[Q] How to restore non-rom storage to stock? - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I successfully restored my Vibrant with the shipping rom and it worked great. However, I still have a lot of files left over from applications that were installed. So, what is the best way to get the internal sd area cleaned back to stock? I am not sure enough of which files I can manually delete and which I shouldn't. Is there an "uninstall" program that will remove "orphaned" files etc? An un-installer that would also allow removing of the stock apps would be nice.
Thanks

Just goto settings> sd and phone storage> unmount internal sd storage> then format... That should do it.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant
using XDA App

So none of those files are "needed" by the stock rom? So you can completly erase all of the data on itand start over with installing apps?

well it will format the sdcard which means you will loose avitar movie and anything else on /sdcard and /sdcard/sd. But you answer is yes, non of those files are needed for the rom.

Thanks for the info!

Avatar is on the external sd card btw.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant

Related

What files are safe to delete in the SD card?

Hi everyone,
I just updated my Aria to FR007 and really want to have a 'brand new' phone look + feel.
I would like to delete ALL unnecessary files in the SD card & phone memory cos at the moment, I feel like something is not amiss.
I only have 574mb left out of the stock 2gb SD card. And my internal phone storage have only 132mb available space left.
I would like to save only my nandroid backup in the SDcard and nothing else. So deleting all other datas like saved apps, games, contacts, images, music and others are fine.
Please advice what procedure I need to follow as I am not familiar with what files are safe to delete. Is it safe to just do this:
Settings > SD & Phone Storage >Factory Data Reset ?
Thank you for your advice!
I would like to know this as well because out of a 8GB SD card (7.59GB) i only have 549MB remaining and i only have 1 nandroid back up and 3 GB of music on the phone.
That's a loaded question dependant upon what apps are installed. Many apps create folders and populate the sd card in some form.
Best I can tell you, mount the storage and copy the sd content to your computer. Erase the sdcard content and see what happens after reboot. Should only potentially bother 3rd party apps.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
Thanks for the advice BelacNongaw.
I thought about that too but I was thinking maybe there are some system files or essential files that MUST be in the SD card. And also, wouldn't deleting everything in the SD card also delete my nandroid backup? And Clockwork? <-They do reside in the SD card, yes?
Let me reiterate please: I want a 'brand new' phone while keeping only my last nandroid backup Will a factory reset do?
Thanks again everyone!
I had the same problem and the only thing I noticed was nandroid backups take a lot of space and also apps that have been deleted keep their folders in the sd card
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App
Okay this is what I did:
1. Back up my SDcard to the computer (plug it in, mount as disk drive, copy all contents to a folder on the desktop).
2. Restart the Aria in Recovery mode (Vol. down while Power up)
3. Go to Recovery > Partitions > Format SD Card
Now I have 1.84gb of SD storage with these folders (viewed in Astro):
1. .footprints / thumbnails / voices
2. LOST.DIR
3. tmp / .astro / astro
Haven't tested everything yet but eBuddy and Market are doing well, downloading and app installation are running fine too.
Now I'm quite concerned about the following:
1. Does this mean that I do not have clockwork anymore? Because there was a 'clockworkmod' folder in the SDcard before I formatted it.
2. Am I screwed?
Thank you for any suggestions/advice. I hope this thread can offer some helpful tips to those who need it in the future.
You are fine. The clockworkmod folder is where rom manager downloads and your nandroid backups are stored. You can just copy it back or rom manager will generate it again next time you nandroid backup.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
Thanks for reminding me BelacNongaw.
I just made a nandroid backup of my bare minimum Aria, and it automaticall created a clockworkmod folder in the SDcard with the md5 file.
Anyways, it's great to have all these space now
Great post guys I was wondering this myself. I recently rooted my inspire 4g to factory restore but all 3rd party apps are still on the sd card and i have no intention of re-installing any of them so i am looking for a safe way to delete unnessesary folders without deleting the vital ones, ill give your suggestions a try.
Technically you can safely delete everything that's on the sd card. Android will automatically create whatever folders it needs. Of course you'll lose any data saved to the sd, but you wont mess up your phone at all.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
i have a g2 but i have the same thoughts i want the space back from sd card not worried about loosing any thing just dont want to mess the phone up
Don't worry. SD card is totally an external of the phone. Delete everything, it doesn't matter. And backup your needed files to any place you like. You can move them back to your reformatted SD card whenever you like.

