Moto E4 (Verizon) [xt1767] Move Apps to SD without root - Moto E4 Questions & Answers

This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?

Raztan said:
This phone has no root and likely never will.
Is there anyway to move apps to the sdcard without formatting to internal (adopted storage)?
I don't want to do that because It encrypts the card and im fearful if the phone was ever damaged I'd never be able to pull the card and recover anything.
At the very least is there a way to shuffle off the OBB files to the sdcard without root?
Bonus question: is there a fix for this if root was possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.

dandrumheller said:
Not that I'm aware of. But you could do a hybrid sd card to put apps on the adopted partition, and keep your photos/music/other stuff on a standard unencrypted partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?

Raztan said:
Genius, That sounds like a workable solution.
So do I need to format the card in any special way or can I just repartition the card in half and android will see both partitions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.

dandrumheller said:
Here's the guide I followed:
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html?m=1
I got yelled at over on Reddit for suggesting this for to the potential for killing your SD card (as they're not 'designed' for this much read write action). That may be true. I've been running this way with no issues for over a year. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been following a similar dual partition practice on a rooted Android 5.x device using symbolic links to migrate apps to the ext4 formatted partition while retaining a larger FAT32 partition for general use. I used the free version of Partition Wizard on Windows to format the SD card to my liking. To date no issues with card endurance.
I never considered this approach for adoptable storage until seeing your post! Very interested in trying this on on an unrooted Android 6 device that's getting a little snug on internal storage. I'll post outcomes if they differ from your findings.
Thanks again for sharing!

Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?

Raztan said:
Confirm, Works on Verizon Moto E4
I tried to be clever about it and repartitioned with Gparted, Then aligned the fat under linux mint.
I popped the SDcard back in teh phone and it detected 2 SDcards.. great I thought.. I went into the smaller partition 48gb / 10gb
Hit internal memory format.. to my horror it took over the entire card..
I tried the guide and it worked fine, although you're sort of at it's mercy on how it formats.. it's a fairly simple procedure.
I am somewhat confused though after I did it before I moved anything to the card it says 5.5gb of space is being taken by "system" on the internal portion of the sdcard, It says total internal memory is 32gb but actually it should be more like 26gb (16 onboard + 10gb sdcard)
Im seriously confused on how to tell what files are stored on the sdcard and what's stored on the onboard memory.. it shows them separate under "storage" but ES explorer just shows the 48gb fat partition and the 10gb.. does not seem to be able to separate the internal and the sdcard, but it shows total space as 10gb so something really wrong there.
Maybe cause Im using a old version of ES before it went to hell.. 4.0.3 I think.
Im not sure now when I select sdcard if im getting the 48gb portion the SDCard or the 10gb "adopted storage" sdcard..
Very confusing.
EDIT: Ok I think I see what's going on.
The 10gb Im seeing is actual internal memory.. So it does not appear I can access the 10gb I set aside on the sdcard at all.. is that how it's suppose to work?
I installed a few large games, If I go into storage and click on the 10GB partition it says each game is saving about 50mb out of about 700mb /ea on the card.. whoa what a savings, I don't what that 50mb is but it sure ain't the huge ass obb file sitting in internal memory.
If I go into the app's data storage list it says it's storing to the adopted 10gb but obviously that's a lie since only a fraction is actually making it to the card...
if this is the best I can hope for out of adopted storage I'd be better off just going full portable.
Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what the method is for determining where a specific app lands when installed. Maybe up to the developer? But going into settings > storage shows me what's below. Drill down to the apps section, and you can manually choose what storage you want for each app.
This is my setup with a 128gb card with 32gb used as adopted storage.

Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.

Raztan said:
Your's looks similar to mine.
Are you able to actually access the adopted storage partition... browse for files? see I can't.. I can see internal storage and the public portion of the sdcard..
The adopted storage is not accessible via file manager.
It does not look like it will switch over once internal is full either.. I filled up the internal memory and then tried to install a app and it is telling me im out of space.
If this is the the way adopted storage is suppose to work it's fairly useless imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not aware of any file manager that can see the adopted storage. Haven't filled up internal to know if it will "spill over".
Some apps cannot be moved to adopted. Some install there by default.
My use case is to dump my low use or less resource demanding apps to the adopted storage, freeing internal faster storage for high use apps.
It's certainly not an ideal solution, but it at least provides an option for reducing limited internal storage...

