Database Develop

[Q] Format SD card to ext2

I bought new SD card i want to wipe my phone completely and install Darkys Rom. I formated my new SD card to ext2 in Ubuntu but my phone didn't recognize the file system. Then i used Clockwork to format my (external) SD card and what i did i formated my internal SD card. I'm completely failed. Can somebody give me step by step tutorial how to format external SD Card to ext2 or ext4. Also i would like to know if i will be able to copy data under windows when the phone is connected through USB.
Thank you
Sorry for my English

Hi! Please tell me why do you want to format your SD card to ext2 or ext4? There is no need for that. Just format it tu FAT and that's it. If you want to apply lagfix then do it under recovery with the lagfix option under advanced features.
Greets from Croatia.

DanXo said:
Hi! Please tell me why do you want to format your SD card to ext2 or ext4? There is no need for that. Just format it tu FAT and that's it. If you want to apply lagfix then do it under recovery with the lagfix option under advanced features.
Greets from Croatia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to have option to transfer bigger files than 4GB.

+1
how do I format my external SD card to ext2? I have Samsung Captivate. I got Cygwin, since I use Windows. Does anyone know what commands to type in cygwin?
I want to put files larger than 4GB on my card as well.
I think this will be useful for a lot of people.

I found a thread http://android.modaco.com/content/h...an-i-bind-mount-e-g-system-sd-xxx-sdcard-xxx/
But I am a noob in Linux, and it would be GREAT to have step by step commands I would have to type in to format my external SD card, while its in the phone, etc
Possible problem I see is that the phone might not recognize external card if its ext2/3/4 . We might have to have small FAT32 partition on there as well? Or may be Froyo has that ability...

I'm looking into doing this myself, in my case so I can use symlinks to copy apps "data" folders (not the "data" partition, but the folders in /mnt/sdcard where apps put different things) onto the larger, external sdcard. It seems like it could be possible, just need to make sure the /etc/fstab file is updated properly, and of course make sure your kernel has the ext2 and/or ext4 modules loaded and running (which you probably will if you have a lagfix installed). I will play with this and post back my results here...

I have been looking for this myself for a while aswell, but on 4 different kernels and CWM v2.5 and CWM v3.0, I couldn't find any option on how to change the ext. SD to Ext4. If anyone knows how to then please post it here!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

So, progress report...
Still no success in this matter, although I have learnt a bit today about Android's internal workings. After backing up my system with CWR, I first tried formatting my ext sd card with gparted on my computer. Bad choice... Even though no config files were stored in it as far as I could tell, Android "panicked" and decided to restore all my configs to default, severely crippling my system and making a lot of apps force close when I restarted the phone.
At that point I thought, since it is now broken, might as well play with it So the next thing I tried was formatting my internal sd card (only the vfat partition that gets mounted in /mnt/sdcard) to ext2, but this time using the "busybox mke2fs" command, on the terminal emulator on the phone. This seemed to be successful, and I could read and write to the new ext2 partition, although for some reason, I got the feeling that apps kept resetting their settings (not sure what caused this, didn't really looked into it much). So once that was up and running, I decided to modify the /etc/fstab file, like I would do in a normal linux environment, to automount this partition on boot, as ext2.
At this point I rebooted the phone, but hmm... Android converted the partition back to vfat. Not good. This leads me to believe there must be some kind of "recovery" commands run on startup, in case the system detects the partition is not the default file system, or something along the lines of that. At this point it got kinda late, so I decided to document my progress, restore (which thankfully left my phone the way it was at the beginning of the day) and call it a day.
So, things that I still need to find out:
1) How does the system convert the partition back to vfat on startup and how could I avoid it from doing it? Maybe by having a small vfat partition to fool it into thinking all is good and normal?
2) When I had my partition as ext2, I couldn't see it on my computer when connected via USB (I'm on a linux system so the fs being ext2 is not a problem). Wonder why...
3) If I had a small vfat partition, how would I go about mounting the ext2 partition on the same mount point after the system checks the vfat one? Maybe by binding it? Gotta look into that as well.
4) Finally, have to check why the apps couldn't maintain their settings after a certain amount of time (for example, if I opened terminal emulator and changed the colors, these would stay if I closed and opened the app again right away, but if I closed it for a while, say half an hour, and opened again, it would be back to default...)
I'm on a Galaxy S btw. If anyone has any insight on any of these matters, would be much appreciated!

