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I wonder if it would be possible for our Galaxy SL to have that annoying partition removed? Other devices have internal memory + SD card. Which makes app to SD and SD speeding up apps to work properly. Having an EXTERNAL SD makes moving apps weird because they kept getting moved to the internal one instead. Not to mention most apps save the files they make automatically to internal SD (hello camera360).
I just want to know if this is even possible or if this is not even something I should think about?
Thanks!
Bump. No one cares but me?
Other devices seems to be able to reduce internal sd to zero so the device relies only on external sd... I wonder?
Why on earth would you want to do that? I mean, while other devices are -forced- to use an external SD because they don't have an internal one, you get an internal one that you can use aside the system storage.
Speeding up? Doubt you'll get many gains worth the trouble of using an external SD card, which in turn you have to sacrifice if you want to keep your apps constantly accessible in case you decide to remove the SD.
So I posted this question over and Android Forums, but no one has answered after 5 days. Hopefully I'll have better luck here.
What is the point of having an "on-board" sd card and an external card? I understand that -ext is your actual SD Card, but what is the /sdcard then and how is it different than regular "on-board storage"? What goes to either directory by default? This is the first Android phone I've had that does this, so I'm trying to familiarize myself with this.
I just bought a high quality 32GB SD card, so I'm a little disappointed that not everything is going to my SD card and instead to some onboard storage.
What are the benefits of putting things in either of these two?
I could be wrong but I think the internal memory is actually 12-16gb, but its partitioned with certain parts reserved for the operating system and apps.
I have noticed that transferring files from my computer to the internal storage is a bit faster than the external.
But then I do have a basic cheap 16gig SD card, so other cards might be faster.
I've not had any problem with the location of files, but then again I am a neat freak and I keep everything organized and know where everything is at all times
The reasoning comes from an operating system perspective. This is very much like a linux OS. Internal storage is different than ram. Android lives on seperate partitions as designed by google. Storage for the purposes of pictures, music, etc was left to be taken care of by sdcards. Since actual sdcards are more complicated than the average graduating flip phone user, manufacturers starting adding this "external" storage since it would be convenient for users like my mom. Then because geeks designed these, they still wanted to add more storage, so they designed storage you could actually get to! Hence sdcard-ext. Because many/most apps look for /sdcard as a file system, manufacturers could not skip it and just add more to the system partitions, or program installs would fail. They would either half to give a free memory card with purchase of the phone (carriers don't want to give anything away for free, and this is how it was 2+ years ago) or make storage on board that could be reachable.
In a windows point if view, think of it as all programs look for drive d: for extra storage rather than hogging c:, but since carriers didn't want to give away free d: drives, they said install it inside since it is cheaper on the board then to add a sdcard after. So, now /sdcard is like d: and /sdcard-ext would be like e:
I hope that made any kind of sense. It is honestly a useless mess, but sufficient for the unknowing or uncaring masses who just want to save more mp3's or pictures.
Nowell29
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
My issue is spotify fills up the internal "sdcard" Id ideally like to point spotify to use my external sd card as its a 32 gb card. But that wont work.
Has anyone tried to create a symlink to point a folder to an external folder?
Is there a way to dictate what goes where? For example, if I wanted my apps to go to my actual SD card (/sd-ext), could I do it?
AMTrombley0924 said:
Is there a way to dictate what goes where? For example, if I wanted my apps to go to my actual SD card (/sd-ext), could I do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that without some mild hacking*, there wouldn't be a universal way to do it. If it's doable at all, it will be on an application-by-application basis.
Some apps seem to just "do the right thing". For instance, as soon as I installed and formatted my sdcard, the camera and gallery applications moved my pictures from /sdcard to /sdcard_ext, and from then on, that's where pictures are stored as they're taken.
OTOH, Amazon MP3 is pretty stupid about keeping all downloaded music on /sdcard. When I bricked my phone for about a month, that's one of the things that kept me from trying for a full replacement: I couldn't pull the files out of an internal filesystem, so I'd lose all that music. If I could have had those stored on a removable SDcard, it wouldn't have been a factor.
