How to copy files to sd card from recovery? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello guys,
I am having problems with my phone, so i am seeking an advice. Do you know any method of how to move files from internal storage to sd card while you are in recovery, or, even better, by using computer, through terminal or something like that? If not of how to move them then at least of how to delete them (only specific files)?
I know that you can factory reset phone what will delete all of your files, but i want to copy (or remove) only a few specific files.
[additional details]
If you want to know more, here is why i need to do it. So, i have Huawei y7 prime, and it has become strange. Ever since i got it, whenever the amount of free space in internal storage dropped below 100 MB, phone popped out low memory warning. But the problem is that it is not possible to dismiss this warning. It is drawn on top of other apps, it offers one and only one option (to perform memory cleaning) and it does not want to go away unless you acctually allow it to perform automatic memory cleaning. The problem is that this very violent warning is repeated every 60 seconds as long as the amount of free memory is below 100 MB. So, in case if this automatic memory cleaning does not clean enough memory to free at least 100 MB, phone will enter infinite loop. It will show low memory warning, then 60 seconds later show another one and so on. And since this message is not dismissible, you actually have to play along and actually start memory cleaning every 60 seconds.
But the real reason why is this a problem is that memory cleaning is so resource intensive operation that all apps often start freezing and not responding while memory cleaning is in progress. But since, if memory cleaning does not recover at least 100 MB of space, phone forces you to perform another memory cleaning, in such case, you have 60 seconds to complete the memory cleaning and switch to another app to manually delete or remove files before another warning pops out and forces you to perform another memory cleaning. Often, after memory cleaning is complete, you have only a few seconds of useful time to try to open another app and delete or copy files. That is not enough, and in case of infinite loop, your phone becomes practicly useless. You have to connect it to a computer and delete or move files through a computer to get rid of this infinite loop.
This all is really bad, but it is solveable. The real problem is that apps become unresponsive while scan is in progress, and in case of infinite loop, they often do not become responsive for a long time. In that case, they start failing and getting closed. Including system ones! So in case of the infinite loop, apps start getting closed one by one and it is only matter of time before some critical system app is closed what forces device to reboot. This behaviour was present ever since i had my first low memory incident on that device after i got it. Surprisingly, after reboot, first memory cleaning usually does recover more than 100 MB of space and infinite loop is broken.
There is another special case of low memory situation, and that is the case when there is no free memory at all, that is, where there is 0 b of free memory left. In such case, the same cleaning loop happens which eventually results with device reboot if i am not able to move or delete files through computer in time to prevent this. But, case when there is exactly 0 b of free memory is special because in that case, when device reboot happens, it sometimes does not manage to boot on the first try and has to reboot twice.
At least that was the case until a few days ago. Things got drasticly worse in the last few days. 0 b low memory incidents started to cause boot loops, the worst kind, infinite ones. Two low memory incidents ago, when incident happened, phone attempted to reboot 4 times before exiting the boot loop. On the previous low memory incident, it took about 16 boots to break out of the boot loop. Now, i am facing another 0 b low memory incident involving a boot loop spanning at least 64 boots and i have no reason to believe that this boot loop is going to end any time soon. Those boot loops only happen when there is 0 b low memory incident. When there is some other low memory incident involving a reboot but with more than 0 b of memory free, the boot loop does not happen. Device reboots only once after what on the first memory cleaning it is able to recover more than 100 MB of free space after what the devices continues functioning normally.
My guess is that Android has to write something durring boot what it cans not in case if there is 0 b of free memory what causes a boot to fail and triggers reboot what causes the bootloop. Although until a few days ago the device was able to boot with 0 b of free memory without problem. So this is strange.
0 b low memory incidents are very common on my phone since i have apps installed which download some live streams automatically in the background, and those streams can take up to 8 gb of free space per stream. So, if live stream happens when i am not around my phone, this app for downloading live streams can easily eat all phones internal memory and create 0 b low memory incident. And, untill few days ago the phone was able to recover from those incidents, almost on a daily basis.
However, now those boot loops started and i am now neither able to recover from 0 b low memory incident by moving or deleting files via phone nor via computer. Since phone does not want to boot as long as there is no free memory in internal storage, both options no longer work.
So this is why i came here, to Android experts. Now, i need a way to copy or delete files from the device while device is not booted. I know the exact paths to files to be moved to sd card, and there is only a few of them, so it can be done one by one by hand.
So, i can not boot the device, but i can turn it off, put it in recovery mode or put it in download mode. Whatever of those 3 is reqired. So, i do have the recovery, but it only offers to do factory reset, to format internal storage, to clean cache and to refresh Android without loosing data by downloading the latest firmware and installing it. The key word here is downloading, what is absolutely useless in case when the reason why phone needs to be recovered is 0 b low memory incident. So, this will not work. I can do factory reset, sure, but i would rather not to have to reinstall everything and set up phone all over again. Unfortunately, recovery does not offer any file manager.
So this is what i am seeking. Some file manager that can be run from recovery, that will enable me to move files to my sd card. Or, the preffered option, some computer program or console (terminal) utility that will act as file manager, that can operate on a device while it is in the download mode, recovery mode or while it is powered off.
Do you know of any such program and what do i need to do to move files to my sd card?
Thank you for any help.

