I hope Microsoft reads this, but I hope the developers can accomplish this, here are some ideas:
Have WP7 use internal memory for its main functions/rom, make the SD card available for programs, games, music, photos, videos etc...
This whole "making the sd as part of the phone" or striping data accros is way too sensitive. As I already experienced, this striping is very sensitive and the chain can easily be broken [as with a raid0(striping) storage system on a PC].
Also a ledgable partition to the os would be a plus (fat32, ntfs or even ext).
With this method the data on the sd card does not get lost each time the phone malfunctions/the storrage system gets disconected.
This is one of the major negative points with wp7, otherwise I really like it a lot, even for my business it just seems easier and better to navigat than wm 6.5.x.
What are other peoples thoughts??
Can the developer (if Microsoft refuses) accomlplish that???
P.s. Let me know ifmy threads are in the wrong Forum, but I thought both threads are valid ponts in regards to development and WP7 nand/rom issues.
OK, sorry for that, but I think maybe this one should be in the Q&A section??
If we get a future build that is
Usefull features
I do agree WP7 works great on HD2. There are some issues I would like to raise though:
1. I was unable to add custom TTF Fonts, like in WM6.5 to be able to read in Georgian.
2. Interactive USSD Feature does not work. That is, you can enable certain features that operator provides through *xxx# combination. I do not know if that works in original WP&, but in DFT release when the interactice menu comes up, the keyboard is locked, so there is no way to choose the desired option.
If anyone know answer to either issue please reply.
I dont think its a really big deal and it works the way they want it to, its almost like a hard drive that is built for the phone only. Microsoft will be releasing an updated WP7 that even includes the copy paste fuction. Maybe they can include the ability to send contacts, but since WP7 isnt open source I do not see any customization if much at all happening.
Except all the known issues, i'd like to have 2 improvement on the keyboard;
-Make the keyboard larger, there is some unused space on the right and left side of the keyboard.
-I'd like the keyboard to vibrate when buttons are pushed
i dont really think MS will see this
if you do want to give feedback find Windows phone on facebook or twitter where they have posted a short questionnaire and feedback box thats the place to do it
i dont really care about the SD card. Its one thing less to buy after you buy it. And this way you wont have any issues with damaging the card.
Windows Phone 7 wasnt designed for removable SD cards. It was intended for real internal storage though manufacturers went cheap for the first gen which is quite disappointing as if they used normal flash storage i think the performance would have been far better and the whole over blown deal with the SD card thing wouldn't have existed in the first place
evolutionqy7 said:
i dont really think MS will see this
if you do want to give feedback find Windows phone on facebook or twitter where they have posted a short questionnaire and feedback box thats the place to do it
i dont really care about the SD card. Its one thing less to buy after you buy it. And this way you wont have any issues with damaging the card.
Windows Phone 7 wasnt designed for removable SD cards. It was intended for real internal storage though manufacturers went cheap for the first gen which is quite disappointing as if they used normal flash storage i think the performance would have been far better and the whole over blown deal with the SD card thing wouldn't have existed in the first place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. 16gb of internal nand storage would be awesome and more reliable. An extra sd card would be cool also just so one can quickly copy/read pics and docs etc wihout having to install zune software.
ive been having quite a few major issues with WP7. its a shame because i do like it.
The main one being that every now and again it will restart by itself but sometimes it will do kind of a "hard reset" where everything goes back to factory settings, however if you restart it, it will go back to normal. i dont know if thats something to do with the SD card or something else??
ksingh86 said:
ive been having quite a few major issues with WP7. its a shame because i do like it.
The main one being that every now and again it will restart by itself but sometimes it will do kind of a "hard reset" where everything goes back to factory settings, however if you restart it, it will go back to normal. i dont know if thats something to do with the SD card or something else??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happened to me until I changed my SD card...
Well, I changed sd card and tried without. A full factory reset did the trick though. Seems like something weired is going on with the internal storage (I did a factory reset flashing from sd card).
My biggest concerns about wp7
1- No Copy and Paste
2- No fast multitask (like alt+tab)
3- No T9 dialpad
But the biggest is:
4- NO GOOGLE CONTACTS GOOD SYNC. Many of my contacts have multiple cellphones, and WP7 (also wm6.x) doesn't recognize them... Does anyone have an workaround?