I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it

Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies

Raztan said:
I gotcha, I can only seem to get about 50mb's to transfer over, dead trigger 2 and hitman sniper
the bulk of it (the OBB files) stick around on internal whether or not I tell it to "change" to the sdcard or not..
Oh well Im just gonna reformat to portable and just limit what I install.. Why does google do this crap to us.
I lived without root on some of my previous phones but from here on out if it don't have root I got no use for it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't worth the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.

Davey126 said:
I messed around with this for a bit. Was able to partition the card to my liking using the simple sm command outlined in this post (manual method). Much easier and more understandable than the previously linked approach IMO. Installed and moved a few things; everything worked as expected although the feedback from Google's storage panel is less than reassuring. They really want to make the process transparent and in doing so dilute the detail that enthusiasts appreciate.
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
There are random posts mentioning lost of home screen icons on reboots and other 'weirdness' when using adopted storage. I didn't experience any of that but also didn't spend much time testing.
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.

dandrumheller said:
Any icons on home screens for apps that are in adopted storage will vanish after reboot until the device has time to re read adopted storage. Size and speed of card, and amount of data there all impact this. Pretty sure widgets are unavailable to apps on adopted storage as well.
It pretty much works about the same as the old apps2sd / link2sd options that we had to use back in the days of tiny on device storage sizes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.

Davey126 said:
I have used symbolic linking (Apps2SD/Link2SD/etc) for sometime on rooted devices and never ran into such issues. I am also able to migrate apps and all associated data w/o limitation.
As you pointed out hardware/card speed and quantity of data likely are likely factors when using adopted storage. There is less setup and boot verification with symbolic linking; much of that takes place before the device is ready for user input. It's not a perfect solution as the mount scripts sometimes get borked and have to be rebuilt but supervisory apps detect/correct that with minimal intervention.
The biggest benefit of adoptable storage is it can be used on stock/unrooted devices. It's also relatively transparent for noobs. Beyond that it's more of a PiTA IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been a long time since I've played with symbolic linking. At the time it felt pretty cumbersome to me, relative to my current experience with adopted storage. Definitely less user control and fine tuning with adopted though. Also, as you mention, no root required.

Davey126 said:
Someone asked if you could see inside adopted storage with a standard file manager. Nope, as the contents are encrypted and Google does not provide an API TTBOMK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Davey126 said:
In the end I stepped away and returned the entire SD card to portable storage as the benefit wasn't work the potential hassles. That said, I could see this as a potential solution for those who are bumping up against the limits of internal storage AND need/want to reserve part of the SD card for general purpose storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
madbat99 said:
NVM, forgot you said no root. My apologies
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.

Raztan said:
Ya that sucks, It wouldn't be so bad if it would just move the largest chunk of an app over which on games is the OBB file(s)
Im sure google thinks this is better than the old move to sdcard option but imo they took a big step back.
I read their reasoning is how "wild west" the sdcard access was.. ya well if they're so worried about security maybe crack down on the overly abusive permissions on apps.. you can control some access, but some permissions they just treat like it's no big deal.
I guess google knows best right? /sarcasm.
Ya that's where Im at, Im just gonna be real selective about what I install, with only 16gb's about 5 of which is the system (that's crazy imo that android needs that much space) leaving only around 10-11gb of user space a few large games can really eat it up on top of cache, and other apps.
I think GTA SA for example takes like 2-3 gb (iirc, been a while)
Not at all, Im also interested in root solutions it won't help me on this phone but it would be good to know what other options are out there..
Next phone has to have root.. no two ways about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising. But then I remembered that no root was mentioned.
https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/xposed/com.smartmadsoft.xposed.obbonsd

madbat99 said:
I was going to say the Xposed module obb on SD looks promising.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?

Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works great on my moto e4 sprint (virgin mobile). And rovo89 just updated it for Oreo (beta of course), so it should be good. I'm using it with greenify, amplify, and gravitybox.

Raztan said:
Ya exposed framework is one of my favorite things on a rooted device, although someone told me it's semi broken on a lot of newer devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Outdated info; works fine on Marshmallow, Nougat and (very soon) Oreo.

