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Can someone please explain the SD Card issue to me....

What exactly is the problem? Im thinking of getting the focus and I keep hearing these SD card issues but what "exactly" is the problem? I understand that once you put it in, your SD card is done, and that if you want to remove it you have to wipe everything, I understand all that, but what are the problems that arise? I have a 16gb micro sd that I have used on all my devices no problem, do files get corrupted or something? Does it just not read it?

There aren't any problems in that sense. The only real "problem" is that not all MicroSD cards work with WP7. In addition, hot-swapping isn't supported, because in effect, the MicroSD's memory is added to the internal memory, and the system then doesn't differentiate between storing on the sd card and that that's built into the phone, and thus stuff is spread all over all of them.
There aren't any "problems" as such that I know of though.
On an ending note - WP7 is awesome ^__^ Honestly the best user experience I've ever had with a phone (esp. having come from Android >.<) ^__^

loading a microSD card will turn it into a secure card. once this happens no other device will even read it (except a nokia n8) making it extremely difficult to format if it doesn't work nicely with windows phone 7. That is the main issue. rest already mentioned.

GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.

Quicksilver4648 said:
GenkaiMade gave his version which is correct but I thought I would explain it my way.
Take your average memory card and device. What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
1) You should be able to get any MicroSD card on the market and be able to put it into your phone with it working.
2) You should be able to remove the memory card from the device and put it in a different device (such as another phone or PC) and have it still work like normally.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.1) Many of the higher rated MicroSD card flat-out don't work on WP7. This is because of the method WP7 uses to read/write to memory card. You can find more specific details on why this is but I will just keep it simple. There are many user-created lists which list which MicroSD cards do work with WP7.
2) You can NOT hot-swap your memory card once it is inserted into phone. Why? SD stands for Secure Digital which means there is a security aspect capable on the card. Microsoft takes advantage of this in WP7. Once you put your new card in your phone automatically reformats and locks it down. If you then take out the card and place it in another phone or a PC it will not be recognized, almost as if it is invisible. And the worst part, there is nothing* you can do about it. Once you pair a memory card and WP7 phone they are joined for life.
Why does this suck? If you buy a 8GB card now you simply can't upgrade to a 16/32Gb one down the road without losing all of your data and having a useless MicroSD card. The old card would become a better Frisbee than data storage device. This is why most WP7 phones don't let the users have access to the memory card. Microsoft knew this would happen and thus pushed manufacturers to not have the card easily accessible. There is even much talk that the memory card in the Samsung Focus was meant to be glued to the phone to prevent swapping but somewhere along the line that idea was scrapped.
* Note: Technically there is ONE thing you can do. If you own or have access to a Nokia N8 phone it can read the locked down MicroSD card and reformat to something any device can recognize. Essentially undo the problem. But how many people have easy access to one? The answer, almost nobody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
SD Card DRM is in the spec, it is only given to people who license it. That's what WP7 uses. It's locks down the storage system with a DRM key and that's why other devices (barring Nokias) can't see it - most SD Card clients don't support SD Card DRM.
Nokia (Symbian, and maybe Maemo, but I'm unsure on that) is the only other mobile OS that supports it, and that's why it can reformat the card (but cannot read any data on it, of course, since it doesn't have the decryption key). When you power on the phone, the WP7 pre-boot environment unlocks the card via a key on the device the same way you unlock an encrypted system drive on a PC. If a device cannot supply this key, they cannot mount the card.
If you swap the card, you have to hard reset the device because the storage is spanned and the decryption key on the device no longer corresponds to the SD card in the device (but due to spanned storage the device would malfunction even if it were to boot up). The new card is encrypted and added to the pool on a hard reset, and the [new] key is put on the device so that it can be mounted when the device is powered on.
It's pretty damn simple, and has been written in plain English in many threads; yet people still FAIL to understand it.
Have you ever thought there must be a reason why they call them SECURE Digital Cards? Or did you think Secure = taking it out one device and just plugging it into the other and taking the data off of it?
The Storage in WP7 was never meant to be swappable. Microsoft has always said it would not be. It's your own business if you want to play around swapping cards like Russian Roulette.
As far as which work with WP7. It requires higher Random I/O speeds than most SD Cards provide, and that doesn't correspond to Class Type. Also, a card can work fine for sometimes weeks at a time and then start to fail, so replacing it yourself is at your own risk.
And most manufacturers and carriers will void you warranty if you mess with the SD Card.

