Just got Android 6.0... the "use SD Card as internal Storage" feature seems pointless - Moto G 2015 General

Just got Android 6.0... the "use SD Card as internal Storage" feature seems pointless
This was a highly touted feature. Especially with our Moto G's that have only 8GB of storage. In Lollipop, we could store all of our media (pictures, videos, files), on the SD Card. Some apps also supported being moved to the SD card. Microsoft Groove, for example doesn't support SD card storage at all. Meaning, if you wanted to download any music, everything would be stored on your internal partition. Obviously, Android M seemed very promising because it looked like we could combine out storages to overcome this.
Fast forward to it now. You can set your SD card as internal storage and it will show up as internal storage. HOWEVER, some apps still cannot be moved there (any app that couldn't be moved before, still can't be moved). Microsoft Groove still resides completely on the primary partition. So if I download too many songs, the 8GB eMMC fills up and I get warnings that I'm out of storage and can't receive messages or have other functions....
I don't get it. What is so special about this? My SD card functions exactly the way that it did under Lollipop. My storage still shows up as 8GB + 32GB SD Card, the way it did before. It's not 40GB internal combined the way it was advertised to be.
Very disappointing.

From what I can see, it encrypts the card so it can only be used by your device.
It told me during setup that it would automatically move apps, data (saved me 155mb), but I haven't tried to move stuff manually.

Other thing I notice is that lets say you move 1 app to the sd card, when that app gets updated it moves back to internal then you need to go and move it manually , and sometimes it doesn't want to move need to reinstall

bobby0724 said:
Other thing I notice is that lets say you move 1 app to the sd card, when that app gets updated it moves back to internal then you need to go and move it manually , and sometimes it doesn't want to move need to reinstall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! This exact problem existed in Lollipop. I decided to just leave them in internal instead of the hassle of trying to save a few hundred megs all the time.
This feature showed so much promise. For me it was going to be a killer feature. Take an 8GB ROM phone and turn it into a true 40GB ROM phone.

It's important to move the data to sdcard when android prompts you to do so. Because what you select there determines the primary storage.
If you choose to not move the data then internal storage will be primary and everything will get stored in the internal memory, and if you choose to move data then sdcard will be primary.
Source

Aftcomet said:
This feature showed so much promise. For me it was going to be a killer feature. Take an 8GB ROM phone and turn it into a true 40GB ROM phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would have been amazing.

bobby0724 said:
Other thing I notice is that lets say you move 1 app to the sd card, when that app gets updated it moves back to internal then you need to go and move it manually , and sometimes it doesn't want to move need to reinstall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed that also. Also, if the developer writes the app to install on internal, that's where it will have to reside. One thing I've noticed on the final builds that changed in the soak tests, in the first soak test, you could force non-system apps to SD and could actually move most of them. Some of them would act wonky though and you'd have to move them back.

You guys must not do much gaming. Download a game's 3gb obb file, then tell me it makes no difference tht you have another 32gb, or however big your card is, to store another couple obb files so you can store more than one game.
Now....having said that, there are a couple apps and xposed modules which also allow you to store them directly on the external card, and some even more efficiently....but since this is a native feature now rolled right into the firmware, I expect with time this will swallow up the code used in those apps and modules, and make use of their methods even more efficiently. This is one of thoe features that needs time to mature and find its real true use, but right now if you use it like I do I think you'll find it's a great tool!!
Also, on a side-note....I think it shows as 8+32, or whatever your configuration may be...but I think it shows them separately because they are actually separate physically...just like it would do on a desktop computer with an additional internal hard drive. Imagine, for a second, if it merged them into one single storage device (in the firmware's eyes, at least) then you remove the sd card....all hell would break loose. The device wouldn't know wtf was going on and why suddenly internal storage was chopped to a fraction of its supposed size. It would wreak havoc on everything. Keeping them as separate but viewed as both being internal makes the sd card able to be unmounted without affecting how the firmware runs, with the exception of anything installed or stored on the storage device that you've removed.

Piyush Rawal said:
It's important to move the data to sdcard when android prompts you to do so. Because what you select there determines the primary storage.
If you choose to not move the data then internal storage will be primary and everything will get stored in the internal memory, and if you choose to move data then sdcard will be primary.
Source
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This a million times but everyone seems to be ignoring it.

