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Droid Bionic rooted/unrooted doesn't matter. Any app I move to the SD card ends up showing up like I've unmounted the SDCard. If I mount it to my pc then unmount this happens immediately. If I just move an app from my phone to my SD card this happens within 24hrs. Suggestions?
Are you checking in mnt/sdcard-ext or mnt/sdcard? I know for this device anything you put on the external sdcard shows up on sdcard-ext and the internal storage shows on sdcard.
I'm not looking anywhere, I'm either rebooting or remounting my SD card after use on my pc and any app I've moved to "media area" are gone. I see alot of people are having this issue in other forums too.
Are you using the stock sd card or one of your own from a previous device? You may need to reformat the card if it is the latter.
MOTO did something strange with Bionic that it see what we call sdcard as sdcard-ex, and it doesn't let users to transfer apps to it (media card) anymore. The second you move apps to sdcard, the apps are gone, and you need to reinstall them. The 16gb sdcard came with the Bionic only acts as media (photos and videos) storage.
mngdew said:
MOTO did something strange with Bionic that it see what we call sdcard as sdcard-ex, and it doesn't let users to transfer apps to it (media card) anymore. The second you move apps to sdcard, the apps are gone, and you need to reinstall them. The 16gb sdcard came with the Bionic only acts as media (photos and videos) storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not limited to the Bionic. The Droid X2 has this same storage system and it is a pain. Navenedrob had created a program that would flip flop the storage system for the X2, but it does not work for the Bionic.
Just recently got my Note, and it's the best phone I've ever had. Love all the storage as well. But I'm curious though, how come everything downloaded goes to system storage rather than USB storage? (I have all this space in USB storage, but nothing seems to go there)
Because you are a noob I won't Delete this thread I ll move to Q&A post anymore in the wrong area and they get deleted, only warning-- Moderator
Beethoven9th said:
Just recently got my Note, and it's the best phone I've ever had. Love all the storage as well. But I'm curious though, how come everything downloaded goes to system storage rather than USB storage? (I have all this space in USB storage, but nothing seems to go there)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System storage is just where Android prefers to install applications, in a partition that can't be accessed without root access (and therefore doesn't need to be "shut down" when you turn on USB storage mode).
Since most apps are only a few megabytes, and you have almost 2 gigabytes of System storage, it's no big deal. You'll have to work VERY hard to fill up System storage with applications.
USB storage is where a lot of the data lives (cached map files, music, downloads, etc). Plenty of space there, for sure, but it's also "off limits" to Android when USB is mounted on a computer.
But if you really want to use it instead of system storage (I don't recommend it), you can go to Applications/Manage Applications then pick the app you want, click on it, and there will be a button that says "Move to SD Card". Keep in mind that things will load slower off USB storage as well, it's formatted differently and takes longer to read and write.
Back in the bad old days when HTC called a lot of the shots in the Android world, system storage was TINY, 512 or 256 megabytes, and internal USB storage really didn't exist (needed an external SD card). So it was a big deal when Froyo was released with official "apps2SD" support, allowing people to move apps the the external SD card.
Samsung blew that trend all to hell with the original Galaxy S, with unheard of HUGE System and internal USB storage, along with support for an external SD card. Now everyone follows suite with at large System storage, to be competitive with Samsung, and because memory is much cheaper these days as well.
So I posted this question over and Android Forums, but no one has answered after 5 days. Hopefully I'll have better luck here.
What is the point of having an "on-board" sd card and an external card? I understand that -ext is your actual SD Card, but what is the /sdcard then and how is it different than regular "on-board storage"? What goes to either directory by default? This is the first Android phone I've had that does this, so I'm trying to familiarize myself with this.
I just bought a high quality 32GB SD card, so I'm a little disappointed that not everything is going to my SD card and instead to some onboard storage.
What are the benefits of putting things in either of these two?
I could be wrong but I think the internal memory is actually 12-16gb, but its partitioned with certain parts reserved for the operating system and apps.
I have noticed that transferring files from my computer to the internal storage is a bit faster than the external.
But then I do have a basic cheap 16gig SD card, so other cards might be faster.
I've not had any problem with the location of files, but then again I am a neat freak and I keep everything organized and know where everything is at all times
The reasoning comes from an operating system perspective. This is very much like a linux OS. Internal storage is different than ram. Android lives on seperate partitions as designed by google. Storage for the purposes of pictures, music, etc was left to be taken care of by sdcards. Since actual sdcards are more complicated than the average graduating flip phone user, manufacturers starting adding this "external" storage since it would be convenient for users like my mom. Then because geeks designed these, they still wanted to add more storage, so they designed storage you could actually get to! Hence sdcard-ext. Because many/most apps look for /sdcard as a file system, manufacturers could not skip it and just add more to the system partitions, or program installs would fail. They would either half to give a free memory card with purchase of the phone (carriers don't want to give anything away for free, and this is how it was 2+ years ago) or make storage on board that could be reachable.
