I feel like a complete noob with this question, but I am confused as to how storage is allocated for the Galaxy Note I717.
Here is a photo of what my storage looks like on my Note. I don't have any external storage installed, as of yet, due to my other microSD card spazzing out and no one seemed able to give me any useful help on getting my old card functional again. So I have a new card coming this week. Until then, if I'm reading my internal file storage correctly, I have two areas of storage within my Note: I have something called "Internal Storage" and something else called "USB Storage." What's the difference? Both of them are internal storage, so why the separation??
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Now, if I'm again reading things correctly, it would appear that ALL of my APPS are being stored in the significantly smaller INTERNAL storage area, while everything else (i.e. photos, music, videos, etc.) are installed under the USB storage area. My question is... why can't I have my apps installed in the USB storage area? There's less than 2GB of internal storage but there's 10GB of USB storage. Why the hell would Samsung and/or Android make it so that the most important section of one's phone (apps) would be installed in a section so small?? I have almost 8GBs of USB storage that I can't put any of my apps on, and as a result, I can't update any of my current apps or install any new apps, because apparently I don't have enough space available.
Is there some way around this issue without resorting to a microUSB card or is this insanity somehow correct? I'd appreciate any input.
Think of it this way. Your internal memory is your apps storage. This is just like on any other android phone. When it starts to get full you move apps to the sd storage.
The USB memory ( I really don't like it being called USB memory) is your internal sd card. If you were to move apps from the internal memory this is where the apps will move to, not your external sd card.
When you install your micro sd card it will be nothing but storage. Your music, pics, NAND backups, Titanium backups, apps to install, and other misc files can be stored here.
So start moving apps that can be moved to the USB memory.
Agoattamer said:
Think of it this way. Your internal memory is your apps storage. This is just like on any other android phone. When it starts to get full you move apps to the sd storage.
The USB memory ( I really don't like it being called USB memory) is your internal sd card. If you were to move apps from the internal memory this is where the apps will move to, not your external sd card.
When you install your micro sd card it will be nothing but storage. Your music, pics, NAND backups, Titanium backups, apps to install, and other misc files can be stored here.
So start moving apps that can be moved to the USB memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to flash an app to my Solstice, can you help me side load that still?
Just kidding! Your nickname rang a huge bell, then I remembered where I had read it from. Glad to see i'm still in line with others with good taste in devices.
seedoubleyou said:
I'm trying to flash an app to my Solstice, can you help me side load that still?
Just kidding! Your nickname rang a huge bell, then I remembered where I had read it from. Glad to see i'm still in line with others with good taste in devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still hanging on to my impression too.
Agoattamer said:
Think of it this way. Your internal memory is your apps storage. This is just like on any other android phone. When it starts to get full you move apps to the sd storage.
The USB memory ( I really don't like it being called USB memory) is your internal sd card. If you were to move apps from the internal memory this is where the apps will move to, not your external sd card.
When you install your micro sd card it will be nothing but storage. Your music, pics, NAND backups, Titanium backups, apps to install, and other misc files can be stored here.
So start moving apps that can be moved to the USB memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the reply. But I don't see how this is a possibility. Every time I attempt to move an app to the so-called "USB storage," I get an error message saying "Couldn't move app. Not enough storage space." This is with any app I try to move. It isn't possible to move apps natively or even if I use third party software like "App-2-SD Pro."
Dr. Evo said:
Thank you so much for the reply. But I don't see how this is a possibility. Every time I attempt to move an app to the so-called "USB storage," I get an error message saying "Couldn't move app. Not enough storage space." This is with any app I try to move. It isn't possible to move apps natively or even if I use third party software like "App-2-SD Pro."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The memory setup on phones is stupid... I made two detailed posts explaining the setup, use the forums search feature in Q&A for my post detailing how its setup (of course, if you find one of the other people who have also explained it, they probably do it way better then a simple user like me)...
