Everybody who's tried to enable adoptable storage has probably experienced the same pain: You can't move all apps, and apps which can't be moved can't use the SD storage anymore (netflix, google play music, plex, ...), they become pretty unusable.
But we do want the adoptable storage since 8gb of flash is easily filled with apps...
Good news, I've found a blog which describes how to partition your SD card into 2 parts. 1 part for adoptable storage, and 1 part for "regular" SD storage. I've tried it on my moto G 3rd gen, and it works! No root needed, just adb commands.
Blog post here: http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html
The main commands are:
Code:
# list which cards are available
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
# format in mixed mode using 75% as regular SD
$ adb shell sm partition disk:179_64 mixed 75
EDIT: MARSHMALLOW ONLY
I hate the small amount of internal memory, but I don't want to make my ENTIRE SD of 128GB Adopted and unremovable. So I found this post describing how to make your SD only partially Adopted by splitting the partition in ADB. Thought I'd share!
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html
"How to split your card
WARNING: Before you do this, be sure to eject the card from the Settings/Storage & USB menu.
I found how to partition my SD card to give 8G as internal storage to which all apps that can be moved will be moved and leave ~20GB as portable storage to hold music, etc.
First, you need adb working, and your SD card inserted and formatted as portable.
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
disk:179,64
disk:179,64 is my SD card that can be made adoptable, I want 90% as external SD:
$ adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 mixed 90
Note: Your card may be listed with an underscore _ instead of an underscore, e.g. disk:179_64 in which case, that is what you type.
This erases the entire SD card, and then gives me 90% as portable storage and the rest as adopted internal storage.
The partition table looks like this:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 57.5GB 57.5GB fat32 shared msftdata
2 57.5GB 57.5GB 16.8MB android_meta
3 57.5GB 63.9GB 6369MB android_expand
The fat32 partition is not encrypted and can be mounted on a computer (provided it can handle the new GUID partition table format).
I advise a reboot after setting the new music storage location this as Google Music may get the wrong idea about much space is available.
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP."
Make sure you edit and let people know this if for Android 6 only in the title. Just in case people miss it when reading the article.
Appreciate the post...gonna split my 128gb right down the middle...never have to worry about "internal storage" or "app space" again. Plenty of space on other side for music, photo's etc.
Electriccars said:
EDIT: MARSHMALLOW ONLY
I hate the small amount of internal memory, but I don't want to make my ENTIRE SD of 128GB Adopted and unremovable. So I found this post describing how to make your SD only partially Adopted by splitting the partition in ADB. Thought I'd share!
"How to split your card
WARNING: Before you do this, be sure to eject the card from the Settings/Storage & USB menu.
I found how to partition my SD card to give 8G as internal storage to which all apps that can be moved will be moved and leave ~20GB as portable storage to hold music, etc.
First, you need adb working, and your SD card inserted and formatted as portable.
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
is my SD card that can be made adoptable, I want 90% as external SD:
$ adb shell sm partition mixed 90
Note: Your card may be listed with an underscore _ instead of an underscore, e.g. in which case, that is what you type.
This erases the entire SD card, and then gives me 90% as portable storage and the rest as adopted internal storage.
The partition table looks like this:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 57.5GB 57.5GB fat32 shared msftdata
2 57.5GB 57.5GB 16.8MB android_meta
3 57.5GB 63.9GB 6369MB android_expand
The fat32 partition is not encrypted and can be mounted on a computer (provided it can handle the new GUID partition table format).
I advise a reboot after setting the new music storage location this as Google Music may get the wrong idea about much space is available.
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the command to rename the adopted storage?
famewolf said:
Whats the command to rename the adopted storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need command just go to Settings. Then Storage and usb press on Sd card and press to 3 dots and Rename?
So what do I have to do to stop the phone from saying "New Sansung SD Card Detected" every single time I boot up the phone since I split it?
*update* the reported solution is to format the portable 1/2 within the phone from settings, storage.
Electriccars said:
EDIT: MARSHMALLOW ONLY
I hate the small amount of internal memory, but I don't want to make my ENTIRE SD of 128GB Adopted and unremovable. So I found this post describing how to make your SD only partially Adopted by splitting the partition in ADB. Thought I'd share!
"How to split your card
WARNING: Before you do this, be sure to eject the card from the Settings/Storage & USB menu.
I found how to partition my SD card to give 8G as internal storage to which all apps that can be moved will be moved and leave ~20GB as portable storage to hold music, etc.
First, you need adb working, and your SD card inserted and formatted as portable.
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
is my SD card that can be made adoptable, I want 90% as external SD:
$ adb shell sm partition mixed 90
Note: Your card may be listed with an underscore _ instead of an underscore, e.g. in which case, that is what you type.
This erases the entire SD card, and then gives me 90% as portable storage and the rest as adopted internal storage.
The partition table looks like this:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 57.5GB 57.5GB fat32 shared msftdata
2 57.5GB 57.5GB 16.8MB android_meta
3 57.5GB 63.9GB 6369MB android_expand
The fat32 partition is not encrypted and can be mounted on a computer (provided it can handle the new GUID partition table format).
