Database Develop

Issue with file managers on the driod bionic

So far I have tried linda, astro, and root explorer.
When I try and click on the sd card it is showing me the 8gig partition share on the phone that is set up for app installs.
None of the file manager programs, besides the stock one on the phone, are properly showing the sd card.
Anyone else notice this?

Working fine for me. Root explorer included
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

The internal drive is 16GB
Once formatted to FAT, is gets reduced to just over 15GB
Then the OS is placed on the drive in a separate partition which takes up roughly about 4GB bringing that once 16GB drive down again to about 11GB
The remaining partition is partitioned once again to create an internal storage area similar to the SDCARD partition on the XOOM, as well an an application area where programs are pre-installed to.
That is why your internal storage area says only 8GB
The numbers I used are not exact but are rough estimates.

you just have to look around in it. both sd cards are there. its just not as simple as the stock one. my xoom is the same way.

dellenrules said:
The internal drive is 16GB
Once formatted to FAT, is gets reduced to just over 15GB
Then the OS is placed on the drive in a separate partition which takes up roughly about 4GB bringing that once 16GB drive down again to about 11GB
The remaining partition is partitioned once again to create an internal storage area similar to the SDCARD partition on the XOOM, as well an an application area where programs are pre-installed to.
That is why your internal storage area says only 8GB
The numbers I used are not exact but are rough estimates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly right. Is there a way to use any file managers then? They are all being fooled into thinking the internal storage is the sd card when it obviously isnt.
I have found no setting or way thus far to point the file manager apps to the actual sd card instead of the internal partition.

its a messed up sytem if they gave us more memory then it wouldnt b so bad.

not at the moment. either devoplers will have to modify there apps or a custom rom is needed to remap the memory.
strunker said:
This is exactly right. Is there a way to use any file managers then? They are all being fooled into thinking the internal storage is the sd card when it obviously isnt.
I have found no setting or way thus far to point the file manager apps to the actual sd card instead of the internal partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I actually found a temporary solution to this.. If you are rooted of course since you need to be to do anything useful on this thing.
I used root explorer for this.
For whatever reason they decided to name the internal memory application partition, to sdcard... This is why the file manager apps are getting confused.
The real sdcard is named sdcard-ext...
So All I did was rename sdcard (which is the internal partition), then I renamed sdcard-ext to sdcard. The file manager programs then pointed towards the actual sdcard..
However, upon reboot the folders renamed themselves back to the way they were... Not sure why they are doing that but they are...
If the folders would stop renaming themselves back the above method would be a solution for this prob.

In addition to the above, I dont know if astro has this feature, but on linda you can create a shortcut to the card and place it as a shortcut directly to the folder.
Wish it was possible to get the source to these apps. Could likely edit it and point it towards the proper folder.

Root explorer will allow you to view everything. If your phone is rooted you could edit them with this app as well.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

The SD Card is actually sd-ext in file managers sdcard is the internal

low on space notification almost 4GB free still? why

what would cause this odd error when i still have so much free?
found this answer on an other droid forum is it true?
"There is a bug that causes this error, but since 3 big companies are involved, none of them are going to fix it any time soon. Basically, app space is limited to some arbitrary amount and is not equal to the space available on your phone."

I suspect you may be low in system memory. Scroll down to the very bottom of the SD card & phone storage settings. How much available System memory do you have?

system memory is alway around 100Mb even with the space notification.
when I uninstall enough apps it does go away.
stopping open apps or services does not help.

You may want to reset your device. I had a similar problem once with my Atrix. 100mb is a low amount of system memory. I have over 400mb still available on my Thrill.

I have over 650mb left in system memory and its says I have insufficient space whenever I try to download any game around 40mb. I cleared the cache and it worked for one game.
Sent from my LG-P925 using xda premium

think i got it...
using ES task manager
memory T:442MB A:96MB =ram?
internal storage T:.98GB A:117MB =system nand or partition of internal sd?
sd card T:5.57GB A:3.92GB =internal sd card?
I have a 32GB external sd card.
I thought "system memory" under "SD card & phone storage settings" was RAM
but is seems to be what "ES task manager" reports as "internal storage"
why the hell is the android set up this way?
seems so ass backwards,
/ = system memory (root dir? is this a partition or seperate physical memory from the internal sd)
/sdcard/ = internal sd
/sdcard/_ExternalSD = external sdcard

What is being referred to as internal storage (or system memory) is where the apps are installed by default. You could try moving some apps to SD and it should help. However, I had a problem like this with my Atrix and I never could figure out what was using all the space, so I just did a factory reset. Of course, I used Titanium Backup first.

