Database Info

Internal Memory Size Zero!

I updated to the latest Gingerbread. I rooted it and it was working fine for a day. I installed ROM Manager to install CWM. While going in for a backup of the ROM, my computed had a blue screen that basically complained about the lgusbbus.sys. But more importantly the Optimus 3D has started to misbehave. After restarting it is now complaining that 'Not enough free space. Clean up your data and try again'.
I am unable to download anything from the market, since there is no memory available!
Internal SD Card is showing 5.57 GB
Internal Phone Storage is showing available space as 0.00B.
Only 3D applications show up. Nothing shows up on the 'Application' list or 'Downloaded' list.
What has gone wrong? Is this a physical damage to the internal memory?
Any and all help is highly appreciated. Thanks.

I don't think it's physical damage as internal memory and internal SD card are basically the same thing divided into 2 partitions. More likely something messed up the partition of the SD card which serves as internal memory. Try formatting the internal memory. It this doesn't work try to restore factory defaults.
Of course you will loose all content you had before but IMO you have already lost it anyway.

I had similar issue after installing GB. When i press format internal card it had not been formated, just show correct free space.

Use titanium backup and remove unwanted apps. It mat get you lots of free space. Also, move app to sdcard using apps like super manager...
let me know if it helps..

TheOnly1 said:
I don't think it's physical damage as internal memory and internal SD card are basically the same thing divided into 2 partitions. More likely something messed up the partition of the SD card which serves as internal memory. Try formatting the internal memory. It this doesn't work try to restore factory defaults.
Of course you will loose all content you had before but IMO you have already lost it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@TheOnly1, Thanks very much. The restore to Factory Defaults worked! Thanks again for taking time to respond. Highly appreciated, Sir.
@dexxxterek & @smohanv. Thanks for your replies.

[Q] Swapping EXT USB and SD Card?

Hi there,
I saw from my local forum here a Samsung Galaxy W thread.. which a custom ROM
with swap internal/external storage..
then I saw he posted in this XDA Forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=21317510#post21317510
can any dev can reverse/swap our internal/external storage so that /sdcard/external_sd into /sdcard (our MicroSD Card)
primary storage is the MicroSD and internal storage becoming the secondary i.e /ext_sd
thanks in advance!!

I'm guessing the less than 8gb internal memory is too small for you.
I'v been using a mod like this for my previous phone (i9003 Galaxy SL) and works fine. It had 4gb internal memory and about 1.5gb usable for user.
I9003-MOD-Swap your internal SDCARD memory (for froyo-2.2.1)with the External_SD
MOD-Swap external-internal SD Gingerbread Version
You have to edit the: /system/etc/vold.fstab file.
you will have to find the entries: "# internal sdcard" & "# external sdcard"
swap the code inside the {} sign and your good to go.
I can't test this as i don't have an i9103 myself.
Before you edit the file, make sure you make a nandroid backup. Also, make a backup of the original void.fstab file so u can revert the changes .
If u don't want to edit the file, attach your vold.fstab file on this thread and I'll take a crack at it.

```
backup original file and try this. View attachment vold.zip many users said, that this is work. And ~5% of tried have a brick. it is for you own risk.
I didn't try and I will not do this because there is no reasons to change "internal" and "external". If you playing Gameloft games, search "gl to sd" on Market - it will fully remove game data to external_sd.

ok thanks for the reply.
yes i'm also using gl to sd too.. but i dont understand
USB Storage got 1.2gb free
device memory 1.55gb free..
microSD Card 2.5gb free
but when running Dungeon Hunter 2 via GL to SD.. it says not enough space..pls free up 5mb to download.. etc etc..
I mount/unmount still the same.
8gb internal (3.75gb free) is small for me bcoz PAPAGO X5 can only be run from USB Storage (/sdcard) and it consume around 900mb. plus some Gameloft games data..
it eat up my internal USB Storage.

polomalkin said:
backup original file and try this. View attachment 861879 many users said, that this is work. And ~5% of tried have a brick. it is for you own risk.
I didn't try and I will not do this because there is no reasons to change "internal" and "external". If you playing Gameloft games, search "gl to sd" on Market - it will fully remove game data to external_sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know that app, thanks i'm sure could be very usefull for some friends.

