Database Users

[POLL] a2sd... yay or nay?

So I've learned more about android so far than I intended or expected. I haven't needed to learn about or implement a2sd but at this point my "keepers" app collection has me down to just over 20mb free internal storage so I'm considering taking the plunge.
I haven't used a2sd yet for two reasons:
A) I haven't needed it
B) I've read lots of threads regarding difficulty with setting it up and maintaining it when switching or updating roms
So what's the scoop? Is it worth it? Is there any performance gain or is it strictly a storage benefit?
Should I go ahead and learn about it so it's in place when the time comes that I want to use it or am I better off with my current rule of thumb? Which is "if I think I NEED a2sd then I probably NEED to reevaluate my app library".
Thanks guys

nebenezer said:
So I've learned more about android so far than I intended or expected. I haven't needed to learn about or implement a2sd but at this point my "keepers" app collection has me down to just over 20mb free internal storage so I'm considering taking the plunge.
I haven't used a2sd yet for two reasons:
A) I haven't needed it
B) I've read lots of threads regarding difficulty with setting it up and maintaining it when switching or updating roms
So what's the scoop? Is it worth it? Is there any performance gain or is it strictly a storage benefit?
Should I go ahead and learn about it so it's in place when the time comes that I want to use it or am I better off with my current rule of thumb which is "if I think I NEED a2sd then I probably NEED to reevaluate my app library"
Thanks guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you are running out of space on your phone, I wouldn't worry about it. It is supposed to be faster if you have one of the $100 8gb class 10 thingys but I don't know if its true. its fast enough already
My vote: Nay

I have never used it and have never run short of space on my phone. From all the millions of posts on the subject I can't imagine it being worth the huge pain in the ass it seems to be!

I use it, as I have and do run out of space on /data.

I have a 16 GB class 2, so I've always refrained. I'm not running out of space, but I usually decide whether or not I like an app right after I install it and if I don't like it, uninstall.
So, to answer your question...
I don't know, I'm curious myself.

I use, ran out of space on my phone the first week so was excited to do it. it was a piece of cake to set up with RA 1.6.2, and switching roms has been no big deal, I usually first try to update without wiping ext, and 9 times out of 10 it works fine and I don't have to download my apps again (though you do lose data, but that can be backed with titanium. If it does mess up, it's no big deal, I adb pull the apps out with a * and they're all on my computer pretty quickly so I can reinstall as necessary.

jonnythan said:
I use it, as I have and do run out of space on /data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean to say that even using a2sd you STILL run out of space on /data?
funcrusher said:
I have a 16 GB class 2, so I've always refrained. I'm not running out of space, but I usually decide whether or not I like an app right after I install it and if I don't like it, uninstall.
So, to answer your question...
I don't know, I'm curious myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, I was hoping this poll would benefit more than just myself
Like I said, I keep my app list pretty clean but 20mb as low as I've seen yet.

nebenezer said:
Do you mean to say that even using a2sd you STILL run out of space on /data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, no, definitely not.

jonnythan said:
No, no, definitely not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, thanks!

I love a2sd cause I have a 8g card vs a small internal storage space on the phone. A2sd is very easy.
1. Backup your SD card on computer.
2. Root your phone if you haven't.
3. Partition your SD card via the recovery menu(I used 512mb for my ext2).
4. In the same menu at that below it change it from ext2 to ext3.
5. After complete put all of your files back on your SD card that you saved to your computer.
6. Then mostly every new 2.1 ROM has it built in now where it runs from the first bootup with no patching or user issues. Just make sure you look in the description of the ROM to make sure.
I'm running Fresh 2.0d. I just upgraded to a new 8g SD card for more music and movie storage space. So I just re-did the process. The longest part is waiting for the files to be transfered to/from the computer.

doeboy1984 said:
I love a2sd cause I have a 8g card vs a small internal storage space on the phone. A2sd is very easy.
1. Backup your SD card on computer.
2. Root your phone if you haven't.
3. Partition your SD card via the recovery menu(I used 512mb for my ext2).
4. In the same menu at that below it change it from ext2 to ext3.
5. After complete put all of your files back on your SD card that you saved to your computer.
6. Then mostly every new 2.1 ROM has it built in now where it runs from the first bootup with no patching or user issues. Just make sure you look in the description of the ROM to make sure.
I'm running Fresh 2.0d. I just upgraded to a new 8g SD card for more music and movie storage space. So I just re-did the process. The longest part is waiting for the files to be transfered to/from the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would skip the ext3 part if I were you, kills your sd card faster

I know some people were having so trouble with some of the ROM's cause they were in ext2 but no one was having any problems while using ext3 s thats why I posted that. To help alleviate that issue

Vrekk said:
I would skip the ext3 part if I were you, kills your sd card faster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why they even made this an option. I have a feeling the people implementing this have no knowledge of filesystems which is frightening....

