Database Develop

Why I hate MTP

Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android

Of course you have all that stuff backed up....!?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

chiwou said:
Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on, just don't delete stuff. MTP is not a problem, it ensures ext4 compatibility with different desktops.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

reqmon said:
Come on, just don't delete stuff. MTP is not a problem, it ensures ext4 compatibility with different desktops.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but I think there is a better solution like it's used on usb sticks, and I can delete every damn "empty" folder I want
gori11a said:
Of course you have all that stuff backed up....!?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope :silly: but I love the auto backup tools from google+ and dropbox, so it's not that bad, it just really annoying and bugs me

chiwou said:
Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same happened to me last weekend. Luckily I had all my apps backed up daily with Titanium Backup to Box.net and my photos with Dropbox. The positive outcome for me was that I finally got allot of disk space back that I wouldn't have manged myself.

You don't want the solution like on USB sticks. For starters, FAT is extremely inefficient compared to EXT3/4 and if phone storage size keeps expanding we will hit a brick wall that FAT can't handle, then what? NTFS? NTFS works on *nix just fine but it is even more inefficient than FAT since it's all reverse engineered which might also cause issues with licensing.
MTP just needs some maturing. It's a little buggy under Linux but other than an occasional odd error message (it's very beta) transferring media it works just fine.

AnotherBill said:
You don't want the solution like on USB sticks. For starters, FAT is extremely inefficient compared to EXT3/4 and if phone storage size keeps expanding we will hit a brick wall that FAT can't handle, then what? NTFS? NTFS works on *nix just fine but it is even more inefficient than FAT since it's all reverse engineered which might also cause issues with licensing.
MTP just needs some maturing. It's a little buggy under Linux but other than an occasional odd error message (it's very beta) transferring media it works just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because of maturity and some other factors I use FTP to transfer files, not MTP. It's wireless, fast and easy ^_^.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Ha! 'rant' as a keyword!

I once deleted it in JellyBean，when I found something was wrong ，I clicked the cancel，but it's too late，everything is gone……
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

for some, MTP does not work well under windows environment..
unfortunately im one of them.. (and "hate" is quite an accurate description of my actual feeling in this matter)
now im mostly using samba to transfer files between phone and pc..

I came to realize that if I ever find the need to extract or backup or move files from my phone, always use the darn Nexus ToolKit. I use to for any device as long as the ADB is recognized.
Its glitchy, it once had my Titanium folder as an file instead of a folder. I was super picky and hawkish on deleting stuff on my Nexus 4 because its 16gb. Now on Nexus 5, 32gb I tend to not give a dam.
It is annoying

MTP is slow, only shows Image Thumbnails in the DCIM (or something) Folder and is not meant to be used for Multitasking.
I had the EXACT same problem.
Just wanted to clean my internal storage, deleted the Folder and bam ... everything gone.
Lost about 2 months of Images and ... yea, seriously sucks.
Got point about that, I got enough space again

I did that once too.
It is really confusing for average users.
Also, it is slow and not detecting all files most of the time.
Yes I know it can be fixed by rescanning media or rebooting the phone, but then again this is so trouble and average users would just assumed that they can plug in the phone to pc and use it.

[Q] Saving Wikipedia Offline to the computer before factory reset

Hello,
I have a one year old Nook HD+. I've been using it all this time without any issues. It was only yesterday that I had a problem. When I tried to open Coolreader (for reading epubs), it wouldn't open, then the Nook would give a message that Shop had stopped working, and there was another problem with "com.google.process.gapps". I searched for a solution on the net but couldn't find one, so I finally did a factory reset. Its working fine now; I did have to connect the tablet to the computer to copy the books again, which is not a problem, but I lost all the apps that I had downloaded, which is again not a problem, since I can install them again. But one app was huge, Wikipedia Offline, 2+ GBs. I'll have to download it again.
Now my question is, suppose I face a similar problem in the future, is there any way to copy the Wikipedia folder from the Nook to the computer, so that I can copy it back after the factory reset? Where exactly does this folder lie?
Thanks.