Any progress? Would really like to use +4 GB files.

morow said:
I would like to have option to transfer bigger files than 4GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is immpossible because of hardware limitations of the SD card And often if the file is big it just fail!

Hristov1 said:
It is immpossible because of hardware limitations of the SD card And often if the file is big it just fail!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true, read the rest of the thread before u post! Its not a hardware limitation, its because Android uses fat32 as filesystem.

hello everyone,
I just wanted to check to make sure that there is no solution for this 4gb limitation with Android yet? I too have been looking for something besides resizing files.
thanks
uki

I have ext2 on my external 32GB SDCard, just formatted it on my PC and put it in the phone, working without any problems. I just watched a full length 720p movie with DTS sound on my phone without having to re-encode the mkv
I'm using CM7.1 on my phone which auto-mounts the SDCard even with ext2. It won't work on stock ROM, but any kernel that has ext2 support should be able to read ext2-formatted cards but they might not auto-mount the sdcard.
On my PC I had to install a ext2 file system driver (google ext2fsd) for Win7 to be able to read the card when attaching the phone to the PC.

[Q] HELP TY

CM7 can make you install apps on the sd card, how does it differ from app2sd or app2ext? i have been trying to decide if i should partition my new sd card or its not necessary. There must be an advantage to have app2ext right?
Thank you.

CM7 basically allows you to move all applications using Froyo's app2sd mode. Even ones that have disabled it (like live wallpapers and widgets as those won't work when installed that way).
app2sdext works differently as it will install apps directly to an ext partition on your sdcard (that you manually have to set up). This functionality is NOT build into CyanogenMod, but is easily added with a number of different apps/scripts. This will give you a lot more free space on your phone, and all apps can be installed there regardless of whether they have widgets or have services running. Most app2sdext options will also give you the option of moving the dalvik cache to the sdcard which will save you a substantial amount of space on your internal memory.
Basically, if you want a lot of memory intensive apps, your only decent option with a Nexus One is an app2sdext solution. (I have it with a 1GB partition, and I will soon either need to resize it or delete apps... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)

bassmadrigal said:
CM7 basically allows you to move all applications using Froyo's app2sd mode. Even ones that have disabled it (like live wallpapers and widgets as those won't work when installed that way).
app2sdext works differently as it will install apps directly to an ext partition on your sdcard (that you manually have to set up). This functionality is NOT build into CyanogenMod, but is easily added with a number of different apps/scripts. This will give you a lot more free space on your phone, and all apps can be installed there regardless of whether they have widgets or have services running. Most app2sdext options will also give you the option of moving the dalvik cache to the sdcard which will save you a substantial amount of space on your internal memory.
Basically, if you want a lot of memory intensive apps, your only decent option with a Nexus One is an app2sdext solution. (I have it with a 1GB partition, and I will soon either need to resize it or delete apps... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why didnt i think of that? thank you for your reply... now i should decide whether to do it now or wait till i have reached maybe about a hundred apps. by the way does it have any effect on the speed of the phone if you do that?
I am on cm7 and decided to put cache apps on sd card using ta utility is there any other new apps like that? ta

Can you do this with rooted stock?