Instead of being like tablets and some brands of phones, they partition /data and /sdcard in an absurd fashion (considering /sdcard isnt actually sdcard and is instead internal memory...), but again, thats explained in this very sub-forum if you do some simple searching
Alright Guys has anyone been able to move apps and data to the external SD card. I mean I have this 32 Gig Card sitting there with nothing on it while my internal is filling up. Also is it possible to make backups from clockworkmod to external SD card and restore from it as well?
Answer to your second part is you can store and restore from cwm to your external sd card.
from a galaxy far far away....
Mad383Max said:
Answer to your second part is you can store and restore from cwm to your external sd card.
from a galaxy far far away....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so but then I tried mounting it and doesn't detect it. Have you done it yourself before??
you can put all your music, pictures, movies, and nandroids on the external card, if you are looking to "fill it up"..
there is no reason to move apps to the external card, as you will never run out of room on your "internal" sd card...I have over 300 apps, all of them on the interal card, plus all sorts of roms, and other flashing stuff on my internal card, and I still have 5 gigs of open space!
Do a search on XDA for an application called Directory Bind. With this app you can bind directories from the internal memory to the external sd card. It isn't recommended for moving all your apps to the sd card, but it will allow you to move large directories such as gameloft folder, EA folder, and GPS maps and remap their location so the app can find and use the files.
Read this as it may make more sense.
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...-to-external-sd-card-on-most-samsung-devices/
wase4711 said:
you can put all your music, pictures, movies, and nandroids on the external card, if you are looking to "fill it up"..
there is no reason to move apps to the external card, as you will never run out of room on your "internal" sd card...I have over 300 apps, all of them on the interal card, plus all sorts of roms, and other flashing stuff on my internal card, and I still have 5 gigs of open space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See I do not have any problem in keeping my apps in the internal SD or phone memory for that matter but when I make a nandroid backup it makes it in the internal SD and I have three backups stored there consuming 3-4 GB.
Now I understand that I can move them to external SD and so I did but if I want to restore, the Clockwork Mod doesn't find the backup apparently because it could not detect ext SD.
I would be more that happy to use my card for heavy data like pics, videos, and nandroid backup. That is all.
Oh and by the way what about the memory consumption by the Play Music App. ... If I want to keep a few albums offline, It will alone take about 400MB atleast. What do you guys suggest.
xaragen said:
See I do not have any problem in keeping my apps in the internal SD or phone memory for that matter but when I make a nandroid backup it makes it in the internal SD and I have three backups stored there consuming 3-4 GB.
Now I understand that I can move them to external SD and so I did but if I want to restore, the Clockwork Mod doesn't find the backup apparently because it could not detect ext SD.
I would be more that happy to use my card for heavy data like pics, videos, and nandroid backup. That is all.
Oh and by the way what about the memory consumption by the Play Music App. ... If I want to keep a few albums offline, It will alone take about 400MB atleast. What do you guys suggest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use TWRP recovery and you wont have any problems restoring from your external card
xaragen said:
I thought so but then I tried mounting it and doesn't detect it. Have you done it yourself before??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that it is where all my backups are stored. I have been using the touch version of cwm and it has the option to select from external.
from a galaxy far far away....
xaragen said:
Alright Guys has anyone been able to move apps and data to the external SD card. I mean I have this 32 Gig Card sitting there with nothing on it while my internal is filling up. Also is it possible to make backups from clockworkmod to external SD card and restore from it as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi..yes..i could move some apps to my external sd card in my GT N7000 note.. One such app is the adobe reader. Initially the app was sitting in the 2gb internal storage,but luckily i got an option to move app to the extrnl sd(remember not all apps are compatible). I have moved a couple of games also. I would like to quote a couple of points(flaws) in these android devices,perticularly samsung.these guys are using wrong terminologies as far as the phone memory partition is concerned. This 'sd card' term is being used both for usb mass storage(which is a partition in the hard drive inside the phone) and our personal micro sd card also,the worst part is they r not holding on to this terminology in the task manager,where this sd card becomes 'mass storage' there. Why cant they just use the term 'usb mass storage'everywhere?