Related

Folder structure

I am trying to understand the folder structure on the TF.
I have a 16GB micros SD card and I want all data type files to be saved there e.g. photos, downloads, music etc.
There is a folder at the top level called /SDCARD and I had assumed that this was the MicroSD card and all this sort of data is being stored in sub folder from there.
I have now realised that the MicroSD card is actually accessed from /Removable/MicroSD and that the TF has not stored anything on it. I have just moved my music and video to there.
Can I move all the other SDCARD subfolders to /Removable/MicroSD and then delete the SDCARD folder?
I can't see the point of having a folder called SDCARD it is very misleading.
Thanks for any help.
This is your internal storage. I'm not sure why it is displayed this way, maybe that will become standard in Gingerbread?
You cannot 'delete' the SDCARD folder. It is a mount point for the remainder of your internal storage (16GB or 32GB)
As bizarre as it seems when compared to a phone, this actually makes more sense. My Droid X has 6.5GB of the 8GB internal memory put aside for the /data partition. Despite having the phone for a full year and having a ton of apps installed, /data still has 5GB free. That's 5GB of storage I do not have access to, so it's effectively wasted.
On the ASUS (and others HC tabs?) that space exists as a virtual device /dev/fuse and is mounted as /mnt/sdcard. A symbolic link exists /sdcard which points to the mount point. The net result is, you have the majority of free space on the internal memory available to you. If you didn't, there'd be no incentive to buy the 32GB version over the 16GB version.
It is called /sdcard to maintain the illusion within the OS. This space, like it or not, is your primary storage. It makes your actual sdcard more of a transient storage location, great for just music, movies, etc., that you do not necessarily want to keep on the device long term. This is a great advantage as you can keep multiple sdcards with different content and not worry about messing up the core OS storage needs.
Be aware that the OS and apps expect to find certain data in /sdcard and moving the folders to your 'external' card will only force these apps and processes to recreate the folders in /sdcard. Also some apps will have lost some of their data and may not operate as expected or will act as when they were first installed (games will redownload supporting data, for example)
Sent from my rooted ASUS Transformer running PRIME 1.4
jhanford said:
You cannot 'delete' the SDCARD folder. It is a mount point for the remainder of your internal storage (16GB or 32GB)
As bizarre as it seems when compared to a phone, this actually makes more sense. My Droid X has 6.5GB of the 8GB internal memory put aside for the /data partition. Despite having the phone for a full year and having a ton of apps installed, /data still has 5GB free. That's 5GB of storage I do not have access to, so it's effectively wasted.
On the ASUS (and others HC tabs?) that space exists as a virtual device /dev/fuse and is mounted as /mnt/sdcard. A symbolic link exists /sdcard which points to the mount point. The net result is, you have the majority of free space on the internal memory available to you. If you didn't, there'd be no incentive to buy the 32GB version over the 16GB version.
It is called /sdcard to maintain the illusion within the OS. This space, like it or not, is your primary storage. It makes your actual sdcard more of a transient storage location, great for just music, movies, etc., that you do not necessarily want to keep on the device long term. This is a great advantage as you can keep multiple sdcards with different content and not worry about messing up the core OS storage needs.
Be aware that the OS and apps expect to find certain data in /sdcard and moving the folders to your 'external' card will only force these apps and processes to recreate the folders in /sdcard. Also some apps will have lost some of their data and may not operate as expected or will act as when they were first installed (games will redownload supporting data, for example)
Sent from my rooted ASUS Transformer running PRIME 1.4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reading your explanation, it makes better sense to me. I was a bit annoyed, but I see how this could work to my favor. Using just the actual SD cards for movies, music, ect.
Moving data - Video
Sorry, I find what is said here a little disconcerting.
Why have SD cards and USB devices attached (eg. USB Flash drives, hard drives) when the data flow only goes one way, "in", and not out.
If I want to edit a video, the files are too large to email.
I can't find a way to move the video to an external device.
All one can do, as far as I can tell, is to upload the unedited video to YouTube.
Once there initially one get an error message saying that the file type is not recognized. It is...eventually, but only after it's fully processed. This is really confusing to the user. You'd think Google would give Android users a processing message rather than something that makes you think there is no way to view and share your video other than your tablet.
I couldn't find a way to tag a video either.
The default seemed to be "entertainment."
The options for sharing video are much to limited.
The only site you can upload a video to is YouTube.
I'd love to be able to put it on another site (e.g. a personal/corporate website).
I sure wish there were a way of off-loading and storing a folder generated from the Tablet to an external device, especially one with external ports like the Transformer.
If anyone knows of an app to do two way data flows, I'd sure like to know about it because my SHDC card and USB Flash drives look so lonely with nothing to do.
[email protected] said:
Sorry, I find what is said here a little disconcerting.
Why have SD cards and USB devices attached (eg. USB Flash drives, hard drives) when the data flow only goes one way, "in", and not out.
If I want to edit a video, the files are too large to email.
I can't find a way to move the video to an external device.
All one can do, as far as I can tell, is to upload the unedited video to YouTube.
Once there initially one get an error message saying that the file type is not recognized. It is...eventually, but only after it's fully processed. This is really confusing to the user. You'd think Google would give Android users a processing message rather than something that makes you think there is no way to view and share your video other than your tablet.
I couldn't find a way to tag a video either.
The default seemed to be "entertainment."
The options for sharing video are much to limited.
The only site you can upload a video to is YouTube.
I'd love to be able to put it on another site (e.g. a personal/corporate website).
I sure wish there were a way of off-loading and storing a folder generated from the Tablet to an external device, especially one with external ports like the Transformer.
If anyone knows of an app to do two way data flows, I'd sure like to know about it because my SHDC card and USB Flash drives look so lonely with nothing to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing stopping you from copy files from the internal storage to an external sdcard. From the built-in file manager you can select a folder using the check boxes to the left of it, and then click the Copy or Cut button at the top of the screen, then navigate up until you see "Removable". Tap that and then "MicroSD" and then you can tap "Paste" at the top of the screen to copy or move to the new location.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Drive letters or some kind of unique ID from the root would be favorable. I know it's meant to adapt to Android, but last time I checked, Honeycomb was a separat version of the OS. It's unfortunate that it has to fool both the user and itself to be effective.
moo99 said:
Drive letters or some kind of unique ID from the root would be favorable. I know it's meant to adapt to Android, but last time I checked, Honeycomb was a separat version of the OS. It's unfortunate that it has to fool both the user and itself to be effective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still maintains the overall Adroid/Linux filesystem structure, there are no lettered drives in *NIX.
I know that, bru. Calling it , I dont know, "Internal" instead of "SD Card" would make a little sense considering there are two separate ports for SD Cards on there. Writing an alias isnt that complicated

