[Q] /mnt/sdcard/ is mising - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

[Q] /mnt/sdcard/ is mising - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey folks,
first of all, I'm sorry if my following problem has already been discussed elsewhere in this forum, but I wasn't able to locate a thread or post that fits my exact issue as I don't want to mess up another thread with this.
So here is my problem:
I've recentally updated the resurrection remix rom from v1.9.1 to v2.1 on my SGS2. My phone boots up normally and works like a charm. But then I mentioned that both of my music-apps (poweramp and stock-player) are showing every song twice, as there would be file duplicates. So I checked the content of my external sdcard (where I put my music on) with both the stock-file-explorer and ES file explorer and found out, that my external sdcard wasn't mounted in /mnt/sdcard anymore but in /mnt/emmc and when I clicked on the sdcard-icon in the stock-app it only showed me my internal storage. With ES file explorer I can't access my external sdcard at all. I already plugged the sdcard out of the device, rebooted, plugged it back in and rebooted again. But nothing has changed. Further I've taken a look with MyPhoneExplorer and figured out, that the folder /mnt/sdcard doesn't exist anymore (creating it by myself failed) while /mnt/emmc was still there. Long story short, here are the facts:
/mnt/sdcard --> doesn't exist anymore
/mnt/emmc --> shows the content of external sdcard
sdcard-icon in stock-file-explorer --> shows internal storage
ES file explorer --> can't access sdcard at all (maybe I'm too stupid to use it)
music-apps --> show all the files doubled
Please help me, what can I do to get my external sdcard back at /mnt/sdcard and the music-apps to show every file only once?

let's just talk about the mount points first:
on stock roms, the internal sd card is mounted as /sdcard/ and the external sd card is /sdcard/external_sd/
on aosp roms the internal sd card _should_ be mounted as /sdcard/ as well and the external sd _should_ be mounted as /emmc/ (external multi media card).
in recent cm9 builds, suddenly those mount points were reversed, which does not make much sense in my opinion.
with the jump from ressurection 1.9 to 2.1 you might have just hit that switch. have you performed a full wipe before and/or after flashing the new rom? maybe that'll do the trick

on aosp roms the internal sd card _should_ be mounted as /sdcard/ as well and the external sd _should_ be mounted as /emmc/ (external multi media card).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that's the case. But what is mnt-directory good for then, if there already are folder providing the content of internal storage and external sdcards? and just btw. wikipedia says that emmc stands for embedded multimedia card and this was invented to be used as an internal storage, that's confusing me.
have you performed a full wipe before and/or after flashing the new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed the installation guide very strictly and performed the wiping and factory resetting before and after the flashing as instructed.
But if the files are where they should be, why is my music indexed twice no matter what I do?
ps: I managed to access my external sdcard with ES file explorer after doing an analyse of the sdcard through the manager-option of ES file explorer.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a solution for the problem, beside waiting for the next version of the rom. But to those of you who may face the same or a similar problem, here's a little workaround:
In poweramp you can define the folders to scan, so just allow it to scan only /emmc/ and the doubled files will disappear. Unfortunately this is not possible for the stock-player. Maybe this is helpful.

i never bothered to look up emmc and just assumed the "e" stood for external.
if it stands for embedded it would actually make sense to switch the mount points.
the fact that one device can be accessed using several paths, e.g. /sdcard/ and /mnt/sdcard/ is a linux thing. same thing is present on pcs, servers and embedded systems (video game console, set top boxes, mediaplayers...). the mount point /sdcard/ is for convenience.
the "picking up files twice" issue you have with your music probably comes from some mount problem. but here's an idea:
in any music player, find a song that is present twice in a row, and look at its details. you should be able to find the full filename including the folder structure. then you will know exactly, what causes the duplicates. it might be that your card is mounted in some other folder as well.
other than that, as you said, it might be best to wait for the next rom revision, or get your post count up and post in the development thread directly, where they can probably help you. if that is a general bug of the rom, i guess you are not the first to realize it and people should be working on it as it sounds really annoying.

Related

Memory folder/file name confusion USB/internal/external?

