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ok, so maybe I'm a little obsessive compulsive but wow
is it just me or do most applications just spit folders and data all over your sdcard?
i just uninstalled an app i found that i dont use and found two separate folders in the root of the sdcard still remaining.
looks like there were only two apps that had created/used a folder named data inside of the sdcard, seesmic and flixster
I fully agree with you all the apps just create folders on the root of the sd and when i plug it in the computer it's a mess.
Developers really need to use the folder Data, i don't care what's in the app folder but it's not nice to see them all on the root
I agree. It's called lazy programming.
I agree!
At the very least, applications should be forced to only write to a specific directory. I.E. .data, .app_data, etc. When cleaning my SD Card, it so hard to tell what's needed and what's not
I completely agree. It is a giant mess, and it's annoying scrolling through all that garbage to get to the few folders I actually use.
I have been wondering if it is possible to modify where programs store their external data on the SD card, but have not been able to find an answer yet.
Example...
I have the program "FolderOrganizer" and it stores it's backup data to /mnt/sdcard/FolderOrganizer. Now what I would like to do is to clean up my SD card a bit by moving all my program saves to the /mnt/sdcard/Android/xxxxx folders. This way I know where all my backups, skins and etc are located at while keeping my file structure clean.
I have been using Root Explorer to poke around and see if I can find any indication of where these programs set their external save directories at (xml files etc), but I have not been able to figure it out yet.
I bet it is something easy that I am just missing. Can anyone help out or point me in the right direction?
djstaid said:
I have been wondering if it is possible to modify where programs store their external data on the SD card, but have not been able to find an answer yet.
Example...
I have the program "FolderOrganizer" and it stores it's backup data to /mnt/sdcard/FolderOrganizer. Now what I would like to do is to clean up my SD card a bit by moving all my program saves to the /mnt/sdcard/Android/xxxxx folders. This way I know where all my backups, skins and etc are located at while keeping my file structure clean.
I have been using Root Explorer to poke around and see if I can find any indication of where these programs set their external save directories at (xml files etc), but I have not been able to figure it out yet.
I bet it is something easy that I am just missing. Can anyone help out or point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... it's not something you're just missing... there is no standard and as a result it's almost impossible to achieve what you're aiming for. I too wish for the same, everything simply under <sdcard>/android/ ...
Some apps are hard coded in their code, some allow the user to select, some store in /data/data/xxx/shared_prefs/ - it's a lottery.
djmcnz said:
No... it's not something you're just missing... there is no standard and as a result it's almost impossible to achieve what you're aiming for. I too wish for the same, everything simply under <sdcard>/android/ ...
Some apps are hard coded in their code, some allow the user to select, some store in /data/data/xxx/shared_prefs/ - it's a lottery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. That is a bummer though, I was really hoping to be able to tell everything where to write to. I currently have a ext4 partition on my SD and that is where all my apps install to... if I can't tell the apps where to save on my SD partition, it would be nice to at least move it all to the ext4 partition.
There is crap all over on my SD card and my OCD is starting to kick in!
Yeah, I know the SD card can get messy... it's really stupid and annoying... Unfortunately, there is no SD card data saving guidelines for developers... and writing to an ext partition is completely out of scope for market apps because not all users have ext partitions... it would be nice, though, to have apps save data under one common folder... say /sdcard/data or /sdcard/Android... maybe we need to petition developers or Google!!
I agree with the saving to and ext partition. I just think it is silly that you can't at least specify a directory to save external data. I know some apps allow this, but I guess that if Google forced a change then everyone would have to change their code.
I wonder what would happen if you took out your SD and tried running those apps. Where would they write to then?
djstaid said:
I agree with the saving to and ext partition. I just think it is silly that you can't at least specify a directory to save external data. I know some apps allow this, but I guess that if Google forced a change then everyone would have to change their code.
I wonder what would happen if you took out your SD and tried running those apps. Where would they write to then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apps that require the sdcard for storage will usually either give an error when run without an sdcard or just not work at all.
I am also pretty anal about my storage and neatness, and I have given up on my sdcard being organized. What I have done is create folders with capital first letters to bring them to the top of the listing when browsing by default sort, at least I can find what I want easily without sifting through all the data folders..