5- Few medical apps (no Skyscape, Epocrates, or offline Uptodate...)
6- No apps folder...
Hope MS is watching this post!
Ok... I have been a member for awhile, reading this and that...
I have been using WM based phones ever since i could remember (minus a small sidekick phase). So, when I found out that WM7 wasnt avail for my HD2... I was quite upset.
I decided to take the plunge and try Android for my SD card. W O W!!!!
Very fast, & functionable. I have stayed away for installing roms and such because of their instability. But this is absolutely beautiful.
Now i haven't updated to the new release that came out this morning, and was wondering if i should because i have been having some small issues.
1. When running WM6.5 since the install, i have had a problem with messages updating on main screen, don't know if it is related or not.
2. This was a fresh install of WM6.5 along with an SD card format. I am not allowed to store any info on card anymore. It's a 16g card, and I don't like to waste space. I no longer have a place for my tunes..... not cool. Not to mention can't store pics, and all the movies I burned via DVDFab.
3. Now I have read that there is a way to 'partition' my SD card, but there are so many ways to do this. I would like to do this with the best way/program so i dont fry my card. Link to the most stable way of doing this would be appreciated.
4. Now as impressed with AmeriCanAndriod as I am.. I have a question about the lockscreen... It is NOT about it's size/fullscreen as i have read on here... But when i walk away and it appearantly locks itself, it goes BLACK. the buttons on the device still light up, but screen will not activate and i have to end up pulling the battery. I have read that this is not advisable since shutting down is where the OS saves it's data to the SD card itself.
Yes, I am as green as it comes to this, but I am not a complete fool. I do try and look up issues pertaining to my problems. I can strip a PC down and rebuild it again in minutes, but phones are new to my tinkering. I love my HD2, and love all the things I have read I can do with it.
I understand that the forced close issue has been rectified in the build released this morning. Can this be confirmed????
Also will I be able to save the data.img and restore my apps and settings i have installed if I want to update to the new release?
Partitioning the SD... Will it cause me to reformat card and have to re-install Andoid on phone?
LASTLY..... Thank You to the AmeriCanAndroid Tean for making a beautiful OS that can easily be installed. Having a dual boot system is perfect for me. All the power and funtionabilty of WM & all the fun of Android. You couldn't ask for more. All the talent in this OS truly shows in this streamless, beautiful, user friendly system.
~Bdwlf2~
First off, this is not the place where to post. You should post in the builds own thread located here. Second i know that black screen happens to me as well but what i do is leave it for about 3 min on standby and its cleared up by then. Make sure to have the latest build from the thread mentioned above. And yes you will be able to keep the same data.img from the previous release unless specified. Partition yes you will format but simply drag and your Android folder to your desktop and once you're done drag it back in simple.
Thank You for the reply. I was going to post in the AmeriCanAndroid thread, but since this is my first post. I had a popup tell me I had to post HERE, instead of that thread until I reach 10 posts.
If a Moderator wishes to move this, I have no problems with that. I wanted to post where it was most relevant in the first place. I just want to be able to reply without the 'newbe' restrictions.
Relieved that I can save my things, by saving the data.img file.
Partitioning, would love a link to the best/safest method.
Blackscreen.. So I just hit a button and leave it for awhile? That's not very practical if I had a buisness call to make, or an emergency. Is there a workaround? Can I shut off the Auto Lock?
What folder do I add music, ringtones, movies and other goodies to? Can WM 7 Android share these same files? (as long as they're not OS specific obviously)
Ah, i see your reasoning, no problem. A good guide on partitioning that i used as well can be found here. And well there inst really a fix to the black screen problem and i haven't searched for one since it only happens on boot of Android. What seems to make it come back faster for me is locking and unlocking the phone quickly. And you can just place a folder and name it anything you want on the root of the SD card. Heck you can put all your mp3,photos,documents on the root of the SD card and Android will still pick them up, it doesn't matter. And when you say "Share" do you mean Bluetooth sending? Then yes, you can.
Nope... SD card will not let me install anything while i was hook to puter. I was running WM at the time, not android. That shouldn't have been a problem. I am about to hook SD card directly to copmuter itself and copy files that way.