*example of mild hacking: move application-specific directories from /sdcard to /sdcard-ext and replace /sdcard directory with a softlink to /sdcard-ext equivalent. It's hacky and crocky, but I think it would work, as long as /sdcard-ext is available and has the appropriate directory (target of link).
hopefully one of you would know this answer...
i have the droid 4 as well and i have an aftermarket stereo in my car that has a USB connection. i can plug in my phone and it wont recognize any music until i turn on USB mass storage (obviously) but the problem i'm having is that (what i think is happening) the phone is pretty much mounting the internal sd card first for some dang reason and then the external sd card second. but i can't back out of the /sdcard folder to go into /sdcard-ext where all of my music is.
is there any way to change the mounting order? <--- that's my question.
My phone is rooted and currently running the latest CM9 ROM.
Thanks
-Andrew
Apps will always install on the internal sdcard, no way around this.
Spotify to external SD is simple. First, erase everything and logout. During the login screen press menu and you will be able to change the default location. Login and synch and you're done.
Disabling the internal mount;
etc/vold.fstab
put an "#" before the line "dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard:: 25 /devices/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/mmc_host/mmc1"
This should disable mounting the internal drive. I haven't tested it though. It is possible the OS won't be able to see the internal mmc when it's not mounted.
It's also possible to swap internal with external. BUT... I've read mixed reports on an LG forum where users complained about problems with their phones. So be carefull if you want to test that out. Have to say though, apart from LG users I haven't read problems on other devices. Search for drive swap vold.fstab if you wanna try.
would it be possible to re-partition the phone's memory so that it's: system, internal, and sdcard, rather than having the sdcard and sdcard-ext seperate? I have a 16 gb micro sd card that I plan on keeping in my phone at all times that I plan to store general media on, but I'd like to keep all my apps on the internal storage. I know the process will probably cause me to lose all my data, but I've got nothing important on it. Also if this was the case would I also have to install a new version of android? Forgive me if I seem ignorant, I've only partitioned my hard disk via a bootable usb, so I'm a bit inexperienced.
Considering how many people have used one of these by now, I was wondering if anybody could answer this.
One thing that drove me crazy about some Motorola and Samsung phones with 16+GB of internal storage, is that the storage was partitioned off and the usable space was mounted as if it was an sd card. This really wrecked havoc on apps that are supposed to save data to the SD card, because they would think the internal storage was the SD card and save to there. Not only was this annoying for some backup-based apps, but games which need to download anywhere from 500MB to 3GB of resources would install to the (usually 10GB or less after the rest is partitioned to the system) internal storage, thinking they were installing to the sd card. Basically, the sd card was only usable for photos, videos, and music... and file managers. The phone might as well not have an SD slot.
So far every HTC phone I have had hasen't been this way, the EVO 3D I currently has mounts the internal storage as actual internal storage, so apps correctly download these large amounts of data to the SD card. I didn't get a One because the lack of a SD slot was a dealbreaker for me, but now I am extremely interested in the M8 (Just a shame it isn't water proof like the S5 or Z2, oh well).
I am curious about how it treats it's internal storage however, since it starts out at 16GB(although it appears the Sprint version will be 32GB). Does it actually mount it as internal storage, so apps who want to write to the SD card would be writing to the real SD card itself, or does it work like the Samsung and Motorola phones where it partitions off part of it's internal storage as if it was external, making apps think that it's internal storage is the SD card?
I really hope it doesn't mount it's internal memory as if it was the SD card.
I have the Evo LTE, and it has the same storage space as the new One (16gb internal with a microSD slot). It treats the memory as internal SD and external SD. Most apps are saved to the internal SD. Only a mere few (XDA is the only one that comes to mind) can be saved/moved to the ext SD.
I hope that this answers your question.
aarsyl said:
I have the Evo LTE, and it has the same storage space as the new One (16gb internal with a microSD slot). It treats the memory as internal SD and external SD. Most apps are saved to the internal SD. Only a mere few (XDA is the only one that comes to mind) can be saved/moved to the ext SD.
I hope that this answers your question.
