Database Users

Install in Storage Card or Internal Memory?

Where do you guys usually install your apps to? Are there any benefits in installing to the Storage Card vs. installing in the internal memory of the phone?
Is the phone faster if all apps are installed on the storage card?

some apps definitely would not respond well if you install it in the storage card, especially if the app needs to 'wake up' from the power standby, due to the battery saving mode for external storage.
with X1, the phone storage is plenty that it doesn't make any difference for you to install in phone storage versus external. Upon fresh hardreset, my phone would have at least 204MB after deleting away the demo videos, etc. And this is standard ROM, not custom ROM.

Tri3Dent said:
Where do you guys usually install your apps to? Are there any benefits in installing to the Storage Card vs. installing in the internal memory of the phone?
Is the phone faster if all apps are installed on the storage card?
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Click to collapse
The truth is that it is "horses for courses"
If you regard the device as a phone with a bit of residual computer capability, then 300Mb of Storage will last a lifetime
If you regard it as a computer with a phone segment attached, then use the SD card for everything you can. The tnyynt SD tweak for speeding card access is brilliant to the point where I am unable to tell the practical difference between Storage and card use.
I use mine as a work computer with a phone attached. My 16Gb card is already 55% full (ie. just under 9Gb of data and programs) - this cannot fit in Storage.

man what kind of programs and data that you have that takes over 8 gigs on your phone.
music and videos i can understand, programs and data???? i got a 4 gig card and the only program that i have that takes up 1 gig is the maps for tomtom 7.910
hopefully the 32 gig card will be compatable with the x1 in the near future.

c_legaspi said:
man what kind of programs and data that you have that takes over 8 gigs on your phone.
music and videos i can understand, programs and data???? i got a 4 gig card and the only program that i have that takes up 1 gig is the maps for tomtom 7.910
hopefully the 32 gig card will be compatable with the x1 in the near future.
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Click to collapse
OK, well 1) as I said, my device is used as a computer with a phone segment attached, so having >8Gb "on my phone" is not really accurate. I have >8Gb on my card (ie. HDD) and growing
2) Music and video ?? None of them, I use hifi and TV for those when I'm home
3) I use the device for geological/geotechnical mapping on a world-wide basis, together with CAD/3D modeling of collected and supplied data. So high-level topo data, drillhole data, outcrop data, survey data, engineering constraints, zillions of reference reports etc etc + the slew of large programs needed to run these data collections
So for me, smaller, faster ROM = better and better
4) you bet I'm hanging out for the 32Gb cards

problem with having too little phone storage is some program use storage as temp
currently i have about 40gb storage free but still
the comic book reader crash often because the .net program in question
unzip the whole comic to some temp dir in phone storage
when it operates and apparently the comic use more then 40gb
would be easy for the programmer to fix so it didn't unzip all or did it to
the sd card but..

I put pretty much all programs that can be installed onto the card on the card... I also have shedloads of files on there mainly for language learning (I am learning Chinese and also have some Russian stuff)... from 16gb I am down to 7.7 and thats only cos I deleted a few tv shows from China...
PS I am reposting this due to the deletion bug thing... I did have a longer post but cant remeber all my witty reply...

flip a coin

Use or not swap file in SD card

Hi, I've searched the forum but found no answer. Searched google and found contradictory answers.
Should I use a swap file in SD card?
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks

brk said:
Hi, I've searched the forum but found no answer. Searched google and found contradictory answers.
Should I use a swap file in SD card?
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Advantage: Allows more multitasking due to more memory use from the sd card.
Disadvantage: Shortens the sd card life.
If you plan to use swap or A2SD, I recommend getting a class 6 sd card. Some people are opposed to swap, some people are all up for it. It's just up to your preference. For me, swap is just nice that an app doesn't close when I'm using another app.

