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Strange SD problem.

I'm having the same problem with 2 SD cards. It recognizes the card and all that but when I go into file manager and click storage I see at the bottom right /mnt/sdcard and there are a bunch of folder "downloads,dcim,movies etc". They all have files in them but the sd card still shows no space used.
When I pop out the sd card and go to file manager I still see the /mnt/sdcard and all the files and folders are there so obviously it's not storing stuff on the sd card even though file manager says it is.
Any idea as to what's going on?

cali310 said:
I'm having the same problem with 2 SD cards. It recognizes the card and all that but when I go into file manager and click storage I see at the bottom right /mnt/sdcard and there are a bunch of folder "downloads,dcim,movies etc". They all have files in them but the sd card still shows no space used.
When I pop out the sd card and go to file manager I still see the /mnt/sdcard and all the files and folders are there so obviously it's not storing stuff on the sd card even though file manager says it is.
Any idea as to what's going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
one way 2 see the cards content is clicking on the notification icon bottom right of notification bar then the folder icon, this opens up the card and its content
correct path being /removable/microsd

cali310 said:
I'm having the same problem with 2 SD cards. It recognizes the card and all that but when I go into file manager and click storage I see at the bottom right /mnt/sdcard and there are a bunch of folder "downloads,dcim,movies etc". They all have files in them but the sd card still shows no space used.
When I pop out the sd card and go to file manager I still see the /mnt/sdcard and all the files and folders are there so obviously it's not storing stuff on the sd card even though file manager says it is.
Any idea as to what's going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the sd card is in "removable"....in the root directory

cali310 said:
I'm having the same problem with 2 SD cards. It recognizes the card and all that but when I go into file manager and click storage I see at the bottom right /mnt/sdcard and there are a bunch of folder "downloads,dcim,movies etc". They all have files in them but the sd card still shows no space used.
When I pop out the sd card and go to file manager I still see the /mnt/sdcard and all the files and folders are there so obviously it's not storing stuff on the sd card even though file manager says it is.
Any idea as to what's going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a folder on the tablet called sdcard that is not actually an sd card. The physical sd cards can be seen under removable>MicroSD

So can I assume that the downlods/dcim etc folders don't save to the sd card automatically like on my evo? And if so is there any way to force it to?

cali310 said:
So can I assume that the downlods/dcim etc folders don't save to the sd card automatically like on my evo? And if so is there any way to force it to?
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Click to collapse
It definitely seems that the apps think that the sdcard folder is truly the sdcard. I am really curious if you did apps to sd if it would just save the app in the sdcard folder, or look for a physical sdcard. I am wondering if my 16gb is partitioned somehow for system, data, and sdcard space. I am going to play around with this more when I have time.
With certain apps, you should be able to adjust the save location in the settings.

which sd card do you have?

Its treating the internal storage as if its the SD card you would put in a phone mounting it to /mnt/SDcard.
The actual SD card gets mounted to /Removable/SDCard.
It definitely seems that the apps think that the sdcard folder is truly the sdcard. I am really curious if you did apps to sd if it would just save the app in the sdcard folder, or look for a physical sdcard. I am wondering if my 16gb is partitioned somehow for system, data, and sdcard space. I am going to play around with this more when I have time.
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There is no move to SD option in manage application settings as far as I can see theres no way to move apps to SD card, with the storage you get theres probably no need anyway.

/mnt/sdcard is indeed the onboard storage's sd card partition it seems. I think this is done similar to how the DInc handles its internal storage. The problem with things saving automatically to /mnt/sdcard and not the removable storage by default is because until honeycomb and tablets there haven't been any phones that have both internal storage and external sd card storage. The devs therefore only programmed apps that look for /mnt/sdcard because no matter what phone you used, thats either where the external card is or where the internal memory is partitioned as.
Until the app devs themselves update their software to allow for custom default save locations this will keep happening.
For instance, if you put an office document on one a microsd and try to open it inside quickoffice or polaris, you won't find it as those apps don't let you go any higher than /mnt/sdcard, which on the transformer is the internal memory.

cali310 said:
So can I assume that the downlods/dcim etc folders don't save to the sd card automatically like on my evo? And if so is there any way to force it to?
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Click to collapse
It would seem they do download to the appropriate directories under /sdcard/, however /sdcard/ is the internal storage, not the MicroSD card. Looks to be a symlink to /mnt/sdcard.
Given this I expect applications that try to save to the SD card will save in /sdcard/, which of course ends up being the internal storage.

