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Hi,
Ive been using my Dream for some time, and have hit the inevitable lack of space for apps issue... Im running CM 6.1 Stable, so most of my apps are on the SD, but some, like widgeted apps etc are still on the phone memory. Along with my current on screen kayboard of choice, the excellent gingerbread keyboard. However, I very rarely use this, but do need it occasionally. Therefore, what alternative keyboard is the "smallest" ie will take up least memory on the phone? I use it very rarely, so I'm not too fussed over features etc.
Many thanks,
Harry
morseharry said:
Hi,
Ive been using my Dream for some time, and have hit the inevitable lack of space for apps issue... Im running CM 6.1 Stable, so most of my apps are on the SD, but some, like widgeted apps etc are still on the phone memory. Along with my current on screen kayboard of choice, the excellent gingerbread keyboard. However, I very rarely use this, but do need it occasionally. Therefore, what alternative keyboard is the "smallest" ie will take up least memory on the phone? I use it very rarely, so I'm not too fussed over features etc.
Many thanks,
Harry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Least memory? Your talk about where you are installing applications to suggests that you are actually looking for the one that takes up the least *STORAGE*. Memory = volatile, and loses its data when you reboot the phone. Storage = non-volatile, and keeps its data when you reboot the phone.
If you are not already doing so, I suggest searching the dev forum for "MTD" to find scripts by firerat for getting more internal storage.
Second, ODEX EVERYTHING. Your dalvik cache is a huge waste of storage space. There is a script around somewhere called "dexopt-wrapper". Run that against each of your APK files (dexopt-wrapper name.apk name.odex), REMOVE the "classes.dex" file from within the apk (the "zip" command from your desktop computer will do this...), and delete everything from /data/dalvik-cache. It will save you a TON of space.
Question. I doubt there is an app for this because this issue is so user/device/application specific... but I noticed in 1 month of owning my phone that I now have 600MB available on a 8GB SD card.
I imagine plenty of this is junk... and I will need to go through using ADB or a wifi file explorer app to review each directory on the SD and delete those files that I can determine (if possible) are in fact junk... I know certainly easy ones like old manual downloads of apps and such should be deleted... But after that... I am a little apprehensive.
One related issue is the App to SD app. I have re-flashed my ROM a couple times, and each time I have to move everything back to the SD... But I would think Ti, upon restoring this application, would have user data already in place stating which app "should" be on the SD card (even if it is not because of the new state of the recent ROM)... and then move them automatically. Right now, I am moving my apps to SD (using the app), and I suspect there are dead, non working versions of these apps someplace on the SD...
In general, does anyone have advice for cleaning the SD card. I know that when you uninstall an app, it uninstalls it, yes, but all traces of its former existence remain.... On my laptop, I use revo-uninstaller, because it is amazing how much junk is left over -- on the HD or in the registry, or wherever, and its nice to clean all this out on an uninstall.
Does Android have anything comparable?
Astro file manager.
Or just plug your phone into your computer and turn on USB storage.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Why Astro? What does it do?
I have used it before, then Linda, then some other file manager, and now I use Smart File Manager and Ghost Commander because of the mix of functions and root access.
But why does Astro solve the aforementioned problems? And USB Storage? You are just providing me tools which give me access, albeit easier access, to the SD Card. I know how to crawl every file on the SD Card... What I don't know is the bulk of 7GB that I cannot imagine are even being used.
Glacier has a stock 8GB SD card... if I have some downloaded junk, dropbox with 1GB, and all moveable apps moved to my SD, all of this should be ~4 GB. Yet as I mention in my original post, I have 650MB left. So there is garbarge someplace....WHERE? I just don't understand the FS well enough to know how apps are being used and where valid copies of them are.... its not like I can look at /etc or /usr/lib on the SD card and know what is not an active app... (I wish)
Heres a short list of some directory you can delete that wont harm anything and there locations. they will be rebuilt then next time u use the respective app and will be smaller generally.
sdcard/
.bookmak_thumb1
.imp.thumbnails
data
sdcard/DCIM/
.thumbnails
Go through your music make sure you have no doubles as well as any recovery backups that are old each will be 500mb+
Also a good idea is to first move back all your apps to your phone temporarily. Then use Titanium backup and backup everything all system + User apps + Data then plug you phone onto your computer and copy everything on your SD over to your desktop. Once done unplug the usb and format the card through your phone Menu>Settings>SD & phone storage. After thats done copy the pertinent files you copied to your desktop back. I.E. Music pictures backups ect making sure you don't copy stuff you don't use or need. If your like me space is at a premium and i plug my phone into my PC alot and for some horrible reason windows likes to hide crap on my SD and eventually takes up a load of space. I use perfect Disk's free space cleaner to do this but if you don't want to shell out the cash for it the above is the best option.
Hope this helps.
Thank you so much for all that info... It was quite nice of you to go into such detail... I know what you mean about windows, you have to keep on it... keep pushing it back.
I will use your suggestions.. they are the best thing I could have asked for.
Incidentally, I saw in your sig that you use a stock Rom... Why is that? I have had my glacier for about 7 weeks and while I rooted it right away, I didn't Flash a modded ROM until CM RC3.
Have you any personal opinions on using a non-sense ROM...? That is about the one thing I seem to read consistently. People saying that HTC builds the devices to perform better with a sense based UI/ROM.
