I have gone between R012, FR006, and CM6.1 and have settled on FR006. I had darktremor on R012 and who knows whatever means on the other two (including App 2 SD v1.22 from AZSoft). I am sure I have one messy ext3 partition. When I set the partition up, I made a 1GB with a swap (don't recall the size). It seems that the 1GB was overkill. I'd like to reclaim some of that and use it elsewhere. This might be a good time to clean out the whole sd card.
Do CM6.1 and FR006 use that ext3 partition? Is there a way to clean it out besides reformatting? I don't mind reinstalling the apps after formatting and repartitioning the sd, I just don't know what I'll lose if I do. Do apps typically store data with the app install location or would everything be in /data or elsewhere in the Fat32. Of course I would back up the sd card (Fat23 portion of it) and do a Nandroid. Who wouldn't do those?
I thought this would get more replies. Not even a suggestion to use search?
Sent from my Liberated Intruder using XDA app.
Use search.
Just kidding, I actually just did this on my phone last night, because I had folders all over the FAT32 portion of my SD card that were just leftovers from old apps, etc. I wanted to clear it all out and start fresh, so I did a nandroid backup, backed up the SD card and used Titanium Backup to save the few apps with data that I wanted.
Formatted the SD in Clockwork Recovery and just put my FR007 zip on there and wiped the phone and reinstalled. Everything seems to be working great.
I don't know if that's any help, but that's what I've got.
hi all,
I have backed up via recovery and titanium and wondering how to format/partition -
Should i do it thru recovery or use windoze?
Do I need ext partition?
Do i just copy everything from old card to new, I'd rather start off nice and new?
Are there any folders that i need to create or will the phone do so itself?
What about the internal SD - can/should i delete everything in there - I've noticed that with all the roms I've flashed and playing around I've done there is stuff from previous apps that I thought I got rid of but are still in the internal.
Does a factory reset not delete anything in here and if not, is it a safe place to store a backup taking into consideration space limitations?
TIA
Im familiar with flashing new roms and have done so a few times, i just want to get familiar with keeping my data on my phone.
is the externalsd card folder on my phones internal memory wiped when i format data/factory reset and format cache?
what is the best method for keeping all my pictures I have taken and downloads folder. (are these in extsd folder?)
I currently use Helium to backup SMS/Wifi settings/home screen/dictionary.
Also, does my google account backup what apps i have, can they be restored properly when going through the new setup wizard screens after flashing my new rom? or will i need to manually reinstall all apps?
Does titanium backup, able to backup my pictures taken/screenshots/downloads?
callum_88 said:
Im familiar with flashing new roms and have done so a few times, i just want to get familiar with keeping my data on my phone.
is the externalsd card folder on my phones internal memory wiped when i format data/factory reset and format cache?
what is the best method for keeping all my pictures I have taken and downloads folder. (are these in extsd folder?)
I currently use Helium to backup SMS/Wifi settings/home screen/dictionary.
Also, does my google account backup what apps i have, can they be restored properly when going through the new setup wizard screens after flashing my new rom? or will i need to manually reinstall all apps?
Does titanium backup, able to backup my pictures taken/screenshots/downloads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
1.is the external sd card folder on my phones internal memory wiped when i format data/factory reset and format cache?
Everything on the internal storage gets wiped with a factory reset.
The external sd card is not affected.
2.what is the best method for keeping all my pictures I have taken and downloads folder. (are these in extsd folder?)
Direct the phones settings to store your photos on the external sd card.
Downloads should be moved with a file explorer.
3.Also, does my google account backup what apps i have, can they be restored properly when going through the new setup wizard screens after flashing my new rom? or will i need to manually reinstall all apps?
As long as you ticked Google to back up your apps , they should re-install themselves.
4.Does titanium backup, able to backup my pictures taken/screenshots/downloads?
No.
Manually transfer them to the external sd card with a file explorer.
First of all... I wanted to start this post off by saying yes, I know I'm an idiot.
Now that that's out of the way....
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card. Because I'm an idiot. I don't know how or why it happened really. I just know it did.
I had previously saved EVERYTHING to my external SD card, thinking that was the safest place for the data... and now the past two years of my life documented in photographs are gone.
I have tweaked out on running custom phone software since the days of the original Razr and flashing Alltel firmware on it... and this is the first major screw up I've ever done.
Now... does TWRP back up that data somewhere, somehow? Or is it just system data/apps that get backed up? If TWRP didn't save it somewhere, is there possibly somewhere that the contents of my external SD card were MOVED upon installation of the custom ROM?
ircphoenix said:
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should never store your sole backup copy on the same device as is being backed up as you probably realize now.
