is it possible to unite the internal memory and the SD card?
From what I've read, if you're on Nougat, getting adaptable storage is almost impossible if you're on stock. Marshmallow and Oreo is apparently easier. Just remember, the external SD card is much slower than your internal memory, so you might actually experience slow downs depending on if/when your apps start installing themselves on the SD card instead of your internal memory.
Here is some info I've scraped on the web:
https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-format-microsd-cards-as-internal-storage
https://www.xda-developers.com/enable-adoptable-storage-for-galaxy-s7-and-s7-edge/
Just know that once that happens, you cannot turn off adaptable storage without wiping your storage, so if you ever decide to go back to keeping them separate, then you'll need to ensure you backup any important data (photos, music, app settings that do NOT backup to Google Play) before you stop using adaptable storage.
Related
It's going to interesting when we get Marshmallow and the option for internal memory to be extended by the (normally slower) SD card. How does this work - anyone using Marshmallow on another phone?
Does storage in the SD card act as an 'overflow' for internal memory? When content/apps end up there, it presumably can slow down access to the apps/content?
What happens if the SD card is removed and some (or even some part?!) of an app happens to reside of the SD card? Does it crash the phone?
This might explain it a bit
Thanks. The bit I (still) don't understand, then, is how you determine where apps, app data, and user data wind up in future.
So I install an SD card as internal memory extension... install a new app... when the app wind up? Where does its data wind up?
You don't determine anything, the choice is taken out of your hands and everything goes on to what is now the internal storage.
Yea
I was so excited for this feature, to be able to essentially grow the internal storage. However, now that I am using it, I am still running out of internal storage, and have to tell it to move apps to external storage. I could do that in Lolipop without adoptable storage. So what is the benefit?
You can move any app to adaptable storage now, not just some of them.
Not true, cant move google play music. Cant move system apps. Maybe you can move more, but still a total hassle. This is nothing like having larger internal storage, which is what was said before this came out.
I wouldn't really qualify it as a benefit but the adopted SD card is specifically formatted for your device whereas in LP the SD card maintained its original formatting. That's the difference. Perhaps there's some benefit in the new format system that I don't know about.
New android version Marshmallow has a feature to use microSD card as internal storage.
When Marshmallow detects a microSD card for the first time it asks to chose Portable or Internal storage mode.
If you choose "Use as portable storage" you will use it as before. You can save your photos, videos, some applications or their data,
backup/restore your phone, etc. and you can see your files if you take it out of your phone and connect to another device or PC, as usual.
But if you choose "Use as internal storage" and click "ERASE&FORMAT" button at next screen,
then your microSD card will be formatted as ext4 and encrypted. You will loose everything in your microSD card and it will
become your only internal storage. Now, If you take it out of your phone and connect to another device or PC, it will not possible to see your files
since it is encrypted. Your microSD is usable only with your phone.
Than, what is the advantage of using microSD card as internal storage?
If your phone's real internal storage very small (ex: 4gb) and you have trouble installing new apps then you may put a 32 GB microSD card and use it as internal storage. Then your internal storage will be 32 GB (Not total of 36GB).
It will act as your phone's internal storage.
Disadvantages?
microSD card used as internal storage is useless out of your phone since it is encrypted. You can not use it taking out of your phone and putting into another device to transfer your photos, music files, zipped ROM files etc.
It will not be visible as external storage anymore.
Phone's real internal storage is not visible.
So,
If your phone's real internal storage is not too small and especially if you want to use your external storage as usual, there is no need to use a microSD card as internal storage.
darkRd said:
New android version Marshmallow has a feature to use microSD card as internal storage.
When Marshmallow detects a microSD card for the first time it asks to chose Portable or Internal storage mode.
If you choose "Use as portable storage" you will use it as before. You can save your photos, videos, some applications or their data,
backup/restore your phone, etc. and you can see your files if you take it out of your phone and connect to another device or PC, as usual.