[Q] Apps required to be in phone memory.

I have rooted my optimus one.
just wanna know which are d apps that are neCessary to remain in the phone memory.
so that i cn move rest to sd.
Widgets should remain in the phone memory. Everything else that doesn't run frequently should go to the SD card
kpbotbot said:
Widgets should remain in the phone memory. Everything else that doesn't run frequently should go to the SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about keyboards,go sms,maps n youtube??
Oh yea. I forgot about those. Keyboards and go sms. I think it's okay to move youtube and maps onto the sd card
kpbotbot said:
Oh yea. I forgot about those. Keyboards and go sms. I think it's okay to move youtube and maps onto the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
K.
unable to move maps n youtube.
stil woried abt lockscreen n launchers.
Are you using the stock ROM? Apps that are in /system/app cannot be moved to the SD. If you installed it via downloading/installing from the market or somewhere else, you can move it.
Everything that feels like it should be launched no matter what or those that need to be started quickly on boot, keep it on the phone memory.
kpbotbot said:
Are you using the stock ROM? Apps that are in /system/app cannot be moved to the SD. If you installed it via downloading/installing from the market or somewhere else, you can move it.
Everything that feels like it should be launched no matter what or those that need to be started quickly on boot, keep it on the phone memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. m on stock.
did move sum apps to sd via app 2 sd enabler.
Cmon guys I thougjt it was safe to move all sh#t to sd
It's safe. It's just that apps that need to be started on boot must be there as soon as it can. Read and write speeds on the SD card is much slower than on the phone memory.
Well he didnt ask for fast boot
It's not about fast booting It's about getting the things you need as fast as you can. For example, I need a widget to load as fast as it can since it has to be there as soon as the phone boots. That was my point
Everything that you don't use everyday move to SDcard (if possible). If you move favourite apps to SD and you acces them all day long you will shorten the SDcard's life.
I have void with a2sd enabled. So all user applications are on sd. Can I use titanium backup to move some apps to internal memory?
lekhwani said:
I have void with a2sd enabled. So all user applications are on sd. Can I use titanium backup to move some apps to internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Titanium to move a lot of stuff over to the SD from Internal... Stuff in the /system directory doesn't affect your phone's "Internal Storage Space" as reported in the Settings menu since /data and /system are separate partitions. Apart from /system apps, the only thing that I would want to move to the SD that it couldn't move was the PayPal App from the app-private location. Going into ADB wouldn't allow me to do it either.
Titanium also allowed me to uninstall a bunch of the **** that came installed like game demos. This did not free up additional storage space, with the exception of what it removed from Dalvik-Cache. Which, btw is going to be your biggest issue... Some ROM's allow you to move this to the /cache partition, but this is a relatively small partition (~56MB) on this phone and my Dalvik-Cache currently takes up ~90MB.
Pls reply here guys.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941156
I use app 2 sd to move everything I dont need frequently on SD, than just long press on those program from app 2 sd and Open them.
It's a bit tricky and I dont know other ways (on the home screen most of SD apps wont appear...) but I never had slow opening and the like
Everything was ok till xtesterday.
today i rebooted ma cell,
and all d apps disappeared of sd.
though sd is accessible via file manager,gallery.
i tried formattingsd,cell reset.
bt all in vain.
cant install from file manager.
cant even install from market.
even unable to unmount ma card.
any solution???
Jason_V said:
I used Titanium to move a lot of stuff over to the SD from Internal... Stuff in the /system directory doesn't affect your phone's "Internal Storage Space" as reported in the Settings menu since /data and /system are separate partitions. Apart from /system apps, the only thing that I would want to move to the SD that it couldn't move was the PayPal App from the app-private location. Going into ADB wouldn't allow me to do it either.
Titanium also allowed me to uninstall a bunch of the **** that came installed like game demos. This did not free up additional storage space, with the exception of what it removed from Dalvik-Cache. Which, btw is going to be your biggest issue... Some ROM's allow you to move this to the /cache partition, but this is a relatively small partition (~56MB) on this phone and my Dalvik-Cache currently takes up ~90MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Titanium again and used it to incorporate the updated GApps into the ROM. I knew that I had about 56MB free on the system partition. Putting Gmail, Maps, Street view, Market and anything else that I could find freed 30MB on the data partition.