2.These droid guys can never match nokia linux maemo based N900, which i had 4years back.the memory partition was so appropriate that every time u download an app or music or video or anythng or even when u receive a file thru bluetooth,the device would very obeidiently prompt me to select a drive to save the file. Even n900 had 3 drives..phne memory,usb mass storge and micro sd,and had a massive 32gb of internal memory itself.its a shame on samsung devices where it wont allow users to choose their directories and completely absurd thing to be eating away the tiny 2gb phne memory and not using the bigger mass storage area. Anyways i've had enough with these ****ty samsung devices,am going back to nokia. Lumia 920 is an awesome device.chk it out. Best of luck.
Related
I don't understand storage on Android and how it works. I would be grateful if someone could explain it.
Normally I thought that Phone memory refers to the storage space on the phone (like ROM) that was fixed and not removable. SD card is the microsd card that I physically insert into a slot on the phone. However, it seems that Android has 3 types of storage: Phone, Internal SD and External SD. Is this correct? I would appreciate if someone could clarify. Also, when I do move Apps to SD card on my CyanogenMod ROM, it seems to only move them from phone memory to internal SD, not external SD. As a general rule, is is better in terms of speed to keep the apps on internal or external SD? I don't want to keep in Phone memory since it is quite small, only about 1.8 GB. I should point out that I am using a Class 10 MicroSD, so it should be quite fast, or so I've been told.
What you refer to as Internal SD is probably not on the SD at all but read/write memory in the device itself. Basically built in storage that's an addition to the read only memory where the important stuff is.
As an example, the Omnia i900 had ROM + 8GB Storage in the Phone, with whatever you wanted to add as External SD. Plug the Omnia into a PC and you had two lot's of storage that you could drag and drop files to.
Basically you have 3 things:
ROM (Read-Only-Memory): This is where Android itself resides. All the OS stuff is here.
Phone Storage: You may consider this as the phones HDD. This is where all the apps/SMS/MMS/... are stored. (This is usually not meant to be accessed by the user to place files there, thats what the SD-Card is for)
SD-Storage: Your SD-Card where you can put everything you want. Music/Pictures/Files...
m0jo said:
Basically you have 3 things:
SD-Storage: Your SD-Card where you can put everything you want. Music/Pictures/Files...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to run apps off the SD-Card? When I use an app like App2SD, does it actually copy to the SD Card or just to the Phone storage? This is what confuses me, because I selected 'move to SD' on my phone (I'm using Cyanogen 7.1.0). But its still in the Phone Storage. I know this because when I put the SD card into my laptop, it does not show any of the software files.
When you move apps to the SD not all data is moved to the SD. The phone needs some files on the internal storage to run, since it needs to know that the apps are installed on the phone. When it needs to run it'll find the executable files in the internal storage, and run the data files from the SD card. Much like on a computer when you've installed an application and install it on an external HDD.
Apps you move to the SD will be moved to /Android/data/ and /data i believe since i have quite a bit of appdata in these folders.
First of all, I'm sorry if a similar thread as already been made but i didn't find a section for my phone nor a thread about this type of problem. I found two threads on different forums with the same identical problem but the answers were bad or some times there wouldn't be any answers at all.
So, I got a Samsung Galaxy W this Christmas and I loved it, it was fast and smooth, and still is, but i noticed that it didn't come with a SD Card and i wanted one because i noticed an option to move my apps to the SD Card instead of having them installed in my phone memory.