Any opinion? Just curious...(don't mean to take advantage of your kindness in your last post.)
Edit: Fail at English, Being tired doesn't help.
I love the Espresso sense Stock comes with. It has all the features i want where i want them and its a clean look. After I Froze the bloatware it runs Just as well as the comparable roms with optimized code but better stability. Because Sadly with optimized code comes less compatibility and greater risk for instability. Eventually I'll flash something else but its gonna need to be something along the lines of a gingerbread version of stock.
From what i understand there actually is alot of device specific compatibility involved, especially with Sense. The Espresso Sense they used is highly specific in alot of the areas, whitch is why Faux123 has had so many issues this making a 100% compatible Sense kernel. Also if you think about it, they where made for each other and i doubt T-mo or HTC want to release updates all the time to fix issues so they made it as stable and compatible within reason for the general public.
Well... I tend to agree with you, although I am not the coder I would like to be, and as such I do not understand a lot about the Android OS and FS that I wish I did.
I work within a linux environment maybe half the time, but with Linux, there is always more to learn... So I need to ask then why upgrade your kernel? Is this faux's kernel which is close to being sense compatible? I was fine using my stock ROM, rooted, but some psychological nonsense made me believe that going from 2.2.1 to 2.3 would somehow change my entire Android experience. And while there are some minor features that are new, other than CM themes and all that, I don't know if jumping to GIngerbread is necessary....or if my experience sticking with the Stock Froyo would be a wiser choice... modding whatever I want as I am perm rooted radio s=off like you.
But I would like to know what the benefit of the kernel gives you...
The updated kernel adds updated drivers code improvements, several new CPU governors for better performance and battery life and alot of other stuff. and with Faux behind the wheel its guaranteed to be good. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941141
Cool. I did not know this. So you are running 2.2 but the kernel is enhancing this a great deal.
You are so cool and nice to answer my questions...and I don't want to turn this into a "Ask SoltyPK" thread but I have a q that you addressed with another user... mine might be more rudimentary... but how can I upgrade to CWR 3.0.0.6? I have the donate Rom Manager and it itself is the latest version of the app but its the old 3.0.0.5. Really confused and frustrated. Downloaded unrevoked...but that's for wildfire so I don't think that would be wise.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
I saw that you answered my CW question in my thread from earlier today. Thanks. Been figuring out a lot of stuff today.
So I flashed the new recovery. Awesome.
I won't apologize for asking questions anymore. You must just enjoy it. I am insomniac, and am always in front of this phone our my laptop, so I think I am just the odd one.
In December, someone released a launcher for what was supposed to be the"gingerbread launcher". It is more or less the launcher that CM7 uses, the icons are the same, and the animation upon opening and closing odd the same... But the pre-gingerbread launcher from december had a really nice vertical 3D roller effect. Do you know if there is any way I can get this effect with some mod or changing settings in ADW (the launcher format of CM7)? Do you even know what I am talking about?
Thanks on this one a lot..
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Yeah thats from ADW Launcher i believe. its on the app market.
Well I have had the Xperia Play for over a week now and there is one thing that is annoying me, as one might guess from the title.
First though, let me list all the Android phones (tablets omitted) I've had in the past year to give a bit of insight into my rant:
Xperia X10, Desire, Galaxy S, Desire HD, LYNX, LYNX 3D, Nexus S, Xperia Play.
Now, of these phones (I don't really count the X10 as I had it for 2 weeks before ditching it for the Desire), the HTC Desire has been the only one that really ticked me off. EVERY day there was a memory issue. I would test out a new app only to find that, lo and behold, the storage was filled from the other apps. It seemed like there was eternally 20MB or less free at any given time. I remember actively having to put downloads on "hold" in my mind so that when I got a new phone I could get them.
(BTW I realize that last April/May we had Android 2.1 and thus there was no option to save to Micro SD. Nonetheless, all of the other phones have been great, including the Desire HD.)
NOW we fast forward to my spending $800 on an unlocked Xperia Play. NOT happy. I have already, on three occasions, been notified of low memory on the phone. Why? Well I downloaded various games from the marketplace that are optimized for the Play, and I downloaded Adobe Air (absurdly large file size for something I don't ever recall using).
I find it quite ironic that a device designed to play GAMES has basically no on-board memory. Worse yet, IIRC many of the large games that are designed for the Play (including some that are pre-installed no less) will not migrate to SD and thus they are stuck on the phone occupying space.
Could I delete some of the applications? Sure. But the thing is, why do I have to? Why is it that my Nexus S and Desire HD, both of which I actively use, have not once experienced this problem and have MORE content on them no less. The HD still has 512MB free, and I'm even willing to overlook the NS entirely given that it ONLY has on-board memory.
Sorry, I'm just ticked off that I have this brand new phone (which I bought explicitly for games mind you, not even to use as a phone or take out of my house) and it requires micromanagement so as not to run out of space. I mean it's great that SE was nice enough to include a 16GB Micro SD, but WHY couldn't it have been built into the **** internal storage instead?!?! For crying out loud, even the PSP Go (which this is more or less a follow-up to) had 16GB on-board...
Is anyone else annoyed by this issue?
