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Hi,
I recently got an atrix [Bell Canada] and have been a happy user. However couple of days ago, I encountered a very strange problem. My phone has lots of free internal storage and a small 1GB memory card. Few days back, when I was taking pictures from the camera [default storage: internal], I noticed that the camera wasn't saving the pictures at all. It would take the picture, I'd hear the shutter sound thingy but the picture wasn't saved [there was no error message]. Upon further inspection, I noticed that all my previous pictures as well as all the songs were gone. I was travelling at that time and just switched the storage location to memory card and camera started saving pictures.
Today when I got home, I connected the phone to pc and my internal storage area is almost empty [just 71MB used by some applications]. I've lost all my pictures and songs from the storage and apparently there's no trace of them. I'm definite that I was listening to music and viewing pictures at least one day before I noticed this problem, and in between I didn't see anything strange on the phone.
Has anyone any clue what might be the cause and if there's a way to recover the old stuff? Searching the forums/google didn't yield anything. Here's the version num etc.
System Version: Blur_version.0.37.23.MB860.BellMobility.en.CA
Android Version: 2.2.2
Baseband version: N_01.77.15P
Kernel Version: 2.6.32.9
Build Number: OLYLA_U4_0.37.23
It is a stock froyo with yet locked bootloader and no root.
I've had the problem where the internal sdcard periodically gets wiped.
I know two causes for this problem:
1. A defective app. The first time it started happening to me was right after I had installed Go Launcher. I saw another user posted about it, and I uninstalled it - and after that, the problem dropped almost completely.
2. If the volume itself is damaged, Android will either attempt a repair, or wipe the entire volume. This most likely will have occurred when people are in the habit of just pulling the USB cable out without properly unmounting the volumes from the PC first. The best way to deal with this is to format the volume (full format, NOT quick format) and make sure to always unmount the drives before pulling the cable. Note that when you format a volume for Android (whether it's the internal sdcard, or the external one), it's best to use a 32k allocation size.
My SD card seems intact. I did plug the phone with the PC but I didn't mount internal storage [selected None in the USB Connection notification]. Also I didn't have any launcher installed. All the apps I had looked pretty harmless [all very common and/or by well known publishers]. Anyway, it seems like the problem would remain a mystery. Everything seems normal now. Thanks for your answer.
Side question: Is it safe to format the internal storage? I assume OS, apps, and other critical data is stored on the ROM which is separate.
faisaliqbal said:
My SD card seems intact. I did plug the phone with the PC but I didn't mount internal storage [selected None in the USB Connection notification]. Also I didn't have any launcher installed. All the apps I had looked pretty harmless [all very common and/or by well known publishers]. Anyway, it seems like the problem would remain a mystery. Everything seems normal now. Thanks for your answer.
Side question: Is it safe to format the internal storage? I assume OS, apps, and other critical data is stored on the ROM which is separate.
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Click to collapse
First of all, how are you determining that your SD card is intact?
Second, I wasn't pointing at launchers specifically, nor did I say anything about malicious software or shady developers. Go Launcher is a very common app by a respected developer. I wasn't pointing at malware, I was pointing at applications with a bug - which can be any app whatsoever. If all this started happening after you installed something specific, it bears looking at - that's all.
As for your question, it's perfectly safe to format the internal sdcard, just make sure to look it over first, and backup anything you want to keep. Your camera may store the photos you take there, for example. Or Tasker stores the documentation it downloads there, etc... You're not going to harm the system itself in any way, but that doesn't mean there isn't something you'd miss. Just give it a look before you format.
It happened to me again, once again all the data was erased from internal memory. This time, I'm quite confident it was WinAmp app unless my phone has defective hardware (slim chance).
faisaliqbal said:
It happened to me again, once again all the data was erased from internal memory. This time, I'm quite confident it was WinAmp app unless my phone has defective hardware (slim chance).
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Click to collapse
Even if it was WinAmp, it's probably not a bad idea to reformat the internal sdcard partition. If you choose to do this, I would recommend a full (not quick) format, using a 32k allocation size.
Ok, I formatted the internal storage as you said and then also updated to Gingerbread. I hope it doesn't happen again. It's just a pain in the a$$ to recover all the deleted media.
Keep your important stuff backed up to the external sdcard.
how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
Linch89 said:
how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
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Click to collapse
you may need root.
don't hold me to that though
thats what i was thinking but i wasnt trying to talk out of my rear end ah well at least i can still store my music and pics on my sd card...without root a 32gb card seems pretty extreme doncha think? without all the nandroids and roms lol
Linch89 said:
how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
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Click to collapse
know i don't know if this will work with apps but it work for photos, i opened the phone's card and long pressed on the ones i wanted to move and selected the option-move to, and transfered photos from phone card to sdcard. i did this with es file explorer. from the phones card not the internal storage or memory wharever it's called
Tried using es file explorer and my sd card didn't even show up. This is what it looks like in disk usage
The storage card is the phones hard drive I think (it's 8 gbs right? And we can't use all 8?)
