So with the advent of boot loaders such as Excellers which allow you to choose different builds of Android, what exactly do you need to copy off the SDCard to backup your build?
I dont mean the data, sms, mail, etc, but the actual entire build?
Is it enough to simply copy the Android folder and the files inside it including data.img or is there a need to copy the other folders and files that android creates in the root of your SD (LOST.DIR, rosie_scroll, etc)?
Android builds automatically create those folders and files if they do not exist for them, but will it cause issues if they already exist, since we can now switch between builds on the same card?
Any ideas??
Oh, and I did search, didnt find anything conclusive though.
As far as I know. Making a copy of the Android folder is enough. Be carefull though, the DCIM folder must be backup aswell if you have made any pictures/video's. The rest of the folders .secure etc are just temp folders.
For backing up you can use the free program Titanium backup aswell (found on market), use the search, someone wrote a nice guide for it some time ago. Can be used very easy to transfer your installed apps from one build to another. Transfering system settings isn't a good idea, especially not if you switching different builds. Only when updating your current build it should be ok (not recommended), but sometimes copying your data.img to your new build is enough to get your applications in the new build.
Machiel187 said:
As far as I know. Making a copy of the Android folder is enough. Be carefull though, the DCIM folder must be backup aswell if you have made any pictures/video's. The rest of the folders .secure etc are just temp folders.
For backing up you can use the free program Titanium backup aswell (found on market), use the search, someone wrote a nice guide for it some time ago. Can be used very easy to transfer your installed apps from one build to another. Transfering system settings isn't a good idea, especially not if you switching different builds. Only when updating your current build it should be ok (not recommended), but sometimes copying your data.img to your new build is enough to get your applications in the new build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically I just want to try out different builds concurrently, switching between them with Exceller.
Data isn much of an issue since most of mine is in the cloud somewhere but its a pain installing some new build only to find the one you just had and spent time configuring, was a hell of a lot better.
Well i'm not entirely sure about where the settings are stored. But my guess is, just backup the android folder and you will be fine (think most is stored in the data.img). Delete all the other folders and switch to your new build. If you don't like it, switching back should be a breeze.
Why don't you just try it once. Change some settings, delete all the folders except for the android folder and boot again, see if the changes you made are still there.
Machiel187 said:
Well i'm not entirely sure about where the settings are stored. But my guess is, just backup the android folder and you will be fine (think most is stored in the data.img). Delete all the other folders and switch to your new build. If you don't like it, switching back should be a breeze.
Why don't you just try it once. Change some settings, delete all the folders except for the android folder and boot again, see if the changes you made are still there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mainly because there arent enough hours in the day, so many roms, so little time.............
Well, since i'm at work and bored, I tried it for you.
Only imporant folder is the Android folder and our DCIM for your pictures. All the other directories do nothing but temp stuff on my rEVOlution 2.2. Deleted them all and android still booted just fine with all settings and homescreens I had applied.
Hope this awnsers your question now.
Excellent, thank you very much, I will be trying to clear some time later to try an alternate build on the same card. I will post how it goes.
Seems to work, as long as you edit the startup text to include the foldername of your build Exceller lets you switch between builds:
set cmdline "rel_path=YourbuildfolderHere"
[TIP/TRICK] Stop Stock Gallery From Creating .thumbnails Folder! Save SD Card Space!
First off, I'll start by saying: "I am not responsible if you brick your phone! Always make a nandroid backup before using my steps/messing with Autostarts! (It's a very powerful application!)"
If you use a 3rd party gallery app (Like QuickPic, my personal favorite...) - You are probably tired of wasting over 100mb of space on your SD card... (And waiting a long time for booting up as well...) I had no need for the /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails folder taking up space on my SD card, so this is how to disable the stock Gallery app from doing so!
I researched a little on how to accomplish this and came up with little information, so I thought I'd share:
What you'll need:
1.) Autostarts app (I used: Version 1.7.0)
---
Steps/Directions:
1.) Run Autostarts
2.) Look for these entries: Media ejecting/mounted
3.) Choose either entry (ONLY CHOOSE ONE, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH! Choosing one entry will disable both entries in Media ejecting AND Media mounted!)
4.) Click on BootReceiver
5.) Choose Disable (A popup will show saying "This is a system app, are you sure? etc.)
