Database Develop

[Q] Convert SDCard to MainMem so External_SD becomes SDCard?

Hi there,
Is there a way to make the add the internal SD card to the main memmory? So that there would not be an internal SD card anymore?
I do not mean swapping the moutpoints around so my External_SD becomes my primary and my internal my second....
I want to get rid of the internal one alltogether (adding it to main memory).
I figure that I'll have to format the storage in a certain way... would that do it?
Can someone tell me step by step what to do?
I do have CW-mod installed.
I did search the forum, but couldnt find anything conclusive. Just hints that it should be possible...
If there already is a thread where all this is explained, please point me to it, because I couldn't find it.
Thanks,
Pfeffa-rah

I don't think this is possible , never heard of someone who did it

I have no idea how to do that. My question is... why would you want to do that?
Having an internal_sd partition adds the benefit of having big app data (such as those in Gameloft games) sit in a very fast partition and still be called "sddata".
Also, it's mountable via PC so everything in there can still be backed up. So it's best of both worlds really.

This was discussed some time ago in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1013575
There were ideas on how to remount the cards at boot. I myself come to the conclusion that since more phones start to behave in this way, app developers will have to start dealing with it. It just sucks they are mostly slow on the uptake. My main problem was the Spotify cache location being hard coded so I resorted to hack the Spotify apk.
PS. salisbury_steak: What is it with people like you that every time someone has a question on how to do something, your immediate response is "But why would you want to do that?!".

sorech said:
PS. salisbury_steak: What is it with people like you that every time someone has a question on how to do something, your immediate response is "But why would you want to do that?!".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was actually an honest question.
I wanted to understand why he wanted to do it. (i.e. What would be the advantages of it.) There was no supposed sarcasm in there.

how about the ability to install 5x more applications?

Having that stupid 5gb partition as sd card and the real sd card as a sub folder is retarded...
My 32GB class 10 cars is a lot faster than the internal one.
The internal 5gb memory is MUCH TOO SMALL!!! Most apps don't allow you to store data on the external card. If you like me and many others install some games that download aditional data + a nav app that downloads maps for europe + some streaming music app like wimp that can cache music for offline play then you are ****ed with LG's setup.
The setup CM7 uses solves the main problem but effectively wastes the 5gb by mounting it at emmc where like 0,0001% of apps are able to access it.
So adding those otherwise wasted 5gb to the main memory would be great. But i have not seen any solution to that yet :-(

Thank you Gensplejs for explaining that to them. I had no idea how to reply to that since it seemed so obvious to me.
This thread was ment to be a question about how to do it and not to discuss the usefullness of it. That is where I lost the way in other threads...
So, thanks for your replys all (realy).
But now, back On-Topic:
How would I do it?
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA Premium App

Please don't blame me if you tried it and you screwed up your phone.. It's your choice...
Well, I don't know if this would work, but this is how I would do it (accepting the fact that I'd loose almost 2GB of /data's free space):
1. Format your internal sd card to the same file system as your /data partition is (ext3 or ext4)
2. Copy every file from /data 1:1 to your sdcard (cp -R /data/* /sdcard)
3. I don't know when and where the partitions are mounted (maybe init.rc??)...anyways change the target there and let /data point to the internal sd card partition (so it is ensured that it is mounted automatically to the new location)
4. Reboot and keep your fingers crossed

I think i figured how to do it in theory. First we need some free space at our microsd to cp /data. Then we should repartition with fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk0p8 and p9 into one partition and change vold.fstab to mount only externalsd at /sdcard as we do when we swap partitions. In theory it should work but i cant test it right now or make a script since ve gone vacations and i dont have a pc to restore in case of error

I agree.. certain apps wont store to sdcard.. its better to use the whole 8gb as phone storage, and use external sdcard as default sdcard.
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App

What ive found till now is that sd swapping is easy. You can do it by tweaking only vold.fstab. But repatriationing is a pain in the ass. Looks like lg has "faulty" partitions or something and to do it you must mesh up with with almost half partitions.
I had to rebuilt boot lgdrm recovery data and sdcard to make em half work. So it probably isnt worth the trouble. Also I think init.rc is built on the boot. So just remounting internal sd to /data wont work either.

