USB Mass Storage Mode? - Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

OK, what Kit Kat ROMs have USB mass storage mode?
If a ROM does have it, exactly how/where is it enabled?
Either a ROM doesn't have it or if it does the dev hides it some place and requires digging through 100's of stupid pointless posts to maybe if you are lucky, find the answer.
I'm at the point with this USB mass storage B.S. that I'm ready to leave Android completely and get a flip phone. Whomever thought it was a good idea to remove it was an idiot and whomever signed off on it was even a bigger idiot.

Lokifish Marz said:
OK, what Kit Kat ROMs have USB mass storage mode?
If a ROM does have it, exactly how/where is it enabled?
Either a ROM doesn't have it or if it does the dev hides it some place and requires digging through 100's of stupid pointless posts to maybe if you are lucky, find the answer.
I'm at the point with this USB mass storage B.S. that I'm ready to leave Android completely and get a flip phone. Whomever thought it was a good idea to remove it was an idiot and whomever signed off on it was even a bigger idiot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MTP is absolutely terrible, completely half baked and totally unreliable.
Right now I just discovered that ChromeOS doesn't even support MTP... Google's OWN PRODUCT...
I'd like to know the answer as well.

I understand the frustrations but the problem with mass storage is that it surrenders all control of the internal storage to a PC not a problem when that's a different chip but on the n7 and most new smartphones its an emulated partition and giving over total control would mean that android cannot function at the same time. This was brought in to stop manufacturers using two separate chips giving you loads of "storage space" but very little application space. Its a work in progress and has many issues but its here to stay I don't think any ROMs will support USBMS as it not possible on a single chip without shutting down android.
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

LOL. In camera mode you have access to the "Pictures" folder and is readable by Windows and other OSes. All that needs to be done is duplicate the same process and direct it to a folder called "Storage" with full permissions for the folders contents. This essentially simulates USBMS. You can even redirect mounts to that folder so that apps see it as a storage area as well so things like map data and so on are put in the "Storage" folder.
I don't have the time to mess with this but it can be done and something almost exactly like this has been done before on almost every OS.

Lokifish Marz said:
LOL. In camera mode you have access to the "Pictures" folder and is readable by Windows and other OSes. All that needs to be done is duplicate the same process and direct it to a folder called "Storage" with full permissions for the folders contents. This essentially simulates USBMS. You can even redirect mounts to that folder so that apps see it as a storage area as well so things like map data and so on are put in the "Storage" folder.
I don't have the time to mess with this but it can be done and something almost exactly like this has been done before on almost every OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine it can be done but it wouldn't be mass storage and would require apps to be compatible it may have been done on other systems but how much space should this storage folder be allocated because it would no longer be avalible to install apps. In camera mode android still retains control of the folder other os can read that folder but files must be copied off the device to be edited. It would be good if android could mount the SD card as mass storage.
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

No it would not technically be mass storage, thus the "simulated" comment. As far as other OSes, it's already been done to a point on android already via the simulated partition that's already in use. This has also bee done using third party apps to mount folders as virtual drives.
App compatibility, if the folder is used as mount point then it is transparent to the OS and the apps. This has been done for some time now using third party apps.
The folder size could have the same limitations that the storage area has already been limited to. If coded so that it is part of the boot process then everything outside of system apps would only see the virtual area. Kind of like what's being done right now.
Dual mount. This has been used with much success and allows for PC and Android access to the same storage area at the same time.

Related

Xoom storage, why MTP instead of USB file system, true APP2SD (from Google developer)

