[Q] Shrink System ROM Size? - Xperia Play Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

On my Play, the System ROM is 327mb with 120mb free. The Internal Storage is 398mb with 25mb free.
My question is: How can I take the wasted space from the System ROM and make it usable as part of the Internal Storage?

I'm not sure it's currently possible... Even on rooted or unlocked devices, it's not always possible to change the partition table - I think on a lot of devices the partition table is still stored somewhere you don't have access to (like within the bootloader or in other portions of flash memory, etc.)
Though if I'm wrong and there is some easy way to do this, someone please correct me. I'm speaking from my experience as a Nexus One user - it was simple to unlock being the first Google Nexus device. But people didn't mess with the partition table until they achieved something called S-OFF, which I think stands for Security Off allowing them to use custom hboot's (bootloader) and reconfigure the partition table (some users want to do this for ICS since the N1 didn't have much onboard storage). I may be wrong here too, but I think that's how it works - I haven't taken the time to fully understand it and haven't played with my N1 in a while or actually tried the ICS.
It should be possible to move important apps you always want available to your system partition though, essentially making them part of your ROM and freeing up space that way - I think I've heard that Titanium Backup might be able to do this.
Sorry this isn't much help.
~Troop

You could try routing a directory into the system partition with a symlink (always backup important data first of course, in case something goes wrong)

Longpress a user app in titanium backup and choose 'convert to system app'
Sent from my R800x using xda premium

Trooper_Max said:
I'm not sure it's currently possible... Even on rooted or unlocked devices, it's not always possible to change the partition table - I think on a lot of devices the partition table is still stored somewhere you don't have access to (like within the bootloader or in other portions of flash memory, etc.)
Though if I'm wrong and there is some easy way to do this, someone please correct me. I'm speaking from my experience as a Nexus One user - it was simple to unlock being the first Google Nexus device. But people didn't mess with the partition table until they achieved something called S-OFF, which I think stands for Security Off allowing them to use custom hboot's (bootloader) and reconfigure the partition table (some users want to do this for ICS since the N1 didn't have much onboard storage). I may be wrong here too, but I think that's how it works - I haven't taken the time to fully understand it and haven't played with my N1 in a while or actually tried the ICS.
It should be possible to move important apps you always want available to your system partition though, essentially making them part of your ROM and freeing up space that way - I think I've heard that Titanium Backup might be able to do this.
Sorry this isn't much help.
~Troop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sony have locked down the device, even with unlocked bootloader, security prevents us access to things like the partition table. AFAIK hboot/bootloader is responsible for controling partition table.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio X315e using Tapatalk 2

Double post sorry lol

Trygon said:
Longpress a user app in titanium backup and choose 'convert to system app'
Sent from my R800x using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked beautifully! Thanks so much.

Related

[Q] Should I root for app2sd?

