Multiple SD card partitions (Coming from Droid X) - Motorola Droid X2

Hi guys. I received my DX2 as an upgrade from the DX. Now I have sdcard and sdcard-ext. This is really throwing my app setting into disarray. For example: when I attempt to do a backup of my go launcher ex settings it will backup into sdcard-ext (i believe) but when I try to restore it will only do so from an older backup from sd card. How can I bring order to this??

corz123 said:
Hi guys. I received my DX2 as an upgrade from the DX. Now I have sdcard and sdcard-ext. This is really throwing my app setting into disarray. For example: when I attempt to do a backup of my go launcher ex settings it will backup into sdcard-ext (i believe) but when I try to restore it will only do so from an older backup from sd card. How can I bring order to this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Big problem is MOTO calls both internal storage & externel
storage sdcard. (sdcard& sdcard-ext)Then throw in a CD-rom
partition (part of internal storage) & and you have a perfect
storm leading to lots of confusion.
Our phone has the following, according to VZW and Moto:
- 8GB of internal storage. This breaks down as 2 GB secure memory and 6 GB of usable memory.
- 8GB of external storage which refers to the removable SD card behind the battery.
In the 2 GB lives the Android system files and installed applications with most of their associated data. Some programs are accustomed to using the "sd card" which I will get back to in a minute. You can look at the status of this 2 GB in 2 different ways: 1. Settings - Storage - Application storage, "Available Space"; 2. Settings - Applications - Storage Use - All - Application Storage (on the bottom of the screen).
The 6 GB can be viewed by: 1. Settings - Storage - Internal Storage; 2. Settings - Applications - Storage Use - Media Area.
When you move things to the Media area, you are taking a portion of the installed app from the 2GB and moving it to the 6GB, which is similar to the way in tho older phones, you moved apps to the SD card. So, the question is why do we move apps to the SD card? In older phones there was far less "internal storage" and you would literally run low on memory for apps. New phones have much more space, so unless you are installing lots and lots of apps, it shouldn't be a problem.
With our phone, they have included internal, hard wired, SD Card-like storage, which can be used, mounted/unmounted, just like an external SD Card. The Media Area is simply a folder on this remaining 6 GB area. In some cases, this is automatically done by some apps, for backup purposes or caches.
Hope this helps

The issue is that since I'm using the SD card that I used for my droid x I seem to have 2 partitions on it. One that was created by the DX2. Now half my apps think that the old dx partition is where they should put data. So how can I merge the two so that my entire SD card is 1 entity?
So my setup is currently
internal 2gb/internal storage/sd card (dx)/sd ext (dx2)

corz123
I would just connect phone to computer copy
everything from sd-card to computer.
Then delete, format sd-card, copy
everything you need back to sd-card.
Hope This Helps

hi that sounds like a good idea. so if I do that will it be formatted as sd or sdext? i read some threads that mentioned that if its sdext (dx2) that some apps wont be able to detect it or save settings.
also i'm using a rom (eclipse) does that make a difference?

corz123,
It will be the ext sd-card. Motorola calls the Internal storage
sd-card and the removeable 8gb card ext sd-card confusing I know.
(See my previous post)
You should avoid loading programs on removeable sd-card (ext sd-card)
I only put picture's, movie's, music, and doc's etc on removeable sd-card.
Most program's won't work very well or not at all when loaded on ext
sd-card.
Hope this Helps.
Use the thanks button when someone helps you. (ITS FREE) and Its just nice to see

did motorola change their setup? I had a droid x and i don't believe the used the sd-ext convention.

corz123,
Get a file manager if you don't already have one
such as Astro, ES File Explorer, or Root Explorer if your rooted . Open
whichever one you have or acquire and U will see sdcard sdcard-ext.
Ok see you later

Related

Understanding Android Storage

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.

File Directory Layout

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)

Extsdcard vs sd card. How is it saving?

