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[Q] Odd internal memory setup ?

I have a question about my new T-Mobile G2x 2.2.2
I have a 16 gig sdCard (formatted as NTFS) The phone see's the sdCard fine as a 16 gig card. My question(s) are:
1) Is it ok to format the sdCard as NTFS or should I use Fat32 with multi-partitions instead ?
2) My phone seems to be installing apps and games to its internal memory, even tho I am telling it to install to my sdCard. When I run the program called App2SD which allows you to move your apps from the internal phone memory to the installed sdCard, it is showing me that I have 3 storage locations !
#1 - Main internal phone memory with 1.46 GB's
#2 - sdCard with 5.45 GB's ??
#3 - My real sdCard with 16 GB's
It is installing everything to that #2 internal (fake) sdCard.
I know the phone has like 6 GiGs internal doesn't it ? so why is it splitting it into main memory and some type of sdCard ??
I only want it to have the main phone memory and my REAL sdCard of 16 GB's.
Ok I know I am making this more confusing than it is, but I think you all understand what I am asking :O)
What is wrong here ??
Thanks so much!
John
.

It's just the way the phone is partitioned. Not much you can do about it unless you either root or install a cm7-based rom.
Even if you root, the solution isn't perfect and it breaks USB mass storage mounting to your computer.

phburks said:
It's just the way the phone is partitioned. Not much you can do about it unless you either root or install a cm7-based rom.
Even if you root, the solution isn't perfect and it breaks USB mass storage mounting to your computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I didnt make it clear. My phone is rooted and NvFlashed CWM 5.x
So what are my options now ? Also, what is USB mass storage ? I see it in the settings, but not sure what it is.
Thanks

Thibor69 said:
Sorry I didnt make it clear. My phone is rooted and NvFlashed CWM 5.x
So what are my options now ? Also, what is USB mass storage ? I see it in the settings, but not sure what it is.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About the best you can do is to swap the mount points of your internal "sdcard" and your actual removable sdcard. You do this by editing the /system/etc/vold.fstab file. You can't rename the mount points to anything other than what they already are (/mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD) but you can swap them. So then your removable sdcard will be /mnt/sdcard and your internal "sdcard" will be /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD. Its not exactly accurate but at least all of your partitions are usable and your removable sdcard is used as your actual sdcard.
As for it breaking usb mass storage, when you plug your phone into your computer via USB it gives you a notification on your phone that says USB Connected. Normally if you select Mount then your sdcard is mounted to your computer and so you can browse the files on it. With the stock rom if you change the mount points of the SD cards then it won't mount your sdcards to your computer.

Ok I understand. I just dont get why this is like this. I mean I buy a 16 gig sdcard, but I can not install anything larger then 5 gigs on this phone since it doesnt install or allow me to move install to a real sdcard. What good is a phone with only 5 gigs of installable memory ??? Am I missing something ?
All my other phones, you install a sdcard and you get full access to it for installs and storage !
: /

Thibor69 said:
Ok I understand. I just dont get why this is like this. I mean I buy a 16 gig sdcard, but I can not install anything larger then 5 gigs on this phone since it doesnt install or allow me to move install to a real sdcard. What good is a phone with only 5 gigs of installable memory ??? Am I missing something ?
All my other phones, you install a sdcard and you get full access to it for installs and storage !
: /
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm totally in agreement. The edit above will allow you to install to your micro sdcard. Your other option is to install cm7 or a cm7-based rom since they utilize the external sdcard properly.

phburks said:
I'm totally in agreement. The edit above will allow you to install to your micro sdcard. Your other option is to install cm7 or a cm7-based rom since they utilize the external sdcard properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well I just installed [ROM][Gingerbread 2.3.3] Weapon G2x 2.6 [Better Ram Management!][9.30.2011] .... but since I have the same issue I assume it must not be a CM7-based rom. May I ask what rom you use or recommend please ?
Thanks again !