Phone is running really smooth after I reformatted sd card.....

I was trying to fix my friend's evo and so I formatted my sd card to try to boot his, but when I put it back in my phone I realized mine was partitioned to run apps off of it so I had to reinstall apps. I did not re partition it. Not sure why some say they are installed on the sd card and some on the phone, but it is running much faster with no lag. It's no big deal, but I imagine running apps off the sd card really lags. But I did think it needed to be partitioned unless the Kings Shooter Rom can do it without partitioning. Maybe it wasn't partitioned before, but I could have swarn I had 1gb for apps.
Depends on your card class mines a class 6 but reads faster since I use SD booster to add a 2048 cache and my speeds are really high 11.5mbps write and 30.5mbps read so I notice no lag except on boot while my card has to mount and load once it mounts all my apps on the partition load in less than 30 seconds u.can use the app SD tools to find out your cards class and read/write speed
Sent from my Classic-EViLizED-ToMAToFiED-EVo4g-
-EViL-KoNCEPTz- said:
Depends on your card class mines a class 6 but reads faster since I use SD booster to add a 2048 cache and my speeds are really high 11.5mbps write and 30.5mbps read so I notice no lag except on boot while my card has to mount and load once it mounts all my apps on the partition load in less than 30 seconds u.can use the app SD tools to find out your cards class and read/write speed
Sent from my Classic-EViLizED-ToMAToFiED-EVo4g-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, good to know. I knew there was a difference but I didn't realize how slow my card is. It's the stock 8gb one that came with the phone. It's great now, and I don't have too many apps or I would buy one like yours. I will try the app sd tool. Is it on the market? I'll check now.
Yea its on the market as well as SD-booster it will allow u to boost your card speeds the stock.card is a class 2 which is fairly slow but if u set a 2048 cache with SD-booster you should get about class 6 speeds
Sent from my Classic-EViLizED-ToMAToFiED-EVo4g-
Flash memory also gets slow over time due to garbage collection. It can only be restored to its full speed again by formatting it. I copy everything off to my computer, format it, then copy it all back. Phone doesn't know the difference so nothing gets messed up.
I do the same about once a week or so when I backup my card to the pc I usually do a quick format on pc reparation//format in recovery then reload everything from the pc
Sent from my Classic-EViLizED-ToMAToFiED-EVo4g-
You don't ever NEED to partition. I never did but thats because I don't have a lot if useless apps. Only keep apps that you use atleast weekly
Having trouble with AOSP? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1295702
I didn't reformat my SD card, I was playing around with my dalvik cache. Used a2sd to move it to my cache partition, bad idea (kept running out of space) so I moved it back. After I was done everything seems to run a lot smoother. Guess it helps to wipe everything down every now and then.
Crossrocker said:
You don't ever NEED to partition. I never did but thats because I don't have a lot if useless apps. Only keep apps that you use atleast weekly
Having trouble with AOSP? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1295702
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I partition cuz I have a ton of stuff I use on my phone mostly games for me and my 5 year old but I also partition cuz I find kkeeping my internal storage high makes my phone run better
Sent from my Classic-EViLizED-ToMAToFiED-EVo4g-
awesome
Soulfire_ said:
Flash memory also gets slow over time due to garbage collection. It can only be restored to its full speed again by formatting it. I copy everything off to my computer, format it, then copy it all back. Phone doesn't know the difference so nothing gets messed up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make sure so I don't screw anything up. We're talking about the memory we have when we plug the phone into the pc with the usb cable. That makes total sense since the pc is the same way but there is onboard tools to clean up the hd.
jeffrimerman said:
Just to make sure so I don't screw anything up. We're talking about the memory we have when we plug the phone into the pc with the usb cable. That makes total sense since the pc is the same way but there is onboard tools to clean up the hd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or are we talking about the sd card so that is the reason the phone is smoother since I did format it?
