[Q] My HTC 16 gig has become 10 gig? - One (M8) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I have rooted my phone, applied the revolutions ROM and also ElementalX Kernal.
Everything is working but when I plug the phone into the PC to sync of look at the files. The Internal SD card says 10 gig not 16 gig.
If I look on the phones storage it says 16 gig still.
Is this something I have done wrong. Is this even possible? I havn't done any partitioning. Just followed the guides.
On a side note - the main reason to custom ROM my phone was so I could save full games and apps to the external SD but it appears I still cannot do this. Can someone advise the proper method in which I can save a complete game on the external card, effectively bypassing the google restrictions. apparently doing everything I have done is still not enough. All the apps I have installed to move files across from internal to external still only send the partial file, not the whole. My 16 gig will soon enough be full and my 64 gig SD card is a complete waste. I didn't buy it for videos and pictures but for games and apps...
thanks

jnatley said:
Hi,
I have rooted my phone, applied the revolutions ROM and also ElementalX Kernal.
Everything is working but when I plug the phone into the PC to sync of look at the files. The Internal SD card says 10 gig not 16 gig.
If I look on the phones storage it says 16 gig still.
Is this something I have done wrong. Is this even possible? I havn't done any partitioning. Just followed the guides.
On a side note - the main reason to custom ROM my phone was so I could save full games and apps to the external SD but it appears I still cannot do this. Can someone advise the proper method in which I can save a complete game on the external card, effectively bypassing the google restrictions. apparently doing everything I have done is still not enough. All the apps I have installed to move files across from internal to external still only send the partial file, not the whole. My 16 gig will soon enough be full and my 64 gig SD card is a complete waste. I didn't buy it for videos and pictures but for games and apps...
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone will show the total capacity of 16GB but you never get the full 16GB (around 14GB is actually available) Of that remaining storage which is partitioned is the OS and other files which takes it down to about 9 which is what you have for use.
Use folder mount for moving games to the sdcard.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount

jnatley said:
I have rooted my phone, applied the revolutions ROM and also ElementalX Kernal.
Everything is working but when I plug the phone into the PC to sync of look at the files. The Internal SD card says 10 gig not 16 gig.
If I look on the phones storage it says 16 gig still.
Is this something I have done wrong. Is this even possible? I havn't done any partitioning. Just followed the guides.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16GB is the total space available. Some of this space is covered up by system, cache, recovery and other partitions. The PC just shows the data partition, which in most cases is something around 10GB in size.
jnatley said:
On a side note - the main reason to custom ROM my phone was so I could save full games and apps to the external SD but it appears I still cannot do this. Can someone advise the proper method in which I can save a complete game on the external card, effectively bypassing the google restrictions. apparently doing everything I have done is still not enough. All the apps I have installed to move files across from internal to external still only send the partial file, not the whole. My 16 gig will soon enough be full and my 64 gig SD card is a complete waste. I didn't buy it for videos and pictures but for games and apps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For this you could use Link2SD, as the donate version gives you the possibility to move full apps to SD.
As a prerequisite you would have to format and partion your SD Card first, e.g. using MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Save all Data on your external SD. After this you have to create TWO primary partitions.
The fist hast to be
FAT32, Primary for all your stuff (Musik, Pictures, Downloads, Backups, ....)
EXT2, Primary (otherwise Link2SD can't create a mount point for the linked Apps
Have you done this an instered your card back into your M8, you open up Link2SD. It will on first run ask for root rights and of which kind your link partition is. Simply choose ext2. Link2SD will then search for the correct primary partition on your external SD and mount it. After this you can Link your Apps to the ext2 partition using Link2SD.