I went into root explorer.
I went into /mnt/
And I noticed there's two options....
/Extsdcard and /sdcard
Seems like all my downloads, music, and everything is getting saved to /sdcard
What does this mean?
P.s. I have a 64gb micro sdcard card.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
your extsdcard is your external one in your phone you can remove. i would recomend saving most your files like your music and such to that. sdcard is your internal memory of your phone. you have less space there and should save it for more important things. hope that helped
It means everything is being saved to your Internal Storage. I haven't quite figured out how to default everything to the ExtSdcard yet. I know the camera can. The phone will read everything from the ExtSdcard fine though, such as music and other files.
The ext sd card can be used for the camera/video, CWM backups, music files you copy from your computer, and you can move most any files there that you download.
The internal sd card will be used for all of your apps, there's no way to 'move to sd card', you just have the full 16/32gb internal sd for all of it. Since you will always be forced to use the internal sd card for all app needs, I just try to keep everything on my ext sd card I can (my cwm backups are 1.7gb!). Not that it really matters for me though, I downloaded every app I ever use and a few games and only hit 1.2gb used on my internal sd card.
You can also go to th advanced tab within the stock browser and select memory card for default storage. I am guessing that is ext SD as the other option is "Phone".
Thanks for the information!
This was quite confusing at first. Time to start moving files
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
permanent fix for this?
My issue is that everything defaults to the /sdcard (internal partition - i'm calling it that for ease of terminology) and some apps just don't give you another option of where to save the media to (or don't let you browse over to the right thing). as it stands, the phone seems to be mounting that internal /sdcard partition as if it were external media, ie in android's default location for external media. thus, apps are looking ofr the REAL SD card and think they've found it but they haven't.
the reason this is a problem for me is 1. i have to change this in every app that allows me to, and 2. CWM sends backups to the internal one automatically and i can't change it and have to manually move the backup images to my external.
the reason i'm going into all of this is i'd like to find a way to entirely get rid of the /sdcard folder representing the internal memory and have the external card take its place. I'd like the rest of my 29ish GB of internal storage to be part of the system partition - where apps go, etc. it's not that i want to use that space, it's that i want to "move to SD" to the right SD. i just don't want the apps and system to treat ANY internal space as if it were external or mounted or anything of the sort.
my last phone, Atrix 2, had like 2-4gb internal. I'm just suggesting stretching that amount all the way to 32gbs and using the SD card as an SD card.
the question, basically, is whether there is any way to make this happen? i came across a thread (google "sd card mount point modification" as i can't post external links yet) elsewhere that discusses doing this with a VTAB and was wondering if this is something that is addressing my (our?) issue, whether it's a recommended solution, and whether it would work on the S3. i'm fine following technical instructions but I have very limited knowledge of the way addressing etc. works on Android and this filesystem. any help (or a redirect to a thread where this is more appropriate to ask) would be greatly appreciated.
Does this issue persist with custom roms? Is it an Ics bug that won't let you install apps to extsdcard or a Samsung intentional crap? I know one other android phones I had I could save apps to sd card no issues.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
sabre31 said:
Does this issue persist with custom roms? Is it an Ics bug that won't let you install apps to extsdcard or a Samsung intentional crap? I know one other android phones I had I could save apps to sd card no issues.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haven't tried any, waiting for something where key things like camera, LTE, etc all work. It's not that I can't install to extSD, it's that the default is "sdcard" (ie the internal space allocated). it's really a function of the way the system/phone allocates that extra internal space - rather than calling it "internal storage/system storage", they are calling it the "primary sd card" and the actual sd card is being called "2nd sd card". it's this treatment of the spaces by the system that i'm unhappy about, i guess.
that's a good point though, and i am hoping that a custom ROM will do this differently. will update when i find one i like
EDIT: gonna do the Task & Ktoonsez AKOP Rom this weekend, should know how the spaces are treated. again, will update.

[Q] external_sd folder And external SD card

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).

[Q] Internal Storage-Internal SD card

Hello
I have a galaxy s2 and i wonder what is the difference between internal storage and internal SD card.
In the internal storage i see only apps are installed
and in the internal SD card i have only music photos and others.
it already happened to me that i tried to download an app from the google play and i did not have enough space
is there a way to move my apps from Internal storage to Internal SD card?
(i do not have an external sd card) and if you dont understand what i mean i can upload a screenshot.
thank you
Hello,
Yes, internal storage (or system storage in my phone) is where all the apps are installed.
And internal SD card (known better as internal storage) is where photos, videos etc etc are stored.
This is the only thing i know..
About the moving of apps, i recommend you go to settings -> applications and to the app you want to move and check if you actually can move it. (yes, there's an option to move that app to Sd card) My gues it wont since you need an external storage (or known as SD CARD) if you want to move apps.
If you can't install apps from google play, there are mostly two explanations:
1. Actually insufficient storage. To prevent this, free up memory from system storage by deleting apps/games etc.
2. .odex file causes the erroe. To prevent this, (you need to be rooted) goto /data/app in file manager and find <The app you want to install from google play>.odex
Eg. for second alternative.
If you want to install Swiftkey but get an error. Goto /data/app and delete swiftkey.odex
Internal storage, different names
orr77746 said:
Hello
I have a galaxy s2 and i wonder what is the difference between internal storage and internal SD card.
In the internal storage i see only apps are installed
and in the internal SD card i have only music photos and others.
it already happened to me that i tried to download an app from the google play and i did not have enough space
is there a way to move my apps from Internal storage to Internal SD card?
(i do not have an external sd card) and if you dont understand what i mean i can upload a screenshot.
thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There the same thing. You can verify by checking the size of the two & the contents to see if they show the same thing.
It would be helpful to know what version of Android your running since this affects how things are displayed.
To find that information open press the menu or home button (bottom left),
Settings
at the very bottom is "About Device"
Look for Android Version
Within most versions of Android (I have 4.1.2 in front of me) what is called "sdcard" or "internal storage" or "internal sdcard" is actually a partition of the device's total internal storage. Unless you are flashing ROMs or running root, you won't see these other paritions.
The internal storage or sdcard is also called sdcard0 or /storage/sdcard0 depending on your version of Android.
The physical sdcard (external storage) is sometimes called /emmc or /extSdCard In later versions you can also get to it as /storage/sdcard1
Hope that helps
Ed
i am running android 4.0.4
and i understand that i cant move apps to there..
i will just buy an external SD card
you helped me alot
Thanks everybody!!

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