then thats not the matter because
it creates a folder named Android in the internal sdcard and stores the app cache there.
So to me it seems that the android system is confused and actually thinks that the android_secure folder is
mounted on the internal sdcard while it actually is mounted on the external sdcard.
perhaps anyone can link me a guide to move my android_secure folder...
TitanHack said:
perhaps anyone can link me a guide to move my android_secure folder...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facing this problem now.
TitanHack, did you found an answer?
I'm having a big issue getting the Android File Manager to grant permissions to write to the SDcard for 3rd party apps. In order to grant permission. One must select the external storage. Doing so will enable to app to modify the contents of that storage. However, my phone does not detect the external storage as seen below ..
(Check attached file)
My situation : I have TTorrent's download directory to my MicroSd -- so as to not waste internal storage. I downloaded a .rar file and it saved to the sd card. I want unpack that file, but I must grant ES File Manager permission to do so. It prompts me of what I need to do. I have the 'Show SD Card' toggled on, and yet my external storage doesn't show.
I have formatted my card using Android's format system.
I have formatted using Windows in both NFTS (Wasn't supported) and exFat.
I have tried mounting and unmounting and restarting the phone.
Yet to no avail ...
This is not an issue with ES File Manager, as I have used QuickPic to attempt to delete pictures from the MicroSD, It asks for permission, and again I cant grant it, because external storage doesn't show even though it is mounted.
What do I do ?
Update:
Apologies, there was another thread on this topic. I got it to work thanks to this thread ! >> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1773735
SDcard just needs to be formatted to exFAT and the external storage will show for 3rd party apps. At the unfortunate sacrifice of 4Gb file limit sizes.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61081028&postcount=16
You mean it needs to be formatted to fat32 correct? That was the solution posted here in the alcatel forums, and it is what you're linking to in your post.. just don't want any newbies getting confused
I have a generic TV streaming box with Android 4.4.2. There is a SD card in the card slot. When I downloaded the songs and photos it goes to the internal memory so it filled up fast. How can I download the songs to the SD card and free up the space in the internal memory.
Any help will be appreciated
Thanks
It all depends on the app you are using to download the songs. Normally if you have a large SD card and crap for internal, you can format the SD card as Internal memory. You only do this after you reset your system otherwise you risk a crash and loss of apps (and much confusion). The other option, if you have a rooted device, is to symbolically link the Downloads (or whatever your media directory is) to a directory on the SD card. You will have to have BusyBox loaded and have a hard link from the music directory to the SD/MusicDirectory on your SD (rename it to whatever you want).
Use the "ln" command with the Linux shell. If that does not work then you should see about finding the right app to download your music. If you are using Chrome or Firefox (or some other browser) then you can have it ask you each time where you want the file to download into.
Otherwise, without more information on your drive sizes and the app(s) you are using I don't see how to help...
Thanks Skeltonh for your help.
You know the cellphone hand set is more controllable. Mine is the streaming TV box. It is much less control. Also the OS is Android 4.4.2 and it is not rooted. You can not move any App to the SD card and set it up as the internal memory. I think at lease Android 6 can do it. In this box - Setting - Storage - I only can see there is a SD card with 4 GB. I even can not see what files in this SD card. It seems that there is no way to read and write into this SD card.....
Hey
With the new android update for this phone i can no longer browse to the sd card via the directory of device\
usually there is a link to the external sd card in device\storage but now its all empty there and i can only access the internal storage via Device\sdcard.
If i use a file browser like Es media then u can select the external sd card directly and access it. But the problem im having is when im in simple apps like ePSXe it wont let me reach the external sd card since i have to manually browse to it but there is no shortcuts to it anywhere. There was one app that allowed the full path to be manually added which worked since the folders are hidden or something.
Its like samsung have hidden the folders link to the external card.
Is there a way to create a shortcut from the internal storage that point to "device\storage\D8C7--9661" (which is my external sd card)?