Develop Bugs

Windows Phone 7 - The filesystem and how it is presented to the user

Windows Phone 7 represents a radical leap in the way the filesystem is presented to the user compared to WinMo. No longer will the user be able to access the true, underlying filesystem in any direct way - the OS will abstract the file system to a single view of all files - making no distinction between files stored on internal flash, or removable storage, or even striped across both similar to RAID0. The file system functions as a Virtual Unified Storage system.
WP7 will support SD cards, but the functionality is different now. The user data is striped across the SD card and the internal storage. This results in functionality similar to RAID0 - if a member disk is pulled from the set, the entire set ceases to function. Similarly, in WP7, if an SD card is pulled from a deployed device, the device will go into a "reduced functionality" mode - where you are only able to make emergency calls. Upon re-inserting the SD, the data is restored and the system functions normally as it would before the card was pulled. If the card or its data is not available (got corrupted, lost, eaten) - The phone must be "hard reset" to restore full functionality and all user data will be lost.
My guess is this was at least partly done as a method to lock down the security of marketplace apps.

I can see some advantages in this, in that it doesn't matter to a user whether it's on the memory card or on device, but will this completely screw up using the device as a USB storage device?

Thanks for the info! Would this have similar benefits of raid0 (increased performance w/sd card)? I guess if you want to upgrade your card it sounds like you'll have to give it a hard reset. That sounds like it could be a bit of an issue for many users. I wonder if, while it may allow support for an sd card, they may eventually only support non-removable cards because of that?

Makes me wonder why bother then? We all know that sd/micro/minis have a tendancy to corrupt after a year or so (depending on use) so surely its bloody pointless??
Just rely on the internal storage like iphone etc.

timmymarsh said:
Makes me wonder why bother then? We all know that sd/micro/minis have a tendancy to corrupt after a year or so (depending on use) so surely its bloody pointless??
Just rely on the internal storage like iphone etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd rather have it user removable such that it can be upgraded\expanded.
Also, if the card isn't constantly removed\inserted and is of a decent quality, then it'll probably last the life of the phone.

timmymarsh said:
Makes me wonder why bother then? We all know that sd/micro/minis have a tendancy to corrupt after a year or so (depending on use) so surely its bloody pointless??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that this is just a new requirement, and OEMs had been developing devices with SD cards, so it accomodates this fact.

TehPenguin said:
I'd rather have it user removable such that it can be upgraded\expanded.
Also, if the card isn't constantly removed\inserted and is of a decent quality, then it'll probably last the life of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But which is more reliable? built-in memory like iphone or SD cards?

For those of you interested in why they would want to use a MicroSD card inside the device instead of just soldering a flash chip on the board and the issues that can come with MicroSD, here's a great blog post on the topic.

because... of course we can all "simply" solder a flash chip on the PCB...

dazza9075 said:
because... of course we can all "simply" solder a flash chip on the PCB...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was referring to the manufacturers. Read that blog post by a very, very, smart guy (he hacked the original xbox) and it will make sense.

Removable storage??
What do you mean removable storage? Last I heard it was all non removable?
Da_G said:
Windows Phone 7 represents a radical leap in the way the filesystem is presented to the user compared to WinMo. No longer will the user be able to access the true, underlying filesystem in any direct way - the OS will abstract the file system to a single view of all files - making no distinction between files stored on internal flash, or removable storage, or even striped across both similar to RAID0. The file system functions as a Virtual Unified Storage system.
WP7 will support SD cards, but the functionality is different now. The user data is striped across the SD card and the internal storage. This results in functionality similar to RAID0 - if a member disk is pulled from the set, the entire set ceases to function. Similarly, in WP7, if an SD card is pulled from a deployed device, the device will go into a "reduced functionality" mode - where you are only able to make emergency calls. Upon re-inserting the SD, the data is restored and the system functions normally as it would before the card was pulled. If the card or its data is not available (got corrupted, lost, eaten) - The phone must be "hard reset" to restore full functionality and all user data will be lost.
My guess is this was at least partly done as a method to lock down the security of marketplace apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hi ..
Im just want to know if My HTC HD2 can run Win Mo 7 ?

Da_G said:
WP7 will support SD cards, but the functionality is different now. The user data is striped across the SD card and the internal storage. This results in functionality similar to RAID0 - if a member disk is pulled from the set, the entire set ceases to function. Similarly, in WP7, if an SD card is pulled from a deployed device, the device will go into a "reduced functionality" mode - where you are only able to make emergency calls. Upon re-inserting the SD, the data is restored and the system functions normally as it would before the card was pulled. If the card or its data is not available (got corrupted, lost, eaten) - The phone must be "hard reset" to restore full functionality and all user data will be lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything which indicates how large of an SD card WP7 can use? Apparently initially phones will only come with 8 GB of memory, and that on an internal card. That seems way too small if you wanted to store music and videos.Would it concievably be possible, as soon as you bought the phone, before anything additional is loaded, to pull the card, copy everything to a 32 GB card and reinsert it?

