Related
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...
Ok... I have been a member for awhile, reading this and that...
I have been using WM based phones ever since i could remember (minus a small sidekick phase). So, when I found out that WM7 wasnt avail for my HD2... I was quite upset.
I decided to take the plunge and try Android for my SD card. W O W!!!!
Very fast, & functionable. I have stayed away for installing roms and such because of their instability. But this is absolutely beautiful.
Now i haven't updated to the new release that came out this morning, and was wondering if i should because i have been having some small issues.
1. When running WM6.5 since the install, i have had a problem with messages updating on main screen, don't know if it is related or not.
2. This was a fresh install of WM6.5 along with an SD card format. I am not allowed to store any info on card anymore. It's a 16g card, and I don't like to waste space. I no longer have a place for my tunes..... not cool. Not to mention can't store pics, and all the movies I burned via DVDFab.
3. Now I have read that there is a way to 'partition' my SD card, but there are so many ways to do this. I would like to do this with the best way/program so i dont fry my card. Link to the most stable way of doing this would be appreciated.
4. Now as impressed with AmeriCanAndriod as I am.. I have a question about the lockscreen... It is NOT about it's size/fullscreen as i have read on here... But when i walk away and it appearantly locks itself, it goes BLACK. the buttons on the device still light up, but screen will not activate and i have to end up pulling the battery. I have read that this is not advisable since shutting down is where the OS saves it's data to the SD card itself.
Yes, I am as green as it comes to this, but I am not a complete fool. I do try and look up issues pertaining to my problems. I can strip a PC down and rebuild it again in minutes, but phones are new to my tinkering. I love my HD2, and love all the things I have read I can do with it.
I understand that the forced close issue has been rectified in the build released this morning. Can this be confirmed????
Also will I be able to save the data.img and restore my apps and settings i have installed if I want to update to the new release?
Partitioning the SD... Will it cause me to reformat card and have to re-install Andoid on phone?
LASTLY..... Thank You to the AmeriCanAndroid Tean for making a beautiful OS that can easily be installed. Having a dual boot system is perfect for me. All the power and funtionabilty of WM & all the fun of Android. You couldn't ask for more. All the talent in this OS truly shows in this streamless, beautiful, user friendly system.
~Bdwlf2~
First off, this is not the place where to post. You should post in the builds own thread located here. Second i know that black screen happens to me as well but what i do is leave it for about 3 min on standby and its cleared up by then. Make sure to have the latest build from the thread mentioned above. And yes you will be able to keep the same data.img from the previous release unless specified. Partition yes you will format but simply drag and your Android folder to your desktop and once you're done drag it back in simple.
Thank You for the reply. I was going to post in the AmeriCanAndroid thread, but since this is my first post. I had a popup tell me I had to post HERE, instead of that thread until I reach 10 posts.
If a Moderator wishes to move this, I have no problems with that. I wanted to post where it was most relevant in the first place. I just want to be able to reply without the 'newbe' restrictions.
Relieved that I can save my things, by saving the data.img file.
Partitioning, would love a link to the best/safest method.
Blackscreen.. So I just hit a button and leave it for awhile? That's not very practical if I had a buisness call to make, or an emergency. Is there a workaround? Can I shut off the Auto Lock?
What folder do I add music, ringtones, movies and other goodies to? Can WM 7 Android share these same files? (as long as they're not OS specific obviously)
Ah, i see your reasoning, no problem. A good guide on partitioning that i used as well can be found here. And well there inst really a fix to the black screen problem and i haven't searched for one since it only happens on boot of Android. What seems to make it come back faster for me is locking and unlocking the phone quickly. And you can just place a folder and name it anything you want on the root of the SD card. Heck you can put all your mp3,photos,documents on the root of the SD card and Android will still pick them up, it doesn't matter. And when you say "Share" do you mean Bluetooth sending? Then yes, you can.
Nope... SD card will not let me install anything while i was hook to puter. I was running WM at the time, not android. That shouldn't have been a problem. I am about to hook SD card directly to copmuter itself and copy files that way.
I have had all music located on card before this install, nicely organized by artist or genre, along with my movies, pics, etc. But wont allow me to do this now. I am little confused about that, unless android locked SD/root to android application only. Since most programs that lock things usually prompt you for user allowances, which i did not see, i am ruling that out as an option. Phones and computers are very similar as i am finding out.
