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[Q]Apps2SD - very strange occurence

I used the root.bat method to enable Apps2SD on my LG Optimus GT540 - Eclair, today. I've installed atleast 80 apps yet, n leaving few aside, most of the apps are installing on the SD card.
But, now when I plugged in my SD card thru a card reader to check how much of the Ext2 partition is filled with app installation, I found that only 16mb of the 512mb partition is filled !!!
The phone isnt storing apps on the internal storage, as earlier, it had 98mb internal memory n now 75mb coz some of the apps automatically installed on the internal memory. Where the hell is it installing the apps then?
What the hell is going on?

niraj87 said:
I used the root.bat method to enable Apps2SD on my LG Optimus GT540 - Eclair, today. I've installed atleast 80 apps yet, n leaving few aside, most of the apps are installing on the SD card.
But, now when I plugged in my SD card thru a card reader to check how much of the Ext2 partition is filled with app installation, I found that only 16mb of the 512mb partition is filled !!!
The phone isnt storing apps on the internal storage, as earlier, it had 98mb internal memory n now 75mb coz some of the apps automatically installed on the internal memory. Where the hell is it installing the apps then?
What the hell is going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kind of have an idea of what's happening here but I don't know how to explain but I'll try. In froyo, when you move the apps to sd card, the size of the app "reduces". That is, if it takes about 5 MB in internal storage, it'll take only some KBs in the memory card, the app is saved in the memory card but it takes a lot less space. I don't know why but this is the case on froyo. I hope I've helped you in someway!

^^Your clarification did help, but now I've installed arnd 150 apps n many of them are large games of 6-10mb, but still the Ext2 is filled only 16mb !!! Its not like its being compressed in Froyo, like u explained, but its something much stranger, coz even if it takes memory in kbs on the SD card in Froyo, its not taking ANY space in my case.
If we assume that the Partition tool that I used on PC isnt reading the installed Ext2 for some reason, then it should have either displayed that the Ext2 parition is EMPTY or the actual size of 150 apps installed, but why only 16mb still?
And another query is y does it install some apps on the internal memory?

niraj87 said:
^^Your clarification did help, but now I've installed arnd 150 apps n many of them are large games of 6-10mb, but still the Ext2 is filled only 16mb !!! Its not like its being compressed in Froyo, like u explained, but its something much stranger, coz even if it takes memory in kbs on the SD card in Froyo, its not taking ANY space in my case.
If we assume that the Partition tool that I used on PC isnt reading the installed Ext2 for some reason, then it should have either displayed that the Ext2 parition is EMPTY or the actual size of 150 apps installed, but why only 16mb still?
And another query is y does it install some apps on the internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check the standard SD partition free space, because maybe the apps are not being moved to ext2 but to normal sd partition.

niraj87 said:
I used the root.bat method to enable Apps2SD on my LG Optimus GT540 - Eclair, today. I've installed atleast 80 apps yet, n leaving few aside, most of the apps are installing on the SD card.
But, now when I plugged in my SD card thru a card reader to check how much of the Ext2 partition is filled with app installation, I found that only 16mb of the 512mb partition is filled !!!
The phone isnt storing apps on the internal storage, as earlier, it had 98mb internal memory n now 75mb coz some of the apps automatically installed on the internal memory. Where the hell is it installing the apps then?
What the hell is going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the same thing happened to me!

^^The above has been solved now.
I thnk the reason for that is all apps cannot be installed on the SD card (even after this method of Apps2SD), due to app permissions or something else I'm not aware of.
I used the app AndRootFile to check out where the apps are being installed. They're installed at System/sdcard/app. This app clearly states the size of the parition created n how much of it is used currently, at the top, in my case 512mb ext2 parition.