I've noticed that the thrill thinks the 4gb internal is an SD card and the actual SD card is labeled as "External" when you explore the files. I was thinking of doing a factory reset so I moved all my apps to SD, when I looked in file manager at my SD there was nothing there. I found them all in a folder called "SDCard" on my internal memory. This may have something to do with your issue.

TylDurden said:
I've noticed that the thrill thinks the 4gb internal is an SD card and the actual SD card is labeled as "External" when you explore the files. I was thinking of doing a factory reset so I moved all my apps to SD, when I looked in file manager at my SD there was nothing there. I found them all in a folder called "SDCard" on my internal memory. This may have something to do with your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have 3 types of memory in the phone. There's your external SD (labeled as _External SD), Internal Phone Memory (internal SD), and System Memory (where by default apps are stored). You can move your apps to the internal SD if you desire and that's why it's showing a folder there with the apps in it.

Gr8Danes said:
You have 3 types of memory in the phone. There's your external SD (labeled as _External SD), Internal Phone Memory (internal SD), and System Memory (where by default apps are stored). You can move your apps to the internal SD if you desire and that's why it's showing a folder there with the apps in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what good does it do to put Apps on the internal SD?

TylDurden said:
So what good does it do to put Apps on the internal SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So that it doesn't take up your system memory. If your system memory gets low, it won't let you install additional apps and may also slow down your phone.

Some people are saying that it is reporting wrong? No there actually is an SD card inside the phone and the one outside under the back plate.
To keep things straight:
System= Actual memory on the phone where apps are installed by default, moving to SD and uninstalling apps can create more space.
Internal= SDcard inside the phone where Apps are moved to when choosing move to SD also Alps will store data here and most downloads go here by default
External= The SDcard under backplate which you can access and change. A lot of apps will put backups here and if you choose SD storage in camera where your pics and vids will be. Usually this is set aside for actual personal storage of media and what not.

^ Is there a way to make the external SD card the default data storage? After installing some Gameloft games, my internal storage is already full (5.6 GBs is pathetic LG) but I still still have 2 more games (Dungeon Defenders and Spectral Souls) I want to install which take up about 2GB.

Killer Bee said:
^ Is there a way to make the external SD card the default data storage? After installing some Gameloft games, my internal storage is already full (5.6 GBs is pathetic LG) but I still still have 2 more games (Dungeon Defenders and Spectral Souls) I want to install which take up about 2GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I'm aware.

Urabewe said:
Some people are saying that it is reporting wrong? No there actually is an SD card inside the phone and the one outside under the back plate.
To keep things straight:
System= Actual memory on the phone where apps are installed by default, moving to SD and uninstalling apps can create more space.
Internal= SDcard inside the phone where Apps are moved to when choosing move to SD also Alps will store data here and most downloads go here by default
External= The SDcard under backplate which you can access and change. A lot of apps will put backups here and if you choose SD storage in camera where your pics and vids will be. Usually this is set aside for actual personal storage of media and what not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Close. System is where the OS and the system apps, the ones that come preinstalled are stored. The data partition is where market apps are stored. Installing apps from the market has no effect on the system partition. System apps cannot be moved to the sdcard, internal or otherwise. Its the apps on the /data partition that can be moves to the sdcard/internal storage.
Here's the breakdown:
System=619Mb (OS+system apps)
Internal (data)=1Gb (downloaded apps)
Internal SD=6gb (storage,a2sd)
External SD=8Gb (with included card).
LG claims 8gb internal space. All the above adds up to a little over 7.6gb. Leaving 60mb which is most likely the Cache partition.
Sent from my LG-P925 using Tapatalk

[Q] How to View SD Card Content from Vivid?

How does one view the content of the SD Card from the Vivid device itself?
I can connect the Vivid to my PC via USB cable and view the SD Card as a separate drive on the PC, but cannot see how to view the SD Card content from within the device.
Suggestions? TIA.