Mhh, I can see where you're coming from, but I found it to be a little bit of a non-issue, personally. I found it to be a huge issue with my Motorola Milestone, but mostly, because it's Android 2.1 and thus doesn't want to cooperate with the SD. Nowadays, you can just set the default install location on the SD with "adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2" and everything gets thrown on the SD, even programs that don't support it. And thankfully, the included Class 10 SD is very fast from what I've seen and could probably be even faster if we format it into ext4 - altho for that, we need root-access, otherwise Android still tries to mount it as a vfat.
It's unfortunate, yes, but it's not really that much of an issue to me, personally. I still have around 140MB free, and basically all apps I buy also allow me to throw them on the SD by default.
TokyoGuy said:
I find it quite ironic that a device designed to play GAMES has basically no on-board memory. Worse yet, IIRC many of the large games that are designed for the Play (including some that are pre-installed no less) will not migrate to SD and thus they are stuck on the phone occupying space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
umm i'm pretty sure all the pre-installed game files are pre-loaded on the 16gb card you get. plus any large game you install, almost in all cases you download the game data files to the SD by default. so yeah.....
Actually I was concerned that my phone had some kind of malware preinstalled because of the 3 minute start up issue and thus I formatted the memory and SD card. Exactly what was on there anyway? I'm quite worried I deleted something important, though when I went to play Crash Bandicoot it said the file had to be downloaded. Was it just the games and SE's sample music and pictures?
As for the large games, Asphalt 6 (29.30MB) won't move to SD, Pixeline (18.84MB) and some others. But it's also that I have things like Swype installed, and various other things that are also taking up space.
Nowadays, you can just set the default install location on the SD with "adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2"
Sorry, how does that work? It might sound ignorant, but is that something that you can do after rooting the phone or such? It would definitely solve my problem though.
Also, on a side note, has anyone experienced the phone randomly turning off? It happened to me twice today. I don't even have a SIM inserted so it is clearly something hardware related.
And on a final note/question, I have System Panel installed on the phone, however upon restarting, the icon is nowhere on the Application icon menu. It is still installed on the phone, but the icon is gone. Is this some kind of hardware/software compatibility issue?
TokyoGuy said:
Sorry, how does that work? It might sound ignorant, but is that something that you can do after rooting the phone or such? It would definitely solve my problem though.
Also, on a side note, has anyone experienced the phone randomly turning off? It happened to me twice today. I don't even have a SIM inserted so it is clearly something hardware related.
And on a final note/question, I have System Panel installed on the phone, however upon restarting, the icon is nowhere on the Application icon menu. It is still installed on the phone, but the icon is gone. Is this some kind of hardware/software compatibility issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just enable USB debugging, attach the phone and run the command in the Android-SDK/tools directory via a command window. As far as I know, it doesn't need to be rooted to work.
I had no problems with the phone turning off yet, but it might be related to a "random reboot" bug the Nexus S had in 2.3.2 as well. It was fixed in the 2.3.3 update.
The default Launcher is very buggy and sometimes seems to "forget" applications. For now, I'd advice you to use an alternative launcher like Launcher Pro, ADW Launcher, Go Launcher oder SPB 3D Shell.
Meister_Li said:
Mhh, I can see where you're coming from, but I found it to be a little bit of a non-issue, personally. I found it to be a huge issue with my Motorola Milestone, but mostly, because it's Android 2.1 and thus doesn't want to cooperate with the SD. Nowadays, you can just set the default install location on the SD with "adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2" and everything gets thrown on the SD, even programs that don't support it. And thankfully, the included Class 10 SD is very fast from what I've seen and could probably be even faster if we format it into ext4 - altho for that, we need root-access, otherwise Android still tries to mount it as a vfat.
It's unfortunate, yes, but it's not really that much of an issue to me, personally. I still have around 140MB free, and basically all apps I buy also allow me to throw them on the SD by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure apps that don't support being moved to SD can be used like this?
TokyoGuy said:
As for the large games, Asphalt 6 (29.30MB) won't move to SD, Pixeline (18.84MB) and some others. But it's also that I have things like Swype installed, and various other things that are also taking up space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol dude you should be thankful Asphalt only takes 30 mb on your phone, check your SD card, see that 800mb+ folder? yh THAT'S Asphalt!
RacecarBMW said:
Are you sure apps that don't support being moved to SD can be used like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It usually works fine, but I think it can cause issues if Widgets are installed that way.
Hey guys
I have had no problems like yours all u need to makesure thst u move the apps to sd card which is an android issue not enough int memory
My se play is brill screen res is better than iphone 4 also speed for loading webpages better than any htc especially the cam as it is sony
They have a winner here watch out apple.
I have had all the phones out there and sold them all this se play has a great gps aswell not agps which idveven better and agrest battery life
Rock on sony this shouldbe your flagship phone not the others u are producing like the arc or neo
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
well each to their own i guess. iphone has a better screen res FYI. but i also prefer the screen over iphone as 3.5" is too small. but i disagree, the only thing the Play does good is handle games that require controls. my galaxy s had a better screen, waaaay better web browsing experience, xperia play seems clunky and cumbersome imo.
but for gaming, cant beat it
Can anyone confirm if adb shell setInstallLocation2 is a viable option here ? Because I'm running out of space fast !
DeadlyDazza said:
Can anyone confirm if adb shell setInstallLocation2 is a viable option here ? Because I'm running out of space fast !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Code:
adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2
adb: permission denied
Bootloader unlocked Play, latest SDK on Mac - doesn't work for me.
