Installing Larger SD Card and Transferring Apps - myTouch 3G, Magic General

I recently purchased a 16GB (class 2, dont care too much about speed, and it was only $30) SD card to replace my old 4GB one. I ran into some problems trying to transfer all of my apps over to the new card (Apps2SD obviously). Heres my setup and what I did so far:
MT3G (duh), Red (it makes it faster, I swear!)
CM 4.2.15.1
RA-magic-v1.2.3G
The process so far:
- Backed up the contents of the SD card to my PC (Win 7)
- adb pull /system/app (desktop folder)
- nandroid backup
- remove 4GB and insert 16GB
- partition, swap, ext2 (recovery)
- convert ext2 to ext3 (recovery)
- reboot phone
- adb push [desktop folder] /system/app
- copy SD contents back to main partition. Reboot.
At this point I assumed the system would recognize the ext3 partition with all of the same apps on it. The pull/push went without a hitch. When I rebooted most of my apps didnt work, and only the on-phone apps showed up in the tray. Obviously it isnt ready the ext3 partition.
- Reboot to recovery. Run uid mismatches. Reboot.
Still no luck. I then accidentally ran an old restore point that did not get transferred over to the new card as I did nandroid after I backed up the files to PC. This didnt seem to change anything, as it was already broken.
- Re-insert 4GB. Copy nandroid backup to 16GB. Apply restore to 16GB. No help.
- Re-insert 4GB and restore to latest backup (step 3).
Everything is STILL broken. The apps dont work just like the 16GB card. NOTHING on the card has been changed, only copied to/from. The original ext3 partition is still as it was, and I erased no data from it in this process.
This is the point I am at right now. I cannot understand where I went wrong. I did some searching on the forums and couldnt find anything that could help this. I wanted to start a new thread because I'm really baffled at why it broke the functionality of my 4GB card as well.
Do I need to just install the rom fresh with the new card and reinstall all of the apps from scratch? I have quite a few apps, and the default 500MB partition is definitely getting its usage.
Thanks in advance for any help/tips you can provide!!

Answered this a couple of days ago and it worked for him.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6283301

