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[Q] How do I copy large file to SD?

Anybody has any idea why I'm getting "file is too large to copy" when copying 7 GB file to internal SD on Viewsonic G-Tablet when 13GB is free?
I guess it's becouse it's formatted as FAT32. So how do I exactly get any MKVs which I have which are all more then 4GB to play on my G-Tablet? Can I reformat SD as exFAT or some other format which supports bigger file sizes.

i know after a while of me copying and deleting stuff my available space would get smaller. after 2 weeks of use i noticed this, so i erased everything off of the internal and i was left with 5gb of free space. i reformatted to fat32 and had my 12 or 13gb back.

Issue is not with available space but file size limitation on FAT32 of 4 GB.

artisticcheese said:
Issue is not with available space but file size limitation on FAT32 of 4 GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah i see, don't know then :/

I don't think there's any fix, at this time. I read that Froyo's VOLD (which controls the mouting process) only supports vFAT. The previous VOLD at least supported EXT2/3(?) which was helpful for us Linux folks.
This is really a big issue given the limitations of FAT32 and the fact that none of these bozo vendors can agree on a standard format.

DeDefragment your phone's sd card through Windows 7!

My phone was being sluggish, I could tell access times had increased considerably. I could not find any defragmenting program for use within android. It occurred to me to connect the phone to my pc as storage and just let the windows built-in defrag program check it out. It found 23% Defragmentation on the sd card so I clicked defrag and voila it worked flawlessly. All those little sectors aligned and sorted out. Now I have 0% defrag on my sd!
edit: damn... I'm flying through my folders on the sd card! lol

Nice tip. Thanks.

yah i also used this method

Omnichron said:
My phone was being sluggish, I could tell access times had increased considerably. I could not find any defragmenting program for use within android. It occurred to me to connect the phone to my pc as storage and just let the windows built-in defrag program check it out. It found 23% Defragmentation on the sd card so I clicked defrag and voila it worked flawlessly. All those little sectors aligned and sorted out. Now I have 0% defrag on my sd!
edit: damn... I'm flying through my folders on the sd card! lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its all in your head, not really any reason to defrag a sd-card considering there's no moving parts. any speed increase (if any) will almost be unnoticeable to you.

Not to mention the fact that is decreases the life of your card, while presenting no benefit at all..

Mayazcherquoi said:
Not to mention the fact that is decreases the life of your card, while presenting no benefit at all..
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Click to collapse
+1
if your having issues with speed then take everything you need off your card such as pictures and music. then FORMAT with a larger clustersize like 32k then check your read-ahead-kb on your phone and make it bigger if needed

mikeyrave said:
+1
if your having issues with speed then take everything you need off your card such as pictures and music. then FORMAT with a larger clustersize like 32k then check your read-ahead-kb on your phone and make it bigger if needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a better tip

I freaking love this forum..

Hmm jury is still out on this one....IDK

I've seen similar results before. I know it shouldn't make a difference but it somehow does. perhaps it's simply the case that 'defragging' moves the files out of bad sectors so it has to perform less error correction?

Why would anyone in their right mind want to de-defragment their SD card?!?!?!

mikeyrave said:
+1
if your having issues with speed then take everything you need off your card such as pictures and music. then FORMAT with a larger clustersize like 32k then check your read-ahead-kb on your phone and make it bigger if needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with this one

mikeyrave said:
+1
if your having issues with speed then take everything you need off your card such as pictures and music. then FORMAT with a larger clustersize like 32k then check your read-ahead-kb on your phone and make it bigger if needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for tips.

You should never defragment SSDs and since SSDs are oversized SD cards I take it that this rule applies to SD cards as well.

how much SD card cache did you set?

in Atrix 2 , what is the best value in your phone+Class X card ?
I've tested no matter I set it to 4MB , 3MB or 2MB , the speed is the same
BUT
in case of 4MB and 3MB , there are some lags after about 100MB copies but it's continuously smooth if I set it to 2MB.
My card is Class 10 32GB.

Don't you experience missing apps or photos from your sd card in your Atrix 2?

I tried 2MB before, but so no difference, I am running at the stock cache setting now with no (or very minimal) performance hit. I think increasing the cache really makes a difference when you start running apps and caches (dalvic and system cache) from the SDCard. We really don't need to do that since we have enough space on the internal (and faster) memory. I suggest running 100% of your apps on your internal memory, 4GB is plenty of space for apps.
The stock values will do just fine for accessing media (music, videos, pics) and files from your SDCard. Your mileage may vary, this is based on my experience and usage, yours could be different.
I have a 32GB class 4, and I do not loose pics or apps (none are installed on the card).

mathk said:
in Atrix 2 , what is the best value in your phone+Class X card ?
I've tested no matter I set it to 4MB , 3MB or 2MB , the speed is the same
BUT
in case of 4MB and 3MB , there are some lags after about 100MB copies but it's continuously smooth if I set it to 2MB.
My card is Class 10 32GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be careful, several of us have had issues with cards that are higher than class 6 with the Atrix 2. People have lost pictures, mp3s, etc. We are thinking that these higher class cards are just not compatible at this time.

Sharpshooterrr said:
Don't you experience missing apps or photos from your sd card in your Atrix 2?
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Click to collapse
no matter how much cache I set, it does lose some files . I would say it's the same issue as the old old milestone.... they did improve nothing in these 2 years...

lilhaiti said:
We really don't need to do that since we have enough space on the internal (and faster) memory. I suggest running 100% of your apps on your internal memory, 4GB is plenty of space for apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't get this - at least when it comes to games. Recent Gameloft games consume a lot of storage, some exceeding over 1GB. So you're basically down to 3 quarters of your internal storage with just one app installed.
I really don't see that as enough. Or am I missing something here.
By the way, I'm still stuck on my iPhone 4. Owned an Android device before but sold it after 2 weeks. Looking to give Android another chance.
---------- Post added at 02:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 AM ----------
mathk said:
no matter how much cache I set, it does lose some files . I would say it's the same issue as the old old milestone.... they did improve nothing in these 2 years...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, following what jimbridgman said, your Class 10 card seems to be the culprit.