So, yesterday i bought a 16GB SD Card, and plugged it in my Galaxy W. All fine, it appeared in the Storage Settings, i formatted it and everything was going well, but then i started moving my apps to it and first of all, I noticed that when clicking the Manage Applications option inside the Applications Settings, and then when i clicked the tab On SD Card, the space available wasn't 16GB (or 14,XXGB it doesn't matter) but some MB's (0,94GB used and 788MB free) and i started wondering, Where are my 16GB?. Later on i also noticed that 0,94GB + 0,788GB = 1,07GB which is my USB Storage capacity. So, why is my phone installing apps to the USB Storage instead of the SD Card. I also installed ES File Explorer from the Market and when i opened the app it showed me the content of the /sdcard, inside this there is a bunch of folders (Android, LOST.DIR, bluetooth, usbStorage, external_SD, etc...) and i found a folder called external_SD and i clicked on it and it opened the files of my SD Card the real 16GB one and i know this because i had plug my SD Card in my MacBook with the adapter that came it with and i dragged a movie and some music and it was there, inside that external_SD folder which is inside of the /sdcard location in my phone. What i understood from this is that my phone is recognizing the USB Storage as the SD Card even though that my SD Card is recognized as the SD Card in the Storage Settings. Also when i plug my phone to my MacBook via USB, two drives show up, a NO NAME which contains the files from the /sdcard/ and another NO NAME which is my 16GB SD card. I'm really confused with this and i really need to move my apps to the SD Card to save space. Please, what do i need to do to solve this problem?
I took some screenshots to help you understand the issue:
Settings>Storage:
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Settings>Applications>Manage applications>On SD card:
You can see here that instead of showing the space available on my SD Card it shows the space available on the USB Storage.
More images, an example of what it looks like when i move an application to the "SD card":
Screenshots of what it looks like when i run a file explorer app, in this case, ES File Explorer:
And what's inside this strange external_sd folder inside /sdcard/ which are the files i have in my real 16GB sdcard:
A strange fact is that, when i unmount my SDCard on Settings>Storage>SD Card>Unmount and then try to access the apps or even move them to SD Card, the phone tells me that i don't have any SD Card mounted which is true. So the phone recognizes the SD Card but when the SD Card is mounted, the phone uses the USB Storage as the SD Card. This is what i think the phone is doing.
So please guys i need help.
NOTE: My phone is not rooted.
teknoplayer said:
First of all, I'm sorry if a similar thread as already been made but i didn't find a section for my phone nor a thread about this type of problem. I found two threads on different forums with the same identical problem but the answers were bad or some times there wouldn't be any answers at all.
So, I got a Samsung Galaxy W this Christmas and I loved it, it was fast and smooth, and still is, but i noticed that it didn't come with a SD Card and i wanted one because i noticed an option to move my apps to the SD Card instead of having them installed in my phone memory.
So, yesterday i bought a 16GB SD Card, and plugged it in my Galaxy W. All fine, it appeared in the Storage Settings, i formatted it and everything was going well, but then i started moving my apps to it and first of all, I noticed that when clicking the Manage Applications option inside the Applications Settings, and then when i clicked the tab On SD Card, the space available wasn't 16GB (or 14,XXGB it doesn't matter) but some MB's (0,94GB used and 788MB free) and i started wondering, Where are my 16GB?. Later on i also noticed that 0,94GB + 0,788GB = 1,07GB which is my USB Storage capacity. So, why is my phone installing apps to the USB Storage instead of the SD Card. I also installed ES File Explorer from the Market and when i opened the app it showed me the content of the /sdcard, inside this there is a bunch of folders (Android, LOST.DIR, bluetooth, usbStorage, external_SD, etc...) and i found a folder called external_SD and i clicked on it and it opened the files of my SD Card the real 16GB one and i know this because i had plug my SD Card in my MacBook with the adapter that came it with and i dragged a movie and some music and it was there, inside that external_SD folder which is inside of the /sdcard location in my phone. What i understood from this is that my phone is recognizing the USB Storage as the SD Card even though that my SD Card is recognized as the SD Card in the Storage Settings. Also when i plug my phone to my MacBook via USB, two drives show up, a NO NAME which contains the files from the /sdcard/ and another NO NAME which is my 16GB SD card. I'm really confused with this and i really need to move my apps to the SD Card to save space. Please, what do i need to do to solve this problem?
