Database Users

Official MicroSD card support, what Google has said

So, apparently, it is still not supported and Google has no solution yet.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2275..._details_emerge_the_little_things_add_up.html
This detail, which came out in conversations I had with Google engineers today, explains why the Android file system organization is, well, a mess, and why I’ve had such inconsistent experiences with Android and removable storage across the various Honeycomb tablets I’ve tried (and I’ve tried all of them that are available so far).
“We don’t want to expose the user to file locations,” explained Hiroshi Lockheimer, director of engineering at Google. “How do you manage that as a user? The not-good answer is with the file browser.” Lockheimer says that many of the experiences I’ve seen so far are what individual hardware manufacturers have enabled, as opposed to what Google has provided natively. The good thing is that Lockheimer says Google is looking at ways to do this; but the problem hasn’t been solved yet.
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Is it me or does that say nothing still?
Google says they don't want to give you a file browser / file explorer / file manager.
Fine - there's plenty of third party apps to that on the market - but why not fix the SD card slot support?
Although I agree that some of the structure stuff is a bit of a mess - there's lots of random folders created on the SD card, like .android_secure, .bookmark_thumb etc. that you probably don't want end users seeing.

At least now it's clear that it's Google who has to fix the SD Card issue and not Motorola.

poisike said:
At least now it's clear that it's Google who has to fix the SD Card issue and not Motorola.
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I honestly didn't read that at all...?
I read that google were working on some sort of file manager, not SD card? am I misreading it? as far as I can see file manager, and SD card are separate issues?
also the transformer, and custom kernels have the sd card slot working, so not sure who is at fault for the xoom

Why is there a difference between the tablet and the phones?
I have access to the SD Card and file system there.
Not like every Windows user on the planet has never seen "My Computer". Organizing files is not some obscure concept that is to high level for users.

From what I can understand:
USB file system means the OS access the usb disk in block level which the app (file browser) will have access to the full path of the file.
The one that is supported by Honeycomb right now is MTP. This is totally different compared to USB. The actual file system is implemented by the device, not by the computer's operating system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol
My prediction, this USB thing will be solved by the upcoming ICE CREAM SANDWICH.
Because by then, phone and tablet are merged ... everything which is supported by phone (like SD card) must be supported by tablet.
So, yeah, we must wait till end of this year or early next year (worse case).
Still, it is too long for Motorola with their "promise", no?

@Kcarpenter
Very true - but I think the problem may lie with the Xoom using the MTP instead?
or is that a load of rubbish?
Eitherway, I guess from the Google point of view - they want it simple and try and hide the stuff they don't want n00bs messing with (a bit like Apple hide everything too so all their iOS are n00b proof!)
Also Phones open up to mass storage straight to the card - you don't get access to the internal memory at all. Whereas with the Xoom you would want access to that because there's loads of space there

gogol said:
My prediction, this USB thing will be solved by the upcoming ICE CREAM SANDWICH.
Because by then, phone and tablet are merged ... everything which is supported by phone (like SD card) must be supported by tablet.
So, yeah, we must wait till end of this year or early next year (worse case).
Still, it is too long for Motorola with their "promise", no?
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What about just fixing the kernel like timat's - that'd do the same job for now

Still don't understand why they would slack on getting the SD card implemented. They have so much riding on honeycomb success. And the LTE radio needs to get installed too. Time to ramp it up.

I agree they should be able to enable it considering one of our own has already done so with a custom a kernel, I still love my xoom though!
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

mwaychoff said:
I agree they should be able to enable it considering one of our own has already done so with a custom a kernel, I still love my xoom though!
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
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agree completely.
and the LTE thing is running on awhile now - didnt someone say that the samsung tab 10.1 might beat Xoom to be the first LTE HC tab if Moto don't buck up?

Who needs google when you have bigrushdog?

Just did the 3.1 update and SD card slot still doesn't work. I thought it would've fixed this.