If you are still wondering:
- What is the breakdown of that 32GB Xoom internal memory (how many parition, how much space for apps / files)?
- Why Google is using MTP instead of USB file transfer on Honeycomb?
Here is straight answer from Google developer:
MTP is a big improvement over USB mass storage — for devices with lots of internal memory, a manufacturer no longer needs to come up with some hard partition between the USB mass storage and internal storage. Instead, they are all in one partition, with MTP providing access to the directory of media files that would normally be available through USB mass storage.This means there is no longer a need for apps on SD card for such devices, because what used to be the “internal SD card” is in the same partition as where applications are stored. The storage on your device can be used for either applications or media, depending on what you want to put on it. You aren’t stuck with how much space the manufacturer decided to leave for the two areas.
Oh also this means that the media storage doesn’t need to be unmounted from Android when it is being access through the PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://phandroid.com/2011/02/27/mac-users-require-file-transfer-utility-for-android-3-0/
Finally, true APP2SD You now have 32GB to put all your apps!!!
Sounds like a good thing!
This is a great explanation. Thanks for posting.
There is no doubt that mtp has advantages over mass storage. On the other hand I miss the ability to attach it to any computer and access files. It is not a huge problem but does add a limitation that was not there before.
That saod it is nice being able to access files on my computer without losing access to the partition on the device.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
I only see a problem if you flash different roms and have to do full data wipes.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
jvs60 said:
I only see a problem if you flash different roms and have to do full data wipes.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure future versions of CWM will be set to ignore that one folder.. I hope. Otherwise nandroid backups will take forever.
I'm not sure in terms of security it is a huge improvement; unless there is an option to turn it on/off somewhere.
Previously I would have to plug an Android device in to my computer, turn the device on, enter my unlock code, and then specifically allow the computer access via the USB. This morning I just plugged my xoom in and, poof, access to all my stuff.
At least before someone had to take my sdcard out at put it in their computer manually
Does MTP have anything to do with file size limit? I've seen posted on this forum that you can't load video files larger than 4gb onto the Xoom because of FAT32, is that still the case?
This MTP also seems to hide a lot of file from being seen by a pc. I open folders with File manager on the Xoom and see more folders namely the android folder which has game save data and other odd ball files. When hooked to a pc its blank. With MTP it seems all your allowed to do is transfer music, video and pics.
Malcus1 said:
Does MTP have anything to do with file size limit? I've seen posted on this forum that you can't load video files larger than 4gb onto the Xoom because of FAT32, is that still the case?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still haven't got around to testing (so many things to try out!), but in some of the video threads, I've been told XOOM uses EXT4 format not FAT32, and thus, should not have that 4GB limit. I've been re-encoding video files to meet XOOM's current playback limitations, and have been reducing them to sub 4GB anyway, so I haven't tested that for myself.

What Android 3.1 DIDN'T Fix!

