Using Apps on SD with 2 different ROMS - Vibrant General

Been searching for a while but am confused. Never needed to use my external SD on vibrant until recently. Now I have a question. I have two different ROM versions on my phone and I use ROM manager to keep them backed up and I use restore to go from one to the other.
The question is, now that I had to move some apps to my sd card (using Apps2SD), what happens when I switch ROMS by using restore?
Do I need two different partitions on the SD card, one for each ROM? If so how do I do this, and how do I know which partition each ROM will use?
I have read many warnings about partitioning using ROM Manager so I am kind of leary of using it.
Can anyone explain this to me? Never thought about it before because the Vibrant has so much memory available.
Thanks.

Any ideas?
I'm sure lots of people have done this before, just not me.
Can anyone explain this to me please?
Thanks in advance.

rblancrt said:
The question is, now that I had to move some apps to my sd card (using Apps2SD), what happens when I switch ROMS by using restore?
Do I need two different partitions on the SD card, one for each ROM? If so how do I do this, and how do I know which partition each ROM will use?
I have read many warnings about partitioning using ROM Manager so I am kind of leary of using it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have NEVER heard good things about partitioning your SD card with ROM mgr. NOt sure why you would anyways. The internal is already partitioned anyway. That is why we have a phone marketed with 16gb internal but when you pull settings>sdcard it shows only 14gb. Where are the other 2gb at? There are already partitioned to put your apps there. Use Root Explored and go to /Data, /datadata/, /dalvik-cache and you'll notice that they are all the same size-nearly 2 gb. Viola!!!
As far as restoring. I don't use native App2sd but I know how it works. W/o getting too technical, it puts part of the app's apk (executable functions and data) in a folder called .androidsecure on your sdcard (if you want to view this folder, you have to plug into PC and make sure Hidden Files are viewable). Now to your question. Whenever I have backed up, I always see at the end when it is cycling through your partitons (/system, /data,...) it says something like "backing up .androidsecure"-file not found*b/c I don't use it is why it isn't found. So you can back that up if there is something in it, flash new ROM redownload your apps and move to App2sd, back up and when you restore it should restore the .androidsecure partition.
Sorry for the long response but you asked two questions there. Now for my question. How many friggin apps do you have to fill up everything and bleed over into the app2sd part too? Does your phone lag? How is battery life?

Using App 2 SD Pro
Perhaps I didn't give enough info, but I am using an app, called App 2 SD Pro, to move apps back and forth to and from SD card.
It shows Moveable = 98, on SD card = 17, and phone only = 98, so I suppose it have 213 if it is correct.
Thanks for the info about restoring. I will have to study your answer in more detail before I can give any more answers, or ask any further questions.

re download my apps
Part of your answer above was redownload my apps.
Don't want to do that. If I move some of my apps to the sd card using the app "App 2 SD Pro" and then do a backup using ROM manager, then restore another ROM using ROM Manager, which also has apps on the sd card, what happens to them?
I have done this and it seemed to me that some of the apps which had been moved to the sd card did not show up on the restored ROM.
This is why I asked about partitioning, maybe using one section of the external sd card for one ROM and one section for the other.

Related

Being a newb SUCKS!