Technically, Android Recovery Mode refers to a special bootable partition, which contains a recovery application - Android Recovery Mode menu - installed in it. A phone's Stock Android Recovery never offers you the option to deal with Android OS's filesystem because when being in Recovery Mode it's not mounted at all - but some Custom Android Recoveries may do.

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All my apps are already moved to sd. I can no longer install any new app. I've to remove an app everytime this happens.
What should I do?
Sounds like you either have a faulty sd card or you need to reflash your ROM and start over from scratch

[Q] System crash on my iBall andi 4.5h (4.0.4)

Phone hangs while booting up at logo screen, after the animation
Service centre guys say that software needs to be reloaded or reinstalled(I don’t remember what), but it will wipe off my 1.5gb of data on internal memory.
I am able to access recovery mode normally, phone display during charging is like normal, the problem starts after (trying to) switch it on.
I wasn’t trying to root it or anything, the phone was simply switched off for about a week or so. There is a small chance that some apps were open when I shut it down. Other reasons I can think of for the phone to behave in such an abnormal manner-
1 I think I had a virus on the phone. Avast antivirus would behave quite weirdly, and it would interrupt music playback. (I downloaded it from 1mobile store, not playstore)
2 I had very low internal memory-I had over 150 apps of various sizes installed, and I often would get “low internal memory” warnings. My sd card was also almost full.
I don’t mind rooting it as long as gives me my data, and preferably a method to un-root if it isn’t too tough.
Could I use “Apply update from sd card” to use my external sd card to root my phone after downloading software on it?
Could I use some kind of programme through a Usb cable from a computer?
Do you think I should do a factory reset, then use a factory reset data recovery software? Will it increase the chances of my phone getting bricked ?
(Are you aware of)any other way of accessing data from a phone switched off?
Thanks !

Help for Post Kitkat update problems

Writing this to help others. After a whole day of agony and frustration, throwing phone on the floor, etc. I have found and resolved the issue.
Symptoms were:
- programs like youtube, gallery, internet, Settings and others, not responding and freezing phone.
- stuck on network preparing,
- phone freezing after screenshut off
- really slow wifi and mobile data
- phone hanging trying to reboot or shutdown
- phone # codes didn't work
- sdcard not mounting, no access, and stuck on preparing sdcard
- no text messages, showing up hours later
- not being able to update prl or profile
- recovery not loading or if it did load, clearing cache and factory reset did nothing
- many odin flashes whether it were NAB or NC5...same problems
I happened to in desperation pull the sdcard out while the phone was on and noticed that if phone was frozen it freed up. inserting it again made apps freeze and stuck on preparing sdcard. THE UPDATE CORRUPTED THE SDCARD and it being in the phone is what is causing the problem.
I did a fresh odin flash and didn't put sdcard in and phone is normal and no issues. put card back in...issues returned, removed and almost went in trash.
Now i ended up putting the "corrupted sdcard" into another phone and it would not recognize it either. Last ditch effort before throwing sdcard out, i put it in computer and windows was able to see the contents. Relieved...i was able to copy all files to pc. Then for giggles i did a quick format of the same filesystem. stuck the blank sdcard back in the note 3 and low and behold it prepared sdcard quickly and it was mounted with correct free space. I then copied all files i had backed up to the pc onto the sdcard and ALL IS WELL.
I couldnt find no where on the internet that this was the exact problem. Was a terrible experience and posting this to help those that are in same boat. Got luckly, would have never guessed it was all caused by sdcard being in the phone.

Something happened with my microSD card and I dont know what.

