The partitioning on the droid 4 is kinda annoying me. I really don't like mnt/sdcard being internal storage and my actual sd card being mnt/sdcard-ext. Will the have to be fixed with a rom, or can it be changed on stock somehow?
Sent from my DROID4 using XDA App
I was annoyed at that too until I understood the reasons behind it.
Here are the storage locations and what they are for:
/system
This is were the System ROM storage is
I don't recall the size on the original Droid, the size on the Droid 4 is 667MB.
/data
This is the internal memory for internal apps and data.
This is used on the Original Droid and the Droid 4.
On the Original Droid it's 300MB in size and on the Droid 4 it's 3.22GB in size.
/mnt/sdcard
On the Droid 4 this is a partition that is 8.59 GB in size.
By having the main storage for user data like Photos, Music, etc. be a separate partition you then have an internal storage place that you can mount on the computer via USB and organize via file managers.
Thus you don't need an external SD card for the Droid 4 like you did with the Original Droid to have 1GB+ storage space and the ability to mount it via USB to the computer.
The Droid 4 settings shows this partition as a "Media Area" referencing the usage of putting media like music, photos, videos, etc. on it.
On of the down side to this is features like MoveToSD put apps in this "Media Area" instead of the real SD card.
On the Original Droid this partition was not there so to keep compatibility with existing apps, it's mounted at /mnt/sdcard instead of say /mnt/MediaArea.
/mnt/sdcard-ext
This is where the real SD Card is due to the above path being used as a "Media Area".
I'm not sure weather the decision to make a "Media Area" was something Google did with Android 2.3.3 or if Motorola did it but I suspect it was something Google did with Android as from what I've read online other manufacturers do this too though it appears others use different mount points like Samsung apparently uses /mnt/sdcard/sd for the location of the real SD Card.
Motorola has an API for apps to get this path if they want to use the actual SD Card and all the built-in MotoBlur apps use this path.
So if you want to use an SD Card you need an app that supports getting the actual SD Card.
You probably can change the paths via updating the fstab file or creating a symlink but if want both paths that will just create problems.
If both /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard-ext are mounted then MotoBlur apps and apps using Motorola's API will expect the SD Card to be at /mnt/sdcard-ext so if you decided to switch the mount points around and have the real SD Card at /mnt/sdcard and the "Media Area" at /mnt/sdcard-ext then those apps would be storing data on the "Media Area" not the sdcard.
You could try to somehow change the fstab file to mount the real sdcard at /mnt/sdcard and replace /mnt/sdcard-ext with a symlink to /mnt/sdcard so all apps look at the real SD card but then you can not access the 8GB of storage in the "Media Area" partition.
So the safest thing to do is to just keep things the way they are and either:
1. Use the "Media Area" and no real SD Card (This is what I'm doing as the 8GB is enough space at the moment).
2. Tell applications that have the option to use the /mnt/sdcard-ext mount point when you want them to go to the real SD Card.
The MotoBlur apps like "My Gallery" support this, Titanium Backup knows about the two mount points and can be switched and File Management Apps usually let you pick the directory they display when you open them so you can set it to the /mnt/sdcard-ext mount point.
Justin
Related
My file system is totally confused. When I browse to EMMC from a file manager it goes to my SD Card. If I browse to SD Card it actually goes to the internal drive.
I've had my rooted Nook Color for about 5 weeks now (CM7 booted from a SD card). Everything was working great until I tried installing some different launchers. I tried GoLauncher, Zeam, ICS, Honeycomb and maybe one more. The default was ADW. Maybe I confused the system by constantly switching from one to the next but at some point the system crashed and I rebooted.
Once rebooted I noticed that many of the games I installed told me I needed to redownload their data files. I looked on my card, through my Mac, but the original files were still there. Turns out the Nook now installs apps on the internal drive rather than the card as it had been before.
Wouldn't be so bad but, as mentioned earlier, the file system is confused. When i need to manage files I've loaded on my SD card I have to browse to EMMC and vice versa. Makes my head spin.
Is there a way to fix it without starting from scratch? I'm using CM7.2.0.
Thanks for your help
That's not a bug, it's a feature. Anyway, what you likely did is Settings -> Cyanogenmod Settings -> Application Settings -> Use internal storage (checked). If you do this, then it swaps the mount points for the SD and the internal memory, so the SD card is mounted at "/emmc" and the internal memory is mounted at "/sdcard". See the first post in the thread in my sig for more information about this.
