Deleting all folder on sd card - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Just a noob question
What happens if I delete all the folders on my sd card, (not external sd card)
I assumed that every time i did a wipe the folders would go but I end up with folders of apps i deleted a while ago.

I guess you are wrong, my friend
Whenever i do a wipe data,wipe cache and wpe delvik cache and flash a custom rom. Soon after 1st boot, if i go and check "My files", i can find the apps folders still there. i think its not getting removed at all. So even i am curious and have asked in 1 of the thread about this. need to get a reply.will update here as well. I actually want to remove all the folders etc when i flash a WIPE ROM. but just by doing wipe data, app folders are not getting deleted from internal card.Maybe we nned to system format in CWM. But i have doubt if root also will get removed or something. Then we cant flash any ROMS at all. If you find out about this, do post.
Thanks

Format sd card wipes all data on the card and means phone no longer boots .
Far easier to just delete the files you don't want via USB mass storage /
Wipe is wiping system and data not sd card .
jje

Related

Clean up..

Over the last year I along with others have had great run (and some scares) changing roms, now however I am getting messages telling me my sd card is full and i need to delete items. Having deleted various things I am still getting this message and my gallery will not load !
Question is .....is it worth trying to clean up sd card by copying it, reformat and then reinstall items, or is there a better route to go down.
Just as a point of interest the current rom I am running is Turkbey ICS V4 XWLP4.
Thanks
sr
Try in CWM recovery wipe cache and wipe dalvik cache .
jje
Can you tell me did you Full-Wiped data before Flashing the rom?
Hmm try to clear dalvik cache & Wipe-Cache through recovery. It might help. Always full wipe before moving to a new rom.
Clean..
Hi, yes did full wipes before installed. tried further wipes but still getting message telling me sd card full. Looked in settings and the USB Storage is showing full but dont really want to delete as I will loose photos etc. Can some of this be transfered to my external card as theres a fair bit of space there ?
Thanks
sr
Why not put photos pictures videos songs etc on external sd card .
Nothing is lost if you back it up .
jje
I did it this way:
1. backup the whole intermal sd-card onto my computer (via USB cable)
2. delete (still via cable from pc, because more comfortable) any folder created by an app that's no longer installed)
2a. DO NOT delete the following folders:
.android_secure
DCIM (if you want to keep photos/videos)
EFS_BACKUP (if you have it)
external_sd
media
clockworkmod (if you have CWM installed)
3. reboot device and test, if some program is missing important data, plug in usb again and restore from computer
kilrogg said:
I did it this way:
1. backup the whole intermal sd-card onto my computer (via USB cable)
2. delete (still via cable from pc, because more comfortable) and folder created by an app that's no longer installed)
2a. DO NOT delete the following folders:
.android_secure
DCIM (if you want to keep photos/videos)
EFS_BACKUP (if you have it)
external_sd
media
clockworkmod (if you have CWM installed)
3. reboot device and test, if some program is missing important data, plug in usb again and restore from computer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, if you want to clean you phone, reboot in recovery and format system and data, then boot in download mode and flash stock rom or Litening. Good luck
078gregory said:
Lol, if you want to clean you phone, reboot in recovery and format system and data, then boot in download mode and flash stock rom or Litening. Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're missing the point. Of course factory reset and formatting the whole sd-card is an option but often you don't want to lose ALL your data, just some of it that's not used anyway.