koreancanuck said:
Advantage: Allows more multitasking due to more memory use from the sd card.
Disadvantage: Shortens the sd card life.
If you plan to use swap or A2SD, I recommend getting a class 6 sd card. Some people are opposed to swap, some people are all up for it. It's just up to your preference. For me, swap is just nice that an app doesn't close when I'm using another app.
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Click to collapse
A good answer but slightly incomplete. Most sdcards have wear leveling so having swap on your card will do very minimal damage.
brk said:
Hi, I've searched the forum but found no answer. Searched google and found contradictory answers.
Should I use a swap file in SD card?
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to have a swap file (swap.swp) this could possibly corrupt your fat partition. This is based on my own personal experience of course. I recommend use a swap partition honestly.
Just imagine mounting your sdcard to your computer to transfer files while your phone is still attempting to write to /sdcard/swap.swp. This can theoritically cause problems. And you don't want problems on your sdcard. A seperate partition is the safest way to go. But again... just my opinion.
Note that if you are using a rom based on Cyanogen's kernel (such as 5.0.7 or 5.0.8) it is NOT recommended to use swap at all. It will slow down your phone causing more problems than what it's worth. ('Swap grave' is how he put it.)

Binary100100 said:
If you want to have a swap file (swap.swp) this could possibly corrupt your fat partition.
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Click to collapse
How does that happen?

endolith said:
How does that happen?
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If your system is writing to the .swp while you mount/unmount the sdcard it can corrupt the card. It's better to use the partition.
In addition if your system is setup to use the swap.swp on your fat32 partition and you mount it to your computer, what do you suppose would happen to your system since it can no longer have access to the .swp file?
Again... not a good idea.

I don't see how unmounting the swap partition is any different from unmounting the partition with a swap file on it.

Just say no!
endolith said:
I don't see how unmounting the swap partition is any different from unmounting the partition with a swap file on it.
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Click to collapse
Right, but other than when you shut down your phone, when does your swap partition get [un]mounted?

AdrianK said:
Right, but other than when you shut down your phone, when does your swap partition get [un]mounted?
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When you plug it into a computer, isn't the whole SD card mounted?

endolith said:
When you plug it into a computer, isn't the whole SD card mounted?
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Your computer's OS can only mount the filesystems it supports, for example OOTB Windows only supports FAT and NTFS, so it can't do anything with ext. Anyway, linux-swap is non-persistant, you can't mount it to view the contents, my understanding is that should you mount it on linux, the swap partition will be ignored.

AdrianK said:
Your computer's OS can only mount the filesystems it supports, for example OOTB Windows only supports FAT and NTFS, so it can't do anything with ext.
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But the point is that they're all unmounted before the SD card can be shared with the computer as a mass storage device, so I don't see there being any difference between a swap partition and a swap file.
Besides, Swapper has a default "safe" option that unmounts swap before sharing SD with the computer and remounts it after disconnecting.

endolith said:
But the point is that they're all unmounted before the SD card can be shared with the computer as a mass storage device, so I don't see there being any difference between a swap partition and a swap file.
Besides, Swapper has a default "safe" option that unmounts swap before sharing SD with the computer and remounts it after disconnecting.
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Click to collapse
I wasn't aware that Swapper has such a feature but that doesn't change the fact that if your running say ~200mb of RAM with ~64mb of swap and with all the multitasking that you're doing you're using up most of it... so say you have only ~10mb free. Then all of a sudden you pull out your sdcard. What do you think happen will happen? Your phone was reading and writing to that card! Do you think that's healthy? If Swapper unmounts it before it shares the sdcard with the computer then it may be better for the sdcard but I don't see how that can have a positive impact on the device. However if you have swap on a seperate partition the only way to run into this problem would be to remove the card from the device. Even if you mount the sdcard to the computer the phone still has access to the swap partition just like it still has access to the ext partition (if it has one).
I don't know about you but I have a 16gb class 6 card and it's a pain in the butt to restore my data to the fat partition so I would rather not have anything read/write to it unless necessary and to have something constantly reading and writing to it is a really bad idea in my case... but maybe you have a ~2gb and reloading the data may not be annoying to you.
Anyway... stick with what works. I've tried them all and based on my own experience I suggest the separate partition if you are going to use swap. But hey... what do I know?
By the way... do NOT use swap on CM5 or CM6. It may help at first but you'll be enroute to digging "a swap grave" (quoted by Cyanogen himself).

Your phone will ONLY share FAT when mounted to PC
Ext and Swap are still running on the phone(app2sd how do you think apps keep working after mounting?)
Same deal with Swap...
I personally do not use Swap although i do have a 128mb Swap Partition.