Still no sdcard slot!
Still no USB On-The-Go memory device support (we have USB joystick support but still no memory devices)
I haven't tried abusing the Camera Connection Kit yet to see if I can use a camera as a memory card reader.
scotty1024 said:
Still no sdcard slot!
Still no USB On-The-Go memory device support (we have USB joystick support but still no memory devices)
I haven't tried abusing the Camera Connection Kit yet to see if I can use a camera as a memory card reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SD card is a motorola issue, not a google issue. This has been pointed out in many, many forums.
what about Linux connection via usb. Can anyone confirm if this has been fixed?
vBulletin typing (like XDA) still sucks.
timrock said:
what about Linux connection via usb. Can anyone confirm if this has been fixed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's never been a problem. 3.x and higher use MTP so they can stop using FAT32 for internal storage. Linux does MTP just fine. What are you talking about?
jdclucidly said:
It's never been a problem. 3.x and higher use MTP so they can stop using FAT32 for internal storage. Linux does MTP just fine. What are you talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why was this method needed? Xoom will not show up as a drive, unless you do this. Where as with the Droid X, once plugged in, it showed up as a drive. I hope this makes sense.
timrock said:
why was this method needed? Xoom will not show up as a drive, unless you do this. Where as with the Droid X, once plugged in, it showed up as a drive. I hope this makes sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB Mass Storage is the old method and it shows up as a drive. The Droid X is older than the Xoom therefore it is using USB Mass Storage.
MTP is Media Transfer Protocol and is the method used by 3.0 and higher.
How is it that you're using Linux and you don't understand this stuff?
jdclucidly said:
USB Mass Storage is the old method and it shows up as a drive. The Droid X is older than the Xoom therefore it is using USB Mass Storage.
MTP is Media Transfer Protocol and is the method used by 3.0 and higher.
How is it that you're using Linux and you don't understand this stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? you cant just answer the question? maybe im new to linux. maybe im dual booting. If you dont want to answer, don't. No need to for the rude responses.
slack04 said:
The SD card is a motorola issue, not a google issue. This has been pointed out in many, many forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, from Android Honeycomb 3.1 Details ...
...Android 3.1 still isn’t intended, at the operating system level, for managing external storage devices. This detail, which came out in conversations I had with Google engineers today, explains why the Android file system organization is, well, a mess...
“We don’t want to expose the user to file locations,” explained Hiroshi Lockheimer, director of engineering at Google. “How do you manage that as a user? The not-good answer is with the file browser.” Lockheimer says that many of the experiences I’ve seen so far are what individual hardware manufacturers have enabled, as opposed to what Google has provided natively. The good thing is that Lockheimer says Google is looking at ways to do this; but the problem hasn’t been solved yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still dont understand why they havent added (or, in fact, have removed) the "clear all" button in notifications. If I download more than 2 files it really annoys me. (I'm OCD about unchecked notifications)
timrock said:
really? you cant just answer the question? maybe im new to linux. maybe im dual booting. If you dont want to answer, don't. No need to for the rude responses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He did answer you. The xoom uses mtp which will not show up as a drive in Linux unlike older android which used mass storage. Mtp allows you to add files with out having to unmount the file system on the xoom. There are many threads on how to set mtp up. If you're new to Linux it may seem hard to do but its simple. Do a Google search for mounting xoom Ubuntu and you should find them easy.
Just-in-time said:
He did answer you. The xoom uses mtp which will not show up as a drive in Linux unlike older android which used mass storage. Mtp allows you to add files with out having to unmount the file system on the xoom. There are many threads on how to set mtp up. If you're new to Linux it may seem hard to do but its simple. Do a Google search for mounting xoom Ubuntu and you should find them easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. And i meant answer without the snide remark. Thanks again for explaining.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
