Develop Bugs

Why does moving an app to SD also shrink it?

I just did the Froyo update on my Evo yesterday (c/o Fresh), and was moving my eligible apps to SD, via Settings->Applications->Manage. As I would move each, I noticed the total size of the app would shrink significantly.
My user data is still there, the app is still the same app, and it works just fine. So why would moving the app to the SD card make it smaller? FYI, it's not related to the cache, since in most cases, they were 0KB before the move.
Just curious.

It's probably just showing the amount of space required internal to the phone, and likely varies from app to app.
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Check out the two attachments.

I followed these instructions
In the Android-SDK\tools folder, type in adb devices and you should get a serial number starting with “H” in return. All you have to do next is entering adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2. Voilà, you’re done! Android will now install apps to the SD card by default.
From this link and was able to move a lot more apps
http://androinica.com/2010/08/03/how-to-install-apps-to-the-sd-card-by-default-on-android-2-2-froyo/

The sd card and internal flash memory could be formatted with different file systems.
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dmoses1969 said:
I followed these instructions
In the Android-SDK\tools folder, type in adb devices and you should get a serial number starting with “H” in return. All you have to do next is entering adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2. Voilà, you’re done! Android will now install apps to the SD card by default.
From this link and was able to move a lot more apps
http://androinica.com/2010/08/03/how-to-install-apps-to-the-sd-card-by-default-on-android-2-2-froyo/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I didn't have any issues moving the apps. I'm just curious why it reports their sizes differently after you move them.

nukedukem said:
The sd card and internal flash memory could be formatted with different file systems.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I was thinking. The internal flash is yaffs2, the SD is probably ext3. It depends on how big each block is with yaffs2 vs. ext3.

Not positive on this but I think the file sizes show differently because the entire app doesn't neccesarily get moved to the SD. I think a portion of it stays in phone storage and then pulls information from the SD similiar to alot of the games you install that copy like 50mb to the sd card and only keep 1 or 2mb on the phone storage.

liquidkernel said:
That's what I was thinking. The internal flash is yaffs2, the SD is probably ext3. It depends on how big each block is with yaffs2 vs. ext3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but it's a 2:1 size ratio for the example I attached. And Google Sky Map posts a 6:1 ratio (1.8MB down to 300KB). sw99 thinks it's the "Storage" refers to only the internal space consumed by the app. Since most apps migrated to the SD show somewhere around 200-400KB, I'm thinking sw99 is probably right, and that whatever is left on the internal volume is simply a minimal set of files and descriptors required by the OS.

i think its a form of security, like cd installs, it leaves the most important piece of the app with what ever drm the market uses on the phone and the rest is stored on sd card and loaded into ram whenever app loads

The reason why is because data (from the app) goes to different folders. The .apk is not the only data assciated with that app. It's /data/app; /data/dalvik--cache; and /data/data. Froyo isn't moving all of the app....just sum

[Q] explain me sdcard

i have similar files on my sdcard
''.android_secure'' ''Android'''
i know that in one of these folders are stored app data the folder are big in size 250 and 800Mb i need that memory for me but whitch folders i am able to delete?.
you are wllcome to explain me more about this.
P.S. sorry for my english.

strauts said:
i have similar files on my sdcard
''.android_secure'' ''Android'''
i know that in one of these folders are stored app data the folder are big in size 250 and 800Mb i need that memory for me but whitch folders i am able to delete?.
you are wllcome to explain me more about this.
P.S. sorry for my english.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, "Android" holds application data and ".android_secure" is used for apps which have been saved to the SD card. Personally, I would probably leave both of them alone; if you've got apps saved to SD maybe move them back to internal memory to free up space on the card? Or give up and buy a bigger card

Yes you can delete it, android will build the folder automatically , but all your data will lost (settings, and everything).
I agree with hopscotchjunkie, if you want more space , better buy new bigger sd card.
or , if you dont want to buy, format your sd card. you'll have fresh 8GB with a fresh rom without any data & applications(that store in sdcard).

