I'm not a developer by any stretch of the imagination, but this Linux cell phone has ignited my inner geek, and I must bend it to my will.
My basic question is, with the current state of development, how much is it possible to move from the internal storage of an LG Optimus Fuel phone (L34C/KitKat) and onto the external SD card?
I blow stuff up a lot because I'm an inveterate tinkerer, too adventurous for my own good/skill level. I'm an Android noob, but an old hand at Linux, which means I think I know a lot more about what I'm doing with KitKat than I actually do. But at least I do have a fetish for backups, which is all that makes my misadventures endurable.
So I did a Nandroid backup on my L34C after modding it only enough to support the TWRP backup. But the phone's internal storage is puny, and TWRP manager will only write to the internal SD, so I could only install about 300MB more in apps before there no longer was enough space for another Nandroid backup. Which means I've either got to tone down my tweaking (figure the odds!) or find another way to do Nandroids.
Yes, I could do an initial Nandroid, followed by Titanium backups, but where's the fun in that? Same with doing online Nandroid backups. No self-respecting geek every would let someone else be in charge of maintaining his backups (IMHO). And bonus points if I can relieve internal SD overcrowding by installing/moving apps and whatnot to the external storage.
So I'm thinking this is going to require linking, but the OE FAT32 partition on the external SD card won't support it. The OE 4GB SD card was too small to be slicing up, so I bought a 16GB cat4 SD card, formatted half in FAT32 and half in Ext3, but I could never get the Ext3 partition to mount. I wasn't able to find anything definitive, but I did come across information (of unknown validity) that the L34C's lack of init.d support was the reason it wouldn't mount.
So is this true? If I install a kernel with init.d support in my L34C, will I then be able to mount additional partition(s) on the external SD card?
As for the specifics of the partitioning, I found one mention in another forum in a post dated almost three years ago stating partitions on an Android external SD card had to be no more than 2GB in size, and preferably only 1GB. Is this true? Does it still pertain to KitKat? And what is/was the cause of this partition size limitation?
If the 2GB limit is true, what about creating and mounting multiple 2GB partitions? Say, one exclusively for writing the Nandroid backup to, and a second for moving files out of internal storage?
And what of my overall objective? In the current state of development, is writing Nandroid backups to the external SD card of an L34C (or even better, to the USB) known to be possible? Or im-possible?
If not, and presuming I can manage to get an Ext-formatted partition on the external SD card to mount, which of the many <something>2SD apps should I look to to move as much material as possible off of the internals storage?
I did try installing Link2SD, even though there wasn't an external partition available that supported linking. When I tried to move an app with it, one that Link2SD itself had labeled 'movable,' it failed with:
!Failure
App2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has a primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage. You can link the app in order to move its files to the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dunno why it's blaming Apps2SD unless Link2 is built around Apps2.
But the advice was no help because I can't link to a partition that won't mount. And for all I know, the fact that the L34C uses emulated storage might be a show-stopper.
I've asked these same questions at other Android forums, but got no answers. I initially didn't want to even join XDA because you guys are too far above my pay grade. But I don't think I have any other choice, not if I ever want to get to the bottom of this.
Thank you for taking the time to red my long-winded post.
Hi there,
What you may wish to do is transfer them to your pc for safe keeping and not have to worry about it. You could also try inserting your sd card into your PC and manually transferring the nandroids from your pc to your sd card afterwards.
Also regards to the sd card write protection issue, I could not find anything relevant for your device in particular but you can ask your question here and someone may be able to help you.
Good luck
Related
So this is the first phone I've seen where it has SYSTEM memory, SD INTERNAL, and SD EXTERNAL. It's really confusing for me.
When I install an app, is it installing to the 16GB built in memory, or my SD card? I haven't modified anything. And if I do a backup using MyBackupPro, is it using the on board, or the SD card?
It seems like everything favors the internal 16GB, so I guess the 32GB I slid into the device should just be used for things like movies and photos, etc?
I guess this confusion is hampering CWM too since it's not used to handling both these "SD CARDS"
Thanks!
bella92108 said:
So this is the first phone I've seen where it has SYSTEM memory, SD INTERNAL, and SD EXTERNAL. It's really confusing for me.