jeffrimerman said:
or are we talking about the sd card so that is the reason the phone is smoother since I did format it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm talking about the SD Card, wasn't that the topic?
I just mounted it as a disk drive.
Warning though - your music playlists WILL BE CLEARED. Back up the playlist first.
(music disappears from the playlist if it is changed in any way, like renaming files, moving them, etc)
There is the ROM, RAM, and SD card, but is there also internal memory that isn't the ROM? The memory that we download apps to internally is like an onboard sd card right? Could this memory be reformatted to improve performance or maybe it's only the sd card that gets all the garbage accumulating?
jeffrimerman said:
There is the ROM, RAM, and SD card, but is there also internal memory that isn't the ROM? The memory that we download apps to internally is like an onboard sd card right? Could this memory be reformatted to improve performance or maybe it's only the sd card that gets all the garbage accumulating?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good question - it would be susceptible to the same shortfalls of degraded performance over time like all flash memory.
Isn't that one of the things we format from recovery?
Soulfire_ said:
That's a good question - it would be susceptible to the same shortfalls of degraded performance over time like all flash memory.
Isn't that one of the things we format from recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It probably is. If we were to go into recovery and format it, would we lose our apps stored in our internal memory?
My money would be on "yes".
I asked Mr. Google to check the WWW and this is one of the things I found
"I did it, it doesn't wipe the os. Actually, it deleted only 'user part of the internal sd card' and some applications. I made a factory reset then formatted, so I am not sure about the applications but, sure, it doesn't delete the os. "
there were lots of threads so yeah, the apps would be gone. It's too bad there isn't or maybe there is an app that does the same as defrag in windows to clean things up internally.
Comments I read off the same questions about internal memory:
Android is Linux, not Windows, the system doesn't have a chance to get fragmented because Linux is constantly doing "housekeeping" in the background (Kinda says a lot about Windows, eh?). I wouldn't trust any Windows OS to do anything with a Linux OS, it's just a recipe for disaster.
Don't ever screw with the internal memory. There have been several threads here and elsewhere in which people accidentally formatted the internal instead of the SD card when both drives showed up on the PC. Creates a situation nobody wants to be in.
Defragging is very very bad for flash storage. There is a limit to how many times you can write to each location on the "disk". Since defragging basically rewrites the entire "disk" multiple times, it seriously eats into the life of the "disk".
It also is largely unnecessary since it has much faster seek time than a physical hard disk, and has been pointed out the storage is far less likely to become fragmented on a phone.
Use Titanium Backup...and you lose nothing. Simple format...load favorite ROM..reinstall apps from TB.
jeffrimerman said:
Comments I read off the same questions about internal memory:
Android is Linux, not Windows, the system doesn't have a chance to get fragmented because Linux is constantly doing "housekeeping" in the background (Kinda says a lot about Windows, eh?). I wouldn't trust any Windows OS to do anything with a Linux OS, it's just a recipe for disaster.
Don't ever screw with the internal memory. There have been several threads here and elsewhere in which people accidentally formatted the internal instead of the SD card when both drives showed up on the PC. Creates a situation nobody wants to be in.
Defragging is very very bad for flash storage. There is a limit to how many times you can write to each location on the "disk". Since defragging basically rewrites the entire "disk" multiple times, it seriously eats into the life of the "disk".
It also is largely unnecessary since it has much faster seek time than a physical hard disk, and has been pointed out the storage is far less likely to become fragmented on a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We aren't talking about fragmentation. We're talking about what some companies call "garbage collection", or TRIM in the context of SSD's. Look that up

