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/sdcard vs /sdcard-ext???

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.

[Q] Question about how the storage on the M8 is mounted

Considering how many people have used one of these by now, I was wondering if anybody could answer this.
One thing that drove me crazy about some Motorola and Samsung phones with 16+GB of internal storage, is that the storage was partitioned off and the usable space was mounted as if it was an sd card. This really wrecked havoc on apps that are supposed to save data to the SD card, because they would think the internal storage was the SD card and save to there. Not only was this annoying for some backup-based apps, but games which need to download anywhere from 500MB to 3GB of resources would install to the (usually 10GB or less after the rest is partitioned to the system) internal storage, thinking they were installing to the sd card. Basically, the sd card was only usable for photos, videos, and music... and file managers. The phone might as well not have an SD slot.
So far every HTC phone I have had hasen't been this way, the EVO 3D I currently has mounts the internal storage as actual internal storage, so apps correctly download these large amounts of data to the SD card. I didn't get a One because the lack of a SD slot was a dealbreaker for me, but now I am extremely interested in the M8 (Just a shame it isn't water proof like the S5 or Z2, oh well).
I am curious about how it treats it's internal storage however, since it starts out at 16GB(although it appears the Sprint version will be 32GB). Does it actually mount it as internal storage, so apps who want to write to the SD card would be writing to the real SD card itself, or does it work like the Samsung and Motorola phones where it partitions off part of it's internal storage as if it was external, making apps think that it's internal storage is the SD card?
I really hope it doesn't mount it's internal memory as if it was the SD card.

I have the Evo LTE, and it has the same storage space as the new One (16gb internal with a microSD slot). It treats the memory as internal SD and external SD. Most apps are saved to the internal SD. Only a mere few (XDA is the only one that comes to mind) can be saved/moved to the ext SD.
I hope that this answers your question.

aarsyl said:
I have the Evo LTE, and it has the same storage space as the new One (16gb internal with a microSD slot). It treats the memory as internal SD and external SD. Most apps are saved to the internal SD. Only a mere few (XDA is the only one that comes to mind) can be saved/moved to the ext SD.
I hope that this answers your question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The latest update to the EVO LTE changed the way storage was handled. They got rid of the internal SD so all of the 16 Gb was treated as phone storage. I would imagine that the M8 will be the same, especially given how Kit Kat treats memory cards.

ahecht said:
The latest update to the EVO LTE changed the way storage was handled. They got rid of the internal SD so all of the 16 Gb was treated as phone storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't something like that require re-partitioning of the flash ROM? I remember when I asked if it was possible to do this on a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM I was told it would require re-partitioning the internal memory and be extremely risky and possible to brick.
Granted though, I would love it if the M8 handled memory this way. Has anyone here tried one and can confirm or deny this?

Cyber Akuma said:
Wouldn't something like that require re-partitioning of the flash ROM? I remember when I asked if it was possible to do this on a Galaxy S4 with a custom ROM I was told it would require re-partitioning the internal memory and be extremely risky and possible to brick.
Granted though, I would love it if the M8 handled memory this way. Has anyone here tried one and can confirm or deny this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the Android 4.3 update for the EVO 4G LTE was distributed as an RUU that repartitioned the internal memory.

The repartitioning to the LTE brings it in line with the first HTC One in terms of internal storage. It does mean that USB file transferring becomes MTP-only (no more mounting the partition directly). I find MTP rather slow (and at least under Linux, unreliable)... It's annoyed me to no end dealing with my wife's HTC One. At least the faster CPU than my Evo 4G LTE should make SFTP not glacially slow.

gbritton said:
The repartitioning to the LTE brings it in line with the first HTC One in terms of internal storage. It does mean that USB file transferring becomes MTP-only (no more mounting the partition directly). I find MTP rather slow (and at least under Linux, unreliable)... It's annoyed me to no end dealing with my wife's HTC One. At least the faster CPU than my Evo 4G LTE should make SFTP not glacially slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The external SD can still be mounted in Mass Storage mode on the EVO LTE, so hopefully that'll also be the case on the M8.