lolobabes said:
why didnt i think of that? thank you for your reply... now i should decide whether to do it now or wait till i have reached maybe about a hundred apps. by the way does it have any effect on the speed of the phone if you do that?
I am on cm7 and decided to put cache apps on sd card using ta utility is there any other new apps like that? ta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a class 4 32GB card, and I didn't notice any appreciable difference in speed. I have moved my apps and dalvik cache to the sdcard using DarkTremor's a2sd. I currently have 260 apps installed on my phone, and that is pushing the internal phone space and the 1GB partition I set up for ext. I am about to bug danger-rat for his instructions on how he resized his internal partitions to give the data residing on the phone more space (I will basically shrink the cache partition and I am looking at resizing my ext partition to 1.5GB or 2GB.
I couldn't live without this anymore. I don't know how I went so long without it. It is so nice to just browse the online market and click install on countless apps without worrying about your space.
If you want to try and move the app data (resides in /data/data) to the sdcard, I have heard that it is recommended to have a class 10 card to keep up with speed requirements. I am not sure how many apps support that.
brettbellaire said:
Can you do this with rooted stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you can. You would have to have a custom recovery. The main thing I am not sure is if it will mount the ext partition. If you have a custom recovery, do a nandroid backup (just in case it doesn't work), flash the zip for DarkTremor, and reboot the phone (the first boot will take longer).

brettbellaire said:
Can you do this with rooted stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you can.
bassmadrigal said:
I have a class 4 32GB card, and I didn't notice any appreciable difference in speed. I have moved my apps and dalvik cache to the sdcard using DarkTremor's a2sd. I currently have 260 apps installed on my phone, and that is pushing the internal phone space and the 1GB partition I set up for ext. I am about to bug danger-rat for his instructions on how he resized his internal partitions to give the data residing on the phone more space (I will basically shrink the cache partition and I am looking at resizing my ext partition to 1.5GB or 2GB.
I couldn't live without this anymore. I don't know how I went so long without it. It is so nice to just browse the online market and click install on countless apps without worrying about your space.
If you want to try and move the app data (resides in /data/data) to the sdcard, I have heard that it is recommended to have a class 10 card to keep up with speed requirements. I am not sure how many apps support that.
I believe you can. You would have to have a custom recovery. The main thing I am not sure is if it will mount the ext partition. If you have a custom recovery, do a nandroid backup (just in case it doesn't work), flash the zip for DarkTremor, and reboot the phone (the first boot will take longer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply i think i read on darktremors post class 4 will do for the data2sd. I have class 4 16GB sd card would 1GB good for the ext? ty

It really depends on how much you think you will be installing. I did a 1GB partition on mine, but now that I install most of the Amazon free daily apps, that space is dwindling quickly. I have programs that will resize the partition for me, but most will have to wipe the card and partition it manually. I do have the install location set to automatic, so it allows developers to specify whether they want it in the "internal" (really it is on the sdext partition, but to the phone it is internal) or external using the froyo method. The Angry Bird apps all default to install on the sdcard, so my installed app base is even larger than 1GB.

bassmadrigal said:
... adding app2sdext was the second best thing I ever did to my phone behind installing CyanogenMod on it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

is it true that cwm sets the partition to ext3 by default? unlike in ra recovery where you still need to convert it? ta

I have heard that it creates it in ext3, but right now, DTa2sd is showing that it is a ext2 partition. I can't figure out how to find out for sure while the card is in the phone. Either way, it is getting mounted as an ext2 partition.

temasek said:
I thought CWM will create ext3 by default? Your steps are ok, np.
Anyway when u read the ext partition type in android, most likely u will see ext2 if u are using official DT script cuz of the auto syntax it uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then it maybe so, this was posted on the darktremor thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14134665#post14134665

Well, whether or not it is formatted as an ext3 partition, Android is still mounting mine as an ext2 partition.
Code:
mount | grep ext
NOTE: the "|" is called a pipe. On the keyboard it is the shift option on the backslash key "\". I don't know exactly where it is on the stock keyboard, but on swype it is located under the "D" key when the keyboard has the shift key pressed and you access it by longpressing.
To get your sdcard to ext3, you just need to turn on journaling. You can do this through adb while in the recovery (because you need the partition unmounted to do this).
Code:
adb reboot recovery
adb shell
mount system
e2fsk /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
reboot
Supposedly Android should auto-mount this as ext3 on boot (which you can check with the first command). At that point, I don't think it will matter what a2sd shows. As the writing of the journal (the big thing with ext3, since it helps minimize write errors on a bad shutdown) is done at the OS level, not the a2sd level.