[TUT] [NOOB FRIENDLY] The Ultimate Guide to Link2SD

Android being an open source OS, offers limitless possibilities of optimization and customization as per your requirements. But, half the charm of an Android phone lies in the root-based apps, beautiful mods and patches, and custom ROMs. If you have not rooted your phone yet, believe me you are not getting the most out of it. Rooting offers many advantages indeed but, at the same time it is also a little risky as it breaks into the wall of security build by the operating system.
According to a survey, 80% of Android phone users live happy with an unrooted device and the reasons for this are various- some people think of it as a sort of criminal activity, some are afraid of losing warranty, some are afraid of bricking their phone, while most people do not even know about the existence of a term like “rooting”.
Most people root their phones to get rid of pre installed bloats and gapps which they don't need at all ! ! But why??
They just wanna have more free internal storage. Many of the android users haven't heard of Link2SD ! So, I am here to tell you everything about this awesome app.
Android is one of the most used and popular operating system for the mobile.Day by day several new apps are getting available for the android devices, but your limited internal memory restricts it to the certain limit.Old Android phones have internal memory around 200 to 300 MB (Mega Bytes) unlike the latest one which have in few GB (Giga Bytes). Due to this limited memory, you cannot install more apps. This problem can be overcome by increasing internal memory of your mobile. This is absolutely true that no way to increase internal storage size of your phones, but you can allocate some part of your memory card for your phone to install applications.
This app will help you to link some part of your external SD card storage(whatever amount you want, no restrictions) to the internal storage of your phone. Apps and Games will be linked to that external SD card storage helping you to protect your internal storage from being used.
Believe me, I use Moto E which comes with 2.2 GB user available internal storage. I have 32 GB external SD card and I have linked 20 GB of it to my internal storage.
Now, I have 242 apps n games installed and still have 1.8 GB internal storage free. Apps like app2SD, appmgr have certain limitations as they move only some part of application files only whereas Link2SD links everything (app, cache, data) allowing you to install a large number of apps and games even if your phone have lesser internal storage. Isn't it cool ? ?
It is cool but to be able to use Link2SD you will have to do some steps. Many people don't know what to do after installing this app and that's why they complain it as an useless app. But believe me, it is a great app
Enough talking, let get to work ! !
Pre-Requisites:
1. Phone should be rooted. There are many methods available to root your phone.
2. You need a windows Pc and a card reader.
3. You must take a backup of your memory card on your computer as all the data will be deleted during this process.
4. Download and install Partition Tool to your computer. The link is
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
5. Downloaded Link2SD app from Google play store. You will get it easily.
Steps:
1. Take backup of your memory card on your computer.
2. Remove your SD card from your Mobile and insert it in your computer using card reader for making partition. Never use USB cable for this.
3. Download and install Partition Tool from the above link. Run this partition tool and select MiniTool Partition Wizard.
4. You will see the different drives and disks of your pc. Identify your memory card, right click on it and select delete. It will delete the entire contents of your memory card.
5. Now, you will see your memory card showing unallocated space. Now, right click on your memory card and select create.
6. Select primary in it. If your card storage is more than 2 GB, then select FAT32 file system otherwise select FAT file system.
7. Enter the amount of space which you don't want to link with internal storage. You can use this space for storing music, videos and other files. Your pc and mobile will recognise this space only as your external storage. So, choose wisely. I had 32 GB memory card(29.4 user available). I wanted to link 20 GB to my internal storage. So, I entered the remaining 9.4 GB in partition size.
8. After entering the partition size, click OK. Now, you will see the remaining space as unallocated. Right click on it and select Create. Create as primary and ext2 file system, select the remaining size. This size will be linked to the internal storage. Click OK.
You must select primary in both the partitions.
9. Now, click on the apply button on left corner menu. It will take sometimes to create partition. You will get a message showing that the partition is successful.
10. Now, copy your backup data to your memory card and take out your memory card from card reader and insert it in your phone.
11. Start your phone. Download link2sd app from Play Store. Install it and open. It will ask you to grant root permission, grant it. On opening, you will see a tab asking you to select the file system of your second partition, choose ext2. If you do not get the tab, then in Link2SD app, go to menu and click on RECREATE MOUNT SCRIPTS and select the file system of your second partition, choose ext2.
12. Now, it will ask you to reboot, select OK. If you have done 2 partition of your card and both as primary. Then, it will link the ext2 partition to your internal storage.
13. After reboot, open Link2SD app. You will see a funnel type icon, click on it and choose internal. It will show the apps which are stored in internal memory of your phone. Click on the option key and select "multi-select", press select all option. All the apps will be selected.
14. Then click on option key, choose option and select "create link" and select all options.
15. If you will pay 2$ for Link2SD plus app, then you will have the option of linking app data. Otherwise, choose the first three options.
16. Link2SD will link all these apps to the secondary partition of your SD card and your internal storage will be increased. That is it.
Note: You can use Link2SD app to uninstall pre-installed apps, move apps to SD card. You should select AUTO LINK option in settings, it will automatically link new apps to SD card. You can select INSTALL LOCATION. I must say, you should pay 2$ for Link2SD plus. It will link all app data to ext2.
Don’t be shy and leave any questions.
Thank You. Have a smiling Day
Hit thanks, if helped :good:

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.

[Completed] Why is internal system memory full when it only occupies 1/5 of internal file system?

Hello there,
i am using a rooted Galaxy S Plus with stock firmware (GT-I9001 Android 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XXKG3)
When using Total Commander to check folder sizes i get the following results:
/mnt 3,7G
/sdcard 3,5G
/system 217,1M
/proc 19,9M
/etc 1,9M
/lib 177,8k
all other folders 0
combined file size of all files directly in / ~800k
The root info shows the following information:
SD-card 1,9G / 4,9G (internal storage from the S plus)
SD-card (2) 792,1M / 1,8G (external sdcard)
File system root 45,4 M / 1,3 G (HERE IS THE PROBLEM/CONFUSION!!!)
Settings>SD card and phone storage
SD card
Total space 1,86GB
Available space 792MB
USB storage
Total space 4,99GB
Available space 2,00GB
System storage
Available space 45,44MB
So my phone tells me "LOW ON SPACE" because File system root is only 45M left and this would mean 1.25G occupied space... looking on the other table.. i am not even using 250M on the system...
Where is the rest of the aprox 1G system space!?
I have freed so much space in the past and still the system gets full and running out of space, without the 250M raising... it was around 350M couple of months ago when i last did a cleanup because of lack of space... and the ~100MB are GONE again.. and i have no clue where.. and how the hell i could claim the missing 1GB on the system storage (not the internal sd storage).
Any advice/help/hint could help.... i had to uninstall so many apps i have been using the past WITHOUT ISSUES or low space.. it looks like something is eating up space in the shadows and not giving it back. -.-
P.S. If any more info is required (which i can't think of right now) i am glad to provide if possible/applicable...