Thanks for that buddy
Worked for me using the windows android-sdk before I unlocked my bootloader, but didn't actually test it.
Hopefully it's just something I am doing wrong then.
Moved a lot of stuff over to SD card anyway so not critical on space (yet)
Laird_Attwood said:
Code:
adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2
adb: permission denied
Bootloader unlocked Play, latest SDK on Mac - doesn't work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
worked fine for me no permission denied errors.
1st of all, let me apologize for being a complete n00b !
I've found a couple of how to's on the net regarding installing & using the android windows SDK to set installlocation.
However, when I plug in my Play I don't actually get any prompt to install drivers. So naturally, when I try to run the command line I get a device not found error.
If anyone could spare the time to help me out here I'd probably love you forever ! ;-)
I hope new android roms will give us more memoria, because I always have 80-90 mb free, and have to use advance task killer allways to restore to 200 mb
Yes and yes to your issues.
I dont have any where as near as many apps installed as I did on the X10 but, am constantly getting the low or out of memory notification. I downloaded a couple apps yesterday and the second one wouldn't even download because there was no space. I've moved everything I can possibly move onto the SD card. Itd be great if all game files could be put on the SD card. I have quite a few games, all the Play optimized ones (well and Angry Birds ) and thats just the launch titles. In a few months time, I'll have had to uninstall games, even if I'm not finished with them, to make room for new games. I've had to uninstall some apps, which I downloaded to try and as I say, I've moved everything I can to the SD card, next step will be to remove games. It's a shame that my favourite, Asphalt 6, is the one that takes up the most room, almost 30MB . Never too bothered about root on my X10 but, desperately want it on here to remove the unwanted crap which is taking up needed space.
Also, I've also had the phone switch off several times. A few times it's been off when I've gone to it, other times it's powered off when I'm using it and is nothing to do with a low battery.
This worked great for me! I have all the Gameloft games installed and a crap load of other games on my phone and i still have 170mb free. You need to install both Sony Ericsson PC Companion and Update Service before ADB detects the phone.
Anyone else notice that when you update an app, you download the update (which is the complete app, not an update to the existing app) into a new folder, and the replaced app is not deleted. Many apps already have multiple instances of themselves, and I have only had my tablet for 2 weeks. (Most apps have at least 2 versions, but the worst (vclibs.110) already has 8 versions of itself!!!)
This may not seem like much yet, but I have auto update apps turned off, and still using at least twice the space I should be using. I also have 22 garbage apps that are complaining about wanting an update, which would add another 22 copies of uslessness to an SSD that is already too small (128GB)
Currently, these mostly useless apps are consuming just under 3 GB of space, at least 1/2 of that is not required, and that is after only 2 weeks. What kind of disk usage after 2 years of auto updates? (I also have not installed any new apps, the 3 GB is just junk MS and Acer put on already)
So I see from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2102160 that others have indeed noticed this.
Update 2:
Apps are placed in "Program Files\WindowsApps"(all apps) I have removed the older versions with no noticable issues. To delete a current App, simply flick up on the app tile, (be it on the start menu, or in all apps) and select "uninstall". Note that this will only uninstall the latest version of the app. You will still have to go to "Program Files\WindowsApps" to delete any prior versions.
>Anyone else notice that when you update an app...and the replaced app is not deleted. Many apps already have multiple instances of themselves
That's the default behavior for Windows since Vista, aka WinSxS,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-by-side_assembly
The problem is the "DLL hell" dependencies, and MS' solution was to keep old DLLs so dependencies don't break. The downside is that Windows keeps getting ever more bloated as time goes on. This was of minimal concern when we all had big honking hard drives, but became glaring on mobiles with limited storage.
Windows has always been a pig for space, including Win8. It espouses redundancy, hence the multiple layers of backup--reserved/recovery partitions, restore points, file history, trash can, WinSxS, etc. A minimum install for Win XP was less than 2GB. A Win8 x64 bare install is 13-14GB before updates, not counting the various dedicated system partitions. Updates will eat up a few more gigs, and it continually goes up from there.
Win8 did manage to optimize for power. One hopes that MS will discard the "unlimited storage" mindset and likewise optimize it for space. I'd like to see a Tablet Edition that dispenses with the abovementioned redundancy features. Backups can go to cloud or NAS.
Win8 has a commandline tool to remove Windows packages from the install ISO, called DISM. A how-to, to remove Metro apps, is here,
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-8/104332-removing-metro-apps-windows-8-image.html
Metro apps have no dependencies with the desktop side, and removing them should be safe for desktop users. I'll try out the above to slim the oinker down some. It won't save that much space, but there'll be less crapware to delete.
I've spent the past 3 weeks pretty solid working out how I want to transform the 3 Fire's I got for $35 for my boys, 10, 8, and 4. I figure I'd post where I've finally landed along with some other things I've tried both with success and failure, and hopefully save some people some effort. I'd suggest reading through this before you use it as a stepbystep guide to make sure this works for you. I apologize if it's a bit jumbled, but everything should be here for you to convert your Fire. Again, I'd suggest reading through the whole thing to come up with a plan of action for you.
Goal: Turn this Fire into a glorified gameboy, used ONLY by kids, not shared with parent(s) and child
On 5.1.1
Assuming you've purchased an SD card, you will want to repartition in preparation for moving files and content.
Pointers for this:
Make two partitions, 1 which is about 70% of the card formatted as Fat32, must be a PRIMARY partition.
