Develop Bugs

[Q] Set Default Storage

Looking for a way to set folders to install to EXTERNAL SD card (Not the actual apps). Not like apps2SD...just the folders the apps create for settings and such.
You can specify what location/folder to store pictures taken with the camara too, be it internal or external SD.
This is a setting in the camara app...but most apps dont provide an option like this.
Example:>
We have System, Internal, and if you install External micro SD.
You install Titanium Backup, or other apps that can back up stuff and their own settings, i.e. backup GO launcher settings. When you make your Titanium Backup(s) it creates a folder on INTERNAL storage. Now in the event that something (un-thinkable ) happens to your phone like dropping in water or ran over by MACK truck etc...(you get the point) you can't get it to power on you wont be able to get to any of your files on internal SD. Hopefully your External micro SD would survive and you could take it out, in one of the above examples.
So...that's why I ask if this can be done to bypass the INTERNAL SD in a way. I would actually use the internal for music and movies and put files that I want to make sure stay safe on the EXTERNAL SD. Most of us transfer mp3's and movies etc...from computer so we have copies.
Yeah one could just backup the INTERNAL SD from time to time. But we all know how sometimes this is overlooked.
Not sure if it's something about the way Samsung partitoned the storage or in EEPROM settings or something. On cyanogen mod roms though it had a setting that allowed for this. Phones with less internal storage like HD2 stored the apps on internal and their created folders to external card if one is installed, makes me lean towards the sofware.
P.S. if just move those folders to the External SD the apps dont look their for them.
Thanks for all feedback!

the 2 way i'm familiar with
CM7, has a build in option to do that
you could probably download CM7 source code and dissect that
Link2SD, can do exactly what you want, which is why i always use it to install my apps directly to my External SD card

AllGamer said:
the 2 way i'm familiar with
CM7, has a build in option to do that
you could probably download CM7 source code and dissect that
Link2SD, can do exactly what you want, which is why i always use it to install my apps directly to my External SD card
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I wish I could DEV but um more of a tester ! I downloaded some kitchens before but just couldn't get anything going so gave up. Guess I know my place. HAHA
Link2SD sounds like it may work I have to try it. It gives plenty of options!
Thanks

Well on titanium backup you can change itnto backup to the sd instead, just click menu> preferences> backup folder location. At first its set to mnt/sdcard/titaniumbackup, you got to press back and select external sd card and titaniumbackup, or if your sd card already has a titanium folder, just select "detect" and it will find the folder on the ext sdcard
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

but when you do it that way some apps does not work properly, those that are not SD card compatible

elflip88 said:
Well on titanium backup you can change itnto backup to the sd instead, just click menu> preferences> backup folder location. At first its set to mnt/sdcard/titaniumbackup, you got to press back and select external sd card and titaniumbackup, or if your sd card already has a titanium folder, just select "detect" and it will find the folder on the ext sdcard
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
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Wow thanks...I knew you could change the location, but that's new to me the DETECT feature that's cool.
AllGamer said:
but when you do it that way some apps does not work properly, those that are not SD card compatible
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Yeah my point...Getting them to the SD is no problem its the apps wont look their unless they have the option to change default location like above mentioned titanium settings.
Side note: seen the post from Cyanogenmod about CM7 being "in progress" the option is there to set default under applications so all shall be fine soon for this anyway.

AllGamer said:
but when you do it that way some apps does not work properly, those that are not SD card compatible
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Click to collapse
Were you talking about my post? If so then all the apps do work properly, its just moving the backups you make on titanium to the sd card, not the app itself
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

i'm not talking about backups, i'm talking about Apps that are moved forcefully to run from SD, you can do that using TI
but some Apps behaves erratically after that, only SD compatible Apps are unaffected

lost all my installed apps and files after sd card partition

Hi
I have just partitioned my sd card through recovery mode, and when it rebooted, all my apps had gone, the icons are still there though. How can I get these back? Also my photos etc. I didnt backup the SD card properly, so cannot get them from a backup
Thanks in advance

