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[Q] app get copied to external SD Card rather than internal SD Card

hi, im Geoff.
recently after flashing the stock 4.0.3 ICS firmware, flashing a old bootloader and using my own USB Jig and resetting
the flash counter for kernels, i finally flashed JellyBean 4.1.2 Original Firmware from Samsung. my mobile is Galaxy S2 i9100.
my problem is i recently bought a 16GB micro sd card and inserted it into my phone before i could install any app onto my phone.
then i installed few apps and games from the Google Play Store. then i noticed the external sd card have about 120 mb of used
memory. but i only had about 20 mb of data that i copied onto it that were certain zip files and nothing else. i noticed that when i install
any app, then go to applications and move to SD Card option [which previously copied apps to the internal SD Card/USB storage],
is now actually moving the apps to the External SD Card. So if I unmount the external SD Card or remove it, none of my installed apps appear.
My external SD Card is meant for songs and movies. I want my internal SD Card to store all my apps so that i can remove my External
SD Card when ever i want to and swap it or not use it at all.
I also removed the external SD Card and then installed a new app, then use the move app to SD Card option. I got a error message,
saying something like insufficient memory/space.
my doubt is, apps are trying to be moved to the internal sd card but because they cannot be moved, they are being copied to the
external sd card.
any help is appretiated. btw i have rooted my phone by doing the temporary update of CWM from the stock recovery using the update from
external card method. then i also installed SuperSU. so its rooted and i didn't have to flash a kernel to root.
[update] im gonna provide some new info here:
I have a Android folder in my Internal SD Card [sdcard0]
and ".android_secure" in my External SD Card [extSdCard]
/mnt contains
asec [software files stored on the internal memory/ not internal SD Card or sdcard0]
obb [empty]
secure/asec [software moved using move to sdcard option. these files get copied to the extSdCard and not the sdcard0]
.lfs
and the sdcard and extSdCard links.
If I remove my External SD Card and try to move apps to the Internal SD Card using the move to sdcard button in application settings,
I get the insufficient memory error.
Also when I use the move to SD Card button in Application Settings, it shows the file being moved to the USB Storage [which is supposed to be
the internal sd card or sdcard0], yet it actually is being copied into my external SD Card or extSdCard.

What apps/games?
A lot of app data is stored on SD card, whether the core files and executable are on the internal or not, so that may just be cache stuff etc... One way to check is to remove the SD card then try to run whichever apps, I am willing to bet they still run.

orangekid said:
What apps/games?
A lot of app data is stored on SD card, whether the core files and executable are on the internal or not, so that may just be cache stuff etc... One way to check is to remove the SD card then try to run whichever apps, I am willing to bet they still run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use the move to sd card for most apps/games. apart from 1-2 apps that dont have that option, about 10 apps+games have the option to be moved to the SD Card. And i used that option. But I am positive they got copied to the External SD Card because after I remove the
External SD Card, all the apps disappear.
Also when i then try installing new apps to the phone and then try to move them again [without the external sd card in its slot],
i get the error message of insufficient space/memory.[i have 8GB+ empty space in the internal SD Card]
its really annoying me

TitanHack said:
i use the move to sd card for most apps/games. apart from 1-2 apps that dont have that option, about 10 apps+games have the option to be moved to the SD Card. And i used that option. But I am positive they got copied to the External SD Card because after I remove the
External SD Card, all the apps disappear.
Also when i then try installing new apps to the phone and then try to move them again [without the external sd card in its slot],
i get the error message of insufficient space/memory.[i have 8GB+ empty space in the internal SD Card]
its really annoying me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have an option enabled in app settings to install all to SD, check your app settings in system settings.