When I install an app, is it installing to the 16GB built in memory, or my SD card? I haven't modified anything. And if I do a backup using MyBackupPro, is it using the on board, or the SD card?
It seems like everything favors the internal 16GB, so I guess the 32GB I slid into the device should just be used for things like movies and photos, etc?
I guess this confusion is hampering CWM too since it's not used to handling both these "SD CARDS"
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This also brings up another question. Once ROMs do come out as a result of CWM being modified, normally someone does a format\wipe data\clear cache. This would normally clear anything on the "internal memory"... but since there's some confusion as to if the phone sees the "internal SD" as internal memory or not, do you think this process will wipe that as well?
No confusion. I think you may be confusing yourself in a vicious circle
Everything by default is added to the "internal" SD. There are apps (app2SD) and other ways(GB) to install apps to "external" SD, but not all apps can be.
Backups are saved on "internal" SD. (MBP, i dunno, I use TiB) This folder can be copied to "external" SD BEFORE a wipe and flash, then copied back to "internal" SD, backup program installed and restore apps+data preformed(copying the backup folder to pc suggested also in case All goes Wrong) .
"System" is on "internal" SD but is on a different partition, as well as ROM and Internal DB to their own.
CWM has no issue with SD (internal/external SD'd are not new) but as phones and hardware are different for different models it must be modified for the device.... par for the course. As far as how to CWM ROM, always do as OP of ROM states, until you are at least familiar with the process.
Is this your first android device? or first Samsung? I recommend that if you want to understand better how these devices operate to read the Galaxy S family of forums ( Galaxy S, Captivate, Fascinate, etc) as there is tons of info that will be similar to the Infuse.
Hope I ain't steered you wrong and it helps
13_ said:
No confusion. I think you may be confusing yourself in a vicious circle
Everything by default is added to the "internal" SD. There are apps (app2SD) and other ways(GB) to install apps to "external" SD, but not all apps can be.
Backups are saved on "internal" SD. (MBP, i dunno, I use TiB) This folder can be copied to "external" SD BEFORE a wipe and flash, then copied back to "internal" SD, backup program installed and restore apps+data preformed(copying the backup folder to pc suggested also in case All goes Wrong) .
"System" is on "internal" SD but is on a different partition, as well as ROM and Internal DB to their own.
CWM has no issue with SD (internal/external SD'd are not new) but as phones and hardware are different for different models it must be modified for the device.... par for the course. As far as how to CWM ROM, always do as OP of ROM states, until you are at least familiar with the process.
Is this your first android device? or first Samsung? I recommend that if you want to understand better how these devices operate to read the Galaxy S family of forums ( Galaxy S, Captivate, Fascinate, etc) as there is tons of info that will be similar to the Infuse.
Hope I ain't steered you wrong and it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to say your post made a ton of sense and brought clarity to the issue. I'm new to the way Sammy phones work as my past Android Experience has been LG, and HTC (x2)... Thanks!
Misguided? Yes, I'm always chasing my tail hoping I'll catch it... one day I'll get it! hehe.
I'll look through the Samsung forums. Thanks for the tip
bella92108 said:
I have to say your post made a ton of sense and brought clarity to the issue. I'm new to the way Sammy phones work as my past Android Experience has been LG, and HTC (x2)... Thanks!
Misguided? Yes, I'm always chasing my tail hoping I'll catch it... one day I'll get it! hehe.
I'll look through the Samsung forums. Thanks for the tip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. The 16gb internal sd is partitioned into a 13 gb and some change (/sdcard) and 2gb (/data). Then the external sd is mounted as /external_sd.
/sdcard and /external_sd are supposed to be used for media (try taking a 2 minute video at 720p res lol...easily 40-50mb) and android devices usually have a 2gb data partition where your apps install (supposed to install by default).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
h8rift said:
Yep. The 16gb internal sd is partitioned into a 13 gb and some change (/sdcard) and 2gb (/data). Then the external sd is mounted as /external_sd.
/sdcard and /external_sd are supposed to be used for media (try taking a 2 minute video at 720p res lol...easily 40-50mb) and android devices usually have a 2gb data partition where your apps install (supposed to install by default).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, thanks for the great info
is there way to make every thing store directly on the phone?