I see. I understand regarding the 10gig storage now. Phew I thought I had lost 6 gig through somehow.
I have installed folder mount and paired a game using source and destination and it moved the file across. I went to check my storage and my internal storage states 1.6gig and my external SD states 0bytes.
I believe this is correct as the phone thinks the internal storage is being used so it says 1.6gig however the files are all on the external.
so if this has worked, why do I need to partition as you mentioned? Has the 1.6gig file not actually moved across then as I have not partitioned it?
thanks

Should I be partitioning the External SD card correct. Not touching the internal?
Also I wouldn't have a clue how large the partitions should be. Is there a ball park figure for a 64 gig SD card considering most space I will use for apps and games rather than music/videos.
Thank you

Phew, didn't see that @gsmyth answered as well. Folder mount is of course a solution as well.
I'm using a 64GB external as well and partitioned it to an amount of 54GB (FAT32 for my music and stuff) and 10GB ext2, as an equivalent to my internal storage available for any data.

Related

[Q] A2SD+ Confusion

I'm pretty confused at the moment about the differences between stock froyo a2sd, A2SD+ and 'old A2SD+'. so far from what i'm seeing, using A2SD+ seems to be the best idea, but i'm not sure why this is better, or how to install it as there seem to be tons of different ways.
1. Which one should i use
2. How do you partition your SD card
3. what is this all about ext 2,3,4?
4. Can i set up the partitions using the clockwork mod recovery or rom manager? and how.
Just Sorry if this is repeated else where but i've found it pretty hard to find what i'm looking for (yes even using the search function)
I'd also like to know the answer to this, especially q3
i partitioned my sd card using Rom Manager but i didnt get an option for Ext 2/3/4 when i installed LeeDroid 1.6.
Seems like the new Froyo Roms say Ext 4 is the way to go.
I too would like to know this.
Also, do I need to format into partitions before / during / after flashing a ROM?
I can't partition with ROM Manager at all. It reboots into clockwork recovery mod, and it says
Finding update package Finding update package update package... E:failed to seek in /cache/update.zip (Invalid argument) I:verify_file returned 1 E:signature verification failed Installation aborted.
edit: fixed by nandroid restoring back to 2.1 and trying again
1. A2SD+ is probs the best to use
2. create ext2/3/4 within ROM manager
3. the extension is a portion of your sd card to store your apps i dont know the difference between the 3 but essentially you create the ext2/3/4 so your apps can be forced to the sd card, the froyo apps2sd is designed for apps that are coded to go on the sd card, the Dev of the app has to make it able to run on an sd card. that's why on some apps, you will see the option to move to sd card is shaded out, that is because the Dev has not coded that particular app to run on the sd card
4. see #2
hope this helps
DesireableHTC said:
1. A2SD+ is probs the best to use
2. create ext2/3/4 within ROM manager
3. the extension is a portion of your sd card to store your apps i dont know the difference between the 3 but essentially you create the ext2/3/4 so your apps can be forced to the sd card, the froyo apps2sd is designed for apps that are coded to go on the sd card, the Dev of the app has to make it able to run on an sd card. that's why on some apps, you will see the option to move to sd card is shaded out, that is because the Dev has not coded that particular app to run on the sd card
4. see #2
hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i create the partitions in Rom Manager, does this create ext 2/3 and 4? what partitions size / swap etc settings should i use? I have a 4gb card so what ever is best really for that?
DesireableHTC said:
1. A2SD+ is probs the best to use
2. create ext2/3/4 within ROM manager
3. the extension is a portion of your sd card to store your apps i dont know the difference between the 3 but essentially you create the ext2/3/4 so your apps can be forced to the sd card, the froyo apps2sd is designed for apps that are coded to go on the sd card, the Dev of the app has to make it able to run on an sd card. that's why on some apps, you will see the option to move to sd card is shaded out, that is because the Dev has not coded that particular app to run on the sd card
4. see #2
hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In ROM Manager if you Select "Partition SD card" in Utilities, you pick the size etc but you dont get to pick Ext 2, 3 or 4, does this matter?
coriron said:
I'm pretty confused at the moment about the differences between stock froyo a2sd, A2SD+ and 'old A2SD+'. so far from what i'm seeing, using A2SD+ seems to be the best idea, but i'm not sure why this is better, or how to install it as there seem to be tons of different ways.
1. Which one should i use