MHC48 said:
Is there anything which indicates how large of an SD card WP7 can use? Apparently initially phones will only come with 8 GB of memory, and that on an internal card. That seems way too small if you wanted to store music and videos.Would it concievably be possible, as soon as you bought the phone, before anything additional is loaded, to pull the card, copy everything to a 32 GB card and reinsert it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8GB is the minimum spec. There will certainly be devices with larger amounts of storage. It should support at least 32GB.

How is this a performance benefit if most consumer SDs are rated Class 2 (i.e dog slow) and many people prefer to be able to swap cards at will? Class 6 cards are usually pretty expensive, and swapping SD cards on-the-fly is not uncommon...

timmymarsh said:
We all know that sd/micro/minis have a tendancy to corrupt after a year or so (depending on use) so surely its bloody pointless??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We do? I've never had a flash card go bad.

adamw79 said:
What do you mean removable storage? Last I heard it was all non removable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WM7 phones will have an external storage card slot but it will become apart of the internal drive and not be used in the since of what we currently use it. when an external sd is inserted it is formatted to becomes part of the main internal drive something like a raid system so if you pull out the sd card phone will not boot until you put it back in, and i do believe this is also the same if you replace the card you might have to hard reset to get the phone to work.

A fred has a test device with 40g (8 internal and a 32g SD card)
You can access the filesystem with the "Remote Tools Framework" along with a filesystem plugin that wraps the Sirep services.
The sirep background services must be running on the device. Unfortunately these need to be flashed in or inserted via imageupdate.
Sirep is the sucesssor of rapi. Some tools include wpget, wpput, wprun etc.

Da_G said:
if a member disk is pulled from the set, the entire set ceases to function ......... Upon re-inserting the SD, the data is restored and the system functions normally as it would before the card was pulled. If the card or its data is not available (got corrupted, lost, eaten) - The phone must be "hard reset" to restore full functionality and all user data will be lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, that being said.
Whilst Its a well known fact that "external media" such as Micro SD cards will not be user accessable, would it be possible to manually replace the cards?
For example, if a user dared to dismantle his/her device to access the card.
Then remove it, copy the partition on there to a larger piece of media, extend the partition to fill the card & then place that back before re-constructing the rest of the device.
Do you know if that could work, or are there measures put into place which prevent this? I guess some manufacturers may glue cards in, but that can be got around. I mean software wise, would doing this mess up the opperation of the device?
If that wouldnt work, then how about simply replacing the card & doing a hard reset? Any idea if it would simply accomodate the new card?
Im just trying to think of work-arounds as I know many people will be dissapointed with the variety of 8GB devices out there.

cris_rowlands said:
So, that being said.
Whilst Its a well known fact that "external media" such as Micro SD cards will not be user accessable, would it be possible to manually replace the cards?
For example, if a user dared to dismantle his/her device to access the card.
Then remove it, copy the partition on there to a larger piece of media, extend the partition to fill the card & then place that back before re-constructing the rest of the device.
Do you know if that could work, or are there measures put into place which prevent this? I guess some manufacturers may glue cards in, but that can be got around. I mean software wise, would doing this mess up the opperation of the device?
If that wouldnt work, then how about simply replacing the card & doing a hard reset? Any idea if it would simply accomodate the new card?
Im just trying to think of work-arounds as I know many people will be dissapointed with the variety of 8GB devices out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've heard, the last option there, with forcing a hard reset is likely to be the only one that works, but it should work. OEMs may well glue down the microSD cards though.
I think quite a few devices will be using microSD cards internally, as it lets you release 3 versions of a device with different storage sizes very easily (just slot in an 8GB, 16GB or 32GB uSD card and release it).
I also doubt there will be many only 8GB devices. I know we've only seen leaks of 8GB devices, but it makes sense to test on slightly cheaper hardware, and make sure the OS works on the bare minimum of hardware.

Internal Storage limit? what's your maximum? (sorry, there's not enough space...)

