[Q][6.0] Reliable move to sdcard - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I am writing out of frustration about my experiences moving apps to an external sd card with Android in general. I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction to make things less frustrating.
Prior to Android 6.0, I used the Apps2SD: All in One Tool[ROOT] app by Vicky Bonick. Several things annoyed me:
- Apps located on the second partition of the sdcard are not available immediately after booting.
- Sometimes the second partition could not be mounted, without a meaningful error message. I have to reboot the phone several times until things magically work again.
- Moving several apps to sdcard with the batch update is unstable and crashes sometimes.
- The app produces many notifications that I don't care about (e.g. how many apps are linked or what app is being moved atm). I want the app to run in the background and never have to think about it.
- App updates cause apps to be installed on internal storage again. This also means that I can never batch updates apps in the store. I know that there is an option that should move the app back to the sdcard, but that never worked reliably for me.
- Navigating in the app takes a long time. I spent a lot of time managing my storage space.
I have tried other App2Sd apps that improved on some of these points and degraded on others. I also tried some of the apps on other phones and encountered the same nuisances.
Since Android 6, I formatted my sdcard as internal storage hoping to alleviate most of the pain points. It actually made things worse:
- The sdcard is still not available immediately after booting and all my shortcuts to moved apps disappear every time I reboot.
- Not all apps can be moved to sdcard. In fact, most of them can't. Most of my largest apps (Netflix, Amazon Video and Chrome) cannot be moved. Currently, I can move about 11 of my 40 apps. The sdcard is only utilized about 3% (1 GB out of 32) and the internal storage is full. As of yesterday, I cannot install new apps anymore .
- No functionality to batch move apps.
- Some moved apps are not visible in Titanium Backup.
Yesterday I tried to force move some of the apps to sdcard that would rather stay on the internal sdcard. This page told me that the preferred installation location is located in the manifest of the apk and needs to be set to
Code:
android:installLocation="preferExternal"
. I decompiled one of the apks with apktool, changed the manifest and recompiled it. When I tried to move the recompiled app my phone soft rebooted.
I am generally puzzled why this topic is so complicated and such a hazzle. I don't even understand why there are apps that have to be on internal storage. The link above mentions that services, alarm services and widgets become unavailable when the phone is connected via USB. Didn't Android 4.0 (?) change the USB protocol to MTP which main benefit, I thought, is the parallel access by computer and phone.

Did I leave out some information? Is this question too complicated? Should I post the question somewhere else?

Related

[Q] Apps moved on SD card disappear

Hi,
in the last times I've a problem on my HTC LEgend (non-rooted): i start to install apps and move those on external storage with A2SD.
All works normally, but if shutdwon the phone and restart, all the apps installed on SD are loose!!
All the links on the screen and in the menus are loose, and if I go in application manager, under applications, those installed on SD are listed but if I click on info, from this screen is impossible to remove the app.
Another strange think : from the memory manager, in settings, it's impossible to unmount external SD. They take a lot of time and I must terminate the process.
Last strange think : if I open the SD on PC there's all the contents.
Any suggestions?
P.S. : I've done an hard reset of the phone, and reinstalled all the apps that usually use (30-35 apps), but in this operation I don't formatted the SD.
Fast Boot option may be the culprit
In case anyone checks this old thread...
CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////
Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.
I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.
I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.
//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.
Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).
The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).
I will report back here on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1873670
(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (although this thread appears to be the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins) :angel:

Installed apps disappear

Hi, i'm having a problem with my installed apps. Some apps disappear from my app drawer, and in menu installed apps this apps have a system logo and system name, they are still installed but do not work.
I guess it might have something to do when I disconnect phone from PC USB, apparently internal storage is not mounted back correctly and corrupts apps, some time after the apps go back to original working state, and some others break. Did this happen to anyone? Does anyone have a clue about what's happening?
Many thanks in advance.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
this happens to me sometimes but after i reboot my phone, everything shows up but ya it does happen time to time
Are you moving apps to the sd card? I've experienced similar problems when doing so....so I just stopped moving apps to the sd card.
con_ritmo said:
Are you moving apps to the sd card? I've experienced similar problems when doing so....so I just stopped moving apps to the sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same problem and used the same fix
Had the same problem once, restarting phone or launcher fixes the issue...
This problem is also for Galaxy S2.
I think that the problem born because you have 2 sd on the phone.
This problemi in my Atrix is very annoying.
In Titanium Backup, go into Batch>Move/Integrate and make sure that all user apps are on the Internal memory. Chances are your "disappearing" apps are on the external sd.
So if there is any number other than 0 next to "Move user apps to internal memory," run that batch operation, reboot and you shouldn't have the issue. My XDA app installs to external by default, which is stupid, and I have to redo this process for that app after every titanium restore.
Try going to the android market on a laptop or desktop. If you are loved in it will say if it is compatable with your device.
This problem happens often with ADW launcher for me. For some reason the launcher doesn't update its app list instantly and restarting the launcher is needed. I haven't researched the problem though.
It used to happen on my old phone (dell steak) it was not mounting and un mounting properly, even downloads were disapearing no matter what rom. Or computer I tried it still didn't work and it turned out that my SD card was f#$ked
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
disappearing apps
I noticed this on my Atrix when running Titanium backup. Rebooting the phone will restore the missing apps. If there are a lot of apps missing it may take 2 reboots, but they will come back along with their icons.
I just had to restart the launcher, then all is back.
I had similar problems in the past. My solution = Don't restore apps + data from titanium backup. This also caused 'rogue' apps that prevented my phone from sleeping. Would have to charge my phone at least twice a day. Completely wiped my phone and went back to Wet Dream and haven't used Titanium Backup since. Both issues were fixed.
I had this same problem once I started using jokersax's CM9 alphas. It turned out that, for whatever reason, a few apps were being installed to the SD card. Rebooting the phone or connecting to my PC (basically any time the SD card was mounted/unmounted) would break those apps.
So I can confirm that if the app has disappeared from the app tray, but you can still find it in Manage APPs (with a system icon and probably it's pacakge name (like "com.appname.something")) then your best bet is to uninstall the app, reinstall it, and double check from Manage APPs that it's installed to the phone (bottom right button will say "Move to SD card" rather than "Move to phone").
[tl;dr - apps don't like being on SD card, install to phone]
I've been having this problem for a long time now. Searched the web everywhere, xda, lot's of forums. I have not found a solution to this yet, because i have come the conclusion that it's an internal android problem. This happens to everyone that has many apps on their phone, but they don't realise that it's happening until they look for an app they know that is installed but can't find it.
This happened to me with:
Android:
* stock 2.2
* stock 2.3
* blur mod roms
* cyanogenmod
Launchers:
* Launcher pro
* ADW
* SPB Shell
* Go Laucher
* Blur Launcher
Root:
* When rooted
* When not rooted
It seems that the problem is that the internal drive, when mounting does not take the enough time to mount all of the installed apps, that's why if you plug you phone to the USB, after it get's unmounted and mounted back, the status of your apps change (people who had this problem, know what i'm talking about).
The only solution I found so far is with Cyanogenmod, becuase it's the only rom i tried that has the possibility to unmount the internal drive (as you can always do with the external SD card).
If you have this problem that you check the installed apps in the configuration, and you see that some correctly installed apps have the system icon and not the correct one, the unmount the internal drive and mount back, you will see all apps appearing correctly.
horsage said:
It seems that the problem is that the internal drive, when mounting does not take the enough time to mount all of the installed apps, that's why if you plug you phone to the USB, after it get's unmounted and mounted back, the status of your apps change (people who had this problem, know what i'm talking about).
The only solution I found so far is with Cyanogenmod, becuase it's the only rom i tried that has the possibility to unmount the internal drive (as you can always do with the external SD card).
If you have this problem that you check the installed apps in the configuration, and you see that some correctly installed apps have the system icon and not the correct one, the unmount the internal drive and mount back, you will see all apps appearing correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice!!!
Greetings.
Fast Boot option may be the culprit
This is actually a long-standing problem in Android OS, going back at least two years (donkey's years in this technology!)
Something about the interaction of the OS and an sdcard formated for holding apps creates odd behaviours.
Lots of complicated suggestions have been made, including reformatting sdcard, reinstalling ROMs, changing launchers (the one suggested here) and such.
None of these approaches seems really to solve the problem even in most cases.
Mentioned here is internal phone storage -- I NEVER use it for anything related to apps or downloads (from what I can tell it can be much less reliable than an sdcard and much less portable or capable of being backed up in a timely way). I only use phone memory & sdcard, yet I have the same disappearing app problem everyone else has here. Avoiding apps on sdcard is not an option for me -- my phone memory is too limited for that (and again, I don't trust internal phone storage).
Also, worries about Titanium Backup mentioned here. But other backup apps and ROMS that move apps to sdcard appear to have the same problem. I have had no problems myself with Titanium Backup Pro, but I have experienced disappearing apps after mounting sdcard as a disk when USB cabled to a PC. Others have reported the same. I would bet the problem lies with the mounting process, not backups or ROMs
So ... What seems to be working for me (at least for the last week or so) is the following very simple tweak.
CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////
Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.
I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.
I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.
//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.
Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).
The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).
I will report anything further on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1873670
(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (especially now that the chosen thread no longer is the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins) :angel:
kirkers said:
:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not posted it here but before I forgot. I have found an app that has solved this issue at least the 95% of the time. Also if an app disappears, reboot, when comes back, move to internal and back to sd with this app, always. This app moves apps differently from other app2sd's apps.
It's called link2sd.
Can be found in Google play store and XDA forum.
A great life saver, for an unsolvable problem. Not the super solution, but the best I found so far.
Regards
Enviado desde mi MB860 usando Tapatalk 2

