Develop Bugs

Storage

I have a few general and a few specific questions regarding storage:
1. Why did Samsung create 2 directories for internal storage? It has regular internal storage and "SD" storage but both are really internal storage. Why not just make one big partition and SD storage is actually your removable SD card (this is how it was on the OG EV) Someone please explain this to me if you know the answer.
2. On CM9 rom how do you save apps and their data to a external SD card? I'm trying to install a Gameloft game but it's saying I don't have enough space available which I certainly do.
3. On TW based ICS roms how do you save apps w/ data on the actual external sd card? Possibly planning on trying out Rujelus' rom so I'd like to know before hand.

SantinoInc said:
I have a few general and a few specific questions regarding storage:
1. Why did Samsung create 2 directories for internal storage? It has regular internal storage and "SD" storage but both are really internal storage. Why not just make one big partition and SD storage is actually your removable SD card (this is how it was on the OG EV) Someone please explain this to me if you know the answer.
2. On CM9 rom how do you save apps and their data to a external SD card? I'm trying to install a Gameloft game but it's saying I don't have enough space available which I certainly do.
3. On TW based ICS roms how do you save apps w/ data on the actual external sd card? Possibly planning on trying out Rujelus' rom so I'd like to know before hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OG evo didnt have an emmc partition. It had internal storage dedicated to things like app storage, same as any other phone. You cant mount internal storage to your PC so combining these would be a waste of space.
You might be able to push game data from emmc to the sd card and they might still locate it but I have never tried as I never fill up my emmc, I just keep everything else on the sdcard. But worth a shot.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

barnacles10 said:
The OG evo didnt have an emmc partition. It had internal storage dedicated to things like app storage, same as any other phone. You cant mount internal storage to your PC so combining these would be a waste of space.
You might be able to push game data from emmc to the sd card and they might still locate it but I have never tried as I never fill up my emmc, I just keep everything else on the sdcard. But worth a shot.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't quite get your reply but to make things easier for myself what is the best way to format the SDcard. I am talking about the internal SDcard not my actual removable micro SD card. I know there is an option in storage but I don't know what SD card its referring to.

SantinoInc said:
I don't quite get your reply but to make things easier for myself what is the best way to format the SDcard. I am talking about the internal SDcard not my actual removable micro SD card. I know there is an option in storage but I don't know what SD card its referring to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just remove your external then hit the format option in storage. And if you move back to the fd16 kernel on cm9a3 you will be much happier with the way the storage is handled.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Can A Backup Be Made On The SD Card?

AT&T GS3
I have looked over and over. And I see articles mentioning how to backup your device before Flashing ROMs. They even show how to do it. One of the articles said it could be done and how to do it. I did it and just like the other ways I tried the backup is stored on the Internal Storage.
I have all this room on my SD card available. My internal storage is almost completely filled with me not being able to store games or any apps for that matter on my SD card. Right now I have about 4GB left for my Internal Storage. After the backup I had 1GB left (I deleted the backup on the Internal Storage).
Is everyone else just storing the backup(s) on your Internal Storage? Your computer? SD Card?

davidstech11 said:
AT&T GS3
I have looked over and over. And I see articles mentioning how to backup your device before Flashing ROMs. They even show how to do it. One of the articles said it could be done and how to do it. I did it and just like the other ways I tried the backup is stored on the Internal Storage.
I have all this room on my SD card available. My internal storage is almost completely filled with me not being able to store games or any apps for that matter on my SD card. Right now I have about 4GB left for my Internal Storage. After the backup I had 1GB left (I deleted the backup on the Internal Storage).
Is everyone else just storing the backup(s) on your Internal Storage? Your computer? SD Card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you can backup to the internal sd card a d once you made a nandroid you can move the folder "clockworkmod" to your external sd card. And once you need to backup just move it back like a storage kind of thing. Tbh I'm not sure if you can make a backup to your external but I would always save it on your computer if anything happened to your phone
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks. I think I am going to go ahead and do it the way you said. Have a good one.

