[Q] is it possible to move apps to sd card? - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

is there a way that i can move my apps to sd card. I tried using app2sd programs but they did not let me move my apps. please help my 16gb internal storage is getting smaller.
thanks

jonneepuh said:
is there a way that i can move my apps to sd card. I tried using app2sd programs but they did not let me move my apps. please help my 16gb internal storage is getting smaller.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if this is present in stock images, but if you go into System -> Apps and select an app, there should be a "Move to SD card" option in there. (This has, AFAICR, been present in stock Android as of ICS.)

jonneepuh said:
is there a way that i can move my apps to sd card. I tried using app2sd programs but they did not let me move my apps. please help my 16gb internal storage is getting smaller.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you cannot really move apps to sd cards but there is an app called "gl to sd" it will move gameloft games to the sd card because they can be fairly big in size and also you have to be rooted to use the app

i am on cm10 official.
i heard google and samsung were taking away the feature to move apps to sd card.
any work around with using cm10?

jonneepuh said:
is there a way that i can move my apps to sd card. I tried using app2sd programs but they did not let me move my apps. please help my 16gb internal storage is getting smaller.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jonneepuh said:
i am on cm10 official.
i heard google and samsung were taking away the feature to move apps to sd card.
any work around with using cm10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allow me to preface this by stating that a simple search would have yielded your answer in all likelihood. Please do learn to fish, lest you starve.
There is a method of swapping the internal storage with an SD card via a script, provided you have init.d support. I've tried a variety of ROMs from stock onward and never found an issue with init.d, so it shouldn't realistically matter. Depending upon the ROM, the mounts tend to vary but the script I took and modified accounts for said variations. It's really a rather simple deal, given that you are on CM10 my current iteration should work for you without modification or issue. Be advised that my alterations stem from a script that came from this thread and all credit for the original concept is not due to me, I only modified the script in order to make it compatible with other ROMs and to mitigate the differing mount points. It also goes without saying that I am not responsible for your device melting down or your cat bursting into fire. If you're interested in the modifications I have made to the script let me know and I'll be happy to build a CWM flashable zip and give you further instruction, otherwise see the post previously referenced.
Do also note that the script WILL NOT enable you to move apps to the SD via Settings/Applications, it will basically cause the device to see the SD card as internal storage and the original internal storage as the SD, but only while the device is not in recovery. If you boot into recovery you must remain aware of the fact that your data will be on the external SD as they behave in a flip-flop manner. You must also be aware that you should not remove your SD card while using this modification if the device is on and not in recovery mode, bad things will happen (possibly the end of the world) I realize this was probably more information than you sought but it's better to have too much than not enough in my opinion.

jonneepuh said:
i am on cm10 official.
i heard google and samsung were taking away the feature to move apps to sd card.
any work around with using cm10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i think phones that are running ics do not have the ability to move apps to an sd card without some sort of modification

y0yerrj0sh said:
well i think phones that are running ics do not have the ability to move apps to an sd card without some sort of modification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, due to the nature of the way that the S3 handles internal storage, whereby the "SD card" is actually just a mount that's bound to /data/media and not a physically separate storage medium, moving apps to the SD card has never and will not be implemented in the foreseeable future. To attempt to circumvent the fact that the standard method of moving apps from internal to external storage ("Move to SD") is rather misguided as you would gain nothing from having done so since the intent is to conserve space on the internal storage and given that the internal storage and "SD card" reside on the same physical device, you gain nothing. That is why the method I described in my previous post was originally conceived, so that S3 users might have some semblance of moving apps to an external SD and thus freeing up space on the internal storage.

Related

[Q] apps to sd how and why?