i know just what you mean, however i quite enjoy having the (X)s to click to get rid of them. I would like to see a slide to delete in the notifications aswell
Dubar said:
I still dont understand why they havent added (or, in fact, have removed) the "clear all" button in notifications. If I download more than 2 files it really annoys me. (I'm OCD about unchecked notifications)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
totally agree. there are lots of things i understand why they're waiting, but this? come on. i could clear all on my phone.
I just want to clear up a misconception about MTP. It is not a cross platform solution for transferring files.
My post from another thread on the subject:
I can mount my Xoom in linux using libmtp and mtpfs, however, it's slow, kludgy, and generally feels like it will flake out at any moment. Additionally, even when it's mounted, I can't seem to copy music across properly; it doesn't keep the folder structure. In fact, the directories are created and any non audio files are copied across fine, but every mp3/audio file is flatly dropped into the Music directory.
I tried to copy some music onto it from my fiancee's windows xp laptop and it worked ok (though the album art didn't appear).
The move away from mass storage to MTP is a massive disappointment for me. Mass storage has always been a big selling point for me when purchasing a device and for Google to switch to using a Windows specific protocol and consider it cross platform is a big letdown. MTP on mac requires a special app and on linux, support is dire, certainly for anything more complex than simply pulling images from a camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can just about get files onto the xoom, but I can't load music onto it; all of my mp3s just land up in the top level of the Music directory, regardless of how I attempt to transfer the files. I think transferring a zip file of the music and unzipping from within a file manager on the xoom might do the trick, but this isn't a good, workable solution. I understand the reasoning behind MTP, but it most certainly isn't cross platform and shouldn't be mentioned as a working solution by Google.
Hopefully people will soon realise not to keep insisting that the xoom has linux support when using MTP.
New update for drag racing is really choppy, lile playing angry birds on a g1.... but samauri II and the other thd games run smooth...dont kmow if its 3.1 kernel cuz it plays fine on my mytouch4g
XOOM
slack04 said:
The SD card is a motorola issue, not a google issue. This has been pointed out in many, many forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that is a motorola problem and xoom is a barebone system. Who's gonna fix it, how?
stevebakh said:
I just want to clear up a misconception about MTP. It is not a cross platform solution for transferring files.
My post from another thread on the subject:
I can just about get files onto the xoom, but I can't load music onto it; all of my mp3s just land up in the top level of the Music directory, regardless of how I attempt to transfer the files. I think transferring a zip file of the music and unzipping from within a file manager on the xoom might do the trick, but this isn't a good, workable solution. I understand the reasoning behind MTP, but it most certainly isn't cross platform and shouldn't be mentioned as a working solution by Google.
Hopefully people will soon realise not to keep insisting that the xoom has linux support when using MTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Change all the extension names in the song file name to .mp and it will allow the transfer
Then use something of your liking, I use astro file manager, and just add the 3 on the a tail end of the extension.
Its a b, but you can at least get a couple good songs on there.
stevebakh said:
I just want to clear up a misconception about MTP. It is not a cross platform solution for transferring files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, it's a cross-platform solution for transferring MEDIA, being the Media Transfer Protocol.
It's smart enough to detect the media files that it supports and put them in the right place. I prefer it over the old way, I hated having to unmount the sdcard every single time.
A poorly made Linux MTP library doesn't make it not cross-platform. It's an open standard for transferring media to USB devices.
It's not perfect, but it's great for a device like the Xoom where unmounting the internal memory is not desirable.
Honestly users get really confused by all of the extra directories when mounting an android sd-card anyways.
slack04 said:
The SD card is a motorola issue, not a google issue. This has been pointed out in many, many forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it has been a big debate on rather it is Google's or Moto's issue, but I am sure that we all can agree that it needs to be fixed no mater whos issue it is.

