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Hi, can anyone please help?
I have just purchased the Asus eee pad Transformer and it automatically updated to 3.1. I have put some apps on it through the android market.
I went to put some apps/photos etc onto the removable card to save some internal space but when I went into settings then to applications then to manage applications the option to 'move to sd' was not showing on any of the apps. can anyone tell me why and if possible how to rectify this.... what is the point in having a removable card and cant use it. Any replies would be much appreciated..... thanks Jayne
16GB is not enough space for your apps?
You dont need to move apps to SD card as all internal memory (about 16 or 32GB depending on which version you have) is used for applications.
removable sd can be used for for music, movies and any other 3rd party files..
16gb is more than enough for installing apps... (I think...)
there's no app2sd in honeycomb, this is different from what android 2.x does.
thanks for the replies,
I am not able to put pictures/music etc. on to sd card. how do you do it in case I am missing something
thanks
There are several ways to add to The removable SD card. You can get ES file explorer and transfer from SD Card ( internal mem) to Removable card or if you set up your system right use ES file explorer to transfer from your desktop/laptop to the Removable Memory. If you don't want to do that, just put the removable card in your computer , transfer music and photos to it and return it to the TF. I use a Tonido Plug ( small inexpensive ubuntu server) on my network to store everything, then just download or stream to TF via ES File Explorer.
Thanks for this answer, I was actually also asking myself this question.
I saw that app2sd exists on the android market so I guess it doesn't work on our transformer, right ?
there is also an issue I am facing : I downloaded a free application to measure the speed reading and writting of the new SD card I have installed. Whatever I try, the software always check the SDcard directory (so internal) but never the microsd I have installed.
I tried with another one and there is still the same problem. Is it a honeycomb restriction ?
Working with the microsd card seems very difficult (I am still a newbie that may explains why).
Indeed, most of apps only see your internal SD Card.
I've found something to work around the problem - you just have to edit/modify the vold.fstab file.
You can find it in /system/etc/.
Then replace this line:
dev_mount microsd /Removable/MicroSD auto /devices/platform/sdhci-tegra.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
by this one:
dev_mount microsd /sdcard/_MicroSD auto /devices/platform/sdhci-tegra.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot your TF01!
Now, your TF101 will mount the MicroSD in a directory from the internal SD Card '/system/sdcard/_MicroSD'. All your apps will see it...
PS: you can edit/modify this file with some apps like Root Explorer.
Need Permission
I tried to edit this file but came back with read only tag. I tried to change permissions but again came back read only system file. How do I change the read-only tag?
Found how to do it
I found how I could use adb to pull the file, edit in Notepad and then push it back. It worked.
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.
If you are like me and bought the 16GB version of our beloved SG3, thinking you could always move apps to the external sd card, then this mod is for you. It swaps the internal and external sd cards so apps install on your external card, because your phone is fooled into thinking the external card is the internal card.
I suggest that if you are going to do this, you should probably do it right after installing a new ROM, and before you install any apps. That way everything will get installed onto the external SD card.
I didn't invent this, Zedomax adapted in from mattiadj. But most people haven't been able to get it fully working, probably due to variations in the init.d function of various ROMS. They'd be able to see the External SD card as the internal SD, but the internal SD would disappear. This method avoids using init.d, and instead uses the app Script Manager to load the script on boot.
After much fooling around, I figured out how to do it so the External SD card and the internal cards are swapped, but you can see both with any file Explorer. I got it working on CleanROM 2.0, but it should work on Beans 10 as well.
Here's how to do it: Warning, if you do not understand the following instructions, or don’t have experience doing these things, you probably don’t want to do this hack. I am not responsible if you a) brick your phone, b) delete your data, or c) get very frustrated. That being said, the most likely failure will be that you only see the one card (the External card).
Back everything up that you care about first!!!!
1. First, I'd recommend making a Nandroid backup of your phone.
2. Next, just to be extra safe, I would backup your internal SD card to your PC. While you are doing that, if you have data on the external SD card, back that up too.
3. Next, I would format your external SD card to fat 32. (You could probably use Ext format too, but I didn’t test that.)If you already have it in that format, and have content on it, this won't affect the content, but back it up just to be safe. It’s probably better to have the Ext SD blank to begin with, you can always copy back its content from your pc.