sectors is not space
it says 7996, so thats 8GB

i saw it in hurry. the brain sometimes belives whats he want to belive
sorry

New to XDA
Hello everybody,
I'm new to android and i'm trying to find out how to solve the problem posted in this thread.
I see you've got the awnser but i don't know how to do this.
I've been searching google and XDA for ever but i just can't find the awnser.
Could you make a step by step howto or point out to a post how to do this.
I mean converting your external sd to ext4 and change the mounting points.
I'm a complete nood, i didn't get adb to work on my pc, ext4 recovery is not for the p990 2x.
I've read something abbout changing fstap for swapping te mounting points for sdcard and emmc, witch is also ok for me, but formating to ext4... wel i frankly don't know how to do this.
I'm quite stuk on this.
The only partitioning experience i've got is Gparted in Ubuntu or repartitioning in Windows 7.
Thans in andvance!
Greetz,
JMG

http://android.modaco.com/topic/347...-partitions/page__gopid__1821791#entry1821791
check this
you can expand data partition , but there is a limitation of 1.75gb

Thanks davjan
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.

Jean Michel Gaar said:
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what rom are you using? is your phone rooted?
swapping internal with internal sd is very easy
and most of the roms here on xda are ext4 , if you instal one of them they autoconvert to ext4

Jean Michel Gaar said:
Thanks davjan,
As far i can see it's indeed not worth it.
I wil have to go on and try to find out how to change the filesystem to ext4 and swap the internal and external sd.
That way i get more usable space instead of a big datastorage witch cannot contain program data.
But thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I you read the link provided you'll see that it makes what you want: grow internal filesystem = lower SDcard usable space. The only thing is that it doesn't seem possible is to use the whole space: system limitation. 75Markus tried high /system and /data values and phone didn't work.
See in his Mediafire Folder, 'Nvflash + guide for changing Partitions:
http://www.mediafire.com/75markus
Ext4 is now common with custom ROMs (in fact all of them).
You should search in sd-ext partition system, which was designed to artificially expand filesystem on older phones using an 'ext' partition. I didn't heard anybody using this on O2X.
If you use CyanogenMod based ROMs, your external card will be mounted ad /sdcard by default.

Switching internal and external SD
Thanks guy's,
I'll check it out.
I've been using cyanogenmod 7.1 stable with vorkkernel 20110208.
But that gave me batterydrains while using maps and nextvid ate the same time (while i'm driving).
Now i'm trying MIUI 1.11.11 with latest swift extreme.
But MIUI is very buggy so i'm thinking of going back to CM.
The only thing is that my phone won't boot with the latest vorkkernel.

[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.

[Q] Ext 2,3 Partition failed

Hi all
Im not sure this question has been asked a lot or not. I already search same ques like me but none exactly same.
So here is the situation. I do have sd card 2GB in this old Salsa. It used to working fine because i did managed to create ext 2 on the sd card last time. But few days ago the sd card got error ( suddenly it cant open all apps in partition. force closed). So i decided to format and create ext again. Here the come issue. It just seem i cant manage to do it. I did all the drill using minitools, delete partition,create partition etc. Once applied the partition will become unallocated. Can anyone advice me on this?
Thanks!!
ps: i attach the print screen as well.

Nadzmin said:
Hi all
Im not sure this question has been asked a lot or not. I already search same ques like me but none exactly same.
So here is the situation. I do have sd card 2GB in this old Salsa. It used to working fine because i did managed to create ext 2 on the sd card last time. But few days ago the sd card got error ( suddenly it cant open all apps in partition. force closed). So i decided to format and create ext again. Here the come issue. It just seem i cant manage to do it. I did all the drill using minitools, delete partition,create partition etc. Once applied the partition will become unallocated. Can anyone advice me on this?
Thanks!!
ps: i attach the print screen as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly ext3 partition,
Secondly primary and not logical type
From what it looks you did everything right,
Anyways reduce your partition size to maybe 250MB or so.... It might be a reason
Sent from my GT-P3100 using xda app-developers app

u may want to set partitions as active too

Galaxy S3 Mini GT-18190N 4.1.2 Create Second Partition with SDcard?