Or more to the point, does anyone think they will fix the way the TF memory/partitions are based with the ICS "AiO" Android 4 revision?
While its not an operational annoyance for me (IE most everything works fine), I HATE the fact that the internal memory is mounted as the sdcard instead of as internal memory (like any other device I have used)
I hate that out of 16GB I only have 11.xGB to use (especially when my ROM size before install is only 180Mb extracted... Stock is like 400Mb+) and cant use something like Firerats (at least not that I have found with searching, and yes I know firerats is basically just a repartition tool for MTD not eMMC or anything else) to repartition it to reclaim the wasted space...
From what I understood (and i could be wrong here), its only setup with the Internal memory as an SD instead of... internal memory... is because of Honeycomb, and that the layout is similar to other devices in that its a single memory chip for the internal/system/sd like any other NON Honeycomb device only the internal memory is... well internal memory...
So my question is that can anyone in the know on this subject help me out here...
AFAIK we get one chip for storage. Most stuff expects /sdcard so it makes sense for HC/ICS to be putting our /data/media on /mnt/sdcard with the FUSE thing.
And I can't see any really good reason to change what the norm is on TF101.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I think you'll find that on Froyo/Gingerbread phones with internal memory as well as an SD slot, internal memory has always been mounted as /sdcard/ or /mnt/sdcard/ - the external card is mounted as a subfolder under that. This is for the user's convenience. Can you imagine how it would work to mount the internal memory if there was no external card present otherwise?
I seriously doubt ICS itself will solve the niggling problem of external SD mounting on our TF101s, but Asus may well change the layout so it's under /sdcard/xxxx/ to help matters.
Spidey01 said:
AFAIK we get one chip for storage. Most stuff expects /sdcard so it makes sense for HC/ICS to be putting our /data/media on /mnt/sdcard with the FUSE thing.
And I can't see any really good reason to change what the norm is on TF101.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could understand ASUS placing the internal storage as /sdcard since most stuff does expect/save to /sdcard automatically. Being that the tablet has an advertised 16GB of memory, ASUS probably believed that your every day average Joe wouldn't go out and buy an sd card.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
unfnknblvbl said:
I think you'll find that on Froyo/Gingerbread phones with internal memory as well as an SD slot, internal memory has always been mounted as /sdcard/ or /mnt/sdcard/ - the external card is mounted as a subfolder under that. This is for the user's convenience. Can you imagine how it would work to mount the internal memory if there was no external card present otherwise?
I seriously doubt ICS itself will solve the niggling problem of external SD mounting on our TF101s, but Asus may well change the layout so it's under /sdcard/xxxx/ to help matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I was a bit vague, I dont actually want it as extra storage or partition, I just want it all as /data instead of /sdcard... all the phone I have and have used (which I admit arent the latest, the newest I have used was an 8GB phone I cant remember the model of) so far didnt actually use /sdcard they just used /data... I have an SD card specificly for being an SD card... I hate having to either remap or manually use a file manager to get my TB files or anything else that uses the fake /sdcard instead of my actual SD card... id prefer all /data bleh...
Hammerfest said:
I guess I was a bit vague, I dont actually want it as extra storage or partition, I just want it all as /data instead of /sdcard... all the phone I have and have used (which I admit arent the latest, the newest I have used was an 8GB phone I cant remember the model of) so far didnt actually use /sdcard they just used /data... I have an SD card specificly for being an SD card... I hate having to either remap or manually use a file manager to get my TB files or anything else that uses the fake /sdcard instead of my actual SD card... id prefer all /data bleh...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it IS all on /data. /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard is a FUSE mounted filesystem from /data/media. All space accessible on /sdcard is also accessible on /data.
EDIT:
All my android phones do not do what you claim either, the internal mem is mounted as /mnt/emmc and /data is a 2GB partition on the emmc
lilstevie said:
it IS all on /data. /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard is a FUSE mounted filesystem from /data/media. All space accessible on /sdcard is also accessible on /data.