[Guide] INCREASING INTERNAL MEMORY

THIS GUIDE IS TO SHOW YOU HOW TO INCREASE INTERNAL MEMORY OF ANY ANDROID DEVICE BY PARTITIONING
Note
This guide will partition your sdcard to make a part of your sdcard works like the internal memory that you can move your apps to it.
This guide will never increase the real internal memory (Storage in taskmanger) as it is impossible to be done.
First,
you have to do is to partition your SD Card and for doing this you have to: Download Mini tool Partition.
2- Install the application on your PC and connect your SD card to your PC with Card Reader.
3- Open Mini Tool Partition in your PC and when the wizards open click on your SD Card and select Delete option. !!!(Note: This will format your SD Card completely mean that it will erase your data permanently, so before doing this backup your data at any place in PC or other Storage device.) When the Formatting of your SD Card is completed then, you have whole of space of your SD Card as unallocated
4- then Right click SD Card and select create option. A popup box will open giving you options for making partition; select the partition as primary and file system as FAT if SD Card is less than 4GB or FAT32 if your SD Card is more than 4GB. Leave about 512 MB or more space (your choice) for creating the next partition.
5- Then select done and do right click on unallocated space of your SD Card and again click create option. Select Primary partition but change the file system to Ext2, Ext3 or Ext4. Note: (Ext2 is recommended as most ROMs work fine with it). Click Apply Changes and then process goes on for the few minutes and then partition is completed.
6- Install Link2sd from Google Play
On the first launch of the app, it will ask for root permissions and then, it will ask you the file system of the .ext partition that you had earlier made, choose the option as you had choose in the partitioning steps.
Sort the apps according to size and start linking them and then you have done your task.
Now you have your Phone’s Internal Memory+ Ext file size made by you in your SD Card. Now you can move your apps from your device memory to SD Card and simultaneously your device speed will also be increased.
I know there are many posts like this post but hit thanks button if you see mine first

Will this work for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Notam said:
Will this work for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likely yes, one my friends tried it on his galaxy tab and worked
Sent from my GT-B5512 using xda premium

Nice guide.
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app

andiroxu said:
Nice guide.
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANKS
....HIT THANKS IF I HELPED....
Sent from my GT-B5512 using xda premium

I'm so gonna to try this, thx!

OP should give credits to actual OP who took pain to create screenshots.
Also guys dont select storage as "external" in auto link. Link2sd dev recommends "internal" storage to avoid conflicts. Also I see this increases space in internal in storage info.
Ext2 fills up. You see widgets for all linked apps as phone assumes app installed as internal memory.
Also linking better than native app2sd or move to sd method and it retains apps in memory even if sd card is removed!!! during usb connection according to dev.
Read link2sd FAQ very helpful. :thumbup:
God is Original Developer

But this process requires you to already have a bit of space on internal storage, and only then move the apps.

Also use FolderMount to move huge OBB and DATA files to SD card
I've been using FolderMount along with Link2SD. FolderMount allows you to also move the HUGE OBB and DATA files that large games often make you download (some up to 2 GB!!!) Link2SD does not link these large files (it links APK and other smaller files) so they work together beautifully. Together they are truly huge space savers! Just search for FolderMount on the Play store.
Cheers!!!

War10ckJ0shua
I use the Recovery-ClockWork, go to Advanced > Particion SD Card.

already I have created a partition for 512 mb and I am using Link2sd. Is this now possible to extended the partition with or without loosing the data ?

Thats a good question. There is always a possibility to lose data stored in a partition when resizing any partition file system where it be Linux EXT2,3,4 or Windows Fat and Ntfs. Backup the data in there if you can before attempting it. I personally would use gparted since its already in all my installed linux distros already, but the free Minitool partition editor for Windows looks pretty awesome! It says it easily supports resize/move of partition without data loss so its possible. Just make sure you backup the whole card IE all data on both partitions just in case. Good luck.
thegreeat said:
already I have created a partition for 512 mb and I am using Link2sd. Is this now possible to extended the partition with or without loosing the data ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Do I absolutely have to use a card reader for this? Can't I use the mount usb storage option from my phone? Either way, the card shows up as an external drive doesn't it?

