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This is my first tablet and I'm new to Android (always had Windows Mobile phones) so maybe this is common knowledge to Android users but I sure as hell can't find the answer via searching.
I finally bought a microSD card for my Prime but can't figure out how to use it efficiently. I can access it an copy files and folders to it via the File Manager so I know it works. However, I can't figure out how to make the camera save pictures and videos to it by default. After looking at that for a while I looked at my other apps and none of my programs seem to have an option to make use of the microSD card. Took me a while to figure out I can't even install programs to the SD card like I can with my Windows Mobile phone. I can deal with that last part though with 32 gigs on the internal card but if the only way to use the microSD card is to manually copy files over to it where those files are then inaccessible for all the apps so I have to manually copy them back over every time I need to use them, that's not acceptable.
What am I missing here? I can't believe this was intentionally designed this way. Is there some global setting that I'm missing to open things up?
I think most use the external card for music & vids and such that they carry over TO the tablet. I also noticed you cannot set apps to save there and I have an app that monitors apps when they install. & if they are SD compatible it alerts you.... it never works in this setup. No doubt you could - if rooted - move apps to SD card as I do this on my Droid all the time.
As for camera & vids no way to set SD as default.
Unless there been a change since honeycomb saving and running apps to sd is not native. Most people state that due to all the space the device comes with you don't need it since apk are so small. But I had 4 games take up 4.5 gb of space on my device so that rational does not float.
If you ever root your device there is app called gl to sd
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1328053
worked great on honycomb (waiting till i get home to use new root so have not tried on ICS yet) I moved all my games to SD and they ran fine .. games like shadow Gun GTA III DeadSpace Backstab 9mm.
Just my two cents if there is way for using the sd card natively in ICS I also wold love to know.
On my measly 512mb OG Droid I have 110 apps on the SD card. Ahhhh thank God root.
For this 32gb beast I decided to forgo SD card apps as it does slow the app down (has to r/w from slower card) and Widgets can bust.
It is lame though that we cannot set cameras & vids to auto save but again you'd get a performance hit to a small degree.
The situation was worse before Honeycomb, in Gingerbread you could have a 16GB phone but the way it was partitioned only 1GB to 2GB was considered "internal memory" for app installation space/data while the rest was partitioned into a virtual "sdcard" folder that you needed things like App2SD to move over to that parition space (and not even fully, portions of app/data/cache would stay in the internal memory space). With HoneyComb/ICS the full 32GB or 64GB storage space is visible and useable between the internal/sdcard mounts. I got the 64GB Prime so I wouldn't have to worry about app install space any more since I like to load hundreds of apps/games. I also have a 64GB microSDHC card which I use to store a bunch of videos/music.
Thanks for the reply guys. Surprised that Android is built to limit itself like that. Really though, 32 gigs is a lot of space for the apps themselves. If it was just a matter of having to install the apps on the internal card, I wouldn't even bother cause I know with my use I'd never approach the limit if that was the only limitation.
However, not being able to save data used by the apps to external SD card is an issue as I see it. Will probably get around to rooting my Prime just so I can move some of the apps to the external SD card so they'll, hopefully, save and use the data there to keep my internal card free. I have a few aviation chart based apps that will be taking up quite a bit of space. I don't think it will max it out on their own but I like having plenty of extra space.
Not being able to save the video and pics from the camera directly to the external card is a bit ridiculous though. Perhaps a developer can fix that? In the mean time, I've thought of a work around that, while not perfect, will work for me I think in regards to keeping the camera videos and pics from clogging up my internal drive. I've installed an app called SyncMe that syncs via wifi network to my computer. I'll set it automatically to move all the camera data from my internal card to my computer and then I'll have another event that syncs the files on my computer to my tablet external SD card. The effect will be a daily transfer of all my camera activity to my external SD card while also making them available on my computer until I have time to sort through them.
