Help accessing 32G storage card?

[vialeggio]

LGL 34C 4.4, from tracfone. not yet activated. wish to transfer music files.

I'm able to move no more than 2G of music files from pc (linux mint 17).
I can see that it's all gone to hd, nothing to sd card.
I'm not sure I even know the right question to ask: does this involve rooting, or is it something basic which I didn't do to card when I installed it? never had one of these phones before.
thanks, any and all.

 

[Hadron]

Just to be sure I've understood: you are copying music from the PC to the phone via USB. The reason you've only been able to move 2GB is presumably that you are running out of space? And the data are going to the phone's internal storage (not a hard drive) rather than the removable SD card?

So when you attach the device what drive(s) do you see? It sounds like it might only be mounting the internal storage, but I've not tried android 4.4 with SD strorage plus Linux Mint, so don't have direct experience of this combination.

One thing that's confusing if you are new is that if you look at the phone storage using a file browser on the phone you'll find an area called "/sdcard" which is actually part of the internal storage (the removable card may be called /sdcard1 or some variant of /extSdCard, depending on the manufacturer). This is basically for legacy compatibility with apps that assume "sd card" storage and devices that may not have an SD card in them, but irritating to purists like me .

If my guess at what's happening here is correct your options are either to find a way of mounting the real SD card over USB - if the phone gives you that option (try going into the storage menu or pulling down the notifications while USB is connected) - or putting the card in a card reader and copying directly.

Unfortunately due to an over-zealous implementation of file security in 4.4 you may not be able to move the files that are already on the device to SD using a file browser without rooting the phone (it's better in 5!). If the phone comes with a built-in file manager that should be able to do it, as that will be installed as a system app, but it probably won't let you move them using a file manager you install yourself.

 

[vialeggio]

all "yes" to questions in first paragraph.
I see both internal storage (2G) and 32G card when phone is mounted on pc.
so: card reader & direct copying sounds good.
the phone was free with purchase of a little airtime; the logic board of my ipod had died -- phone seemed like a cheap alternative.
I can copy music via reader first, root later -- you think? or root first??
thanks again.

 

[Hadron]

I'd copy the music to the card, and worry about rooting later.

 

[vialeggio]

ok. thanks for great support!

 

[vialeggio]

update: on loading card & reader in pc, SD indicates Read Only, although permissions of card are correct & consistent with other devices. therefore, not possible to copy/move files directly to card. any further thoughts? (pc is using mtpfs utility.)
ty

 

[mikedt]

update: on loading card & reader in pc, SD indicates Read Only, although permissions of card are correct & consistent with other devices. therefore, not possible to copy/move files directly to card. any further thoughts? (pc is using mtpfs utility.)
ty

Read only in a PC card reader. Is it an SD you've had for a while and used a lot? Going read only is something SDs and USB flash drives can do if they're starting to fail, basically to preserve the existing data on there, so you can retrieve it.

I'd try another, known good SD in the phone.

Flash memory can and does literally wear out, after an X number of writes. I had a SanDisk 32GB USB flash drive go read only a few months ago. Nothing could be done with it, apart from dumping its contents and replacing it. And I had been using daily for about 4 years.

 

[vialeggio]

nope. brand new card and never been kissed, as it were. you're right, though: I have lost usb drives over the years, usually the ones I kept loading different distros on to try out...

 

[SavageRobot]

You are plugging the SD into an adapter and straight into PC? Not through phone? If plugged into PC do have you pushed the write protector thing on the side of the card adapter?

 

[vialeggio]

holy smokes: "write protector thing" = "lock," you're right...! what a nice simple explanation.

 

[vialeggio]

well let's just continue this nonsense a little further:
-I now have close to 26G of mp3's on the SD card -- directly copied to mounted card/reader from pc, into a SD folder -- [usb:002,030]/SD%20card/Android/data/com.google.android.music. Those files open and can be played as long as card is mounted on pc.
-but once the card is inserted back in the phone I can't see or access the SD files. the only files that can be opened and played are the ones residing on Internal Storage. I can see in System>Settings>Storage that ~26G have been used, but the only options are Unmount SD card and Erase SD card. I must be missing some basic concept here...there has to be a straightforward way to access the SD card...no?
thanks

 

[Xavier Black]

Did you try to hit the tab "mount sd"?..some times the sd card does some "bad" mounting..after a pull battery and manual unmounting and remount back will do..let me know.

 

[Dannydet]

Are you using a file explorer on your phone? ES file explorer not seeing it?

 

[SavageRobot]

I assume you are just looking in the music player app rather than manually looking in file explorer, I think some music player apps you need to refresh library, or something like that. What music app are you using?

 

[vialeggio]

true. just using whatever "music player" came with the phone. I guess I should activate the darn thing and download a file explorer and another music player -- suggestions?

I know it sounds strange -- You got a phone but didn't activate it?? -- but a) the old dumb phone still works and b) I have no service on the road I live anyway. generally have to wait to visit town to get any coverage...internets coverage around here is provided by two guys at the end of the road with semaphore flags. and they take long lunch breaks.

(you know, I haven't paid any attention to this android smart phone stuff at all, for the reasons above. I tell you, I haven't felt this discombobulated since wading through an Apple 2e manual, a certain number of years ago..)

Xavier: thanx. but unmount/remount didn't work.
Dannydet: thanks also for suggestion.

 

[SavageRobot]

Is the music player Google's "Play Music" orange headphones as symbol? I rarely use my phone for music any more, usually use iPod but looking on my G4 it has automatically got all the music from my SD card and can't find where to look for specific location, I'm sure I have had to do that in the past though on one of my old phones. I take it all you need to do really is sign into Google Play using your Gmail account and you should be good to download another music player (I don't really have any suggestions on best one for Android, when I do use it I tend to use Play Music) for file explorer I like ES File explorer, but there's plenty of good ones out there that are more than enough for average Joe user but your LG should have an app called "File Manager" that you should be able to see your files etc.

 

[vialeggio]

thanks for all assistance. got it going.
nice to see you still have a G4 running, mr savagerobot. I eked out a couple last years on one by running debian ppc on it before it finally gave up the ghost.