[HOW TO] Use link2sd WITH foldermount and use your sdcard to it's full potential.

Ok I've gotten a few PMs so I figured I'd make a thread about how to use foldermount with link2sd.
1. download foldermount from google play here.
2. download link2sd from google play here.
3. to use link2sd you'll need to create a 2nd partition (and make it primary. ext4 is recommended) on your sdcard. ***Note I've made my second partition 10gb you can make it smaller according to your taste. this guide shows how to do this nicely.
4. once you've done this you now need to move over all the apk files you can to the sdcard. open link2sd, select menu > multiselect > select all > actions > create link. This will move all the apk files it can to the ext4 partition you just made.
5. now lets focus on the data. this is the biggest culprit of space. open foldermount. click the + sign to create a new entry.
6. name the new entry something you'll recognize. I'll use GTA3 for example. I named my entry GTA3.
7. Select the source destination. This is the folder you wish to move data FROM. using the example of gta3 this translates to /emulated/0/android/obb/com.rockstar.gta3.
8. Now select the destination. This is the folder on the sdcard we wish to move the huge data file to. using the example of GTA3 it translates to: /storage/extSDcard/gta3. press the check mark. it will ask you if you wish to move the files. say yes.
9. select the "pin icon" to the right of the entry you just made. this will activate the mount point for the data. fooling the system into thinking you still have that data on the internal sdcard.
10. That's it. Rinse repeat for all apps or games you have installed. typically huge game data is stored in the /storage/sdcard0/android directory. either the /obb or the /data directories beneath that.
The result? Typically if you haven't implemented this proceedure after the Android OS, Samsung bloatware, sprint bloatware, you'll have about 9gb of free space to use for installing apps. I have full use of my micro sdcard now. I have about 10gb of data used on it and 39gb free on the main partition. I used about 830mb of data moving the apk files to the second partition using link2sd. "internal sdcard" is nearly empty and I retain full use of all my apps and games on my sdcard. Please see my attached screenshot that confirms this.
I hope this helps some people.
*** Warning!!!!! creating a 2nd partition on your sdcard will wipe the contents from it!!!! Please back up the contents of your sdcard prior to doing this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*** FORCE CLOSE ERRORS
Are you getting force close errors after linking an app to your 2nd partition? I have a solution that worked for me.
When I upgraded to MJA I lost the ability to link apps to my ext4 partition. After linking them they would force close when I tried to open them. Strangely no one else was reporting this problem. I Googled high and low. I found no solutions. I then thought about it and wondered if it would work if I changed the file system from ext4 to something else. Well ext2 didn't work. neither did ext3. So I tried FAT32. Bingo! It worked! So I'm now functioning fully again on MJA.
What could be causing this problem? I'm thinking the custom kernel I use isn't configured to read ext2,3,or 4. I think that's the reason other's aren't reporting this as a problem. They aren't using the kernel I'm using with MJA and link2sd.
In short, if apps are force closing after linking them to your sdcard, then delete your second partition and redefine it with FAT32. It should solve your problem.
NOTE: Please don't PM me for support. (1) It's rude. (2) Posting an issue or problem in this thread allows many users to look at it and offer advice on a possible solution. (3) Sending a PM does not allow other members of XDA to search for whatever problem and/or solution is derived from the post in the thread.
If you PM me for support I will automatically ignore you. Thank you and I hope you understand.

