Database Info

Mounting Internal Storage vs. SD Card - USB

With the Evo, connected to my PC, selecting "Mount as disk drive," only the Micro SD card appears in Windows Explorer as a directory. I want and expect to see another directory for Internal Storage.
Had had the Incredible, where _both_ the SD card and Internal Storage appeared as two separate directories. I could see what was stored on ea.
I am under 300MB of memory of avail. space on the Internal - lots of posts about running out of app room in various forums - so curious what media and other data is there, what might be movable to SD card.
Got some further questions about how to copy data from an 8MB card to a 32MB card (just drag to PC and back?) as I just ordered one, and about how to tell certain apps where I want media recorded to (may simply not be an option w Camcorder and others), but mainly just want to understand how to view Internal storage from a directory on my PC when unit is docked. Thx!

[Q] Memory mapping/directory structures?

I have two Android devices that I've looked at closely for this: my Acer Iconia A500 tablet, running Honeycomb, and my new Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket phone running Gingerbread. Each has built in memory, can take a micro SD card, and can access external memory through the USB port (using an adapter cable for the OTG port on the Skyrocket). But they handle/map the memory very differently.
On the tablet, I have 32 GB of internal memory. The entire 32 GB space shows up under Internal Storage. That memory is dynamically split between main memory (used for Apps) and "sdcard" for media/data. If I use a "run from SD card" application, it doesn't save me any memory space as it would try to move the App to the SDcard segment of the main memory, reducing the size of the remaining memory (no net gain or loss). If I insert a micro SD card, it shows up as external_SD, and if I plug in a thumb drive, it shows up as "usb_storage." If I use Astro File Manager (a great App), all the media storage shows up under /mnt, where I'll find:
- /mnt/external_SD for the inserted micro SD card,
- /mnt/sdcard for the internal media space,
and
- /mnt/usb_storage for the thumb drive.
On the phone, I have 16 GB of internal memory. The memory appears to have a hard split, with about 2 GB for Internal Storage and 11.25 GB for media/data labeled "USB storage". Note that this "USB Storage" is actually internal memory. The Settings tool also shows the micro SD card as "SD card", but doesn't show anything when I connect a thumb drive. If I use Astro File Manager with a thumb drive connected I find:
- /mnt/Sdcard for the internal media space,
- /mnt/Sdcard/external_sd for the inserted micro SD card,
- /mnt/sdcard/usbstorage for internal media space
and
- /mnt/sdcard/usbstorage/SDA for the thumb drive
All this is fairly confusing. I'd love to know how much is unique to these two devices and how much is because of the operating system (Android 2.3.5 on the phone, Android 3.2 on the tablet). If any of you have other tablets and phones, I'd love to know if your memory set ups match mine.

MicroSD Card Problems

I've seen other threads allude to this, but I've been wondering if anyone else has had any of these problems with microSD cars in the Phab2 Pro and know of any solutions?
Things I've encountered:
No exFAT support, so you need to format larger cards as FAT32 (not really a problem per se, but annoying).
All the Samsung EVO/EVO+ SD cards I've tried in this thing do fine as portable SD cards until it exceeds around 10GB, then a re-boot or re-mount claims the card is corrupted. Mounting the card on my PC/Mac shows no problems.
Adoptable storage works for my large 128GB EVO+ card (which made me not return the phone), but I notice that my 64GB EVO card can't be adopted and the error is a weird toast message:
"java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: Thread Binder gave up waiting after 180000ms" (something to this effect from my recollection).
I should point out that these SD cards have never had problems on other Android devices I've owned, so it seems very specific to this device. Basically, the only workaround I have right now that works for me is to use adoptable storage and that is adequate for my needs.

The Lenovo Phab2 Pro, by default, reformats newly installed microSD cards to a better file system than FAT32. See post below:

Not FAT32
Got my new Samsung 64GB microSD card & installed it in my Phab2 Pro last weekend. First thing, the Phab2 Pro reported that the card was not formatted properly and did I want it reformatted? I did and it did.
Looking now at the newly formatted microSD card with ES File Explorer and with Lenovo's bundled File Manager, I couldn't tell which standard the card was formatted to.
To the point, I plugged the phone into my laptop, navigated to the microSD card in Windows File Explorer and copied a 6GB file to it, no problem. I verified that the copy was successful by disconnecting the phone from the laptop and opening the file in Android.
I don't know which file system the Phab2 Pro uses by default to format microSD cards but I know it ISN'T FAT32. FAT32 supports a maximum file size of 4GB and, since the microSD card supports larger files (after allowing the phone to reformat the card to its default file system), it isn't FAT32.