If you really want to return it to the original way, wasting 5G of internal storage space, then you can uncheck that box in the settings and it'll go back to normal.
Thanks for pointing that out and glad to see there's an easy fix. Seems a bit confusing though, like it's renaming your hard drives or something. I had been using the internal drive for storing media files, video, music, comics. Does it matter where apps or files are stored?
false1 said:
Thanks for pointing that out and glad to see there's an easy fix. Seems a bit confusing though, like it's renaming your hard drives or something. I had been using the internal drive for storing media files, video, music, comics. Does it matter where apps or files are stored?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the "fix", IMHO, is to leave it with them swapped.
Yes, it matters where apps are stored and it matters what is mounted at /sdcard. Apps use space on the /sdcard partition for settings, temp storage, downloads, etc. Mounting that 5G partition at /sdcard instead of /emmc allows these apps to use that space rather than cluttering your actual SD card. And apps are going to wind up on your 1G partition, not on either the /sdcard or /emmc mountpoint.
You can go read up in my guide on my recommendation on how to best use this space. The normal way is inefficient and wasteful of internal memory, IMHO. But you know, maybe you like it that way
mr72 said:
You can go read up in my guide on my recommendation on how to best use this space. The normal way is inefficient and wasteful of internal memory, IMHO. But you know, maybe you like it that way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think efficiency is more in how you choose to utilise the spaces rather than fundamentally in which switch option you use. For example, I choose to completely fill the 5GB of internal with sound and picture media as they get included in the normal app scanning process. Leaving the SD card to hold yet more media, app data and back ups.
It's still good to have the choice offered by the switch.
I see a similar question was asked but never answered.
When I go to check my storage my USB storage has 4.98gb classed as misc.
when you click misc it shows you the misc files.
4.66gb of this data comes from external_sd.
Does anyone know where I can find this with a file explorer? (or on computer)
Does anyone know why these files are put in to external_sd?
If I delete the file what will I be deleting?
My SD card seems properly mounted i.e I can access files from it play music and copy files to it.
Thanks
Bump?
I just noticed the same thing today - showing 33.5GB of misc on a USB storage with total 11.07GB space ... "Ye canny defy the laws of physics cap'n", I thought
My view is that "USB storage" is just poorly named, and it should really say "internal SD storage". The "SD card" section below that is also poorly named as it should really be named "external SD card". (note - I haven't looked at this screen while I have had a flash drive connected via "real" USB, so I'm not sure whether the bizzare naming starts making more sense in that scenario?)
Anyway, as your "external" (i.e. removable) sd card is mounted under the "internal" storage as /sdcard/external_sd, it seems the capacity on the external sd card is just being treated (in this settings/storage summary screen) as being part of the internal sd capacity.
The bit of the "USB storage" labeled "misc" is part of a colour coded bar chart of total space, nominally part of the internal SD card. It's purpose is to give a non-technical breakdown of the types of media that are occupying space (hence separate colours for "known categories" apps, audio, video, pictures etc.).
"Misc" is clearly just what they've used to cover everything else on the storage (so, designed for stuff like database files, text files and other random app data stuff that isn't easily classifiable).
As they've treated the mounted sd card as if it were part of internal SD, my guess is that it all just got too messy for the underlying script that was trying to identify and summarise media files recursively through all the sub-directories under /sdcard.
End result, they have lumped the total capavity of the external sd card into "misc" on the internal sd (whilst confusingly labeling that as "USB storage"), even though they have also itemised the same space separately down below under "SD card", without trying to display pretty coloured barcharts showing the usage profile.
In short - a total balls up of an attempt at summarising storage usage on the phone in laymans terms, but understandable once you get your head around it;; The "misc" discrepency doesn't indicate any problem ... beyond bad scripting & UI design
This is my first phone with a lot of internal memory and I don't quite get how it uses it... Is there any way for the phone to use my external 16GB memory card instead of always using its own 8GB partition?
I second this question.
Though it may seem useless to do so, on the contrary I have a 32g ext SD card and would be fine ignoring the (confusing and my case redundant) internal SD card.
Or if not disable, maybe force apps/etc to default to the ext card?
Sent from my XT875 using xda premium
The question is does your app allow you the option to use your external memory. Not all apps are created equal and whether they allow you to use the external SD card is really up to the app developer. Its in the coding of the app that determines where the data is stored. Check your apps for that option and if there is none request it from the developer.
