I did do a search for this but the only thread I found was for the original Galaxy S and I wanted to check that the answer was the same for the S II.
I currently have no SD card installed in my phone, but obviously have GBs of free space in the internal 'USB storage' partition. If I try and move any installed apps to SD I just get an error about 'not enough memory'. This makes sense because presumably the OS is looking for an actual proper external SD card to be installed and there isn't one, hence the 'not enough memory' error. What I'd like to do though is use the internal 'USB storage' partition instead of an external SD card, is it possible to get the OS to use that partitition instead? I've done a bit of Googling and the answer seems to be no but I thought I'd check with the experts here before I give up entirely. If the answer is no then that's pretty disappointing because it means that the 11.5 GB in the internal USB storage is near useless to me.
I've noticed that some applications will use the internal storage exactly as they used the proper SD storage on my old Desire. For example, Kindle, Airport Mania, Gameloft games and others will install their data files on the internal storage by default; so it seems odd that you can't force other apps to do the same, thereby meaning you'd need the 11.5GB internal storage and a physical SD card to get the most out of the phone.
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I seem to have trouble grasping the concept of Internal and external SD memory.
I purchased a 16GB microSD card with the hopes that I can move most of my apps to that card but when I use app2sd I always get the "Failed to move application, not enough memory" error.
When I check the free space it shows more than 13GB on both the internal memory and also on the microSD card.
Since my gtablet has 16GB of "internal" storage already, what's microSD card good for?
Shouldn't I be able to move apps to either internal or external SD storage or am I just not understanding how this all works?
Can someone explain to me in Layman's terms what I need to do?
Thanks !!
PS: I just now accidentally reformatted my internal SD card so I will have to start from scratch anyways ;-)
Frogbone said:
I seem to have trouble grasping the concept of Internal and external SD memory.
I purchased a 16GB microSD card with the hopes that I can move most of my apps to that card but when I use app2sd I always get the "Failed to move application, not enough memory" error.
When I check the free space it shows more than 13GB on both the internal memory and also on the microSD card.
Since my gtablet has 16GB of "internal" storage already, what's microSD card good for?
Shouldn't I be able to move apps to either internal or external SD storage or am I just not understanding how this all works?
Can someone explain to me in Layman's terms what I need to do?
Thanks !!
PS: I just now accidentally reformatted my internal SD card so I will have to start from scratch anyways ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I understand, app2sd functionality is built into Froyo & beyond. No need for a separate app.
In laymans terms, your 16GB internal sd is split in 2, 2GB for apps & 14 gb for data.I have 88 apps installed & it is only using 492MB of the 2GB. Apps install to the 2GB area, but the (and the system) use the 14 GB data area for storage. You can also use this space for dat/files storage as well.
The external microsd slot is generally used by you for data storage. You can use it for what ever you like. I use mine to store copies of different roms/nvflash, movies/video/pictures & music transferred from the PC.
Hi, I'm having some issues with the internal storage of my Galaxy S II
I'll start by noting that I don't have an external SD card inserted, what I'm trying to accomplish is using the internal storage of the device.
As everyone knows, the GSII has around 11.5GB of available internal storage, and 2GB of system storage (all part of the device's 16GB total internal storage). Anyway, normally when I download an app, it's installed to that 2GB reserve, which fills up quickly. In theory, I should be able to easily move the apps from the 2GB partition, to the ~11.5GB one using the inbuilt move to SD card function under Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>*application*, but I get a "Failed to move application: not enough memory" error. I've also tried using App2SD, and have read a few guides online on this issue (with the GSII and others), to no avail.
I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on to how I can move the application from the 2GB partition, to the ~11.5GB one? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
I just bought a new SGSII and I'm finding the storage mounts a bit strange. I'm seeing that there is a "usb storage" on the phone as well as the external SD storage. However, it is not allowing me to "Move to SD Card" for the phone's storage and requiring me to use my (slower) external SD card. I've tried to use the ADB "pm setInstallLocation" command to force it internal, but that doesn't seem to work either. Is there any way to use the USB storage on the phone for "app 2 sd"?
Thanks,
Craig
Did you read the FAQ?
I did (before I rooted), but even reviewing again now I'm not seeing anything relative to this. What am I missing?