I just got my new Desire a few days before. It works like a charm. The only 2 things I feel unsatisfied are: battery life and ROM capacity.
There is not much I can do on the battery side. I can put it aside and get used to that. But the ROM is really painful for me -- When I get the device, it had around 150MB free memory. But it is only 22MB left now!
I noticed that the Android 2.2 supported to install application on SD card. I used adb shell to setup the default installation to SD, and moved most of the programs to the SD card. However, it seems that internal memory was not free up as much as I was expected. Indeed, I did not have many software installed. And I am very suspicious if the cache of software (like mail, google maps, etc.) might always stay on internal memory.
I think one solution to solve the problem is to root my device and partition the SD card to increase the program storage. But I am worrying if it might bring security risk from malwares, or make the phone run slower and have bigger power consumption when use SD card more frequently.
Do you root your device for the app2sd? What's the pros and cons? I want to take your opinion before make the decision. Any suggestion will be very appreciated!
w162 said:
I just got my new Desire a few days before. It works like a charm. The only 2 things I feel unsatisfied are: battery life and ROM capacity.
There is not much I can do on the battery side. I can put it aside and get used to that. But the ROM is really painful for me -- When I get the device, it had around 150MB free memory. But it is only 22MB left now!
I noticed that the Android 2.2 supported to install application on SD card. I used adb shell to setup the default installation to SD, and moved most of the programs to the SD card. However, it seems that internal memory was not free up as much as I was expected. Indeed, I did not have many software installed. And I am very suspicious if the cache of software (like mail, google maps, etc.) might always stay on internal memory.
I think one solution to solve the problem is to root my device and partition the SD card to increase the program storage. But I am worrying if it might bring security risk from malwares, or make the phone run slower and have bigger power consumption when use SD card more frequently.
Do you root your device for the app2sd? What's the pros and cons? I want to take your opinion before make the decision. Any suggestion will be very appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting , followed by alpha rev s-off n1 partitioning, is by far the best thing, so much fun.
I use defrost based on cyanogen mod, great support, and ota feature, with kernels galore, and the all important a2sd built in. As long as you have an ext partition on your sd card, all apps go straight into the ext partition with out you having to do anything.
Also remember is not jail breaking
Desire is the source of all suffering.
nitrox1 said:
Rooting , followed by alpha rev s-off n1 partitioning, is by far the best thing, so much fun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does alpha rev s-off allow you to do?
It basically provides full root access for your desire as opposed to soft root, where you could only r/w to the to the /system partition while in recovery mode.
What is S-OFF ? (Quotes from original AlphaRev website)
HTC implemented security on their new generation phones. This flag, called @secuflag, controls whether your phone has it's NAND or flash unlocked. Most noticibly S-ON (security on) will read-lock your /system and /recovery partition, to name a few. Also, controls whether zip files being flashed recovery or fastboot, are signed by HTC The now notorious S-OFF (security off) disable this NAND security. Since we are unable to access the Radio itself (where secuflag is stored), we turn attention to HBOOT.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
MasDroid said:
It basically provides full root access for your desire as opposed to soft root, where you could only r/w to the to the /system partition while in recovery mode.
What is S-OFF ? (Quotes from original AlphaRev website)
HTC implemented security on their new generation phones. This flag, called @secuflag, controls whether your phone has it's NAND or flash unlocked. Most noticibly S-ON (security on) will read-lock your /system and /recovery partition, to name a few. Also, controls whether zip files being flashed recovery or fastboot, are signed by HTC The now notorious S-OFF (security off) disable this NAND security. Since we are unable to access the Radio itself (where secuflag is stored), we turn attention to HBOOT.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does it allow you to do that you can't do without it?
stats101 said:
What does it allow you to do that you can't do without it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It unlocks NAND so that you can write into /system partition. You can also flash radio, custom kernel, custom recovery, any unsigned ROM directly via fastboot without ClockWorks Rom Manager.
When you can write to /system, MetaMorph, AdFree and other apps that require access to this partition will just work. You don't need to reboot into recovery in order to delete/change/add files. Superuser will be able to update su binary automatically, Busybox Installer from Market will have no problems installing the most recent version directly into /system/bin or /system/xbin, etc.
While most users probably don't need it, it's very useful for developers. You can change system configs on the fly, add and load custom kernel modules without reboot and so on.
Basically, it will make your phone fully unlocked, just like the Nexus One developer phone.
nitrox1 said:
Desire is the source of all suffering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't agree with that any more now