I took some screenshots to help you understand the issue:
Settings>Storage:
Settings>Applications>Manage applications>On SD card:
You can see here that instead of showing the space available on my SD Card it shows the space available on the USB Storage.
More images, an example of what it looks like when i move an application to the "SD card":
Screenshots of what it looks like when i run a file explorer app, in this case, ES File Explorer:
And what's inside this strange external_sd folder inside /sdcard/ which are the files i have in my real 16GB sdcard:
A strange fact is that, when i unmount my SDCard on Settings>Storage>SD Card>Unmount and then try to access the apps or even move them to SD Card, the phone tells me that i don't have any SD Card mounted which is true. So the phone recognizes the SD Card but when the SD Card is mounted, the phone uses the USB Storage as the SD Card. This is what i think the phone is doing.
So please guys i need help.
NOTE: My phone is not rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no problem. Your device has an internal SD card as well as the 16GB external SD card. When you move an app to the SD, they are being moved to your internal SD card. Plus, devices with internal SD cards do not allow you to use it's full space for app installation. e.g. A device says it has 16GB internal memory (the internal SD card), but you may just have 2GB for apps. When you mount your SD card to your PC, the internal SD card is the one which gets mounted (unless you use a hack to swap them).
Theonew said:
There is no problem. Your device has an internal SD card as well as the 16GB external SD card. When you move an app to the SD, they are being moved to your internal SD card. Plus, devices with internal SD cards do not allow you to use it's full space for app installation. e.g. A device says it has 16GB internal memory (the internal SD card), but you may just have 2GB for apps. When you mount your SD card to your PC, the internal SD card is the one which gets mounted (unless you use a hack to swap them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, does that mean that i can't move apps to the external_SD? Because the Internal SD of my phone only has 1,07GB .
Plus, when i connect my phone via USB to my computer, two separate drives show up, the external SD and the internal SD.
teknoplayer said:
So, does that mean that i can't move apps to the external_SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, unless it is set as the default mount point.
Theonew said:
Yes, unless it is set as the default mount point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do i do that? I only have 1.07GB of internal SD. And why does this happen with this phone? My friend has a Samsung Galaxy (don't remember the model) with a 16GB card and his apps go to his 16GB card.
teknoplayer said:
How do i do that? I only have 1.07GB of internal SD. And why does this happen with this phone? My friend has a Samsung Galaxy (don't remember the model) with a 16GB card and his apps go to his 16GB card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need some hack, etc. (don't know any for your device). Maybe your friend's device does not have an internal SD card.
Theonew said:
You'll need some hack, etc. (don't know any for your device). Maybe your friend's device does not have an internal SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that sucks. How can Samsung make a cellphone with only 1.70GB of space and without the capability of moving the apps to an external SD? It doesn't make sense.
teknoplayer said:
Wow, that sucks. How can Samsung make a cellphone with only 1.70GB of space and without the capability of moving the apps to an external SD? It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty good if you think about it. Some devices have <150MB of space and even with an external SD card (and the ability to move apps to it), the internal memory would still run out due to the small space of the app which remains on the internal memory.
Theonew said:
That's pretty good if you think about it. Some devices have <150MB of space and even with an external SD card (and the ability to move apps to it), the internal memory would still run out due to the small space of the app which remains on the internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but i'll have to be deleting apps each time i reach the 1.70GB.
teknoplayer said:
Yeah, but i'll have to be deleting apps each time i reach the 1.70GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could see if this could help: https://market.android.com/details?...=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwOSwiY29tLmJ1YWsuTGluazJTRCJd.