AualSciaespecially
I can't wait to do this after I root my HUAWEI H881C. I got it a week ago and free internal space for apps and data is rather small at about(?) 512MB total. After factory installed apps and such I was left with about 384Mb to start with. I can be a app whore. I haven't download too many games on google play yet because of internal storage limits. Even with those limits I do have Doom, Quake 1, 2, and 3 installed off the SD card along with my dosbox, snes, sega, psx and n64 emulators and roms with no problems.

I have been using link2sd since abandoning Froyo. Now on cm10.2.
One thing of which to know and be carefull: Link2sd's Achilles Heel.
When flashing a new ROM on rebuilding the dalvik cache for any reason, all the linked dalviks (dex) must fit on internal storage. If one has linked more than can fit, internal storage will run out and crash bang. I have requested of the devs to facilitate treating this within link2sd but so far, has not been implemented so the manual procedure would be:
A. Prevention! If playing with experimental ROMs often, pull the /data/sdext2/dalvik-cache folder and see how big it is. Make sure that the internal space available is say 20meg more than this. No problem.
B. If not possible or simply must have all the goodies installed now, here it what to do:
1. Show linked apps in dex-size order.
2. Multiselect enough of the largest ones to meet the 20meg condition.
3. Remove them.
After flashing, rebuilding the dalvik cache.
4. Relink current dalvik. Now have lots of room again.
5. Restore the removed apps and data, relink them. Note: Titanium is your best friend!
'Twould be nice if a future link2sd version would warn us and if need be, do this for us

FYI I just did that very same thing just leaving the card in the phone and using the minitool. It seems to have worked just fine even with resizing the fat32 partition already there and creating a Ext2 out of the room I freed up.
aashay960 said:
Do I absolutely have to use a card reader for this? Can't I use the mount usb storage option from my phone? Either way, the card shows up as an external drive doesn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Retro Gamer said:
FYI I just did that very same thing just leaving the card in the phone and using the minitool. It seems to have worked just fine even with resizing the fat32 partition already there and creating a Ext2 out of the room I freed up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick question - If you resize the partition which is already there, making space for a new one, will you lose all the data that is there in the card?

I answered that question in my last 2 reply posts. I just did this very thing without any problems or data loss, then went on to root my phone. It all took 20mins and I did copy my sd card contents to a dir in my PC just in case.
There is a always a chance for things to go wrong, but at the very least make a folder on your PC label cellback or something, connect your phone(with card) to PC & just copy all contents from your existing card in phone to that folder you made. Then in partition editor select the drive that is your SD card, resize it leaving left over space behind it. Use that free unallocated space to create a the new PRIMARY ext2 drive. Good luck.
aashay960 said:
Quick question - If you resize the partition which is already there, making space for a new one, will you lose all the data that is there in the card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Clockwork Recovery
To partition, you don't necessarily have to use a 3rd party PC based partitioning tool.
If your phone is rooted, with Clockwork Recovery flashed, you can simply:
a)Backup your Sd Card on another device.(As warned, the process wipes the sd card clean)
b)Reboot your device into Recovery mode.
c)Select Advanced, then Partition SD Card
d)First menu lets you choose the size of the ext
e)Second menu lets you choose the size of the swap file.
When your done partitioning, you will have both an ext and a swap file, no 3rd party partitioning app needed.
You'll need an app like Swapper2 for the swap partition and the aforementioned Link2Sd for the ext
Hit thanks if this helps. :highfive::good:

Kris the wizz 15 said:
To partition, you don't necessarily have to use a 3rd party PC based partitioning tool.
If your phone is rooted, with Clockwork Recovery flashed, you can simply:
a)Backup your Sd Card on another device.(As warned, the process wipes the sd card clean)
b)Reboot your device into Recovery mode.
c)Select Advanced, then Partition SD Card
d)First menu lets you choose the size of the ext
e)Second menu lets you choose the size of the swap file.
When your done partitioning, you will have both an ext and a swap file, no 3rd party partitioning app needed.
You'll need an app like Swapper2 for the swap partition and the aforementioned Link2Sd for the ext
Hit thanks if this helps. :highfive::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. When step d) is completed... what happens with the partition that was created... is mounted on the micro sd card, as a partition on itself?
