Trouble with Simple File Manager

[Dave012345678910]

I downloaded it because I didn't want Google. I guess it's mostly ok but when I got this sd card I found I can't move more than a file or two at a time and then it will probably crash. I accidentally moved a few files to a root directory and now they're gone. How do I find them? I looked at the original internal and the sd part and neither one shows them. Where did they go?

 

[Dannydet]

Android doesn't work like Windows, so moving or copying multiple files at the same time will always end up with crashing, the best alternative is to just concentrate on 1 task at a time. As far as where did your files go?
What types of files where you trying to move or copy? System files cannot be copied...

 

[Hadron]

Actually I've never had problems copying or moving multiple files. I don't do it often, but I've never had it fail. Of course it may depend on the app, the device, what's being moved and where it's being moved to.

But moving files is inherently riskier because if something goes wrong you may have neither the original copy (deleted) or the new one (not properly written). Yes, in principle the sequence is "copy then delete", but you wouldn't be the first person to find that in practice if something goes wrong you may be left with no file at all. So the advice is always to copy files first and then delete the originals rather than trusting "move" to work perfectly.

And to be clear, if something has gone wrong during a move then there may be no way of recovering it. If you were copying/moving to a SD card you could try sticking that card in a computer and running some file recovery software to see if there's anything there, but file recovery in internal storage is "problematic" (i.e. I don't know that I've ever heard of a verifiable success, as opposed to a claim of success from someone who is shilling for the software vendor).

But just to check, you do say "the sd part" - was that a typo when you meant "card", or is this a confusion between "/sdcard" (which is part of the internal storage) and the actual microSD card? I don't know what the mount point of your actual SD card would be called on your phone, but moving from "internal" to "/sdcard" would be moving back to where it started from (saying this just on the long-shot chance it might help find something).

 

[Dave012345678910]

They are or were downloads, mostly PDFs. What I mean by sd part is where it says sd in the file manager. I'm using a Moto G Pure phone, probably not the best but ok. It's Simple File Manager. It's weird that I had a copy that said two weeks free trial but then it expired before that and I somehow ended up with what I guess is supposed to be a paid version. Maybe it's one of those tester things. I tried contacting them but I didn't get a reply yet.

 

[Dave012345678910]

I tried copying instead and you're right. It didn't mess up at all, even with multiple files, and it was fast. I wish I knew that earlier.

 

[Hadron]

I don't have a Moto, and haven't had an SD slot for a decade, so I don't know what Moto call the SD card. But "/sdcard" is actually internal storage on all phones, so if you ever copy anything to that it's not actually going to go where it sounds like (a piece of historical confusion caused by Google not wanting to break old, badly-maintained apps when phones started moving to relying more on internal storage - I live in hope that one day they'll get rid of this...).

 

[Dave012345678910]

Yeah, they should quit trying to confuse people. I hope when it says sd card it really means it. There is a card in there, a SanDisk. It's 256 GB but about 50% used. I don't want to rely on internal storage. Why would Simple File Manager put a fake root directory in there? Where did those files really go?

 

[Hadron]

OK, I've installed Simple File Manger to see whether that helps me see what you are describing. And it is different from many others, because I see that it offers me a choice of "Internal" and "SD Card" storage locations and no root view of the filesystem overall ("root" being linux talk for the base directory of the filesystem). So you probably don't have to worry about confusion arising from "/sdcard" since that's what it's calling "internal" (a better name), and what it calls "SD Card" is I'm sure the actual SD card.

(Android filesystems are complex, with many directories the user cannot access, several virtual volumes, some of which overlap giving you more than one path to the same storage location. "/sdcard" is an alias for /storage/emulated/0, which is the part of the internal storage that the user can write to. But Simple File Manager clearly tries to avoid confusion by not showing you any of that stuff - which is fine until you talk to someone like me who knows it all exists and so assumes you can see it! ).

What bothers me slightly is that it shows "SD card" on my phone too, when I don't actually have an SD card slot! However it won't let me create files there or move files to it, so it's safe, just a little disconcerting (because I'd have written it to check the filesystem existed and not show it as an option if it didn't).

The problem with "where did those files really go" is that you say the app crashed: if it crashed during the move then some part of the operation is not complete. What that might mean will depend on how exactly the app "moves" files. If you are moving files within the same storage volume that's basically a renaming operation. If you move from internal to SD or vice-versa then the app has to make a copy and delete the original. The trouble is that without looking at the source code of the app (which should be possible, it's open source) I don't know exactly how it does this, so I don't know what might happen if it crashes part way through the sequence of steps. You could code it in a way that would ensure that there's no data loss in a crash (basically have the app do what you would do manually: copy the file, verify the copy, and only then delete the original). But we don't know that they did that, and it sounds like they may not have. The worst case could leave the file deleted from internal but not written (or not completely written) to SD, in which case it's gone because file recovery from internal is "problematic" at best.

All I can suggest is restart the phone and see whether the files reappear (sometimes the phone might just get confused). If not, then try a file recovery on the SD card and see whether you can find anything, but don't hold out too much hope.

 

[Dave012345678910]

Wow, thanks a lot for doing that but I don't know if you have the same version I do. I'm sold on copying and then deleting. I just found out, though, that deleting is just as hard as moving. It has to be done one file at a time and it can still be crashy. Sometimes it says root in a box with >dev after it. Sometimes it says internal without showing the different categories. I don't know why it does that except maybe if it's one of those things that people are supposed to test to find out if they work.

 

[Hadron]

I have the version downloaded from F-Droid last night (version 6.16.1 Pro). But I've never known file copies (or even moves) to crash with any file manager, unless I'm trying to copy them to somewhere I can't copy them to. So it's also possible that if you have a lot of crashes it may be an issue with the phone or card - have you tried to see whether a different file manager is more stable for you? Though I have generally found other apps from that developer to be reliable.

 

[Dave012345678910]

Maybe I should try another one. Also I have a weird problem with some files. They go vertically instead of sideways, how they're supposed to do. After a while I realized that vertical is almost always pdf and epub is the right way. I also looked at one djvu file and it's wrong too. Is there some way to get them straight?

 

[Dave012345678910]

I found a free apk that's supposed to change orientation of PDFs, and do other things with them. Should I do that? Would it mess up a pdf? Why is it the wrong way when epub is always the right way?