roebling said:
Got my new Samsung 64GB microSD card & installed it in my Phab2 Pro last weekend. First thing, the Phab2 Pro reported that the card was not formatted properly and did I want it reformatted? I did and it did.
Looking now at the newly formatted microSD card with ES File Explorer and with Lenovo's bundled File Manager, I couldn't tell which standard the card was formatted to.
To the point, I plugged the phone into my laptop, navigated to the microSD card in Windows File Explorer and copied a 6GB file to it, no problem. I verified that the copy was successful by disconnecting the phone from the laptop and opening the file in Android.
I don't know which file system the Phab2 Pro uses by default to format microSD cards but I know it ISN'T FAT32. FAT32 supports a maximum file size of 4GB and, since the microSD card supports larger files (after allowing the phone to reformat the card to its default file system), it isn't FAT32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea what file system Windows thinks it is? I didn't think it was exFAT since a fresh format of exFAT from Windows gets the "not formatted properly" message.
I've since given up on this phone--too many problems for me to tolerate. I really wanted to like it, but alas, when my three year old Z Ultra behaves better, I just can't justify paying this much for it. Maybe I got a lemon.

kumodog said:
Any idea what file system Windows thinks it is? I didn't think it was exFAT since a fresh format of exFAT from Windows gets the "not formatted properly" message.
I've since given up on this phone--too many problems for me to tolerate. I really wanted to like it, but alas, when my three year old Z Ultra behaves better, I just can't justify paying this much for it. Maybe I got a lemon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have two formatting choices for microSD cards with the Phab2 Pro. You can choose to format the card as "portable storage" or "internal storage".

I just put in a 64GB microSD card and had the phone format it as portable storage, I then ejected it and mounted it in Windows and the Disk Manager tool reports the card as formatted as FAT32 (see attachment).

Installed a SanDisk 256GB card model (SDSQUNI-256G-GN6MA)
Let the phone format the card, choose internal storage, then it asked to move files, pics and apps to the new card, I clicked accept.
It worked! Phone reads the card, so far no issues, see attached pic.

128GB or 256 ?
Hi,
you said in the last message you have a 256GB card, but i have seen the phab 2 pro take 128 and no more. I have the 690M model.
256 or 128 GB ?
Thanks,
Philippe

I have the 690Y and took a chance to see if the 256GB card would work and it does. That's why I listed the model number of the SD card. Even though Lenovo states on their website up to 128GB, it looks like it's​ a hit or miss on which card you use as others have posted.

Hi,
Thanks for your answer. The 256G is to expansive so i took a 128G (SDSQUNC-128G-GN6MA). It works fine.
Philippe

Hi please help me!,any brand of sd card it shows corrupted,but if i tried to other phone it worked. What will i do?

My phone shows internal storage as Storage card and transferring apps to my sd card doesn't work

Using an admittedly old app, DiskUsage, it shows internal storage as "Storage Card" and my SD Card as "/storage/24BA-#####" (Not giving the last 4 digits in case it's sensitive information). This isn't really a big issue in and of itself, it's just kinda weird...
But the actual issue is this:
When I transfer an app to my SD Card (Enabled the ability to do so in developer mode), it lets me do it - it lets me choose between Internal and SD Card. But when I choose SD Card, it "Transfers" it with a progress bar and then closes. When I open the app info again it now says it's on external storage.
But when I check DiskUsage again, or put my SD Card into my PC - that app is nowhere to be found. When I check internal storage (Which, again, for some reason is called "Storage Card") - it's still there.
How can I get apps to actually transfer to my SD Card? Apps like the camera or PocketCasts let me use the SD Card. I can read from it just fine (Music, pictures, videos, etc.), podcasts play from it properly, everything works on it just fine... But apps don't actually transfer to it even though Android claims they're on the SD Card.
This is something I need to be able to do - Spotify has a bug that's been around for years where it will automatically redownload all your songs to internal memory on reboot if they were on the sd card, and delete them off the SD Card. I've pretty much just given up and let it keep my music on internal storage - but that's taking up a lot of space.
My phone: Samsung Note 20 Ultra 5g
Android version: 11
Kernel version: 4.19.113
Android security patch level: September 1, 2021

No responses? Did you figure out how to do it? I need apps moved as well

How to manage the limited internal memory of a smartphone with whatsapp

Hi, I have an old Redmi6A phone (Lineage OS 17.1) that only has 8GB of internal memory. This is very little if you use Whatsapp. Of course I added a 32Gb SD card, but with whatsapp I have trouble saving my photos on the card. What are the possible workarounds?
1- Is there a difference depending on whether you set the SD card as portable storage or internal storage?
2 - My phone is rooted. I've looked for practical solutions including magisk, but no module matches.
3 - Beyond whatsapp, what should I do: is there an app that allows other apps to be installed on the external media? Is this a good idea? Is it better to limit the storage of data on the SD card to avoid the crash of these "deported" apps?
Just an advice or two would make me happy...