EDIT:
All my android phones do not do what you claim either, the internal mem is mounted as /mnt/emmc and /data is a 2GB partition on the emmc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, lets put it this way, nothing is mounted under /sdcard when i look at my phones without my SD card in them... get me now? when I go to phone data I have 7~Gb free listed for apps and such, there is no SD card listed, I dont know how to put it any other way, there is NOTHING in the removable or sdcard directory (the removable doesnt even exist on my phones) until I put one of my MicroSD cards in...
ergo, data is a 2gb partition you say, cool! I want to eliminate the fake sdcard partition then and combine it all into /data! I want the programs that store data on to the /sdcard to ACTUALLY GO TO MY DAMN SDCARD...
what phone do you have that has 7GB of /data/ ?
Hammerfest said:
ok, lets put it this way, nothing is mounted under /sdcard when i look at my phones without my SD card in them... get me now? when I go to phone data I have 7~Gb free listed for apps and such, there is no SD card listed, I dont know how to put it any other way, there is NOTHING in the removable or sdcard directory (the removable doesnt even exist on my phones) until I put one of my MicroSD cards in...
ergo, data is a 2gb partition you say, cool! I want to eliminate the fake sdcard partition then and combine it all into /data! I want the programs that store data on to the /sdcard to ACTUALLY GO TO MY DAMN SDCARD...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said my phones had a 2gb data partition. what I said about the transformer is:
lilstevie said:
it IS all on /data. /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard is a FUSE mounted filesystem from /data/media. All space accessible on /sdcard is also accessible on /data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
get it, /sdcard is DIRECTLY linked to /data/media, you lose no space what-so-ever to the /sdcard link.
further more show me a phone that has all the space in /data that is listed as having 16/32GB mem, it is pretty standard, my sgs was /mnt/sdcard, until I flashed CM7 when it was changed to /mnt/emmc, still not seen what you say where a device has all its space as /data
im not saying its not standard, im just saying (as is the original request on my post) that I dont want it mounted as SDCARD because I want my damn programs and sdcard data to do to... you guessed it, my ACTUAL SD CARD...
when I make backups with Titanium Backup, I want them to go to the MicoSD card I have inserted like they would with any other phone/device without having to **** with anything else, same with game/app extra data that uses SD card storage...
I played with an SGS2 today and while i didnt get to play with terminal, I ran TB and the backup went to the MicroSD card inserted and not the internal memory... unlike what the TF does...
infazzdar said:
I could understand ASUS placing the internal storage as /sdcard since most stuff does expect/save to /sdcard automatically. Being that the tablet has an advertised 16GB of memory, ASUS probably believed that your every day average Joe wouldn't go out and buy an sd card.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that buy now after years of PC's with X GB hard drives that they would be used to losing some to the OS and recovery partiton. Especially since Windows and major Linux distro's have gotten excessively FAT.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
A lot of the newer tegra phones are set up this way.
Sent from my CushZero using Tapatalk
Hammerfest said:
im not saying its not standard, im just saying (as is the original request on my post) that I dont want it mounted as SDCARD because I want my damn programs and sdcard data to do to... you guessed it, my ACTUAL SD CARD...
when I make backups with Titanium Backup, I want them to go to the MicoSD card I have inserted like they would with any other phone/device without having to **** with anything else, same with game/app extra data that uses SD card storage...
I played with an SGS2 today and while i didnt get to play with terminal, I ran TB and the backup went to the MicroSD card inserted and not the internal memory... unlike what the TF does...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hate to break it to you but the SGS2 has a smaller /data partition, then the rest is mounted as /mnt/sdcard.
you do know that TiBU does allow you to select where you save your backup to right?
And for programs that don't (/mnt/sdcard/kindle for example), you can symlink the folder(s) they want to /Removable/MicroSD/(kindle) quite easily.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I agree, its really annoying. A good example is dolphin browser. When I go to back up the settings and bookmarks "to SD" I have to hunt and peck in a file manager to find the stupid file and move it to my actual SD card. I am not at all a fan of the simulated SD card.
Superjoe said:
I agree, its really annoying. A good example is dolphin browser. When I go to back up the settings and bookmarks "to SD" I have to hunt and peck in a file manager to find the stupid file and move it to my actual SD card. I am not at all a fan of the simulated SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, it annoys the everliving piss outta me, and while programs like TiB can "select" the location, and you can make "simlinks" for specific apps, I dont want to have to go through the hassle, I want to know that any program I use, when it requires the MicroSD, or normally saves to the MicroSD, to save to my &^*^&*%^%& MicroSD...
its as simple as that...