Good guide!
Just a reminder to all that creating a partition will wipe your entire sdcard. ll
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

mjs2011 said:
Good guide!
Just a reminder to all that creating a partition will wipe your entire sdcard. ll
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in fact I'll add this to the OP so no one misses it.

Nice work
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

Clarification Needed OP
Looking for some advice but let me make sure I understand everything...
So I DLed Zombiewood by Gameloft - 325MB. I run FolderMount and find a data file in /Android/obb for 286.4MB. FolderMount moves that portion of the 325MB successfully to my external SD card on it's own without having to create a separate partition on my external SD card. Basically for that game there is still 38.6MB of data still on my internal memory.
This isn't 100% clear to me but I believe the OP is saying that to also move the 38.6MB to the external sd card in my example above...we must use link2SD...FolderMount wont do it. Am I correct?!?!?
If I am correct, it seems like a lot of work with the partitioning and running link2sd to just save 38.6MB. Seems like I could live with just FolderMount since in my example it migrated 88% of the data to the external SD card...or am I missing something here?

Zhal696 said:
Looking for some advice but let me make sure I understand everything...
So I DLed Zombiewood by Gameloft - 325MB. I run FolderMount and find a data file in /Android/obb for 286.4MB. FolderMount moves that portion of the 325MB successfully to my external SD card on it's own without having to create a separate partition on my external SD card. Basically for that game there is still 38.6MB of data still on my internal memory.
This isn't 100% clear to me but I believe the OP is saying that to also move the 38.6MB to the external sd card in my example above...we must use link2SD...FolderMount wont do it. Am I correct?!?!?
If I am correct, it seems like a lot of work with the partitioning and running link2sd to just save 38.6MB. Seems like I could live with just FolderMount since in my example it migrated 88% of the data to the external SD card...or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can live with it that's fine. however once you set up link2sd it can automagically move the apk files to the sdcard upon install and remove them when you uninstall. It's a set it and forget it type of deal. And you're only saving 38gb if that's the ONLY app you're installing. Which I doubt it is. I have 61 user apps on my phone so far. I'm sure you don't have that many and maybe you don't plan to. But your mileage will certainly vary from everyone else.
And as I noted in my OP I'm up to 830+ mb of data on my 2nd partition. My internal storage is nearly bare. Again it's all about what YOU want with YOUR phone. Many people like myself would love to save as much space as possible.
I'm certainly not forcing anyone to use link2sd. As for it being a lot of work? It literally took me 4 minutes to create that 2nd partition.
One final thing to consider: You only have so many writes and rewrites to your internal storage. While I'm sure you won't see the average life span of 10,000 writes to your internal card, why not write to the SDCARD when you can? If that dies you can buy a new card. If your internal storage dies you're taking it to the sprint store for repair/replacement.

Just_s said:
Nice work
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! :good:

rawintellect said:
If you can live with it that's fine. however once you set up link2sd it can automagically move the apk files to the sdcard upon install and remove them when you uninstall. It's a set it and forget it type of deal. And you're only saving 38gb if that's the ONLY app you're installing. Which I doubt it is. I have 61 user apps on my phone so far. I'm sure you don't have that many and maybe you don't plan to. But your mileage will certainly vary from everyone else.
And as I noted in my OP I'm up to 830+ mb of data on my 2nd partition. My internal storage is nearly bare. Again it's all about what YOU want with YOUR phone. Many people like myself would love to save as much space as possible.
I'm certainly not forcing anyone to use link2sd. As for it being a lot of work? It literally took me 4 minutes to create that 2nd partition.
One final thing to consider: You only have so many writes and rewrites to your internal storage. While I'm sure you won't see the average life span of 10,000 writes to your internal card, why not write to the SDCARD when you can? If that dies you can buy a new card. If your internal storage dies you're taking it to the sprint store for repair/replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Appreciate you figuring this out and posting for the community!