Related

Apps 2 SD on Modaco 1.1 ROM

Hi there,
I've got everything working on my newly reflashed Sprint Hero. (Thanks to everyone that contributed to the gigantic thread....read all (currently) 28 pages...you guys made it easy).
My question is whether apps 2 sd is actually working?
I've put completely bare ROMs on my hero (reverted back to stock ROM, wiped it, wiped & partitioned the sdcard to fat32, ext2 & swap, then flashed with 1.1). I then go to install an app and it doesn't show up on the SD card and my internal memory decreases (indicating that its not on the SD card?)
Don't think I've missed any relevant details, but Im keen to get this working.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It sounds like you did everything correctly.
try this:
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system/sd
ls
This should say:
[0;0mapp [0m
[0;0mapp-private [0m
as in /system/sd/app
/system/sd/app-private
then type:
cd /system/sd/app
ls
this should list the programs on the ext2 partition of your sdcard and, if you type:
cd /data/app
ls
you would still see the programs listed, but it is just telling you what you have installed they are not actually there, from what I understand.
Also, the internal memory on my phone also went down, but it went down 5 or so mb instead of 20 or so mb.
While I'm here would you mind telling me if when you said
dom2114 said:
(reverted back to stock ROM, wiped it,...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you mean you reverted to a Nandroid backup then you performed a factory reset, and then flashed with 1.1, because I was wondering if this is possible?
hi there crake
really appreciate the detailed reply.
did everything you said and everything was exactly as you described, except that in /system/sd, i also have a lost+found folder
did the next 2 steps you outlined and yes, /data/app was a duplicate of /system/sd/app. I didn't realize that these were the locations (one being the actual location and the other being the 'symlink') of the ext2 partition.
One final question for you. How big was your fat32 partition? It didn't look like there was a way to control how big you want the fat32 partitions relative to the ext2 partition (& the swap partition...not sure what that is).
In answer to your question: yes, thats exactly what I did.
I wanted a 100% free implementation of modaco 1.1 (i.e. no apps etc). Here's what i did just FYI:
Flashed my nandroid backup back on
Hard reset it
Turned the phone on and just put my basic gmail/facebook login details in
Turned it off and decided to take another nandroid backup in case I wanted to go back to this state...(so I now have 2 nandroid backups)
Enabled USB transfer and copied this new backup off
Wiped the SD card & dalvik cache and then partitioned the card to fat32, ext2 and swap
Transferred the Modaco ROM to the SD Card
Flashed the phone w/ Modaco
End result was a 100% 'stock' Modaco ROM...if that makes any sense.
Appreciate an answer and any info as to the partition sizes.
EDIT:
Realized that this 'new backup' I performed (in the 4th step above) is useless if I end up wiping/repartioning the sdcard as this ROM refers to apps that the modaco ROM moved to the SD. These will obviously be removed after a format/repartition.
Thanks for the info, I used the 2gb (1.8-ish) sd card that came with my phone, after partitioning, the fat32 partition was somewhere around 1.4 gb. There was no option to modify partition size so I assumed it partitions the ext2 to a predetermined size and the rest is partitioned as fat32.
crake001 said:
Thanks for the info, I used the 2gb (1.8-ish) sd card that came with my phone, after partitioning, the fat32 partition was somewhere around 1.4 gb. There was no option to modify partition size so I assumed it partitions the ext2 to a predetermined size and the rest is partitioned as fat32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe its around 450MB, mine is like 446MB as ext2, the rest of my 8GB sd card is FAT32. It automatically did this, but when I go to All Applications, Apps to SD isn't even listed as an installed application. I went to the market place and installed Apps to SD 2, and it told me I needed to read the tutorial (wtf ?).
So my guess is, the MoDaCo ROM does all the work for you that the Apps to SD program would normally do, and it just always saves it to your SD card.
simplyphp said:
I believe its around 450MB, mine is like 446MB as ext2, the rest of my 8GB sd card is FAT32. It automatically did this, but when I go to All Applications, Apps to SD isn't even listed as an installed application. I went to the market place and installed Apps to SD 2, and it told me I needed to read the tutorial (wtf ?).
So my guess is, the MoDaCo ROM does all the work for you that the Apps to SD program would normally do, and it just always saves it to your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, thats the conclusion I came to. In the adb shell, if you type apps2sd, something starts happening...Im not smart enough to know what though. Figured Id mention if someone wants to play around
Thanks you all for the info. This was exactly what I was looking for. Wanted to know the size of the ext2 partition and how to control it if we even could but looks like it's automatic as stated. Then to find a way to check to make sure the apps were getting installed on the partition.
I installed the MoDaCo 1.1 over top of all my apps/settings etc. I do have my SD card partitioned via my recovery image option.
What do I need to do to get all those apps over to my sd card and off my phone?

Are there steps that need to happen when replaing an SD card on a custom ROMed phone?

