Database Users

Why Apps2SD is such a BAD IDEA (tm)

This is in the Wiki, but thought I'd repost it here for all those who ask the same silly questions.
What Apps2SD does is shift all of your user applications (that would normally be installed on your phone's /data partition) and moves them onto a specially formatted ext2/ext3 partition on your SD card. This gives you the ability to install more apps than you would normally have the ability to. Sounds great huh? What's so wrong with that?
On the G1/Dream/ADP this app is a must - those phones have only a 256MB flash and only have 75MB for their data partition - it's
outrageous. Apps2SD/Cache2SD are great as they offload it the stuff to the SD card and reduce the limitation.
The HTC Magic (both 32A or 32B) and Hero are the next generation of Android devices though, and these phones have twice the flash of the previous generation (512MB). A large chunk of that (300MB) went to the /data partition, so installing apps isn't an issue.
There's also a number of real disadvantages to using http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Apps2SD&action=createApps2SD:
It will probably slow your apps down as it's thrashing the sd more - even if you have a class 6
you'll reduce the life of your sd card
you won't be able to remove your SD card/mount it on your pc if you wanted to without your phone crashing/apps dying/hanging/etc.
if your SD card is dodgy in the slightest then it will also cause the above.. crashing/hanging/random coredumps, etc - and you'll probably just blame the rom you're using rather than realising it's your SD card.
In the same vein, CompCache/Swap space/Swapper, et al are just as silly if you're a 32A/Hero owner.
Even on the G1/32B's it offers very dubious performance improvement - and there's no need with the 32A/Hero as you have plenty of ram. If you do install it you have all the same negative points I just listed above apply there too as they each use your SD card in much the same way.

Very old.
That post is quite outdated. The information there is relevant and fluid; however, whoever still follows that thread as being something to "take heed" to prior to allowing transfer of their APPS, CACHE, and DATA to the SD card they use...is entirely too broke to even own an Android-based platform.
SD cards nowadays; even the more efficient ones typically cost less than $30, including high-end retailers such as Best Buy and Fry's Electronics.
Who even worries about that crap anymore? That's such nonsense if you ask me. The fact is:
- Even if you could prove with some form of an exact science that utilizing those abilities and storing various amounts of data on your SD card was remotely harmful and could "wear down" (thus lessening the lifespan of the card) it would show that these results would be inconclusive until about a FULL YEAR had gone by.
Run-on sentence. I'm aware. But I had a point to make.

I just finished trying out app2sd in my magic for a few days and everything ran noticibly slower. I also disliked the notion of taking apps offline while copying via usb. I think this article raises valid points. *If* you aren't running out of room, then just leave it. You gain absolutely nothing.
DT

Hahahaha! I was reading for hours and hours of confusing tricks as how to do app2sd and whatever. Now comes a totally destroying tale!
I think ita worth it for a learning session to experiment.
My experience with previous sevaral Symbian phones, as most of them allowed applications to be installed on sd cards and nothing ever went wrong.Fring, Nimbuzz,Maps etc were on almost all times .Especvially Fring or Nimnuzz.
I like mu HTC Magic and put Enom's latest Tmobile ROM.It is fast and stable.Why couldny Android writers gave us the choice in first place- to select you appliocation to install in phone or storage memory like Symbian or WM? Is it something they forgot? Can it be included in future major updates?

It's not a concern of mine.
To put my response earlier quite simply:
I have 4-5 microSDHC cards laying around. All of which are Class 6. I'm not really concerned about "killing" an SD card sooner than it expected. It's an SD card for Christ sake.

Radix999 said:
[*]you'll reduce the life of your sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's a big deal because nowadays most flash memory come with lifetime or at least 5 years warranty. And by the time my 16GB microsd dies, I probably can buy another one for less than 10 bucks.

tengtengvn said:
I don't think it's a big deal because nowadays most flash memory come with lifetime or at least 5 years warranty. And by the time my 16GB microsd dies, I probably can buy another one for less than 10 bucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure the cost of the card is the last thing to worry about. What if you have pics, docs, video that you haven't backed up for some reason and it takes all your info with it. Besides are people actually installing that many apps? I can't see needing or using more than what the phone can store.
Clinton

Money ain't nothing but paper.
Yessssir.
I could make it rain.
SD cards are so cheap. What's $20 to most people...nothing! Enough said. Thread closed. Lol.

