I don't understand storage on Android and how it works. I would be grateful if someone could explain it.
Normally I thought that Phone memory refers to the storage space on the phone (like ROM) that was fixed and not removable. SD card is the microsd card that I physically insert into a slot on the phone. However, it seems that Android has 3 types of storage: Phone, Internal SD and External SD. Is this correct? I would appreciate if someone could clarify. Also, when I do move Apps to SD card on my CyanogenMod ROM, it seems to only move them from phone memory to internal SD, not external SD. As a general rule, is is better in terms of speed to keep the apps on internal or external SD? I don't want to keep in Phone memory since it is quite small, only about 1.8 GB. I should point out that I am using a Class 10 MicroSD, so it should be quite fast, or so I've been told.
What you refer to as Internal SD is probably not on the SD at all but read/write memory in the device itself. Basically built in storage that's an addition to the read only memory where the important stuff is.
As an example, the Omnia i900 had ROM + 8GB Storage in the Phone, with whatever you wanted to add as External SD. Plug the Omnia into a PC and you had two lot's of storage that you could drag and drop files to.
Basically you have 3 things:
ROM (Read-Only-Memory): This is where Android itself resides. All the OS stuff is here.
Phone Storage: You may consider this as the phones HDD. This is where all the apps/SMS/MMS/... are stored. (This is usually not meant to be accessed by the user to place files there, thats what the SD-Card is for)
SD-Storage: Your SD-Card where you can put everything you want. Music/Pictures/Files...
m0jo said:
Basically you have 3 things:
SD-Storage: Your SD-Card where you can put everything you want. Music/Pictures/Files...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to run apps off the SD-Card? When I use an app like App2SD, does it actually copy to the SD Card or just to the Phone storage? This is what confuses me, because I selected 'move to SD' on my phone (I'm using Cyanogen 7.1.0). But its still in the Phone Storage. I know this because when I put the SD card into my laptop, it does not show any of the software files.
When you move apps to the SD not all data is moved to the SD. The phone needs some files on the internal storage to run, since it needs to know that the apps are installed on the phone. When it needs to run it'll find the executable files in the internal storage, and run the data files from the SD card. Much like on a computer when you've installed an application and install it on an external HDD.
Apps you move to the SD will be moved to /Android/data/ and /data i believe since i have quite a bit of appdata in these folders.
Related
Hello all,
I'm new here and have a couple of questions about my first smartphone the Galaxy SII (Rooted)
I have recently been getting a few messages informing me that the SD Card is full, which seems to hold about 12 GB.
I have a 32 GB External Sd Card which I try to keep most of my vids / music, and apps that I consider don't really need to e on the actual phone like games, etc.
Other apps like browsers, Password safes, etc I keep on the phone itself.
The Phone seems to have 3 storage areas that it seems to refer to
USB Storage (Actually part of phone memory= Correct ?
SD Card (Actually part of phone memory = Correct?
External SD Card (Removable sd card = Correct ?
Can somebody please explain to me what the idea behind this setup is and how do I go about freeing up the SD Card when most of the directories in there seem to be Data related with the odd folder left over from uninstalled apps.
Hope that makes sense.
Apologies for any bad / incorrect terminology.
Regards
Loachy
If you go to Settings->storage ;
SD Card would refer to any external microSD card you might have put in.
USB Storage would refer to the Internal storage (can be used for storing media/data files)
there is another storage of about 2GB or so... which is used for apps installations..
this partitions can only be accessed via few apps like root explorer and others...
In order to free up your App storing internal storage ( which is 2GB odd)... you would need to put in an external microSD card...
then use any App (i use titanium Backup Pro) to move some of the apps to SD card...(which is infact the external microSD card)
Hi this is my first Samsung Android, and I'm kinda confused about the storage layout. Iam on 2.3.4 stock, unrooted. It has regular internal sd memory, external memory(sd card), and device memory. I have the apps2sd app, but when I move the app it just goes to the regular internal memory, how do I get it to save to my actual sd memory card? Also what is the device memory and what gets saved there, or used for?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
There's 2 'memory cards' The phone has 16gb of internal storage and you can install your own Micro SD memory card in as well. Pending your rom or kernel/recovery the designation... *at least as far as the phone cares* of which card is which can change.
