Database Users

new app2sd on froyo seem buged...

Sorry for the loing post, bare with me
I have installed FRF50 when it came out, after a few day when doing an update of a few app in the market I had one stuck at installation, even after reboot when I tried to update it again it did the same, after a few cleanup of my download folder and retry all the app that where encrypted in the app2sd folder (not sure of the exact folder name) where not properly decrypted by the OS, at the time I taught nothing of it and reinstalled everything (froyo image + reconfig) to do a fresh start with froyo, I also reformatted my SD card to be on the safe side... and had no issue since then...
Then came FRF72, did the exact same problem yesterday and I was able to restart the SD (if I can say so) after a few reboot.
Today same issue is back, but no go so far, all app that belong to flash are there with a generic icon, they appear on the list of app in the SD section but without their icon, it really look like if the OS is not able to decrypt them (If I understand correctly that was the stupid way google decided to implement some kind of DRM on the flash memory)
I am seriously thinkiing about going back to CM and the old way of EXT4 app2sd, it was working ok...

I've had this occur after upgrading to FRF72, it's probably because the OS didn't manage to detect the apps correctly. To solve it, I just plugged in my USB cable, mounted the SD card and then unmounting it after it showed up correctly as a removable drive on my laptop. After waiting a while for the OS to scan the card (check logcat to verify that apps are indeed being scanned one by one), my apps were back.

Another test...
Rebooted the phone without the SD, then shutdown and reboot with the SD, no change but...
If I connect the USB cable, the computer see the new drive right away (it use to take a few second after enabling the USB sharing) but is is not usable and I see no notification of the USB, that's a really weird bug...
if anybody have some idea, I know from my first encounter with this issue that changing the SD card will not fix this either...

@ Zanglang
Thanks for the sugestion, but the PC doesn't see the card, my terminal was on the flash mem and I can not install new app from market
trying a nandroid from the Recovery now... BAD DROID...

I had a problem on Frf50 with app icons turning generic and disappearing from 3d app rolodex. They were still accessible from the generic icons.
Now on Frf72 and issue seems to have subsided. Everything is where it should be. This time around i only added apps to sd they were allowable to move, i didnt force anything. When i first talked about it a while back i heard it was a bug as well as learned that certain things shouldnt go on the SD altogether. Now that i got that straightened out im good and feel like i learned something. lol

crap, no recovery

SBERG117 said:
I had a problem on Frf50 with app icons turning generic and disappearing from 3d app rolodex. They were still accessible from the generic icons.
Now on Frf72 and issue seems to have subsided. Everything is where it should be. This time around i only added apps to sd they were allowable to move, i didnt force anything. When i first talked about it a while back i heard it was a bug as well as learned that certain things shouldnt go on the SD altogether. Now that i got that straightened out im good and feel like i learned something. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the funny part is that I did not move rom manager and I did not move anything like widget etc, I am frustrated by Google stupid way of handling memory extension tho... as for not forcing any app i am fine with the idea however too many app are not updated and it piss me off to go thru all app to move them by hand...
What's the point of encrypting the app moved to SD anyway... I can't believe how stupid this is, I hope Cyanogen will find a way to disable this altogether...

P00r said:
Yeah, the funny part is that I did not move rom manager and I did not move anything like widget etc, I am frustrated by Google stupid way of handling memory extension tho... as for not forcing any app i am fine with the idea however too many app are not updated and it piss me off to go thru all app to move them by hand...
What's the point of encrypting the app moved to SD anyway... I can't believe how stupid this is, I hope Cyanogen will find a way to disable this altogether...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well now some of the icons have disappeared again. LOL.
These were all allowable by FRF72. Only one that hasnt changed yet is titanium backup. I tried, thought it was gonna hold.

I managed to do a recovery, I swapped the SD with another one and moved everything from the protected dir of the old card to the new one and all the icon came back.
When checking in the app manager, I noticed a few file marked as flash, I deleted a few and it seem ok but the one in the SD section are still not all there, and some display calculating as in the properties field forever...
So far
Froyo = 7/10 (3 total crash so far all related to the new memory management) since I used the PM setInstallLocation 2 I am not putting 0...
Cyanogen = 9/10
I am really curious to see what he will do with flash memory management!
Now running FRF83 with the first SD untouched, I recovered my nandroid then directly flashed to FRF83 from Paul, all app are there... I am also reverting to setIntallLocation 0 to see if there's improvement...

Having similar issues right now on the latest update with setinstalllocation 2. I guess I have to f around with it to get this to work again. What a pain.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

adb setinstalllocation 2 doesn't seem to do much but make it seem like many apps are actually being installed on the sd card when they are in fact not.
I decided to investigate when I noticed my phone storage at 32mb of internal storage free. Installed flash player. I went to manage applications, installed on sd tab had all 7.7 megs on the sd card. I went to uninstall, the application freed up internal phone storage, all 7.7 megs on uninstall.
I don't believe this method actually does anything useful unless its an app that already allows store to sd.. which is few and far between. Furthermore you don't know what's really an app that supports that now and what isn't because most of the apps now show up in the "on sd" tab of managed applications.
I could be wrong, plan on testing some more soon.. busy for the rest of the day. Will report back