While the cost of a micro SD card is neglible, the damage to your phone when you lose all your apps, preferences, settings and get random hangs, errors, slowdowns while the SD card dies IS an issue.
And who cares if you have a dozen or even hundreds of microsd cards - once you've configured Apps2SD then you're prettymuch stuck with the one you have - try and remove it and be prepared for a screwed up phone.
All this hassle for such little benefit!

Wow.
Radix999 said:
While the cost of a micro SD card is neglible, the damage to your phone when you lose all your apps, preferences, settings and get random hangs, errors, slowdowns while the SD card dies IS an issue.
And who cares if you have a dozen or even hundreds of microsd cards - once you've configured Apps2SD then you're prettymuch stuck with the one you have - try and remove it and be prepared for a screwed up phone.
All this hassle for such little benefit!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro, common sense...
BACK YOUR **** UP AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.
Problem averted. I'm a busy guy, but find plenty of time to periodically, whether it's bi-weekly, etc. to back everything up.
We're gravy.

Radix999 said:
2. you'll reduce the life of your sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As was said, I doubt it will really matter.
And if it does... I prefer to down my SD card, which I can replace (and normally, not all recorded data vanish suddenly if it wears down ! you should only see total memory decreasing, and maybe loosing "some" data)...
....instead of my phone internal memory which I won't be able to replace at all !
I have a magic so for now I can live without apps2SD, though even now I am forced to make choices to get some free space.

Here are some of the issues I had running Apps2SD on my G1:
Backup for root users wouldn't backup apps that were on the SDcard.
If I unmounted or removed the card even with the phone off, many apps would disappear or become corrupt.
Sometimes things would go wrong and the only fix was to reformat and partition the SD card. I had big problems when I was testing Hero roms. I used two different cards and they both had similar issues even though they checked out fine.
Here is why I love Apps2SD:
There are so many great apps for Android and the memory limitations of the G1 would have kept me from being able to give dazzling demos.
Just getting it set up before all the tutorials were available taught me plenty about rooting around the Android guts.
It was really cool to be able to say "oh, you're out of memory? I've got 72MB free with 80 apps installed, but it's no big deal."
I say go ahead and try it out, but be prepared for the worst. I don't remember if Nandroid backups got the apps from the SDcard. I got a Magic PVT 32a with 288MB and never looked back.
Enjoy!

Bwhaha!
I don't back my computer up very often? Hard Drive....What Hard Drive? BIOS is all I got.... Pretty funny!

I don't think anyone is arguing against backups, and I agree the sd destruction argument is somewhat dubious, but that doesn't change the others! The point was: absolutely if you're running a 32b mboard apps2sd is worth a look, but as a magic user, I'm telling you I've tried it and went back after 2 days. The earler post about it being worth it as an experiment might well be true, but I wish I had read that article first!
DT

hi Radix999!
Thank you for porting 32a. My question is, how do i disable App2SD?
I'm using linux so i don't have problem with partions, my problem is to unmount /data/app folder.
Also, will nandroid backup /data folder as well?
Regards

if interested to disable:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5246028

Reignzone said:
Yessssir.
I could make it rain.
SD cards are so cheap. What's $20 to most people...nothing! Enough said. Thread closed. Lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The cheap cost of replacing flash memory won't make the other points go away... and you still have the risk of losing your data. Throw all your money at your phone and you still can't mount your SD card without crashing some apps... all that paper ain't gonna make your apps run faster on Apps2SD than it does on system memory
To begin with, if you got all that dough, why don't you go get a 32A? Or better yet, go grab one of the shiny new phones running Snapdragon, no need for Apps2SD there

the biggest advantage from app2sd for me is not the fact that I can save phone memory even though I have like 80 games and 40 apps installed; but it's because it will save me a lot of time re-installing each and every single app and game between roms testing.
and the biggest disadvantage from app2sd is that your phone depends on that tiny little plastic too much. it wont even turn on without that piece of plastic; and thats very weird cuz i thought app2sd only move other apps (not system apps cuz your system apps are still in /system/app) to your sd card which means system apps should still be able to start your phone without the microsd. But I guess I was wrong cuz my phone wouldn't turn on wihout the sd card installed.
jus my $.02