Yea, once you play around with it a bit you'll find what works best for you. Some apps wont install on the external sd card and a lot of apps behave better when install on internal memory. Apps to SD is great for some but not all apps. Now separating the data from the apps that are internal to the external ? I'm not sure how well that will work.
Oh wait. I just re-read what you wrote. Yes - you can save the data to the external sd card and you will want to. There are lots of apps that do that, our Primes came with a backup app that will allow you to select apps to backup and/or apps with data. Sometimes you only want to restore apps and not data.
Your work around for storing pictures and video to external sd sounds like it will work well. 32gb is a lot of space. It's also really easy to use the File Manager to copy them over. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm guessing a lot of us here, especially if we rooted our phones, have grown accustom to setting schedules for apps to backup or data and for me - that includes things like pictures. Some of these backups will sync to a cloud so the data/pictures are safe and wont get lost. With 32gb I'm not concerned about space.
I wasn't really concerned about space that much until I recorded some video of my son's basketball game. Just over 6 min and the video was well over 800mb.
I could see that adding up real quick if I didn't stay on top of it and I know I won't without some 'auto' help. Got concerned that I might clog up my internal card with personal stuff that would inhibit my work stuff, which is what this is was for in the first place.
Haven't looked at the backup utility yet but every other app I've tried, I can't see a selectable option for getting choosing where to save and access data. Well, except for the SyncMe and File Manager I already mentioned. Oh, and I noticed that the gallery can see the photos and videos I moved to the external card so that's good.
Well, I found another reason to not like the microSD card option but this time, it's directly related to the Prime rather than a generic Android problem.
Took my prime out for work. First full day with hotel stay since buying the microSD card. By the time I get back to the hotel to settle in for the night, I notice the microSD card is missing. WTH!!!
Now, there wasn't anything on it that I don't have on the computer at home BUT, that card wasn't cheap. If it comes out of that slot so easy as to be gone after my first full day away from home with the Prime, I can't trust it at all.
First question, is there an easily accecible log file that would show when the card was unmounted? If so, that might narrow down where to look for it. Might actually be able to find it if I know when it came out.
Second question, does anyone know if the SD card slot on the dock is more secure? I would really like more space but I'm not paying for another microSD card.
To answer one of your questions, the dock SD card is much more secure, it does not stick out of the dock at all unlike the Micro SD in the tablet
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
I would definitely recommend you have at least a sleeve for your Prime. That will help with the microSD not popping out, too. I have been carrying mine with me for weeks and haven't had mine pop out at all. No, I'm not aware of a way to find out when it was unmounted.
And yes - the dock has a SD card reader, so it's bigger and it will insert flush as opposed to sticking out a little due to the beveled design of the sides of the Prime. And with the usb port......well it's limitless really - maybe not to carry for every outing, but at home it's so easy to contect to the external hard drive and transfer movies and pictures that way. I really like the dock. Also, the prices of microSD cards have come waaaaay down. Sandisk, class 6, 16gb, $20.
"Haven't looked at the backup utility yet but every other app I've tried, I can't see a selectable option for getting choosing where to save and access data. Well, except for the SyncMe and File Manager I already mentioned. Oh, and I noticed that the gallery can see the photos and videos I moved to the external card so that's good."
