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The internal memory in the G2x is treated as an SD card in many apps (because it's mounted on stock at /mnt/sdcard). This can pose a problem with applications that store lots of data. Users have large external micro SD cards for this purpose, but many applications just blindly choose to install to /mnt/sdcard. The user has no option of saving to the external card.
Has anyone figured out a way to 'fool' applications into thinking the "External SD" card is actually at /mnt/sdcard?
As an example, if each file system supported symlinks, the amazon mp3 player app could be fooled by:
ln -s /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD/amazonmp3 /mnt/sdcard/amazonmp3
Of course, this won't work when working with SD cards, as they use FAT partitioning which does not support symlinks.
Anyone mess with this and have a 'suggested' way to 'fool' apps into using the external SD card for more storage?
Edit: I have tried swapping mount locations of the two cards in /etc/vold.fstab. This worked, kinda. USB storage mode just hangs when enabled and the computer sees a drive it can't read (and asks you to format it).
Ive been trying to figure out a solution for this since I got my G2x, cause I just have too many gameloft games LOL
Came up w/ the same syslink idea but FAT doesnt support such a simple idea. We can link between an EXT and FAT, but not FAT to FAT, it seems.
This probably requires edits to the kernel init files for a true solution
The vold method would work if there were edits to the kernel, so you had half the solution. Ran into the same mounting bug. Wonder if one if those dual mount apps would work. hmmm
Cm7 fixes this.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
r4d14n7 said:
Cm7 fixes this.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this when I ran CM7 for a while. If I remember correctly, it mounts the internal to /mnt/emmc and external to /mnt/sdcard.
Unfortunately, there are a few issues that CM7 has that prevent me from keeping it as my daily driver OS (bluetooth issues, worse camera app, slow to no GPS locking, G2/3/4 data does not enable after wifi disconnect, and a few more). As it matures it could become the solution for me.
Thanks
zimphishmonger said:
Ive been trying to figure out a solution for this since I got my G2x, cause I just have too many gameloft games LOL
Came up w/ the same syslink idea but FAT doesnt support such a simple idea. We can link between an EXT and FAT, but not FAT to FAT, it seems.
This probably requires edits to the kernel init files for a true solution
The vold method would work if there were edits to the kernel, so you had half the solution. Ran into the same mounting bug. Wonder if one if those dual mount apps would work. hmmm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. At least I now know there is not a simple solution that was escaping me
Why not, then, just reformat the microSD card to a file system that supports symlinks? Backup your data off it first, of course lol.
Can you do that? Will it still be treated as an internal SD card then (for example, able to be accessed via USB on my computer)?
I did some reading about partitioning both the external and internal SD cards to ext3/4, but people didn't seem to have a "flawless" experience. This wasn't specific to the G2x however.
AustinPowersISU said:
I noticed this when I ran CM7 for a while. If I remember correctly, it mounts the internal to /mnt/emmc and external to /mnt/sdcard.
Unfortunately, there are a few issues that CM7 has that prevent me from keeping it as my daily driver OS (bluetooth issues, worse camera app, slow to no GPS locking, G2/3/4 data does not enable after wifi disconnect, and a few more). As it matures it could become the solution for me.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll be more specific. There was a fix for CM7 users to reverse the roles of internal and external storage somewhere in the monster CM7 threads. You could try this fix in reverse to the ROM of your choice. Just search the CM7 thread for information on how to swap internal for external. May or may not work.
r4d14n7 said:
I'll be more specific. There was a fix for CM7 users to reverse the roles of internal and external storage somewhere in the monster CM7 threads. You could try this fix in reverse to the ROM of your choice. Just search the CM7 thread for information on how to swap internal for external. May or may not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks,
I decided that the lack of being able to do this on stock was enough to go to CM7 again. The issues I described before are less annoying (to me) than not being able to save stuff to my external SD. Plus CM7 will always be getting updated as well.
Thanks for the help everyone.