Binary100100 said:
I wasn't aware that Swapper has such a feature but that doesn't change the fact that if your running say ~200mb of RAM with ~64mb of swap and with all the multitasking that you're doing you're using up most of it... so say you have only ~10mb free. Then all of a sudden you pull out your sdcard. What do you think happen will happen?
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Android routinely kills processes as part of its "task management", and the apps are expected to save their state using "Bundles" so that when you restart them, they restart in the same state they were last in. Is unplugging the swap more harsh than killing the app?
Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations.
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Even if you mount the sdcard to the computer the phone still has access to the swap partition just like it still has access to the ext partition (if it has one).
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Click to collapse
Hmmm. When you mount the SD card, the entire SD card is available on the computer, including the FAT, EXT, and swap partitions, but the phone can't access the FAT partition?
I can see the contents of the swap partition from the computer with "sudo cat /dev/sdb3", but the phone can still access it? If I run "free" on the phone, it still shows swap, and the used size still changes, so I guess the phone is still using it, but the computer can see it at the same time, too.
In that case, I understand why it would make more sense to use swap partition than swap file.
I don't know about you but I have a 16gb class 6 card and it's a pain in the butt to restore my data to the fat partition so I would rather not have anything read/write to it unless necessary and to have something constantly reading and writing to it is a really bad idea in my case... but maybe you have a ~2gb and reloading the data may not be annoying to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an 8 GB Class 6 and I don't understand what you're talking about. What do you mean "restore your data to the fat partition"? Restore it from what? What's the point of having an SD card if you don't want anything reading from it?
Anyway... stick with what works.
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By the way... do NOT use swap on CM5 or CM6. It may help at first but you'll be enroute to digging "a swap grave" (quoted by Cyanogen himself).
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Click to collapse
What does that mean? Where did he say that? In what context?
I'm using swapper with CM5, and it's like buying a new phone. It greatly speeds up the phone's responsiveness.

I dunno why you can see all three partitions. When I've got my swap and extra partitions setup and mount my SD to my computer, the only partition that shows up is the FAT one, using Windows that is.
As for using swap, a quick Google search will show you a number of threads stating that the only time you see a real benefit from it is on the G1 an older mytouchs with the lower RAM space. Actually most say that using compcache is the better way to go if you've got the extra RAM space.
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App

endolith said:
What does that mean? Where did he say that? In what context?
I'm using swapper with CM5, and it's like buying a new phone. It greatly speeds up the phone's responsiveness.
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Click to collapse
I guess nobody listens to the people that know what they are talking about. Then they always complain when it doesn't work properly. #Ironic
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13986716217
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13624854797
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13980541397
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13980541397
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13979643918
Enough for you?
And I'm aware that 2.2 automatically kills idle apps, which is all the more reason that you do not need swap.
And your phone cannot access the /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard partition while it is connected to your computer as removable storage. Try it.
Try downloading something to your sdcard while it's connected as removable storage. You can't. Your phone does not have access to the sdcard. In fact... while it's mounted to your computer go to settings SD card & phone storage settings and tell me what it says under Total space and Available space.
Do NOT use a large .swp file because your phone is constantly writing to the sdcard! All it takes is a single instance of removing it without unmounting it and you will have corrupted the entire contents of the fat partition. That is what I mean by restoring the data on the sdcard. I use an ADATA 16gb class 6 sdcard and each time that I tried with the .swp file I ended up losing my data because of random kernel crashes, dead battery, unsafe sdcard mounting etc.
But if you are really convinced of otherwise then go on ahead but I'll tell you right now, I will refuse to help anyone that never listened to my advice the first time. If I give a warning and if someone doesn't listen then it's all on them. I will personally refuse to help them and I wouldn't blame anyone for doing the same. Cyanogen warned users not to use swap. So those that have issues shouldn't complain to him or anyone else because it's their own fault.
All quotes from Cyanogen on twitter. You should follow him and learn something.
@w3stbr00k I don't know.. none of my roms have swap support built in. You would have had to do it yourself.
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@misscocogold t3 is otw in an hour or so. Make sure you aren't using swap or task killers too.
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@singharvinder the new code actually uses swap more aggressively as a side effect
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@singharvinder are you using swap? Don't.
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DonJuan692006 said:
I dunno why you can see all three partitions. When I've got my swap and extra partitions setup and mount my SD to my computer, the only partition that shows up is the FAT one.
As for using swap, a quick Google search will show you a number of threads stating that the only time you see a real benefit from it is on the G1 an older mytouchs with the lower RAM space. Actually most say that using compcache is the better way to go if you've got the extra RAM space.
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can actually access the swap partition from a Linux based OS such as Ubuntu/Live CD.
When you mount the sdcard you also have access to the ext2,3,4 partition if it's available.