That is pretty much what I have done. I guess it it better than nothing. If I knew more about programming I would try and build something to look for and modify those paths. I just never really understood/got into the whole programming thing... that is why I ended up in Infrastructure. lol
djstaid said:
That is pretty much what I have done. I guess it it better than nothing. If I knew more about programming I would try and build something to look for and modify those paths. I just never really understood/got into the whole programming thing... that is why I ended up in Infrastructure. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you there, long time (20+ years) building and repairing pcs, 0- years programming.
As far as building something to modify the paths used by programs accessing the sdcard in Android, that seems a nearly impossible feat. Each program would have to be modified, requiring reverse-coding (baksmali) each one individually, modifying the code, and recompiling (smali). This would also require re-signing and reinstalling each application, making updating from the market impossible, and would take a lot of work.
Due to the fact that applications are "sandboxed" (so to speak) in Android, I wouldn't think there was a global %externaldata% path variable that can be modified from /mnt/sdcard to /mnt/sdcard/Android, I am pretty sure that path is set in each application.
Though, I could be wrong. However, it is worth noting that if it is a global variable, changing it would result in applications that are already properly coded to use /mnt/sdcard/Android/%appname% or /mnt/sdcard/data%appname% to instead attempt to write the data to /mnt/sdcard/Android/mnt/sdcard/Android/%appname% as they would append their string to the global variable.
I believe, all we can do is petition developers to use a more structured data path in their programs, and learn to live with disorder!
daveid said:
I believe, all we can do is petition developers to use a more structured data path in their programs, and learn to live with disorder!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lmao!
this is true though... at least I know that I am not alone. haha
I am definitely with you all on this. I found this post after having the same epiphany just now. There needs to be more structure to the use of external storage. These little things are what set our OS apart from say, the "forbidden" iphone...
I have actually tried digging into different apps to see where the store locations are set at and have had no luck. I guess if I knew how to program or at least modify that one part of the app I would have more luck.
Problem with that is if I modify something in an app and it gets updated, I would have to do it all over again. I guess that is the gift and curse of having such an open OS. I will post back here if I figure something out though. I have been digging into the Android OS a little more, but I am still having problems understanding how it all works underneath.
Just got my wife a Lumia 520 and i noticed it does not have a file manager... is this normal?
I'm used to have file manager on Android so this is quite lame...
Also any idea on how to add musics (MP3/WMA) on the ringtones?
Thks
So... the Internet has these things called "search engines" which you can use to find all manner of cool things. You should really try using one of them.
1: Yes, it's normal that there is no file manager built into WP8. There wasn't one in WP7, either. This is not news. Know what you're buying...
2: There are apps (both on the Store and on this forum) which add very limited file browsing and management capability. However, the OS is extremely restrictive of app permissions - moreso than your typical Android build - so most of the filesystem is unreadable and all but a tiny portion of what's left is read-only.
3: Did you even read the little info sheet that comes with your phone? You would save us all a bunch of time if you did. Connect the phone to your computer using USB. It will appear as an MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) device. You can use this to copy media files (including songs and ringtones) to the phone, as well as copying other media files (such as pictures or video you took) from the phone to the PC. If you're running Windows, it will also offer to install an app to make synching easier. Pretty much every OS has tools for working with MTP devices, including all desktop-oriented Linux distros I've ever tried.
Think of the apps as the file browser. An app that can manipulate a certain file type will show you all of that type of file on your phone. Coming from android you will have to rework your way of using your phone. And SKY DRIVE is your friend. And I'm glad you posted your question because I for one have used and love wp8 although I use my note 2 as my daily. I love people that say search for the answer yet give a long drawn out sarcastic answer anyway.
1.No file browser.
2.Use apps for manipulation of said files
3.Sky drive is your friend. It COULD be said it's wp8s file manager.
4. Have fun!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
You can hook your phone to your PC and use the Windows Phone app for desk top, this will let you browse your files as far as music, ringtones, pictures and videos; I'm not sure if it includes documents but it the closest to what you are looking for because system files are off limit like the guys just explained.