For those of you running it:
What class cards do you have?

feld said:
I don't know why they even made this an option. I have a feeling the people implementing this have no knowledge of filesystems which is frightening....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
feld,
Care to post a brief run-down of the difference between ext2 and ext3?

funcrusher said:
For those of you running it:
What class cards do you have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using a class 6.

jonnythan said:
I'm using a class 6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, if I had a class 6 I probably would have tried it out by now. Afraid that my class 2 will slow down apps etc. ;\

I've had no problems with a class 2 8gb.
I have a class 6 on order.

funcrusher said:
See, if I had a class 6 I probably would have tried it out by now. Afraid that my class 2 will slow down apps etc. ;\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt it, actually. The class rating only refers to the minimum write speed in an optimal situation. Read speeds seem to be decently high across the board. You'll probably never notice any difference, if there even is one.

jonnythan said:
I doubt it, actually. The class rating only refers to the minimum write speed in an optimal situation. Read speeds seem to be decently high across the board. You'll probably never notice any difference, if there even is one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah? What do you think about the 2.5 version or whatever that moves your dalvik over as well?

So will we ever get 4 GB?

After perm-root, is the rest of the NAND available?

joebobjoe said:
After perm-root, is the rest of the NAND available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, simply rooting isn't going to magically open up the internal storage; that's why it's still listed as 1.1x GB after. The root just came out this morning; just like us patient people gave the devs to root, give them time to fiddle with the storage. They'll probably figure it out soon enough.
Fortunately the storage is still a crapload. I've gone from what... 1.16GB? stock to 1.1GB, and I don't see myself using the rest of it at all.

Yup, I don't even think I need all that space. Right now I have 888MB free, and that is with ALL my apps installed on phone memory, as I prefer not moving to SD Card...
I just wanted to ask, does moving to SD Card do anything other than free up space of the phone memory? If it does make stuff run faster etc, then only I see a reason to move apps to sd card..

Freeing up space is the only real benefit for Androids native apps2sd...
Apps2ext on the other hand, was really nice to have if you like trying out different roms.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

franky1029 said:
Freeing up space is the only real benefit for Androids native apps2sd...
Apps2ext on the other hand, was really nice to have if you like trying out different roms.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the G1 they where able to re-allocate memory from the GPU to the CPU to increase the speed of the G1 at the cost of 3D games. Believe Cyanogen did this, Yes, 1.x gigs is plenty BUT, what if the rest of the "4 gigs" could be focused on the GPU side of things to increase FPS? hehe Counter Strike on the G2..rofl Maybe using the other space for a full linux distro? a dual boot?

Dual Boot could be very nice, yes..

That actually sounds quite viable.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

Freeing Up Internal Memory Is Like...

...freeing up space on your HDD from 1995. We are juggling with megabytes, not gigabytes... has anyone ever noticed that?

That's because phones are very different from desktop computers...

The phone could do with more internal storage...
Sent from my R800i using XDA

Well, I mean that some of us might feel that we don't have much space when we are only given less than 512MB of memory... if we were given 4GB of RAM, then most of us who do have problems would not...

It should at least have 1 GB of storage *for the user*
Sent from my R800i using XDA

Still... those 1995 hard drive are still gonna work in 50years
Quantum fireball 9gig is still powering my ftp server

MegaBUD said:
Still... those 1995 hard drive are still gonna work in 50years
Quantum fireball 9gig is still powering my ftp server
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a really old PowerMac 7300/200 with a 2 GB HDD that still works I use it to play domino!
Sent from my R800i using XDA

If you had 4gb of ram all the running services woukd kill ure batter in 5 minutes 1 gig of ram would be sufficient with a few gigs of internal storage
Sent from my R800a using XDA

OK... internal storage... I made a mistake...

