[Q] GPE and CM12 use different partitions to store app data? - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I had Asphalt 8 installed on my phone while running a GPE rom. Then I decided to try CM12 out. So I got the rom, wiped everthing (except internal) and flashed the rom. When I restored the game using Titanium Backup it asked me to download the data again. I, of course, thought it's because of the wipe.
After some time I got bored of the game and deleted it (including the data). Then I wanted to go back to the GPE rom. So I got the latest zip, wiped everything (except internal) and flashed. Next thing I know is that the Asphalt 8 game data is back in the /android/obb folder, even though I deleted it.
So I guess GPE and CM12 use different partitions for this or how is it possible?
And how can I access those "hidden" partitions to delete the data from them? Without changing roms back and forth. Cause, even though I can't see the files and folders on the internal memory, it still uses the space.

Google likely restored the data from the data backup they take of the phone, if you agree to it when setting up your Google account. Simply delete the game again, and this time remove it from your app list in the Play Store. The next time around it shouldn't restore.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Google likely restored the data from the data backup they take of the phone, if you agree to it when setting up your Google account. Simply delete the game again, and this time remove it from your app list in the Play Store. The next time around it shouldn't restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They restored 1+ GB of data without me knowing? And without an internet connection? As I was not connected to a wi-fi. I usually also opt, at rom set-up, to not have my stuff backed up to googles servers.
So that's very unlikely.
And even if it were so, why do those files take space on my internal starge?

The MicroSD card is intended for your stuff, not app data. Therefore, to adhere to Google guidelines apps store their parts in internal storage. Now, if you didn't have data of any kind active and opted out of Google backing up data, the only possibilities I can think of are that Titanium Backup didn't delete the data, or the internal storage was not fully wiped.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
The MicroSD card is intended for your stuff, not app data. Therefore, to adhere to Google guidelines apps store their parts in internal storage. Now, if you didn't have data of any kind active and opted out of Google backing up data, the only possibilities I can think of are that Titanium Backup didn't delete the data, or the internal storage was not fully wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already said that I generally don't wipe the internal storage. I deleted data folder manually using ES File Explorer and emptied the recycle bin while on CM12. On GPE the data was back.
I did the math. Everything on my internal memory combined uses about 1 GB. But it shows me that it has 4GB used. So I went back to GPE, deleted the game data manually, and flashed CM12 back. Now it shows 1 GB used space on the internal memory.
Let me give you another example. A friend had GTA: San Andreas while on GPE. I flashed CM12 on that phone, but did not delete the game data, nor wiped the internal storage, just a simple /cache, /data and /dalvik-cache wipe.
On CM12 she didn't install GTA anymore and there is no trace of the GTA data folder in /android/obb.
Here is the thing: Something is taking up nearly 5 GB on the internal storage. I checked every folder in the internal storage (hidden and visible) and everything combined adds up to a max of 1.5 GB.
Something is using space. That something is the GTA data. It has almost 3 GB of data. Fits perfectly to the used space.
The only explanation I have is that they use different partitions of the internal memory or a different data format. Otherwise I can't explain how the same data doesn't show up on GPE and CM12 if I didn't delete it.

Related

How to backup with nandroid if there is not enough space?