Making a bigger /data partition for apps

I've been wanting to make a larger /data partition on a Droid Incredible. I mean, after all, it comes with a lot of storage. But there is not nearly enough for apps. Sure. I can use my SD card. But unless there is something I'm not aware of, you can only install some apps to the SD and even when you do, pieces of that app still exist in /data. But what's even worse is the fact that I already use my SD card for movies and videos and such and I just don't really use the unclaimed space of which there is plenty, in the phone, for that sort of thing and yet I can't use it to install apps. I haven't found too much on this topic outside of using App2SD. I did find a lot of talk of using parted and even gparted. But this talk is generally about partitioning your SD card. If I were to use parted or gparted to resize the /data partition at the expense of another partition's space and I did it properly, would the Android system not boot because of it? And if this is doable, is there a better, easier way to do it than using parted and adb or gparted? Also, is there a guide for resizing your /data partition? I could probably survive without one if I had to but it would really be helpful just in case there are some big DO NOT DO's that should be avoided that aren't obvious. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
enigmatl said:
I've been wanting to make a larger /data partition on a Droid Incredible. I mean, after all, it comes with a lot of storage. But there is not nearly enough for apps. Sure. I can use my SD card. But unless there is something I'm not aware of, you can only install some apps to the SD and even when you do, pieces of that app still exist in /data. But what's even worse is the fact that I already use my SD card for movies and videos and such and I just don't really use the unclaimed space of which there is plenty, in the phone, for that sort of thing and yet I can't use it to install apps. I haven't found too much on this topic outside of using App2SD. I did find a lot of talk of using parted and even gparted. But this talk is generally about partitioning your SD card. If I were to use parted or gparted to resize the /data partition at the expense of another partition's space and I did it properly, would the Android system not boot because of it? And if this is doable, is there a better, easier way to do it than using parted and adb or gparted? Also, is there a guide for resizing your /data partition? I could probably survive without one if I had to but it would really be helpful just in case there are some big DO NOT DO's that should be avoided that aren't obvious. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
theres around 780mb in there thats not enough?
JoelZ9614 said:
theres around 780mb in there thats not enough?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's talking about /data/data/ which is like 150mb, I use the NotEnoughSpace app it lets you store data on cache, emmc, sd card, you should check it out.
Well, I messed with notenoughspace too which was my eason for posting. This was the app that made me say enough is enough, can I just resize /data/data?.
-1- So much space on the incredible is going to waste while programs such as these would have me put apps on the SD where I really do want space for my other stuff like music and movies.
-2- Unless I missed a button or option, NotEnoughSpace came off as annoying to me. I would go into apps and wait for a minute for it to scan every time I do it and then I pick an app, for example Beejive. It makes me move it ONE FILE AT A TIME. And even then, there is stuff you can't move. Can I not just move the app, all of it in one click?
But most importantly, I just want more space on /data/data. I want to resize the partition. The phone has what, 8 gigs on it and allows 150 mb for apps in there which is just crazy.
Can I resize the partition where apps are stored (/data/data) by way of parted or gparted? to avoid the annoyance of using my external storage which I want to use for movies and music? There's probably 6 or so gigs on my phone I'll never use for media that should be meant for apps.
Has anybody resized the data partition? Are there consequences to doing it if it's done properly? Is there a guide? What is the easiest way to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
enigmatl said:
Well, I messed with notenoughspace too which was my eason for posting. This was the app that made me say enough is enough, can I just resize /data/data?.
-1- So much space on the incredible is going to waste while programs such as these would have me put apps on the SD where I really do want space for my other stuff like music and movies.
-2- Unless I missed a button or option, NotEnoughSpace came off as annoying to me. I would go into apps and wait for a minute for it to scan every time I do it and then I pick an app, for example Beejive. It makes me move it ONE FILE AT A TIME. And even then, there is stuff you can't move. Can I not just move the app, all of it in one click?
But most importantly, I just want more space on /data/data. I want to resize the partition. The phone has what, 8 gigs on it and allows 150 mb for apps in there which is just crazy.
Can I resize the partition where apps are stored (/data/data) by way of parted or gparted? to avoid the annoyance of using my external storage which I want to use for movies and music? There's probably 6 or so gigs on my phone I'll never use for media that should be meant for apps.
Has anybody resized the data partition? Are there consequences to doing it if it's done properly? Is there a guide? What is the easiest way to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask conap hes good with this type of thing
Making progress but still need help.
There's some talk on the net that you can modify the size of the .img files that nandroid makes and simply flash them back to your phone.
Problem is, I can't find a windows way to do it on the net. The closest that I've come is a program called toporesize. This program will let you open files such as data.img from your nandroid backup. But you can't resize them because you get an error box that says this appears to not be an ext* filesystem. Check size file only to resize the file or use other tools. I'm assuming that means it wants you to check a button that says resize file only no resize2fs. In the one guide I found that talks about this app, it says do not check this box. So I'm assuming if you did, it would work and then when you flashed the file back to your phone, it would either not boot or the size would not be changed properly.
I also noted that there's a thread or two that has posted some custom sized data.img files for download. I would do this as a last resort but would prefer to resize my own data.img for a more precise choice of how large I want it.
The error mentions other tools. Are there other tools or programs for Windows users?
Does anybody have any insight on resizing the /data/data partition either by this method, by using parted/gparted, or any other method that works effectively?
I would avoid trying to alter the size of the partitions on your phone. That is how you end up with a brick. There are other ways including finding out which apps are taking up all of your space. 150 MB does not sound like a lot, but it is considering what is stored there.
Go into Manage Applications and click on the All tab. Then press the menu key and sort by size. Click on the apps near the top with anything higher than 3 or 4 MB. Look at the details in the storage section for each app. You will see a Data line item. If it is really high in proportion of the size of the Application, you should clear it. That will save you a lot of space.
In the case of the Mail app or other social networking apps like Facebook or Twitter, you can go into the settings and restrict how much data is stored on the phone. They can really eat up space by downloading a month of emails, etc ...
ihtfp69 said:
I would avoid trying to alter the size of the partitions on your phone. That is how you end up with a brick. There are other ways including finding out which apps are taking up all of your space. 150 MB does not sound like a lot, but it is considering what is stored there.
Go into Manage Applications and click on the All tab. Then press the menu key and sort by size. Click on the apps near the top with anything higher than 3 or 4 MB. Look at the details in the storage section for each app. You will see a Data line item. If it is really high in proportion of the size of the Application, you should clear it. That will save you a lot of space.
In the case of the Mail app or other social networking apps like Facebook or Twitter, you can go into the settings and restrict how much data is stored on the phone. They can really eat up space by downloading a month of emails, etc ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This request is meant with respect and NOT as a flame but I have to make this request so others don't follow and potentially change the thread into a debate on whether to resize or not resize the partition.
Please let's not start talking about whether this is a good idea or not nor if doing this can make our phone into a brick. Now that it's been said, those lurking and considering this for themselves can make up their own minds. But there are a lot of things talked about throughout XDA that can make your phone into a brick yet things are done in the name of making our devices better.
And yes. We can take action to reduce the amount of data that apps are taking up. To tell you the truth, I would do that even if I had a 1GB partition. I think always saving space when space can be saved is a good idea.
But just in principle, I and probably others want to reclaim that space on our phones that will never be used by anything. Maybe HTC allocated the space as it's allocated because some users won't use an SD card and will then use that space for their media and other miscellaneous stuff.
But once you have an SD card that's way bigger than the extra space on your phone, it becomes pointless to use that space on your phone for media. So I want it available for data.
So both sides of whether to do this or not have now been posed. I ask can we please get back to the topic of how to though I do thank you for your input.
That said, again, does anybody know how to resize your data partition whether by doing it live with parted or gparted or by editing the data.img file that nandroid via clockwork mod puts out? I would really appreciate it.
I tried making a nandroid backup of the phone through clockworkmod, sending the data.img file to my computer, using toporesize to resize it. And by the way, I was forced to check the resize file only no resize2fs button as not doing this generated an error. I then used md5sum to get an md5sum for the new data.img. I then inserted the md5sum in clockwork/nandroid's nandroid.md5 file (with a linux file compatable text editor). I then sent the entire backup back to the phone in a different clockworkmod/backup folder, used rom manager to restore, selected the new resized backup.
After the flashing was complete, I went into my phone only to find that the data partition still had the same amount free (give or take a few K). I wondered if that's because I had to shrink the system file? I was thinking before I started that it's probable that I would have to shrink another partition that had free space so I chose system. I attempted to repeat the above steps from the beginning this time with the plan of shrinking system.img.
No go. toporesize will not shrink it properly. Errors are reported in the process though when I reload it into toporesize, it looks like it has the size I want. Knowing it would probably fail, I tried to continue anyway. Even with the correct md5sum, nandroid won't even start the recovery of that set. You get a status bar for a second and then, the phone just reboots.
So for now, I'm at a loss but I know this can be done.
Whether using this method or another, does anybody know how to properly change the size of the data partition using WINDOWS?
Don't come crying when you brick it.
ihtfp69 said:
Don't come crying when you brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no intentions of such. -1- I will quite likely never brick it as nandroid pretty much has me covered. But if I do, -2- I don't plan on having this phone forever. It's not new any more. There are already several models that are better than the droid incredible that I'm looking at. If I were to brick this phone, yay. Good excuse to buy a new phone. But, odds are, i'll never brick it and come November or December, I'll buy something else anyhow.
So please, this isn't about the risks, of course you can brick your phone trying this or many other things on XDA.
Does anyone know how to resize the data partition using any method that can be done with the help of a Windows machine?
This is a fundamental change to a very sensitive area you have
276 mb for the system rom and 748mb for user apps.Many rom devs seem to be straining to keep the rom below 200mb and it is amazingly easy to fill up 748 mb with little apps.
I would think if it were possible to do this it would have been done by the rom devs first thing. I would love to see a rom dev bump this to 500mb and 1024mb.
Chances are to re partition the partitions on the phones memory is not possible with out a hboot flash or something of a custom bootloader...
I find removing these help... Also i use handcent and gmail.app instead of the stock apps...
friendstream
peep
twitter
flicker
stocks app
facebook
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
enigmatl said:
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
748mb is the size of the entire /data partition what us devs are doing with the new roms is symlinking things to the /system from /data i've managed to do it without symlinking but it bring the /system to its limits and thats usually not good to do
enigmatl said:
748 mb? I only have 150 available in /data/data. How do you get 748?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my /data/data i have 95.96 MB free
rom 35MB free
app space 212 MB free
internal 6.44GB free
Also /data/data is a different partition than /data so the 150 is not included as part of the 748.
Resize /data/data partition - Update?
Did you ever find a solution to resizing the HTC Incredible's partitions?
I too am fed up with having to constantly clear caches and uninstalled apps, just because the tiny 150MB partition fills up. It's been a problem since my wife and I bought our phones.
I expect it would have to be done by a custom bootloader, but thought I would check and see if you had any success.
If nandroid recreates the partition tables based on the sizes of the .img partition backups, then they could probably be resized by mounting the .IMG files directly under Linux and using Linux tools to resize each one - or - creating a new .img partition of the new size(s), mount the backups and copy everything over to the new one, unmount it and go from there?
Steve
Have you used the Ext4 mod created by Tiny and Jermaine151?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623038
...and the following is the original thread which has the details of what exactly the mod does:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315372
If I'm reading this (outdated) thread correctly, this mod is what you're looking for in regards to partitioning /data/data. The second link is provided in the OP of my first link.
SlimSnoopOS said:
Have you used the Ext4 mod created by Tiny and Jermaine151?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623038
...and the following is the original thread which has the details of what exactly the mod does:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315372
If I'm reading this (outdated) thread correctly, this mod is what you're looking for in regards to partitioning /data/data. The second link is provided in the OP of my first link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said ^^^^
Just do it.