blisk said:
adb setinstalllocation 2 doesn't seem to do much but make it seem like many apps are actually being installed on the sd card when they are in fact not.
I decided to investigate when I noticed my phone storage at 32mb of internal storage free. Installed flash player. I went to manage applications, installed on sd tab had all 7.7 megs on the sd card. I went to uninstall, the application freed up internal phone storage, all 7.7 megs on uninstall.
I don't believe this method actually does anything useful unless its an app that already allows store to sd.. which is few and far between. Furthermore you don't know what's really an app that supports that now and what isn't because most of the apps now show up in the "on sd" tab of managed applications.
I could be wrong, plan on testing some more soon.. busy for the rest of the day. Will report back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The files are encrypted and placed in .android_secure in the root of the SD card (when I crashed that dir had 350MB size...)
so they are there, but I agree that phone memory still didn't get freed as much as it should as well, I suspect it's the way the OS had to place thumbstone so that they appear in the app manager
Also I noticed that they seem to have some kind of naming convention {com.dooblou.WiFiFileExplorerPRO-2} vs {cn.mobgo.filego-1} where some have -2 and other are -1
either way I reformatted and started again from scratch (well partially, titanium backup is very usefull) this time without forcing usage of the SD card I already feel the pain of having to go thru each and every app to toggle the move to sd and this is when it simply doesn't support the feature yet...
I really think that this app 2 sd implementation sucks big time, oh did I mention that the way google implemented it's memory expansion sucks... Also the way they implemented encryption mean that you could end up with a backup from a broken phone not working on a new phone which is quite something, almost sound like an Apple Feature...
They could have to the very least added a tab in the app manager so that we can easily manage the said so option... and made an external app that could decrypt the app moved to flash for backup purpose

P00r said:
I really think that this app 2 sd implementation sucks big time, oh did I mention that the way google implemented it's memory expansion sucks... Also the way they implemented encryption mean that you could end up with a backup from a broken phone not working on a new phone which is quite something, almost sound like an Apple Feature...
They could have to the very least added a tab in the app manager so that we can easily manage the said so option... and made an external app that could decrypt the app moved to flash for backup purpose
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's a pretty terrible implementation. I think eventually it'll be some sort of transparent thing that the user will never see if the app developer enables it but for the time being it blows big time.

Maybe this is why Froyo hasn't yet released.... Wider audience and feedback on A2SD.
I suspect it'll either get fixed or yanked for 2.2.

I had to reinstall all the apps I moved to the SD card.

Had the same problem with FRF76..all of a sudden I couldn't install new apps from the market...soooo, what I did was:
- downgrade to CM5.0.8
- save all of my apps to apps2sd
- deleted app secure folder
- upgrade to rodrigurez r19 rom with older style apps2sd.
- now, I have all my apps n new ones my sd card n yeap..even widgets are working..

khaytsus said:
Maybe this is why Froyo hasn't yet released.... Wider audience and feedback on A2SD.
I suspect it'll either get fixed or yanked for 2.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope so, A guy has made a great program to move the app to SD, however on my phone I can move like 10% of all I have installed, I just had to delete co-pilot to be able to install swype
What's weird is that their protected folder system even compress the app, but as far as I am concerned I do not need more space on my SD since almost nothing can be moved there anyway... and even if, I could update my SD as needed...

[Q] iPhone 4S switcher to Note 3 comments and questions

I just switched from the iPhone 4S 64 GB AT&T to the Note 3 32GB AT&T and put in a Sandisc extreme 64GB microSDXC.
I had problems with the iPhone freezing and crashing. Doing a factory reset, a lot of my programs disappeared from iTunes. It was getting to be really annoying.
On the Note 3 I love the screen (size and resolution) and many other things. Asphalt 8 and RealRacing 3 look and play great.
While I had to call AT&T to block my outgoing Caller ID, I could do that from the Note 3.
There is no sales tax on purchases from Google Play store in Texas, while Apple always charged me 7-7.5% (I know because there is no "retail presence" of the Google Play store in TX).
Bad annoyance: I did, for as many programs as I could, the "Move to SD Card" and now I have ugly default android gray icons with SD in the right lower corner. How do I get the original icons back without transferring back to "device memory".
I am trying to upload music files to the SD card.
When I use Samsung Kies 3, will it upload the files to the SD (did not see an option for that anywhere). If it does not install it to the SD card: where are those files uploaded and how do I transfer the files over to SD and how do I play the files/playlists? Is there a way to directly transfer the files from the computer to the phone bypassing Kies. How and where do I upload books (pdf and other formats)?
Anyone know if there will be a combination extended battery/wireless charging case in the future?
My 14 days return time frame is not over, but they would have to "pry it from my cold dead hands".

The way I would do it is to just take the SD card out of the phone, stick it in the computer, copy and paste. The music player should find the songs automatically. As for the icon thing with the "move apps to SD card".... I don't know about that one. I haven't seen any reason yet to do that.