Folder structure

I am trying to understand the folder structure on the TF.
I have a 16GB micros SD card and I want all data type files to be saved there e.g. photos, downloads, music etc.
There is a folder at the top level called /SDCARD and I had assumed that this was the MicroSD card and all this sort of data is being stored in sub folder from there.
I have now realised that the MicroSD card is actually accessed from /Removable/MicroSD and that the TF has not stored anything on it. I have just moved my music and video to there.
Can I move all the other SDCARD subfolders to /Removable/MicroSD and then delete the SDCARD folder?
I can't see the point of having a folder called SDCARD it is very misleading.
Thanks for any help.
This is your internal storage. I'm not sure why it is displayed this way, maybe that will become standard in Gingerbread?
You cannot 'delete' the SDCARD folder. It is a mount point for the remainder of your internal storage (16GB or 32GB)
As bizarre as it seems when compared to a phone, this actually makes more sense. My Droid X has 6.5GB of the 8GB internal memory put aside for the /data partition. Despite having the phone for a full year and having a ton of apps installed, /data still has 5GB free. That's 5GB of storage I do not have access to, so it's effectively wasted.
On the ASUS (and others HC tabs?) that space exists as a virtual device /dev/fuse and is mounted as /mnt/sdcard. A symbolic link exists /sdcard which points to the mount point. The net result is, you have the majority of free space on the internal memory available to you. If you didn't, there'd be no incentive to buy the 32GB version over the 16GB version.
It is called /sdcard to maintain the illusion within the OS. This space, like it or not, is your primary storage. It makes your actual sdcard more of a transient storage location, great for just music, movies, etc., that you do not necessarily want to keep on the device long term. This is a great advantage as you can keep multiple sdcards with different content and not worry about messing up the core OS storage needs.
Be aware that the OS and apps expect to find certain data in /sdcard and moving the folders to your 'external' card will only force these apps and processes to recreate the folders in /sdcard. Also some apps will have lost some of their data and may not operate as expected or will act as when they were first installed (games will redownload supporting data, for example)
Sent from my rooted ASUS Transformer running PRIME 1.4
jhanford said:
You cannot 'delete' the SDCARD folder. It is a mount point for the remainder of your internal storage (16GB or 32GB)
As bizarre as it seems when compared to a phone, this actually makes more sense. My Droid X has 6.5GB of the 8GB internal memory put aside for the /data partition. Despite having the phone for a full year and having a ton of apps installed, /data still has 5GB free. That's 5GB of storage I do not have access to, so it's effectively wasted.
On the ASUS (and others HC tabs?) that space exists as a virtual device /dev/fuse and is mounted as /mnt/sdcard. A symbolic link exists /sdcard which points to the mount point. The net result is, you have the majority of free space on the internal memory available to you. If you didn't, there'd be no incentive to buy the 32GB version over the 16GB version.
It is called /sdcard to maintain the illusion within the OS. This space, like it or not, is your primary storage. It makes your actual sdcard more of a transient storage location, great for just music, movies, etc., that you do not necessarily want to keep on the device long term. This is a great advantage as you can keep multiple sdcards with different content and not worry about messing up the core OS storage needs.
Be aware that the OS and apps expect to find certain data in /sdcard and moving the folders to your 'external' card will only force these apps and processes to recreate the folders in /sdcard. Also some apps will have lost some of their data and may not operate as expected or will act as when they were first installed (games will redownload supporting data, for example)
Sent from my rooted ASUS Transformer running PRIME 1.4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reading your explanation, it makes better sense to me. I was a bit annoyed, but I see how this could work to my favor. Using just the actual SD cards for movies, music, ect.
Moving data - Video
Sorry, I find what is said here a little disconcerting.
Why have SD cards and USB devices attached (eg. USB Flash drives, hard drives) when the data flow only goes one way, "in", and not out.
If I want to edit a video, the files are too large to email.
I can't find a way to move the video to an external device.
All one can do, as far as I can tell, is to upload the unedited video to YouTube.
Once there initially one get an error message saying that the file type is not recognized. It is...eventually, but only after it's fully processed. This is really confusing to the user. You'd think Google would give Android users a processing message rather than something that makes you think there is no way to view and share your video other than your tablet.
I couldn't find a way to tag a video either.
The default seemed to be "entertainment."
The options for sharing video are much to limited.
The only site you can upload a video to is YouTube.
I'd love to be able to put it on another site (e.g. a personal/corporate website).
I sure wish there were a way of off-loading and storing a folder generated from the Tablet to an external device, especially one with external ports like the Transformer.
If anyone knows of an app to do two way data flows, I'd sure like to know about it because my SHDC card and USB Flash drives look so lonely with nothing to do.
[email protected] said:
Sorry, I find what is said here a little disconcerting.
Why have SD cards and USB devices attached (eg. USB Flash drives, hard drives) when the data flow only goes one way, "in", and not out.
If I want to edit a video, the files are too large to email.
I can't find a way to move the video to an external device.
All one can do, as far as I can tell, is to upload the unedited video to YouTube.
Once there initially one get an error message saying that the file type is not recognized. It is...eventually, but only after it's fully processed. This is really confusing to the user. You'd think Google would give Android users a processing message rather than something that makes you think there is no way to view and share your video other than your tablet.
I couldn't find a way to tag a video either.
The default seemed to be "entertainment."
The options for sharing video are much to limited.
The only site you can upload a video to is YouTube.
I'd love to be able to put it on another site (e.g. a personal/corporate website).
I sure wish there were a way of off-loading and storing a folder generated from the Tablet to an external device, especially one with external ports like the Transformer.
If anyone knows of an app to do two way data flows, I'd sure like to know about it because my SHDC card and USB Flash drives look so lonely with nothing to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing stopping you from copy files from the internal storage to an external sdcard. From the built-in file manager you can select a folder using the check boxes to the left of it, and then click the Copy or Cut button at the top of the screen, then navigate up until you see "Removable". Tap that and then "MicroSD" and then you can tap "Paste" at the top of the screen to copy or move to the new location.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Drive letters or some kind of unique ID from the root would be favorable. I know it's meant to adapt to Android, but last time I checked, Honeycomb was a separat version of the OS. It's unfortunate that it has to fool both the user and itself to be effective.
moo99 said:
Drive letters or some kind of unique ID from the root would be favorable. I know it's meant to adapt to Android, but last time I checked, Honeycomb was a separat version of the OS. It's unfortunate that it has to fool both the user and itself to be effective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still maintains the overall Adroid/Linux filesystem structure, there are no lettered drives in *NIX.
I know that, bru. Calling it , I dont know, "Internal" instead of "SD Card" would make a little sense considering there are two separate ports for SD Cards on there. Writing an alias isnt that complicated