Yea, I read that article yesterday. It has NOTHING to do with the sdcard support.
Google was explaining why android in general has a fairly chaotic/unintuitive filesystem structure... NOT why they haven't biuld in support for SD.

it was well known this update was not addressing the sd slot. No wjere not one single ppace has google or moto saidnthe sd lotbwil not be active by the deadline they stated. They could give us slot access right now but the issue is as has been aluded to they would either have to give full file sys access or no file access like the phones. For those that will say it doesn't matter give us access. It matters to them as they will be creating huge issues with tech support by the much larger majority of users that would delete things that would kill or hamper the device. I mean even on here you have tons of people that can't follow clear simple directons to flash an update without screwing it up some how. Can you imagine Suzzy home maker or joe the guy who can not figure out how to do a windows update would do with full access. My guess is they will be doing a update with a file manager and permision set so nothing past the sdcard parent folder can be accessed and programs installed will have premissions set to prevent accidental delete without going into the file manger settings to change them to allow change of permisions.
This will solve both the issues and allow both sd card and internal storage access without opening up the core files to tinkering by BDUs

Drop Box/Online Storage

Not sure if you guys have used this but Ive found it pretty handy for online storage. Called drop box, you get 2Gb free and can upgrade and get more if you need it!
http://db.tt/2yz87DL
If anyone else has found simliar apps that offer more storage would love to know so just post here!

ShaunD103 said:
Not sure if you guys have used this but Ive found it pretty handy for online storage. Called drop box, you get 2Gb free and can upgrade and get more if you need it!
http://db.tt/2yz87DL
If anyone else has found simliar apps that offer more storage would love to know so just post here!
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Click to collapse
Right. And by clicking that referral link above, both parties get a little extra space.
It's a pretty popular online storage / file sharing service and along with the DropBox Android app, a great extension for storage on tablets.

gammaRascal said:
Right. And by clicking that referral link above, both parties get a little extra space.
It's a pretty popular online storage / file sharing service and along with the DropBox Android app, a great extension for storage on tablets.
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Indeed, so far loving it!

Another online storage tool is Spideroak. It works across many platforms including Android and Linux. I am still in the process of testing it out. Not quite as intuitive as Dropbox. But I used the promo code *worldbackupday* and got a free upgrade to 5GB of storage. Not bad.

I'm using ubuntu one for my tablet and pc with ubuntu
Wysłane z Acera A500

Just trying out Asus Web Storage. It has a very cheap option for unlimited storage.... Tempting!

I personally can't think of any use for these online storage systems. It would be okay if you could mount them and then have all your applications be able to access the files there directly, but if you always have to copy stuff back and forth first then... meh.

Well the great thing about DropBox is that it integrates into windows just like a regular folder.
Once you've installed the application (which has a very small footprint) you can use the Windows 'Send To' context menu option and send anything to the DrobBox folder on your computer and it syncs with the account, making whatever you put in there available from any web-connected device. (either in a public or private folder which you can also set up)
You can also setup shared folders between people/teams which has a semi-type check-in/check-out feature that shows when others are working on them. So, say I'm working on a design doc - I can open it directly from my DropBox folder (since its a regular windows folder) make changes, edits etc, save it and it syncs the new version with anyone else I'm sharing the folder with.
As far as the tablet goes, it really is an extension to storage but only in a minimalist sense. Launching the Android App shows you all your DropBox folders and you can navigate though folders and open files or download them to your tab (without having to mount the tab to your computer or do that SD card dance). The primary point being, you can access them directly from the DropBox app and not actually have them on your tab.
I use it mainly to store books and other documents (also my bootanimations and screenshots) so when I want to access them (or give access to them) I can share the link, or open the files directly on my tab - make changes, save and it saves to DropBox.
It really is flawless and elegant.

gammaRascal said:
It really is flawless and elegant.
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It's also entirely reliant on people and systems over which you have no control. It can fail without warning, just because something between you and their servers goes wrong, and you have zero assurance of security either.
I hate the "cloud". I think it's stupid, pointless and potentially downright dangerous. You have zero control over your data or who has access to your data.

FloatingFatMan said:
It's also entirely reliant on people and systems over which you have no control. It can fail without warning, just because something between you and their servers goes wrong, and you have zero assurance of security either.
I hate the "cloud". I think it's stupid, pointless and potentially downright dangerous. You have zero control over your data or who has access to your data.
Click to expand...
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What.are.you.talking.about?
All that reads like over sensitive hyperbole and paranoia to me.
You're suggesting that just because you have files in your DropBox folder that it's unsecure?
Anything can fail without warning - that's hardly an ongoing and preventative concern of mine. I could turn on the light in my bathroom and *might* pop and yet, here we are. I'm not about to take a flashlight in with me every single time *just in case*.
Your HDD can fail. Your CPU can pop. Your MB can short... I mean, what are you expecting? Putting files on DropBox is no more unsecure than burning it to a DVD or copying it to a Flash drive or leaving it on your HDD.
There are *levels* of security and DropBox is far more secure than you give it credit. If security is a serious concern of yours, turn off the internet.
And regarding the cloud. See paragraph 2.

