Using MicroSD card Storage - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a Moto G6 with Android 9. My phone only has 32GB of internal storage which is basically full which is affecting the operation of the phone. I have installed a 128GB microSD of which only 14 GB is used, and have moved over the apps allowed to the card (will only let me move select apps). What else can I move the microSD to open storage on the internal memory and allow the phone to function better. Internal storage is so full many apps will not work and tell me I must update them to use but I do not have enough internal memory to update them. Help me take advantage of the ample available storage on my microSD! Thank you.

Use the SD card for critical data not apps.
All apps should be on internal memory only except for their backup files.
You may have outgrown your phone. Reduce the number of apps or files on the internal memory.

There's a limit to what you can do on a stock device.
How are you at unlocking the bootloader and flashing replacement firmware?
When you download and install apps on an Android device, they are installed in a specific slice of the internal file system. The size of that slice is is set by the device vendor in the Android image they place on the device. The size of tht slice is the amount of space you have to install apps, period. It is not user modifiable. If you run out of space your choices are normally "remove some less used apps to make room for new ones" or "Buy a new device with greater app storage and migrate everything to it."
What you probably have to do iis flash replacement firmware. This requires you to be able to unlock the boot loader, and that there be replacement firmware that does what you want. Make a complete backup of your phone before doing this sort of fiddling, so that you can reset the phone to factory defaults andr estore your backup to have a working phone if something goes wrong. (XDA Developers has lots of "please help" threads form folks who bricked their devices trying to do this sort of fiddling. Have a fallback plan.)
There should be threads here on the Moto G6 and what your options might be.
>Dennis

Related

[Q] LG Optimus Logic (LGL35G) : Repartitioning Internal Storage

This device is plagued with a miserably small storage space to store applications on; 160MB system storage and 1GB internal memory. Although I've been moving the compatible apps to the "SD card" a.k.a. internal storage, that 160MB goes insanely fast. I've used link2sd and it helps but doesn't exactly fix the problem, and I would like a permanent fix.
My question to everyone here is how would I go about resizing the partitions safely? I know it has been done for Kindle Fire so it IS possible, but every device is different and I really don't want to brick this phone quite yet.
I am hoping that it is possible to remove the internal storage partition and extend the system partition by that 1GB just so I know for a fact that I'll never worry about app storage again; if not that at least shrink the internal storage and add 500MB to the system partition.
This phone is currently rooted and equipped with clockwork mod recovery, superuser, and busybox. The stock rom has also been backed up via CWM recovery.
Hope to hear from you guys soon!
[Edit] Also I realize this is a cheap phone, but it most definitely does what I need it to other than the lack of useable app storage.
Not to be that guy, but I'm bumping. This thread hasn't had a view in about 12 hours.
Any thoughts, or suggestions? Just want to tell me I'm crazy and shouldn't do it? lol

[Q] [CM 10.1] Link2SD and internal SD

Hi there, noob speaking... (at least in terms of Android)
Let's start with the fact that I bought rooted phone with Cyanogenmod alredy installed which is my 1st Android device. That way I omitted few steps of learning how to root, how to flash it, etc. not to mention that I'm not a Linux guy, so even the way system handles folders and files is new for me. As the problem is more phone-related than system-related I'm posting it here, on XDA.
I'm trying to learn how to partition an "internal SD card" to make it work with Link2SD. I've found lots of tutorials how to do this with an external memory card, but there is not much info about doing the same with internal storage. I've found a tutorial for a diffrent phone, but I'm worried that droid devices seem to be very diffrent and simply retyping everything without understanding what I'm actually doing may cause more harm than good.
My biggest objection is the fact that I'm alredy using my internal SD and beside various media files (photos, music, etc.) there are lots of system, or app related stuff there. There are folders like .android_secure which as I guess store app-related files (or even parts of apps that I moved to SD with build-in feature). If this was Windows, I'd simply back up everything, format it, partition into "general storage" and "app memory" and put backed up files back directly onto new partition only worrying to keep correct letters assigned to new partitions. I'm preety sure that doing same in Android (by copying everything to PC and back to phone) would not work because all those permisions, or am I wrong?
Anyway - Any advice how to do this?
Additional question is related to accessing whole phone memory via PC connected by USB. I know that Android phones are made with security in mind and "system" partition is hidden when connecting USB, but there should be some other way than browsing everything from some phone apps with root permissions. I'd really like to browse my phone both for educational reasons and to check what really takes up space on my "system storage". I'm suspecting that some app went crazy eating lots of space, because once every time I uninstalled something my storage after few minutes was again at 20mb level and it continiued for some time.
BTW: Is there any reason why having about 200mb empty space for apps is not enough to install or update some small applications, while other install even when just 100mb is left?
Tl;dr:
-How to partition internal SD to make it work with link2sd while there are some system/app files on internal SD alredy?
-How to browse "system memory" from PC via USB?
-Why some apps don't install when there is still 200mb+ free space?

