Develop Bugs

What's on the SD card?

Silly question perhaps, but like a lot of people I suspect I am new to a smart phone and to android.
When I connect the Desire to my PC and mount as an external drive, I can see all the folders. But which folders are on the SD Card - eg in which do I put new music etc into? I see Mp3 and Media. Do I have to create folders on the card (in media?) called Video, Documents etc? Does it matter what I call them? And while I am at it, are the photos stored on the SD Card by default?
I'm partly muddled because the phone came with music samples on already - but I don't know if this is on the card already (odd?) or elsewhere in the phone.
I don't have a micro SD reader to check independently.
Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else.

al89nut said:
Silly question perhaps, but like a lot of people I suspect I am new to a smart phone and to android.
When I connect the Desire to my PC and mount as an external drive, I can see all the folders. But which folders are on the SD Card - eg in which do I put new music etc into? I see Mp3 and Media. Do I have to create folders on the card (in media?) called Video, Documents etc? Does it matter what I call them? And while I am at it, are the photos stored on the SD Card by default?
I'm partly muddled because the phone came with music samples on already - but I don't know if this is on the card already (odd?) or elsewhere in the phone.
I don't have a micro SD reader to check independently.
Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just create a Music folder in the root of your SD card and create folders within that directory.
e.g. Storage Card\Music\Chris Brown\[the mp3 file]
Picture and Video files should be placed in the DCIM directory, for example, to store video files, create a new folder called DCIM, and then create another folder within that called 100MEDIA, and place picture files and video files within that.
The structure will be Storage Card\DCIM\100MEDIA\[the picture file] for pictures, and Storage Card\DCIM\100MEDIA\[the video file] for videos.

Or you can just stick a folder on the root called 'photos' and this will be picked up fine...

EddyOS said:
Or you can just stick a folder on the root called 'photos' and this will be picked up fine...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
It really doesn't matter where you put the files, as the phone will detect the file formats automatically, and place them in their corrisponding places (ie. Photos and video will go to the Photos app, Music will go in the Music app).

Having said that, mine didn't pick things up first time - had to format the card in the Desire but now all works fine

Thanks.
But how do I navigate to the SD Card to find the root from the set of folders that comes up when I plug in the phone? None of them say SD card.
I get a removable drive (G) and then a set of folders beginning Lost Dir ending Bookmarks. Among them is Media, Music, Android and things like Rosiescroll (?), plus junk like HTC news which I guess I can delete. So are Media and Music on the SD Card? But not Android?
Ah! Or are ALL of these on the SD Card? I can only see the SD card and nothing of the phone system at all itself? So do I need rosiescroll, svox, blueFTPThumbnails?

al89nut said:
Thanks.
But how do I navigate to the SD Card to find the root from the set of folders that comes up when I plug in the phone? None of them say SD card.
I get a removable drive (G) and then a set of folders beginning Lost Dir ending Bookmarks. Among them is Media, Music, Android and things like Rosiescroll (?), plus junk like HTC news which I guess I can delete. So are Media and Music on the SD Card? But not Android?
Ah! Or are ALL of these on the SD Card? I can only see the SD card and nothing of the phone system at all itself? So do I need rosiescroll, svox, blueFTPThumbnails?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Storage Card is root
e.g. Storage Card (root)\Music\...

That removable disk is the SD card, the Android OS and anything that is on the device by default is on the phones internal memory, which cannot be accessed yet (I guess that will all change once those clever devs manage to root the thing). I'm not too sure about apps you may have installed yourself, I think they get installed to the internal memory as well.

[Q] ES screwed up a simple file operation, now my Note says my SD's blank (it isn't).