See what I get for being Windows exclusive? Edited my first post to be more precise with my wording.

DonJuan692006 said:
I dunno why you can see all three partitions. When I've got my swap and extra partitions setup and mount my SD to my computer, the only partition that shows up is the FAT one.
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Click to collapse
In Linux, both the SD and EXT partitions are mounted, but I can see and access all three. I can see all three partitions in Windows 7 Disk Management, too, but of course Windows can only mount the FAT partition.
a number of threads stating that the only time you see a real benefit from it is on the G1
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I've got a G1.
Binary100100 said:
I guess nobody listens to the people that know what they are talking about. Then they always complain when it doesn't work properly. #Ironic
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Click to collapse
I'm looking for truth, not rumor. I'm not going to blindly accept statements made without explanation.
Enough for you?
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Nope. I want to understand why it's a bad idea. Twitter posts aren't exactly comprehensive.
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13986716217
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This is not a recommendation against swap. Someone was talking about disabling swap, and he said it's not his problem because CM doesn't come with swap enabled.
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13624854797
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I read this as "If you're having problems with apps closing, disable swap and task managers. Maybe you have those configured wrong." That doesn't mean swap is inherently harmful.
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13980541397
http://twitter.com/cyanogen/status/13979643918
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This thread is about speed and performance, not harm.
And I'm aware that 2.2 automatically kills idle apps, which is all the more reason that you do not need swap.
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Click to collapse
Yes, this is the standard response in threads like this. "Android automatically manages tasks and memory, so you shouldn't try to second-guess it". But, empirically, swap makes the phone run better and faster.
If you switch to another app from the browser, for instance, the browser almost always gets killed, and then it has to reload the entire page from the Internet when you switch back to it. This takes wayyyy longer than reloading the state from swap, and causes problems when the web page is dynamic.
Many apps take much longer to start up than they should, or don't actually return to the same state when they're restarted, and swapping them out works better. I'm guessing the people who are happy with the stock system use their phones differently.
And your phone cannot access the /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard partition while it is connected to your computer as removable storage.
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Yes, I already agreed with that. Swap file is a bad idea since it's inaccessible when you mount on the computer, but swap partition still is. Agreed.

endolith said:
In Linux, both the SD and EXT partitions are mounted, but I can see and access all three. I can see all three partitions in Windows 7 Disk Management, too, but of course Windows can only mount the FAT partition.
I've got a G1.
I'm looking for truth, not rumor. I'm not going to blindly accept statements made without explanation.
Nope. I want to understand why it's a bad idea. Twitter posts aren't exactly comprehensive.
This is not a recommendation against swap. Someone was talking about disabling swap, and he said it's not his problem because CM doesn't come with swap enabled.
I read this as "If you're having problems with apps closing, disable swap and task managers. Maybe you have those configured wrong." That doesn't mean swap is inherently harmful.
This thread is about speed and performance, not harm.
Yes, this is the standard response in threads like this. "Android automatically manages tasks and memory, so you shouldn't try to second-guess it". But, empirically, swap makes the phone run better and faster.
If you switch to another app from the browser, for instance, the browser almost always gets killed, and then it has to reload the entire page from the Internet when you switch back to it. This takes wayyyy longer than reloading the state from swap, and causes problems when the web page is dynamic.
Many apps take much longer to start up than they should, or don't actually return to the same state when they're restarted, and swapping them out works better. I'm guessing the people who are happy with the stock system use their phones differently.
Yes, I already agreed with that. Swap file is a bad idea since it's inaccessible when you mount on the computer, but swap partition still is. Agreed.
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Well it sounds like you have answered the threads questions then. An expert such as yourself should have come along a while ago and stated this for the community. Now that you have discredited Cyanogen and all the other Senior Members and developers maybe I'll just direct all of my private messages regarding swap, compcache and userinit.sh scripts to you. Enjoy it!

