OK, I finally installed PA 2.99 beta6 which I've wanted to do for a while. First to preserve the file structure and not have /0 folders, I copied all my old SD card files to /data/media as told in the guide linked below. I'm thinking my issue started when I didn't delete the /0 folder after installing the stock 4.2.1, but now all my old SD card files have incorrect permissions for me to access them. Is there a quick and easy way to fix it, preferably from the phone? I'm gonna wipe and reinstall everything tomorrow if necessary, but I can't do it until tomorrow morning. I'm not even sure what permissions I should set to make the files accessible again. I think I may have screwed up by not setting permissions when copying files using the toolkit also. I'm still pretty noobish and I thought that was only necessary for system files. I thought the correct permissions would follow everything else. I did find that I can take a song that's in the /data/media/music file, which won't play, move it to /sdcard/music, and it plays. I tried changing permissions and owners on the non-working files to match the working files, but no luck.
I really appreciate any advice or help anybody has.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1999214
Ok, so you have moved all your content, in the new media folder, but I read you can't read any media from that folder. I guess that it s completely normal, as I would have only put backups to be used in this precise folder. Correct me anybody if I'm wrong, but music should be pasted in the new music folder, and so on and so on, for each media. In the first place, those files were not all put in the data/media folder right ?
So, why not try and use a file explorer, and move the content in their respective appropriate new folder, and see how it works. And that done delete the initial folders. Hope it will work.
Aur3L said:
Ok, so you have moved all your content, in the new media folder, but I read you can't read any media from that folder. I guess that it s completely normal, as I would have only put backups to be used in this precise folder. Correct me anybody if I'm wrong, but music should be pasted in the new music folder, and so on and so on, for each media. In the first place, those files were not all put in the data/media folder right ?
So, why not try and use a file explorer, and move the content in their respective appropriate new folder, and see how it works. And that done delete the initial folders. Hope it will work.
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According to the guide to keep the pre-4.2 file structure, with no /0 folders, you're supposed to ADB push all sd card files to the /data/media folder. Now I think what I screwed up on is I was supposed to delete any /0 folders but I misread the guide and didn't delete the folder. Now all of the data I pushed to the phone is in it's respective folders under data/media, such as Music and Downloads, but there is also a /data/media/0 folder with standard android folders. There is also /sdcard, with standard android folders. From my understanding, either data/media and /sdcard or /data/media/0 and /sdcard should show the same files, but neither does. If I make a change in one directory it doesn't show in the other directory. The weird part to me is that when I copy and paste a file from /data/media/Music (or any other directory there) to /sdcard, the file permissions and owners and groups of the file will change, and then I can access the file in the /sdcard directory. But if I try to apply the exact same permissions and owner and group to the file under /data/media it will still not give me access. On Root Explorer, looking at properties of a file in /data/media, the md5sum shows Access Denied, but works on /sdcard. I'm thinking it has something to do with the /data/media folder's permissions instead of the files/folders under it, but I'm kinda afraid to mess with it. When I get home in the morning I'm gonna try dumping EVERYTHING and start again, but I would love to be able to fix it first.
Will I see any problems if I just copy all the files from /data/media to /sdcard, where I'm sure I can use them? Also, why doesn't /data/media or /data/media/0 show the same files as /sdcard?
Thanks for any help!
02ranger said:
According to the guide to keep the pre-4.2 file structure, with no /0 folders, you're supposed to ADB push all sd card files to the /data/media folder. Now I think what I screwed up on is I was supposed to delete any /0 folders but I misread the guide and didn't delete the folder. Now all of the data I pushed to the phone is in it's respective folders under data/media, such as Music and Downloads, but there is also a /data/media/0 folder with standard android folders. There is also /sdcard, with standard android folders. From my understanding, either data/media and /sdcard or /data/media/0 and /sdcard should show the same files, but neither does. If I make a change in one directory it doesn't show in the other directory. The weird part to me is that when I copy and paste a file from /data/media/Music (or any other directory there) to /sdcard, the file permissions and owners and groups of the file will change, and then I can access the file in the /sdcard directory. But if I try to apply the exact same permissions and owner and group to the file under /data/media it will still not give me access. On Root Explorer, looking at properties of a file in /data/media, the md5sum shows Access Denied, but works on /sdcard. I'm thinking it has something to do with the /data/media folder's permissions instead of the files/folders under it, but I'm kinda afraid to mess with it. When I get home in the morning I'm gonna try dumping EVERYTHING and start again, but I would love to be able to fix it first.