Ok so.. I finally after months flashed my second rom
HAd some trouble, I have to admit..
DC~~
I had trouble and I did some wiping and messing with my SD chip and that was the only way I could functionally get a flash..
I just spent a day and a half setting my phone up to my liking and its become apparent apps2sd isn't working and my SD card only has one 1.5 partition out of 2 gb.
Sorry if there are posts with directions of how to work from this point to keep everything while enabling apps2sd and transfering
I dont know where to start searching.
Thanks guys.
"The noob"
get a app called dconfig, it has an option to move your apps so they're on the card.
other than that im not sure what youre asking.
it might be simpler just to flash your phone, format your card and start from scratch.
Cloned2 said:
Ok so.. I finally after months flashed my second rom
HAd some trouble, I have to admit..
DC~~
I had trouble and I did some wiping and messing with my SD chip and that was the only way I could functionally get a flash..
I just spent a day and a half setting my phone up to my liking and its become apparent apps2sd isn't working and my SD card only has one 1.5 partition out of 2 gb.
Sorry if there are posts with directions of how to work from this point to keep everything while enabling apps2sd and transfering
I dont know where to start searching.
Thanks guys.
"The noob"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do some searching on here, goggle & ppcgeeks for how to root, flash a recovery image, partition your sd card and flash a rom. just make sure the guide you are using and the rom you use is for a cdma based hero.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=90380 heres good guide to get you started.
I'm rooted I might just need to flash the Rom with the SD card.formatted correctly... I'm going to try to re find where the apps are stored and save them... id love to just be able to correct my SD config and set up apps2sd and move em over so I can keep my home screen set up as well as the info supplied in my apps and todo lists..
Thanks for the info ... on the road right now (passenger.seat )
Maybe I'm not a newb, I'm just stupid... I rooted using ubuntu karmic and I had apps2sd working before I moved to damage control
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk
hmm.. Damage control rom comes with Dconfig and it has apps2sd enabled and move apps to sd checked.
Ok heres the thing..
I had a Modaco rom before and with apps2sd enabled and the SD formatted properly.
Plugging my phone into a computer would open up 2 drives... One 1 designated to be 1.5 gb and another .5 gb
How ever now I only see one.. the 1.5 gb
My memory is running low as if everything i've installed is in the phone.
searching through the phone i can't seem to find where these apps are being saved...
Are they on the elusive .5 gb partition I can't seem to see??
i think not... I just rebooted and my available space is 63.74mb
It's all becoming a no brainer that i should reflash the rom with the correct specifications to the SD chip...
But what I want to know, is there a way around this. ( I don't see any options, but I'd love to reformat my SD correctly and get apps2sd working on my own, moving all my apps over there while keeping any stored data intact...) <--- is this possible??
[maybe i should learn how to communicate clearly LOL]
For the moment, Ill back up my SD contents and hunt down how to partition correctly.. then I'll see if I can't find the folders where it is storing downloaded apps... then I'll disable then enable the apps2sd setting in dconfig and download an app... if all goes well i'll start pushing my apps over and do the whol "fix apk uid" in the recovery menu...
Hell maybe ill even decide to get a newer recovery besides 1.2.3 while im at it hahah.. any suggestions would be appreciated
# cd /data/app
# pwd
/system/sd/app
# cd /data/app-private
# pwd
/system/sd/app-private
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... Why is my memory so low???
I'm about to take my SD chip out and see if I cannot access the contents of these folders without it in...
MY APPS2SD IS WORKING AND HAS BEEN WORKING
Sorry guys... somethings just up[or rather DOWN] with my memory and my SD card reads differently...
Cloned2 said:
Being a newb SUCKS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's only one way to stop being a n00b: Learn.
You're doing fine. My suggestion is to not take it all on at once. Focus on one problem, fix it, learn from it and move on to the next one. You'll be a pro in no time.
I would guess that you need to repartition the SD card when moving from one ROM to the next, but I've never really played with apps2sd. See? You know more about it than I do!
download app: quick systems info
to see if your a2sd is working and how much is being used.
use the dconfig to make sure you have dalvik cached moved to sd... reboot the phone.
i am guessing at this....
you say you had a2sd working before with Madaco and could see 2 drives... that sounds wrong to me. if a2sd was working, then you should not see the 2nd drive. you are only able to see the main larger drive and that is it.. the others are used by android and not available to us.
now that you can not see the 2nd drive. sounds like a2sd is working. the app i suggested should confirm for you.
I did get everything working and my memory remains the same when I install applications.... perhaps I could see the second drive because I'm running Linux and/or the way I formatted the sd or the extension...
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk
I think what you are describing is your SD-EXT partition (the a2sd partition you made). If you have a 2GB card and partitioned your card to be .5GB EXT, then it will appear your SD is 1.5GB. You get what I'm saying?
I used to be able to see 2 partitions as well. I think it was only with 1.5 ROMs.
If you want to mount both partitions then all you need to do is reboot into recovery and select the USB mount. Then both partitions will show up.
But you really don't need to mess with that second partition. Go to the market and download Titanium Backup. That will backup all your apps and settings. Restoring is a little annoying to do since you have to click for every app but if you buy the donate version then you don't have to do that.
centran said:
I used to be able to see 2 partitions as well. I think it was only with 1.5 ROMs.
If you want to mount both partitions then all you need to do is reboot into recovery and select the USB mount. Then both partitions will show up.
But you really don't need to mess with that second partition. Go to the market and download Titanium Backup. That will backup all your apps and settings. Restoring is a little annoying to do since you have to click for every app but if you buy the donate version then you don't have to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I perfer Backup For Root Users... does the same thing but is free and is one-click one-shot deal.