Second partition will be the remaining space, make it ext2, must be a PRIMARY partition. (From what I can tell the reason people suggest using ext2, and not 3 or 4, is because with 3 and 4 there is some built in backup and recovery operations which is great for when you're running a full Linux operating system, but for our purposes all it does is cause more writes which in THEORY will shorten the life of your SD card)
I formatted the Fat32 partition as the first partition, and the EXT partition as the 2nd. Not sure if the order matters or not, but I've had no problems doing it this way thus far.
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-internal-memory-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-link2sd-tutorial-guide.html/
Note:
During initial setup, don't bother with multiple user profiles (reasons explained later).
Using root junky's super tool (Thanks root junky, you made this all possible!!! http://rootjunkysdl.com/?device=Amazon Fire 5th gen&folder=SuperTool) do the following:
Root
Prevent OTA
Install Google Play
Install NovaLauncher (this is important if you're not going to use the built in Kids Mode in FireOS)
In Google Play Store download the following:
Link2SD (This is assuming you've purchased an SD card)
Kids Place - The VERY SIMPLE reason I went with using this app (which essentially becomes an alternative launcher) instead of using the built in FireOS's profiles and kids mode, is because the built in kids mode will ONLY allow you to use apps which you've downloaded FROM the AMAZON app store. I understand why they do it this way, I mean, the whole point of the fire is to keep you inside the Amazon ecosystem after all. But, I have MANY games I've paid full price for on Google Play that are appropriate for my kids. Since I can't put them into the kids profile built into the FireOS (If anyone can link me to a guide which is different, I'd love to hear about it) I couldn't use the built in stuff. In addition, the built in kids mode really is a pretty awesome feature on the fire, but the icons are freaking huge and kind of a waste of space.... going with this alternative method of Kids Place gives you smaller icons therefore you can "shove" more icons on a single view. Icons which take up half the screen are great, but if you're a dad like me who's going a little overboard and putting 100+ games on these things, it'll be a bit of a pain to scroll through them for your kids using the built in profile in the OS.
Note:
You can get Link2SD from the Amazon app store, but the version there is older than what's in Google Play and ultimately didn't work. Once I got the Google Play version, worked like a champ. NOTEx2: For whatever reason (this was frustrating for me to figure out), even though I partitioned 70% of the 64GB Samsung microSD to Fat32, and the other 30% I partitioned to ext2 (BTW I did the Fat32 first and ext2 second... not really sure if it matters the order or not but that's what worked first time for me so I went with it), when I launched Link2SD and it asked me which partition to use, I had to choose ext4 for it to finally work. Choosing both ext2 and Fat32 would both result in basically it saying: "yeah, you chose the wrong one punk" (or whatever it says).
Kids Place - similar to the one above, there is weirdness in the version on Amazon vs Google Play. On Amazon it actually claims the version there is slightly newer than Google Play, but when I'd launch apps on the one I got from Amazon it would kill the WiFi for that app. I realize that this is a built in option into Kids Place, being able to choose WiFi on or off per app (which is really cool), but the one from Amazon seemed to do it when and how it wanted instead of what I was telling it to do. Google Play's version had no such problems.
(( A word of caution using Link2SD's "feature" of being able to "Link Internal Data". DON'T DO IT. I've not been burned HARD CORE by it. The symptom is that if you POWER DOWN, and POWER ON the tablet, Apps go missing. Through reading and troubleshooting, it appears via this forum (http://androidforums.com/threads/link2sd-missing-apps-after-reboot.858565/) that the culprit is when you choose the Link2SD option to "Link Internal Data" to the SD Card. There's even a nifty batch way to enable it on ALL apps. Well, after powering off and powering back on the tablet (after I was COMPLETELY done putting on 150 games), when it came back up I only had like 15 apps on it. Everything else was POOF, gone. I've noticed sometimes after a power cycle like that the apps might take a few moments to 'come alive', but even after 15 minutes of waiting I had nada. Went in search and found I'm not the only one. I've now since completely redone (including reformatting the SD Card) all 3 Fire's and so far after multiple reboots, I've not lost a single app. So for now at least, this does seem to be the problem ))
You will need to spend the $2.35 on Link2SD Plus (striking out due to my caution above, that being said I'm glad I threw this guy $2.35 because my tablet would basically be worthless without the app), and after you install Kids Place, you'll need to upgrade to premium for $4.99. Here's why:
Link2SD - Plus - This is what allows you to automatically move files and content to the SD card when an app is installed. This is mega important to me because that piddly 5.x GB of usable space gets eaten up ridiculously fast otherwise. Dive into the settings once you have plus, and just go turn everything on. Auto move everything. Be sure to go into all menus and sub menus.
Kids Place - The premium features is key for me. For example: A) You can make this app launch upon reboot, thus it basically "forces" this into a kid only/friendly device. If your kids are sneaky, or bored, they'll try to break out of Kids Place. Then they'll delete apps, make folders, sabotage they're brothers devices, etc. B) You can change the name that's displayed on top from "Kids Place", to something else like their name, give them a fun nickname, whatever. For my 10 year old he won't feel like it's just a little kid thing. C) You can do this part without premium, but it's critical for me to mention it: You can change what the home "button" does so that it directs you back to Kids Place instead of the regular home launcher. The reason you need to install NovaLauncher above is because if you still have the stock firelauncher, you can NOT replace the home button with another launcher otherwise. [Word of caution, if you enable the 'background' premium feature, Kids Place is still running, just more in the background. Took me a few minutes to figure out that's what I had done. I kept thing something was wrong and wondering when whenever I launched Kids Place it kept asking me if I want to shut it down or go into settings.... it's because it was running the whole time already)
Once you've done all that, simply download apps (Amazon Underground still seems too good to be true, but I'm hopeful), sideload apps, get apps from Google Play, then go into the Kids Place settings and choose which apps you want (Manage Apps).