BhargavJ said:
Hello,
I have a one year old Nook HD+. I've been using it all this time without any issues. It was only yesterday that I had a problem. When I tried to open Coolreader (for reading epubs), it wouldn't open, then the Nook would give a message that Shop had stopped working, and there was another problem with "com.google.process.gapps". I searched for a solution on the net but couldn't find one, so I finally did a factory reset. Its working fine now; I did have to connect the tablet to the computer to copy the books again, which is not a problem, but I lost all the apps that I had downloaded, which is again not a problem, since I can install them again. But one app was huge, Wikipedia Offline, 2+ GBs. I'll have to download it again.
Now my question is, suppose I face a similar problem in the future, is there any way to copy the Wikipedia folder from the Nook to the computer, so that I can copy it back after the factory reset? Where exactly does this folder lie?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every app makes its own decision where to store its data. And they could be anywhere. But most store them in /sdcard. It could be in its own folder or could be in a special location that is hard to find. Try looking in /sdcard/Android/data and a folder there with the raw name of the app (like com.amazon.kindle is the kindle ereader).
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app

leapinlar said:
Every app makes its own decision where to store its data. And they could be anywhere. But most store them in /sdcard. It could be in its own folder or could be in a special location that is hard to find. Try looking in /sdcard/Android/data and a folder there with the raw name of the app (like com.amazon.kindle is the kindle ereader).
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have an SD card; I only have the 32 GB onboard the tablet. I had earlier downloaded something called Android File Manager, which showed the various files and folders on the tablet. I'll see what I can find there.
Another question: Is it possible to download the Wikipedia on the computer, and then copy it to the Nook. I don't have unlimited internet, so I download at particular times during the day; does Google Play allow stopping and resuming of downloads?
Thanks for the reply.

BhargavJ said:
I don't have an SD card; I only have the 32 GB onboard the tablet. I had earlier downloaded something called Android File Manager, which showed the various files and folders on the tablet. I'll see what I can find there.
Another question: Is it possible to download the Wikipedia on the computer, and then copy it to the Nook. I don't have unlimited internet, so I download at particular times during the day; does Google Play allow stopping and resuming of downloads?
Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not say you had an SD. I said the apps use /sdcard. /sdcard is a folder on internal memory.
And it depends on which version of wiki online you are using. I looked on Play Store and one has the data all built into the app (3.5GB) and one has a small app and the app downloads the data to /sdcard. My earlier comments were for the latter type that stores to /sdcard. In either case, yes, you can use a root file manager to copy the app or data to your PC. But no you can't download to PC first and you can't resume.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app

leapinlar said:
I did not say you had an SD. I said the apps use /sdcard. /sdcard is a folder on internal memory.
And it depends on which version of wiki online you are using. I looked on Play Store and one has the data all built into the app (3.5GB) and one has a small app and the app downloads the data to /sdcard. My earlier comments were for the latter type that stores to /sdcard. In either case, yes, you can use a root file manager to copy the app or data to your PC. But no you can't download to PC first and you can't resume.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've downloaded the ES file manager; I'll take a look at what folders it shows on the tablet. I have some experience working with computers but pretty much none with tablets. I use the tablet only to read ebooks while lying down on the bed. You've replied to this post from your Nook; I've never been able to use the tablet's keyboard properly; its slow and tiresome. Typing on the computer is much faster.
As for Wikipedia, yes, I meant the 3.5 GB one. Looks like I'll have to download the whole thing on the tablet all over again. Once it is done, I'll make a backup to the computer. I'll ask if I face any further difficulty.
Thanks.

[Q] HTC One Missing Photos, No LOST.DIR Anywhere? Still Have Space Taken Up

So I had alot of photos hidden using QuickPic's ".nomedia" trick, and it worked surprisingly well...
Recently HTC's Sense ROM was getting too buggy for me, YT wasn't working, Twitch wasn't either.
So I switched to Cyanogen Mod 11, and so far its tons better.
However; I decided to back up my music / pictures before flashing the new OS...
I just selected the two folders, "pictures", and "music" hit CTRL-X and CTRL-V on my Desktop.
It started copying the pictures, then finished almost instantly. Then moved on to the music, which took almost 45 minutes.
I checked both the music / pictures folders on my desktop, music was completely there, but all the pictures were not there.
So I look at my phone, and they don't exist there either... restarted phone, checked for a LOST.DIR file... nothing there...
So I say, "screw it, lets just get my phone working again" and restart, go to bootloader, go to recovery, wipe then flash.
Both completed properly.
BTW: I am using TWRP.
Now here is where it gets strange...
After I get everything set up, I see that my drive space, well its the exact same. 18 GB free...
I still had all my (non-hidden) pictures, and all my music. (I did not restore them from my backup on my PC)
So I know that the pictures are still on my drive... but where!? LOST.DIR is no where in sight, and since CM11 comes with root file manager,
I searched for "lost" and got "lost and found" it was empty.
I have been searching all over the web for a solution, all I can find is these : "delete LOST.DIR and save space " and "recover photos you lost is in LOST.DIR"
Both state that LOST.DIR is in the SDCard, but the HTC One M7 has no SDCard.... It's got internal memory / usbdisk / root / system / etc.
Does HTC One M7 + CM11 (4.4.4) have LOST.DIR still?
So if you guys know of anyway I could get those photos back, it would be appreciated.
Also why did wipe not actually wipe the whole phone?