I have a question how do I install apps to SD card?
Why should I do it and what apps?
Are you rooted? I'm pretty sure that you can only move apps to the SD card if your rooted. And it's called Apps2Ext or something like that, you can only use it if your rooted(from what I know atleast.)
Easy.
There is an app in the market called "App 2 sd",this app automatically selects the apps that you can move from the phone over to your sd card. As for why you would want to do this well, for one thing and mainly by doing so you free up valuable space on the phone it self.Do your self a favor & pick up @least a 16gb sd card it makes life a whole lot easier. Hope this helps.
Utorrent76 said:
There is an app in the market called "App 2 sd",this app automatically selects the apps that you can move from the phone over to your sd card. As for why you would want to do this well, for one thing and mainly by doing so you free up valuable space on the phone it self.Do your self a favor & pick up @least a 16gb sd card it makes life a whole lot easier. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to say that but isn't that just for rooted phones? Or is Apps2Ext only for rooted phones?
Your G2 has Froyo, which allows apps to sd without being rooted. If the app developer allows it, you can move the apps you choose to the fat32 partition of your sd card.
All you have to do is go to settings>>>applications>>>manage applications>>>click on the app of your choosing, then you will get the option to "Move to SD card"
Once you click on that, it will automatically be moved to the SD card. To confirm, in the manage applications page, you will see "On SD card" on the top right corner. Click on it, and you will see which apps have been moved.
Apps to SD is used basically just to save space. On older phones, like the G1, you could only install about 30 apps before the phone memory started to get full. They made apps2ext to fix this low memory problem once you had a rooted phone. Froyo fixes the need to even root the phone to get apps on the sd card.
Honestly, the G2 has plenty of space for me that I do not need apps to sd. I really only see the need for anyone to utilize this on the vision phones if you plan on having hundreds of apps installed.
Hope this helped.
it is helps a lot thank you. I thought the reason to tho apps to memory card list to make phone run faster
It actually runs slower to have the apps on the sd card. That was the one downfall of apps2ext on the G1, especially when you ran sense roms because a lot of things were run on the ext parition and were dependent on running from the sd card for it to work.
It is better to run them all on the phone memory, if at all possible, IMHO.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
tazz9690 said:
Your G2 has Froyo, which allows apps to sd without being rooted. If the app developer allows it, you can move the apps you choose to the fat32 partition of your sd card.
All you have to do is go to settings>>>applications>>>manage applications>>>click on the app of your choosing, then you will get the option to "Move to SD card"
Once you click on that, it will automatically be moved to the SD card. To confirm, in the manage applications page, you will see "On SD card" on the top right corner. Click on it, and you will see which apps have been moved.
Apps to SD is used basically just to save space. On older phones, like the G1, you could only install about 30 apps before the phone memory started to get full. They made apps2ext to fix this low memory problem once you had a rooted phone. Froyo fixes the need to even root the phone to get apps on the sd card.
Honestly, the G2 has plenty of space for me that I do not need apps to sd. I really only see the need for anyone to utilize this on the vision phones if you plan on having hundreds of apps installed.
Hope this helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a BS version of A2SD. /.android-secure won't let you back your apps up the way /system/sd/app and /system/sd/app-private will, and the apps on the FAT32 partition won't start up on boot.
I hope the real A2SD is incorporated on Gingerbread builds.

[Q] Internal-External Memory Swap: useful or not?