The blackscreen doesn't occur on Droid boot... It happens when it sleeps, hibernates, or whatever you call it. Can not wake it from this state.
The Data.img.... Do i put that in after i update and run android, or do i put it in the very begining when i copy droid folder to SD card?
Thanx
~Bdwlf2~
Yup, android put a 'write protect' on SD card. Trying some format tools now. Had to put a re-partiton on it to get rid of protection, which made it a Bad Disk. So trying a recovery on it now. I refuse to be beatin by an object smaller than my thumbnail. Arrrgh!
Android does not lock the SD card to application only, that's very odd that you cant copy files to the SD card. Maybe its a setting on your computer that wont allow you? And about the black screen problem, there seems to be no one reporting about that on the thread as far i can see. Are you running SetCPU or a Task Killer by any chance? Those make Android behave very odd. If not i would suggest downloading the latest build again and formatting your SD Card and putting Android on it again. You can also move your stuff your desktop and put it back again. About the Data.img, you don't really need to move it anywhere. When there is a new update to the build, i simply extract the contents of the new build to the Android folder on my SD card and over write. Simplest method I've seen yet.
bdwlf2 said:
Yup, android put a 'write protect' on SD card. Trying some format tools now. Had to put a re-partiton on it to get rid of protection, which made it a Bad Disk. So trying a recovery on it now. I refuse to be beatin by an object smaller than my thumbnail. Arrrgh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems very odd. I've been using this build since February 24th and it has never locked up like that. But nonetheless you found a fix, good work.
No, not running any of those programs. I have extensively swapped data with this card numerous times.
I checked all setting in android prior to putting into puter. In therory, android should NOT write protect the disk, but something did. I have read this happening to others just in XDA forums alone.
Just got disk back to the "good" state using MiniTool Power Data Recovery... Let's take a peek as to see if it works correctly now.
Hmmmm... I think I should have used, repair damage partiton after recovery... still not working.
***scratches head***
I may need another cup of coffee for this.
How about a simple reformat?
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
Nope. Tried that.
Windows formatter - no
SD formatter - no
Mini tool -nada
MyDefrag - not
Test disk - running now... pending
Try to reformat the SD from Windows Mobile?
Yup, first option....
Would go partially thru it, then stop. Worked fine yesterday. This starting to become un-nerving.
I will find a way. There is always a way. Unless something shorts/melts/breaks/ or fry's... there is always a way. Just a matter of correct knowedge and tool combination.
bdwlf2 said:
Yup, first option....
Would go partially thru it, then stop. Worked fine yesterday. This starting to become un-nerving.
I will find a way. There is always a way. Unless something shorts/melts/breaks/ or fry's... there is always a way. Just a matter of correct knowedge and tool combination.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright good luck.
Trying HDD Regenerator v2011
Seems to be doing something, using limited Demo mode. At least it is identifying the bad sectors.
This one is gonna take awhile. If it works, or i find something that does, I will post. I've read other's have had this problem, and I can save the person buying/tossing out cards.... Then the work is worth it.
57min into it and only scanned 11mb????? This may be a month to scan 16g. If my math is correct. That's 1gig (1000mb) / 11per hour = 90.90hrs to complete 1g of scanning, multiplied by 15 (usable gigs) = 1363.6363hrs or 51.81 days? 51 days to complete scan?!?!?!?! Gonna look for another program. Wow.
Good thing I have a small 2g card. Unfortunately it won't hold 1/2 of my music. Argh, and I just put a 2 HD movies on there.
If you want to partition or format your SD you HAVE to be in Windows Mobile.
Also, if you are repartitioning your SD, I recommend you recreate your data.img or else it will have issues.
I tried to format in WM... Fail. All the files reappeared.
I did notice .android_secure file. That wasn't there before.
I have unmounted, seems like it is remounting itself. I even unmounted and yanked battery immediately. No success.
Yes, Android still boots.... Something in there is locking card. If card was bad, Android would obviously not be booting.
I cant add or remove data from that card. I have tried several programs.
**** Edit****
Please Do Not ask if switch on adapted is locked, I have two adapters, both UNLOCKED... For some reason, my "Spidey Senses" are telling me that I am about to be asked that question. Being asked this will only cause me to "sigh" loudly before i bang my head on desk. Which will still leave me with locked card and now a fresh migrane.
Question. I doubt there is an app for this because this issue is so user/device/application specific... but I noticed in 1 month of owning my phone that I now have 600MB available on a 8GB SD card.