DarkTremor question

I have 2 questions I am fairly new to the a500 although I have had an evo 4g for years and I have been flashing roms for many more.
I know thebquestion has been asked is there a way to move apps to the sd card. I am wondering if darktremors app2sdgui might work for our tablets and if so how to ise it. I have been seeing threads where people are using 64gb sdxc cards but whats the point if you cant move apps. Im starting to think thosbtablet sucks half the games dont work and you cant freely moves apps.
Anyway my other question is if there is no way to use app2sdgui is there any roms available that allow you to move apps and still have all the tablets good features? I have searched and from what I can tell most roms dont really say they can do it.
Thanks from the bomb
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

adambomb_13 said:
I have 2 questions I am fairly new to the a500 although I have had an evo 4g for years and I have been flashing roms for many more.
I know thebquestion has been asked is there a way to move apps to the sd card. I am wondering if darktremors app2sdgui might work for our tablets and if so how to ise it. I have been seeing threads where people are using 64gb sdxc cards but whats the point if you cant move apps. Im starting to think thosbtablet sucks half the games dont work and you cant freely moves apps.
Anyway my other question is if there is no way to use app2sdgui is there any roms available that allow you to move apps and still have all the tablets good features? I have searched and from what I can tell most roms dont really say they can do it.
Thanks from the bomb
Sent from my A500 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Wrong forum. This should be in the questions section.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I don't have a full understanding of all this myself, but I *believe/think* that the A500 is already moving apps to the SD card -- the internal SD card. The 8, 16, or 32gb of memory that came with whatever model of A500 you purchased is considered the internal SD card, whereas the micro sd card slot is considered the external SD card. Your tablet has 1gb of RAM, which in phone terms is thought of as internal or system memory, like your (and my) EVO 4G has 512mb of RAM. Since the EVO doesn't have any internal SD card, in order to run the newer, larger footprint ROMs we have to use an apps2sd type utility to move as much as we can to the external micro SD card in the EVO 4G.
If you're running out of internal memory in your A500, you can move some data that seems to default there. This happens a lot with apps that aren't really designed for tablets because these apps think that your internal storage is your external micro SD card. I moved all my photos, music, and eBooks from internal storage (where they defaulted) to my external micro SD card. Now I'm only using around 4gb out of the total 16gb that came with my model of A500, and I have tons of apps, games, etc installed. Moving the data barely put a dent in my 32gb external micro SD card, which I mostly use for 720p movies/videos.
Anyone please feel free to correct me about Honeycomb tablet memory handling above!

It's a limitation of Honeycomb not the tablet. Hopefully ICS when it's released soon will solve this problem. I don't know why google designed the tablet specific OS Honeycomb like this it was stupid. There are several work around programs like GL to SD that work so so. I had GL to SD installed and it severely slowed down my tablet so I got rid of it. My first A500 I bought was the 8gb version which I returned a week later after buying the 32gb unit. The 8gb just didn't cut it without being able to take advantage of the sd card for game data.