I have another question. Is there an app/way to install directly to micro sd card, as if there is no need to move the apps later, because they go where is needed to in the first place?
Is there a way to move dalvik cache as well?

8gb internal storage solutions

So I got the Moto G 1gb, 8 gigs of internal storage version.
I love this phone so far and I've pretty much set it up how I'd like it, but the 8gb internal storage has turned into an issue.
I got Appmanager III, moved pretty much everything to my 32 gig external, but I still have only like 600 mb to spare on the internal, with well over half of the external left over.
Is there another app that will allow me to move all the app data left over in the internal over to the external?
If that's not enough, I'd also be interested in knowing if there's any way I can force the system to use the external as the main storage for all the OS functions. I already used adb to set all the default downloads to the external.
Finally, I'd like to know if custom ROMs like cyanogenmod would use up less storage than the stock OS, or at least let me use more of my internal by reducing the amount of bloatware (why can i NOT get rid of google movies or google+??? come ON)
I'm rooted and have installed twrp so both root and custom recovery solutions are welcome. Thanks for your time and help!

If it were me, I'd make a Nandroid with TWRP on the external as well as a backup with Titanium and then use Titanium to delete unwanted bloatware. Wouldn't that help?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

bruce7373 said:
If it were me, I'd make a Nandroid with TWRP on the external as well as a backup with Titanium and then use Titanium to delete unwanted bloatware. Wouldn't that help?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System apps, ie those that come with the phone such as google movies, live in the system partition. If they are updated then the update lives in the internal storage. Uninstalling via titanium will of course free up both system and internal storage space.
However just disabling them will be sufficient, this will remove all updates from internal storage and just leave the apk in the system partition. Its the internal storage that you want to be less full as this is where user apps, pictures etc all reside (assuming you haven't yet moved them to an SD card).
Disabling is less drastic than uninstalling and is maybe the preferred option in case you otherwise uninstall something that breaks your phone.

I've tried that, but for whatever reason if I disable, say, google play movie or whatever, my phone eventually ends up redownloading them? It's really odd and honestly pretty annoying.
I'd still like to know if there's any way to keep all the main app data on the external or something though. Are Cyanogenmod ROMs installers smaller? I don't need THAT much more space to feel comfortable, having 1 gigabyte would be ok with me. I just don't like having like 600 MB free at most...
EDIT: If I can just move the app data for a few games and Google Chrome, that should fix it, too. Those seem to be the real space hogs, so if I can move those I should be able to handle everything else
EDIT EDIT: Would an app like Link2SD work for this phone or has no one tested that yet?

Hi Tazzypilar, Yes Link2Sd wil work wery well. All wat you have to do is to install MiniTool Partition Wizzard Professional on your PC, then put your micro SD card in the cardreader on your desktop or laptop to make two partitions on your SdMicro card (card must be class 10). Start program MiniTool Partition Wizzard Professional and look for your microSD card on the list with disks. Right click on your removable disk (micro sd card) and you can resize your first Fat32 partition and make it smaller for at least 2 GB. After that you will have 2 GB unused space behind this Fat32 partition. Now click with right mouse on this unused space and choose „Create“ new partition and make it ext4 file system partition. You will be prompt „Are you sure that you want to make ext4 partiton because Windows can't see it ?“ and answare „Yes“ . So, one partition will be Fat32 and you can make it as big as you like depending on the size of your MicroSd card and second should be at least 2GB (or greater - also may be smaller, it's up to you) ext4 partition and there you will move your apps from the internal phone memory.
That's all, after that you have to install Link2Sd from playstore and link apps you like to move to your SdCard. Succes ! If you have more questions jut ask !
Greetz !
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Where did my storage go?
Just asked my self a very similar questions
I attachment a screen shot
From the 8gb 3,5 go to Android system
So 4,5gb for internal I thought., but no.
I installed about 2gb of apps and 200mb cache.
Ah I forgot to mention that this is a fresh install after factory reset and still I am missing alot of storage see screen shot
Is this normal? I am on stock not rooted with some apps already moved to SD Any ideas?

Upgrade to android M, use external SD as internal card
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.