[Q] Questions about Sprint S4 sizes and interla/external storage.

I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.
Cyber Akuma said:
I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way samsung does it is actually very anoying. First thing they do is cut off 8.5 gigs of storage, thats your "internal memory" for system stuff. That's untouchable. You then have 9gigs give or take left for apps and the like which is EMULATED external storage. This emulated bit confuses android and so your real external sd card is only usable for movies and music. The only way to put apps on it would be to root your phone and use folder mount (which for some reason isn't working for me yet). So to sum it up:
16gb +ext sd card (lets say 32 gb)
8ish gb- system internal
9ish gb-apps EMULATED external
32 gb- movies, music, books/media BUT NO APPS UNLESS YOU ROOT REAL external
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.
Cyber Akuma said:
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is an issue with all honeycomb plus android phones. Google is trying to phase out the external sd card while increasing the internal memory. Well that's all good and fine EXCEPT that we are right in the middle of the phase out process where the sd cards are too small for that. 2-3 years from now googles plan will work, but samsung has to be on board for that to happen. For now the only thing you can do is use folder mount or wait for ext2intSD script. It will swap it so your external sdcard works as your internal and vice versa. However, we will have to wait for that to be released.
I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.
Cyber Akuma said:
I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why is that android its self, the code that google supplies, has to create partitions in order for it to work with only one internal sdcard so that the average user does not corrupt the system somehow. The emulated external storage is what google expects you to use so that you can't mess up. However, samsung just adds in an sdcard without changing anything which means its not set up correctly. This is a problem with all new sd card phones and finally think of folder mount as a better link2sd
But aren't the system partition and the internal storage partition separate partitions? I don't understand why the rest of the memory outside of the system partition needs to be an emulated external instead of just being an internal storage partition like on phones that do not have a large amount of internal memory.
Also, why do we have to link folders or use link2sd scripts and other such work-arounds? Can't we re-partition the internal memory with a custom recovery or through the bootloader?
not work brother
Sent from my ST18i using xda app-developers app
deadger said:
not work brother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.... what? I have no idea what that means.
So, can the phone be repartitioned if you have root access? And is only the Sprint version partitioned like this, or all of them?

Been trying to do this for two years, still need to use sd card as internal memory