Yup i thought for 16GB, before I bought this phone.
Now I figured out what are these folders for.
Android secure- to sdcard mowed apps.
Android- downloaded aditional game files.
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[Q] Internal storage

Hi all,
My previous phone was a HTC Buzz (Wildfire). It doesn't have any internal storage, just a pre-installed sd-card.
I got my One V now for 4 weeks, and I just found out it does have internal storage beside the sd-card slot. But what exactly is it?
In Settings --> Storage space it says it got 1 GB of internal storage, of which is 555 MB used by apps. What partition is it they are talking about? In ES File Explorer, I see /mnt/emmc. It is completely empty. Or are they referring to the /data partition (which I, as user, can't really use directly)?
If I want to transfer my own files (music and so on) to the internal storage, in what folder do I need to place it?
Currently a lot of apps are using my sd-card as storage for their settings and caches. Will they use the internal storage for that if I take out my sd-card?
Thank you in advance

Your wildfire could install what....20-40 apps before getting a low storage warning?
Install an SD card, all your apps go to internal, (except app data...ie games) and your SD card is your "user storage".
Unless you install over 200 apps, most of them large, you will never get a low storage warning on the One V and that is a good thing.
When you want to upgrade to a new SD card, just copy the contents over to your new one, install and go........that simple.
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Thank you for answering anyway, but my question was about the internal user storage

Compizfox said:
Hi all,
My previous phone was a HTC Buzz (Wildfire). It doesn't have any internal storage, just a pre-installed sd-card.
I got my One V now for 4 weeks, and I just found out it does have internal storage beside the sd-card slot. But what exactly is it?
In Settings --> Storage space it says it got 1 GB of internal storage, of which is 555 MB used by apps. What partition is it they are talking about? In ES File Explorer, I see /mnt/emmc. It is completely empty. Or are they referring to the /data partition (which I, as user, can't really use directly)?
If I want to transfer my own files (music and so on) to the internal storage, in what folder do I need to place it?
Currently a lot of apps are using my sd-card as storage for their settings and caches. Will they use the internal storage for that if I take out my sd-card?
Thank you in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please free ur internal memory as free as possible....only keep frequently used apps in it, we have 4GB internal memory of which 1GB is available to us...in es file explorer click on favorites and there will be a phone icon.if u want to paste something not ur internal storage as writable through settings
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Compizfox said:
Thank you for answering anyway, but my question was about the internal user storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh, you mean that 95 or so mb of user storage?
1. No, you cannot move apps there
2. Really, not alot of place for music, some photos sure, just select internal storage in the camera app.
The 95 mb or so HTC left us is basically a joke, if youx have a suitable sd card (16gb ones are twenty bucks or less) I really sugest using that and consider that small space as a buffer if your card is removed and you want to suddenly snap a photo......or whatever.
In the future, when we have s-off and can repartion the nand that tiny space will be irrelevant.
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I don't know how much it is. I think it's the /mnt/emmc partition. I thought it was 1 GB.

Compizfox said:
I don't know how much it is. I think it's the /mnt/emmc partition. I thought it was 1 GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problems man, I'll start at the beginning.
Go to settings > storage, you will see:
Internal storage, total space 0.94GB...........it will report apps, and available. The two together should add up.
This is where your apps go
Phone storage, total space 95.23MB.........then available (mine is 95.21MB!!!!)
Storage Card, same total space / available.....this depends on what card you have
This is where app data goes, "user storage" ie. photos, videos, music, email attachments, downloads, etc. It will default to using your SD card if installed. If there is no SD card, or you temporally remove it, it will save stuff to your phone storage.
What partition is it they are talking about? In ES File Explorer, I see /mnt/emmc. It is completely empty. Or are they referring to the /data partition (which I, as user, can't really use directly)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "partions" are as listed above. There are some directories that you may not be able to view because you may not have "root access". If you root your phone, you will now have access to view and edit the entire file system (kinda like being an admin on a windows machine). Unless you are an advanced user, this is not really required. Some system files are hidden by default for good reason, change them or move them (or delete them like my Dad on his home computer**#@!) and you can really mess things up in a way you do not realize until later.
If I want to transfer my own files (music and so on) to the internal storage, in what folder do I need to place it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said before, the "internal storage" is for apps only, your "user storage" on your phone is only 95.23MB. Not enough for music really, maybe some photos (In the camera app itself under camera setting > storage > you can select storage card or phone storage) but....you are limited to the 95.23MB of space.
Currently a lot of apps are using my sd-card as storage for their settings and caches. Will they use the internal storage for that if I take out my sd-card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but they obviously will not be able to access any data on the card that is no longer in your phone!!!
It is easy to upgrade your SD card from the one that came with the phone. hook a USB cable to your phone, select "disk drive" from the drop down menu, copy the contents all at once onto the new SD card (if hooked upto your computer as well), power down the phone, swap cards and reboot......boom....more storage!!!
I hope that answered your questions, if not we'll have to talk S-off, hboots, nand partioning etc!!!!
Regards.