I believe there are ways to use the sd-ext for some kinds of data files used by large games, but the app must run on internal mem. I store all docs, downloads, pictures, music, videos, etc. on my external microsd card, but apps have to go on internal or they disappear or don't work. Search for 'apps2sd bionic' and you should find a way to store some game data externally.
raylgo said:
This is my first phone with a lot of internal memory and I don't quite get how it uses it... Is there any way for the phone to use my external 16GB memory card instead of always using its own 8GB partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this when I had the atrix, and have also done it on my Bionic.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1404872
Ha! Didn't even think about messing with the fstab, thanks for that link. I'll be trying this shortly, and repost with results.
On a side note, I figured it shouldn't rely on the apps per say, considering a lot of phones don't have an internal "sdcard" (note: sdcard, not to be confused with regular internal app storage).
My opinion, naming the internal sdcard what it is was a seriously stupid idea. Should've followed suit with "app storage", how about "data storage"... just something not involving "card".
--
Cool, it worked awesome. Just had to swap files from one to the other to keep data in spots apps expected it to be.
Actually, I went ahead and disable the internal SD, and mounted the extsd in its place. Have been playing with mounting the extsd to both internal and external (resulted in only one mount point working), and also tried renaming the internals mount point to something like "internal_storage" (resulted in boot loop).
Be careful if playing with the mount points. The system doesn't like booting if it can't find something mounted to "sdcard", etc.
Something I'll be playing with and experimenting with. Any more info on editing these mount points would be very handy.
And lastly, sorry for hijacking your thread
Hope I didn't bother.
Sent from my XT875 using xda premium
Recently got this phone (Atrix HD) rooted.
I tried using Link2SD, but it says that my sdcard is not partitioned... it is partitioned with ext4.
It will not allow me to move apps to sdcard.
I also tried using the paid version of Apps2SD.. no luck with that either as the Atrix HD does not
have a "Move To SD" option in the app settings...
Anyone know of another solution for moving apps to sdcard on rooted phones???
I have only used the two above mentioned apps (Link2SD / Apps2SD)..
Thanks much.
With link2sd, I found that it has to be partitioned fat32 or it wont recognize the partition. Try doing that then try using it again.
With 5gb free space available for apps,I think it's more than enough. Why bother with link2sd or app2sd?
My concern is the 5gb free space shares with game data which is won't be enough. For that,we need to mod vold.fstab so our sd card works as primary storage. I can't find the exact command for it and it can break our storage function as well.
Sent from my XT875 using Tapatalk 2
You can try swapping internal and external sd card that's what I did for my s3
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
_MrAwesome_ said:
You can try swapping internal and external sd card that's what I did for my s3
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can this be done without CWM.?
There is no CWM for the Atrix HD.
Reading some posts how to do it on the S3 says you need to flash a mod using CWM.
Does it have anything to do with where the AHD external directory location is?
My last Android phones external directly was "_ExternalSD" whilst the AHD is "external1"
Sent from my phone.
Markyzz said:
Does it have anything to do with where the AHD external directory location is?
My last Android phones external directly was "_ExternalSD" whilst the AHD is "external1"
Sent from my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHD external sdcard is located at /mnt/external1
While the internal is located at /mnt/sdcard
Still hoping for a fix for move apps to external sdcard
On mine, when I inspect an app in links2sd, the Symbolic link line says Second partition not found, and when I try to move to sd card, I get an error:
Failure
pkg: /data/app/maxmpz.audioplayer-1apk Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE}
My SD is 32 GB and has 11 GB free, I went to settings on links2sd and set Install location to External.
So do I have to partition my SD? I'm used to the iOS world, big storage, no mucking around with partitions. Heck, I don't generally use partitions on my PCs because I hate potentially running out of space on one partition but having plenty on another.
ROM Toolbox Pro worked just fine for me on moving apps to SD. I decided to go with changing the internal memory to emmc and external to SD card.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Neroga said:
ROM Toolbox Pro worked just fine for me on moving apps to SD. I decided to go with changing the internal memory to emmc and external to SD card.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you describe this more?
I have a 32GB SD card, that I want to use as "internal" storage for apps like MOG that download cached songs to the internal memory.
How does this work with widgets for apps like MOG, if the Sdcard pops out?
Or am I not understanding what you did properly?