In that respect using memory cards is nonsense on WP7.
If you cannot do what you want with this, what was a rule and still is a rule on the market today,
they should just build devices with inbuilt memory like iPhone and don't talk about memory cards anymore. That would be simple.
Current situation is a mess.

So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.

williammel said:
So what cards are compatible now? I Googled it and the first response was 'San Disk Pulls WP7 compatible memory cards' and I figured that wasn't a good sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they only pulled it because MS wants to do official testing and release an official list.
refer to this webpage for more info: http://mobilitydigest.com/the-sd-cards-that-dodont-work-with-windows-phone/

Here it is in KB form from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831

N8ter said:
You're wrong. It has nothing to do with what you said. Lol @ breaking rules. They aren't breaking anything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a figure of speech. I know Microsoft didn't break any real "rules". This is what I posted:
Quicksilver4648 said:
...
What are some of the default expectations you have when using one?
...
The problem with Windows Phone 7 is that it breaks these two rules.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I said "rules" I implied "expectations". Microsoft did nothing wrong, outside of communicating with the end users, with how WP7 manages MicroSD cards.
And I clearly know why certain MicroSD cards will or wont work. I just didn't feel like explaining it because it would take a lot of time.

It's time to start expecting people to use these technologies in a secure manner.
The media industry does not support platforms that leave them open to be attacked by software pirates.
Information is power, and no one likes their info stolen.
There are many reasons.
iOS phones encrypt their storate. And the reason why they don't support external storage cards is probably the same reason why Microsoft uses the SD-DRM and encrypts the WP7 storage.
I don't know how Symbian handles its storage, but I'm pretty sure that OS at least supports Encrypting the file system on SD cards. It supports pretty much everything ele.

Right, let me give my own perspective on this.
Until recently I was a WM6 user. I regularly upgraded my phone, and the last one was an HD2. WM phones never came with any real amount of storage, just a piffling amount of internal memory (what, 500MB?). I was therefore faced with the added cost and hassle of having to purchase a memory card and insert it into the phone. This was a bit like buying a PC without a hard disk and having to buy and install your own. It was an added hassle and expense.
Once you had your SD card inserted, you were then faced with the decision of where to store the data for each of your apps. Take email - do you store all your emails and attachments on the internal memory, thus using up a good chunk of that precious resource, but having it work quickly, or do you store it all on the SD card, where there's a lot more room but it's slow and clunky, and if anyone steals your phone they can pop the card out and get at the data? When you install apps, you're again given the choice of where to install it. Do you go for the speed of internal storage? Do you put it on the SD card, knowing if you ever pop out the card, your app will be unavailable? Decisions, decisions.... Too much damned complexity. The average user shouldn't be faced with these choices, if I install an app, it should just go on the phone wherever, period.
Not only that, once my card was in there, I never once removed it. The majority of my apps were on it, my emails, and all my media. I totally filled it with media. Popping out that card would more or less break my phone. My apps wouldn't work, my emails would be missing......so I never did. Nor did I ever use it as a mass storage drive....because there was never any free space on it. Instead I had a 32GB USB memory key hanging from my keychain - that was my portable mass storage solution.
Not only this, if I wanted to put media onto the card, I had to connect to the PC and drag and drop my stuff directly onto the phone. What a hassle! Doing this didn't optimize the size of the photos for the phone's screen. It didn't drop the bitrate of my mp3s, it didn't convert videos to the right size and format. All that had to be done manually, and I never bothered, so my media took up a lot more room than it had to. So inefficient.
So, given that I never removed the card, and that doing so would hose my phone, and that it was always full, so never got used as mass storage, and that it was insecure, and an added expense and hassle, and putting media on the card was a manual process, what would I have done in a next generation phone to cure all these issues?
Well, I would have made sure the phone came with plenty of onboard memory, and I would have removed the distinction between internal memory and the "card" so it was all one storage container. I would have secured the memory so even if it could be removed, the data couldn't be read in another device. I would have made sure the memory was fast enough to deal properly with a modern OS. I would automate the process of converting and downsizing media by using software on the PC to automatically perform those tasks. I'd also make the process wireless and fully automatic. I'd.......oh wait, that's what Microsoft already did in WP7.
So I'm happy, even if you lot ain't.