Just read it and my doubt is : If I will choose "internal", will I need a Google "cloud backup" size equal or greater than my "internal" size, to avoid loosing encrypted data when my SD card end his life? I guess so.
Will this be free of charge or do I need to buy cloud space on a monthly/yearly fee basis?
And what about the data in the cloud? Are they in plain or encrypted? I hope that they are encrypted with device related key, so that when I will swap the card they could be restored.
Hmm... the choice need to be evaluated wisely.

steboni said:
Just read it and my doubt is : If I will choose "internal", will I need a Google "cloud backup" size equal or greater than my "internal" size, to avoid loosing encrypted data when my SD card end his life? I guess so.
Will this be free of charge or do I need to buy cloud space on a monthly/yearly fee basis?
And what about the data in the cloud? Are they in plain or encrypted? I hope that they are encrypted with device related key, so that when I will swap the card they could be restored.
Hmm... the choice need to be evaluated wisely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... Google only backups up settings and personal information like contacts, wallpaper, WiFi passcodes, and stuff like that, and maintains a list of the apps you have installed (not the actual apps or their data). It really doesn't eat into any of your free 15GB of storage, and if you use Google Photos in "high quality" mode, it will eat basically zero of your Drive space.
The information is encrypted, like all Google account information, but the key to it is your just your Google account and password.
Do not confuse device level encryption, SD card encryption, and Google data encryption. They are all different, well device level and SD card encryption are very similar, but your Google data is just kept in Google's standard servers using their normal account encryption tied to your username and password (which is very secure). If you encrypt the SD card, it is tied to that specific device , not your Google account... it will only work in that EXACT phone with the same Google account, to use it in another device you will need to reformat the card.

Got it,... maybe I made wrong assumptions.
Many thanks for your kind explanations.
Inviato dal mio MotoG3 utilizzando Tapatalk

My new Moto G arrived yesterday and I rooted, etc., and added a 32GB SD card as "internal storage" using the new Marshmallow feature. TWRP has the capability to store backups to the SD card adaptive storage built into it.....nice. This will save a ton of space. By the way, it took a bit of searching to find the TWRP backup, because what TWRP reports as the backup Folder (external_sd/media/..). Is not where it is in the filesystem. It is actully located in
/mnt/expand/...
But wait, this storage is not visible by my computer, so there is no way to copy the TWRP backup to my external drive like I have done in the past.......Wonderful.
What I would like to do now is store my my biggest storage hog, music files, onto the SD card. However, Google Play Music does not support adaptive internal storage. Didn't Google develop Marshmallow...I don't get it. Does anyone have a workaround?
EDIT (02-02-2016): So I reached out to the developers of two of the top aftermarket paid music player apps and it became clear yesterday that they have no clue about how adaptive storage works so I see no hope at this time for any music player that allows me to store songs onto the SD card using "internal storage". For now I have to store the songs the old way, on the phones main memory, which leaves me almost no space left on the phone......Wonderful. That was the whole intent of buying this phone.

Yeah its bad. I wrote some mails to the Google Play Music team. Maybe they fix/support it asap
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So is this feature not working as it should? I only got the 8gb version in an hope the sd card could be used for all apps instead of internal. It seems to install to internal just the same and only the option to move some apps. It is totally pointless to the point I will have to sell the moto g and get something with bigger internal storage.

waj1234 said:
So is this feature not working as it should? I only got the 8gb version in an hope the sd card could be used for all apps instead of internal. It seems to install to internal just the same and only the option to move some apps. It is totally pointless to the point I will have to sell the moto g and get something with bigger internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All apps won't install to the SD. System apps are on internal and developers can specify that other apps must install on internal. Also some widgets won't work correctly if their apps are moved to SD.

Tel864 said:
All apps won't install to the SD. System apps are on internal and developers can specify that other apps must install on internal. Also some widgets won't work correctly if their apps are moved to SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shame only waited for MM before buying the moto G 2015 8g (got it today) for the sd card feature. It's no better than it's ever been and renders the 8g version completely useless imo.

waj1234 said:
Shame only waited for MM before buying the moto G 2015 8g (got it today) for the sd card feature. It's no better than it's ever been and renders the 8g version completely useless imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's not quite what everyone thought it would be. I bought a larger SD card just for that feature and honestly, an 8gb card would probably handle all the apps I have that will actually move. Out of the 60 or so apps I have installed, only 10 are on the SD card. Some of those like Dropbox are real space hogs, Dropbox uses 64mb by itself and it won't install on the SD.