In a windows point if view, think of it as all programs look for drive d: for extra storage rather than hogging c:, but since carriers didn't want to give away free d: drives, they said install it inside since it is cheaper on the board then to add a sdcard after. So, now /sdcard is like d: and /sdcard-ext would be like e:
I hope that made any kind of sense. It is honestly a useless mess, but sufficient for the unknowing or uncaring masses who just want to save more mp3's or pictures.
Nowell29
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
My issue is spotify fills up the internal "sdcard" Id ideally like to point spotify to use my external sd card as its a 32 gb card. But that wont work.
Has anyone tried to create a symlink to point a folder to an external folder?
Is there a way to dictate what goes where? For example, if I wanted my apps to go to my actual SD card (/sd-ext), could I do it?
AMTrombley0924 said:
Is there a way to dictate what goes where? For example, if I wanted my apps to go to my actual SD card (/sd-ext), could I do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that without some mild hacking*, there wouldn't be a universal way to do it. If it's doable at all, it will be on an application-by-application basis.
Some apps seem to just "do the right thing". For instance, as soon as I installed and formatted my sdcard, the camera and gallery applications moved my pictures from /sdcard to /sdcard_ext, and from then on, that's where pictures are stored as they're taken.
OTOH, Amazon MP3 is pretty stupid about keeping all downloaded music on /sdcard. When I bricked my phone for about a month, that's one of the things that kept me from trying for a full replacement: I couldn't pull the files out of an internal filesystem, so I'd lose all that music. If I could have had those stored on a removable SDcard, it wouldn't have been a factor.
*example of mild hacking: move application-specific directories from /sdcard to /sdcard-ext and replace /sdcard directory with a softlink to /sdcard-ext equivalent. It's hacky and crocky, but I think it would work, as long as /sdcard-ext is available and has the appropriate directory (target of link).
hopefully one of you would know this answer...
i have the droid 4 as well and i have an aftermarket stereo in my car that has a USB connection. i can plug in my phone and it wont recognize any music until i turn on USB mass storage (obviously) but the problem i'm having is that (what i think is happening) the phone is pretty much mounting the internal sd card first for some dang reason and then the external sd card second. but i can't back out of the /sdcard folder to go into /sdcard-ext where all of my music is.
is there any way to change the mounting order? <--- that's my question.
My phone is rooted and currently running the latest CM9 ROM.
Thanks
-Andrew
Apps will always install on the internal sdcard, no way around this.
Spotify to external SD is simple. First, erase everything and logout. During the login screen press menu and you will be able to change the default location. Login and synch and you're done.
Disabling the internal mount;
etc/vold.fstab
put an "#" before the line "dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard:: 25 /devices/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/mmc_host/mmc1"
This should disable mounting the internal drive. I haven't tested it though. It is possible the OS won't be able to see the internal mmc when it's not mounted.
It's also possible to swap internal with external. BUT... I've read mixed reports on an LG forum where users complained about problems with their phones. So be carefull if you want to test that out. Have to say though, apart from LG users I haven't read problems on other devices. Search for drive swap vold.fstab if you wanna try.
would it be possible to re-partition the phone's memory so that it's: system, internal, and sdcard, rather than having the sdcard and sdcard-ext seperate? I have a 16 gb micro sd card that I plan on keeping in my phone at all times that I plan to store general media on, but I'd like to keep all my apps on the internal storage. I know the process will probably cause me to lose all my data, but I've got nothing important on it. Also if this was the case would I also have to install a new version of android? Forgive me if I seem ignorant, I've only partitioned my hard disk via a bootable usb, so I'm a bit inexperienced.
Hello fellow Note 9'ers! I've got a 32gb card just sitting in a drawer doing nothing whatsoever and was wondering about installing it into my N9. A few Q's come to mind.
1. How does the card fit into the slot? It looked too big for a micro sd card.
2. Does having an sd card typically make the device work harder as it periodically scans the drive when being accessed and having files moved to and from it.
3. What do you tend to store upon the sd card? Pictures? Films? Music? Camera stores locally in the camera folder so it would be manual moves if using sd card as a backup.. I'm looking to understand people's usage to see if it's some method I'd follow.
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
1. SD card vs. microSD card? The Note9 only takes microSD cards, and if you have one, it should go in just nice. It needs a bit of a push to "click" the card in the holder, and it goes in more easily in certain ways (which edge is inserted first, which way the card is pushed sideways a bit, etc.)