I just got 2 Focus's for the Wife and I. Using the SD card sticky in the Focus forum here as a general help, I purchased a PNY 8Gb C4 for the Wifes, and a Patriot 16Gb C2 for mine (Frys, and the Patroit was the last one in the store from the Display! No one buys C2 anymore).
The back overlay on both devices mentions memory cards, and quick startup quide shows you how to install them and what happens if you remove them.
I put the Cards in last night (phones just arrived yesterday), formatted (hold the Power/Camera/Vol Down at the same time, answer questions) and in a few seconds each system was formated. Both are working fine right now.
Right now though doesn't mean much, many in the SD thread are having issues after several weeks, though it seems it more prevalent with the 32Gb cards. YMMV...

What I find goofy about the whole thing is that it has been stated that 7 needs random read/write, which is not measured by class rating, and can vary even within the same type of card, but very few people have posted numbers showing that they tested their cards at all before gleefully sacrificing them to the hungry maw of the Focus. Seriously guys, do more testing and post more numbers before rendering your cards unreadable to a PC. It'll help us all to better understand what works and what doesn't.

This bites.. I always knew that the card inside the wp7 was secured, but I always had faith in the power of this forum. Especially in recovery situations. Now I have lost a lot of irreplaceable data, like dozens of pictures of my young child. It seems I had a little too much faith.
Thank you for this information. it was very helpful. I have already moved away from Windows phones to android, and am going to start using nandroid. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Local Storage, SD Storage & MicroSD Storage

Hello, was hoping someone could help me or possibly explain how the Storage is structured on the 300T.
You have Local, SD & MicroSD storage. On my Evo3D phone I have Local and MicroSD and when I use my Cloud Service it stores everything on the MicroSD. On my 300T when I use my Cloud Service it stores everthing on the Internal SD storage instead of the removable MicroSD card. I have heard that once you fill up the SD storage it will overflow onto the removable MicroSD, is this true?
Basically, I want to store games and Tablet data on the local and Internal SD storage and have all my music and movies on the removable MicroSD. Are there was to do this?

Unless there is a option in the app you are using that you can change where it puts the multimedia files you download from it you will have to move them to the removable Micro SD yourself.
However I wouldn't think anything would default to the removable MicroSD because they probably think the internal sd IS the external memory. allowing your external MicroSD to not get cluttered.
I don't have much experience with tablets or ICS so I could be wrong.

I would like to get it to download apps to SD instead of internal
I'm having a problem on my TF300T
All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card!
Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal.
Thanks in advance
nordis,

nordis2010 said:
I'm having a problem on my TF300T
All my apps are downloading off the Market directly to the Internal Storage even though I have a 32GB Micro SD Card!
Anyone have any insight as to why this happens? My internal storage is filling up quite quickly. I think the base memory on these things is only 12GB free to start so I really need to be able to swap cards in and out and have apps install to it instead of internal.
Thanks in advance
nordis,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default on ICS everything goes to the sd card. I believe there is a rooted option to move some apps to sd card, but I'm not sure. check out this thread. Starting on that page and for a little bit there is some discussion on it.
As I stated in that thread. I would like to know what apps people are installing that take up that much space.