Welcome to Android, where you can use any file explorer on any OS to copy any file you want to any location on your phone.
You don't need to use Kies for media. Just use the phone and SD like you would any usb storage. In the music app you can then either select the specific folder, or let it scan the entire device.
Also no need to convert files, it plays pretty much anything. (and if the stock player won't, another will. For video I suggest Diceplayer from the start.)
Kies is for backup and sync, everything else you can do the good oldfashioned way. Most of us have never even installed Kies.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

sgunes said:
I just switched from the iPhone 4S 64 GB AT&T to the Note 3 32GB AT&T and put in a Sandisc extreme 64GB microSDXC.
I had problems with the iPhone freezing and crashing. Doing a factory reset, a lot of my programs disappeared from iTunes. It was getting to be really annoying.
On the Note 3 I love the screen (size and resolution) and many other things. Asphalt 8 and RealRacing 3 look and play great.
While I had to call AT&T to block my outgoing Caller ID, I could do that from the Note 3.
There is no sales tax on purchases from Google Play store in Texas, while Apple always charged me 7-7.5% (I know because there is no "retail presence" of the Google Play store in TX).
Bad annoyance: I did, for as many programs as I could, the "Move to SD Card" and now I have ugly default android gray icons with SD in the right lower corner. How do I get the original icons back without transferring back to "device memory".
I am trying to upload music files to the SD card.
When I use Samsung Kies 3, will it upload the files to the SD (did not see an option for that anywhere). If it does not install it to the SD card: where are those files uploaded and how do I transfer the files over to SD and how do I play the files/playlists? Is there a way to directly transfer the files from the computer to the phone bypassing Kies. How and where do I upload books (pdf and other formats)?
Anyone know if there will be a combination extended battery/wireless charging case in the future?
My 14 days return time frame is not over, but they would have to "pry it from my cold dead hands".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK first you need to release the mindset of itunes for everything as in with Kies. DONT USE KIES lol
Just plug in your note 3, open up the folder you want, it will say phone or card
Drag the files you want. If thats not cool with you, there is an app called iSync that can copy your iTunes playlist over to your phone.
Also I think you should leave your Apps on the phone memory and not on the SD. Use the SD for media and your internal for apps and such. This way if you need to replace the sd or whatever you will be good.

Historically Google removed that option from android because it causes issues like for example the corrupted icons you've experienced. Samsung only added it back in with the 16 gb s4 because the system rom got so big it left users with less than 9 gb available space.
As the poster above said chuck all your media files on the external card. The 25 gb you will have initially available internally is more than enough for all of your apps unless you install a dozen or more high end games. Likely you'll only ever play a few at a time and then remove them when you get bored, at least I do.
Sent from my SM-N9005

Thanks for all the tips. I will try it tonight.

Welcome to Android, enjoy the coming months of playing around and finding out what you've been missing out on! I was an apple user until the Galaxy S2, since then I've never looked back! One little warning though, customisation becomes addictive... Flashing Roms, kernels, rooted apps/services.
Xda has some amazing devs contributing and as always they are happy to help a friendly fellow androider.
Back on topic though, I wouldn't even bother moving your apps the SD card? 32GB is loads of internal storage! Even tho we only see 25(ish)of that, below is my games folder and I have 8GB of internal memory left! But if I feel like freeing up space I'll simply use Es file Explorer and copy the game files from Android /data to my SD card (if rooted, use titanium backup app to backup the apk of the game) and swap back in at a later date if I wanted to play again
Hope this helps :thumbup:
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

jetbruceli said:
OK first you need to release the mindset of itunes for everything as in with Kies. DONT USE KIES lol
Just plug in your note 3, open up the folder you want, it will say phone or card
Drag the files you want. If thats not cool with you, there is an app called iSync that can copy your iTunes playlist over to your phone.
Also I think you should leave your Apps on the phone memory and not on the SD. Use the SD for media and your internal for apps and such. This way if you need to replace the sd or whatever you will be good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw iSyncr in the app store for $3.99 but there were a lot of 1 star ratings.
I will do the direct copy via Windows.

[Q] KitKat SD card simple questions...

Okay, looking at KitKat for both my Note 10.1 and my Note 2.
I want all the updates and potential performance benefits, the only thing I'm concerned about are the SD card permission changes. I've read through various threads but still can't quite get it settled in my head. I'm not rooted on either and know that is an option but, in the meantime...
I like having my sd cards organised as I want, managed via ES explorer, directories for music, books, videos, documents etc.
I use Moon reader for my books, Poweramp for my music, Beyondpod for my podcasts.
ES file explorer to copy files between card and dropbox etc.
I like to be able to open and edit text documents from a number of apps.
I sometimes copy ebooks from my dropbox to the books folder on either device. Same thing with music and text documents if I want a local copy.
My Note 10.1 is 16GB so I use the move to sd card option for lots of apps.
What am I going to lose...?
Thanks.