How to backup Internal SDCard

Hello,
I got my international S3 2 months ago and I would now like to try a new ROM.
I am worried about looding data.
I did backup my device using CWM and Titanium Backup but it seems to me that neither backs up all of the contents of the internal SD.
Shall I worry about backing up these folders;
.AllSharePlay, .aptoide, .clipboard, Alarms, Andoird/data/(many files under this directory), Gameloft and many many more folders.
How do I know all was backed up with Titanium / CWM
Another irritating issue is that via Windows 7 browser it is impossible to tree size or Beyond compare the phone storage, (both internal and external SDCards). Am I missing something?
If you
Wipe data (factory reset)
Wipe cache
format system
then your internal sd card stays as it is and you dont have to worry about backing it up
CuttyCZ said:
If you
Wipe data (factory reset)
Wipe cache
format system
then your internal sd card stays as it is and you dont have to worry about backing it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Half right, CWM will not wipe the internal SD with a factory reset, but stock recovery will.
And I don't think Titanium backs up the internal SD, all you can do is copy the files to your PC.
delsus said:
Half right, CWM will not wipe the internal SD with a factory reset, but stock recovery will.
And I don't think Titanium backs up the internal SD, all you can do is copy the files to your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By saying stock recovery you mean flashing new ODIN?
The thing about copying files to my PC as you stated is a pain, tree size or beyond compare cannot work on the phone's memory, also some files are in use by the system causing the copying to stop and then you have to start guessing what was / not copied.
Consumes a long time, I'm sure there should be an easier way.
Are these files seen in the img I attached needed at all or all is covered by the TIT and CWM backup?
Thanks
rmetanes said:
By saying stock recovery you mean flashing new ODIN?
The thing about copying files to my PC as you stated is a pain, tree size or beyond compare cannot work on the phone's memory, also some files are in use by the system causing the copying to stop and then you have to start guessing what was / not copied.
Consumes a long time, I'm sure there should be an easier way.
Are these files seen in the img I attached needed at all or all is covered by the TIT and CWM backup?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock recovery is what is included with stock ROMs, can't remember exactly what it's called.
I have never had problems backing my internal sd up on my PC, and the files in your pic seem to be your files and some app data, CWM does not back up the internal SD, but it also does not wipe the internal sd, if you wipe data in CWM, it only wipes the data partition and cache partition, 100% not the internal SD. I also don't know Titanium will backup app data from the SD.
delsus said:
Stock recovery is what is included with stock ROMs, can't remember exactly what it's called.
I have never had problems backing my internal sd up on my PC, and the files in your pic seem to be your files and some app data, CWM does not back up the internal SD, but it also does not wipe the internal sd, if you wipe data in CWM, it only wipes the data partition and cache partition, 100% not the internal SD. I also don't know Titanium will backup app data from the SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Delsus, so you only copy and paste the Internal SD to your PC I guess.
rmetanes said:
Delsus, so you only copy and paste the Internal SD to your PC I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much.
Internal SD card Backup
If U use apps like Lexicomp and Medscape
The file size for lexicomp is about 850,225,187 bytes (only for med not for dental) and number of files are 32037 and Medscape are 60,843,144 bytes and number of files are 2926. It takes more than 1 hour for the PC to determine the time to calculate the duration, to copy the files to PC.......android is still in its infancy comparing to PALM OS
Main Phone is Centro after treo 680, My secondary phone is SIII (a phone with lots of bugs, no one never denies it)
Thank you all guys.
I did rest to FD and you were right the internal SD was not wiped and I have also successfully installed Omega Rom on my S3.

How do I format (as in delete EVERYTHING) my internal storage?

I have to much junk and empty folders on the phone. I tried format through CWM, format system, cache, data, emmc...everything is still there. I want to clean (as in new) my internal storage.
Does "factory reset" does that, or is it just for deleting any 'personal' data (pics, files) etc?
Thanks.
Wipe data/factory reset only wipes the data partition. What you want is to format the internal sdcard. Go to Settings | Storage and select "Format SD card."
creepyncrawly said:
Wipe data/factory reset only wipes the data partition. What you want is to format the internal sdcard. Go to Settings | Storage and select "Format SD card."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
Will I then be able to boot into recovery, or CWM will no longer be there and I'll have to use ODIN?
Also, am I losing ROOT when doing that?
No. No. No.
You can format the root files from CWM recovery. You said you tried that and it didn't do what you want.
Formating the internal sdcard will remove all your personal files from the phone, including pictures and any other files and directories you have created. If that's not what you want to do, then don't format the internal sdcard.
Formating the internal sdcard will not touch the system, kernel, data partition or any other root files. You will not lose root. So yes you will be able to boot into cwm recovery, or even into whatever system you have installed after formating the internal sdcard.
sbi1 said:
Thanks.
Will I then be able to boot into recovery, or CWM will no longer be there and I'll have to use ODIN?
Also, am I losing ROOT when doing that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Common sense, make a backup (meaning copy and save your personal info to somewhere else first, you can delete them later if you really don't need them).
Also, adding to what creepy has said, be sure "SD card" is your internal storage, not external uSD.
I suggest you removing the external uSD card first, just in case.
The reason I said so because with CwMR and Task's AOKP, format SD card is formatting the external uSD card, while "format /emmc" will be do the internal one.
Just precaution.
Thank you both.
Yes, I already 'discovered' that formatting SD Card in CWM formats the external ...luckily I didn't have anything important there.
I still don't get it though. Looks like we are talking about two different things.
I have my internal storage fully backed up. I want to wipe it clean, as in a PC Format. Is there a way to do that, or can I simply remove empty folders in file explorer? Too much junk has been collected there in a year and a half of many custom roms and different apps that I tried and removed.
sbi1 said:
Thank you both.
Yes, I already 'discovered' that formatting SD Card in CWM formats the external ...luckily I didn't have anything important there.
I still don't get it though. Looks like we are talking about two different things.
I have my internal storage fully backed up. I want to wipe it clean, as in a PC Format. Is there a way to do that, or can I simply remove empty folders in file explorer? Too much junk has been collected there in a year and a half of many custom roms and different apps that I tried and removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Refer to 2nd post. Your internal storage has 2 partitions. One is where all the system data is, and the other is where all the personal data is (where apps install to). If you do what's written in the 2nd post, it will completely wipe clean the personal partition.
dsmboost said:
Refer to 2nd post. Your internal storage has 2 partitions. One is where all the system data is, and the other is where all the personal data is (where apps install to). If you do what's written in the 2nd post, it will completely wipe clean the personal partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will I still be able to access CWM and install custom rom from Ext SD?
sbi1 said:
Will I still be able to access CWM and install custom rom from Ext SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, formatting internal sd card (doesn't matter which partition) does not touch either of those.