I do it this way but would prefer to backup directly to the sd card.

TWRP can do nandroids on the external sd.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 10.1

davidstech11 said:
Thanks. I think I am going to go ahead and do it the way you said. Have a good one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to help!

PMentior said:
TWRP can do nandroids on the external sd.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to look up what TWRP was. LOL
Anyway, I looked it over, decided to try it and it worked! I now have my device backed up on the SD card instead of my internal memory.
I want to thank you and the other person for the helpful info. Each of you helped point me in the direction I wanted to go. Have a good one.

My cwm automatically backs up to external sd card. I'm pretty sure most versions do this now but can't verify. Also when I flash zips it will look in external unless I choose install zip from internal sd card
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

Doesnt work with the newest version of cwm. It worked with the 5.5.0.4 one though.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Mounting and Format Sd Card Not Working

I just maxed my storage on my Tab S so i popped in a 8gb sd card. Do I need to mount it for any reason? Playing movies off of it works fine but for some reason when I go to the option mount sd card and format sd card there both blacked out and I cannot click them. I reformatted the card on my PC and put it back it but I still could not mount the card.

Make sure your formatting it with a fat32 filesystem (not exfat or ntfs).
It should just mount automatically as long as it is the right filesystem format. fat32 works on Windows, Linux, and Mac but every other filesystem pretty much isn't fully supported across the board.

xmilar said:
I just maxed my storage on my Tab S so i popped in a 8gb sd card. Do I need to mount it for any reason? Playing movies off of it works fine but for some reason when I go to the option mount sd card and format sd card there both blacked out and I cannot click them. I reformatted the card on my PC and put it back it but I still could not mount the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should mount automatically when you insert it. The mount and format options are probably disabled since it's already mounted. There should be an option to unmount. It's usually recommended to format the card from the phone/tablet, rather than a PC.
---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------
jawz101 said:
Make sure your formatting it with a fat32 filesystem (not exfat or ntfs).
It should just mount automatically as long as it is the right filesystem format. fat32 works on Windows, Linux, and Mac but every other filesystem pretty much isn't fully supported across the board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exFAT will work on this device too. For an 8GB card, the only real advantage is that you can store files larger than 4GB.

kchinth said:
It should mount automatically when you insert it. The mount and format options are probably disabled since it's already mounted. There should be an option to unmount. It's usually recommended to format the card from the phone/tablet, rather than a PC.
---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------
exFAT will work on this device too. For an 8GB card, the only real advantage is that you can store files larger than 4GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange yesterday the format and unmount sd card were blacked out and un clickable. Today i woke up opened up my tablet and both options are functioning normally. I appreciate the replies either way.
A couple other questions....
Do I need to always unmount my card before removing it?
is there an option screen to choose what gets saved to my SD card and what does not? I was looking to maybe save a few apps to it as apposed to my internal storage.

xmilar said:
Strange yesterday the format and unmount sd card were blacked out and un clickable. Today i woke up opened up my tablet and both options are functioning normally. I appreciate the replies either way.
A couple other questions....
Do I need to always unmount my card before removing it?
is there an option screen to choose what gets saved to my SD card and what does not? I was looking to maybe save a few apps to it as apposed to my internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should unmount first to be safe (just like you should safely remove USB drives in Windows). I can't say I ever really have a need to remove mine though.
Different apps have different options. For example, camera apps often ask where to store the photos. There is no generic option screen.

kchinth said:
You should unmount first to be safe (just like you should safely remove USB drives in Windows). I can't say I ever really have a need to remove mine though.
Different apps have different options. For example, camera apps often ask where to store the photos. There is no generic option screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So once my internal storage gets full will all my apps and such just auto save to to my SD card?

