Database Develop

[HOWTO]Change SD with app2sd

Upgrading/Changing of memory/SD cards while using App2SD?
Here's how.
What you need:
-Rooted
-Drellisdee's ThunderG custom recovery(preferably v1.2)
-Card Reader(Optional)
Steps:
-Boot into recovery
-In recovery menu, select "Backup/Restore" then "Nand + ext backup".(If you are using an ext4 app2sd partition, ThunderG v1.2 is a MUST)
-Now with any means suitable to you, transfer the "nandroid" folder found on your SD to your PC.(the easiest way is to mount USB-ms via recovery, but for some reason this option doesn't work for me)
-Now turn off your phone and insert the NEW SD.
-Boot into recovery again and partition your new SD(for app2sd).
-Now again, with any means suitable to you, transfer the "nandroid" folder you just copied to your PC back to the new SD.
-In recovery menu, select "Backup/Restore" then "Nand restore", choose the file to restore(in most cases, there is only one option)
-Wait for it, now reboot.
-Enjoy!
Custom Recovery
ThunderG v1.2

man! you woke up early for this?
kudos!!!! now everyone can happily change/upgrade their cards...
(the easiest way is to mount USB-ms via recovery, but for some reason this option doesn't work for me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now this doesnt seem right... i mean, it has to work.
hhmm.. mine does. im on thunderG too.
maybe youre lacking drivers for it.... have you checked you device manager?
------------------
EDIT ok i get it. i dont have the V1.2 will try to install later on.
maybe the new recovery has the problem.. and not your PC...
---------------------------------
more EDIT
ok ive just installed V1.2 and yes i can confirm that the USB toggle under recovery works for me.
now the next thing to try is upgarade to a higher capacity card... *lol*
nice one Ungaze!

lol, up late seems more like it.
usb-toggle issue might be usb driver related.
havent flashed the firmware yet so i didnt have the need to install the drivers as well.
i also used this method to revert my app2sd partition from ext4 to ext2. so it also works with different partition filesystem, someone can maybe test if it also works with different partition size.

thats backing up and restoring right?
maybe ill try it on ext4...
anyway, why convert back to ext2? is there any significance?

bluviper said:
thats backing up and restoring right?
maybe ill try it on ext4...
anyway, why convert back to ext2? is there any significance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was doing a test, and speed-wise there is a slight improvement. about 50 - 80 points on I/O using quadrant. Although really unnoticeable and I don't really rely on quadrant that much, performance seems to be just the same.(OptimusXrom maker domenic_s also uses ext2).

i see.. maybe one time ill try to do ext2.. hehehe
theres not much happening with our O1 today ei?!
so i need to do something... hehehe errr experiment on something...
*lol*

now thats weird.. after rebooting the second time to recovery...
i cant find my files under Flash zip files...
seems like only system folders are installed....

I just used EASEUS Todo Backup to clone old sd card (with partition ext 4, i think) to new sd card.
It copied everything on the old sd card to new sd card and it works flawlessly.
The software is free for home user.

bluviper said:
now thats weird.. after rebooting the second time to recovery...
i cant find my files under Flash zip files...
seems like only system folders are installed....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you refering to this step?
-Boot into recovery again and partition your new SD(for app2sd).
which i highly doubt. please explain.
I just used EASEUS Todo Backup to clone old sd card (with partition ext 4, i think) to new sd card.
It copied everything on the old sd card to new sd card and it works flawlessly.
The software is free for home user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good for you. just sharing how I did it since changing SDs are becoming pretty common nowadays.

ungaze, after installing the recovery...
and rebooting it via adb, i can still access the files on my sd card. like for example i want to install a new theme etc etc using Flash ZIP menu on V1.2
but after rebooting the second time.
i cant see the files anymore... just folders....
im not into changing cards. but i just want to install something using V1.2 recovery.
and somehow i cannot see my zip files inside Flash ZIP menu.
thats the place to look for when i want to install flashable zips right?

I see, I think I know what you mean.
One of the new features of ThunderG v1.2 recovery is the ability to recognize folders when choosing a zip file to flash. Well that's good, but the problem is that it still doesn't have the option to scroll down when the screen/list is full(or maybe I just havent found out yet). I also had this problem before, so what I did was to make a new folder with a higher alphabetical priority name, eg: "aaflash", "aflashfiles", "1flash" etc so that the folder will always appear at the top. Then I placed all my zip files into that folder and just open the folder when I need to apply something. Try it, the files should appear.

yap. someone told me that too... and so i did.. and yes it can be read...
but we can still consider that a bug.
and i think the author needs to edit that part.
anyhow. its working fine....