I recently installed an external sd card (Samsung 8GB class 10). I wanted to use it for photos, videos, music and app backups. Also to move some memory heavy apps to sd card. I realise with our sgs2's we're blessed with an abundance of internal memory storage, but wanted to cover myself for factory data resets and so on.
Anyhoo I can't seem to get my head round the folder/file name setup e.g.
Folder sdcard/ which contains sdcard/external_sd and also contains sdcard/usbstorage.
To confuse matters further I seem to have duplicate folders called:
mnt/sdcard/ which contains mnt/sdcard/external_sd it also contains mnt/sdcard/usbstorage.
I would have thought an external sdcard would have a separate root folder? My question is how to get "app to sdcard" to go to external_sd? Also what's the best folder/filename setup to sort out this mess? Thanks, any help would be much appreciated.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

OK so in the linux filesystem /mnt is the area devices are generally mounted to
So the links in the area are to the same sets of locations
/mnt/sdcard is the mount point for the internal SD on a non rooted phone this is the default file system
thus in /mnt/sdcard/external_sd in a non rooted filesystem would simply show up in the file system as /external_sd (and the same with the USB storage) they are in fact one in the same copying file via either path will have exactly the same result.
gazman69 said:
I recently installed an external sd card (Samsung 8GB class 10). I wanted to use it for photos, videos, music and app backups. Also to move some memory heavy apps to sd card. I realise with our sgs2's we're blessed with an abundance of internal memory storage, but wanted to cover myself for factory data resets and so on.
Anyhoo I can't seem to get my head round the folder/file name setup e.g.
Folder sdcard/ which contains sdcard/external_sd and also contains sdcard/usbstorage.
To confuse matters further I seem to have duplicate folders called:
mnt/sdcard/ which contains mnt/sdcard/external_sd it also contains mnt/sdcard/usbstorage.
I would have thought an external sdcard would have a separate root folder? My question is how to get "app to sdcard" to go to external_sd? Also what's the best folder/filename setup to sort out this mess? Thanks, any help would be much appreciated.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If you're having trouble with the phone directory layout and you have root, you can change it by making a symbolic link to point in another direction or directly change the mount partition table, but I think that would afect the ROM behaviour...
For the first thing, if the phone usually has this directories:
/system
/data
/sdcard
You can create a new one (/external_sd or whatever you want) and make it point to your external_sd directory, so in your root folder will have:
/system
/data
/sdcard
/external_sd -> /sdcard/external_sd
The command to do that is: ln -s /sdcard/external_sd /external_sd

Cheers guys. Thanks for your advice and knowledge on this one. I'm unrooted on stock voda rom 2.3.5. If I understand correctly (and I'm not entirely sure that I do;-). The two copies of the folder/file tree is fairly standard and does not cause any conflicts?
When I move an app to sd, it defaults to internal sd. I can then move them via file manager to external sd. But is there a way to make external sd the default card for this or at least a way to make a choice between them? Apologies if you've already covered this and I didn't get it.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

[MOD] Swap your usb storage with external SD!

Tired of that small 5gb usb storage? Here is my hack to swap your external SD card with the USB storage!
This is usefull especially if you use GPS apps that download maps or games that download big data files! I got the idea and studied several hacks for the galaxy 1900 so partial credit goes to whoever made those hacks.
DISCLAIMER : I have only tested this on the 4.0 U.S version running 2.3.5 and am not responsible for a brick (although it seems impossible to brick your phone while messing with this file).
So basically start by going to /system/etc using root explorer or similar (yes, you need root). Once there backup the vold.fstab file to somewhere ON ROOT (I put it in /data/app/)! This is important so you can access it if you need to restore it (also make sure root explorer is installed on device memory, not SD card). Now take my modified vold.fstab and replace the original in /system/etc, then change the permissions to rw-r--r-- (long click the file, then select permissions) . If all goes right after you reboot your device, USB storage should now be your SD card and vise versa! Be aware any apps on your USB storage will now have to be transfered using a PC, move the .android_secure folder to your SD card. Hope it works!
EDIT: here is a modified version for the yp-g70, all credit goes to rjsmith2007 for making and testing this!

Won't Maps pull data from the Ext SD anyway? All my music is on ext SD and players have no problem finding it; I would think maps would be the same. It's really like a 5gb and 16 gb (in my case) partition (isn't it?).
I'm looking for a reason to root, SD card/space is not one of them. My battery only charging to 90% is though, need to recalibrate (since it's never hit 100%)

tcat007 said:
Won't Maps pull data from the Ext SD anyway? All my music is on ext SD and players have no problem finding it; I would think maps would be the same. It's really like a 5gb and 16 gb (in my case) partition (isn't it?).
I'm looking for a reason to root, SD card/space is not one of them. My battery only charging to 90% is though, need to recalibrate (since it's never hit 100%)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am referring to when you download maps with an app like sygic;
it saves it to the /sdcard/ directory instead of the /sdcard/external_ed/. Also gameloft games do the same and can use up your room pretty fast. I find this pretty useful myself, since I have a 32gb sd card, but just wanted to post it so if anyone does ever need it, it's here for them.

iJimaniac said:
DISCLAIMER : I have only tested this on the 4.0 U.S version running 2.3.5 and am not responsible for a brick (although it seems impossible to brick your phone while messing with this file).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried it with my Galaxy S Wifi 5.0. The mapping of the internal sd to the external_sd folder fails, but it works for mapping my external sd to the sdcard folder.
Edit: I took a look at the original and made a modification to yours to work with the YP-G70 model (the 5 inch one). Just copy the file from within the zip folder to your /system/etc folder.

rjsmith2007 said:
I just tried it with my Galaxy S Wifi 5.0. The mapping of the internal sd to the external_sd folder fails, but it works for mapping my external sd to the sdcard folder.
Edit: I took a look at the original and made a modification to yours to work with the YP-G70 model (the 5 inch one). Just copy the file from within the zip folder to your /system/etc folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I appreciate it! I post it on the original post and give you the credit.