[Q] G2x does not recognize internal memory

Hello all,
i just got myself a G2x .. rooted it installed CWM and flashed Eaglesblood 2.3.4 on it ... the problem i am having is that even though the phone shows 5.xx GB of memory on the phone when i launch an application like the Camera or anything else that puts anything on SD card it does not find the memory and refuses to work. any ideas?
-Bilal

While i havent tried EB 2.3.4, it is based on CM7 so I'm assuming it handles the internal/external sdcards the same way as CM7. The internal sdcard is mounted at /mnt/emmc and the external sdcard is mounted at /sdcard. There is a way to switch them around by switching the mount points. Search around and you should find it. I'm at work right now and the search feature on this mobile app sucks so I can't look it up.
The other/easier solution is to buy an external memory card.

phburks said:
While i havent tried EB 2.3.4, it is based on CM7 so I'm assuming it handles the internal/external sdcards the same way as CM7. The internal sdcard is mounted at /mnt/emmc and the external sdcard is mounted at /sdcard. There is a way to switch them around by switching the mount points. Search around and you should find it. I'm at work right now and the search feature on this mobile app sucks so I can't look it up.
The other/easier solution is to buy an external memory card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or might he be confusing Internal Storage/Internal memory with an external SD card?
When looking at the numbers, you see x amount of phone memory available and 5.x amount of internal SD storage available...coming to around 8g. I bet he's confusing this for an external SD card.

i dont have a SD card inserted right now ... this is my internal memory ... i understand that

does that change anything ?

bilalrashid said:
i dont have a SD card inserted right now ... this is my internal memory ... i understand that
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The way I understand it is that the G2X comes with 8GB of internal memory, divided into 2 partitions, and an empty slot for an external sdcard. There is a 1.xxGB partition for system use, and a 5.xxGB partition for user files (music, photos, videos, etc). The stock ROM considers this 5GB partition as the /sdcard, and if you insert an actual external card it is mounted within the sdcard directory as ./_ExternalSD.
CM7 (and I'm guessing EB 2.3.4 does as well since its based on CM7) mounts that 5GB partition as /mnt/emmc and the actual external memory card gets mounted to /sdcard. So if you dont have an actual sdcard inserted into the phone then your then your apps that rely on an sdcard won't have one to use.
The 2 solutions are to: 1) change the mount points of the external sdcard and the 5GB partition, or 2) insert an external memory card.

or i came up with option no 3... revert back to stock froyo 2.2.2 and this problem goes away .. will stay on this till i have my SD Card

bilalrashid said:
or i came up with option no 3... revert back to stock froyo 2.2.2 and this problem goes away .. will stay on this till i have my SD Card
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Click to collapse
Lol yea or that. If you want a good rom that utilizes the memory the same way as stock, try Ultimate G2X 1.0. Its rock solid and fast and has a great theme.

will check it out .. thanks a lot bro ... you are awesome

how do i get internal storage to show on miui without a sdcard?

how do i get internal storage to show on miui without a sdcard?

What exactly do you mean show?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

I believe I may be having same issue so i will explain. My phone after flashing to MIUI cannot jse a sd card I put in for what ever reason when I insert one it gets super hot and just tells me card is ready for removal with no way to mount. Before Rom Manager would allow me to use internal memory for roms or downloads from browser but after miui I cannot even find the internal memory. We just want a way to access it.

Just flashed miui on my G2x and an experiencing the same problem...

If you don't have an SD card and want to make the internal SD act as the external click here and flash the external secondary miui one.

I want to try the MOD you posted but can't download it to phone because of no sdcard problem.

ahddm said:
I want to try the MOD you posted but can't download it to phone because of no sdcard problem.
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Click to collapse
What I did was restore to gingerbread or cm7. (basically a ROM that can discover the internal sd.) Then i connected it to my computer, put the mod and MIUI on my internal SD, wiped data, wiped cache, flashed miui, flashed the mod and bingo

I think I have a solution for you. You will need a file manager with a text editor built in like Root Explorer. Brows to /system/etc and open vold.fstab. This is the file that tells the OS where to mount the storage. Yours is most likely trying to mount the internal on the external sd which is default. All you have to do to change this is to change the vold.fstab from this:
Code:
# Internal SD card
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard/_InternalSD 9 /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci.3/mmc_host/mmc2
# External SD card
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci.2/mmc_host/mmc1
To this:
Code:
# Internal SD card
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard 9 /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci.3/mmc_host/mmc2
# External SD card
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD auto /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci.2/mmc_host/mmc1