That there's no benefit to moving apps to the external SD with this phone's file system and amount of built-in storage. Save the ext_SD for your data, movie and music files.
I didn't see that. However, I'm confused by this. I was not being allowed to reinstall some of the apps I had installed on my Captivate since I was out of space. Move to SD cleared up space so that I could finish restoring my apps.
I wonder if something is not set up quite right on my device?
Which app are you trying to move?
Everything should be installed on your phone automatically unless you change it to your card. Unless a Rom you are using has it set differently, I think ShoStock has an option to do that automatically.
I don't think I was entirely clear in my question. My device has:
1) Internal Phone Storage
2) Internal "USB" Phone Storage
3) External SD Card Storage
By default, applications are installed to #1 which is a smaller partition and bound to fill up. If I chose "Move to SD Card", it automatically goes to #3 and yet I want to put it on #2 and I'm not allowed to do that. If I pull out my external SD card, those applications will disappear. I'd like to be able to have "Move to SD Card" use #2 instead of #3, as that storage is not removable and will also (theoretically) be faster.
This is how it worked on my Captivate (both stock and Cyanogenmod), so I'm very confused about what is going on with this and I'd really like to change things up to work as I'd like.
Thanks for insights,
Craig
The Captivate uses a different file system and mounting system than the SGSII. You would be better off to redownload the apps from the Market, then restore just the data for those apps. I had major problem with restoring my Captivate TiBU backup to my SGSII until I did this. Your problem is that the apps that were installed to the SD card on the Cappy do not have the same corresponding place on the SGSII. Trust me, reinstalling from the Market and then restoring the data is the best bet.
That is exactly what I did. However, it still does not change the fact that I'm not allowed to use internal SD storage when I move applications.
Considering that the internal USB storage is not an actual SD card, the App to SD function is working properly. The SGSII considers that to be extended system storage, not an actual SD card.
What is extended system storage supposed to be used for? This is new to me.
User generated data like photos, music, videos, downloads. Just not apps.
OK. Thanks. I guess I'm not thrilled with the way this is being done now, but it sounds like I don't have much of a choice on top of stock ROM.
How many other phones give you 32gb of internal storage separate from RAM and the option to add another 32gb externally? Be happy.
Sorry... Didn't mean to sound completely unhappy... Just forces me to re-think my use of storage... To some extent it may actually *reverse* my previous use of storage.
No worries. I came to Android from years with WinMo devices. This is my 2nd Android phone and it always takes a little while to adjust.
This is my second Android phone as well.... along with multiple ROMs on the last phone. Which is why I'm always amazed at the number of different ways these things get partitioned.
Hello everyone,
Whats is the difference between device memory and USB storage?
As far as i see all the apps installed on the Device memory and all the photos and other files are located on the USB storage.
I had "insufficient storage available" problem which I fixed by uninstalling apps and that cleared some space on "Device memory" which has only p1.97GB of space, and on the other hand "USB storage" has 11.50GB of sace.
Is there a way to install apps on the USB storage?
I tried apps2SD but i see its only for external SD card.
Thanks in advance.
Device memory is for your apps and system etc. Usb memory is the mass storage for all your pics and music and for whatever else your apps might need space for.
They are basically partitions and as far as I know, there is no (safe) way to change them.
Btw apps2sd is for moving apply data to an external memory card.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Device Memory is referring to the ~2GB system storage partition on the device, which is part of the total 16GB of internal storage. Another ~12GB is taken up by what's being referred to as USB Storage, and refers to another partition of the 16GB of internal storage. If you have an SD card, that'll be referred to as the External SD Card.
Your system storage ("Device Memory") is located at root /
USB Storage is located at /sdcard
If you have an SD card in your device, it'll be located at /emmc/
Please do note though that these locations may/probably do change between ROMs, and I only know for certain that these correct within CyanogenMod 9.
screamworks
screamworks said:
Device Memory is referring to the ~2GB system storage partition on the device, which is part of the total 16GB of internal storage. Another ~12GB is taken up by what's being referred to as USB Storage, and refers to another partition of the 16GB of internal storage. If you have an SD card, that'll be referred to as the External SD Card.