An experiment that might help many users!!!
I tried this feature on moto e (CM13) as an experiment for almost a week till i received my new SD card for moto g (Full Stock) today.
& now on moto g3 after receiving my new card.
I must say, it doesnt perform exactly the way everyone was expecting but feature works correctly to save your phone from getting unusable
this is what i believe is reality
what everyone was thinking?
to directly merge both internal & SD card together & give you combined storage of 48GB/80GB(32GB/64GB card on 16GB varient)
what exactly feature does?
it accounts SD card as internal=YES but there's condition, SD card behaves as Internal storage only for apps installed from play store after formatting as internal.
the apps which were in internal memory before formatting as internal will remain in actual internal memory
that is the reason when you should allow it to move data to SD card just after formatting when it asks (u must do this)
also the all kind of media data, backups data, sharing/transferred data using wifi/BT/SHAREit will be stored/moved to SD card
also all new apps you install from play store, they get installed directly on SD card
Also I verified that, during updating of apps from play store, they directly get updated on SD card only (which were on SD).
the apps on internal will get updated in internal only
I updated around 19 apps from play store & the difference can be understood from screenshots that i've attached
in short & simple words,
all apps installed before formatting as internal will remain in internal memory
all apps installed after formatting as internal will get installed/updated on SD card
I guess, default apps will always stay inside your actual internal memory only as they come pre-installed
this must be done & this should be done this way only bcz they are extremely important apps for device to function correctly.
in other way, if the both storages were merged & something happens to SD card then you & your phone are finished.
I hope my post clears doubts for most of the users
it's your choice what you want.
what you should do if you are formatting as internal?
just remember on thing,
when you format as internal, don't forget to say YES when it asks to move data just after finishing formatting.
IMO, this feature will serve its best for new buyers & fresh starters according to scenario I've experienced
My phones' current state:
Moto E 1st Gen (CM13) with Samsung Evo 32GB UHS-1 U1 Class 10 formatted as Internal
Moto G 3rd Gen (Full Stock) with Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB UHS-1 U3 Class 10 formatted as Internal
Just to mention FYI, exactly just before formatting as internal OR moving data to SD just after completion of formatting, Internal storage was almost 8.3GB occupied out of total available 11.81GB
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after this I installed GT Racing 2 (approx 0.90GB)
now card has 5.08GB occupied space

You're wrong on one point, all apps installed from Play won't necessarily go to the external. I would be surprised if even half will. Security apps probably won't install to SD. Banking apps on every G3 I've looked at, go to internal.
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Related

[Q] Questions about Sprint S4 sizes and interla/external storage.

I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.
Cyber Akuma said:
I was wondering if anybody could help answer a few questions about the Sprint S4 for me.
Currently I have an HTC Evo 3D, the internal storage is so small that I have made a 4gb ext3 partition on my SD card using Link2SD just to alleviate some of this annoyance. The 32GB counting the 4GB partition is actually almost full.
First of all, is there any word on a 32GB version? I saw some forum threads a while ago about Sprint supposedly not carring the 32+GB versions, but I saw no official word, if there has been one.
And also, how does the 16GB of internal work? The first time I saw a phone with large internal memory was the original Droid RAZR. And it basically partitioned off the majority of the space like a virtual SD card. Most to all apps on it saved to here instead of the actual SD card assuming it was an actual external storage. Does the S4 do this too, or is the entire 16GB (minus obviously what the system partitions take up) used as internal?
The reason I am asking is because I have many apps and games which download anywhere from 50MB to 3 gigs of additional data, and they almost never ask you where to download it, and just use the first "external" space they find, and many are hard-coded to only use that space. Like I said, my 32GB card on my Evo 3D is practically full, I do NOT not want those apps to install that data on the internal memory and fill it up, I want that space to keep the apps installed on, while photos, music, and video, as well as that app additional data, will be on the real SD card. I am planning to get a 64GB card for the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way samsung does it is actually very anoying. First thing they do is cut off 8.5 gigs of storage, thats your "internal memory" for system stuff. That's untouchable. You then have 9gigs give or take left for apps and the like which is EMULATED external storage. This emulated bit confuses android and so your real external sd card is only usable for movies and music. The only way to put apps on it would be to root your phone and use folder mount (which for some reason isn't working for me yet). So to sum it up:
16gb +ext sd card (lets say 32 gb)
8ish gb- system internal
9ish gb-apps EMULATED external
32 gb- movies, music, books/media BUT NO APPS UNLESS YOU ROOT REAL external
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.
Cyber Akuma said:
AAAAUUUUGGGHHHHH!</CharlieBrown>
Wow, I can not possibly think of a worse way for Samsung to handle it. The low internal memory giving me problems installing and updating apps was a major reason for wanting to upgrade. With this, it means I actually have less space for apps than my current phone, since I can't actually install to SD and the apps that download hundreds of megs to gigs of additonal data will be downlioading it to the internal instead of external.
I... honestly have no idea which phone to get now.
I know the Sprint S4 is unlocked, is there any way to use rooted tools or a custom rom to just make the memory internal and make it mount a SD as an actual SD? I am worried that unofficial roms might be lacking in features or glitchy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is an issue with all honeycomb plus android phones. Google is trying to phase out the external sd card while increasing the internal memory. Well that's all good and fine EXCEPT that we are right in the middle of the phase out process where the sd cards are too small for that. 2-3 years from now googles plan will work, but samsung has to be on board for that to happen. For now the only thing you can do is use folder mount or wait for ext2intSD script. It will swap it so your external sdcard works as your internal and vice versa. However, we will have to wait for that to be released.
I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.
Cyber Akuma said:
I don't get what phasing out the SD slot has to do with emulating the external SD storage when all apps can work on internal storage anyway.
What is folder-mount? And I tried link2sd on my evo 3d and its kinda problematic, I wanted to get AWAY from these problems by upgrading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why is that android its self, the code that google supplies, has to create partitions in order for it to work with only one internal sdcard so that the average user does not corrupt the system somehow. The emulated external storage is what google expects you to use so that you can't mess up. However, samsung just adds in an sdcard without changing anything which means its not set up correctly. This is a problem with all new sd card phones and finally think of folder mount as a better link2sd
But aren't the system partition and the internal storage partition separate partitions? I don't understand why the rest of the memory outside of the system partition needs to be an emulated external instead of just being an internal storage partition like on phones that do not have a large amount of internal memory.
Also, why do we have to link folders or use link2sd scripts and other such work-arounds? Can't we re-partition the internal memory with a custom recovery or through the bootloader?
not work brother
Sent from my ST18i using xda app-developers app
deadger said:
not work brother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.... what? I have no idea what that means.
So, can the phone be repartitioned if you have root access? And is only the Sprint version partitioned like this, or all of them?