Question:
Has anyone with an Incredible (or htc device?) ever gotten close to filling up the 748mb's of phone memory? What's your maximum?
I know there's a weird storage notification that comes up w/ the Incredible, and correct me if I'm wrong, no one TRULY knows why it happens, right?
So I'm trying to install the MiniSquadron Special Edition. I get this message: "Sorry, there's not enough space to install this item."
I have 487MB available space free in my 748mb's of phone memory.
Why can't I install this item? I am NOT getting the "Low SPace" or "low storage" warnings on my phone currently.
HTC recommends a hard reset. Took it to Verizon today, the tech told me the same thing. Said it *might* fix things. I actually had to teach him that the 748 mb phone memory was not RAM, but what the phone allocates for apps.
Do I have to hard reset? Any solutions? I have a suspicion that if I DO do a hard reset, and reinstall the exact same things on my phone... the same thing will happen.
So, I reiterate my original question:
Has anyone with an Incredible (or htc device?) ever gotten close to filling up the 748mb's of phone memory? What's your maximum?
Or does everyone get this problem, and there's really only 300mb of storage?
*and to top things off my phone randomly vibrates when the screen's on.

funkpod said:
Question:
I know there's a weird storage notification that comes up w/ the Incredible, and correct me if I'm wrong, no one TRULY knows why it happens, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. A lot of people know why this happens. Data for user apps is stored in folder /data/data. This folder is limited to 150 mb. If you get down to less than 15 mb available the warning message starts appearing.
As far as I know, nobody has found a way to expand this limit. Apps that can use up a lot of that space are google earth and saving a lot of emails or text messages. If you're rooted you can use root explorer to look at this folder to see how much space you have available. Only solution is to cleanup old texts and emails or uninstall apps.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01

oh, so the low storage warning comes from the DATA that apps use, not the apps themselves.
i'll just be diligent in trying to clear out my emails and texts.
do you know why i am getting no low storage warning, but it still tells me that "sorry, there's not enough space to install this item?"
or is it the same thing?

On the market it shows minisquadron special edition at 23mb. I don't know if that means app size only, or app plus data. But I assume since you're receiving that message, there's not enough room in /data/data to install the app.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01

I'm not sure how the developer that started the thread I'm going to post a link to here feels about me pointing people to his thread, but I think this person has made a good attack on the /data/data problem.
It's worth looking over. I'm a beta-tester for his app, and it's saved me > 50% of the space I was wasting in /data/data. I'm using the linked loop filesystem on the /sdcard approach mentioned in that thread. Google Earth alone was taking 50% of my usage (30M), now is taking ~< 1M).
Anyway, worth checking out::
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=853001

thanks for the link! i'm not rooted... but this makes me want to try and root.
i guess i'll have to be paranoid about clearing data and stuff like that.
will clearing facebook data erase the links set up in my contacts?

funkpod said:
thanks for the link! i'm not rooted... but this makes me want to try and root.
i guess i'll have to be paranoid about clearing data and stuff like that.
will clearing facebook data erase the links set up in my contacts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're referring to the notenoughspace app linked above, it doesn't clear your data. It instead allows you to move selected application subfolders to the sdcard, which frees up space in the /data/data folder.
You can clear data for user installed apps thru Settings> Manage Applications. But don't think I'd try that for facebook. Clearing cache is a safer option.
Data for an app is all the information an app needs to run. If you clear data, the next time you start the app it will be like a fresh install and all the required data will just be recreated anyway.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01

so, i forgot i wanted to see what you guys have--
how much memory do you guys have on your Incredibles? how much space is filled up?

funkpod said:
so, i forgot i wanted to see what you guys have--
how much memory do you guys have on your Incredibles? how much space is filled up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think, for me, that ~750M of memory (and I mean memory for applications) is fine. I haven't yet gotten more than 200M of that in use and doubt I will.
The more important figure isn't memory (DRAM/App Memory), it is what we were talking about above. It's the size of the separately mounted /data/data partition which is, I think, only about ~160M. Even on my relatively sparsely populated Inc, that partition was nearly full. Google Earth uses 30M in just libs there.
That's what NES, the app above, addresses, so there is a way out, especially now that the dev has allowed usage of a loop partition in the /mnt/emmc partition. That allows the /sdcard to still mount with a USB cable without any contention.
Anyway, the thing that made the Droid 1 so slow and easily bogged down was a lack of actual memory (250M if I recall), and the Inc doesn't have that problem a bit. The Droid 1 I had was overclocked to 1.1Ghz but was very slow by comparison to the Dinc. and I think that's all due to the amount of physical memory.

well, the struggle for memory continues...
what would happen if i cleared the data for the facebook app?
it's over 32mb big.
i dont want it to erase all the contacts pics i have set up, although, is that facebook for htc sense? different?
on a side note, i notice that if i periodically clear dialer storage, aka text messages, that helps w/ the warning.