so lost!! please help!
hello there
i have the galaxy s3mini GT- 18190N
uk resident
carrier T-Mobile
android version 4.1.2
kernel version 3.0.31-1436784
ive had the phone for some time now and obviously internal space has became a problem so i looked around the net and it seemed that the first thing i must do was to root the phone....
i rooted with the main intention of being able to put my apps into my 32gb extsd card
secondly to perhaps upgrade the OS to say lollipop
thirdly to maybe try out some of these custom roms ive read so much about.
so i did root the phone using kingroot app, this seemed to help with the speed of the phone/reduced lagging and such but not with internal memory.
i then looked around for a solution and the general answer was to install link2sd and app2sd.
i installed both but had no joy due to no 2nd partition on sd card.
this led me to downloading rommanager (which apparently can create a 2nd partition on the etxSD) well this is when i realised my noobness knew no bounds, because for the life of me i cant seem to be able to do it lol
i looked around again and read as much as i could in regards to creating a 2nd partition on the extSD but again have not found a clear (complete and utter noob proof) guide to do this so am now stuck in limbo
ive read so much this last few days about flash/roms/internal sd/internal phone memory/external sd/nands/backups/backdowns/backflips ect. that i feel completely lost.
i understand this is probably a very tedious request to you more educated folk but what i would like to know is:
1 - can i return my phone to stock settings? (what it was like before i rooted) will this delete all the changes ive made and apps ive downloaded? and is this the best idea? to start all over again from scratch? if so how?
or can i download a custom rom that already has these settings? by settings i mean the ability to move my apps to the external SD? if so, how?
im really sorry for being a pain but my brains gonna explode.
please help
thank you

anyone that can help me please

I had your same problem twice. I just forgot to set the new partition "active".. Did you already check if the partition is primary and active?

Stefano Cappelletti said:
I had your same problem twice. I just forgot to set the new partition "active".. Did you already check if the partition is primary and active?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey thanks for the reply!
erm.... how would i do that exactly?
ive downloaded rom manager and tried to create a second partition using that, but that doesnt seem to work either?
i am close to just giving up to be honest, got a 32gb sd card and it just sitting there gathering dust while my internal memory is sucked dry of any space.

paddroid said:
hey thanks for the reply!
erm.... how would i do that exactly?
ive downloaded rom manager and tried to create a second partition using that, but that doesnt seem to work either?
i am close to just giving up to be honest, got a 32gb sd card and it just sitting there gathering dust while my internal memory is sucked dry of any space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can create and manage partitions with your pc, you just need an adaptor and than you can use "MiniTool Partition Wizard Free" that is a free partition manager tool! :good: Right click on the partition and then "set active" (both partition are primary, but one fs is EXT4 and the other one is Fat32, set active the ETX4 one) :good:

[Guide] Link2SD (or Apps2SD) on Galaxy Tab A (SM T-580)

Hello folks. Before going further I need to apologize. I really fighted to use Link2SD on my Galaxy tablet and I succeeded more or less. I thought that my tentative could be useful to others. So I posted this topic.
I worked a little more, and now I am convinced that I was wrong from the beginning.
The reality is that Apps2SD and Link2SD are obsolete utilities.
Forget creating a second volume on your external SD Card :
- Android/Samsung declare your SD Card as corrupted and always wants to reformat it.
- TWRP mounts the wrong partition and you have to manually unmout it and remount the good one
- The partitions need to be declared with a wrong type and this is really not clean
etc...
I suggest that you do not loose your time, forget Link2SD, and read this excellent topic:
https://www.xda-developers.com/divi...gles-fuse-replacement-will-reduce-io-overhead
My Galaxy tab A has only 11 Go available for the user. I bought a 128 Go external SD card to extend both /storage/emulated/0 and /data.
When you first install your SD Card, Android automatically mount this card as /storage/xxxx-xxxx.
This is a FAT volume extended on all your SD Card (128 GB for me).
This is fine for storing ebooks, music, video, and your backups.
But impossible for Link2SD to move your apps on this volume and put a symbolic link on the previous location, because FAT is not a UNIX file system. Link2SD (or Apps2SD) needs a second disk volume on partition 2 (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2) formatted with a UNIX file system (ext4 is fine).
Of course you need to have rooted your device. [A non rooted tablet is not better than a vulgar iPhone ]
To re-partition my SD Card I used ROEHSOFT PARTITION TOOL (SD-USB). (I tried unsuccessfully Aparted, it crashed every time I launch it). ROEHSOFT is convenient but tricky to be used by an advanced user :
- You cannot create a partition in a specific slot (for example /dev/block/mmcblk1p2): It automatically use first slot for the first partition you create, the second slot for the following partition, and so on.
- If you try to foul it, deleting a partition and recreating it in another empty space, it suddenly decides to reorganize your 4 slots. It really wants /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 to be the first partition on your SD Card, /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 the following, etc...
- You cannot create a partition at a specific offset inside an empty space.
After fighting with ROEHSOFT I finally won. I discovered too late that "fdisk" is part of BusyBox. If you know "fdisk" my advice is to use it instead of fighting with a software which pretends to be user friendly but is too limited.
OK, stop bla-bla and work.
1 - Dismount your SD Card : Parameters/Device Maintenance/Storage/Menu-Storage Parameter/Dismount
2 - Delete the only one partition
3 - For a misterious reason, my Android was not happy with his FAT volume on /dev/block/mmcblk1p1. Link2SD wants his UNIX volume on /dev/block/mmcblk1p2. So, if you use ROEHSOFT you need now to create a small dummy partition on /dev/block/mmcblk1p1. For me I created a 4 Go partition to be used by Linux Deploy. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA) but should not be formatted as a FAT file system. EXT4 is a good choice.
4 - Create the second partition for Link2SD. I suggest not too much space for it, because you probably want a huge space for the third partion. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA) but should be formatted with a UNIX file system. EXT4 is a good choice.
5 - Create the third partition to be used as SD extension for Android. This partition should be very large : you will store on it your music, your movies, your ebooks, and above all your backups. This partition needs to be declared as FAT32 (LBA). I formatted this partition as a EXFAT file system.
6 - Reboot. If you are lucky you will get two notifications : one saying that you have a corrupted memory card, and one saying that you are ready for media files. You will get those two notifications at each reboot.
8 - Recreate mounting scripts inside Lin2SD (or Apps2SD), and reboot.
7 - If you are a UNIX user just type "df -h" in a terminal to verify that the two partitions are mounted with correct sizes).
8 - You can look what Android think of your partitioning :
/Parameters/Device Maintenance/Storage/Menu:Storage Parameter/.
Do not try to mount the two first volumes and NEVER try to reformat them with Android. Those volumes are declared as corrupted but this is normal. Android does not expect to find a UNIX file system on a partition declared FAT32.
If one day, you forget this and ask to Android to reformat a corrupted partition you will have the terrible surprise that Android will not only erase your partition, but will erase everything and recreate one and only one big empty partition. (I guess that you keep all your backups on this SD Card, like me, so this is a really bad surprise).
Do not ask me why Android does not want his SD-Card on first partition. I have no idea. I guess that Android or Samsung reserve this partition for something else.
Do not ask why I had to declared all my partitions as FAT32 even if two of them are formatted as EXT4. I just realized that this configuration works well after fighting during a full day.
I hope that this topic will help some of you.