WOW!!! A game over 1GB? Which one. I have over 140 apps installed on my phone (most of them games) and I have PLENTY of space available (3.12GB to be exact). So even if I did install a game that was 1GB, I would have plenty of room for a lot more "regular" sized apps. Now, a lot of games do save additional files on the SDCard; although large, I have not seen an additional game download over 1GB. If I am missing something please enlighten me.

lilhaiti said:
WOW!!! A game over 1GB? Which one. I have over 140 apps installed on my phone (most of them games) and I have PLENTY of space available (3.12GB to be exact). So even if I did install a game that was 1GB, I would have plenty of room for a lot more "regular" sized apps. Now, a lot of games do save additional files on the SDCard; although large, I have not seen an additional game download over 1GB. If I am missing something please enlighten me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The gameloft HD games can reach close to that size to see them though...need to edit ur build.prop its explained in a different post so look it up if interested
Sent from my MB865 using XDA Premium

lilhaiti said:
Now, a lot of games do save additional files on the SDCard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those games that do save additional files on the SD card, do they go missing when you reboot your phone?
About games that eat up a lot of storage, Backstab HD requires about 650mb, I think. Dungeon Defenders 2 needs over 600mb. Modern Combat 3 takes around 900mb.

Sharpshooterrr said:
I really don't get this - at least when it comes to games. Recent Gameloft games consume a lot of storage, some exceeding over 1GB. So you're basically down to 3 quarters of your internal storage with just one app installed.
I really don't see that as enough. Or am I missing something here.
By the way, I'm still stuck on my iPhone 4. Owned an Android device before but sold it after 2 weeks. Looking to give Android another chance.
---------- Post added at 02:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 AM ----------
Well, following what jimbridgman said, your Class 10 card seems to be the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do think the cause is the firmware but not the class 10 card . the card is just a ... trigger... You just can't say the knife as the killer , right ?
(P.S. my milestone didn't have such problem after flashing it to CM7...atrix 2... um .... we need to wait)

OK...to clarify. The actual install files and caches are the only things that can be saved in internal memory. The large "additional data" downloads can only be stored on the SDCard. The install files usually get up to around 50MB (sometimes a little more, most times a lot less). The addition download files can get very large (sometimes over 1GB).
To further clarify, the 4GB of internal storage is plenty space for plenty of install files caches. The problem becomes real if you install a game with a large additional download on a phone with the small stock SDCard (2GB). If you install a game that has 1GB of additional downloads you are down to less that half of the available space.
The additional downloads don't seem to be effected by the disappearing problem.

Possible fix for random reboots! (Poll: What's your Micro SD file system?)

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
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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.

[Q] Any new developments on the 4gb limit?

Hi, I have been trying to transfer some bluray isos to my tablet and either they wont finish transferring or vlc wont play them when they do. I had success transerring one iso with Wondershare Mobile go but it put the file in a hard to find folder and vlc wouldnt play it. I have an sd card coming tomorrow. I have read some post on here about the issue but the last one was dated March of last year. I know many people disagree with what I'm trying to do but I get bullheaded and dont give up that easy. Would stickmount work? Cyanogenmod or another ROM? I havent rooted yet but would be opposed to it. Ive read some post that say that its not a problem anymore. Any thoughts , ideas or comments would be appreciated.

rufusmcd said:
Hi, I have been trying to transfer some bluray isos to my tablet and either they wont finish transferring or vlc wont play them when they do. I had success transerring one iso with Wondershare Mobile go but it put the file in a hard to find folder and vlc wouldnt play it. I have an sd card coming tomorrow. I have read some post on here about the issue but the last one was dated March of last year. I know many people disagree with what I'm trying to do but I get bullheaded and dont give up that easy. Would stickmount work? Cyanogenmod or another ROM? I havent rooted yet but would be opposed to it. Ive read some post that say that its not a problem anymore. Any thoughts , ideas or comments would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your sdcard is formatted to FAT32 then you can't put files over 4GB on it. Could this be the problem?

kickassdave said:
If your sdcard is formatted to FAT32 then you can't put files over 4GB on it. Could this be the problem?[/QUOT
I'm not sure how its formatted. Its a brand new shield tablet. My external sd card hasnt come yet. I read though that the 4gb limit shouldnt be a problem on android devices.
I did transfer a 4.29gb file that played.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rufusmcd said:
kickassdave said:
If your sdcard is formatted to FAT32 then you can't put files over 4GB on it. Could this be the problem?[/QUOT
I'm not sure how its formatted. Its a brand new shield tablet. My external sd card hasnt come yet. I read though that the 4gb limit shouldnt be a problem on android devices.
I did transfer a 4.29gb file that played.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your SD card is most likely FAT or FAT32 which has a 4GB limit.
Some but not all android kernels support exFAT which has a much larger file limit, this would be the preferred way I would fix it. I formatted my card in my device to find out .
Some kernels also support NTFS which avoids the FAT32 limit but can lead to unintended behaviour - eg. apps will not be able to work out the correct amount of free space left.
Failing another solution the least desirable way to fix this (other than transcoding) is split the video into 4GB parts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The shield tablet can read SD cards formatted NTFS. That should at least allow the large file to be transferred. I'm a little surprised the system partition on a linux-based tablet uses case-insensitive FAT formatting.