Doenst make things run slower on Ext SD comparing to internal sd

btemtd said:
Doenst make things run slower on Ext SD comparing to internal sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect sir. There is no noticable lag associated with it. SSD storage is SSD storage. whether it's coming from your internal card or your external card.
I play GTA3, the dark night rises and the bard's tale with no lag whatsoever. if you have doubts benchmark your internal card with android tuner. (yes you can do this with android tuner) and note the difference.
EDIT: I added screenshots of my internal vs external transfer rates. Note the external is more than DOUBLE the internal transfer rate. So I highly doubt you'll see any lag. Granted I have a class 10 64gb and your milage may vary but I sincerely doubt you'll see any lag. This mod isn't anything new. I'm sure someone would have complained if they noticed any lag by now.

2 quick questions:
My foldermount app does not show the size of files just keeps saying "calculating..." whats up with that? is that the same for everyone?
Also lets say i have all of this data on my sd card. what happens when i want to change rom... am i able to link back to the destination directory? and not loose the game data so i wont have to download game again or what is the correct process?
Thanks!

Tfast500 said:
2 quick questions:
My foldermount app does not show the size of files just keeps saying "calculating..." whats up with that? is that the same for everyone?
Also lets say i have all of this data on my sd card. what happens when i want to change rom... am i able to link back to the destination directory? and not loose the game data so i wont have to download game again or what is the correct process?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I'm not having this issue. So I'm not sure what the problem is. What exactly are you doing to display the size?
2) Yes exactly that. You should be able to relink those files with no problem. The game just verifies whether the files are there or not. If not it redownloads them. The game should not know the difference when you link them again.

The only tool that has made Link2SD work again
Link2SD got broken for one reason for another. Foldermount solved this in two reboots. Plus following your method, there is some additional space saved as well.

Thanks for the guide. I'm having a bit of a problem with my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm using a 64GB card. I made the first partition about 40GB and the ext2 partition about 20GB. When I open Link2SD, after I select the appropriate file system type, it just sits there saying "Please Wait" for a long time with a circle going round and round to the point where I feel the need to stop it. Is this normal? Is my ext2 partition too big? Should it be ext3 or ext4? Please help!! Thanks!!
EDIT:
I reduced the 20GB ext2 partition to a 10GB partition, and I made it ext4 instead of ext2, and all seems to be working fine now.

mrtopdog2000 said:
Thanks for the guide. I'm having a bit of a problem with my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm using a 64GB card. I made the first partition about 40GB and the ext2 partition about 20GB. When I open Link2SD, after I select the appropriate file system type, it just sits there saying "Please Wait" for a long time with a circle going round and round to the point where I feel the need to stop it. Is this normal? Is my ext2 partition too big? Should it be ext3 or ext4? Please help!! Thanks!!
EDIT:
I reduced the 20GB ext2 partition to a 10GB partition, and I made it ext4 instead of ext2, and all seems to be working fine now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep I had the same issue with ext2. I used ext4 also and it works fine. I didn't want to put it in the OP as I wanted you guys to have a choice. I'm pretty sure it was that causing the issue and not the actual size of your pattition.

Good news!!!! There has been an update to foldermount to correct the size calculation problems you spoke of. Try and update the app and see if this fixes the problem!

Thank you OP! Tried this out and it works perfectly! I followed your instruction of making the extX partition a decent size unlike the tutorial which only sets it at 512 MB. I set mine at around 5GB and working pretty well.
My main concern was with the game Horn which is both very large and encrypted (according to link2SD). Even with the considerable size (around 3GB) from the SD card, it runs pretty well and smoothly.

thehelios said:
Thank you OP! Tried this out and it works perfectly! I followed your instruction of making the extX partition a decent size unlike the tutorial which only sets it at 512 MB. I set mine at around 5GB and working pretty well.
My main concern was with the game Horn which is both very large and encrypted (according to link2SD). Even with the considerable size (around 3GB) from the SD card, it runs pretty well and smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome sir!