Not that easy
xmilar said:
So once my internal storage gets full will all my apps and such just auto save to to my SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, when your internal storage is full, you're done. Android 4.4.2 has severely limited what can be done with the SD card - you can't write to it without using an internal Samsung app - or rooting your tablet. You can't move apps to the SD card anymore...they've really crippled SD cards - maybe because none of their Nexus devices have SD card slots...very frustrating. Samsung could fix this quite easily but don't appear to be doing anything about it. If they would sell the 32 GB version of the tablet, I'd have that one without worrying when I run out of space...which will be very soon at this pace. Not impressed...

dhuhtala said:
No, when your internal storage is full, you're done. Android 4.4.2 has severely limited what can be done with the SD card - you can't write to it without using an internal Samsung app - or rooting your tablet. You can't move apps to the SD card anymore...they've really crippled SD cards - maybe because none of their Nexus devices have SD card slots...very frustrating. Samsung could fix this quite easily but don't appear to be doing anything about it. If they would sell the 32 GB version of the tablet, I'd have that one without worrying when I run out of space...which will be very soon at this pace. Not impressed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily move apps from your device to the sd card through the application manager in settings.

Formatting SD Card as Internal Storage

Anyone using this? If so, any drawbacks? I hate having to split internal memory with SD space, it would just be easier if there was one space for all my data. Wondering why anyone wouldn't do this. Also, is there a specific SD card recommended? Appreciate all the feedback, thanks guys!

The speed of launching/updating apps for example can be a drawback if you're using a slow SD card.
As for what SD card you should use, something that has as high 4KB random read and write speeds as possible.
Manufacturer's don't advertise these numbers so you need to find the information yourself. That's basically hoping that some kind soul has benchmarked the SD card you're looking at.
For reference the internal storage is capable of around 10MB/s in both read and write in 4KB random.
The best microSD cards I've seen have about 10MB/s read and 5MB/s write. That would be the 64GB Samsung Pro Plus.
Not the best but really good ones have anywhere between 8-10MB/s and 3-4MB/s write. That would include for example the regular 64GB Pro from Samsung, Sandisk's Extreme Plus U1/U3 64GB and the Extreme Pro.
If the SD card has under 2MB/s 4KB random write speeds I wouldn't personally even bother.
Also another thing worth pointing out that 4KB random write speed with SD cards is always slower than the read speed is.

I was tempted to use this but the drawbacks have me keeping it as external, which some applications require:
TWRP backups
Titanium Backup backups
Flashing RUU, update zips
Ability to plug into a PC directly
My other concern is that if it were to glitch, the problems that would cause could ruin a weekend.
I figured I'll leave it external unless I have a compelling reason to adopt it.

Rolo42 said:
I was tempted to use this but the drawbacks have me keeping it as external, which some applications require:
TWRP backups
Titanium Backup backups
Flashing RUU, update zips
Ability to plug into a PC directly
My other concern is that if it were to glitch, the problems that would cause could ruin a weekend.
I figured I'll leave it external unless I have a compelling reason to adopt it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you need your sd-card as external with TWRP and Titanium Backup?
In TWRP you can choose between internal storage and sd-card, even it's formatted as internal storage and in Titanium Backup you can choose your destination folder.
I'm using my sd-card as internal storage and I can't feel much difference in speed (you have to use a fast sd-card).
For flashing RUUs and zips... Yes, this is not possible (you have to format your sd-card to ext3 in TWRP for it to work), but I'm using custom ROMs, so it's not important for me.
Well, Ability to plug into a PC directly... If you need it you should use your sd-card as external storage.

Maik268 said:
Why do you need your sd-card as external with TWRP and Titanium Backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because a backup is no good if it gets wiped or corrupted along with the rest of internal storage or if the only OS/configuration that can read it becomes unavailable/unusable.
A backup device has to be separate from the thing its backing up, not integral to it.

