Has anybody who's formatted their sd card as internal storage had issues seeing folders/zips in twrp? Previously was using the Indian MM on my MXPE and after a few days I formatted as internal...all was smooth but I guess I never went to use twrp again until I went to flashed the MXPE MM rom...booted into twrp but couldn't see any folders or zips in the internal storage so I had no way to actually flash the rom.
Wound up having to reformat the sd card as portable storage so twrp could read both storage locations again and was able to finally flash the rom...I'm thinking about trying to format again just to see if this is an actual issue or just a one time thing...but if anybody else has experienced the same thing let me know. Btw I'm using the 2.8.7.1 twrp.
I had this as well, and if i remember how MM works, it encrypts the card so that only the phone/OS can read it. So if you are going to be doing full flashes, i beleive it would lock out the sd card, though I'm not 100% on that. If you are trying to dirty flash a rom, or just a mod to it, boot to recovery, go to mount, move the files over to the actual internal storage, then flash.
I had the same issue. I backed everything up, formatted as portable, installed rom, then formatted as internal again, then re-copied all my stuff back onto it. @mseliga is correct as far as I know. I wanted to start everything fresh and clean, so I used a longer method, but moving the files to the actual internal storage should work.
Yep this sucked. When I go to es file explorer and navigate to the twrp folder it says cannot be found, but when I'm actually in twrp I think it lets me back up/restore. This sucks tho, I'm still not sure if its working 100%. What a hassle to have switch back and forth, smh
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So, I am ready to flash something other than the stock ROMs, or at least the purely rooted stock ROMs. I want to try out NunHugger's Epiphany ROM, which looks nice. When I wipe, will it leave the /sdcard folder alone? I just want to make sure I wont lose some of my books and game saves and such.
Edit: I just realized how dumb a question this must actually be, as I am pretty sure /sdcard is left alone, considering the ROM being flashed is also stored there (/sdcard/download). But I'd still like confirmation to be clear. I promise I am not as stupid as this post is.
Your External SD card is not effected.
Generally, you internal memory is referred to as SD card. Your removable SD is referred to as External SD.
The OS, has it's own space, so if you do the usual wipes, even Mounts and Storage format, your things will still be there. (unless you toggle to format entire internal memory)
Generally, the stuff you download and goes to SD, is still there after you flash. 9 times out of 10.
I have flashed over 150 times, and still I have things that I downloaded.
Ah yes, I didn't specify, going under the assumption everyone knows the difference of ext_sdcard and sdcard. I was referring to the internal sdcard. But thanks for the confirmation.
Yea I was scared when I flashed my first ROM. I ran 2 backups of everything and then realized that everything on the /sdcard partition was still there. I would still back that stuff up just in case
I'm sure the application data gets cleared when your doing the necessary wipes and formats prior to flashing. So there go your game saves and such. Happens to me when I flash a new roms. I just do backups with Titanium and restore them, no biggie. Just make sure you backup before you flash.
First of all... I wanted to start this post off by saying yes, I know I'm an idiot.
Now that that's out of the way....
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card. Because I'm an idiot. I don't know how or why it happened really. I just know it did.
I had previously saved EVERYTHING to my external SD card, thinking that was the safest place for the data... and now the past two years of my life documented in photographs are gone.
I have tweaked out on running custom phone software since the days of the original Razr and flashing Alltel firmware on it... and this is the first major screw up I've ever done.
Now... does TWRP back up that data somewhere, somehow? Or is it just system data/apps that get backed up? If TWRP didn't save it somewhere, is there possibly somewhere that the contents of my external SD card were MOVED upon installation of the custom ROM?
ircphoenix said:
A few weeks ago, I got so excited to flash a custom ROM, that somehow when I ran TWRP and backed up my system to the external SD card, I also wiped my external SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should never store your sole backup copy on the same device as is being backed up as you probably realize now.
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy. The default location is usually /data/media/0/TWRP. Try a search for TWRP folders using a root aware file browser. With any luck you will find a backup on your internal SD card.
If not, then the only way to recover would be to try a data recovery program on your external SD card. Unless you do Google /cloud backups as well?
.
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Both I have tried after an accidental format of the SD card from the phone settings.
They are both free desktop software.
Important to take not not to copy any files over to the affected card, or even your recovered files as well. Only do so when you are sure you have recovered all that you can onto a desktop folder.
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fffft said:
Anyway, it's not clear from your post if you were storing a redundant copy of your backup on your external SD card or if you had configured TWRP to use your external SD card as the primary folder and therefore sole backup copy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The second scenario is what I believe I did. And I think when it created the backup, it wiped the external SD to suit it's needs. Problem being that the Nandroid backup wanted 6 gigs ish of space, and I had 4.5 or so remaining on the internal SD.... don't know what stuff I had on there... but *shrug*
Markuzy said:
Recuva does most of the work well, and there is an option to restore the directory structure too if you poke around in the settings. Puran File Recovery works where Recuva did not in recovering some images and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the tip. I will try both of these. I think the nandroid backup wrote over the areas on the SD where the pictures were stored. You'd think it would pick the empty space before the occupied space... but I guess since it wiped it clean prior to backing up, it was ALL empty space. *sigh*
Thank you both very much for your help.