I ran out of storage for new apps a long time ago. My device is kind of useless for new things because there is no internal memory for INSTALLING APPS, even after removing 75% of my apps which includes system apps. There is just no more space. It still has 2gb of internal memory left BUT THAT CANNOT BE USED FOR INSTALLING APPS, stupidly. There are 8GB of total internal storage space.
I have plenty of storage for data. Just not for apps. I have a 32GB SD card as well.
App2SD apps, I maximized all possible data to be moved.
Apps with data larger than 20MB I just deleted the whole apps.
Still no more space.
Additionally, it means I CANNOT use this tablet for things like games, or for storing map data from gopilot live as a backup in case my phone dies. Which is VERY limiting. Especially because I used to like to play games on it but I had to remove all the games to make way for utilities.
Thus I DESPERATELY NEED to be able to install UNLIMITED NUMBER OF APPS using the SD card for internal storage.
I tried the vold.fstab method HERE, but it did not work.
PLEASE HELP!!! THANK YOU!!!
p.s. I WOULD BUY A NEW TABLET WITH MORE MEMORY BUT NO 7.0 INCH TABLET EXISTS THAT IS BETTER THAN THE TAB 4 BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL MAKING HUGE 8.0 and 8.4 INCH TABLETS THAT ARE TOO BIG SO I AM STUCK WITH THE TAB 4.
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
I ran out of storage for new apps a long time ago. My device is kind of useless for new things because there is no internal memory for INSTALLING APPS, even after removing 75% of my apps which includes system apps. There is just no more space. It still has 2gb of internal memory left BUT THAT CANNOT BE USED FOR INSTALLING APPS, stupidly. There are 8GB of total internal storage space.
I have plenty of storage for data. Just not for apps. I have a 32GB SD card as well.
App2SD apps, I maximized all possible data to be moved.
Apps with data larger than 20MB I just deleted the whole apps.
Still no more space.
Additionally, it means I CANNOT use this tablet for things like games, or for storing map data from gopilot live as a backup in case my phone dies. Which is VERY limiting. Especially because I used to like to play games on it but I had to remove all the games to make way for utilities.
Thus I DESPERATELY NEED to be able to install UNLIMITED NUMBER OF APPS using the SD card for internal storage.
I tried the vold.fstab method HERE, but it did not work.
PLEASE HELP!!! THANK YOU!!!
p.s. I WOULD BUY A NEW TABLET WITH MORE MEMORY BUT NO 7.0 INCH TABLET EXISTS THAT IS BETTER THAN THE TAB 4 BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL MAKING HUGE 8.0 and 8.4 INCH TABLETS THAT ARE TOO BIG SO I AM STUCK WITH THE TAB 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'd say you just need test different apps all over and over akd different methods from XDA, i have on my phone sdcard as internal memory but same method wont work on tab 4..... you should use folder mount to move appdata to sdcard and use it from there, it helps if you have big app data on internal sd card.
thelous said:
i'd say you just need test different apps all over and over akd different methods from XDA, i have on my phone sdcard as internal memory but same method wont work on tab 4..... you should use folder mount to move appdata to sdcard and use it from there, it helps if you have big app data on internal sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I tried that already. It does Not work because of the error "this has been limited due to kitkat so you're not authorized" or something to that extent. It's not an error, it is a limitation of the kitkat (and all subsequent) operating systems. Google did that on purpose to try to force people to have to upgrade their phone.
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
No I tried that already. It does Not work because of the error "this has been limited due to kitkat so you're not authorized" or something to that extent. It's not an error, it is a limitation of the kitkat (and all subsequent) operating systems. Google did that on purpose to try to force people to have to upgrade their phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you could install cyanogenmod to fix issue.....
bump
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Extreme measures is NOT a solution. That's like saying, "I'm having an issue with my computer..." and someone saying, "well, you could always get a new computer." NO. Not a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogenmod isn't an extreme solution, it runs better than touchwiz IMO and it takes up significantly less memory, which is a fact. It's more like saying, "I don't like Windows," and the reply being, "You should try out Ubuntu," especially since both cyanogenmod, like Ubuntu, is completely free
bump
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Reinstalling my entire OS is not a solution. Get over it. I am not reinstalling a new OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a quote like that you are on the wrong website my friend. Sorry for trying to help. And it is a valid solution since it would've solved the problem
Bump
Waiting for a real solution to the actual problem.
uh if youre not ready to install different rom i guess theres no solution
I'm having the exact same dilemma. In my case, not going to CM (or another rom/firmware/kernel..) is due to the fact that my children use the tablets, so the KidsMode needs to work. I've looked at that one from Zoodles, and its rubbish compared to the Samsung one available on their Galaxy devices. My original post never had any reply other than my own update.
By the way: I'm still searching for a solution to this... If only Samsung would/could release Marshmallow on this tablet, the Adoptable Storage option could be used...
Now, if you can just hold your breath...
lol I know right...?
Full disclosure: I've given up hope of finding a solution that will work with (essentially) stock 4.4.2, so now I'm looking into how to get the TouchWiz framework to run on a rom/kernel that DOES support support an external/internal swap.
Of course, that does nothing to help the OP, but IMO the best solution has already been presented to him: Install a custom ROM that supports what he needs. It's still the best solution since there don't seem to be any TouchWiz-dependent apps he needs.
Years later still no solution
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Years later still no solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are willing to root your device you can use Apps2sd to actually move(link) whole app into sd card.
You'll need to repartition your sd card to do it, but there are good guides to do it.
EDIT:
Oh it's renamed app2sd but here is the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=fi for it
you can also try link2sd app
keikari said:
If you are willing to root your device you can use Apps2sd to actually move(link) whole app into sd card.
You'll need to repartition your sd card to do it, but there are good guides to do it.
EDIT:
Oh it's renamed app2sd but here is the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=fi for it
you can also try link2sd app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very limited and actually doesn't do anything more than the native android system does already, ever since about 2013 or so
zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
That's very limited and actually doesn't do anything more than the native android system does already, ever since about 2013 or so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about how limited it is, but it's completly different than native android moving apps to sd. Linking is like actually increasing your devices internal memory(not really but somethign like that). Also it's easiest/(propably)best way to get more memory for apps.

