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i was wondering is there a way to put all the apps cache in the sd because for my search it seems like you can only do it for some. Im also running the Cyanogen rom 3.6
I know there is an app in the market named ClearMe (or there was) that will allow this if you are looking for a less manual method
Edit: you said all apps. I'm not sure of a method.... yet..
not just cache to sd, storage to sd
ruffrider5956 said:
i was wondering is there a way to put all the apps cache in the sd because for my search it seems like you can only do it for some. Im also running the Cyanogen rom 3.6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been wondering about a couple of things since I flashed Cyanogen's ROM. 1) Calendar storage is on internal storage. I have 5MB there so that sucks. Is there any way to change that? 2) Various programs, while the app itself is installed on SD, some data, but not all, goes to the phone's internal storage. This seems random. Is there any way to move ALL storage and ALL cache to the SD? When I was on JF v1.51, all data and cache was on SD. I have 63mb free internal but on JF I had 73mb free at all times. Now I fluctuate. Any thoughts?
aaronratner said:
I have been wondering about a few things since I flashed cyanogen's rom. 1) calendar storage is on internal. I have 5mb there so that sucks. Any way to change that? 2) various programs, while the app itself is installed on as, some data, but not all, goes to the phone. This seems random. Anyway to move ALL storage and ALL cache to the as? When I was on JF v1.51, all data and cache were on sd. I have 63mb free internal but on JF I had 73mb free at all times. Now I fluctuate. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you need 73mb free? Is 63mb not enough? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just think you might be worrying about something that is not an issue. The phone works ok with 20+ MB free and works great with 30+ MB. If you have too much free memory, it is just sitting there doing nothing. You want to use the phone's resources the best way you can, not just have them sit there being unused.
I really don't see the point in moving ALL cache to SD. I've found that the phone boots up much faster if your Dalvik-Cache is using internal memory. It is about 30MB on my phone. I did move my app, app-private, media, and data to my SD card. I've heard arguments that it is not a good idea to move the data over but I have over 100 apps and my data folder is about 6 MB. So a Class 6 card could move that entire folder in about 1 second.
Nice first post, but...
Just for reference, I don't really care if I have 10MB free. My phone is running very smoothly. Most of the questions that I ask are purely for educational purposes. I was wondering what the difference was between the apps to sd I did on JF1.51 (I did it manually and I'll show it at the end of this post for reference) and the built in method in cyanogen's ROM. I was curious about why the free memory fluctuated on cyanogen's and not JF's.
I think that some apps are using the phone's internal memory and some are using the ext2 partition. One example: I use NewsRob (an RSS reader). It asks me where I want to store the downloaded RSS feeds and I said my SD card. It created a folder and stored the file on my SD card (not the ext2 partition but the fat32). However, the internal memory was also affected even though the app itself is on SD (on ext2). Another example is my calendar app. The storage, of which I have 5MB, is stored on internal memory. On JF's it was not. Why? What is done differently?
If I enter the following commands in terminal emulator...
Code:
su
df system/sd
...I get 553920K total, 106180K used, 447740K available (block size 4096).
However, when I go to Settings > SD card & phone storage I get 540MB under total space and 409MB available.
That doesn't seem to jive or am I missing something? Hey, everything seems to be working well so I don't really care on that end. However I do care that I don't understand why this is the way it is.
Reference: My apps to sd method on JF.
In terminal emulator
Code:
busybox cp -a /data/app /system/sd/
busybox cp -a /data/dalvik-cache /system/sd/
busybox cp -a /data/data /system/sd/
Then in Recovery Terminal (Alt+X on JF menu in Recovery Mode)
Code:
mount data
rm -rf /data/app
ln -s /system/sd/app /data/app
rm -rf /data/data (optional)
ln -s /system/sd/data /data/data
rm -rf /data/dalvik-cache
ln -s /system/sd/dalvik-cache /data/dalvik-cache
reboot
I'm using "move cache for root users" - first result after searching for "cache."
It moves Browser, Market, GMaps, Street View, Gmail, and Steel caches to SD.
If you have apps2sd I would assume all caches would be on the SD card, not positive tho.
juphro said:
I'm using "move cache for root users" - first result after searching for "cache."
It moves Browser, Market, GMaps, Street View, Gmail, and Steel caches to SD.