What I don't understand is if you can view your files from your PC why can you do the same from the phone? Oh well maybe one day like in an update; this would be cool for browsing for files on your SD card...
GoodDayToDie said:
So... the Internet has these things called "search engines" which you can use to find all manner of cool things. You should really try using one of them.
1: Yes, it's normal that there is no file manager built into WP8. There wasn't one in WP7, either. This is not news. Know what you're buying...
2: There are apps (both on the Store and on this forum) which add very limited file browsing and management capability. However, the OS is extremely restrictive of app permissions - moreso than your typical Android build - so most of the filesystem is unreadable and all but a tiny portion of what's left is read-only.
3: Did you even read the little info sheet that comes with your phone? You would save us all a bunch of time if you did. Connect the phone to your computer using USB. It will appear as an MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) device. You can use this to copy media files (including songs and ringtones) to the phone, as well as copying other media files (such as pictures or video you took) from the phone to the PC. If you're running Windows, it will also offer to install an app to make synching easier. Pretty much every OS has tools for working with MTP devices, including all desktop-oriented Linux distros I've ever tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so i appreciated the help but i don't really explain well in the OP.
I apologize for the way i wrote the OP, i was frustrated after unsuccessful search for a way to work around the limitations of the OS...
I did not know that the WP7 and 8 did not add an file manager, but the other part i did know :/ so no need to be so sarcastic in your reply (last time a used a Windows based phone it add windows mobile and it did have file explorer much like other OS's).
What i really meant was if anyone knows a way to work around the OS locks on the file system and of course an file explorer that uses it... But after more search i find none
I'm still pretty happy with the lumia 520... just frustrated that i cant add files were i wanted.
Yeah, that exact question has been asked before. People are working on it. Part of the reason I wrote my webserver app was to facilitate deeper exploration of WP8 in the hopes of finding a way to unlock more permissions. So far, no dice. The OS is still young, however.
With that said, from a "what can I do with it" perspective, it's best to think of WP8 as being like iOS: until or unless "jailbroken", everything runs with extremely low permissions.
GoodDayToDie said:
Yeah, that exact question has been asked before. People are working on it. Part of the reason I wrote my webserver app was to facilitate deeper exploration of WP8 in the hopes of finding a way to unlock more permissions. So far, no dice. The OS is still young, however.
With that said, from a "what can I do with it" perspective, it's best to think of WP8 as being like iOS: until or unless "jailbroken", everything runs with extremely low permissions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thanks for the info .
After some research i got the idea that WP8 as worst than iOS in terms of restrictions :/...
Thats really a shame because this Lumia 520 hardware its really nice for the price. It will be awesome wen someone is able to root it.
Still i will keep using Android on my personal phone... (this one was bought for my wife).
sinister1 said:
You can hook your phone to your PC and use the Windows Phone app for desk top, this will let you browse your files as far as music, ringtones, pictures and videos; I'm not sure if it includes documents but it the closest to what you are looking for because system files are off limit like the guys just explained.
What I don't understand is if you can view your files from your PC why can you do the same from the phone? Oh well maybe one day like in an update; this would be cool for browsing for files on your SD card...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far i can't move files (wma and MP3) to the inner folders on the ringtone folder... and the custom ringtone option does not let me chose other files than the one it came from factory
Not really a big bummer but it just seems a stupid limitation...
"Inner folders"? I just dragged files to Phone\Ringtones and they appeared at the top of the list, under "Custom". I didn't even need to resize them or change the genre, as WP7 required.
GoodDayToDie said:
"Inner folders"? I just dragged files to Phone\Ringtones and they appeared at the top of the list, under "Custom". I didn't even need to resize them or change the genre, as WP7 required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i tried every folder on the phone (that are available to the user) and the OS still does not let me choose custom musics for ringtones... :/
Exnor said:
Well i tried every folder on the phone (that are available to the user) and the OS still does not let me choose custom musics for ringtones... :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music files should go into the music folder and ringtone files go into the ringtone folder, this is what I did; I put in an SD card and created Folders on it with the same name as the ones on the internal storage and placed all my music and ringtone files there, when you go to ringtones it shows up under custom, if your talking about alert tones for MMS or SMS then you are out of luck other than ringtones the only thing you can change is your alarm tones.