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I was trying to do this myself before, but ended up having to format my SDcard and gave up. Thanks for the help!

rjsmith2007 said:
Thanks man. I appreciate it. I was trying to do this myself before, but ended up having to format my SDcard and gave up. Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad I could help!

Can't I just copy all of the data from my internal sd card onto my computer, remove the internal sd card, copy those files onto a larger sd card and put the larger sd card back into the galaxy player? Im sorry if this Queston has been asked before, or if it sounds stupid, but I can't find the answer to this Queston anywhere! Thanks in advance!
(P.S) This post was made with a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0! No joke!

freshpintreez said:
Can't I just copy all of the data from my internal sd card onto my computer, remove the internal sd card, copy those files onto a larger sd card and put the larger sd card back into the galaxy player? Im sorry if this Queston has been asked before, or if it sounds stupid, but I can't find the answer to this Queston anywhere! Thanks in advance!
(P.S) This post was made with a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0! No joke!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
There's still a bit of confusion with respect to terminology, I think (including myself).
I *think* that when the SGP5 displays "internal sd card", it's only part of the "internal 8GB memory". That "internal 8GB memory" is probably, I guess, something like an SDCARD or flash memory module that's soldered to the mainboard, and with Android, I think that it's split into a couple of areas.
Here's my "guess" of how things are arranged, using the terminology from Settings==>SD card and device storage:
"System storage": Part of the 8gb internal memory, e.g., includes /system, etc.
[1.65GB, in my SGP5]
"USB Storage" = "internal sd card" = /sdcard: The rest of the 8gb internal memory.
[5.01GB, in my SGP5]
"SD Card": The external microSD card, if you have one plugged in. Appears at /sdcard/external_sd.
[29.81GB, in my SGP5, where I have a 32GB microSD card plugged in.]
That System storage + USB Storage totals 1.65+5.01 GB, or 6.66GB. I guess the remainder of the 8GB is for bootloader, etc.?
Jim

Looks about right. Task Manger has them labeled like you list them, except there is a "Personal data" partition. It's 133mb on my 5.0. Maybe email and contacts?
I'm guess apps get installed on "System Storage", plenty of room there without having to move stuff to USB or Ext. I pretty much just use my ext card for media and pictures.

For some reason this caused issues with my Market connecting to the internet, any idea why? Anyone else experience issues with this modification?

Hmm, no no one has mentioned that problem, and I have been using this for months - no problem. Sorry if it did that, have you tried restoring the original? Also, an update to the instructions is to change the permissions to rw-r-r. I didn't notice anything wrong without changing the permissions, but you never know.

jimcpl said:
Hi,
There's still a bit of confusion with respect to terminology, I think (including myself).
I *think* that when the SGP5 displays "internal sd card", it's only part of the "internal 8GB memory". That "internal 8GB memory" is probably, I guess, something like an SDCARD or flash memory module that's soldered to the mainboard, and with Android, I think that it's split into a couple of areas.
Here's my "guess" of how things are arranged, using the terminology from Settings==>SD card and device storage:
"System storage": Part of the 8gb internal memory, e.g., includes /system, etc.
[1.65GB, in my SGP5]
"USB Storage" = "internal sd card" = /sdcard: The rest of the 8gb internal memory.
[5.01GB, in my SGP5]
"SD Card": The external microSD card, if you have one plugged in. Appears at /sdcard/external_sd.
[29.81GB, in my SGP5, where I have a 32GB microSD card plugged in.]
That System storage + USB Storage totals 1.65+5.01 GB, or 6.66GB. I guess the remainder of the 8GB is for bootloader, etc.?
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty close.
https://github.com/Entropy512/initramfs_yp-g70/blob/master/misc/recovery.fstab is the Player 5.0 partition table.
As you can see, nearly everything is on partitions of mmcblk0 - on the Player 5.0, this is eMMC (embedded MMC) storage. The total size of mmcblk0 is 8GB
The partitions here include (but are not limited to):
p10 - EFS - this contains device-specific config data, on phones that includes IMEI, on our device it's probably Bluetooth and WiFi MAC addresses
p11 - Kernel
p12 - Recovery (on some devices, recovery is a separate kernel partition - Samsungs have this partition set aside even though most of their devices don't actually use it. You can put anything you want on p12 and it won't do anything usually. For us, recovery is part of the kernel initramfs on p11)
p13 - /system - This is where the system firmware, often called the "ROM" sits. A number of people are trying to fight the "ROM" terminology, since it's not really true - flash isn't read-only, thus it isn't the "ROM" any more
p14 - In the linked file it's /datadata, but the device actually mounts it as /dbdata - various SQL databases for apps live here
p15 - /cache - a cache partition separate from data. Files stored here are intended to be safely wipable/deletable
p16 - /data - Various user data. Your apps live here unless you've moved them to SD. Most system settings are here too. ICS merges this partition with the internal SD so they are one and the same
p17 - /emmc in recovery and, if someone ever has the time to port it, CM7, /sdcard in Samsung factory firmwares. This is the "internal SD card".
There are a few other partitions that are not touched by recovery that exist, such as the LFS partition and the bootloader partitions. These are all small.
mmcblk1 is the external SD. Usually only one partition, which is /sdcard in recovery/CM7 and /sdcard/external_sd in Samsung factory firmwares
On the 4.0, I believe it uses Samsung's older NAND flash technology and not eMMC, so the partitions on internal storage appear as stlN/bmlN