I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point?
As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and
pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night.
I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast.
My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA

nordis2010 said:
I checked out that link, did not get much regarding the sd card. If apps are not going to install to it then what's the point?
As far as apps go that take up that much space, it's all kinds of them, from music apps, to gps nav apps. I use Sygic with this and
pull down all the maps of the us, right there your 12gb is gone. A bunch of forex trading apps, I have Root since last night.
I really need this stuff to install to the 32gb cards I have or this thing is going to be pretty useless to me real fast.
My sons is the same, with in a week he has his loaded with games to the point where the internal storage is almost full.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if these apps work but try them out:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wOSwiY29tLndvbmd4bWluZy5hbmRyb2lkLmFwcDJzZCJd
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwxLDEwOSwibW9iaS5pbmZvbGlmZS5hcHAyc2QiXQ..

Cool
It never occurred to me to just check the app store lol!
Thanks for that. Guess my brain is a bit laggy today, spent all night
getting this rooted.
Actually rooting it was beyond simple, the real issue was with Java not being recognized by Windows, so I couldn't run ADB.
All it came down to was the Environment Variable, once set it could see
the application and load the usb drivers. Then after getting it loaded I had to play with it, so went to sleep got up a hour later to go to work hehe.
Anyway thanks for the responses, this forum has been a God Sent!
nordis,

There's no way without root is there?
Sent from my R800i using XDA

KindaUndisputed said:
There's no way without root is there?
Sent from my R800i using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, some of the data from the apps are stored in /root/data/data.... You'll need root to move them (in our case ICS, in gingerbread you were able to do this unrooted). Did it work nordis?

Wasn't at system when you sent that last response.
Hi,
Sorry was going back n forth between work and home.
I have a couple of them pulled down, all with very similar names.
A couple look really promising. I will post it once I'm finished but it looks
like the majority of these will allow me to move everything that I want to
move off of the internal storage and on to the SD card.
Well all except the XDA forums, for some reason those all state internal only.
Not a big deal though. If I can move the GPS apps off the internal storage, and
my ForEx apps I think I'm good.
nordis,
---------- Post added at 01:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 AM ----------
This sucks,
Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036
I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now.
Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless!
This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me.
If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these.
I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store!

nordis2010 said:
This sucks,
Apparently some rocket scientist over at Asus decided that on a 16GB Base System that it was more than enough storage space to do anything anyone could want, and that the external storage would only be to transfer files to an from the device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26151036&posted=1#post26151036
I literally wont be able to use these systems with in a couple of days from now.
Not being able to save application data on a storage drive has to be the single most asinine thing I've ever see a electronics manufacturer do. This is really a deal breaker now. If I'm unable to get this data from point A. to point B. and still be able to access it from with in the applications, these things are useless!
This is not a Opinion, this is a requirement for me.
If there was a big disclaimer some place that said HEY YOU REALLY ONLY HAVE ABOUT 12GB OF SPACE TO WORK WITH, AND AFTER THAT YOUR S.O.L! I would have moved right past these.
I just don't even know what to do now, Play Frisbee with these things or something I guess, on the way back to the store!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I'm guessing the apps didn't work. Suggestion why don't you just download the maps for your current State, there's really no need to download all the maps from USA, if you're not using them everyday. If you ever need to go to another state just download the maps for that state before going. This will help you save some space. You could also consider getting the 32GB version. The only way to fill the 12gb of free space is installing about 15 Dark Meadows apps (approx. 800MB each). The larger size regular games (non THD) take around 50-100 MBs, meaning that you have space for 120 games (12GBs). This would be completely ridiculous since no one plays that much games, I have about 10 installed right now and I only play like three of them (and I'm a gamer).
Unused data should be freed, if you don't want to lose the data on those apps you barely use you can run Titanium backup to back up your data and transfer the data to your pc for later use if needed. Every media you have (videos, photos, music, etc.) you can store them in the external SD card.
Still I understand your frustration, we should be able to transfer stuff to our card without any hassle. AFAIK this isn't just an ASUS problem but an overal ICS problem.