This is a big mistake by MS by not allowing users to use customer tones form email and SMS or MMS their are customers that are actually returning their phones and exchanging them for Android and even iPhones because of this and other limitations. Users have been asking for this since 2011 on MS's very own suggestion page (check it out here) and MS hasn't even responded or given a hit to fixing this issue.
For you guys who know me well and see that I bring this subject up a lot, I apologize but MS needs to wake up and stop trying to restrict even the simplest of tasks.
1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.
sinister1 said:
Music files should go into the music folder and ringtone files go into the ringtone folder, this is what I did; I put in an SD card and created Folders on it with the same name as the ones on the internal storage and placed all my music and ringtone files there, when you go to ringtones it shows up under custom, if your talking about alert tones for MMS or SMS then you are out of luck other than ringtones the only thing you can change is your alarm tones.
This is a big mistake by MS by not allowing users to use customer tones form email and SMS or MMS their are customers that are actually returning their phones and exchanging them for Android and even iPhones because of this and other limitations. Users have been asking for this since 2011 on MS's very own suggestion page (check it out here) and MS hasn't even responded or given a hit to fixing this issue.
For you guys who know me well and see that I bring this subject up a lot, I apologize but MS needs to wake up and stop trying to restrict even the simplest of tasks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok i'm gonna try with an SD card and i will post my results. Thks for the tip :good:
GoodDayToDie said:
1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep did all that ...
The only thing i did not try yet is to create a subfolder in the Ringtones folder like i've read somewhere... i will try to do all the processes again and try other tips and i will post my results as soon as i can.
Thks for the help
GoodDayToDie said:
1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally i got it to work...
Like i've said i've done the above (like you suggested) the 1st time and repeated and nothing happen.. so i reset the phone!
Copied just one file to the ringtone folder and success it worked (!). I don't know why it did not the other times ... Now my wife can copy her musics and put hers ringtones as she like.
Here is my device info in case its usefull for anyone:
model: Lumia 520
MMN: RM-914_eu_portugal_281
OS version: 8.0.10211.204
HW rev:1.0.0.0
Firmware rev: 1030.6408.1309.0003
Thanks for the help guys
OS is young and the questions you posted, really needs to be solved. MS has put too much restrictions in OS but I think it will open some APIs and remove some restrictions in WP blue update due in early 2014. I only need limited file explorer to manage my personal files, a good Music & Video app(VLC is coming) and a notification center, that's it. All would be well for me to jump the ship from Android.
Btw, try Kirik file browser. It gives you some limited accessibilities on SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Vishwal said:
OS is young and the questions you posted, really needs to be solved. MS has put too much restrictions in OS but I think it will open some APIs and remove some restrictions in WP blue update due in early 2014. I only need limited file explorer to manage my personal files, a good Music & Video app(VLC is coming) and a notification center, that's it. All would be well for me to jump the ship from Android.
Btw, try Kirik file browser. It gives you some limited accessibilities on SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree. MS still as lot to do on this OS... But for people who don't need more computing options its a good choice (i think i like it better than iOS...).
Thx for the tip, i've already try it does help a little.
So far besides the OS limitations my biggest disappointment is the store... there is not enough programs to satisfy my needs :/ But like i stated before i'm happy with the device (actually my wife is lol since its her that uses it).
Switching from Android... hmm no. I don't see myself switch to WP or iOS (btw i have iPod touch 4th gen) for so many reasons, but to start the integration with my Google account and services.
I had a Qtek back in 2k3 (actually was a job phone) and used Windows Mobile (or was it CE?? cant remember) and back then i love it. But the "updated" Windows OS for mobile does not give me the same experience. Android so far is my favorite (gonna give a try to Ubuntu touch since i use Ubuntu at work... lets see how it performs).
The whole thing is that WP8 is designed to protected installed apps _from other installed apps_. Any data an app writes, is completely off limits to any other application. So a file manager would be compeltely pointless. If someone would create one, you could create files and maybe even download files in the folders you created.... but no other app would ever see that data.
this makes programs that can download data (Windows File sharing, FTP clients, etc..) to be played by another program (music player, video player, etc..) impossible.