orangekid said:
Sounds like you have an option enabled in app settings to install all to SD, check your app settings in system settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have gone through everything in settings. I cant find any option where I can actually select weather to install all to SD.
I appretiate you trying to help me out. I hope i find a solution to this problem.
Initailly I felt that it cound be some code causing the apps to move to the external sd card instead of the internal one. But after I got
the error message that I have insufficient space [with the external sd card removed ], even tho I have plenty of space, about 8GB+,
on the internal sd card...so I dont think this is due to any code somewhere pointing to install into the external SD card.
I read somewhere that when the internal sd card is full and no more apps can be installed, the new apps go to the external sd card by default.
Something like that is happening to me, except my internal sd card is fine.
I updated my first post with more info to help diagnose and solve the problem. ty to all trying to help me.

bump
[reserved]

I would back up the stuff you want from SD and from your ROM (to your computer), then go to recovery, full wipe + cache + dalvik, then format external SD, then reboot into system, then restore what you want.

orangekid said:
I would back up the stuff you want from SD and from your ROM (to your computer), then go to recovery, full wipe + cache + dalvik, then format external SD, then reboot into system, then restore what you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey man ty for not giving up on me ive not been well and then got so busy recently....
i did what you asked. i even accidently wiped the system folder from cwm recovery. it went into a boot loop or whatever it is called.
i re-flashed the official samsung jellybean firmware 4.1.2 on my i9100. then again cleant delvic + cache +used data. yet the problem
persists.
i noticed that the android folder is being created in the internal sd card. but that android folder has very small amount of the app
files stored on it. the major chunk is in android_secure which is only being stord on the external sdcard.
when i go to mnt folder in root i see two folders named asec and secure.
1."asec" contains apps stored on internal memory [not internal sd card]
and 2. "secure" contains a "asec" folder which stores app stored on the external sdcard.
i believe somewhere the code which should point the android_secure folder to the internal sdcard is pointing to store apps on the
external sd card. perhaps you guys can show me how i can change the folder path of android secure. then it will behave like
default, the way is was meant to behave.

You might need to repartition your system.
I'll see else we can come up with later today, in the mean time, try to maybe use TWRP instead and a different ROM

little more info
orangekid said:
You might need to repartition your system.
I'll see else we can come up with later today, in the mean time, try to maybe use TWRP instead and a different ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i click move to sdcard in the application settings/menu, it shows USB data filling up.
that USB data is supposed to be my USB drive or my Internal SD Card. And the external sdcard shows up
as 0 KB of data. But actually the files are being copied to the external sdcard and not internal.
now if we think the android system cannot access the internal sdcard, then thats not the matter because
it creates a folder named Android in the internal sdcard and stores the app cache there.
So to me it seems that the android system is confused and actually thinks that the android_secure folder is
mounted on the internal sdcard while it actually is mounted on the external sdcard.
perhaps anyone can link me a guide to move my android_secure folder...

TitanHack said:
perhaps anyone can link me a guide to move my android_secure folder...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facing this problem now.
TitanHack, did you found an answer?

Could someone explain why my phone is not utilising its device storage?

As you can see in the attachment, it is very problematic for me, I do not understand why I am not able to use the device storage and why everything that I download goes to internal storage, is my device storage actually just RAM?? It makes installing apps nearly impossible and I keep getting constant reminders that I have low memory

Assersath said:
As you can see in the attachment, it is very problematic for me, I do not understand why I am not able to use the device storage and why everything that I download goes to internal storage, is my device storage actually just RAM?? It makes installing apps nearly impossible and I keep getting constant reminders that I have low memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Total Commander as file manager. It will give you a better overview
Your apps are stored on the internal storage. Thats only about 1GB. Internal and external SD CARD can not be used to install apps on it. For using SD CARD to store apps use Link2SD. For using Link2SD you will have to spli8t one of your sc cards. Must beformated as followed:
1. partition Fat32
2. partition Ext4
Both partitions must be primary. Use Partition Wizard to prepare your sd card.

App to SD card?

Hello everybody, after selected external SD card as default is there any option to move app data to the external SD? Or I have to do manually with a file manager? And is not possible to do it with all apps, is there a way to know which app data can be on SD card and which not? And did anybody noticed a slower device with SD as primary memory?