If Android device allows to make external SD-card part of internal storage memory ( keyword: Adoptable Storage ) then you are good. Check it.

I believe that my android device allows me to do this. The French translation does not use the words adoptable storage "stockage adoptable" but the 1st drawing seems to match.
What I have read on the subject indicates that the reading and access time to the data on the external card is much longer than on the internal memory. How does android arbitrate what it stores on the internal or external memory? Can the user control this?
I assume and hope that the most crucial apps are on the internal memory

It's on you how much of the SD-card's storage memory ( in % ) you'll add to internal memory: 1,2,...,100.
Yes, reading / writing to device's "portable memory" basically takes longer. So with regards to file transfer speeds, choosing the right memory card is crucial. Look here:
The best SD cards for 2023: top memory cards for your camera
We've tested and ranked all of the best SD cards you can buy
www.techradar.com
Android by default uses device's internal memory. The least app's allow to store their data on external SD-card: this is set by app's developer.

I tested the 2 options; first the adoptable storage but for some reason it didn't work; I mean the operation was correctly done but the 32Gb was not added to my internal memory; just a few hundred Mb more. I repeated the operation 3 times to rule out the possibility of an isolated incident.
So I was forced to reformat the SD card as external memory. Everything went well. But now I'm back to the original situation.

My search led me to 2 apps (Link2SD and App2SD) to override the restriction to move to the SD card. Those apps don't seem to be really used anymore: their peak corresponds to the 2015-2016 versions of Android (Marschmallow and Nougat) and are quite complex to handle since you have to format the external SD card in several partitions to be able to consider moving anything.
What do you think about this type of solution?

As @xXx yYy already said:
The least app's allow to store their data on external SD-card: this is set by app's developer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thus forget the named 3rd-party-tools that claim they can.
BTW: look inside here
Whatsapp folder in Android: Here's where to find it
WhatsApp folder with all media files in Android can be found on new location if you are on Android 11. Learn here where to find it.
mobileinternist.com

Napafroi said:
I tested the 2 options; first the adoptable storage but for some reason it didn't work; I mean the operation was correctly done but the 32Gb was not added to my internal memory; just a few hundred Mb more. I repeated the operation 3 times to rule out the possibility of an isolated incident.
So I was forced to reformat the SD card as external memory. Everything went well. But now I'm back to the original situation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After an external memory got converted to portable memory it's Android what automatically moves data from internal memory to portable memory as long as they moveable to gain internal memory space. Thus the few 100MB you reported.
You always can configure the amount of portable memory indeed to be used by Android's Storage Manager ( SM ) using ADB.

Well, I think I'm getting used to this adoptable storage which is really confusing since the size doesn't take into account the extra 32Gb (in the storage manager and also in solid explorer).
I don't know if it's a bug but sd maid and its memory analysis function allows me to check that telegram, osmand (including downloadable maps) and vivaldi browser will install directly on the adaptable storage. That's all I ask.
It's still surprising not to be able to view the content of the SD card; maybe it's a bug like others have experienced like on this thread
I wanted to experiment a nandroid backup on MicroSD adopted-storage with TWRP which was refused.
xXx yYy said:
You always can configure the amount of portable memory indeed to be used by Android's Storage Manager ( SM ) using ADB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I understand better the interest to calibrate the portion of adoptable storage...

Screenshot no. 5 shows 2.7 GB of the portable memory ( real capacity 31 GB ) are used.
To get the whole portable memory as internal memory used using ADB try this
Code:
adb shell
sm list-disks -> This cmd returns id of SD-card e.g. 179:160
sm partition disk:179:160 private -> Here you use the id of SD-card
where the numbers are the Android's name of your disk.

I just did this.
Reboot but it didn't change anything. Maybe the card is defective...
EDIT : oh wait, yesterday I inserted this same micro SDcard in an old samsung galaxy tab4 with the "same" custom rom (LineageOS 17.10) as adoptable storage. The 32Gb capacity was not added to internal memory as well. Maybe this rom is buggy for managing adoptable storage.
Sorry for my english

The ( meanwhile outdated ) Lineage OS 17.1 - a Lineage OS 17.10 probably doesn't exist - is based on Android 10 and can "Adoptable Storage" as you initially confirmed.
IMO you are probably doing things wrong
"migrate data" is the 2nd necessary step after 1st step "adoptable-storage" is created. It will ( try to ) move all apps from phone into SD-card ( if app is moveable ), means all new installed apps will directly get installed into SD-card as long as android:installLocation="auto" is defined in app's AndroidManifest.xml.
When 100% disk space got adopted you can't see your SD-card any longer, the only way to check disk usage is from Android's cmd line running df -h /mnt/expand/* ( if Android is rooted consider 3rd party apps like Link2SD instead ).