Mounted as SDCARD
Cyber Akuma said:
Considering how many people have used one of these by now, I was wondering if anybody could answer this.
One thing that drove me crazy about some Motorola and Samsung phones with 16+GB of internal storage, is that the storage was partitioned off and the usable space was mounted as if it was an sd card. This really wrecked havoc on apps that are supposed to save data to the SD card, because they would think the internal storage was the SD card and save to there. Not only was this annoying for some backup-based apps, but games which need to download anywhere from 500MB to 3GB of resources would install to the (usually 10GB or less after the rest is partitioned to the system) internal storage, thinking they were installing to the sd card. Basically, the sd card was only usable for photos, videos, and music... and file managers. The phone might as well not have an SD slot.
So far every HTC phone I have had hasen't been this way, the EVO 3D I currently has mounts the internal storage as actual internal storage, so apps correctly download these large amounts of data to the SD card. I didn't get a One because the lack of a SD slot was a dealbreaker for me, but now I am extremely interested in the M8 (Just a shame it isn't water proof like the S5 or Z2, oh well).
I am curious about how it treats it's internal storage however, since it starts out at 16GB(although it appears the Sprint version will be 32GB). Does it actually mount it as internal storage, so apps who want to write to the SD card would be writing to the real SD card itself, or does it work like the Samsung and Motorola phones where it partitions off part of it's internal storage as if it was external, making apps think that it's internal storage is the SD card?
I really hope it doesn't mount it's internal memory as if it was the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also was using HTC EVO 3D. Now I am using HTC One M8. This phone treats Internal Storage as SDCARD and External Storage card as SDCARD2. I am also seeing this as problematic. I don't want to root at this point of time and just living with it with my M8. I rooted EVO3D and had complete Freedom even with CM 11 (KK 4.4.3). Lets wait and watch...

[Q] download files directly to sd card?

Tried to download some files but I had to download it to phone's internal memory and then move it to sd card, since the phone doesn't allow to write to sd card.
and another problem, I bought an sdxc 64gb sd card. there's another way to transfer files from my pc to sd card in fast speed? should be like 40+ mb/s and it's transfering files around 4 mb/s, guess it's the lack of usb 3.0 port on the phone.
any faster way other than buying a usb 3.0 card reader?
airdroid and another wireless methods didn't work for me.
Thank you guys.

You're limited to what the phones USB controller allows you to communicate with it, and I suppose it used MTP anyway which is utter crap and slow.
As for downloading directly to SD card, it's impossible because Google put SD-card access limitations in it since KitKat. No worries however since Android L should re-enable those permissions again. (Apps now can only save in their own specific directory on the SD card in /sdcard1/Android/data/com.vendor.appname, so you better wait a while. If you absolutely need to move things between your SD card and internal memory to your own folders, the built-in File Commander has permissions to access your SD card fully.

You can d load files directly to your SD Card.
Settings> Xperia Connectivity > USB Connectivity> Wireless Media Transfer
You'll probably need to install the PC Companion software, and make sure that your screen time-out/stamina is off while it pairs for the first time, but then you can d/load files to your SD card.

techguyone said:
You can d load files directly to your SD Card.
Settings> Xperia Connectivity > USB Connectivity> Wireless Media Transfer
You'll probably need to install the PC Companion software, and make sure that your screen time-out/stamina is off while it pairs for the first time, but then you can d/load files to your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried that, it gets stuck and if I unplug the phone it says something about firewall and upnp, tried to disable the firewall and still the same.