sandipkc7 said:
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am glad you brought this up, guess what I am already on M and using the SD card feature, unfortunately I can only a small portion of the apps move to the SD card the rest stays internal

Look for posts on link2sd, it needs to be a fast card and then formatted using both std FAT and ext (linux) partitions. Then you can move almost everything.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Though Im using LG H502F. Correct me if Im wrong but I think thats because the internal storage is emulated. Ive been using Link2SD and it works well. I can link app data and external data to the mounted partition. The only difference I noticed was... When opening the app it takes a couple of second or more compared to the unlinked apps... Anyways. Try to check if your storage is emulated. If it is, then that 3GB available space for a stock rom is as good as it gets. Mine have 8GB rom but the end user is only 3GB something.
Sent from my LG-H502 using XDA-Developers mobile app

merlin2380 said:
I am glad you brought this up, guess what I am already on M and using the SD card feature, unfortunately I can only a small portion of the apps move to the SD card the rest stays internal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In android M you can "transform" your sd card in internal memory (in Settings>Storage>SdCard>Definitions). If you have a fast 32 Gb card, you can format it to internal and it is as you have 32 Gb internal memory, but your sdcard must "live" with your phone (can't be used as sdcard in other device).
I think that is what @sandipkc7 means.

I did that not very usefull

merlin2380 said:
I did that not very usefull
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried internal storage option in marshmallow and at first i taught it was rubbish, but i kinda left sdcard alone and install another ROM.
So stuff on my internal storage was nowhere to be found. I installed latest recovery (TWRP) Flashed another rom and this is where things started to get interesting.
When i first converted sdcard to use as internal storage my phone was still eating up the internal memory 8GB on the phone.
Now however android system decided to do away with internal 8GB memory and use sdcard as a main storage. my photos are stored there and all data i noticed that almost everything is installed on sdcard now. so my storage is not vanishing away. I have about 1.7GB used on there.
There are some apps that can be moved manually to sdcard storage (converted to internal) - for example some of the system apps and most of google apps stay in phones memory not on sdcard and they can't be moved manually.
So my advise is covert your card to internal memory and then do factory reset or install another ROM.
Option 2 as mentioned above in posts is to use app called Link2SD - it is worth to opt for paid version which gives you more options of what to copy to 2nd partiton of your sdcard.
i have amazon fire 7 (£50 tablet) setup with option 2 - same storage 8GB. It works well. due to lack of marshmallow for this device i cannot use internal sd as an option. I have 2GB used there and rest sits on sdcard. i have installed few resource (storage) hugging apps - 1.2 GB, 2 GB each (gameloft games) - all moved to sd with link2sd app.
on my moto g 2015 i use android build in solution and it works well. You have to keep in mind that with this solution you can't simply copy files to your computer. Sdcard is encrypted at device level and it can only be access via your phone. However you can use any wifi file transfer app to copy some files over or via phones hotspot (i use droid over wifi or web pc suite to name few).
hope this helped a little

sandipkc7 said:
Why not upgrade to android M and use phone's feature to use external card as internal card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
honestly, its not worth it to use sdcard as internal, despite the micro sd card being fast, it made my phone ridiculously slow..............

marsrolled said:
honestly, its not worth it to use sdcard as internal, despite the micro sd card being fast, it made my phone ridiculously slow..............
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because of this slow down i did a reset to default settings. This did help and now the phone works much better, just make sure you always have 500MB empty on the internal storage, anything less and tbe phone performance goes down imediatly.
All the talking about this no so vreat sdcardinteral storage feature was too much for my 32 GB samsung evo micro sd card, it died less than 6 months of service. This was already the 2nd from the evo series that hung up on me and let me to dataloss thanks to google drive all was backedup
I will now root the phone and get a custom rom, probaply cm offical

Did you ever find out how to recover that lost 2GB? I have the exact same problem and managed to maybe find the 2GB in the /data folder; however it is sys locked and I'm not ready to root a brand new phone yet.
I have 8 apps installed (not counting google/motorola pre-installed) on my Moto G3 and showing 3.72GB used of 4.53GB available internal. It then shows 1.36 GB used by apps, 1.71 MB by cache. Other 2GB is a mystery?Device storage shows only 16GB used of 37GB availabe due to SD card.

