[Q] Possible to restrict apps from accessing InternalStorage / SDcard? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Is it possible in cm10 Nightlies or in general for that matter to somehow restrict specific apps from accessing the contents of the sdcard / internal storage (yes even reading)?
Or as another approach have them restricted to only their own folder on SD / internal storage?
Especially the Facebook app, I dont want it to have access to my pictures, dumped contactlists and other stuff I might be storing on sd.
To me the facebook app is just for mitigation of bad network connection otherwise I would use the mobile site instead.
I already use Pdroid 2.0 and droidwall. That gives quite an amount of control. But SDcard is still open to everything.
Is there such a thing? What would be the effort to make such a thing?

Related

[Q] Default storage location for "application data"

Hi all,
Should it be possible to change the default storage location for data that programs save ?
For example: i use subsonic to get to my music from my server, but it saves the cached music files to the internal memory.
But i would like to change the location where it is saved, so i my internal memory stays free to save some movies on it.
Also Whatsapp, Torque and all other apps save their data (or backups) to the internal memory.My memory card has been in my phone for about a week and android hasn't done anything with it ...
I haven't found any options in the android preferences nor in the app's.
I also did a quick search on google, but i didn't find anything related, so i now ask the experts, i hope you can help me!
Thanks in advance!
BTW:I have my SGSII for more than a week and it is awsome, i use Lightnin rom and i like it...
Anybody ???
sven93 said:
Anybody ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the exact location that those apps save data and is in unique?
Really a dev should should have options in the app, but I assume your talking about the app saving onto /sdcard instead of /sdcard/external_sd ?
Kind of a pain but if that is the case, then the problem is you have a guaranteed sdcard that holds a non-guaranteed sdcard. So most devs will opt for the former.
Having said that it maybe possible if the location is unique, to create a symlink to the external_sd if you really really wanted.

[Q] How do you handle your Atrix' storage?

Hey guys,
i think compared to my previous mobilephones the storage management of the atrix 4g is pretty confusing or i just didnt understand its behaviour.
how are you managing your files? i tried to safe all my music to my 16gb sd card, so i have had the internal storage left for all my apps and everything i needed additionally. but since some of those hd games (or other apps, camera apps for example) wont let you choose wether you want to safe those bytes to your internal storage or to the external one, this wont do anymore. well, i dont know, maybe im just stupid, but ive got the feeling im doing something wrong because i never really know where the files im looking for are. :silly:
im on epinters cm10 with the oc1300 kernel. btw, is there anybody playing nfs most wanted smoothly without hwa?
thanks for paying me attention
I was keeping the same layout. All the music on the external sdcard and all the other stuff on the internal. I moved all my music to Google Music now so now I only use the insternal sdcard.
ALl the apps should point to the internal sdcard/emmc as it is the default for our phone. Although this can be switches based on each rom.There are some hacks that you can do to have more usage in your external sdcard. Like App2sd.
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
ravilov said:
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the only way to solve my problem, to keep 16gb music at just one storage instead of having to split them into two folders+playing some fancy hd games, to buy another 32gb sd card? too bad
anyway, thanks for your requests, maybe this thread can help other confused people too :good:

[Q] SD Card Backup Regime

So now that I have a phone with an internal SD card, I am particularly worried about data, or what would happen if I can no longer take it off of a device. Previously an SD card could just be removed from a dead device, but not so now.
I'm using foldersync to mirror data, but I was wondering what were the essential folders to sync. I can figure out most of them, but I'm struggling with the Android folder in root. Is there any valuable information in here or is it all temporary and so not required to be backed up?
sshaikh said:
So now that I have a phone with an internal SD card, I am particularly worried about data, or what would happen if I can no longer take it off of a device. Previously an SD card could just be removed from a dead device, but not so now.
I'm using foldersync to mirror data, but I was wondering what were the essential folders to sync. I can figure out most of them, but I'm struggling with the Android folder in root. Is there any valuable information in here or is it all temporary and so not required to be backed up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you don't care about storage space and automation and you happen to use TotalCommander for PC, it has perfect "Synchronize Dirs" feature, with in my personal experience (after many tests of different solutions) wins every time due to high customisation, ease of use and option of binary comparison
You don't need to backup the Android folder. It's mostly just full of data files for certain apps. Like Google Maps saved map data, cached music from Google Music, game data, small preferences files for some apps etc. Nothing important. Even if you delete the contents of the whole Android folder, they'll be re-created on boot or when you run those apps next. Map data, Google music etc should be downloaded again manually. It's a waste of space to back it up as it can be 2GB or more sometimes. Generally, only backup your personal data like pictures, videos, music, downloads etc. Things which you've put there yourself. Also backup any folders of backup related apps like SMSBackup&Restore, Titanium Backup and recovery folder with nandroid backups. Personal files + backup app data is all you need to backup from the SD card. Everything else is insignificant and will be recreated anyway by the respective apps.
Thanks sashank, that's what I thought. It's a pain to backup because of the size and usage.
Looking at the docs however it seems apps can put whatever data they want there, including settings. So I guess this depends on the app itself and how well it behaves itself. I guess I will have to be discerning and backup individual files in the folder depending on how important the app is to me. Which sucks.
p107r0 said:
if you don't care about storage space and automation and you happen to use TotalCommander for PC, it has perfect "Synchronize Dirs" feature, with in my personal experience (after many tests of different solutions) wins every time due to high customisation, ease of use and option of binary comparison
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I'm using Foldersync to do this automatically already. I just didn't want to spend time and energy maintaining a backup of redundant cache data!