If you are rooted you should be able to move the app to your SD card? Or am I wrong? I use root explorer and I can move any app I download to the SD card.

no, i'm not rooted, unfortunately. maybe this'll be one of the reasons why i root...
anyways, no, i'm not, so i don't have root explorer.
know what clearing data in facebook app does?

rigman said:
If you're referring to the notenoughspace app linked above, it doesn't clear your data. It instead allows you to move selected application subfolders to the sdcard, which frees up space in the /data/data folder.
You can clear data for user installed apps thru Settings> Manage Applications. But don't think I'd try that for facebook. Clearing cache is a safer option.
Data for an app is all the information an app needs to run. If you clear data, the next time you start the app it will be like a fresh install and all the required data will just be recreated anyway.
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rigman: I never saw this, but was under the impression that cache under the incredible was kept in two categories, one at a system level in /cache which is ~193M and the other at the app level which /data/data/{app}/cache covers. (which is helped by NES}.
So I'm thinking that based on your response, you know that this person's problems with data space are in the system /cache? I was just curious how you knew that. I'm also curious if that problem has been as big a one in general as the /data/data problem which I hear about a lot.
Maybe it can be tackled in some similar fashion by another NES type (or the same one) app.
Thanks,
Hashi

I have a 1 gb ext3 part on my SD card....
couldn't a soft link from /data/data to a file or directory in the ext3 work
to expand /data/data expanding the space? I guess as long the app opening
space didn't need it until after the sd card is available. Not sure how to
mount the ext3 part tho .... does Android have an equivilent to
/etc/rc.d/rc.local in BSD to issue the mount? or /etc/fstab (with a way to delay
until the right time in boot up)? Will power button power down unmount it?

fuzzynco said:
couldn't a soft link from /data/data to a file or directory in the ext3 work
to expand /data/data expanding the space? I guess as long the app opening
space didn't need it until after the sd card is available. Not sure how to
mount the ext3 part tho .... does Android have an equivilent to
/etc/rc.d/rc.local in BSD to issue the mount? or /etc/fstab (with a way to delay
until the right time in boot up)? Will power button power down unmount it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but that is basically how NES works (in my first post in this thread). It creates a loop partition on the /sdcard or /emmc partition, and inside the loop partition is an ext3/4 FS. This was it just appears as a single file, not a filesystem, and can go onto a fat32 formatted 'drive'. That stuff all works fine. There is a mount/dismount ability from either the app or term emulator.
The drift I'm getting here is that this thread isn't all about /data/data. Do you know if that's the case? I guess there is also the old /cache partition and thought I've not experienced it, it probably can also fill up.
I don't know why something similar to the above couldn't be tried on the /cache partition but this possibly gets into a messier world where you have to get in at init.d time and force a different sort of mount to /cache to open it up a bit. It depends on what sort of structure the fs has inside /cache. (and if that's a problem).

Wow, you guys are good! Question is, is there anything I can do? Is this a google problem, or htc problem? Does this internal memory problem happen on motorola droids?
also, why does this problem still exist? Does google not know or not care?
On a side note, maybe you guys can help. When I hold down the search button to start google voice search, and speak something like " call mcdonalds, " it will try to call mcdonalds, and get the phone number correct EXCEPT for adding a " +1" before the number, which means it won't dial. Htc doesn't know what to do except NOT use this function, but to use vlingo. also, my google voice had some numbers show up with a" +1" . It's weird.
I think it's a htc sense problem, cuz non htc phones doesn't have this problem. Also, rooted users don't have this problem either.
Any suggestions? Would a hard reset help?

I have a droid and took a look. It appears to be a Google thing, not an HTC one since my droid has ~95M of /cache and a similar amount for /data/data. It also has much less DRAM and without using the SD card for apps (apps2SD) has more problems than this. (mostly manifested by poor speed regardless of overclock,etc)
Why exist? Take a look at the google bug base, and well, you'll see how many problems exist It's probably low on the list of things to do.
The other bit of this is that flash , although finite, could potentially be arranged in anyway via design. They could have given us more /system, more /data/data, more /cache, but for some reason these are the choices they made. The thing that maybe is unique to the Inc and I'm not sure of this is /mnt/emmc, which isn't hardly used for much of anything, so there was more room available for the MTDBlock{devs} to be used in other ways.
Sorry -- I'm out of answers I'm hoping they do a better job say, in gingerbread, or whatever the lastest bit of 'hot peanut fudge ice cream' OS upgrade that is next on the list. If there is any hardware related restriction (that I can't see right now), then hopefully the fact that our Dinc's are somewhat done for generation-ally will mean that the next HTC's , Motorola's will do a better job from the HW standpoint as well.

INTERESTING...
i had to clear my sd card, so i moved all of the apps that were on there back onto my phone. i have taken up 500 some MB of space on my phone now, with about 200MB left.
VERY interesting. i know that the low space warning doesn't really have anything to do w/ the storage, but the app storage, i just never thought i'd see that much on my phone w/o getting the low space warning.
and i have NOT gotten the low space warning, too, btw.
and i'm willing to bet if i downloaded those apps instead of retransferring them back on my phone, i'd get that low space warning...