SD card as internal.

I have a 128 gb class 10 SD card. If I use it as internal can I still copy my 45gb of music through my computer?
Also what happened to the move to SD card option for apps?
I've also notice with Google play music you can't select SD card as storage for offline music.
I was pretty excited about this feature but I'm a little disappointed.
Maybe if I explore it a bit more I'll figure it out.
Spacemonkie4207 said:
I have a 128 gb class 10 SD card. If I use it as internal can I still copy my 45gb of music through my computer?
Also what happened to the move to SD card option for apps?
I've also notice with Google play music you can't select SD card as storage for offline music.
I was pretty excited about this feature but I'm a little disappointed.
Maybe if I explore it a bit more I'll figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you connect your Play (with adaptive storage active) to a computer via usb the computer cannot seem to veiw anything on the phone. So you can't copy anything to the phone. Not very good really.
If you go settings, apps and then select an app you then select storage of that app and you have the option to move the app from there. That said not all apps have the storage option including Google Play Music. I do find that MM manages storage between internal and the sd card very well when adaptive storage is used. It's not perfect though. My next phone will be bigger than 16gb which is silly in this day and age. Relying on cloud storage is all well and good but can be useless in some rural locations (UK) with no data service signal.
I'm a little disappointed but on the whole I've got past the limited storage of a 16gb phone. Note to self - don't EVER buy a 16gb phone again. The music thing I get round by using Google Music and Spotify. You can copy music to your phone via such as Solid Explorer and move music from your cloud service (Drive, dropbox etc) to your phone. Solid Explorer and others can see folders and files on your phone.
You should be able to set the "Storage Location" in the Downloading section of Google Music's settings screen. Perhaps setting your SD card as internal memory removes your ability to select it though.
Spacemonkie4207 said:
I have a 128 gb class 10 SD card. If I use it as internal can I still copy my 45gb of music through my computer?
Also what happened to the move to SD card option for apps?
I've also notice with Google play music you can't select SD card as storage for offline music.
I was pretty excited about this feature but I'm a little disappointed.
Maybe if I explore it a bit more I'll figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Move to SD card option is gone with MM.
Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk
K.khiladi said:
Move to SD card option is gone with MM.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I use my card as internal but somehow copy my music to it?
Chaotic-Entropy said:
You should be able to set the "Storage Location" in the Downloading section of Google Music's settings screen. Perhaps setting your SD card as internal memory removes your ability to select it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it does, option is gone with sd card as internal. Hopefully they fix it.
Spacemonkie4207 said:
Can I use my card as internal but somehow copy my music to it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The move to SD card option won't be back now until Google wants that and that doesn't seem happening.
You can't do anything with your card once it's formatted as internal storage. The system will automatically decide what to do.
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K.khiladi said:
The move to SD card option won't be back now until Google wants that and that doesn't seem happening.
You can't do anything with your card once it's formatted as internal storage. The system will automatically decide what to do.
Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard it can kill the SD card very quickly because of cache and number of reads and writes. How much truth is there to this?
Anyone else is having problems formatting his sd card as internal storage in marshmallow? my phone gets stuck at 30% formatting and never finishes, and i tried factory resetting. Formatting as portable storage works just fine.
any ideas?
Just wondering... Which size? I would assume that there could be a max size per partition...
Spacemonkie4207 said:
I've heard it can kill the SD card very quickly because of cache and number of reads and writes. How much truth is there to this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not much, the card might be worn out quicker but your still looking at 3 to 5 years with heavy writes and by that time you will probably have changed phone.
dreinulldrei said:
Just wondering... Which size? I would assume that there could be a max size per partition...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
64 gb, but i've heard people with other devices that managed to make it work with 128gb cards
Enviado desde mi XT1562 mediante Tapatalk
About the adoptable storage in Android M and its work description (basing on analysis of upstream AOSP M code i did some time ago; note that there may be little differences depending on changes done by phone vendors for different devices).
There are 2 possible states of external storage (SD card in particular), the second one being available only if it is enabled in device configuration before build:
- portable - only accessible with Storage Access Framework and file browser in Settings app; most of the media apps won't see media files stored on external storage, as media scanner is disabled for this type of storage
- internal - external storage is wiped and encrypted with the same key as the very device (so factory reset will cause data loss, as then encryption key is changed, and after moving the storage to other device it content will be unavailable); this one has two substates
- - data not migrated: apps data and user data is being kept on internal storage; only internal storage is visible via MTP; if I remember correctly, external storage can be used only for moving apps installation on it in this case
- - data migrated: apps data and user data is moved to external storage and it replaces internal storage for user and app data storing; only external storage is visible via MTP (internal storage is used only for keeping system files and apps installations in this case); I would recommend not formatting SD card this way if it has lower capacity than internal storage.
About the issue of never ending formatting as internal: as the data is fully wiped from the card, new filesystem is created, and there is an overhead for encryption, this operation is time consuming. By default there is quite short timeout set for the operation, and if it is hit, formatting as internal will be aborted (leaving card in broken state). I suggest getting very fast card for this use (especially if it has high capacity), so for 128G the ones that people get to work were most probably ones with around 90+MB/s R/W performance.
Spacemonkie4207 said:
Can I use my card as internal but somehow copy my music to it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I was wrong earlier in this post. If you plug your phone into computer then from drop down menu on phone select MTP rather than charge only, you can then see all files on sd card. You should be able to copy files across as usual. Seems to work on mine with adaptive storage enabled. You can only see files on the sd card and not internal memory.
I have bought a 64gb sd card with 90MB/s read and 80 MB/s write. I hope it works now.
I formatted my SD card as internal but ran out of space. Although storage showed I had 50+ GB free I couldn't install anything.
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
You can move some apps to sd card which will free up some space on internal. Not all apps give you the option though. I reverted back from adaptive storage.
Apps like Spotify don't save music data to "adopted" SD card. Google Music seems to have similar issue. I keep my music content on the SD card - do that is a bit of an issue for me that Google "hates" my SD card .
Maybe this issue will be resolved in future android/app updates.
One thing - Change your storage for pictures taken through camera to SD card
Also move songs that you download to SD card as they get stored to internal storage.
Dont format your SD card if you want to see the data in your SD card on pc and file managers.
Let the apps install on internal.
Try to move every other data to SD card periodically.
Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk
habskilla said:
I formatted my SD card as internal but ran out of space. Although storage showed I had 50+ GB free I couldn't install anything.
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats bonkers, i thought the whole point of adopted storage was you just ended up with one bigger lump of memory.