Guys, chill out, it's just a forum on the Internet.
Best alternative to dealing with the design: make a patch se or custom that screws with /init*.rc files accordingly. Main problem (give or take figuring out how to do it) would probably be how the system would react when no MicroSD card is mounted.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
lilstevie knows more about the partition structure of Android devices, and the Transformer in particular, than all of those in this thread put together. If you're not willing to take and/or accept that he has answered your questions multiple times and in multiple different ways, I can't help you and this thread is not going to go anywhere.
I am closing this thread.
hey everyone. so if i partition the internal sd card what exactly am i doing? from what i understand, the g2x has 8gb onboard, 1.5 of that is for apps, and 5 goes to user data. the rest i assume is for android?
so if i create a 2gb partition on the internal sd, what am i changing and what does it do to the rest of the space? do i need to create the other partitions in windows later and format them?
168 views and no replies? anyone??
Ok, let me try to explain this one...
In three words, Don't Do It!!!
Your internal sd card is pretty much just that, it's a storage card built onto the phone itself. Now it is already partitioned, and allot!
Not only does this one physical card hold your "internal sd card" contents but it also holds your ROM, cache, all your apps, and even your recovery!
Even though it looks like these are separate drives they are all one physical card, your internal sd card.
Now if you try to add to this mix of partitions on this internal card you run the VERY HIGH risk of messing up the lines and sizes of these partitions. Many things in Android assume that some of these are a certain size or at a certain place, and if you mess with it all hell brakes lose!
Now people sometimes partition the external sd card because they want 2 different file types, like half fat32 (like a normal sd card) and half ext4/3 for apps it use in Linux.
Hope this helps!!!
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
ok, well then i guess my question is more along the lines of why do we have that option in CWM Recovery and if i create a 2gb partition what happens? does it change the default 1.5gb partition so you have more room for apps?
dodgefan67 said:
ok, well then i guess my question is more along the lines of why do we have that option in CWM Recovery and if i create a 2gb partition what happens? does it change the default 1.5gb partition so you have more room for apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm honestly not sure, I've only ever messed with these partitions manually when unbricking my phone. So if you do it, you have a fairly good chance of bricking the phone, but i don't know how Android will react.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
thanks, i was just curious, since CWM gives us the option, but ive never done it and until i can find a good reason to i probably won't even mess with it
but it just seems kind of bad having 5gb on the internal card going to waste, i have backups to my external sd, all my data is there too, so i probably won't even touch that 5gb...
Just be glad it's not the other way around
Ill take too much space over not enough any day!
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
well true, but still would like to know exactly what happens if you choose to run that in CWM Recovery
seek and ye shall find
found a guide for CWM and from what i see that option puts a partition on your external sd card so it can be used to install apps on IF the rom supports that. it says it does wipe everything else off the card though so you need to make a backup. you can also put a swap partition on it as well
looks like it does not touch the internal sd card phone memory which is what i thought it did
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...-and-how-to-use-it-on-android-complete-guide/
Hi,
Can anybody give me some tips on how to maximize the memory available to this tablet? There's only about 4GB of available memory for apps. I have a 32GB sdcard but that's not a lot of help because Link2SD isn't able to move the apps completely to the card.
I am looking for a way to either free up more internal memory, or at least make use of the sdcard more effectively. One of my problems right now is that one o the book readers I use like to import the books that I add to its library into the internal card. Frustrating. I would appreciate any help or resource you guys could point me to.
Thanks,
ManilaBeans said:
Hi,
Can anybody give me some tips on how to maximize the memory available to this tablet? There's only about 4GB of available memory for apps. I have a 32GB sdcard but that's not a lot of help because Link2SD isn't able to move the apps completely to the card.