[Q] Completly wipe phone...

How do I Completly whipe my phone? I've cleared the cache, and done a factory reset, i've re-flashed with Odin to the stock rom, and yet, when I reboot, and go look under "My Files" , there is still crap there from before ( Most notably, 4 or 5 diffrent folders for Go Locker, Go STore.. etc ).
How do i clean this thing out for a 100% restart?
are the things your seeing on an external SD card?
No. The Directories are ( And i'm ommitting quite a few here, just to give you the idea ).
Android
Application
bluetooth
camera360
...
...
DCIM
external_sd
...
...
...
etc ad nausium..
So since i have the external_sd mount there in the middle, this must be the internal right? WHen I select the external_sd directory, that does contain my external card, and that's fine. I expected that to have stuff on it since i've not formatted it yet.
My DCIM dir still has all the pictures etc in it as well.... ( which I would not have expected since I did a factory wipe, yet there they are too ).
Any idea?
timgt said:
are the things your seeing on an external SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's saying he wants to wipe his internal SD because it has all his app data from previous ROMs/installations (such as stock). He's probably going to a new ROM and wants maximum storage space and getting rid of all the leftover trash.
Exactly. Just want to make sure the wipe is complete or previous issues will just haunt me.
Look in those folders they should be empty.....The phone creates the folders upon turning on (by factory),,those are the essential folders needed...check it out let us know...they should be empty
They all have stuff in them, and many are not from the os. GoLocker, GoLauncher, etc all have dir's there with data in them, all some , those in particular, i don't have loaded. I've not re-loaded anything yet.
Try going here; Settings > Storage > Format USB Storage
Thats the ticket Thank you.
Or in cwm recovery, go to mounts and storage, and format sdcard
clockcycle said:
Try going here; Settings > Storage > Format USB Storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can doing this cause any unwanted and/or unexpected problems?
Nope. It just wipes sdcard storage, like you just took it out of the box
studacris said:
Nope. It just wipes sdcard storage, like you just took it out of the box
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I'm confused about erasing external sdcard storage and/or internal storage.
"Formatting USB Storage" is which one of these?
And which storage location can you get yourself into trouble with "wiping/formatting?
Maybe neither?
Thank you!
Neither as far as I could tell. I did both. The SD Card is just that, your external memory card. The USB is the "user" storage on the phone, so nothing critical there either. Wipe away safely
Neither as mentioned. As long as youre doing it do from the storage settings from within the stock rom's menus. It only wipes your user data on the external sd and internal storage, if you chose to do so. You may lose any programs installed/moved to sd card also.
Going into CWM youre opening yourself a whole 'nother can of worms. I highly do not recommend going this route if you are not 100% sure of what youre doing. You can seriously render your device useless, aka brick (a term used too lightly).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk
Incorrect.
All you could do in cwm is wipe the os.. In which case just button combo into recovery and flash a ROM.
A Brick is missing or corrupted bootloaders. you cannot format bootloaders in cwm.
And avoiding something because it could be dangerous...instead of taking the maybe 5 minutes to understand what's happening add ya know, actually learn something is just not in the spirit of xda AT ALL.
Read. learn. Try. Share.

[Q] Incorrect storage data.