MegaBUD said:
Still... those 1995 hard drive are still gonna work in 50years
Quantum fireball 9gig is still powering my ftp server
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leots said:
I have a really old PowerMac 7300/200 with a 2 GB HDD that still works I use it to play domino!
Sent from my R800i using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In working for years with computers I have to say hard drives are very volatile. If I got more than 5 years or so out of a consumer hard drive up until the past few years I considered it good. Its the only part of your computer (besides fans) that has consistently moving parts.
But its true I do feel like its 1995 again with all this juggling of free space. Its pretty annoying actually

neverwinter said:
Well, I mean that some of us might feel that we don't have much space when we are only given less than 512MB of memory... if we were given 4GB of RAM, then most of us who do have problems would not...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would we need 4GB? We wont fill up 512MB

I feel you bro, I got 62mb free on my internal memory, no more than 400mb free in my 8gb SD card and 2gb left on my 270gb HDD, so I definitely won't be using any link2sd thingies any soon, until I buy a new SD card, just because the damn phone nor the sdcard that comes with it doesn't come with any space for your stuff, due to the .android_secure folder occupying like 2gb and a half. It's pretty awkward, yet the phone is worth it.
Maybe I could be a Yottabyte but the internal memory is still pretty small
Sent from the best gaming android smartphone in the world with the best forum android app in the world

Ye low space then the phone starts freezing not good, but thsts what TB is good for
Sent from my R800i using xda premium

Integrate apps into your rom using tb its awesome frees up so much space
Sent from my R800a using XDA

psxpetey said:
Integrate apps into your rom using tb its awesome frees up so much space
Sent from my R800a using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does that do exactly?
I'm having a constant battle with internal storage.
I only have a few apps on my internal storage having moved most with APP2SD or Titanium yet it keeps going down.
Flash is like 12MB. But if I move it with Titanium, it tells me it is not installed.
Same with Twitter, If i move it, it doesn't allow me to sign in.
I constantly have 40mb or less free and yet I've got like nothing installed on internal memory. I don't know what's taking up all the space, anyway I can see for definite?
Thanks.

I have storage problems too.
I have only 130Mb of apps on the internal storage, the rest in on my sd card and yet still I have only 78mb free. Any suggestions as to the cause of this?

psxpetey said:
Integrate apps into your rom using tb its awesome frees up so much space
Sent from my R800a using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Red_Kop said:
What does that do exactly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he means moving apps from the data partition to the system partition (where your base rom is stored-the stuff that is still there when you wipe data/factory reset), thus freeing up space on your data partition, which is where apps you install normally are stored.
~Troop

Sunjay140 said:
Why would we need 4GB? We wont fill up 512MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, when we have rooting and apps like Link2SD...

Red_Kop said:
What does that do exactly?
I'm having a constant battle with internal storage.
I only have a few apps on my internal storage having moved most with APP2SD or Titanium yet it keeps going down.
Flash is like 12MB. But if I move it with Titanium, it tells me it is not installed.
Same with Twitter, If i move it, it doesn't allow me to sign in.
I constantly have 40mb or less free and yet I've got like nothing installed on internal memory. I don't know what's taking up all the space, anyway I can see for definite?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try this: http://www.xperiablog.net/2011/12/12/link2sd-guide-never-worry-about-internal-memory-limits-again/

Not possible to move apps to SD

Is this something new for phones? It's pretty ridiculous, and kind of makes me wish I had waited for the 32gb version if I had known such a simple feature would be gone :l
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

Denomenance said:
Is this something new for phones? It's pretty ridiculous, and kind of makes me wish I had waited for the 32gb version if I had known such a simple feature would be gone :l
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
It's a 4.2.2 "Feature"

It's for the greater good. New generation NAND smokes microSD performance, and you don't wanna bottleneck your device by multitasking from SD. On the other hand 16GB should be dropped entirely, we're talking very minimal cost difference for Samsung, so why not start at 32gigs or 64 and go all the way up to 256? This is HD era, nothing comes in small size.

BoneXDA said:
It's for the greater good. New generation NAND smokes microSD performance, and you don't wanna bottleneck your device by multitasking from SD. On the other hand 16GB should be dropped entirely, we're talking very minimal cost difference for Samsung, so why not start at 32gigs or 64 and go all the way up to 256? This is HD era, nothing comes in small size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Also the "16GB" is actually only 9.15GB on my phone.
The system eats a fair portion of it.

Before 4.2.2 could you move to sd without rooting then? And will it really kill memory card If i rooted and use folder mount
Sent from my XT890 using xda app-developers app

If you can't install apps on sdcard
How much space is available for applications in phone?
I'm using gs2 now, and it only has 2gmail for appear from internal memory.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Youre looking at 9Gb for 16
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

So what to do now? :-/ I bought the "16" GB phone being a former Apple user with they expectation of "hey cool, I got an 32 SD card lying around, no problem", when now I end up in a situation where I am expected to do exactly what?? Uninstall all my apps and never download any music?