*deep breath*
I noticed that my Note II had bounced a rather small app update for lack of space on the phone. Okay, fine. I have a bunch of games on there (GTA is huge) and I guess I have to move/delete some stuff. Then I realize that my camera app has been storing stuff on the phone instead of the 64gb Class 10 Kingston SD card (in b4 "Kingston is crap!"). So I make that change and tell the phone to start saving photos to the SD card. Fine. There are already some photo files on the SD card, so I decide to use ES File Explorer to move the existing photos from my DCIM folder to the one on the SD card. ES tells me everything went fine, and a subsequent check confirmed this. All good so far.
Then I went for a drive and decided to play tracks off my phone. What? Nobody home. No music for some reason. Everything's gone. Fine, I'll look into it when I get home.
This morning: "Oh, I have a photo of that! Let me just get it..."
Nobody home.
Go to ES File Explorer, and all the files and folders on the stupid SD card are 404.
Go to my computer. Connect my Note II and look at the drives on the phone. Windows shows the phone's storage, and shows the card storage, which says there's stuff on there (as in, space is taken up). Click into the drive and... Nothing's there.
Unmount the SD in Settings and put it into a card reader. Maybe the phone's goofing up, right? Windows says that the card needs to be formatted (because it's using an unfamiliar filesystem).
Nuts.
Put the card back into the phone. The phone will recognize the filesystem, so it should be-- What?
Phone says the card is now blank or using an unsupported filesystem.
So there's my problem. How do I proceed? I know that stuff's on there. I just know there's something stupid going on that's preventing me from getting at it.
As long as I can yank my latest photos off there, I don't mind wiping the card and starting over, since it's just media stuff I was keeping on there anyway. What do I use to crack into it?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
UPDATE: Various file recovery apps (in both Windows and the phone) are telling me that the card now has truly nothing on it. There are many, many really great swear words I want to share with you right now, but am prohibited from using on this forum. It actually HURTS not to use them right now.
Why do people seem to have so many problems with 64gb Class 10 cards on the Note II?

I had similar problem, I was trying to use software for SGSII to map SD card as usb flash disk to a PC and it didn't work and when I disconnected I had same symptoms as you. I put the card in reader and connected to PC and repaired with Minitool (just search for "MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition"). I lost couple of folders but most of it was ok.
Good luck!

Sounds like You have a Corrupted Boot sector.
Put the SD card in a Card Reader on Your Windows PC.
Open a Command Prompt and Type This - chkdsk /X /F <SD card drive letter>:
If Your SD card is Drive G, It would Look Like This - chkdsk /X /F G:
This will repair the Boot Sector if that is the Problem.
Put the SD card back in Your Phone and You should be Good To Go.

Photo recovery

Hi! I have htc 10 with 128 gb sd card formatted as internal memory. I was transferring a photo folder from phone to laptop using USB cable and USB connection in media transfer mode. The folder seemed to be transferring alright but the pasted folder in laptop is empty. Since I didn't understand photo sync in Google photos I don't have any backup...desperately seeking to restore that folder. Need all the help

I'd avoid using the SD as internal, sounds great in principle but can cause issues if there's an interrupt..
For apps I'd use folder mount, needs root but it's simple to use and doesn't affect internal memory.
In regards to the images, did you cut the images? Copy or simply drag them, a drag would be a copy. So the original should have remained. If you cut them then they'll have been in limbo and will then be marked for deletion.
In future always use copy instead.
If the photos are no longer in the phones memory then they'll have been marked for deletion, a data recovery app on Windows and or your mobile may help but not sure.. Have had a lot of luck on SD cards when plugged into Windows but never scanned a phone as it's a live OS and I imagine it would need complete read access.
If the photos were on the SD card and are no longer visible, connect the SD card up to your computer because if they're marked for deletion and the OS decides to use those clusters, it'll be overwritten which will make it harder for recovery.

Hi,
apps from market not working for me, but Recuva has worked hundred times for me.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
regards
starbase64

