Hi,
Firstly, I have trawled Google and many problems people have with ICS and apps being restricted to writing to the internal SD card, or even seeing/mounting SD cards and external drives.
This is not my problem, but I think it's related to the decision by Google to restrict app access to internal (phone) SD cards.
I have an Onda Vi140 10"tablet, but I'm not sure it's restricted to just this, so I've posted here. Please move if this is wrong.
I can, with all file managers:
1) See and read any files on any TF card I put in the external Slot.
2) See and read any files on any USB stick I put in the external Slot.
3) Read & write to them via the clunky stock File Manager.
3) Ditto both on my WIn7 x64 PC and move/edit files.
I cannot get Astro or ES file explorer to read/write - even after rebooting with the flash drive connected.
/mnt/sdcard - internal 16GB (System and apps)
/mnt/extsd - external 16GB TF (Storage of docs/music/photos etc.)
/mnt/usbhost1 - external USB thumb drive (Or Fat32 Hdd)
I don't mind ICS restricting to the internal 16GB /mnt/sdcard as I only install apps there, and am happy to save within apps to this location.
However, I often want to transfer a document from the tablet to my thumb drive, and vice-versa, like with my laptop. this is an essential operation for a portable device, and I'm both surprised and frustrated it's not readily working.
Given that the internal File Manager can do it, what's the problem?
My device is rooted. Could I install an app to open a terminal and set global r/w permissions for /mnt/extsd /mnt/usbhost1 - The system doesn't use them for apps. They are both just storage volumes. The whole system and all apps are in the /mnt/sdcard and that's unlikely to change.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Regards,
David.
Solved on this very forum here! (Not sure why it didn't turn up in my search results.)
I can now read/write on my external TF and plugged in USB stick.
David.
Related
I clean installed Flashback 10.3 (kudos to the developer!) on my GTab, and it works great. I do have a question...
When I plug in the USB cable from my PC (and turn on USB storage, of course), in Windows Explorer (Directory Opus actually) I can "see" the SD Card as drive G, but I can't see the root drive (Internal Memory). I do get a "Removable Disk H" that displays, which I suspect is internal memory, but it says there is no disk in drive H, and the properties say everything is 0 bytes.
I downloaded "APK Batch Installer" to allow me to back up my GTab apps to my PC, but it can't "see" the internal memory to get to the apps, either.
I have ES File Explorer on the GTab, and I can see the internal memory there; and from there I can "back up" the apps to the SD card - and then, of course, I can see them on the PC and back them up to the PC.
So I guess the question is, how can I see the internal memory (not the SD Card) from my PC? Is that possible? If not, fine, but if so, I'd love to know how.
Thanks, Cecil
CDeBald said:
When I plug in the USB cable from my PC (and turn on USB storage, of course), in Windows Explorer (Directory Opus actually) I can "see" the SD Card as drive G, but I can't see the root drive (Internal Memory). I do get a "Removable Disk H" that displays, which I suspect is internal memory, but it says there is no disk in drive H, and the properties say everything is 0 bytes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are 2 reasons for what you describe, above.
The first reason--the 2 drives showing up--is, I suspect, the same bug that afflicts the other HC ROM for the gTab, GtabComb(Over). Only one drive--for the SD card--should show up over the USB cable. Start reading from this post onwards for the details and for the "bug fix".
The second--the no disk in drive H: message--is related to the same bug, but, the actual reason for the 0 bytes and the message is because the filesystem that is being presented as drive H: is ext3 (the /data partition) and not vfat (AKA FAT32) like for drive G:.
So I guess the question is, how can I see the internal memory (not the SD Card) from my PC? Is that possible? If not, fine, but if so, I'd love to know how.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The description above, and details in the post I linked to, should give you a clue if you really want to do this, but, I strongly recommend that you not export /data over the USB cable like that--esp. on a running system. Doing it in CWM is okay; but, not in the ROM--you will very probably trash the /data filesystem if you change anything there.
Hello everybody,
I experience the following problem for a couple of days: my GT-I9300 (stock ICS, updated by Samsung some week ago) has a SD card (16GB) in it, which I could read from AND write to from my Win7-Desktop until some days ago. No, for some days, I cannot write anymore to the extSdCard as well as to the sdcard (phone's memory, 32GB). I cand read all right, but no writing. Any file I open, opens "read-only", and also no copying to the card is allowed, either. Even updating Kies and all its driver's didn't bring any improvement (actually, updating MTP driver caused some problems). Does anybody have any idea what to do?
thanks for your help
I have exactly the same issue as you, at the very beginning, i notice this problem when i was taking photo and said my sdcard is not accessible, it then changes to use internal storage.
Let me list out my symptom and solution:
Symptom:
1. The sdcard looks fine, no special error thrown during android startup.
2. Just after startup, i am able to write file /copy file to the external sdcard
3. After a while, the external sdcard becomes read only. I can view/copy files from sd card, but not write/copy file to the external sdcard.
4. No apps can modify the files in external sdcard
5. By using ADB shell, type mount, and you will notice the /extSdCard is mounted as "ro", which means read only.
Description:
If you have the above symptom, your external sdcard probably have some problems...
When I was checking the mount details on step 5, i noticed that the default options is onerrors=remount-ro , it looks like the external sdcared is remounted as read-only because it has problem on external sdcard....
Solution:
I put the external sdcard to a Windows PC, and run scan disk (right click the drive >"properties" > "tools" > Check Now).