[Q] Data recovery on Xperia S (rooted)

Hi all,
Just wanted to start by saying, big thanks to DooMLoRD and the rest of the xda-developers forum for providing me the tools to get root access to a friends phone, who has recently accidentally deleted all their photos and videos. If we are successful, I'll definitely be suggesting that they make a donation to Doom for his epic contributions
I'm trying to help them recover the lost media. I know that typically performing data recovery on a phone requires root access, so I have gone ahead and done this. On with...
My question:
I've got an Xperia S running Jellybean (4.1.2) which is rooted. However attempting to use my data recovery tools on the phone, the device is not shown as a storage device. As you may well be aware, the S does not come with external storage. The S also has the 'mass storage mode' removed. Nice one Sony, give professionals another reason to avoid your products in the future...
I don't want to Flash the phone since any added files will start destroying the potentially recoverable data (plus I'd simply rather not format the phone if possible).
Is it possible to mount the internal storage of the Sony Xperia S as a drive so that I can run my PC based data recovery tools on it?
I imagine App Store apps are too lightweight to handle a file-based undeletion. If I could just see the device in my recovery apps I'm sure I'd be in business! I've attempted Recuva and R-Studio.
Doing some more research (like a good little n00b) I imagine I'm going to need SD Mounter.
I'm a little thrown off because 'SD' usually describes SD cards (of which the Xperia S has none). Also, the screenshots (for SD mounter) seem to indicate it's for ICS so I'm not sure if there's going to be a compatibility issue there.
Am I barking up the wrong tree by making this assumption? Should JellyBean have access to the mass storage and the option is simply not showing for some reason? Anyway, I'll continue working under my assumptions until someone suggests otherwise...
To get SD Mounter running, I'm going to need BusyBox. The problem is, I'm trying to read the BusyBox installation FAQ, and I'm finding it very vague. Like...
and save it under the name "busybox"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but it does not specify WHERE. Make a folder called 'busybox' on the root folder of the phone? Somewhere on my PC (the page suggests its for the PC rather than the phone)? Also I'm seeing Linux-looking command lines, but I'm on a PC... can I run this via the command prompt in Windows? I downloaded the 'binaries' like it said, but there aren't any executables in here...
Can anyone shed some light?
There's an app called BusyBox Installer, that installs it correctly on my Xperia S. That SD Mounter app works perfectly on 4.1.2, though. I use time to time. It just messes up a bit with Media Scanner, requiring me to do a reboot on the phone to make it work again.
I wish you lot of luck trying to recover your files. I once tried something like that, but came unsuccessful. There were some media I wish I had saved, but it wasn't THAT important, so I just gave up.
Suggest to your friend, though, to get an account on Mega, Box.net or Dropbox. All of them has auto backup of camera media to the server. All of them has options to backup only on WiFi, and even when charging only. The first two has 50 Gb of free storage for life (Box, you just need to sign with your Xperia device), and the later only 2 Gb, but you can get more and more with promotions.
Alternatively, he can enable the Google+ Auto Backup. There is 15 Gb (shared with Gmail and Google Drive) for pictures on original resolution or unlimited on 2048px, compressed. On Google+, though, you have the Auto Awesome, which make some awesome images.
Hope it helped. If I can help any further, just tag me
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk
Hey Felimenta97, thanks for your swift response!
Felimenta97 said:
There's an app called BusyBox Installer...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see 'BusyBox Installer' in the Play Store, is that the one? Seems strange that the Play Store would add an app that requires rooting. Just wanna make sure I shouldn't be looking for it somewhere else (plus I'm away from that phone at the moment)
Felimenta97 said:
It just messes up a bit with Media Scanner, requiring me to do a reboot on the phone to make it work again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's okay. I've warned them this process might even brick their entire phone. They are prepared (I hope) for complete loss/compromised apps
Felimenta97 said:
...I wish you lot of luck trying to recover your files. I once tried something like that, but came unsuccessful...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*touches wood*. Gah I'm suddenly 10 times less confident this file recovery is gonna work. Wish me luck! They'll be crushed if I can't get their media back...