i think i did something disaster...
i am using Samsung Galaxy W. I did follow your above instruction. The problem is after restarting my phone, I go to setting>storage and it shows total space and available space for SD card and USB storage is UNAVAILABLE. What is available is only Device Memorry which is 1.03GB.
Thinking that your vold.fstab is not compatible with my Samsung Galaxy W, I replace it with the original vold.fstab that I backed up earlier. However this does not solve the problem.
Then what I did is I tried to reset the phone to its original factory setting (Setting>Privacy>Factory Data Reset..),. Unfortunately the same problem still persist. And i think this is silly and catastrophic step since i loss my original vold.fstab which is stored in the internal memory.
Any of you can help me?
Many thanks to all of you

Well, did you change the permissions on your backup back to rw-r--r--? And yes, this mod should only be used for the device intended for. Are you sure that you replaced the modified vold.fstab with the original one? Did it give you an warning about overriding (it should have)? Are you sure you used your backup and not accidentally mine? What program did you use to copy?

Hmm stupid question, but how do you replace the existing file? I am using root explorer an it says it is read-only when I try to paste it in there.
Edit... Never mind... I didn't have it mounted correctly.

I have tried this multiple times, but every time I reboot it says "USB storage damaged, may need reformatting." So I press reformat, and it's done in like 1 sec and the problem still persists.
Any ideas?

Hmm, odd. I know you have the same version player as me, are you running 2.3.5 or 2.3.6, maybe that could affect it? Did you try before you did a lot of modifications to your device? What type of SD card you got, I use a 32gb class sandisk. I don't think that would matter, but you never know. I recall getting that error when I was working on the mod, but I got it fixed before I released it. Weird.

Oh yeah, what do you have your sd card formatted as? I use FAT32, not sure if that could affect it. May want to try reformatting the card on a PC, then try.

I have a 8gb kingston micro sd card, and I'm running 2.3.5. I had this problem a long time ago too when I was still on stock. Maybe it's my sd card. I will reformat it and try again, and if it doesn't work I will try a different sd card.

[Q] Cant see files that I copy to the SD card over USB

I have been searching for answers on this and so far found nothing. Sorry if its already been covered somewhere I didn't find.
The SD card is working fine in the pone.
When I put it in a usb adapter to plug into my pc it mounts fine and I can copy files to it without any errors but when I put it back in the phone I cant see the files?
Same thing happens when I plug the phone into a pc with USB and copy the files.
The files are still there because when I plug back into the pc I can see them.
Anyone know why I have this issue please?
Many thanks
Ben

Try unmounting an remounting the sdcard in the Settings menu.
Have you tried other filemanagers than the stock one?
I can't confirm your issue but it sounds like a caching issue.
Have you tried turning it off and on again? =)

I have a similar issue , I have files that I have copied over to the phone sd card and wanted to use a file manager to move them around into different files however none of the file managers seem to see the files
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

d4fseeker said:
Try unmounting an remounting the sdcard in the Settings menu.
Have you tried other filemanagers than the stock one?
I can't confirm your issue but it sounds like a caching issue.
Have you tried turning it off and on again? =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using ES File Explorer
I have tried rebooting the phone and also (after you said) mounting and unmounting the SD card. The Issue remains the same.
Does anyone else have this issue or any ideas?

If you're connected to PC as MTP mode, try to switch to camera transfer mode..
Maybe this will help?