Removing internal SD partition altogether

Hello, I have previously owned a Galaxy Ace which never had an internal SD storage and things were so much more simpler. Apps could be installed on removable SD. Apps were not confused when installing. I have realised that with this phone, when installing big games for example FIFA 12 or Need for Speed Most Wanted, it thinks that the internal SD storage is the removable SD card and won't download game data due to not having enough space. This 1.10GB worth of storage is totally useless and I would rather not have it for reasons of simplicity and just have a large removable SD card media instead. This 1.10GB internal storage space is insignificant when compared to 32GB removable SD Card and really is not worth the grief.
I have tried Link2SD to overcome this issue without any success as it moves the data files from the /data/data partition to the removable SD but not the Data which has been downloaded to Android/Data directory on the internal SD storage. Now I know that there are utilities (such as directory bind) which can swap the internal SD with the external SD. I also know that you can modify vold.fstab to do exactly the same. But I would rather not have this internal storage or if possible, have it extended to the internal data storage.instead.
Can someone please guide me on how to extend this irrelevant partion to data partition or have it removed entirely and just have a simple storage configuration like I did with the Galaxy Ace or older phones before all these large storages were introduced. Thanks in advance.

you need modified "vold.fstab"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2044439

No that just swaps the partitions. If you go to settings>storage the Removable SD card shows as USB storage and the internal SD is showing as SD Card. This is not what I want. Furthermore the fact that external SD is mounted in sdcard path is even more annoying and confusing at times.
What I am looking for is removeable SD card to be mounted as mnt/sdcard. And the internal SD card to be extended with some other internal partition such as data partition or just removed altogether. In simple terms I want the same file structure as my Galaxy Ace S5830.

Gizmotech said:
No that just swaps the partitions. If you go to settings>storage the Removable SD card shows as USB storage and the internal SD is showing as SD Card. This is not what I want. Furthermore the fact that external SD is mounted in sdcard path is even more annoying and confusing at times.
What I am looking for is removeable SD card to be mounted as mnt/sdcard. And the internal SD card to be extended with some other internal partition such as data partition or just removed altogether. In simple terms I want the same file structure as my Galaxy Ace S5830.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If want the removable SD card to be mounted as mnt/sdcard then the vold.fstab could do the trick. You said you wanted to play games right? That's what I use to play Need for Speed Most Wanted on my phone. As for the "Internal Storage" or the 1.20 GB Partition, modifying it and adding or removing other partitions would require a .pit file which as far as i know is responsible for partitioning the phone and unfortunately we do not have. Does this answer your question?

It does answer my question although not the answer I wanted to hear. I used to think highly of Android when I used the Galaxy Ace as it did not have this issue due to not having a internal usable storage. But how on hell did Samsung decide to put a puny amount of storage space and mount it as sdcard. I feel sorry for the normal users who have never come across rooting and mods. I am sorry as much as I have love for Android phones, I think my next phone will be an Apple. Never thought I would be saying this but I am honestly tired of this stupid internal sd / external sd configuration. This has even put me off purchasing phones like the Galaxy S3 as you will still have this stupid configuration to get your head over. End of rant.
Is is possible to mount the removable SD card as /mnt/sdcard and the internal puny storage as /mnt/USB or any other name so as not to confuse it with SD Card. At the same time not having the storages swapped and in their right places when checked in settings>storage?

whats the problem with swapping them? I'm hardly annoyed by this kind if situation. if you are almost filling up the 1.20GB storage then you can move some of the apps to the 1.10GB "external_sd". Then to make sure you use the REAL sd card set the default installation path to be internal memory.
Sent from my GT-I8160 running Holo Bean Beta

Gizmotech said:
What I am looking for is removeable SD card to be mounted as mnt/sdcard.
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and I say again... if you change "vold.fstab" then you will have that you say above. I have /mnt/sdcard = 32gb and /mnt/sdcard/external_sd = 1.1gb

monstro78 said:
and I say again... if you change "vold.fstab" then you will have that you say above. I have /mnt/sdcard = 32gb and /mnt/sdcard/external_sd = 1.1gb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is more of a workaround than a fix as swapping it loses the Unmount SD Card options for the removable media in settings>storage. The same with Directory Bind. They both do the trick but not quite the way I would have wanted it to do so.