I imagine plenty of this is junk... and I will need to go through using ADB or a wifi file explorer app to review each directory on the SD and delete those files that I can determine (if possible) are in fact junk... I know certainly easy ones like old manual downloads of apps and such should be deleted... But after that... I am a little apprehensive.
One related issue is the App to SD app. I have re-flashed my ROM a couple times, and each time I have to move everything back to the SD... But I would think Ti, upon restoring this application, would have user data already in place stating which app "should" be on the SD card (even if it is not because of the new state of the recent ROM)... and then move them automatically. Right now, I am moving my apps to SD (using the app), and I suspect there are dead, non working versions of these apps someplace on the SD...
In general, does anyone have advice for cleaning the SD card. I know that when you uninstall an app, it uninstalls it, yes, but all traces of its former existence remain.... On my laptop, I use revo-uninstaller, because it is amazing how much junk is left over -- on the HD or in the registry, or wherever, and its nice to clean all this out on an uninstall.
Does Android have anything comparable?
Astro file manager.
Or just plug your phone into your computer and turn on USB storage.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Why Astro? What does it do?
I have used it before, then Linda, then some other file manager, and now I use Smart File Manager and Ghost Commander because of the mix of functions and root access.
But why does Astro solve the aforementioned problems? And USB Storage? You are just providing me tools which give me access, albeit easier access, to the SD Card. I know how to crawl every file on the SD Card... What I don't know is the bulk of 7GB that I cannot imagine are even being used.
Glacier has a stock 8GB SD card... if I have some downloaded junk, dropbox with 1GB, and all moveable apps moved to my SD, all of this should be ~4 GB. Yet as I mention in my original post, I have 650MB left. So there is garbarge someplace....WHERE? I just don't understand the FS well enough to know how apps are being used and where valid copies of them are.... its not like I can look at /etc or /usr/lib on the SD card and know what is not an active app... (I wish)
Heres a short list of some directory you can delete that wont harm anything and there locations. they will be rebuilt then next time u use the respective app and will be smaller generally.
sdcard/
.bookmak_thumb1
.imp.thumbnails
data
sdcard/DCIM/
.thumbnails
Go through your music make sure you have no doubles as well as any recovery backups that are old each will be 500mb+
Also a good idea is to first move back all your apps to your phone temporarily. Then use Titanium backup and backup everything all system + User apps + Data then plug you phone onto your computer and copy everything on your SD over to your desktop. Once done unplug the usb and format the card through your phone Menu>Settings>SD & phone storage. After thats done copy the pertinent files you copied to your desktop back. I.E. Music pictures backups ect making sure you don't copy stuff you don't use or need. If your like me space is at a premium and i plug my phone into my PC alot and for some horrible reason windows likes to hide crap on my SD and eventually takes up a load of space. I use perfect Disk's free space cleaner to do this but if you don't want to shell out the cash for it the above is the best option.
Hope this helps.
Thank you so much for all that info... It was quite nice of you to go into such detail... I know what you mean about windows, you have to keep on it... keep pushing it back.
I will use your suggestions.. they are the best thing I could have asked for.
Incidentally, I saw in your sig that you use a stock Rom... Why is that? I have had my glacier for about 7 weeks and while I rooted it right away, I didn't Flash a modded ROM until CM RC3.
Have you any personal opinions on using a non-sense ROM...? That is about the one thing I seem to read consistently. People saying that HTC builds the devices to perform better with a sense based UI/ROM.
Any opinion? Just curious...(don't mean to take advantage of your kindness in your last post.)
Edit: Fail at English, Being tired doesn't help.
I love the Espresso sense Stock comes with. It has all the features i want where i want them and its a clean look. After I Froze the bloatware it runs Just as well as the comparable roms with optimized code but better stability. Because Sadly with optimized code comes less compatibility and greater risk for instability. Eventually I'll flash something else but its gonna need to be something along the lines of a gingerbread version of stock.
From what i understand there actually is alot of device specific compatibility involved, especially with Sense. The Espresso Sense they used is highly specific in alot of the areas, whitch is why Faux123 has had so many issues this making a 100% compatible Sense kernel. Also if you think about it, they where made for each other and i doubt T-mo or HTC want to release updates all the time to fix issues so they made it as stable and compatible within reason for the general public.
Well... I tend to agree with you, although I am not the coder I would like to be, and as such I do not understand a lot about the Android OS and FS that I wish I did.