6.) Done! Reboot. On boot, go to /sdcard/DCIM/ and look inside for the usual .thumbnails folder, it should be contained with a few (SMALL) files now!
Note: (Make sure you disable the entry BootReceiver ONCE, it should "strikeout" (as in: draw a line through) the entry BootReceiver, to show it has been disabled on boot.) - zmag
Hmm, seems I just looked in my folder and I saw the darn .thumbnails file again... If anyone knows how to disable the stock Gallery app from wasting boot time & sd space; PLEASE TELL ME!!! - zmag
Well, it looks like this is not a big issue for anyone out there - but it still annoys me.
I have since "frozen" the stock Camera and Gallery apps with Titanium Backup Pro, and still; no luck.
Now, granted when I reboot my phone and look in my DCIM folder it doesn't seem to be creating the .thumbnails folder 100% of the time. But the folder is still being created somehow, and my only guess is from a third-party app (and I can't seem to pinpoint which one) but I'm gonna test to find out which and post my results...
I wish someone out there could give me some input, I've been talking to myself here for too long. - zmag
This isn't the same, but you can create a filetype named '.nomedia' and place it at the root of the folder where you want and it will stop displaying the thumbnails in the gallery app.
http://smartadopter.wordpress.com/2...mbnails-showing-in-the-android-photo-gallery/
OK I believe I may have found the possible solution to this problem.
I was searching around on how to fix this problem as well, and tried a few things myself and believe I have found a solution, so I had to sign up for xda to share with everyone else. So please be gentle as this is my first post, although im a long time lurker.
I also got rid of the stock gallery (uninstalled with Titanium Backup) and now use Quick Pic. although I have removed the stock gallery it still builds that 60mb+ thumbnails directory on my SDcard. I was using SD Maid to delete it but it gets annoying that it kept reappearing even after the uninstall of stock gallery.
Now to start fixing,
I realized it was actually a large single file itself named ".thumbdata3-1967290299" in "sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails/" that was taking up the 60mb+ , the smaller individual thumbnails Quick Pic created only added up to a 1mb or so.
So what I did was I just grabbed a random useless file from my SD card I didn't need anymore (an alarm clock plus backup .bak file, but I would assume the *new file" option in root explorer would do the same) and I renamed the unneeded file the same name as the file in /.thumbdata/ (the the .thumbdata3-19672902099).
Now I had a .thumbdata file that was only 1.75kb and just simply moved it to the sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails/ folder and replaced the 60mb .thumbdata file with the smaller one.
After a few restarts of my phone, opening and browsing Quick Pic, checking my thumbnail size a few times with both SD Maid and Root Explore - I now have a much smaller 1.75kb file instead of the old 60mb file.
Hopefully this well help some of you out and solve your problem as well, as far as I can tell it is no longer making that thumbnail file expand so large on my phone.
Phone: HTC Hero CDMA
ROM: Cyanogenmod 7.1
Carrier: i-wireless/sprint
hewillmakehell said:
OK I believe I may have found the possible solution to this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've tried both your copied file trick and making a new file with root explorer, both to no avail. ".thumbdata3--1967290299" always reverts to its old size if any app associated with the gallery is opened.
has yours really stopped reappearing?
i can't figure out where the large thumbnail data is stored, but it must be in the system somewhere...
problem solved
hey i figured out how to fixed this on my atrix. should be the same for all android phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28447099#post28447099
There's no "external.db" inside my "com.android.providers.media" folder.
However, I didn't even understood what I was supposed to do with this file. What he meant with "trim the thumbnails table with an sql editor"?
I quoted the post you linked below:
i found the place where the thumbnail data is stored, which was making the huge thumbnail file and crashing Entertainment Center.
it isn't storing the entire ".thumbdata3--1967290299" file (which can be hundreds of mb for some people), rather a large (tens of mb) .db database file that is being used to recreate it on demand.
/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases
external.db
with Root Explorer i could view the file, and Speed Software also sells an sql editor which you can use to trim the thumbnails table.
*be careful: deleting entries from this file also seems to delete it from the device! i deleted all records from the thumbnails and images tables..
learn from my mistake. i thought it would regenerate, but it deleted all images from /sd card. good thing i backed up all my photos first, but better to use the filter option and trim out only the records for files that are no longer on the device.