I do agree though that WP8 needs to create a single 'unmanaged, unprotected data pool' where all apps can write / read, probably organized by folders just so people understand it.
If an app then wants to write data there, it knows it got no protection and is on its own. But if an app wants to write personal data (appointments, messages, contacts, that kinda of thing) it can write it in it's own data store like WP8 is now and the data is protected from every other possible app.
If they will do this for Blue... I don't know. I haven't seen it on a list anywhere yet.
Well, you can ask the OS to open a file (the equivalent of ShellExecute on Win32) and that can be used as a form of inter-app communication and file passing (sending a file from a file browser to the media player is possible, for example). The trick is that it's a blind push; there's no way to ask for the file back, or query what files there are. Also, the other app needs to choose to download the file.
There are Capabilities in the WP8 security policies which could be used to make a decent file browser, at least for the basic stuff (media libraries, documents, a "common area" on the file system, etc.). However, we cannot currently sideload any application which uses them, and I very much doubt MS would let us publish such an app through the store (although it might be worth trying...)
GoodDayToDie said:
Well, you can ask the OS to open a file (the equivalent of ShellExecute on Win32) and that can be used as a form of inter-app communication and file passing (sending a file from a file browser to the media player is possible, for example). The trick is that it's a blind push; there's no way to ask for the file back, or query what files there are. Also, the other app needs to choose to download the file.
There are Capabilities in the WP8 security policies which could be used to make a decent file browser, at least for the basic stuff (media libraries, documents, a "common area" on the file system, etc.). However, we cannot currently sideload any application which uses them, and I very much doubt MS would let us publish such an app through the store (although it might be worth trying...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am fairly certain the current situation will probably change with WP8.1.
if wpdev voice website is an indication of their intentions for wp8.1, things will look very nice soon enough.
I have a Moto X with Republic Wireless 4.2.2 and am wondering how I automate the following...
Anytime I shoot a video or take a picture on the phone I would like to have the phone automatically make a copy of the file to a different (specific) directory on the phone for backup purposes. I would also like to know if I can do this without rooting. I'm pretty sure I can make a script or something to do it, I just don't know how I would have it act upon seeing a new file created. Also I would prefer it operate in the background without any notifications.
Thanks
EntityPacket said:
I have a Moto X with Republic Wireless 4.2.2 and am wondering how I automate the following...
Anytime I shoot a video or take a picture on the phone I would like to have the phone automatically make a copy of the file to a different (specific) directory on the phone for backup purposes. I would also like to know if I can do this without rooting. I'm pretty sure I can make a script or something to do it, I just don't know how I would have it act upon seeing a new file created. Also I would prefer it operate in the background without any notifications.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how to do that but you can always backup to google +. It won't share the images unless you ask it to. I've found it quite useful for a phone that only has 16gb of storage.
brian Marshall said:
I'm not sure how to do that but you can always backup to google +. It won't share the images unless you ask it to. I've found it quite useful for a phone that only has 16gb of storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I'm not sure having two copies of an image or video on the same device gives you any real redundancy. However letting them sync with G+ gives you a reliable backup.
Why would you backup the same image or video onto the same device? All you're doing is using more storage, of which is limited.
Thanks guys but I want to do what I said specifically. Nothing more, nothing less. The automated part is optional. I would be fine with having to hit an icon to kick off the process.
EntityPacket said:
Thanks guys but I want to do what I said specifically. Nothing more, nothing less. The automated part is optional. I would be fine with having to hit an icon to kick off the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can use rsync to do this. Android doesn't come with it, but you can install it by following instructions here: http://linux.wxs.ro/2011/08/05/rsync-your-android/. There's probably also apps in the play store that provide rsync.
'rsync -a --delete /src/ /dest/' will keep the directory /dest/ in sync with /src/
create a shell script with that in it, and you should be able to schedule it using tasker, or there are apps out there to create icons for shell scripts.
Thanks that's more what I'm looking for. Would that require rooting the phone?
Yeah....I don't get it. 2 sets of the same pics on the same drive is no fail safe at all. If you have a problem where you can't access the regular gallery stored pics, I doubt you'll be accessing the other folder either. Seems pointless?