I know
I did for just my state an the surrounding states I live near.
For the past couple of days I had been looking at running some small app on the SD card, they jump you through hoops and loops going through some partition process for the Micro SD card.
However I think I can do this right on a Windows 7 system with the Drive Management utilities built into Windows, and a Micro SD to USB reader.
Which I already have, I used for my sons DS way back, I put the card in it, through it in the system, it see's it, and tells me that it can be read, formatted, partitioned the whole 9 yards. So I will try it at work today and let you know how it turns out. If this can be partitioned this way, and then use one of these apps L2SD or something like that then it's a very simple solution.
Sorry I will post the exact name of the app I was looking at once I have tested this if it works. Along with detailed instructions.
Thanks again for all the help.
nordis,

I'm linked it all works I used a SD to USB adapter in Windows
Hi,
I'm linked and you can set it up to use the SD Card as the default for downloads now.
First things you need to do this.
You have to be have Root access on your device before you can do any of this. You have to make sure you go into settings on your device and Enable USB Debugging before you start any of this.
1. You need to partition your Micro SD Card. I used the a SD to USB Adapter, and Partitioned my 32GB Card the SD Card on a Windows 7 system as follows.
Set the 1st partition to 1GB. Set the second partition to use the remainder of the card. Download "EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition" it's free, you pull it down from www.download.com
2. You need a boot loader this is what that 1st 1GB partition is for. I used
bootice you can download it from here free http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-ireneuszp/downloads/detail?name=bootice_0.9.2011.0512.rar
This is all you need to do with this app. Run Bootice, go "Parts Manage" > "ReFormat USB disk" (don't worry, it won't "format" the USB) > choose the dropdown option for your new first partition > click "Set Accessible" and it's done already! After that you can just click cancel/close/etc.
3. Download and run Link2SD from the Android Market, you can actually do this step first. Also this app is free.
Here is a Guide I found online for Link2SD. http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/12/12/link2sd-guide-never-worry-about-internal-memory-limits-again/
This guide shows you how to move apps, No proprietary system apps, but those are note the ones you really have to worry about taking up space anyway. It also shows you how to go into the Link2SD settings and make your Micro SD Card your default download location from places that auto install applications like the Android Market. Very nice, this was exactly what I needed, I'm very pleased with this so far.
I have to give another thank you to jgaf for this, he pointed me in the direction of the Link 2 SD software in the first place, very much appreciated!
Sorry it took me so long to post this after I got setup it's been a busy weekend though.
Good luck.
nordis

Good to hear nordis now you can keep your TF300Ts Maybe you should make a new thread with the steps you did to get it working, so other people can find it easily.

Good idea.
Just have to finish some other things up and I will
move the details over to a new thread.
nordis,

Done, I posted it in the main Q&A section. Cleaned it up a bit, added a couple of lines where I thought people may have some questions. I hope it's pretty straight forward for everyone. I went through all this like a breeze when I partitioned my card this way, hopefully every one else will as well.

Get the 32gb version of the 300.
If you can fill up 30gb with apps, you need to learn to not keep everything you don't really use.
Put your music, movies, and photos on the Sd card, you won't have a problem with app space.
The 32gb version is only $20 more. It's not like you can't afford it.

Wasn't aware of it at the time, and they don't offer it at Best Buy
When I purchased the ones I was getting I just went to Best Buy so I could get them right then.
Didn't want to wait or order them off the net, and all that Best Buy sells apparently is the 16GB version. I wasn't aware at the time that there even was a 32GB version.
However I would fill that up eventually as well. It's just not good business marketing to make a device with such a limitation in the first place. You should be able to download, and install apps where you want them and need them.
Anyway situation is resolved for me now I'm happy.
nordis,

[Q] Internal Storage Problems

Right now, it seems as though my main internal storage is full, whereas my 2nd partition ("SD Card") has free space. Every time I try to install an app, it tries to install it to my main internal storage, and thus it gives me an "insufficient storage" error. I used to be able to go into an app on the Apps area of Settings, and attempt to move the app to or from the "SD Card". IIRC, at some point Android decided to drop the idea of having two partitions for internal storage, and now doesn't allow for that type of movement between partitions. The problem is, now I can't seem to install any new apps unless I uninstall my old ones.
Is there any way I can selectively install apps to my "SD Card"? Also, is there any easy way to simply combine my storage? I don't see the point in having it separated out.
I'm running Paranoid Android 4.44. Thanks in advance.