Thanks
ydgmms said:
Can you describe this more?
I have a 32GB SD card, that I want to use as "internal" storage for apps like MOG that download cached songs to the internal memory.
How does this work with widgets for apps like MOG, if the Sdcard pops out?
Or am I not understanding what you did properly?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use an app like Root Explorer and navigate to /system/etc. Open vold.fstab and you can change mount points in there. I've never removed any external SD cards from my devices but I'd think apps on the card won't work if it's removed.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
I'm not that advanced of a user and tried editing vold.fstab before and it resulted in the phone not seeing the external memory card. Could any one who successfully modded it post their copy please?
3165dwayne said:
I'm not that advanced of a user and tried editing vold.fstab before and it resulted in the phone not seeing the external memory card. Could any one who successfully modded it post their copy please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. If at all possible.
This is actually a deal breaker for me because I want my internal memory to function just like it did on the Atrix2 and I want my sd card to function just like it did on the Atrix2. I have a 64GB card coming today or tomorrow and would like to fully use it. What's the point of making the internal memory to sd card I don't get it?
Neroga said:
ROM Toolbox Pro worked just fine for me on moving apps to SD. I decided to go with changing the internal memory to emmc and external to SD card.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
?? How Please
Neroga said:
Use an app like Root Explorer and navigate to /system/etc. Open vold.fstab and you can change mount points in there. I've never removed any external SD cards from my devices but I'd think apps on the card won't work if it's removed.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix HD MAXX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
please tell us what lines you changed or upload vold.fstab. there are a couple of us that actually don't understand how you did it or what lines you changed.
# Copyright (c) 2011, Code Aurora Forum. All rights reserved.
#
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
# met:
# * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
# notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
# * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
# copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
# disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
# with the distribution.
# * Neither the name of Code Aurora Forum, Inc. nor the names of its
# contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
# from this software without specific prior written permission.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
# WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
# MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT
# ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS
# BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
# CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
# SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
# BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
# OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN
# IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
#######################
## Regular device mount
##
## Format: dev_mount <label> <mount_point[:[asec_point]:[lun_point]]> <part> <sysfs_path1...>
## label - Label for the volume
## mount_point - Where the volume will be mounted
## asec_point - Whether asec mount is needed for this value, if not, use "none"
## Else, supply a folder name under /mnt/secure/
## If not supplied, "asec" will used by default
## If supplied, /mnt/secure/asec_point will be used
## This is for further extension, not needed now
## lun_point - The target lun device for this volume. If not supplied, will use
## /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun0/file
## else, will use /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun_point/file
## part - Partition # (1 based), or 'auto' for first usable partition.
## For a disk with only 1 partition, use '1' is different to 'auto'
## Using 1, will not re-write its partition table when formatting
## <sysfs_path> - List of sysfs paths to source devices
######################
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/external1::lun auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host
dev_mount usbdisk_1.1.1 /mnt/usbdisk_1.1.1 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0
dev_mount usbdisk_1.1 /mnt/usbdisk_1.1 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.1
dev_mount usbdisk_1.2 /mnt/usbdisk_1.2 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.2
dev_mount usbdisk_1.3 /mnt/usbdisk_1.3 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.3
dev_mount usbdisk_1.4 /mnt/usbdisk_1.4 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.4
dev_mount usbdisk_1.5 /mnt/usbdisk_1.5 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.5
dev_mount usbdisk_1.6 /mnt/usbdisk_1.6 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.6
dev_mount usbdisk_1.7 /mnt/usbdisk_1.7 auto /devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host/usb1/1-1/1-1.7
WHAT do we edit?
Internal vs External storage
sounreal said:
This is actually a deal breaker for me because I want my internal memory to function just like it did on the Atrix2 and I want my sd card to function just like it did on the Atrix2. I have a 64GB card coming today or tomorrow and would like to fully use it. What's the point of making the internal memory to sd card I don't get it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess the reasoning is that with the OS and apps on the internal storage, if frees up the external to be used as removable storage; i.e. you can just swap cards all day long without having to shut your phone down as you would with the Atrix 2. Coming from the Atrix 4G originally, with a brief stopover with an Atrix 2 for a couple of weeks, the storage setup of the HD makes perfect sense, and is more useful than with the 4G as 4.0.4 lets me unmount/remount the removable SD card natively without having to resort to 3rd party methods.