The built in app backup does save your data to either or both places. This is data from your apps. Not things like downloads or pictures. It saves your apps too but you don't really have to do that since as soon as you sign into the market your apps are there. I have 2 other 3rd party apps that do the same thing with more features (schedules, bookmarks, etc)
Yep - the gallery and video player are going to find the pictures and videos/movies that you put on the removable sd card. The built in media player lets you tell it where to look for movies/videos. There really is plenty of room in the 32gb for most of your needs. Unless you root and start storing multiple weekly nandroid backups, you'll likely only need to manage your files when you "want to" - i.e. when you want to transfer pictures and videos on and off the Prime and/or when you back the Prime up. I have a 16gb $20 sandisk class 6 microsd that I've loaded up with 10 movies, but now I only have 4 gb left. I have over 80 3rd party apps installed to internal, that combined with the apps that came with it amount to only about 5gb, (plus misc pictures, videos, several hundred books, etc) and I still have 22 gb left. So I'm moving more movies to internal. I didn't get a 32gb tablet to leave a bunch of dead air
I have a TON of pictures and videos in my gallery. TONS. Thousands. But I've been using an android phone for several years so I'm synced with Google and the Cloud. Every picture I take with my phone or tablet is stored in the Cloud, private, available only to me unless I choose to make it public. I can access them anywhere from any computer within seconds of taking them. So they don't take up any space at all on any of my devices. Neither does my music anymore
Yeah, the 32 gigs is good for my needs. Not for my wants. I justified buying this thing to carry aeronautical chart which takes up several gigabits of space. Quite a bit of space but not so much that it overwhelms the internal card. However, when using it for secondary tasks like an HD video recorder, that space get chewed up fast. MicroSD was my plan for stuff like that. Will have to rethink that now.
Was planning on getting a sleeve or a case once I had the tab and keyboard and could figure out exaclty what I wanted for it (just got the keyboard) but that card got lost way too easy. Not buying another one even with the sleeve/case.
Well, the card showed up. Well, more accurately, it was sitting in a convenient place for me to stumble across it this morning.
Lucky for me for now.
I'm really confused after reading through a post. The poster stated that there was only around 1.75mb available for app storage. Is this phone really handicapped down to under 2 gigs for app storage? If so, that's sad. It'll be returned before I even open the box. Two large size games and you're out of storage.
kiltedthrower said:
I'm really confused after reading through a post. The poster stated that there was only around 1.75mb available for app storage. Is this phone really handicapped down to under 2 gigs for app storage? If so, that's sad. It'll be returned before I even open the box. Two large size games and you're out of storage.
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I answered you other post. It really does have a ton of storage! That is GB not MB All the preinstalled stuff proabably took it from around 2 GB down to the 1.75GB that someone mentioned. Hell you can put a 64GB micro SD card into it and download as many games as you want!
I haven't gotten a chance to play with it much yet, but if it's the same thing as my Skyrocket, it'll be around 2gb for system storage, and 11.25gb for internal storage. Apps will be stored in system storage, while app data will be stored in internal storage. Even large game executables will be a max of what...50mb?
planoman said:
I answered you other post. It really does have a ton of storage! That is GB not MB All the preinstalled stuff proabably took it from around 2 GB down to the 1.75GB that someone mentioned. Hell you can put a 64GB micro SD card into it and download as many games as you want!
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I think this is what is getting me. I have an LG thrill right now. I have a 32 gig SD card and I can't move actual games to the external SD card (the one taht you buy at the store taht you store pics and videos on).
But on the Thrill I have 6 gigs to move apps to.
tenderchkn said:
I haven't gotten a chance to play with it much yet, but if it's the same thing as my Skyrocket, it'll be around 2gb for system storage, and 11.25gb for internal storage. Apps will be stored in system storage, while app data will be stored in internal storage. Even large game executables will be a max of what...50mb?
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Well, most yes. But I have some Gameloft games that take from anywhere from a half a gig to a full gig.
I think you have about 11gb free for songs, music, etc.
droidal said:
I think you have about 11gb free for songs, music, etc.
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That's much better. That I can deal with.
"One of the plagues of using Google’s Android platform was the inability to install Android apps and games to the SD Card versus internal memory storage; with the official announcement of Android 2.2 this feature will come standard. By default, apps will continue to be installed on internal memory storage, however a quick visit to the list of applications in the Settings menu offers one touch to move the app to SD Card. Thus they are playable just fine from the SD Card. Now user storage for apps and games will only be limited to the storage of the SD Card purchased."
droidal said:
"One of the plagues of using Google’s Android platform was the inability to install Android apps and games to the SD Card versus internal memory storage; with the official announcement of Android 2.2 this feature will come standard. By default, apps will continue to be installed on internal memory storage, however a quick visit to the list of applications in the Settings menu offers one touch to move the app to SD Card. Thus they are playable just fine from the SD Card. Now user storage for apps and games will only be limited to the storage of the SD Card purchased."