Kitkat removed the ability to move apps to the SD card for whatever reason. There's a couple patches that allegedly fix this issue in the play store but I've tried most of them and haven't gotten it to work. I also can't find a way to merge the internal storage and SD card partitions. I would ask the developer of link2sd for more help on this.
Like @Cryptecks said there comes a point in time where the older devices start to show their limits and unfortunately this is one of them. Sorry...

Ugh. Well thanks at least for the response. It seems pretty silly that this is an issue. I guess i'll see what I can find patching wise, but man, this is gonna be annoying. My main partition is only 2 GB or so

same here, 2.34 GB on my main apps partition which also houses cached data. CM11 will allow me to move some data from certain apps to the virtual sdcard partition that is there with 10 GB and 8 GB FREE SPACE!
merging partitions in ms windows is so easy, why is android so lame with this? I might have to get a new phone

[Completed] [Mod] Maximizing relocating internal data to external SD, LG Optimus Fuel L34C KitKat

Can you please help a noob figure out where this post belongs?
I make no pretense to being a developer, and I was very hesitant to join XDA, but these are questions concerning modding which I have not found answers to, despite posting to a number of other Android forums, so I was forced to "raise my sights."
I have an LG Optimus Fuel L34C (KitKat). I am an Android noob but I have a history with Linux, so I know just enough about what goes on behind the KitKat curtain to make me dangerous. So yes, I also care about the journey. And I'm already heavily invested in this quest, so despite my lack of expertise, I'm willing to do the leg work to make it happen.
My one saving grace is I have a backup fetish. And I want to continue to make Nandroid backups even when the L34C's puny internal storage (1790 MB usable) is maxed out (or nearly so). But I don't want to resort to backups to the cloud because 1) it offends my inner geek that I have to rely on someone else for backup support, and 2) as a delusional paranoid, the concept of "the cloud" gives me the willies.
I'm using TWRP Manager (Root) for Nandroid backups now, but TWRP only can write to the internal SD. Which means that once internal storage is about half full, there's no longer enough space remaining for any more Nandroids. And a bare bones installation with just enough additional apps installed to perform the Nandroid already takes up about 700 MB. So there's no chance of any further Nandroid backups after downloading or installing just two or three hundred more MB.
So my primary goal is to be able to write Nandroid backups to the external SD card (or, pipe dream, to write them to USB). If this also allows me to install apps or store other (internal) data on the external card, so much the better.
I just bought a second L34C because the WiFi on the original L34C pooped the bed. So now I have a new and unmodded L34C to experiment on. I had (towel) rooted the old phone, write-enabled the external SD card and installed the TeamWin open recovery image v2.8. And I replaced the OE 4GB external SD card with a 16GB class 4 card, partitioned half in Fat32 and half in Ext3.
The primary obstacle was that I could never get the second partition on the 16GB card to mount, which prevented me even from experimenting with symlinks. I also installed the latest version of Link2SD, but when I tried to use it to move an app that Link2SD labeled as movable, I got this:
!Failure
App2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has a primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage. You can link the app in order to move its files to the SD card.
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Click to collapse
Dunno why it's blaming Apps2SD unless Link2 is built around Apps2.
Curiously, I installed Aparted, too, and it was able to access (and process) the 2nd partition, even though it wasn't mounted. I've not heard this definitively but I'm led to believe this is down to the L34C's lack of support for init.d. So I downloaded a copy of daishi4u's custom boot image, which includes support for init.d, but the old phone crapped out before I could try it.
So with background in place, and a spanking new L34C in hand, on to the questions.
#1. With the current state of L34C/KitKat development, is what I'm asking even possible? Once the internal SD card has got too crowded for a Nandroid, is there a solution that will allow me to continue making local Nandroid backups? In particular, I'm thinking there might be another Nandroid backup app that I am unaware of that can write its backups to some location other than the internal SD card.
If this already has been accomplished (and is documented online), please just point me to the details and I'll get out of your hair.
2. I picked daishi4u's custom boot image because the reputation of daishi4u's work is known to me, and because it offered init.d support. If you think another boot image is preferable, please enlighten me.
3. Is Link2SD's problem with the L34C truly the emulated storage? I ask because I know developers typically code apps to make a best guess as to the cause of an error, but despite their best efforts, an app still is liable to be exposed to unanticipated conditions, resulting in a problem that might be beyond the scope of their programming to understand and enunciate.
4. Is the lack of init.d support in fact what prevents an L34C mounting additional partitions on the external SD card? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
5.a. I found a post in another forum that was near three years old stating that the extra partition on an Android external SD card must be no more than 2GB, and preferably just 1GB. If this ever was true, is it still the case for KitKat? And what is the source of the limitation?
5.b. If there is a 2GB partition limit, is there a limit to how many 2GB partitions can be externally mounted? A Nandroid backup of a heavily configured L34C could take up most of 2GB, so it would be especially useful work-around if there were one (additional) partition for the Nandroid and a second (or third, or fourth, ...) for moving apps and random data off the internal SD.
6. Which app(s) would you suggest I try for moving apps/data/folders to the external SD? There are so many available, and I have not been able to find any comparisons/contrasts of their relative merits, so I would appreciate your recommendations to avoid having to resort to the 'shotgun' approach. This is presuming I'm able to get more than one partition on the external SD card to mount.
I've not lost sight of the fact that some of these apps do not require a second partition on the SD card (creating something functionally akin to an iSCSI partition on it?), but I'm not counting on finding a solution in one of them.
Thank you for taking the time to read my long-winded post.