2. How do you partition your SD card
3. what is this all about ext 2,3,4?
4. Can i set up the partitions using the clockwork mod recovery or rom manager? and how.
Just Sorry if this is repeated else where but i've found it pretty hard to find what i'm looking for (yes even using the search function)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
@neoKushan Thank you very much. I understand the theory behind it a lot better now. Didn't actually realize EXT was a kind of file system so it makes a lot more sense now. So seemingly Apps2SD/+ is a lot better than the froyo (in certain situations). What is the best method to partition your sd card and install Apps2SD+? I think i've seen that a lot of the ROMS now will install the Apps2SD+ for you if you have partitioned your SD card, so i'm guessing thats the only step i need to take.
As far as I have seen, all of the recoveries out there have a way to partition the SD card. So AmunRA's or ClockworkMOD's (ROM Manager).
My personal preference is ROM Manager as it's very easy to do from the GUI.
Word of Warning, though: Partitioning your SD WILL DELETE ALL DATA ON IT!
Do what I did: Copy the contents of your SD card to your PC, partition the SD card, then copy the contents back.
thanks, that is superb! thanks for taking the time to type it up
this should be posted in the faqs section as it will might stop a lot of these recurring threads
one other question, some ROMs ask you to wipe your Ext partition, where do you do this ?
If i reboot to ClockworkMod Recovery there is a Wipe cache Partition, is this it?
thanks
neoKushan said:
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@neoKusha
Top post! Thanks very much.
So if you're using A2SD+, do the "move to phone" and "move to SD card" buttons actually do anything or are they just left there from legacy A2SD? And what does the "Auto" setting of ModInstallLocation actually do? How does it decide whether to install to internal or external?
chipyy said:
So if you're using A2SD+, do the "move to phone" and "move to SD card" buttons actually do anything or are they just left there from legacy A2SD? And what does the "Auto" setting of ModInstallLocation actually do? How does it decide whether to install to internal or external?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Move to SD would still work, all it would do is move from the ext partition on the SD card to the FAT32 partition (in the .android_secure folder).
neoKushan said:
Move to SD would still work, all it would do is move from the ext partition on the SD card to the FAT32 partition (in the .android_secure folder).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doh, so essentially they mean the opposite?!
What about the ModInstallLocation app, if you leave that set on Auto, how does it decide where to install things?
Rom Manager asks me to set the partition sizes, then reboots into clockworkmod recovery. No partitioning appears to have been done to the phone though. What am I supposed to do? Or is this a bug?
+1 THX very much to neoKusha! couldn't be explained on a better way!
just one question: ROMmanager makes an ext3 partition, isn't it?
THX again
Dg
chipyy said:
Doh, so essentially they mean the opposite?!
What about the ModInstallLocation app, if you leave that set on Auto, how does it decide where to install things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think about it like this. When using "old" Apps2SD (or Apps2SD+), you're installing your apps to a hidden part of the SD card, a part so hidden that even Android itself doesn't realise it's there, it just thinks it's your phone's internal storage. So when it says "move to SD", it doesn't realise that it's already ON the SD.
As for the ModInstallLocation, I don't use it so I can't comment, but no matter what it picks, it'll always end up on the SD card if you're using Apps2SD, all that changes is which partition it'll end up on. "Internal" storage will be the EXT partition and "SD" will be the .android_secure folder.
However, if you're using Apps2SD, you're better off installing to "internal" storage (As in, the EXT partition) as it's more compatible than Froyo's SD card storage.
irishdroid said:
Rom Manager asks me to set the partition sizes, then reboots into clockworkmod recovery. No partitioning appears to have been done to the phone though. What am I supposed to do? Or is this a bug?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure, perhaps it's already partitioned. Have you tried doing it from within Clockwork recovery itself?
Dave_G7 said:
+1 THX very much to neoKusha! couldn't be explained on a better way!
just one question: ROMmanager makes an ext3 partition, isn't it?
THX again
Dg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe so.
from another post I have this sizes:
0mb swap
512 mb ext
neoKushan said:
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One last question... When I let ROM Manager create a Ext partition it also ask for the swap setting? What to choose here, I have chosen the default now.