da_coder said:
So I had alot of photos hidden using QuickPic's ".nomedia" trick, and it worked surprisingly well...
Recently HTC's Sense ROM was getting too buggy for me, YT wasn't working, Twitch wasn't either.
So I switched to Cyanogen Mod 11, and so far its tons better.
However; I decided to back up my music / pictures before flashing the new OS...
I just selected the two folders, "pictures", and "music" hit CTRL-X and CTRL-V on my Desktop.
It started copying the pictures, then finished almost instantly. Then moved on to the music, which took almost 45 minutes.
I checked both the music / pictures folders on my desktop, music was completely there, but all the pictures were not there.
So I look at my phone, and they don't exist there either... restarted phone, checked for a LOST.DIR file... nothing there...
So I say, "screw it, lets just get my phone working again" and restart, go to bootloader, go to recovery, wipe then flash.
Both completed properly.
BTW: I am using TWRP.
Now here is where it gets strange...
After I get everything set up, I see that my drive space, well its the exact same. 18 GB free...
I still had all my (non-hidden) pictures, and all my music. (I did not restore them from my backup on my PC)
So I know that the pictures are still on my drive... but where!? LOST.DIR is no where in sight, and since CM11 comes with root file manager,
I searched for "lost" and got "lost and found" it was empty.
I have been searching all over the web for a solution, all I can find is these : "delete LOST.DIR and save space " and "recover photos you lost is in LOST.DIR"
Both state that LOST.DIR is in the SDCard, but the HTC One M7 has no SDCard.... It's got internal memory / usbdisk / root / system / etc.
Does HTC One M7 + CM11 (4.4.4) have LOST.DIR still?
So if you guys know of anyway I could get those photos back, it would be appreciated.
Also why did wipe not actually wipe the whole phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U should search in SDCARD/DCIM/100MEDIA
There should your photos be.
Good luck!

Fain11 said:
U should search in SDCARD/DCIM/100MEDIA
There should your photos be.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, empty...

Well... this certainly was helpful :/

da_coder said:
Well... this certainly was helpful :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it seems the "QuickPic's ".nomedia" trick" saved your photos to the user data partition and you erased them.

clsA said:
well it seems the "QuickPic's ".nomedia" trick" saved your photos to the user data partition and you erased them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I ask why it is the space in my partition is still taken up? Is that just a glitch?

da_coder said:
May I ask why it is the space in my partition is still taken up? Is that just a glitch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like how much space ? a few MB of several Gigs ?

Files disappeared,

Yes, I know how to use google, yes, I tried many things now and I don't know where else to look for help so I'm asking here, a place with many smart heads full of ideas.
I was doing pretty normal thing on my phone this morning, just trying to copy all the files from internal memory onto the PC. Of course I couldn't do that thanks to "Unspecified error" during copying some of the folders, including Downloads and DCIM. I managed to copy only some of the files from internal storage. I thought a reboot might help. And so the nightmare began. All the other files I wanted to copy disappeared from gallery and Total Commander. They must be on the phone though, as there is something on the phone that uses 2gb of memory. I did not delete them, the system just fails to see them. I already tried deleting all the ".nomedia" files, clearing cache and data from Media Storage app, disabling it, rebooting and enabling again but it was of no use. I'm helpless and I don't know what to do, why did android even do this? I lost a lot of photos and images and I'm really upset about that. Any ideas what to do? The phone is not rooted, never played with software in it, it's updated to 5.1

Download any File Manager from Play Store, check if the files are on the phone memory. If not, well, they are somehow lost. Maybe you cut-paste them onto your PC, and the files were deleted, but you got an 'unspecified error' on moving.

Thanks a lot for a response. I use Total Commander on every android phone I had, I can see that my files look like they disappeared completely, android just generated empty generic folders ("Pictures etc) after I cut off the previous folders along with their content so I saved a little bit that I could. On the other hand something is occupying 2gb of data but the phone refuses to show what, so there is a chance my files are there. After copying the whole content of the phone to the folder on desktop it just shows it weight few hundreds KB. I'll be trying to use some recovery software for android. The question is how did this happen at all? It had no right to happen, what if this happened to someone who has completely no idea about that stuff? Who's to blame and who's responsible for helping such a person? Motorola? Google? Anyway, this is the last phone with no micro-sd card slot I used. A memory card is the best backup

You COULD recover your files even if they were deleted if Android still had a mass storage mode. I don't think any of the data recovery softwares play nice with the MTP transfer that android offers. Of course, the SD card is infinitely better, but a rarity these days. I am sorry for your lost data. You seem like you did everything within your reach to get it back.
EDIT: Just to be sure, did you cut-paste the folders on your PC from phone, or just copy-paste. It might be possible for files to be deleted in cut-paste, if some error occurs in copy.