Well personally I don't keep more than one nandroid on my phone but what you may wish to do is transfer them to your pc for safe keeping and not have to worry about it. You could also try inserting your sd card into your pc and manually transferring the nandroids from your pc to your sd card afterwards. It may work.
Now with regards to the sd card write protection issue, I could not locate anything for your device in particular but if you register you can ask your question here and someone may be able to help you.

200MB free is considered low on storage?

My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it. Is there a fix? It seems to me like Google has no real interest in fixing major issues with Android that have existed practically since the beginning like devices being "low on storage" while Android is the top mobile OS. Perhaps if something like Pinephone would actually succeed & give Android some competition Google would care & address the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)

tsaxda said:
My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it.
the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)
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Well yeah, 200MB is definitely low on storage. And this message can certainly be annoying but it's not a bug, but a "security" mesure, if you need to take a photo or something, or if an app needs more space to run, it'd be a good thing to have 200MB leftover.

Nowadays apps can take >200Mb just for cache so yeah, it's considered nothing. I personally try to keep at least 1GB free.
Have you checked your storage whether something can be deleted? This is a great app for showing you storage use

You can put in up to a 256 gb SD card, what are you waiting for?
Use internal memory for the OS, programs and downloads (temporarily).
Use the SD card as the data drive.

Yeh, Up to 256 gb SD card should work a treat...

galaxys said:
Yeh, Up to 256 gb SD card should work a treat...
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Click to collapse
10+ takes up to 1 tb, put a Lexar .5 tb V30 in it for $75. Not too shabby... daul drives are a beautiful thing. Can do a full reload now with no PC and little or no internet connection; completely self contained.

Very cool indeed!

galaxys said:
Very cool indeed!
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The newer generations of Samsung's are capable of very faster read/write times on a fast sd card.
The 10+ shows no lag when using media files off the card. Literally have over 200 albums stored as .wav files there and movies too.
Provides a little bit of a buffer too from malware getting into the data; I've picked off a couple in the downloads folder before they got going including a jpeg. The whole card is backed up on the PC and a 2nd hdd... just in case.
Lol, have an old Dell e6400 laptop I picked up cheap. Just realized 3 weeks ago I could swap out the DVD/CD player for a hot swappable hdd insert tray... $100 latter it now has a 2tb data drive. Split the page file between the two for now, OS and data speeds are a lot better.
You can -never- have too many internal bays on any device, only not enough.

blackhawk said:
Use the SD card as the data drive.
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What do you mean by "set it as the data drive"?