Thibor69 said:
Ok, well I just installed [ROM][Gingerbread 2.3.3] Weapon G2x 2.6 [Better Ram Management!][9.30.2011] .... but since I have the same issue I assume it must not be a CM7-based rom. May I ask what rom you use or recommend please ?
Thanks again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct. Weapon is based on stock 2.3.3. I personally switch between cm7 (recent nigjtlies releases) and Ultimate G2X (its based on 2.2.2). With Ultimate I have my sdcard mount points edited so my external card is my main sdcard.

phburks said:
That's correct. Weapon is based on stock 2.3.3. I personally switch between cm7 (recent nigjtlies releases) and Ultimate G2X (its based on 2.2.2). With Ultimate I have my sdcard mount points edited so my external card is my main sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok ... so with Ultimate ROM I can edit the vold.fstab and all should be good ?

Faux's Nexus AOSP rom is damn near perfect and uses the external sd card perfecty for what your wanting. I too think whoever decided to partition the internal storage that way is a complete idiot! I just use that internal sdcard for my mp3 and movie files and store backups and roms/kernels on my external along with installed apps/games to my ext partition using link2sd.

Thibor69 said:
Ok ... so with Ultimate ROM I can edit the vold.fstab and all should be good ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I do but it might be a more hassle-free solution to try a cm7-based rom or, as suggested, Fauxs aosp rom.

Q: Swapping Ext sd card with internal memory

Hello, i am using SGS-3 (GT-i9300) with andorid 4.3 and 32gb memory card class 10, i read all the themes for how to do this bur it just not work. I read and make all from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1772234 step by step but no work.
I have rooted room
The room have init.d built in
I am using recovery Philz
I download and flash this file extsd2internalsd_fat32_gs3_8.zip
Restart and nothing hapends with the memory change
btw Samasung dont use fat32 he use generic hierarchical i try to formattit to fat32 but when the conecttion is from the phone there is no option for this, soo i dismount sd--card formatted it on fat32 directly without phone then put her back in phone and it show same: generic hierarchical format even she is not formatted after the mount
I cant find nowhere information how to be done for 4.3. Anything i found is old 3-monts and up. Can someone help me with fresh information and links ? :crying:

[Q] Impossible to partition my new micro sd card 64gb

Hello, i have a problem with my Galaxy Tab 2.7.0 (GT-P3110) with omni-4.4.4-20140820-p3110-NIGHTLY rom installed.
I have bought a SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS IT - MB-MPCGC EU (Samsung microSDXC 64GB Class 10 ) micro sd card and I used it out of the box in my PAD without need to format it.
(in Storage i have found it under SD CARD tab (Total Space 58.45 GB not sure if this is ok) but i don't have the option for Formatting it (only Unmount and after it Erase or Mount)
I can see it with Windows 7 via USB MTP mode and copy files on it but not formatting it
I have tested this card with Sdtools and Sdcardtester on the tab without any problem
Now my problem is that i want to use Link2sd to move my apps on the Sd card but i have no way to make the 2 needed partitions on the it
I have tried to see if Mini Tool Partition would able to see the card from the tab's USB in MTP mode without success, i have tried to use a Sd card reader directly on my Pc with the same result (with another microd sd i was able to have it connected in Windows but this card is only 4 gb)
I have tried this also on a different PC without any luck
I tried to make partition on the card in recovery mode (tried with TWRP_2.7.1.2 and PhilZ-Touch-Recovery_6.57.5 and CWM_6.0.5.0) but in none of the 3 i have found the Partition SD card option inside the Advanced menu...
So after trying everything i'm lost
If anyone have any advice or can give me any help on this i will appreciate it

@lucas1965
See the before site for a tool for partitioning sdcards. Partitioning sdcards will erase all data on the card.
Sent from my SGH-T989

jrc2 said:
@lucas1965
See the before site for a tool for partitioning sdcards. Partitioning sdcards will erase all data on the card.
Sent from my SGH-T989
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Aparted (found in the Google Play store) i was able to check the card file system (the app told me that was FAT32 ) and to make 2 partitions
1 Fat32 and 1 ext4 but i still have all the same problems as before also with Link2sd not letting me move apps from the internal memory to the sd but only link them

lucas1965 said:
With Aparted (found in the Google Play store) i was able to check the card file system (the app told me that was FAT32 ) and to make 2 partitions
1 Fat32 and 1 ext4 but i still have all the same problems as before also with Link2sd not letting me move apps from the internal memory to the sd but only link them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stupid tapatalk didn't invited my link like I told it to. Here it is. https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
Sent from my SGH-T989