[Method] Merging SD Card with Internal Storage

This post documents a method of enabling Adoptable Storage with adb commands on sony phones where previously similar solutions seem hard to find. Please link similar methods if they exist somewhere else, I am curious to read.
Personal success on SO-02K (NTT DoCoMo XZ1c ) fw version 47.2.B.5.38 Android Pie, 128G A2 card.
The method results in a fraction of the microSD Card being recognised by the system to be able to transfer apps to, and another fraction where the sd card remains external storage.
The Stock Camera will only be able to save to the mentioned external storage partition after this process, and it will fail to save to internal storage.
Some apps may not work when transferred to the sd card and have to stay in onboard storage.
Premise
I carried out the process with a freshly flashed phone, with a minimal amount of apps present in the system. I cannot guarantee same success with an almost-full phone, although in principle it should be the same. If anyone has success on a more full system please let me and others know.
ADB Debugging should be turned on in developer options and authorization of PC given in advance; root or bl unlock not necessary.
SD Card will be WIPED in the process. For your data's safety do backup everything on your phone, both internal memory and external memory before proceeding! Don't yell at me if in the end it'll have to be restored.
Process
adb shell
sm list-disks this should return two integers such as 179,0
sm partition disk:179,0 mixed xx where the 179,0 should be your result in step 2 and xx be the amount of space reserved for /sdcard ; wait until command finishes. For the mixed xx see Miscellaneous#2 for explanation. Please also reply if you know the command to revert the changes made in this step, because I'd expect it be useful in the future and I don't know what it is.
Turn on force allow apps on external in bottom of developer settings if haven't done so.
Open camera app, click on OK until warnings go away, then set save directory in SD Card. Test if it saves successfully, if not, see Miscellaneous#1.
Reboot, then try moving some apps to your sd card! Some core function apps are not movable; that is to be expected.
Miscellaneous
If your camera won't allow you to open up settings (keeps saying cannot save), then you have run into a problem I have never seen before. If you can go into camera settings but the SD Card option is greyed out, that means either you have not reserved enough space in mixed xx or the command may have gone wrong. Or the card may not be in perfect condition for Adoptable Storage. You can unplug the sd card to see if the camera works fine after that, but I haven't tried that. If anyone knows the corresponding command to revert the changes made in Process#3, please let everyone know!
The mixed xx part allows a part of the sd card to remain.... an sd card. xx% of the space in your card will be recognised as external(portable) storage by your phone, and is readable by a PC. This portion will be the place where your future photos and videos are saved in, as the camera will fail saving to internal space. Thus you may want to use the fastest card you have and set xx based on your use patterns. The other part, the (100-xx) % of space is recognised by the phone as internal storage that it can put apps in, although some apps (especially some games) will still save assets in the phone's on board storage no matter where you move the main app.
This post is re-written from original post(chinese)

Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.

indago said:
Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi and Merry Christmas!
I do get system warnings saying the phone is full while it isn't; it seems that Android freaks out a little trying to gather disk usage info when the SD card is merged with internal space. However I can move most non-system-apps.
Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function? I found I didn't include this part in the original writing and might have been a source of confusion. Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work, and perhaps I can try on my phone. I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card.
Another potential source of error is the card itself, in some cases, the card may have bad blocks that Android doesn't correct for and cause read problems, as my SD card now begins to show. Sometimes I wake up to see my home screen devoid of apps, and I have to reinsert and restart the phone multiple times before the SD card gets recognized by the phone again.

Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.
Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all. I was not able to move any app.
I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
50% of 128Gb, that is 64Gb each.
Another potential source of error is the card itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesn't seem the card, since the remaining 64Gb left for external storage, that is where the camera app is saving photos and videos and some other apps save data, still works fine.

Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).

indago said:
Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine looks the same. I don't know what to suggest. I'll look around on other forums to see if people have the same problem.
This post is re-written from original post in Chinese which in turn is adapted from a lost post on gfan.com.
It also turns out that googling sm partition would give a lot of information most dated back to android 6.

I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.

indago said:
I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Striking news in the new year-- my sd doesn't work now. Yesterday I checked everything worked, but now no apps installed on my sd card open. using sm list-volumes shows both internal and portable partitions on the SD are mounted, but the apps still refuse to open.
The card looks like it's corrupted, now the two partitions can't even be recognized with my card reader, I guess I'm screwed.

at my asus max m2 .... working, camera, i can move app to sd card and they still works
butttt the only thing is at settings/storage/ information; it shows numbers that dont are correct and a option "to forget sd card " ?!?!?
well i don't know.....

SD Card doesnt show up after attempting to format as internal storage from stock crdroid android 10 files app

After attempting to format as internal using the preinstalled files app, my SD card is no longer recognized by my device…
I believe it is now completely corrupt, as even Windows is unable to read it after attempting to use an SD card adapter. It's not even listed in the disk management program…
Please help as i was dependent on my sd card as i only have 16gb on this device...