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Not true of all devices running 2.2 or above. My Thrill won't move any apps to the external SD card. I bought a 32 gig just for this purpose...to have plenty of space. The move was limited to the devices app storage (around 6 gigs).
Login to the box app from an android device any you'll automatically get upgraded to 50 GB of free storage!
This has been available for the iDevices as well.
One caveat to keep in mind, the app to do automatic syncing between desktop and Box, Box Sync, is only available to Box Business and Enterprise customers. Is not available for free accounts, even the 50G ones
Means you either have to use the web interface to access files on Box, or find a third party app that will do the desktop integration. I have used an app called Transmit on the mac to sync to do that.
I prefer dropbox I have to admit and have a paid account there. Having an extra 50GB is a nice place for dumping stuff I don't need cluttering up other places tho
Andym
don't forget you can't upload files bigger than 200mb I believe it's pretty much 50 useless gb. can only stream music so I guess if you use it for that. or to waste their bandwidth to host your <200mb files. I think you get 10gb a month
Sent from my sensation 4G
I got the account just because, hey, 50gb storage. Gonna backup my music collection there, just so I don't lose it again (lost/corrupted huge amounts of music in recent months). Easier than carrying around an extra hdd.
The upload limit is 100mbs not 200mbs which just isnt high enough plus the no desktop synching app makes this useless for me so yeah I will be sticking with dropbox even tho I only have 2gbs but the 2gb is all I really need since I just use it for apps for my nook tablet for sideloading apps that do not appear in the market.
do you mean dropbox? i still have 2G after login on nt?
Different program.
Sent from my BNTV250 using Tapatalk
On th G4 (with Marshmallow) I had the option to move apps like BBC iPlayer to External storage via a dropdown (specific to each app in Settings, Apps). This was great as it meant I could finally download programmes without clogging up the internal storage.
Where is this option on the G5? It would be rubbish if the G4 offered an option that the G5 didn't, and I will honestly return this device if I can't do it, since I download a lot for offline viewing and don't want to be messing about encrypting my card with ADB commands - it was all just so simple on the G4!
Can someone please tell me I'm just being daft and missing the setting?
Thanks in advance.
I am having the same issue, 32GB is not enough for modern games. I purchased a 128gb MicroSD card thinking it would work, but no such luck it worked on Samsung devices in the past.
+1
The wife has a S7 Edge and I have a G5, she can move apps to the SD card and I can't, WTF LG ?
Well, I guess the only way would be to turn your SD card into adoptable storage (through ADB), but it won't resolve all the problems. Like moving Spotify and all its downloaded content to the SD card, you would have to relog everytime the app is closed (manually or automatically).
32 GB is just not enough nowadays with the system eating more and more storage with each update. We have great cameras, but those photos aren't less heavy anytime soon. Apps (games and regular apps) are much more bigger that a few years ago (Facebook has even now several apps to use it to its full content...), but storage seems to really stagnate.
To me, the G5 is so much a drawback from last year V10 (now available in western Europe) : no native DAC and a shrinking storage from 64 to 32 GB.
Sent from my MI PAD using Tapatalk
One big issue nobody talks about or is completely unaware about is that everytime you download or store any media like movies, not only does the original space of the movie gets occupied, the media storage app in the phone magically increases the exact same amount of storage usage. You could verify it yourself by going into storage and select the view system apps option. So for example if you download a 2 gb movie, instead of going from 62-60gb storage space, it goes from 62-58gb storage space. This is very big issue which is also faced by many OnePlus devices. You cannot force stop the media storage app or delete any data or cache in it. The only temporary solutions which worked for some is deleting the recycle bin data, clearing unwanted data using files app and maybe resetting your device but the fact that this issue exists is a huge problem and is still unresolved for many users. I hope someone might be able to solve this issue or could at least help make realme aware about this issue.