Moto G 2015 - Photo Recovery

Hello Everyone. I have a MOTO G 3rd Gen with a 32 GB Class 10 Sandisk sdcard. I originally posted this issue on the Lenovo Forum MOTO G 3rd Gen - Photo Recovery (can't post a direct link just yet), where they suggested that I look here for advice.
I originally used my sdcard for portable storage, although I had to periodically move my photos from internal storage to the sdcard, I was satisfied with the operation of my phone. However, as I added a few apps, I started to have some issues with running out of space in internal storage IIRC.
Earlier this year, it appears that I picked up a virus, which caused Chrome to always want to open to what seemed to be a malicious page (don't recall exactly what now). I decided to do a factory reset using the Settings option to return to a clean installation of Android. I decided at that time to configure the sdcard as extended internal storage, and the process appeared to work properly.
A few months later, I started getting messages informing me that an app update failed because I had run out out storage. After some investigation, it looked like most (all?) of my apps were continuing to use the built-in internal storage rather than the sdcard's extended storage. I tried uninstalling my apps an then reinstalling them - hoping that reinstalled apps would take up residence on my sdcard but they did not. However, it looked like I had uninstalled a few too many programs and my phone lost a lot of its functionality.
One of the functions that it lost was the ability to connect to my PC with the USB cord. Another was the ability for my google contacts to sync with the phone. Yesterday, I tried everything I could thing of to back up my data but I could not figure out how to get the USB to work properly. I decided that I would do another factory reset and removed the sdcard as I knew a reset would wipe all of my data. I removed my sdcard but the factory reset through Settings did not work this time and I instead had to do a hard factory reset. My phone is now working properly with a minimal number of installed apps.
When I reinstalled my sdcard, my phone does not recognize it and wants to format both as portable and internal storage. I was hoping that it would pick up where it left off.
As a last resort, I thought I might have to format my sd card and then try to recover deleted image files. Do you have any advice about recovering the photos on my sdcard?

The last reply on the Lenovo forum was:
When you formatted the card as internal/adopted the card was encrypted amd the key was stored on the phone in a secure location. A reset has deleted the key.
Your data on the sd card is not recoverable as the card is encrypted and the key is lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Essentially, when I configured my phone to use my sdcard as extended internal storage, all I ended up with was encrypted portable storage. I would rather that there was a 3rd option for having unencrypted extended internal storage.
How would I get this into the Android developers suggestion box?

TP380Z said:
The last reply on the Lenovo forum was:
Essentially, when I configured my phone to use my sdcard as extended internal storage, all I ended up with was encrypted portable storage. I would rather that there was a 3rd option for having unencrypted extended internal storage.
How would I get this into the Android developers suggestion box?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you ended up with encrypted internal storage... The fact that you didn't understand it is the real issue.
Adopted storage is tied to not only the device, but the current installation... When an sd card is adopted as internal storage, a encryption key is generated semi-randomly and the file system is of the card becomes ext4 and encrypted, the system is decrypted automatically on boot because the key is stored in the phone. If you factory reset, it wipes your internal storage, which in this case is your sd card, and you would be fine. If you remove the card and factory reset, the key is gone forever and you have to reformat the card for it to be usable. So everything you were told in the Lenovo forums was correct, and the files are no longer recoverable by any known means.

your SD card would be nolonger useful , sorry to break this to you bro..
if your card is now encrypted state, i heavily doubt it would work again..talking of recovering photos,when encrypted.. HELL NO! it cant..
what i do is :
i always keep my memorycard as Portable, but not as internal to avoid such problems..
incase if i have formatted as internal, then while formatting or resetting.. i would take full bakup, and then Format as portable, then carryon resets..
i know these encryptions would give such a pain..
next time takecare of these issues..
suggestion: what i do is i install Googlephotos, it takes a backup of every photo & video which i have in either SDcard/internal .. so i would take necessary files while taking backup, to save time..
next time you try using GooglePhotos, it takes backup when i keep my phone in charge, (note: my internet is unlimited- so its ok for me)

acejavelin said:
No, you ended up with encrypted internal storage... The fact that you didn't understand it is the real issue..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the very thoughtful reply. I thought that I understood my two sdcard formatting options but I obviously did not. When I first installed my sdcard, I selected portable storage as I did not want my sdcard to be encrypted. Only after discovering that the internal storage of my phone was inadequate for my very limited number of installed apps did I switch to encrypted adopted storage.