Also some Rom will have an option in the settings and will ask you where you'd like to install yours apps. *system/internal, sd card, or let the system decide.*
Experiment and you'll get it with time.
Connect it to your computer - it should mount internal and external as two different drive letters. When you're looking at files while *on* you phone (in stock, at least), you should see an "external_sd" under /mnt/sdcard - that's the removable memory card.
Hi guys I am new to android and I got myself a Micromax A110 running on android ics with 2 gb of internal SD card memory...
As you guys can figure, the internal memory just isn't enough for installing heavy games and storing and downloading large videos and music, so I added a 32 gb external micro SD card.. the card shows in my file manager and its contents are accessible, most apps like ttpod, ttorrent, vlc, chrome etc don't detect my external card. They only access the contents of my internal SD card, download to it.. I can't set the default directory to the external card...
When I installed nfs most wanted to my phone, it asked me to free up data in my SD card or insert another one as there was no space left due to obvious reasons of my internal SD card being filled with other apps.. I uninstalled and reinstalled it after setting the default storage location to the external storage... I found that the game installed in the internal storage this time and on startup, it gave the same message..
Is it a common problem or a limitation to the OS? Is there a work around for this? If so how? Does my phone needs to be rooted for the purpose? Please help as the problem is getting annoying.. my external card is lying almost empty...
Thanks in advance,
Extremely sorry for the long post...
Sent from my Micromax A110 using Tapatalk 2
It's because Google made the stupid decision, starting with Honeycomb (which is why the Motorola Xoom, the first Honeycomb device needed an update to enable use of it's MicroSD card slot) to merge the /data/ and /sdcard/ partitions. What that means is that the SD card becomes a virtual space (a folder, in fact) located in the same place where all your apps are stored. Why is it stupid? If you have a phone that actually has a MicroSD card slot, like yours or the Galaxy S III, the MicroSD card becomes a different "folder" (something like /sdext/, which stands for either extension or external). Only apps that specifically are programmed to look for that mount point/folder will be able to use it. Most music/video/picture players/viewers can, because it makes sense to automatically program to do that. But with large games, like you said, NFS Most Wanted (which I also have), it sucks because the game is like 2GB.
My Galaxy S3 has 16GB internal and a 32GB card. I'm forced to use the internal storage only for large games because they don't see the memory card. It sucks. The good thing about merging /data/ and /sdcard/ is that it simplifies things, like on the iPhone where your space is your space, no matter how you use it. It used to be that you had like 1GB or 2GB for apps (the APK files only, not the files that games download for example) (which the HTC One X does, but still only uses internal storage because there's no card slot), and the rest went to your MicroSD card slot. Now it's all to internal storage because your internal storage IS your MicroSD card slot at system level.
Product F(RED) said:
It's because Google made the stupid decision, starting with Honeycomb (which is why the Motorola Xoom, the first Honeycomb device needed an update to enable use of it's MicroSD card slot) to merge the /data/ and /sdcard/ partitions. What that means is that the SD card becomes a virtual space (a folder, in fact) located in the same place where all your apps are stored. Why is it stupid? If you have a phone that actually has a MicroSD card slot, like yours or the Galaxy S III, the MicroSD card becomes a different "folder" (something like /sdext/, which stands for either extension or external). Only apps that specifically are programmed to look for that mount point/folder will be able to use it. Most music/video/picture players/viewers can, because it makes sense to automatically program to do that. But with large games, like you said, NFS Most Wanted (which I also have), it sucks because the game is like 2GB.