4. Next copy the contents of the internal SD to the External SD card. This is to avoid confusion about apps and such.
5. Next install script manager free from the play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...anager&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
It will show up on your phone as S manager ads.
6. Download the mod from here: http://downloadandroidrom.com/file/...ternalsd_gs3_fat32orextfat_US_ZEDOMAXv0.2.zip
7. You’ll see a folder called: 11extsd2internalsd_gs3_fat32orextfat_US_ZEDOMAXv0.2.zip
You need to unzip the folder, then go to System/etc/init.d and copy the 11extsd2internalsd file from there to your phone. Put it into the /data directory. Use Root Explorer, and your phone will need to be rooted.
(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/11ext file in data directory.png)
Or you can get just the 11extsd2internalsd file here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/11extsd2internalsd
8. Using Root Explorer, navigate to that file in the /data directory. Press and hold the file name until the menu pops up, and click on permissions.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Permissions.png
(Unix geeks set them to 777, and everyone else copy the picture below. Click OK.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Permission settings 777.png
9. Open the script manager app, and select Browse as Root in the config screen. Tell it to remember this setting.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Script manager browse as root and save.png
10. Navigate to the /data directory and choose the 11extsd2internalsd file that is located in /data and click on it. Click on the “Is script” button.
11. Now tap on the buttons that say Su, Boot, and Save. The file name will come up in yellow after the save.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6305/SD Card Hack SG3/Script manager setting after save.png
12. Reboot your phone and you should see the swap working and be able to access both internal and external SD cards. The external card will show up as sdcard, and the internal card will show up as extSDCard. Your apps should now install to the external card, since your phone will think it's the internal card. Is that confusing? It was to me too!
Good luck and please share your experiences specifying which ROM you used, so that others can avoid frustration.
Thank you’s always appreciated.
Wonder if this works on asop roms as well.
Please excuse my Galaxy S III, it's a bit Paranoid.
On my X2, this same mod was done via a flashable zip...not sure how it worked, but it was worked perfectly. At some point the roms incorporated the flip flop as part of the Rom. I like the feature because I wouldnt need to move certain app data to my external sd card. Also, I wouldn't have to show tibu where to look for my backups.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Clienterror said:
Wonder if this works on asop roms as well.
Please excuse my Galaxy S III, it's a bit Paranoid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the consensus on this? Can this mod as posted above be applied to AOSP/CM9/CM10?
Just flashed this on aokp and both sdcard and external_sd are my physical sd card. The internal card is not showing.
Op, can we get an cm10 ver?
Did a little playing around. Below seems to work on cm10 aokp. Can op confirm this is good?
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1
maniac2k said:
Just flashed this on aokp and both sdcard and external_sd are my physical sd card. The internal card is not showing.
Op, can we get an cm10 ver?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you actually flashing it, or using the Script Manager? As far as I know, only the Script Manager approach works.
maniac2k said:
Did a little playing around. Below seems to work on cm10 aokp. Can op confirm this is good?
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but take a look at the code from 11ext2internalsd file. If it works, and you can see both sd cards, then you've nailed it.
Yeah sorry, im running the script apk. It seems to work. I just dont understand the exacts of the vold/179:97 or if it should be vold/197:96?
When i go into settings/storage, should my physical sdcard stats be showing under internal memory?
Thanks I got mines to work now. Thanks to your suggestions.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2
Update: ive been using the script below for a littlw while and it is working great on cm10. It is best to enable it after a fresh rom install.
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/block/vold/179:97 /storage/sdcard0
mount -o bind /data/media /storage/sdcard1
I need to do this.
MODERATOR.
This is not a Q&A Thread. Needs to be moved to appropriate location.
Apps Did Not Move After Internal / External SD Swap for GS3
Well I thought everything went perfectly because as mentioned, when I go to storage my internal shows my 64g card and internal of 12g now shows as external. However the apps are still on my internal which is now called my external and when I go to app manager it shows remaining space 5.9g. So I am not sure what I did wrong because I have reviewed this several times and started right after I installed a fresh rom . I am hoping someone can help me correct this because basically all it did was change the name of the two drives but apps are still getting installed to original location. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me
Swapping internal>external did not work
i followed all steps as stated above but when I go to File Manager (default), long pressing Internal SD>Details show 1.2 MB and External SD shows 1.8 GB which is not true. I have external SD of 8 GB and internal is 2 GB in my micromax a110 phone.
