Help Nexus 5 Storage help.

[haxxo]

so i want to do the simplest thing you can do with a phone and a pc, connect it to the pc and transfer data from it to pc.

lest start out with why im so confused on the simplest thing.

exploring my nexus 5, i found 5 different directories that all lead to the same exact thing:

/sdcard
/mnt/sdard
/storage/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/legacy
/storage/sdcard0

this seems to be the base directory for the "internal storage" that shows up on my pc when my N5 is connected as MTP. i have no idea why there are 5 different ways to navigate to it within my phone.

the content of those 5 directors is identical in my phone, and this seems to be the only directory that i can access on my pc.

1 major issue, it seems that only specific folders/files are shown on my pc. can someone explain to me whats going on? i have a folder in my downloads folder that has some data i want to copy to my pc, but that folder is is not there.

 

[Hook]

so i want to do the simplest thing you can do with a phone and a pc, connect it to the pc and transfer data from it to pc.

lest start out with why im so confused on the simplest thing.

exploring my nexus 5, i found 5 different directories that all lead to the same exact thing:

/sdcard
/mnt/sdard
/storage/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/legacy
/storage/sdcard0

this seems to be the base directory for the "internal storage" that shows up on my pc when my N5 is connected as MTP. i have no idea why there are 5 different ways to navigate to it within my phone.

the content of those 5 directors is identical in my phone, and this seems to be the only directory that i can access on my pc.

1 major issue, it seems that only specific folders/files are shown on my pc. can someone explain to me whats going on? i have a folder in my downloads folder that has some data i want to copy to my pc, but that folder is is not there.

Those are symlinks, a little like windows shortcuts, that, as you observed, all point to the same location, your "SDCARD" which is actually called internal memory. The Nexus 5 doesn't take an SD card, so it used this internal memory as if it were a sd card. Don't know what the exact purpose of so many symlinks are, but they are not taking up space. The files are not actually being duplicated and you should not delete any of those symlinks.

This "SDCARD" are the only files and folders your PC has access to. It cannot read the phone system folders. If this download folder you are talking about is in your internal memory, you will have access to it on the PC, otherwise you won't.

 

[haxxo]

Thanks for reply, it cleared up those confusing directories.

but as for the SDcard folder, it shows up on my pc. but it seems that only specific files/folders from the SDcard folder are shown on my pc. the rest are hidden.

i have a folder in my downloads that was created by an app as a backup location, that folder is invisible in my pc.

i even renamed the folder on my phone, and it never showed up on my pc. i had to copy the contents of the back up folder, and move it directly into the downloads for it to appear.

this does seem like intentional behavior, is there a flag for files/folders inside the SDcard folder for weather they appear on a pc or not? this seems like the only logical explanation, or this is a bug.

 

[Rxpert83]

As best I can figure out why its the way it is...The symlinks are there because of the confusing way manufacturers have named the different storage. They don't all use the same syntax, so symlinks are there to make sure no matter what the storage options are available on the phone, when an app developer calls on getting to the storage, it will be able to find it. Multi-user compatibility also adds another level of complexity

Its kind of ironic that google got rid of SD card support because it was "too confusing" for people to figure out, but now we're left with all of these symlinks that actually are confusing

To your problem... if you move the folder outside of the download folder, can your computer see it? Other things to try... Sometimes if I just disconnect and reconnect or reboot the phone and the PC it will pick it up.

 

[Hook]

Thanks for reply, it cleared up those confusing directories.

but as for the SDcard folder, it shows up on my pc. but it seems that only specific files/folders from the SDcard folder are shown on my pc. the rest are hidden.

i have a folder in my downloads that was created by an app as a backup location, that folder is invisible in my pc.

i even renamed the folder on my phone, and it never showed up on my pc. i had to copy the contents of the back up folder, and move it directly into the downloads for it to appear.

this does seem like intentional behavior, is there a flag for files/folders inside the SDcard folder for weather they appear on a pc or not? this seems like the only logical explanation, or this is a bug.

It sounds like when the app created that subfolder, it set permissions to keep it hidden. If you don't have Windows Explorer set to show hidden and system files, you can try that. However, there are ways to hide files in a way that Windows can't see them. If this is the only folder that gives you this trouble on the internal memory, I would suspect the app did something to hide it. It isn't normal behavior. I can see everything on my internal memory in Windows Explorer.