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use DROPBOX and prevent SD Card errors!

THIS IS A SHAMELESS PLUG but... it's also very useful and if you make it a habit, it can even prevent SD card errors.
I was very surprised that a couple of my friends didn't know about dropbox for android and how well it works. For those who don't know, dropbox is a multi device syncing service. It's free up to 2gb. It sets up a folder on your mac or pc or linux box and everything you put in there is automatically sync'd to other devices.
Here's the thing, IT's FAST. Even UPLOADING is fast. This is important because if you have a 2mb apk that you're installing or a 5mb kernel that you're flashing, it's very convenient to just copy the file into your dropbox folder... and then simply grab it from dropbox on your SGS. I have fiber into my house but I remember that dropbox was really fast even before i got fios.
With exception larger 20+ mb files, I turned to doing this exclusively a few weeks ago because I was tired of my sd card always turning up errors when plugged in. The sdcard errors have even cost me a few pics taken from my phone. I don't know about you guys, but I probably mounted and dismounted my sd card over 10 times a day on the low side before.
Here's an important note about accessing files through dropbox though, you should always DOWNLOAD them from the dropbox app onto your sd card before installing. Installing directly from the dropbox android app can sometimes turn up errors.
So that's the plug guys. But if you haven't tried it yet, try it.
Like I said, the first 2gb are free from dropbox and if you refer friends, you can get upto 8gb free. I'm not even including my dropbox referral link here because I seriously believe in this tip that much! Save SD card errors and use dropbox!

Figured everyone does this, some shape or form. I think I've hooked up my phone to a computer like twice for USB access.

digiblur said:
Figured everyone does this, some shape or form. I think I've hooked up my phone to a computer like twice for USB access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, ya, me too.
Weird though, today- dropbox has decided it needs to resync the contents every time I open a folder (once per folder). I'm not sure what the issue is, as 90% of the contents haven't changed. Not the end of the world, but ya, hope this thread gets more ppl using it. It really does save a lot of time, especially in school and e.g. transitioning to a new computer.
And.. thread getting moved in 5-4-3-2

No brainer...
I love DropBox. I signed up for an account then invited all my firends to join. When they did i get an additional 250megs. I then have a shared Folder that i have shared with all of them. We now have all the apps, games, wallpapers, ringtones, etc. my friends and I love in one place. Then on top of that it is backed up on my laptop and desktop. All for Free. If you haven't signed up for it, i highly recommend you do.
Fuz

Not Development.
That said, this is very cool technology. I wish they gave you more than 2-8GB for free, though, because I'd like to move my entire music, picture, and movie collections there. I'm actually thinking about paying the $100/year, which is ridiculous.
The coolest part is that it streams music and movies, doesn't download them. Very cool.
Google Music will be a good solution for the music, but I wish it would have generic storage space, too.

What are you doing to your phone that your sd card corrupts itself? I've never had it do that even once, and I've even DCed the phone in the middle of active transfers (a lot more times than I care to admit)

Firon said:
What are you doing to your phone that your sd card corrupts itself? I've never had it do that even once, and I've even DCed the phone in the middle of active transfers (a lot more times than I care to admit)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? my system created LOST directory was getting out of hand before this. I DID yank the cable out a few times during active file transfers but I doubt that was the only cause. Nowadays virus scans- indexing- caching.... things are being being written on HD's and cards all the time...
Am I the only one who had windows prompt me for a error check every other time when I mounted my disk? hmm...
@digiblur, I thought this is what everyone did too! But I was surprised to learn not...
This isn't development is it? Sorry mods! I just thought to post and should have done it in the general section. I'll exercise better judgment next time!
Move away!

Firon said:
What are you doing to your phone that your sd card corrupts itself? I've never had it do that even once, and I've even DCed the phone in the middle of active transfers (a lot more times than I care to admit)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might just be lucky. Many of our users have had odd bugs that were completely solved by SD card format and reflash.