I have had all music located on card before this install, nicely organized by artist or genre, along with my movies, pics, etc. But wont allow me to do this now. I am little confused about that, unless android locked SD/root to android application only. Since most programs that lock things usually prompt you for user allowances, which i did not see, i am ruling that out as an option. Phones and computers are very similar as i am finding out.
The blackscreen doesn't occur on Droid boot... It happens when it sleeps, hibernates, or whatever you call it. Can not wake it from this state.
The Data.img.... Do i put that in after i update and run android, or do i put it in the very begining when i copy droid folder to SD card?
Thanx
~Bdwlf2~
Yup, android put a 'write protect' on SD card. Trying some format tools now. Had to put a re-partiton on it to get rid of protection, which made it a Bad Disk. So trying a recovery on it now. I refuse to be beatin by an object smaller than my thumbnail. Arrrgh!
Android does not lock the SD card to application only, that's very odd that you cant copy files to the SD card. Maybe its a setting on your computer that wont allow you? And about the black screen problem, there seems to be no one reporting about that on the thread as far i can see. Are you running SetCPU or a Task Killer by any chance? Those make Android behave very odd. If not i would suggest downloading the latest build again and formatting your SD Card and putting Android on it again. You can also move your stuff your desktop and put it back again. About the Data.img, you don't really need to move it anywhere. When there is a new update to the build, i simply extract the contents of the new build to the Android folder on my SD card and over write. Simplest method I've seen yet.
bdwlf2 said:
Yup, android put a 'write protect' on SD card. Trying some format tools now. Had to put a re-partiton on it to get rid of protection, which made it a Bad Disk. So trying a recovery on it now. I refuse to be beatin by an object smaller than my thumbnail. Arrrgh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems very odd. I've been using this build since February 24th and it has never locked up like that. But nonetheless you found a fix, good work.
No, not running any of those programs. I have extensively swapped data with this card numerous times.
I checked all setting in android prior to putting into puter. In therory, android should NOT write protect the disk, but something did. I have read this happening to others just in XDA forums alone.
Just got disk back to the "good" state using MiniTool Power Data Recovery... Let's take a peek as to see if it works correctly now.
Hmmmm... I think I should have used, repair damage partiton after recovery... still not working.
***scratches head***
I may need another cup of coffee for this.
How about a simple reformat?
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
Nope. Tried that.
Windows formatter - no
SD formatter - no
Mini tool -nada
MyDefrag - not
Test disk - running now... pending
Try to reformat the SD from Windows Mobile?
Yup, first option....
Would go partially thru it, then stop. Worked fine yesterday. This starting to become un-nerving.
I will find a way. There is always a way. Unless something shorts/melts/breaks/ or fry's... there is always a way. Just a matter of correct knowedge and tool combination.
bdwlf2 said:
Yup, first option....
Would go partially thru it, then stop. Worked fine yesterday. This starting to become un-nerving.
I will find a way. There is always a way. Unless something shorts/melts/breaks/ or fry's... there is always a way. Just a matter of correct knowedge and tool combination.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright good luck.
Trying HDD Regenerator v2011
Seems to be doing something, using limited Demo mode. At least it is identifying the bad sectors.
This one is gonna take awhile. If it works, or i find something that does, I will post. I've read other's have had this problem, and I can save the person buying/tossing out cards.... Then the work is worth it.
57min into it and only scanned 11mb????? This may be a month to scan 16g. If my math is correct. That's 1gig (1000mb) / 11per hour = 90.90hrs to complete 1g of scanning, multiplied by 15 (usable gigs) = 1363.6363hrs or 51.81 days? 51 days to complete scan?!?!?!?! Gonna look for another program. Wow.
Good thing I have a small 2g card. Unfortunately it won't hold 1/2 of my music. Argh, and I just put a 2 HD movies on there.
If you want to partition or format your SD you HAVE to be in Windows Mobile.
Also, if you are repartitioning your SD, I recommend you recreate your data.img or else it will have issues.
I tried to format in WM... Fail. All the files reappeared.
I did notice .android_secure file. That wasn't there before.
I have unmounted, seems like it is remounting itself. I even unmounted and yanked battery immediately. No success.
Yes, Android still boots.... Something in there is locking card. If card was bad, Android would obviously not be booting.