gammaRascal said:
Well the great thing about DropBox is that it integrates into windows just like a regular folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it does on Windows, but my tablet doesn't run Windows.
As far as the tablet goes, it really is an extension to storage but only in a minimalist sense. Launching the Android App shows you all your DropBox folders and you can navigate though folders and open files or download them to your tab (without having to mount the tab to your computer or do that SD card dance). The primary point being, you can access them directly from the DropBox app and not actually have them on your tab.
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That's the whole point why I don't like these kinds of things: it's cumbersome if I always have to go through this or that application first in order to use a file. It should just be mounted on a specific directory and that's that. I can only hope someone will create something like that for Android soon.
I wonder though if there is any way of mounting SSH connections, like for example as through Fuse as is possible on Linux. Then I wouldn't have to worry about these kinds of things at all as I have ample amounts of storage space on my server.

The company I work for, one of the largest IT corporations in Europe, SELLS cloud services. I know what I'm talking about.
Your files are not secure, no matter the assurances you're given, and Dropbox has had some pretty major security flaws in the quite recent past. And as a recent screwup on Amazon's cloud services recently showed, if something goes wrong or some dumbass makes a mistake, you might not even get your data back intact. That sort of thing happens a lot more often than you think, too.
Hell, we sell the bloody services to the world, but our own internal network services are down more often than a whores knickers!

FloatingFatMan said:
The company I work for, one of the largest IT corporations in Europe, SELLS cloud services. I know what I'm talking about.
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I'm not questioning whether you know or don't know what you're talking about.
FloatingFatMan said:
Your files are not secure, no matter the assurances you're given, and Dropbox has had some pretty major security flaws in the quite recent past. And as a recent screwup on Amazon's cloud services recently showed, if something goes wrong or some dumbass makes a mistake, you might not even get your data back intact. That sort of thing happens a lot more often than you think, too.
Hell, we sell the bloody services to the world, but our own internal network services are down more often than a whores knickers!
Click to expand...
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They are secure. Which, as you know, is a relative term.
If you need *more* security then don't use it. I don't know how much simpler it can be.
WereCatf said:
I know it does on Windows, but my tablet doesn't run Windows.
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That's why there is an Android App. The service is a ubiquitous sharing that acts like a regular Windows folder while in the Windows environment. It's not *beholden* to the Windows environment.
WereCatf said:
That's the whole point why I don't like these kinds of things: it's cumbersome if I always have to go through this or that application first in order to use a file. It should just be mounted on a specific directory and that's that. I can only hope someone will create something like that for Android soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how you can suggest it's cumbersome if you haven't tried it. Open the DropBox application, navigate to a file and select it and it opens in whatever app you have it set to open. They only different between than and opening a native application and then finding the file you want to open and opening it is that using the DropBox method, the file has to be downloaded first - which maybe is a thing for you, I don't know.
If you want it on your tab, select the file and download it - it saves to the local DropBox folder and at that point you can access it locally like any other file. The only other option is to manually put the file on your tablet - via cable, SD card, email - whatever method you see fit. To me, *that's* cumbersome.
Like I said, DropBox is more about access than storage. People use DropBox because they want access to files over the web in the same manner they would over a home network (without using bloated VNC's and multiple programs). If you have no need for such a function then DropBox doesn't sound like something you'd use.

gammaRascal said:
I'm not sure how you can suggest it's cumbersome if you haven't tried it. Open the DropBox application, navigate to a file and select it and it opens in whatever app you have it set to open. They only different between than and opening a native application and then finding the file you want to open and opening it is that using the DropBox method, the file has to be downloaded first - which maybe is a thing for you, I don't know.
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It doesn't differ at all from opening file manager, navigating to samba share and downloading a file from there. That's why I said I'd like something that allows me to mount the whole thing as a regular directory on my tablet, THEN it would be useful. Like for example, the eBook reader I have shows as a collection all the books I have. If the cloud storage was mounted on a directory I could just point the eBook reader to that directory and POOF, they'd all be visible and accessible without having to copy anything back-and-forth.
Unfortunately there seems to be no such service for Android. Atleast not yet :/
If you have no need for such a function then DropBox doesn't sound like something you'd use.
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Look, I'm not bashing DropBox. I just voiced a wish for additional functionality. I already have DropBox-like functionality via file manager and browsing to either Samba-share or SFTP-share, with 2Tb storage, on my own server, but if I could just mount the thing on a directory it'd be a lot, LOT more useful.