2. Typically just having the microSD card in does not affect the phone's performance in general, unless one has some anti-malware software that has been designed in a very stupid way. However, any access to that microSD card (when such access is needed) are somewhat slower than to the internal storage, but one typically does not even notice the difference. There are some use cases where it can be very noticeable, though.
Files are only moved in/out of it if/when one tells the phone to do so, it does not happen all the time or even "periodically". (Note, this phone apparently does not support installing the card as an extension of the internal storage; in that method there could be less control on what and when gets stored/moved on the card.)
3. The phone automatically switches at least some things to be stored on microSD card as soon as it is installed. E.g. the Samsung camera app automatically switches the target storage to the card instead of internal memory, so new photos/videos will go to the card. One can still adjust that setting manually. (Photos already on the internal storage are not automatically moved.) However, this behavior would be app-specific, i.e. whether one needs to manually change such setting or not, and if such is even possible in an app.
These phones have a built-in "file browser"-style app so moving almost any normal files between internal storage and card is possible, though one might need to know what he is doing, not just blindly move everything
The most typical things to be stored on the card are indeed the "media" files: photos, videos, music. One can move also some apps from internal storage to card, but this needs more consideration (i.e. card random access speed vs. how the app needs storage access). Also, Note 9 having so much internal storage space, moving the apps to the card is not as needed as with some other phones.
6thtry said:
1. SD card vs. microSD card? The Note9 only takes microSD cards, and if you have one, it should go in just nice. It needs a bit of a push to "click" the card in the holder, and it goes in more easily in certain ways (which edge is inserted first, which way the card is pushed sideways a bit, etc.)
2. Typically just having the microSD card in does not affect the phone's performance in general, unless one has some anti-malware software that has been designed in a very stupid way. However, any access to that microSD card (when such access is needed) are somewhat slower than to the internal storage, but one typically does not even notice the difference. There are some use cases where it can be very noticeable, though.
Files are only moved in/out of it if/when one tells the phone to do so, it does not happen all the time or even "periodically". (Note, this phone apparently does not support installing the card as an extension of the internal storage; in that method there could be less control on what and when gets stored/moved on the card.)
3. The phone automatically switches at least some things to be stored on microSD card as soon as it is installed. E.g. the Samsung camera app automatically switches the target storage to the card instead of internal memory, so new photos/videos will go to the card. One can still adjust that setting manually. (Photos already on the internal storage are not automatically moved.) However, this behavior would be app-specific, i.e. whether one needs to manually change such setting or not, and if such is even possible in an app.
These phones have a built-in "file browser"-style app so moving almost any normal files between internal storage and card is possible, though one might need to know what he is doing, not just blindly move everything [emoji14]
The most typical things to be stored on the card are indeed the "media" files: photos, videos, music. One can move also some apps from internal storage to card, but this needs more consideration (i.e. card random access speed vs. how the app needs storage access). Also, Note 9 having so much internal storage space, moving the apps to the card is not as needed as with some other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you ever so much for your thorough and detailed response! XDA to the rescue!
I need to decide if it's actually needed. Whilst it could be a good backup area for pictures it is also more likely to corrupt.. decisions decisions!
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
Better stick with internal storage or go cloud with Google drive.
What?! No smart alek responses and no idiots screaming about searching first??? Really... I was chastised about a hardcore question and this total ridiculous question is answered without ridicule? What a joke.
OJsakila said:
What?! No smart alek responses and no idiots screaming about searching first??? Really... I was chastised about a hardcore question and this total ridiculous question is answered without ridicule? What a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
screw u OJ.
OJsakila said:
What?! No smart alek responses and no idiots screaming about searching first??? Really... I was chastised about a hardcore question and this total ridiculous question is answered without ridicule? What a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Merely getting peoples own user experience regarding the use of an sd card on their own devices. [emoji851]
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
After some time without an SD card, today I put one (Sandisk 32GB Ultra Plus I think) in the phone, formatted it as internal storage and opted to move data to the card.
The card got filled up to 17 GB; it seems the system has copied all the images and my files but no apps or other internal things.
Copied, not moved - because the internal storage remains to be filled up. The data however is inaccessible. I.e. when I eject or remove the card, there are no files visible on the phone, in fact it's as if there's no storage. E.g. the download folder doesn't exist, file managers can't see anything etc. So the files remain on the phone, but I can't access them.
Of course I can't move the data back from the card to the phone because... There's no space, so that process errors out.
Another problem this causes is when I update apps. The app gets moved to the card and all the app data gets reset/wiped.