The steps above did not work to swap the memory but it now shows even incorrect size. I installed Root Browser lite but got no way to chck the size of the SD cards.. Please help
Does this work with the new Verizon Jelly Bean which they are now sending out via OTA? Are there other Verizon S3 Jelly Bean Roms that are known to work with this method? Thanks
Its works on the leak so i dont see why it wouldnt work on the actual vz rom
not working
This is not working with my samsung s duos please help
Any cm 10.1 updates for this?
I am unable to change the file permissions to -rwx-rwx-rwx- whenever I try to change it I get an error that the phone is unable to change permissions.
EDIT:
Successfully changed permissions and followed the instructions as given. Still not working on the international S3, my internal memory is still 16 GB and external 32GB
i want my 360 qiku n5 cellphone to use the tf card as an internalSD card, and also link to the /data/data diretory,so that I can make the storage more sufficient.
i have so many app to install, and the app use much space consuming up the internal space,leaving the tf card empty.
i'd tried making tf card ext4 and mounted to /mnt/sdcard-ext,and maked a link "ln -s /mnt/sdcard-ext/data /data/data",but the apps just crashed as soon as they started.then i deleted the link and cellphone return normal.
after try i found using the "su, mount" script to mount tf card on any directory,the nornal apps which do not use "su" can't read the mount point,I think that's why i link the tf card to /data/data but apps could not start. So how can i solve this problem?I use the supersu as the root and have allready turn off the "Mount namespace separation" option.
And how can i make a startup autorun script on the android6 phone?
Anybody help me please?
This will not work how you want. Apps on SD cards only work with Googles new feature to make the sdcard as internal storage. But even that is buggy due to the sdcard code that has never been made to work for apps on sdcard.
I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this
Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing
sautom said:
Not really able to help but i read many people advise against using SD card as internal storage. Most regular SD cards r not fast enough or durable enough to last more than a few months. Just sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're right about that. I've installed programs on USB sticks that can be quite sluggish. Then again I've had a number of system maintenance utilities on flash drives for years that aren't and still perform fine. Then they don't get used for hours on a day to day basis.
I moved a number of apps on my old Galaxy Ace to a micro sd card though, most used was the Poweramp music player that's always performed well.
And I've got the card now, so I may as well try to get it set as internal and just see how it performs over time. Thanks for you feedback sautom.
TakuSkan said:
I've been all day trying to get a Micro SD installed on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Go5 so I can move apps onto it. After bricking an old SD 32 GB card and buying a new 64 GB card I started searching for help here. I found information that said the card has to be formatted as 'Internal Storage.' This post described the process (the process that worked toward the bottom).
I'd been trying to figure out how to install the Android SDK on my Windows PC without downloading Android Studio in order to get the adb shell mentioned in that post set up. I found this post and this post on the stackoverflow forum, but just wasn't able to figure it all out. But it looks like I need the Java SE Development Kit 10 installed.
I was able to set up USB debugging on the phone though.
Can anyone help me out here and describe just what must be done to achieve all this?
Thanks for any feedback on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Also, if performance is important to you, then you won't like this option, using sdcard as internal is slower, the only "gain" in using this is the system has more storage to use. There is no gain on performance, you actually lose there.
I don't recommend using sdcard as internal storage though. There are way too many issues that come along with using this kind of modification. A lot of times, the sdcard gets corrupted, then the real issues start when you try to fix it, usually, the device won't function properly, the data on the sdcard gets lost/corrupted, just to name a couple of the many possible issues. It isn't exactly "easy" to fix this when it happens, depending on what goes wrong, sometimes it can't be fixed.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
If you have lollipop or newer Android version, you should be able to use the "Adoptable storage" option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?
TakuSkan said:
I've read quite a bit on this and "adoptable storage" now, and agree that trying to use an expansion SD card as internal memory to run apps is a bad idea Droidriven. I still have a little over 1 GB left on the tiny built in 8GB internal SD Card memory, and have most of what I want installed.