Hi
I have a Samsung Galaxy W, and you know that this device has such a little memory for apps and games.
I bought a 16 gb class 10 external sd and I was wonder if the memory swap mod could be a really useful operation.
I'm not usual to install lots of applications and games, (I really use only social apps) however sometimes I like to play some heavy-data games. So I need a help: do you suggest me to keep the sd as a default external memory, maybe trying to move the heavier apps in this external space with link2sd and other stuff, or it would be better to make the swap and then make the sd recognized as internal memory?
I read that sometimes the swap operation causes lags and some other stuff, so I need your opinions and suggests.
Thanks in advice
Some custom ROMs automatically swap /sdcard/ with /sdcard/external_sd/
You could try that, it's a great solution IMHO.
Did you try "GL to SD(root)"? Download it from the market... It just mount the external SD as the sdcard, but temporarily. And it also moves game data to external SD.
Sent from my GT-I8150 using XDA on CyanogenMod 9
Also bugs me as well. I just bought 32gb class 10 card and i am using cow bionic 2 rom. But i already changed the vold.fstab folder back to stock. I would be the same not a heavy app storer. If i dont use the app any more i delete it.
But supposedly if you have a class 10 card you should not experience any lag if you have the swap done?? How true this is i dont know
maybe i'll find this useful for heavy data games like generation of chaos or other apps/games that install themselves on the internal storage and not on the sd card, other than that, i seriously don't know what other advantage it can provide
Of course, swapping is a good solution for huge games data storing on external sd and u own a class 10 sd card which is fast enough for swapping. However, this may cause problem when u want to remove sd card as most of the apps are stored on it.
GL to sd is a better solution to me personally. I wrote a similar script instead of using GL to sd. This mounts certain paths to ur external sd card while keeping other important apps such as launcher, theme, widgets, on the internal sd.
yewsiong said:
Of course, swapping is a good solution for huge games data storing on external sd and u own a class 10 sd card which is fast enough for swapping. However, this may cause problem when u want to remove sd card as most of the apps are stored on it.
GL to sd is a better solution to me personally. I wrote a similar script instead of using GL to sd. This mounts certain paths to ur external sd card while keeping other important apps such as launcher, theme, widgets, on the internal sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to explain about the script you wrote. Also whats GL?? I wouldnt use any big games so no point in me swapping. But if any roms i flash to the phone has this done ill not bother changing it back to stock. Also is class 10 not the highest micro sd card you can get??
snwman said:
Care to explain about the script you wrote. Also whats GL?? I wouldnt use any big games so no point in me swapping. But if any roms i flash to the phone has this done ill not bother changing it back to stock. Also is class 10 not the highest micro sd card you can get??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, class 10 is the fastest writing speed for MicroSD at this moment.
I used script manager to create a script for mounting and give it SU and set it on boot. It is very simple.
Create a new script file and type the following:
(I used the Android folder as example)
Code:
mount -o bind sdcard/external_sd/Android sdcard/Android
This is for gameloft
Code:
mount -o bind sdcard/external_sd/gameloft sdcard/gameloft
After creating these, u need to cut the files in Android or gameloft from internal sdcard and paste them to the new location on external sd. Leave the original folders empty.
Remember to set them "boot" and "su".
enjoy
Edit: if u download any other games that stores its data in Android folder, it will automatically move to ur external sd card as the script has mounted the path to external sd since every boot.
yewsiong said:
Of course, swapping is a good solution for huge games data storing on external sd and u own a class 10 sd card which is fast enough for swapping. However, this may cause problem when u want to remove sd card as most of the apps are stored on it.
GL to sd is a better solution to me personally. I wrote a similar script instead of using GL to sd. This mounts certain paths to ur external sd card while keeping other important apps such as launcher, theme, widgets, on the internal sd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
However, this may cause problem when u want to remove sd card as most of the apps are stored on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, in a swap situation, on the Wonder, Apps are not moved to External SD Card........
without swap they are moved to /sdcard/external_sd/.android_secure folder
with swap, moved Apps should be on re-mapped internal SD, so removing SD Card should not have any effect on Apps...
of course App Data should be on External [Removable] SD Card...re-mapped as /sdcard
It seems to me, for game players, Game Loft, etc.....Gl to SD is the ideal solution....****see also EDIT below****
Video for Wonder Here:
****EDIT: Just to say, yewsiong script looks good for gamers, etc.....****
It's pretty useful if you're an avid gamer. Some games usually reach 400mb+. But if not, you could still use it for storing music and videos.
saphiecor said:
It's pretty useful if you're an avid gamer. Some games usually reach 400mb+. But if not, you could still use it for storing music and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which solution do you mean......
see yewsiong post here
irishpancake said:
Which solution do you mean......