It really find problem on the FAT of the external sd card!!! It fix automatically and my external sd card is working fine now.
In my case, it doesn't need to root or format the sdcard.
Good luck!
Hello,
when inserting an external SD card, the internal memory card is then mounted as sdcard1 and the inserted external card is mounted as sdcard0. So Android starts writing a lot oft data to the external SD card.
How can I avoid this? Android should not touch the external SD card. I want to copy pix, music and backup manually to it.
Any suggestions?
Hi just go to settings =storage and then change default write disk to phone storage
yascooluk said:
Hi just go to settings =storage and then change default write disk to phone storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
and you have tested this by yourself? If I insert an external SD card, switch to "default write disk to phone storage" and delete ALL data on this SD card, Android
immediately starts to write to data on it:
The folders "LOST.DIR", ".thumbnails" and "Android" are created. In the folder "Android" there is the folder "data" with several App-Data in it.
Even some Apps like WhatsApp start to write data to the external SD card.
So, switching to "default write disk to phone storage" does NOT keep Android away from writing data to it.
For example, on my Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 the external SD card is mounted as "sdcard1" and no files are written to it automatically.
I browsed the web for hours, but did not find any solutions for this problem. It is not a big thing, but it is annoying.
:crying::crying::crying:
I have the same problem also on an old smartphone with MT6582 processor and Android 4.1.2.
It's an old problem, I think that it's a way of manage memory for smartphones based on MTK processors and there aren't solutions.
But I would like this to be denied
What about changing sdcard1 and sdcard0 , in the mount point file:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK2O92kgki0
You must be root.
When i have time to root my phone i will try.
I am having the same problem and it is very annoying. Why can't Android leave alone my Sdcard? I only want to storage music and some files there.
@yascooluk
Settings =>storage => default disk write storage "Phone" has no effect. Lots of Apps point to sdcard0, which is now the external sdcard.
@ndouchin
This Solution worked for Android Versions prior 4.3. In Android 5.1 there is no vold.fstab file, and swapping mounting points works differently now, but i didnt' figure it out yet.
Yes you are right, fstab is in boot.img in lollilop, if I believe what I read ;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2426804
Maybe try to unpack and pack boot.img:
http://www.mtkroms.com/2015/02/unpackrepack-bootimg-and-port-kernel.html
Sorry I have no time to work on my device , i have not already rooting it, and the internal memory is enough for me.
I've managed to root my device, but i'm not skilled enough to do this boot.img operation. Too many things that can go wrong. As the source code for this device was already released, I'll wait and hope until some developer can find a solution.
XinternalSD is the solution. Try it. regards
Sent from my HERO1 using Tapatalk
Hi P9000 users!
I had now time to test some stuff with my P9000. One question: I inserted a Sandisk 128 GB SDXC Card (UHS) and formatted as internal Storage (want to move apps). Worked fine for the Phone and i was able to move apps to the SD. But after connecting Phone to USB (via MTP & unlocked phone) it only shows 32 GB internal SD. Also via File Explorer app on the phone i cannot find the external SD or mountpoint....
Anyone with same issue? I also changed connection-type to USB and then my OS (Win 10) does not open phone file system at all.
thx and br
Ausdroid
Arangato said:
Hi P9000 users!
I had now time to test some stuff with my P9000. One question: I inserted a Sandisk 128 GB SDXC Card (UHS) and formatted as internal Storage (want to move apps). Worked fine for the Phone and i was able to move apps to the SD. But after connecting Phone to USB (via MTP & unlocked phone) it only shows 32 GB internal SD. Also via File Explorer app on the phone i cannot find the external SD or mountpoint....
Anyone with same issue? I also changed connection-type to USB and then my OS (Win 10) does not open phone file system at all.
thx and br
Ausdroid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We did an article about the SD card memory management in Marshmallow a while ago on the XDA portal that explains this, I'd suggest googling for it as I can't remember the title.
Edit: Something to do with the SD card being formatted as Ext4 (linux file system standard these days) and Windows not supporting Ext4 filesystems.
Thx for reply, so i am afraid its related to Android 6 default behaviour. So if SD is formatted as internal storage you cannot access via USB from PC or managing files on it via file browser app? Thats really disappointing for me since it then switches SD card to enhanced app storage only, useless for image, videos, music etc. Of course i can format as portable SD, but then no movement of apps are possible (via root its maybe the only option).
In SD portable mode, i also had issue that SD cards randomly disconnects and one time it even needed to be reformatted. Have read about that in another thread, that this is related to physical sd mount... will see to fix this with some tape :/ (gives me not a good feeling here)
Arangato said:
Thx for reply, so i am afraid its related to Android 6 default behaviour. So if SD is formatted as internal storage you cannot access via USB from PC or managing files on it via file browser app? Thats really disappointing for me since it then switches SD card to enhanced app storage only, useless for image, videos, music etc. Of course i can format as portable SD, but then no movement of apps are possible (via root its maybe the only option).
In SD portable mode, i also had issue that SD cards randomly disconnects and one time it even needed to be reformatted. Have read about that in another thread, that this is related to physical sd mount... will see to fix this with some tape :/ (gives me not a good feeling here)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update: checked some forums and blogs, seems not to be android 6 default behavior that you completely cannot access the files on adopted SD-card anymore. after adopting as internal storage... anyone could also reproduce this? I will try doing factory reset with SD-Card inserted..
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.