I'm pretty green when it comes to Android, coming from many years with Windows and a tad with Linux. I see that with v6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OS began setting up a system directory tree on the 64 GB SD card when I installed it, and I'm able to set data folders there for apps like the camera. That'll be good for storing large camera videos and other media files.
One thing I haven't figured out yet though is whether or not there's any setting on a non-rooted phone like this Go5 that will allow me to transfer files directly into the 'Android' folder on the internal 8 GB card from Windows. I'm able to connect the two via USB or FTP and write files from Windows to folders on the 8 GB card like 'Download'. But I can't copy any files from Windows over to any of the writable apps folders in the 'Android' folder. I've resorted to copying them 1st to 'Download' from Windows, and then using a file manager in Android to copy files over to the 'Android' folder. I'm not used to such rigid file/folder permissions.
Does this sound like an issue that will require rooting? It'd make life a lot easier if that weren't the case. I'd think if I can write files to that 'Android' folder from within Android, I ought to be able to do the same remotely somehow.
Thoughts?
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I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
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Droidriven said:
I always just use the ES File Explorer app, it lets me move whatever I want to/from Android folder.
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Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DCIM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
Can ES File Explorer access shared folders on a Windows PC? Amaze sets up an FTP server, but I don't see where it can access files on a Windows system.
EDIT: Seems it can: How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone
TakuSkan said:
Yes, from within Android. I'm using the free open source Amaze file manager that I can do that with. But I can't connect the Android phone to a Windows PC and be able to copy files from Windows to the Android folder on the phone. Just to Download, and maybe DICM and the root of the internal 8 GB SD memory.
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You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
When you connect the device to PC, you should see a USB icon in the status bar on the device, pull down notification panel, it should have a notification that takes you to your USB options.
Or, when you connect the device, you might get a pop-up menu on your device that has settings for USB options.
It varies from one device to another and one android version to another.
Do you have USB debugging enabled in developer options?
Also, if you do some reading about everything that the ES File Explorer app can do, you'll see that it can be used to transfer files to/from PC via more than a few options, including wirelessly/remotely.
It has several things it can do and different ways to connect when connecting/connected to other devices, including smart TV and others. It can also be used as a server or even be used to create a hotspot.
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Droidriven said:
You should be able to do this with just Windows. Are you sure that you have your USB options set correctly? It should be set to MTP(file transfer).
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Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.
TakuSkan said:
Yes Droidriven. I have set USB debugging and USB is set as MTP. I just discovered that Amaze does connect to Windows like ES File Explorer by running it's cloud search function. So far Amaze has done everything I've been told to use ESFE for. But Amaze is very light. I just used Amaze to copy a file over from a shared Windows folder to that Android folder on the phone.
I have Total Commander on the Windows system, but when I use it to navigate to an apps subfolder of Android on the phone, it can't see any of the files or folders that I can access with Amaze from within the phone.
So I'm half way there Just need to figure out how to get Windows to see and write files on this Go5 now.
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I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
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Droidriven said:
I don't know where you're having issues, all I have ever done is just connect my device to Windows via USB then use the native Windows Explorer file manager to transfer to/from internal/external to PC/device. I've never had to do anything special or use any extra software on the device or PC to achieve this, plus, I've done this on different Windows systems.
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I think it may be because this was a T-Mobile phone and that they may have disabled some functions like "adoptable storage" which doesn't seem to be present, as well as maybe setting permissions to prevent access to certain system folders.
I've even found that I have to change the extensions of some files like ini files to txt before I can drag and drop from Windows Explorer via a USB connection to just a few folders on Android.
It is a bit nutz. Rooting would probably solve the problem. But I'm not ready to go there yet. There may be an answer for getting the Windows > Android file viewing and writing yet. But at least for the moment I can copy both ways with the Amaze File Manager.
Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
TakuSkan said:
Okay, I'm back to considering formatting this 64 GB SD Card as internal storage. I would really like to record video to it, and with the internal memory limited to 1 GB that's left of the total of 8 GB from the factory, that's just not going to make it.
