A question regarding storage

[cataphrat1]

Hi,

I have a colorfly E708, and it comes with 2 separate internal storages according to the options, 1 being 1.5GB, the other being 3.8GB.

However this is causing me quite a bit of problems.

The Tablet treats the secondary 3.8GB storage as if it is the SD storage (Which I have a 32GB). So whenever I tell the OS to move an app to the SD storage, it simply moves it to the 3.8GB drive and the SD card is entirely untouched.

My question is, is there a way to manually tell the phone to install to the SD Card, and not the secondary internal storage?

I've tried using adb shell pm set-install-location 2

All it does is install apps to the secondary internal storage.

Or maybe tell the phone to unmounts the 3.8GB storage (I'd rather lose 3.8Gb than 32GB)?

Anyways, thanks in advance

 

[funkylogik]

Without being rooted, modern android wont install or run apps from External SD (memory card).
and the 1.5gb is probably the system/rom partition :thumbup:

 

[cataphrat1]

Without being rooted, modern android wont install or run apps from External SD (memory card).
and the 1.5gb is probably the system/rom partition :thumbup:

Nevermind, it was just astro file manager that refuses to see sd card.

 

[funkylogik]

Not sure man. What file explorer? SDcard and EXT SD should be under /mnt :thumbup:

 

[cataphrat1]

Um. I rooted my tablet.

However none of the move app to sd card apps work, because they all think that the internal storage #2 is my SD card.

Any advice?

 

[desktop]

There should be an option to move apps to and from the phone and SD card. I know there is on my Hydro (Settings > Apps). Some apps don't like being on the SD card so I have to leave them on the phone.

 

[funkylogik]

Its something ive never done as i have plenty storage but i think the app everyone uses is "link2sd" (root only)
Check that out :thumbup:

 

[lunatic59]

Android (4.x) Jelly Bean changed the memory management to virtualize the volumes making all of the available internal memory available to apps and storage (dynamically allocated) so moving apps to /sdcard partition won't do much which is why it's been removed from the app options.

Phones and Tablets running older versions of Android that include large amounts (by current mobile standards) Like the SGS2 (and my old play phone, the Captivate) often partition them so that you don't have a huge amount of system memory that wouldn't be accessible for file storage. On the Captivate (and I am assuming it's similar with your device) Samsung has a 2 GB partition for the system and the remaining 14 GB partitioned and recognized as an sd card by making its mount point /sdcard.

Therein lies the problem. The path to external storage within Android is /sdcard so apps that are installed to external storage will be there, which is the internal sd partition, not the removable sd card. On the Captivate the path to the removable sd card is /sdcard/sd_external, on my SGS2 it's /sdcard/external_sd and on my Transformer is /Removable/Microsd. Custom roms can mount the external card anywhere. Check with the developer for the mount point if you can't find it.

If you have an internal sd card partition, then that will always be the default location for files, apps and data to be stored as defined by the mount point /sdcard. If the phone has no sd card partition, then an external sd card will mount at /sdcard when inserted.

There may be a way to force apps to the physical MicroSD card but I wouldn't recommend it. MicroSD's are slow and notoriously susceptible to failure without warning, especially if you push their limits. Using them for apps rather than simply static storage as they are supposed to be used is certainly pushing it and can drastically shorten their life.

I would suggest you try to free up internal memory by clearing caches like maps and the browser, limiting messaging and email databases and moving static files to your SD card.

 

[funkylogik]

Man you explained that far better than i ever could lol.
It is a far better system UNLESS youre on a phone with low internal storage or youre say a gamer :thumbdown:

 

[Goodspike]

Without being rooted, modern android wont install or run apps from External SD (memory card).
and the 1.5gb is probably the system/rom partition :thumbup:

Without being rooted, the Samsung S4 will allow you to transfer apps to microSD with 4.2, 4.3 and presumably 4.4 when it's available.

 

[lunatic59]

Without being rooted, the Samsung S4 will allow you to transfer apps to microSD with 4.2, 4.3 and presumably 4.4 when it's available.

As far as I can see it is still only moving them to the /sdcard partition which is internal. It doesn't move apps to the external card.

 

[Hadron]

Without being rooted, the Samsung S4 will allow you to transfer apps to microSD with 4.2, 4.3 and presumably 4.4 when it's available.

Yeah, as you may know there's a story to that. When they released the S4 there were a lot of complaints about it only having ~9GB available to the user, and Samsung would reply "you can move apps to SD". Except you couldn't, as explained above! It was after the mainstream media picked up on this that they suddenly announced that they would produce an update which did allow you to move apps to SD (i.e. they patched the feature back into the OS).