Thanks for contributing. It seems Google knows better then any of us what we need and there's no more Mass Storage option which gives free access to memory. Unfortunately I don't have that option. First I ensured which files are not affected by error by trying to copy them folder after folder. Then there were left files I couldn't copy, it was DCIM with most recent photos (unfortunately) and download where I kept lots of images with cool infographics found on the internet. I thought a reboot would help to get access to them and you know the rest. Files were there no longer. I'm seriously considering switching to Windows Phone, it seem it's too much to ask for a phone that just "werks" nowadays...I have a painful lesson to use memory card as well as cloud synchronizing but didn't give up yet, still trying anything I can I also wrote to Motorola with help request but I don't think they'll help me any better than people here, although it's more their responsibility to fix that stuff, the phone is barely 6 months old.

deleting unnecessary stuff out of system folder - Android 11

greetings community,
i have tried to search it, but being pro newbie, I found nothing. Is it possible to make this folder little bit lighter it takes 22gb of space, and my poor phone has only 64gb
I have rooted devices
thank you in advance

You can delete some apps using root file manager. I've use root explorer and have for years but nowadays there are times where it will not allow me to delete some apps (YouTube, chrome are a few this has happened to me on..) that my phone will NOT allow me to. And yes I have magisk and root explorer pro has root permission when this has happened. One way to get these apps off when this has happened to me is use another root file manager. Amaze file manager did the trick. I was able to delete apps I could not with root explorer. I'm BIG on not having useless bloatware on my phone so disabling apps is NOT my style. I usually save a copy by making backup and throw the backed up apks on my laptop or a USB thumb drive and delete whatever in case I end up deleting something that messes with my phone...Far as what can be deleted and what can't you can just discover for yourself. That's what I've done. I'm currently on a custom rom and I normally don't do much deleting unless I'm using the Google stock rom. If and when I do wipe more off stock I'll return and give you a list of what I did clear out. Just look in /system/app, /system/priv-app, product/app, /vendor/app with a root app and go to town. That's what I've always done. I believe TWRP for Android 11, the test build that bigbiff dropped about a month ago works now to make backups so that would be something to maybe do before hand in case you end up needing to restore your rom. On a few other devices I've owned people would sometimes make a thread on here for apps that can be removed and all and then list what they took off and what not to. I believe this Is what you are talking about.. If so hopefully it helps
Far as making system folder smaller and not meaning apps I believe it's possible but I think maybe you would have to repartition your device to do that and although it's possible it's dangerous. One wrong move and you have a paper weight doing that. I messed up my original Pixel XL because power went out while I was doing it before I was done and it was a goner. If anything I say here isn't right or there is more information about this please someone share who has more knowledge of this sort of thing. I would love to know as well. Good day/night to all. Cheers.

100kaa said:
greetings community,
i have tried to search it, but being pro newbie, I found nothing. Is it possible to make this folder little bit lighter it takes 22gb of space, and my poor phone has only 64gb
I have rooted devices
thank you in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@100kaa
You would be better off deleting excess files, trash, and photos that are already backed up. The system partition can be mounted and some files removed, but for the most part it is a minefield. Google has a fantastic new tool (since changing Photos retention rules) called "Takeout" that allows you to back up the contents of many parts of your phone and allows you do d/l it in compressed format directly to your PC. Check it out. OTHERWISE- If you simply must carry large files like movies, music database, pictures etc. then consider getting a USB-C OTG drive.
https://takeout.google.com/

This is why you get a phone with an SD card slot.
You then use the SD card as your data drive.
Only the apps and temporary folders go on the internal memory.
Next best thing is a flash stick or use cloud based storage which has downsides to it. Even if your internal storage is huge you don't want to store critical data there. I use about 64 of my 500gb of internal vs 340 of 500gb on the data drive.
If a large data base is on a large internal memory a data restore takes... forever. Most times the SD card is spared in OS crash and burns. Plus it can be used to restore the OS drive apps and settings.
Much of the above doesn't help you now but it could with future devices. All my PCs even my laptop are configured as dual drives. I learned a long time ago it works well, saves sweat and data.