Currently I have a Sprint HTC hero running MoDaCo v 2.2 (has A2SD included). My SD is partitioned with ext 2 and swap. If I was to get a larger SD card to replace the one that's currently in the phone, is there a way I can completely copy all the partitions from the old one to the new one without having to do any maintenance on through phone's recovery image? Or will there always be a few things that need to be done through the recovery image (re-partition the new card, etc)? Is this process listed somewhere already (changing SD cards)? Thanks.
You could use droid explorer, Linux, adb shell, or Android commander to pull the data from you extra and swap partition. Then format and push to your new card.
EasierLikeThis said:
Currently I have a Sprint HTC hero running MoDaCo v 2.2 (has A2SD included). My SD is partitioned with ext 2 and swap. If I was to get a larger SD card to replace the one that's currently in the phone, is there a way I can completely copy all the partitions from the old one to the new one without having to do any maintenance on through phone's recovery image? Or will there always be a few things that need to be done through the recovery image (re-partition the new card, etc)? Is this process listed somewhere already (changing SD cards)? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've got it backwards. You need to do EVERYTHING through the recovery image... don't know why you'd have a problem using it.
Make a Nandroid + EXT backup of the phone.
Turn on USB-MS, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the contents of the sdcard to your computer, *including* the Nandroid backup.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now power-off the phone.
Replace the sdcard, boot the phone back to recovery. Do NOT allow the phone to boot Android, all you'll get is endless FC errors and you'll have to reboot it again anyway.
Partition the new sdcard.
Turn USB-MS on, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the sdcard files, including the Nandroid backup, back to the sdcard.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now restore the Nandroid backup. This puts your apps back onto the EXT partition.
And now you can allow the phone to boot Android.
posguy99 said:
You've got it backwards. You need to do EVERYTHING through the recovery image... don't know why you'd have a problem using it.
Make a Nandroid + EXT backup of the phone.
Turn on USB-MS, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the contents of the sdcard to your computer, *including* the Nandroid backup.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now power-off the phone.
Replace the sdcard, boot the phone back to recovery. Do NOT allow the phone to boot Android, all you'll get is endless FC errors and you'll have to reboot it again anyway.
Partition the new sdcard.
Turn USB-MS on, mount the phone on your computer.
Copy the sdcard files, including the Nandroid backup, back to the sdcard.
Unmount the phone, turn off USB-MS.
Now restore the Nandroid backup. This puts your apps back onto the EXT partition.
And now you can allow the phone to boot Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a problem using it, its very robust and easy to decipher. I just wasn't sure what steps would go into changing SD cards and keeping everything the way they are. What you've described here is perfect. Thanks very much. Time for me to go get a bigger, higher classed SD card to replace this stock 2gb card. Thanks.

SD Card changed format, lost all my apps, can't reinstall. Help!

So I just traded my iPhone for a rooted MyTouch. It has the Cyanogen mod I believe. Well all of a sudden I could not access my SD card and when I tried to open it on my computer it said 'Wrong Format'. Wouldn't work on the phone either. So I formated Fat32 and thought I could start over.
It still shows my apps installed in the Marketplace, although they were on the SD and deleted. I can't uninstall them, but it thinks they are there, somewhere. Has anyone had this problem? I am relatively new to Android and rooting. I had a jailbroken iPhone before. Thanks!