Other things worth noting:
SlimRom. So, this is cool. It's fast, and pretty awesome. For me however, at the end of the day, it didn't make sense to introduce something in addition that could go wrong. If you're like me and you have no intention of using this device yourself and you ONLY want this to be a device for your kids, I don't think SlimRom is worth putting in. If it's a shared device, it might be worth it. The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
That's it, I hope you find this helpful. I welcome any feedback or suggestions on how to make this a more gooder guide for anyone like myself who's first jump into amazon tablets has been these fires. They truly are AMAZING devices for the price.
hobojester said:
The only thing I really forgot to test when I had put SlimRom on one of the devices was how the Amazon App store would work, and whether or not the device would be recognized properly with the Amazon Underground portion.
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Click to collapse
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.
@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"
Pond-life said:
Seems pretty comprehensive guide for those using it the same way, very nice work
And when I had Slim on it worked fine with my amazon app store and underground apps. And the music and video ones for that matter. I couldn't get the kindle app to show my books but someone solved that by using older apk after I went back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know about Slim and the Amazon store. Again, if I were going to use the tablet in a 'shared' environment where I'm using it AND my kids are using it, I'd totally use Slim. It was awesome. In this particular instance where this $35 device is a glorified gameboy, Slim is just something that is an extra layer of complexity that's really not needed and *could* get in the way. I have no intention of my kids even getting on the internet with this device. Not until there's a real need, and even then, I'd probably go get the K9 browser and use that.
TheTruthKC said:
@hobojester, THANKS so much for posting.
I purchased the $35 Fire Tablet for my 3 girls (9, 7, 5).
I've rooted at 5.0.1 and disabled OTA, disabled ads, Installed GooglePlay store, and loaded Nova launcher. Although I haven't taken it another few steps with Kids Place, I feel that I'll start with just locking down and hiding the apps via Nova Launcher will be enough for now. My kids are pretty savvy at navigating interfaces and even when they touch/exit an app, they know how to get back to it. I know there are holes with settings and NovaLauncher settings so when they figure them out, they can reenable certain functionality.
I'll look into Kids Place though, that might be my next step.
Also, about the whole SD card partitioning, I've installed a 32GB card and the tablet stated that it would start using the card as the default storage device. I'm guessing your method moves EVERYTHING to the card, and the default behavior for the Fire Tablet is to install some things on internal memory and 'other' storage is routed to the card? I've installed quite a bit of applications since I plugged in my SD card and it doesn't seem to be full... although I didn't check the storage stats before I wrapped the tablets.
Also, I've heard some good press on the Circle (with Disney) router, so I did order one for the home as yet another piece of the parenting puzzle:
[edit] sorry, didn't have sufficient permissions to post outside links. Google up: "Circle router with Disney"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you can find this useful.
As far as the storage card piece, you are correct in that "my" method moves EVERYTHING. Some apps are "self contained" as I like to think of it, when you download it. Popular games like Geometry Dash have everything contained in the downloaded app (or the .APK file). That is just the app itself. You can tell the OS to auto put the "app" on the storage card, and that works out great, but it's a little misleading. The problem comes in when you have games like Knights of the Old Republic. That app itself is something like 40 MB or what not, but after you launch the app, it'll download this extra content, which in this particular case is 2 GB. The kicker: it'll ONLY store that "content" (as I call it) into what the device considers "External Storage", which is ACTUALLY on the INTERNAL storage. That whole emulated SDcard business Android does. It's all funky. For fear of sounding like a commercial, Link2SD fixes all of that. Linux (what Android is built off of (oh, and hi iPhone users, so is iOS for the record)) has this thing called "Symbolic Links". You can google it up more about it, but think of it as an uber shortcut. You create a symbolic link on internal storage to the actual physical SD card, and the program THINKS it's writing to internal storage when in fact it's writing to the SD card. The kicker: you can only create symbolic links if you're rooted. The nice thing about Link2SD, is that it'll symbolic link EVERYTHING. The "app", the "content", and all of the saved game data and what not (which take a game like MineCraft, can get pretty big if your kids (like mine) go crazy building worlds). And you can have it to it all automagically. But you will need to pop that SDCard out, put it in your computer, and get it re-partitioned (visit the links I posted in the original guide for more in depth details).
I have heard really cool things about the Disney router. For now, my kids don't really have any need (or business) getting on the internet unsupervised. When they do, I'll probably give them the K9 browser.
Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?
Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?
howzitnow said:
Sorry for the questions but I can't figure it out, searching doesn't find it, and I'm trying to get these wrapped.
Do I need to still select Fire OS" install supported apps to sd". Or do I do it all with LInk2DS? I haven't Rom'd these yet and I probably won't until we get back from vacation. They are only rooted with stock rom. I also don't need to do the whole kids place thing as my kids are a little older...Thanks for taking the time to write this all up!