".thumbdata3--1967290299" now reappears, but a whole lot smaller.
Gallery opens so much faster now, and Entertainment Center works again!
hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i bet it is hiding somewhere. maybe it's slightly different on other phones.
the issue was that i had an ever-expanding sdcard/dcim/.thumbnails/.thumbdata3--1967290299 file being recreated every time i accessed the gallery viewer, even after that thumbnails folder was erased.
my device was keeping track of ALL the media files that were ever on it, not just the ones presently on it. so the more files that passed through my device, the bigger the thumbdata file kept getting. the external.db file contains a table that lists all media files along with a bunch of attributes for each. apparently this db file is used to generate the thumbdata file. all the info for deleted files just leads to more padding inside the thumbdata file, so it keeps getting bigger.
by trimming the table i meant to delete the records in the external.db that correspond to thumbnails for media no longer on the device. that file is an SQLite file, so to open it you need a special viewer/editor. i first used the SQLite Viewer that comes with Root Explorer. with that, i could see the all the redundant thumbnail entries. to edit it, i got the SQLite Editor, though i'm sure there are other ways. then it's a matter of recognizing which files it lists that are no longer on your device, and getting rid of those rows from the table. in my case the external.db file went down from 8mb to 500kb after i did that.
screenshot 1 showing tables inside external.db, using SQLite Editor
screenshot 2 showing 'thumbnails' table
TBN FILE 2gb
hi
i have a huge thumbnail file in he sd card its almots 2GB
i have already came to opeing the list for thumbnails in the editor
but i dont know how to filter it that i can delete only the files which are not in the sd card (i.e already deleted ) plss guide me throught ,,, this and u will be a star:good:
whitebreadstyle said:
i bet it is hiding somewhere. maybe it's slightly different on other phones.
the issue was that i had an ever-expanding sdcard/dcim/.thumbnails/.thumbdata3--1967290299 file being recreated every time i accessed the gallery viewer, even after that thumbnails folder was erased.
my device was keeping track of ALL the media files that were ever on it, not just the ones presently on it. so the more files that passed through my device, the bigger the thumbdata file kept getting. the external.db file contains a table that lists all media files along with a bunch of attributes for each. apparently this db file is used to generate the thumbdata file. all the info for deleted files just leads to more padding inside the thumbdata file, so it keeps getting bigger.
by trimming the table i meant to delete the records in the external.db that correspond to thumbnails for media no longer on the device. that file is an SQLite file, so to open it you need a special viewer/editor. i first used the SQLite Viewer that comes with Root Explorer. with that, i could see the all the redundant thumbnail entries. to edit it, i got the SQLite Editor, though i'm sure there are other ways. then it's a matter of recognizing which files it lists that are no longer on your device, and getting rid of those rows from the table. in my case the external.db file went down from 8mb to 500kb after i did that.
screenshot 1 showing tables inside external.db, using SQLite Editor
screenshot 2 showing 'thumbnails' table
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the sam issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. I have only a couple of pictures on my phone, but a lot of GBs of music on SDCard and I think this is he reason why .thumbdata3 file is so large on my phone.
I also tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
mihir880 said:
hi
i have a huge thumbnail file in he sd card its almots 2GB
i have already came to opeing the list for thumbnails in the editor
but i dont know how to filter it that i can delete only the files which are not in the sd card (i.e already deleted ) plss guide me throught ,,, this and u will be a star:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it sure would be nice if android did that automatically
i don't know how though, sorry.. maybe there is a way, but it is surely safer to backup the media files to another drive, trim the db, then move them back if necessary.
---------- Post added at 09:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------
strom87 said:
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess that's one way of doing it. it just means all the thumbnails have to be recreated every time you open the gallery or file browser.
strom87 said:
I had the sam issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. I have only a couple of pictures on my phone, but a lot of GBs of music on SDCard and I think this is he reason why .thumbdata3 file is so large on my phone.
I also tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you removed write permission from the thumbdata3 file with RootExplorer. If I try this, then I get a message, that that is not possible on the SD-Card and nothing happens!! The permissions stay !!!