kinda depends really. I would suggest first going thru recovery console if you are using amon recovery and partition sd card there. With most modified roms you have apps 2 sd so there are actually 3 partions. The biggest is fat32 for data like music, then ext2,3,4 for applications then a linux swap partition to help expand the ram on the phone and if you formated on PC or from settings on phone those partitions are gone. So I would do that first and then try to uninstall from market and reinstall again if not you may need to wipe and restart the device.
How do I get into recovery mode? I tried going to the terminal and using the flash_image recovery /sdcard/imgfile but it says I do not have permission?
Any ideas??
If your phone has been rooted right by the previous owner, you can access the recovery mode by first powering down, then pressing home and power at the same time.
Ahh! That worked! thanks!
I have a variation on this problem and lost my apps and Market, hope someone can help. Started with the SD card coming unmounted randomly, known issue with EVO I guess. Followed the recommendation of reformatting the SD by plugging it into a Windows PC and doing a FAT32 format. I backed up everything I could "see" from SD to C: drive. I am running a custom ROM with APPS2SD feature and Clockworkmod recovery. I'm very new to Linix and Android but, it looks like there is a Linix Ext3 partition that is made by APPS2SD on the SD card and that is where all my apps where, including android Market app. So, upon copying all the folders back to the re-formatted SD I had no apps and no android Market to able to re-download all my apps. I guess Market is like a licensed deal that you can't just get a .apk of and reload it. I do HAVE a current recovery backup that was on the FAT32 directory of the SD card but it appears the the Ext3 partition is not in that recovery file. I tried booting into recovery with Clockworkmod and reformatting the SD again, I tried a "Restore ext3.img" but Clockworkmod comes back with 'sd-ext.img not found" so I am guessing that the Linix Ext3 partition backup was stored IN the Ext3 partition of the SD(?) and the system and data stuff is stored in the FAT32 recovery file. Brilliant idea (not)! I tried a re-flash of the ROM, flashes OK but no apps. Anyway, the SD is properly partitioned now, the FAT32 stuff is back on, I don't know how to look in to the Est3 partition but, I know there is one program there cause I installed a file explorer by downloading and executing an .apk and there was an option to install it to SD. Going to factory reset and starting over again is not an option. Any ideas please?
SOLVED this issue:
apperantly the android market application is called "vendor.apk" and can be downloaded from various sites BUT WAIT, it's not that simple. Apperantly the vendor app has to be specific to your phone (hardware)? On a whim, I downoaded the previous version of my custom ROM (happedned to be Fresh ROM) .zip, I extracted the vendor.apk from the .zip and installed that. Then, I had an apk called MarketUpdater.apk, or something like that, that had installed in the phones system/app from the last Fresh ROM update. I ran this to update the vendor (android market) to the latest version, then I ran that. Did it work? NO, it crashed hen I tied to run market. I then did a re-boot. Did it it work? NO Upon attempting to reboot it got stuck in a loop and froze. Very scary. So, remove the battery and try again. I think I had to remove and re-install the SDcard somewhere in there to get it to a first time boot and, after a re-boot, whalla, come back with a working market. Market remembered all the apps that I purchased and I re-downloaded everything. Of course, I don't know for sure where they are stored right now (SD card or phone??)
And, my original problem of SD card constantly coming unmounted has been fixed.