If you have apps2sd I would assume all caches would be on the SD card, not positive tho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
using that program as well and yes it does put all the cache on your sd card.
imbonez9 said:
using that program as well and yes it does put all the cache on your sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too use that program. It's called TA Utility. It works well but I'd like more than that. For example, as stated in my original description of the "problem" is that there are other apps that don't get included in this. For one thing, calendar. That's 5MB right there. There are also various program that use some internal storage even if they cache the bulk of the files on the SD (fat32 partition). I don't actually think that this is a problem. I am just very interested in understanding the inner workings of the a2sd that I had done on JF and the a2sd that is done automatically on Cyanogen's ROM.
Another program that is a "problem" is the Work Email that was ported over by Cyanogen from myTouch. Even if you don't use it, opening it once adds more than a MB of data to the internal storage. While I removed the storage, if I wanted to use the Work Email app for some reason it would "cost" me a meg. Again, this is not a real issue as I have nearly 200 apps installed and still have 64MB of internal storage left. I just want the "why" behind all this.
My question, then, is why do certain apps "cost" me internal storage while others do not? It cannot be random. There needs to be a reason and there also needs to be a way to change that. I just don't know why and how.
aaronratner said:
I too use that program. It's called TA Utility. It works well but I'd like more than that. For example, as stated in my original description of the "problem" is that there are other apps that don't get included in this. For one thing, calendar. That's 5MB right there. There are also various program that use some internal storage even if they cache the bulk of the files on the SD (fat32 partition). I don't actually think that this is a problem. I am just very interested in understanding the inner workings of the a2sd that I had done on JF and the a2sd that is done automatically on Cyanogen's ROM.
Another program that is a "problem" is the Work Email that was ported over by Cyanogen from myTouch. Even if you don't use it, opening it once adds more than a MB of data to the internal storage. While I removed the storage, if I wanted to use the Work Email app for some reason it would "cost" me a meg. Again, this is not a real issue as I have nearly 200 apps installed and still have 64MB of internal storage left. I just want the "why" behind all this.
My question, then, is why do certain apps "cost" me internal storage while others do not? It cannot be random. There needs to be a reason and there also needs to be a way to change that. I just don't know why and how.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I''m not sure its the app that is taking up the room but the space it needs to park it on the phone. Like i installed docs2go. It adds to my internal but not as much as the whole program is.
[SOLVED] - Solution
I have figured out the answer to my original question for all those who are interested. I wanted to know the difference between the A2SD that I used on JF (I did it myself) and the auto-A2SD in Cyanogen's ROM. It's very simple. The /data/data/ folder on Cyanogen is not moved to SD whereas I has it sysmlinked on JF.
If you are running Cyanogen, run the following in TE...
Code:
su
du -h /data/data/
to see what you have stored. I am going to spend some time on the forum looking to see what, if anything, can be safely moved (in a stable way) to /system/sd/ on Cyanogen. I will either report back here or start a new thread if I think my findings are worth sharing (meaning, if I come up with anything more than what everyone else but me already knows, LOL). I suspect it might be a bit of an issue since Cyanogen warns against using any other A2SD methods while using his ROM. Time will tell.
I believe that the reason /data/data is not moved to sd anymore is because it proved to be unstable for most (not all) people here. Also, if you manualy move /data/data to sd at some point on Cyan's rom it will be moved back to internal memory automaticaly next time you reboot. This is just the way Cyan has it set up due to the problems people had when the whole data folder was moved.
Agreed
borodin1 said:
I believe that the reason /data/data is not moved to sd anymore is because it proved to be unstable for most (not all) people here. Also, if you manualy move /data/data to sd at some point on Cyan's rom it will be moved back to internal memory automaticaly next time you reboot. This is just the way Cyan has it set up due to the problems people had when the whole data folder was moved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fully agree with that. /data/data on SD was NEVER stable for me. I don't think my phone lasted more than three days after moving it. My main reason for posting was to understand what was different between what I did on JF and what Cyanogen did by default. I now fully understand the difference and, most importantly, the reasons behind it. I just have to keep and eye on which programs write data and how much data they write and what, if any, should/could be deleted. The calendar storage, for example, cannot be deleted or calendar entries disappear. For me, it's 5.5MB.
Perhaps, if I am really bored, I (or someone else) will write and app or script that can remove data/cache for ANY app added to a list. For now, I have the obvious caches moved over and a cache cleaning app for those caches moved to SD. A more efficient and more customizable method for this process is definitely needed but I have learned that these "problems" seemed to get "solved" as Android grows up. For now, manual methods will have to do.
I knew this time would come....
I've got too many apps on my phone and Im running low on space, and I've noticed my phone has been dragging lately.
I have an 8GB class 6 SD card, so hopefully speed shouldnt be an issue.
I have yet to use A2SD...
If I partition my drive, do I lose everything that's on there? Obviously that's not a problem as I can just move everything over to my computer then copy it back, but if I can leave the data on there and partition that'd be great.