Use a low level formatting app to make it readable again.
You can also try accessing it directly* in Windows>Disk management, scan for new devices option.
Windows however may not be able to format it as it has been corrupted.
I don't recommend using the SD card like that; it's bandwidth is much slower than the internal memory and will noticeably slow down the device. If possible put all data on the SD card, only apps and maybe the download folder go on internal memory.
*this is the best way to access drives. You can do transfers directly from this Window to/from other drives.

blackhawk said:
Use a low-level formatting app to make it readable again.
You can also try accessing it directly in Windows > Disk management, scanning for new devices option.
Windows, however, may not be able to format it as it has been corrupted.
I don't recommend using the SD card like that; its bandwidth is much slower than the internal memory and will noticeably slow down the device. If possible, put all the data on the SD card. Only apps and maybe the download folder go on the internal memory.
This is the best way to access drives. You can do transfers directly from this window to/from other drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is that it does not appear in disk management at all, so I can't do anything you suggest. What is a low-level formatting app, and what does it do?
As I previously stated, I attempted to make my SD card internal storage because apps would not move to the SD card even after rooting the device and using app2sd. Using app2sd simply redirected me to the app options page, where I was told to go to storage and move to the SD card, despite the fact that there was no such option. This "not finding move to SD card" issue is unique to the Crdroid; in stock ROM, it worked flawlessly.

If the file structure gets corrupted it can render the card unreadable.
Go the the card manufacturer to see if they a low level formatting utility. Here's some more , but I haven't used them, scan download with online Virustotal first to be safe. Lexar may have one it's a memory recovery app but it probably low level formats.
I never saw a card get so corrupted that you couldn't see on Disk Management. It may be DOA.
Check Event Viewer for error messages but first reboot and try another PC port.
Check the driver in hardware management, try to update it or roll it back.

blackhawk said:
If the file structure gets corrupted, it can render the card unreadable.
Go to the card manufacturer to see if they have a low-level formatting utility. Here's some more , but I haven't used them. Scan them with online Virustotal first to be safe. Lexar may have one. It's a memory recovery app, but it's probably low level formats.
I never saw a card get so corrupted that you couldn't see it on disk management. It may be DOA.
Check Event Viewer for error messages, but first reboot and try another PC port.
Check the driver in hardware management, try to update it or roll it back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If by DOA u mean is dead on arrival, it worked flawlessly before this. I have a SanDisk device. I'll try the formatting utility. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure the file structure is unreadable, and it is now fully corrupted…
Coming to think about it, i remember getting a Java error or something, but it was one of the disappearing notifs that appear at the bottom of the screen so i couldn't capture it…

thaynos said:
If by DOA u mean is dead on arrival, it worked flawlessly before this. I have a SanDisk device. I'll try the formatting utility. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure the file structure is unreadable, and it is now fully corrupted…
Coming to think about it, i remember getting a Java error or something, but it was one of the disappearing notifs that appear at the bottom of the screen so i couldn't capture it…
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try another card. If you can recover the victim card depends on if failure is hardware related.
Cards normally don't spontaneously go corrupt* so at this point even if you do recover it, I wouldn't trust it.
Once I have a SD card in a phone I leave it there and only access through the phone. Always format a new card in the phone before using.
Cards can be damaged by ESD, static electricity.
Avoid touching its contacts. On dry days touch an earth ground immediately before handling the card. If damaged by ESD it may manifest itself immediately or days, weeks or even years latter.
While they have some internal ESD protection it's limited, so a big enough charge or repeated ESD insults can destroy it.
This is the biggest threat to flash memory. Near lightning strikes can also destroy them by magnetic and/or capacitive induction.
*Don't share use in other devices like cams without formatting in that device first. That can cause file corruption.

blackhawk said:
Try another card. If you can recover the victim card depends on if failure is hardware related.
Cards normally don't spontaneously go corrupt* so at this point even if you do recover it, I wouldn't trust it.
Once I have a SD card in a phone I leave it there and only access through the phone. Always format a new card in the phone before using.
Cards can be damaged by ESD, static electricity.
Avoid touching its contacts. On dry days touch an earth ground immediately before handling the card. If damaged by ESD it may manifest itself immediately or days, weeks or even years latter.
While they have some internal ESD protection it's limited, so a big enough charge or repeated ESD insults can destroy it.
This is the biggest threat to flash memory. Near lightning strikes can also destroy them by magnetic and/or capacitive induction.
*Don't share use in other devices like cams without formatting in that device first. That can cause file corruption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the point of asking for advice is cuz i dont have another card

try InitDisk