[Q] What do DEVS think about this? "Selling used Android phones poses huge risks"

[Q] What do DEVS think about this? "Selling used Android phones poses huge risks"
So does anyone want to shed some light on this for me... Is there any truth to this?
http://www.bgr.com/2012/03/30/selli...s-poses-huge-identity-theft-risk-expert-says/
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tech-savvy-protecting-identity-20120329,0,457782.story
http://wirelessandmobilenews.com/2012/03/android-iphone-balckberry-security.html
http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/03/30/factory-resetting-an-android-phone-is-not-100/
http://www.technobuffalo.com/compan...roid-phone-still-leaves-personal-info-behind/

I read the bgr article and while that may be true using the built in wipe data from setings might not wipe everything, im pretty sure thats nothing a root user couldnt handle with an odin flash.

Yes but I am also wondering if the articles premiss is valid and that it is a flaw of android and not an issue with bb and ios... Also is there a tested or testable way to insure that all private data is securely and permanently deleted
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I found this article after searching a bit more on the topic
http://www.androidcentral.com/securely-wiping-your-android-phone-makes-it-just-fine-sell-fud

I'm not a dev, but I do have a fair amount of experience recovering data.
Those articles are pretty misguided and all are sourcing from the same guy, who happens to work for Mcafee that, OH LOOK, just happens to have an app that will help you! The fact that this guy also tries to single out XP machines just discredits him even more. As AndroidCentral points out, it's all down to the file system and how it's managed.
People need to understand that:
1) A factory reset does not (nor has it ever) equal a wipe. It merely clears all the user made changes.
2) A format does not (nor has it ever) equal a wipe. It merely clears the drives "pointer information".
Recovery software is actually not that hard to come by, I have a recovery suite on a bootable CD on my desk right now. I've used it to recover data from drives that were formated several times and even used it to recover pictures from near dead SD cards.
There are several secure wiping tools out there (there's even on built into Windows XP/Vista/Win7 that not too many people know about). After seeing what I could recover with that software, I never sell/give away any of my old drives/memory cards without wiping it first.
What a wipe does is very simple: it writes random data to every block on the drive. This is done in "passes". One pass is one write of random data. Through the testing, I've found that one pass is enough to make data unrecoverable by publically available recovery softwares. I believe five passes is the DOD standard to competely "sanitize" a drive (this takes FOREVER, since it's basically writing random data to the ENTIRE drive five times)
A very simple way to "wipe" the memory in your phone is to format it and then record a video on it until it's out of space. That basically equals a "one pass" wipe.

andygallo said:
I'm not a dev, but I do have a fair amount of experience recovering data.
Those articles are pretty misguided and all are sourcing from the same guy, who happens to work for Mcafee that, OH LOOK, just happens to have an app that will help you! The fact that this guy also tries to single out XP machines just discredits him even more. As AndroidCentral points out, it's all down to the file system and how it's managed.
People need to understand that:
1) A factory reset does not (nor has it ever) equal a wipe. It merely clears all the user made changes.
2) A format does not (nor has it ever) equal a wipe. It merely clears the drives "pointer information".
Recovery software is actually not that hard to come by, I have a recovery suite on a bootable CD on my desk right now. I've used it to recover data from drives that were formated several times and even used it to recover pictures from near dead SD cards.
There are several secure wiping tools out there (there's even on built into Windows XP/Vista/Win7 that not too many people know about). After seeing what I could recover with that software, I never sell/give away any of my old drives/memory cards without wiping it first.
What a wipe does is very simple: it writes random data to every block on the drive. This is done in "passes". One pass is one write of random data. Through the testing, I've found that one pass is enough to make data unrecoverable by publically available recovery softwares. I believe five passes is the DOD standard to competely "sanitize" a drive (this takes FOREVER, since it's basically writing random data to the ENTIRE drive five times)
A very simple way to "wipe" the memory in your phone is to format it and then record a video on it until it's out of space. That basically equals a "one pass" wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there an app tat can perform a wipe on android.... can putting 16 gb of music on it and then formatting do the same thing?

neverends said:
Is there an app tat can perform a wipe on android.... can putting 16 gb of music on it and then formatting do the same thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I should have clarified on my method.
If you put 16GB of music on it, then yes, the data you PREVIOUSLY had on there probably cannot be recovered. BUT that 16GB of music CAN be recovered.
But if you record a video, set it lens side down and let it go until the video file fills up the memory, then the only thing recoverable is a huge video file of nothing. Altho, you probably want to put it under a pillow or somewhere quiet so that no sound is recorded.