A2SD - A general question

Hi Guys
I've followed Dark Tremor's flashing procedure and i can see a fair amount of A2SD storage using a Storage info widget....however when i install a program it doesn't seem to install it to the SD card...how can i tell what's going on?
You have to choose to install it to internal memory.
Thanks for the reply.....I don't get an option when I install an app tho?
What Rom are you running?
If you're using a custom ROM, use the ROM's Spare Parts and see if there is an option there to force everything to go on SD or on internal memory. If there is - choose "internal memory".
If not - just go to Settings/Applications/SD Card and move everything you find there back to the phone. Also look in DarkTremor's thread to find the switches you need to use when running a2sd to make the internal memory default storage location.
And understand that as far as the phone is concerned, you're moving nothing on SD card. EXT partition is not recognized by the phone as storage option, but everything that went to /data/app goes on EXT. Please spend the time and search the forums, the ways to check that DarkTremor's Apps2SD is in use were discussed many times and in many places.
Jack_R1 said:
If you're using a custom ROM, use the ROM's Spare Parts and see if there is an option there to force everything to go on SD or on internal memory. If there is - choose "internal memory".
If not - just go to Settings/Applications/SD Card and move everything you find there back to the phone. Also look in DarkTremor's thread to find the switches you need to use when running a2sd to make the internal memory default storage location.
And understand that as far as the phone is concerned, you're moving nothing on SD card. EXT partition is not recognized by the phone as storage option, but everything that went to /data/app goes on EXT. Please spend the time and search the forums, the ways to check that DarkTremor's Apps2SD is in use were discussed many times and in many places.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info...I did indeed search but didn't find an answer as concise as the one you just provided...thanks again.

Formatting SD card

I tried to do a search but so many threads came up that it was impossible to read through them.
Lately it seems that all my apps on the SD card are running really laggy. So bad in fact that I get the app has stopped responding error. I'm think that I should reformat the card to clear out crap from previous ROMs and apps. Did you think that will help and what is the process? Copy files to computer then format I got. But what to put back? Do I have to reflash ROM? Reinstall apps? And where does Titanium for in all this? Thanks.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA
As long as you have all the apps off the SD card, you should only have things like photos (dcim), downloaded files, maybe a Titanium Backup folder, etc.... basically things you will recognize off the bat that contain actual media or files you want to keep. Otherwise, the apps should fill their stuff back in as needed

Do i use the MM feature and use my SD card as internal memory?