Hello,
I am wanting to try this, so, I got the link2sd and foldermount apps.
I am rooted via the excellent CF Auto Root method.
Just poking around right now, link2sd app comes up no errors.
FolderMount app comes up with the following error:
FolderMount has detected a faulty module in your Samsung Galaxy phone
FolderMount will NOT work properly with it.
Would you like me to attempt to repair that fault?
(You must reboot your device after I am done to complete the repair)
Cancel OK
Anyone else seen this?

buggz2k said:
Hello,
I am wanting to try this, so, I got the link2sd and foldermount apps.
I am rooted via the excellent CF Auto Root method.
Just poking around right now, link2sd app comes up no errors.
FolderMount app comes up with the following error:
FolderMount has detected a faulty module in your Samsung Galaxy phone
FolderMount will NOT work properly with it.
Would you like me to attempt to repair that fault?
(You must reboot your device after I am done to complete the repair)
Cancel OK
Anyone else seen this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Click ok. It's fine.

Practical difficulty with adopt SD as internal storage

Hello.
Its been a while and I've been using the SD as an internal memory for a while. While I love this feature there is a very weird thing with this feature that if you move an app to SD and if it gets an update, it gets moved back to the internal storage which is slightly inconvenient. However more inconvenient is the fact that all the app data gets lost in this updation procedure.
Would any kind soul suggest a workaround or a script to get around this annoying glitch? I mean I really love this feature but it obviously needs polish from Google.
Also another thing is while shifting these apps back to SD, it sometimes says not enough space (despite having lots of it). On the second try it shifts. Any idea what's up with this?
Thanks!

I am having the exact same issues and the same complain.
Being on a device having only 4GB of internal storage (that too only 2.28 GB usable) this "adopt as internal" feature in Marshmallow really came as a boon. However with these issues the whole idea becomes worthless.
I did a bit of search on Google about this feature. For nexus phones on marshmallow there is a "Migrate data" option to the SD card adopted as internal. However this is not available for our devices. It only shows up in the internal storage and lets you migrate from SD to internal? Grrrr....what good would that do?
Any kind of workaround would really help and convince me to keep this phone for another year maybe

I think you're getting confused. We too have the same option but this moving back to the internal storage on updation is something Google needs to address..

psiknight99 said:
I think you're getting confused. We too have the same option but this moving back to the internal storage on updation is something Google needs to address..
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Click to collapse
Since google's nexus phones lack sdcard slots, this feature was probably introduced keeping android one series phones
in mind, however there is so much confusion regarding it's objective at the moment,for it is only partial implementation of sdcard as internal memory. After updates I am aleardy down to 500mb space on internal storage, the point is if despite using sdcard as internal storage if my original storage space still runs out--what purpose does it serve then? I would have used link2sd otherwise,but this feature put me like many others in dilemma.

Yeah mate, really disappointing..

I have the exact same problem
What was google thinking before releasing this half finished feature
I hope there is an update soon to fix this problem

Some apps disappear after reboot
After moving apps to sd, apps like mxplayer, Microsoft word etc just disappear.
They are automatically uninstalled.
Can anyone confirm this??
Also it would be great if someone finds a workaround these problems

Yup Firefox disappears everytime I install it. So do many other apps..

psiknight99 said:
Yup Firefox disappears everytime I install it. So do many other apps..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is so not cool man.
Whats the use of this feature if apps keep on disappearing
My observation is that the apps which directly get installed on SD card have these issues.
The apps that gets installed on internal first and then moved to SD, survives reboot.
Maybe app developers can make changes to their apps to support this functionality.

Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.

psiknight99 said:
Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope that from here on this feature will only improve.
Lets pray that bugs will be fixed soon, and google doesn't scarps this project like other projects.
I am still using it as phone storage.. well something is better than nothing

psiknight99 said:
Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make two partitions on your sd card, select portable storage option in Marshmallow, install apps2sd,it has all features of link2sd for free,I am using it myself.

same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )

DarkAlvy said:
same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.

arshavin69 said:
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But i will have to root to do that right?

arshavin69 said:
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi @arshavin69,
I am trying to use app2sd as you explained, but I am stuck on 2nd partition mounting.
I created 2 partitions by Minitool Partition Manager (because app2sd internal partition manager cause app force close): 1st partitition fat32, 2nd partition ext4.
Once booted up, I choose "portable" and then I open app2sd: app2sd say 2nd partition is not mounted and ask to remount or recreate mount script.
If I try to remount I get an error: mounting /dev/block/vold/179:66 on /data/sdext2 failed No such file or directory.
If I try to recreate the mount script, app2sd ask to choose sd card 2nd partition and file system type.
I am choose /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 and ext4 file system, then app2sd ask to reboot.
After rebooting app2sd says again that 2nd partition is not mounted and ask to remount or recreate mount script.
Could you please explain steb by step what I have to do?
Thank you!
SOLVED dismissing the notification when the phone ask to choose the sd card mount (portable).

DarkAlvy said:
But i will have to root to do that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course!! You can't use even link2sd without root.

DarkAlvy said:
same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your apps disappear after reboot, just transfer them to internal storage and it won't disappear after that

6.0.1 has made this feature unusable.
after updating to 6.0.1 most of the apps cant be moved to external sd.
internal storage gets filled with google apps
this really sucks

abhijitkadam03 said:
After moving apps to sd, apps like mxplayer, Microsoft word etc just disappear.
They are automatically uninstalled.
Can anyone confirm this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! This is the issue that I was facing.

slow internal storage speed

Hey guys, I have an old xperia sp(4+ years old), But recently it got laggy. I tested some roms such as `android 7.1 and 9 and original 4.3`. In android 4.3 using phone doctor plus i got 3Mb/s for write speed and 12Mb/s for read but in android 9 i got 3Mb/s for write and 2Mb/s for read Can anyone help me how to fix this? Is there any way to use SD-card as internal storage? Thanks in advance.

That's so slow, strangely slow really. Could be that the flash cell is finally succumbing to its age.
You can try to use the Adoptable Storage feature. It is unknown of how fast the sdcard reader of XSP can reach, but of course please use a high speed card, preferably with label A1 (or if old card, U2). This is to ensure an acceptable experience.
If doesn't remedy, you could try something a little bit advanced, formatting sdcard as ext4 and use it exclusively for /data partition. It is however unknown if this could be done easily, or if it possible for recent Android versions (this trick was used in the old days of JB era)

TechnoSparks said:
That's so slow, strangely slow really. Could be that the flash cell is finally succumbing to its age.
You can try to use the Adoptable Storage feature. It is unknown of how fast the sdcard reader of XSP can reach, but of course please use a high speed card, preferably with label A1 (or if old card, U2). This is to ensure an acceptable experience.
If doesn't remedy, you could try something a little bit advanced, formatting sdcard as ext4 and use it exclusively for /data partition. It is however unknown if this could be done easily, or if it possible for recent Android versions (this trick was used in the old days of JB era)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I can format sdcard as ext4 but where can i mount sdcard to /data folder? or how to mount internal storage as read-only after mounting sdcard as data folder?

alirezaafzalaghaei said:
Thanks, I can format sdcard as ext4 but where can i mount sdcard to /data folder? or how to mount internal storage as read-only after mounting sdcard as data folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay i looked up a bit but it seems this is not possible due to a myriad of changes and features. The only possible way to make this work is by the means of kernel modification. But I'm sure me if not both of us, aren't even a "newbie" in that aspect.

TechnoSparks said:
Okay i looked up a bit but it seems this is not possible due to a myriad of changes and features. The only possible way to make this work is by the means of kernel modification. But I'm sure me if not both of us, aren't even a "newbie" in that aspect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I think so, i'll wait for someone professional who can help me. Thanks:highfive: