Recently I had this issue with my Galaxy S I9000B, the system seems to have saved a permanent image of itself, and recovery it on every bootload, once that everytime i reboot it all changes i had made vanish, i mean it keeps old apps old settings...
It looks like the system took a "printscreen" of itself on a specific moment and now everytime the phone is rebooted this "printscreen" is restored.
During my epic jorney trying to solve the problem, i'd killed the stock rom (eclair) and installed a CWM kernel, and tried some adjusts at CWM Recovery Mode, and that's what I've noticed:
Under Mounts and Storage Menu, I can't mount or format: /data and /emmc
If I mount USB storage with /sdcard mounted and move a file into the Internal sd card (through Windows Explorer), the file remains at the sd card after i umount and remount the USB Storage, but vanish after the reboot, or if I umount /sdcard.
If I mount USB storage without /sdcard mounted and move a file into the Internal sd card (through Windows Explorer), the file vanish at the sd card after i umount and remount the USB Storage.
OBS[1]: the same thing happens if I try formating the SDcard (even low level formating) under the previous circumstances.
It seems I've burned every neuron on this task =P, and belive me i'd google it...a lot!!!So can anybody help me?
Nobody???
I've reinstalled the stock eclair ROM, it seems the part of memory that keeps the operation system is not affected by problem whatever it is and now I'm able to make the root at least until I reboot
recovery.log file, if it helps...
I dont know much about what your problem is,but you should check 2 things :
1 - A program that does that backup & restore . Maybe you have one in your phone and it messes up things .
2 - Backup your rom (in recovery,in case the next operation wont do any good) and then wipe everything . Data,cache,dalvik cache,everything .
I had a similar problem with " not saving" for my internet access point name . I created a new one and it would reset in about half an hour to default and delete the apn i created . Wiping solved my problem ,good luck .
rekatluos said:
I dont know much about what your problem is,but you should check 2 things :
1 - A program that does that backup & restore . Maybe you have one in your phone and it messes up things .
2 - Backup your rom (in recovery,in case the next operation wont do any good) and then wipe everything . Data,cache,dalvik cache,everything .
I had a similar problem with " not saving" for my internet access point name . I created a new one and it would reset in about half an hour to default and delete the apn i created . Wiping solved my problem ,good luck .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer...but I don't have any backup programs and i've never performed a backup on this phone...about the wipe...it produces no effects....
Related
I created an sdext with rom mgr and usaully take it from 2 to 3 with amon ra. Confirm ext 3 with partition tool.
Lately I have lost ext three times. Not sure why.
I have used DT and went to a rom that has auto a2sd and maybe that did it. Don't know if DT has been reinstalled off of one the roms I flash between. Next time I opened the Jave app to see a blank sdcard. Deleted that app. This time I opened Quick boot and and went into CWMod recovery and did a basic bu. Bu completed but could not boot, hung on X. Saw that sdext wont mount.
Restore seems to go ok, but at bottom of recovery screen it says:
E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
(File exists)
Error mounting /sd-ext/!
Skipping format...
E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
(File exists)
Can't mount /sd-ext/!
Third time now and wondering what might be causing it.
I have sdformatter and can make another ext 3 partition and copy sd backup from pc to phone. Did that last time. Maybe rom mgr has been having issues. I don't do anything with rm I always boot into recovery. May need to go to amon_ra 1.9a full time.
Maybe stop using sdext and try ModInstallLocation, but heard that was no longer in Market.
Under MyPhone with MIUI .5 it shows sdext, but empty
MIUI .5 did load, don't know why it did and MicroMod 2.10 didin't, maybe too much mem used in the desire rom.
Under Quick System it shows ext as 458 and 323 free. Makes no sense. Maybe just the last reading it had. Internal free 69mb.
Maybe I just need to mount thru adb: mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2. Not sure exactly how to type the syntaxes on sdk stuff.
I am not at home so can't see if I can mount sd thru pc or recovery or open sdformatter and see what it says.
Frustrated!
Ken
Can run DT which is not supported on MicroMod, I believe. I thought when you wipe and flash the ext is formatted and restored so DT would be removed if there.
I ran DT zipalign and it was ok. That was the only option to do other than Dalvik to sd. So do I have an ext or not?
I am cconfused on DT with different roms. I like MM 2.10 and would like to use it.
BTW: TB does not show an sd-ext either
Well, I restored an MIUI .5 bu and it works. Did a bu and showed ext backed up. But TB and Root Explorer show no ext info, mem size.
Hi,
I already asked for this issue in the this Thread, but didn't got any answer.
I tested these three JB ROMS: CM10, HellyBean and SlimBean.
All of them work nice, except that my internal sdcard does not mount at boot time.
I have to do it manually every time boot up my phone by choosing System Settings --> Storage --> Mount SD card
Anyone have the same issue?
Does anyone have a solution?
Thanks
Same here! Google found this post, perhaps it will find us an answer
xalo2k said:
Hi,
I already asked for this issue in the this Thread, but didn't got any answer.
I tested these three JB ROMS: CM10, HellyBean and SlimBean.
All of them work nice, except that my internal sdcard does not mount at boot time.
I have to do it manually every time boot up my phone by choosing System Settings --> Storage --> Mount SD card
Anyone have the same issue?
Does anyone have a solution?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
toddmworth said:
Same here! Google found this post, perhaps it will find us an answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue with my I9000.
Any JB with different kernels makes the internal SD eventually be unmounted. When install a JB ROM the phone works very well but suddenly, the internal SD (phone's SD) is unmounted.
In CWM both SD are mounted and read without any problem. With ICS ROMs the phone works flawlessly.
In my case, the external SD is functioning as expected.(I have a 32 GB micro sd)
The installation language is Spahish - Spain.
No matter which method of cleaning and wiping I use, the result is the same.
Also, starting from GB stock firmware (JVU) flashed with Odin, followed by installing the nightly Cianogen CM10.1 and finally flashing the desired JB ROM works.
I tested Helly Bean, Slim Bean, C-ROM Mix and Baked Blacjbean7 obtaining the same behaviour.
Important: I'm restoring around 54 apk using Titanium backup (games, applications and utilities) in every case. I did not tested the ROMs without these restorations.
marcelogabriel said:
I have the same issue with my I9000.
Any JB with different kernels makes the internal SD eventually be unmounted. When install a JB ROM the phone works very well but suddenly, the internal SD (phone's SD) is unmounted.
In CWM both SD are mounted and read without any problem. With ICS ROMs the phone works flawlessly.
In my case, the external SD is functioning as expected.(I have a 32 GB micro sd)
The installation language is Spahish - Spain.
No matter which method of cleaning and wiping I use, the result is the same.
Also, starting from GB stock firmware (JVU) flashed with Odin, followed by installing the nightly Cianogen CM10.1 and finally flashing the desired JB ROM works.
I tested Helly Bean, Slim Bean, C-ROM Mix and Baked Blacjbean7 obtaining the same behaviour.
Important: I'm restoring around 54 apk using Titanium backup (games, applications and utilities) in every case. I did not tested the ROMs without these restorations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the problem I am having. I can see internal sd card on CWM.
But on booting in android, whatever the rom is , does not mount internal sd card on booting android.
Please help to solve this.
Same here
TheMask007 said:
This is the problem I am having. I can see internal sd card on CWM.
But on booting in android, whatever the rom is , does not mount internal sd card on booting android.
Please help to solve this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been reading/researching about this issue for about a week (on and off) trying various fixes because this is driving me bonkers.
I have tried:
1) Reduced the amount of used space on my SD Card (Samsung 16gb SDHC) to half
2) Moved as many apps as I can to SD (Noticed more frequent unmounts after this)
3) Removed my Nandroid Back-up from my SD
4) Reflashed CM 10.1
The last thing I am going to try is wiping/reformatting my SD card. If that fails then im suspecting something else is happening at OS/kernel level. I have read in other forums where people have tried a full wipe and restore apps slowly but still get the same unmount. One user has tried another SD card (smaller 4GB one) which seemed to solve their issue?? Weird.
Anyway, I will report back if I have any joy.
In your kernel settings you have the option to mount/unmount system and more or you could write/download a script that mounts the sd card automatically.
Maybe this could help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1971689
I give up.
cixty said:
In your kernel settings you have the option to mount/unmount system and more or you could write/download a script that mounts the sd card automatically.
Maybe this could help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1971689
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and no good. It seems as though the Internal SD is mounted, but some error is causing it to operate/display as unmounted via OS.
I completed more testing (extreme):
Wiped Internal SD
Wiped External SD
Try other kernel
Try other CM based ROM
The issue still occurred.
I then reinstalled Stock (XXJVT) via ODIN (Pit 512) and Semaphore kernel to see if its a hardware thing.
Nope.
This combo works amazingly. Infact its faster, smoother and easier to use (along with additional tweaks in Semaphore) than CM10 so I wont be going back to Jelly Bean on this phone. Ever.
Gingerbread for the win!
Hi,
I am using PAC-ROM v22.2 (Jelly Bean) and have the same problem: 80% boot don't mount the internal sdcard (I have no problem with the external sdcard). I can't even mount it manually as xalo2k does, cause I have no "Mount SD Card" menu under Settings/storage.
I spent many hours trying to search for a fix on google, xda, and others with no success. I found a lot of "litterature" on how to mount the sdcard on the PC, or how to swap internal and external cards. However, I don't care about mouting my sdcard on the PC, and I don't want to make believe Android that my external sdcard is the internal one, as I would not like to loose the internal 8GB that the phone is supposed to provide.
In Terminal Emulator, I can do:
> su
> mount -r -w -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /storage/sdcard0
> cd /sdcard
> ls -l
There I can see my files. However, if I exit root, the files don't appear anymore. Hence this looks like a permission problem.
Unfortunately ESExplorer still tells me sdcard0 is not mounted, and my apps (i.e. the camera) aren't able to access it. Additionnaly, the apps I had moved to the sdcard are'nt accessible...
So I tried to fix the permissions. Going under /storage as root, I can see:
drwx------ root root 1970-01-01 01:00 sdcard0
d---rwxr-x system sdcard_rw 1970-01-01 01:00 sdcard1
Si I try:
> busybox chown -R system:sdcard_rw sdcard0
But I get "Operation not permitted" for each dir/file in sdcard0
How comes that an operation is not permitted to the root user ???
Did anyone fix this problem ?
Edit: "You can't chown or chmod a vfat partition let alone a directory within it. You can only change ownership and permissions in fstab and it will apply to all directories and files. So to change ownership of the entire mount point you would change your fstab entry" (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1646849)
Thanks and regards
OK guys, I finally found a solution.
Thanks to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1646849 I mentionned just above, I decided to write an fstab file (the name is important) and placed it under /etc:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /storage/sdcard0 auto rw,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /storage/sdcard0 vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /storage/sdcard0/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
Basically, this script is the result of the terminal command (you need to be root):
mount | grep sdcard0 > /etc/fstab
... which I ran after I could get the sdcard mounted (after a mount on PC and eject). But it first failed with errors on options, so I removed a few of them until I kept the lines above.
Then I wrote a little script which I place on my external sdcard which does not have a mount problem at boot:
busybox mount -a
and placed a shortcut to this script on my desktop with SManager.
I just have to click on this shortcut after boot and the internal sdcard gets mounted.
I tried to place this script under /etc/init.d with the hope it would be launched automatically at boot, but this did not mount the sdcard. If anyone knows why ???
Hope this helps !
Well... still having troubles with my sdcard... With the above fstab script I can mount it, access the files, etc...
However, the camera still asks me to insert a sdcard... Is this a permission issue ? Which permissions (owner, group, etc...) does the camera need ? My DCIM dir has the following permissions:
d---rwxr-x system sdcard8RW 2013-06-04 10:36 DCIM
Thanks and regards
- Regis
Hello everybody
After two days of research and attempts, I finally gave up and decided to ask for direct help.
So, a week ago I rooted an Orange-branded Ace and flashed a few ROMs over the next 3-4 days to try to find the one that could suit better.
However, I screwed up something cause at some point in the process the internal sdcard was not seen anymore.
I mean, I can still go in Recovery or Download mode, flash stuff through Odin, boot without problems and use my phone.
Although, any direct access to internal storage is forbidden.
So, no rooting.
Both 2e and 3e CWM can't mount sdcard.
The type of messages I get :
When I pick "apply update from sdcard" -> E:Failed to mount /sdcard (No such file or directory)
When I rebbot after flashing -> -- Appling Multi-CSC... Installing Multi-CSC. Can't access to '/system/csc/whatever/system/'.
No way to get a USB connection either (different computer were tried), all with drivers correcting installed.
Also tried to get to the storage mass with MiniTool partition Wizard or through Disk management, but nothing.
Factory reset is useless, as well as any recovery's wiping process.
No sdcard formatting is possible.