Thread moved to proper forum.
phburks said:
Why not, then, just reformat the microSD card to a file system that supports symlinks? Backup your data off it first, of course lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cause I still mount to a Win7 machine sometimes
zimphishmonger said:
Cause I still mount to a Win7 machine sometimes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to use this with XP.
http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html
Haven't tried it with Windows 7. Maybe I'll do that tonight lol. There are some other standalone utilities for windows 7 that let you access ext2/3 file systems but I like this one because it lets windows access them as native file systems so you can access them through windows explorer, etc.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
AustinPowersISU said:
Can you do that? Will it still be treated as an internal SD card then (for example, able to be accessed via USB on my computer)?
I did some reading about partitioning both the external and internal SD cards to ext3/4, but people didn't seem to have a "flawless" experience. This wasn't specific to the G2x however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll do some experimenting around. Not really sure.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
When I had a P1000, I used a lot the feature of sending applications and games and its data files to my SD CARD with a single purpose: leave the internal 16Gb memory as free as possible for better perfomance.
Now I have a rooted P6200 and I only can use my SD CARD for storing music and videos because I have no option of MOVE TO SD CARD anymore.
I also tried some applications that MOVE TO SD CARD, but none of them work.
I called the SAMSUNG SUPPORT and they told me I should be able to move to SD, but I read somewhere that it's something about the way that Android 3 and 4 manage partitions... what makes me believe I will not be able.
So, I am confused.
Can I move applications to SD CARD or not?
Can I make a application store data on SD CARD? Example: MailDroid or a game that consumes a lot of the memory - I would prefer to store data on the SD card.
Does anybody have a hint for that?
Thank you!
mario.renor said:
When I had a P1000, I used a lot the feature of sending applications and games and its data files to my SD CARD with a single purpose: leave the internal 16Gb memory as free as possible for better perfomance.
Now I have a rooted P6200 and I only can use my SD CARD for storing music and videos because I have no option of MOVE TO SD CARD anymore.
I also tried some applications that MOVE TO SD CARD, but none of them work.
I called the SAMSUNG SUPPORT and they told me I should be able to move to SD, but I read somewhere that it's something about the way that Android 3 and 4 manage partitions... what makes me believe I will not be able.
So, I am confused.
Can I move applications to SD CARD or not?
Can I make a application store data on SD CARD? Example: MailDroid or a game that consumes a lot of the memory - I would prefer to store data on the SD card.
Does anybody have a hint for that?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some apps in the Google Play Market like app 2 sd or move to sd (something like that), you can try one of those.
Personally I have no experience on these apps since I still have plenty of space, but you can read a little the features and see if that works for you
Unfortunately, APP2SD does not work to me
darkshadowx07 said:
There are some apps in the Google Play Market like app 2 sd or move to sd (something like that), you can try one of those.
Personally I have no experience on these apps since I still have plenty of space, but you can read a little the features and see if that works for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your suggestion, but when APP2SD starts, I receive this message:
Your device has no real primary external storage or primary storage is emulated
APP2SD will not support move 2 card.
I dont understand this message. I have the 16Gb internal memory plus a 32Gb SD card as s imple a s it can b e, but it is not moving to S D.
P lease someone help me how to solve it.
By the way, the 32Gb SD is fully recognized by the P6200. I can see all my files regularly.
Link2sd may work, but I don't think there would be any performance gain from moving the apps over.
Sent from my myTouch 4g via Tapatalk
Can I get super user access without rooting? Link2SD tells me I have to allow it to move the app.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 2
Kumabjorn said:
Can I get super user access without rooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Super User access is root access. so, no you can't.
Sent from my GT-P6210
From my point of view, rooting is something relatively easy, both to get and to lose: you just flash a zip from the default recovery. It does not even takes your flash count up. Basically, it's a single file that needs to be placed in "/system/bin/". If you need to send it to support, mount "system" as R/W and delete "su".
I could be wrong though, but you should really look into it. I think it is worth it.
By the way, I think you would have to partition your SD Card to use it with Link2SD...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Resume: Use FAT32 when formatting External Micro SD Card and, preferentially, format using the device storage options.
==========
Hi there, guys! After trying hard to discover why and solve some random reboots I found out, after reading about SD Cards causing issues on other devices, something that may help anyone facing this.
When I bought for my Note 3 I also bought a Kingston 32 GB Micro SD Card and formatted it using Windows 7 to exFAT System File, since it was the default option. After facing some hangs, force closes and random reboots for some days, yesterday I decided to make a complete backup and format it using Note 3 itself.