Your system storage ("Device Memory") is located at root /
USB Storage is located at /sdcard
If you have an SD card in your device, it'll be located at /emmc/
Please do note though that these locations may/probably do change between ROMs, and I only know for certain that these correct within CyanogenMod 9.
screamworks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just FYI, external SD at /emmc is for AOSP/AOKP ROMs.
For Sammy stock ROMs, external SD will be at /mnt/sdcard/external_sd. (This is Samsung's brilliance. Not sure why they did this...)
ctomgee said:
Just FYI, external SD at /emmc is for AOSP/AOKP ROMs.
For Sammy stock ROMs, external SD will be at /mnt/sdcard/external_sd. (This is Samsung's brilliance. Not sure why they did this...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, thanks for that! If I'd given it more thought, I probably would have figured that out. But alas, brain is obviously not functioning. Cheers.
screamworks
Rizur said:
Device memory is for your apps and system etc. Usb memory is the mass storage for all your pics and music and for whatever else your apps might need space for.
They are basically partitions and as far as I know, there is no (safe) way to change them.
Btw apps2sd is for moving apply data to an external memory card.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is it that when I take the option to move some apps that can be moved from device storage to USB storage I don't see the used space going any higher? please check out this image for an example. the figures don't seem to add up with the used figure against the apps with the ticks that have been moved to USB storage.
I still can't find an answer to issue raised here. How can I use USB storage instead of device memory?
Hi guys, I've bought this chinese clone of the SIII, it's a MT6575. It's great except for the internal storage, which supposedly is 500MB but there seems to be an invisible SD storage which is 2GB. It's really confusing... When I go to Settings -> Storage there are 3 memories: "Internal Storage" (claims to be 4GB but it's fake, it's actually 500MB), "Phone Storage" (claims to be 16.5GB but it's probably 2GB), and finally my SD, "SD Card" (32GB).
The thing is, I'm having problems downloading big apps because apps go to "Internal Storage" which is 500MB only, and I have no idea which files are stored in the "Phone Storage" (maybe internal & phone are actually the same?). However when I go to Settings -> Apps, on the "Downloaded" tab, the apps are in "Internal Storage" (500MB), and on the "On SD Card" tab, it shows that apps are in "Phone Storage" (the ones I moved to SD). This means my 32GB SD isn't being used by the system when I send apps to SD probably.
Also, my 32GB SD card is found in /mnt/sdcard2, and the /mnt/sdcard... I don't know which storage is that.
So basically all this is happening because I tried to Link2SD with my 32GB SD doing all the 2 partitions stuff and so, but Link2SD never detects the "secondary SD" which is the 32GB SD, as this fake SD card, "Phone Storage", is probably what the programs thinks to be the SD card.
I know this is so confusing, plus my English is rubbish. I'd really appreciate if someone could help me out and give me a hand on Link2SD'ing my 32GB SD instead of doing it with the fake internal one so I can move my apps there. Thanks a bunch in advance.
Anyone?
This is actually the case for lots of new phones.
My xperia sp has 5gb internal sd card and I have a 32gb external sd card.
The phone still uses the internal as primary memory though which is annoying like you say.
As your phone is a chinese clone im not too sure, but on the xperia sp dev forum theres a script that will swap them.
Personally i use link2sd with ext4 partition.
Which partition did you create?
You could try making another and see if link2sd detects it
yo-meister said:
This is actually the case for lots of new phones.
My xperia sp has 5gb internal sd card and I have a 32gb external sd card.
The phone still uses the internal as primary memory though which is annoying like you say.
As your phone is a chinese clone im not too sure, but on the xperia sp dev forum theres a script that will swap them.
Personally i use link2sd with ext4 partition.
Which partition did you create?
You could try making another and see if link2sd detects it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying. I've been googling and there's a method for swapping the internal/external memories changing some lines in the vold.fstab file. I'll try that and see if it works.
And about the link2sd, the problem is it only detects the internal SD, not my one.
Solved. Changed the vold file and had to do a battery pull for the changes to make effect. AParted partitioned the SD like a charm.
Now I'm figuring out how Link2SD works - I'm a complete noob to Android (this S3 clone is the first droid I've had and I bought it 10 days ago). Can someone please explain me how it works? I mean, what does linking do and my internal mem is 0.5GB, can I still install an app that weighs like 1GB?
Thanks