External and internal sdcard mount points
After some more investigating I have discovered that what is displayed as /sdcard/ is in fact the phones internal flash memory and the actual SD card is mounted as something else.
There you have 2 folders in /mnt
/mnt/sdcard >> taht is the internal flash storage
/mnt/sdextcard >> that is the inserted sd card
http://mono-for-android.1047100.n5.nabble.com/detect-SD-Card-path-td5710218.html
This explains why I could see the files i copied to my sd card on my phone as my phone wont enable me to see the actual external SD card.
Was surprised I couldn't find an actual thread about this on the forum.
I can see that creating a mount point for called SDCARD within the internal memory will allow apps that default large content files to use this space without complaining but this means that although Samsung allow SD cards to be inserted they cannot be used with a standard set up?
So is there any way for me to get to this other mount point without root access?
I thought, for a change, I might hold off rooting my phone but this might spur me on...

Afaik Android does not have a concept of "internal" SD card. (Which is the or at least a reason why most phones have a separate data partition)
However when phone manufacturer's started offering internal storage capacity for normal files, they just used the sdcard.
The name of the external sdcard varies from phone to phone and manufacturer.
I can remember that the name of the external sd card on my S1 was /sdcard/external_sd/ (no /mnt as with the S3 !)
On current Cyanogenmod for the S1 it's /mnt/emmc/ which seems to be introduced as some sort of "standard".
This variety in naming shemes and the possibility of a phone not having internal SD-card storage, only having internal SD-card storage or having both _SHOULD_ make app developers give you the option where to store it.
If it doesn't it's a restriction in the app, not the sdcard.
Solution[/b[
If you are rooted you can easily bypass these restrictions with a simple trick. Make sure the app is terminated before attempting this!
Go to the terminal emulator and type:
Code:
su
mkdir /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
cp -rvf /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
You've now told Android to re-route all filesystem access'es transparently to the external SDcard while the app still believes it's on the internal one.
Note that you'll have to run the following after every boot (or have it run as auto-start) since mount's are not persistant.
Code:
su
mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER

Thank you for the explanation on this d4fseeker. Really all I wanted to do at this time was be able to access the external SD or point to it as a content location. But I will bookmark the solution for forcing apps to use it.
No I know what I know I have rooted my phone, curtesy of Chainfires guide here and can now see the extSDCard directory

houseofcutler said:
I am using ES File Explorer
I have tried rebooting the phone and also (after you said) mounting and unmounting the SD card. The Issue remains the same.
Does anyone else have this issue or any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In ES file explorer, you can go to your external SDcard by open Menu (left capacitive button), then select Manager and then SD card Analyst.
it will show /sdcard,,, it means internal SDcard. You have to touch "Disks" icon (the second from the left), then select /mnt/extSdCard. Eventually you can browse your external SD.
I don't know if there is the easier way. Or you can use the stock explorer app "My files", it is easier to browse the external card but with less function than 3rd party app.

That does work thanks - Turns out I purchased Root Explorer a while back so I have installed that and set the home directory to be the external SD mount point. Still need ES though for when I am copying across my network
jackie_jerk said:
In ES file explorer, you can go to your external SDcard by open Menu (left capacitive button), then select Manager and then SD card Analyst.
it will show /sdcard,,, it means internal SDcard. You have to touch "Disks" icon (the second from the left), then select /mnt/extSdCard. Eventually you can browse your external SD.
I don't know if there is the easier way. Or you can use the stock explorer app "My files", it is easier to browse the external card but with less function than 3rd party app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have quite the same problem but another way around. I can see all the (music)files in the phone but when I connect the phone via USB to my PC I can only see a few (about 30) of the files in the folder. I have booted the PC and the phone, took the SDcard also out and in. Also when I insert the SDCard to the PC's cardreader I can see all the files, so I quess the problem is in the phone. Any ideas how to solve this?

Not sure what your issue is but my advise is to confirm you a definitely looking at what you think you are - that was my problem before.
For example when the Phone is connected to your PC:
Create a text file called phone.txt in the 'Phone' Directory
Create one called card.txt in the 'Card' directory
Then use the built in 'my files' browser or whatever app you use to see if the files are where you think they are.
Might help...