Im having a hard time finding a step by step "from day one" guide.
Mind pointing me in the right direction? The only thing Ive found in the wiki is moving to a new SD card with A2SD.
Im currently running DC 2.07.2
BACK UP SDCARD
Boot into recovery. Partition SD card (default values)
Download http://www.darktremor.com/files/misc/a2sd-2.5-signed.zip
Flash above .zip as any normal ROM
Boot phone
Open command prompt and type:
adb shell
a2sd install
Tada.
Ok great, got that part down.
Now moving the already installed apps over to the SD card? What else do I do from here?
Thank you for the help!
Actually, looks like everything went ok...
ls -l /data reveals all the locations as /system/sd/app
I didn't bother to look at free internal space before installing, but my interanal free storage is now at 130MB. Sound right?
Last question i have for now....
Now that all my apps are on the SD card, if I were to flash a new ROM (say a new ROM Flipz comes out with) that has A2SD support... I dont' have to re-install them as both the apks, odex, and dalvik are all stored on the SD card right?
poor_red_neck said:
Actually, looks like everything went ok...
ls -l /data reveals all the locations as /system/sd/app
I didn't bother to look at free internal space before installing, but my interanal free storage is now at 130MB. Sound right?
Last question i have for now....
Now that all my apps are on the SD card, if I were to flash a new ROM (say a new ROM Flipz comes out with) that has A2SD support... I dont' have to re-install them as both the apks, odex, and dalvik are all stored on the SD card right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only version that I'm aware of that moves Dalvik-cache to the sd card is Apps2SD version 2.5. I don't know if anyone has that in the ROMs yet. Many of them are either using an Apps2SD that was built for Fresh 2.0d, Apps2SD version 2.0, or the Apps2SD which is common in the 1.5 builds.
Your apps in /data/app and /data/app-private are on the sd card. You can flash Apps2SD version 2.5 (A2SD) from http://www.darktremor.com/files/misc/a2sd-2.5-signed.zip if you want to move the dalvik-cache.
EDIT: I really should read the instructions that was posted before I stick my foot in my mouth. The file is the one located at Darktremor, which is the version 2.5...so, yes...your dalvik-cache is on the sd card.
So I tried the above method, but all my apps stopped working and when I go to reinstall them, it says "Insufficient Space for App"...
What did I do wrong?
EDIT: Okay, nevermind, it seems to be working now. I tried installing the app again and it installed fine the second time. Trying another one now.
I did this recently and just found out that I cannot install/download apps from the market, it just gets stuck there. Does it know where its downloading too after a2sd is installed?
I use an ext4 extension all the time,
but the 3 latest builds I installed, each from different devs, which all support ext4, don't work with my card. before it worked so I don't get it.
Is there something I might overlook?
also, can I create a data.img? because I think that is build specific? I can't really find the answer I googled for a few days now but I'm not getting any solution atm.
Maybe you could try flashing DarkTremor's A2SD, and then in Android Terminal Emulator entering the command su, then a2sd reinstall, but doing so will format your ext4, wiping all your apps on the ext. Just a last resort idea, I'd try everything else first, and if you do this, don't use one of DarkTremor's newer beta A2SD scripts.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
So I am an organization freak, and the root of my SD card had gotten a bit out of control. Not unusual, I know, but having just installed Titanium Media Sync and inKa File Manager, I've been doing a lot more file management and the constant scrolling through crap folders that I'll never need to access is getting old. So I've been trying a bunch of stuff to create what basically amounts to a folder full of shortcuts or symlinks that reference the various folders I need to use.
Now I could just create some sort of MyHome directory on my SD card and store my **** in there, but that doesn't solve the problem of having easy access to some of the folders that need to be in /sdcard, like the Download folder.
So the solution I came up with was to create a folder called 'Home' in the root of my phone. I added a bunch of symbolic links to Music, Photos, Downloads, Documents, etc, and the beauty is I can have stuff scattered all around my SD card and still access them neatly from this one folder. And filter out the crap I don't ever need. Doing this produced the exact effect I was hoping for, and I set it as my Home in InKa File Manager. However it comes with two problems:
First, this folder disappears every time I restart my phone! And second, even if this didn't happen I would still be faced with the folder disappearing every time I installed a new ROM. Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, FAT filesystems don't support symbolic links so this Home folder has to exist somewhere outside of the main SD card.
