Hey everyone, I just got my M8 today and absolutely LOVING IT! One issue I am having that I would like some insight to if anyone knows. I am using es file explorer and I have wallpapers downloaded from Zedge, now I try transferring them from Internal storage to sd card and it never goes through! I've also tried moving a music file I use as a ringtone and it does the same thing. Can we not transfer to ex sd card from on the device? Do we need a computer for this? Seems odd to me. Thanks for any help!!
aaron130 said:
Hey everyone, I just got my M8 today and absolutely LOVING IT! One issue I am having that I would like some insight to if anyone knows. I am using es file explorer and I have wallpapers downloaded from Zedge, now I try transferring them from Internal storage to sd card and it never goes through! I've also tried moving a music file I use as a ringtone and it does the same thing. Can we not transfer to ex sd card from on the device? Do we need a computer for this? Seems odd to me. Thanks for any help!!
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I think this has something to do with the new KitKat policy limiting how storage be manipulated by the apps installed on your phone. The short explanation would be that apps only are permitted read/write access to the folders they are installed into. Programs like File Explorers are therefore incapable of actually doing file operations because the other areas of the internal and external storage are "out of bounds".
I'm sure its way more complicated than that, but someone smarter than I would have to step in to really lay out all the reasons this is how things work on KitKat. It is a bit frustrating, but from what I understand, it was a security measure put in place by Google. Custom roms/kernels will no doubt remove this restriction.
Hope that helps!
Related
Is there a way to switch the sdcard / sdcard-ext folder names to make the external sdcard the primary one? Or is there any other way to set the primary sdcard?
Thanks!
I was disappointed to see the phone force you to use sdcard and then renamed my microsd card to sdcard-ext. It made it quite a bit of a hassle to restore programs or use the backup features of other apps.
I know its been done on some tablets running 2.3 (My old Viewsonic G Tab). On those you had to edit the vold.fstab to mount them the way you want.
I'd love to do this too. I made a lot of songs available offline in Spotify, synced some mp3s etc and it all ended up on the internal "sdcard", not my 32gb class 10 Patriot MicroSDHC (which works perfect with the D3).
The same goes for most apps.
If someone has experience doing that please tell us how to do, I'm not too experienced in such Linux filesystem things. THANKS!
+1 this is very annoying.
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/etc/vold.fstab seems to be the right place to change it, like mentioned above. However I think the risks are little, I wouldn't be the first who tries out ... at least not before an SBF is available.
And I cannot fully assess what it means for future updates, if and how it has to be undone then. I'd rather recommend to live with this naming.
Thanks for explaining that und danke.
I'm more curious to see if we can remove the space allocated to "sdcard" and merge it back with the internal program storage, then when I drop my actual sd-card in, it mounts as "sdcard".
Possible? Or is that a rom only thing.
Does this link help?
Partitions for the x2
I'm afraid I'm not experienced enough to dare to try it ^^
Is there anyway to FORCE the apps to use the MicroSD memory instead of the Internal storage?
It seems every app I've installed ( Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, etc) uses the internal memory. I have a 32GB MicroSD that seems to be useless right now. I tried moving all the apps to SD, but they still use the Internal Memory to store cache/files
I have yet to see a fix for this as well. The way I work around this is if the app saves files to the internal storage there is usually a setting in the settings menu that will allow you to change where it saves files. For instance with the TapeRecorder app. It automatically saves files to the sdcard (which Motorola stupidly named the internal storage for). I go to the settings and change the "sdcard" to "sdcard-ext", then it works!
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
Sorry this next generation android phone just like Droid X it has dedicated app memory. That memory is used strictly for those apps. U can put 500 apps and not run out of room. SD card is used for media music movies etc
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Groid said:
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
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Is this why When I selected "Move to Media Area" the application shortcut disappears from the "All Apps" menu?
I moved 2 games to the "Media Area" and now they are gone... they are still installed, but I have no way of accessing them. (I know they are still installed because when I went to reinstall, it said something about it replacing an app thats already install)
After researching more, and fumbling through the phone I discovered that Motorola has deemed the 8GB of Internal memory as an SDCard.
Another FAIL for Motorola, and I doubt there will ever be a fix for this. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
Stated on the Motorola Forums:
Folks, it's the storage naming system in Android. If you go to any forum for any phone with internal and external memory you'll see the same complaints. There are multiple threads about it here.
Even though in Motorola's file manager you see "internal phone memory" and "SD Card", the internal memory is actually "sdcard" and the external is "sdcard-ext". Like I said, it's like this on every brand of phone with this set up.
So, what's happening is the apps are saving to the internal memory because it is, in fact, the SD card. Motorola has tried to remedy this confusion by discontinuing to say "move to SD" and instead now calls it "Move to Media area".
And no, your external SD is not useless. You can still set your photos from the camera to save directly to your external, you can still put music and movies and all kinds of media on your external and your phone will see them just fine. This is why there is a 16GB card included with your phone, so you can use it for media and if you want to move your apps off of the system memory to save space you move it to the 8GB internal area. Of course 8GB is still plenty of space for apps and other media as well
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EDIT: BFirebird101 stated this to, I don't know why, but when I was scrolling it passed over his post. Didn't mean to restate what he said.
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Tornlogic said:
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
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The Stock Music App seems to find the music files just fine on the MicroSD (just add some to try) and the Gallery Finds the Pictures. But I don't give a damn about Music or Pictures.