Get a file explorer app from the marketplace. Try Astro.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
How does one view the content of the SD Card from the Vivid device itself?
I can connect the Vivid to my PC via USB cable and view the SD Card as a separate drive on the PC, but cannot see how to view the SD Card content from within the device.
Suggestions? TIA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, you need to get a file manager application from the market. There are many of them, mostly free or low cost. I'm not crazy about Astro, the one I downloaded, but it works. Look at some others.
On my Vivid in the root directory is a folder called sdcard. That is the 8.83 GB user portion internal memory portion of the "16 GB" internal memory. Also, I have a folder called sdcard2. It's the 32 GB micro SD card I installed.
Interestingly, there is also a folder in the root directory called mnt. Under it is a folder called sdcard. It is the same as the sdcard under the root directory. Under mnt/sdcard is ext_sd. That is the 32 GB external SD card. I don't know if this duplicate listing is the work of the file manager app, or if it is the Android OS, but I am able to find files and copy files from one place to another.
With me making no changes for applications and data during application installations (I'm not sure I can), all of the apps I have installed have gone into the other portion of internal memory. The data seems to be going into the user portion of internal memory. When I installed the external SD card, I copied music files to it from my PC. The music player found them with no problem. Also, once the card was installed, photos I took were placed on the external SD card instead of internal memory.

brucegil said:
First, you need to get a file manager application from the market. There are many of them, mostly free or low cost. I'm not crazy about Astro, the one I downloaded, but it works. Look at some others.
On my Vivid in the root directory is a folder called sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does one access the root directory? Is that what the file manager app does?
(New to Android, and still in the learning phase.)

DUTCH Van Atlanta said:
How does one access the root directory? Is that what the file manager app does?
(New to Android, and still in the learning phase.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't feel alone. I just came from several years on the old Windows Mobile. In the file manager, I click on the Up icon until it won't go any further. You will see only a '/' in the address/location bar near the top. You will likely see folders such as acct, app-cache, config, sys, sysytem, etc., as well as mnt, sdcard and sdcard2. Tap on the sdcard2 folder icon, and you will see any folders you have on your external SD card.
In Astro, you can specifiy where the program opens when it starts. It can be the root directry, the exteranl SD card or any other location.
By the way, the other poster likes Astro. It comes with other tools. The "free" version has ads, but it might have a paid version. And it does come with an Exit button, something missing from a lot of Android apps.

brucegil said:
Don't feel alone. I just came from several years on the old Windows Mobile. In the file manager, I click on the Up icon until it won't go any further. You will see only a '/' in the address/location bar near the top. You will likely see folders such as acct, app-cache, config, sys, sysytem, etc., as well as mnt, sdcard and sdcard2. Tap on the sdcard2 folder icon, and you will see any folders you have on your external SD card.
In Astro, you can specifiy where the program opens when it starts. It can be the root directry, the exteranl SD card or any other location.
By the way, the other poster likes Astro. It comes with other tools. The "free" version has ads, but it might have a paid version. And it does come with an Exit button, something missing from a lot of Android apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks much!

brucegil said:
First, you need to get a file manager application from the market. There are many of them, mostly free or low cost. I'm not crazy about Astro, the one I downloaded, but it works. Look at some others.
On my Vivid in the root directory is a folder called sdcard. That is the 8.83 GB user portion internal memory portion of the "16 GB" internal memory. Also, I have a folder called sdcard2. It's the 32 GB micro SD card I installed.
Interestingly, there is also a folder in the root directory called mnt. Under it is a folder called sdcard. It is the same as the sdcard under the root directory. Under mnt/sdcard is ext_sd. That is the 32 GB external SD card. I don't know if this duplicate listing is the work of the file manager app, or if it is the Android OS, but I am able to find files and copy files from one place to another.
With me making no changes for applications and data during application installations (I'm not sure I can), all of the apps I have installed have gone into the other portion of internal memory. The data seems to be going into the user portion of internal memory. When I installed the external SD card, I copied music files to it from my PC. The music player found them with no problem. Also, once the card was installed, photos I took were placed on the external SD card instead of internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/sdcard is a symlink to /mnt/sdcard/ its the same thing, just a 'shortcut' to the actual mounted partition located in /mnt
/sdcard2 is a symlink to /mnt/ext_sd/ same thing, just a 'shortcut'
the actual ROOT system is inaccessible unless you have root access and an app that can see it, like root explorer, or es file manager. there are probably a few others that can get into the actual root of the filesystem.