[Q] Move App to SD - Completed all steps with no results

I'm not by any meaning a technology, software, programming expert, please forgive my beginner language.
I have the LG P769 20h
I have rooted my phone
I have partitioned my SD card
I have installed Link2SD and App2SD
I receive an error message when I try to move apps to my SD card using Link2SD "App2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage. You can link the app in order to move its files to your SD card"
I have successfully "linked" apps to my SD card but that hasn't created any additional storage space. I still can't download apps due to insufficient storage.
Please help!! I'm reaching the end of my sanity in trying to figure this out! I'm about to just go buy a new phone, but this one isn't even a year old yet!
Also, please respond in layman's terms, since i'm not a guru in this arena.
THANK YOU!!!
ZanyAL711 said:
I'm not by any meaning a technology, software, programming expert, please forgive my beginner language.
I have the LG P769 20h
I have rooted my phone
I have partitioned my SD card
I have installed Link2SD and App2SD
I receive an error message when I try to move apps to my SD card using Link2SD "App2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage. You can link the app in order to move its files to your SD card"
I have successfully "linked" apps to my SD card but that hasn't created any additional storage space. I still can't download apps due to insufficient storage.
Please help!! I'm reaching the end of my sanity in trying to figure this out! I'm about to just go buy a new phone, but this one isn't even a year old yet!
Also, please respond in layman's terms, since i'm not a guru in this arena.
THANK YOU!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi ZanyAL711
You've pretty much done the proper steps to try and get apps to work. The reason that it's not working is that the phone, android version (not supported after 4.0+), most of the downloaded user apps and device system apps, just really doesn't support this feature.
The L9 has only 4gb total memory, which most of that is used by the "/system" partition and leaves a very limited user usable internal memory on the "/data" partition of something only like 1.6gb to 1.8gb of user stirage. Which barely leaves any room for the user to store user apps and or data on the device.
To kind of break it down to you in simple terms...
As i mention above, in android there are 2 main partitions on the devices internal memory:
The "/system" partition - This is where the OS, system apps, etc... are stored. No user data is stored on this partition.
The "/data" partition - This is where all of the user data is stored on the device.
Inside the "/data"partition you have -
"/data/apps"
"/data/data"
"/data/apps" Is where Downloaded user apps are stored and intalled to.
"/data/data" This is where the user "System settings", things that you have changed on the device (ringtones, wallpaper etc) are stored.
Also there are a several other minor partitions on the device but these really have no use to the topic at hand.
Both of these main partitions "/system" and "/data" are on the internal nand flash memory or eMMC (Embedded MultiMedia Card)
The whole data partition is used for user apps and system data only. Which leaves no where for music, movies, photos, documents etc. to be stored on the device.
This is where the external SD card comes into play and allows you to store music, movies, docs etc. off of the devices internal memory. The problem here is that, eben though the L9 has an external/removable SD card, it also has a small internal nand flash memory and it doesn't allow for much user data to be stored in the device and is causing the problem that you have, which is really the phone's lack of internal memory.
So there's not very many more options for you to try other than maybe the following.
You could try the method where you edit the build prop and run a script that allows you to add the feature to move apps to the SD card in "settings/apps/" menu
This can allow you to move some apps to the SD card. Again thought it's not a solution to the problem, but might help.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2372172
Another option and probably the best one... Would be to install kuma82's stock modified ROM/backup. It's not custom ROM... It's slightly modified stock ROM and has extra apps, features and it's themed. Looks great too, way better than the complete stock ROM look. It also has an internal/external memory swapt script. You can read about it in the 2nd post of the ROM thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2468880
It's a simple process, doesn't require the bootloader to be unlocked and kuma has directions for what you need and how to install it, in the 2nd post.
I personally have kuma's ROM running on my wife's L9 and no way would I go back to 100% stock ROM after running his.
Anyway hope this helps!