[Q] \sdcard failure

I was using the internal 13gb storage to back up pics from my camera on a trip and all of a sudden it just shows gibberish file names and that u have 13.13gb free of 13.13gb. I tried restarting it, no difference although it did appear to show a few more files. Any ideas? I'd be pretty bummed if i just lost my pics.

seems to show more gibberish files now, but none have any more than 0 bytes... any advice on if it would be possible to recover the drive or anything?

Greetings.
I may have read you wrong but you did say "back up my pics from my camera" which sounds as if they are still on the camera? No sweat if that's so, copy them from the camera to your pc/mac or where ever else would appear to be a safer storage alternative. Then its a simple matter to get them burned to dvd/cd or printed at your local store.
If you meant you copied to the sdcard then deleted the originals from the camera you may still have a chance to resurrect them. If you can mount your cameras storage via USB then find yourself an "unerase" type of program and get them all back that way.
Just a word of advice: Since we are all modding the tablets, which in and of itself is a semi-risky, albeit fun, thing to be doing then do not count on anything being permanently on our tablet if it has any value to you. (we are all in a way beta testers)
I hope my ramblings help you.
Regards,
Fuzzy

Any and all ramblings are appreciated. I took some pics in vegas, filled the 2gb microsd card and dumped those onto the tablets internal storage, then took more pics in california and am now out of luck as far as recovering from the microsd card goes i think. Anyone beg to differ? I haven't really looked into recovery options there.
I'm hoping there is a way to get a direct image of the internal memory and then maybe I could run some utilities meant to recover files, though I am probably out of luck. It was handy wading through the pics on the tablet and uploading them straight to facebook after backing them up to it, though the quality isn't quite as nice of course as the original files. I've only had the thing about a month, so I figured I was safe as far as using it for backing up off my camera on my trip. Lesson learned I guess, grab some $10 sd cards instead of using microsd with an adapter and backing up to the tablet.

Hello,
Super noob here, so I'm in no way trying to offer advice. Just thought I'd share my experience.
Couple of weeks ago I had the gtab attached to my PC to copy some files. After I disconnected I opened the sdcard and basically found the same thing you are experiencing, nothing but a bunch of garbage files.
I think this happened because I pulled the plug too soon when disconnecting. You tap to 'deactivate usb transfer', then you get a series of messages about preparing SD card and such. I think you have to be careful to wait until it's done, which only takes a few seconds.
Unfortunately I can't offer any help about recovering the photos but I can tell you how I fixed my internal sdcard storage.
I simply re-ran the partitioning routine in clockwork mod and it took care of the corruption. The internal storage is fine now.
Sorry I can't offer help on recovering the files, hopefully something comes along.
Neudle

I was able to recover lost pics from a corrupt external harddrive, using a free program called Recuva. I believe Piriform makes it. Just a thought

WillieBH said:
I was able to recover lost pics from a corrupt external harddrive, using a free program called Recuva. I believe Piriform makes it. Just a thought
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes that sounds perfect, now if only i knew how to get a direct 1:1 dump of the internal memory...

dd would work I think. You'd need root and a big enough USB or uSD to hold the image

muqali said:
dd would work I think. You'd need root and a big enough USB or uSD to hold the image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome man, finally something i can google
i've got a usb hard drive i can connect that is plenty big, not sure if there is a max size limit though...
the only info on dd command i can find is linux specific but i'm assuming it is the same. http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/38387.aspx?p=2
"The command used to clone an entire drive would look like this:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb"
so sda is source and sdb is where to, so probably replace those with sdcard and sdcard2 or whatever the usb drive would be called.
This site says how to get command line access to my tablet, saying i need the sdk to get adb. http://gailly.net/android/android-tips.html
I can't really try it out til I get home, but my hopes are up. If anyone has tips or wants to say this post is completely wrong I'd much appreciate it.