I am looking for a way to either free up more internal memory, or at least make use of the sdcard more effectively. One of my problems right now is that one o the book readers I use like to import the books that I add to its library into the internal card. Frustrating. I would appreciate any help or resource you guys could point me to.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if brother you are rooted you can uninstall unwanted system apps from tab memory and should move apps to sd card
and also wipe cache partition in recovery
aditya rathee said:
if brother you are rooted you can uninstall unwanted system apps from tab memory and should move apps to sd card
and also wipe cache partition in recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I didn't realize I could wipe the cache partition. I am still a relative noob to all of this because my main devices are on Windows Phone and I am only using the Galaxy tab primarily as an ebook and comic book reader (which brought about the problem of low storage space when I tried to organize my library files on it.
Follow up question: Regarding moving apps to the SD card, this is where I am stumped. I think I probably did something wrong along the way while installing link2sd or formatting my SD card. I always get an error saying that "Link2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has a primary external storage which is emulated from internal storage."
Do you guys have any idea on how best to handle this? A quick search on the internet did not give me a lot of options. At this point it seems like I'd probably end up just starting from scratch, wiping out my SD card (or maybe it's also just me wanting to justify trying out a new rom).
ManilaBeans said:
Thanks! I didn't realize I could wipe the cache partition. I am still a relative noob to all of this because my main devices are on Windows Phone and I am only using the Galaxy tab primarily as an ebook and comic book reader (which brought about the problem of low storage space when I tried to organize my library files on it.
Follow up question: Regarding moving apps to the SD card, this is where I am stumped. I think I probably did something wrong along the way while installing link2sd or formatting my SD card. I always get an error saying that "Link2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has a primary external storage which is emulated from internal storage."
Do you guys have any idea on how best to handle this? A quick search on the internet did not give me a lot of options. At this point it seems like I'd probably end up just starting from scratch, wiping out my SD card (or maybe it's also just me wanting to justify trying out a new rom).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my brother for link2sd to work you should have to make ext partition of your sd card
Dear all,
the following problem might be unusual and the opposite of what other people want, but as the title says:
Is it possible to prevent Android 11 (and custom ROMs based on it) from writing to the external SD card? That is, I don't want apps or the O/S itself to store any data there. You now probably are asking yourself whether I have gone totally crazy, putting an external SD card into the phone and not wanting it to be used, so I'll give a bit of background:
I have a Samsung S9 plus Duos (G965F/DS) and have installed a custom recovery (TWRP 3.5.2) and a custom ROM (ArrowOS 11) onto it. Then I have installed SSHelper 13.2 and have put an external SD card into the phone.
I am taking backups very seriously. I don't want to root my phone, but nevertheless want bit-for-bit backups of all partitions or data, respectively. I don't have much data on the phone, but the data and the O/S configuration I *do* have must be regularly backed up no matter what. The backup must *not* be in the cloud. That led me to the following idea for the backup process:
- Boot into TWRP
- Let TWRP make the backup, using the partitions of the internal storage as source, and using the external SD card as destination
- Reboot to system
- Fire up SSHelper
- Copy the backup from the external SD card to a PC, e.g. via WinSCP.
That process works like a charm; I have done it several times.
[ Side note: The SSHelper / WinSCP combo is ingenious. It enables me to transfer data (e.g. backups) between my PC and my phone without involving the cloud and without having to pull out the external SD card all the time. Doing the latter every other day would probably damage the phone or the external SD card quite fast. ]
Now I have only one small problem left: Android itself of course recognizes the external SD card as well and installs a folder structure on it (e.g. Downloads, Movies, Pictures etc.). Although I actually haven't seen files (other than placeholders) in there yet, I have no clue if and under which circumstances apps or the O/S might put important data in these external SD card folders. I have to prevent the latter, because it would render my backup method (backup internal storage completely to external SD card) useless.
Hence the question: Is there a method to tell the O/S and all apps that they may read the external SD card, but under no circumstances must place data there?
Thank you very much in advance for any ideas!
P.S. I have seen many threads where users had problems with the external SD card, e.g. not being able to make apps use it or not being able to see its contents. But I somehow have the opposite problem: Of course, I need to see the external SD card's contents (which is no problem), but I want to prevent normal apps and the O/S from writing something there.
No you can't prevent android from creating default folders on it, but I'm pretty sure you can exclude them from backup.
Thank you very much!