Google has already solved it with Pixel 5. But Chinese manufacturers seem, kind of, lost in translation
Jokes apart, I have this same problem with OP 9RT and am really tired of deleting my videos, photos again and again..... Android 12 didn't solve it and after Oxygen OS 12 I have little hope that Android 13 will be any better.
jitd said:
Google has already solved it with Pixel 5. But Chinese manufacturers seem, kind of, lost in translation
Jokes apart, I have this same problem with OP 9RT and am really tired of deleting my videos, photos again and again..... Android 12 didn't solve it and after Oxygen OS 12 I have little hope that Android 13 will be any better.
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I think I might have been wrong, after further inspection the Google files app showed the proper storage. I think it may be a problem of the storage app showing wrong storage for some reason instead of actually losing storage. I don't remember correctly if the issue was on the storage options in setting or Google files itself.
Yellowflash070 said:
I think I might have been wrong, after further inspection the Google files app showed the proper storage. I think it may be a problem of the storage app showing wrong storage for some reason instead of actually losing storage. I don't remember correctly if the issue was on the storage options in setting or Google files itself.
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Are you sure?
Asking as I also used many Storage apps, like SD Maid etc. and some of them actually did not show the space taken by Media Storage app! As per them the storage was fine and free there.....
But then I found out that when the Media Storage size went over 50-52Gb, I couldn't install a huge game, like Genshin in my phone any more as Play Store showed the message that I have to uninstall some apps to make space!!!
So apparently, at least in my 9RT, the Play Store/System is considering the space shown in Media Storage as real!
This is the present situation in my phone, after many resets ....
Out of this 40Gb apps, the Media Storage is taking 30Gb....
Which, by now, I'm sure is consisting of that 25Gb videos and other app data
All I can hope for now is by some miracle, OP fix it or that Google brings the Pixel 7 to India...... as at least they listen to the Bug reports and do solve them even if it takes some time. OP 9 Pro has this problem since launch, and by now, in almost 1 year One Plus couldn't solve it....so I really have very little hope from them now.
jitd said:
Are you sure?
Asking as I also used many Storage apps, like SD Maid etc. and some of them actually did not show the space taken by Media Storage app! As per them the storage was fine and free there.....
But then I found out that when the Media Storage size went over 50-52Gb, I couldn't install a huge game, like Genshin in my phone any more as Play Store showed the message that I have to uninstall some apps to make space!!!
So apparently, at least in my 9RT, the Play Store/System is considering the space shown in Media Storage as real!
This is the present situation in my phone, after many resets ....
View attachment 5650339
Out of this 40Gb apps, the Media Storage is taking 30Gb....
View attachment 5650341
Which, by now, I'm sure is consisting of that 25Gb videos and other app data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jitd said:
Are you sure?
Asking as I also used many Storage apps, like SD Maid etc. and some of them actually did not show the space taken by Media Storage app! As per them the storage was fine and free there.....
But then I found out that when the Media Storage size went over 50-52Gb, I couldn't install a huge game, like Genshin in my phone any more as Play Store showed the message that I have to uninstall some apps to make space!!!
So apparently, at least in my 9RT, the Play Store/System is considering the space shown in Media Storage as real!
This is the present situation in my phone, after many resets ....
View attachment 5650339
Out of this 40Gb apps, the Media Storage is taking 30Gb....
View attachment 5650341
Which, by now, I'm sure is consisting of that 25Gb videos and other app data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How much storage do you have left? Cause I just looked into and remembered that you don't have to worry too much about the media storage app taking your space cause I don't think it actually affects your space even though it shows in your settings.
My phone has a total internal space of 256gb(my phone doesn't have a sd slot also) and as you can see, I've only used 204gb of my space but adding all the storage shown below(especially the video and app storage) I've almost used 300gb space which is almost impossible.