Don't steal my identity bro
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

When I bought my sgs1 (used) I ran some basic, free data recovery software against it. Got loooooaaaaddddsss of info/pics on the previous owner. Formatting and refilling the memory with data is good enough. The video mentioned above works, when I went to swap my e4gt I had a little more fun and wrote a script that took a picture (a not very friendly one), added random qtys of data and a random filename. If anyone recovers...I feel sorry for them
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I actually wiped my Inter.al as card. I had a little over 10 gigss of files on there. When I recovered them I also recovered the previous persons photos
Sent from my BAD A$$ EPIC TOUCH 4G

Camera corrupts pics/vids when storing to SD card

When I take pics/videos and the camera is set to store to the SD card, it will often corrupt the images. The bad part is that the thumbnails that it shows in the camera viewer are fine, but when you use Gallery or any other apps to view them, they are corrupted. I 'solved' it a while ago by saving to the internal storage, but occasionally it will revert to SD card storage and I'll loose pics until i notice!
First question- are the corrupted files recoverable?
Next, is there a fix? Just random answers showed up on Google- usual factory resets/wipes which are iffy and temporary.
Or, is there a way to keep the camera set to internal storage?
It's just <expletive deleted> to buy a phone with the best camera on the market and then not to be able to rely on it. I've lost so many irreplaceable shots It's EMBARRASSING to show up with the best camera and leave with the worst (zero) pics, or have people ask you to use your fancy camera for their priceless shots and then later have to tell them their memories are lost.
The current card is a Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10, but I've tried 2 other ones.
VS98611A
Android 5.1

daveynozen said:
When I take pics/videos and the camera is set to store to the SD card, it will often corrupt the images. The bad part is that the thumbnails that it shows in the camera viewer are fine, but when you use Gallery or any other apps to view them, they are corrupted. I 'solved' it a while ago by saving to the internal storage, but occasionally it will revert to SD card storage and I'll loose pics until i notice!
First question- are the corrupted files recoverable?
Next, is there a fix? Just random answers showed up on Google- usual factory resets/wipes which are iffy and temporary.
Or, is there a way to keep the camera set to internal storage?
It's just <expletive deleted> to buy a phone with the best camera on the market and then not to be able to rely on it. I've lost so many irreplaceable shots It's EMBARRASSING to show up with the best camera and leave with the worst (zero) pics, or have people ask you to use your fancy camera for their priceless shots and then later have to tell them their memories are lost.
The current card is a Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10, but I've tried 2 other ones.
VS98611A
Android 5.1
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I would be so upset if this would happen to me, I understand how you feel.
Sorry to be the one bringing the bad news but recovering/repairing the corrupted files would be really hard (I tried it with some corrupted photos I had a year ago).
In my case the photos were accidentally deleted then recovered with recovery software.
I just recently got my G4 and I didn't try yet saving any photos on the SD card.
How often does it happen for you? Every 10, 100 pics? Totally random?
Have you always had this problem? Is your phone rooted, unlocked, have you done any changes like that to it?
What you can try is activate the option to save the RAW files along with the .JPG so maybe one of the 2 files would survive.
Then you can check and delete the RAW files if the .JPG files are ok.
Wiping the phone with a factory reset would be another thing I would try.
As a last resort, send the phone to LG for servicing. Hope you find a solution.

Generally when it does it, it corrupts them all, so you lose ALL the pics from that event or whatever, not just a few. Just to make a liar out of me, today when i tested it, it did 1 good, 1 bad, then 4 good.
It was 'fixed' for a while after the initial incident as i simply didn't put an SD card in it. Until I put in one about a week ago, then at some point the camera started writing there and I didn't notice until a day later after I went to upload some pics from a party the night before.
It was a stock phone when it happened, but last night I rooted it to attempt to recover the thumbnails (they seem vary large as you can zoom in pretty far), I looked for them but couldn't fine them when unrooted. They weren't in the .thumbnails folder nor any other place I looked so thouth they must be in some protected folder that required root. But from the rooting or time passed, the thumbnails disappeared from the camera.
Wiping may fix it for a while, but I don't know if it comes back. It's not unique to me, according to Google, but those that have wiped say it starts corrupting again. And the thing is, they look fine in the camera app so the only way to tell is if you switch from camera to gallery or another pic app.
I wouldn't mind shooting in RAW but RAW only works in some manual modes, another big disappointment.
I was thinking of switching camera apps but it's not clear if the other apps support things like the laser focusing.
I bought it from ebay so not sure about the warranty, and if they'll do anything with an intermittent problem. They'll probably take one good pic and call it good
s0ulreaver said:
I would be so upset if this would happen to me, I understand how you feel.
Sorry to be the one bringing the bad news but recovering/repairing the corrupted files would be really hard (I tried it with some corrupted photos I had a year ago).
In my case the photos were accidentally deleted then recovered with recovery software.
I just recently got my G4 and I didn't try yet saving any photos on the SD card.
How often does it happen for you? Every 10, 100 pics? Totally random?
Have you always had this problem? Is your phone rooted, unlocked, have you done any changes like that to it?
What you can try is activate the option to save the RAW files along with the .JPG so maybe one of the 2 files would survive.
Then you can check and delete the RAW files if the .JPG files are ok.
Wiping the phone with a factory reset would be another thing I would try.
As a last resort, send the phone to LG for servicing. Hope you find a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