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Click to collapse
The latest update to the EVO LTE changed the way storage was handled. They got rid of the internal SD so all of the 16 Gb was treated as phone storage. I would imagine that the M8 will be the same, especially given how Kit Kat treats memory cards.
ahecht said:
The latest update to the EVO LTE changed the way storage was handled. They got rid of the internal SD so all of the 16 Gb was treated as phone storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't something like that require re-partitioning of the flash ROM? I remember when I asked if it was possible to do this on a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM I was told it would require re-partitioning the internal memory and be extremely risky and possible to brick.
Granted though, I would love it if the M8 handled memory this way. Has anyone here tried one and can confirm or deny this?
Cyber Akuma said:
Wouldn't something like that require re-partitioning of the flash ROM? I remember when I asked if it was possible to do this on a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM I was told it would require re-partitioning the internal memory and be extremely risky and possible to brick.
Granted though, I would love it if the M8 handled memory this way. Has anyone here tried one and can confirm or deny this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the Android 4.3 update for the EVO 4G LTE was distributed as an RUU that repartitioned the internal memory.
The repartitioning to the LTE brings it in line with the first HTC One in terms of internal storage. It does mean that USB file transferring becomes MTP-only (no more mounting the partition directly). I find MTP rather slow (and at least under Linux, unreliable)... It's annoyed me to no end dealing with my wife's HTC One. At least the faster CPU than my Evo 4G LTE should make SFTP not glacially slow.
gbritton said:
The repartitioning to the LTE brings it in line with the first HTC One in terms of internal storage. It does mean that USB file transferring becomes MTP-only (no more mounting the partition directly). I find MTP rather slow (and at least under Linux, unreliable)... It's annoyed me to no end dealing with my wife's HTC One. At least the faster CPU than my Evo 4G LTE should make SFTP not glacially slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The external SD can still be mounted in Mass Storage mode on the EVO LTE, so hopefully that'll also be the case on the M8.
Mounted as SDCARD
Cyber Akuma said:
Considering how many people have used one of these by now, I was wondering if anybody could answer this.
One thing that drove me crazy about some Motorola and Samsung phones with 16+GB of internal storage, is that the storage was partitioned off and the usable space was mounted as if it was an sd card. This really wrecked havoc on apps that are supposed to save data to the SD card, because they would think the internal storage was the SD card and save to there. Not only was this annoying for some backup-based apps, but games which need to download anywhere from 500MB to 3GB of resources would install to the (usually 10GB or less after the rest is partitioned to the system) internal storage, thinking they were installing to the sd card. Basically, the sd card was only usable for photos, videos, and music... and file managers. The phone might as well not have an SD slot.
So far every HTC phone I have had hasen't been this way, the EVO 3D I currently has mounts the internal storage as actual internal storage, so apps correctly download these large amounts of data to the SD card. I didn't get a One because the lack of a SD slot was a dealbreaker for me, but now I am extremely interested in the M8 (Just a shame it isn't water proof like the S5 or Z2, oh well).
I am curious about how it treats it's internal storage however, since it starts out at 16GB(although it appears the Sprint version will be 32GB). Does it actually mount it as internal storage, so apps who want to write to the SD card would be writing to the real SD card itself, or does it work like the Samsung and Motorola phones where it partitions off part of it's internal storage as if it was external, making apps think that it's internal storage is the SD card?
I really hope it doesn't mount it's internal memory as if it was the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also was using HTC EVO 3D. Now I am using HTC One M8. This phone treats Internal Storage as SDCARD and External Storage card as SDCARD2. I am also seeing this as problematic. I don't want to root at this point of time and just living with it with my M8. I rooted EVO3D and had complete Freedom even with CM 11 (KK 4.4.3). Lets wait and watch...