If you have Root, install this app and you should be able to write to your SD card
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...utm_source=42matters.com&utm_medium=WidgetWeb

kempas said:
Okay, looking at KitKat for both my Note 10.1 and my Note 2.
I want all the updates and potential performance benefits, the only thing I'm concerned about are the SD card permission changes. I've read through various threads but still can't quite get it settled in my head. I'm not rooted on either and know that is an option but, in the meantime...
I like having my sd cards organised as I want, managed via ES explorer, directories for music, books, videos, documents etc.
I use Moon reader for my books, Poweramp for my music, Beyondpod for my podcasts.
ES file explorer to copy files between card and dropbox etc.
I like to be able to open and edit text documents from a number of apps.
I sometimes copy ebooks from my dropbox to the books folder on either device. Same thing with music and text documents if I want a local copy.
My Note 10.1 is 16GB so I use the move to sd card option for lots of apps.
What am I going to lose...?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ESFileExplorer for one. You'll have to use Samsung's My Files instead because it has universal permissions. You'll be able to open files stored by specific apps in other apps (EG: open a document created and stored on external SD by Hancom in Polaris) but you'll have to save it somewhere else because the second app won't have write permissions for a file/folder created by another app. Apps still have access to the external SD but now it's on a 1:1 basis. For example, if you have an SD folder called "Documents" that you centralized all your documents in (no matter where they were created) every app can see it and open files in it. But they can't save to it because they don't have write permissions. So Hancom can only save external SD files in a folder it created.
Google's always hated external SD and now they've made using it so cumbersome people won't want to. They say it's for security but if any app can open and read SD files and still copy or save them elsewhere what makes that more secure? Maybe I'm missing something.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

toyanucci said:
[YouTube Video Here]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great video tutorial for those who've rooted. There's really two external SD card conversations, one for those willing to root and another for those who can't or won't. Sadly, the latter group is stuck with discussing new ways to do things involving external storage that used to work on 4.3.

BarryH_GEG said:
Great video tutorial for those who've rooted. There's really two external SD card conversations, one for those willing to root and another for those who can't or won't. Sadly, the latter group is stuck with discussing new ways to do things involving external storage that used to work on 4.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think because of the SD Card issues I might be tempted to root although I will have to first see how it affects me whenever I do get 4.4.
Sent from Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition via Tapatalk.

Geordie Affy said:
I think because of the SD Card issues I might be tempted to root although I will have to first see how it affects me whenever I do get 4.4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll lose KNOX, screw up DRM-protected content to varying degrees, and give up access to Samsung Hub content and AllShare Cast. You can install Xposed which can trick some apps in to thinking a rooted device isn't but installing it and configuring it is a project unto itself. Not trying to sell you for or against but it's not as pain free as some folks make it out to be. Before SELinux enforcing and KNOX you could root, tweak, run TriangleAway, and unroot and you'd be as good as stock. Life's not that simple anymore. Also, If you resell your tablet it can also affect its resale value and not disclosing its altered status qualifies it for a return under eBay's buyer protection program should the buyer file a claim. I use KNOX so rooting's not an option for me.

All root breaks is Samsungs gimmicky crap no one uses anyway. There are better things out there that all work with root just fine.

GldRush98 said:
All root breaks is Samsungs gimmicky crap no one uses anyway. There are better things out there that all work with root just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speak for yourself. Comments like yours leave neophytes with a false sense of security and then they post "why can't I _____ after rooting?" I'm not saying root is good, bad, or indifferent. But there are people that use that "gimmicky crap" and they should know before hand that they'll potentially lose it if they root. Even if you think the alternatives are better.

I have never used Samsung Hub nor Allsharcast and I dont intend on re-selling anyways and also never use knox.
I think I'm going to start researching how to root and the rest of the stuff and might do it regardless as I'm sick of certain restrictions (main reason I left apple years ago). But at the min don't have time to spend on researching so will have to wait. I purchased extra warrenty from the store I bought it from so woste ccase I will get them to fix it if after i trip knkx I need something fixed.
Sent from Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition via Tapatalk.

Thanks all, may well have to root then. Although just got a Samsung dvr/bluray combo today and that allows remote connections via allsharecast so if that works as I hope them may have to stick on JB...
I assume app move to sd card is still possible?

[n00b Guide] - Fire for Christmas ::for Kids::

