This is a completely 'unsexy' issue I have - but is driving me nuts, and I can't seem to find the answer anywhere else (which is causing me to doubt my own sanity).
My reason for using the internal rather than external is that whilst external works on some apps where you can explicitly point to the SD, there are enough where it doesn't (spotify), and I was hoping OS level settings would resolve my issues.
Enough preamble.
Marshmallow is supposed to handle SD cards properly, and I have two marshmallow devices with SD cards I've formatted as internal storage.
First up, my nVidia shield K1 where I understand it.
I put the SD card in, format it to the device and end up with two items displayed under settings->storage - internal and SD memory.
When I install an app it initially goes internal, but I can move it move it to SD, and when I launch it the app it can only see the storage it's been installed on.
i.e. podcast, plex, spotify I anticipate to use a chunk of space that doesn't have to be fast. So I install them, move to the SD, load the app, they report 128GB of space and happily use it.
All great. Whole kaboodle stays on the SD.
On my M8 though, it completely broken - except I can't find anybody else ripping out their hair - hence the questioning of my own sanity.
I add the SD and format as internal. I choose the apps I consider to be "high-capacity" and move them on my SD. The app installs there - just when it downloads anything, it dumps it to the internal storage still.
e.g. I've got a 20Mb podcast app I've moved to my SD. Within the app I've selected internal storage (being the only option) - but when triggering the download it's put all the MP3s on my internal storage and my phone is bleating that is has no free space and bad things are about to happen.
AFAIK the Marshmallow update to my M8 is completely broken, and the simplest thing I can do is just mount my SD externally and use hope apps requiring storage allow me to select it.
Just can't believe it's that broken and hoping somebody can point me towards how I can resolve it.
goldcd said:
AFAIK the Marshmallow update to my M8 is completely broken, and the simplest thing I can do is just mount my SD externally and use hope apps requiring storage allow me to select it.
Just can't believe it's that broken and hoping somebody can point me towards how I can resolve it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same, insanity inducing problem and hope some has found a solution since this post. I hope this reopens the tread and some one can help me out.
ThankS
Hmm was looking at getting a m8 as well but if adaptable storage is broken the phone won't be of any use to me. I hope we can find answers and solutions.
Related
Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Flame Red said:
Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have a 64gb card. I put all of my Titanium backups and Nandroids on the external SD (right now TWRP doesn't work with the exfat formatting of my card, so if I want to restore I'll have to move it from ext to int SD).
I also have Spotify set to store any offline music on the external SD. You can do this by installing an old version of Spotify, pointing it to external SD, then updating the app. A quick Google search will find this if it's something you want to do.
It's hard to tell you what to move to the external card without knowing what apps you use. You can get an app called Directory Bind that will point any internal SD location to your external SD. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1889550
SD card setup/directory optimization
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
dponte said:
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your'e just talking about music, you can put it in any folder and any structure you'd like. The Android Media Server process scans your entire SD card for media (including music) except for folders with a ".nomedia" file in them. It will use the tags to identify the artist, song, and album, then sort them based on that information.
Flame Red said:
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bummer
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
11GB is a lot (available to start with on the ATT model) if you use the external for media (and app cache) and leave the internal for apps mainly...agreed.
Most apps are small in size...however, one app like NOVA3 is 2GB and that is a big bite of your 11GB available, so that is a little concerning
I haven't had the device or android long enough to know, but, are app databases and cache allowed to reside on the external card --in lue of the ability to move apps to the SD being taken away since Jelly Bean (was it at that update)? Can someone point to a good thread on the reason and discussion about that? Thanks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994046
App2SD change external to internal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium
You can make your external your main storage device by using this root technique. But some people don't advise it saying it slows down your processing on apps.
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note II is a Unified Storage device. It has 11gb available for both user content (pictures, movie, music etc) and apps. I lost 2gb of space moving from my S2 to the N2.
S2 is not a Unified storage device, so it has 11gb of storage available for user content and a separate Apps partition of 2gb.
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.
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk
Hello,
Normally, in a perfect world, adoptable storage should allow to enhance memory thank to the sd card.
Anyone who tried to use the adoptable storage with the Nokia 6.1 encountered the problem of corrupt datas.