Hello,
I wonder if anyone know... What happens when let's say i have 9gb of data on my s2 and i want to backup it with nandroid? It should be possible to do this to sd card, but what if some apps are on phone and some on sd card? How backup then?
If i upgrade to a newer custom built rom, i them try to backup, wouldn't it restore the older backed up firmware? Or just apps and settings, but not rom itself?
Thank you,
Tomas
no one? did no one fill their phone and tried to backup? maybe there is a solution to backup to a computer?
execine said:
Hello,
I wonder if anyone know... What happens when let's say i have 9gb of data on my s2 and i want to backup it with nandroid? It should be possible to do this to sd card, but what if some apps are on phone and some on sd card? How backup then?
If i upgrade to a newer custom built rom, i them try to backup, wouldn't it restore the older backed up firmware? Or just apps and settings, but not rom itself?
Thank you,
Tomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid backups are an image of
/system
/data
/dbdata
(on CF-Root, not sure about original CWM) it also includes .android_secure, which is SD-stored apps.
I don't understand what you are asking.
If there is not enough space you obviously have to delete something.
BTW: data-partition is around 2,1GB and system-partition 500MB, so there is no way a single backup can use 9GB
Maybe I am not being very clear, sorry about that
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
One more technical question about rom upgrades. Currently i installed Villain Rom and have a backup made with nandroid. When i upgrade to a newer Villain Rom 1.5 or whatever comes out and I do the restore, i suppose it will restore 1.4 rom version with it's all apps and settings?
In this case, how do i backup only accounts, contacts, sms , apps, photogallery but not rom itself?
Sorry for all those questions, but i'm reading the forum all over, and there's still hundreds of questions i'm looking to find answers, so that i could comfortably migrate from iphone to galaxy..
execine said:
Maybe I am not being very clear, sorry about that
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
One more technical question about rom upgrades. Currently i installed Villain Rom and have a backup made with nandroid. When i upgrade to a newer Villain Rom 1.5 or whatever comes out and I do the restore, i suppose it will restore 1.4 rom version with it's all apps and settings?
In this case, how do i backup only accounts, contacts, sms , apps, photogallery but not rom itself?
Sorry for all those questions, but i'm reading the forum all over, and there's still hundreds of questions i'm looking to find answers, so that i could comfortably migrate from iphone to galaxy..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding restoring only apps/accounts/etc but not the rom iteself, within cwm, in backup and restore, chhoose advanced restore and the restore data.
Im not certain whether it restores gallery or sms.i sync my photos via dropbox, and backup my texts seperately.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
So there is no unified backup solution for android? You would have to back up everything separately ?
execine said:
So there is no unified backup solution for android? You would have to back up everything separately ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fairly simple:
Nandroid for your ROM and user data that is on the PHONE and /data partition
For the /sdcard and /sdcard/external_sd, that's up to you to sort out... Perhaps back up the contents by connecting to your PC? Then copy the contents of the SD? That way you have your nandroid backup stored on the computer just in case
so then in case something goes wrong, i restore with nandroid and manually copy contents from PC and ALL of my phone's data (software, contacts, gallery etc) will be there?
execine said:
Coming from an Iphone, i am looking for a total phone backup solution. Itunes backs up literally everything - your apps, music, photos etc. It's filled probably with 20gb of different data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, now you have a phone that doesn´t hide everything from the user it shouldn´t be that hard to make a backup.
There are basically 4 interesting partitions on the phone:
system (about 500MB) - This holds more or less the whole Firmware. While it is technically just a partition on the flash-memory, it is used like a ROM in normal usage, so the only situation where something will be written on this partition is a firmware-upgrade.
data (about 2GB)- This partition holds all user-installed apps and their settings.
sdcard (about 12GB) - This is not really a sdcard. Instead it is a part of the internal memory, you can use it for example for media, documents, images etc., whatever you like. This partition can be accessed on your computer as a regular USB-storage, and you can do a backup of it the way you like, either simply copying everything, or using a backup-solution of your choice.