You really need the second partition on the SD? Or you can have only one ex4 partition that fills all the SD? (Remove the FAT and only have one ext4)

Palatosino said:
You really need the second partition on the SD? Or you can have only one ex4 partition that fills all the SD? (Remove the FAT and only have one ext4)
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No, I tried but it doesn't work.
I found today a very interesting topic that I will try to master and hopefully wil, understand everything better :
https://www.xda-developers.com/divi...gles-fuse-replacement-will-reduce-io-overhead
Maybe I was wrong from the beginning : perhaps LinkSD and apps2SD are historic patch that are not useful anymore. Perhaps all the burden will be fixed easily just by not using those utilities anymore.
"sdcardfs" is something very new for me who is an old UNIX fellow. This seems to be a major improvement for Android.
I will update this topic when everything will be clear for me.

I didnt have this problem on android 6, but on android 7 . My phone wants to use ext4 as data partition and says its corrupted, link2sd detects this second partition normally, but my data partition fat 32 detected on phone settings and its says its ready but there is no option to mount it.
As far as i understand from this tutorial i need to make 1 fake ext4 partition say 1mb, then second partition ext4 for use with link2sd, and third partition fat32 for use as data storage ??
My phone is samsung j7 2016
So i did follow this , but now my phone wont detect fat32 and link2sd didnt detect 1 of other ext4 partitions

Looking for a definitive way to Root and use link2sd to have my SM-T580 use the SD as a primary parition for apps and data. Been researching and trying a dozen different methods already to no avail. Bonus if there's a way to roll it back easily. Am on the latest android release.
Thank you for all replies.

larpoux said:
I hope that this topic will help some of you.
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Click to collapse
You're my saviour, thank you ! I've been fighting on the same issue for days and didn't think about that trick to declare an ext partition as FAT32 !

I know you probably won't see this, but I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated this guide.
I have a Galaxy Tab S3 and every since going to a custom rom, I haven't been able to get this working which was such a pain with less than 23 gb of storage. The Rom improved my performance far too much for me to change back and every guide I attempted pointed me in the wrong direction but finally, I'm able to use my 120 gb SD card which has made my tablet worth using again.
To anyone who may attempt in the future,
I'm using Android 9 + Magisk. Using the Advanced type Mount script was the only way it get it functioning but I've had no issues with linking apps and no message regarding a corrupted SD card. It can take a few minutes on boot for everything to properly load in, but the apps all update and there's no performance/loading time issues.
Thanks again!