gammaRascal said:
What.are.you.talking.about?
All that reads like over sensitive hyperbole and paranoia to me.
You're suggesting that just because you have files in your DropBox folder that it's unsecure?
Anything can fail without warning - that's hardly an ongoing and preventative concern of mine. I could turn on the light in my bathroom and *might* pop and yet, here we are. I'm not about to take a flashlight in with me every single time *just in case*.
Your HDD can fail. Your CPU can pop. Your MB can short... I mean, what are you expecting? Putting files on DropBox is no more unsecure than burning it to a DVD or copying it to a Flash drive or leaving it on your HDD.
There are *levels* of security and DropBox is far more secure than you give it credit. If security is a serious concern of yours, turn off the internet.
And regarding the cloud. See paragraph 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a Google search using the terms Dropbox Security Breach and then read the article at CNET, a reliable IT information source. FloatingFatMan is right, at least about the security of Dropbox. I'm a bit leary of the Cloud for the same reasons. Do you know who is controlling your data or any of the folks who have access to it?

*yawn*
Yu huh...

[n00b Guide] - Fire for Christmas ::for Kids::

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.
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.

Been trying to do this for two years, still need to use sd card as internal memory

I ran out of storage for new apps a long time ago. My device is kind of useless for new things because there is no internal memory for INSTALLING APPS, even after removing 75% of my apps which includes system apps. There is just no more space. It still has 2gb of internal memory left BUT THAT CANNOT BE USED FOR INSTALLING APPS, stupidly. There are 8GB of total internal storage space.
I have plenty of storage for data. Just not for apps. I have a 32GB SD card as well.
App2SD apps, I maximized all possible data to be moved.
Apps with data larger than 20MB I just deleted the whole apps.
Still no more space.
Additionally, it means I CANNOT use this tablet for things like games, or for storing map data from gopilot live as a backup in case my phone dies. Which is VERY limiting. Especially because I used to like to play games on it but I had to remove all the games to make way for utilities.
Thus I DESPERATELY NEED to be able to install UNLIMITED NUMBER OF APPS using the SD card for internal storage.
I tried the vold.fstab method HERE, but it did not work.
PLEASE HELP!!! THANK YOU!!!
p.s. I WOULD BUY A NEW TABLET WITH MORE MEMORY BUT NO 7.0 INCH TABLET EXISTS THAT IS BETTER THAN THE TAB 4 BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL MAKING HUGE 8.0 and 8.4 INCH TABLETS THAT ARE TOO BIG SO I AM STUCK WITH THE TAB 4.

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
I ran out of storage for new apps a long time ago. My device is kind of useless for new things because there is no internal memory for INSTALLING APPS, even after removing 75% of my apps which includes system apps. There is just no more space. It still has 2gb of internal memory left BUT THAT CANNOT BE USED FOR INSTALLING APPS, stupidly. There are 8GB of total internal storage space.
I have plenty of storage for data. Just not for apps. I have a 32GB SD card as well.
App2SD apps, I maximized all possible data to be moved.
Apps with data larger than 20MB I just deleted the whole apps.
Still no more space.
Additionally, it means I CANNOT use this tablet for things like games, or for storing map data from gopilot live as a backup in case my phone dies. Which is VERY limiting. Especially because I used to like to play games on it but I had to remove all the games to make way for utilities.
Thus I DESPERATELY NEED to be able to install UNLIMITED NUMBER OF APPS using the SD card for internal storage.
I tried the vold.fstab method HERE, but it did not work.
PLEASE HELP!!! THANK YOU!!!
p.s. I WOULD BUY A NEW TABLET WITH MORE MEMORY BUT NO 7.0 INCH TABLET EXISTS THAT IS BETTER THAN THE TAB 4 BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL MAKING HUGE 8.0 and 8.4 INCH TABLETS THAT ARE TOO BIG SO I AM STUCK WITH THE TAB 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'd say you just need test different apps all over and over akd different methods from XDA, i have on my phone sdcard as internal memory but same method wont work on tab 4..... you should use folder mount to move appdata to sdcard and use it from there, it helps if you have big app data on internal sd card.

thelous said:
i'd say you just need test different apps all over and over akd different methods from XDA, i have on my phone sdcard as internal memory but same method wont work on tab 4..... you should use folder mount to move appdata to sdcard and use it from there, it helps if you have big app data on internal sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I tried that already. It does Not work because of the error "this has been limited due to kitkat so you're not authorized" or something to that extent. It's not an error, it is a limitation of the kitkat (and all subsequent) operating systems. Google did that on purpose to try to force people to have to upgrade their phone.