Will I see any problems if I just copy all the files from /data/media to /sdcard, where I'm sure I can use them? Also, why doesn't /data/media or /data/media/0 show the same files as /sdcard?
Thanks for any help!
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Click to collapse
Again, as I said previously move your music photos apks downloads in the sdcard structure, then erase the /0 folder, you would have found your stuff, where it's ought to be, legible by their respective programs. So move your photos /data/media to your actual /sdcard/Dcim/ folder, and so on and so forth for each content, problem should be solved. It's really simple.
Aur3L said:
Again, as I said previously move your music photos apks downloads in the sdcard structure, then erase the /0 folder, you would have found your stuff, where it's ought to be, legible by their respective programs. So move your photos /data/media to your actual /sdcard/Dcim/ folder, and so on and so forth for each content, problem should be solved. It's really simple.
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Click to collapse
I understand that and that is what I plan to do to get through tonight. My question is, why is this even a problem? Is there something that I could do to not have to move the files? Not out of laziness, more out of curiosity. I still plan to dump everything because with all the crap I've tried to fix the permission issues there's no telling what I may have screwed up, but until I get to start over I'm planning to just copy everything to /sdcard. Now I just would like to know why it was an issue. Why can't I access files in the /data/media folder, or any other folder on my phone for that matter, when I'm rooted and using a root explorer? I have never seen this issue before, regardless of phone or ROM. Is this due to the new 4.2 multiuser file structure, or something I did? I appreciate your help and I apologize if my intention wasn't clear from my last post, I am at work and typing in a hurry. I started the thread looking for an easy fix and you've given me that, now I'm mostly just curious as to why it happened to begin with.
Thanks again!
Edit: I just tried copying some alarms into the /sdcard/Alarms/ and they won't play either, but Music still does. I actually got a "Not Enough Free Space" message when trying to copy them, with 5+ GBs free on the sdcard and the files were only about 130kb. I'm just going to have to dump everything and just copy what I really have to have to the phone. If you have any other ideas I'm open to hear them, but I think its FUBARed at this point. Thanks though.
Well, if you use a root explorer, such as ES file, you have to move your alarms/rigtones notifications in telephone/system/media. Once put in here, you will have to correct the permissions to rw rr , and reboot your phone. As to why it happens like this, I guess it is related to the new structure, and also because you cannot play everything from everywhere in your device, some folders are system folders, and not every file is legible from that location. My guess in your situation is that you have twice the same content on your phone (hence the Not enough free space message), so just paste everything you need in the appropriate volume, and erase the one you have messed up with.
Might be a suggestion, but if you have a nandroid backup, just look at how and where your files are organised.
Now, however, if you have a hard time fixing this up, well you might as well save your stuff on your computer, flash a stock image, root it, install TWRP, your favorite Rom, transfer your files back from your computer, and you will have a fresh and probably better running phone.
Hope it will help you, and if you have an insomnia, just take that opportunity to browse your phone structure, so that you know where each file is located. Good luck with it .
That last part is what I did. I just wiped everything, reinstalled PA 2.99B6 and ADB pushed to /sdcard instead of /data/media. It all works perfectly now. I'm not 100% sure what the issue was before, but I still think it was the new file structure. If I go at a music file through /data/media it still won't play but will from /sdcard, which is the only place I put the files. I guess its just the way the new file structure for multi-user works. I appreciate your help. I think I'll keep the /0 folder too. Trying to get rid of it is part if why I did things that caused problems, and its gonna be part of the future of android so we might as well get used to it.
Thanks again!
After a recent clean wipe from CM10.1 M3 back to M2, I wanted to delete the old "0" directory left behind from the previous ROM. I have done this several times before:
- Move important files from the 0 folder over to the parent emulated sdcard folder (also called 0)
- Delete the 0 folder.
It's now telling me that I can't delete the 0 folder because of the clockworkmod folder that is inside of it. There are zero files in the clockworkmod folder or anywhere else in the 0 folder. I have tried deleting it on my computer and via two different file manager apps with root access on my phone. What gives?
I realize that this is a minor quibble, but my OCD is kicking in here.
ScOULaris said:
After a recent clean wipe from CM10.1 M3 back to M2, I wanted to delete the old "0" directory left behind from the previous ROM. I have done this several times before:
- Move important files from the 0 folder over to the parent emulated sdcard folder (also called 0)
- Delete the 0 folder.