daveynozen said:
When I take pics/videos and the camera is set to store to the SD card, it will often corrupt the images. The bad part is that the thumbnails that it shows in the camera viewer are fine, but when you use Gallery or any other apps to view them, they are corrupted. I 'solved' it a while ago by saving to the internal storage, but occasionally it will revert to SD card storage and I'll loose pics until i notice!
First question- are the corrupted files recoverable?
Next, is there a fix? Just random answers showed up on Google- usual factory resets/wipes which are iffy and temporary.
Or, is there a way to keep the camera set to internal storage?
It's just <expletive deleted> to buy a phone with the best camera on the market and then not to be able to rely on it. I've lost so many irreplaceable shots It's EMBARRASSING to show up with the best camera and leave with the worst (zero) pics, or have people ask you to use your fancy camera for their priceless shots and then later have to tell them their memories are lost.
The current card is a Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10, but I've tried 2 other ones.
VS98611A
Android 5.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is always better to save the photos/ videos in phone memory and copying them to memory card in regular basis.so you are swtting internal storage but still it is going to memory card after some time?
is the setting in stock camera app is really changing to memory card in settings?

Didn't quite get that, but I set the stock app to internal and it has switched to external SD. I haven't intentionally changed it to SD, but I can't say for 100% that it wasn't an accidental button press. If it was an accident or bug, net result is the same- at some point I start loosing pics and don't find out about it until later.

daveynozen said:
Generally when it does it, it corrupts them all, so you lose ALL the pics from that event or whatever, not just a few. Just to make a liar out of me, today when i tested it, it did 1 good, 1 bad, then 4 good.
It was 'fixed' for a while after the initial incident as i simply didn't put an SD card in it. Until I put in one about a week ago, then at some point the camera started writing there and I didn't notice until a day later after I went to upload some pics from a party the night before.
It was a stock phone when it happened, but last night I rooted it to attempt to recover the thumbnails (they seem vary large as you can zoom in pretty far), I looked for them but couldn't fine them when unrooted. They weren't in the .thumbnails folder nor any other place I looked so thouth they must be in some protected folder that required root. But from the rooting or time passed, the thumbnails disappeared from the camera.
Wiping may fix it for a while, but I don't know if it comes back. It's not unique to me, according to Google, but those that have wiped say it starts corrupting again. And the thing is, they look fine in the camera app so the only way to tell is if you switch from camera to gallery or another pic app.
I wouldn't mind shooting in RAW but RAW only works in some manual modes, another big disappointment.
I was thinking of switching camera apps but it's not clear if the other apps support things like the laser focusing.
I bought it from ebay so not sure about the warranty, and if they'll do anything with an intermittent problem. They'll probably take one good pic and call it good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not use the LG gallery app as I don't like how it is sharpening the photos. I always use Quickpic, it's better, way faster and free.
Have you tried a factory reset or reflash an original LG OS image if you are rooted?
Maybe your phone has a hardware problem, can you call LG and ask what your options are?
What is the exact model of your phone? What are the 1st 3 digits of your S/N?
LG phones made from June to August are prone to the boot loop problem, maybe this is something else...

Question Possible storage bug

Hi XDA,
First time posting so sorry if I'm missing anything.
I have had my OP 9PRO since this summer and have absolutely loved it so far however some time ago I had some problems with updating the phone as it appeared that update would never download. But after that, recently my phone just informed me that the phone is basically full which I'm suprised by as i do have a lot of photos on there, but no movies or anything anymore.
Is it possible that the updates actually HAVE downloaded and are chilling somewhere taking up space in a folder I cant easily see?
My phone is rooted so if i downloaded that update 10X, its about 30GB extra of storage probably.
Attached are 2 screenshots, 1 of the storage overview and 1 of the app storage overview as it says there's about 55 Gigs in there.
Thank you guys in advance!

I'm attempting to bump this topic, maybe someone can help me with this

1. Screenshot, shows how much a app (cache and data) use.
2. Screenshot, how much space is occupied.
I cant see any bug. 119 of 128GB is correct. If i calculate right, u are using 118.66GB
The app is old, but it works without any problem: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/ivan-volosyuk/diskusage/diskusage-4-0-2-release/

RheinPirat said:
1. Screenshot, shows how much a app (cache and data) use.
2. Screenshot, how much space is occupied.
I cant see any bug. 119 of 128GB is correct. If i calculate right, u are using 118.66GB
The app is old, but it works without any problem: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/ivan-volosyuk/diskusage/diskusage-4-0-2-release/
View attachment 5488577
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Rhein,
Thanks for your reply. this is the result from that app. As you can see, its simply the "media storage "app"" using all the 30GB of space that I am "missing". Would you know what could be causing it?
Thanks so much