So, in conclusion: I would like to create a very small partition on my SD card that I have read/write access to, so that I can fill it with symbolic links that will stay put and always re-mount. My problem now is that I'm not familiar enough with the Unix file system or with mounting disks to determine how to make sure this partition gets mounted every time I start my phone. Or, if this happens automatically, where to look for the partition.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can point me in the right direction!! I'm pretty sure I have already created an ext2 partition on my card, by using iPartition on my Mac to place it after the FAT partition. But it won't let me name it so I don't even know where to begin looking for the partition itself.
Why can't you just make a folder called "Home" in /data somewhere? Shouldn't matter where the folder is since you can default your file manager to whatever folder upon opening.
Edit: Just tested it by making a folder /data/Home/
It survived a reboot fine.
Shouldn't be wiped when installing new roms either, as long as they don't wipe data like I know the ACS roms don't. Also if the rom you are flashing backs up and restores your data before flashing like some do, it MIGHT, idk for sure, but might backup this folder as well.
That... totally works. Stays after a reboot too. Thanks! This at least solves one problem and makes the idea totally doable again
Im still curious about a solution to the partition thing though. It would be nice to have a Home folder that was literally always around and that I wouldn't have to worry about even after installing new roms. I know some of them don't wipe data but I would generally Odin when installing a new ROM anyway. Installing Cyanogen for the first time definitely requires that and I feel like I may go back to a stock rom once or twice before CM goes final.
The reason nothing "sticks" when you put it in the root FS if because it is a RAM filesystem, loaded from a file image (zImage) at boot -- it's not a more typical file system in secondary storage like all the other filesystems. This is simply an artifact of how embedded linux systems work.
Sent from my mind using telepathitalk
I've owned my OG EVO since launch day, and have been rooted/flashing various ROMs ever since.
I've always had the app "App2SD" loaded, to make moving apps to external storage easier.
Looking at flashing other ROMs recently, I noticed some talk about supporting A2SD naively, and scripts and such. What is the difference between using the app or this naive solution?
Sent via Tapatalk on my E4G
The app ur referring to only moves the data for apps to the SD card, if u use dark tremors a2sd it moves the entire app and all its data. U must have a partitioned SD card to use it though.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
Hmmm... So DarkTremors A2SD is something that is built into the ROM? I guess I'm wondering how one would utilize that built-in capability after the ROM is loaded...
I didn't realize the Apps2SD only moved the data. It seemed to move the app too by looking at free space and how it was affected by using it...
if i understand it right... its not "included" in the rom. You need to download and flash the script, but the rom and kernel of most roms support it. It is well worth it. I did this not long after rooting. I partitioned my 32GB sdcard and flashed DT a2sd.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715938
Thanks for the link I've seen a boat load of posts scattered about but never saw one dedicated topic. Looks like I have some reading to do so I can figure out what, if any, drawbacks or quirks there are to using this.
Thanks again!
Sent via Tapatalk on my E4G
So I've made it through a couple of pages on the linked thread, and the answer may be there (but I haven't gotten to it yet)... How does partitioning the SD card affect Nandroid backups/restore or Titanium Backup, if at all? I know that Nandroid has an "SD-ext" option... I assume this is for backup/restore of the EXT formatted portion of the card? Are Nandroid backups stored on the FAT formatted partitions still?
Sorry for all of the questions; just things I thought of before trudging through 34 pages of forum posts...
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Am i able to do this with the stock sd card that came with the evo ?
Yes, but unless your ROM supports Dark Tremors A2SD, the system won't be able to utilize the EXT formatted space on the card, from what I am gathering...
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im running Miui. Think it supports it. Its just the how.
Unfortunately,I can't answer that yet. Haven't read enough of the previously linked forum topic
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Nandroid and tb remain on the storage partition, the FATS32 or whichever one your recovery uses. The ext- partition holds just the apps and data. Wont affect your backups in any way to my knowledge. Remember to back up all your data you want to keep to your pc or something before partitioning as it formats your sd card first.
私はローボーボブ。 Haro！！
Robobob1221 said:
Nandroid and tb remain on the storage partition, the FATS32 or whichever one your recovery uses. The ext- partition holds just the apps and data. Wont affect your backups in any way to my knowledge. Remember to back up all your data you want to keep to your pc or something before partitioning as it formats your sd card first.
私はローボーボブ。 Haro！！
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info!
Ive been using DT Apps2sd for a while now. I have the stock 8gb card that came with my evo and its partitioned for apps2sd. From what Ive always understood, what apps2sd does is it moves all your apps and the data for those apps to the ext partition of your sd card and it symlinks the apps to the phone so the phone actually thinks the apps are running from the internal memory even though it isn't. The advantage of the symlink is that it doesn't affect the apps' performance and widgets and such. The apps2sd app you speak of only moves the data to the sd card which can sometimes cause issues with apps' performance and widgets not working correctly. So, I recommend using DT apps2sd if you want more internal space without sacrificing performance.