I cant add or remove data from that card. I have tried several programs.
**** Edit****
Please Do Not ask if switch on adapted is locked, I have two adapters, both UNLOCKED... For some reason, my "Spidey Senses" are telling me that I am about to be asked that question. Being asked this will only cause me to "sigh" loudly before i bang my head on desk. Which will still leave me with locked card and now a fresh migrane.
Hi, I lost my phone and just found out from Samsung that the SD card has no built in security. If phone is found anyone can access all files on SD Card. Just an FYI - beware.
Sd card can be protected with password and when you put them in new phone or any other device you need that password to open them don't know if android have the setting
What did you expect ? It's flash memory.
I think the Secure stands for "it's not gone if it loses power".
OMFG ROTFL...
@ OP: when you are buying a car, and leaving the keys inside, are you warning all buyers that it may be stolen???
first, if you must make a porn photoes of your gf, put it immediately on something like Intergal Crypto, and do not watch it in sub on your phone.
Second, if you really must look on it at work, install something, like Droid Crypt or LUKS Manager...
spamtrash said:
OMFG ROTFL...
@ OP: when you are buying a car, and leaving the keys inside, are you warning all buyers that it may be stolen???
first, if you must make a porn photoes of your gf, put it immediately on something like Intergal Crypto, and do not watch it in sub on your phone.
Second, if you really must look on it at work, install something, like Droid Crypt or LUKS Manager...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea what you are saying...LOL Firstly no porn was involved, just has my apps , music, and an encrypted excel file...just don't like the fact that Samsung provides PIN access to the phone but it doesnt subsequently provide security to the SD card attached to the phone at same time.
Samsung and Google are thinking that anyone interested would use the Encryption Manager Lite, LUKS manager or Droid Crypt from the Market.
If you want encryption, THINK first, then DO an effort to install it. Simple? not for all, as I see...
True: BAD Google, BAD Samsung, they gave you too advanced machine
Apologies on their behalf.
Nothing to do with how advanced the machine is...but if they advised people to add additional security to the SD card, it would have been appreciated, so you don't find out when it is too late, like I did. I post this as an FYI for all.
One simple question: on your car's windscreen, do you have a warning: while leaving your car, take the keys with you and close it?
I've spent the past 3 weeks pretty solid working out how I want to transform the 3 Fire's I got for $35 for my boys, 10, 8, and 4. I figure I'd post where I've finally landed along with some other things I've tried both with success and failure, and hopefully save some people some effort. I'd suggest reading through this before you use it as a stepbystep guide to make sure this works for you. I apologize if it's a bit jumbled, but everything should be here for you to convert your Fire. Again, I'd suggest reading through the whole thing to come up with a plan of action for you.
Goal: Turn this Fire into a glorified gameboy, used ONLY by kids, not shared with parent(s) and child
On 5.1.1
Assuming you've purchased an SD card, you will want to repartition in preparation for moving files and content.
Pointers for this:
Make two partitions, 1 which is about 70% of the card formatted as Fat32, must be a PRIMARY partition.
Second partition will be the remaining space, make it ext2, must be a PRIMARY partition. (From what I can tell the reason people suggest using ext2, and not 3 or 4, is because with 3 and 4 there is some built in backup and recovery operations which is great for when you're running a full Linux operating system, but for our purposes all it does is cause more writes which in THEORY will shorten the life of your SD card)
I formatted the Fat32 partition as the first partition, and the EXT partition as the 2nd. Not sure if the order matters or not, but I've had no problems doing it this way thus far.
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-internal-memory-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-link2sd-tutorial-guide.html/
Note:
During initial setup, don't bother with multiple user profiles (reasons explained later).