From the little Droid tinkering I have done it'd be
dd if=/dev/block/mmc???
The input is the SD block device and partition not sure the exact thus the? ??
of=/path/to/mounted/drive

Sd card

Help me my wife lost all music and photos on sd card here's what happened:
Set folders on sd card as follows:
MUSIC
PICTURES
These folders have been setup since she had the phone her phone has never been rooted and she is running panda home as her default home launcher when she went to pull the drawer up her phone froze and reset itself after reset she no longer has picture or music folders on sd card are they hidden somewhere or is it to late?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

Do flash drive and SSD file systems function like HDD file systems in that if you haven't overwritten the memory area... the files might still be there?!? I use GetDataBack for NTFS (or FAT) to help friends all the time to recover hard drive data that has "accidentally" been erased. It always manages to find something... unless it's a actual head crash, in which case they're usually screwed. (Or at least at the mercy of specialized firms that have clean rooms for dismantling and reassembly... to the tune of $400/hr. and up! And they never listen to me about the importance of data redundancy... <sigh>)

K thanks for info but will this work even though files were saved to sd card?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

monthlymixcd said:
Do flash drive and SSD file systems function like HDD file systems in that if you haven't overwritten the memory area... the files might still be there?!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data can be recovered even after its been overwritten. There's varying beliefs on data sanitation, however most governmental and military branches around the world employ techniques with multiple overwrite passes. One pass isn't necessary enough.
monthlymixcd said:
unless it's a actual head crash, in which case they're usually screwed. (Or at least at the mercy of specialized firms that have clean rooms for dismantling and reassembly... to the tune of $400/hr. and up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not applicable to flash technology.

VZW GS5 Adoptable storage, how to access.

I have adoptable storage working per the S7 command line method with ADB. Now, as for how I can access it.. Since its encrypted the PC can't read it directly. Is it possible to use linux commands to create a linked folder on the phone's actual internal storage to the root of the adopted sd card? Wouldn't this cause the phone to handle the encryption work and let us have access to it? The other question is would this created link survive a reboot? I remember when I did a linked folder I had to have a script autorun on boot of the Android 3.0 tablet to recreate the link.

Nova5 said:
I have adoptable storage working per the S7 command line method with ADB. Now, as for how I can access it.. Since its encrypted the PC can't read it directly. Is it possible to use linux commands to create a linked folder on the phone's actual internal storage to the root of the adopted sd card? Wouldn't this cause the phone to handle the encryption work and let us have access to it? The other question is would this created link survive a reboot? I remember when I did a linked folder I had to have a script autorun on boot of the Android 3.0 tablet to recreate the link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since adopted storage becomes internal, it's best to think of it as you would a hard drive in your PC. You don't physically connect PCs or remove hard drives to transfer files; you networking or apps. There are a myriad ways to do this: FTP, SMB, BitTorrent Sync (my preferred way), SendAnywhere, SuperBeam, etc.

WiFi is far slower than USB3. USB3 would be my preferred method to load up music on it vs wireless methods.

Nova5 said:
WiFi is far slower than USB3. USB3 would be my preferred method to load up music on it vs wireless methods.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The interface is only theoretically faster. The S5 uses MTP to connect to your PC over USB, which means writes are made at the file level, not the block level. Translation: if a file has changed on the S5, your PC rewrites the entire file instead of just the changes. This makes routine USB file transfer extremely inefficient.
OTOH, using BitTorrent Sync with an 802.11ac router gives me block level write speeds of up to 16 MB/s, which is pretty good for the S5's notoriously slow SD card R/W performance. And if you have a slower router you can just let the network transfer run overnight anyway.

All fine and dandy, but not important to the answer sought. What im looking at doing is creating a symlinked "folder" that I can drop large amounts of data on, and have it sent directly to the card. Permissions are currently the issue on looking into the "private" directory on the phone for its storage. I just have to look up the command structure for the permissions changes when I get time to dig into it. Might not work depending on what protections google put in place to prevent those changes as they could compromise security.