Nice explanation I think my confusion had always been how it's utilized; with the app, I open it when I want to move something and it does it. With DT, it looks like you flash it, but after that I'm lost... Does it automatically install all apps to the SD anytime I initiate an installer action? Or do I need to do something to have the system install to the SD?
I'll find the answer in my reading I'm sure. Another 25ish pages, according to Tapatalk on my phone
Sent via Tapatalk on my E4G
Also am trying to find how to install this... Do you flash the ROM, flash A2SD, then simply reboot and all is well (assuming the ROM supports A2SD, and mounts SD-EXT during boot)?
here is some more info from what i understand. flash your rom, flash dt a2sd and reboot. once its all set, it automatically installs apps you download to the ext partition. also... if you decide to change roms, it is recommended to wipe the ext partition, but i never do and have had no issues. The only thing i have to do is once the new rom and a2sd are flashed and i reboot i have to install the terminal app and open it up any type the following commands...
su [ENTER]
a2sd reinstall [ENTER]
this reinstally the links to the apps... you can also move dalvik cache to the sd to free up more space.
a2sd cachesd [ENTER]
another helpful tool to make sure cache and apps are on the ext partition is apps2sd gui
you can get it from the market and it is just a graphical interface
here is a partitioning walkthrough if you need it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1158993&highlight=partition+sd+card
vwgtiturbo said:
Nice explanation I think my confusion had always been how it's utilized; with the app, I open it when I want to move something and it does it. With DT, it looks like you flash it, but after that I'm lost... Does it automatically install all apps to the SD anytime I initiate an installer action? Or do I need to do something to have the system install to the SD?
I'll find the answer in my reading I'm sure. Another 25ish pages, according to Tapatalk on my phone
Sent via Tapatalk on my E4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After you flash DT, you would want to download terminal emulator from the play store and type the following commands:
Type "su" then enter
Then type "a2sd reinstall" (without the "" of course lol) then enter
After you do that, let the phone do its thing and it will reboot. After the reboot, you are good. All your apps should be moved to the ext partition on your sd card. If you want, you can also move your dalvik-cache to the ext partition by typing the following commands:
"su", enter
"a2sd cachesd", enter
Just like before, your phone will do its thing in terminal emulator and then it will reboot. After that, you're good! You should notice a HUGE difference in available internal storage after this.
*EDIT: I didn't even notice the post above mine until after i sent the post lol
dbenney/youngchris: You guys/girls (hey, I don't know...) put the missing pieces together for me I didn't realize that you had to run commands in terminal AFTER flashing your ROM and then DT (I've seen references to commands, but thought that they were similar to the old rooting/flashing guides back in the day, that required ADB push/pull commands before flashable zips became the norm). So...
There were a few ROMs I flashed 6 months or so ago, that 'required' A2SD and I didn't do it. Subsequently, the ROMs didn't have much free space, with all of the Sense 3.0-3.5, and ran like ****, so I went back to CM7. Now, I am putting this together, so I can get the E4G decked out (because we all know our EVOlt won't be around for a while) and am looking for sharp looking/behaving ROMs to make this old beast happy, and keep me satisfied until Customs gets off their lazy asses.
I just have to find a ROM that is nice enough now
vwgtiturbo said:
dbenney/youngchris: You guys/girls (hey, I don't know...) put the missing pieces together for me I didn't realize that you had to run commands in terminal AFTER flashing your ROM and then DT (I've seen references to commands, but thought that they were similar to the old rooting/flashing guides back in the day, that required ADB push/pull commands before flashable zips became the norm). So...
There were a few ROMs I flashed 6 months or so ago, that 'required' A2SD and I didn't do it. Subsequently, the ROMs didn't have much free space, with all of the Sense 3.0-3.5, and ran like ****, so I went back to CM7. Now, I am putting this together, so I can get the E4G decked out (because we all know our EVOlt won't be around for a while) and am looking for sharp looking/behaving ROMs to make this old beast happy, and keep me satisfied until Customs gets off their lazy asses.
I just have to find a ROM that is nice enough now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of good sense roms out there, but you really should try this one... Energy sense 3.5 rom march 15.... i used it before i switched to CIUI(base of CM7 with MIUI look/feel). Energy rom is very stable and fast, but also heavy and a2sd is a must to free up some space.
Do you know of any kernels that work with it? It uses the stock kernel, which, from what I've read, doesn't support DT A2SD...
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