It's now telling me that I can't delete the 0 folder because of the clockworkmod folder that is inside of it. There are zero files in the clockworkmod folder or anywhere else in the 0 folder. I have tried deleting it on my computer and via two different file manager apps with root access on my phone. What gives?
I realize that this is a minor quibble, but my OCD is kicking in here.
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Click to collapse
For some reason , I'm not sure certain files in that /0 folder are write protected that only a data wipe can clear. Move your data and media to ext SD card and do a data or internal storage wipe. About all you can do. I got this on a morphology folder once
I've done some googling and I still don't understand the purpose of symlinks.
Is this user's comments correct? (link to post below)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35147667&postcount=4
In this case, it's symlinked because of legacy reasons.
Android 4.2 introduced multiple users(on tables, but they use the same model for phones). Every user has a separate SDcard folder. The first user gets 0, the second gets 10(don't ask why). This means that in the root of your sdcard contains a folder 0 and a folder 10.
Because some apps don't use proper API's to retrieve the external storage folder, but instead they just use '/sdcard'. If Android didn't use symlinks to mount '/sdcard' to 'SDcard/0', those apps would write into the wrong folder. For example, if a music app did this, both users would have the same music(since the app reads from/writes to sdcard instead of sdcard/0 or sdcard/10). Or even worse, trusted documents could be accessible to all users, instead of just one.
So, symlinks can be used for legacy reasons. But they can also be used for convenience. If you need to have one file at two locations, you could simply copy the file and put it in both locations. But if one of the two changes, the other one isn't. They're not linked together, they're just 2 separate files.
But if you use symlinks instead of copying, there is just one file, and one symlinks which points to the original file. If the file changes, the symlink will point to the changed data.
That's a good point on the API and multi-user account.
I have some specific questions. There are two directories in my not rooted Nexus 7. Storage/emulated/legacy and storage/emulated/0
I'd like to know what is the purpose of creating these symlinks? Is it somehow related to managing multiple user accounts?
Using my file manager it is all very strange to me. There is an emulated folder and a legacy folder in the storage folder. But in the emulated folder, there is the 0 folder and the legacy folder. Legacy folder is also found in mnt and root. All folders mentioned except for emulated, leads to where all my data is stored.
I see no purpose of having the legacy folder in more than one place.
So legacy is a symlink to sdcard? And emulated/0 is a symlink to legacy?
poetryrocksalot said:
That's a good point on the API and multi-user account.
I have some specific questions. There are two directories in my not rooted Nexus 7. Storage/emulated/legacy and storage/emulated/0
I'd like to know what is the purpose of creating these symlinks? Is it somehow related to managing multiple user accounts?
Using my file manager it is all very strange to me. There is an emulated folder and a legacy folder in the storage folder. But in the emulated folder, there is the 0 folder and the legacy folder. Legacy folder is also found in mnt and root. All folders mentioned except for emulated, leads to where all my data is stored.
I see no purpose of having the legacy folder in more than one place.
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Click to collapse
storage/emulated/0 is specific for the first user, but storage/emulated/legacy is probably for some legacy reasons. Essentially they point to the same storage, but it's probably cleaner for development purposes(when they decided to create those symlinks). I'm not sure why they decided to do this, but they probably thought is was better for some reason.
poetryrocksalot said:
I hope this is partially correct.
We want to mount /sdcard to sdcard/0 or sdcard/10, depending on the current user.
We can't symlink /sdcard to /0 or /10, because is a subdirectory and is not the same as mounting. You can mount /sdcard to multiple directories but only one at a time. You can symlink /sdcard to only one directory. But /sdcard is the real directory so we don't want it to be a symlink.
storage/emulated/legacy is symlinked to /sdcard. And storage/emulated/0 is symlinked to storage/emulated/legacy with the primary account active. There has to be the legacy directory served as a symlink because of the fact that the user folders 0 and 10 are subdirectories of the sdcard folder.
When we are mounting /sdcard to sdcard/0, we are actually mounting legacy to sdcard/0
Because with my logic, if we mounted /sdcard to sdcard/0 then /sdcard would lose its contents which includes the subdirectory 0. Therefore we would be mounting an empty media.
LOL all this is confusing but I hope I get the general idea and some of it right.
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Click to collapse
You're partially correct. According to the link you provided in your first post, the (internal/external) sdcard is mounted at /data/media. This folder contains 0, 10, legacy and obb. Let's ignore the 'obb' folder. The /data/media folder is your internal sdcard(the /sdcard you were talking about). Depending on the current user, /sdcard is either /data/media/0 or /data/media/10. This way, we're not symlinking to a subdirectory(which is impossible), and the /sdcard folder actually contains data.