I got the 16 gb model of the X Pure because I figured with the expandable memory with SD Card, it would be something I can deal with. So I unlocked the bootloader, flashed TWRP recovery. I configured TWRP to use the SD Card to store backups. While installing apps, I noticed that I was getting an out of storage message. The storage area in settings is telling me that the Miscellaneous category is consuming 4.51 gb and TWRP is listed as consuming all of it. I tried checking the box and deleting it, without success. I checked the internal storage areas for TWRP and all of the folders appear to be empty except for the external sd card. This is very frustrating. Any advice on this?
definitely something is not right with your device, i hope someone can help you soon
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Check your TWRP folder on your device and make sure it doesn't have the backup in it? It should be pretty small without a backup (mine says 0.0kb). I did a TWRP backup (Nandroid) after all my apps downloaded and it's just over 8gb.
Here's a shot of my internal storage.
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As stated many many times. The only recovery you can use is TWRP. Your sdcard shows 0 mb because it became part of your internal storage. So reflash TWRP and try again.
after flashing cwm i did nothing but booting once the rom and notice that everything was wipped and then flash twrp.
the result is i cant axcess my sdcard as the rom sais that the sdcard needs to prepared.
so my question is, can i recover the data on the sd card?
Not if you're at the point where the card needs to be prepared. What you should have done if you wanted to decrypt the MicroSD, is pulled the data off both card and internal storage, then gone into Settings > Storage & USB and converted the card to portable storage.
One thing. With CWM running, did you have any nandroid backups? If you did, you likely will have to reinstall CWM to free up the internal storage reserved for the nandroid backups. CWM by default allocates space for its nandroid backups that cannot be touched by the system or TWRP. Once you do that, you can then reinstall TWRP.
OK THX. I just created a image of the SD card.maybe in the future there will be a toop to decrypt such SD cards. For the future:
Is the SD card lost everytime i update the Rom build?
Is the SD card lost Ehen i change the Rom to another Android 6 Rom?
What do i have to do when updating to a Newer build oft the same rom,vor change to another Android 6 rom? Pull everything from bouth cards? Really? Thats a pain in the ass even with a uhs 1 SD card.
Whats the best way for backing up the data, so i can cop them back without trouble? Maybe ADB?
Whats about changin the recovery? Thats a nogo i think and whats about updating twrp?
What is a absolut nogo? What i ahouldnt do to f*** up the card again?
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
What is an absolute no go? What shouldn't I do to f*** up the card again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
So many questions, but I'm going to answer just the last two, as their answer covers every other question in your post.
The answer to this is so easy it's astounding. The answer is to not combine the card with the internal storage. Here's why. If you switch ROMs regularly in order to try them out, every single time you combine the storage the card has to be prepared for use, which means all data on it gets wiped. If you do a clean install of your current ROM and combine the storage, all data on the card is wiped. The reason the card gets wiped is because Android 6.x creates a virtual volume which spans both internal storage and the MicroSD. In order to ensure the data is secure Android encrypts the volume. This encryption is part of the reason Google throws up a warning to restore the card if you pull it out of the device.
By not combining the storage, you avoid the encryption problems, but you do have to deal with the issue of apps not seeing the MicroSD card. Unless an app with this issue is no longer being updated, this problem will resolve itself. Developers have to adapt to the new setup.
The encryption also impacts performance, though on my tests with it I didn't notice anything. The one thing it will do is impact the ability to perform backups. In my tests, the encryption prevented TWRP from doing anything useful, meaning no ability to install flashable zips or updated TWRP recovery images from the storage and no ability to do nandroid backups. TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD. TWRP's developers will need to adapt to this and custom ROM developers will have to recommend that users not combine storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for your very detailed answere. but whats about when i am using i.e. kushan rom build 07.12.2015 and i update to kushan rom build 11.12.2015. will the sd card have to be prepared to use also? and what about when i update twrp to a marshmellow support twrp. di i need prepare the sd card then again?
TWRP could see the directory structure of the combined storage but could not see any files within the folders to install. Nandroid backups instantly failed with an "out of storage" error, even though I had some 15GB of space available on the MicroSD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the point where my trouble began. as so as the sd card is prepared as internal you cant even see files of the real internal storage. flashing zips you can still do with adb sideload. another question could we backup the internal flash inlcuding prepared sd card with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818321
?
If yes, is there also a way to restore the backup made?