Still taking any and all suggestions...

knowledgeworker said:
So what to do now? :-/ I bought the phone being a former Apple user with they expectation of "hey cool, I got an 32 SD card lying around, no problem", when now I end up in a situation where I am expected to do exactly what?? Uninstall all my apps and never download any music?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the reason I'm waiting for the 32GB version.
I did the same with the Galaxy S III though I can't understand why they delay the release of the 32GB that much.. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are waiting for that one, right?
And btw, you can put your music on the µSD card, it's just the installed apps that are a problem.

Thanks, yeah you are right. Not sure though if some apps will be smart enough to route downloaded music to my SD card??
While we're at it: My problem is basically the "cloudsync" and more so the "DocumentSync" folder, the latter is > 6 GB large! Anyone knows what that is?
I want to reduce this size, my phone is brand-new!

knowledgeworker said:
Thanks, yeah you are right. Not sure though if some apps will be smart enough to route downloaded music to my SD card??
While we're at it: My problem is basically the "cloudsync" and more so the "DocumentSync" folder, the latter is > 6 GB large! Anyone knows what that is?
I want to reduce this size, my phone is brand-new!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cloudsync syncs your pics etc with Dropbox or its samsung account
Swyped from another galaxy

Thanks, indeed. I deactivated all that cloud-syncing nonsense, which solved my problem for now. Now I have a few weeks or months until I have to think again what to do. :-/
Is "Swyped from another galaxy" that a joke on the Samsung Galaxy keyboard system? lol

You're probably looking at 24gb on the 32gb version so a bunch more memory.
Most people will in fact be fine with 9gb though, power users who download a lot of really inefficient apps that cache a lot of things and require a lot of storage should get the 32gb version. I personally will be fine with the 16gb version.

You may be right. I got 2.1 GB of apps for 151 apps, which averages out at 14 MB per app, while I had the feeling that most of my apps are less than 8 MB, oh well. -.-
I won't download any more apps though, but I am sure photographs and stuff will quickly snatch up the remaining 5 GB of space that I freed now...
Will try to find a setting to put my photos on the SD card by default. Any tips (or links to a thread / tutorial about that) are appreciated.

Mithrandir007 said:
That's the reason I'm waiting for the 32GB version.
I did the same with the Galaxy S III though I can't understand why they delay the release of the 32GB that much.. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are waiting for that one, right?
And btw, you can put your music on the µSD card, it's just the installed apps that are a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i am also waiting for the 32GB version because of the same reason.

my htc one s 16gb has 2gb dedicated to apps. for me plenty atm. that's independent of the 9.93 internal sdcard, don't know if s4 is same. however, as mentioned, 16gb phones are too small now days and i won't pay for the s4 till it gets 32gb on att and black--
also don't think i can post links to other forums per xda. but if you google "att 32gb s4", there is a link to an att forum specifically for the 32gb release and an active att moderator--just fyi

Mithrandir007 said:
That's the reason I'm waiting for the 32GB version.
I did the same with the Galaxy S III though I can't understand why they delay the release of the 32GB that much.. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are waiting for that one, right?
And btw, you can put your music on the µSD card, it's just the installed apps that are a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, im waiting 32 gb version. :laugh:
16 gb (9.xgb or 8.8gb) is simply ridiculous
---------- Post added at 06:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------
knowledgeworker said:
You may be right. I got 2.1 GB of apps for 151 apps, which averages out at 14 MB per app, while I had the feeling that most of my apps are less than 8 MB, oh well. -.-
I won't download any more apps though, but I am sure photographs and stuff will quickly snatch up the remaining 5 GB of space that I freed now...
Will try to find a setting to put my photos on the SD card by default. Any tips (or links to a thread / tutorial about that) are appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? cant u save on the sd card by defalut ????