Theonew said:
That's pretty good if you think about it. Some devices have <150MB of space and even with an external SD card (and the ability to move apps to it), the internal memory would still run out due to the small space of the app which remains on the internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but i'll have to be deleting apps each time i reach the 1.70GB.
I feel like returning the phone. This shouldn't happen. Having an external SD and not being capable to use it.
teknoplayer said:
Yeah, but i'll have to be deleting apps each time i reach the 1.70GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You already said that .
hey i also have this phone, i'm having the same problem
Modern combat 3 automatically download data files on my external (external_sd/android/data). but all other apps/games doesn't do this thing. Even I try 'move to sd' but data files remains to internal sdcard..example is the GTA3. wondering what's with this phone
Same problem
Yeah, same i have the same phone Samsung Galaxy wonder and I bought 32gb micro SD card $75.00...really sucks finding out that the external memory card doesn't work. Whats the use of having specs showing phone is capable to have up to 32gb external memory when it doesn't even work
thanks for the info
i'm going insane trying to figure it out
because it said full when i installed new apps
but when i see from setting it still has 14 GB
still, i have to move my data manually
I just bought a new SGSII and I'm finding the storage mounts a bit strange. I'm seeing that there is a "usb storage" on the phone as well as the external SD storage. However, it is not allowing me to "Move to SD Card" for the phone's storage and requiring me to use my (slower) external SD card. I've tried to use the ADB "pm setInstallLocation" command to force it internal, but that doesn't seem to work either. Is there any way to use the USB storage on the phone for "app 2 sd"?
Thanks,
Craig
Did you read the FAQ?
I did (before I rooted), but even reviewing again now I'm not seeing anything relative to this. What am I missing?
That there's no benefit to moving apps to the external SD with this phone's file system and amount of built-in storage. Save the ext_SD for your data, movie and music files.
I didn't see that. However, I'm confused by this. I was not being allowed to reinstall some of the apps I had installed on my Captivate since I was out of space. Move to SD cleared up space so that I could finish restoring my apps.
I wonder if something is not set up quite right on my device?
Which app are you trying to move?
Everything should be installed on your phone automatically unless you change it to your card. Unless a Rom you are using has it set differently, I think ShoStock has an option to do that automatically.
I don't think I was entirely clear in my question. My device has:
1) Internal Phone Storage
2) Internal "USB" Phone Storage
3) External SD Card Storage
By default, applications are installed to #1 which is a smaller partition and bound to fill up. If I chose "Move to SD Card", it automatically goes to #3 and yet I want to put it on #2 and I'm not allowed to do that. If I pull out my external SD card, those applications will disappear. I'd like to be able to have "Move to SD Card" use #2 instead of #3, as that storage is not removable and will also (theoretically) be faster.
This is how it worked on my Captivate (both stock and Cyanogenmod), so I'm very confused about what is going on with this and I'd really like to change things up to work as I'd like.
Thanks for insights,
Craig
The Captivate uses a different file system and mounting system than the SGSII. You would be better off to redownload the apps from the Market, then restore just the data for those apps. I had major problem with restoring my Captivate TiBU backup to my SGSII until I did this. Your problem is that the apps that were installed to the SD card on the Cappy do not have the same corresponding place on the SGSII. Trust me, reinstalling from the Market and then restoring the data is the best bet.
That is exactly what I did. However, it still does not change the fact that I'm not allowed to use internal SD storage when I move applications.
Considering that the internal USB storage is not an actual SD card, the App to SD function is working properly. The SGSII considers that to be extended system storage, not an actual SD card.
What is extended system storage supposed to be used for? This is new to me.
User generated data like photos, music, videos, downloads. Just not apps.
OK. Thanks. I guess I'm not thrilled with the way this is being done now, but it sounds like I don't have much of a choice on top of stock ROM.
How many other phones give you 32gb of internal storage separate from RAM and the option to add another 32gb externally? Be happy.
Sorry... Didn't mean to sound completely unhappy... Just forces me to re-think my use of storage... To some extent it may actually *reverse* my previous use of storage.