Error moving data to SD card

Hi everyone,
I just bought a Micro SD evo+ (Samsung 64 GB) for my moto G plus. I formatted it as an internal storage. I moved few of my apps. However, I dont know how to move music and photos. There is no option for that. In the SD card menu, when I click on migrate data, it says "There was an error in estimating the data to be moved".
I was wondering if anyone can help me please.
Kind regards
I'm seeing that same error message when I try to migrate data on my G4. Has anyone any idea what's causing this and how to fix?
It's due to the security features of Marshmallow.
There is no permission for direct write access to sd card by default.
I had to format my SD card as a portable storage in order to migrate my photos and music. However, in that case, App data cannot be saved on the sd card. As an internal storage, the Apps can be saved on sd card but I could not migrate my photos and music. It is posdible that it has something to do with the Marshmallow security. I have also heard that such issue exists for 64 FB cards. I d be certain if one could try a 32 GB sd card.
Cheers
Kambiz983 said:
I had to format my SD card as a portable storage in order to migrate my photos and music. However, in that case, App data cannot be saved on the sd card. As an internal storage, the Apps can be saved on sd card but I could not migrate my photos and music. It is posdible that it has something to do with the Marshmallow security. I have also heard that such issue exists for 64 FB cards. I d be certain if one could try a 32 GB sd card.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the same reason Azal3a mentioned above, that's the way it works.
Sent using XDA-Developers Mobile App
I have exactly the same issue with my 128gb Samsung Evo card, but I also tried SanDisk 32gb and this didn't work
AZAL3A said:
It's due to the security features of Marshmallow.
There is no permission for direct write access to sd card by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But is there a solution? How do you actually make it work?
When you format the SD as "internal storage" you don't have a SD anymore, it's all one big storage space.
If you format the SD normal, then the photo and video app (and other apps like maps) might let you save on the SD - will be inside each app settings. But the apps cannot be moved on SD.
My experience with it is same as above. If you format it as internal it makes it added as virtual drive space. Kinda like adding an external drive to an Xbox. It make it virtual hard drive. Formating at removable makes it slower but an be used as raw storage standalone and removable.
SoNic67 said:
When you format the SD as "internal storage" you don't have a SD anymore, it's all one big storage space.
If you format the SD normal, then the photo and video app (and other apps like maps) might let you save on the SD - will be inside each app settings. But the apps cannot be moved on SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, this has been discussed dozens of times on XDA going back to the Moto G3. Even with it used as internal, there is actually very little space it will save you when you discount system apps and the apps that developers block from installing to the SD.
Actually people don't realize that they need a premium SD to even come close of the speed that internal storage has. They buy crappy SD from eBay and expect to launch apps from that... ridiculous. That's why MM imposed those restrictions.
To be used as adopted storage, the SD needs to be at least "UHS I, class 3", with 90MB/s read and write speeds.
Thanks for the useless reply. While it is true that performance will be better with faster cards there's no definite reason other cards should not be able to be used and your reply does nothing to address the original posters question. Has anyone found a solution or shall I look into wiping my phone and installing ubuntu?
Kambiz983 said:
Hi everyone,
I just bought a Micro SD evo+ (Samsung 64 GB) for my moto G plus. I formatted it as an internal storage. I moved few of my apps. However, I dont know how to move music and photos. There is no option for that. In the SD card menu, when I click on migrate data, it says "There was an error in estimating the data to be moved".
I was wondering if anyone can help me please.
Kind regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try clearing cache and then migrate.