Noob With 3 Questions

I'm not at all Tech savvy.
When I go to my Calendar, how do I change the keyboard to numerical and back?
Also, can I change the keypad from Qwerty to a traditional keyboard?
I watched a video that claimed "Quick Charging" is detrimental to battery life.
Is that true? That's the only charger that came with my unit.
Rick

So is that like granting you 3 wishes?
What is the device in question?

rickybobb said:
I'm not at all Tech savvy.
When I go to my Calendar, how do I change the keyboard to numerical and back?
Also, can I change the keypad from Qwerty to a traditional keyboard?
I watched a video that claimed "Quick Charging" is detrimental to battery life.
Is that true? That's the only charger that came with my unit.
Rick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
blackhawk said:
So is that like granting you 3 wishes?
What is the device in question?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies, Galaxy A42 5G
Btw, if you're granting me 3 wishes, I actually have 4.
But that's a discussion for another time.

Yes, well... be careful what you wish for
Your Android is only as good as you organize and configure it to be. Always keep in my mind what do you would need to fully restore the phone if it crashed right this second. That way you will learn to do this almost effortlessly in time. Ask yourself the hard questions, like what would I do if I lost all my contacts? Answer, create multiple backup files that are stored on the PC and data hdds. Do this with all critical data that can't be replaced.
Fast charging is more stressful on the battery. Not sure about that Samsung but if it has the app Device Care you can disable fast charging there.
As for the rest use the gear icon on the keyboard to access settings.
Play with it, that's how you learn. It's almost impossible to crash* a stock Android so explore it.
Do Google searches and learn from others by reading.
Eventually it will become intuitive how to fix issues even when you see behavior you never saw before. The Android platform is many times much easier to use and troubleshoot than the Windows platform.
Play with it... Android wuv attention
* always backup all critical data on the phone redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Otherwise you will lose data, sooner or latter.
If you have a SD card slot, get a V30 rated card and use it as a data drive. All critical data and backups go here. Then backup the SD card regularly. Only the apps, the temporary download folder and the DCIM folder go on the internal memory.
Backup the contents on the DCIM folder to the SD card regularly however Do Not name that DCIM, name it something like Photos 2021.

blackhawk said:
Yes, well... be careful what you wish for
Your Android is only as good as you organize and configure it to be. Always keep in my mind what do you would need to fully restore the phone if it crashed right this second. That way you will learn to do this almost effortlessly in time. Ask yourself the hard questions, like what would I do if I lost all my contacts? Answer, create multiple backup files that are stored on the PC and data hdds. Do this with all critical data that can't be replaced.
Fast charging is more stressful on the battery. Not sure about that Samsung but if it has the app Device Care you can disable fast charging there.
As for the rest use the gear icon on the keyboard to access settings.
Play with it, that's how you learn. It's almost impossible to crash* a stock Android so explore it.
Do Google searches and learn from others by reading.
Eventually it will become intuitive how to fix issues even when you see behavior you never saw before. The Android platform is many times much easier to use and troubleshoot than the Windows platform.
Play with it... Android wuv attention
* always backup all critical data on the phone redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Otherwise you will lose data, sooner or latter.
If you have a SD card slot, get a V30 rated card and use it as a data drive. All critical data and backups go here. Then backup the SD card regularly. Only the apps, the temporary download folder and the DCIM folder go on the internal memory.
Backup the contents on the DCIM folder to the SD card regularly however Do Not name that DCIM, name it something like Photos 2021.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much!
I'll take your advice.

rickybobb said:
Thank you very much!
I'll take your advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome.
Lots to do. It takes time but make backing up your data and the ability to fully restore the apps and data after a crash a priority.
One data is lost, it is gone for ever.
Any apps that allow you to backup their settings, do so. Don't forget backing up important passwords.
NEVER encrypt data drives!!! Do not rely on Samsung SmartSwitch as a stand alone data backup!
You can use Apk Export to make installable copies of all your loaded apps even updates so you can reload them without Playstore. All my apps are backed up like this. Even if Playstore discontinues them... I have a copy.