No, it doesn't stick, it just takes a *very long time* to pair (once it is, it's fine) and you MUST make sure your display doesn't time out or Stamina mode kick in during the process

techguyone said:
No, it doesn't stick, it just takes a *very long time* to pair (once it is, it's fine) and you MUST make sure your display doesn't time out or Stamina mode kick in during the process
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will give it one more try.
Thank you.
edit: it works but still slow, will consider buying a usb 3.0 card reader.

techguyone said:
No, it doesn't stick, it just takes a *very long time* to pair (once it is, it's fine) and you MUST make sure your display doesn't time out or Stamina mode kick in during the process
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another question, sorry for quoting you.
Tried to transfer some music, movies and tv series to the sd card. With teracopy everything seems ok.
After disconnecting the phone from pc either the music won't show or the movies, or tv series.
Befor I unplug the phone all the files appear but after I'm unplugging the phone it won't show the files on yhe phone and on the pc either.
Could it be a damaged sd card or it may cause by using exfat format? Couldn't find a way to format into fat32 format.
Any suggestions?

Are you sure the apps you are using to play/view let you into the SD Card?
I have several thousand songs and some movies on my SD Card and they are viewable from my apps.
The best way to format your SD Card would be from the phone itself if you want to guarantee the phone recognising the contents. I believe you use Settings > Storage > Erase SD card (My understanding is that it will format the SDCard too) write speed will be determined by the SD Card too, is it a high speed card? I also find that if you try and write multiple files, it slows down everything hugely, so I tend to do files singly (in the case of movies) and in smallish batches if music.
If you're using wi-fi, the speed of the network/distance from the router will play a part too

techguyone said:
Are you sure the apps you are using to play/view let you into the SD Card?
I have several thousand songs and some movies on my SD Card and they are viewable from my apps.
The best way to format your SD Card would be from the phone itself if you want to guarantee the phone recognising the contents. I believe you use Settings > Storage > Erase SD card (My understanding is that it will format the SDCard too) write speed will be determined by the SD Card too, is it a high speed card? I also find that if you try and write multiple files, it slows down everything hugely, so I tend to do files singly (in the case of movies) and in smallish batches if music.
If you're using wi-fi, the speed of the network/distance from the router will play a part too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The item has been removed from ebay so here is some details but not the model number
64GB SanDisk Extreme Micro SDXC Memory Card Class 10 - 45MB/s UHS-I U1
Formatting it through the phone makes it exfat.
And yes I'm sure it's the external sd card.
But how is it possible that the sd card is full, I unplug it and plug it again and the folders are there but they are empty, plus no matter what is the size of the files that I transfer I have like 4-6 free gb's, there should be like 40 free gb's after the size of the files that I transferred.

You should consider that perhaps you got a cheap copy card and it's not working at the speed it should be, there are card speed apps on Android Market that should be able to tell you how fast its working. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a1dev.sdbench&hl=en
also see this thread for other details
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/accessories/sdcard-t2879667
This is mine using the 'accurate with reboot'
Card is: SanDisk SDSDQU-064G-FFP Ultra 64 GB Class 10 Micro SD Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
read 40.42 MB/s
write 16.55 MB/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

techguyone said:
You should consider that perhaps you got a cheap copy card and it's not working at the speed it should be, there are card speed apps on Android Market that should be able to tell you how fast its working. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a1dev.sdbench&hl=en
also see this thread for other details
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/accessories/sdcard-t2879667
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's a fake for sure.
About 2-3 mb/s reand and write.
Since the item removed from ebay I can't open a dispute. Hope PayPal will refund me.

If nothing else, at least we've worked out the problem

Not sure if this was already solved.
If you go on Camera, Settings, "Data Storage" change to SD Card.
Erasing the SD card from the phone seems to work more efficiently to provide you the confidence of starting from scratch.
Now everytime I take pictures or Videos, it is transferred straight to my SD Card.
Hope this helps for some that is still having some difficulties with the topic.