Using root junky's super tool (Thanks root junky, you made this all possible!!! http://rootjunkysdl.com/?device=Amazon Fire 5th gen&folder=SuperTool) do the following:
Root
Prevent OTA
Install Google Play
Install NovaLauncher (this is important if you're not going to use the built in Kids Mode in FireOS)
In Google Play Store download the following:
Link2SD (This is assuming you've purchased an SD card)
Kids Place - The VERY SIMPLE reason I went with using this app (which essentially becomes an alternative launcher) instead of using the built in FireOS's profiles and kids mode, is because the built in kids mode will ONLY allow you to use apps which you've downloaded FROM the AMAZON app store. I understand why they do it this way, I mean, the whole point of the fire is to keep you inside the Amazon ecosystem after all. But, I have MANY games I've paid full price for on Google Play that are appropriate for my kids. Since I can't put them into the kids profile built into the FireOS (If anyone can link me to a guide which is different, I'd love to hear about it) I couldn't use the built in stuff. In addition, the built in kids mode really is a pretty awesome feature on the fire, but the icons are freaking huge and kind of a waste of space.... going with this alternative method of Kids Place gives you smaller icons therefore you can "shove" more icons on a single view. Icons which take up half the screen are great, but if you're a dad like me who's going a little overboard and putting 100+ games on these things, it'll be a bit of a pain to scroll through them for your kids using the built in profile in the OS.
Note:
You can get Link2SD from the Amazon app store, but the version there is older than what's in Google Play and ultimately didn't work. Once I got the Google Play version, worked like a champ. NOTEx2: For whatever reason (this was frustrating for me to figure out), even though I partitioned 70% of the 64GB Samsung microSD to Fat32, and the other 30% I partitioned to ext2 (BTW I did the Fat32 first and ext2 second... not really sure if it matters the order or not but that's what worked first time for me so I went with it), when I launched Link2SD and it asked me which partition to use, I had to choose ext4 for it to finally work. Choosing both ext2 and Fat32 would both result in basically it saying: "yeah, you chose the wrong one punk" (or whatever it says).
Kids Place - similar to the one above, there is weirdness in the version on Amazon vs Google Play. On Amazon it actually claims the version there is slightly newer than Google Play, but when I'd launch apps on the one I got from Amazon it would kill the WiFi for that app. I realize that this is a built in option into Kids Place, being able to choose WiFi on or off per app (which is really cool), but the one from Amazon seemed to do it when and how it wanted instead of what I was telling it to do. Google Play's version had no such problems.
(( A word of caution using Link2SD's "feature" of being able to "Link Internal Data". DON'T DO IT. I've not been burned HARD CORE by it. The symptom is that if you POWER DOWN, and POWER ON the tablet, Apps go missing. Through reading and troubleshooting, it appears via this forum (http://androidforums.com/threads/link2sd-missing-apps-after-reboot.858565/) that the culprit is when you choose the Link2SD option to "Link Internal Data" to the SD Card. There's even a nifty batch way to enable it on ALL apps. Well, after powering off and powering back on the tablet (after I was COMPLETELY done putting on 150 games), when it came back up I only had like 15 apps on it. Everything else was POOF, gone. I've noticed sometimes after a power cycle like that the apps might take a few moments to 'come alive', but even after 15 minutes of waiting I had nada. Went in search and found I'm not the only one. I've now since completely redone (including reformatting the SD Card) all 3 Fire's and so far after multiple reboots, I've not lost a single app. So for now at least, this does seem to be the problem ))
You will need to spend the $2.35 on Link2SD Plus (striking out due to my caution above, that being said I'm glad I threw this guy $2.35 because my tablet would basically be worthless without the app), and after you install Kids Place, you'll need to upgrade to premium for $4.99. Here's why:
Link2SD - Plus - This is what allows you to automatically move files and content to the SD card when an app is installed. This is mega important to me because that piddly 5.x GB of usable space gets eaten up ridiculously fast otherwise. Dive into the settings once you have plus, and just go turn everything on. Auto move everything. Be sure to go into all menus and sub menus.
Kids Place - The premium features is key for me. For example: A) You can make this app launch upon reboot, thus it basically "forces" this into a kid only/friendly device. If your kids are sneaky, or bored, they'll try to break out of Kids Place. Then they'll delete apps, make folders, sabotage they're brothers devices, etc. B) You can change the name that's displayed on top from "Kids Place", to something else like their name, give them a fun nickname, whatever. For my 10 year old he won't feel like it's just a little kid thing. C) You can do this part without premium, but it's critical for me to mention it: You can change what the home "button" does so that it directs you back to Kids Place instead of the regular home launcher. The reason you need to install NovaLauncher above is because if you still have the stock firelauncher, you can NOT replace the home button with another launcher otherwise. [Word of caution, if you enable the 'background' premium feature, Kids Place is still running, just more in the background. Took me a few minutes to figure out that's what I had done. I kept thing something was wrong and wondering when whenever I launched Kids Place it kept asking me if I want to shut it down or go into settings.... it's because it was running the whole time already)
Once you've done all that, simply download apps (Amazon Underground still seems too good to be true, but I'm hopeful), sideload apps, get apps from Google Play, then go into the Kids Place settings and choose which apps you want (Manage Apps).