external_sd (optional) - This is the micro-sd-card you can put in your phone. Obviously you can use it for anything you like. This partition is also accessible as a USB-storage or you can use a simple USB card-reader to access it on your computer.
Usually all your applications and settings will be stored in the /data/-partition.
If you choose the Move-to-SD option in the application-manager, some parts of the application will be moved to the (internal) /sdcard/-partition, but all the user-data/settings still remain on the /data/-partition.
So the maximum space you need to backup all your settings and apps is under 3GB.
Now to the possibilities of a backup, and the importance of the different things.
A nandroid-backup will basically make an image of the /system/ and /data/ partitions (also a bit more, but that´s not really important).
Usually it will use the /sdcard/-partition, which actually is still in your phone.
If you restore a Nandroid-Backup your System will be in the exact state before the backup, including all applications with their settings (which also means contacts, e-mails, sms etc).
Obviously everything that has changed after the backup will be lost.
A restore well also restore the complete firmware from the backup.
A backup from Nandroid can only be restored on the same phone, with the same partitions.
The second possibility to make backups would be TitaniumBackup.
This program will store all your installed applications and their data.
Default it will store it on the internal /sdcard/, but it is probably more useful to change the path to the external_sd.
Everything in Android is an application, so this will also save all your settings.
During a restore TitaniumBackup simply reinstalls your applications and then restores their settings.
TitaniumBackup can restore your applications with any Firmware, and in theory even on other phones (it may not work with special System-apps but it surely works with most "user-apps")
So Clockworkmod is great if you want to play around with different firmwares, especially Custom ROMs.
You can install different ROMs, make a backup and very easy and fast switch between them.
For a "regular" backup TitaniumBackup is maybe the better choice, it can backup all your settings and applications and for example if a Firmware-update goes wrong simply restore anything.
There is no real need to backup the /system/-partition anyway, you can simply download the Firmware and flash it, there is no user-data on this partition.
sdcard and external_sd usually only contains media, which you probably have somewhere on your PC anyway, so there is no real need for a backup, maybe for the pictures and videos you make with your phone, but again you should copy this on your PC regularly anyway. And if you want you can easily copy everything on it as well.
What if I have 20gb of data , 10 of which are on phone, 10 on sd card, in this case i wouldn't be able to backup everything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Question is if I have my phone filled with games, different apps which make let's say 10 gb (not that much counting in that one game may be up to 1 gb), so how do i backup this? To SD card?[/quote]
Apps can´t be several GB in size on Android. Normally you have only around 2GB for Apps, if you use the App2SD-feature it can be expanded a bit.
If applications need a lot of data, for example like navigation-programs or games, they will download this on the first start and store this on the /sdcard/-partition.
As I said, you can access this easily like a removable drive and copy everything you like.
It isn´t also that important to make a backup of this, as it can be downloaded again anytime, and if something goes wrong it usually will mess up your system and don´t influence the data-partition anyway (well as long as you don´t repartition the whole memory)
Thank you, that does explain a lot!
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Tomas
execine said:
Thank you, that does explain a lot!
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Tomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they are stored in /data
You back that up using nandroid, then you restore it via nandroid and they will be there. What you see on your PC via USB is the "internal SD".
Understood, thank you. Things getting more clear after a week of reading and using the phone ))
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
execine said:
I connected my S2, but i can't see to find any installed apps browsing through USB, or i shouldn't be seeing that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you see the (internal) /sdcard/ partition and (if present) the /external_sd/ (the MicroSD-card you have in your phone)
To simply backup your applications, the easiest way is TitaniumBackup.
This will store the .apk and settings for each up in a folder of your choice (on /sdcard/ or /external_sd/, as you usually have no direct access to the other partitions)
You can copy this folder on your PC, or even in the TitaniumBackup-folder of another phone and use it there.
There are several advantages using TitaniumBackup to save your Apps over CWM-recovery. You can use it with the enabled phone for example, and also just restore individual Apps, if you like.

