So I've tried out a bunch of different ROMs and installed the same apps over again, and made Titanium backups on different ROMs, etc....anyway the point being, my internal SD card has all sorts of redundant files, folders and files from apps I've uninstalled, etc.
I was wondering if there were a "safe" way of formatting the internal SD card. Or what exactly is safe to delete? Or should I not worry about all this?
I don't mind starting from scratch with my data and stuff (and besides, my "important" things are all synced up with various cloud services or on my external SD so I don't really care about this internal one).
Thanks!
In cwm, go to mounts and storage, and format /sdcard
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Clear your doubts guys!!!
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
IF U LIKE HIT THANKS
Good idea, mate
I have way too much crap on my internal SD card. I think a lot of it is from apps I have downloaded then deleted and other miscellaneous things. My internal storage which is 8 GB, because of the SD Flip Flop MOD, is pretty much full. I dont know how. The biggest folders that I know about is a videos folder which is only 1.7 GB and a folder with some comics which is about 800 MB. Everything else was put on there by third party apps I believe.
So what I want to know is, whats the best way to clean all this stuff up? Should I transfer everything from my internal storage to my PC then format internal storage? If so, this is where it gets a little confusing. Since I have the SD Flip Flop MOD on my Eclipse ROM, when I "format internal storage" is it really formatting my External SD card? Also, Im pretty sure the apps will recreate the files they need after formatting right? But will I lose save data for my games? If so, I guess I should just backup my apps with Titanium backup and then restore the data after formatting?
jsgraphicart said:
I have way too much crap on my internal SD card. I think a lot of it is from apps I have downloaded then deleted and other miscellaneous things. My internal storage which is 8 GB, because of the SD Flip Flop MOD, is pretty much full. I dont know how. The biggest folders that I know about is a videos folder which is only 1.7 GB and a folder with some comics which is about 800 MB. Everything else was put on there by third party apps I believe.
So what I want to know is, whats the best way to clean all this stuff up? Should I transfer everything from my internal storage to my PC then format internal storage? If so, this is where it gets a little confusing. Since I have the SD Flip Flop MOD on my Eclipse ROM, when I "format internal storage" is it really formatting my External SD card? Also, Im pretty sure the apps will recreate the files they need after formatting right? But will I lose save data for my games? If so, I guess I should just backup my apps with Titanium backup and then restore the data after formatting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use something like root explorer and delete the files u don't use or don't want
just don't delete any data that u want to keep foe games and stuff
As you know in Sgs 2 there are internal storage, sd card (also built in phone) and additionaly external sd card slot. I would like to use this external one as location to move installed apps. There is option in application manager to move some apps to sd card but to the one built in, not the external. I have 32GB external card while built sd card has now only 100 MB free space and I can't download data for installed apps.
How to use external card for apps installation or moving some already installed apps on it?
Your internalSD is part of your phone where as the externalSD is not .You can backup apps to the externalSD but thats all.If you pass working apps to the externalSD you take them out of the system and so out of the phone and they will stop working.That is why there is only the option to move apps to SD (internal).
there is an additional option in the android system, to set a partition for your apps on external SD, you cant do this with Stock Rom anyway, but no idea on SGS2, any custom rom has offered this option so far.... this partition called "sd-ext" see the definition below:
"This is not a standard Android partition, but has become popular in the custom ROM scene. It is basically an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data partition when used with certain ROMs that have special features called APP2SD+ or data2ext enabled. It is especially useful on devices with little internal memory allotted to the /data partition. Thus, users who want to install more programs than the internal memory allows can make this partition and use it with a custom ROM that supports this feature, to get additional storage for installing their apps. Wiping this partition is essentially the same as wiping the /data partition – you lose your contacts, SMS, market apps and settings."
Ok, so any idea about such like ROMs or any manual/instruction thread?
After downloading apps, I see that some, but not many, can be moved from internal storage to phone storage i.e. the SD card.
I have set my default to store on the SD card but that's still only means that those few that are already able to be moved there will be loaded there from the get-go. I tend to load lots of apps and as my internal storage fills up I wish there were a way to have more of them sit outside of internal storage.
Also, will backing up to the SD card mean that when I have to flash my ROM and start again that I will be able to resume/reload with data what I had from the SD card for Will I always have to go to the app store and reload every one of my apps, put in my logins, etc?
Tom19146 said:
After downloading apps, I see that some, but not many, can be moved from internal storage to phone storage i.e. the SD card.
I have set my default to store on the SD card but that's still only means that those few that are already able to be moved there will be loaded there from the get-go. I tend to load lots of apps and as my internal storage fills up I wish there were a way to have more of them sit outside of internal storage.
Also, will backing up to the SD card mean that when I have to flash my ROM and start again that I will be able to resume/reload with data what I had from the SD card for Will I always have to go to the app store and reload every one of my apps, put in my logins, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem with pushing it to SD is flash a ROM or factory reset and the app is still there but you have to reinstall the apps anyways. You will also have to redo all your logins.
Hello everybody. I have SGS2 GT-19100 running in Cyanogenmod 12.1. Has 12 GB internal storage and 8gb of external sd card.
I have been using this for about a month or 2, its really really fast. But I realized my phone becomes slower and slower because my applications uses too much storage. Every application use about 300-400 mb of storage. My internal storage has 200mb left and same as my external sd card, too.
Well the top #1 solution is that go to recovery TWRP or CWM and wipe internal storage and cache
but I'm just wondering if I can wipe up internal storage and cache WITHOUT deleting personal files and these applications because I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT AGAIN and it takes too much time. If there's any solutions what would it be?
I need help ASAP. Thanks :laugh:
There is no such thing as a wipe that will wipe the internal storage and keep all of your files. You could try SD maid to clean up any space that the apps may have taken. Or, you could wipe the app data manually off each app. However if there is some important app info you want to keep, this is probably what you are not looking for.
Delete the LOST.DIR folder if it exists in your internal storage. Keep all backups onto external sd. See what can be moved onto the sd card and if there isn't many, you may have figure out something else instead of deleting and wiping.