Also I have partitions shown in my Disk usage app that are named "External", "SDcard1", system and "SD Card". I know "SD Card" is the exfat 2 part I made base on the size, but as for the "external" and SDcard1, they are both roughly 5 gb ( my sd was only 8 gigs so I made the FAT 32 5 gigs and the rest the exfat 2. But now I am not sure of the naming and I can't tell based only on size. So, is "External" really the built in amazon storage, and "sdcard1" is my microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will be a good chance for me to point out (I'll edit the guide in a second): DO NOT LINK "INTERNAL" Data via Link2SD. It has caused apps to disappear and never come back. I actually had to start completely over on all there of my devices. That "option" to Link the Internal Data is only available when you purchase the Plus version of Link2SD, DON'T CHOOSE THAT OPTION!!!
Now, with that out of the way, Link2SD is clever in how it works, and I am barely out of the n00b stage on this so I'll give a disclaimer that I may be totally feeding you false information here, but here's how I understand it: First of all, what I did was leave the SD card settings inside the OS all 'defaults', which installs the "App" to the SD Card. Now with that, I believe what happens is Link2SD intercepts that 'transfer' and puts the actual apps on the EXT partition. There is the incredibly critical option in Link2SD to put all other data (except "internal" data of course) on the SD Card. That's what moves the really big parts of those big games and apps. So when the App is relocated, it's put onto that EXT part and the Content on your FAT32 part. To address your question regarding External, SDCard#, and 'where in the heck is the EXT' part.... the EXT partition is mounted and 'located' under the 'local' storage under something like the /data/sdex2 folder. Welcome to the world of Linux... on a computer Linux (if my really old dusty Linux knowledge still works) when you need to access the CD drive you have to MOUNT it, and than LINK that mount to basically a local folder (something like /MNT/CDROM). Your EXT partition is mounted the same way as a folder, and for whatever reason in an app like ES File Explorer you won't see it as another drive, you'll only see the FAT32 drive. Maybe that has something to do with it being FAT32, I'm not sure. ...... the long point here is that Link2SD intercepts or coordinates with the OS's moving of apps to locate the App data to your EXT partition (mounted to that /data/xxxxx folder) and all the other really big stuff to the FAT32 partition. Again, I may be way off here, but hey, makes sense in my brain right now .
Inside of Link2SD there's an option in the menu to see the storage consumption, and THERE it'll actually show you the EXT partition as well as the FAT32 partition.
If my kids were a little older and I truly didn't care about them mucking around in settings, potentially deleting things etc., I'd probably give SlimRom a go for that. I've been messing around with it some more and it is just simply more 'pure' Android OS so it'd give the more 'true' Android experience.... if you really care .
cogito808 said:
Like your thinking.
How are you getting past the "Apps with usage access" request for Kids Place?
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Click to collapse
I'm not, simply because FireOS doesn't have that option. I just have to hit 'Cancel' and move on. If you were to put on SlimRom you'd have that option. From what I can tell the biggest thing we're missing out on by staying on FireOS and not having this option would be limiting time in Kids Place for certain apps and what not. For me personally, I'll just set a timer, but if it's something you want to use, I'd absolutely suggest putting SlimRom on there and then basically following the rest of the guide. Everything still applies.
If anyone cares, I set up SlimLP for my mom who is a bit less technologically advanced than I am and I put smart launcher on the device and just hid the apps I thought would be bad if she were to accidentally open them and not know what she was doing. (I thought his could be useful for some of the people here as well)
How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.
chemie99 said:
How do I avoid using the "Link Internal Data" feature? I do not see this option anywhere in the App.
Edit: OK. found it. I was looking in settings (before moving anything) but once I move an app the options come up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I found out the hard way how bad this can be.... like... 6pm on the 24th, type of thing, RIGHT when I had finished it all up. I had some kind of heavenly help nudge me into thinking "you should turn these off completely, and simulate Christmas morning, see how long it'll take to fully boot back up".... and you can imagine my stomach drop when I went from having 150 games down to something like 3... it was painful. So, yeah, avoid that setting AT ALL COSTS!
How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?
tonyt3rry said:
How do you partition the SD card on the tablet? Also is this worth doing when you can install xposed SD card modules and be able to move obb files
Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I"m not familiar with the xposed SD card modules so I can't help there. As far as HOW you do it, I linked to some articles in the first post that might help (Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/increase-in...ry-phone.html/
Reference: http://rootmyandroid.org/how-to-use-...al-guide.html/)
chemie99 said:
just wondering on the reason for 70/30 FAT32/EXT2. What gets installed in each partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically the "app" gets installed to the 30% EXT2, and allt he "content" goes tot he 70% FAST32. Content will typically be data that gets downloaded after the app is installed. Take Knights Of The Old Republic for example, the "app" is like 50MB, but the "content" which gets downloaded upon the first time launching the actual program, is 2GB.
An Alternative Solution
I also gave my kids 3 Fire tablets for Christmas. My kids are mostly older (12,11,4) and the older two have had other Android devices. I went a different direction from the OP, which I'll discuss here for posterity's sake. This is a bit harder than the OP's method but ends up with a more conventional Android environment.
As background, I used FireOS on the Fire Phone for a few weeks, and ran into many problems. I installed CM11 on the Fire Phone and bought another in the final sale. You can read about that on the Fire Phone forum if you're interested.