That said, I'd prefer two SD card slots rather than a fixed amount of internal storage and an external SD slot. Then I could have a card dedicated to the OS and apps, and one to media.
Fat Rat Bastard said:
My guess the reasoning is that with the OS and apps on the internal storage, if frees up the external to be used as removable storage; i.e. you can just swap cards all day long without having to shut your phone down as you would with the Atrix 2. Coming from the Atrix 4G originally, with a brief stopover with an Atrix 2 for a couple of weeks, the storage setup of the HD makes perfect sense, and is more useful than with the 4G as 4.0.4 lets me unmount/remount the removable SD card natively without having to resort to 3rd party methods.
That said, I'd prefer two SD card slots rather than a fixed amount of internal storage and an external SD slot. Then I could have a card dedicated to the OS and apps, and one to media.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah yesterday I found out just how stupid it is. I had 1GB free on the phone and 20GB free on my 64GB sdcard. I went to install Need for Speed Most Wanted and and it kept telling me that I did not have enough free space. The game data would only install to what the OS sees as the sdcard..... Aka not my actual sdcard. I had to uninstall every game in order to install that one. It's a stupid setup.
It does not matter if you have the free space on your card you are always gonna be fighting the phone about free space.
Fat Rat Bastard said:
My guess the reasoning is that with the OS and apps on the internal storage, if frees up the external to be used as removable storage; i.e. you can just swap cards all day long without having to shut your phone down as you would with the Atrix 2. Coming from the Atrix 4G originally, with a brief stopover with an Atrix 2 for a couple of weeks, the storage setup of the HD makes perfect sense, and is more useful than with the 4G as 4.0.4 lets me unmount/remount the removable SD card natively without having to resort to 3rd party methods.
That said, I'd prefer two SD card slots rather than a fixed amount of internal storage and an external SD slot. Then I could have a card dedicated to the OS and apps, and one to media.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha, "makes perfect sense"! That might work for you but not for people who might use their phones for the mini mobile gaming and media consumption computers that they most certainly are. I hate it when people stick up for choices that are completely stupid. This could have been achievd before by simply not installing any of your applications to the sd card. This was a stupid move by Google in order to get us to use their cloud services. Can you really not see that they are simply taking away the choice that consumers had before? I really did not want to be rude, but if there wasn't a need for this feature to be renabled we wouldn't be here discussing it. 5gb of internal space on a smartphone in 2012 is simply outrageous if you ask me. Had i known this I would have steered clear of this phone. I only still have it because I found that this stupid "enhancement" can be rectified. If you really don't believe me about Google purposefully trying to push their cloud storage crap down our throats please take a look at the nexus 4 and tell me why one of the options only has 8gb of storage space and no sd card slot?
Sigh, this is exactly what I was worried about when upgrading from my EVO 3D.
I noticed my new M8 has a sdcard0 and extsdcard folder. And of course, the apps and games which download hundreds of megs of data in order to run are downloading to the 24 gig internal sdcard0 mount point instead of the nearly empty 64gig extsdcard0 mountpoint. I really REALLY hate how so many Android phones seem to do this, why can't it just be partitioned as internal instead of faking a sdcard, thus making large apps install to internal with no option of installing to the actual external card?
Anyway, without rooting my phone, is there any way I can somehow set it so apps download and install their data to the actual SD card? The whole reason I didn't get the M7 was because I don't want my data to be stuck on the phone's internal memory in case anything happens, as well as to not waste internal memory space on several hundred megs or even gigs of data when I can use a large sdcard for that.
I believe u can go to manage apps and move apps to the sd card. Some may not be able to if it's not comparable but a lot of them should.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
aaron130 said:
I believe u can go to manage apps and move apps to the sd card. Some may not be able to if it's not comparable but a lot of them should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, it only moves the app executable to the SD card, not the hundreds of megs of additional data it downloaded. The app management screen even tells me how much of this additional data is on the internal memory and how much of it is on the SD card (it's all on internal), but moving the app doesn't move the additional data to the SD card.
One would assume that the ext sd 's bus interface would be quick enough to not bog any app which would be using it. That being the case htc has no excuse for not having interchangeable symbolic mounting points between the two sd's. Ive physcally moved some of the data from app's (dcim, and random music ) directories to the extsd, and at least it unburdens the internal sd.
The apk resource fork in these systems could be processed better in android and it's sdk, or even the runtime.
F yes it sucks.