when you say "I didnt backup the SD card properly", does this mean you didn't back it up at all?
partitioning wipes the sd card, so if you don't have a backup of it, then all your photos will be gone unfortunately. there's not much we can do to recover these. i'm guessing some of your apps were manually moved to sd card, which is why some of them have disappeared as well.
which recovery were you using? clockworkmod recovery for desire doesn't make the best partitions, also uninstall rom manager if you were using it. i would recommend repartitioning your sd card with 4ext recovery (requires s-off) or gparted, search for guides.
then reinstall your apps which don't appear through google play. if you're lucky the app data should still be saved, so things like game saves etc will still be there.
you also have to make sure you're actually using the new partition. i don't know which custom rom you're using if any? it may have an a2sd script built in, so when you reinstall apps they'll go to the ext partition. otherwise you may need to use terminal commands to activate it, or flash a separate script. check and search the rom thread...use another app like 'diskusage' to browse your partitions.

Thanks for your reply
eddiehk6 said:
when you say "I didnt backup the SD card properly", does this mean you didn't back it up at all?
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I started copying the files over, but it didnt copy over all the files, not sure why.
eddiehk6 said:
partitioning wipes the sd card, so if you don't have a backup of it, then all your photos will be gone unfortunately. there's not much we can do to recover these. i'm guessing some of your apps were manually moved to sd card, which is why some of them have disappeared as well.
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I tried using a file recovery program, but could only recover a few files, is there no way I can recover files from a formatted card?

bigmaz said:
Thanks for your reply
I started copying the files over, but it didnt copy over all the files, not sure why.
I tried using a file recovery program, but could only recover a few files, is there no way I can recover files from a formatted card?
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Click to collapse
Once information is deleted, you cannot recover it all back.

Install Apps to SD Card

I recently filled up my internal storage and have put a new 64gb sd card in my TAB S. Now I have figured out how to move apps already installed on my device to the SD Card through the app manager. Is there a way to install apps right off the bat to the SD card or do I have to first install them to my device and then move them over?

I have the same question-
But i m not able to move app also, do we have a fix?
Few gb's game lead to no storage space available - how to fix this guys.

Root, install SDfix for R/W permission and FolderMount or Link2SD to transfer files, data etc to the SD card.

It's kind of convoluted. I read you could use adb to set default location to external sd. Sounds great except it doesn't work. I'm using folder mount right now. It's a bit tedious because you install your app on internal first, then move any large obb to external. I tried link2sd but had trouble with partitioning the card. I'll give it a shot some other time.
I don't know why you just can't like sym link /sdcard0 to /sdcard1 and be done with it.

barth2 said:
I don't know why you just can't like sym link /sdcard0 to /sdcard1 and be done with it.
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Me too! Can anyone make a flashable zip for us?
Sent from my Galaxy Tab S 8.4 using XDA mobile app

I had the same issue before., Rooted the device and install custom ROM which did not solve the issue as I wanted. Installed the Kalikazoo above and another KitKat External app from the Play Store and then I was able to use the Apps2SD for most of my apps. After using these, I was able to use the External SD as I had planned. My big issue was Apps Backup & Restore which is my backup to Titanium Backup if any of the ones I want fail. Since all of these take a lot of space the external SD is a MUST. I have it am I am a happy camper because of it. Shame on Samsung for limiting our use of that external slot right out of the box.

Utilising external SD card

After boot I see this entry under my root directory:
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2015-10-16 22:48 sdcard -> /storage/emulated/legacy
I do not understand it very well but it seems the system emulates an SD card using its own memory. Then many applications use this area to save files. The thing is that I have a real external SD Card that I would like all the downloads, music, temp files, documents, everything really to go there.
I have tried to remove the symbolic link 'sdcard' and to make it point to my sd card but I cannot remove it not even as root, read only system, I probably need to use chmod first not sure.
Has anyone done this and know the solution?
Many thanks

The internal storage is emulated as an sdcard.
You can't delete the sym links as they are created upon each boot.
As long as you are rooted you can use your external sd card for whatever you want.
Just point your apps to the right location.

ashyx said:
The internal storage is emulated as an sdcard.
You can't delete the sym links as they are created upon each boot.
As long as you are rooted you can use your external sd card for whatever you want.
Just point your apps to the right location.
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Thank you but I cannot ask all applications to point to the external card. Many applications do not have this setting, either through the Applications Manager or through their own settings. Trying to find files then gets more confusing and every so often I must copy files manually so as to keep them in one place.
Is there perhaps an application that will also run at boot and point to the external card before any other applications start? That might be a good solution?