Clone SD card (with a2sd on)?

Question:
I've noticed I'm pretty much at my limit for space on my current SD card (like 80MB remaining on a 4GB!)...
I've ordered an 8GB card to replace this one... but how can I "clone" my current 4GB card (with a2sd partitions) and then copy it over to my 8GB card, without losing data, settings, apps, etc? Is there a way?
Thanks in advance.
Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.
Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!
gfinockio said:
Sounds complicated enough to work. I'll try when the card comes and let you all know. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha yeah, I think it's the easiest way to do it with Windows, since you can't read the ext partition from the computer. You could probably just copy the contents of both partitions through Linux if you're comfortable doing that.
Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...
jdwhite87 said:
Doesn't a nandroid backup the ext partition too?
If you're using windows you could just backup your fat32 partition on your PC and partition your new card and then copy all your files back and do your nandroid restore.
I think this would work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clockwork does not back up my ext partition. It can't mount it or anything. Not sure why. Might be because its ext4, but when I do nandroids the sd-ext backup always fails.
I have to use Ubuntu and mount as storage. Then both of my partitions mount on my computer and I can do as I please. For me this seems easiest anyway. Simple copy and paste and it can be done from a live cd for those that dont already have Ubuntu.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
drumist said:
Do this all from within Clockwork Recovery:
1) Make a nandroid backup
2) Connect the phone to a computer
3) Partitions menu > mount USB storage
4) Copy all contents from the old SD card to a temporary folder on your computer (including the clockworkmod folder which contains the nandroid backup you just took)
5) Unmount and disconnect from computer.
6) Pull battery to shut the phone off, or if you would prefer you can boot the phone and then turn the phone off immediately afterward. Pulling battery just saves time.
7) Put new SD card in
8) Boot into clockwork
9) Format the card with Clockwork w/ ext partition
10) Connect to computer, mount USB storage again, copy all files back to the phone
11) Unmount and disconnect cable from computer
12) Nandroid > advanced restore > Restore sd-ext only
13) Reboot and you're done.
And if something goes wrong, it's not really a big deal since you will still have the original files on the old SD card so you can try again or ask for help to try another method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?
gfinockio said:
I'm stumped on step 9 - what menu option in Clockwork will format the ext partition? What menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Partitions menu
CallMeAria said:
Partitions menu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.
Interesting. I was sure you could format a card with ext partition through Clockwork but apparently you can't. You can do it through ROM Manager though, so I guess you may have to boot into the phone to get to it.
The programs on the ext partition won't show up yet of course. Don't be alarmed. Just partition the card through ROM Manager, then once you're done doing that, do the nadroid advanced restore. If there are any problems after a reboot (i.e., it didn't work correctly), go back and try doing the regular full nandroid restore.
gfinockio said:
What version has that menu option? I don't see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.
CallMeAria said:
v2.5.0.1
This doesnt create a partition though. It just formats an existing partition. You'll have to use drumist's method of going through Rom manager to actually create the ext3 parition from the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone recommended in another thread that when that happens you just pull out the battery and then use volume down+power to boot back into recovery and it should then work.
But the method I use is to do it from Ubuntu (a linux version). If you dont want to install Ubuntu on your computer you can make a bootable CD or USB drive with Ubuntu on it (directions for this are on the Ubuntu download page) and actually run Ubuntu from the CD/USB without ever installing it on your computer. From there you can use gParted to create paritions. And while I recommend making backups, gparted even allows you to resize and move partitions without deleting anything.
gfinockio said:
Tried running ROM Manager - of course, it's installed on the 4GB card which isn't on my phone when I have the 8GB in to format. So then I re-installed it using the APK... but I get the exclamation mark when it boots to recovery to format... probably because a2sd is installing the same program on the ext part which it is now trying to format.
I think I'm going to have to format/partition it using Linux somehow instead, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.
drumist said:
Yeah, that's what I was worried about. My suggestion then is to format the card through linux if you have a SD card reader. Easiest way is to use an Ubuntu LiveCD. Do you know how to do this on your own?
Also, definitely do a full nandroid restore once the SD card is reformatted. Since you booted the phone and tried to install an app, it's possible something got screwed up -- nothing to worry about though because a full nandroid restore should revert everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm reverting back now, going to sleep on it, and then investigate formatting it via LiveCD tomorrow morning. It's been several years since I've had to go near anything Unix.
By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.
drumist said:
By the way, another option is to just do a clean install on your phone with a ROM that has ROM Manager built in. Use that to do the format on the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That got me thinking...Ive never had a problem adding an ext partition using Rom Manager. Ive done it to 3 SD cards now without a single issue. BUT, Ive also always done it while on cm6/7 which both came with Rom Manager pre-installed with the rom and quite a bit of integration with the rom manager app...just a thought...
EDIT: Scratch that, I used it for 2 SD cards, the 3rd was done with Ubuntu.
Here's my post from the other thread
jdwhite87 said:
Rom manager - partition SD card - choose your partitions. It will reboot into recovery and try but fail to partition your card. Pull battery. Replace battery - hold volume down and power. Wait for it to try and find the libde. Img then press volume down and it will highlight recovery then press power. It will boot into recovery and finish partitioning your card.
I think that's how I got it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this with two different SD cards on fr008. Both were sandisks. One was a 16 gb class 4 and the other was an 8 gb class 6. I couldn't get gparted to partition the 8 gb for whatever reason. I didn't know what Ubuntu was when I partitioned the 16 gb
It seems like an oversight that maybe of the masses of people with Android devices that one day the general (non-xda) population would want a simple way to transfer their sd card data to a larger card...
I Imagine there are a bunch of people out there clueless.
Hell, I read XDA and there was still no clear simple way in this thread.
(I got here from a Google search for SD CARD CLONE)
Got it to work, finally. Required some back-and-forth with the Nandroid backups, but I have everything running off of my 8GB SD card now, without reinstalling!
Now, to sell off my 4GB card... anyone?