I flashed several stock firmwares, went all the way back to Froyo, but nothing.
I wanted to try and flash a rooted stock rom, but couldn't find any /:
Hopefully one of you will come up with the fix.
Anyway, thanks in advance to everybody.
Cheers
inthered said:
Hello everybody
After two days of research and attempts, I finally gave up and decided to ask for direct help.
So, a week ago I rooted an Orange-branded Ace and flashed a few ROMs over the next 3-4 days to try to find the one that could suit better.
However, I screwed up something cause at some point in the process the internal sdcard was not seen anymore.
I mean, I can still go in Recovery or Download mode, flash stuff through Odin, boot without problems and use my phone.
Although, any direct access to internal storage is forbidden.
So, no rooting.
Both 2e and 3e CWM can't mount sdcard.
The type of messages I get :
When I pick "apply update from sdcard" -> E:Failed to mount /sdcard (No such file or directory)
When I rebbot after flashing -> -- Appling Multi-CSC... Installing Multi-CSC. Can't access to '/system/csc/whatever/system/'.
No way to get a USB connection either (different computer were tried), all with drivers correcting installed.
Also tried to get to the storage mass with MiniTool partition Wizard or through Disk management, but nothing.
Factory reset is useless, as well as any recovery's wiping process.
No sdcard formatting is possible.
I flashed several stock firmwares, went all the way back to Froyo, but nothing.
I wanted to try and flash a rooted stock rom, but couldn't find any /:
Hopefully one of you will come up with the fix.
Anyway, thanks in advance to everybody.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sdcard is an external memory, and yes you can't manage it without root permissions so when you connect your phone via USB to your pc you can't see your internal memory partition, only the external (micro sd-card).
Maybe your sdcard is corrupted, try to format it with an USB adapter and then try again
Viper The Ripper said:
Sdcard is an external memory, and yes you can manage it without root permissions so when you connect your phone via USB to your pc you can't see your internal memory partition, only the external (micro sd-card).
Maybe your sdcard is corrupted, try to format it with an USB adapter and then try again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for the reply
Although, I'm afraid I might not have been clear.
I haven't mounted any microSD so far and I've always been able to access to /mnt/sdcard (before screwing up).
Now, after flashing anything on the device, trying to access to My Files - or whatever file manager - will result in a dead end, since no sdcard is seen by the device itself (so, for example, I have no access to DCIM, or Music, Movies, anything).
I can't format the device cause:
- the computer doesn't see it (although drivers installed), not even from Disk Manager
- general disk-formatting/wiping softwares don't see it
- formatting from Recovery is impossible
inthered said:
Hey, thanks for the reply
Although, I'm afraid I might not have been clear.
I haven't mounted any microSD so far and I've always been able to access to /mnt/sdcard (before screwing up).
Now, after flashing anything on the device, trying to access to My Files - or whatever file manager - will result in a dead end, since no sdcard is seen by the device itself (so, for example, I have no access to DCIM, or Music, Movies, anything).
I can't format the device cause:
- the computer doesn't see it (although drivers installed), not even from Disk Manager
- general disk-formatting/wiping softwares don't see it
- formatting from Recovery is impossible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm gonna explain my post...In my opinion your SD-CARD is corrupted!!! so format YOUR SD-CARD, NOT YOUR PHONE!
Use an USB sd-card adapter!
Right?
Viper The Ripper said:
Well, I'm gonna explain my post...In my opinion your SD-CARD is corrupted!!! so format YOUR SD-CARD, NOT YOUR PHONE!
Use an USB sd-card adapter!
Right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you're talking about the microSD, right?
What I mean is that, at the moment, I don't have one mounted in the phone.
I've had one before having problems, but I messed up partitions, so had to format everything anyways.
But, right now, it's out of the phone.
Also, as I was saying, I cannot access common folders like Music or Downloads, nor can I drop the update.zip on the internal memory to root, and I don't think any of this has anything to do with external storage /:
inthered said:
But you're talking about the microSD, right?
What I mean is that, at the moment, I don't have one mounted in the phone.
I've had one before having problems, but I messed up partitions, so had to format everything anyways.
But, right now, it's out of the phone.
Also, as I was saying, I cannot access common folders like Music or Downloads, nor can I drop the update.zip on the internal memory to root, and I don't think any of this has anything to do with external storage /:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
".../sdcard/music
/sdcard/downloads
/sdcard/DCIM..."