I work within a linux environment maybe half the time, but with Linux, there is always more to learn... So I need to ask then why upgrade your kernel? Is this faux's kernel which is close to being sense compatible? I was fine using my stock ROM, rooted, but some psychological nonsense made me believe that going from 2.2.1 to 2.3 would somehow change my entire Android experience. And while there are some minor features that are new, other than CM themes and all that, I don't know if jumping to GIngerbread is necessary....or if my experience sticking with the Stock Froyo would be a wiser choice... modding whatever I want as I am perm rooted radio s=off like you.
But I would like to know what the benefit of the kernel gives you...
The updated kernel adds updated drivers code improvements, several new CPU governors for better performance and battery life and alot of other stuff. and with Faux behind the wheel its guaranteed to be good. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941141
Cool. I did not know this. So you are running 2.2 but the kernel is enhancing this a great deal.
You are so cool and nice to answer my questions...and I don't want to turn this into a "Ask SoltyPK" thread but I have a q that you addressed with another user... mine might be more rudimentary... but how can I upgrade to CWR 3.0.0.6? I have the donate Rom Manager and it itself is the latest version of the app but its the old 3.0.0.5. Really confused and frustrated. Downloaded unrevoked...but that's for wildfire so I don't think that would be wise.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
I saw that you answered my CW question in my thread from earlier today. Thanks. Been figuring out a lot of stuff today.
So I flashed the new recovery. Awesome.
I won't apologize for asking questions anymore. You must just enjoy it. I am insomniac, and am always in front of this phone our my laptop, so I think I am just the odd one.
In December, someone released a launcher for what was supposed to be the"gingerbread launcher". It is more or less the launcher that CM7 uses, the icons are the same, and the animation upon opening and closing odd the same... But the pre-gingerbread launcher from december had a really nice vertical 3D roller effect. Do you know if there is any way I can get this effect with some mod or changing settings in ADW (the launcher format of CM7)? Do you even know what I am talking about?
Thanks on this one a lot..
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Yeah thats from ADW Launcher i believe. its on the app market.
OK to start things off this is going to be a long list of questions/issues and various impressions, some opinionated and some fact. I've had apple phones for years and appreciate both, I changed because my iphone couldn't do some things my note 3 can do such as open up 200+ MB pdfs with relative ease, but then again the samsung struggles to do simple things the iphone did fresh out of the box. This is not meant to be a discussion of which is better but it would help to know what I'm comparing it to and how I think simple things should work. I use a PC just FYI.
1.) Data Transfer of large files from various desktops to the Note 3 either through internal memory or external sd card.
My first issue is that I cannot move large files from my internal memory to my sd card. The sd card in question is a sandisk 128gb but have also tried to few others just to make sure it's not the card. If I download a large file on utorrent such as a 720p movie or better, I cannot move it from internal memory to sd card. I just won't do it. Not only will it refuse to move large files but any photos are sometime hit and miss, sometimes it moves them with no issue at all, most of the time the files stay in the parent folder and don't end up in the destination folder. I can move various files if I connect it to my desktop and drag and drop them onto the sd card but sometimes moving the file corrupts it where it cannot be played on the phone. I've also tried this with numerous computers with the same result. to move files on the phone i go to my files, select the directory and then select the file I want to move. I hold down on it to select it and then press move, it then shows the internal and external storage options, i select the sd card and the folder I want the file in and then press move here in the top right hand corner. If there is another way let me know.
Second issue is when dragging and dropping large music files directly to the sd card or internal memory from a pc. If a drag and drop a FLAC album it corrupts it about 50% of the time. I routinely go to play the album and get the message that it does not support the file type or something to that affect. I often just delete it and redo the process, most of the time that works. On MP3's, if I drag and drop an entire discography of an artist (say 8gb or so) it's corrupted 100% of the time. When I go to playback the albums they play at double speed. I have to go back and drop them one by one and sometimes (but rarely) that has the same issue.
2.) Audio Playback/Microphone/Headphone/Bluetooth Issues
Firstly, I thought that all 3.5mm headphone jacks were on a standard. I did not realize that the note did not come with headphones and that the headphones that I used with an apple device would not fully function on an android device. This seems like something so simple it shouldn't even be an issue. All of the headphones, earbuds, etc I have that have inline controls do not adjust the volume or skip tracks on my android device. You name it, like a half dozen brands. It just doesn't work...