See
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nokia-6-2018/how-to/adoptable-storage-available-pie-update-t3873841
Does someone enough brave already try again to activate this adoptable storage?
Thanks you
yes, I retried it last week (with latest official patch applied).
I migrated > 10GB of data. Afterwards I checked 'DCIM' and 'Download'. All files got totally corrupted (looks like every byte different).
It seems that newly created files were not corrupted. (Was just a fast check with 2-3 pictures)
I migrated back and removed SD card. Files still corrupted. During the last test in ~2019 I figured out that the files some when magically got fixed again some time after migrating back. Hope this happens again this time...
Maybe it also just needs some time after migrating to reencrypt the files for the SD card?
Does anybody know more about the internal processes during and after migration?
Hi, I didn't try the above method, but I used adb commands to format the SD-Card as internal. It basically worked and I am able to run the apps that I migrated to the external card.
HOWEVER:
1. The external card and it's files are completely invisible to any file-system-apps. So I can't see the data.
2. Apps that require some kind of login never keep that login. If you close the app and start it again, you need to login again. This seems to indicated that the apps have been migrated, but are unable to actually use the external space to save new files.
Does anyone think that rooting the device would help?
Cheers,
Calon
my experience with adaptable storage was the same as krisha2k's. all migrated user data I had appeared to become corrupted, and most apps that I moved to the sd card either couldn't save any app data (game saves/logins) or even lost functionality (Snapchat friends list disappeared). some really old and ancient apps that I moved to adoptable storage kept their saves etc (ice cream jump, Neko atsume).
I also found that games with in-app downloads would save their download to the internal storage, as well as external when the app appeared to be stored on the external only.
most apps are broken because of newer android changes that protect external storage write access (and i think read too). I'm not an expert in that though. just speculation
in the end, I just did a factory reset and I've settled with using the sd card as portable storage and storing large files on there (4k video from camera etc).
its a shame because it was a spare 128GB card I had lying around, and I would have liked to have some bigger apps installed, but it doesn't matter too much. but I guess that's just how things are now.
i personally wouldn't recommend doing it. you have potentially everything to loose if you accidentally migrate all your internal data, and what seems to be absolutely nothing to gain.
hi folks,
So i chose the wrong SD card handling (the merged kind?) a while ago and after ejecting the card to set up a bigger one, I realise I now can't access the internal storage on the phone.
installed apps work fine
I can remove apps fine (but not reinstall!)
i can sideload apps fine (oddy!)
I cannot access e.g. photos with gallery apps
file browser apps cant access the internal space at all.
I cannot install anything from the play store, it just shows insuffucient space
apps like twitter crash.
whatsapp works (calls and text), but cant download photos sent, or attach photos.
There is loads of space free (14.65gb used of 32gb internal).
I also have an SD card with loads of space now set as portable storage.
I have the original SD card that was in before, but not in phone (still shows in storage manager).
Any ideas please?! Before i reset the phone and start again!
I have rooted it, but not sure what to fiddle with (the problem started before rooting).
nope? ok i guess i'll be wiping and hoping that fixes it!
moving to another phone for a while...
just to be clear, doing a full reset on the phone while rooted with magisk is ok? (unlocked bl). don't want to brick. android 10 up to date.
thanks, if anyone out there?
alright for the record and anyone else suffering this, i figured it out, and is slightly embarrassingly stupid.
if you set up the sd as combined storage, and still have the sd, put it back in and use the migrate data back to internal option which is hidden in the storage dot top right menu. voila.
then you can eject card, and still access the internal storage.
what you do if you've already wiped the old sd, i've no idea! you're maybe stuffed? hopefully wiping phone would fix it??
don't ever set your sd card as merged, use portable (i knew this, was a mistake).
so anyway, phone working again yay!
This post documents a method of enabling Adoptable Storage with adb commands on sony phones where previously similar solutions seem hard to find. Please link similar methods if they exist somewhere else, I am curious to read.
Personal success on SO-02K (NTT DoCoMo XZ1c ) fw version 47.2.B.5.38 Android Pie, 128G A2 card.