Thank you for the clear explanation!
I'm running Lloir's CM10 build now. So I have root
If I understand correctly, the 1 GB internal storage is the /data/ partition? And /mnt/emmc is just 95 MB of useless storage? Weird that CWM has got an option to make a Nandroid backup to the internal storage then. Won't fit
I've got a 4 GB SD-card btw

Compizfox said:
Thank you for the clear explanation!
I'm running Lloir's CM10 build now. So I have root
If I understand correctly, the 1 GB internal storage is the /data/ partition? And /mnt/emmc is just 95 MB of useless storage? Weird that CWM has got an option to make a Nandroid backup to the internal storage then. Won't fit
I've got a 4 GB SD-card btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, you've got it right.
The CWM probably has that option for other devices. The HTC desire, by default (similiar to the wildfire), 512MB nand, approx 105MB for the user (apps, user data, everything!). With s-off, we had scripts in which the ext3 partion of the sd card would be read as part of the "internal" storage, so not all was lost.
But, back on topic, yes just nandroid to your sd card.
Cheers man, glad to hear your enjoying your phone.
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it's because i put the option in..
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Lloir said:
it's because i put the option in..
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Click to collapse
Cool, what partion does this option use?
Edit: disregard the question dude, read the dev thread and got ky answer. Good work.
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Move to SD doesn't seem to be working. On stock, unrooted Lollipop.

This is my first phone with more than 8GB internal storage, so the 32GB feels like a giant space with so much room for activities. However, I'm getting greedy and want even more games installed.
I have a 64GB SD card installed, with around 12GB free. I've gone into Settings > Apps and on the Downloaded tab I select a large game, X-Com for example. It says:
Total: 2.94 GB
App: 53.22 MB
App (SD Card): 2.89 GB
Data: 212 KB
Data (SD Card): 0.00 B
So for some reason it already thinks it's on the SD Card, even though it's on the internal memory. It even gives me an option to Move to SD. I tap that, it says it's moving it, and to not remove the SD card. The numbers change slightly as to what is stored where. But when I go into the app DiskUsage, it still shows the huge data files sitting on the internal memory.
I'm assuming that the phone/OS sees the internal memory as an SD card perhaps? So when it says move to SD it's still just moving it to the same location, or perhaps a different location on the internal memory?
So like I said, I'm getting greedy, I can of course just delete some games when I want to install different ones, but this seems like an odd issue. I'm wondering if there's a quick and easy way around it. I know I can root and use something like FolderMount, but I'd rather stay unrooted for now.
Thanks!

Generally, I think that internal memory is regarded now as an SD card. Though I don't think that makes much sense. And your example of "move to SD" just shifting it in internal memory sounds like false advertising on the part of Google. But I can assure you that this is an OS (Android) issue, not a phone (LG) issue, unless someone knows otherwise. But what you want to look for is "External SD" not just SD (as that's internal memory. Since you mentioned "Move to SD," I'm guessing you're using the stock resources in settings. Unfortunately, Google removed the ability for 3rd party apps to write to external SD. And there has been major blowback from Android users, but Google isn't budging. This has been since Kit Kat was released (version 4.4 and on, Lollipop is 5.0 and on). I would recommend looking with the File Manager app since it's stock so it can read and write to External SD, in case you want to manually move anything, but I wouldn't recommend that with any apps since the system won't know that it was moved. Also use the File Manager app to familiarize yourself with the file system. If you select all files, it should show internal memory and External SD, unless that changed with Lolly. But I forgot to ask, have you checked to make sure your External SD card is mounted? You can see in disk usage, I think. Sorry if that was a lit.
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Best approach for SD card on M9 Marshmallow