After this what I noticed, when restoring files on Windows, is that the device formatted it to FAT32 System File. And, since then, everything is working nice, without force closes, random reboots or hangs. I know maybe it's early to confirm anything, but I'm confident that running my SD Card on exFAT was giving me trouble!
By the way, I decided to create a poll asking which System File we, Galaxy Note 3 owners, use. We may create a balance and find out if any format is creating any trouble in general.
Cheers!
When you're recording 4K video, maybe you will need NTFS format for files over 4gb..
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
MILJANN said:
When you're recording 4K video, maybe you will need NTFS format for files over 4gb..
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there is a limit of 5 minutes, if I'm not wrong. Maybe it is because of the file size limitation, for people using FAT32, since it's the default File System the device chooses when formatting Micro SD.
By the way, I didn't record anything in 4K yet, so I don't know which is the maximum file size we can get. Will test here...
MILJANN said:
When you're recording 4K video, maybe you will need NTFS format for files over 4gb..
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exFAT supports up to 16EB files in size. That's Exabyte.
You could record a whole month non-stop in 4K and not exceed the filesize limit.
Not all android devices support NTFS by default.
I use Fat32 on my MicroSD, which is rather annoying as I want to have blurays on it, but I can't bebothered to reformat all 64GB and copy it all back. So I just keep all 4GB+ files internally, seems to work fine. (Everything possible is on my MicroSD so I have 22GB free internally.)
ShadowLea said:
exFAT supports up to 16EB files in size. That's Exabyte.
You could record a whole month non-stop in 4K and not exceed the filesize limit.
Not all android devices support NTFS by default.
I use Fat32 on my MicroSD, which is rather annoying as I want to have blurays on it, but I can't bebothered to reformat all 64GB and copy it all back. So I just keep all 4GB+ files internally, seems to work fine. (Everything possible is on my MicroSD so I have 22GB free internally.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way, I almost forgot the huge internal space and I previously formatted Micro SD using exFAT imagining the day I would put a bigger than 4 GB video file, like once I needed in the past.
Great tip you gave!
Edit: Further, we need to remember that with Note 3, different from Note II, we can again put apps on external storage!
Tried it in the pool. My sd card and my phone are now broken
nakedtime said:
Tried it in the pool. My sd card and my phone are now broken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh:
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk
When you record 4k its sent to the internal memory which is ext4.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
zanzee said:
When you record 4k its sent to the internal memory which is ext4.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are there problems by formatting the external card to ext4 too? Don't. Have. A. microSD. Card. Yet. To. Try. It. NOW! arghhhhhh!
EDIT: no need to try, it doesn't work on stock roms.. Nice Google! Really nice!
I used the following command to convert a fat32 external drive to ntfs without losing data: Convert H: /FS:NTFS in command prompt, where H: would be your microsd card's drive letter when used in a Vista+ windows environment and a card reader. Can't guarantee data loss ofcourse so a backup would be wise.
Sent from my SM-N9005
I have a Samsung 64 GB micro SD. It came already formatted with ExFat and fortunately so far so good.
A few years ago I had a faulty card reader for pc. My camera could not recognise the SD card and my phone had random reboots with a micro SD after formatting. It is a possibility.
I don't understand much about this topic and I have not formatted with windows in a while, but I remember I could choose among several parameters (something like block size?). My point is that maybe the note 3 requires a different set of Exfat parameters than windows default ones to work well
It is just an idea.
iiSo say we all!! From my Note 3 (N9005)
nakedtime said:
Tried it in the pool. My sd card and my phone are now broken
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't blame me about this. Blame SwiftKey keyboard auto correction! hahahahaha
cyriacus said:
I used the following command to convert a fat32 external drive to ntfs without losing data: Convert H: /FS:NTFS in command prompt, where H: would be your microsd card's drive letter when used in a Vista+ windows environment and a card reader. Can't guarantee data loss ofcourse so a backup would be wise.
Sent from my SM-N9005
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great! Didn't know that this was possible without needing to format the whole card.
inolvidable said:
I have a Samsung 64 GB micro SD. It came already formatted with ExFat and fortunately so far so good.
A few years ago I had a faulty card reader for pc. My camera could not recognise the SD card and my phone had random reboots with a micro SD after formatting. It is a possibility.
I don't understand much about this topic and I have not formatted with windows in a while, but I remember I could choose among several parameters (something like block size?). My point is that maybe the note 3 requires a different set of Exfat parameters than windows default ones to work well
It is just an idea.
iiSo say we all!! From my Note 3 (N9005)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the point is that I was experiencing a lot of random reboots here and didn't get no one since I used the device itself to format micro SD again.
I don't remember in which file system my Kingston 32 GB Micro SD came by default, but I used Windows 7 to format it on exFAT.
Probably the device itself formats the card the way more compatible possible, bringing stability.
By the way, since a lot of people already voted for exFAT and didn't tell anything about random reboots or issues, maybe this is not a real issue related to all exFAT, but maybe it is for people who used Windows (like myself) to format micro SD.
Morning all. Anyone else have that problem? I can copy to the internal storage just fine, but if I try to drag and drop to the SD card I get the device has stopped responding or its disconnected error. I have windows 8.1, I'm rooted and drivers work fine, adb and fastboot functional, SD card is PNY 64gb xc formatted in NTFS. I also took out the micro SD card and put it in my laptop and was able to write to it just fine, the files even show up through the shield when I put the SD card back in and reconnected to laptop. So who knows what I'm missing?:laugh:
mta1981 said:
Morning all. Anyone else have that problem? I can copy to the internal storage just fine, but if I try to drag and drop to the SD card I get the device has stopped responding or its disconnected error. I have windows 8.1, I'm rooted and drivers work fine, adb and fastboot functional, SD card is PNY 64gb xc formatted in NTFS. I also took out the micro SD card and put it in my laptop and was able to write to it just fine, the files even show up through the shield when I put the SD card back in and reconnected to laptop. So who knows what I'm missing?:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cant copy paste you have to use the applications menu and theres an option for move to sd. Never used it but i know its there.
Nvidia Shield Root and More
Doing a little bit of reading goes a long way.
hexitnow said:
You cant copy paste you have to use the applications menu and theres an option for move to sd. Never used it but i know its there.
Nvidia Shield Root and More
Doing a little bit of reading goes a long way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean through the shields settings? Im talking about dragging and dropping using windows when shields plugged in via usb. But that is goo to know so I can apps to sd
mta1981 said:
You mean through the shields settings? Im talking about dragging and dropping using windows when shields plugged in via usb. But that is goo to know so I can apps to sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you can't do it through windows. With a file explorer, you could physically get the file to move but it wouldn't run. I believe with the built in option for moving files to SD, it will only move the .apk file, and not the actual data. So if you have a 3mb .apk, and a gig worth of data, it's pretty much useless. There is a tool on the play store called folder mount which basically allows you to swap mount points, and it allows you to save everything to SD, you have to have root for it though.
hexitnow said:
Yeah, you can't do it through windows. With a file explorer, you could physically get the file to move but it wouldn't run. I believe with the built in option for moving files to SD, it will only move the .apk file, and not the actual data. So if you have a 3mb .apk, and a gig worth of data, it's pretty much useless. There is a tool on the play store called folder mount which basically allows you to swap mount points, and it allows you to save everything to SD, you have to have root for it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a problem, I used your excellent root tool kit!! Today we learned a big lesson in fat32 and NTFS formats and what the Shield can and cannot do with each. Fat32 ftw
mta1981 said:
Not a problem, I used your excellent root tool kit!! Today we learned a big lesson in fat32 and NTFS formats and what the Shield can and cannot do with each. Fat32 ftw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha nice. Yeah fat32 is the way to go unless you have a giant sdcard then exfat works better. If i remember right fat32 has a 4gb file size limit.
hexitnow said:
Haha nice. Yeah fat32 is the way to go unless you have a giant sdcard then exfat works better. If i remember right fat32 has a 4gb file size limit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the shield will read and write to a 64gb card formatted in exfat?
hexitnow said:
Yeah, you can't do it through windows. With a file explorer, you could physically get the file to move but it wouldn't run. I believe with the built in option for moving files to SD, it will only move the .apk file, and not the actual data. So if you have a 3mb .apk, and a gig worth of data, it's pretty much useless. There is a tool on the play store called folder mount which basically allows you to swap mount points, and it allows you to save everything to SD, you have to have root for it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The built in move to SD will actually move the android/obb file that corresponds to the app, it will also create mount points on the SD for it. I'm not sure if it moves android/data though, I just haven't tried it, most big games use obb files though.