see yewsiong post here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he meant without swapping, external sd can still be used as data, music, pics, etc. storage.
Go for it!
IMHO I see no cons whatsoever in performing the SD Card swap, just pros. I got my 32Gb Class 10 just for the swap... Check my signature links to see what I've done to my SGW...
a.fontenele said:
IMHO I see no cons whatsoever in performing the SD Card swap, just pros. I got my 32Gb Class 10 just for the swap... Check my signature links to see what I've done to my SGW...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I followed the method outlined in your signature (http://latgale.co.uk/?p=70) and now I can see about 15GB (I have a 16GB class 10 SD) available for apps on SD.
However, when I try to move an app to the SD by using App2SD, the app doesn't go to the 15GB partition. How do you do?
Thanks a lot.
[.::MDT::.] said:
Hi,
I followed the method outlined in your signature (http://latgale.co.uk/?p=70) and now I can see about 15GB (I have a 16GB class 10 SD) available for apps on SD.
However, when I try to move an app to the SD by using App2SD, the app doesn't go to the 15GB partition. How do you do?
Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... This is something I haven't found a solution for. Whenever you try to move an app, it goes to the USB Storage. Since we swapped memories, the app will be moved to the 1.7GB memory. For me it'd be great to have everything in the Micro SD card, the 1.7 GB memory is useless to me...
a.fontenele said:
Yeah... This is something I haven't found a solution for. Whenever you try to move an app, it goes to the USB Storage. Since we swapped memories, the app will be moved to the 1.7GB memory. For me it'd be great to have everything in the Micro SD card, the 1.7 GB memory is useless to me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's a real pity! :crying:
I wonder what's the point of doing so, if the memory available for the apps still remains the 1,7GB partition... why swapping partitions then?
Do you have any idea if there is any ROM that lets you install apps in the "bigger partition" (the 14,3 GB according to the example above) or are you aware of any other possible solution?
Thanks.
[.::MDT::.] said:
Yeah, that's a real pity! :crying:
I wonder what's the point of doing so, if the memory available for the apps still remains the 1,7GB partition... why swapping partitions then?
Do you have any idea if there is any ROM that lets you install apps in the "bigger partition" (the 14,3 GB according to the example above) or are you aware of any other possible solution?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, as I said before here ad nauseam, the External Physical SD Card is where Apps moved by App2SD are designed to go......so before doing a vold.fstab mount point swap, ppl should ask themselves.......
Do I really need a gigantic Internal USB Storage at [/mnt/sdcard], for what reason do I need this??
I think myself, that this is only useful for those who require to have Storage requirements for certain Games and GPS Maps Storage, etc, which do not have a built-in ability to store data on the External Physical SD Card [/mount/sdcard/external_sd]....but there are other ways to achieve this!!!
BTW, the Tutorial linked http://latgale.co.uk/?p=70 is by Eric Pīgoznis, who posted here in the very early days!!!
First of all, thanks a lot for your answer!
irishpancake said:
But, as I said before here ad nauseam, the External Physical SD Card is where Apps moved by App2SD are designed to go......so before doing a vold.fstab mount point swap, ppl should ask themselves.......
Do I really need a gigantic Internal USB Storage at [/mnt/sdcard], for what reason do I need this??
I think myself, that this is only useful for those who require to have Storage requirements for certain Games and GPS Maps Storage, etc, which do not have a built-in ability to store data on the External Physical SD Card [/mount/sdcard/external_sd]....but there are other ways to achieve this!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's exactly what I would like to have!
I bought a 16GB card to install many maps and games, but I quickly ran out of memory so I cannot add anymore apps (without removing already installed apps of course).
That's why I would like to use my SD card for apps - if possible of course!
And it's a pity I have 15GB free (for what? Just my music/video/pictures?) and I cannot use this space for apps.
What are the other ways to achieve this you mentioned?
It'd be really helpful!
irishpancake said:
BTW, the Tutorial linked http://latgale.co.uk/?p=70 is by Eric Pīgoznis, who posted here in the very early days!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I found the same instructions on this forum, you're right...
hmm
Swapping Internal/External is the most important for those HD gamers :good:
irishpancake said:
But, as I said before here ad nauseam, the External Physical SD Card is where Apps moved by App2SD are designed to go......so before doing a vold.fstab mount point swap, ppl should ask themselves.......
Do I really need a gigantic Internal USB Storage at [/mnt/sdcard], for what reason do I need this??
I think myself, that this is only useful for those who require to have Storage requirements for certain Games and GPS Maps Storage, etc, which do not have a built-in ability to store data on the External Physical SD Card [/mount/sdcard/external_sd]....but there are other ways to achieve this!!!
BTW, the Tutorial linked http://latgale.co.uk/?p=70 is by Eric Pīgoznis, who posted here in the very early days!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dhada said:
Swapping Internal/External is the most important for those HD gamers :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree... any news about that then?
Thanks a lot!

