I have a 8gb sd card what are the bare necessities I should have on it. How do I know what I can safely delete. If I see folders with the names of apps that I no longer use, is that safe to delete? My card is half full. I also see folders with different rom names that I no longer have installed. I do manual full wipes 3x on everything when I reflash. Just looking for a little more knowledge in the sd storage area. Thanks guys
I usually backup the whole sd card while messing with this (then delete backup when I'm sure things are smooth)!
1. if you don't use it, LOSE it. (Is there an uninstaller that gets rid of all this crap?)
2. ...UNLESS you've uninstalled an app you plan on using again one day; keeps the settings; nice. Eg, sports apps that are out-of-season.
keep non-market *.apk files in /download so you don't have to hunt them down again, but clean out other downloads (pics, etc) that are trash. (Btw, the .apk files can add up; you can move them to computer, but I always keep at least a decent file mgr apk and Amazon Appstore apk on SD so I can easily get to work after a wipe/flash.)
Kernels, radios, etc: move to computer so there are no mishaps
PHOTOS: smash 'em all into one directory (I use /pictures) with subdirs if you want, point your photo apps to save to that directory. That'll get rid of a billion photo app directories :
(note: I also set default cam to save to SD card dir).
Also makes syncing with computer a breeze.)
MUSIC: have you tried Amazon Cloud or Google Cloud thing? (I have invites for latter if you want one)
Titanium Backup: one copy of user files (to get data); and use Dropbox (if you're Pro user) for redundant backup (it's saved me once!). But I'd keep ONE backup of user apps/data on SD just for convenience.
cwm ROMS: I keep a stable one or two via RomManager/backups, but I move the others to computer (until they're stupidly outdated).
Otherwise a good cache cleaner can keep **** clean on your SD card (and if you play too much with dirs of apps you use, it'll piss off the apps
SDcards get cluttered really easily when installing/uninstalling roms to test. I've always deleted the folders from old roms that I don't plan to reinstall later.
You can pretty much delete what ever you want from your sd as long as you dont want it. Apps will regenerate folders and files. Also if you want to keep some stuff but want more room on the sd there is always emmc with around 7gb free.
Related
I've a strange question that might or might belong in the development thread, but figured since it's a question, I'll try here first.
I'm using a Stock DeOxed Rooted Rom on my EVO.
I recently installed a few more apps and saw this pesky little warning about low on space.
When I went into my "SystemPanel" app to see how much space was left exactly and noticed that my /data folder only had around 30megs out of it's 428M available.
Ok.. time to delete some apps I thought, but then I noticed that my /system folder (Where I presume pre-installed apps live) had almost 1/3 of it's space still available (115 out of 350megs available).
So I'm wondering.....
Is there some method that I can use to install Apps directly to this folder instead of the standard /data that apps appear to go to when installed?
Is it as simple as moving the APK file with Root Explorer, or are there some under the hood items in apps that prevent this sort of thing?
I've a few rather large apps that I cannot move to the SD card due to widget problems and the like but would be perfect for the system folder if I can find a way to move them there easily.
Thoughts?
DroidGnome said:
I've a strange question that might or might belong in the development thread, but figured since it's a question, I'll try here first.
I'm using a Stock DeOxed Rooted Rom on my EVO.
I recently installed a few more apps and saw this pesky little warning about low on space.
When I went into my "SystemPanel" app to see how much space was left exactly and noticed that my /data folder only had around 30megs out of it's 428M available.
Ok.. time to delete some apps I thought, but then I noticed that my /system folder (Where I presume pre-installed apps live) had almost 1/3 of it's space still available (115 out of 350megs available).
So I'm wondering.....
Is there some method that I can use to install Apps directly to this folder instead of the standard /data that apps appear to go to when installed?
Is it as simple as moving the APK file with Root Explorer, or are there some under the hood items in apps that prevent this sort of thing?
I've a few rather large apps that I cannot move to the SD card due to widget problems and the like but would be perfect for the system folder if I can find a way to move them there easily.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/system/app is where system apps are kept. If I remember correctly, any app can be installed into there, but you have to do through flashing an update.zip if I'm remembering properly. You may be able to take the apk that's in /data/app for the app you want to move and move it to /system/app, but I'm not sure if that will work properly or not. Someone who cooks ROMs might know more.