I have some weird problems with my 64GB card formatted to fat32. It all works perfectly for some time, then the SD will become read only to the Shield and I have to format it again. :\ I'm not sure if it's my SD card, the SDXC formatted to fat32, <that and using the built in move to SD, etc.
I treat the SD card like dark magic, when it's working I don't mess with the thing.
I hope that Nvidia releases an update that focuses on better SD support, it seems like they're planning something.
CDeviant said:
The built in move to SD will actually move the android/obb file that corresponds to the app, it will also create mount points on the SD for it. I'm not sure if it moves android/data though, I just haven't tried it, most big games use obb files though.
I have some weird problems with my 64GB card formatted to fat32. It all works perfectly for some time, then the SD will become read only to the Shield and I have to format it again. :\ I'm not sure if it's my SD card, the SDXC formatted to fat32, <that and using the built in move to SD, etc.
I treat the SD card like dark magic, when it's working I don't mess with the thing.
I hope that Nvidia releases an update that focuses on better SD support, it seems like they're planning something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gotcha thanks. I hadnt actually used it yet but have used it on other platforms and it was pretty much worthless. I had assumed it was the same since it was on my other devices. Thanks for clearin that up.
Seems like the only downfall of this phone is the lack of an external SD card slot. Is any one oiy there working on an app similar to link to SD but utilizing a micro USB.card reader like the Meenova? What about a script that would swap the internal memory with the externally mounted micro SD reader? Anybody?
How about connecting our brain by spinal cord lol.... Yes there are some otg device which can help you as a external storage and no need of swap internal memory since moto G is best working at this moment
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
All solutions are for media only none of them provide app apk or app data support. I have been scouring the internet for days. There is no way as of yet to implement link2sd, app2sd, data2sd support for within app usage. But thanks for your sarcastic remark!
joeatheist said:
All solutions are for media only none of them provide app apk or app data support. I have been scouring the internet for days. There is no way as of yet to implement link2sd, app2sd, data2sd support for within app usage. But thanks for your sarcastic remark!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are apps to link apps to external sd (both apk and data) via otg. You can do it manually via busybox+mount -bind or all automatic via some apps that are in this forum (I swear they are in moto-g/general, so give it a try). If I see the link again I will come back and link it to you, but I remember at least two apps available in the play store to do it.
you can try folder mount or directory bind for moving big data games to usb otg
I wouldn't see a problem with mounting your external sd card wherever you want in the filesystem.
However I would suggest to just mount the external sd card to /sdcard
Filling the 8gb with apps seems pretty impossible to me. Data stored by the app is stored in /sdcard, so that's where you actually would need more space.
joeatheist said:
Seems like the only downfall of this phone is the lack of an external SD card slot. Is any one oiy there working on an app similar to link to SD but utilizing a micro USB.card reader like the Meenova? What about a script that would swap the internal memory with the externally mounted micro SD reader? Anybody?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, which apps do you plan to install that require more than 12.5 gb?? I do agree though that the space restriction makes it difficult to keep multiple cwm backups..
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
zazzy24 said:
Just out of curiosity, which apps do you plan to install that require more than 12.5 gb?? I do agree though that the space restriction makes it difficult to keep multiple cwm backups..
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Multiple CWM backups are always annoying, no matter if you have sd card or not.
This thread on the other hand makes no sense, there are apps that do the job out there, but if you can't mange your space, then probably you ain't for Nexus-like device.
liveroy said:
Multiple CWM backups are always annoying, no matter if you have sd card or not.
This thread on the other hand makes no sense, there are apps that do the job out there, but if you can't mange your space, then probably you ain't for Nexus-like device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i like to keep a couple of backups while moving from rom to rom.. but not an option on this device!
Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk
I was wondering if it's possible do something like this one http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046178