In addition, /storage/emulated is because we don't have a real sdcard, but we emulate one. Both the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus only have internal storage, so we emulate the sdcard. Other devices with an SDcard probably also have /storage/emulatd, but that's because they both have an emulated sdcard and a real sdcard. The real sdcard will probably appear in /storage/sdcard1 (not sure about this).
Sounds like Google made it overly complicated for no reason.
tokuzumi said:
Sounds like Google made it overly complicated for no reason.
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Click to collapse
I disagree, it's pretty complicated, but building a system which is compatible with multiple users and multiple sdcard(internal and external) is complicated.
For most users, the current setup works great. Most users don't bother using a file manager since there's no need for it. There's an app for the downloads, and music/photos/video's are handled by the music and gallery apps. There is just a small portion of users actually using a file manager.
Its purpose is to have a file or directory in multiple places at the same time.
So with all of this jumping back and forth between AOSP and Stock based ROMs I find that my SD Card is filling up quickly. I know this is due to duplication in 0 folder. Can anyone provide me with a list of files/folders that are essential to keeping my phone running smoothly both in and/or outside of the 0 folder. I would like to start removing files and clean up some storage. I don't keep music on my or many pictures, but those are easy to clean out because of auto backups to online storage.
Androidawg said:
So with all of this jumping back and forth between AOSP and Stock based ROMs I find that my SD Card is filling up quickly. I know this is due to duplication in 0 folder. Can anyone provide me with a list of files/folders that are essential to keeping my phone running smoothly both in and/or outside of the 0 folder. I would like to start removing files and clean up some storage. I don't keep music on my or many pictures, but those are easy to clean out because of auto backups to online storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a lot of the time its the log file. you can delete them out of the 0 and the root folders.
I'm on stock right now, heres my folder list. Android, data, DCIM, smvvm, TWRP.
Then my personal !tools! folder and the download folder.
21.5gb free out of 25gb
edit: if you have other apps installed they may be making other folders too. backup before you start deleting stuff!!
octhrope said:
a lot of the time its the log file. you can delete them out of the 0 and the root folders.
I'm on stock right now, heres my folder list. Android, data, DCIM, smvvm, TWRP.
Then my personal !tools! folder and the download folder.
21.5gb free out of 25gb
edit: if you have other apps installed they may be making other folders too. backup before you start deleting stuff!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where's the log file?
Androidawg said:
where's the log file?
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Click to collapse
should just be in the root of the sd card and the root of the 0 folder. may be in the data folder. windirstat is a great tool to find shiz. I always delete it from the computer. it shows up like a notepad file.
I decided to upgrade to Lollipop after holding out for awhile.... before I did though, as I knew I was going to run an RUU so I wouldn't have any problems with the OTA, I copied everything in my "storage" (all folders) to my windows laptop desktop via USB.
After upgrading, I copied it all back, making sure not to over-write anything.
What is strange is when I copied all my folders to my laptop initially, I didn't see a Download folder... which I expected to see. But after looking through the folders I had copied, I saw a folder called storage, and in that folder another called emulated, and then another called "0". In that folder I finally saw my Download folder.
I didn't think much of this at the time, however, when I look at storage from Root Explorer, I note there is a new Download folder at the "root" level of storage, but the storage/emulated/0 path is still there as well.... and following it takes me to my old Download folder....
So...to get back my original folders and contents before I upgraded to Lollipop, I have to copy over every folder in this path up 3 levels. i.e., from /storage/emulated/0/storage/emulated to /storage/emulated.
What is going on? Why is there an "0" and a "legacy" if I go up one level from /storage/emulated/??? Why did my old Download folder end up where it did?
I had this exact same thing in my mind.
Why is there such a folder ?
My phone storage was almost full and I found out this folder is taking up whole space.
I cut the storage folder and pasted it into memory card
now all my downloads go to memory card (mmc:storage/emulated/0)
+1
I have also this folder that takes a lot of internal memory space.
I experiment one thing:
I have 1 game that takes 2Gb of data and I have moved it to sdcard memory (using Android-M feature : move app from internal to sdcard )
I saw in this directory (emulated/0/ ) the 2Gb of this game. ????? So, I tryed to copy/paste this data to sdcard, in order to free internal memory space. But I loose the game's configuration.
I was thinking that moving app from internal to scard, the data of the app also move, isn't it ?
I need help to understand that ...
Nang06