internetpilot said:
I don't have a full understanding of all this myself, but I *believe/think* that the A500 is already moving apps to the SD card -- the internal SD card. The 8, 16, or 32gb of memory that came with whatever model of A500 you purchased is considered the internal SD card, whereas the micro sd card slot is considered the external SD card. Your tablet has 1gb of RAM, which in phone terms is thought of as internal or system memory, like your (and my) EVO 4G has 512mb of RAM. Since the EVO doesn't have any internal SD card, in order to run the newer, larger footprint ROMs we have to use an apps2sd type utility to move as much as we can to the external micro SD card in the EVO 4G.
If you're running out of internal memory in your A500, you can move some data that seems to default there. This happens a lot with apps that aren't really designed for tablets because these apps think that your internal storage is your external micro SD card. I moved all my photos, music, and eBooks from internal storage (where they defaulted) to my external micro SD card. Now I'm only using around 4gb out of the total 16gb that came with my model of A500, and I have tons of apps, games, etc installed. Moving the data barely put a dent in my 32gb external micro SD card, which I mostly use for 720p movies/videos.
No its not like this. The phones do have internal memory also. The ram has nothing to do with internal memory, even tho some advertise the ram and internal memory as greaterstorage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thread belongs in q&a section not dev sorry all
Ok sorry but my testing with the gl to sd app...
the order of chaos game i used that app to move it.. The game took forever to load and ping times went so High you could not play the game..
I Have a pny class 10 16 gb sd card.. tested to get about 8.7 mb transfur rate. and that is about average on most so called 10 mb (class10 cards)
my tablet runs very smooth with no apps running in background.
so i DO NOT RECOMEND THESE APPS.. Just my openion dont bash me if yours is diffrent.. i also dont understand how people are filling up the 16 gb tablet.. that alone has to be slowing your tab down...

internetpilot said:
Your tablet has 1gb of RAM, which in phone terms is thought of as internal or system memory, like your (and my) EVO 4G has 512mb of RAM. Since the EVO doesn't have any internal SD card, in order to run the newer, larger footprint ROMs we have to use an apps2sd type utility to move as much as we can to the external micro SD card in the EVO 4G.
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Click to collapse
You're confusing RAM and FLASH storage. Many older Android devices have a very small area reserved for applications and ROMs, it has nothing to do with RAM. RAM is memory where applications are loaded when you wish to execute them and gets erased every time you power off the device, flash storage is where the applications are stored and loaded from.
---------- Post added at 06:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------
erica_renee said:
i also dont understand how people are filling up the 16 gb tablet.. that alone has to be slowing your tab down...
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I've got the 32GB version + 16GB microSDHC and it's already filled to the brim. I just happen to consume lots of media, including comics, movies, music and books.
Also, the tablet doesn't specifically slow down by the amount of files on it, the process of indexing everything can temporarily slow it down but after indexing is done it doesn't consume resources anymore. Using some sort of an application that just loads everything to memory and doesn't care about trying to watch how it uses the memory is has reserved however can and will slow the tablet down, but that's an application issue, not a filesystem or OS issue per se.

So if the internal memory is like is primary I can't see why it wouldnt be easy to make the external micro sd and ext of the internal. Is that possable?
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

I found this post online for switching internal to external in honeycomb. I'm getting a 64gb sdxc for my 16gb a500 so it should come in handy.
I have had a mod to voold.fstab under previous Android versions so the OS looked at the physical MicroSD as the external card, not the internal 8 gigs in the Adam. Handy because some programs always wants to look for files on the external card. It was quite easy to do the same thing to Honeycomb, and in case anybody else needs it, here's the full code for the file (which is under \ETC, you need Root Explorer or simalar to edit/replace it):
Code:
## Vold 2.0 NVIDIA Harmony fstab
####################### ## Regular device mount ## ## Format: dev_mount <label> <mount_point> <part> <sysfs_path1...> ## label - Label for the volume ## mount_point - Where the volume will be mounted ## part - Partition # (1 based), or 'auto' for first usable par tition. ## <sysfs_path> - List of sysfs paths to source devices ######################
dev_mount microsd /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci.2/mmc_ host/mmc1 # todo: the secondary sdcard seems to confuse vold badly dev_mount sdreader /mnt/external_sd auto /devices/platform/tegra-sdhci. 3/mmc_host/mmc2 dev_mount usbdisk1 /mnt/usb_storage auto /devices/platform/tegra-ehci
So the actual changes are in the fourth and third lines from the bottom, changing around a few numbers. You'll see the difference if you open the original. I have saved a copy of it on the SD card, so if (or rather when) the next update comes I can simply copy it to the \ETC directory with Root Explorer and do a reboot, and it's back where I want it.
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

richierich118 said:
No its not like this. The phones do have internal memory also. The ram has nothing to do with internal memory, even tho some advertise the ram and internal memory as greaterstorage
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WereCatf said:
You're confusing RAM and FLASH storage. Many older Android devices have a very small area reserved for applications and ROMs, it has nothing to do with RAM. RAM is memory where applications are loaded when you wish to execute them and gets erased every time you power off the device, flash storage is where the applications are stored and loaded from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, makes sense now that you both mentioned it. Sorry about that. So, it would seem to me that HC actually isn't using any A2SD solution, it's just that tablets typically have significantly greater internal storage and Google didn't expect anyone to really need it. If that's the case then it at least makes a little sense to me that HC doesn't have that built-in and than not many devs seem to be working on this type of project, especially for an A500 which can so easily use external USB storage for the usual storage hogs like media files.