Huawei P10 Lite - Expanding Internal Memory

Just bought a Huawei P10 Lite, was mainly looking for an Android 7.0 phone due to the newish Android feature of using an SD card to extend the internal memory and the P10 Lite seemed the most feature-rich phone at the price point.
To my horror there doesnt seem to be an option in the Memory & Storage options to configure the SD card as internal storage. I searched online but nothing about this phone and extending the internal storage which seems odd as I thought it was a popular phone. I noticed a post regarding the P8 where a user stated Huawei hadn't included this Android feature (seems bizarre) and they gave instructions on how to root the device and do something strange to it.
Surprised no one talking about it!
There's definitely an option to use the SD card as your main storage device in storage section as I used it before. What firmware is your on right now? It worked fine for me on my WAS-LX1AC185B172
If 32 gigabytes is not enough for you, then i don't know how much is enough. 128GB maybe?
Anyways, there is an option in "Memory & storage" called "Default location", which basically switches the internal storage for the SDcard. This is what you're looking for.
I think OP means adoptable storage - a feature introduced in Marshmallow. It merges your external and internal storage into one large pool. It, however, prevents the card from being portable. The card is formatted specifically to your device and I believe it'll cause problems with the device function if removed anyway.
I don't think Huawei supports it. I have only found the option to flip the default storage location. It may be available through some of the format options but I'm not too keen on risking it wiping my card if it doesn't give me a prompt if I was to test it.
It may be possible to force it through ADB commands. Not sure though.
Hi all yes specifically referring to adoptable storage.
I have set the SD card as "Default Storage" but in my experience it doesnt mean more than the system storing user data like photos and music on the SD card which is a no brainer really (why would a user even need to set this as an option?). Doesn't seem to be any info about what this actually does on this phone though. I can't even see an option to move Apps to the SD card on the P10 Lite but that was always a bizarre and tediously repetitive and half-hearted operation on my old Samsung S5, even if an App supported it, after an update it would just revert back to internal phone storage.
Many of my messaging apps have bloated databases that grow to over 1Gb in size after a couple of years let alone the bloatware of most apps in general. I notice that some messaging apps even keep media files inside the internal filesystem structure which ends up being the internal memory space. I would rather this was instead eating up cheap SD card space than the faster internal memory left for just the OS.
Considering that half of the phone storage is used up by the time you first turn it on, the adoptable storage funcationality introduced in Android Marshmallow is a gods send. Can't believe phone manufactures are trying to protect product placement with their 32GB and 64GB models to the extent of leaving out a flagship Android feature!
God data storage on Android is still a mess after all these years!
longreat said:
Hi all yes specifically referring to adoptable storage.
I have set the SD card as "Default Storage" but in my experience it doesnt mean more than the system storing user data like photos and music on the SD card which is a no brainer really (why would a user even need to set this as an option?). Doesn't seem to be any info about what this actually does on this phone though. I can't even see an option to move Apps to the SD card on the P10 Lite but that was always a bizarre and tediously repetitive and half-hearted operation on my old Samsung S5, even if an App supported it, after an update it would just revert back to internal phone storage.
Many of my messaging apps have bloated databases that grow to over 1Gb in size after a couple of years let alone the bloatware of most apps in general. I notice that some messaging apps even keep media files inside the internal filesystem structure which ends up being the internal memory space. I would rather this was instead eating up cheap SD card space than the faster internal memory left for just the OS.
Considering that half of the phone storage is used up by the time you first turn it on, the adoptable storage funcationality introduced in Android Marshmallow is a gods send. Can't believe phone manufactures are trying to protect product placement with their 32GB and 64GB models to the extent of leaving out a flagship Android feature!
God data storage on Android is still a mess after all these years!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SD card isn't as fast. That's one reason they don't want you to install apps onto it. It degrades the experience. And without an API of some sort it would be difficult to implement an app structure that split the data to place non-vital data on the card. Many devices don't have slots so it isn't an area developers give much thought.
If you use the format option, does it give you any option to select adoptable storage or is it just erase?
Otherwise I guess your best option is to try look for ADB commands or maybe even root.
Edit: I found an option to allow apps on external storage in developer settings if you scroll all the way to the bottom.
I used an SD card to store my Here we Go and Sygic maps when travelling.
Until I took a break from driving one day, connected an USB OTG cable with usb stick to the device and all my maps from the internal SD were gone.
From that day on I never install any data that is used by an app on the SD card. (and never had problems with it anymore)
Documents or music are no problem.
Spotify on P10 lite
Spotify in itself is using up most of my internal storage.
How can I move the songs from there to the SD card? If I can't then remind me never to buy a phone with less than 64GB internal memory next time.
The reviews all seemed too good to be true!!
chimneytops said:
Spotify in itself is using up most of my internal storage.
How can I move the songs from there to the SD card? If I can't then remind me never to buy a phone with less than 64GB internal memory next time.
The reviews all seemed too good to be true!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this
Spotify
Thanks but I do not see the Storage option in Spotify