Are you sure what you want to do is really what your trying to do?
Flashing roms or whatever won't wipe your pics by accident. And if for some strange reason your pics get wiped, chances are your backup pics will get wiped at the same time, since they are both on sd card.
Plus you'll have 2 sets in your gallery. Unless they are put in a backup apps file....which again...will be wiped along with your pics if something happens to your sd card folder.
Makes no sense.
Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk
EntityPacket said:
Thanks that's more what I'm looking for. Would that require rooting the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The instructions indicate that you should copy it to /system/xbin/ and set the permissions to allow execute access. In order to be able to write to that directory you will need root.
In order to execute the command, you will not need root access. Assuming you're copying to someplace you have write access to.
I haven't tried this, but there's a "busybox non-root app" in the play store that contains rsync. You should be able to install that, and then you'll have access to rsync.
Look at bittorrent sync. You set it up to back up a specific folder or folders on your phone and using torrent technology, you can have it back up to your PC. I use it for exactly this purpose. All my photos of my kids and videos are automatically backed up to an external hard drive.
Yes, I know how to use google, yes, I tried many things now and I don't know where else to look for help so I'm asking here, a place with many smart heads full of ideas.
I was doing pretty normal thing on my phone this morning, just trying to copy all the files from internal memory onto the PC. Of course I couldn't do that thanks to "Unspecified error" during copying some of the folders, including Downloads and DCIM. I managed to copy only some of the files from internal storage. I thought a reboot might help. And so the nightmare began. All the other files I wanted to copy disappeared from gallery and Total Commander. They must be on the phone though, as there is something on the phone that uses 2gb of memory. I did not delete them, the system just fails to see them. I already tried deleting all the ".nomedia" files, clearing cache and data from Media Storage app, disabling it, rebooting and enabling again but it was of no use. I'm helpless and I don't know what to do, why did android even do this? I lost a lot of photos and images and I'm really upset about that. Any ideas what to do? The phone is not rooted, never played with software in it, it's updated to 5.1
Download any File Manager from Play Store, check if the files are on the phone memory. If not, well, they are somehow lost. Maybe you cut-paste them onto your PC, and the files were deleted, but you got an 'unspecified error' on moving.
Thanks a lot for a response. I use Total Commander on every android phone I had, I can see that my files look like they disappeared completely, android just generated empty generic folders ("Pictures etc) after I cut off the previous folders along with their content so I saved a little bit that I could. On the other hand something is occupying 2gb of data but the phone refuses to show what, so there is a chance my files are there. After copying the whole content of the phone to the folder on desktop it just shows it weight few hundreds KB. I'll be trying to use some recovery software for android. The question is how did this happen at all? It had no right to happen, what if this happened to someone who has completely no idea about that stuff? Who's to blame and who's responsible for helping such a person? Motorola? Google? Anyway, this is the last phone with no micro-sd card slot I used. A memory card is the best backup
You COULD recover your files even if they were deleted if Android still had a mass storage mode. I don't think any of the data recovery softwares play nice with the MTP transfer that android offers. Of course, the SD card is infinitely better, but a rarity these days. I am sorry for your lost data. You seem like you did everything within your reach to get it back.
EDIT: Just to be sure, did you cut-paste the folders on your PC from phone, or just copy-paste. It might be possible for files to be deleted in cut-paste, if some error occurs in copy.
Thanks for contributing. It seems Google knows better then any of us what we need and there's no more Mass Storage option which gives free access to memory. Unfortunately I don't have that option. First I ensured which files are not affected by error by trying to copy them folder after folder. Then there were left files I couldn't copy, it was DCIM with most recent photos (unfortunately) and download where I kept lots of images with cool infographics found on the internet. I thought a reboot would help to get access to them and you know the rest. Files were there no longer. I'm seriously considering switching to Windows Phone, it seem it's too much to ask for a phone that just "werks" nowadays...I have a painful lesson to use memory card as well as cloud synchronizing but didn't give up yet, still trying anything I can I also wrote to Motorola with help request but I don't think they'll help me any better than people here, although it's more their responsibility to fix that stuff, the phone is barely 6 months old.