I advise a reboot after setting the new music storage location this as Google Music may get the wrong idea about much space is available.
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing a new rom causes the internal storage to be "lost". How can you redefine that section as internal storage without wiping out the portion defined as portable storage? If you run the command again you are going to have to back up the whole portable section and then copy it back.
Electriccars said:
EDIT: MARSHMALLOW ONLY
I hate the small amount of internal memory, but I don't want to make my ENTIRE SD of 128GB Adopted and unremovable. So I found this post describing how to make your SD only partially Adopted by splitting the partition in ADB. Thought I'd share!
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html
"How to split your card
WARNING: Before you do this, be sure to eject the card from the Settings/Storage & USB menu.
I found how to partition my SD card to give 8G as internal storage to which all apps that can be moved will be moved and leave ~20GB as portable storage to hold music, etc.
First, you need adb working, and your SD card inserted and formatted as portable.
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
disk:179,64
disk:179,64 is my SD card that can be made adoptable, I want 90% as external SD:
$ adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 mixed 90
Note: Your card may be listed with an underscore _ instead of an underscore, e.g. disk:179_64 in which case, that is what you type.
This erases the entire SD card, and then gives me 90% as portable storage and the rest as adopted internal storage.
The partition table looks like this:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 57.5GB 57.5GB fat32 shared msftdata
2 57.5GB 57.5GB 16.8MB android_meta
3 57.5GB 63.9GB 6369MB android_expand
The fat32 partition is not encrypted and can be mounted on a computer (provided it can handle the new GUID partition table format).
I advise a reboot after setting the new music storage location this as Google Music may get the wrong idea about much space is available.
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
Electriccars said:
EDIT: MARSHMALLOW ONLY
I hate the small amount of internal memory, but I don't want to make my ENTIRE SD of 128GB Adopted and unremovable. So I found this post describing how to make your SD only partially Adopted by splitting the partition in ADB. Thought I'd share!
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html
"How to split your card
WARNING: Before you do this, be sure to eject the card from the Settings/Storage & USB menu.
I found how to partition my SD card to give 8G as internal storage to which all apps that can be moved will be moved and leave ~20GB as portable storage to hold music, etc.
First, you need adb working, and your SD card inserted and formatted as portable.
$ adb shell sm list-disks adoptable
disk:179,64
disk:179,64 is my SD card that can be made adoptable, I want 90% as external SD:
$ adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 mixed 90
Note: Your card may be listed with an underscore _ instead of an underscore, e.g. disk:179_64 in which case, that is what you type.
This erases the entire SD card, and then gives me 90% as portable storage and the rest as adopted internal storage.
The partition table looks like this:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 57.5GB 57.5GB fat32 shared msftdata
2 57.5GB 57.5GB 16.8MB android_meta
3 57.5GB 63.9GB 6369MB android_expand
The fat32 partition is not encrypted and can be mounted on a computer (provided it can handle the new GUID partition table format).
I advise a reboot after setting the new music storage location this as Google Music may get the wrong idea about much space is available.
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did the same but it saying that the new internal partition was corrupted !.
i'm using cm13 sony xm (2005) .. any ideas please !!
Is it working in cusrom ?
I know it has been a while, but for those stumbling across this now:
Be aware that the partition command prefers "round numbers" and may error on things like "97"
Format the card using sm (if coming from existing adopted storage):
Code:
sm list-volumes
will find the external storage volume, then use it with
Code:
sm format VOLUME
Has anyone tried this on 7.x ?
famewolf said:
Appreciate the post...gonna split my 128gb right down the middle...never have to worry about "internal storage" or "app space" again. Plenty of space on other side for music, photo's etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of Curiosity how well does twrp do with your 128 gb? Twrp dont even see my sammy 128 evo unless its made as adoptable which I dont want the whole thing lol.
Since the "external partition" is smaller, Is twrp seeing it better.
Lol guess only way to see is try.
TheMadScientist said:
Out of Curiosity how well does twrp do with your 128 gb? Twrp dont even see my sammy 128 evo unless its made as adoptable which I dont want the whole thing lol.
Since the "external partition" is smaller, Is twrp seeing it better.
Lol guess only way to see is try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only time I've ever had a sd card that was "hard to see" it was because it was still formatted as exfat instead of fat32.
famewolf said:
Only time I've ever had a sd card that was "hard to see" it was because it was still formatted as exfat instead of fat32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been through all that.
Just weird it sees it as internal 128 gb when adopted
Only thing i can think of now is that my twrp version is having issues. I had a sam s5 that was similar issue, my twrp version was only compatible to 64gb sds.
I cant get the 3.1.1-0 to load It goes rite away to 9008 fastboot mode.
I have to reload backup recov with flashify or flashfire to get twrp back.
Thanks!
I really hate the way Android 6.0 and above has treated the SD card!
And as always, whenever there is some new "upgrade" that limits how a user has control over things in their device(s) it's almost always due to some BS government and or copyright intervention.
In this case it was BOTH!
DRM (Digital Rights Media) is concerned that users will be able to "rip" media saved on their devices and share with others.