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
No I tried that already. It does Not work because of the error "this has been limited due to kitkat so you're not authorized" or something to that extent. It's not an error, it is a limitation of the kitkat (and all subsequent) operating systems. Google did that on purpose to try to force people to have to upgrade their phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you could install cyanogenmod to fix issue.....

bump

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Extreme measures is NOT a solution. That's like saying, "I'm having an issue with my computer..." and someone saying, "well, you could always get a new computer." NO. Not a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogenmod isn't an extreme solution, it runs better than touchwiz IMO and it takes up significantly less memory, which is a fact. It's more like saying, "I don't like Windows," and the reply being, "You should try out Ubuntu," especially since both cyanogenmod, like Ubuntu, is completely free

bump

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Reinstalling my entire OS is not a solution. Get over it. I am not reinstalling a new OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a quote like that you are on the wrong website my friend. Sorry for trying to help. And it is a valid solution since it would've solved the problem

Bump
Waiting for a real solution to the actual problem.

uh if youre not ready to install different rom i guess theres no solution

I'm having the exact same dilemma. In my case, not going to CM (or another rom/firmware/kernel..) is due to the fact that my children use the tablets, so the KidsMode needs to work. I've looked at that one from Zoodles, and its rubbish compared to the Samsung one available on their Galaxy devices. My original post never had any reply other than my own update.
By the way: I'm still searching for a solution to this... If only Samsung would/could release Marshmallow on this tablet, the Adoptable Storage option could be used...

Now, if you can just hold your breath...

lol I know right...?
Full disclosure: I've given up hope of finding a solution that will work with (essentially) stock 4.4.2, so now I'm looking into how to get the TouchWiz framework to run on a rom/kernel that DOES support support an external/internal swap.
Of course, that does nothing to help the OP, but IMO the best solution has already been presented to him: Install a custom ROM that supports what he needs. It's still the best solution since there don't seem to be any TouchWiz-dependent apps he needs.

Years later still no solution

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
Years later still no solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are willing to root your device you can use Apps2sd to actually move(link) whole app into sd card.
You'll need to repartition your sd card to do it, but there are good guides to do it.
EDIT:
Oh it's renamed app2sd but here is the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=fi for it
you can also try link2sd app

keikari said:
If you are willing to root your device you can use Apps2sd to actually move(link) whole app into sd card.
You'll need to repartition your sd card to do it, but there are good guides to do it.
EDIT:
Oh it's renamed app2sd but here is the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=fi for it
you can also try link2sd app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very limited and actually doesn't do anything more than the native android system does already, ever since about 2013 or so

zxzxzxzxzxzxzxzxzx said:
That's very limited and actually doesn't do anything more than the native android system does already, ever since about 2013 or so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about how limited it is, but it's completly different than native android moving apps to sd. Linking is like actually increasing your devices internal memory(not really but somethign like that). Also it's easiest/(propably)best way to get more memory for apps.

Excessive Storage Usage by the device - Shady practices ?

Hey Guys,
Did anyone else notice excessive usage of storage space. To me it almost feels like there is something shady going on here.
I have not even installed all my apps on the new one there is like 10 GB lesser space consumed on the Note 20 Ultra for apps rest of the storage space used is pretty identical on both.
There is no way that Android 10 OS is 30 GB bigger than Android 9. It seems the manufacturers are doing whatsoever they can to fill up your storage regardless of what size storage you buy.
Any thoughts ?
PS- See My note 8 (Android 9) vs Note 20 Ultra (Android 10) space usage comparison screenshot attached here.

recurring concerns year after year
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-9/help/128gb-note-9-how-storage-left-to-user-t3837054
I'm sure there is a similar thread regarding Note 10
no bother as far as I'm concerned

raul6 said:
recurring concerns year after year
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-9/help/128gb-note-9-how-storage-left-to-user-t3837054
I'm sure there is a similar thread regarding Note 10
no bother as far as I'm concerned
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not worried about out of box space i am bothered if they fill up storage with garbage just so it gets filled up with information not readable by file explorers esp when one is not rooted.