I've spent the past 3 weeks pretty solid working out how I want to transform the 3 Fire's I got for $35 for my boys, 10, 8, and 4. I figure I'd post where I've finally landed along with some other things I've tried both with success and failure, and hopefully save some people some effort. I'd suggest reading through this before you use it as a stepbystep guide to make sure this works for you. I apologize if it's a bit jumbled, but everything should be here for you to convert your Fire. Again, I'd suggest reading through the whole thing to come up with a plan of action for you.
Goal: Turn this Fire into a glorified gameboy, used ONLY by kids, not shared with parent(s) and child
On 5.1.1
Assuming you've purchased an SD card, you will want to repartition in preparation for moving files and content.
Pointers for this:
Make two partitions, 1 which is about 70% of the card formatted as Fat32, must be a PRIMARY partition.
Second partition will be the remaining space, make it ext2, must be a PRIMARY partition. (From what I can tell the reason people suggest using ext2, and not 3 or 4, is because with 3 and 4 there is some built in backup and recovery operations which is great for when you're running a full Linux operating system, but for our purposes all it does is cause more writes which in THEORY will shorten the life of your SD card)
I formatted the Fat32 partition as the first partition, and the EXT partition as the 2nd. Not sure if the order matters or not, but I've had no problems doing it this way thus far.
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-internal-memory-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-link2sd-tutorial-guide.html/
Note:
During initial setup, don't bother with multiple user profiles (reasons explained later).
Using root junky's super tool (Thanks root junky, you made this all possible!!! http://rootjunkysdl.com/?device=Amazon Fire 5th gen&folder=SuperTool) do the following:
Root
Prevent OTA
Install Google Play
Install NovaLauncher (this is important if you're not going to use the built in Kids Mode in FireOS)
In Google Play Store download the following:
Link2SD (This is assuming you've purchased an SD card)
Kids Place - The VERY SIMPLE reason I went with using this app (which essentially becomes an alternative launcher) instead of using the built in FireOS's profiles and kids mode, is because the built in kids mode will ONLY allow you to use apps which you've downloaded FROM the AMAZON app store. I understand why they do it this way, I mean, the whole point of the fire is to keep you inside the Amazon ecosystem after all. But, I have MANY games I've paid full price for on Google Play that are appropriate for my kids. Since I can't put them into the kids profile built into the FireOS (If anyone can link me to a guide which is different, I'd love to hear about it) I couldn't use the built in stuff. In addition, the built in kids mode really is a pretty awesome feature on the fire, but the icons are freaking huge and kind of a waste of space.... going with this alternative method of Kids Place gives you smaller icons therefore you can "shove" more icons on a single view. Icons which take up half the screen are great, but if you're a dad like me who's going a little overboard and putting 100+ games on these things, it'll be a bit of a pain to scroll through them for your kids using the built in profile in the OS.
Note:
You can get Link2SD from the Amazon app store, but the version there is older than what's in Google Play and ultimately didn't work. Once I got the Google Play version, worked like a champ. NOTEx2: For whatever reason (this was frustrating for me to figure out), even though I partitioned 70% of the 64GB Samsung microSD to Fat32, and the other 30% I partitioned to ext2 (BTW I did the Fat32 first and ext2 second... not really sure if it matters the order or not but that's what worked first time for me so I went with it), when I launched Link2SD and it asked me which partition to use, I had to choose ext4 for it to finally work. Choosing both ext2 and Fat32 would both result in basically it saying: "yeah, you chose the wrong one punk" (or whatever it says).
Kids Place - similar to the one above, there is weirdness in the version on Amazon vs Google Play. On Amazon it actually claims the version there is slightly newer than Google Play, but when I'd launch apps on the one I got from Amazon it would kill the WiFi for that app. I realize that this is a built in option into Kids Place, being able to choose WiFi on or off per app (which is really cool), but the one from Amazon seemed to do it when and how it wanted instead of what I was telling it to do. Google Play's version had no such problems.
(( A word of caution using Link2SD's "feature" of being able to "Link Internal Data". DON'T DO IT. I've not been burned HARD CORE by it. The symptom is that if you POWER DOWN, and POWER ON the tablet, Apps go missing. Through reading and troubleshooting, it appears via this forum (http://androidforums.com/threads/link2sd-missing-apps-after-reboot.858565/) that the culprit is when you choose the Link2SD option to "Link Internal Data" to the SD Card. There's even a nifty batch way to enable it on ALL apps. Well, after powering off and powering back on the tablet (after I was COMPLETELY done putting on 150 games), when it came back up I only had like 15 apps on it. Everything else was POOF, gone. I've noticed sometimes after a power cycle like that the apps might take a few moments to 'come alive', but even after 15 minutes of waiting I had nada. Went in search and found I'm not the only one. I've now since completely redone (including reformatting the SD Card) all 3 Fire's and so far after multiple reboots, I've not lost a single app. So for now at least, this does seem to be the problem ))
You will need to spend the $2.35 on Link2SD Plus (striking out due to my caution above, that being said I'm glad I threw this guy $2.35 because my tablet would basically be worthless without the app), and after you install Kids Place, you'll need to upgrade to premium for $4.99. Here's why:
Link2SD - Plus - This is what allows you to automatically move files and content to the SD card when an app is installed. This is mega important to me because that piddly 5.x GB of usable space gets eaten up ridiculously fast otherwise. Dive into the settings once you have plus, and just go turn everything on. Auto move everything. Be sure to go into all menus and sub menus.
Kids Place - The premium features is key for me. For example: A) You can make this app launch upon reboot, thus it basically "forces" this into a kid only/friendly device. If your kids are sneaky, or bored, they'll try to break out of Kids Place. Then they'll delete apps, make folders, sabotage they're brothers devices, etc. B) You can change the name that's displayed on top from "Kids Place", to something else like their name, give them a fun nickname, whatever. For my 10 year old he won't feel like it's just a little kid thing. C) You can do this part without premium, but it's critical for me to mention it: You can change what the home "button" does so that it directs you back to Kids Place instead of the regular home launcher. The reason you need to install NovaLauncher above is because if you still have the stock firelauncher, you can NOT replace the home button with another launcher otherwise. [Word of caution, if you enable the 'background' premium feature, Kids Place is still running, just more in the background. Took me a few minutes to figure out that's what I had done. I kept thing something was wrong and wondering when whenever I launched Kids Place it kept asking me if I want to shut it down or go into settings.... it's because it was running the whole time already)
Once you've done all that, simply download apps (Amazon Underground still seems too good to be true, but I'm hopeful), sideload apps, get apps from Google Play, then go into the Kids Place settings and choose which apps you want (Manage Apps).
Other things worth noting:
SlimRom. So, this is cool. It's fast, and pretty awesome. For me however, at the end of the day, it didn't make sense to introduce something in addition that could go wrong. If you're like me and you have no intention of using this device yourself and you ONLY want this to be a device for your kids, I don't think SlimRom is worth putting in. If it's a shared device, it might be worth it. The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
That's it, I hope you find this helpful. I welcome any feedback or suggestions on how to make this a more gooder guide for anyone like myself who's first jump into amazon tablets has been these fires. They truly are AMAZING devices for the price.

hobojester said:
The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.