[Q] insufficient storage available

I don't know if this has been asked before here...
Every time I try to install an app it gives me an insufficient storage available error.
In settings it shows that i have well over 2gig free space. I have tried wiping cache dalvik etc and nothing has worked. Please help!
zphantom55 said:
I don't know if this has been asked before here...
Every time I try to install an app it gives me an insufficient storage available error.
In settings it shows that i have well over 2gig free space. I have tried wiping cache dalvik etc and nothing has worked. Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your system partition is full. You need to delete apps and whatever else gets stored in system folder. If you use titanium backup....I think it keeps backups of old apps....you gotta go into titanium backup and delete the backups of apps you use. Some large games may store data in system too.
Sent from my cell phone telephone....
thanks
kj2112 said:
Your system partition is full. You need to delete apps and whatever else gets stored in system folder. If you use titanium backup....I think it keeps backups of old apps....you gotta go into titanium backup and delete the backups of apps you use. Some large games may store data in system too.
Sent from my cell phone telephone....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I thought apps from the play store were all stored in /data

[Q] how to clear system data?

so i had about 120mb free internal storage on my galaxy y. after installing a few apps that i was just trying out my internal storage reduced to 20mb. no problem i'll just delete them... but after deleting the apps internal storage was only 33mb. doing some investigation i saw the data/ system data was taking up about 110mb (using diskusage app). trying to figure out the problem i deleted all apps linked to sd-ext. the internal storage remained around 35mb. i've tried a variety of apps like sdmaid, systemcleanup, root cleaner, clean master etc but none helped with my problem. even after using these said cleaner apps and deleting them after internal was reduced to 15mb. i manually went through every single folder in /data checking size of files but nothing suspicious. but system data was now 122mb (seen to be growing every reboot) and the system data folder is not accessible with any root browser apps.
i was trying to figure out the problem so i made a cwm backup when phone was low in storage (15mb free, avg), so if bootloop i had a backup of phone when internal storage was full so i could continue troubleshooting. bootloop was inevitable.
the strangest thing now is after restoring the same said backup where internal storage was full and rebooting i saw internal storage was now 140mb. i got back all of my internal space but how? is it the system data shown in diskusage is filled with "ghost" like files. i read somewhere that android keep a little bit of data of every app ever installed, even after deleting.
my question is, is there a apk or script to clean system data.
i dont want to have to backup and restore every few days. cause this is what worked for me to regain my internal storage.
i hope u all understand what i'm saying. thanks in advance.

S4 running low on space

I have an S4 with OmegaRom v42 5.0.1 and as you can see below it is showing as internal memory almost full but I cannot find out where the space is.
when I updated from 4.3.1 to 5.0.1 I could still al ot of the old system files so I am guessing they are still around.
ES Explorer is not able to tell me where this wasted space is.
Is there anything I can do from recovery to clear some room?
Or another app which can tell me what exactly is taking up all this space?
Oh I also have FolderMount installed and I have some games which are stored on the SD card, that might be the reason for the erroneous size.
What recovery are you using?
I had a similar problem when going from GPE to CM roms and vice versa. Game data in the android/obb folder would disappear, but still use space. And I couldn't find it using a file explorer. Returning back to the previous rom (on which the game was downloaded) made the data reappear.
I also got the "system is running out of space" message from flashing a kernel (which was in beta).
TWRP
Pull all the data you can off internal storage and format the internal storage using TWRP's wipe option. Afterward, put all the items back on the internal storage.
Will I copy all internal data from within TWRP to memory card, wipe it, then copy back to internal also from within TWRP?
It's probably best to do it from within TWRP and its mount menu as that way none of your apps are running.
Post No. 3000. Yay me! LOL.

Where is my "free" storage space disappearing to?

I got a low storage message on my S4. I deleted caches, I deleted the cache partition, I deleted several apps, I deleted all the media files I could, I moved whatever parts of apps I could to the external SD card. I regained enough space to make the message disappear. But lo and behold after some plain old web browing, I lost 250mb overnight, and since this afternoon, another 120mb. Why did the recovered space disappear? How do I get it back? I am so frustrated. The only two things I can think of are to do a factory reset and hope for the best or dump the S4 for something with more system and base storage.
Did you use Clockworkmod or Philz recovery at any point?
How many apps do you have on your device?
How many large games are on your device?
Here's why I asked about Clockworkmod. The last version would allocate space for nandroid backups and would not free it unless you told it to. It would do this because the nandroid backups were in fact incremental backups, and being able to delete one backup would screw up all subsequent backups made. TWRP thankfully doesn't do this, but nandroid backups are located on internal storage. Too many backups and your space goes *poof*.
Large apps and games will consume space as their data is stored in the internal storage, though I'm sure you know that. Thing is, a lot of small apps can have the same effect.
If you ran Clockworkmod at any point and didn't free up the space it reserved for nandroid backups, you'll have to reinstall it and free the space. Otherwise, check for excess numbers of nandroid backups. If there are too many backups and you're running Clockworkmod, delete them all, free up the space using Clockworkmod's commands for that, and switch to TWRP. If there are too many backups and you're running TWRP, delete all but the newest one. As for your apps, you really should go through them and uninstall the ones you haven't accessed in a while.
Browsers such as Chrome (and anything based on it I guess) tend to have large cache.
My Chromium based browser has a 240MB cache.
I have not rooted this phone. I have very few games, nothing large. I do not use Chrome, only Dolphin. I have moved as many apps (or part of them) as possible to the external SD card. Yet, space keeps disappearing.

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