But if you choose "Use as internal storage" and click "ERASE&FORMAT" button at next screen,
then your microSD card will be formatted as ext4 and encrypted. You will loose everything in your microSD card and it will
become your only internal storage. Now, If you take it out of your phone and connect to another device or PC, it will not possible to see your files
since it is encrypted. Your microSD is usable only with your phone.
Than, what is the advantage of using microSD card as internal storage?
If your phone's real internal storage very small (ex: 4gb) and you have trouble installing new apps then you may put a 32 GB microSD card and use it as internal storage. Then your internal storage will be 32 GB (Not total of 36GB).
It will act as your phone's internal storage.
Disadvantages?
microSD card used as internal storage is useless out of your phone since it is encrypted. You can not use it taking out of your phone and putting into another device to transfer your photos, music files, zipped ROM files etc.
It will not be visible as external storage anymore.
Phone's real internal storage is not visible.
So,
If your phone's real internal storage is not too small and especially if you want to use your external storage as usual, there is no need to use a microSD card as internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No way to read or write in ext4 in pc???
jaswinprakash said:
No way to read or write in ext4 in pc???
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Click to collapse
Possible, on Linux
Ranpe said:
Possible, on Linux
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Click to collapse
But its still encrypted, so that won't help I guess. Also once you flash your phone or something, the contents won't be available anymore I think. It's just a guess though, I don't know how it is decrypted and all.
Sent from my MotoG3-TE using XDA Forums
jaswinprakash said:
No way to read or write in ext4 in pc???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be not possible out of your phone by anyway since it is encrypted.
I don't not know whether it is possible to extract encryption key from phone and decrypt the files using this key but this shouldn't be possible because of security reasons.
No one desires access to the important files in the sd card if it is captured by any one else.
darkRd said:
It seems to be not possible out of your phone by anyway since it is encrypted.
I don't not know whether it is possible to extract encryption key from phone and decrypt the files using this key but this shouldn't be possible because of security reasons.
No one desires access to the important files in the sd card if it is captured by any one else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible done it in my Lenovo A328. Courtesy of this mod:
http : / / forum.xda-developers.com / android / development / rom-flight-a328-custom-rom-based-150429-t3137708
MM brought the adopted internal storage option for SD cards, which combines your SD space with your device space. It still has a few bugs with certain apps but for the most part is pretty fluid. The traditional portable storage works as usually expected but also encounters some bugs in MM.
Personally I'm having a hard time choosing between the two and some people seem to dislike the adopted storage.
Which do you use and which do you prefer?
Now that twrp works adopted is almost mandatory for 16gb model.
I found Adoptable Storage poorly thought out and implemented. Google should've pushed devs to support it. It doesn't combine storage either. There are just two internal drives (one embedded, one SD).
Moving apps to the SD card now takes quite a few more steps. There's no overview of apps able to move or installed on the SD card, and no way to multi-select apps for moving.
On top of that, system apps completely ignore the adopted storage drive and you can't select what drive to store files on. It's supposed to be automatic, but it's not. Once you fill the eMMC, apps that don't support SD cards will start to fail as they can't store data.
Portable storage, I keep my music, movies, pictures, ROMs, and nandroids on my microsd card. Every once in a while I pop out the card and either move new media to it or move backups from my PC. I also sometimes wipe internal and accidentally wipe my roms and flashable zips, so in that case I pop out the memory card put it in my PC and download whatever I need from there and pop it back in. The option to manage media from a PC far outweighs having extra (half-baked) internal storage for me.
I haven't tried using adoptable storage yet with updated TWRP, but I find keeping the SD card as portable is more convenient if you're into flashing custom ROMs every few weeks/months. You can keep all your backups and other files on it and wipe everything else including the internal storage during clean flashes. I might look to see how well adoptable storage works now later.
nv2k said:
I haven't tried using adoptable storage yet with updated TWRP, but I find keeping the SD card as portable is more convenient if you're into flashing custom ROMs every few weeks/months. You can keep all your backups and other files on it and wipe everything else including the internal storage during clean flashes. I might look to see how well adoptable storage works now later.