Felimenta97 said:
...get an account on Mega, Box.net or Dropbox...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh trust me, I've already given them the lecture
Thanks for your help!
TheWaste said:
Hey Felimenta97, thanks for your swift response!
I see 'BusyBox Installer' in the Play Store, is that the one? Seems strange that the Play Store would add an app that requires rooting. Just wanna make sure I shouldn't be looking for it somewhere else (plus I'm away from that phone at the moment)
That's okay. I've warned them this process might even brick their entire phone. They are prepared (I hope) for complete loss/compromised apps
*touches wood*. Gah I'm suddenly 10 times less confident this file recovery is gonna work. Wish me luck! They'll be crushed if I can't get their media back...
Oh trust me, I've already given them the lecture
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm a lazy person, who can't find a way to break quotes into multiple parts (serious, how do you Do that, without having to write the quote code every time? It is not much, but I'm really lazy, so yeah.
Yep, that's the app. There's no reason for Google to block root apps. It's a function of the OS itself, just hidden from users. It's one of the easiest things to do on a Nexus device, after all. It's hidden because, if used without caution, can soft brick your device. But, don't worry, that shouldn't do any harm. At it least it hasn't with my device until now haha
As I said, I had already lost lots of stuff, and I didn't bothered much to go any further to recover it. It was a simply Install Recuva, run on the SD card and see if I could restore anything. Nothing? OK, no worries. As you already mentioned in your first post, avoid at all costs writing new files to the SD Card partition.
About the lecture, yeah, I imagined you had already told them, but it doesn't hurt to tell anyway.
About the SD Card on the Xperia S, another technical info you might or might not know, and also doesn't hurt to tell. Until Android 2.3, devices with a big internal storage required a partition for cache, one for data (apps and their own data), one for system, and one SD Card. The last one in Fat32 (plus others, but those are just too small and insignificant, for most, anyway) Think of a normal hard drive with plenty of partitions. Since Xperia S was developed (and launched) with 2.3 (one of Sony's biggest mistakes with this phone), it had to follow those "guidelines".
With Android 4.0 and beyond, the above mentioned data and SD Card turned into one partition, in Ext4 format. That data partition stores both apps and their data, and also other types of media, like media, documents, and etc. That storage goes into a mounted folder.
Anyway, again, wish you good luck. If they aren't very close friends/relatives, you should charge some money for all the hassle if you recover haha
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Felimenta97 said:
how do you Do that, without having to write the quote code every time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, actually I still kinda do. #hen I hit 'reply' I empty the quote block, copy the empty quote block a few times, then copy-paste the parts of the text I'm replying to as I go
Felimenta97 said:
avoid at all costs writing new files to the SD Card partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah absolutely.
Felimenta97 said:
Until Android 2.3, devices with a big internal storage required a partition for cache, one for data (apps and their own data), one for system, and one SD Card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jeaz. Thank god I don't have to eff around with that!
Felimenta97 said:
With Android 4.0 and beyond, the above mentioned data and SD Card turned into one partition, in Ext4 format. That data partition stores both apps and their data, and also other types of media, like media, documents, and etc. That storage goes into a mounted folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't need to re-format the internal storage of the phone to attempt recovery do I?
Thanks again Felimenta!
TheWaste said:
Haha, actually I still kinda do. #hen I hit 'reply' I empty the quote block, copy the empty quote block a few times, then copy-paste the parts of the text I'm replying to as I go
Yeah absolutely.
Jeaz. Thank god I don't have to eff around with that!
I don't need to re-format the internal storage of the phone to attempt recovery do I?
Thanks again Felimenta!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not in Xperia S case. As I said, it is on Fat32, so it is easily mount-able on Windows.
On any phone with Android 4.0 or more, you'd need a Linux to do the recovery. You can't format it, or else you will turn the device into a really expensive paperweight.
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[Q] memory problems on find 7