APP2SD how?
How do you do apps 2 sd? i want to try it out. can some one help or point me to a different forum?
-rooted mt3g 32b

I think the whole life reduction theory is pure b.s whats the difference between you using your micro sd card on the daily bases to transfer data from a computer or having it transfer data in your phone via apps2sd? None at all they use the same transfer mechanism correct?.I have a G1 and a behold 2 been using the same 4GB micro sd card for over 2 years in my G1 I even swapped it and now I use it in my behold 2 (without formatting and without loosing my apps) and have yet to endure any problems/lag slow downs maybe the people who complain simply have no knowledge of the device.both of my phones are rooted with swap partitions and custom firmware and are 2/3 faster than what they were when they came stock.With that being said it will not slow your experience down if you know what you are doing.And you can remove your SDcard without damaging your device you just have to take the BATTERY out before you take the SDCARD out.I do this on the daily bases depending on which phone I prefer to use and theirs no evidence to support the reduction in life for the microsd cards atleast not on any of my devices.

Should i "downgrade" or keep my MT3g

Basic question, i know the specs are far from close, but when you root + ram hack on a G1, will there be much of a performane difference between a Rooted G1 vs a Rooted MT3g?
Questioning becasue i have the option to trade my rooted mt3g for a unlocked/rooted G1. I just hate not having a keyboard
What do you guys think?
Am i making a bad move to downgrade? Or not much of a difference/

The tmobile-branded HTC MAGIC is the 32B version, 192RAM, 512NAND. All HTC DREAM are 192RAM,256NAND. So the ram itself is the same, you just end up with less internal storage.
Just note a couple of things;
1) If you use apps-to-sd, then the internal storage is moot.
2) If you have root, there are no OTA updates, so the 65 MB /cache partition is freed up for other uses.
Personally, I would NEVER switch from this phone to *anything* that lacked a physical keyboard. And that includes a GN1.

lbcoder said:
The tmobile-branded HTC MAGIC is the 32B version, 192RAM, 512NAND. All HTC DREAM are 192RAM,256NAND. So the ram itself is the same, you just end up with less internal storage.
Just note a couple of things;
1) If you use apps-to-sd, then the internal storage is moot.
2) If you have root, there are no OTA updates, so the 65 MB /cache partition is freed up for other uses.
Personally, I would NEVER switch from this phone to *anything* that lacked a physical keyboard. And that includes a GN1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so essentially i would have the same phone with a keyboard when rooted...is the cpu the same ? the 528mhz or whatnot?

jdedeaux said:
so essentially i would have the same phone with a keyboard when rooted...is the cpu the same ? the 528mhz or whatnot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1)Same CPU speed
yes
2)Same amount of Ram
yes
3)Same amount of ROM/Internal storage
No, this means that larger Roms will not fit on your Dream and you will have to use Apps2SD which makes a rom slower because of the links needed.Swap will also be used but not used on the Magic.It's up to you if any of this matters to you or not.

Ace42 said:
3)Same amount of ROM/Internal storage
No, this means that larger Roms will not fit on your Dream and you will have to use Apps2SD which makes a rom slower because of the links needed.Swap will also be used but not used on the Magic.It's up to you if any of this matters to you or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect, on all counts.
Larger roms fit just fine as long as you aren't a complete moron about it.
Apps2SD is ***FASTER*** than keeping everything internal. The reason is that you have INCREASED BANDWIDTH!
Just because you are running an app does NOT mean that it is the ONLY thing drawing data from some storage device.
Each piece of hardware has certain bandwidth limits. If you are running a program from the sdcard, then more of the internal storage device's bandwidth is available for other things, thus net speedup!
Symlinks have ZERO effect on performance.
As for swap... wow. Totally WRONG.
The devices have the SAME AMOUNT OF RAM and therefore the SAME requirements for using extra RAM.
If you DECIDE to use swap on one, then since the other has EXACTLY THE SAME amount of RAM, you would also choose to use swap on THE OTHER.
Note: SWAP is SLOW, and it is BAD for NAND. I do NOT recommend it.