First of all.. If u want to store ur camera photos on sd card use camera zoom fx.. It's a very good camera app and there u can choose where to store the photos
The second.. U have 8,8 gb on stock firmware if u install a custom rom in a few weeks it will be more free space because of some bloatware installed on the stock and files we dont need i think.. Let the dev's do there great job
Gesendet von meinem GT-I9300 mit Tapatalk 2

knowledgeworker said:
You may be right. I got 2.1 GB of apps for 151 apps, which averages out at 14 MB per app, while I had the feeling that most of my apps are less than 8 MB, oh well. -.-
I won't download any more apps though, but I am sure photographs and stuff will quickly snatch up the remaining 5 GB of space that I freed now...
Will try to find a setting to put my photos on the SD card by default. Any tips (or links to a thread / tutorial about that) are appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For photos there's a setting in the camera app which let's you select which storage to use. If it's not there use a file explorer to copy your photos across to your sd card.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

Q. How are you managing with 9gb free memory? Your feedback please

It seems the 16gb S4 is still the only option at the moment in the UK, I originally cancelled my order when I found out about the internal memory issue and the fact you can't save apps to the sd card. If you root some of my banking apps won't work, so that is not an option, not that apps work all the time properly on the sd card anyway. Also if you rent films from Googlr these cache in internal memory.
So for all you 16gb owners what is the internal memory space left , what have you installed and how much of an inconvenience is it, if at all. Please be honest, I just want to see what you can get on each of your S4's. Are any of you struggling already or believe you might.
Your help here will make me decide whether I just bite the bullet and compromise with the 16gb. Thanks in advance.

I've been a bit more careful than usual, not installed any of the big storage hog games, disabled Document Sync (which inexplicably tries to fill the internal storage with dropbox content), moved TomTom data to the SD card, and now have about 100 applications installed and 6Gb of space left. Not really a problem for me as yet, I'm using DiskUsage to monitor the situation. I'm also dithering about the One, but at the moment I'd rather have the 9Gb+64Gb SD card than the One's 25Gb. Might change if I have problems later and the One gets a 64Gb variant.

Thanks for feedback. One of my friends has only 2.5gb free now and hasn't installed any of his fav games. No room if he tried.
Anybody else got feedback.

it's kind of dumb that it has this amazing quad core processor and one of the best phone gpu's around and yet, you cant even install all the best games on it... lol

I think a potential cure will be for android itself to have a proper api to utilize external SD for heavy resources like those in the obb folder.
Unfortunately I don't think google will support this since they have been on a no SD card agenda for quite a while now.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

fade2green514 said:
it's kind of dumb that it has this amazing quad core processor and one of the best phone gpu's around and yet, you cant even install all the best games on it... lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just give it a week or 2 and you will have some nice xda devs throwing solutions at us
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Rooting isn't the cure. I know for a fact that some of the banking apps won't work with a rooted device. Also, internal memory functions better so don't mind all apps being there but really need a bigger memory to start off with.

how to disable document sync?

DocumentSync is solved see : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261385

gavinfabl said:
Rooting isn't the cure. I know for a fact that some of the banking apps won't work with a rooted device. Also, internal memory functions better so don't mind all apps being there but really need a bigger memory to start off with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
get the one ...
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda app-developers app

oik01 said:
get the one ...
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have but I want a S4 as well but one that is sufficient
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

Markuzy said:
I think a potential cure will be for android itself to have a proper api to utilize external SD for heavy resources like those in the obb folder.
Unfortunately I don't think google will support this since they have been on a no SD card agenda for quite a while now.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We might see something because of that Google edition s4...
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

I am managing quite well, this is with around a 100 different apps, varying in size. With Spotify playlist download of a 100 songs. I will be happy when Samsung will fix this issue.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app

For me the 9Gb of storage is enough i don't generally game on my phone, and only install what i use, music, vids & pictures all go onto my SD card.
But i think the S4 should have launched at 32Gb this time around, back in the day the S1 launched with 8Gb, when the S2 came it was bumped upto 16Gb at launch
I think the easiest option really would be for Samsung to come up with a way to allow you to save apps to SD card, even though Jellybean doesn't have this feature.
I do think though when the S5 arrives next year 32Gb will be standard, with options of 64Gb & 128Gb to.

I don't have any problems... Lots of apps and a few games installed... Batman, GTA, mini motor... I don't have much time to play but nice with the opportunity
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app

Very well as I installed foldermount and folder downloader so Dropbox and games are stored in the external so got plenty of space left for apps. Also INT2EXT will be fixed soon for the s4
Swyped from another galaxy

skivnit said:
Very well as I installed foldermount and folder downloader so Dropbox and games are stored in the external so got plenty of space left for apps. Also INT2EXT will be fixed soon for the s4
Swyped from another galaxy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree! FolderMount is great for this phone.
Sendt fra SGS4

Doesn't bother me at all as I don't game on my phone. If you're a gamer then it might sting a little but apart from that music is via google play and photos in the 32 gig SD card

I store my ROM and app backups on my external SD (32 GB G-Skill class 6).