Sent from my SGH-T989[/QUOTE]
I was thinking that my english was so bad that i was misunderstanding your first post
I tried that program before but it is not working for me cause i can't get the sd card working in Windows so i can't format it there
Still i was able to solve the big part of my problem because with Aparted launched on the tablet i made the 2 partitions requested from Link2sd to use the function Create Link that will help me a lot
Now i just need to know the best size to have in the 2 partitions. I'm still unable to move all the app but maybe sooner or later someone will find a solution to this .

I was thinking that my english was so bad that i was misunderstanding your first post
I tried that program before but it is not working for me cause i can't get the sd card working in Windows so i can't format it there
Still i was able to solve the big part of my problem because with Aparted launched on the tablet i made the 2 partitions requested from Link2sd to use the function Create Link that will help me a lot
Now i just need to know the best size to have in the 2 partitions. I'm still unable to move all the app but maybe sooner or later someone will find a solution to this .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@lucas1965
Your English is just fine
The dying honestly depends on what files you need on your sdcard compared to the source the apps you plan to move to your sdcard will take up. I'd either make them both 32GB or one 16 gb and one 48 gb, the larger one obviously for whichever partition needs to be bigger.
Sent from my SGH-T989

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.

[CM13.0] Internal storage problem

Hello.
I have just wiped my device and installed the newest CM13.0 - Marshmallow (LG G3 D855). After rebooting and configuring my phone I got an information that my SD card is unknown. After pressing the notification the phone asked me if I want to use my SD card as external or internal storage. I read about this in the Web and decided to choose the 2nd option. The card was formatted (it was stucked at 20% for couple minutes and after that time progress bar disappeared - no information about success or errors). Internet said me to reboot my phone after the operation is completed.
Now I have a problem. External storage disappeared. I was expecting it to be a part of my old internal storage (about 10GB + 64GB of my SD). What I saw was still 10GB and nothing more. I tried to go to the settings and checked `Storage and USB`. I found my card but I couldn't check the size and anything (there was an information "Checking...", which didn't refreshed even after 2h of waiting...). I think my SD was FAT32, but I'm not sure.
Now when I put the card into my PC i see it has 16MB of size. I tried to format it with size adjustment into NTFS, exFAT and FAT32 - the size of 64GB came back but after doing factory reset and configuring everything in the same way as I described before, I get same issues (using all the file systems).
After all I got angry and decided to choose using my SD normally as an external storage. In this case I see my card and I'm able to copy data on it, BUT... It has size of 16MB... I'm tired of this and really don't have any ideas how to repair it. I don't care if it is internal or external storage. I want this to start working as expected.
Informations:
- LG G3 D855
- CM13.0 (cm-13.0-20151127-NIGHTLY-d855.zip (290.07 MB))
- MicroSDXC ADATA 64GB CLASS-10 (AUSDX64GUICL10RA1)
[EDIT - SOLVED PARTIALLY]
I have partially solved the problem. I noticed that this 16MB is just a swap space. Probably that's why Android saw it as a partition to use.
I managed to set my SD as an external storage. I used EaseUS Partition Master. I deleted all partitions on my card. Next I created a new UNFORMATTED partition (just a raw partition). Then I put my card into the microSD slot in my G3 and started the phone. I chose `external storage` option and it worked! I tried the same for internal but it hangs at 20% and gets an exception. So for now until they fix this, I will use it in the old way.