lbcoder said:
Incorrect, on all counts.
Larger roms fit just fine as long as you aren't a complete moron about it.
Apps2SD is ***FASTER*** than keeping everything internal. The reason is that you have INCREASED BANDWIDTH!
Just because you are running an app does NOT mean that it is the ONLY thing drawing data from some storage device.
Each piece of hardware has certain bandwidth limits. If you are running a program from the sdcard, then more of the internal storage device's bandwidth is available for other things, thus net speedup!
Symlinks have ZERO effect on performance.
Note: SWAP is SLOW, and it is BAD for NAND. I do NOT recommend it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, bro. i generally agree with what you say... but apps2sd is NOT faster. I've used it with a Mytouch before i knew jack **** about internal storage space (this is my first actual smartphone not counting a blackberry) and once i got rid of it my phone has been quite faster. not to mention it burnt up the sdcard i got with the phone and another one i bought. (probably wont have this problem with a class 6.)
swap? lol. man how many times do i hear this. swap is personal pref. sure it slows your phone down. but 32mb backing-swap works wonders for me. it all depends on how you use your phone. and by NAND i hope you don't mean a nandroid backup. not once since I've had this phone has swap ever affected my nandroid backup in any little way whatsoever.
edit: oh as for physical keyboard: i was same way. had a friend with an iPhone and of course i played with it. well, i eventually learned how to use the keyboard so when i went to go get a g1 i decided to go all touchscreen and what can i say? i'm faster texting with a touchscreen than i am a physical keyboard. also, I have to point out that symbols are much easier to access. and when you have to write a long e-mail to college professors it's nice to be able to use them quickly and efficiently.

So, down to the nitty gritty?
It seems like everyone is more of a fan of the G1 vs the MT3g?
Is that the verdict?
To trade or not to trade, that is the question.

r3s-rt said:
sorry, bro. i generally agree with what you say... but apps2sd is NOT faster. I've used it with a Mytouch before i knew jack **** about internal storage space (this is my first actual smartphone not counting a blackberry) and once i got rid of it my phone has been quite faster. not to mention it burnt up the sdcard i got with the phone and another one i bought. (probably wont have this problem with a class 6.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You either had a defect, or did something wrong. By your own admission, you know **Mod Edit **about internal storage.

lbcoder said:
You either had a defect, or did something wrong. By your own admission, you know **Mod Edit** about internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you're going to try and come off more educated than me, then may i suggest you read my whole post? much less go back to third grade english.
r3s-rt said:
sorry, bro. i generally agree with what you say... but apps2sd is NOT faster. I've used it with a Mytouch before i knew jack **** about internal storage space (this is my first actual smartphone not counting a blackberry) and once i got rid of it my phone has been quite faster. not to mention it burnt up the sdcard i got with the phone and another one i bought. (probably wont have this problem with a class 6.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
r3s-rt said:
I've used it with a Mytouch before i knew jack **** about internal storage space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's also a number of real disadvantages to using ?Apps2SD:
1. It will probably slow your apps down as it's thrashing the sd more - even if you have a class 6
2. you'll reduce the life of your sd card
3. you won't be able to remove your SD card/mount it on your pc if you wanted to without your phone crashing/apps dying/hanging/etc.
4. if your SD card is dodgy in the slightest then it will also cause the above.. 5. crashing/hanging/random coredumps, etc - and you'll probably just blame the rom you're using rather than realising it's your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
taken from xda-wiki... maybe you need to look at... number 2? **Mod Edit **sdcard + walmart doesn't equal class 6, giving it an ever higher chance of dieing.

jdedeaux said:
So, down to the nitty gritty?
It seems like everyone is more of a fan of the G1 vs the MT3g?
Is that the verdict?
To trade or not to trade, that is the question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The verdict is that the DREAM is an UPGRADE.