Also, you can partition your sd card and use true apps2sd with most ROMs. Its a little bit of work and will shorten the life of your card, but that gives you a lot more room if you need it.
I don't know that there's a way to move user apps to system. It's very possible there is a way, I've just never seen any posts about it. Apps 2 SD is usually the way to go.
ps. 30 megs?!?! Geez, how many apps do you have?
Sent from my SUPERSONIC
Easy peasy
First, use a true apk backup tool to backup e apk files you want to move. Titanium backup will NOT work because it compresses and distorts, and we need true apk files. I recommend file manager by adao team. Just go to applications, check what you want, and hit backup. Next, get the apk files on your computer by mounting sd and copying files from backups folder. You will lose all app data, but what can you do? Next, adb push the files to system app folder while in recovery mode (just say so if you don't know how to do this and i will tell you) and reboot. Done. Tell me if it works well.
By the way, 30 megs???
Doesn't froyo install to the sdcard if you tell it to?
I thought a2sd was obsolete
You can put apps there after changing the folder's permissions but I wouldn't recommend it. Just not a good idea to put regular apps there.
Just install them to your SD card instead
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
go into the android app manager and go through all your programs and click on move to sd card...
they will all still occupy some space on your nand, but not nearly as much.
Thanks for the advice, I thought it might not be as easy as moving them, oh well, just seems a shame for there to be over 100 megs I cannot do anything with.
I already had moved all I could to the SD card prior to posting this, but thanks for that advice as well, I'm sure others forget they can do that with Froyo.
As for the 30 megs I had left.. we'll it's back up to about 70 free which should be plenty for a while. (Remember we only have about 420 to start with).
Some of the big ones which could not be moved to the SD card are:
Swype (Deleted, took over 17megs)
TouchDown (12 megs.. must keep for tasks sync sadly)
Google Maps update (7.6 megs)
Documents to go (8megs)
A few various games that cannot yet be moved to the SD card at around 5megs each..
The rest are just lots of little apps.. I'm sort of an app junkie You should have seen my old Palm Centro... it was amazing!
According to Titanium, I currently have 194 'User apps', though I think a few are simply widgets, icon packs and the like.
Over the past 6 months I have collected a plethora of "****" on my SD card, lots of apps that left behind empty folders, logs, etc. I want to "fresh start it" and wipe everything off of it to eliminate all the folders that are no longer needed. Yes, I'm a app downloader/uninstaller, lol and as I'm sure some of you know leaves behind a trail of crap on your storage medium.
My question is, what does the SD card HAVE to have left on it (if anything) for the phone to operate correctly? I am Rooted/S-Off/SkyRaider 3.3.
Do i need to leave update.zip for instance on it, pictures i can i move to my Linux box, but I would hate to format the SD only to find out I just borked myself by removing a crucial system file the custom roms or rooting need.
I would also move my RomManager backup to my LB as well, just thought of that....
Anyone know?
i would leave clockwordmod folder, android.tether, android, and titanium backup folder..i mean thats what i have and would keep on my phone...I'm sure your setup is similar.
Thank you! =)
Damn good post. I went ahead and wiped my SD as well through clockwork. I saved my pictures and stuff to my desktop and then retransfered from there. What really sucks is organizing my pictures/music/media/ Sometimes when I switch ROM's I forget the camera auto saves pictures to internall emmc folder. What would be prime is to have it auto sync with a service like drop box.
so... we dont need :
"update.zip"
data
permissions log
blackberry? (never understood this being on my card)
etc...
i just formatted card via settings - storage - card format...
it took like 2 secs... and i have 3-4 gig of music on there...
seemed too fast for a format...
only 2 files it left on card was android.secure and lost.dir
i am re-adding some files i need, but wondering if your list above is the only "neccessary" files - obviously i'm adding my backups but i'm nervous cause theres a ton of files i'll be "missing"
i do have it backed up on 2 pc's, so i guess i'm covered...
hoping this helps - really just want a fresh canvas to work with...
Is there a way to make app data saved to a folder in SDcard instead of the root? That way it can organize between all the junk I put on there and what is really app data...
Is this achieved by partitioning? or app2sd? never tried either one.