@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"

Pond-life said:
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about Slim and the Amazon store. Again, if I were going to use the tablet in a 'shared' environment where I'm using it AND my kids are using it, I'd totally use Slim. It was awesome. In this particular instance where this $35 device is a glorified gameboy, Slim is just something that is an extra layer of complexity that's really not needed and *could* get in the way. I have no intention of my kids even getting on the internet with this device. Not until there's a real need, and even then, I'd probably go get the K9 browser and use that.
TheTruthKC said:
@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you can find this useful.
As far as the storage card piece, you are correct in that "my" method moves EVERYTHING. Some apps are "self contained" as I like to think of it, when you download it. Popular games like Geometry Dash have everything contained in the downloaded app (or the .APK file). That is just the app itself. You can tell the OS to auto put the "app" on the storage card, and that works out great, but it's a little misleading. The problem comes in when you have games like Knights of the Old Republic. That app itself is something like 40 MB or what not, but after you launch the app, it'll download this extra content, which in this particular case is 2 GB. The kicker: it'll ONLY store that "content" (as I call it) into what the device considers "External Storage", which is ACTUALLY on the INTERNAL storage. That whole emulated SDcard business Android does. It's all funky. For fear of sounding like a commercial, Link2SD fixes all of that. Linux (what Android is built off of (oh, and hi iPhone users, so is iOS for the record)) has this thing called "Symbolic Links". You can google it up more about it, but think of it as an uber shortcut. You create a symbolic link on internal storage to the actual physical SD card, and the program THINKS it's writing to internal storage when in fact it's writing to the SD card. The kicker: you can only create symbolic links if you're rooted. The nice thing about Link2SD, is that it'll symbolic link EVERYTHING. The "app", the "content", and all of the saved game data and what not (which take a game like MineCraft, can get pretty big if your kids (like mine) go crazy building worlds). And you can have it to it all automagically. But you will need to pop that SDCard out, put it in your computer, and get it re-partitioned (visit the links I posted in the original guide for more in depth details).
I have heard really cool things about the Disney router. For now, my kids don't really have any need (or business) getting on the internet unsupervised. When they do, I'll probably give them the K9 browser.

Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?

Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?

howzitnow said:
Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will be a good chance for me to point out (I'll edit the guide in a second): DO NOT LINK "INTERNAL" Data via Link2SD. It has caused apps to disappear and never come back. I actually had to start completely over on all there of my devices. That "option" to Link the Internal Data is only available when you purchase the Plus version of Link2SD, DON'T CHOOSE THAT OPTION!!!
Now, with that out of the way, Link2SD is clever in how it works, and I am barely out of the n00b stage on this so I'll give a disclaimer that I may be totally feeding you false information here, but here's how I understand it: First of all, what I did was leave the SD card settings inside the OS all 'defaults', which installs the "App" to the SD Card. Now with that, I believe what happens is Link2SD intercepts that 'transfer' and puts the actual apps on the EXT partition. There is the incredibly critical option in Link2SD to put all other data (except "internal" data of course) on the SD Card. That's what moves the really big parts of those big games and apps. So when the App is relocated, it's put onto that EXT part and the Content on your FAT32 part. To address your question regarding External, SDCard#, and 'where in the heck is the EXT' part.... the EXT partition is mounted and 'located' under the 'local' storage under something like the /data/sdex2 folder. Welcome to the world of Linux... on a computer Linux (if my really old dusty Linux knowledge still works) when you need to access the CD drive you have to MOUNT it, and than LINK that mount to basically a local folder (something like /MNT/CDROM). Your EXT partition is mounted the same way as a folder, and for whatever reason in an app like ES File Explorer you won't see it as another drive, you'll only see the FAT32 drive. Maybe that has something to do with it being FAT32, I'm not sure. ...... the long point here is that Link2SD intercepts or coordinates with the OS's moving of apps to locate the App data to your EXT partition (mounted to that /data/xxxxx folder) and all the other really big stuff to the FAT32 partition. Again, I may be way off here, but hey, makes sense in my brain right now .
Inside of Link2SD there's an option in the menu to see the storage consumption, and THERE it'll actually show you the EXT partition as well as the FAT32 partition.
If my kids were a little older and I truly didn't care about them mucking around in settings, potentially deleting things etc., I'd probably give SlimRom a go for that. I've been messing around with it some more and it is just simply more 'pure' Android OS so it'd give the more 'true' Android experience.... if you really care .

cogito808 said:
Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not, simply because FireOS doesn't have that option. I just have to hit 'Cancel' and move on. If you were to put on SlimRom you'd have that option. From what I can tell the biggest thing we're missing out on by staying on FireOS and not having this option would be limiting time in Kids Place for certain apps and what not. For me personally, I'll just set a timer, but if it's something you want to use, I'd absolutely suggest putting SlimRom on there and then basically following the rest of the guide. Everything still applies.