There's also a number of real disadvantages to using ?Apps2SD:
1. It will probably slow your apps down as it's thrashing the sd more - even if you have a class 6
2. you'll reduce the life of your sd card
3. you won't be able to remove your SD card/mount it on your pc if you wanted to without your phone crashing/apps dying/hanging/etc.
4. if your SD card is dodgy in the slightest then it will also cause the above.. 5. crashing/hanging/random coredumps, etc - and you'll probably just blame the rom you're using rather than realising it's your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.... well you will note that it says "probably" -- it does NOT say "definitely". There ARE circumstances where it WILL make things slower, such as when ALSO using SWAPPING.
I would like to point out a technology called RAID. Specifically, a subset of RAID: RAID 0 "striping". With this technology, you use two or more disks together to increase the performance. Overall data throughput is typically the SUM of the throughput of each individual disk.
This isn't quite as sophisticated as striping, but it has the same kind of effect -- that the overall peak throughput will be the sum of the throughput of the individual components.
2 is true of ANYTHING that writes data to your sdcard. Running applications on your sdcard does not typically write ANYTHING -- it is simply the process of INSTALLING them that writes. You can READ them an UNLIMITED number of times. As a result, it is NOT VALID.
3 *partly* incorrect. You can't *remove* the card (how many people actually do remove it? Answer: not many), but you CERTAINLY CAN mount it to your computer and read/write the fat32 partition (read only on the ext). Doing this does NOT cause ANY instability.
4 and 5 are the same thing, and this also applies to your INTERNAL NAND or ANY OTHER storage device that you happen to own. Your home computer, for example. What does it do if the hard disk starts to fail? Things start crashing and it gets real slow.
Summary of 1 through 5: Not applicable.
Just because the information goes over your head (clearly WAY over your head) does NOT mean that there is anything wrong with it.
And for your information, I am reporting this. This kind of disrespect has no place in civilized conversation.

Post tidied up. Next step is to ban anyone who continues to be abusive.
Remain on topic and civil. If you can't respond in that manner then don't post.
WB

lol you guys are nuts, i asked if i should keep my MT3g or trade a guy for his G1 and it got so bad the mods had to come in... now thats a ****ing nerd rage if i've ever seen one... Not being rude but you guys are the reason I can come here to ask these questions because i know im not gonna get a biased answer. Everyone DEFINITELY has their own opinions.
so..
G1 - 1 MT3G - 0
Anyone gonna ante up the MT3G or top off w/ the G1...

Just because you aren't swearing doesn't mean you aren't being abusive. Knock it off.
To the OP, it really varies on what you want. What matters more to you? To me, the hardware keyboard is a GIGANTIC plus. But I don't mind the extra bulk of the HTC Dream. Unless you have the upgraded RAM Magic, then the Dream is better imho.
Also, to finish things once and for all, Apps2sd will not have a gigantic impact on your SD card, at all. Yes, flash does have a limited life, and yes, apps2sd will kill that faster, but it won't be as fast as people are saying. Swap on SD, however, WILL kill flash relatively fast.

I have solved my slow HD2 issue

Hi guys,
I have been struggling with this issue since I have bought this phone, but today I have solved it. When it slows down , I have checked the task manager and it says the manila.exe was eating 98% of the memory. I tried everything, then one of my friend needed my memory card and I gave him mine and then suddenly my HD2 went back to race car situation. I played with it 3 hours nothing changed so that concluded that memory card was defective. I have formatted it nothing changed and bought a new one. Now everthing is perfect. I cannot say this is the solution but it solved mine. You may try it.
Good luck

Bro, thanks but this problem has been answered before.
Its known that the micro sd m2 slows down the phone.

so basically the memory card it comes with is trash and you'll have to replace it or keep your phone running slow?

Didn't work for me.

tekhizuz said:
Hi guys,
I have been struggling with this issue since I have bought this phone, but today I have solved it. When it slows down , I have checked the task manager and it says the manila.exe was eating 98% of the memory. I tried everything, then one of my friend needed my memory card and I gave him mine and then suddenly my HD2 went back to race car situation. I played with it 3 hours nothing changed so that concluded that memory card was defective. I have formatted it nothing changed and bought a new one. Now everthing is perfect. I cannot say this is the solution but it solved mine. You may try it.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am not sure what class the sd card is that comes with our hd2's but i experienced the same thing. i just upgraded to a class 6 8gb card and the difference has been huge for me in terms of performance.

actually just your average class 4 SD card would make the phone perfome WAAAY beter.
I remeber when I purchase my HD2 and notice that it came with a 16GB class 2 card I was actually disappointed so I started using my 8GB class 4

So what ur all saying is that the major cause of phone lag is attributed to the cheap memory card?