Someone please write a mass storage app for lg g2

Mass Storage availability would really make this phone complete for me. Is it that difficult? I have tried a bunch of other apps with no luck . I know Samsung wrote an App for their phones.
Danester said:
Mass Storage availability would really make this phone complete for me. Is it that difficult? I have tried a bunch of other apps with no luck . I know Samsung wrote an App for their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No they did not. Some phones with external SD cards you can still access as UMS. No modern phone can you access the internal SD that way as the internal "sdcard" is just a subfolder of the /data partition. UMS requires the device to unmount from the phone to mount on the PC, and it just simply isn't going to work.
There are dozens of apps in the market to transfer files over wifi in various forms.. scp, smb, ftp, browser, etc..
Personally I use a scp server that will run as root so it can use port 22 and use rsync when I want to move large amounts of files around.
Danester said:
Mass Storage availability would really make this phone complete for me. Is it that difficult? I have tried a bunch of other apps with no luck . I know Samsung wrote an App for their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you want to use mass storage so much? if it is to transfer files to a mac, download AFT here...http://www.android.com/filetransfer/
I My old htc and earlier phones with android had mass storage. The reason i want it so bad is that my car has ford sync and with ums through usb, i can verbally select tracks i want played without looking at the phone. Bluetooth works but i have to look down at the phone to change songs. Also with old versions of android i could get the stereo sync system to read back my texts and i could verbally send texts also. It was awesome. Iphones work perfectly but i hate iphone. Android worked until icecream sandwich. Its a huge loss for people with stereo systems that have verbal command control across all makes of cars.
Sent from my LG-D803 using xda app-developers app
With HTC One X I could mount it from the recovery. But I guess G2 would not have that option. (One X doesn't have SD, it's internal memory like G2)
+1
khaytsus said:
No they did not. Some phones with external SD cards you can still access as UMS. No modern phone can you access the internal SD that way as the internal "sdcard" is just a subfolder of the /data partition. UMS requires the device to unmount from the phone to mount on the PC, and it just simply isn't going to work.
There are dozens of apps in the market to transfer files over wifi in various forms.. scp, smb, ftp, browser, etc..
Personally I use a scp server that will run as root so it can use port 22 and use rsync when I want to move large amounts of files around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are phones that do not support mass storage, such Xperia S or U, but there were apps written by XDA members that allowed me to use mass storage. Why there is no such app for G2?
+1 +1 +1

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

This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?
Raztan said:
This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.
dandrumheller said:
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?
Raztan said:
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.
dandrumheller said:
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been following a similar dual partition practice on a rooted Android 5.x device using symbolic links to migrate apps to the ext4 formatted partition while retaining a larger FAT32 partition for general use. I used the free version of Partition Wizard on Windows to format the SD card to my liking. To date no issues with card endurance.
I never considered this approach for adoptable storage until seeing your post! Very interested in trying this on on an unrooted Android 6 device that's getting a little snug on internal storage. I'll post outcomes if they differ from your findings.
Thanks again for sharing!
Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?
Raztan said:
Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what the method is for determining where a specific app lands when installed. Maybe up to the developer? But going into settings > storage shows me what's below. Drill down to the apps section, and you can manually choose what storage you want for each app.
This is my setup with a 128gb card with 32gb used as adopted storage.
Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.
Raztan said:
Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not aware of any file manager that can see the adopted storage. Haven't filled up internal to know if it will "spill over".
Some apps cannot be moved to adopted. Some install there by default.
My use case is to dump my low use or less resource demanding apps to the adopted storage, freeing internal faster storage for high use apps.
It's certainly not an ideal solution, but it at least provides an option for reducing limited internal storage...
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies
Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't worth the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Davey126 said:
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.
dandrumheller said:
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.
Davey126 said:
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been a long time since I've played with symbolic linking. At the time it felt pretty cumbersome to me, relative to my current experience with adopted storage. Definitely less user control and fine tuning with adopted though. Also, as you mention, no root required.
Davey126 said:
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Davey126 said:
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
madbat99 said:
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.
Raztan said:
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising. But then I remembered that no root was mentioned.
https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/xposed/com.smartmadsoft.xposed.obbonsd
madbat99 said:
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great on my moto e4 sprint (virgin mobile). And rovo89 just updated it for Oreo (beta of course), so it should be good. I'm using it with greenify, amplify, and gravitybox.
Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Outdated info; works fine on Marshmallow, Nougat and (very soon) Oreo.

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