I quote Joeeye from the Samsung forum, where someone else had the same question about "media storage"
03-04-2021 02:49 PM - last edited ‎03-04-2021 02:55 PM ) in
Galaxy S21 Series
Media storage will just be a system app which monitors and reports all media data on your phone, ie camera video and photos, music, movies etc. You can't wipe it as it's an in built system app which isn't really taking much space. The 70GB I assume is an amalgamation of all your media files on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Media Storage consumes a lot of data
Hi, I realized that a Media Storage app consumes a lot of data - almost 70GB! I have no idea, what exactly it is. I googled and it should be some new system how to work with storage for applications but... which is inside, which application uses it so much and how can I reduce the amount of...
eu.community.samsung.com
or here
OnePlus Community
Introducing our new OnePlus Community experience, with a completely revamped structure, built from the ground-up.
forums.oneplus.com
I also found this:
The OnePlus Media Storage app is taking up too much damn storage, and no one knows why
Gobbling up over 100 GB on some people's phones
www.androidpolice.com

OnePlus 9 Pro 128GB, also storage problems.
I've read multiple topics about this issue and the only thing that works temporarily is to completely reset the phone to factory settings (wipe all data).
Tried the following things:
- Clear recently deleted files from gallery (not much there since update)
- Wipe Cache
- Wipe Data (full reset)
See attached screen shot of my system storage taking up too much space. I'm not feeling like wiping my phone every couple of months...
Any ideas to solve this bug?

Florissilfhout said:
OnePlus 9 Pro 128GB, also storage problems.
I've read multiple topics about this issue and the only thing that works temporarily is to completely reset the phone to factory settings (wipe all data).
Tried the following things:
- Clear recently deleted files from gallery (not much there since update)
- Wipe Cache
- Wipe Data (full reset)
See attached screen shot of my system storage taking up too much space. I'm not feeling like wiping my phone every couple of months...
Any ideas to solve this bug?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other people had this happen a long time ago they fixed it by using the msm tool
It will wipe your data you have so backup first

I used the MSM Tool and went completely back to stock. System storage (after restoring backup) is now on 8,8 GB. I will have to see if it stays there... Thanks for the suggestion.
EDIT:
Addition, I went to 11.2.4.4 from MSM, to 11.2.10.10 through OTA.

Is there any other solution except of using MSM Tool ? I just did factory reset recently, I'm not willing to do that again...
Thank you.

BTw, not good...
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...f-storage-how-do-i-solve-these-issue.1518111/
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/system-storage-issue.1533556/
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/system-storage-issue.1509797/
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...how-188gb-any-solution-to-restore-it.1482320/
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/storage-capacity-easily-getting-full.1474036/
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/system-using-31-gb-space.1534439/

Yeah I found those topics as well.
In the meantime, my system storage has increased to 11GB (which would be within normal operating limits).

May I ask you how you have performed backup and restore? I don't believe there is some hassle free solotion...

I went old school:
Hooked my phone up to my computer with USB cable and file transfer; copied the folders Downloads, DCIM, and some other folder I thought important (Telegram for instance). For WhatsApp I created a backup from within the app to Google Drive. For phone settings I used the Backup&Restore function from Settings - System - Backup.
Oh and maybe make screenshots of your Home Screen pages, so you know which app (shortcut) you had where.
So no hassle free solution unfortunately.

Florissilfhout said:
I went old school:
Hooked my phone up to my computer with USB cable and file transfer; copied the folders Downloads, DCIM, and some other folder I thought important (Telegram for instance). For WhatsApp I created a backup from within the app to Google Drive. For phone settings I used the Backup&Restore function from Settings - System - Backup.
Oh and maybe make screenshots of your Home Screen pages, so you know which app (shortcut) you had where.
So no hassle free solution unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it fixed after the reset? Currently i have 60GB++ system

I did the same thing and it did fix it, i can recommend doing it.

I feel as if it's still increasing slightly, but less after the last update. I think 17GB for system is quite a lot, especially when there's also 17GB for 'other'?
I was just thinking the other day that I should perform the reset once more on this firmware version but you know... it takes time and effort.

You could try running SDMaid with root permissions and see if that clears things up.

I don't have it rooted anymore, just in case that was the issue. So that won't work for me unfortunately.

Florissilfhout said:
View attachment 5639123
I feel as if it's still increasing slightly, but less after the last update. I think 17GB for system is quite a lot, especially when there's also 17GB for 'other'?
I was just thinking the other day that I should perform the reset once more on this firmware version but you know... it takes time and effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So this is weird... Just checked the size again and it has dropped down to 1,61GB!
Haven't done anything special. Rebooted the phone approximately 38 hours ago, nothing else.

linus tech tips uploaded a video about it.