16GB internal + SD card. How does it work?

how does Apps2SD work when you have internal memory and an SD Card?
If you don't have an SD card, do the apps go to internal Memory.
Just curious how this all works since my current phone doesn't have internal RAM.
What I would like to do is keep Music/videos in one storage and apps in the other.
Since the phone has 16GB storage on it, theres no reason to use App2SD at all. You can run all your apps off the phone's 16GB storage.
The 16GB (actually ~11.5GB) comes up as "USB Storage" in Settings > Storage if thats what your wondering.
An SD card will show up separately under SD Card. Though in a file manager, the 16GB onboard shows up as your storage, the SD card under an "external sd" folder
Treefallingquietly said:
how does Apps2SD work when you have internal memory and an SD Card?
If you don't have an SD card, do the apps go to internal Memory.
Just curious how this all works since my current phone doesn't have internal RAM.
What I would like to do is keep Music/videos in one storage and apps in the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant possibly see why anyone would still use Apps2SD with this amount of internal storage. Accessing apps from an external drive is so much slower.
Actually there is only 2 gb of storage for apps. The rest of the internal memory is for media and other files. If you choose to install to SD it will install to external SD card.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
satur9ine said:
Actually there is only 2 gb of storage for apps. The rest of the internal memory is for media and other files. If you choose to install to SD it will install to external SD card.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes there is 2gbs for apps. If u use app2sd u can put the apps on the other internal partition thy has 11gb. Works for me when I tried it.
Sent From My Evo Killer!!!
strongsteve said:
I cant possibly see why anyone would still use Apps2SD with this amount of internal storage. Accessing apps from an external drive is so much slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is good to know. So based on all the other comments, Apps go to the internal memory or the extended internal memory and I can keep music/video/books on SD.
thanks all.
Finally got hands on with phone. I noticed the internal memory is listed as USB storage but when I go to app management it doesn't give me the option to move apps out of ram to USB memory, just move to SD card.
What gives?
How do they get away with saying it's 16GB internal when it's actually 11.5GB?
Its pretty amazing how much this phone brings to the table... 1gig ram, 16gig internal storage.. this phone keeps.blowing me away, it really does. I am very impressed with samsung. I would be running roms on my evo and it didn't have enough ram to hold the contents of a web pagr if I multi tasked to xda. I would hold the home button and fast switch to the internet again and the browser would have to load it all over again instead of having enough ram to just keep it there. I'm inlove haha
IA-32e said:
How do they get away with saying it's 16GB internal when it's actually 11.5GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not exactly sure how it works but I think 2gig is partuined for apps and some more for the rom right?
This hasn't worked for me. Everytime I try to move apps to internal storage, it says that there is no sd card inserted, and I need to insert one.
Can some suggest a good way to use the memory?
The Incredible had 8GB internal but the phone was setup never to use it, except for pictures. Everything went on the SDcard. I bought the Incredible used and the guy did a full reset from with in Android but when I got it the internal memory was still full of pictures, unfortunately nothing X-rated or blackmailable.
The E4GT is just as *ssbackwards. In / you have an sdcard which is internal storage. In sdcard you have a link for ext_sd and usbStorage. I put my Music in usbStorage and no music app can find it. How crazy is that? I just want one sdcard link that actually goes to the sdcard, that I would use for Media. The internal sdcard memory used for /data and a home folder. Come on Samsung, doesn't that make more sense?
bluefire808 said:
I'm not exactly sure how it works but I think 2gig is partuined for apps and some more for the rom right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok that makes sense.
gedster314 said:
Can some suggest a good way to use the memory?
The Incredible had 8GB internal but the phone was setup never to use it, except for pictures. Everything went on the SDcard. I bought the Incredible used and the guy did a full reset from with in Android but when I got it the internal memory was still full of pictures, unfortunately nothing X-rated or blackmailable.
The E4GT is just as *ssbackwards. In / you have an sdcard which is internal storage. In sdcard you have a link for ext_sd and usbStorage. I put my Music in usbStorage and no music app can find it. How crazy is that? I just want one sdcard link that actually goes to the sdcard, that I would use for Media. The internal sdcard memory used for /data and a home folder. Come on Samsung, doesn't that make more sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. I too would love to know if there's a "best practice" for how to manage the storage memory on the EG4T. Should I just put all media in the onboard USB storage, and then only use my SD card as overflow, or are there certain things that might be better put on the SD card? I'm probably overthinking this, but I'd like to get a handle on this now while the device is new and I don't have much on it yet.
*** Bump ***
I have filled the internal sd with some games and have room on external sd how do I transfer aps from internal sd to external sd? I have searched found some things about a apk converter??? I love the 16gb internal but it is not enough for my needs. I did see the adb method to swap internal and external sd cards.
HappyFillmore said:
I have filled the internal sd with some games and have room on external sd how do I transfer aps from internal sd to external sd? I have searched found some things about a apk converter??? I love the 16gb internal but it is not enough for my needs. I did see the adb method to swap internal and external sd cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look into darktremor apps2sd maybe? not claiming it works, just a suggestion
bluefire808 said:
I'm not exactly sure how it works but I think 2gig is partuined for apps and some more for the rom right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rom takes up about 3 gigs (just under) and 2 gigs are partitioned for apps. The rest is partitioned as USB Mass Storage (11.5) So 11.5+2+2.5 = 16, thats a rough estimate of how it breaks down anyways. The OS is usually between 2.5-3 gigs depending on how much the manufacturer adds to it. Stock Android is 2 gigs. Sammy doesnt add major bloat so it comes out to like 2.5 to 2.65 gigs. Motorola however usually comes out to 2.75-3 gigs. Which is why I like Sammy. ICS is about 3 gigs stock though, so remember that when you decide to upgrade to ICS later on. You'll be sacrificing memory on a device that wasnt built for it. Sammy added that extra memory for when ICS does come out, just in case. They were aware of the extra memory in ICS.