Going to a class 6 from the garbage class 2 that came on the phone made a huge difference for me.

it will also improve the battery, especially for the people like myself that use the phone as an MP3 player. The battery drains so fast when I play music even with screen off....Im gonna look into a better sd card. It sucks though, the pack a craptastic Class 2 sd card and a small ass 1250 battery to power this massive screen. That still baffles me.

we shouldnt have to buy these
we should all just call tmobile and complain or take it to the tmobile forums, we all paid good money for these devices, last thing i need to do is go by something my phone already came with beacuse tmobile decided to cheap out.

When I got my phone I immediately swiched it out with my blackberry 16gb card. Everything T-mobile is trash except for the phone itself, I wish Verizon or AT&T wouldve gotten it. Coverage is behind horrible in my city with T-mobile. LOL

dukins said:
When I got my phone I immediately swiched it out with my blackberry 16gb card. Everything T-mobile is trash except for the phone itself, I wish Verizon or AT&T wouldve gotten it. Coverage is behind horrible in my city with T-mobile. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coverage kicks ass in my city. Sucks to be you huh. LOL

jiggahj i feel the same way,i didn't even buy the phone yet and i already have to shop fo a new memory card,thats BS.

ummm wait wait... im kind of lost here... what do you mean by "class 2" "class 6" sd card?! >.> my phone started to slow down just today and yea.. when i take out my card its all cool... so so.. what are those classes? i never saw anything written like that on any card... and i had quite a bunch >.>

oxoconstantineoxo said:
ummm wait wait... im kind of lost here... what do you mean by "class 2" "class 6" sd card?! >.> my phone started to slow down just today and yea.. when i take out my card its all cool... so so.. what are those classes? i never saw anything written like that on any card... and i had quite a bunch >.>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the write speed. They all read about the same. It's fast. But writing to them is much slower so they class them. You'll see a little number next to the company logo on the card. (2). The class 2 isn't horrible, but they had a batch. I used mine for a long time with no problems. But I did upgrade to a class 4 and things were better. Class 10 is the fastest that I know of but they are pricey.

Wow, i feel stupid for not knowing what the different classes were.
thanks. i'll be getting a new memory card soon

I rebooted my HD2 a couple of times because it was running SLOOOOW. Didn't understand what could be causing it - so using the dotfred task manager I discovered that for some reason Microsoft Voice Command was eating 100% of my CPU time...ha. I disabled voice command and all went back to normal. I rebooted a couple of times & re-enabled voice command and it seems to be ok now.

yeah the hd2 is a really great phone, the only thing keep alot of buyers away is the lag/freezes ): I think rooting and putting a custom rom will also solve it.

crisisinthecity said:
It's the write speed. They all read about the same. It's fast. But writing to them is much slower so they class them. You'll see a little number next to the company logo on the card. (2). The class 2 isn't horrible, but they had a batch. I used mine for a long time with no problems. But I did upgrade to a class 4 and things were better. Class 10 is the fastest that I know of but they are pricey.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OH HELL! There really is a lil "2" icon on my sd
But then... It was pretty fast like 2 weeks ago for me. now... it just slowed down... i have two "class-2" cards 2gb and 8gb ones, and 2gb is actually much faster rotfl. I just having troubles with BROWSING my files on card cause even my "file explorer" lags when i do >.> So yeah.. it used to be better..
and yup. i hard reseted my phone and formatted my cards. didnt really helped me.

i tried replacing my memory card from class 2 to class 6. it still hanged
i still have to wait for the text message/s to arrive before i can resume doing anything on it

Advantages Of An SD Card?