Sunnymen1975 said:
How did you removed write permission from the thumbdata3 file with RootExplorer. If I try this, then I get a message, that that is not possible on the SD-Card and nothing happens!! The permissions stay !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try creating a folder instead of a file(no need to set permissions). So far, it's working
lbrfabio said:
You can try creating a folder instead of a file(no need to set permissions). So far, it's working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another quick way that seems to work:
Code:
rm -rf /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails && touch /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails
rm -rf /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/DCIM/.thumbnails && touch /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/DCIM/.thumbnails
Hello, I also have this problem. Now I put another file with that name and that seems to work.
However, I came on this because my device went suddenly very slow.
Is it possible that the application that writes these .thumbnail files is still searching through the complete device, even when it cannot update the file?
And, how can I inspect what app is causing this file or slow down?
Fixed!... deleted .thumbnails folder and then created a file called .thumbnails using root explorer....thats worked for me in my THL w1..saved 1.2 gb of space!
Is there anyway to stop the stock camera from posting pics in the DCIM folder? I am somewhat ocd and would like them to be posted in a folder of my choosing.
estranged1977 said:
Fixed!... deleted .thumbnails folder and then created a file called .thumbnails using root explorer....thats worked for me in my THL w1..saved 1.2 gb of space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Created a file or a folder?
petrsiri said:
Created a file or a folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try create folder (I do this and see no more thumbdata3-files yet two months)
Navigating through my root tree, I´ve stumbled at so many bloatware files I just want to delete to save some storage space (16GB version here) but I´m a little afraid of. They are on the /System/App folder and for every .apk there´s a .odex file, so I would like to delete them both. Is it safe? Is there any verification process at boot of these files? Some of them look like really system apps that I´ll never touch, but others are for other phone carries in my country, social networks I´ve never heard before etc.
There´s another folder called /System/Apps/Bootup that I would love to delete files from, there´s a lot of LG crapware in there that I think are loaded at boot but I have the same fear of bootloops...
Any solution to my urge to free some memory?
Hi,
Delete some apps in /system/app not gonna free up your "sd card" storage... You always will have the same free amunt of memory available on your 16 Gb...
It's normal to have an .odex file under eachs system apps, your rom is odexed (search on Google if you don't know what is it).
You can delete some system apps but be careful at what apps you delete, make a backup first.
Some system apps are alright to delete along with the .odex ones too. There's a list in the general section I believe that lists off apps that can be deleted with no issue.
Problem is though unless you plan to store stuff in your system partition, deleting apps doesn't really increase your usable storage.
Sent from my LG G2
Re,
Yes there is a (brief) list here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2456974&highlight=list or http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2521066.
Like SupaSwag said when you delete an app, delete the .odex file too. If you don't know what you are doing I recommend you to leave the system apps as there are to avoid any kind of issues. At best you'll gain a little free RAM and maybe a little battery life without some apps runing/connecting to the network in background but in any case you will not gain more usable storage. At worst some function will not work at all, Force Closes, bootloop, etc...
In any case backup first (backup in recovery if something goes wrong and you encounter a bootloop) or at least a backup with an app like Titanium Backup (and make an uptade.zip in Titanium).
And what do you think of the apps in the bootup folder?
And then, how van I free some space for my mp3s? Coming from a S3 with a 64gb microSD card.
sylviofurtado said:
And what do you think of the apps in the bootup folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re,
It's some LG apps, the name of the apps say all: TaskManager, FileManager, etc... Nothing very important it's LG stuff but it depends of you... I deleted all the apps in the /system/apps/bootup because I don't need them with my use, but you?
I think the best is to freeze those apps with Titanium Backup, use your phone as "normal" for a few days and if you don't have any issues or if you realize that you don't need them, then delete them...
Another solution is to rename the apps you don't want with the .bak extension, in case you need an app you can rename it by removing the .bak extension, reboot and the app is here
I don't need to do back ups I said. I'm not gonna mess around that much I said...
So to spare you the details, I accidentally deleted my Contacts and Contacts storage apks on my phone. Bad times are being had. I was looking into android data recovery programs, but I can't seem to get the programs to recognize my phone. I'm about to just revert to OG stock and start from scratch. Will this get me these apps back? Is there another option? Any advice you guys could give me would be great. Sorry for being such a Newb :-\
Hi,
Yes if you return to stock you will have all your system apps...
What is exactly the name of the apps you deleted?
In case I'm right (I see only three) , see in attachment... Extract the three apk's, with a file explorer and move them to /system/app then set the correct permissions like the other apps here and reboot...