Guide to partition SD card and use with Link2SD to store apps

I have been looking for something like this for a while. The flipout lacks internal memory and it soon becomes a problem if you want to have a good set of apps.
Here's what you'll need:
1. Rooted Flipout (I won't post instructions to this step, look for "Universal AndRoot")
2. Partitioned SD card (see below for instructions), depending on the method, you might need a phone with CWM to do this and ADB installed on your PC.
3. Download Link2SD from Market
So here are the steps:
1. Partition your SD card. There are many ways to do it. I will post two ways:
Use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition
My PC didn't like this tool and I wasn't able to use it. However, it should be quite easy, you just need to put your card in a card reader and build two partitions with the following characteristic:
First partition will be your main card partition, should be of the whole card size minus the extended partition you want to create
Second partition should also be fat32 (link2sd didn't like ext2 nor ext3 on the flipout, it only worked with fat32)
Use CWM. I personally didn't want to install it on the Flipout, so I used a Samsung Epic 4G for the steps. You should be able to use any phone with CWM to do it, put your SD card in the phone with CWM and boot into recovery:
adb shell reboot recovery
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 (open partition manager for SD card)
print (prints partition table)
Here you should have one partition table, starting at some point and ending at some point like 7969 if your card has 8GB. Take note of the End value as you'll need it.
rm 1 (deletes partition 1, this will erase all data on the SD card)
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7425 (creates a new primary partition, the second number should be the value you took note of in the last step minus the size in MB of your desired extended partition).
mkpartfs primary fat32 7425 7937 (creates the new partition for applications, starting at the end of the last partition and ending on the max size of the card. In this case I used fat32 as I couldn't do it with ext3 nor ext2, link2sd didn't like this format on the flipout for some reason).
The partitions are created and you should be able to go to the next step.
3. Reboot your flipout with the partitioned SD card, make sure to have link2sd installed.
4. Open link2sd, it will take a while, ask for root permissions (always accept and make sure to have Remember checked).
5. It will ask for the partition type, select fat32. If you are asked to reboot your phone you have everything setup, otherway please post your problem.
6. Once rebooted, open link2sd again and go to settings and configure. I don't like having all applications automatically linked as widgets and this kind of apps can fail if they are on the SD, so I have this setting unchecked. However this is a personal decision.
7. To move an app to the card, hold your finger on it and when the menu appears, press link and confirm.
8. To move an app from the card to the phone, hold on it and press unlink, check everything and wait for the app to be returned.
Further Tips:
Avoid moving apps to the SD that are use widgets or that run all the time like: messenger apps, alarm clocks, climate widgets, etc. I tried one or two without any failure but I feel they could be less reliable this way.
Don't remove your SD card if the phone is turned on, now it has a partition that is used by the system, if you remove it you could have issues, I would only remove the card with the phone turned off completely and not boot without the card.
I made some tests connecting the USB cable to the PC and using the phone in storage mode, the PC could see the primary SD card partition and the phone could still work with apps on the second partition, so it seems to be stable in this sense.
If you need to switch to another card, you would have to setup the new card in the same way; I don't know yet if backing up the second partition and restoring it to the new card will work. If your data is critical use some SW like Titanium backup to back up the apps that are linked, remove them completely and restore when you have the new card setup.
So, this has worked for me like a charm, the phone really seems stable and I have so far like 150MB of apps on the SD card. No need to have a newer Android version, it seems very stable.
Disclaimer:
Any process that involves rooting your phone and partitioning can potentially cause data loss and/or bricking your phone. Do this only if you are 100% sure of what you're doing, I will take no responsibility for any data loss / damage caused by this process.
If you have any questions I will be glad to help.
Hi great post above
I rooted my phone and I partitioned my sd card into 2 partitions , both FAT32 primary 3.7GB and when i open link2sd and select either ext 2 or ext 3 I get an error message
"Mount scrip error
Mount scripe cannot be created.
mount: no such device
ext 2 may not be supported on your device. Try FAt32 on the second partition"
Has anyone come accross this problem before ?
Hi,
When you open link2sd,scroll down and select fat32. I tried formatting the second partition with ext2 and ext3 wit no luck. Fat32 is working just fine.
Regards
Hi Thanks a million that worked great
thanks
hi i tried wat u told but after some time link2sd is showing failure that "cannot link readonly" can u help me
Your guide works great. Finally I can have all apps I like to have installed at once.
mschmiedel said:
[*]If you need to switch to another card, you would have to setup the new card in the same way; I don't know yet if backing up the second partition and restoring it to the new card will work. If your data is critical use some SW like Titanium backup to back up the apps that are linked, remove them completely and restore when you have the new card setup.
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Click to collapse
I can tell some experiences with backups.
Before I had blur stock rom with link2sd and changed to deblur central europe rom. After reinstalling link2sd all apps where still gone.