I just got a 32GB (Reads 27.4GB) Class 4 SD card for my phone. I know I can load pictures, movies, videos and documents on it, but what else can I do with this card? Essentially, I want to know all of my options before I start loading it up. I always see blurbs involving side loading, storing apps, using it for root and other stuff but I don't completely have the gist of that stuff down. Mind telling me everything I should be using this SD card for? What should I do with it right now before I load any media on it? Thank you!
Note: I am running update .83 and am NOT rooted.

I use mine for as much multimedia as possible, i.e. music, pictures, videos.
I also store boot animations, fonts, themes, and anything else I might want to have readily available after a wipe.............which I do frequently.
I also set my external sdcard as my TiBu location.
<edit> Everything I store on my external sdcard relating to boot animations, themes, etc. are just the files I will re-flash/install should I wipe. It just saves me copying all the flashable files I know I will need every time I wipe/sbf flash. If you store pics, music, etc. on the external sdcard, it is useable on other devices instantly should you remove the card to place in another device, either permanently or temporarily, and I have not had problems with my class 4 card as far as time to access files, play music from, etc. as some people say you will have.

honestly it's just there for storage. The phone has enough internal storage that you'll never need more space for apps. Store all things like backgrounds, widget skins, widget settings, etc on the internal memory, because if you ever remove the sd card the phone can't use them.
external card is also great for TiBu files as CaelanT said.

cegna09 said:
you'll never need more space
You are probably right, but.
I've been saying similar things about pcs and devices for the last 13+ years. I was wrong at every turn...
Made me think of my first 20gb hdd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

JdgM3NT4L said:
cegna09 said:
you'll never need more space
You are probably right, but.
I've been saying similar things about pcs and devices for the last 13+ years. I was wrong at every turn...
Made me think of my first 20gb hdd.
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I remember my first time.............I mean HDD...........was 20MB.
You must be a youngster! LOL
Also, my first computer had 1k of memory!
Sinclair ZX80: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX80
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I never considered myself an "Old Timer" but I have owned a computer longer then most of my coworkers have been alive.
The memories of taking old floppy disks (and I mean real floppy disks not those little 5-1/4 inch deals I mean the 8 inch boys) and cutting notches in them so we could try and use the single sided disks as flipper/double sided ones.
Anyway I have a question for CaelanT... how about video on a class 4. I have a class 10 16gb and was going to go for a class 10 32gb when I got the money, but if you do not have anyproblem with video at class 4 I may save myself a little money.

Video is good for me on 720p unless I pan with the phone, and then I get a wee bit of motion jitter with occasional blur, but I believe I have read that happens to everyone and it's a camera issue. I took video of my sons graduation yesterday with it, and holding the camera still, video and audio were great.
I would post a video, but everything I have is personal. I may do a quick one tonight and post it for you to see.

no problem, don't need to really bother on my account, I trust your opinion.

It's just extra storage but advantage is if your phone dies you can still transfer all your contents to another place. If you only used internal memory if your phone dies everything is stuck on the device.

This is probably a good place to ask: what's the easiest way to transfer music and pictures to the SD card. And I mean taking them out of internal memory,not just copying them.
Never live in the past but always learn from it.

Hmm.. I have another question about sdcard-ext ..
Many big games.. Like the tegra2 games need 200-300mb or more.. And they installed on sdcard.. Bcz for phones without internal sd, sdcard is meant for their external.. So, how can we install these games to external sd??
I will sent this request, as feedback to the devs of "galaxy on fire game"..
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

CaelanT said:
JdgM3NT4L said:
cegna09 said:
you'll never need more space
I remember my first time.............I mean HDD...........was 20MB.
You must be a youngster! LOL
Also, my first computer had 1k of memory!
Sinclair ZX80: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX80
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Sounds familier. I remember getting mine. It was 20mb too, big double height 5.25" monster. (Size of two cdrom drives stacked for you youngsters) I remember saying, wow I'll never fill this thing! lol
That would of been in my second computer. The first only had two 5.25" floppies.
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I just had sd card fail this morning. 32g lexar class 10 had it for around a month. Any ideas on how to save the pictures on it. Pc wont even recognize it.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