No worries. I came to Android from years with WinMo devices. This is my 2nd Android phone and it always takes a little while to adjust.
This is my second Android phone as well.... along with multiple ROMs on the last phone. Which is why I'm always amazed at the number of different ways these things get partitioned.
I went into root explorer.
I went into /mnt/
And I noticed there's two options....
/Extsdcard and /sdcard
Seems like all my downloads, music, and everything is getting saved to /sdcard
What does this mean?
P.s. I have a 64gb micro sdcard card.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
your extsdcard is your external one in your phone you can remove. i would recomend saving most your files like your music and such to that. sdcard is your internal memory of your phone. you have less space there and should save it for more important things. hope that helped
It means everything is being saved to your Internal Storage. I haven't quite figured out how to default everything to the ExtSdcard yet. I know the camera can. The phone will read everything from the ExtSdcard fine though, such as music and other files.
The ext sd card can be used for the camera/video, CWM backups, music files you copy from your computer, and you can move most any files there that you download.
The internal sd card will be used for all of your apps, there's no way to 'move to sd card', you just have the full 16/32gb internal sd for all of it. Since you will always be forced to use the internal sd card for all app needs, I just try to keep everything on my ext sd card I can (my cwm backups are 1.7gb!). Not that it really matters for me though, I downloaded every app I ever use and a few games and only hit 1.2gb used on my internal sd card.
You can also go to th advanced tab within the stock browser and select memory card for default storage. I am guessing that is ext SD as the other option is "Phone".
Thanks for the information!
This was quite confusing at first. Time to start moving files
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permanent fix for this?
My issue is that everything defaults to the /sdcard (internal partition - i'm calling it that for ease of terminology) and some apps just don't give you another option of where to save the media to (or don't let you browse over to the right thing). as it stands, the phone seems to be mounting that internal /sdcard partition as if it were external media, ie in android's default location for external media. thus, apps are looking ofr the REAL SD card and think they've found it but they haven't.
the reason this is a problem for me is 1. i have to change this in every app that allows me to, and 2. CWM sends backups to the internal one automatically and i can't change it and have to manually move the backup images to my external.
the reason i'm going into all of this is i'd like to find a way to entirely get rid of the /sdcard folder representing the internal memory and have the external card take its place. I'd like the rest of my 29ish GB of internal storage to be part of the system partition - where apps go, etc. it's not that i want to use that space, it's that i want to "move to SD" to the right SD. i just don't want the apps and system to treat ANY internal space as if it were external or mounted or anything of the sort.
my last phone, Atrix 2, had like 2-4gb internal. I'm just suggesting stretching that amount all the way to 32gbs and using the SD card as an SD card.
the question, basically, is whether there is any way to make this happen? i came across a thread (google "sd card mount point modification" as i can't post external links yet) elsewhere that discusses doing this with a VTAB and was wondering if this is something that is addressing my (our?) issue, whether it's a recommended solution, and whether it would work on the S3. i'm fine following technical instructions but I have very limited knowledge of the way addressing etc. works on Android and this filesystem. any help (or a redirect to a thread where this is more appropriate to ask) would be greatly appreciated.
Does this issue persist with custom roms? Is it an Ics bug that won't let you install apps to extsdcard or a Samsung intentional crap? I know one other android phones I had I could save apps to sd card no issues.
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sabre31 said:
Does this issue persist with custom roms? Is it an Ics bug that won't let you install apps to extsdcard or a Samsung intentional crap? I know one other android phones I had I could save apps to sd card no issues.
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haven't tried any, waiting for something where key things like camera, LTE, etc all work. It's not that I can't install to extSD, it's that the default is "sdcard" (ie the internal space allocated). it's really a function of the way the system/phone allocates that extra internal space - rather than calling it "internal storage/system storage", they are calling it the "primary sd card" and the actual sd card is being called "2nd sd card". it's this treatment of the spaces by the system that i'm unhappy about, i guess.
that's a good point though, and i am hoping that a custom ROM will do this differently. will update when i find one i like
EDIT: gonna do the Task & Ktoonsez AKOP Rom this weekend, should know how the spaces are treated. again, will update.