The method results in a fraction of the microSD Card being recognised by the system to be able to transfer apps to, and another fraction where the sd card remains external storage.
The Stock Camera will only be able to save to the mentioned external storage partition after this process, and it will fail to save to internal storage.
Some apps may not work when transferred to the sd card and have to stay in onboard storage.
Premise
I carried out the process with a freshly flashed phone, with a minimal amount of apps present in the system. I cannot guarantee same success with an almost-full phone, although in principle it should be the same. If anyone has success on a more full system please let me and others know.
ADB Debugging should be turned on in developer options and authorization of PC given in advance; root or bl unlock not necessary.
SD Card will be WIPED in the process. For your data's safety do backup everything on your phone, both internal memory and external memory before proceeding! Don't yell at me if in the end it'll have to be restored.
Process
adb shell
sm list-disks this should return two integers such as 179,0
sm partition disk:179,0 mixed xx where the 179,0 should be your result in step 2 and xx be the amount of space reserved for /sdcard ; wait until command finishes. For the mixed xx see Miscellaneous#2 for explanation. Please also reply if you know the command to revert the changes made in this step, because I'd expect it be useful in the future and I don't know what it is.
Turn on force allow apps on external in bottom of developer settings if haven't done so.
Open camera app, click on OK until warnings go away, then set save directory in SD Card. Test if it saves successfully, if not, see Miscellaneous#1.
Reboot, then try moving some apps to your sd card! Some core function apps are not movable; that is to be expected.
Miscellaneous
If your camera won't allow you to open up settings (keeps saying cannot save), then you have run into a problem I have never seen before. If you can go into camera settings but the SD Card option is greyed out, that means either you have not reserved enough space in mixed xx or the command may have gone wrong. Or the card may not be in perfect condition for Adoptable Storage. You can unplug the sd card to see if the camera works fine after that, but I haven't tried that. If anyone knows the corresponding command to revert the changes made in Process#3, please let everyone know!
The mixed xx part allows a part of the sd card to remain.... an sd card. xx% of the space in your card will be recognised as external(portable) storage by your phone, and is readable by a PC. This portion will be the place where your future photos and videos are saved in, as the camera will fail saving to internal space. Thus you may want to use the fastest card you have and set xx based on your use patterns. The other part, the (100-xx) % of space is recognised by the phone as internal storage that it can put apps in, although some apps (especially some games) will still save assets in the phone's on board storage no matter where you move the main app.
This post is re-written from original post(chinese)
Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.
indago said:
Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi and Merry Christmas!
I do get system warnings saying the phone is full while it isn't; it seems that Android freaks out a little trying to gather disk usage info when the SD card is merged with internal space. However I can move most non-system-apps.
Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function? I found I didn't include this part in the original writing and might have been a source of confusion. Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work, and perhaps I can try on my phone. I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card.
Another potential source of error is the card itself, in some cases, the card may have bad blocks that Android doesn't correct for and cause read problems, as my SD card now begins to show. Sometimes I wake up to see my home screen devoid of apps, and I have to reinsert and restart the phone multiple times before the SD card gets recognized by the phone again.
Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.
Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all. I was not able to move any app.
I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
50% of 128Gb, that is 64Gb each.
Another potential source of error is the card itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesn't seem the card, since the remaining 64Gb left for external storage, that is where the camera app is saving photos and videos and some other apps save data, still works fine.
Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).
indago said:
Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine looks the same. I don't know what to suggest. I'll look around on other forums to see if people have the same problem.
This post is re-written from original post in Chinese which in turn is adapted from a lost post on gfan.com.
It also turns out that googling sm partition would give a lot of information most dated back to android 6.
I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.
indago said:
I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Striking news in the new year-- my sd doesn't work now. Yesterday I checked everything worked, but now no apps installed on my sd card open. using sm list-volumes shows both internal and portable partitions on the SD are mounted, but the apps still refuse to open.
The card looks like it's corrupted, now the two partitions can't even be recognized with my card reader, I guess I'm screwed.
at my asus max m2 .... working, camera, i can move app to sd card and they still works
butttt the only thing is at settings/storage/ information; it shows numbers that dont are correct and a option "to forget sd card " ?!?!?
well i don't know.....