Hi All
I have a Samsung i9505 and just moved to Resurrection Remix 5.6.2 ROM using marshmallow and am having issues with writing to the SD card with 3rd party apps.
I have used the ES Explorer fix and mount R/W and enabled root explorer however my 3rd party app still shows as read only. The app is doggcatcher. Whats odd I found an article to sort this problem out for Titanium backup and that worked fine. Also my camera picture and whatsapp all get saved to the SD card without issue.
In the end I have told doggcatcher to use my internal memory but that is quickly filling up.
I am tempted as the phone as 16GB internal memory, whether I should backup my files and choose the options where I can turn my 64gb external SD card as part of my internal memory as I never take out my SD card so that option might work for me but the reviews I am hearing are more negative than positive. I did try it out and went back to the traditional approach but thinking that maybe I didnt give it enough time.
I used FolderMount which was great on LL and recently purchase Link2SD to move files to the SD card but my internal memory still fills up. Currently foldermount isnt compatible with MM, link2SD is but I am having a few issues with it crashing and dont find it as easily to use as foldermount.
Any advice would be appreciated on what others have done.
Thanks
I don't know about anything else, but from what I heard is:
If you format as internal, you will have to do the whole "setup your sd card" step every time you flash a rom. Which is garbage, unless you stay on the same rom for like ever.
Dirty flashing a rom might skip that setup, as you don't lose the data/settingd etc. Problem is, you can't always dirty flash. Especially when changing roms altogether. PC's might not be able to read it either even if it is in your phone.
This is just what I gathered over the time, nothing from personal experience.
Umm interesting well I normally backup my phone nightly using both TB and nandroid backup so restoring to a new ROM as long as it doesn't format the whole CSR I should be OK or does it when you install the new ROM in which case my backups are no good unless I save them to the cloud like Dropbox or google drive?
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
ranjb said:
Hi All
I have a Samsung i9505 and just moved to Resurrection Remix 5.6.2 ROM using marshmallow and am having issues with writing to the SD card with 3rd party apps.
I have used the ES Explorer fix and mount R/W and enabled root explorer however my 3rd party app still shows as read only. The app is doggcatcher. Whats odd I found an article to sort this problem out for Titanium backup and that worked fine. Also my camera picture and whatsapp all get saved to the SD card without issue.
In the end I have told doggcatcher to use my internal memory but that is quickly filling up.
I am tempted as the phone as 16GB internal memory, whether I should backup my files and choose the options where I can turn my 64gb external SD card as part of my internal memory as I never take out my SD card so that option might work for me but the reviews I am hearing are more negative than positive. I did try it out and went back to the traditional approach but thinking that maybe I didnt give it enough time.
I used FolderMount which was great on LL and recently purchase Link2SD to move files to the SD card but my internal memory still fills up. Currently foldermount isnt compatible with MM, link2SD is but I am having a few issues with it crashing and dont find it as easily to use as foldermount.
Any advice would be appreciated on what others have done.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've the Same problem!