What can I do about this? The phone isn't rooted or anything of the sort, it's all stock. However I also don't use Google's services, so I'm not exactly eager to do a factory reset and set everything from scratch. I have my files backed up, but I'd lose the app data, which would be a major hassle.
Thanks for any tips.
Try clearing the system cache.
You mean from the boot recovery menu? I did, it didn't help.
More notes:
- The "Free up space" button in storage doesn't work.
- Now I'm thinking, I have a lot of Google and Moto apps disabled, so maybe that's the problem (it's really been ages since I've messed with this, so I've forgotten about it). Any clue which app controls these things?
- I also just realized that every single file on the card has its date/time set to the time when I did the migration, and not when the files were originally created. Is this normal? (Cause it's pretty effed up.)
Anyway I'm not liking this. What can happen when I tell the system to "forget" the SD card? Any guesses?
The time stamp is normal.
There's hidden files, something...
Problem is, I can't get into the file system of the internal storage at all.
E.g. in Total Commander I can navigate the root folder and certain subfollders, but in terms of my files I can only get to the ones on the card; which is easy to distinguish due to the timestamp. And when the card us ejected or not present, there's nothing at all.
Factory reset if you get tired of playing with it... could be malware.
Any ideas, anyone? :/
What dis you mean be "formatted as internal storage"?
Well when you insert a new memory card, you can format is either as internal storage or external. Internal will act as just more phone storage, i.e. apps can be installed to it, and it's encrypted. Downside is there's no way to distinguish where anything gets saved.
External is just for files and in case of G6, it's not encrypted.
I think you better start from the beginning...
You always should use the SD card as a data drive.
Running apps should never go on it!
You never encrypt a data drive... unless you enjoy losing data!!!
Get the data off the SD card into the PC via data transfer from the phone.
Then factory reset the phone and reload.
Then add the SD card data drive, do not encrypt it! All critical data and backups go here.
Internal memory is for apps, the temporary download folder and the DCIM folder*.
*create a folder on the data drive to transfer photos from the DCIM folder on a regular basis.
Do Not name this folder DCIM! Name it Photo Master or such.
Excuse me, but you don't know what formatting as internal storage means, but you gonna give me a complete rundown how to use my phone in a completely different manner than I want to. I didn't ask any of this.
If I can't encrypt the SD card, then it might as well not be there at all. Motorola ****ed up by not supporting this.
Anyway, I sorta fixed it. Uninstalled some apps to clear up about 2.5GB of space, deleted all my files, "migrated" everything from card to phone, which was about 700 megs of nothing. Yep all my files were still there in the phone. And those 700 megs stayed on the card too. Whatever process is controlling this, is apparently unable to delete data.
Whatevs. Guess it's extra motivation to mess around with custom ROMs and stuff, I'm tired of OEM nonsense.
If you OS crashes/burns which is rare in Androids but certainly happens, your encrypted SD card data will not be accessible after a factory reset.
Lost forever... end of story.
That's why you never encrypt data drives; sooner or latter you will lose critical data, maybe your whole data base.
People are constantly posting here asking how to break 256 bit encryption. It's sadly halarious because it's not happening in their lifetime.
Meh, do what you will...
Same sheet here. I did the following and it worked:
1, while still in the phone, I backed up the content of the SD card. (Turned out I didn't need it, but better be safe)
2, switched off the phone
3, removed the SD card
4, Turned on the phone. Some apps, which didn't rely much on internal storage just worked without any issue. Others were missing the SD card.
5, From the drop-down menu I selected the SD-card related item and clicked on "Forget". This gave me some warnings, but I didn't have much to loose.
6, Magic happened: My phone recovered the previously hidden files and it worked just before I started the migration to SD card!
tohotom said:
Same sheet here. I did the following and it worked:
1, while still in the phone, I backed up the content of the SD card. (Turned out I didn't need it, but better be safe)
2, switched off the phone
3, removed the SD card
4, Turned on the phone. Some apps, which didn't rely much on internal storage just worked without any issue. Others were missing the SD card.
5, From the drop-down menu I selected the SD-card related item and clicked on "Forget". This gave me some warnings, but I didn't have much to loose.
6, Magic happened: My phone recovered the previously hidden files and it worked just before I started the migration to SD card!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to XDA
Apps, DCIM and download folders go on internal memory.
All critical data including regular backups for the dcim folder go on the SD card ie data drive.
Any apps that allow backups can be backed up on the data drive but never running from it.
Once you add a SD card leave it in the device and access it through the device only to avoid issues.
If you're dealing with under 128gb internal memory... life will be hard*. That's what I consider a bare bones minimum, 256gb or larger is better.
*Adjust the amount of apps loaded accordingly and leave a couple gb of headroom. If you only got 16gb of memory it's going to be a light load.