Marshmallow, SD Cards, App Data storage

I feel like I'm missing something. I recently upgraded to Marshmallow on my 8gb Moto G (2014). I saw the stuff about the adopted SD so I thought I'd try it with my 16gb card. I did this and then I found that Google Play and Pocket Casts, my two big data apps, are impossible to move to adopted storage. My internal storage filled up pretty much instantly with music and podcasts. Since my SD card is encrypted I can't just drop my music onto it with USB anymore.
So I go reformat my SD card and have it be portable. Now it's impossible to move the data from Google Play, Pocket Casts and Merlin Bird ID app to my SD card as I used to be able to. Any new pictures I take are also saved with the app on internal storage. So now with my SD card as portable my internal storage fills up quickly and I'm once again boned.
Am I missing something? This new SD card management thing is worlds worse for me than Lollipop and I'm really tempted to downgrade but I feel like I'm missing something. Should I learn how to partition my SD card and make some of it adopted and some portable? Am I missing a setting or button to fix this?

You can connect your phone on the computer and access the SD card as always on MM, at least you should be able to (I am).
If your SD card doesn't appear when you connect your phone on your PC try to chance the connection setting on the notification area.
The new SD card management thing just makes your data more... Secure. It doesn't forbid you of copying things to your SD card via USB (but accessing it via an adapter is forbidden, tho)

I just upgraded wife's 2014 moto g last night and initially used her original 32gb card, but allowed it to be formatted for internal storage. Now i'm trying to use a 128 card I bought tonight. It keeps dropping out of the format with some sort of Java error message that goes away quickly. I have to then "fix" the card with mini partition manager on a Windows PC. It works fine for the other storage type. I tried even a 64GB Fat32 partition with other half not formatted, does same thing. I think Android is reformatting from scratch and it appears creating another smaller partition (as that what partition manager shows). Any ideas? I suppose this new Android scheme is only good for up to 32GB cards.

If you have SuperSu, untick 'Mount namespace separation'.
It causes SD problems.

Moved some apps to SD Card and Internal Storage still full

Anyone else have an issue when trying to format an SD Card as Internal Storage? I just got a 128GB Samsung EVO Plus UHC 3 Class 10 SD Card for the purpose of extending the small 64 gb storage on the unit. When its formatted as internal it shows as a 256 GB Card with 132 GB Being used. When i go to app mgr and transfer the apps to SD Card i see the relative increase in space being used on my SD Card however my internal storage space stays just as full, which i believe shouldn't be the case. Anyone else have a similar issue, or know any workarounds to this issue? I do not think its device related as my girlfriends Razerphone 2 is acting the same way with the card i got for her. When we format it as removable storage it shows up correctly as a 128 GB but i dont want to be restricted to media only i dont plan on removing this card from the device.
Any assistance is much appreciated!
Thanks!

I have same issue but know not ofa work around or fix.

Even when you move apps to the SD card, the amount of data moved varies, and you'll still have necessary files on the internal storage. So I doubt you'll ever fully resolve that.
Regarding the idea in general, it's not a good idea to install apps on to the SD card in the first place. They are not designed to handle the amount of data writing that happens with normal app use and can corrupt the card relatively quickly. It's best to leave apps on the internal storage, and just put independent files (photos, videos, documents, etc) on the card.

Mr_Mooncatt said:
Even when you move apps to the SD card, the amount of data moved varies, and you'll still have necessary files on the internal storage. So I doubt you'll ever fully resolve that.
Regarding the idea in general, it's not a good idea to install apps on to the SD card in the first place. They are not designed to handle the amount of data writing that happens with normal app use and can corrupt the card relatively quickly. It's best to leave apps on the internal storage, and just put independent files (photos, videos, documents, etc) on the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but that isnt quite the issue. I see the gigs of storage space on my SD get used but the space on my internal storage remains exactly the same as it was before i moved as well. I paid extra for the Class 3 card just for better read and write speeds to be usable as internal storage. The 64 gigs on this is too little and id rather not have to redownload apps every time i decide to change a game.
On my previous HTC 10 with Android 8 when i combined my SD as internal it basically combined as a single storage with my internal had just one big storage drive. I didnt have a class 3 card for that one, it definitely slowed things down but was hoping for better results with this faster SD, just now it seems like the feature is broken and not working as intended on this Device model altogether