Anyone else have an issue when trying to format an SD Card as Internal Storage? I just got a 128GB Samsung EVO Plus UHC 3 Class 10 SD Card for the purpose of extending the small 64 gb storage on the unit. When its formatted as internal it shows as a 256 GB Card with 132 GB Being used. When i go to app mgr and transfer the apps to SD Card i see the relative increase in space being used on my SD Card however my internal storage space stays just as full, which i believe shouldn't be the case. Anyone else have a similar issue, or know any workarounds to this issue? I do not think its device related as my girlfriends Razerphone 2 is acting the same way with the card i got for her. When we format it as removable storage it shows up correctly as a 128 GB but i dont want to be restricted to media only i dont plan on removing this card from the device.
Any assistance is much appreciated!
Thanks!
I have same issue but know not ofa work around or fix.
Even when you move apps to the SD card, the amount of data moved varies, and you'll still have necessary files on the internal storage. So I doubt you'll ever fully resolve that.
Regarding the idea in general, it's not a good idea to install apps on to the SD card in the first place. They are not designed to handle the amount of data writing that happens with normal app use and can corrupt the card relatively quickly. It's best to leave apps on the internal storage, and just put independent files (photos, videos, documents, etc) on the card.
Mr_Mooncatt said:
Even when you move apps to the SD card, the amount of data moved varies, and you'll still have necessary files on the internal storage. So I doubt you'll ever fully resolve that.
Regarding the idea in general, it's not a good idea to install apps on to the SD card in the first place. They are not designed to handle the amount of data writing that happens with normal app use and can corrupt the card relatively quickly. It's best to leave apps on the internal storage, and just put independent files (photos, videos, documents, etc) on the card.
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Click to collapse
Yeah but that isnt quite the issue. I see the gigs of storage space on my SD get used but the space on my internal storage remains exactly the same as it was before i moved as well. I paid extra for the Class 3 card just for better read and write speeds to be usable as internal storage. The 64 gigs on this is too little and id rather not have to redownload apps every time i decide to change a game.
On my previous HTC 10 with Android 8 when i combined my SD as internal it basically combined as a single storage with my internal had just one big storage drive. I didnt have a class 3 card for that one, it definitely slowed things down but was hoping for better results with this faster SD, just now it seems like the feature is broken and not working as intended on this Device model altogether
I already set camera app to save photos and videos to external SD but, since I have many apps installed in my XZ1c, I'm running low on internal storage (I'm constantly struggling with about 30Gb used, 2Gb free).
Unfortunately, afaik, there is no way to move apps to external SD without rooting the phone and, although I've a good general background with computers, I'm a newbie in rooting / modding smartphones.
So I'd like to root the phone just to be able to move apps to SD with the minimum possible effort and risk.
What the way to go?
Do you have TWRP Recovery installed?
No at the moment I made nothing.
I was reading about TWRP (I didn't know about it, I told I am a newbie!) right now.
My problem is I'm afraid of any modification...
Best to keep the OS and apps on internal memory as it's faster than the SD card.
Use the SD card as a data drive.
30 gb is barely enough; minimum for me is 128 gb but more is always better. A micro SD card is a mandatory hardware requirement for me.
2 gb headroom is cutting it real close... looks like you're getting near upgrade time.
I would move to SD only unimportant apps, that I don't need being fast and reliable, keeping all relevant apps in internal memory.
The problem is there is not a phone around like the legendary XZ1c, so powerful and compact. Only comparable phone that I could find is Galaxy S10e (but considering the price it's not worth the upgrade)
However using an external SD for media, 32Gb of internal memory would be enough to me, IF ONLY I could save a handful of Gb by moving the unimportant apps to SD.
indago said:
I would move to SD only unimportant apps, that I don't need being fast and reliable, keeping all relevant apps in internal memory.
The problem is there is not a phone around like the legendary XZ1c, so powerful and compact. Only comparable phone that I could find is Galaxy S10e (but considering the price it's not worth the upgrade)
However using an external SD for media, 32Gb of internal memory would be enough to me, IF ONLY I could save a handful of Gb by moving the unimportant apps to SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you. The easiest solution is to just deep six those rarely used apps.
You can preserve them on the SD card for easy reload with ApkExport.
You can also set the main apps that are being actively used to use the SD card for their data storage.
Can someone please confirm Link2SD can move apps to SD card on a rooted XZ1 Compact?