[Q] Any way to disable SD Card emulation? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

My phone has alot of build in memory, so it emulates an SD card. But that runs out of space fast.
I have an SD card in it now, but it's mounted as sdcard2.
Can I disable the emulated SD card and make it goto the real sd card?
I can't move apps to the sd card because the sd card is emulated. Programs like link2sd don't give me the option to choose where I want to install to. It just chooses /mnt/sd card, which is the emulated card, not /mnt/sdcard2, which is the real one.

/bump
Sent from my HUAWEI U8681 using xda premium

it does not emulate an sdcard. all android devices recognise internal memory as an sdcard. externals cards are recognised as sdcard2, external_sd or sd-ext. its perfectly normal for it to be like that
Sent from my U8160 using xda premium

Reread my question. You didn't answer it.
Sent from my HUAWEI U8681 using xda premium

I know this is about a month old, but I figured I'd chime in in case you're still having the issue.
No, there isn't a way to disable the SD card emulation. At least not that I've found. Only thing I found that works was to root my phone, partition a portion of a 32gig sd card and use Link2SD to use that as the default install location.
The instructions I followed:
http://www.noypigeeks.com/android/tutorial-a-guide-to-link2sd/
Again this requires a rooted phone, but seeing as you run the same phone I do (if your signature is accurate) it's not a problem. Just follow the instructions at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40121670 Took me less than 10 minutes.

That seems to have worked, Thanks!

bubkusjones said:
I know this is about a month old, but I figured I'd chime in in case you're still having the issue.
No, there isn't a way to disable the SD card emulation. At least not that I've found. Only thing I found that works was to root my phone, partition a portion of a 32gig sd card and use Link2SD to use that as the default install location.
The instructions I followed:
http://www.noypigeeks.com/android/tutorial-a-guide-to-link2sd/
Again this requires a rooted phone, but seeing as you run the same phone I do (if your signature is accurate) it's not a problem. Just follow the instructions at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40121670 Took me less than 10 minutes.
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Worked. Thanks.

benbricken said:
Worked. Thanks.
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Click to collapse
i appreciate all you guys/gals do! thank you!!

Masters2150 said:
My phone has alot of build in memory, so it emulates an SD card. But that runs out of space fast.
I have an SD card in it now, but it's mounted as sdcard2.
Can I disable the emulated SD card and make it goto the real sd card?
I can't move apps to the sd card because the sd card is emulated. Programs like link2sd don't give me the option to choose where I want to install to. It just chooses /mnt/sd card, which is the emulated card, not /mnt/sdcard2, which is the real one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only working way for me is to install cyanogenmod 13 which will give you the opportunity to mount your second storage (sd card) as internal storage (first).