i cannot see why people are so hellbent on apps2sd. seriously, i cannot. well, okay. i admit that it /does/ free up space on your internal apps partition.... but i can't see the point of wasting space on your external SD card.
the apps partition on the iconia tab is roughly 1GB. that's not too bad, unless you've got HD games and crap. i remember Sonic CD and Gameloft's NOVA 2 download stuff to the internal storage; which doesn't clutter up your app partition (the game is like 5mb for sonic cd and like 20mb for nova 2 on the apps partition, the rest is loaded from internal SD).
also, the tablet doesn't suck, if you're having issues with games, they aren't optimised for the advanced hardware that is used in the Iconia Tab. this is tablet hardware, not a smartphone logic board with a few addons and a sexy HD screen. the app developer hasn't taken the time to develop for tablets, most likely.
i guess less is more for me, but w/e.

How does apps2sd actually work? I haven't paid any attention to what filesystem format the internal SD is, but wouldn't just symlinking files work? Or does the Android kernel support loopback filesystems? I'm just wondering, perhaps I'll dig some details myself just for the sake of curiosity and see if I can come up with a solution.

Apps2SD works by moving programs residing in /data/app to the SD card. This can be accomplished in two ways:
1. Classic Apps2SD - This form is mainly used for Android units prior to Froyo, but can be used on Froyo and Gingerbread (and I presume Honeycomb and ICS, but I have never tested it with those Android platforms). By using a Linux partition that is formatted on your external SD card, the /data/app directory is symlinked to that partition. This tricks Android into thinking it is still storing applications in your Internal memory when, in reality, the programs are being stored on your SD card. The upside to this format is that any program can be moved over (and it is done automatically). The down side is that you will need to create two partitions on your SD card (one Linux partition for Apps2SD and one FAT32 partition for SD card storage) and your kernel must be able to run scripts on boot.
2. Secure Apps2SD - Starting with Froyo, Google implemented their version of Apps2SD. Their version moves your programs to a secured area of your SD Card and creates binding mounts to the actual programs themselves so that Android can run them off the FAT32 SD Card. The advantage of this is that no special formatting or programming is needed to implement this, as it is part of Android. The downside to this is that, without special programs, not ever application can be moved to the SD card (the program must be recompiled using at least the Froyo SDK...however, this issue is becoming less noticeable as more programs are being compiled using either the Froyo SDK or Gingerbread SDK).
The Acer Iconia A500 uses neither of these methods. The tablet is equipped with 8, 16 or 32GB of internal storage. Your applications are still stored on the /data partition, but your SD Card is nothing more than a FUSE mount to /data/media, which means both data and apps have access to the full 8, 16 or 32GB of internal storage, so there's no compelling reason that I can think of that you would need Apps2SD on this tablet. If you want your tablet to treat the external SD card as the actual SD card rather than internal storage, you would be better off changing the symlink to /sdcard from /mnt/sdcard to /mnt/external_sd (note that, when you do that, you won't be able to move files from your computer to the tablet by simply mounting the SD card, as the FUSE mount is not pointed to the external SD card, but to internal memory...you will either need a creative solution to change the FUSE mount to /mnt/external_sd on boot or you'll need to use ADB).
WereCatf said:
How does apps2sd actually work? I haven't paid any attention to what filesystem format the internal SD is, but wouldn't just symlinking files work? Or does the Android kernel support loopback filesystems? I'm just wondering, perhaps I'll dig some details myself just for the sake of curiosity and see if I can come up with a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Questions about Sprint S4 sizes and interla/external storage.

I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.