If anyone cares, I set up SlimLP for my mom who is a bit less technologically advanced than I am and I put smart launcher on the device and just hid the apps I thought would be bad if she were to accidentally open them and not know what she was doing. (I thought his could be useful for some of the people here as well)

How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.

chemie99 said:
How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I found out the hard way how bad this can be.... like... 6pm on the 24th, type of thing, RIGHT when I had finished it all up. I had some kind of heavenly help nudge me into thinking "you should turn these off completely, and simulate Christmas morning, see how long it'll take to fully boot back up".... and you can imagine my stomach drop when I went from having 150 games down to something like 3... it was painful. So, yeah, avoid that setting AT ALL COSTS!

How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?

tonyt3rry said:
How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I"m not familiar with the xposed SD card modules so I can't help there. As far as HOW you do it, I linked to some articles in the first post that might help (Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-in...ry-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-...al-guide.html/)

chemie99 said:
just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically the "app" gets installed to the 30% EXT2, and allt he "content" goes tot he 70% FAST32. Content will typically be data that gets downloaded after the app is installed. Take Knights Of The Old Republic for example, the "app" is like 50MB, but the "content" which gets downloaded upon the first time launching the actual program, is 2GB.

An Alternative Solution
I also gave my kids 3 Fire tablets for Christmas. My kids are mostly older (12,11,4) and the older two have had other Android devices. I went a different direction from the OP, which I'll discuss here for posterity's sake. This is a bit harder than the OP's method but ends up with a more conventional Android environment.
As background, I used FireOS on the Fire Phone for a few weeks, and ran into many problems. I installed CM11 on the Fire Phone and bought another in the final sale. You can read about that on the Fire Phone forum if you're interested.
Also, I've used Screen Time Parental Control for a couple years now, and while somewhat expensive it's great for monitoring without being too invasive. I can let the kids have a lot of freedom with their devices, without having to be worried about them either being on them all the time, or doing weird things. Screen Time nominally works with FireOS but in the end I did not use the tablets as-is long enough to try installing it.
For these tablets, I decided the easiest path was to install CM12. This avoided waiting for Amazon for security updates, and any FireOS incompatibilities, as I'd experienced with the Fire Phone. Also, the kids are familiar with CM, and frankly any replacement Android device will be easier in the future. After my experience with the zombie Fire Phone from Amazon I'm less concerned about CM/ggow/XDA bugs than I am Amazon's.
I decided to create separate user accounts for each child, as opposed to having both my Google account and the child's Google account** under a single user. I've done this before, but it's awkward to have to switch between accounts when using Gmail/Hangouts/Drive/etc., and sometimes things get mixed up.
Thus, for each of the three tablets I went through this process:
[I don't have the tablets in front of me, so if one of these steps doesn't seem obvious ask and I'll look up the exact names/buttons.]
1) Install CM12 using the well-documented methods
2) Boot into CM
3) Configure for my primary Google account
- Download interesting applications that have been purchased on my account
- Open SuperSU, enable multi-user access
- Open Contacts, select "ME", change name to "Dad" (or whatever)*
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Enable multi user access
- Open main Settings app:
- Set screen lock / PIN
- Users / Add user / OK / Set up now
4) "Switching to new user"
- Google Launcher always
- Log in with the "child's" account** in the wizard
- Open Contacts, change "ME" to the child's name
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Switch to Root access mode
- Browse to /data/app/
- Change into interesting packages and pick the .apk file
- Select "Install"***
- Repeat as necessary
Here I installed Screen Time Parental Control from the Play Store and went through the steps for Child device. Also any customization for the account should go here, then you can switch back to your regular user.
To switch user, drag down the system tray, pick the head image in the top right corner, and then the appropriate name.
Notes:
* This is in a wacky place, but this contact is how CM identifies the user name to display in the switch screen. If you don't see "ME" don't add it, just browse around; it's there somewhere.
** Apparently Google only allows accounts for people >=13. Thus, if you are reading from Google, know that these are my own accounts and my children happen to use them.
*** This will actually not re-download the application, but it makes a temporary copy while installing. Application user data is always separate between users, but for the most part download data is shared. For most applications things work on either user; however, Electronic Arts applications don't work with separate users, and Terraria will print an error (but still worked once the core data was downloaded with my purchasing account). I'm sure there are other apps that roll their own security and will be in this situation, but out of a very large family library these are the only apps with which I've had trouble.
Finally, a last note that Screen Time does not presently block creating new users from the system tray. In theory a youngling could create a user that would not have Screen Time limits, but then they wouldn't be able to delete it without getting in to Settings, which you should block anyway. Depends how devious your children are; for me I'm just waiting until they figure it out to do anything about it... just keep an eye on it if you go this route.
Hopefully this helps someone, eventually!
Best,
Tim