Related

[Q] app install location

I have a few questions about app install locations for the g-tablet. There are three places where apps can go: 1. internal memory, 2. internal sd card, 3. external sd card.
For internal memory, I can see the installed apps (the apk files) at /data/app. I cannot find any evidence of any apps installed on the internal sd card (do they stay packaged in the apk file or get exploded out). What directory do they get put into on the internal sd card? In case you're wondering, according to App 2 SD Pro, I have 10 apps installed on the sd card.
Is there a way to install apps on the external sd card? Everything that I've read about and the sd card app managers that I've tried only work between the internal memory and the internal sd card.
Hmmm...nothing but crickets. Not even a question for more information? Well, here is a little more anyway. The tablet is rooted and I have tnt-lite 4.4.0 installed. I'm using Root Explorer to browse around in the file system.
This discussion might help, somewhat.
Yes, that other post was somewhat helpful. I can see the apps that have been moved to the "internal" SD card are at /mnt/asec with Root Explorer (I didn't have to unmount either...but the .android_secure folder did show as empty).
A couple of other questions for you:
1. Are you using a remote Linux machine to do those find commands or is there a way to get to that command line on the g tablet? I only have Windows so I may be stuck there.
2. Unmounting the SD card in the Settings will unmount the "external" SD card, right? not the "internal" SD card?
3. Do you know anything on my other original question about the "external" SD card? Can we move apps there some how? If not, I'd be game to try to write an app that will do it but my guess is that if there isn't an app that does it already, its probably harder than it seems that it should be.
Puhn said:
(I didn't have to unmount either...but the .android_secure folder did show as empty).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you unmount the SD card (internal or external -- depends on the ROM), you will see stuff in /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure/.
1. Are you using a remote Linux machine to do those find commands or is there a way to get to that command line on the g tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a telnet session into the gTablet, but, you can run the commands either inside a Terminal emulator or via adb. It usually doesn't matter how you run the commands.
2. Unmounting the SD card in the Settings will unmount the "external" SD card, right? not the "internal" SD card?
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Click to collapse
Depends on the ROM. In CyanogenMod, the SD card is the removable SD card. The internal non-removable one is called "emmc" (mounted under /mnt/emmc). Other ROMs have /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/sdcard2 (Froyo/GB) or /mnt/sdcard and /mnt/external_sd (Honeycomb ROMs).
3. Do you know anything on my other original question about the "external" SD card? Can we move apps there some how? If not, I'd be game to try to write an app that will do it but my guess is that if there isn't an app that does it already, its probably harder than it seems that it should be.
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Click to collapse
CyanogenMod does what you want by default. As I mentioned above, for it /mnt/sdcard is always the external removable SD card. So, everything "moved to SD card" ends up on the external SD. If you want other ROMs to behave this way, you'll have to change some of the /init*.rc files and the /system/etc/vold.fstab file and change what gets mounted as /mnt/sdcard (ie, which device is assigned the "sdcard" label). Look around, the changes are fairly obvious.
My recommedation, however, is to just install CyanogenMod and avoid the /init*.rc and vold/fstab hackery.
Good information. Huge THANKS !
One last question (hopefully)...if the SD card in CyanogenMod is the external SD card, I guess I have the reverse question for it. Can/how do you move apps to the non-removable SD card?
I guess what I'm getting at is I have a 16 GB internal, non-removable SD card and a 16 GB removable SD card that I'd like to maximize the use of. I'm not stuck with only being able to put apps on one or the other depending on the installed ROM am I?
Puhn said:
I guess what I'm getting at is I have a 16 GB internal, non-removable SD card and a 16 GB removable SD card that I'd like to maximize the use of. I'm not stuck with only being able to put apps on one or the other depending on the installed ROM am I?
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Heh. What started as a simple question about App install locations has now progressed to low-level mucking about with the system. What next--RAID using the SD cards?
To answer your question, with the standard, unmodified ROM you are stuck with only using either one or the other. But, since Android is based on Linux, (and since we have the source code for most of the programs on the system), it can be made to do a lot of non-standard things.
I'm pretty sure that the system can be modified to use both the internal and external SD cards for App installations, but, this will need a fair bit of customization of the ROM. Which means that if you switch ROMs or even upgrade the current one, the setup will have to be redone again.
Therefore, my recommendation, is that you use one of the SD cards solely for app installs and the other only for storing media/books/whatever. 16GB only for apps is a fair bit of space, I feel.
rajeevvp said:
Heh. What started as a simple question about App install locations has now progressed to low-level mucking about with the system.
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Click to collapse
Well, I had hoped to avoid the mucking about part and that one of the available ROMs already had the ability to put apps anywhere but it sounds like that is not the case. I guess I wasn't clear with my original question.
Anyway, thanks for all of the answers. I'll stick with what I've got for now. At some point I may play around with some things and see how thoroughly mucked up I can get it.

[Q] NT CM7 internal is using ext. sd card for storage rather than internal

I have a 16gb NT which I started out with CM7 running off the ext. sd card. Loved it so I decided to load it on the internal. Well after doing that, CM7 uses only the ext. sd card (8gb microsd) rather than the internal memory. I can still boot to CM7 without the ext. sd card, but I cannot install apps and what not.
I am familiar with android but I'm not expert. I feel like its so sort of partitioning issue, and I'm sure its been covered before but I just can't find the right answer.
Any help will be appreciated, thanks!
hashish16 said:
I have a 16gb NT which I started out with CM7 running off the ext. sd card. Loved it so I decided to load it on the internal. Well after doing that, CM7 uses only the ext. sd card (8gb microsd) rather than the internal memory. I can still boot to CM7 without the ext. sd card, but I cannot install apps and what not.
I am familiar with android but I'm not expert. I feel like its so sort of partitioning issue, and I'm sure its been covered before but I just can't find the right answer.
Any help will be appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
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please google and go check out 'multi mound sd card. Veronica found this one. click on her thanks button...
Is a different issue here. He is saying that internal partition that host installed applications and games is not get mounted.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA

SD Card Issues on S3

does anyone know how i can rename my sd card since it shows as mounted but no app can access it. i was using the same SD card in my droid razr.
it shows as extSdCard but all the apps that require an SD card give an error that SD card isn't present/mounted
im using the galaxy s3
thanks in advance
moolee said:
does anyone know how i can rename my sd card since it shows as mounted but no app can access it. i was using the same SD card in my droid razr.
it shows as extSdCard but all the apps that require an SD card give an error that SD card isn't present/mounted
im using the galaxy s3
thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you want to re-name the SD card?
Unmount and remount the SD card, perhaps? Or format via recovery, if rooted?
Is it SDXC or SDHC?
SDXC might cause problems sometimes - exFAT, FAT32 and all that jazz.
Oomahey said:
Why do you want to re-name the SD card?
Unmount and remount the SD card, perhaps? Or format via recovery, if rooted?
Is it SDXC or SDHC?
SDXC might cause problems sometimes - exFAT, FAT32 and all that jazz.
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Click to collapse
thanks for the quick response!
i want to rename since i dont know how to go about it otherwise. all apps say the card isnt present. as i remember it used to show up as sdcard-ext in all my previous phones
ive unmounted and remounted the card a couple of times but nothing. i havent formatted via recovery which i'll try tonight
its SDHC and yes im rooted and running AOKP build 40
There's a major is with really external SD cards on the S3
moolee said:
does anyone know how i can rename my sd card since it shows as mounted but no app can access it. i was using the same SD card in my droid razr.
it shows as extSdCard but all the apps that require an SD card give an error that SD card isn't present/mounted
im using the galaxy s3
thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you need to read this from Chainfire: www.chainfire.eu/articles/113/Is_Google_blocking_apps_writing_to_SD_cards_/
shaggydabbydo said:
I think you need to read this from Chainfire: www.chainfire.eu/articles/113/Is_Google_blocking_apps_writing_to_SD_cards_/
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:crying:
screwed!
I could access mine. Just go to mnt/EXTSDcard.
I can't move apps to it though, like everyone else...

[Q]Moving apps to SD?

Is there a way to move apps to SD to free some internal memory? I'm currently running CM10.1
AshyKnuttz said:
Is there a way to move apps to SD to free some internal memory? I'm currently running CM10.1
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try foldermount.
Of course some of those applications should be movable to sd anyways. I wouldn't move anything that you use often. I wouldn't move anything that needs to be active most of the time, i.e. widgets.
My understanding---and someone correct me if I'm wrong---is no. The way the S4 mounts the SD card means that it's not recognized as external. I believe even the stock update doesn't really move apps, or at least appdata, to the SD card.
Now, I await someone to tell me that I'm wrong, or at least that I'm right for the wrong reasons.
MW
Macknzie said:
My understanding---and someone correct me if I'm wrong---is no. The way the S4 mounts the SD card means that it's not recognized as external. I believe even the stock update doesn't really move apps, or at least appdata, to the SD card.
Now, I await someone to tell me that I'm wrong, or at least that I'm right for the wrong reasons.
MW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SD card is recognized as external and is treated as such. What you're thinking of is the internal partition labeled SD card, which is emulated. The external card is its own entity in the file system and is denoted as external.
As for the OP, a third party app is the best and only way to move apps AND their data to your external SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Just want to clarify that foldermount is a solution for those apps you can't move into the SD card with apps2sd or some program like that.
najaboy said:
The SD card is recognized as external and is treated as such. What you're thinking of is the internal partition labeled SD card, which is emulated. The external card is its own entity in the file system and is denoted as external.
As for the OP, a third party app is the best and only way to move apps AND their data to your external SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
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Click to collapse
You know an app that would work on GS4/CM10?

Emulated SD card I'd like to remove

I was attempting to root my Alcatel 9007t tablet, so I could move apps to my SD card, unsuccessfully.
So I ended up following some instructions and ended up emulating an SD card on my internal, or something or the other
It renamed my actual SD card to something else
So now, I have rooted my phone, I believe, but using link2sd card I can now move my apps, but I get an error on a certain few apps.
I can't link the data, or what have you, to the SD card, and I think its because of this emulated SD storage
Regardless, I would like to remove the emulated SD storage, and rename my SD card to something normal.
Getting to root this thing was difficult, so I would not want to start this whole thing over.
Or if I could get link2sd to link my data to my SD card , that would be excellent.
I am moderate noob so pls hlp
Footnote: no I cannot link to SD thru my storage settings, maybe is there somehow I can do that. I just want to link or move app data to SD card. This is from a downloaded apk that is making kit difficult. The app seemed to install to SD card, but the data is on the emulated SD on the internal
Halp
You will have issues as apps are not made to be on the sdcard and some apps even block the option.
zelendel said:
You will have issues as apps are not made to be on the sdcard and some apps even block the option.
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Click to collapse
OK but my tablet is rooted now and I can do it mostly with no problem.
I just want to rename and unemulate false SD card on internal and get it back to normal

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