However, excluding these folders from backup wouldn't be wise if Android or an app would have put data in them ...
D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM said:
Thank you very much!
However, excluding these folders from backup wouldn't be wise if Android or an app would have put data in them ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then don't exclude the whole Android folder, just some folders inside. Like /obb folder or system apps data inside /data
Or just exclude "LOST" or other cache folders.
D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM said:
Dear all
Is it possible to prevent Android 11 (and custom ROMs based on it) from writing to an SD card? That is, I don't want apps or the O/S itself to store any data there.
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Assuming you are speaking of an External SD-card ( Note: As with Android internal storage memory by default is named SD-card ).
As long as you don't use an external SD-card ( completely or partially ) as Adoptable Storage by default neither apps nor OS itself write to it ( store data on it ).
@jwoegerbauer Thank you very much! This what I have experienced, too. I have seen the folders, but no data in them. I am still wondering why it creates those folders at all if it doesn't put data in them.
I eventually have missed it, but I think I have gone through every option of ArrowOS, but didn't find a menu item where I could activate (or inactivate) the external SD card as adoptable storage. Therefore I suspected it would do that automatically, depending on circumstances.
Another mystery (for me) is that (AFAIK) data would go into subfolders of the "Android" folder on the external SD card. But the Android folder is nearly empty, while the rest of the folder structure (Documents, Pictures etc.) is at the root level of the external SD card (i.e. at the same level as the "Android" folder).
P.S. Yes, I was speaking of the external SD card. I'll check if it's still possible to edit my posts and make that clear.
Thank you very much again!
XDHx86 said:
Then don't exclude the whole Android folder, just some folders inside. Like /obb folder or system apps data inside /data
Or just exclude "LOST" or other cache folders.
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Thank you very much again!
I should have made myself more clear: My plan is to have all data only in internal storage and to back up internal storage to the external SD card.
When there is normal data (besides these backups) on the external SD card, three problems arise:
1) The normal data on the external SD card takes up space. If I can't control which data Android and the apps put there, the remaining space may not be sufficient for the backups one day.
Every portion of normal data which is on the external SD card counts twice in that sense. First, it increases the backup size by its own size; secondly, it reduces the space which remains for the backups by its own size.
2) I know that I wrote that I will transfer the backups to a PC wirelessly. However, I still want the phone to run normally even after I have removed the external SD card. If Android or the apps put normal data on the external SD card, this is not possible any more.
3) Excluding certain data on the external SD card from backup is problematic and would void the main advantage of my backup strategy:
I really don't need to think about what to exclude or include. I just back up all internal partitions, completely and bit by bit, to the external SD card. If I lose the phone, I can buy another one, flash TWRP onto it, restore those backups, and have the original O/S, apps and all data, and even dm-verify will be no issue.
I have no clue about Android and I am not able (or would be too lazy anyway) to decide which data to include or exclude to achieve the same. So I really would like to avoid that triage.
I believe that some time ago I had found an ugly trick to keep Android and the apps from creating and using those folders. I'll have to check whether I have taken notes about it ...
Thank you very much again!
@D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM
To clarify things:
You have to distinguish between portable storage and adoptable storage. Adoptable storage really extends device's internal storage, whereas portable storage does not.
If apps are granted WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission then they can access the external SD-card, too.
jwoegerbauer said:
You have to distinguish between portable storage and adoptable storage. Adoptable storage really extends device's internal storage, whereas portable storage does not.
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Thank you very much again! I suspected so, but didn't find the setting in the UI of ArrowOS yet. I am nearly sure that I just missed it, and will research again (just out of curiosity, because extending the internal storage to the external SD card is exactly the opposite of what I want).
jwoegerbauer said:
If apps are granted WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission then they can access the external SD-card, too.
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I see. Thank you very much for the explanation. I'll go through the app permissions and check that. Then only the O/S itself could put data there.
[ Side note: In the meanwhile, I have corrected my posts according to your hint regarding the term "SD card". ]
I don't know if this topic has aged or not, have you found any solution?
I don't want Android system to write files like Android-Podcast-Alarms-Music-Notification into my sd card, I want my sd card to be clear and clean
this order system which android uses is very useless and annoying, when will they remove that??!!