Pirateghost said:
/sdcard is a symlink to /mnt/sdcard/ its the same thing, just a 'shortcut' to the actual mounted partition located in /mnt
/sdcard2 is a symlink to /mnt/ext_sd/ same thing, just a 'shortcut'
the actual ROOT system is inaccessible unless you have root access and an app that can see it, like root explorer, or es file manager. there are probably a few others that can get into the actual root of the filesystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the explanation. What I meant by "root" was the top level of the file system, e.g. C:\ on a Windows PC. "Root" apparently has a different meaning in the Android OS.
ES File Manager was the other highly rated file manager, along with Astro when I searched for "file manager" in the Market.

brucegil said:
Thanks for the explanation. What I meant by "root" was the top level of the file system, e.g. C:\ on a Windows PC. "Root" apparently has a different meaning in the Android OS.
ES File Manager was the other highly rated file manager, along with Astro when I searched for "file manager" in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
root in linux and subsequently, android, has an entirely different meaning.
in a sense, you have it right. / in linux/android is the root of the filesystem, equivalent to C:\ in windows pcs.
without having root (superuser access) on linux/android, you cant see the / or most of the directories below it. the general user only has direct access to storage, like /sdcard, /sdcard2 (also referred to as ext_sd, or sd_ext)

brucegil said:
First, you need to get a file manager application from the market. There are many of them, mostly free or low cost. I'm not crazy about Astro, the one I downloaded, but it works. Look at some others.
On my Vivid in the root directory is a folder called sdcard. That is the 8.83 GB user portion internal memory portion of the "16 GB" internal memory. Also, I have a folder called sdcard2. It's the 32 GB micro SD card I installed.
Interestingly, there is also a folder in the root directory called mnt. Under it is a folder called sdcard. It is the same as the sdcard under the root directory. Under mnt/sdcard is ext_sd. That is the 32 GB external SD card. I don't know if this duplicate listing is the work of the file manager app, or if it is the Android OS, but I am able to find files and copy files from one place to another.
With me making no changes for applications and data during application installations (I'm not sure I can), all of the apps I have installed have gone into the other portion of internal memory. The data seems to be going into the user portion of internal memory. When I installed the external SD card, I copied music files to it from my PC. The music player found them with no problem. Also, once the card was installed, photos I took were placed on the external SD card instead of internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering about this, can we Not access the rest of this 16GB ...what happened to the other 8GB...?
I too just made the Jump from WM 6.5 (<-- nightmare), so I have no clue how a lot of things work too. ;P hehe I'm a noob again ;P

StrangeShadow said:
I was wondering about this, can we Not access the rest of this 16GB ...what happened to the other 8GB...?
I too just made the Jump from WM 6.5 (<-- nightmare), so I have no clue how a lot of things work too. ;P hehe I'm a noob again ;P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the phone is marketed as having 16gb of onboard storage, but in reality, 1gb is dedicated to the ROM, aka /system
4gb is dedicated to /data which handles app installs and the like.
the remaining is storage for you to use.
be lucky you have all that. my other HTC phones all just had a mere 2gb or 4gb TOTAL storage (all allocated to /system and /data), which required you to have an SDCard just to be able to take pics or put music/movies/ringtones on it....

Pirateghost said:
the phone is marketed as having 16gb of onboard storage, but in reality, 1gb is dedicated to the ROM, aka /system
4gb is dedicated to /data which handles app installs and the like.
the remaining is storage for you to use.
be lucky you have all that. my other HTC phones all just had a mere 2gb or 4gb TOTAL storage (all allocated to /system and /data), which required you to have an SDCard just to be able to take pics or put music/movies/ringtones on it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! Yeah I figured at least a Gig for the Rom. The rest is pretty nuts though, any way we can see a detailed breakdown on our phone? Didn't expect it to be so much.
Can we install apps on the sd card, like some WM apps?