When trying to use talk to text for a text message either with headphones with inline mic or with a Bluetooth headset it does not use the microphone on the accessory device, it uses the internal phone mic which is an issue for me. So instead of using the mic right next to my mouth I have to hold the phone up to my mouth in loud places. I don't know any way to change this...I couldn't find it in any settings.
3.) Lockscreen (I don't know how this is supposed to work, I looked it up and I'm assuming its something I'm doing.)
I want my lockscreen to be simple but I cannot seem to get the weather off of my lockscreen. It does not appear unless I swipe down and there it is. How do I remove it? If I open up the lockscreen editor by swiping from left to right its not there. I only have one lockscreen page so I don't know whats going on.
When I have notifications on my lock screen and click on them it puts a box around the lower part of my lock screen where you normally swipe as to say swipe here stupid to unlock. Is that the case or am I missing something else? It seems as though if my phone doesn't have a security lock on it and I press on my notification it should just open it. Or is it intentionally non-intuitive for some other reason?
4.) GLITCHES!!!!!!!! Various other issues
Routinely my music apps gets stuck on a page. Say if I'm listening to an album and try to back it up to my list of albums it just loads the same page over and over again. I have to hit my homebutton and open up the music app again from the icon and sometimes that causes it to crash. It does this on the stock Samsung music player and on play music. Normally my phone plays music 24/7 so it may be just how much I use it for that purpose.
Apps crash on a regular basis, at least a few times a day. I'd say I have an app crash maybe 3-5 times a day on average. Some more than others. Because of all the glitches I did a factory reset weeks ago to see if there was another issue. I've also tried uninstalling and re-installing all the apps that normally crash but that hasn't seemed to help. I don't believe apps used by millions on other android devices such as Bank of America (crashes literally every time I use it) or Pandora could be the problem.
Google integration is sketchy at best, It routinely doesn't delete e-mails off the google server when I delete them off my phone. It's really hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it will load the same e-mails dozens of times even though I've deleted it daily. The google+ photo backup is hit and miss and even updates over cellular even though its set to only update over wifi when plugged in. All of the sync settings seem appropriate for what I want it just doesn't work.
Text scaling under most situations is completely absurd. I've got 5.7" of screen and have to re-scale practically everything that loads so I can read it. This is especially and issue when reading forums which I'm on frequently. Is there a way to change this? If there isn't there definitely should be! Not a glitch but an issue.
All social media apps that load from a page (a wall, forum, feed, whetever) always reload when I click on something and go back forcing me to start over from the beginning. I've only had this issue on this phone, my previous iphones just take me back to where I was. Is there a way to change this annoying problem?
5.) The Photo Gallery
It just doesn't work. I don't know any other way to put it, its the second biggest failure on the phone. i wouldn't trust it with important anything! It routinely just looses photos, online account's don't update at all, s health photo that I've deleted dozens of times keeps showing up in my photos, all my album covers end up in my gallery and I have to manually go back and delete them all, photos end up corrupted and not able to view them whether on sd card or on phone, it goes on and on. Is there another application I can use? Can I make another app my default gallery app? Some online photos like picassa/google+ don't load correctly, it'll show the preview photo and when clicked on it'll show a completely different photo from that album. I would just delete it but can't delete online account photos from my phone gallery app and when I delete them online it doesn't update it on my gallery.
6.) Voicemail
I recieved a voicemail the first 10 minutes I had my phone and clicked on it in my notifications and it called my voicemail. I was confused at first, was i holding a 700 dollar phone or 90's Nokia? Seriously? And on top of that it didn't come with ATT visual voicemail out of the box, I had to download it. WTF! No I don't need voicemail on a phone I need 20 other google apps instead...seriously? On top of that att visual voicemail app is crap. I routinely miss voicemails because it not reliable enough to show all my voicemails in my notifications. Is that how all android devices are? I may be a little spoiled by the voicemail being on a tab in my phone app but it seems as though if there is an att specific model this should work better than it does...
7.) Text messaging
I don't use the stock mesaging app because it wouldn't reliably send a photo...that is all. I use textra now and it works better but still isn't what I would consider to be reliable...
8.) General Gripes about the phone app
The buttons are so large it looks like its designed for the seeing impaired.
Color scheme looks like I'm 4 and trying to push blocks into the appropriate holes...
I can't figure out how to change the color scheme on it, can you change it?
I hate the cartoonish figures for people that don't have photos.