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy. The default location is usually /data/media/0/TWRP. Try a search for TWRP folders using a root aware file browser. With any luck you will find a backup on your internal SD card.
If not, then the only way to recover would be to try a data recovery program on your external SD card. Unless you do Google /cloud backups as well?
.
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Both I have tried after an accidental format of the SD card from the phone settings.
They are both free desktop software.
Important to take not not to copy any files over to the affected card, or even your recovered files as well. Only do so when you are sure you have recovered all that you can onto a desktop folder.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
fffft said:
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The second scenario is what I believe I did. And I think when it created the backup, it wiped the external SD to suit it's needs. Problem being that the Nandroid backup wanted 6 gigs ish of space, and I had 4.5 or so remaining on the internal SD.... don't know what stuff I had on there... but *shrug*
Markuzy said:
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the tip. I will try both of these. I think the nandroid backup wrote over the areas on the SD where the pictures were stored. You'd think it would pick the empty space before the occupied space... but I guess since it wiped it clean prior to backing up, it was ALL empty space. *sigh*
Thank you both very much for your help.
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As stated many many times. The only recovery you can use is TWRP. Your sdcard shows 0 mb because it became part of your internal storage. So reflash TWRP and try again.
after flashing cwm i did nothing but booting once the rom and notice that everything was wipped and then flash twrp.
the result is i cant axcess my sdcard as the rom sais that the sdcard needs to prepared.
so my question is, can i recover the data on the sd card?
Not if you're at the point where the card needs to be prepared. What you should have done if you wanted to decrypt the MicroSD, is pulled the data off both card and internal storage, then gone into Settings > Storage & USB and converted the card to portable storage.
One thing. With CWM running, did you have any nandroid backups? If you did, you likely will have to reinstall CWM to free up the internal storage reserved for the nandroid backups. CWM by default allocates space for its nandroid backups that cannot be touched by the system or TWRP. Once you do that, you can then reinstall TWRP.
OK THX. I just created a image of the SD card.maybe in the future there will be a toop to decrypt such SD cards. For the future:
Is the SD card lost everytime i update the Rom build?
Is the SD card lost Ehen i change the Rom to another Android 6 Rom?
What do i have to do when updating to a Newer build oft the same rom,vor change to another Android 6 rom? Pull everything from bouth cards? Really? Thats a pain in the ass even with a uhs 1 SD card.
Whats the best way for backing up the data, so i can cop them back without trouble? Maybe ADB?
Whats about changin the recovery? Thats a nogo i think and whats about updating twrp?
What is a absolut nogo? What i ahouldnt do to f*** up the card again?
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
What is an absolute no go? What shouldn't I do to f*** up the card again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for your very detailed answere. but whats about when i am using i.e. kushan rom build 07.12.2015 and i update to kushan rom build 11.12.2015. will the sd card have to be prepared to use also? and what about when i update twrp to a marshmellow support twrp. di i need prepare the sd card then again?
TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the point where my trouble began. as so as the sd card is prepared as internal you cant even see files of the real internal storage. flashing zips you can still do with adb sideload. another question could we backup the internal flash inlcuding prepared sd card with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818321
?
If yes, is there also a way to restore the backup made?
To make things crystal clear, once the card is set for portable storage you will not have to reconfigure the card again unless you choose to combine the storage. Upgrading a ROM to a newer version will generate a message in the notification bar that you have to prepare the card, but you simply select the portable storage option and the notification goes away. Upgrading TWRP doesn't require doing anything to storage.
Should you choose to combine storage, upgrading a ROM may cost you whatever is on both the internal storage and microSD. Upgrading TWRP with combined storage would require you to flash it using Odin, because you wouldn't be able to copy the TWRP image to the device storage.
Backing up the internal storage doesn't require anything more than a copy operation from the S4 to the PC, so no special tools should be required. That applies regardless of whether the storage is combined or separate. However, for best results with TWRP, the storage should not be combined.
Sorry for reviving this old thread, but I've the same issue.
I flashed a new rom without getting the decryption code or backing anything up(No NANDs, no sd backup). Is there still currently no way to retrieve the files that are encrypted on this SD?
I've done exactly the same, I'm hoping theres a way to decrypt it.
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found solution to decrypt the Sdcard.
I was facing this problem for almost 1 year I need only sdcard not data in it but I am unable to format it due to encryption but any device able to read the data and copy from that.
Even I can play Music out that SD card
Unless you're immortal, you're not decrypting the MicroSD card via brute force. Currently, the amount of time required to find the decryption key is longer than the current age of the universe.
If looking to simply format an existing card, use SDFormatter from http://www.sdcard.org.