Not Fair

The fact that"system memory* takes up 6GB when you first get the tablet is ridiculous. A 16GB tablet and you're already down to 10 straight out of the box.
Sent from my VK810 4G using xda app-developers

roghitmanx47 said:
The fact that"system memory* takes up 6GB when you first get the tablet is ridiculous. A 16GB tablet and you're already down to 10 straight out of the box.
Sent from my VK810 4G using xda app-developers
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That's par for the course with JB + bloat that mfg's install these days. At least you can throw in a 64GB (possibly even the 128GB) microSD card and have plenty of storage for media and extra apps. Not sure if you flash one of the debloated/deodexed ROM's if you free up a lot more space in the 16GB memory?

skay said:
That's par for the course with JB + bloat that mfg's install these days. At least you can throw in a 64GB (possibly even the 128GB) microSD card and have plenty of storage for media and extra apps. Not sure if you flash one of the debloated/deodexed ROM's if you free up a lot more space in the 16GB memory?
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Agreed, it is pretty common. The bloat is not nearly as bad as thought, plus I think LG's apps are quite nice.
Video player - Certainly one of the best stock players I have seen, allowing many video formats, though I still use BS Player.
QRemote - is hands down the best of its kind.
Qtranslator - is a very impressive tool IMHO. You point the camera at a sign or text, it scans it, and will translate it into any language of your choice.
QVoice - the voice-activated personal assistant is fascinating though imperfect. Still, it understands commands such as "Wake me in 40 minutes", and will automatically set the alarm to ring for you. Of all the LG apps, it is the heaviest, requiring three files totaling roughly 150MB. Understandable nonetheless.
Video editor - Very practical, and very efficient.
LG weather widget - Frankly, I think this is the best weather/clock widget I have seen on any phone/tablet, better than HTC, Samsung or other. Not only is it very attractive with high resolution graphics, but if you go to landscape it instantly changes shape to show several days forecast. With the lock screen on, it will display the weather on your screen. For example, if it is raining, it will look like it is raining on the screen. A cool effect.
The other apps are quite standard, such as music player, memo, notebook, and a few others.
No doubt this all adds up, but not GB worth, and people would be far more critical of LG if new buyers found themselves missing these basic features. Still, if you hate this, feel free to go for one of the CyanogenMod ROMS, or the stock-modified LRS.

Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.

roghitmanx47 said:
Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.
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Why? What difference does it make whether it is System memory or external?

Because the more stuff that's on the internal memory the slower the tablet will perform? That's kind of a proven fact.

roghitmanx47 said:
Because the more stuff that's on the internal memory the slower the tablet will perform? That's kind of a proven fact.
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I would kind of like to see that proof.

android404 said:
I would kind of like to see that proof.
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So would I.

Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10MB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?

roghitmanx47 said:
Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10GB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?
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Why would it cross our minds? You are completely wrong.

You're right

roghitmanx47 said:
You're right
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In any case, consider the situation of owners of tablets such as the Nexus 7 or an iPad Mini who have no easy option to upgrade the storage space, since these do not accept microSD cards. IMO they are the ones who should be heading this thread.

roghitmanx47 said:
Well see I have the Verizon variant and there is still not a root for it yet. I have a 32GB SD card in it now but I would like to have more system memory too.
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There is root via kingo, just not recovery.

roghitmanx47 said:
Seriously? You guys don't believe that if you have 10MB free of internal memory that the tablet or phone will perform slower? That's not a thought that's ever crossed your mind?
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Limited Free space on the storage part of an android device typically only causes a performance impact if trim is not working on the device and therefore the remaining free space gets fragmented badly (typically no longer an issue), or if cache files can then not get created by the software that is trying to cache. This statement is assuming that the additional carrier bloatware can be disabled from always running in the background and hey, you are reading this on XDA which means we can typically root the device and use Titanium Backup (or similar tools) to freeze the bloat that wants to run in the background. Just having less storage space on a storage device which isn't fragmented and is using a modern file system which has sufficient remaining space for caching should have no impact on performance in practice...

burgeke said:
There is root via kingo, just not recovery.
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I am unable to get kingo to work on VK810, will not even recognize that my device is connected.
I am beyond frustrated trying to root this tablet. Any help would be appreciated. It also doesn't appear to be a driver related issue, as I've tried all drivers that other have recommended and worked for them.