Okay, it generally looks childish or like it was designed by Mattel. I need something far more professional looking.
On a positive note, speech and handwriting recognition is second to none, S Pen apps and S pen integration in general is very refined. It's extremely fast with very little lag in all situations. There are lots of positives so I'm not downing the phone at all but it just needs to fit my needs better. That's not everything but a good start. Thanks for your time and patience.
And to sum it all up, I think you should go back to i... :sly:
Sent from my N9005
Dejan Sathanas said:
And to sum it all up, I think you should go back to i... :sly:
Sent from my N9005
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So your note does all of this also?
Lythropus said:
So your note does all of this also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First - ur post is too big to even read.
You are in xda and there is ton of information here. If you search , u will realize that most of the issues have solution...
When moving from another OS its always difficult but stay and you will love it.
Let me rephrase, it's not an android problem that I'm aware of: is my phone ****ed up and in need of replacement our does every note 900a cnc2 do this stupid ****?
The new os doesn't seem to be an issue this is mainly a hardware issue unless you're saying all android phones corrupt photos straight out the box. Which I know that isn't the case.
Some of my gripes are android related but mostly sounds like a hardware issue.
Try moving the large file using "my files", 3rd party file manager cannot move file from internal to external sd (a limitation introduced in kitkat).
Also try copying your music collection using card reader.
stonedead said:
Try moving the large file using "my files", 3rd party file manager cannot move file from internal to external sd (a limitation introduced in kitkat).
Also try copying your music collection using card reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only tried my files to move it on the phone, it will not move them.
I basically have to use a card reader to copy anything over a gig or so reliably. I can drag and drop it but that doesn't always work.
Lythropus said:
...
My first issue is that I cannot move large files from my internal memory to my sd card.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, and you did that just fine on the iPhone? :silly: That would be quite a full miracle given how (as far as I know) the iPhone never had a SD card :silly:
Read around - if you are on 4.4 there are some new security restrictions on writing to the external SD. If you are on 4.3 you are probably doing something wrong.
xclub_101 said:
Really, and you did that just fine on the iPhone? :silly: That would be quite a full miracle given how (as far as I know) the iPhone never had a SD card :silly:
Read around - if you are on 4.4 there are some new security restrictions on writing to the external SD. If you are on 4.3 you are probably doing something wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I didn't, I.used third party software to drag and drop mp3's on internal storage of a jailbroken device. It worked 100% of the time.
But you're still missing the point. My files are being corrupted whether on the external sd card or the internal storage. There aren't any examples off this on my model phone on your forum...
As far as I know my files isn't a third party so it should have full access to read and write to my sd card per 4.4
That does explain why u torrent won't do it though.
Did u use your iTunes mp3 files? My girlfriend is also into that icrap and when she used my computer for music files I learned that you don't wanna use iTunes. Don't take this as a apple...uhm... disliker read about it if u don't believe it. Itunes messes with the music files and therefor I had to do my whole music storage from the scratch.
I think what @Dejan Sathanas was trying to say was: that if you are not ready to switch u will find strange issues that nobody else encounters and end up spamming the threats. For example: I haven't had any issue moving any files ever on any android device!
So long story short
1. Get the device u prefer (even if it is an apple)
2. Try some music files that didn't run through apple tech
4aces said:
Did u use your iTunes mp3 files? My girlfriend is also into that icrap and when she used my computer for music files I learned that you don't wanna use iTunes. Don't take this as a apple...uhm... disliker read about it if u don't believe it. Itunes messes with the music files and therefor I had to do my whole music storage from the scratch.
I think what @Dejan Sathanas was trying to say was: that if you are not ready to switch u will find strange issues that nobody else encounters and end up spamming the threats. For example: I haven't had any issue moving any files ever on any android device!
So long story short
1. Get the device u prefer (even if it is an apple)
2. Try some music files that didn't run through apple tech
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't use the ALAC files from my Apple device. I was under the impression they wouldn't play on here, just used mp3s and flacs. I tried to upload a pic of what the corrupt files look like on my phone but got an error that said could not complete this operation due to low memory. I'll figure it out when I get off work and upload them.
Took it to best buy\ATT, they sent me to the Samsung rep/dealer in store. He couldn't figure out what was going on, why it wouldn't move files, why some would corrupt, update Google anything, etc so they are sending me a new one.
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.
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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
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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
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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?
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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.
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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.
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@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.
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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.