Settings/Storage
Under storage setting you should be able to choose default location to internal or SD Card

Tyrigi said:
Hello everybody, after selected external SD card as default is there any option to move app data to the external SD? Or I have to do manually with a file manager? And is not possible to do it with all apps, is there a way to know which app data can be on SD card and which not? And did anybody noticed a slower device with SD as primary memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, there isn't a supported way to move apps to SD card. I have not tried out 3rd party apps from the Play Store either. That could work.
The default location set to SD card just ensures downloads, pictures, videos, music etc., have SD card as the default location to save and not for individual apps.

You might try Link2SD from the Play Store to move your apps to external sd. You'll need to add a second partition to your sdcard though first, but you can do that with another app called Aparted and you'll want to backup any data you have on your sdcard to your PC first too, as partitioning wipes everything.
Aparted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqamMXcvf1Y
Link2SD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RuHRLpeQdw
Good luck!

bogarty said:
You might try Link2SD from the Play Store to move your apps to external sd. You'll need to add a second partition to your sdcard though first, but you can do that with another app called Aparted and you'll want to backup any data you have on your sdcard to your PC first too, as partitioning wipes everything.
Aparted:
Link2SD:
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing

Help Understanding Android's Storage Expansion (SDCard Formatted As Internal)

Hi there,
I've been using android for some years now and with time android has allowed users not only to expand the phone storage capability but also format said SDcard as internal so the user can save apps directly on the SDcard.
What I never understood is why we can't we move individual files from internal storage to the now encrypted and formatted as internal SDcard? Is this possible?
The cellphone (running android 8.0) has 32GB internal storage. I installed & expanded the total storage capability with a 64GB A1 SDcard formatted as internal. All working find.
The issue I'm having is that I listen to podcasts & I have a massive selection of songs stored locally on my phone. This has filled up my phone to the point of nagging. Why can't we, after formatting the SDcard as internal, not able to move or at least tell the system (be it via file manger, etc) to store/move X,Z files to the SDcard? We can move apps back and forth so why are we not able to move audio and image files back and forth? So much for the convenience of formatting as internal. No widgets, not able to move files to and fro other than apps.
I've basically 60GB free and the phone wont access it unless it is to install apps. I find this to be an useless behavior. For those of us who would like to have a 100% encrypted phone/storage, this is useless as keeping the SDcard as external storage is the one way of fully taking advantage of it.
Thanks

How to move your games to your sd card?

I can't update my codm because my phone's storage is full. Can someone help me transfer the data of my game to my sd card so that I can update it? I already downloaded link2sd, but I don't know how to root my phone. I also want to ask if all the data will be transfered to the sd card if it's moved.

darklordz67 said:
I can't update my codm because my phone's storage is full. Can someone help me transfer the data of my game to my sd card so that I can update it? I already downloaded link2sd, but I don't know how to root my phone. I also want to ask if all the data will be transfered to the sd card if it's moved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open the Settings app.
Go into Apps & notifications.
Access the app you want to move to the SD card.
Select Storage.
If the app supports the feature, you will see an option to change where the app is stored. Go ahead and change it to the inserted SD card.
via AA

darklordz67 said:
I can't update my codm because my phone's storage is full. Can someone help me transfer the data of my game to my sd card so that I can update it? I already downloaded link2sd, but I don't know how to root my phone. I also want to ask if all the data will be transfered to the sd card if it's moved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Android 6 the Adoptable Storage feature ( allows to use external SD-card as internal storage memory ) was introduced. Check whether your phone's Android supports it.
If, then you can consider yourself lucky.

I don't have one on my realme c3, what should I do?

The Realme C3 comes with either 32GB or 64GB internal storage memory. CODM requires 2GB free internal storage memory, AFAIK. Wondering what are the space hogs not allowing to grant CODM the 2GB needed?

Unlock your Developer options and check the option to make all applications movable to SD card.

dedq said:
Unlock your Developer options and check the option to make all applications movable to SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP's question was how to move an app's data to SD-card, NOT how to move an app to SD-card.

Thanks for clarifying but I don't think that's possible anyway.