Other things worth noting:
SlimRom. So, this is cool. It's fast, and pretty awesome. For me however, at the end of the day, it didn't make sense to introduce something in addition that could go wrong. If you're like me and you have no intention of using this device yourself and you ONLY want this to be a device for your kids, I don't think SlimRom is worth putting in. If it's a shared device, it might be worth it. The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
That's it, I hope you find this helpful. I welcome any feedback or suggestions on how to make this a more gooder guide for anyone like myself who's first jump into amazon tablets has been these fires. They truly are AMAZING devices for the price.
hobojester said:
The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.
@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"
Pond-life said:
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about Slim and the Amazon store. Again, if I were going to use the tablet in a 'shared' environment where I'm using it AND my kids are using it, I'd totally use Slim. It was awesome. In this particular instance where this $35 device is a glorified gameboy, Slim is just something that is an extra layer of complexity that's really not needed and *could* get in the way. I have no intention of my kids even getting on the internet with this device. Not until there's a real need, and even then, I'd probably go get the K9 browser and use that.
TheTruthKC said:
@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you can find this useful.
As far as the storage card piece, you are correct in that "my" method moves EVERYTHING. Some apps are "self contained" as I like to think of it, when you download it. Popular games like Geometry Dash have everything contained in the downloaded app (or the .APK file). That is just the app itself. You can tell the OS to auto put the "app" on the storage card, and that works out great, but it's a little misleading. The problem comes in when you have games like Knights of the Old Republic. That app itself is something like 40 MB or what not, but after you launch the app, it'll download this extra content, which in this particular case is 2 GB. The kicker: it'll ONLY store that "content" (as I call it) into what the device considers "External Storage", which is ACTUALLY on the INTERNAL storage. That whole emulated SDcard business Android does. It's all funky. For fear of sounding like a commercial, Link2SD fixes all of that. Linux (what Android is built off of (oh, and hi iPhone users, so is iOS for the record)) has this thing called "Symbolic Links". You can google it up more about it, but think of it as an uber shortcut. You create a symbolic link on internal storage to the actual physical SD card, and the program THINKS it's writing to internal storage when in fact it's writing to the SD card. The kicker: you can only create symbolic links if you're rooted. The nice thing about Link2SD, is that it'll symbolic link EVERYTHING. The "app", the "content", and all of the saved game data and what not (which take a game like MineCraft, can get pretty big if your kids (like mine) go crazy building worlds). And you can have it to it all automagically. But you will need to pop that SDCard out, put it in your computer, and get it re-partitioned (visit the links I posted in the original guide for more in depth details).
I have heard really cool things about the Disney router. For now, my kids don't really have any need (or business) getting on the internet unsupervised. When they do, I'll probably give them the K9 browser.
Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?
Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?
howzitnow said:
Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will be a good chance for me to point out (I'll edit the guide in a second): DO NOT LINK "INTERNAL" Data via Link2SD. It has caused apps to disappear and never come back. I actually had to start completely over on all there of my devices. That "option" to Link the Internal Data is only available when you purchase the Plus version of Link2SD, DON'T CHOOSE THAT OPTION!!!