[Q] Directory Bind and Link2SD

I was quickly running out of room on my phone as everything was being installed to my internal SD card (4Gb) and not to my 32Gb external card.
I found an app called directory bind which I thought would move my large games data files and put them on my external card telling my phone where to find them while freeing up my internal SD card. So I tried the following
Source /mnt/extSdCard/Gameloft/
Target /sdcard/Gameloft/
I end up with a copy of my data files on my external sd card but the files are still on my internal sd card. So instead of saving me space this takes extra space on my ext SD card as well. I thought I'll just delete the data on my internal card as its on my external card. What happens? It deletes the files from my external card as well. Really strange. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Personally speaking I would've called the internal SD card the source and the external card the target. Perhaps thats where I'm going wrong but everything on using this app shows the ext card and int card used like this.
I've just found another app called link2sd would this be a better solution than directory bind?

Not sure about what you're asking. But this might help your problem: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2078603

Link2SD won't work either.
Sent from my GT-I8190 using xda premium

swagmeister said:
Not sure about what you're asking. But this might help your problem: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2078603
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like the perfect solution. I still don't understand why directory bind doesn't move the folders for me and just copies them. Also at a loss why deleting from internal sdcard deletes the external sdcard contents too. It looks like there is a binding between the two folders but whats the point if it doesn't clear space on your internal sdcard and just duplicates the folders.

You aren't doing it correctly... I'm using Directory Bind without any problems, although it was a little frustrating at the beginning.
Go to its settings, then change the default data path to
Code:
mnt/extSdCard/
and the default target path to
Code:
/sdcard/
Also, have the Alternate dbase mgmt and Persistent service boxes checked.
Now, just follow this tutorial and it'll work http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1889550. Of course, you can specify exact folders both in the data and target paths, I just like to specify each time.

kicker63 said:
Link2SD won't work either.
Sent from my GT-I8190 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, yes, Link2SD works on the S3 mini but we need the init.d support for the secured boot.img. I found the batchscript created by doomlord and I have modified this script for our S3 mini. Then I create a ext4 partition (Guide by einstein.frat) on my microSD and the apps with dalvik cache files (.DEX) and library files (libs) is outsource to the ext4 partition. Until now it works without bugs. I`ll later report this in the devlopment section.
Regards

leather.face said:
Hi, yes, Link2SD works on the S3 mini but we need the init.d support for the secured boot.img. I found the batchscript created by doomlord and I have modified this script for our S3 mini. Then I create a ext4 partition (Guide by einstein.frat) on my microSD and the apps with dalvik cache files (.DEX) and library files (libs) is outsource to the ext4 partition. Until now it works without bugs. I`ll later report this in the devlopment section.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any input about it? Is it still doing well?
And since you dealt with it, do some of you guys have any advice on this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2227471
Thanks,

Directorybind works fine, or foldermount.
What you see in internal is actually files on external. Try to unmount or delete some file on external and you will see its not a copy.
Sent through time and space from my s3mini.

Data just pretends to be on internal storage. Use an app call DiskUsage to see exactly how much space it takes up in a nice visual graph

[Q] Make the SD the "default" memory

Hi, I have a Moto G 2014 with Stock 5.0.2 rooted, and I bought a 32GB SD Card a few days ago. The thing is that everything is still going to the internal memory, instead of the SD (photos, downloads, etc.), so I want to know if it's a way to make everything write on the SD card without messing up the phone (I heard I can mount SD in /sdcard changing init.rc but I don't want to do that). I also want to move my WhatsApp chats to the SD too, hehehehe (WhatsApp data is in the internal :'c)
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
For the photos and videos part, you can select from the camera application if you want to store them in the internal memory or on the SD card. For applications I think they are installed in the internal memory by default but you can move them after installation on the SD card by going to settings -> apps -> touch app -> move to SD card. To change the default installation location you need the android SDK installed on your PC and adb and then to edit a file. But I do not recommend this since the SD card is not accessible while the phone is connected to the PC. This will make applications that always run to work improperly(widgets, Facebook, etc. might generate a lot of errors because of it).

I think it's a Xposed module for that.

KuranKaname said:
I think it's a Xposed module for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you're rooted then try link2sd from play store. you need to have an ext partition on your sd card for this to work.
if you are not rooted then you will have to manually create symlinks to the files on the sd card.

ethanchow said:
if you're rooted then try link2sd from play store. you need to have an ext partition on your sd card for this to work.
if you are not rooted then you will have to manually create symlinks to the files on the sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Better try Link2SD. The procedure to turn your external SD to internal storage causes a lot of trouble in most cases.
There are also scripts that link the possible apps and libraries automatically to the SD card when installing them.