d4fseeker said:
Afaik Android does not have a concept of "internal" SD card. (Which is the or at least a reason why most phones have a separate data partition)
However when phone manufacturer's started offering internal storage capacity for normal files, they just used the sdcard.
The name of the external sdcard varies from phone to phone and manufacturer.
I can remember that the name of the external sd card on my S1 was /sdcard/external_sd/ (no /mnt as with the S3 !)
On current Cyanogenmod for the S1 it's /mnt/emmc/ which seems to be introduced as some sort of "standard".
This variety in naming shemes and the possibility of a phone not having internal SD-card storage, only having internal SD-card storage or having both _SHOULD_ make app developers give you the option where to store it.
If it doesn't it's a restriction in the app, not the sdcard.
Solution[/b[
If you are rooted you can easily bypass these restrictions with a simple trick. Make sure the app is terminated before attempting this!
Go to the terminal emulator and type:
Code:
su
mkdir /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
cp -rvf /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
You've now told Android to re-route all filesystem access'es transparently to the external SDcard while the app still believes it's on the internal one.
Note that you'll have to run the following after every boot (or have it run as auto-start) since mount's are not persistant.
Code:
su
mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard/APPFOLDER /mnt/sdcardext/APPFOLDER
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But doesn't this simply relocate 100% of APPFOLDER to the microSD card and still leave no option to have Apps in both flash locations? Or will programs like App 2 SD somehow now be able to relocate apps back to the internal flash partition (aka "internal sdcard")?
Ah, nevermind. "APPFOLDER" is a single application's appfolder, not a directory with all the apps. So this should be something an app could do on any rooted S3 with a nice gui and persistence through some service mod in init.d or whatever Android uses in its place, yes?

Ok, was just digging around in /mnt/sdcard and while a few apps have obvious directories there, most do not. What's more, being an android noob, I'm not sure where their directories would be located (app manager doesn't say either).
Anyone care to point me in the right direction? Also, is there a way to install some other standard linux shell commands like more and grep?
Thanks.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA

[Q] SGS III - ext. SDCard suddenly ReadOnly

Today I found - after trying to make a foto - that my SDCard doesn't seem to be not accessibl anymore - at least the cam app says this. After some ivestigation I found out that the SD is still accessible but all files and folders are in read-only mode. I checked the perms with ESFileExplorer and found no hint why (775 was set correctly) however the properties dialog of differnt file managers always says read-only. I tried to access, remove and create files/folders via pc o that card (format FAT32) w/o any problems. So I made a backup and format the card within the phone and what shall I say - it seems to work again.
Does anybody have an idea what this may have caused?
SGS III + JB 4.1.2 I9300XXELL5_I9300VFGELL1_VD2 + XXELL5_JKay_Deluxe_Stock_v14_5_4 + rooted with SGS Toolkit
Thanks a lot!!!
BTW: I used the search function already but I did not find an explainantion which matches fully to my problem

Possibly found a reason
Hm, may have found 2 possible reasons for that behaviour:
- SolidExplorer (strange behviour as after start of it a lot of files partly w/o filname (only . or @ or y) are displayed, partly not visible in other file managers and after some time I can't delete/change no file on that card anymore)
- Too high value vor SDBooster (used 1024 now reduced to 512) - but for my understanding this should not be the reason as it was working for a long time w/o problems.
Will investigate later and will inform about the outcome...

Help on this thread please.
Same problem here.. My torrents, my camera, sms backup and restore, titanium backup, everything else specially those i set as daily scheduled activities always end up having unsuccessful results..
The problem can be worked around by unmounting->re-mounting sd-card..... every 5 minutes or so...
HELP!!

format it

Why didn't I think of that in the first place? Geez..
So anyone here who really understands the problem?
Note(2)worthy response using Tapatalk HD.

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!
.DayWalker. said:
Today I found - after trying to make a foto - that my SDCard doesn't seem to be not accessibl anymore - at least the cam app says this. After some ivestigation I found out that the SD is still accessible but all files and folders are in read-only mode. I checked the perms with ESFileExplorer and found no hint why (775 was set correctly) however the properties dialog of differnt file managers always says read-only. I tried to access, remove and create files/folders via pc o that card (format FAT32) w/o any problems. So I made a backup and format the card within the phone and what shall I say - it seems to work again.
Does anybody have an idea what this may have caused?
SGS III + JB 4.1.2 I9300XXELL5_I9300VFGELL1_VD2 + XXELL5_JKay_Deluxe_Stock_v14_5_4 + rooted with SGS Toolkit
Thanks a lot!!!
BTW: I used the search function already but I did not find an explainantion which matches fully to my problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Use /storage/external_SD instead of /storage/sdcard0

I have a LG Optimus L3 II, and since it has less than 2 GB of total ROM, I have bought an external SD card. I have some experience with Linux desktop systems, but not really with Android. On a Linux desktop, if I lack disk space, I can mount /home to the device I want using /etc/fstab, so all my personal files are transparently saved to the specified device.
I have noticed that my user files on the LG Optimus are all saved to /storage/sdcard0. Also, that there is a symlink from /sdcard to /storage/sdcard0.
What I would like to accomplish is to transparently have all my personal files on /storage/external_SD, but I'm not sure if I can just change /sdcard to point to the new location, or if I would need to change mount points somewhere, etc. I have searched on Google about this, but found nothing clear, and it seems this may vary from device to device. Also, I haven't tried anything yet, because I don't really think I would be able to recover if anything goes bad.
Thanks for your attention!