Now, with that out of the way, Link2SD is clever in how it works, and I am barely out of the n00b stage on this so I'll give a disclaimer that I may be totally feeding you false information here, but here's how I understand it: First of all, what I did was leave the SD card settings inside the OS all 'defaults', which installs the "App" to the SD Card. Now with that, I believe what happens is Link2SD intercepts that 'transfer' and puts the actual apps on the EXT partition. There is the incredibly critical option in Link2SD to put all other data (except "internal" data of course) on the SD Card. That's what moves the really big parts of those big games and apps. So when the App is relocated, it's put onto that EXT part and the Content on your FAT32 part. To address your question regarding External, SDCard#, and 'where in the heck is the EXT' part.... the EXT partition is mounted and 'located' under the 'local' storage under something like the /data/sdex2 folder. Welcome to the world of Linux... on a computer Linux (if my really old dusty Linux knowledge still works) when you need to access the CD drive you have to MOUNT it, and than LINK that mount to basically a local folder (something like /MNT/CDROM). Your EXT partition is mounted the same way as a folder, and for whatever reason in an app like ES File Explorer you won't see it as another drive, you'll only see the FAT32 drive. Maybe that has something to do with it being FAT32, I'm not sure. ...... the long point here is that Link2SD intercepts or coordinates with the OS's moving of apps to locate the App data to your EXT partition (mounted to that /data/xxxxx folder) and all the other really big stuff to the FAT32 partition. Again, I may be way off here, but hey, makes sense in my brain right now .
Inside of Link2SD there's an option in the menu to see the storage consumption, and THERE it'll actually show you the EXT partition as well as the FAT32 partition.
If my kids were a little older and I truly didn't care about them mucking around in settings, potentially deleting things etc., I'd probably give SlimRom a go for that. I've been messing around with it some more and it is just simply more 'pure' Android OS so it'd give the more 'true' Android experience.... if you really care .
cogito808 said:
Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?
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Click to collapse
I'm not, simply because FireOS doesn't have that option. I just have to hit 'Cancel' and move on. If you were to put on SlimRom you'd have that option. From what I can tell the biggest thing we're missing out on by staying on FireOS and not having this option would be limiting time in Kids Place for certain apps and what not. For me personally, I'll just set a timer, but if it's something you want to use, I'd absolutely suggest putting SlimRom on there and then basically following the rest of the guide. Everything still applies.
If anyone cares, I set up SlimLP for my mom who is a bit less technologically advanced than I am and I put smart launcher on the device and just hid the apps I thought would be bad if she were to accidentally open them and not know what she was doing. (I thought his could be useful for some of the people here as well)
How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.
chemie99 said:
How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I found out the hard way how bad this can be.... like... 6pm on the 24th, type of thing, RIGHT when I had finished it all up. I had some kind of heavenly help nudge me into thinking "you should turn these off completely, and simulate Christmas morning, see how long it'll take to fully boot back up".... and you can imagine my stomach drop when I went from having 150 games down to something like 3... it was painful. So, yeah, avoid that setting AT ALL COSTS!
How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?
tonyt3rry said:
How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I"m not familiar with the xposed SD card modules so I can't help there. As far as HOW you do it, I linked to some articles in the first post that might help (Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-in...ry-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-...al-guide.html/)
chemie99 said:
just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically the "app" gets installed to the 30% EXT2, and allt he "content" goes tot he 70% FAST32. Content will typically be data that gets downloaded after the app is installed. Take Knights Of The Old Republic for example, the "app" is like 50MB, but the "content" which gets downloaded upon the first time launching the actual program, is 2GB.
An Alternative Solution
I also gave my kids 3 Fire tablets for Christmas. My kids are mostly older (12,11,4) and the older two have had other Android devices. I went a different direction from the OP, which I'll discuss here for posterity's sake. This is a bit harder than the OP's method but ends up with a more conventional Android environment.
As background, I used FireOS on the Fire Phone for a few weeks, and ran into many problems. I installed CM11 on the Fire Phone and bought another in the final sale. You can read about that on the Fire Phone forum if you're interested.
Also, I've used Screen Time Parental Control for a couple years now, and while somewhat expensive it's great for monitoring without being too invasive. I can let the kids have a lot of freedom with their devices, without having to be worried about them either being on them all the time, or doing weird things. Screen Time nominally works with FireOS but in the end I did not use the tablets as-is long enough to try installing it.
For these tablets, I decided the easiest path was to install CM12. This avoided waiting for Amazon for security updates, and any FireOS incompatibilities, as I'd experienced with the Fire Phone. Also, the kids are familiar with CM, and frankly any replacement Android device will be easier in the future. After my experience with the zombie Fire Phone from Amazon I'm less concerned about CM/ggow/XDA bugs than I am Amazon's.