S7/Edge SD card Question

I heard a few days back about being able to move apps onto the sd card but has anyone been able to confirm whether or not app data from moved apps will be stored in the SD card or the phone?
Haven't been lucky enough to get my pre order yet but thank you for the answer.
Ooh, and am wondering are the unstable remounting/unmounting of SD cards just restricted to a few devices or are a more widespread problem due to architecture, if anyone knows :S
shadowloop said:
I heard a few days back about being able to move apps onto the sd card but has anyone been able to confirm whether or not app data from moved apps will be stored in the SD card or the phone?
Haven't been lucky enough to get my pre order yet but thank you for the answer.
Ooh, and am wondering are the unstable remounting/unmounting of SD cards just restricted to a few devices or are a more widespread problem due to architecture, if anyone knows :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to know the same thing.
I'm not sure why all of a sudden this is news. Are there just a lot of people new to Android? Back when expandable storage was still popular on Android devices you could always do this, albeit there were some restrictions on which app can be moved. It also depended on the developer of the app to make some of the data move to SD. If you're new, the actual app stays on the phone in a partition you can't access unless you have root access. All the other data that would be stored on the phones internal storage (and could be accessible to users) could be moved to SD card.
I also find people complaining about adoptable storage ridiculous.
ekjl said:
I'm not sure why all of a sudden this is news. Are there just a lot of people new to Android? Back when expandable storage was still popular on Android devices you could always do this, albeit there were some restrictions on which app can be moved. It also depended on the developer of the app to make some of the data move to SD. If you're new, the actual app stays on the phone in a partition you can't access unless you have root access. All the other data that would be stored on the phones internal storage (and could be accessible to users) could be moved to SD card.
I also find people complaining about adoptable storage ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, I am an android user; I am just new to using SD card on android (on an old moto x). Just to clear things up, the question would by no means be related to the adoptable storage media coverage which I too, find pointless. I am simply trying to gauge the size of the SD card I am going to purchase as well as getting a general idea of how conscious I would have to be with my 20ish GB of internal storage when downloading apps with the phone.
EDIT: Ah, okok, it is easier now to just research the SD card app data storage for each individual app that I'm concerned about. Thanks!
Anyways, as a newbie, taking from your post above, when moving the app to SD card, the actual app itself (download size) would stay in a partition in internal storage and, depending on the individual apps, some information would be migrated to SD and some data wouldn't? So it is probable that apps such as Spotify and Amazon Video would store any offline media files in internal storage regardless of moving to SD card, to prevent potential access by users?
Thanks!
Which sd card would be the best for this phone?
Sent from my Xperia Z Ultra using Tapatalk
shadowloop said:
Anyways, as a newbie, taking from your post above, when moving the app to SD card, the actual app itself (download size) would stay in a partition in internal storage and, depending on the individual apps, some information would be migrated to SD and some data wouldn't? So it is probable that apps such as Spotify and Amazon Video would store any offline media files in internal storage regardless of moving to SD card, to prevent potential access by users?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are absolutely correct.

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