What happens to my apps on SD? - Droid Incredible Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I realize this is probably a stupid question but its something I have constantly been wondering. As a new rooter I have been experimenting with a lot of new ROMs and each time i go through and move the big apps to the sd card. Now when I do a full wipe to install a new ROM, those apps get removed from my sd card yea? My sd card seems fuller than it shows and I'm wondering if this is the case or not? Thanks

thekidkid32 said:
I realize this is probably a stupid question but its something I have constantly been wondering. As a new rooter I have been experimenting with a lot of new ROMs and each time i go through and move the big apps to the sd card. Now when I do a full wipe to install a new ROM, those apps get removed from my sd card yea? My sd card seems fuller than it shows and I'm wondering if this is the case or not? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you save an app to the sd card, you are caching a portion of the app there so it sort of dual boots the app. It puts less load on the phone's memory this way. It's kinda like caching songs on Google Music Beta for offline playback in this respect. When you flash a new rom the cached app files are deleted from use, but some miscellaneous files may remain. This may be the cause of you seeing that your memory seems bulkier than before and the files can be deleted easily without harm to your phone. Just be sure of what you're deleting before you do so.

Related

[Q] Problems with moving applications to my SD card

Hey people, I'm experiencing some problem with moving Apps to my SD card.
I'm quite a lazy bump and writing this topic probably takes more time than redownloading all of my stuff But I'm stubborn and I want to know how this works.
The reason I want to move stuff to my SD card is the fact I ****ed some stuff up and I want to install a stock rom
I was installing the new system update via this GUIDE, thanks fly out to hamdir
Unfortunately, something went wrong (check it out here), because I had preinstalled apps removed, and by-passing the problem it caused didn't work out well...
So now I want to install a stock rom so the preinstalled stuff will be there again, and I will be able to update it properly.
------------------------
So, the actual question.
Because I want to have all my applications on my SD card anyway, I started moving it through Manage Applications.
For some applications (apps I surely installed myself), I cant select the ''Move to SD" option, while if they already were on my SD card it would say Move to phone - which it doesnt.
Any idea on why I can't? I maked sure they werent running
Because some apps don't work properly if you run them from t the sd card. You'd be better off looking at an app called titanium backup for what you are trying to do.
Sent from my performance enhanced Desire HD
To use titaniumbackup I will need root acces which I mysteriously lost (check the link I gave, hope someone could still assist me there a little..!)
It would seem weird to me that compatability with the SD card is the issue because some of my simple games I can't move either.
For example: Armored Strike. Is there anyone who has this on his phone that wants to check if he is able to move it to SD card?
Thanks

[Q] What should I get rid of on my SD?

The picture below is what I have on my SD. I'm trying to maximize space on my SD. What can I remove? I'm using CM7.
Probably one of the largest things you can remove it old Nandroid backups. They're under clockworkmod>backups and can range from a couple hundred megs to over a gig, I try to keep that cleaned of any backups I'm not likely to use.
If you want to maximize space, why don't you sort the folders by size and then see what is using the most space and clear it depending on what you do and don't use.
I have the same question. My SD is cluttered with stuff left behind by deleted applications or are empty because they are unused by a currently installed application.
I plan to delete them one by one and see what happens. After making a backup, of course.
You could copy the contents of SD to hard drive, format the sd card again and put back from hard drive what is needed. Running it a couple days should tell you what is needed.
From my experience, you can delete anything really. If it's a folder put there by an app on your phone, once you launch the app again, it will put the files it needs back.
The only problem you would have, is if you have moved apps to your SD. Some apps auto install to the SD card...which can eat up space if you have plenty of room left on the phone itself. Try going into the settings in the Applications section and move all you can from the SD card to the phone...that will help cut down on space.
Another thing that will eat up space, is if you use your camera and the files save to the SD card. You can change that too so that they save to EMMC instead.
Other than that, if you have ringtones or wallpapers saved on the SD card that you never use or rarely use, you can probably move those over to EMMC as well...and move any music to EMMC as well. If your running a Sense ROM, then the stock music player will read the music from EMMC...so will PowerAMP if you use it.
Oh, some other stuff I noticed...check your downloads folder too. You can set up the stock browser to save files to EMMC as well.
Basically...anything you can save to EMMC or move there and still use it...then you should. At least that's what I do with my phone and my tiny 2gb card.
Hope that helps.

[Q] apps like theft-aware when using sd-ext

Hello all,
I am receiving a new SD card tomorrow and I'm planning on making a partition on that card to install all my apps on the SD card.
Now I wondered, if you use apps like theft aware ( https://www.theftaware.com ) which I am considering, this does mean that from the moment the thief removes the SD-card, the whole app is gone right?
I read in an old topic that it's not possible to install an app in the phone's real internal memory when you use an external partition, is this still not possible?
The app is factory reset proof etc, only way to remove it is to flash a new ROM, but if removing the SD card also would remove it (in this case), it makes it already less attractive..
If anybody would also happen to have links on guides or more info about the sd-ext process, feel free to add them here, so far I have read http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=SD_card_partitioning and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1015532&page=164 and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1175550 but the more info before first trying it the merrier.
Cheers

[Q] Newbie ?:Have a nice 64GB SD Card - How to use?

Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Flame Red said:
Another Newbie Question here.
So AT&T only provides the 16MB Note 2, so of course we add a nice juicy 64GB SD card. But it seems that the stock phone does not really use it for much (that I can tell) to store anything.
First question: On the stock ROM, what apps can be told to use the SD card as default, and how do you change the app settings?
Second Question, for the future: Assuming one Root's the Note 2, what can be safely moved to the SD and how? Or is another ROM required?
Humbly yours - thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have a 64gb card. I put all of my Titanium backups and Nandroids on the external SD (right now TWRP doesn't work with the exfat formatting of my card, so if I want to restore I'll have to move it from ext to int SD).
I also have Spotify set to store any offline music on the external SD. You can do this by installing an old version of Spotify, pointing it to external SD, then updating the app. A quick Google search will find this if it's something you want to do.
It's hard to tell you what to move to the external card without knowing what apps you use. You can get an app called Directory Bind that will point any internal SD location to your external SD. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1889550
SD card setup/directory optimization
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
dponte said:
Really like Android and the Note 2 so far.
Thanks for the directory bind guide link...interesting. Maybe my answer is somewhere in there, so I will take a look either way.
New to external SD use on Android as well (or any phone, that is). I have a 64GB sandisk as well, and It was pre-formatted for Android apparently with some s/w on it. Which is fine, if that is the way I should go.
Just playing around with it at first and copied a music album over, in similar format to my iTunes directory structure -I figured, why not. Perhaps there is a better way to structure my directories though? More general way for all apps to recognize? Moot point?
I assume different apps might require different directory structures...to be efficient, or to be able to work with those dirs/files. I'd rather have the most optimal structure now, before I start messing with creating more directories, etc down the road.
The general questions are, should I format this as something else? What is best to use? (Still looking into different file manager/transfer apps for now, and MAY root and keep stock ROM in the future, but acclimating myself with Android OS has been more than enough for now...I do enough Linux at work, so not in any rush )
Since I went there, I don't know if the OP's question was fully answered...so again, here's a quick (newbie) question for those who root but keep the stock ROM: can apps be moved to the SD card in that case? Or do I need to break out of stock ROM to do that?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your'e just talking about music, you can put it in any folder and any structure you'd like. The Android Media Server process scans your entire SD card for media (including music) except for folders with a ".nomedia" file in them. It will use the tags to identify the artist, song, and album, then sort them based on that information.
Flame Red said:
Wanted to report back that I tried a simple case of using Directory Bind for something non-critical as a test. Used it to remount Titaniumn Backup to the external SD. Yes, I know you can just point it there. Just wanted to test Directory Bind.
It seemed to work until I rebooted the phone. Then it lost all the binding even tough I had checked off to save it for reboot and saved the binds to a file. So just beware that if you were using Directory Bind for something critical - you might have to recover the phone! I removed the package for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bummer
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
11GB is a lot (available to start with on the ATT model) if you use the external for media (and app cache) and leave the internal for apps mainly...agreed.
Most apps are small in size...however, one app like NOVA3 is 2GB and that is a big bite of your 11GB available, so that is a little concerning
I haven't had the device or android long enough to know, but, are app databases and cache allowed to reside on the external card --in lue of the ability to move apps to the SD being taken away since Jelly Bean (was it at that update)? Can someone point to a good thread on the reason and discussion about that? Thanks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994046
App2SD change external to internal.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium
You can make your external your main storage device by using this root technique. But some people don't advise it saying it slows down your processing on apps.
wase4711 said:
don't bother moving any apps to the external sd, since you have TONS OF ROOM in your internal memory on this phone..On the original note, I had over 300 apps installed on the internal, and still had over 5 gigs of room left..
just keep your music, movies, pictures, and other space hogs on it..trust me, leaving apps alone will never be a problem when you have a phone with this much storage space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note II is a Unified Storage device. It has 11gb available for both user content (pictures, movie, music etc) and apps. I lost 2gb of space moving from my S2 to the N2.
S2 is not a Unified storage device, so it has 11gb of storage available for user content and a separate Apps partition of 2gb.

Partition Sizes

Curious if anyone has modified the partition table on the device? With the System taking up 4 some gigs... seems silly not to shrink it down a bit for more app usage. Any thoughts on this one or am I just thinking silly on it?
I think the same but i found nothing. I flashed a debloated rom for the 10.1 and now have 1.2GB free on system parts. I used titanium backup to transfer some app from data to system but it's boring. But it's nothing compared to my MicroSD card memory
eowindel said:
I think the same but i found nothing. I flashed a debloated rom for the 10.1 and now have 1.2GB free on system parts. I used titanium backup to transfer some app from data to system but it's boring. But it's nothing compared to my MicroSD card memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did transfer some apps over as well, or in reality can remove them because they sit on the SD partition because of updates (really wish it would just update to system by default). I know moving some updates over just screws it up, let alone just moving screws up the icons on the desktop portion.
I don't have a de-bloated rom right now. The way I see it, its being used or wasted at this point. Apps don't seem to be slowing it down, though im sure a few are running in the background, but nothing that has hampered battery life like my previous Nexus 7 (2013). This seems to do much better at not wasting power. Guess im not being as picky as I use to with random apps chewing up space.
I would of jumped all over a 32GB edition from the get go. Paired with a 64GB SD card, its win win. Even now it is, just can't install everything I want to in 1 go since most apps still are stored locally on the main internal SD Partition and can't be transferred over. I can live with it, and im sure someone will figure it out. I know I use to do it with an old phone that had, next to no internal memory (a loong time ago). PITA to update, but well worth being able to use the phone.
You can use FolderMount [ROOT] to create a symbolic link between internal SD card and external to move your application.
For example if you want your google offline music on sdcard you can mount /sdcard/android/data/com.google.android.music on external sdcard.
It is possible to do it for every folder so it solves the problem :highfive:
eowindel said:
You can use FolderMount [ROOT] to create a symbolic link between internal SD card and external to move your application.
For example if you want your google offline music on sdcard you can mount /sdcard/android/data/com.google.android.music on external sdcard.
It is possible to do it for every folder so it solves the problem :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah just read into that. Thanks for the link so it reminds me.
Course, internal storage is always faster But for music/movies obviously SD Card just works fine with that.

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