The /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd is my 32 gig sd card. But when I move my apps it goes to internal storage
Linch89 said:
Tried using es file explorer and my sd card didn't even show up. This is what it looks like in disk usage
The storage card is the phones hard drive I think (it's 8 gbs right? And we can't use all 8?)
The /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd is my 32 gig sd card. But when I move my apps it goes to internal storage
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Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
I'll try that after work thanks boss
Aldo101t said:
Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
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We established this in another thread about a month ago. With the introduction of Android 4.0, Google decided to change the way mounts work in Android. Google, assuming that microSD card would be phased out in the introduction of larger capacity internal storage phones without microSD slots, decided to make the internal eMMC storage be named 'sdcard', since most apps already used the 'sdcard' location for saving data, and name a real SD card 'sdcard2', also reachable by a folder in 'sdcard' name 'sd_ext'.
The largest phone out there right now that I know of has 64GB total of internal storage, while phones like ours only have 8GB total, with about half being taken up by the system, necessitating the usage of a real SD card for storage. The /data partition on our phone only has about 1GB available, and a dozen medium-sized apps and their data will use that up quickly. In short, there's no way to install apps to the real SD card since ICS, and once your eMMC 'sdcard' fills up, you're out of luck. A large oversight, in my opinion, by Google and HTC.
If our phone had 16GB of internal storage, we might not have that problem nearly as quickly, but games like DEAD Trigger, which is nearly 200MB, will quickly fill up our phone.
Basically, pick and choose the apps you want carefully, and keep the eMMC 'sdcard' partition as empty as possible, aside from your larger apps.
Aldo101t said:
Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
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Click to collapse
When you move an app to 'Phone storage', it saves in the eMMC internal storage '/sdcard/.android_secure/' folder as a '.asec' file. In my testing, if you move it to actual SD card, that is '/sdcard2/.android_secure/', it won't recognize it. It displays 'Application not installed' when clicking on the app to run it. The Android system saves the pointer to the apk, whether it's saved in '/data/app' or '/sdcard/.android_secure/', and that's the only place it will look for it. You can't move it to the real SD card unless someone else has found a workaround, and I haven't heard of it if the have. I'll find the link to our previous discussion and post it.
IceDragon59 said:
We established this in another thread about a month ago. With the introduction of Android 4.0, Google decided to change the way mounts work in Android. Google, assuming that microSD card would be phased out in the introduction of larger capacity internal storage phones without microSD slots, decided to make the internal eMMC storage be named 'sdcard', since most apps already used the 'sdcard' location for saving data, and name a real SD card 'sdcard2', also reachable by a folder in 'sdcard' name 'sd_ext'.
The largest phone out there right now that I know of has 64GB total of internal storage, while phones like ours only have 8GB total, with about half being taken up by the system, necessitating the usage of a real SD card for storage. The /data partition on our phone only has about 1GB available, and a dozen medium-sized apps and their data will use that up quickly. In short, there's no way to install apps to the real SD card since ICS, and once your eMMC 'sdcard' fills up, you're out of luck. A large oversight, in my opinion, by Google and HTC.
If our phone had 16GB of internal storage, we might not have that problem nearly as quickly, but games like DEAD Trigger, which is nearly 200MB, will quickly fill up our phone.
Basically, pick and choose the apps you want carefully, and keep the eMMC 'sdcard' partition as empty as possible, aside from your larger apps.
When you move an app to 'Phone storage', it saves in the eMMC internal storage '/sdcard/.android_secure/' folder as a '.asec' file. In my testing, if you move it to actual SD card, that is '/sdcard2/.android_secure/', it won't recognize it. It displays 'Application not installed' when clicking on the app to run it. The Android system saves the pointer to the apk, whether it's saved in '/data/app' or '/sdcard/.android_secure/', and that's the only place it will look for it. You can't move it to the real SD card unless someone else has found a workaround, and I haven't heard of it if the have. I'll find the link to our previous discussion and post it.
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okey dokey, maybe after root we can do something with it.
Has anyone tried a 64 GB card with this phone? I jumped the gun and bought one for $44 because they work in the Incredible 2.
itll work for media like pics and music I think. Thanks for all the info. I'm new to this phone and also official ICS
bberryhill0 said:
Has anyone tried a 64 GB card with this phone? I jumped the gun and bought one for $44 because they work in the Incredible 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1841317
Hey guys,
i think compared to my previous mobilephones the storage management of the atrix 4g is pretty confusing or i just didnt understand its behaviour.
how are you managing your files? i tried to safe all my music to my 16gb sd card, so i have had the internal storage left for all my apps and everything i needed additionally. but since some of those hd games (or other apps, camera apps for example) wont let you choose wether you want to safe those bytes to your internal storage or to the external one, this wont do anymore. well, i dont know, maybe im just stupid, but ive got the feeling im doing something wrong because i never really know where the files im looking for are. :silly:
im on epinters cm10 with the oc1300 kernel. btw, is there anybody playing nfs most wanted smoothly without hwa?
thanks for paying me attention
I was keeping the same layout. All the music on the external sdcard and all the other stuff on the internal. I moved all my music to Google Music now so now I only use the insternal sdcard.