My Galaxy S3 has 16GB internal and a 32GB card. I'm forced to use the internal storage only for large games because they don't see the memory card. It sucks. The good thing about merging /data/ and /sdcard/ is that it simplifies things, like on the iPhone where your space is your space, no matter how you use it. It used to be that you had like 1GB or 2GB for apps (the APK files only, not the files that games download for example) (which the HTC One X does, but still only uses internal storage because there's no card slot), and the rest went to your MicroSD card slot. Now it's all to internal storage because your internal storage IS your MicroSD card slot at system level.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man! Thanks for the reply....
Can you tell me how to work out a solution for this?
Is directory bind or fstab file hack the only solution?
Is it possible to overcome this without root?
And some apps do detect my Micro SD card... It is in the directory mnt/sdcard2
Please post questions one time only and in the proper Q&A section.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2019921
Hi all!
I have recently brought an 16GB External SD card for my SGSII, to store my Titanium Backups. I found the external_sd folder in the internal sd card, and thought that it was the External SD card, so i placed all my backups there. But just recently it seems like i have run out of space on the phone, so i can't update some of my apps. I started deleting a lot of photos and videos from my phone and cleared 2.5GB, but i still can't update some of my apps. I began looking through my folders, and noticed that i also have an External SD card partition on my phone. The same one i see when the phone is connected to the pc. In it i can see a Clockwork Recovery folder containing my ROM backups. So i began wondering if the external_sd folder is actually located on the phone and not in the External SD card. Can anyone confirm this?
Also, when i open the Storage (i think that's what it's called) section in the settings on CM10, and noticed that i have 2 Internal Storage sections, one of them has only App data, and the other has photos, apps, music etc. and a SD Card section, with 6.64GB storage left. Does anyone know why is there is 2 Internal Storage sections?
Thank you in advance!
/gammarik
As far as I know the "external_sd" is your removable external SD card. For some inexplicable reason it mounts as a sub-directory from the internal SD card, but it is definitely your removable external SD card.
I have a feeling that Jellybean brings a change and the external SD card mounts in a different way to ICS. I had only a brief experience of this when I played with the leaked ROM but I have reverted to ICS because of battery drain problems.
Your internal memory is partitioned with about 500MB for the system ROM, and 2GB reserved for app installations. Once this fills to around 85-90% you'll begin hitting problems with insufficient storage space errors. If you move apps to SD then this will make use of the data partition of your internal memory (about 12GB available to user on a 16GB device).
I'm running JB (Rootbox 3.2). I set the target path as /extSdCard/Titanium Backup in Preferences for it to work.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Mr Anderson said:
As far as I know the "external_sd" is your removable external SD card. For some inexplicable reason it mounts as a sub-directory from the internal SD card, but it is definitely your removable external SD card.
I have a feeling that Jellybean brings a change and the external SD card mounts in a different way to ICS. I had only a brief experience of this when I played with the leaked ROM but I have reverted to ICS because of battery drain problems.
Your internal memory is partitioned with about 500MB for the system ROM, and 2GB reserved for app installations. Once this fills to around 85-90% you'll begin hitting problems with insufficient storage space errors. If you move apps to SD then this will make use of the data partition of your internal memory (about 12GB available to user on a 16GB device).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So i should move my apps from the App reserved partition to the main storage partition? Or the external SD card? And how do i do that? Sorry for noob questions, i am not too much into how Android works
I don't think you can move apps to external SD card.
Go to settings -> applications and you'll see your apps listed with information about their size. Select one, and you should see a button "Move to SD card". If this is greyed out then the app doesn't support operation from the SD card, but for many you can press the button and it will move the app for you.
The interface in settings isn't the best - I use ZDBox which is a free utility tool available from the Play Store with several useful functions, including an improved "App to SD" UI which makes it easier to see what is going on.
