Hi,
I recently installed Oxygen 2.0.1 to my phone, and created a 4GB ext3 partition on my SD card for application storage ... So the standard froyo apps 2 sd installation is not needed anymore, but some applications still get installed to the FAT32 partition (like pewpew).
Is there a straightforward way to disable applications installing on the external storage ? I looked through the settings but couldn't find anything.
I noticed Oxygen uses an init script to enable apps2sd (/system/etc/init.d/10apps2sd), is it safe to modify it to disable stock apps2sd (with pm setInstallLocation 1) ? I'm quite sure it is, but I'm asking since I have only about 1 day of experience with custom ROMs
Hey all,
Does the Z3 support installing every app fully to the SD card? I ask because 16gb seems a bit limiting if you can't fully use the SD card.
I just came here to ask the same question. In Kitkat 4.4.4 (and maybe other versions?) the 'Move to SD' is disabled/not there and it is up to the phone manufacturer to enable/add it. There is no option in settings on the Z3 to move app data to your SD card. It is very easy to enable apps to be able to use the SD card, either manually or using an app such as SDFix (but you will need to be rooted).
Here are some questions I would like answered if anyone knows:
There are folders on the SD card for most apps in /Android/data/ for example, 'com.microsoft.skydrive'. That same folder is also in the same place (/Android/data/) on the phones memory and contains data for the app. Can that just be moved with a file explorer to the SD card? If so are there any other steps to take?
Is there an app to automate moving data or a way to add the button in settings, apps?
Cheers
Wait till 5 ! It's was disabled is kk
You can use FolderMount to transfer game data to external storage (sdcard)
I use it and it is really essential to me
installed 4 big games
I updated my classic Shield Tablet (LTE RoW) to Marshmallow and decided to stay with my SD card formatted as portable instead of integrated, because of the ... portability... reasons...
However, now the native App2SD functionality is not available any more. Is this by design?
Even if I try to force an external SD card installation or move it via third party apps (rooted), it does not work afterwards:
The storage section of the app at least then shows me the possibility to move it back to internal (moving it back works fine). So the system thinks it is on the external card. However, it is not really on the SD card. The packages are nowhere to be found in the card like with previous Android versions. And after a reboot of the system the app vanishes, just leaving some remnants findable via SD Maid.
Also I remember from earlier Android versions that you were able to move OBB files from internal to the corresponding external OBB folder manually and it worked for most games, but even this does not work (anymore?). (Do I need to reboot afterwards?)
Any ideas or insights?
Thankys!
The Xposed module XInternalSD works great with apps that have their data stored somewhere in internal storage because it can map/ re-route the internal storage to external without the need to format one's SD card with Linux ext fs - it can remain stock FAT32.
With the Signal app I'm now encountering the very first app with which XInternalSD can and does not work because Signal uses /data/data/org.thoughtcrime.securesms/ for imposed "security", and the devs stubbornly refuse to even add an option to have the user decide where the data folder may be. That sucks.
Folder Mount is (was) able to map even /data/data/app.name to SD card, but only up to Android 6.x
So my question is if there is a way or existing tool or module (Xposed, Magisk) which does just that. XInternalSD has been out of development for a long time, so I guess adding (an option for) /data/data/ to be added to the map path is (pun) not an option.
figured it out via Magisk root & Global Namespace for working Symlinks even to folders on FAT32 -> https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/pull/9015#issuecomment-647058674
Dear all,
the following problem might be unusual and the opposite of what other people want, but as the title says:
Is it possible to prevent Android 11 (and custom ROMs based on it) from writing to the external SD card? That is, I don't want apps or the O/S itself to store any data there. You now probably are asking yourself whether I have gone totally crazy, putting an external SD card into the phone and not wanting it to be used, so I'll give a bit of background:
I have a Samsung S9 plus Duos (G965F/DS) and have installed a custom recovery (TWRP 3.5.2) and a custom ROM (ArrowOS 11) onto it. Then I have installed SSHelper 13.2 and have put an external SD card into the phone.
I am taking backups very seriously. I don't want to root my phone, but nevertheless want bit-for-bit backups of all partitions or data, respectively. I don't have much data on the phone, but the data and the O/S configuration I *do* have must be regularly backed up no matter what. The backup must *not* be in the cloud. That led me to the following idea for the backup process:
- Boot into TWRP
- Let TWRP make the backup, using the partitions of the internal storage as source, and using the external SD card as destination
- Reboot to system
- Fire up SSHelper
- Copy the backup from the external SD card to a PC, e.g. via WinSCP.
That process works like a charm; I have done it several times.
[ Side note: The SSHelper / WinSCP combo is ingenious. It enables me to transfer data (e.g. backups) between my PC and my phone without involving the cloud and without having to pull out the external SD card all the time. Doing the latter every other day would probably damage the phone or the external SD card quite fast. ]
Now I have only one small problem left: Android itself of course recognizes the external SD card as well and installs a folder structure on it (e.g. Downloads, Movies, Pictures etc.). Although I actually haven't seen files (other than placeholders) in there yet, I have no clue if and under which circumstances apps or the O/S might put important data in these external SD card folders. I have to prevent the latter, because it would render my backup method (backup internal storage completely to external SD card) useless.