chimneytops said:
Thanks but I do not see the Storage option in Spotify
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just downloaded the app to check and it's there. Found it immediately.
spotify
Under Other, I only see Delete Cache or Log Out.
I tried logging out and in again, but no difference.
So frustrating.
I cannot even send texts at the moment and I have already uninstalled loads of apps, complete disaster.
chimneytops said:
Under Other, I only see Delete Cache or Log Out.
I tried logging out and in again, but no difference.
So frustrating.
I cannot even send texts at the moment and I have already uninstalled loads of apps, complete disaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to ask: you do have an SD card mounted, right?
Do you have the latest version of the Spotify app?
Do you have the latest ota update?
Have you tried clearing app data and cache?
Have you tried uninstalling the app and reinstalling?
However if you can't send texts then you have bigger problems. It may be related, it may not be.
Have you tried with another phone with the same sim? Have you tried a factory reset?
Did you try this???
Trixanity said:
I have to ask: you do have an SD card mounted, right?
Do you have the latest version of the Spotify app?
Do you have the latest ota update?
Have you tried clearing app data and cache?
Have you tried uninstalling the app and reinstalling?
However if you can't send texts then you have bigger problems. It may be related, it may not be.
Have you tried with another phone with the same sim? Have you tried a factory reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, SD card mounted and storing photos on it.
I have uninstalled the app and downloaded it again. I still do not see the option to store the songs to the SD card though.
What is the ota update and how do I run it?
If I clear app data and the cache will I lose all the songs saved to date?
I have yet to download all the many songs again, so that has freed up loads of storage. So I can send texts again.
chimneytops said:
Yes, SD card mounted and storing photos on it.
I have uninstalled the app and downloaded it again. I still do not see the option to store the songs to the SD card though.
What is the ota update and how do I run it?
If I clear app data and the cache will I lose all the songs saved to date?
I have yet to download all the many songs again, so that has freed up loads of storage. So I can send texts again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OTA update just means the latest version/update for the phone. Check for system updates.
I can't guarantee what happens to your songs but I would assume that those are not stored locally if it's just a list (you did say you cleared some out to regain space). I would assume you'd be able to access the same list from any device as long as you are logged in. Otherwise that's pretty bad design considering their business model.
If you have very little space on your phone the system will start to get sluggish and if really low system functions will stop working.
Can you tell me the version number of the Spotify app? The reason I'm asking (besides making sure it's the same as the one I downloaded) is that I seem to recall Spotify cutting support for their old app and launching a new one to replace it.
But if you do have the new app, then either something's wrong with the compatibility of your phone/sd card/app or it's because you can't switch storage while data is stored (kinda like an initial setup) hence clearing app data could fix it.
If it's still not working I may have one last trick up my sleeve.
Trixanity said:
OTA update just means the latest version/update for the phone. Check for system updates.
I can't guarantee what happens to your songs but I would assume that those are not stored locally if it's just a list (you did say you cleared some out to regain space). I would assume you'd be able to access the same list from any device as long as you are logged in. Otherwise that's pretty bad design considering their business model.
If you have very little space on your phone the system will start to get sluggish and if really low system functions will stop working.
Can you tell me the version number of the Spotify app? The reason I'm asking (besides making sure it's the same as the one I downloaded) is that I seem to recall Spotify cutting support for their old app and launching a new one to replace it.
But if you do have the new app, then either something's wrong with the compatibility of your phone/sd card/app or it's because you can't switch storage while data is stored (kinda like an initial setup) hence clearing app data could fix it.
If it's still not working I may have one last trick up my sleeve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, the version I downloaded is 8.4.61.683 armV7
chimneytops said:
Hi, the version I downloaded is 8.4.61.683 armV7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the same one I tested.
Try go into your app settings and make sure Spotify has the right permissions granted.
If it's still not working (also make sure you have plenty space on SD card) then clearing the data is probably the best solution. Apparently it deletes preferences and offline playlists (whatever that means). I'm not sure if it affects your playlists or if you can save them online so you can retrieve them later. Otherwise make a backup of: internal storage/Android/Data/com.spotify.music/ just in case.
Rebooting the phone can also sometimes help by the way.
Trixanity said:
That's the same one I tested.
Try go into your app settings and make sure Spotify has the right permissions granted.
If it's still not working (also make sure you have plenty space on SD card) then clearing the data is probably the best solution. Apparently it deletes preferences and offline playlists (whatever that means). I'm not sure if it affects your playlists or if you can save them online so you can retrieve them later. Otherwise make a backup of: internal storage/Android/Data/com.spotify.music/ just in case.
Rebooting the phone can also sometimes help by the way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, what are the right permissions for Spotify in app settings?
chimneytops said:
Thanks, what are the right permissions for Spotify in app settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Storage access I guess. I don't think there's explicitly an SD card permission (at least not to my knowledge).
I also wondered if you had tried formatting the SD card?