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Say you don't flash ROMs very often, and usually have backups uploaded to the cloud. I'd there a dire need for a portal SD? Also, if adopted storage is used and you flash a ROM, does that essentially wipe all the apps/data?
In your case, portable storage wouldn't be necessary. As I haven't tested it, I can't say for sure how flashing new roms would work with adoptable storage. My guess is that you would only wipe the system if you want to keep your data, but I'd do some research before going through with that.
They both suck with the 16GB model which I stupidly bought because I figured I could throw a 64GB SD card in it and be good. Unfortunately it doesn't work as advertised and I didn't find out the SD card is basically useless until after Best Buy's 2 week return window was up.
First I tried setting it up as portable. I could set Google Music to cache and download music to the SD card, but when I went to install Star Wars KOTR I was out of space. So then I formatted it as internal. It doesn't really work as expected. I was able to install all my apps including KOTR, but then Google Play Music will only cache music to the internal storage and my device was full after downloading just a few albums.
Nothing stopping you from using a different method to store music on your device.
lafester said:
Nothing stopping you from using a different method to store music on your device.
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True, I could just download it all and copy it to the SD, but I've had issues doing that in the past. Google Play shows 2 copies of every song, one local and one cloud. Plus I subscribe to Google Play Music, there is no way to use another method to store songs that are part of the subscription that I don't own.
I've had at least one app (Geometry Dash) fail when using adopted storage. I'm using portable storage right now.
And won't adopted storage become unrecognized if you wipe /data (ex after installing a new ROM)? Seems like a pain to copy the contents of SD-Card before and after switching ROMs or restoring nandroids. I'm considering using TWRP to partition my SD-Card instead and doing a more traditional apps2sd.
So, that guy managed to re-enable Adoptable Storage on his Galaxy S7 Edge, without root, using some simple ADB shell commands
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
Anyone willing to give it a try on his/her Xperia Z5?
Whats adoptable storage
Xdevillived666 said:
Whats adoptable storage
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Making your SDcard become part of your internal storage.
Bad part is no SDcard is as fast as internal flash storage so you'll slow your phone down (by how much depends on the speed of your card).
Sent from my E6683 using Tapatalk
True, but that should be our decision to make, not Sony's.
EDIT:
Just found other threads on this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-premium/general/mm-adoptable-storage-t3332591
http://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-compact/general/tuto-enable-adoptable-storage-mm-t3334153
It definitely didn't used to be a problem because the internal storage with previous Sony phones was previously the same speed as my sd card , but the internal now is much faster on the Z5, just wish sony made the interface to the SD card faster, then my sd would be the same speed or faster than the internal memory and adoptable storage wouldn't be an issue.
You also lose access to your internal storage when you use 'adopted SD storage'. Android will use it to install some apps but you can't really use for pictures, videos or anything user side. Some apps, some..., will let you move between SD and internal, but they will revert to their default on app update. Also, some apps lose settings when updated if they are not on internal. Also, some apps who are SD aware become unaware of the SD card with 'adopted' and will only use internal memory.
The whole thing is a mess and not ready for prime time IMHO. I've tried it extensively on my Z3 with the concept ROM that allows this, and ended it disabling it because it was more trouble than it was worth.
bartolo5 said:
You also lose access to your internal storage when you use 'adopted SD storage'. Android will use it to install some apps but you can't really use for pictures, videos or anything user side. Some apps, some..., will let you move between SD and internal, but they will revert to their default on app update. Also, some apps lose settings when updated if they are not on internal. Also, some apps who are SD aware become unaware of the SD card with 'adopted' and will only use internal memory.
The whole thing is a mess and not ready for prime time IMHO. I've tried it extensively on my Z3 with the concept ROM that allows this, and ended it disabling it because it was more trouble than it was worth.
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Click to collapse
Would splitting the SD card into two partitions help this?