I'm stumped

Hi everybody. I am trying to get my daughters phone set up. She is 20, very busy, and I only get the phone an hour or so at a time which is frustrating. I have modded my own android phones(Note, Infuse,Gnex) so I'm not a beginner, but this captivate glide is acting a little different.
Here is where I am. CWM is installed and a backup of 2.3.6 is done, and a copy saved on my laptop. I have ardatdat's 1.2 version kernel ready to flash for root and to remove the IQcarrier junk. She will probably stay on stock, rooted since she is not into teching her phone but does want to remove ads and maybe tether to a tablet occasionally on ATT without a tethering plan- tit BU and freezing or removing the tethering manager.
I am having trouble getting the phone to recognize an 8 gb sd card. I have repartitioned it so more apps can be moved over(primary fat32 and logical-ext 2) and split the card to 4gb and 4gb.(approx)- even when just left as a one partition card with 8gb fat 32 the phone just won't recognize it. I put the old 2gb card into the phone and that one is recognized but is from a non android phone- an LG xenon.
I want to put the zip files to flash on the external sd card along with a few apk's ti install with the appinstaller. But.. the phone won't see the files. Do I have to use the internal storage?????
Don't have the phone now- it's off to work with her. So I will try later tonite. Any suggestions??
Thanks. Open for any help here. I have never had this much trouble before! Have searched for sideloading apk's, but from what I am finding it has to be rooted first??? I have checked unknown sources for install of 3rd party apps and usb debugging also checked.
I will continue my hunting for info. I'm sure it's just basic stuff I'm just not seeing. Thanks again
Ah. CWM Recovery is not compatible with the external sd card, I believe. It's located under /sdcard/external_sd but the zips are invisible in the recovery. So yes, I think you have to use internal
Aquethys said:
Ah. CWM Recovery is not compatible with the external sd card, I believe. It's located under /sdcard/external_sd but the zips are invisible in the recovery. So yes, I think you have to use internal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that. Did not read that anywhere! Any idea about apks on the external sd card?
Ive tried that too... The apps are located in the data partition on the kernel so that is already directed to internal... The only things most people put are Media like movies because music players scan the entire /sdcard partition and the /external_sd is in it.
Hope this helped ^o^
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I927R using xda premium
sashusmom said:
I am having trouble getting the phone to recognize an 8 gb sd card. I have repartitioned it so more apps can be moved over(primary fat32 and logical-ext 2) and split the card to 4gb and 4gb.(approx)- even when just left as a one partition card with 8gb fat 32 the phone just won't recognize it. I put the old 2gb card into the phone and that one is recognized but is from a non android phone- an LG xenon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may need to format the sd card in the phone itself to get it to show up, some people have had problems with cards formatted in other devices or a pc.
I haven't tried a dual partition card in the Glide, but I came from a Motorola Flipside which had an absolutely tiny amount of space for apps, making link2sd and the second partition virtually mandatory. The Glide, however, has 2gb internal memory for apps, and the ~3.75gb internal memory that's mounted as /sdcard that you can store apps on with the standard Move to SD build into android, so I can't imagine anyone needing more storage than that for standard apps.
You can always points Titanium Backup to /sdcard/external_sd, my backup folder tends to get pretty big since I keep multiple backups. If she's installing a ton of games that have extra downloads to the sdcard though, you can fill up the internal "sd card" pretty quickly, and there's only a couple of ways to deal with that. She can give you the phone after installing those games and downloading the extra data, and you can manually move the data over to the external SD and create symlinks yourself, which can be tedious.
Alternatively, you can modify the vold.fstab to change the mount points, putting the real external sd as /sdcard and the internal storage as /sdcard/external_sd. There's instructions for this here. The vold.fstab method is what I personally use, as I've got a 32gb sd card and far too many games that want to download 500mb+ each.
bakageta said:
You may need to format the sd card in the phone itself to get it to show up, some people have had problems with cards formatted in other devices or a pc.
I haven't tried a dual partition card in the Glide, but I came from a Motorola Flipside which had an absolutely tiny amount of space for apps, making link2sd and the second partition virtually mandatory. The Glide, however, has 2gb internal memory for apps, and the ~3.75gb internal memory that's mounted as /sdcard that you can store apps on with the standard Move to SD build into android, so I can't imagine anyone needing more storage than that for standard apps.