Galaxy SM-J730F SD card as storage and custom OS

Hello,
I tried using https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...-15-1-8-1-0_r48-j730gm-fm-f-03-11-18.3751681/ but for some reason it wouldn't detect my Sim Cards, so it was a useless approach. I ended up getting the ROM stock through SamFirm and was able to install it and I have my Galaxy working again.
Now, the original issue remains > I have no freaking space on my phone. It only has 16GB internal storage and 70% of it is used by god knows what.
I have 2 possible solutions:
- install custom ROM > if you have any links please let me know. Either Pixel Experience, or whatever, I just need something with decently clear steps to follow
- use my SD Card as internal storage. For some bizzarre reason it's turned off on Samsung, how could I enable it?
Thanks!
The bandwidth of the SD card interface is too slow for use as internal storage. Use it as a data drive instead.
Only apps, DCIM and the download folders should be on internal memory. The DCIM can be safely moved to the SD card. Leave a couple gbs of headroom on internal memory at all times.
Otherwise it sounds like you have outgrown the phone. My dual drive N10+ setup doesn't have many large 3rd party apps loaded. Even so 60gb is my typical usage. Since the available storage is many times larger than this, no worries. I typically use this large volume of unused storage for "scratch" storage. More is always better...
blackhawk said:
The bandwidth of the SD card interface is too slow for use as internal storage. Use it as a data drive instead.
Only apps, DCIM and the download folders should be on internal memory. The DCIM can be safely moved to the SD card. Leave a couple gbs of headroom on internal memory at all times.
Otherwise it sounds like you have outgrown the phone. My dual drive N10+ setup doesn't have many large 3rd party apps loaded. Even so 60gb is my typical usage. Since the available storage is many times larger than this, no worries. I typically use this large volume of unused storage for "scratch" storage. More is always better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only have 2GB of Apps and my Storage is at 11.8/16. That's my problem. I can't even move the apps that I want to the SD Card because most apps don't allow it. I'm talking about apps that I rarely use, can't even move them.
It's not like the phone is filled with Images or Videos, I don't care about that and I always delete whatsapp crap.
Something is using the space. Keep all social media trash apps (which is all of them) off the phone. Logon through browser only, it adds another layer of protection.
Try clearing the system cache. If you can't sort it out factory reset then carefully reload. Do Not use SmartSwitch as its a known troublemaker.
Using the SD card as the data drive you should be able to come up with a somewhat workable compromise. Consider an upgrade to a used or new N10+, you won't have this issue again.

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