Nickon said:
Hello.
I have just wiped my device and installed the newest CM13.0 - Marshmallow (LG G3 D855). After rebooting and configuring my phone I got an information that my SD card is unknown. After pressing the notification the phone asked me if I want to use my SD card as external or internal storage. I read about this in the Web and decided to choose the 2nd option. The card was formatted (it was stucked at 20% for couple minutes and after that time progress bar disappeared - no information about success or errors). Internet said me to reboot my phone after the operation is completed.
Now I have a problem. External storage disappeared. I was expecting it to be a part of my old internal storage (about 10GB + 64GB of my SD). What I saw was still 10GB and nothing more. I tried to go to the settings and checked `Storage and USB`. I found my card but I couldn't check the size and anything (there was an information "Checking...", which didn't refreshed even after 2h of waiting...). I think my SD was FAT32, but I'm not sure.
Now when I put the card into my PC i see it has 16MB of size. I tried to format it with size adjustment into NTFS, exFAT and FAT32 - the size of 64GB came back but after doing factory reset and configuring everything in the same way as I described before, I get same issues (using all the file systems).
After all I got angry and decided to choose using my SD normally as an external storage. In this case I see my card and I'm able to copy data on it, BUT... It has size of 16MB... I'm tired of this and really don't have any ideas how to repair it. I don't care if it is internal or external storage. I want this to start working as expected.
Informations:
- LG G3 D855
- CM13.0 (cm-13.0-20151127-NIGHTLY-d855.zip (290.07 MB))
- MicroSDXC ADATA 64GB CLASS-10 (AUSDX64GUICL10RA1)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i cant say this will work, but if i had your problem i would clean off the rom and flash it again, and while in twrp before booting, format your sd card. if that doesnt help, i dont know what else to try.
i didnt know this storage option was added to cm13, but anyways, i would never use external storage as internal. ii have seen people try for years, and usually come back with some problems.

bweN diorD said:
i cant say this will work, but if i had your problem i would clean off the rom and flash it again, and while in twrp before booting, format your sd card. if that doesnt help, i dont know what else to try.
i didnt know this storage option was added to cm13, but anyways, i would never use external storage as internal. ii have seen people try for years, and usually come back with some problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried to reinstall... Same thing happens...

Nickon said:
Tried to reinstall... Same thing happens...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you have 10 post now, i would try asking in the thread where you got the rom. i dont know what else to suggest. sorry.

bweN diorD said:
well, you have 10 post now, i would try asking in the thread where you got the rom. i dont know what else to suggest. sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From official Cyanogenmod website.

Nickon said:
From official Cyanogenmod website.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its impossible that there is a thread on xda in the g3 section though right? cause thats not what we do here, post roms and such...

Nickon said:
[EDIT - SOLVED PARTIALLY]
I have partially solved the problem. I noticed that this 16MB is just a swap space. Probably that's why Android saw it as a partition to use.
I managed to set my SD as an external storage. I used EaseUS Partition Master. I deleted all partitions on my card. Next I created a new UNFORMATTED partition (just a raw partition). Then I put my card into the microSD slot in my G3 and started the phone. I chose `external storage` option and it worked! I tried the same for internal but it hangs at 20% and gets an exception. So for now until they fix this, I will use it in the old way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just ran into this problem on a LS990 (Sprint LG G3) and your post gave me a lead on how to fix it.
I didn't have a microsd reader handy so I used adb shell while in recovery and deleted the partition with fdisk
1. opens ADB
Code:
adb shell
2. This shows you the partitions on your device so you can pick out your external sd card
Code:
cat /proc/partitions
3. mmcblk1 was my external sd card, yours may be different
Code:
fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk1
4. P shows your partitions on the device
Code:
p
5. D deletes the partition on your selected device device
Code:
d
6. O creates a new empty dos partition table
Code:
o
7. N creates a new partition and I accepted all defaults
Code:
n
8. W writes new partition table to disk and exits fdisk
Code:
w
9. I then shut down my phone and removed the microsd.
10. Power phone back on. Once phone has completed boot, insert SD card and it'll give you the option to set up the SD card because it's corrupt. This time, choose portable.
**Note: I'm not an expert by any means and this may be completely unnecessary to go through, but this happened to work for me. Use at your own risk**

up any solution in 2016 ??