[Q] Internal Memory question

So, I got my device s-off and rooted, was pretty excited when I had those stuff done.
But now,
Internal memory is still an issue, I read on xda like, removing the bundled or stock software comes with the phone won't make the internal memory get increased because those files are stored somewhere else that won't effect the total usable internal memory. Plus removing stock apps will stop using OTA updates.
So is there a trick that I can increase the internal memory of my phone? I already use the default save location setted to sd card, and moving apps to sd but it always leaves some files at internal memory.
I read somewhere like, I can make phone use my sd card's some part as internal memory, I saw a rom offering that but except that is there any program offering this without flashing rom?
And I have some knowledge about Linux, so I was wondering do I have a chance to use symlink command (symbolic link) to link my internal memory to sd card ?
Best way is to use a ROM with Darktremor Apps2SD preinstalled. I don't know whether it will work if you install it now.
The best alternative, in my opinion, is to format a partition of your SD card to ext3 with this guide and then use Link2SD.The partition can be as big as you want, but I believe that 500 MB should be enough.
It will earn you some space but not as much as the Darktremor Apps2SD will.
Thanks for the answer, I used the guide and Link2SD, but i am a bit confused here, I also use apps 2 sd program,
So for using less possible internal memory of my phone,
Should I install apps to phone memory and then link to sd card with link2sd
or
Install app in sd card (or move it with link2sd to sd card) then link?
Right now one of apps shown as Linked -> SD card. So is this the best scenario?
Because when I choose move to SD in Apps 2 SD, Link2SD says move to SD also, so it kinda like they conflict
To tell you the truth I'm not completely sure for what is better, but what I did was to first link all of them (application, dalvik & library if possible) and then move them to sd card with App2SD. I think there was a slight difference to the free space but nothing noticeable. Sorry, but I'm no expert, so everything I did was by trial and error!

Anyone having issues with running out of Memory?