Also, I've used Screen Time Parental Control for a couple years now, and while somewhat expensive it's great for monitoring without being too invasive. I can let the kids have a lot of freedom with their devices, without having to be worried about them either being on them all the time, or doing weird things. Screen Time nominally works with FireOS but in the end I did not use the tablets as-is long enough to try installing it.
For these tablets, I decided the easiest path was to install CM12. This avoided waiting for Amazon for security updates, and any FireOS incompatibilities, as I'd experienced with the Fire Phone. Also, the kids are familiar with CM, and frankly any replacement Android device will be easier in the future. After my experience with the zombie Fire Phone from Amazon I'm less concerned about CM/ggow/XDA bugs than I am Amazon's.
I decided to create separate user accounts for each child, as opposed to having both my Google account and the child's Google account** under a single user. I've done this before, but it's awkward to have to switch between accounts when using Gmail/Hangouts/Drive/etc., and sometimes things get mixed up.
Thus, for each of the three tablets I went through this process:
[I don't have the tablets in front of me, so if one of these steps doesn't seem obvious ask and I'll look up the exact names/buttons.]
1) Install CM12 using the well-documented methods
2) Boot into CM
3) Configure for my primary Google account
- Download interesting applications that have been purchased on my account
- Open SuperSU, enable multi-user access
- Open Contacts, select "ME", change name to "Dad" (or whatever)*
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Enable multi user access
- Open main Settings app:
- Set screen lock / PIN
- Users / Add user / OK / Set up now
4) "Switching to new user"
- Google Launcher always
- Log in with the "child's" account** in the wizard
- Open Contacts, change "ME" to the child's name
- Open File Manager
- Settings / Switch to Root access mode
- Browse to /data/app/
- Change into interesting packages and pick the .apk file
- Select "Install"***
- Repeat as necessary
Here I installed Screen Time Parental Control from the Play Store and went through the steps for Child device. Also any customization for the account should go here, then you can switch back to your regular user.
To switch user, drag down the system tray, pick the head image in the top right corner, and then the appropriate name.
Notes:
* This is in a wacky place, but this contact is how CM identifies the user name to display in the switch screen. If you don't see "ME" don't add it, just browse around; it's there somewhere.
** Apparently Google only allows accounts for people >=13. Thus, if you are reading from Google, know that these are my own accounts and my children happen to use them.
*** This will actually not re-download the application, but it makes a temporary copy while installing. Application user data is always separate between users, but for the most part download data is shared. For most applications things work on either user; however, Electronic Arts applications don't work with separate users, and Terraria will print an error (but still worked once the core data was downloaded with my purchasing account). I'm sure there are other apps that roll their own security and will be in this situation, but out of a very large family library these are the only apps with which I've had trouble.
Finally, a last note that Screen Time does not presently block creating new users from the system tray. In theory a youngling could create a user that would not have Screen Time limits, but then they wouldn't be able to delete it without getting in to Settings, which you should block anyway. Depends how devious your children are; for me I'm just waiting until they figure it out to do anything about it... just keep an eye on it if you go this route.
Hopefully this helps someone, eventually!
Best,
Tim
I got two fire tablets for the kids for Xmas, one is the kids edition (with the 1yr of apps,etc) the other is a standard fire. Used root junkies tool on both to block lock screen ads and OTA and hide Apps. They were both running OK, occasionally have the odd situation where you try to open an app and it looks like it is reloading it or redownloading it, not sure if this is because internal space has ran out and its redownloading on the fly but its quite frustrating.
Decided to flash slim LP rom on the standard tablet as there were apps that weren't available(better choice on play store and it wasn't tied into the 1year subscription).
So glad I did, was pretty straight forward to get it up and running and the latest build is so solid, fast and stable, was expecting it to be a bit quicker than fire OS as it had a lot less bloat but it seriously impressed me. So I have kids place set up on it to control apps and play time. I also installed hilocker from the play store to help simplify/lock down the lock screen. For example you can disable the status bar in kids place,but the child is still able to turn the screen off and on, they can then access the pull down toggles and mess with things, but with hilocker you can disable it which is great. Battery life is just as great if not better and your also up to date with all Google's security patches to boot.
It is a very good value tablet, as its just been reduced to just £40 in the UK. One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are. Again I can't recommend slim rom enough as it really makes a big difference to the tablet (besides providing full play store access) and makes it perfect for consuming media, browsing, or just handier for when you want to use a bigger screen than your phone.
Sent from my InFocus M810t using Tapatalk
gsmyth said:
One thing that would be a major improvement is I just wished they had put 16GB of storage instead of 8GB. I know it has the sd card option which is great but in reality you only get around 5GB of actual internal storage for apps, a lot of which can't be moved to the sd card or still take up internal space when they are.
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Click to collapse
@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.
tdcrone said:
@gsmyth, look into Link2SD if you haven't already. Between that and a 32GB MicroSD I don't feel especially constrained by the 8GB onboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you formatting your 2nd partition for links2sd?. I keep getting 'unable to mount' error, trying to setup as ext4, which I thought was the standard on newer hardware. I believe I tried ext 2 as well. Without 2nd partition obb and data stay on internal. Thanks
I wish to thank the OP for this, as I am trying to use, and bought the recommended apps... haven;t had the time to set this all up, and it gets a little confusing having all these other devices, but eventually I'll get it.