If I understand you correctly, the reason that the adopted storage storage is encrypted is because the internal storage is encrypted.
My expectation was that the phone would seamlessly treat the adopted storage as internal storage so I am still at a loss to understand why my phone would not automatically install apps into the available in the adopted storage.

TP380Z said:
Thank you for the very thoughtful reply. I thought that I understood my two sdcard formatting options but I obviously did not. When I first installed my sdcard, I selected portable storage as I did not want my sdcard to be encrypted. Only after discovering that the internal storage of my phone was inadequate for my very limited number of installed apps did I switch to encrypted adopted storage.
If I understand you correctly, the reason that the adopted storage storage is encrypted is because the internal storage is encrypted.
My expectation was that the phone would seamlessly treat the adopted storage as internal storage so I am still at a loss to understand why my phone would not automatically install apps into the available in the adopted storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, anytime the SD card is adopted as internal storage it is encrypted... This is a privacy/security measure by Google and is not optional and it doesn't matter if your original internal storage was encrypted or not. Adopted storage basically brings the SD card into the "internal family" and it cannot be used elsewhere. Period (OK, yes, I know there is a way to get the encryption key and mount the volume in Linux, but it is still not perfect).
The reason it still wasn't treated as you expect is probably 2-fold... First, the Moto G3 has a tendency to miss the last step of adoption, called data migration, which is the act of moving existing data to the card and it needs to be initiated manually in many cases. Until this is done, the card is not used by Android except when you specify it because it doesn't think the card is ready yet. This can be done in Settings - Storage then selecting the 3 dot menu and Migrate Data. If this option doesn't appear or is grayed out, then the migration completed successfully (or you are using the card as portable storage, obviously).
The second reason is apps themselves... some of them have not been fully updated to the API standard used by Marshmallow and just don't honor the request to use the card as internal, and Android has a facility to allow this to happen for compatibility. It just uses the internal storage of the device so the app works. Some apps specifically request to be only on real device internal storage for whatever reason as well.

nandakis4 said:
your SD card would be nolonger useful , sorry to break this to you bro..
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Thanks. Your sympathy is appreciated.
nandakis4 said:
if your card is now encrypted state, i heavily doubt it would work again..talking of recovering photos,when encrypted.. HELL NO! it cant..
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I put my sdcard back in my phone just now and it did not recognize it. However, when I went to Settings > Storage and USB, I had no problem formatting it as portable storage.
nandakis4 said:
what i do is :
i always keep my memorycard as Portable, but not as internal to avoid such problems..
incase if i have formatted as internal, then while formatting or resetting.. i would take full bakup, and then Format as portable, then carryon resets..
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I expect that this will once again cause me to have app storage space issues. I only ran into problems with data backups once I started uninstalling apps. I had hoped that uninstalling and then reinstalling apps would then cause the phone to correctly place them into adopted storage. I cannot believe that I was so careless as to not have downloaded my photos earlier but here we are.
After apparently successfully formatting my sdcard as portable storage, I went back and converted to adopted internal storage (also apparently successfully) just now. I've re-installed MS OneNote and my phone is reporting that is taking up 85.70 MB in Internal Storage. When I go to Storage and USB, I see that 44.46 MB is used of 28.32 GB of SanDisk SD Card and 3.00 GB of 4.53 GB is being used of Internal Storage. When I reinstall 63.40 MB MS Word, I see that I'm now using 2.97 GB of Internal Storage and 173 MB of SanDisk SD Card.
[As of 1:50 pm, my phone is now reporting using 3.00 GB of Internal Storage and 137 MB of SanDisk SD Card.]
It looks like adopted internal storage is working properly. I never previously suspected that there was a problem with adopted storage and installed several large apps. The storage space problem surfaced only when there was a MS OneNote update that would not install because of insufficient internal storage space.
nandakis4 said:
suggestion: what i do is i install Googlephotos, it takes a backup of every photo & video which i have in either SDcard/internal .. so i would take necessary files while taking backup, to save time..
next time you try using GooglePhotos, it takes backup when i keep my phone in charge, (note: my internet is unlimited- so its ok for me)
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Thanks! I will try GooglePhotos. I hope I can set it up to only do backups when I'm connected to WIFI.