Apps create folders on SD as repositories for additional elements needed to make the app function, or for storage in general.
Don't recommend relocating (or removing) app-created folders unless you have uninstalled the app.
Stray stuff you may have placed on SD can be organized in a folder(s), but I wouldn't mess with anything an app created unless I were (or had) deleted the app.
Don't have to partition the SD to create your own folder.
Okay, I feel really stupid. I was messing with a new ROM and it didnt seem to work out so I went back to my old ROM (qhaung81 AOKP). When I went back to reload all my apps and stuff, it ended up in a whole nother folder!! In order to find it now Ive got to go to SD/SD0 and everything I have is in there! How do I get it out of that folder and back to my regular root? I dont want any of this mess!!
Hope someone can help!!
Ridge
Ok, I have a 16gig card, and had about 250 MB free, went to check, and over the space of a few days, not having taken many photos or videos, or downloading much, I was down to like 35MB, looking through my SD Card, I have loads of files and folders which I don't know what they are, some of them very small (CDAInfo on Root of SD Card, MEMSTICK.IND on Root of SD Card, etc. etc.) but some of them are quite large.
Also, looking through my Xperia Play games launcher, I have many apps that are doubled, and clicking on both opens it, so it's not just an empty container. Looking at my folders on the SD Card (.android_secure), I have things like flashplayer-1.asec and flashplayer-2.asec, each one is 16MB, and I have many of these duplicates for different apps and games. Now, I think that the .android_secure folder is used for when you move your apps to the SD Card, and I'm assuming that this occured when I flashed a new rom and reinstalled the apps (the data was created on the phone memory and then when I went to move it over, it created the 2nd version) but what I want to know is, how to AVOID this happening when I flash a new Rom, or basically, how do I avoid things like this happening.
Thanks,
Niall
Just went through the .android_secure deleting one of the multiples then checking if it still ran, it did, so I decided to delete one of all of them, and bam, all apps still run, and I'm up to 1GB of free space. The .asec files are what the phone moves to the memory card when you select move to SD in the settings. Obviously, if you are flashing a new rom it doesn't delete them, and then just creates a duplicate. Some old games that I don't play (have completed them) were still in there, some of them ridiculous sizes (Battle Bears - 47MB). Removed about 20 or so off the .asec files, most of them duplicates, some of them were unused apps, and am back up to 1Gig free.
Chuffed
Anyways, anyone know a way to avoid this happening, and also, as a word of warning to everyone...keep an eye out for things like this
Niall
Nhialor said:
Just went through the .android_secure deleting one of the multiples then checking if it still ran, it did, so I decided to delete one of all of them, and bam, all apps still run, and I'm up to 1GB of free space. The .asec files are what the phone moves to the memory card when you select move to SD in the settings. Obviously, if you are flashing a new rom it doesn't delete them, and then just creates a duplicate. Some old games that I don't play (have completed them) were still in there, some of them ridiculous sizes (Battle Bears - 47MB). Removed about 20 or so off the .asec files, most of them duplicates, some of them were unused apps, and am back up to 1Gig free.
Chuffed
Anyways, anyone know a way to avoid this happening, and also, as a word of warning to everyone...keep an eye out for things like this
Niall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you been flashing roms and not deleting your old .android.secure folder? That will happen, you should delete it before you reflash
AndroHero said:
Have you been flashing roms and not deleting your old .android.secure folder? That will happen, you should delete it before you reflash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, yeah, i'm new enough to Android, but learning as I go along
This is different to the usual request to put apps on the SD card. The G3 can already do that.
I'm specifically looking for a way to, effectively, archive an app to the SD card, with any data, and then delete it entirely.
E.g. I've finished playing a game and at some point I may want to re-load from where I was, so I archive the game to the SD card. It's uninstalled from the phone entirely. To restore it, I go to whatever app did the archiving and restore it back.
Titanium or similar look like they might have been suitable, but they're root only and I'm unrooted without (current) plans to root.
Any non-rooted suggestions?
P.S. Some reasons I want to archive&uninstall vs. just moving to sd card are:
* Completely stops any apps that like to wake up, etc from doing so.
* Every byte of internal memory is available for whatever I need it for
* Can hold many more apps and when on a long flight or otherwise off the grid, I can play whatever games I choose, then archive them again later.