This is typical and maybe even a little less than my 10+
Get a data drive ie SD card as it helps manage your data files better and can make reloads a lot easier.
Fast 512 gb cards can be had for around $75, get a name brand one like Lexar, Samsung, etc.
I use the internal memory for apps and as a buffer zone before storing files to the SD card.
Downloads go to internal memory first. Occasionally a infected jpeg or whatnot gets downloaded. Hopefully the malware gets tagged by you there. If it makes it to another drive it's more likely to corrupt those files too.
Not foolproof but it's saved me more than once with damage being limited to only the downloads folder.
Doing it this way makes it easier to spot issues on the internal memory as it's less cluttered.

You can go into storage and see what extra is being used...I just checked mine and it was only 4.2 gbs for apps...Also could there be dead space or wasted space if you did a transfer rather than a fresh install? As user raul6 said it's always brought up and usually not a real issue...I always start with a clean install to ensure I don't carry over anything I don't need...

warriorvibhu said:
I am not worried about out of box space i am bothered if they fill up storage with garbage just so it gets filled up with information not readable by file explorers esp when one is not rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the 10+ 512 gb variant you have 466.5 gb of available space before -anything- is loaded.
Ater a hard reset the junk is gone. Reload as needed.
If you don't install a lot of apps and especially uninstall the load stays cleaner longer.
SD Maid can manage some of the hidden trash files without root.

blackhawk said:
This is typical and maybe even a little less than my 10+
Get a data drive ie SD card as it helps manage your data files better and can make reloads a lot easier.
Fast 512 gb cards can be had for around $75, get a name brand one like Lexar, Samsung, etc.
I use the internal memory for apps and as a buffer zone before storing files to the SD card.
Downloads go to internal memory first. Occasionally a infected jpeg or whatnot gets downloaded. Hopefully the malware gets tagged by you there. If it makes it to another drive it's more likely to corrupt those files too.
Not foolproof but it's saved me more than once with damage being limited to only the downloads folder.
Doing it this way makes it easier to spot issues on the internal memory as it's less cluttered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for suggestion I use a 200GB SD card for now sufficient for me. I have malwarebytes and lookout. Malwarebytes is really good at actively scanning the downloads. Thank you.
cezeff said:
You can go into storage and see what extra is being used...I just checked mine and it was only 4.2 gbs for apps...Also could there be dead space or wasted space if you did a transfer rather than a fresh install? As user raul6 said it's always brought up and usually not a real issue...I always start with a clean install to ensure I don't carry over anything I don't need...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it. I used Samsung smartswitch but this is the last time I will use such an app coz no point all it did was brought over msgs and photos and Samsung settings. I could have done msgs manually,phitos are already on Google photos and Samsung Settings would have synced the moment I logged into Samsung account so you are right it makes more sense to start fresh as apps needs installing manually anyway.
blackhawk said:
On the 10+ 512 gb variant you have 466.5 gb of available space before -anything- is loaded.
Ater a hard reset the junk is gone. Reload as needed.
If you don't install a lot of apps and especially uninstall the load stays cleaner longer.
SD Maid can manage some of the hidden trash files without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this add CCleaner pro or Avast Clean up pro to SD Maid. CCleaner is owned by Avast now so those two are basically the same apps with different names. I do use SD Maid pro.

Ccleaner has made a big mess on me before... I don't use it with Android.
SD Maid definitely has the potential too but has been well behaved. Running multiple cleaners may cause little nightmares...
Don't count on any virus scanners to catch everything because they won't... especially with the jpegs.
Best to keep a close eye on the Download folder and be ready to delete it if things go really south. The last one damaged some files completely and on others just changed the extension.
The ones I couldn't repair or wasn't 100% with I deleted. It wasn't able the breach folders in that folder thankfully.
Still it cost me close to 100 images and files.
Whatever it was, it died with the jpeg... however if I hadn't spotted it early and kept it relatively isolated, it could have destroyed a lot of files. A hard reload wasn't needed.

maybe samsung reserving the space for future activation of seamless update (a/b partition)? my two cents though

tribalfs said:
maybe samsung reserving the space for future activation of seamless update (a/b partition)? my two cents though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems likely!

warriorvibhu said:
I am not worried about out of box space i am bothered if they fill up storage with garbage just so it gets filled up with information not readable by file explorers esp when one is not rooted.
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warriorvibhu said:
This seems likely!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It reserves 10 gb for the OS of which around 9 gb are used leaving about 1 gb of reserved space for future updates... I think.