I had an LG G Pad (got stolen this weekend, GRRR) so I am shopping for my next tablet. my one issue is the 16GB of memory, is it enough, or is apps to SD available on this now? I was running out of space on the g pad even putting what (little) I could on my sd card. Thanks
aawshads said:
I had an LG G Pad (got stolen this weekend, GRRR) so I am shopping for my next tablet. my one issue is the 16GB of memory, is it enough, or is apps to SD available on this now? I was running out of space on the g pad even putting what (little) I could on my sd card. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the SM-T325 16gb internal with 64gb microsd card. No issue with sufficiency of internal storage. The OS needed only 3.98gb, my apps totaling 90 used only 2.32 gb and I still have available space of 10.26gb, plus of course the external storage. To top it all, you can move the apps to the external microsd card; it is a built-in capability without requiring the app2sd app.
ondoy1943 said:
I have the SM-T325 16gb internal with 64gb microsd card. No issue with sufficiency of internal storage. The OS needed only 3.98gb, my apps totaling 90 used only 2.32 gb and I still have available space of 10.26gb, plus of course the external storage. To top it all, you can move the apps to the external microsd card; it is a built-in capability without requiring the app2sd app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much, great information.
Its a very subjective question. It depends on what you need to put on the tablet storage, and if you can put media, etc. on the removable SD card. If you can put stuff on an SD, just buy a 32 or 64 GB one, and you're good to go.
I personally agree that 16 GB is bit low for devices nowadays. 32 GB would have been great. But the Tab Pro 8.4 (WiFi) was what I wanted, and is only available with 16 GB, far as I can tell. I use it with a 32 GB SD, and its workable.
It has the inherent issue of having 2 external storage. The primary being a partitioned storage in the internal memory which is part of the 16GB of the device. Any app you move to SD would move it to that storage thereby using up the internal 16GB storage of the device. So far I have not found a way to move the app to the real external storage, the removable SD card.
With that being said, installing games that are huge would eat up your 16GB device storage.
Rooted?
If you're rooted, there are many ways to move "apps" (or rather, apps data) to the SD card.
The one I use is FolderMount, available in the play store. It allows to mount a folder from your internal storage to the SD card, so everything happens for the system as if it was internal storage, but the files are saved to the SD card. I do that for my OBB folder (Android / obb) which contains around 20GB of games data currently... And still have 10GB left on my internal storage because of that.
Guillaume Delarue said:
If you're rooted, there are many ways to move "apps" (or rather, apps data) to the SD card.
The one I use is FolderMount, available in the play store. It allows to mount a folder from your internal storage to the SD card, so everything happens for the system as if it was internal storage, but the files are saved to the SD card. I do that for my OBB folder (Android / obb) which contains around 20GB of games data currently... And still have 10GB left on my internal storage because of that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was trying to avoid root but it seems there's no choice in this case.
One question though before I take the plunge and root, there's another folder under the Android folder called data, should I mount that as well?

Nougat & SD cards

I jumped from Lollipop right into Nougat, so this may have been the same in MM. I can't figure out the best way to use my SD card on Nougat. If the option is chosen for separate media storage, can that space also be used for apps?
I currently have it set for shared storage, but a couple of my sideloaded apps aren't working correctly. I SHOULD have 32 gb tablet + 64 gb SD card = 96 GB usable (after subtracting a random handful of GB for all the system stuff). When going to the storage tab in the settings menu, it gets really strange:
DEVICE STORAGE SUMMARY
15.39 GB total used of 29.12 GB
INTERNAL SHARED STORAGE
4.07 GB used of 29.12 GB
SD CARD
-16.08 GB used of 29.12 GB
Is this a known Nougat bug, or have I somehow done something wrong? All I did was put in the memory card and make the selection to format as shared storage before starting to use it.
My preference would be to use the card as purely external. Going that route, the PC interface would show both the tablet as well as the card so I could better control what files got put where. As it is, the card is all that shows in the PC file manager. My other preference is to be able to remove the card from this tablet and simply move to another with minimal re-work required. The format process popped a warning about the shared card working ONLY with the current device.
I am WAY confused here. Can someone give me some notes or point to separate thread with some good reading? Thanks!
~Vol
Let me rephrase into a way simpler question.
IF I format my SD as an external media as opposed to internal shared, will I be able to use some of the card's space for apps?

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