XDA Visitor said:
Hello there,
i am using a rooted Galaxy S Plus with stock firmware (GT-I9001 Android 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XXKG3)
When using Total Commander to check folder sizes i get the following results:
/mnt 3,7G
/sdcard 3,5G
/system 217,1M
/proc 19,9M
/etc 1,9M
/lib 177,8k
all other folders 0
combined file size of all files directly in / ~800k
The root info shows the following information:
SD-card 1,9G / 4,9G (internal storage from the S plus)
SD-card (2) 792,1M / 1,8G (external sdcard)
File system root 45,4 M / 1,3 G (HERE IS THE PROBLEM/CONFUSION!!!)
Settings>SD card and phone storage
SD card
Total space 1,86GB
Available space 792MB
USB storage
Total space 4,99GB
Available space 2,00GB
System storage
Available space 45,44MB
So my phone tells me "LOW ON SPACE" because File system root is only 45M left and this would mean 1.25G occupied space... looking on the other table.. i am not even using 250M on the system...
Where is the rest of the aprox 1G system space!?
I have freed so much space in the past and still the system gets full and running out of space, without the 250M raising... it was around 350M couple of months ago when i last did a cleanup because of lack of space... and the ~100MB are GONE again.. and i have no clue where.. and how the hell i could claim the missing 1GB on the system storage (not the internal sd storage).
Any advice/help/hint could help.... i had to uninstall so many apps i have been using the past WITHOUT ISSUES or low space.. it looks like something is eating up space in the shadows and not giving it back. -.-
P.S. If any more info is required (which i can't think of right now) i am glad to provide if possible/applicable...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings,
Thank you for using XDA Assist.
Please create an XDA account so you can post in other sections.
After doing that, please ask in the specific Q&A thread for your device found here:
Galaxy S Plus I9001 Q&A
Good luck and welcome to XDA!

Mysterious case of Insufficient Storage despite 5.08 GB of available space.

I'm using the Nobis NB09 tablet with Android 4.1.1. When attempting to download an app from the Google Play Store, I get Insufficient Storage error, despite 5.08 GB of available space and the app that I want to download is only 9.83 MB, so there is more than enough space to install it.
Available space reported in Storage:
Internal Storage
Available​66.24 MB​
Internal Storage
Available​5.01 GB​
Why is all this available space being ignored?
Why are there 2 sections for Internal Storage shown in Storage?

obalaban said:
I'm using the Nobis NB09 tablet with Android 4.1.1. When attempting to download an app from the Google Play Store, I get Insufficient Storage error, despite 5.08 GB of available space and the app that I want to download is only 9.83 MB, so there is more than enough space to install it.
Available space reported in Storage:
Internal Storage
Available​66.24 MB​
Internal Storage
Available​5.01 GB​
Why is all this available space being ignored?
Why are there 2 sections for Internal Storage shown in Storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thers this regular storage space and another space where you are supposed to install apps and you've seem to have hit the limit there . also an app that's only 10 MB mayoccupy much more after installation .(it need to store cache and all)
So you need to free space in the the first storage that has only 66 MB available .either delete some unwanted apps or move some apps to SD card or you can increase the limit for app installed space using Root access required apps.

[email protected] said:
Thers this regular storage space and another space where you are supposed to install apps and you've seem to have hit the limit there . also an app that's only 10 MB mayoccupy much more after installation .(it need to store cache and all)
So you need to free space in the the first storage that has only 66 MB available .either delete some unwanted apps or move some apps to SD card or you can increase the limit for app installed space using Root access required apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After uninstalling updates for unneeded apps, storage is reporting 319 MB of free space, so much space was liberated.
The initial download size was 9.83 MB compared to 23.97 MB after installation. So it takes up 2.4x more space after installation.
Is there a way to resize the partitions as in changing the ratio of apps to regular storage?

obalaban said:
After uninstalling updates for unneeded apps, storage is reporting 319 MB of free space, so much space was liberated.
The initial download size was 9.83 MB compared to 23.97 MB after installation. So it takes up 2.4x more space after installation.
Is there a way to resize the partitions as in changing the ratio of apps to regular storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can make use of apps like link2sd but it requires root