The problem is I factory reset because of being low on storage, & left off a lot of the apps I had before & I'm still every bit as low on storage as I was before if not more. What am I supposed to do when I'm not the one at fault for my phone being low on storage? I would root so I could rip out all of the samsung bloat but A. I can't afford to buy a new phone should something go wrong, & B. I don't think the galaxy On5 has a 1-click root which means having to use a windows computer which I don't have.

Android phones have an in-built feature known as Adoptable Storage, which enables users to add an extra layer of storage space for music, pictures, videos, files, and so on.
The interesting thing is that the Adoptable Storage feature allows SD cards to serve as a permanent internal storage medium. This means that everything you save on your phone will be moved to the external storage (SD card) you mounted, and not your phone's internal storage. With SD cards in play, you never have to worry about your phone's storage getting full, and developing lagging problems.

I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible. I remember Google saying when they gave the first presentation on android that they wouldn't allow preinstalled, un-removable, then they did, & still do.

tsaxda said:
The problem is I factory reset because of being low on storage, & left off a lot of the apps I had before & I'm still every bit as low on storage as I was before if not more. What am I supposed to do when I'm not the one at fault for my phone being low on storage? I would root so I could rip out all of the samsung bloat but A. I can't afford to buy a new phone should something go wrong, & B. I don't think the galaxy On5 has a 1-click root which means having to use a windows computer which I don't have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use 20gb just for apps, caches and a tempory download folder. So if you 16gb of memory yeah I see the issue and had to trim the the tree with S4+ before.
Use this package disabler:
Home - Package Disabler
The only NON-root solution that let’s you disable any unwanted packages that come pre-installed / installed with your phone / tablet.
www.packagedisabler.com
Disable crap you don't need and then use that same app to clear it's data. The app is still there just not running and sucking up memory by adding more via data/cache.
Clear browser cache regularly, limit the phone to two browsers max. Clear data regularly on gmaps if you don't need that data or disable if you don't use it. Police the caches regularly, SD Maid (16mb) does a good job.
As for your music, vids, documents, pics, put all of that on an SD card.
Although you can use the SD card as internal memory as jwoegerbauer points out it's best not to unless you can't avoid it. You may have to though if you can't live without some of those large user installed apps.
I could cut my 10+ down to 14gb internal if I had too... so can you.
There are apps I rarely use. As pointed out already you should have at least 1gb of free space preferably 2gb or more head room.
Sort it out as what you're doing now isn't good Android husbandry.

tsaxda said:
I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not on your model without root apperantly.
How to adopt SD card as internal storage on Samsung devices?
I recently upgraded to 6.0.1 Marshmallow on my Galaxy S5 and I would like to adopt an SD card as internal storage. However, there is no option to do this. When I format the SD card, there is no "
android.stackexchange.com
It can cause operational issues anyway including crashes. Try to use the KISS (keep it simple studip) principle whenever possible to limit things that can go wrong.

tsaxda said:
I looked it up & from what I can tell it's disabled on my phone (Thanks again Samsung.). So that's not an option. Yet another reason to steer clear of Sammy if at all possible. I remember Google saying when they gave the first presentation on android that they wouldn't allow preinstalled, un-removable, then they did, & still do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whether Adoptable Storage is default feature on a phone or not can easily queried with following ADB command sequence:
Code:
adb devices
adb shell "sm has-adoptable"
If true is returned than phone has this feature.

tsaxda said:
My phone (Samsung Galaxy On5) has over 200 mb of storage free, & it still alerts me daily that I'm running low on storage. If I try to install anything from the play store, even something that's less than a MB in size it displays a popup asking me to uninstall a bunch of apps to make room. I just installed something on another device then transferred it over to this one (saved on SD so It's not taking up any internal space) & tried to sideload it & it still wouldn't install it. Is there a fix? It seems to me like Google has no real interest in fixing major issues with Android that have existed practically since the beginning like devices being "low on storage" while Android is the top mobile OS. Perhaps if something like Pinephone would actually succeed & give Android some competition Google would care & address the issues? /r (By the way, there really should be an '<r> </r>' tag.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
200mb its nothing storage broh