Gizmotech said:
That is more of a workaround than a fix as swapping it loses the Unmount SD Card options for the removable media in settings>storage. The same with Directory Bind. They both do the trick but not quite the way I would have wanted it to do so.
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Then we cant do anything for that matter for now since there are no pit files available to repartition the phone.
Sent from my GT-I8160 running Holo Bean

I was just thinking if there was a way of making a new directory on the /mnt path called 'storage' or something, we could have possibly modified vold.stab. So change where it says /sdcard to /storage and /sdcard/external_sd to /sdcard. I'm not sure if that would work but again, I don't think that another new directory can be created in /mnt without a .pit file.

Gizmotech said:
I was just thinking if there was a way of making a new directory on the /mnt path called 'storage' or something, we could have possibly modified vold.stab. So change where it says /sdcard to /storage and /sdcard/external_sd to /sdcard. I'm not sure if that would work but again, I don't think that another new directory can be created in /mnt without a .pit file.
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actually there are 3 mount points inside the vold.fstab file. 1) /mnt/sdcard 2)/mnt/external_sd 3)/mnt/usbstorage (i think, i forgot..)
the third is supposed to be used for USB OTG function but for now it remains undefined. I do not know anything about modifying this file so I guess I'll leave it to the experts, ask around and see what turns up.

I just checked the vold.fstab and I think the mount point is mnt/sdcard/external_sd and not mnt/external_sd if I am interpreting the data correctly.

Gizmotech said:
I just checked the vold.fstab and I think the mount point is mnt/sdcard/external_sd and not mnt/external_sd if I am interpreting the data correctly.
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Yeah youre right.. I guess working on my jelly bean theme made my brain forgetful.
Sent from my GT-I8160 using xda app-developers app

[Q] SD card storage issue (default storage)

So I've been running stock 2.2.2 till yesterday. This phone has 8gb of total storage, with 2 partitions, one of 1.48gb, where it installs all apps etc (usually) and another of about 5.22gb which used to be treated as an 'sd card', even though it was internal storage. It would install all data to the second partition, and I could use that for files and apps etc freely.
I just flashed a JB rom last night, and so far as I can tell everything is working fine, the only issue I have is that its not recognizing my 2nd partition as an SD card, its regarding it as internal storage, and it wont allow apps and stuff to install there. The phone keep prompting me to 'insert an sd card'. I would like to be able to use my phone to install my apps (swiftkey etc), and use my apps (gallery etc). I cant save any files, screenshots or anything, and any app that utilizies data saved on memory keeps saying 'there is no sd card'.
It might be worth noting that I flashed the rom and gapps from the sd card, and then left it in while installing all my apps again and everything else I needed on my phone before removing it..
If anyone could help me get the second partition recognized as the sd card, that would be great. If any other info is needed I would be happy to oblige. Thank you.

IMO, you really should invest in an sd card, even a 2gb one. But I believe theres a file you can edit that will change the mount point. I'm not 100% sure if its the same for JB as GB.
Here's a quick link http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12271082/android-how-to-change-mount-points
or google up vold.fstab

Thanks!
Freakthis08 said:
IMO, you really should invest in an sd card, even a 2gb one. But I believe theres a file you can edit that will change the mount point. I'm not 100% sure if its the same for JB as GB.
Here's a quick link http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12271082/android-how-to-change-mount-points
or google up vold.fstab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply! I figured it out eventually through experimenting.. I found this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1593615) and used that info to find the file, the file itself contains info on all the parameters so it wasnt too hard to manipulate the text accordingly.. The file system on JB seems a bit strange though.
Theres a storage folder, which contains the two storage devices labelled sdcard0 and sdcard1. The mount points are done through storage.
But there is also a mnt folder, with both emmc and sdcard in it. In addition the root also has an emmc and sdcard folder in it. I think the folder names (in both the root and the mnt subfolder) are shortcuts, and are directed through the <label> you apply to the string in the vold.fstab file (following these parameters: Format: dev_mount <label> <mount_point> <part> <sysfs_path1...>). I think I swapped the label for the two partitions, switched the number after sdcard (though I think this is inconsequential). I left the partition numbers as is (so the external sd card was still auto, and the internal 'sd card' was partition 8), and I turned the internal storage into 'sd card'.
When I mount an external sd card though it shows up as internal storage. Is there a parameter to make that show up as 'external sd card'?

Good find and I'm glad you got things working for yourself!