All the folders you are saying, they are in sd-card folder so.... and ROOT.zip must be in SD-CARD to flash it....
Did you try to do wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache via stock rom then when you finished to flash the stock¿?
Viper The Ripper said:
".../sdcard/music
/sdcard/downloads
/sdcard/DCIM..."
All the folders you are saying, they are in sd-card folder so.... and ROOT.zip must be in SD-CARD to flash it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, but I might be misunderstanding.
All these folders are in the sdcard folder.
But the sdcard folder is internal, not a microSD, am I right?
When you suggest that the "SD-CARD" might be corrupted and that I should format it, are you referring to the sdcard folder?
Viper The Ripper said:
Did you try to do wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache via stock rom then when you finished to flash the stock¿?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. I've flashed (several times) 2.2.1, 2.3.5 and 2.3.6 stocks, wiping everything before flashing and right after having flashed, but I'm always stuck with no access to /sdcard or failure to mount /sdcard..
inthered said:
I'm sorry, but I might be misunderstanding.
All these folders are in the sdcard folder.
But the sdcard folder is internal, not a microSD, am I right?
When you suggest that the "SD-CARD" might be corrupted and that I should format it, are you referring to the sdcard folder?
Yep. I've flashed (several times) 2.2.1, 2.3.5 and 2.3.6 stocks, wiping everything before flashing and right after having flashed, but I'm always stuck with no access to /sdcard or failure to mount /sdcard..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/sdcard = external memory = YOUR MICRO SDCARD!!!!! = THE THING YOU INTRODUCE INTO THE SIDE SLOT!! NOT INTERNAL MEMORY!!!
I'am refering to your SDCARD (above you can see what sdcard means)
And yes all these folder are saved in it
The Galaxy Ace does NOT have an internal sdcard. /sdcard is the external sdcard.
Sent from my air conditioner
CallMeVentus said:
The Galaxy Ace does NOT have an internal sdcard. /sdcard is the external sdcard.
Sent from my air conditioner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope he'll unterstand xDDD as clear as water
inthered said:
I'm sorry, but I might be misunderstanding.
All these folders are in the sdcard folder.
But the sdcard folder is internal, not a microSD, am I right?
When you suggest that the "SD-CARD" might be corrupted and that I should format it, are you referring to the sdcard folder?
Yep. I've flashed (several times) 2.2.1, 2.3.5 and 2.3.6 stocks, wiping everything before flashing and right after having flashed, but I'm always stuck with no access to /sdcard or failure to mount /sdcard..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi inthered, I think this is getting confusing.
Sd card is the external storage, where you usually have the data, music, photos, etc. Is this sd card that your Myfiles see, if it isnt there Myfiles cant see anything, cause it cant access internal storage.
To access internal storage you must be rooted and have an app that could do that. I believe you said that your phone inst rooted, so you can only see external storage and seems that it isnt there. So you cant access all that folders ( music, etc,) cause they arent there
Have to mount SD first. You can format SD with Mini tool partition Wizard, in FAT32, and use it only as external storage.
Or you can create in this external storage one partition to help manage the internal storage, but that partition wont be seen by normal apps, like Myfiles, ou PC explorer, and you need to be rooted and everything else that didnt worked first time [but it works, I guarantee that]
To finish, internal storage can only be seen in rooted devices and with some apps ( never Myfiles)
Sorry if I wrote too much, but everyone was right, it had to be better explained
Hope I helped
thanks a lot everyone.
sorry for having been insistent, but i really missed the point about the no-internal-sdcard issue (as you might have noticed).
found only today a little time to re-partition sdcard and flash, and it finally works.
thanks again
Hi at all, I've a problem with my samsung galaxy note n7000, I have the latest 4.1.2 original samsung touchwiz , I've only rooted it,
the problem is that the android os doesn't mount the internal sd card, and get me a notification that say "blank usb memory or not supported file system", I tried to reboot custom recovery(philz recovery) and wipe data and cache, format sd card but nothing works, can anyone help me????
Did you format it to fat32? In recovery did you try formating the external storage?
diaboliko.hacker said:
Hi at all, I've a problem with my samsung galaxy note n7000, I have the latest 4.1.2 original samsung touchwiz , I've only rooted it,
the problem is that the android os doesn't mount the internal sd card, and get me a notification that say "blank usb memory or not supported file system", I tried to reboot custom recovery(philz recovery) and wipe data and cache, format sd card but nothing works, can anyone help me????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*bump
I'm facing the same problem right now. It occurred after I did a hard reset. In the best case scenario, this is just a partition table corruption, but in the worst, a physically damaged card.
On Linux, I have fixed partition tables with a nifty tool called gpart (not gparted). There is a similar utility available for Linux, Windows, Mac etc. called TestDisk. Unfortunately, these tools are not available on Android. However, there is something called aparted available on Play Store that supposedly fixes filesystems.
I have installed it, but it wants to install some browser addons too. I've tried to repair the filesystem that it shows as empty, but no luck so far. I will shortly check its online manual, but I hope we can get something like gpart on Android.
diaboliko.hacker said:
Hi at all, I've a problem with my samsung galaxy note n7000, I have the latest 4.1.2 original samsung touchwiz , I've only rooted it,
the problem is that the android os doesn't mount the internal sd card, and get me a notification that say "blank usb memory or not supported file system", I tried to reboot custom recovery(philz recovery) and wipe data and cache, format sd card but nothing works, can anyone help me????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I have been able to get the Internal SDCard (/storage/sdcard0) mounted again, albeit with loss of data. Look at my recent post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48595569&postcount=24
and the one from which I got the hint
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35726016&postcount=6
The step by step procedure is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26285877&postcount=12
but if you have only one partition damaged, you could just check it with e2fsck and then, if necessary, recreate it with mkfs.exfat or the other method in the referred post.
EDIT: link to parted and other files: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=38598228&postcount=4
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-droid-eris/78650-internal-storage-partitions-screwed-up.html
I don't know if you can recover your original data - I had tried formatting the partition, by mistake, to ext4 with mke2fs. You could avoid this, and see if you can back up your partition with dd before re-formatting it to fat32.
solved, I download latest frimware, and flash it throught odin and all are fixed
Hello all.
Although I have read a LOT of xda before, while and after my problems, this is my first post here.
I registered because I wanted to share my solution with the community.
Maybe somebody will find it useful at some point of their mobile adventures.
Primary symptoms:
- a lot of freezing for 5-60 seconds (sometimes longer)
What got me into the primary symptoms
- rooted 4.1.2 stock upgraded via odin to 4.3 stock
Primary ideas that failed
- Dummy File Generator - resulted in freezes, hangs and reboots
- LagFix (fstrim) - no palpable effect
- e2fsck -f -c -v -p every partition (data, system, efs, cache) - no erros & no palpable effect
- Flashing CM11 - primary symptoms remained
What got me into the secondary symptoms
1. Gave up (at that point I was convinced that the problem was hardware related and began to worry about the tripped knox warranty )
2. TWRP format data + wipe every partition (important step it seems)
3. Nandroid restore to 4.3 stock
Nandroid restore was successful BUT:
Secondary symptoms:
- apps were unable to write to internal sdcard0 I could however paste files from my pc via USB or sambadroid so all was not that bad
- titaniumbackup said that any location under /sdcard0/ was "not writable"
- swiftkey was not able to download language packs etc.
- despite the fact that apps could not write to the internal storage the phone seemed not to freeze and became snappier so you could say that the primary issue was resolved (probably by the 'TWRP format data + wipe every partition' step)
Now what about that read-only issue?
Secondary ideas that failed
- chmod 777 for data/media, mnt, storage etc.
- remounting
- retried nandroid restore
Solution that worked
- because only apps had problems I thought that I could mount the /Android folder from internal SD to external SD (apps had no problems with writing to external) and so I downloaded FolderMount. Upon launching it informed me that I have a faulty sdcard module and it will try to repair it (hell yeah! please do!). I rebooted and... sd worked + no more freezes!
phew! that is a lot! all in all I believe that the odin upgrade messed up my internal SD and the freezing was a sign of the phone struggling to write to the storage.
Needless to say - from that moment on I am a happy FolderMount premium user
TL;DR
If you have problems with S3 freezes and/or with read-only internal SD - install FolderMount and let it repair your sdcard module.
I wondered what happened in the background so I asked the dev himself:
madmack said:
The repair simply replaces /system/bin/sdcard with a proprietary one that changed the sdcardfs filesystem that samsung uses to the fuse filesystem that Android AOSP uses which supports binding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And lastly - thank you madmack!