What does this do? Is this the way we can move all our apps to sd card??? Please im desperate
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App

ungaze said:
lol, up late seems more like it.
usb-toggle issue might be usb driver related.
havent flashed the firmware yet so i didnt have the need to install the drivers as well.
i also used this method to revert my app2sd partition from ext4 to ext2. so it also works with different partition filesystem, someone can maybe test if it also works with different partition size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you explain how you converted the ext4 partition into ext2?

victortangocharlie said:
could you explain how you converted the ext4 partition into ext2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I can't really call it a convertion, I just backed up the SD contents, format it, repartition ext2 than put the old contents back in place. Update: Ext2 on optimusXrom's app2sd doesnt seem to work, didn't checked thoroughly and app2sd got disabled. Need to contact domenic on how he did this.
domenic_s said:
No, actually ext2 is faster than ext3 ... i don't know how it is to ext4 but i'm using ext2 at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hey ungaze,
Could you tell me how to use apps2sd to move an app to the ext4 partition i have on my phone.

[Q] SafeStrap 3.0.x, multiple ROMs, and installing to SD card

Hello,
I've been patiently following this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804665 for the past several months. Thanks to the selfless, hard work of Hashcode, dhacker, and also sylentprofet and jarveson (and apologies to anyone I haven't credited), the recent builds seem to have arrived at a level of functionality and stability that I'm thinking of trying to install my first custom ROM (I've already had SafeStrap 3.0.x installed for months).
My question is the following: I understand from the above thread and from Hashcode's blog that now the external SD card will be used as the default storage location. I was wondering what happens when an app is "installed to SD". From my previous experience on an original Motorola Droid, I know that "installing to SD" would move some files to a special directory on the SD card. I was wondering if this would cause collisions if the same app was installed under multiple ROM slots using SafeStrap.
Thank you for entertaining this newbie's question.

Actually the way I understand it is there is still the internal storage and external SD which are the same, but the internal storage gets partitioned separate from the rest of the storage so if you install an app to the SD card, I think it just goes in a regular folder. The system thinks the /system partition is in the regular storage for it but it actually is tricked to the internal storage.
I hope that makes sense.

MrObvious said:
... so if you install an app to the SD card, I think it just goes in a regular folder ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for your response.
Is this regular folder on the external SD card? If so, does it mean that this regular folder will be shared by the ROMs in multiple slots if I have the same app installed under the ROM in multiple slots?
Thank you again.

alvin_a_garcia said:
Thank you very much for your response.
Is this regular folder on the external SD card? If so, does it mean that this regular folder will be shared by the ROMs in multiple slots if I have the same app installed under the ROM in multiple slots?
Thank you again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's on the external SD then yes it is.

I had the same doubt when I recently started using ROMs on my Droid3. This thread helped me a lot.
I have lots of apps in my stock ROM that I've installed before rooting it. Do I have to install it all again on external SD? If yes, do I have to use a new flashed ROM or the stock ROM?

Thiago AmP said:
I had the same doubt when I recently started using ROMs on my Droid3. This thread helped me a lot.
I have lots of apps in my stock ROM that I've installed before rooting it. Do I have to install it all again on external SD? If yes, do I have to use a new flashed ROM or the stock ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On minimoto I noticed it was using the exact same sd configuration as stock, perhaps because its stock based. On CM10 the external SD card is the default /sd card but you can still access the internal sd.
Regardless of how the sd card is configured you'd still have to reinstall apps when going to another ROM. I recommend using Titanium Backup then its quite simple to restore apps on another ROM. For SD data you could just manually copy and paste the folders from the internal to external SD.

spunker88 said:
On minimoto I noticed it was using the exact same sd configuration as stock, perhaps because its stock based. On CM10 the external SD card is the default /sd card but you can still access the internal sd.
Regardless of how the sd card is configured you'd still have to reinstall apps when going to another ROM. I recommend using Titanium Backup then its quite simple to restore apps on another ROM. For SD data you could just manually copy and paste the folders from the internal to external SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! So, a separate partition on SD Card would be a waste of "space", since the ROM's doesn't share acess to this partition. I've only tried with CM10, I'm going to try with MavROM and Minimoto, but i'm almost sure that I'll end backing all up with Titanium.