Not sure how many of their handsets they did this with though.

 

[Goodspike]

As far as I can see it is still only moving them to the /sdcard partition which is internal. It doesn't move apps to the external card.

Yeah, as you may know there's a story to that. When they released the S4 there were a lot of complaints about it only having ~9GB available to the user, and Samsung would reply "you can move apps to SD". Except you couldn't, as explained above! It was after the mainstream media picked up on this that they suddenly announced that they would produce an update which did allow you to move apps to SD (i.e. they patched the feature back into the OS).

Not sure how many of their handsets they did this with though.

That's a good question. In Apps the category where you move them is "SD Card" and it shows the total space used and available on the SD card. But I can't find them in the stock file manager program.

 

[WoohooGuy]

I use FolderMount on my sons phone which is a Galaxy S Blaze and was having the same issue.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount&hl=en

Using FolderMount he was able to have games hundreds of megabytes in size moved to the sdcard and saved a ton of space on his device.

You should only use an app like this when your device is plugged in or nearly fully charged, you do not want to lose power when moving app data.

It's simple to use, Install the app. It should automatically detect your external sdcard and ideal folder names.

Run it's built in app analyzer and it will show data blocks of installed apps, by size, that can be moved or "paired" on your device.

Select the data or obb of the large app you want to move and follow the prompts to move the app and always allow FolderMount to overwrite the destination folder unless you have used FolderMount in the past and are importing folders.

Once the app is done the moving process will begin and you will be presented with a progress bar of the data being moved.

Do not interfere with the sdcard or allow a computer to mount the sdcard while this is happening, and that goes for any app that does this kind of data manipulation.

Once the data is moved just click the pin so it is green in color and you are done.

The free version allows you have 3 pairs, buying the pro version (only available in app but processed by google play) for 1.99 will allow you to have unlimited pairings.

 

[funkylogik]

As hadron says. Samsung got a lot of greif for advertising a phone with double the available storage that it actually had because it was so full of bloat so samsung were yet again allowed to "fork" android a bit (imo)

Thats not android, its Touchwiz OS

 

[Hadron]

That's a good question. In Apps the category where you move them is "SD Card" and it shows the total space used and available on the SD card. But I can't find them in the stock file manager program.

You won't see them in a file manager - they'll be in the secure area (.android_secure) which will appear to be an empty folder.

 

[cataphrat1]

Thanks guys, unfortunately I've got a bigger problem on my hands that got way out of control.

After my root, I've somehow hard bricked the tablet (stuck logo and adb won't recognize it). Weird thing is that it hard bricked when the tablet was working just fine and then suddenly bam, dead.

Anyways, I'll get back to ya when I get it fixed with a USB jig (I think that's how its done)

I honestly didn't think Android devices were this sensitive.

 

[Goodspike]

You won't see them in a file manager - they'll be in the secure area (.android_secure) which will appear to be an empty folder.

That's what I was assuming with the stock file manager. Is there another one that will let you see such things (non-root)?

 

[funkylogik]

Thanks guys, unfortunately I've got a bigger problem on my hands that got way out of control.

After my root, I've somehow hard bricked the tablet (stuck logo and adb won't recognize it). Weird thing is that it hard bricked when the tablet was working just fine and then suddenly bam, dead.

Anyways, I'll get back to ya when I get it fixed with a USB jig (I think that's how its done)

I honestly didn't think Android devices were this sensitive.

Its generally difficult to HARD brick a device but i guess thats why we dont have access to these areas by default.
So you cant get into download mode? Thats what a jig will do.
Good luck :beer:

 

[balika23]

Hi!

I have the same Colorfly e708 Q1

According to the specifications it should have 8GB storage...

Now, I was wondering whether the 2 internal storages (1 being 1.5GB, the other being 3.8GB), the sum of which is 5.3GB, equal 8GB what is written in the specifications?!?
5.3GB = 8GB ?

In the android system's settings/storage my tablet shows this (yes, two internal storage is shown here):

internal storage
total space 1.48GB
Available 1.29GB

internal storage
total space 3.76GB
available 3.70GB


I presume this means, that the system and installed apps take up 0.19GB and 0.06GB (sum 0.25GB) space from TOTAL and the available is what is left for me to use.
Now then, DOES this tablet HAVE 8GB or NOT?

Or do I get it wrong? Does the android system take (8GB-5.3GB=) 2.7GB space (?!?), which is absolutely not visible nor manageable for me?!
Then what takes up the 0.25GB space?

Please help, because I'm thoroughly confused.

In my opinion, (what I would call "storage space"), this tablet has only 4GB storage (3.76GB). But mybe I'm not right... I don't know
PLEASE HELP!!