Zilliman said:
Thank you but I cannot ask all applications to point to the external card. Many applications do not have this setting, either through the Applications Manager or through their own settings. Trying to find files then gets more confusing and every so often I must copy files manually so as to keep them in one place.
Is there perhaps an application that will also run at boot and point to the external card before any other applications start? That might be a good solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link2sd pro

I have a galaxy tab s and am using Folder Mount and so far (after a few patches the program itself makes with permision) it is working fine for using data files on the storage card.

Problems with External SD Card

Ever since I converted to GPE for 6.0 then back to Sense (5.0.1 stock, rooted) I have been facing problems with my external SD Card. I know that Marshmallow handles External SD Cards a little bit differently than other versions of Android, so I decided to backup everything to my computer and then have my device format the SD card inside Sense but it still did not work.
For one thing, I can no longer backup from Titanium Backup to my External SD Card since it says "this folder is not writable" and whenever I try to delete or move anything inside ES File Explorer, a message comes up saying "please choose the root directory of ext_sd card ...." and when I try to, I get a "Documents Force Closed" error.
Any ideas on what I could do at this point? Should I try formatting the SD Card on my computer using a SD Card reader instead? I am using a Mac, by the way.
Thanks for your time.

TarekElsakka said:
Ever since I converted to GPE for 6.0 then back to Sense (5.0.1 stock, rooted) I have been facing problems with my external SD Card. I know that Marshmallow handles External SD Cards a little bit differently than other versions of Android, so I decided to backup everything to my computer and then have my device format the SD card inside Sense but it still did not work.
For one thing, I can no longer backup from Titanium Backup to my External SD Card since it says "this folder is not writable" and whenever I try to delete or move anything inside ES File Explorer, a message comes up saying "please choose the root directory of ext_sd card ...." and when I try to, I get a "Documents Force Closed" error.
Any ideas on what I could do at this point? Should I try formatting the SD Card on my computer using a SD Card reader instead? I am using a Mac, by the way.
Thanks for your time.
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@TarekElsakka - I know I'm bumping this thread, however I hope this is taken with leniency as searching for a solution took me a while and I hope this reply will help those who Google for the same problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59278548&postcount=4 is what you need to read. You need to explicitly change your storage provider to 'DocumentProvider storage'.

ThePurpleK said:
@TarekElsakka - I know I'm bumping this thread, however I hope this is taken with leniency as searching for a solution took me a while and I hope this reply will help those who Google for the same problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59278548&postcount=4 is what you need to read. You need to explicitly change your storage provider to 'DocumentProvider storage'.
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Click to collapse
@ThePurpleK thank you for your information! I actually forgot all about this thread, but I found this solution a while ago and it fixed everything for me. Thank you again, I'm sure it will be helpful to a lot of people since everyone seems to be facing that problem with MM.

Interesting. I never knew that was even a setting in TiBu either. What I did was a little more involved. Had to edit /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml) and add a specific entry to allow a group permission to write to external storage. Check the attached image. Of course I added the highlights.

Drunkula said:
Interesting. I never knew that was even a setting in TiBu either. What I did was a little more involved. Had to edit /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml) and add a specific entry to allow a group permission to write to external storage. Check the attached image. Of course I added the highlights.
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I think you missed what they were talking about.
What you suggest is not valid for android 6.0 marshmallow.
Only workable for lollipop and lower.

You're right about that. I'm not on MM yet (Verizon...) so I hadn't a clue.