To make things crystal clear, once the card is set for portable storage you will not have to reconfigure the card again unless you choose to combine the storage. Upgrading a ROM to a newer version will generate a message in the notification bar that you have to prepare the card, but you simply select the portable storage option and the notification goes away. Upgrading TWRP doesn't require doing anything to storage.
Should you choose to combine storage, upgrading a ROM may cost you whatever is on both the internal storage and microSD. Upgrading TWRP with combined storage would require you to flash it using Odin, because you wouldn't be able to copy the TWRP image to the device storage.
Backing up the internal storage doesn't require anything more than a copy operation from the S4 to the PC, so no special tools should be required. That applies regardless of whether the storage is combined or separate. However, for best results with TWRP, the storage should not be combined.
Sorry for reviving this old thread, but I've the same issue.
I flashed a new rom without getting the decryption code or backing anything up(No NANDs, no sd backup). Is there still currently no way to retrieve the files that are encrypted on this SD?
I've done exactly the same, I'm hoping theres a way to decrypt it.
k2828 said:
i was on twrp 2.8.7.0 and installed http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/i9505-orig-develop/rom-kushan-cm-marshmallow-rom-t3258489. then formatted my sd card as internal storage. today i wanted to update to the latest build of kushan rom, but in twrp my sd card was listed as 0 mb and i couldnt enter it. so i decided to flash latest cwm trough rom manager. after flashing cwm my internal sdcard was wiped(not by me-automaticly) and now marshmellow tells me that te sd card is not supportet...please format.....
i think that as the cwm wiped my sd card "the unique? encrpytion key?" got lost and therefor i cant axcess the sd card. im i right?
if yes i hope the encryption key is not unique and i can recover the files on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found solution to decrypt the Sdcard.
I was facing this problem for almost 1 year I need only sdcard not data in it but I am unable to format it due to encryption but any device able to read the data and copy from that.
Even I can play Music out that SD card
Unless you're immortal, you're not decrypting the MicroSD card via brute force. Currently, the amount of time required to find the decryption key is longer than the current age of the universe.
If looking to simply format an existing card, use SDFormatter from http://www.sdcard.org.
I have an unlocked bootloader, but I'm not rooted. I upgraded to MM via OTA and set my SD Card to be used as internal memory. I've had some problems since:
1) The first real issue is that Evernote is giving me a database read/write error and not working. It seems that to resolve that, I'll probably need to root. So, I went to do a MM nandroid before rooting
2) When i went into TWRP (i a had flashed 2.8.7.1-clark), and tried to create a backup, I received a Failure: E: Unable to mount storage (one note: the top of my screen shows TWRP 2.8.7.0, not .1, so i double-checked that i was using the correct version from https://dl.twrp.me/clark/, and I am. The file name is 2.8.7.1, but it appears on screen as .0. Is anyone else seeing this?)
3) When i go into the Mount screen and select storage, it is showing Internal as just 2+GB free (which is correct), but 0MB for my Micro SDCard. So, it can't mount it.
4) Looking around, the fixes for this seem to be a bit severe in terms of formatting the SD Card again, etc. (ex. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2354029)
So, my questions are:
1) If anyone knows of a solution to that Evernote issue, that would be great
2) More importantly, what my options are for fixing the Backup problems
3) Specifically, with my SDCard now supposedly acting as internal memory, if i format the card per the common fixes, will that cause other unexpected problems with apps and other functions that are now using my SD Card as usable storage?
How did you set SD card as internal storage. Me: stock, no root, MM
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I'm giving up on combined storage until twrp is fixed.
You just go into settings, storage, then click on the SD card. I'm back to lollipop at the moment, so I cant say exactly what to do next, but I think from there it should be clear. It may be an option up in the overflow menu at the top right. It will make you reformat your card as part of the process .
Thanx Chuck! Need to b.u. before formatting as internal...
I had the same issue with the SD card set as internal, couldn't make a twrp backup, so I had to reformat as storage and it works. Only bad part is now I can't move apps to SD
Is there a twrp fix in the works??
chuck-fu said:
2) When i went into TWRP (i a had flashed 2.8.7.1-clark), and tried to create a backup, I received a Failure: E: Unable to mount storage (one note: the top of my screen shows TWRP 2.8.7.0, not .1, so i double-checked that i was using the correct version from https://dl.twrp.me/clark/, and I am. The file name is 2.8.7.1, but it appears on screen as .0. Is anyone else seeing this?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have MM installed, so I don't know about the rest of it. But I've flashed the 2.8.7.1 IMG twice now and my TWRP still says 2.8.7.0 on the top of the screen. So either we're both making the same mistake, or TWRP didn't update their version number in the recovery.
ScaryBugThing said:
I don't have MM installed, so I don't know about the rest of it. But I've flashed the 2.8.7.1 IMG twice now and my TWRP still says 2.8.7.0 on the top of the screen. So either we're both making the same mistake, or TWRP didn't update their version number in the recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a known issue that the version displayed stays on 2.8.7.0 after updating.
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