I have 123MB of the "Internal Memory" (SDCard) left - after I loaded all my work documents (spreadsheets, powerpoints, etc) & E-books. Right now I have to Move the file from the SDcard (InternalMemory) to the SDCard-Ext(MicroSD) after I've edit it and reuploaded it to Google Docs, then if I want to Edit it agian, I have to move it back to the SDCard(Internal Memory) Just so Google Docs will see it again.
Stock? That's okay, I'll pass. I froze those apps with TiBackup.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
i use videovault and when i pulled my video vault folder from my old backup and loaded it to the external SD, the VideoVault did not find them. There is no way i will load 4GB of videos into my Internal 8GB card just so i can haz my pronz!
What I noticed is this seems to be very similar to how the Xoom and Honeycomb handles sdcards and internal storage (minus the fact that we still cant write to sdcards on stock honeycomb....) so it could be Motorola setup the phone this way for a smoother migration to Ice Cream Sandwich when it comes out?
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
You would think with all the Smart/Nerdy People on this site, someone would come up with a way to Rename the partitions Motorola has setup.
If it was just possible to rename the "SDCard-Ext" To "SDCard" ...
The reason you have no issue is Asus did a hack mod to get the SD card to work. Moto did the same on European xooms but on USA version its a google product there fore moto has no control on software manipulation. As for apps to SD card there is no need the device has dedicated app storage stritctly for apps.
KoolAidJunkie said:
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
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This might be a stupid question, I am upgrading my SD card, the current card has like nearly 60gb of data. Only about half of that are the photos/music... Stuff o know I loaded.
What are the important files/folder to move to the new card? Or should I just transfer my dcim/camera, music, TB folder... And let android replace whatever else it might want?
Edit: this card has been in use for over a year on my previous phone... I'm sure there's a bunch of useless junk hidden? But I'm not familiar enough with Android file structure to know for sure.
I keep all the stuff I care about in a folder called "My Stuff."
That way I know at a glance what to backup. Just a thought you might try going for.
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What I would do is copy it all to a computer, then copy only what you know you need to the new card. If you later find something is missing, you still have the copy on the computer and can transfer it over.
My 64gb card was in my S3 for over a year, and its got over 50gb of stuff.... only about half is "MY STUFF" per se, music, pictures, videos, etc... the rest is cryptic android folders I have no clue!
Thanks for the suggestions, I wanted to make sure nothing "important" system-wise was stored on the card I didn't know about... big cards create big clutter for me, the more space I have the more junk I seem to accumulate.
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.
Hello,
I would like to know how I can make an app on my sd card...for example...es file manager...to automatically install itself onto a android tablet once inserted into the tablets sd card slot. I think scripting may be involved but I'm not sure. I have done nothing.
Thanks
Titanium backup should be able to run a Tasker app command..
haven't tried it though
Tasker
Thanks for your reply.
I'm wondering if is possible for an app to auto install without piggy backing on another app.
Riley32334 said:
Thanks for your reply.
I'm wondering if is possible for an app to auto install without piggy backing on another app.
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i believe you mean this?
but i can't remember exactly how i enabled that if what you're asking..
https://i.imgur.com/29O7IxL.jpg[\url]
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Link
Not quite. The Titanium backup will be necessary on the other device as well in order for an application to auto-run itself.
I am more interested in learning how to make apps I download to a chip auto install itself once I insert that chip into another device. Something like what a CD does when you put it into a computer.
Is this even possible?
Riley32334 said:
Hello,
I would like to know how I can make an app on my sd card...for example...es file manager...to automatically install itself onto a android tablet once inserted into the tablets sd card slot. I think scripting may be involved but I'm not sure. I have done nothing.
Thanks
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Please explain why you want to do this. Some context will help us give you a suitable answer.
Context
I bought this very cheap off-brand Android OS tablet off FB sales and it is limited to its pre-installed games. I can't do anything in the settings menu except view/uninstall the pre-installed apps and set the clock. This tablet doesn't have any USB ports, but it does have a micro SD card reader, headphone jack, and DC charging port. The card reader reads and plays (through the factory installed media player app) mp3 files and mp4 files on any micro SD card I place in it. I tried placing a micro SD card with other file formats (apk/pdf/epub) on it but nothing happens besides a notification saying, "SD card mounted." I am looking for a method that will have any APK ( specifically a file explorer app) on a micro SD card I insert auto-install or at least have the "install" dialog box pop up in order to expand the capabilities of this crappy tablet. Thank you for any and all assistance.
Riley32334 said:
I bought this very cheap off-brand Android OS tablet off FB sales and it is limited to its pre-installed games. I can't do anything in the settings menu except view/uninstall the pre-installed apps and set the clock. This tablet doesn't have any USB ports, but it does have a micro SD card reader, headphone jack, and DC charging port. The card reader reads and plays (through the factory installed media player app) mp3 files and mp4 files on any micro SD card I place in it. I tried placing a micro SD card with other file formats (apk/pdf/epub) on it but nothing happens besides a notification saying, "SD card mounted." I am looking for a method that will have any APK ( specifically a file explorer app) on a micro SD card I insert auto-install or at least have the "install" dialog box pop up in order to expand the capabilities of this crappy tablet. Thank you for any and all assistance.
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Okay, thanks for the explanation. I can tell you now, without any doubt whatsoever, that you cannot do what you're asking. You hit the nail on the head when you called it a "crappy tablet".
Without USB you're left with no options other than to install what it already allows you to install. Honestly, I'd say ditch it and get another cheap tablet, but make sure it just has regular Android on it and is not locked down.
Crap
Thanks for the information. I love saving a buck or two. I was really hoping to put movies, music, and apps on there for my daughter. I thought for sure I could get file manager on there some way.
Thanks again