Hi there
Im having trouble with my find 7 recently-when Im trying to install an app its says the device has insufficient memory while the free space on the phone is 22gb. so right now I cant install anything
how can this be resolved?
thanks
Unfortunately, the free space available for media and other documents is not the same space available for installing apps in the system.
Basically, there are two different partitions: The System one (which the system can only use) and the User one (the one that you can use). Most phones have a unified partition, so that the system and the user partitions vary as needed.
Oppo thought it would be a good idea to set a limit on how big the system partition could be instead of using the much better unified layout, and this is where your problem lies: All the System space has been used up, and because of that limit, you're free space is inconsequential.
Oppo has promised a fix, but we'll see how long that takes.. In the meantime, check out LVM Repartitioning. It works really well!
BG64 said:
Unfortunately, the free space available for media and other documents is not the same space available for installing apps in the system.
Basically, there are two different partitions: The System one (which the system can only use) and the User one (the one that you can use). Most phones have a unified partition, so that the system and the user partitions vary as needed.
Oppo thought it would be a good idea to set a limit on how big the system partition could be instead of using the much better unified layout, and this is where your problem lies: All the System space has been used up, and because of that limit, you're free space is inconsequential.
Oppo has promised a fix, but we'll see how long that takes.. In the meantime, check out LVM Repartitioning. It works really well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what is exactly the LVM Repartitioning and how do I solve the problem with it ?not so familiar with it
thanks again

Dual / multi boot on G4?

In recent years I've used CM on my Android devices but now that I have a G4 and the camera and camera app is so good, I'm unhappy to give that up if I can find a way to get the other features I want. (eg, CM/Lineage Privacy Manager, etc)
So I thought one option might be to dual-boot either a stock image or stock-based ROM for when I want to use the high-performance camera, and my regular AOSP-based image the rest of the time. Can I do this on a G4?
One thing that worries me is it seems the base system takes up about ~10GB and G4's only have 32GB onboard. Can I share some storage between the OS's? Presumably at least the MicroSD?
TIA
Here you go https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/dual-boot-t3241460/page6 . I I used to dual boot Imperium/CM14.1.
The storage wasn't a problem. It took only a few GBs and the rest of free space was shared (you see files in different places, something like /sdcard on main, /data/dualboot/romname/sdcard if I remember correctly. I recommend full backup first. Dual booting can bring some additional bugs.
You can share data between apps, but I haven't managed to make it working properly.
Amightypotato said:
Here you go https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/dual-boot-t3241460/page6 . I I used to dual boot Imperium/CM14.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh, thanks. I was considering Imperium.
Amightypotato said:
The storage wasn't a problem. It took only a few GBs and the rest of free space was shared (you see files in different places, something like /sdcard on main, /data/dualboot/romname/sdcard if I remember correctly. I recommend full backup first. Dual booting can bring some additional bugs.
You can share data between apps, but I haven't managed to make it working properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't so much thinking about sharing app data (which I'd assume would be a very dicey proposition), more just having common folders like Downloads/pics/audio available to both instances. (Since you only end up with about ~22GB out of 32GB total storage available in a fresh install, I assume adding another OS instance would leave only ~12GB left for local storage, which could become be a real issue for me. (Just my APK/app data archive on my current daily driver takes up around 9GB right now)
I'm still trying to get my head around the various symlinks and fused partitions that Android uses. The FAQ from TWRP on what the /data/media folder is I just read yesterday and had no idea that was like that. (Or that their nandroid backups don't bother to backup anything at all under /sdcard, basically.. )

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