And even after restoring all user apps with titanium backup they were restored to phone memory. I had relink them with link2sd manually and to batch restore with titanium backup twice because it broke down in the middle because phone memory was full.
Unfortunately link2sd is no magically way to have them backed up apps and to be independent from the rom. Titanium backup is still needed but that is fine. Nothing seams broken after restore with TI and relink with link2sd.
lovdanie, it's strange, had no issues with the tested phone yet, I partitioned 500mb and it has already like 200-250MB of apps linked and is working great, no issues.
One thing that could have happened is that you removed the SD card. Are you sure the SD card hasn't been touched or formatted?
bagers, it's not really a magical solution, it's just a way to get more space on a phone that lacks internal memory...
Regards
Just for some info.. under windoze try the "MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition" makes partitions like charm..
Guys any one have links for disk partitioners? minitool is not a freeware as u have t buy it when you apply the partition. any one know a way roubnd this? please help
miniProBhashi,
That's why I always use CWM to partition the SD card. As I don't have it on the Bllur, I put the card on another phone I have with CWM and it always works... Maybe if you have a linux PC you could do the same thing...
Regards
Help
Hi, I just partitioned my SD card. When I open the Link2SD app, it did prompt me to select the file system of the SD card's second partion, however, after I select FAT32/FAT16, Link2SD could not gain root access, there's no pop-up of indicating me to select "Allow" on the Superuser Request. Now wot do I do. Please help, thank you...
Well, I would start checking the SuperUser app to see if there is some exception in there. If you don't have it, check out if your phone is rooted by installing some other app that requires root access.
If not, check the root method for your phone.
If it's the Motorola Flipout, download version 1.6.1 from this thread, install it and run it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598
Regards
mschmiedel said:
Well, I would start checking the SuperUser app to see if there is some exception in there. If you don't have it, check out if your phone is rooted by installing some other app that requires root access.
If not, check the root method for your phone.
If it's the Motorola Flipout, download version 1.6.1 from this thread, install it and run it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is Galaxy ace, and superuser doesnt prompt anything on start-up.
Tried rooting manually, doesn't work as well
Hi,
I would try on a Galaxy Ace forum to check for the rooting process and validate if your phone is really rooted. When you are 100% sure you have root you can come back to this post and we can check if there's some other issue...
Regards
Flipout problem
Done all u told...
Then this problem came..
Mount script cannot be created.
mount: Invalid Argument
p0kjats said:
Done all u told...
Then this problem came..
Mount script cannot be created.
mount: Invalid Argument
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Have seen similar problems when using ext filesystems. Are you 100% sure that the secondary partition on the sd card is fat32? It really should work on the flipout without any issues.
Remember that you need:
* Rooted flipout
* Partitioned sd card (secondary partition must be fat32)
* Link2sd opened and allowed to use root permission
If you are sure you did everything stated above, we can look at it with more detail. What tool did you use to partition the sd card?
root permission
hi,
i have installed Link2SD from Market to my lg optimus p500 os,gingerbird2.3.3,when i stared to move app to sd it asks root permission.
so pls guid me to activate root permission in my device
drnags said:
hi,
i have installed Link2SD from Market to my lg optimus p500 os,gingerbird2.3.3,when i stared to move app to sd it asks root permission.
so pls guid me to activate root permission in my device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
It doesn't make much sense to use Link2SD if you're on Gingerbread as your OS natively can copy apps to the SD card (at least some of them). Just go to "Manage Applications", and select the app you want to copy, there should be an option to "Move to SD"...
If you still have some good reason to use Link2SD, you should first look in a forum for your specific device to find out how to obtain root (I cannot help because it varies for each device)... Once you have root access, I can help you out with this process.
Regards
miniProBhashi said:
Guys any one have links for disk partitioners? minitool is not a freeware as u have t buy it when you apply the partition. any one know a way roubnd this? please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I partitioned mine I used GParted Live. It's a Linux-based boot disk, but you don't really have to know anything about Linux to use it. Just download the .ISO and burn a CD, pop it in your PC and boot off it. Its free, graphical (not command line) and relatively easy to use. There is also an option there to set it up to boot live off a USB drive, but that's a bit more involved to set up.
gparted . sourceforge . net / livecd.php (sorry, it won't let me directly post links yet)
If you can burn a .ISO to a CD, you can probably figure it out. Just make sure you pay attention to which disk you are partitioning (look at the sizes) so you don't accidentally re-partition the hard drive in your PC.
EDIT: If there is anything you need to back up off the SD card, I would do that in Windows first, and then copy it back using Windows after. You CAN do this with GParted Live but there would be additional steps to mount / unmount the Windows partition on the PC that you want to copy to.
the bootstrapped recovery seems to be having a partitioning tool.
Maybe im wrong, haven't used it though

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