Hence the question: Is there a method to tell the O/S and all apps that they may read the external SD card, but under no circumstances must place data there?
Thank you very much in advance for any ideas!
P.S. I have seen many threads where users had problems with the external SD card, e.g. not being able to make apps use it or not being able to see its contents. But I somehow have the opposite problem: Of course, I need to see the external SD card's contents (which is no problem), but I want to prevent normal apps and the O/S from writing something there.
No you can't prevent android from creating default folders on it, but I'm pretty sure you can exclude them from backup.
Thank you very much!
However, excluding these folders from backup wouldn't be wise if Android or an app would have put data in them ...
D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM said:
Thank you very much!
However, excluding these folders from backup wouldn't be wise if Android or an app would have put data in them ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then don't exclude the whole Android folder, just some folders inside. Like /obb folder or system apps data inside /data
Or just exclude "LOST" or other cache folders.
D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM said:
Dear all
Is it possible to prevent Android 11 (and custom ROMs based on it) from writing to an SD card? That is, I don't want apps or the O/S itself to store any data there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming you are speaking of an External SD-card ( Note: As with Android internal storage memory by default is named SD-card ).
As long as you don't use an external SD-card ( completely or partially ) as Adoptable Storage by default neither apps nor OS itself write to it ( store data on it ).
@jwoegerbauer Thank you very much! This what I have experienced, too. I have seen the folders, but no data in them. I am still wondering why it creates those folders at all if it doesn't put data in them.
I eventually have missed it, but I think I have gone through every option of ArrowOS, but didn't find a menu item where I could activate (or inactivate) the external SD card as adoptable storage. Therefore I suspected it would do that automatically, depending on circumstances.
Another mystery (for me) is that (AFAIK) data would go into subfolders of the "Android" folder on the external SD card. But the Android folder is nearly empty, while the rest of the folder structure (Documents, Pictures etc.) is at the root level of the external SD card (i.e. at the same level as the "Android" folder).
P.S. Yes, I was speaking of the external SD card. I'll check if it's still possible to edit my posts and make that clear.
Thank you very much again!
XDHx86 said:
Then don't exclude the whole Android folder, just some folders inside. Like /obb folder or system apps data inside /data
Or just exclude "LOST" or other cache folders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much again!
I should have made myself more clear: My plan is to have all data only in internal storage and to back up internal storage to the external SD card.
When there is normal data (besides these backups) on the external SD card, three problems arise:
1) The normal data on the external SD card takes up space. If I can't control which data Android and the apps put there, the remaining space may not be sufficient for the backups one day.
Every portion of normal data which is on the external SD card counts twice in that sense. First, it increases the backup size by its own size; secondly, it reduces the space which remains for the backups by its own size.
2) I know that I wrote that I will transfer the backups to a PC wirelessly. However, I still want the phone to run normally even after I have removed the external SD card. If Android or the apps put normal data on the external SD card, this is not possible any more.
3) Excluding certain data on the external SD card from backup is problematic and would void the main advantage of my backup strategy:
I really don't need to think about what to exclude or include. I just back up all internal partitions, completely and bit by bit, to the external SD card. If I lose the phone, I can buy another one, flash TWRP onto it, restore those backups, and have the original O/S, apps and all data, and even dm-verify will be no issue.
I have no clue about Android and I am not able (or would be too lazy anyway) to decide which data to include or exclude to achieve the same. So I really would like to avoid that triage.
I believe that some time ago I had found an ugly trick to keep Android and the apps from creating and using those folders. I'll have to check whether I have taken notes about it ...
Thank you very much again!
@D9yHyi8Fe3mo1YgM
To clarify things:
You have to distinguish between portable storage and adoptable storage. Adoptable storage really extends device's internal storage, whereas portable storage does not.
If apps are granted WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission then they can access the external SD-card, too.
jwoegerbauer said:
You have to distinguish between portable storage and adoptable storage. Adoptable storage really extends device's internal storage, whereas portable storage does not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much again! I suspected so, but didn't find the setting in the UI of ArrowOS yet. I am nearly sure that I just missed it, and will research again (just out of curiosity, because extending the internal storage to the external SD card is exactly the opposite of what I want).
jwoegerbauer said:
If apps are granted WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission then they can access the external SD-card, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. Thank you very much for the explanation. I'll go through the app permissions and check that. Then only the O/S itself could put data there.
[ Side note: In the meanwhile, I have corrected my posts according to your hint regarding the term "SD card". ]
I don't know if this topic has aged or not, have you found any solution?
I don't want Android system to write files like Android-Podcast-Alarms-Music-Notification into my sd card, I want my sd card to be clear and clean
this order system which android uses is very useless and annoying, when will they remove that??!!