Hey
my phone (running CM9) thinks that I have 0.90gb free out of 11.36 of total storage space.
I actually have about 7Gb. ( I can see it: apps+pictures+downloads+audio)
something is wrong...
anybody has any idea how to fix?
thanks!
READ THE FAQ's on the ROM's thread....
this is standard on CM9 and AOKP. go to storage under system settings, tap the menu button and change the storage configuration to "use internal storage".
I know I dont care for this either. It also causes issues will some apps that look for a standard file system, and are unaware of the /emmc folder. But I find both CM9 and AOKP ROM's far superior to others, so I just put up with it
Thanks dude but the thing is that it's already on "use internal storage" but yet the issue persists....
Plug phone into PC. Backup all data to PC. Format SD card. Put data back on. Profit. Well at least it seems to have helped some. I don't use external SD cards but I've read this fix has worked.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
Hey dude.
I don't use the external sd card.
the problem is in my internal memory
K. Same solution, using internal storage. Take everything u want to keep (pics and vids) off then wipe that thing clean.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2
problem
i have a similar question, my i777 send me the error: E: can't mount /emmc/ , and that happens when i try to enter to the internal sd, not load my OS, also not work the reinstall os, i also install the previews os version same issue, use cwm 5.0.2.3 and that is the only way i'm able to access the recovery-

Wiping all my internal memory! BAM!

Hi all. I'd really really like to delete all my internal memory before trying my next custom rom!!!
As I search for different custom roms to try it drives me a bit nuts that my internal memory has loads of stuff left there from previous installs of apps, ROMS and whatever-the-hell-else-I-can't-recognise etc. I delete the folders I'm sure I don't need but it still bugs me the amount of rogue, seemingly uneeded folders and files sitting there. All these folders and files from old apps despite doing the standard factory reset, cache, dalvik cache steps makes me crazy!
So here's my question: can how can I safely nuke all my internal memory before putting my next custom ROM on to try?
I suppose I'll I have to leave the actual custom ROM .zip on the internal memory somewhere - I've read that clockwork recovery can't access the external sd card. I was sure clockwork recovery could access the external sd card on my old Nexus 1. .
Anyways, any advice would be much appreciated! I'd like to avoid software bricking my phone if I can avoid it!!!
If you are on stock Rom > turn off your device > hold volume up+ home + power till it boots into android recovery.. perform a data wipe from there.. it'll wipe everything (not the external storage).. your phone will be like it was when u bought it.
And older versions of the official clockworkmod recoveries don't support external storage. Newer version do I think. ( needs clarification!!).
Alternatively you can also use chainfire's clockworkmod recovery. It supports external storage.
(Note: clockworkmod recovery only wipe the system partition. All your personal data will be intact.. but the stock android recovery wipes everything!!)
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for the reply!
Unfrotunately I'm long gone from having a stock recovery. I have "clockworkmod recovery v5.8.4.3" although I'm not sure whether it's the chainfire one or the other one. It has the hat with the circle icon in it and is the blue monochrome menus. While it does have an option to mount an external sd, I can't seem to browse to my external sd when I choose install zip from sd card. Despite whichever folders I mount on the external sd card, only my internal memory appears to come up when browsing for install zip from sd card.
It would be nice if one of the recoveries out there could do a full wipe of internal memory! Unless that would delete the recovery too. Is recovery installed in the internal memory or somewhere else on the galaxy s3?
Bump! Not just because I like my post at the top but seriously, don't all those silly, un-necessary folders and files drive anyone else crazy!!!! Maybe I'm just getting a bit OCD... I've even tried a bunch of cleaner apps but to no avail. Damn apps not cleaning up after themselves...
Try this
*2767*3855#
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
If you know a script called "superwipe"recommended for flashing new CustomRoms, flash this script in clockworkmod recovery menu by choosing instal zip from SD CARD,and the internal memory will be completely vanished,while the EXTERNALSDCARD stays Untouched.
if i helped you feel free to press thanks!!
LargePiece said:
Bump! Not just because I like my post at the top but seriously, don't all those silly, un-necessary folders and files drive anyone else crazy!!!! Maybe I'm just getting a bit OCD... I've even tried a bunch of cleaner apps but to no avail. Damn apps not cleaning up after themselves...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Megawipe script from the General Section..search it there..put it on your extsdcard and flash via CWM..all you data will be wiped just the extsdcard will be left..
Well chainfire's 5.5.0.4 CWM recovery "1.5" loads from my external sd card instead so assuming I have my ROM files on there, I should be able to use that script without bricking my phone! Wish me luck! Lol. Thanks for the help.

Categories

Resources