[Q] Safely formatting internal storage

After some 2+ years of constantly changing ROMs, I've noticed that my i9100 shows more often than not the message of "your storage is getting full" or whatever it says. It does not work by clearing apps' data or even removing some of them because it ends up showing the warning soon. Also, factory reset has proved not to do much, since it just does a data wipe.
So I have decided to proceed with a format by entering Recovery > Mounts & storage > Format sdcard.
I just want to check first wether I will be able, after the format has finished, to flash CyanogenMod back from the same recovery (having placed it in the external SD card, which I understand is not formatted together with the internal storage) and have it working all ok, or the format will disable me from doing something else.
So my questions are:
That 'format sdcard' option in the Recovery means the internal storage, right?
The external SD card (the actual physical one) is not affected by the format, right?
Will I be able to flash CyanogenMod back again from the same Recovery after the format?
In case yes, any reboot in between the format and the flashing would brick my phone?
Help is much appreciated! :laugh:
jago84 said:
After some 2+ years of constantly changing ROMs, I've noticed that my i9100 shows more often than not the message of "your storage is getting full" or whatever it says. It does not work by clearing apps' data or even removing some of them because it ends up showing the warning soon. Also, factory reset has proved not to do much, since it just does a data wipe.
So I have decided to proceed with a format by entering Recovery > Mounts & storage > Format sdcard.
I just want to check first wether I will be able, after the format has finished, to flash CyanogenMod back from the same recovery (having placed it in the external SD card, which I understand is not formatted together with the internal storage) and have it working all ok, or the format will disable me from doing something else.
So my questions are:
That 'format sdcard' option in the Recovery means the internal storage, right?
The external SD card (the actual physical one) is not affected by the format, right?
Will I be able to flash CyanogenMod back again from the same Recovery after the format?
In case yes, any reboot in between the format and the flashing would brick my phone?
Help is much appreciated! :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well as i had flashed a lot of Roms too, maybe i can help you...i'll try!
after formatting sdcard, u wont lose ROM. u will just format your sdcard(12 gb i think).
1) i think the "format sdcard" option is supposed to mean the internal storage. but in some roms that i flashed, sometimes the sdcard mean the external sdcard and EMMC means the internal sdcard...so first take a look. go to install zip and select install from internal sdcard or external sdcard and look up in the screen, if it shows that u are in /sdcard or in /emmc, so u can know what sdcard are u really going to format
2) if u select to format the internal sdcard, it will only format the internal sdcard. nothing else.
3)well, as i said in the beginning, you won't lose rom in the format...u just formated sdcard, the rom and its stuff are still there, in the device storage(not sdcard or external sdcard, but in a card that is only for system/phone stuff(its like the phone has 2 cards. one u can use and send stuff(12gb) and the other one is for system files(2gb))
4) i think it would not brick it, since u just formated the sdcard, the rom is still on your phone but in the device storage, like i said above.
the ROM files arent stored in internal sdcard or external sdcard(those u can send files by usb), they are stored in the storage of the device that is only for system files. so if u do a format it wont affect Rom or Recovery.
hope it helped a little...cheers
Short notice from my side: I doubt formatting your sdcard will help to solve your original problem (low memory). This message appears if the /data space (those 2GB where all the system settings and application data are stored) is almost used completely. The easiest way to clean up this data is a system reset (which will make you loose all your data) or you need to look whether there are applications occupying much data there and remove these apps / tell them to store their data on /sdcard (if this is possible) or to selectively remove some log files / temp data. But in this you should be very careful, because removing the wrong data might cause strange system behaviour.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
AndDiSa said:
Short notice from my side: I doubt formatting your sdcard will help to solve your original problem (low memory). This message appears if the /data space (those 2GB where all the system settings and application data are stored) is almost used completely. The easiest way to clean up this data is a system reset (which will make you loose all your data) or you need to look whether there are applications occupying much data there and remove these apps / tell them to store their data on /sdcard (if this is possible) or to selectively remove some log files / temp data. But in this you should be very careful, because removing the wrong data might cause strange system behaviour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that is not quite the problem I am faceing now. I explain myself: when I get that "storage almost full" message, if I check on Settings > Storage, the Internal Storage section (1,97 GB in total) shows an availability of only 205 MB and the bar is half full (see attached). First incoherence. I try to update any small app such as, for example, Bitcoin Wallet (1.3 MB) and it says it can't be updated because there is not enough space. Incoherent with the bar shown. Also, if I navigate to /data, it shows there is an amount of 2.31 GB inside that directory (incoherent with the amount shown by the Storage Manager. Other data folders, such as the one in /sdcard/data or the one in /data/data, are always smaller (3 MB and 425 MB respectively, also don't match any of the figures shown by the Storage Manager).
Some ROM installs ago, I remember I was able to install around 190 apps and no problem at all, and now I'm 160 and have to keep removing apps when I want to install more.
That's why I think my problem is not related to data, or fixed by a data wipe or factory reset. I understand there are too many files inside that are just lost from ROM to ROM, and not even the system know where do they belong to. It is running everything but fluent. I don't even remember what Project Butter is :silly:
RonDelonge182 said:
well as i had flashed a lot of Roms too, maybe i can help you...i'll try!
after formatting sdcard, u wont lose ROM. u will just format your sdcard(12 gb i think).
1) i think the "format sdcard" option is supposed to mean the internal storage. but in some roms that i flashed, sometimes the sdcard mean the external sdcard and EMMC means the internal sdcard...so first take a look. go to install zip and select install from internal sdcard or external sdcard and look up in the screen, if it shows that u are in /sdcard or in /emmc, so u can know what sdcard are u really going to format
2) if u select to format the internal sdcard, it will only format the internal sdcard. nothing else.
3)well, as i said in the beginning, you won't lose rom in the format...u just formated sdcard, the rom and its stuff are still there, in the device storage(not sdcard or external sdcard, but in a card that is only for system/phone stuff(its like the phone has 2 cards. one u can use and send stuff(12gb) and the other one is for system files(2gb))
4) i think it would not brick it, since u just formated the sdcard, the rom is still on your phone but in the device storage, like i said above.
the ROM files arent stored in internal sdcard or external sdcard(those u can send files by usb), they are stored in the storage of the device that is only for system files. so if u do a format it wont affect Rom or Recovery.
hope it helped a little...cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help, dude! Much appreciated.
Anyway, I feel that, if formatting sdcard does not wipe everything, maybe then what I need is to go Recovery > Mounts and storage > format /system, format /data, etc. All of them except for the actual physical sdcard (wether it is /emmc or /sdcard) and the directory in which the recovery "lives".
So I have new questions now:
If I formatted /system, would the phone be bricked or the Recovery would still allow me to install a CM ROM stored in the sd card?
Is there any of the directories shown in Recovery > Mounts and Storage that represents the actual Recovery partition/space?
There's no recovery partition you can format.
You can format system, preload, and data partition.
But flash a ROM right after.
There are flashable scripts (ROM wipe or ROM nuke) you can use. It does all the formats and wipes, and even back up some of your folders.
Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 10 avec Tapatalk
jago84 said:
I think that is not quite the problem I am faceing now. I explain myself: when I get that "storage almost full" message, if I check on Settings > Storage, the Internal Storage section (1,97 GB in total) shows an availability of only 205 MB and the bar is half full (see attached).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a known bug, that Android's performance is decreasing very much as soon as there is less than 10% free on /data. Additionally I wouldn't trust the graphics you see, because especially if you have man small files, the space occupied on "disk" is much higher than the file size. If they are only adding the file size of the files stored there this will be misleading. As far as I know the block size is 4kb, so each file takes at least 4kb of the memory. You can try to move some apps to /sdcard, but this works only to an external one, so you can free some space. Otherwise have a look on /data/system/dropbox or /data/system/usagestats if you can find some files which can be removed.
jago84 said:
Thanks for your help, dude! Much appreciated.
Anyway, I feel that, if formatting sdcard does not wipe everything, maybe then what I need is to go Recovery > Mounts and storage > format /system, format /data, etc. All of them except for the actual physical sdcard (wether it is /emmc or /sdcard) and the directory in which the recovery "lives".
So I have new questions now:
If I formatted /system, would the phone be bricked or the Recovery would still allow me to install a CM ROM stored in the sd card?
Is there any of the directories shown in Recovery > Mounts and Storage that represents the actual Recovery partition/space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, as Sergeileduc said, u can't format Recovery. so answering your questions:
1) yes, you would still be able to flash any other Rom, since formatting /system does not affect recovery. Wiping this partition will remove Android from the device without rendering it unbootable, and you will still be able to put the phone into recovery or bootloader mode to install a new ROM.
2) i dont think so...u can't format recovery...
hope it helped you...cheers!
well the 4rth question is no it wouldent brick your phone it will just hang at the galaxy s logo p.s thanks for helpin me on the other fourm
Just to add my own experience.....
Some months ago, my phone was suffering from poor performance (I was running CM10.1 at the time)
I decided to do a full format to totally "pristine" wipe my phone and start fresh. I copied a fresh version of the rom and gapps to my removable micro SD card and rebooted into CWM. I formatted cache, dalvic, preload, emmc and sd.....then just to be certain, I factory reset too.....
After that and while still in CWM, I flashed the rom and gapps and rebooted without issue......I believe this is what you want to do, so to answer your question. ...yes it is safe and possible to do this.....my phone is proof of that.....
Sent from my Rooted, De bloated Stock JB powered S2 via PhilZ kernel and Tapatalk 2....
keithross39 said:
Just to add my own experience.....
Some months ago, my phone was suffering from poor performance (I was running CM10.1 at the time)
I decided to do a full format to totally "pristine" wipe my phone and start fresh. I copied a fresh version of the rom and gapps to my removable micro SD card and rebooted into CWM. I formatted cache, dalvic, preload, emmc and sd.....then just to be certain, I factory reset too.....
After that and while still in CWM, I flashed the rom and gapps and rebooted without issue......I believe this is what you want to do, so to answer your question. ...yes it is safe and possible to do this.....my phone is proof of that.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Great feedback.
Just to complete my question, did you notice a significant performance improvement after the wipe-and-reinstall process?
It seemed to help a bit, but not as much as I'd anticipated. ..
Sent from my Rooted, De bloated Stock JB powered S2 via PhilZ kernel and Tapatalk 2....

[Q] WTH. I made sure not to wipe Internal SD card on newest TWRP and

I my DCIM and a few other folders, were wiped!? Factory reset is not support to wipe either SD card. What happened here? Is there a possibility of permissions, rescanning (I tried manually in the AOKP kernel settings) not bringing up the files?
Trying to figure out how the hell my internal sd card got wiped. I did have to wipe data, to go back to an older recovery but that again should not touch the sd card, it never has in the past. The only thing that makes me think otherwise is in the newer version of TWRP it is mounted oddly (under emu/storage) as opposed to the usualy direct method of sdcard or /external sd
Help! At the very least don't want to make this time consuming mistake again.
What really confused the hell out of me was I went back to my 4.1.2 build to get some files/check some settings, and took some screenshots. All I did was a factory reset in TWRP and restored my newer Kitkat, and none of the screenshots were anywhere to be found. I am hella confused here.

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