Thiago AmP said:
Thanks! So, a separate partition on SD Card would be a waste of "space", since the ROM's doesn't share acess to this partition. I've only tried with CM10, I'm going to try with MavROM and Minimoto, but i'm almost sure that I'll end backing all up with Titanium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of kind of. Basically this would be useful if you want to share apps and their settings between the custom and Stock ROMs installed on your phone [may be odd on an app by app basis depending on a few things but a good number *should* work [I dont use external SD as it eats the battery and is MUCH slower than using the /data partition so haven't tested this], so following should be close if not 100% correct
You would in stock ROM set your apps2SD app up [I DO NOT advise you to use the sdcard function found in manage apps>app area instead you should be using an app like Link2SD that actually creates a partition on your external SD and formats it to EXT3 or EXT4 [suggest using EXT4]. This way things like widgets still work whereas they don't when using the built-in android function [this happens as android uses a folder on the SDCard [which is FAT32 by default] and file permissions needed to run Widgets and some code can't be copied as needed on to a FAT32 partition so by using an app that partitions [or the recovery can do this but you would still need an app to manage which apps are in this partion] the SDCard app instead actually formats part of the card to the EXT 3 or 4 File system so it is the same as the /data partion so Android can copy EVERYTHING and nothing is affected and broken.
So you open your SDCard app manager in Stock ROM and format the External SD [THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING RUN APPROPRIATE BACKUPS BEFORE PARTIONING [move them to a computer and back if you dont have enough internal storage to absorb your data]]
When that completes open the app again [usually needs a restart first to mount the new partition before continuing].
Once you get that done open the Manager app and select the apps to move to this new partition.
CUSTOM ROM: Now once that is done boot in to safestrap and either setup a Custom ROM or change to it's boot slot. Next boot in to Custom ROM and install the same SD Card App Manager you used in Stock.
Next, once you open it it should say it found a partition and ask if you want to use it if it doesn't and just lists the app view the settings in the Manager app and HAVE IT SETUP AN EXISTING PARTITION. DONT PARTITION YOUR SDCard AGAIN [or all your newly moved data will bite it].
Now restart and allow it to boot back in to the Custom ROM again. Once this happens all the apps you moved to the SDCard partition should magically appear and be usable.
SO LONG AS YOUR STOCK AND CUSTOM ROMs ARE THE SAME VERSIONS DONT DO THIS IF YOU HAVE ICS ON THE SAFE SIDE AND JELLYBEAN AS A CUSTOM ROM IT WILL MOST LIKELY CAUSE ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS

[Q] TWRP?

Will we ever have a working TWRP recovery?

Doesn't seem like it but I'm not too concerned since I have had great luck with Philz and Touch CWM.

Looks like we will not. But as long I have philz I'm OK. Lol

Too bad. I like philz lots but its cwm based and romtoolbox don't get along.
Sent from my Atrix HD using Tapatalk

TWRP
As someone whose previous device had a TWRP recovery the only thing I really miss is that it allowed internal and external sd card access while booted. That always made for easy switching of roms. I know I bork up something at least once a week while tinkering and have to reflash recovery because I deleted my data without a working rom backup on my sd card.

clockcycle said:
Too bad. I like philz lots but its cwm based and romtoolbox don't get along.
Sent from my Atrix HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With philz never had a problem with that app as I use it to change bootanimations and fonts.

idontkn1 said:
As someone whose previous device had a TWRP recovery the only thing I really miss is that it allowed internal and external sd card access while booted. That always made for easy switching of roms. I know I bork up something at least once a week while tinkering and have to reflash recovery because I deleted my data without a working rom backup on my sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Philz recovery you can always access both. Only takes a few minutes to switch between roms

Sorry for not being clearer
pijes said:
With Philz recovery you can always access both. Only takes a few minutes to switch between roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant is that while in TWRP you can unmount your external and internal sd card and have it recognized as an mass storage device by windows. Thus allowing you to move roms, backups etc onto your sd card. Once you're finished with moving files you can remount your sd card and go about your business. I mess something up at least once a week and end up without a usable backup after wiping data in recovery. In the TWRP world I can just copy over a good backup without leaving the recovery. In Philz and cwm recoveries I end up having to reboot to the bootloader, reflash recovery, pull out my sd card and copy my backup to the sd card to get back where I need to be. It's nothing horrible but it does usually add 5 or 10 minutes to the process.