teresaejunior said:
I have a LG Optimus L3 II, and since it has less than 2 GB of total ROM, I have bought an external SD card. I have some experience with Linux desktop systems, but not really with Android. On a Linux desktop, if I lack disk space, I can mount /home to the device I want using /etc/fstab, so all my personal files are transparently saved to the specified device.
I have noticed that my user files on the LG Optimus are all saved to /storage/sdcard0. Also, that there is a symlink from /sdcard to /storage/sdcard0.
What I would like to accomplish is to transparently have all my personal files on /storage/external_SD, but I'm not sure if I can just change /sdcard to point to the new location, or if I would need to change mount points somewhere, etc. I have searched on Google about this, but found nothing clear, and it seems this may vary from device to device. Also, I haven't tried anything yet, because I don't really think I would be able to recover if anything goes bad.
Thanks for your attention!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't just replace /sdcard to point to a new location, as Android is always expected to run from the internal storage, and this can cause mayhem. Now, the first question you should answer to yourself is what you mean when you say "personal files": if you just need to store songs, pictures, movies etc., you can store them on the external SD without any issues.
However, the main problem with Android in this aspect is the applications (apps and their data). The best thing would be if you could natively install them on the SD. But this is not always possible, since SD cards are usually formatted with non native Linux file systems (such as FAT) ,in order for them to be mounted on Windows, meaning that they lack the infrastructure to run apps from within (like file permissions or symlinks).
Solution here is the following: Format your SD card to be either all or partially of an ext3/4 file system type (so it can at least hold all apps and their data), then install the Link2SD app, which moves the application to this SD partition and creates all links from the internal drive to this partition. The paid version of this app (Link2SD+, which costs $1) allows you to link also the application data to the SD card (not only the app itself). I have used this solution on many low end devices I had in the past (like yours basically), and it solved this issue perfectly.

Digdis said:
You can't just replace /sdcard to point to a new location, as Android is always expected to run from the internal storage, and this can cause mayhem. Now, the first question you should answer to yourself is what you mean when you say "personal files": if you just need to store songs, pictures, movies etc., you can store them on the external SD without any issues.
However, the main problem with Android in this aspect is the applications (apps and their data). The best thing would be if you could natively install them on the SD. But this is not always possible, since SD cards are usually formatted with non native Linux file systems (such as FAT) ,in order for them to be mounted on Windows, meaning that they lack the infrastructure to run apps from within (like file permissions or symlinks).
Solution here is the following: Format your SD card to be either all or partially of an ext3/4 file system type (so it can at least hold all apps and their data), then install the Link2SD app, which moves the application to this SD partition and creates all links from the internal drive to this partition. The paid version of this app (Link2SD+, which costs $1) allows you to link also the application data to the SD card (not only the app itself). I have used this solution on many low end devices I had in the past (like yours basically), and it solved this issue perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer, Digdis! What I'm really looking for is not to have applications installed on the external SD card, since 2GB is more than enough for applications for me. What I really want is to have stuff that generally goes to /storage/sdcard0 in /storage/external_SD, because this is where my personal files and settings goes to. For example, if I download something, no matter what size, or record videos, I would expect them all to go directly to the SD card. I know a few applications, not all, can be directly configured to use the external card, but it would be a rather unintelligent way, unless Google has decided to throw basic Linux design out of the window.
Also, what you are telling me is that applications will fail to run if Android/data/ is on an external SD card? Because if I just install applications on SD card, it won't really solve my problem, because I have few applications installed, but data on /storage/sdcard0 tends to grow a lot.

teresaejunior said:
Thanks for your answer, Digdis! What I'm really looking for is not to have applications installed on the external SD card, since 2GB is more than enough for applications for me. What I really want is to have stuff that generally goes to /storage/sdcard0 in /storage/external_SD, because this is where my personal files and settings goes to. For example, if I download something, no matter what size, or record videos, I would expect them all to go directly to the SD card. I know a few applications, not all, can be directly configured to use the external card, but it would be a rather unintelligent way, unless Google has decided to throw basic Linux design out of the window.
Also, what you are telling me is that applications will fail to run if Android/data/ is on an external SD card? Because if I just install applications on SD card, it won't really solve my problem, because I have few applications installed, but data on /storage/sdcard0 tends to grow a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK understood. First of all 2GB seems a bit low for both ROM and apps, but if you say it works for you...
Now, regarding automatic download of pics etc. to SD. You can try Xposed module Downloads2SD . Didn't try it, but you can give it a try.

You can actually do that by telling the system to mount them differently but LG handles that by initiation not fstab. I can try and help you.
Didn't explain it very well. Mount the External SD as sdcard0 and sdcard0 as External_sd so the phone will safe on sdcard0 which we just made the external_SD. There can be problems with pictures recognition or music stuff like that but it should work.