I got the Android SDK and 'adb shell' working on my PC, and started researching how to run commands that would target just the SD Card, and not the existing memory. The command 'sm list-disks' returns: disk:179,32
Is that the phone's internal memory, the SD Card's memory, or perhaps all memory on the phone? When I run the command 'sm list-volumes' I get:
private mounted null
public:179,33 mounted 38C4-18FE
emulated mounted null
I know 38C4-18FE is listed on the phone as being my added SD Card. So I'm hesitant to run the command I see people using to format their SD Cards: 'sm partition disk:179,33' I've wiped the wrong drives by mistake before using Windows diskpart when I didn't specify the right drive/volume. Can anyone clear that up for me?
I'm still hesitant to do this as it seems the phone will automatically begin to use the entire contents of the SD Card as space to run its OS. Might there be commands that would specifically alot the space on the card for writing data, and not for apps that would write and rewrite data there? Something I could create a folder in and point video recording apps to?
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
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It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
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Droidriven said:
It's possible to partition the external sdcard so that it has separate partitions with one of those partitions devoted to internal storage and the other for whatever you want. I'm not versed in specific tools and methods to do it, there are many.
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I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?
TakuSkan said:
I'm happy with dedicating the entire memory in my sd card to adoptable storage space. I just want to know if adb is returning the right designation of my added sd card memory, and not the default internal memory.
Does the command 'sm list-disks' run from an adb shell that returns this for me: disk:179,32 mean that 179,32 is the designation that represents the sd memory card I added? Or if I try to use adb to partition 179,32 as adoptive memory, will I be formatting the default internal memory? What would be an adb command to return the designation of the small 8 GB default internal memory of my phone?
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Have you tried running the command without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
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Droidriven said:
Have you tried running the xommand without the external sdcard inserted? That will tell you the designation of your internal because internal is all it will see, then insert the external sdcard, then you can run the command to see what the designation for the external is. Once you setup Adoptable Storage, there will be no difference in designation, the OS will see your internal and your external as one complete storage space, it sees external as if it were internal and identifies/labels it as such for all intents and purposes.
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That is exactly the information I've been after Droidriven. That sounds like the perfect way to differentiate default internal memory from an SD addon. I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd card, installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage? My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down. Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files
TakuSkan said:
I read where after formatting/partitioning the sd cardm installed apps will stay on the internal memory unless you opt for an ill advised process of moving them to the new space where they probably won't perform well.
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That's right.
TakuSkan said:
How will the OS see the added sd memory after formatted as adoptable storage?
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As far as I know, it will see all one space with no way to "store here instead of there" that I know of. The OS uses the entire space as it sees fit.
TakuSkan said:
My concern is that since this a cheap flash memory sd card, I don't want the OS to start writing and rewriting to this sluggish, slow flash memory card and just wear the thing down.
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That is exactly what it will do, this is the common cause of sdcard formatted as internal getting burned out, they aren't meant to do all that writing/rewriting/overwriting/deleting constantly. Frequent activity kills it in the end, hence, my original post warning against the downsides to using external as internal. Once external is incorporated into internal, if the external gets corrupted, the OS won't boot or operate, potentially making a terrible mess to get the device recovered but not the external sdcard, it's toast at that point, along with everything that was stored on it, in some cases, the device can't be recovered either, due to lack of software support or publicly available downloadable firmware.
TakuSkan said:
Is there any way to specify the added memory as being data storage only? I only want the extra memory for writing video from the phone to a space large enough to hold multiple files
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It might be possible somehow, but it probably requires root and some other apps that use root to make the needed modifications to direct data where you want it stored. I'm not sure it's possible though because, as I said previously, the OS sees internal and external as one complete partition, with no way to "see" a difference between them because they no longer have differing disk designations.
In my honest opinion(based on my exposure and experience with various devices that have used this as an option and the issues they have had along the way), using external as internal is too risky and shouldn't be used. Oddly, Adoptable Storage works better on devices that have better hardware and plenty of internal storage than it does on lower end devices with limited hardware and limited storage, the lower, limited devices are typically the ones that end up having issues. I know, this seems counter-intuitive since the better devices don't need the extra internal storage and the lower devices do need the extra internal storage, but we both know that flash memory is very unreliable for continuous write/delete/rewrite and is doomed to fail.
Could you possibly consider some kind of OTG storage, wireless USB drive or some kind of "cloud" storage or FTP setup?
You should be able to direct your downloads, your pics and your recordings to the folder of your choice when downloaded/created instead of having to move them after. I'm not certain you need to do this just to be able to use your external to store data.
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