Be careful with widget apps and others that interact with OS functionality as these often don't play happy if moved to SD card.
in your internal memory there is a folder call externel_sd ok leave it coz you still in your internal memory and go search your external sd card memory it named extSdCard or emmc
Also, when i open the Storage (i think that's what it's called) section in the settings on CM10, and noticed that i have 2 Internal Storage sections, one of them has only App data, and the other has photos, apps, music etc. and a SD Card section, with 6.64GB storage left. Does anyone know why is there is 2 Internal Storage sections?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st internal is /data, 2nd internal is /storage/sdcard0 (your internal 11GB memory).
I formatted SD card as internal storage (Android 6.0) and it is confusing...
I read that when the SD card is formatted as internal storage, it is also encrypted, so it can't be accessed trough windows for file transfer (if not rooted). OK, so I thought, there must be some practical way to transfer files such as books, movies, music, etc. from PC to SD card...
I tried to make some folder (for instance, BOOKS) on my tablets internal memory, transfer the files in that BOOKS folder, then move that BOOKS folder to SD card. But, I can't find the location of the SD card, so there is nowhere to move that BOOKS folder.
1) What is the SD card folder location, if there exists one?
2) Is there some practical way to transfer files from PC to SD card?
3) What does "Migrate data" option actually migrates, APK's, pictures, videos,...? And how does it decide what is suitable for migration, on what criteria?
4) Is there a way to pick which files would be transferred to SD card?
You correctly pointed out that the systems treats the SD card like internal storage. If your smartphone is running and you connect it via an usb cable to your pc, you will only see one folder. You can now copy something to your device and it is on your device. Basically, "SD card like internal storage" means that your internal storage has been extended by your SD card.
Simply said, there is only "one" storage. Your SD card ist now part of the internal storage. Usually, this is a great advantage as it takes away the limitations of a small internal storage.
However, the downside is:
- you must not take the SD card out of the phone and copy something. This will break the memory.
- you cannot pick what is stored where - Android decides this.
- you can only copy something to the pc via usb cable, bluetooth or network, you must not take the sd card out of the device.
The upside is:
You can stop worrying about where to copy what - Android decides this for you. So lean back and enjoy your new memory capabilities.
Paul2017 said:
You correctly pointed out that the systems treats the SD card like internal storage. If your smartphone is running and you connect it via an usb cable to your pc, you will only see one folder. You can now copy something to your device and it is on your device. Basically, "SD card like internal storage" means that your internal storage has been extended by your SD card.
Simply said, there is only "one" storage. Your SD card ist now part of the internal storage. Usually, this is a great advantage as it takes away the limitations of a small internal storage.
However, the downside is:
- you must not take the SD card out of the phone and copy something. This will break the memory.
- you cannot pick what is stored where - Android decides this.
- you can only copy something to the pc via usb cable, bluetooth or network, you must not take the sd card out of the device.
The upside is:
You can stop worrying about where to copy what - Android decides this for you. So lean back and enjoy your new memory capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I converted it to portable storage as I find it much more convenient. With adoptable storage, the biggest downside is, as you mentioned, that I can't pick to choose what can I store on my SD card. Dedicated SD card is not an issue, as I never (and a vast majority of users) wanted to pull it out of device.
Migrate data is a terrible option, almost no control, undefined behaviour. Generally, the way that Google engineers handled the adoptive storage option is amateurish.
Also, I noticed now, why did they remove the sort by size and sort by date filters in settings--->apps on Android 6.0???
smarko1983 said:
Thanks for the reply. I converted it to portable storage as I find it much more convenient. With adoptable storage, the biggest downside is, as you mentioned, that I can't pick to choose what can I store on my SD card. Dedicated SD card is not an issue, as I never (and a vast majority of users) wanted to pull it out of device.
Migrate data is a terrible option, almost no control, undefined behaviour. Generally, the way that Google engineers handled the adoptive storage option is amateurish.
Also, I noticed now, why did they remove the sort by size and sort by date filters in settings--->apps on Android 6.0???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I just had a look at my Nexus 7 running lineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1): you cannot sort the apps by size. Don't ask me why.