ALl the apps should point to the internal sdcard/emmc as it is the default for our phone. Although this can be switches based on each rom.There are some hacks that you can do to have more usage in your external sdcard. Like App2sd.
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
ravilov said:
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
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So the only way to solve my problem, to keep 16gb music at just one storage instead of having to split them into two folders+playing some fancy hd games, to buy another 32gb sd card? too bad
anyway, thanks for your requests, maybe this thread can help other confused people too :good:
I use AndroZip. And I am really confused about the different folders..
I included 2 screenshots for this part of my question..
First one.. can someone tell me what those folders mean..
Second picture.. what the heck are all those folders..
Is the actual external SD card one of those folders. I figured it would be the obvious one but I swear I had more stuff in that folder and Its not there...
Is there a way to make the external sd card the default to where all pics and stuff are saved??
Seems I am running out of storage space on my phone already for some reason.
3rd picture is of a screenshot of my storage use.. ridiculous. I dont understand why everything is on my phone and nothing is on the card..
It was worse a few days ago. My phone kept telling me I had no space left.. it was at like
System storge was 15.23gb/16.00gb
Sd card was 2.20gb/29.71gb
Sorry my question is kinda lame. Im just not good at this stuff.
Thanks for your guys help I really appreciate it
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Not sure what all those folders mean, but emulated sd is actually still internal...your "ext sd" is your external sd. when you open your camera for the first time, it should give the option to save all photos to ext sd. If you missed it, you should be able to hit the menu button, go into settings and change it within a secondary settings menu in there. I use es file explorer or astro typically and have never seen all those usb folders. Perhaps you are plugged into a desktop?
Mount Points
For whatever reason, the Galaxy S4 has many, many mount points for its emulated SD Card. If you're rooted, the actual path to it is "/data/media/0/"
However, the folders in the first picture are ALL paths to your internal or emulated SD Card. sdcard0, ext_sdcard, emulated, legacy, etc.
In the second picture, those look like pre-created mount points for... multiple flash drives? Either way, no reason to worry about them unless you somehow manage to plug up about 7 flash drives or SD Cards to your device.
And as for the space issue... That really is a good question. Factory resetting is never out of the question if you're up for it, however, assuming you're not, the only explanation I could come up with is just a ton of apps with big extra files. Like Minecraft, Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies, Temple Run 2.
Hope I helped, sorry if I didn't. I'm new to Android this year, so I haven't thoroughly looked at all of the quirky stuff it tends to do, but your data usage has to be from something, and if it's not from stuff you put on your emulated SD Card, it has to be from big apps or malware, assuming you didn't tamper with anything in a root file explorer. Are you sure you haven't messed around and copied files to some directory you thought was the emulated SD?
As far as the internal storage, the OS and "most" of your downloaded apps will go here, unless you use foldermount ("move to sd" only moves part of the file). Anyways, I have about 60 apps on my phone and am running hyperdrive and have about the same amount of internal storage left as you. After formatting and whatnot, the device does not have 16gb internal memory...it's more like 11 or 12. Before I was running hyperdrive and was just stock rooted, on that same screen as your 3rd picture, it showed me that I had 9.82gb of internal memory TOTAL, but I had way less used (I currently have no more or no less than I did then, but shows I have 8.23gb out of 16, instead of the 3.9gb out of 9.82 it used to show). Most of which is under "miscellaneous" files and when you go in there to see whats actually there via phone settings, you can't really see what's using all the space. You really need to be rooted and use root explorer (or similar) to see whats using all the storage.
Sony ****ed up on this. See, this phone has an 8GB Internal storage. But 4 is used by Android, about 1 and a half by the apps pre installed, but because of the fact that you can't download anything from Play when I reach 500MB left in storage, I'm left with 2GB or so. Now I got an SD card, a 64GB one, to deal with this very problem. Now I'm a gamer, so naturally I wanna download some games. Obviously, games take a bit more space than your average app. So the solution is to have it install to external by default, that is the SD card. But for whatever reason, despite having 60GB left, I apparently have no space in external, I can't install anything. So the first thing I try is to, and painfully so, delete enough things on the internal to fit this smaller 500MB game. And it works. Clearly, it thinks the internal is the external, and so does all apps that show what is internal and external. Apparently I have two externals. Google Play isn't the only problem. If a game is looking for the data to it, which is typically found in obb, even if I have it in the actual SD card it searches in the internal thinking it's the external. Even the OS itself, the settings app, gets confused. Reading that, for an example, 500MB of the app is on the external, when it really still is on the internal. So how do I solve this? I'm willing to root if necessary.