[Q] CamScanner says SD Card is full, when its not

I have a Galaxy Note SGH-i717M on stock rooted ICS 4.0.4. I use CamScanner (version 2.1.1.20130425) a lot. I've used it so much that now it keeps popping up an error that says "SD Card is full" whenever I open it. Recently I scanned a large amount of documents in batch mode. Most of the pages got processed, but a few are left stuck with an hourglass icon overlayed on the pages. I have emailed IntSig (the company who makes CamScanner) and have not received any response, despite being a premium user. This is why I'm here asking for help.
I checked my storage and I have:
Internal Storage: 540MB/1.97GB Available
USB Storage: 0.00B/10.84GB Available
SD card: 19.42GB/29.71GB Available
So it looks like CamScanner is calling my "USB storage" an sd card. I identified the location of CamScanner files in /mnt/sdcard/CamScanner/ (this is not the sd card, despite the name). And I know that the sd card is actually on /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/
I looked through all of CamScanner's settings and there is no where you can specify where it should save files, unfortunately. I would much rather have had CamScanner store its files on my 32gb micro sd card on /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/CamScanner than occupy the very little space I have on the usable internal storage (USB Storage) on the phone
I've had to delete apps on my internal storage to try and get CamScanner to complete its batch processing (so that I can eventually make PDFs of the processed images). Now I have run out of apps to delete on my internal storage. Is there anything that can be done about this? I would like to use CamScanner without deleting more apps every time I scan things. Is there a way to force CamScanner to use my microsd?
Thanks
I use camscanner too. The problem is that the app does much more than save the scan somewhere. It needs room for manipulating the scan. But seriously....your usb memory is completely full? That can't be 100% apps. There has got to be something stored there that you could move to the external sd card. Not to mention without any free usb memory, I am not sure that the phone with all its features and misc apps will not function properly.
Agoattamer said:
I use camscanner too. The problem is that the app does much more than save the scan somewhere. It needs room for manipulating the scan. But seriously....your usb memory is completely full? That can't be 100% apps. There has got to be something stored there that you could move to the external sd card. Not to mention without any free usb memory, I am not sure that the phone with all its features and misc apps will not function properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've moved all the apps that live on internal storage to the sd card using app2sd with the exception of 3-4 apps that I need widgets for on the homescreen. Other apps that cannot be moved to the sd card, that I don't need, I have uninstalled already. The rest of the internal space is being occupied by CamScanner and its files to the tune of 5GB+. So it's mostly CamScanner that is now occupying all my internal storage space now (10.84 GB usable internal storage).
I do not want it occupying the majority of my internal storage space anymore. I don't see an end to me using CamScanner ever because it is so useful to me, so the storage occupied by CamScanner will only grow over time. Short of the developers responding to my emails about changing the location and it all working out, I have to figure out something else in the mean time. And yes, I also fear about the other apps not working properly with 0.00 B internal storage left
This is why I'm asking if its possible to move where CamScanner puts its files from, say, /mnt/sdcard/CamScanner to /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/CamScanner using whatever mechanisms possible. Is this possible? Do you know how to do it?
Why not just make a folder on the real sd card called camscanner and move the files there yourself? Once the files are scanned and converted to pdf then there is no sense that they remain in the original folder. Use a file manager on the phone or use your pc to simply move them.
Agoattamer said:
Why not just make a folder on the real sd card called camscanner and move the files there yourself? Once the files are scanned and converted to pdf then there is no sense that they remain in the original folder. Use a file manager on the phone or use your pc to simply move them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, I didnt think of that. This will do for now!
Thanks a lot!
Where does cam scanner stores backups?
If*you*use*the*application*"cam scanner"*to*back*up*your*app*data*on*your*Android*smartphone,*then*the
following*question*may*arise:
This*question*is*important*because*helium*backup*only*offers*the*following*options*to*save*a*backup:
•*Internal*device*memory
•*Cloud
Since*it*is*a*backup*app*which*is*used*mostly*before*a*factory*reset,*it*makes*little*sense*to*backup*to*the
internal*memory.*So*you*have*to*copy*the*backup*folder*from*internal*memory*manually*via*USB*cable*to*the
computer.*For*this*purpose,*it*is*important*to*know*where*the*backup*files*from*helium*backup*are*stored.
You*can*find*the*files*here,*after*the*Android*smartphone*is*connected*to*the*PC:
This PC\(Phone Name)\Internal storage\Intsig\CamScanner\databases_backup\(yyyy-mm-dd)-(hh-mm-ss in 24 hr)
EG:
This PC\(Nexus 5)\Internal storage\Intsig\CamScanner\databases_backup\(2015-09-16)-(13-17-46)
The*folder*is*not*visible*to*the*File*Explorer of*your*Android*smartphone.*Therefore,*you
should*copy*this*folder*directly*to*the*PC.*You*know*now*there*you*can*find*on*your*Android*smartphone
backups*that*you*have*created*with*"Cam Scanner".
Asterisk alley....dayummm..lol

Android apps taking up 4gb of internal sd card memory. How can I see which APPS take

the most space?
Also which apps can't I for sure move to sd card? I remember trying this with chrome and it didn't work. Any other apps or rules to keep in mind?
I don't think of Chrome as a system app but I still couldn't move it
A little cumbersome, but just going into the Application Manager in Settings will show you how much the apps take up when you click on them individually. I don't know of a separate app that does this... There are plenty to analyze your internal and external storages but not specific to app storage usage. But Chrome is typically installed from the factory so would be a system app. When you update, it places most of the data in the /data partition, but still considered a system app. Chrome and Facebook are 2 apps that take up a ton of space typically.

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