Another example is my Google files app which literally shows I've used 297gb even though my phone literally has a 256gb internal storage. So I think it's safe to assume that the media storage app doesn't actually cause much issue and you don't have to worry about it too much.
Interesting!
My Google Files is showing I have 66GB free (out of 128GB). But Downloads(4.1)+Videos (25) + Docs (4.7) + Apps (40) is totaling to 73.8GB. That comes to a total of 74+66 = 140GB!!!!
Now, taking that (as per Files) I have 66GB free, I have used up 62GB already. That may be as - Videos(25)+Downloads(4.1)+Docs (4.7)+ about 28GB of System, may be? I don't have any idea how much space Android 11/12 takes now a days....
Tomorrow I will fill my phone with some more videos to take the Media Storage app size to around 60GB at least (need some 35GB of movie files, which fortunately I have This should make the device think that I have used up all of my 128GB (incl. system) space. And then I will again try to install Genshin/WOT Blitz/Grid , any one game of about 3-4-5GB and see what the system says......
As it's past 12:30 at night in my end, I'm switching off for today now....Will report tomorrow about the storage experiment! Take care, bye!
jitd said:
Interesting!
My Google Files is showing I have 66GB free (out of 128GB). But Downloads(4.1)+Videos (25) + Docs (4.7) + Apps (40) is totaling to 73.8GB. That comes to a total of 74+66 = 140GB!!!!
Now, taking that (as per Files) I have 66GB free, I have used up 62GB already. That may be as - Videos(25)+Downloads(4.1)+Docs (4.7)+ about 28GB of System, may be? I don't have any idea how much space Android 11/12 takes now a days....
Tomorrow I will fill my phone with some more videos to take the Media Storage app size to around 60GB at least (need some 35GB of movie files, which fortunately I have This should make the device think that I have used up all of my 128GB (incl. system) space. And then I will again try to install Genshin/WOT Blitz/Grid , any one game of about 3-4-5GB and see what the system says......
As it's past 12:30 at night in my end, I'm switching off for today now....Will report tomorrow about the storage experiment! Take care, bye!
Click to expand...
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Have a good day
Yellowflash070 said:
Have a good day
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Hi!!!
Became so busy I couldn't come to this thread.....
As per my last post, I filled up my phone towards up to 60GB and yup, my total storage went well over 128GB as per Files app And yeah, Play Store didn't let me install a small game of about 10MB as it showed the message of no space available.
Lost the screenshots, as I hard reset the phone again on the advice of some OnePlus customer care service provider. No result, it's still the same......
jitd said:
Hi!!!
Became so busy I couldn't come to this thread.....
As per my last post, I filled up my phone towards up to 60GB and yup, my total storage went well over 128GB as per Files app And yeah, Play Store didn't let me install a small game of about 10MB as it showed the message of no space available.
Lost the screenshots, as I hard reset the phone again on the advice of some OnePlus customer care service provider. No result, it's still the same......
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Click to collapse
So i guess apart from installing new apps after the fake storage filled situation, i guess we won't be having much problems.
Yellowflash070 said:
So i guess apart from installing new apps after the fake storage filled situation, i guess we won't be having much problems.
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Click to collapse
Well, lol, looks like that....
The short time I had with my Phone being over 128GB in size, it performed normal tasks well, no lag. But, can we record Videos/photos in that situation? As I just hard reset my phone, it will take some time to get filled up again. So I suppose, this time you'll have to test if we can record videos when our phones get well over their storage limits , provided you have the time off course
Did you by chance try using a third party app store or apk files for installing apps when the storage was "overfull"?
vizdrom97 said:
Did you by chance try using a third party app store or apk files for installing apps when the storage was "overfull"?
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Never used any Third Party App Store. It was pure Android 12 issue which OnePlus developers didn't have the time to fix. It is solved now in Android 13.