Hi all!
I have recently brought an 16GB External SD card for my SGSII, to store my Titanium Backups. I found the external_sd folder in the internal sd card, and thought that it was the External SD card, so i placed all my backups there. But just recently it seems like i have run out of space on the phone, so i can't update some of my apps. I started deleting a lot of photos and videos from my phone and cleared 2.5GB, but i still can't update some of my apps. I began looking through my folders, and noticed that i also have an External SD card partition on my phone. The same one i see when the phone is connected to the pc. In it i can see a Clockwork Recovery folder containing my ROM backups. So i began wondering if the external_sd folder is actually located on the phone and not in the External SD card. Can anyone confirm this?
Also, when i open the Storage (i think that's what it's called) section in the settings on CM10, and noticed that i have 2 Internal Storage sections, one of them has only App data, and the other has photos, apps, music etc. and a SD Card section, with 6.64GB storage left. Does anyone know why is there is 2 Internal Storage sections?
Thank you in advance!
/gammarik
As far as I know the "external_sd" is your removable external SD card. For some inexplicable reason it mounts as a sub-directory from the internal SD card, but it is definitely your removable external SD card.
I have a feeling that Jellybean brings a change and the external SD card mounts in a different way to ICS. I had only a brief experience of this when I played with the leaked ROM but I have reverted to ICS because of battery drain problems.
Your internal memory is partitioned with about 500MB for the system ROM, and 2GB reserved for app installations. Once this fills to around 85-90% you'll begin hitting problems with insufficient storage space errors. If you move apps to SD then this will make use of the data partition of your internal memory (about 12GB available to user on a 16GB device).
I'm running JB (Rootbox 3.2). I set the target path as /extSdCard/Titanium Backup in Preferences for it to work.
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Mr Anderson said:
As far as I know the "external_sd" is your removable external SD card. For some inexplicable reason it mounts as a sub-directory from the internal SD card, but it is definitely your removable external SD card.
I have a feeling that Jellybean brings a change and the external SD card mounts in a different way to ICS. I had only a brief experience of this when I played with the leaked ROM but I have reverted to ICS because of battery drain problems.
Your internal memory is partitioned with about 500MB for the system ROM, and 2GB reserved for app installations. Once this fills to around 85-90% you'll begin hitting problems with insufficient storage space errors. If you move apps to SD then this will make use of the data partition of your internal memory (about 12GB available to user on a 16GB device).
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So i should move my apps from the App reserved partition to the main storage partition? Or the external SD card? And how do i do that? Sorry for noob questions, i am not too much into how Android works
I don't think you can move apps to external SD card.
Go to settings -> applications and you'll see your apps listed with information about their size. Select one, and you should see a button "Move to SD card". If this is greyed out then the app doesn't support operation from the SD card, but for many you can press the button and it will move the app for you.
The interface in settings isn't the best - I use ZDBox which is a free utility tool available from the Play Store with several useful functions, including an improved "App to SD" UI which makes it easier to see what is going on.
Be careful with widget apps and others that interact with OS functionality as these often don't play happy if moved to SD card.
in your internal memory there is a folder call externel_sd ok leave it coz you still in your internal memory and go search your external sd card memory it named extSdCard or emmc
Also, when i open the Storage (i think that's what it's called) section in the settings on CM10, and noticed that i have 2 Internal Storage sections, one of them has only App data, and the other has photos, apps, music etc. and a SD Card section, with 6.64GB storage left. Does anyone know why is there is 2 Internal Storage sections?
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1st internal is /data, 2nd internal is /storage/sdcard0 (your internal 11GB memory).