Moving apps to SD in Marshmallow

So I finally made the leap from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Everything has been going fine for the most part, but I've hit a huge snag: moving apps to SD.
I use Titanium Backup to keep a full backup of my phone on the external SD card. I depend on this backup for two purposes:
1) it makes updating the ROM (like this time) a lot easier. I do a factory reset, get the base Android going, re-install Titanium Backup from the Play Store, point it to my backups on the external SD card, and then I'm good to restore (either full app+data if that's safe, or I first re-install the app from the Play Store then just restore the app's data using TB).
2) It saves my butt in the event of a phone hardware failure, which has happen several times over my many years as an Android user. I just buy a replacement phone, move the SD card over, and restore my apps/data in a similar manner as in #1.
I have a Galaxy S5 with 16GB of internal storage, which is certainly not enough so I depend on my 64GB external SD card greatly. Between keeping all my large media on the external SD, as well as moving what large apps to SD as I can, this has been fine. I use Bliss ROM.
So make the jump from Android 5 -> 6, and finally get to the point where I need to move some of the apps I've restored to SD... but can't find the option. I do some research, and now am in a panic. From what I can tell, you can only move apps to SD if you use the SD as adopted/internal storage, which means it gets re-formatted, encrypted, and can only be used with that phone. This eliminates the possibility of #1 & #2 above. To continue performing #1 & #2, I need to use the SD as "portable storage" (the way it is now), which apparently leaves no way to move apps to SD.
I am in a pickle now, and feel stuck. I'm hoping I'm missing another option. Help?
sremick said:
So I finally made the leap from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Everything has been going fine for the most part, but I've hit a huge snag: moving apps to SD.
I use Titanium Backup to keep a full backup of my phone on the external SD card. I depend on this backup for two purposes:
1) it makes updating the ROM (like this time) a lot easier. I do a factory reset, get the base Android going, re-install Titanium Backup from the Play Store, point it to my backups on the external SD card, and then I'm good to restore (either full app+data if that's safe, or I first re-install the app from the Play Store then just restore the app's data using TB).
2) It saves my butt in the event of a phone hardware failure, which has happen several times over my many years as an Android user. I just buy a replacement phone, move the SD card over, and restore my apps/data in a similar manner as in #1.
I have a Galaxy S5 with 16GB of internal storage, which is certainly not enough so I depend on my 64GB external SD card greatly. Between keeping all my large media on the external SD, as well as moving what large apps to SD as I can, this has been fine. I use Bliss ROM.
So make the jump from Android 5 -> 6, and finally get to the point where I need to move some of the apps I've restored to SD... but can't find the option. I do some research, and now am in a panic. From what I can tell, you can only move apps to SD if you use the SD as adopted/internal storage, which means it gets re-formatted, encrypted, and can only be used with that phone. This eliminates the possibility of #1 & #2 above. To continue performing #1 & #2, I need to use the SD as "portable storage" (the way it is now), which apparently leaves no way to move apps to SD.
I am in a pickle now, and feel stuck. I'm hoping I'm missing another option. Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've read there is a method for app2sd to work with mm. I never had success with it though, and downgraded to ll.
ldeveraux said:
From what I've read there is a method for app2sd to work with mm. I never had success with it though, and downgraded to ll.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A method other than formatting the card as internal/adopted storage? Did the method involve setting up multiple partitions?
While I could set up a FAT32 partition just for TB, then adopt the rest, my backups aren't the only thing I've needed to access after popping out the SD card. For example, just being able to load media that way is quick and sometimes a life-saver. I've also used that as a way to get zip files on that I could then flash via recovery. I'm also not clear if you can "mount" adopted storage as USB while in recovery so it's visible to the computer as a USB mass-storage device while the phone is connected via USB cable (as you have been able to do normally up to this point).
sremick said:
A method other than formatting the card as internal/adopted storage? Did the method involve setting up multiple partitions?
While I could set up a FAT32 partition just for TB, then adopt the rest, my backups aren't the only thing I've needed to access after popping out the SD card. For example, just being able to load media that way is quick and sometimes a life-saver. I've also used that as a way to get zip files on that I could then flash via recovery. I'm also not clear if you can "mount" adopted storage as USB while in recovery so it's visible to the computer as a USB mass-storage device while the phone is connected via USB cable (as you have been able to do normally up to this point).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not the app developer, I have no clue how/if it works. It didn't for me, but did for many others. Go to that thread and read up!
ldeveraux said:
I'm not the app developer, I have no clue how/if it works. It didn't for me, but did for many others. Go to that thread and read up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which app/thread are you referring to? Or are you talking about Bliss ROM itself? I didn't post in that thread, as this issue seems generically Marshmallow-related, and not specific to Bliss.
sremick said:
Which app/thread are you referring to? Or are you talking about Bliss ROM itself? I didn't post in that thread, as this issue seems generically Marshmallow-related, and not specific to Bliss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a marshmallow problem, not Rom specific. In xda's app section there are threads for both link2sd (not working) and app2sd (works for some). Check those, I think that's where I saw the info.
Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.
sremick said:
Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the consensus was to use NotifyClean (Xposed module) to eliminate that message at boot. :good: Everything still working for you otherwise? I was thinking of upgrading now, and think this might work too:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html
sremick said:
Ok it wasn't easy but I think I've gotten my head wrapped around Apps2SD and have it working. I tried the free version, backed up my 64GB external SD, partitioned it with a 16GB f2fs partition (for moving/linking apps) and the remainder exfat (for using the way I've traditionally used it). Restored everything back to the exfat partition and fixed where BeyondPod and Titanium Backup were pointing to. Did a few test links and it seemed to be working although fumbling my way through was confusing at first as I didn't find a clear "how to". Ended up buying the Pro version of Apps2SD once I felt good that this was a workable solution.
I still get an error on boot about my SD being corrupt but I just need to search on that, I'm sure there's a simple fix somewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is f2fs and exfat supported by stock MM in Apps2SD? Got it formatted with fat32 and ext4.
ldeveraux said:
I think the consensus was to use NotifyClean (Xposed module) to eliminate that message at boot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh. I do not want to have to use Xposed.
Everything still working for you otherwise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it was working just great... then I rebooted. Apparently some trouble getting the 2nd partition (fsfs, where the apps are being moved to) to mount at boot. Trying to sort it out in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/apps2sd-partition-sd-card-link-apps-to-t3122919
andacro said:
Is f2fs and exfat supported by stock MM in Apps2SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No idea, I never run stock.

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