[Q] Vonino Onyx QS 7 root

Hi guys, so I've got this tablet for free with my new contract and I want to root it to play a bit with it . Do you guys have any idea how to do it ? I haven't managed to find any tutorials on the web .
Vonino Onyx QS root request
+1 on this issue.
I too have a Vonino Onyx QS tablet running on Android 4.4.2. The device is decent enough, but storage management is awful! Despite being advertised as an 8 GB tablet in terms of storage, the Onyx QS runs aground at about 900 MB of installed apps (including related data and cache) and starts yelling that there is "Insufficient storage available". This renders the tablet virtually unusable after installing just a few essential apps. Emails stop working, apps will no longer update and data-intensive apps such as Google Earth will simply refuse to run. The 32 GB external SD card I've added makes no difference. It's almost like the OS has no clue what to do with it.
I suck at Android. However, after a lot of digging for pieces of information I've come to undersand that these devices use separate partitions for the apps and other files. Some folks have also hinted towards the fact that the puny 0.9 GB app partition can be resized on a rooted device by means of a partition management app. Or apps could at least be moved to the SD card right before their installation (making use of an app such as Link2SD and, again, a rooted device).
This bring us full circle back to the OP's request: could someone please create and explain a rooting method for this tablet?
Just so you know, these are fresh screenshots of this fresh factory reset configuration. Thought it would fix the problem, but it didn't.
SilentGTX said:
Hi guys, so I've got this tablet for free with my new contract and I want to root it to play a bit with it . Do you guys have any idea how to do it ? I haven't managed to find any tutorials on the web .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Muravey said:
+1 on this issue.
I too have a Vonino Onyx QS tablet running on Android 4.4.2. The device is decent enough, but storage management is awful! Despite being advertised as an 8 GB tablet in terms of storage, the Onyx QS runs aground at about 900 MB of installed apps (including related data and cache) and starts yelling that there is "Insufficient storage available". This renders the tablet virtually unusable after installing just a few essential apps. Emails stop working, apps will no longer update and data-intensive apps such as Google Earth will simply refuse to run. The 32 GB external SD card I've added makes no difference. It's almost like the OS has no clue what to do with it.
I suck at Android. However, after a lot of digging for pieces of information I've come to undersand that these devices use separate partitions for the apps and other files. Some folks have also hinted towards the fact that the puny 0.9 GB app partition can be resized on a rooted device by means of a partition management app. Or apps could at least be moved to the SD card right before their installation (making use of an app such as Link2SD and, again, a rooted device).
This bring us full circle back to the OP's request: could someone please create and explain a rooting method for this tablet?
Just so you know, these are fresh screenshots of this fresh factory reset configuration. Thought it would fix the problem, but it didn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try with Kingo ROOT. You do it at you'r own risk.
Successful rooting of Vonino Onyx QS tablet
Paget96 said:
try with Kingo ROOT. You do it at you'r own risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Paget96! Thank you so much for the solution!
I'm writing this to let you, the OP and everybody else know that Kingo Root did it! I have succesfully rooted the tablet and the process itself was quick and merely a matter of installing the software on my PC, connecting the tablet via USB and clicking my way through.
Afterwards I installed Link2SD Plus to manage the transfer of apps from internal storage to the external SD card (32 GB in my case). The app is dirt cheap and truly what you need, because the free version does not allow you to move app data, only the app itself and its libraries. As I've come to know, data and cache build-up is what ends up killing storage space.
Before installing Link2SD however, one must prepare the SD card by means of a partitioning program. Highly recommend you do this via card reader on an actual PC. Use MiniTool Partition Wizard, it seems to be very popular these days. Delete whatever's already on the card and make two PRIMARY partitions: the first one will be FAT32 and will store the media you consume (like music, photos, videos etc.), while the second partition has to be ext4 (ext2 did not work for me on this tablet) and will hold the apps and their data. You can go ahead and name them "Media" and "Apps" respectively to avoid confusion. Remember: both must be primary partitions, the first one is FAT32 for media, the second is ext4 for apps. I made my app partition 10 GB big. Overkill, you say? Hey, I'm done with insufficient storage space errors, ok? :silly:
While you're at it, you might want to add a third partition for swap space to add more RAM to your device. There are tutorials for it on the web.
Once you're done formatting the card, reinstall it in the tablet, open up Link2SD and choose ext4 at the script mounting prompt. From there on, moving apps from internal to SD card space should be intuitive.
Prior to all this fiddling I suggest you perform a factory reset on your device so you can start clean. Can't tell you anythihg about custom ROMs or stuff like that because I didn't have a need for them. This thing works fine apart from that silly storage limitation.
Phew! I can finally enjoy using my tablet... :fingers-crossed:
Muravey said:
Hi, Paget96! Thank you so much for the solution!
I'm writing this to let you, the OP and everybody else know that Kingo Root did it! I have succesfully rooted the tablet and the process itself was quick and merely a matter of installing the software on my PC, connecting the tablet via USB and clicking my way through.
Afterwards I installed Link2SD Plus to manage the transfer of apps from internal storage to the external SD card (32 GB in my case). The app is dirt cheap and truly what you need, because the free version does not allow you to move app data, only the app itself and its libraries. As I've come to know, data and cache build-up is what ends up killing storage space.
Before installing Link2SD however, one must prepare the SD card by means of a partitioning program. Highly recommend you do this via card reader on an actual PC. Use MiniTool Partition Wizard, it seems to be very popular these days. Delete whatever's already on the card and make two PRIMARY partitions: the first one will be FAT32 and will store the media you consume (like music, photos, videos etc.), while the second partition has to be ext4 (ext2 did not work for me on this tablet) and will hold the apps and their data. You can go ahead and name them "Media" and "Apps" respectively to avoid confusion. Remember: both must be primary partitions, the first one is FAT32 for media, the second is ext4 for apps. I made my app partition 10 GB big. Overkill, you say? Hey, I'm done with insufficient storage space errors, ok? :silly:
While you're at it, you might want to add a third partition for swap space to add more RAM to your device. There are tutorials for it on the web.
Once you're done formatting the card, reinstall it in the tablet, open up Link2SD and choose ext4 at the script mounting prompt. From there on, moving apps from internal to SD card space should be intuitive.
Prior to all this fiddling I suggest you perform a factory reset on your device so you can start clean. Can't tell you anythihg about custom ROMs or stuff like that because I didn't have a need for them. This thing works fine apart from that silly storage limitation.
Phew! I can finally enjoy using my tablet... :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10gb is too big, you will broke your sd.
Better use 512mb.
Paget96 said:
10gb is too big, you will broke your sd.
Better use 512mb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you expand on that one, please? Why am I at risk of ruining the SD card?
Muravey said:
Could you expand on that one, please? Why am I at risk of ruining the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brcause sd work without stop, that is not good.
SD prob
Hi, i have the same tablet ... and i managed to root it ... but i cant manage to increse the storage . l've done the exact stepts ... installed micropartition deleted my sd card (2gb micro sd samasung) i did the first partition fat32 primary with a size of 800 gb and when i try to make the second one ext4 the program says that windows cant see the second partion on a removable device but i continuued anyways ,,, and created the second one with ext2 and then with ext4 as primary ... my windows and my tablet cant see the second partion ... need a little help ... thx
I heave installed the drivers, and nothing happens. Its not connecting to my pc. I changed the pc too. I heave the error: Unfortunately, Mobile data has stopped. I tryed to repair this with recovery -- Wipe data, factory reset. Not working.

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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