You can always points Titanium Backup to /sdcard/external_sd, my backup folder tends to get pretty big since I keep multiple backups. If she's installing a ton of games that have extra downloads to the sdcard though, you can fill up the internal "sd card" pretty quickly, and there's only a couple of ways to deal with that. She can give you the phone after installing those games and downloading the extra data, and you can manually move the data over to the external SD and create symlinks yourself, which can be tedious.
Alternatively, you can modify the vold.fstab to change the mount points, putting the real external sd as /sdcard and the internal storage as /sdcard/external_sd. There's instructions for this here. The vold.fstab method is what I personally use, as I've got a 32gb sd card and far too many games that want to download 500mb+ each.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi and thanks. I just read about that mod. Is it as straightforward as just rewriting that file in rootexplorer? It sounds too easy!
I was gonna format the sd card in the phone but was not sure it would format the internal card and not the external one since I can't seem to get it recognized. I would be in big do do if I erased her stuff!!! It might be a bad card and I'll try an alternate one.
Yep, it's really as easy as snagging the file, editing it, and rewriting it in root explorer (or a shell, I haven't bought root explorer so I tend to do things from the shell). As for formatting in the phone, it should list both an SD card and USB storage, the usb storage is the internal storage, and the sd card is actually the sd card, it *should* have a format option there if the card is good, even if it's not seeing the files on it.
Thank you all!!!!!
bakageta said:
Yep, it's really as easy as snagging the file, editing it, and rewriting it in root explorer (or a shell, I haven't bought root explorer so I tend to do things from the shell). As for formatting in the phone, it should list both an SD card and USB storage, the usb storage is the internal storage, and the sd card is actually the sd card, it *should* have a format option there if the card is good, even if it's not seeing the files on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Piece of cake!!!!! :highfive: We now have the external sd card (only 8gb for now) mounted instead. Whoever came up with that very clever work around is genius. That's better than apps2sd or link2sd.
Thank you so much to everyone who responded. Between all of you I have Rooted with the kernel on the internal card, and the appinstaller saw the apks when I put them on the internal card. My original 8gb card was bad. It was a cheap one- $5 or $8 dollars. I got 2 and the 2nd one works fine- formatted in my computer and phone saw it immediately. I transferred the stuff from the internal to the external. Did I need to do that? I left it on the internal incase the sd card is removed. Tethering manager is removed- att junk is frozen.
One more question if I may? If another rom is flashed, or I odin back to stock for whatever reason, does this sd card switch stay, or is it overwritten with the new rom? Just need to know what to do if I ever need to reset this phone.
I also added my google account to the market to put my paid apps on her phone but when I signed in to the play store under my account my paid apps did not show as paid. Anyone know why? I worked around it but I was surprised.
Again thanks to such a nice group of people! :highfive: I had a crash course in the captivate glide in 24 hrs. You gave me info here I don't think I could have found with continued searching.
sashusmom said:
I transferred the stuff from the internal to the external. Did I need to do that? I left it on the internal incase the sd card is removed. Tethering manager is removed- att junk is frozen.
One more question if I may? If another rom is flashed, or I odin back to stock for whatever reason, does this sd card switch stay, or is it overwritten with the new rom? Just need to know what to do if I ever need to reset this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moving everything that was on the internal memory to the SD card was a good call, since you swapped the mount points everything that stored stuff on the internal memory will now expect that stuff to be on the sd card. There's no need to keep it on the internal memory (you can delete everything there and it'll recreate LOST.DIR) unless you plan on swapping back at any point, in which case you could just copy stuff across before swapping back.
As for flashing another rom, that'll require you edit the vold.fstab again unless the rom has already made that change, which none of our existing roms have.
Personally, I keep the internal memory completely empty as far as daily use things go. CWR will store its backups there, as it mounts the memory independently of the vold.fstab, and all roms/kernels/etc you want to flash can go there, leaving the sd card free for things you actually use.
Bak- thank you so much for all the info. I saved the original file and I will make a copy of the edited mount file in case I need it again. If I ever get her phone back I will clear the internal card since that info is now on the external one.
I wonder how long this captivate glide will hold up with my daughter. She is very hard on her cell phones. Already case #1 broke due to a drop. 2 more are on the way. When I pointed out it could have been the phone broken she said- yeah, I know. I'll keep the case on. :victoryshe hates cases!) Hopefully this phone will get her thru her senior year in college!
Thank you everyone who pitched in to get me the info I needed to get it going. :laugh:

[Q] Newbie ?:Have a nice 64GB SD Card - How to use?

Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Flame Red said:
Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have a 64gb card. I put all of my Titanium backups and Nandroids on the external SD (right now TWRP doesn't work with the exfat formatting of my card, so if I want to restore I'll have to move it from ext to int SD).
I also have Spotify set to store any offline music on the external SD. You can do this by installing an old version of Spotify, pointing it to external SD, then updating the app. A quick Google search will find this if it's something you want to do.
It's hard to tell you what to move to the external card without knowing what apps you use. You can get an app called Directory Bind that will point any internal SD location to your external SD. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1889550
SD card setup/directory optimization
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
dponte said:
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your'e just talking about music, you can put it in any folder and any structure you'd like. The Android Media Server process scans your entire SD card for media (including music) except for folders with a ".nomedia" file in them. It will use the tags to identify the artist, song, and album, then sort them based on that information.
Flame Red said:
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bummer
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
11GB is a lot (available to start with on the ATT model) if you use the external for media (and app cache) and leave the internal for apps mainly...agreed.
Most apps are small in size...however, one app like NOVA3 is 2GB and that is a big bite of your 11GB available, so that is a little concerning
I haven't had the device or android long enough to know, but, are app databases and cache allowed to reside on the external card --in lue of the ability to move apps to the SD being taken away since Jelly Bean (was it at that update)? Can someone point to a good thread on the reason and discussion about that? Thanks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994046
App2SD change external to internal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium
You can make your external your main storage device by using this root technique. But some people don't advise it saying it slows down your processing on apps.
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note II is a Unified Storage device. It has 11gb available for both user content (pictures, movie, music etc) and apps. I lost 2gb of space moving from my S2 to the N2.
S2 is not a Unified storage device, so it has 11gb of storage available for user content and a separate Apps partition of 2gb.

[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.
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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?
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Click to collapse
yes.
Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work
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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
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Click to collapse
50% of 128Gb, that is 64Gb each.
Another potential source of error is the card itself
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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.
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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.....

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