I got two fire tablets for the kids for Xmas, one is the kids edition (with the 1yr of apps,etc) the other is a standard fire. Used root junkies tool on both to block lock screen ads and OTA and hide Apps. They were both running OK, occasionally have the odd situation where you try to open an app and it looks like it is reloading it or redownloading it, not sure if this is because internal space has ran out and its redownloading on the fly but its quite frustrating.
Decided to flash slim LP rom on the standard tablet as there were apps that weren't available(better choice on play store and it wasn't tied into the 1year subscription).
So glad I did, was pretty straight forward to get it up and running and the latest build is so solid, fast and stable, was expecting it to be a bit quicker than fire OS as it had a lot less bloat but it seriously impressed me. So I have kids place set up on it to control apps and play time. I also installed hilocker from the play store to help simplify/lock down the lock screen. For example you can disable the status bar in kids place,but the child is still able to turn the screen off and on, they can then access the pull down toggles and mess with things, but with hilocker you can disable it which is great. Battery life is just as great if not better and your also up to date with all Google's security patches to boot.
It is a very good value tablet, as its just been reduced to just £40 in the UK. One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are. Again I can't recommend slim rom enough as it really makes a big difference to the tablet (besides providing full play store access) and makes it perfect for consuming media, browsing, or just handier for when you want to use a bigger screen than your phone.
Sent from my InFocus M810t using Tapatalk

gsmyth said:
One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.

tdcrone said:
@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you formatting your 2nd partition for links2sd?. I keep getting 'unable to mount' error, trying to setup as ext4, which I thought was the standard on newer hardware. I believe I tried ext 2 as well. Without 2nd partition obb and data stay on internal. Thanks

I wish to thank the OP for this, as I am trying to use, and bought the recommended apps... haven;t had the time to set this all up, and it gets a little confusing having all these other devices, but eventually I'll get it.

So...no movement on rooting?

Like the title says, no one been able to make any progress on rooting this thing?

I haven't...

I don't care about being able to install custom ROMs, I just need Google Play to look at somewhere other than internal storage to update apps. I have a 128gb card and I can install whatever I want to it but I can't update apps because everything wants more storage space than is available in the amount left on the device after the base OS and apps are installed to just hold the temp files to update with. If I could alias that to the memory card this would be the perfect cheap tablet. As it stands now I can't even update the built-in apps.

Schnapple said:
I don't care about being able to install custom ROMs, I just need Google Play to look at somewhere other than internal storage to update apps. I have a 128gb card and I can install whatever I want to it but I can't update apps because everything wants more storage space than is available in the amount left on the device after the base OS and apps are installed to just hold the temp files to update with. If I could alias that to the memory card this would be the perfect cheap tablet. As it stands now I can't even update the built-in apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got the same problem. If only I could update and install apps. You know, like what a tablet is supposed to be for?
Are you using unified storage (formatted as internal) with your SD?

smileygon10 said:
I've got the same problem. If only I could update and install apps. You know, like what a tablet is supposed to be for?
Are you using unified storage (formatted as internal) with your SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. And like a lot of things with Android I'm learning, nothing quite works like you think it would, especially if it means you'd have an easy time with something.
I guess on some level we can blame B&N for not putting more than 8GB in the thing. Heck, 10GB would fix the problems.

I keep returning here hoping for a miracle. I too have an SD configured for adoptable storage. But Google forces most of their own apps including non-essential crap onto internal. At this point I don't think even a base load device will function properly since updates to Google's own apps have bloated the onboard memory requirements.
Its a shame. I got these for my kids thinking they would be good low-risk devices that they could use to read, game, etc. I guess that's still partly true. The kids could use them as frisbees

I don't think Google forces their apps to be on internal. I've installed apps from the Play Store like Google Translate, and it allowed me to move to SD card. So I think it's B&N. They preinstall apps, and preinstalled apps can't be moved.
j3Eg said:
I keep returning here hoping for a miracle. I too have an SD configured for adoptable storage. But Google forces most of their own apps including non-essential crap onto internal. At this point I don't think even a base load device will function properly since updates to Google's own apps have bloated the onboard memory requirements.
Its a shame. I got these for my kids thinking they would be good low-risk devices that they could use to read, game, etc. I guess that's still partly true. The kids could use them as frisbees
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It seems that while you can move many of the apps, they move right back when updated (which happens frequently). So trying to keep enough free space on the built-in storage is a losing proposition.

mniehaus said:
It seems that while you can move many of the apps, they move right back when updated (which happens frequently). So trying to keep enough free space on the built-in storage is a losing proposition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I don't even have enough space to update or install apps, even with a 32 GB SD card. Apparently the Play Store isn't smart enough to be able to download and install/update an app directly to the SD card. I've had to turn off Auto-Update Apps because it would push incessant notifications that I don't have enough space to update X app.

I also have a Nook 7 with 128GB SD card formatted for internal storage--and I can't update apps either. Storage says I have 3.14 to 3.21G (depending) out of 3.36G available storage. I'm new to this, but I'd thought formatting the SD card as internal storage would solve the problem, and it obviously hasn't for me or for several others in this thread.
Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want to root until July when the warranty runs out.

Schnapple said:
Yeah. And like a lot of things with Android I'm learning, nothing quite works like you think it would, especially if it means you'd have an easy time with something.
I guess on some level we can blame B&N for not putting more than 8GB in the thing. Heck, 10GB would fix the problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They do have a new version that has 32GB.