That's what OTG and thumb drives are good for. I've never backed up to internal or SD card for that matter.
Backup to thumb drive with md5 and plug it in to your computer which most of the time has exponentially more storage available and check the md5 after it's transferred to the computer. Then I'll throw a copy of that backup to cloud storage after encrypting it just for good measure.

lagittaja said:
That's what OTG and thumb drives are good for. I've never backed up to internal or SD card for that matter.
Backup to thumb drive with md5 and plug it in to your computer which most of the time has exponentially more storage available and check the md5 after it's transferred to the computer. Then I'll throw a copy of that backup to cloud storage after encrypting it just for good measure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought of that but that's a lot more work for no gain and it won't work in the field, away from the desktop.
A 128GB SD card lets me do everything on the phone without worrying about space.
TWRP and TiBkp have an option to encrypt backups, which I use since I don't use encryption on the external SD card itself.

64Gb SanDisk Ultra convert to adoptable storage runs really bad. facebook lags, crashes, freezes.
UFS card should be out for adoptable storage.

umbrokhan said:
64Gb SanDisk Ultra convert to adoptable storage runs really bad. facebook lags, crashes, freezes.
UFS card should be out for adoptable storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the same sd card as adopted storage without any problems.

Maik268 said:
I'm using the same sd card as adopted storage without any problems.
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Click to collapse
have you tried facebook app or any heavy app on adoptable storage ?
the app is install on internal storage and data is install on SD card... do i have to change permission for the app. like for example storage location ?

umbrokhan said:
have you tried facebook app or any heavy app on adoptable storage ?
the app is install on internal storage and data is install on SD card... do i have to change permission for the app. like for example storage location ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using facebook and some other heavy apps (for example games) every day and I have no lags (except sometimes if it loads new content from the internet, but this has nothing to do with the sd card).
But not a single crash!
There are no permissions you have to change. Maybe try to backup all your data on your sd card and format it again as adopted storage.

SD as Internal storage: can i know where my data will be saved ?

Hi all,
i've put an new SD card in my HTC 10. It was said that it would be encrypted, so i thought great, and also that it would behave as an extension of the internal storage, therefore many apps could be installed.
On the contrary, if it is formatted as an external storage, then not all apps accept to be moved onto it, so that even with a huge SD card, i may face a space problem on the internal storage at some point, if i install too many apps there.
Question 1 though: are the photos/videos/screenshots/music etc really stored on the SD ? Or onle once the internal storage is full ?
For example, one of my videos is on /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/100MEDIA/MYVIDEO123.mp4
Is that the SD? or the internal? or is there no possibility to know just from the path?
Question 2: is it true that if i factory reset the phone, the SD card will also loose all its data, photos, videos etc ?
If that is the case, is there any real davantage of using an SD as internal storage ?
A positive scenario i would see is to use it indeed as an internal storage and do online backups of my photos/videos etc.
For the moment i was quite happy with my previous phones to use the SD as external storage and the data there being unaffected by whatever system changes on the phone. A bit like two partitions of a PC. One for the OS and one for the data.
While if i merge the two, even if i can see the advantage of doing that, it's again the old-time merging system and data.
How do you guys deal with that ?
Thanks a lot,
Adrien

About Question 1, you can format it as internal, put that video and simply unmount or eject card. You will see what happen. You can always format that card as portable so you don't lose.
About Q2: From what i know, yes. It's true, because your card is treated as internal storage, so it will be wiped and after that your phone will "say" that your sd card is corrupted. You will need to reformat SD card.
IMO Adopting SD Card as internal memory is a bad idea, at least for me. OK, you will have encrypted data and unusable in another phone, but SD cards aren't "speed demons", and for me SD cards are intended as portable data storage, not as internal memory.

ShadoV90 said:
About Question 1, you can format it as internal, put that video and simply unmount or eject card. You will see what happen. You can always format that card as portable so you don't lose.
About Q2: From what i know, yes. It's true, because your card is treated as internal storage, so it will be wiped and after that your phone will "say" that your sd card is corrupted. You will need to reformat SD card.
IMO Adopting SD Card as internal memory is a bad idea, at least for me. OK, you will have encrypted data and unusable in another phone, but SD cards aren't "speed demons", and for me SD cards are intended as portable data storage, not as internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you ShadoV90. That makes things clearer for me.