I decided to create separate user accounts for each child, as opposed to having both my Google account and the child's Google account** under a single user. I've done this before, but it's awkward to have to switch between accounts when using Gmail/Hangouts/Drive/etc., and sometimes things get mixed up.
Thus, for each of the three tablets I went through this process:
[I don't have the tablets in front of me, so if one of these steps doesn't seem obvious ask and I'll look up the exact names/buttons.]
1) Install CM12 using the well-documented methods
2) Boot into CM
3) Configure for my primary Google account
- Download interesting applications that have been purchased on my account
- Open SuperSU, enable multi-user access
- Open Contacts, select "ME", change name to "Dad" (or whatever)*
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Enable multi user access
- Open main Settings app:
- Set screen lock / PIN
- Users / Add user / OK / Set up now
4) "Switching to new user"
- Google Launcher always
- Log in with the "child's" account** in the wizard
- Open Contacts, change "ME" to the child's name
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Switch to Root access mode
- Browse to /data/app/
- Change into interesting packages and pick the .apk file
- Select "Install"***
- Repeat as necessary
Here I installed Screen Time Parental Control from the Play Store and went through the steps for Child device. Also any customization for the account should go here, then you can switch back to your regular user.
To switch user, drag down the system tray, pick the head image in the top right corner, and then the appropriate name.
Notes:
* This is in a wacky place, but this contact is how CM identifies the user name to display in the switch screen. If you don't see "ME" don't add it, just browse around; it's there somewhere.
** Apparently Google only allows accounts for people >=13. Thus, if you are reading from Google, know that these are my own accounts and my children happen to use them.
*** This will actually not re-download the application, but it makes a temporary copy while installing. Application user data is always separate between users, but for the most part download data is shared. For most applications things work on either user; however, Electronic Arts applications don't work with separate users, and Terraria will print an error (but still worked once the core data was downloaded with my purchasing account). I'm sure there are other apps that roll their own security and will be in this situation, but out of a very large family library these are the only apps with which I've had trouble.
Finally, a last note that Screen Time does not presently block creating new users from the system tray. In theory a youngling could create a user that would not have Screen Time limits, but then they wouldn't be able to delete it without getting in to Settings, which you should block anyway. Depends how devious your children are; for me I'm just waiting until they figure it out to do anything about it... just keep an eye on it if you go this route.
Hopefully this helps someone, eventually!
Best,
Tim
I got two fire tablets for the kids for Xmas, one is the kids edition (with the 1yr of apps,etc) the other is a standard fire. Used root junkies tool on both to block lock screen ads and OTA and hide Apps. They were both running OK, occasionally have the odd situation where you try to open an app and it looks like it is reloading it or redownloading it, not sure if this is because internal space has ran out and its redownloading on the fly but its quite frustrating.
Decided to flash slim LP rom on the standard tablet as there were apps that weren't available(better choice on play store and it wasn't tied into the 1year subscription).
So glad I did, was pretty straight forward to get it up and running and the latest build is so solid, fast and stable, was expecting it to be a bit quicker than fire OS as it had a lot less bloat but it seriously impressed me. So I have kids place set up on it to control apps and play time. I also installed hilocker from the play store to help simplify/lock down the lock screen. For example you can disable the status bar in kids place,but the child is still able to turn the screen off and on, they can then access the pull down toggles and mess with things, but with hilocker you can disable it which is great. Battery life is just as great if not better and your also up to date with all Google's security patches to boot.
It is a very good value tablet, as its just been reduced to just £40 in the UK. One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are. Again I can't recommend slim rom enough as it really makes a big difference to the tablet (besides providing full play store access) and makes it perfect for consuming media, browsing, or just handier for when you want to use a bigger screen than your phone.
Sent from my InFocus M810t using Tapatalk
gsmyth said:
One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are.
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@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.
tdcrone said:
@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.
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Click to collapse
How are you formatting your 2nd partition for links2sd?. I keep getting 'unable to mount' error, trying to setup as ext4, which I thought was the standard on newer hardware. I believe I tried ext 2 as well. Without 2nd partition obb and data stay on internal. Thanks
I wish to thank the OP for this, as I am trying to use, and bought the recommended apps... haven;t had the time to set this all up, and it gets a little confusing having all these other devices, but eventually I'll get it.