Thanks a lot, @Digdis, I'll keep everything you said for reference.
@christi9503 OK, please, let's try it!

teresaejunior said:
Thanks a lot, @Digdis, I'll keep everything you said for reference.
@christi9503 OK, please, let's try it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted with a custom recovery? We need root for this and also you need to give me some files.

christi9503 said:
Are you rooted with a custom recovery? We need root for this and also you need to give me some files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is rooted, but what do you mean with "a custom recovery"?

teresaejunior said:
Yes, it is rooted, but what do you mean with "a custom recovery"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CloworkMod(CWM) or TWRP recovery. So you can flash flashable zip.

christi9503 said:
CloworkMod(CWM) or TWRP recovery. So you can flash flashable zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are both supported on this device?

teresaejunior said:
Are both supported on this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search around the forum a guy around ported all from what I know. Anyway install one of the recoveries to get ready.
What I want you to do now is this:
Check in storage path (with a root explorer) what folder you have like sdcard0, external_sd etc. Tell me all and what is the address (where it links)
EX: sdcard0 -> internal storage.
Also go in system/etc/ and copy me with a root explorer to sd card and then upload it on forums this file : init.qcom.post_boot.sh

christi9503 said:
Search around the forum a guy around ported all from what I know. Anyway install one of the recoveries to get ready.
What I want you to do now is this:
Check in storage path (with a root explorer) what folder you have like sdcard0, external_sd etc. Tell me all and what is the address (where it links)
EX: sdcard0 -> internal storage.
Also go in system/etc/ and copy me with a root explorer to sd card and then upload it on forums this file : init.qcom.post_boot.sh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installing will probably take me some time, because Android is refusing to install anything now saying I don't have enough free space (although I have 199MB, but maybe it thinks is too little). The information you have requested I have already:
There is /sdcard/, which is just a symlink to /storage/sdcard0/.
/storage/sdcard0, which is the internal memory, is mounted like:
Code:
/dev/fuse /storage/sdcard0 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
And there is also /storage/external_SD/, which is mounted like:
Code:
/dev/block/vold/179:33 /storage/external_SD vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
init.qcom.post_boot.sh is attached.

teresaejunior said:
Installing will probably take me some time, because Android is refusing to install anything now saying I don't have enough free space (although I have 199MB, but maybe it thinks is too little). The information you have requested I have already:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is why I urged you to start moving apps to the SD card. Android will refuse to install anything on your internal memory unless you have at least 10% free space.

teresaejunior said:
Installing will probably take me some time, because Android is refusing to install anything now saying I don't have enough free space (although I have 199MB, but maybe it thinks is too little). The information you have requested I have already:
There is /sdcard/, which is just a symlink to /storage/sdcard0/.
/storage/sdcard0, which is the internal memory, is mounted like:
Code:
/dev/fuse /storage/sdcard0 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
And there is also /storage/external_SD/, which is mounted like:
Code:
/dev/block/vold/179:33 /storage/external_SD vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
init.qcom.post_boot.sh is attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well install recovery by adb with dd (in shell).
---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:31 PM ----------
@teresaejunior
Under /mnt (on the root I think) you will have some folder like sdcard, external_SD etc inside that folder. Tell me what folders are there and the one that gets you in internal and the one that gets you in external pls.

CWM is installed!
In /mnt there are:
Code:
asec
obb
sdcard -> /storage/sdcard0
secure

teresaejunior said:
CWM is installed!
In /mnt there are:
Code:
asec
obb
sdcard -> /storage/sdcard0
secure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok gonna give you a flashable zip in a second that will replace your post boot script. If it goes into bootloop we got a backup don't worry.

teresaejunior said:
CWM is installed!
In /mnt there are:
Code:
asec
obb
sdcard -> /storage/sdcard0
secure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash this and tell me if they are swapped. Through CWM.
View attachment SwapL32.zip

christi9503 said:
Flash this and tell me if they are swapped. Through CWM.
View attachment 3082829
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it swapped, but now many applications are crashing or failing to open files. I copied all files from sdcard0 to external_SD and rebooted, but it still doesn't seem to help. Maybe I should have formatted the external SD to ext*?

teresaejunior said:
I think it swapped, but now many applications are crashing or failing to open files. I copied all files from sdcard0 to external_SD and rebooted, but it still doesn't seem to help. Maybe I should have formatted the external SD to ext*?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope you do not need to format it in order to work. Just make a clean install and use this swap. Maybe you copied them wrong. If the swap worked all is fine my friend.

christi9503 said:
Nope you do not need to format it in order to work. Just make a clean install and use this swap. Maybe you copied them wrong. If the swap worked all is fine my friend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, thank you so much, now _this is_ going to take a good time!

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