I have a samnsung S5 Plus with Lineage built nightly, the phone restarts quite often, (it could be a problem with the touch, or heating ?). That is why I don't keep the back cover on so I can remove the battery when it gets in that crazy loop and I did that often. (I'm using this phone only at home, so the battery doesnt really fall unexpectedly)
This time I was browsing the internet and tried to post an ad with captha, the phone got quite hot, and I turned it off. Its possible that I removed the battery before it went completely off, and that could be an issue if Android was writing something to disk. But I'm using the card as external storage (no apps installed on it) and I dont understand if the system was writing anything to disk exactly at that moment. Or if there could be any other problem?
When I turned my phone on the microSD card (1 year old, barely used) is not recognized ("the disk inserted was not readable by this computer), both my phone and my macbook ask to format or initialize it.
I don't know what data I lost, and dont know if any data could be recovered, but I'd like to know what you think.
You could recover it but it would be very hard to. I think the SD card is corrupted
I tried data recovery software but no file found, I dont know if I should insist to try other software.
I don't remember if I had important files, there were 15GB, but a lot of backups and install files.
Now I trie dto see if I can format the card but thats no longer an option
"Unable to write to the last block of the device"
I even tried to use some tricks to write zeros first and then to format but that does not work.
Its the first memory that I ever break. And it was new. I dont know if its my fault or its manufacturer's fault...

Can't save new files even though I have free space.

I own a Nokia 6, never rooted, 8.1.0 with the latest security patch installed (1 August 2018).
I have 32 GB internal shared storage and 64 GB microSD card installed. Be it a good or bad idea, I have formatted the card as internal storage, and migrated data to it using options available in Android settings, no third party shenanigans.
When I look at apps' details, those that have the option to choose storage signify that they are on sdcard.
Now, to the problem: I approached about half of used space on the sdcard, that's a bit over 32 GB, and I'm closing in on about half on the internal shared storage, that's about 13.4 GB used at the moment.
However, even though it would look like I have lots of unused space left, the phone started to act as if I don't have any. But... Not always. Let me elaborate.
I can't make a picture or record video, all I get is: "there was a problem with saving your photo or video."
I can't download files using a browser. It instantly fails.
I can't install apps from Google Play Store like "Google" and many others, however, I can install some other apps, seemingly at random (but if it fails, of keeps failing).
I can - because I just did - download security patches from settings/system updates....
From the above I speculate without any specific Android knowledge that:
- the internal shared storage isn't a single partition spanning the whole of built-in memory but rather is partitioned into multiple... Well, parts, therefore:
- there's probably a /system, /data and /user partition (forgive the layman guesswork on the names). There's probably also a /swap like in *nix? Then again, I guess not because that would probably slowly kill internal storage flash memory...
Anyway, from the above I gather that the simplistic reporting on how much internal storage I used doesn't let me know that I might have ran out of space on one of those discrete partitions.
That might explain why some apps I can install (they can be installed in external storage, so they do) and some I can't (they need to be on internal storage for whatever reason).
I have tried looking at the app info to maybe move apps to SD card but any and all I check either don't have the option or they already are on SD.
I tried deleting files and removing apps with various results:
- some files I just can't remove, even though they don't appear to be in use (still, maybe they have handles open, I don't know how to check for that apart of forcing suspected apps close)
- some apps (HERE Maps) left a considerable amount of junk in Android/data after themselves, and none of my file managers seem to be able to delete these files.
- some files and apps deleted just fine and the used space indicator did reflect that, however...
I still can't save a photo or video, or download a file, and apps still either install or not, just like before.
That got me thinking that there may be a problem with file/directory permissions for some bizarre reason.
I'm stumped. I'm on the go, visiting Milan tomorrow and I won't be able to take a single photo. Not that Nokia 6 has a great camera, but it's there and I can't use it when I need it.
Halp?
A little bump
So, am I truly sentenced to factory reset?
Hidden Android dialer codes don't work at all... I think I'm out of options here.
Update: So I did end up doing the factory reset. Afterward, my phone started to work fine, with the exception of the microSD card that always showed up in the notification area as needing of attention. I tried formatting it as portable, and it would supposedly work if you went by the final "success" message, but it wouldn't change anything, and it would still not show up in file manager. The notification about it needing to be set up would still be there, no matter how many times I tried.
So I took the card out and connected it to a PC - tried formatting it, deleting and recreating all partitions, wiping it out, all supposedly would work in partition managers, but after the things were all done, it wouldn't reflect on the actual card.
Seems like it was dying already.... Fortunately, I had a 32GB card to spare, got it into the phone. Worked on the first try.
So that's all folks, my 64GB microSD card died on me, and that's the reason of all the anguish above. Now you know.

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