Most of us probably know that Android 6 Marshmallow comes with a new feature regarding the SD cards which can be formatted and configured as something very similar to internal memory.
If you haven't read about it, best first to Google the topic.
(I will add a few links later)
From reading about it, it seems to have its own disadvantages (e.g. that sdcard is slower than built-in storage; and some people claim it's not flexible, even claiming that built-in memory becomes not used almost), so this thread is to discuss this feature for use on the M9
I don't have 6.0 yet on my M9, but have been thinking about this (a lot). Coming from the One X+ with 64GB internal, the storage is the only area in which the M9 is a step back for me...
SD card formatted as Internal memory
Known:
- it's encrypted, strictly linked to 1 device. Card not readable on any other device or computer.
Questions
- what does it look like in a file system explorer?
- what is the built-in memory (32GB) mounted as?
- what is the sdcard memory mounted as?
- can the sdcard be written to *without* any restrictions by all 3rd party apps (the kind of restrictions introduced by KitKat, where apps need special permissions and programming to use external storage). (For me this is THE most important benefit)
- after formatting as internal, there is a choice to "move data from built-in memory to sdcard". What does it move? It's been suggested that if this is done, then the default location for new downloaded apps will be the sdcard - is it
I would think it's best to keep all apps & their data on the built-in memory - and use sdcard for (large collections of) pictures, music, movies, documents, e-books, ... all the stuff you don't need to read or write at super high speed, but take tons of space. Basically the way it worked before Google messed up the sdcard in KitKat.
Discuss away
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I also found out something interesting to let the rom see sd by titanium backup or solid explorer (I use these two mainly)
if you tap on sdcard in solid it lets you search the sd path which you can reach and set to use, works fine
also in titanium backup (I use sd backups) if you go to menu>preferences>backup folder path and tap on archiviation provider you can use different "methods" to reach your sd, if you use documentProvider it works just as solid explorer, you have the stock file manager and go to sd folder

I find it useful, I have the best card to get, for its storage to performance ratio (SanDisk Extreme PRO 64 GB).
Before formatting as an internal storage source, apps that could store cache and data externally (Spotify, camera)
But with android M, they where not storing externally anymore.
Now I have a device that has 100 Gb of storage internally.
The only minor downfall is that TWRP can not see this storage, it kind of sees its own partition I think, which is only around 25 GB in size. So to transfer ROMs or ZIPs, you have to plug in via usb

Anyone have experience to share with SD card on marshmallow stock ROM. Still haven't made the time to pop mine in and experiment. :-/
Personally I would want to keep the apps + main app data on built-in storage (32GB) (making the best use of that super fast storage) but give apps full access to the SD card.

throcker said:
I also found out something interesting to let the rom see sd by titanium backup or solid explorer (I use these two mainly)
if you tap on sdcard in solid it lets you search the sd path which you can reach and set to use, works fine
also in titanium backup (I use sd backups) if you go to menu>preferences>backup folder path and tap on archiviation provider you can use different "methods" to reach your sd, if you use documentProvider it works just as solid explorer, you have the stock file manager and go to sd folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to move the heavy apps to the SD card. But I don't think see any major changes in the main built storage

nikeian said:
I tried to move the heavy apps to the SD card. But I don't think see any major changes in the main built storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was talking about backups. I never move apps to sd, looks like a fake goodie for me

throcker said:
I was talking about backups. I never move apps to sd, looks like a fake goodie for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies.
Talking about backup and restore HTC backup and restore doesn't work for Marshmallow 6.0

So being its encrypted for one phone,there is no way to reverse this and put in another phone. Example...if phone breaks or you upgrade.

Just received a notification for 6.0 update, can't wait to experiment on this new feature... If I understand it correctly, it would be beneficial for me since i've been using extsd to store large application data without moving the app itself...
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