Complete BS if you ask me.
In Lollipop I was able to save both media AND apps to my SD card to save space as well as format a seperate 15 Gig EXT2 partition that allowed me to run a full blown version of Kali Linux over SSH using Linux Deploy.
Here is a link describing why Google did what they did: http://pocketnow.com/2013/08/23/google-hates-sdcards
multiwirth said:
Has anyone tried this on 7.x ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have configured my S7 edge (Exynos) using the process but before that, we must have to enable adoptable storage. Root Essentials is the tool you can download from play store and that will give you options and guide you through the process.
However, for your records, I am on Custom ROM (SuperMan 2.8 N) and a Custom Kernel as well.
Happy Partitioning!
thanx a lot. worked well on my sony xperia z3 tablet compact (spg611) and android 6.0.1.
i have no issues with camera or any other app and the figures of free memory are correct displayed as well.
i made 16gb of my 64gb sdcard ready for adoptable storage.
before i had about 500mb free internal memory no i got additional 16 gb for that, so nice
iam still not able to move existing apps to that 16gb (still the "not enough storage" error message)
but if i install an app new, then ist goes directly to the new storage.
Thanks.
This method does work for Android 7.1.1 on a non-rooted Lenovo Tab 4 8 inch; root not needed because obviously unlike Samsung and some others, the default ROM is near pure ASOP and adoptable storage is already enabled.
Things working fine and reading fine, but I am getting "New SD card detected" every reboot. It's pretty annoying but haven't found a fix as yet (please report if you do). Tried formatting the portable half as another user did, but that only seemed to then mess with the internal partition and make it tell me to reinsert.... which then lead to a mess and having to run adb and partition clean again.
So for now I'm just dealing with the message on boot and dismiss it.
Edit: can also confirm that it doesn't like certain percentage numbers as another user said. I tried 94 and got an error. What are permissable not sure, but 90 worked fine for me, so if you get an error message, try rounding down (or up) to the nearest 10.
Electriccars said:
Rename the adopted storage. If it had the same name as the portable storage partition then it may prevent one of the partitions from being available over USB MTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can I rename the partition?
I've already configured my Samsung 256gb sdcard as internal storage using adb back on marshmallow. However, because of this method, my internal storage numbers are all out of wack. Everyone is aware of this, I'm sure.
My question is in regards to the nougat update. Did the nougat update bring built-in adoptable storage, or do you still have to take the adb route? There's an option I've never seen before in storage settings. It reads "Format as portable storage". Does this mean that there may be a "Format as internal storage" option? Can someone who has a clean micro sdcard laying around check? If I can set adoptable storage using a built-in OS level function, maybe we could get correct storage numbers?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/58ceb7f418d2f/Screenshot_20170319-114624.png?
Briankbl said:
I've already configured my Samsung 256gb sdcard as internal storage using adb back on marshmallow. However, because of this method, my internal storage numbers are all out of wack. Everyone is aware of this, I'm sure.
My question is in regards to the nougat update. Did the nougat update bring built-in adoptable storage, or do you still have to take the adb route? There's an option I've never seen before in storage settings. It reads "Format as portable storage". Does this mean that there may be a "Format as internal storage" option? Can someone who has a clean micro sdcard laying around check? If I can set adoptable storage using a built-in OS level function, maybe we could get correct storage numbers?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/58ceb7f418d2f/Screenshot_20170319-114624.png?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung couldn't care less about Adoptable Storage. So no, Nougat did not bring it.
I've read on other threads that adoptable storage actually slows the phone down. Is there any truth to that?
I'd guess that depends on the card to some degree
Sent from my Rooted Galaxy S7 EDGE on Android 7.0 Nougat, here's the instructions how to do it!
Samsung Galaxy Tab A SM -T550, 8 inch, 16 GB storage, Android Marshmallow.
Any way I can install programs to a sd card instead ?
Thank you.
I have found a partial solution.
I cannot directly install apps to my sd card, but I can move the installed apps to my sd card.
The method to move/transfer installed apps to sd card is from this link :
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00050601/
In these boards there is a patch to enable adoptable storage for Marshmallow, on the other hand if you are rooted and you partition your SD card to have two primary partitions (fat&ext2/4) than you can use an app similar to Apps2sd for those needs as well, which I do on my tablet, that is not Marshmallow, otherwise I would use the adoptable storage patch. Just look around in the boards.
Edit; here's the link for the adoptable storage patch
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/patch-adoptable-storage-enabler-t3507387
zenful said:
In these boards there is a patch to enable adoptable storage for Marshmallow, on the other hand if you are rooted and you partition your SD card to have two primary partitions (fat&ext2/4) than you can use an app similar to Apps2sd for those needs as well, which I do on my tablet, that is not Marshmallow, otherwise I would use the adoptable storage patch. Just look around in the boards.
Edit; here's the link for the adoptable storage patch
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/patch-adoptable-storage-enabler-t3507387
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The adaptable storage method works on rooted, stock Nougat as well. Just got my tablet with 7.0 already on it and was able to get it done.