Cyber Akuma said:
I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way samsung does it is actually very anoying. First thing they do is cut off 8.5 gigs of storage, thats your "internal memory" for system stuff. That's untouchable. You then have 9gigs give or take left for apps and the like which is EMULATED external storage. This emulated bit confuses android and so your real external sd card is only usable for movies and music. The only way to put apps on it would be to root your phone and use folder mount (which for some reason isn't working for me yet). So to sum it up:
16gb +ext sd card (lets say 32 gb)
8ish gb- system internal
9ish gb-apps EMULATED external
32 gb- movies, music, books/media BUT NO APPS UNLESS YOU ROOT REAL external

AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.

Cyber Akuma said:
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is an issue with all honeycomb plus android phones. Google is trying to phase out the external sd card while increasing the internal memory. Well that's all good and fine EXCEPT that we are right in the middle of the phase out process where the sd cards are too small for that. 2-3 years from now googles plan will work, but samsung has to be on board for that to happen. For now the only thing you can do is use folder mount or wait for ext2intSD script. It will swap it so your external sdcard works as your internal and vice versa. However, we will have to wait for that to be released.

I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.

Cyber Akuma said:
I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why is that android its self, the code that google supplies, has to create partitions in order for it to work with only one internal sdcard so that the average user does not corrupt the system somehow. The emulated external storage is what google expects you to use so that you can't mess up. However, samsung just adds in an sdcard without changing anything which means its not set up correctly. This is a problem with all new sd card phones and finally think of folder mount as a better link2sd

But aren't the system partition and the internal storage partition separate partitions? I don't understand why the rest of the memory outside of the system partition needs to be an emulated external instead of just being an internal storage partition like on phones that do not have a large amount of internal memory.
Also, why do we have to link folders or use link2sd scripts and other such work-arounds? Can't we re-partition the internal memory with a custom recovery or through the bootloader?

not work brother
Sent from my ST18i using xda app-developers app

deadger said:
not work brother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.... what? I have no idea what that means.
So, can the phone be repartitioned if you have root access? And is only the Sprint version partitioned like this, or all of them?

Moto E4 (Verizon) [xt1767] Move Apps to SD without root

This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?

Raztan said:
This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.

dandrumheller said:
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?

Raztan said:
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.

dandrumheller said:
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been following a similar dual partition practice on a rooted Android 5.x device using symbolic links to migrate apps to the ext4 formatted partition while retaining a larger FAT32 partition for general use. I used the free version of Partition Wizard on Windows to format the SD card to my liking. To date no issues with card endurance.
I never considered this approach for adoptable storage until seeing your post! Very interested in trying this on on an unrooted Android 6 device that's getting a little snug on internal storage. I'll post outcomes if they differ from your findings.
Thanks again for sharing!

Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?

Raztan said:
Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what the method is for determining where a specific app lands when installed. Maybe up to the developer? But going into settings > storage shows me what's below. Drill down to the apps section, and you can manually choose what storage you want for each app.
This is my setup with a 128gb card with 32gb used as adopted storage.

Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.

Raztan said:
Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not aware of any file manager that can see the adopted storage. Haven't filled up internal to know if it will "spill over".
Some apps cannot be moved to adopted. Some install there by default.
My use case is to dump my low use or less resource demanding apps to the adopted storage, freeing internal faster storage for high use apps.
It's certainly not an ideal solution, but it at least provides an option for reducing limited internal storage...

I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it

Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies

Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't worth the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.

Davey126 said:
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.

dandrumheller said:
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.

Davey126 said:
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been a long time since I've played with symbolic linking. At the time it felt pretty cumbersome to me, relative to my current experience with adopted storage. Definitely less user control and fine tuning with adopted though. Also, as you mention, no root required.

Davey126 said:
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Davey126 said:
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
madbat99 said:
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.

Raztan said:
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising. But then I remembered that no root was mentioned.
https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/xposed/com.smartmadsoft.xposed.obbonsd

madbat99 said:
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?

Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great on my moto e4 sprint (virgin mobile). And rovo89 just updated it for Oreo (beta of course), so it should be good. I'm using it with greenify, amplify, and gravitybox.

Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Outdated info; works fine on Marshmallow, Nougat and (very soon) Oreo.