Philz has that option but I can't seem to be able to mount it correctly ,
I hope there will be a fix ,as I have been in situations in where I had a Bootlooping phone until I accessed my PC
If I recall correctly I think I heard someone built a version for us, but had touch points off coordination
Sent From My Delicious Kiwi

TWRP 2.6.3.1
The Photon Q TWRP works on our AHDs but has offset touch-points. It's still very usable once you figure out the offsets (down/left).
Attached is a flashable ZIP if you want to try it out. Just flash in recovery and reboot. You can always flash back to Philz if you don't like the touch issue.
Enjoy!

Stock ROM & Cyanogenmod lost/cannot read the SD card

I've had 64 Gb SD card in my Droid 4 and it has worked quite well.
Then I installed CM12 to my phone and after that neither the stock ROM nor CM11/12 cannot find the aforementioned SD card anymore.
I've wiped both ROMs off and replaced them with my stock & CM11 backups. Doesn't work.
But the strangest thing is that Safestrap's File Manager can find that SD card and I can use it there just well (flash & copy files for example).
So what gives and how to get rid of that? Should I wipe my phone totally blank and start from the scratch again???
Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks a lot in advance everybody involved.

Sensonic said:
I've had 64 Gb SD card in my Droid 4 and it has worked quite well.
Then I installed CM12 to my phone and after that neither the stock ROM nor CM11/12 cannot find the aforementioned SD card anymore.
I've wiped both ROMs off and replaced them with my stock & CM11 backups. Doesn't work.
But the strangest thing is that Safestrap's File Manager can find that SD card and I can use it there just well (flash & copy files for example).
So what gives and how to get rid of that? Should I wipe my phone totally blank and start from the scratch again???
Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks a lot in advance everybody involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD card likely has some corrupt files or file system, may need reformatting
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

OK, thanks!
Forgot to mention that if I place the same SD card to my Samsung Galaxy tablet, to my Android TV box or to my computer, it works without any problems. So that's strange indeed.

[Q&A] Adopted Storage - L90 Marshmallow

Hello, everyone!
It seems that there are many misinformation about using an external micro SD as internal memory when installing any of the (great) Marshmallow ROMs available to L90, so I decided to create this thread from my experiments and leave it open for discussion.
What is it?
With Marshmallow you can use an external uSD as internal memory, what is great for L90 because it has 8GB of internal storage, with only around 4GB available for users.
How does it work?
It's a Marshmallow feature so it's built-in, no need of extra apps. It will format a uSD inserted in the L90 micro SD slot and use it as internal storage.
The uSD card will work from now on only on your phone, but you still can unmount, remove and replace it with other cards as needed. All contents from /sdcard will be moved from internal storage to the uSD, and all apps that allow native "App2SD" will be moved too (you can choose to move or not, if you don't you can move apps manually later). Not all apps can be moved, but you can "force move" ones that don't support native App2SD, but be aware that it may break things, like widgets, etc.
How do I use it?
There are two ways to enable adopted storage:
1. it will offer you the option to use a newly detected uSD as internal or storage, so you'll probably see a notification when you insert a new uSD on your phone, or right after installing any Marshmallow ROM;
2. Go to "Storage and USB" in Settings app, select your external card, tap the three dot menu and choose Settings, it will then open a page where you can Eject, Format (erase) or Format as internal option.
Either way you will be guide through the process of formatting your uSD as internal memory and moving your data. Obviously, your micro SD will be formatted (erased) so backup any important data first.
Advantages
The main advantage is that it will improve your internal storage a lot. Even if you use a 8GB uSD, because it will move everything from /sdcard folder to the uSD. Also, if an app is moved, then all its contents (data, obb, cache) will be stored in the new adopted storage.
Problems
From what I've tested, the only problems are that even a Class 10 uSD is slower than internal memory and not as reliable. So make sure you use a fast uSD (I'd say Class10 is the minimum) and a reliable one. Of course, if you use the uSD to move data between your phone and other devices then you probably will want to keep using it as external (aka Portable) memory.
Observations (may be updated later)
1. If you don't choose the option to move your apps when formatting the uSD you can do it manually later: go to Settings, Apps, pick the app you want to move and then click on Storage, you should see a page with a button to move the app (and app data). If you see "Force Change" then the app doesn't support moving to external storage natively, and doing it may break something;
2. All internal storage will be used only for apps and apps data when using adopted storage, everything else will be on your external uSD, what means /sdcard is now on your uSD. Also every app and app data moved to adopted storage will be on your external uSD too, so removing the card will make those apps unavailable as well as any data stored on /sdcard;
3. You will still be able to access all data using MTP (it will show only Internal Storage, as /sdcard is on your external uSD now) or using TWRP 3.0.0 or later (/sdcard data will be available on the /emmc folder using the built-in File Manager, or separately using MTP). MTP on TWRP was very slow for me when I tried to use it, so slow it's useless for files > 1GB, but maybe it's because I have used Android File Transfer on a Mac, your mileage my vary;
4. Sometimes the format process may abort and Android will show your uSD as "corrupted" (maybe it's the wrong word for it). Don't panic. If you want to test your SD, use it on a computer and do a full format using FAT format, it will test the card. Simply restar the process if you've tested or you know your card is OK. If it still says your card is slow, don't worry, it may work fast enough for you (again, I am talking about Class 10 or higher);
5. When a uSD is formatted as internal storage it won't be "readable" anymore on any other phone or computer (OK, maybe you can on a computer that can read f2fs and its contents, but not the usual and normal way);
6. Going back is complicated: probably you will need to use a computer and MTP to copy the data from /sdcard to it, uninstall or move the apps you want to keep back to internal memory and then format your uSD card again as external memory.
7. It seems that you can use one uSD to both adopted and portable storage, see the link bellow (not tested, read the other page linked too):
Sam Liddicott: Android 6 semi-adopted storage
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
Most things discussed here can be seen with pictures in this page from Motorola support website:
https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/109134/p/1449,9582
Cheers and thank you all for the great info I got from this forum! :good:

this is the reason my d415 is bricked ! :'(

DeathCrow17 said:
this is the reason my d415 is bricked ! :'(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only formatting uSD as internal storage won't brick any phone. It's even listed on Motorola website for their phones. What else did you do?

lfom said:
Only formatting uSD as internal storage won't brick any phone. It's even listed on Motorola website for their phones. What else did you do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While formatting the sd to make it internal storage, the screen just went black..so i search what's wrong, they said i need to wipe the partition and create a new one......before i did that, i can boot to the logo and booting screen still black on the home screen tho, but after i did that, my screen is totally black, wont boot

@DeathCrow17
Sorry, but I've done it more than twice and never had a problem. I don't know why it happened to your phone, maybe it was just a sad coincidence. Anyway, if you still can enter download mode you can flash stock firmware using LG Flash Tool. If not, there are fastboot and the hard unbrick tutorial, you may get more help in those threads. Good luck.

lfom said:
Only formatting uSD as internal storage won't brick any phone. It's even listed on Motorola website for their phones. What else did you do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lfom said:
@DeathCrow17
Sorry, but I've done it more than twice and never had a problem. I don't know why it happened to your phone, maybe it was just a sad coincidence. Anyway, if you still can enter download mode you can flash stock firmware using LG Flash Tool. If not, there are fastboot and the hard unbrick tutorial, you may get more help in those threads. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried everything but after wiping the partition because the tutorial said i should....my screen just went totally black, no LG logo booting screen nothing....there is 1 guy who 's been helping me, even him is having a hard time fixing my device, through teamviewer....but i still have my fingers crossed for this LG after all this is my only one LOL

Can anyone confirm that TWRP_3.0.0-0_060216_L90_Testbuild.img does indeed work with adoptive storage

Fábio Ferreira said:
Can anyone confirm that TWRP_3.0.0-0_060216_L90_Testbuild.img does indeed work with adoptive storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I reported in OP, Dark Blue version from the post bellow works just fine as described.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-...rp2-7-1-0lgl90w7xxshoxx-t2826150/post65428096

lfom said:
As I reported in OP, Dark Blue version from the post bellow works just fine as described.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-...rp2-7-1-0lgl90w7xxshoxx-t2826150/post65428096
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should i flash the .zip or the img inside?
And shoild i wipe anything?

Fábio Ferreira said:
Should i flash the .zip or the img inside?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either way should work if you do it correctly. I flashed the zip using Rashr if I recall it correctly.

lfom said:
Either way should work if you do it correctly. I flashed the zip using Rashr if I recall it correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And shoild i wipe anything?
Sorry for the begginers questions, but i've never updated any recovery .Thanks for your help

Fábio Ferreira said:
And shoild i wipe anything?
Sorry for the begginers questions, but i've never updated any recovery .Thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, simply flash it and next time you boot to recovery you should see the new version.