♚ Media storage issue ♚

I'm running AOKP JB Build 5, and Dagr8's Kernel.
The rom is awesome, but something is wrong with my Media Storage, ever since I ran this rom.
I am suddenly experiencing duplicates of music files, and pictures, all stored on my SD card.
I clear data on Media Storage and reboot. I then have to wait an extremely long time before my SD card finally reads, then back to normal...
But then this re-occurs!
I can't figure out why or how to permanently fix it..
Help?
Sent from my Fish Tank ₪
I have seen users with this issue, when I had double [or ghost/double files] for my pic's [no music I use pandy] it was from restore quickpic from tibu, so I just reinstalled from the Market fresh quickpic app, it fixed that, but I have to from time to time backup my storage and just do a complete format, then put my files back on, I did upgrade to a better quality ext SD and did a fresh format of that and copied my files back on, no issues since then...
A side note, I had these issues going from ICS to Jbean, but since I did the above no issues on this, just my experience.
While I can't confirm this, I do suspect that the issue is caused by duplicate media storage events occurring within the rom.
This can be accomplished a number of ways, but I also suspect that it's an APK compatibility issue.
And depending on the roms used, will manifest itself when more than 1 app stores data, while the second APK will duplicate the data save function.
Check the rom carefully for more than 1 app performing the same function, such as a camera app or music app.
These APK's often have an auto save/restore feature, but save the files under a different file name and basically duplicate the save in 2 places.
Also, apps that auto backup will often save duplicate copies in different locations, by mistake, as they are not always compatible with every build.
Again, it's really a trial and error situation, as so many variables exist, and many apps share duplicated function without registration of a force close event.
I hope in some small way this may help you find the rogue apps.....g

[Q] Moving Humble Mobile Bundle apps to SD - Failure

I have a sprint Evo 3D, rooted with the SmoothCriminal rom.
The miniscule internal memory drove me crazy, it got to the point where after the ICS update I coudlen't update a SINGLE app because the internal memory always had under 10 megs free, no matter how much I deleted it would eat it up again, so I rooted it, and started re-installing everything.
I even set up a 4GB (Wish I could make it bigger) EXT4 partition to use with Link2SD.
For those that haven't heard of the Humble Indie Bundles, they allow you to purchase a set of apps (usually on Steam, but sometimes they do Android bundles) as a set for a price you decide, with a percentage going to charity.
Anyway, for Android, since these don't use the Google Play store, they are side-loaded from their own app (though they also let you just download the APK directly).
Now, the problem is that none of the games from this bundle seem to install to the SD card. I know that not all apps can be moved there, but if the "Move to SD" option is enabled instead of greyed out, that means they can, right? Also, many of these are large games, some of them 400MB, I am surprised it even defaults to internal instead of SD and would be shocked if they are the kind of apps that cannot be installed to SD considering their size.
Anyway, while Link2SD has no problem linking them to the 4ext partition on the SD card, I am unable to move these to "external" either by the built-in app manager, or the Link2SD app (apps installed using other methods, wheather they are linked or really on internal memory, don't seem to have this issue, such as Apps installed through Google Play whether they were linked to the 4ext partition or installed to the real internal memory). With the App manager it just says "Coulden't move app" (what a helpful error message) while trying from Link2SD gives me the error "INSTALL_FAILED_CONTAINER_ERROR".
Thanks to these massive apps forcing themselves on internal, the 4GB 4ext partition is actually full!
Any ideas what I can do? This is making me pull my hair out.

[Q] Best way to move app data to SD Card

Has anyone got any recommendations on the best way to move my app data to SD Card on the Z2? For example the 1-2GB of data that many larger games download to internal storage, I'd like to put that onto the SD Card. I know there'll be a performance hit, but I want to be able to play around with it and at least give it a try to see how the performance is anyway.
I'm currently running the .402 firmware and am rooted without unlocking the bootloader.
I've tried FolderMount but the UI is rather sparse/counter-intuitive and the three apps I tried with on the free version seemed to either break entirely, or just re-downloaded their data back to internal storage.
I've checked out the ROM Toolbox, but the options to move to SD card are greyed out on every game I check, as is the convert to user app option (as I assume games downloaded from the Play Store are already set as User apps).
Folder mount should work fine, the problem is if you haven't set it to auto mount after boot, or you open the app before mounting is complete it won't find the data and thus redownloads it. Working fine with Co-pilot for me.
I did have it set to Auto-Mount after boot and was waiting for the progress bar to finish saying it had moved the data before trying to open the apps.
I think one of the main things I didn't like about the app was also the interface. It seemed impossible to actually undo anything once it was done, in the free version at least. Does the full version have a more fleshed out interface?
No, only difference is the limit on number of pairs is removed, long click on the pair should allow you to amend details of pairing. Yes UI is spare but it does work.

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