App2sd worked on my tablet but not my phone

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AC Question

I've looked all over google and found nothing like what I've got a problem with. I've got an Alcatel POP 4 phone 6.0.1 Marshmallow version. Every time i try to transfer an app (even under the "movable" filter) it tells me the same for every single app, - I've tried all the user apps i have - that my sd card has insufficient storage! And I've had this phone since Christmas day, 5 days ago, with the brand new sd card with it, and its only used 150 megabytes out of 30 gig... so nowhere near not enough storage. Also every time i try creating a new "2nd partition" (which i don't really understand what is) but it tells me it created it successfully but every other option that relates to 2nd partition tells me "No 2nd partition found, try creating another one". If it helps, i rooted it with Kingroot.

TL;DR: sd card that has over 29 gig free storage is being called insufficient by app2sd
 

The Blue Blur

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I just made an account, and i'm the one who posted this question. Please answer because not anywhere on Google at all as far as i can find has this same problem. Also, i do have root, I forgot to mention that.
 

john_v

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I just made an account, and i'm the one who posted this question. Please answer because not anywhere on Google at all as far as i can find has this same problem. Also, i do have root, I forgot to mention that.

Welcome to Android Central...glad you joined us! I don't personally have lots of experience with rooting and apps to SD but forwarded your question to some folks who might be able to help.

Again, welcome!
 

RumoredNow

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I just made an account, and i'm the one who posted this question. Please answer because not anywhere on Google at all as far as i can find has this same problem. Also, i do have root, I forgot to mention that.

So... Maybe not a direct answer.

Try ejecting the card, then reboot to have the card recognized again.

Also, if what you have on the card is minimal, maybe move that to internal storage. Then format the card as AdoptableStorage and never worry about moving apps again.
 

The Blue Blur

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So... Maybe not a direct answer.

Try ejecting the card, then reboot to have the card recognized again.

Also, if what you have on the card is minimal, maybe move that to internal storage. Then format the card as AdoptableStorage and never worry about moving apps again.

How do you format the sd card to adoptable storage? is that a certain type of format like fat and fat32? Ive not really heard of it. And i didnt need to do this with my tablet's sd card so i dont understand why its my phone i have to do it on.
 

RumoredNow

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How do you format the sd card to adoptable storage? is that a certain type of format like fat and fat32? Ive not really heard of it. And i didnt need to do this with my tablet's sd card so i dont understand why its my phone i have to do it on.

Adoptable Storage is new with Marshmallow. It will treat your SD card as a part of the internal storage of the phone. The card gets "married" to the phone so it really is dedicated, you wouldn't be swapping it between phones or plugging it into the card slot on your PC. It would pretty much be assigned to the phone. The system will then move some things over to it after the formatting and from there on you never have to manage between Internal and SD, the system just takes care of it.

Not every manufacturer has implemented Adoptable Storage. Alcatel has, or at least they have for my Idol 3. I had 16GB Internal and I added a 32GB SDHC UHS-I (29GB effective). After using Adoptable Storage I have 45GB of internal storage.

Screenshot_20161230-192053.jpg


It does format the card in a different way. It creates an encrypted EXT4 Linux partition mounted by the system.

There are advantages and disadvantages. I don't want to worry about memory management so I went ahead and did it.


Inside Marshmallow: Adoptable storage | Android Central
 

The Blue Blur

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Adoptable Storage is new with Marshmallow. It will treat your SD card as a part of the internal storage of the phone. The card gets "married" to the phone so it really is dedicated, you wouldn't be swapping it between phones or plugging it into the card slot on your PC. It would pretty much be assigned to the phone. The system will then move some things over to it after the formatting and from there on you never have to manage between Internal and SD, the system just takes care of it.

Not every manufacturer has implemented Adoptable Storage. Alcatel has, or at least they have for my Idol 3. I had 16GB Internal and I added a 32GB SDHC UHS-I (29GB effective). After using Adoptable Storage I have 45GB of internal storage.

View attachment 249283


It does format the card in a different way. It creates an encrypted EXT4 Linux partition mounted by the system.

There are advantages and disadvantages. I don't want to worry about memory management so I went ahead and did it.


Inside Marshmallow: Adoptable storage | Android Central

Ahh thank you so much! This totally fixed my problem. Does it do any difference to move apps from device storage to adoptable storage? Because I've moved all my apps to sd card doing that, but idk what difference it makes if the card and device are merged
 

RumoredNow

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With Adoptable Storage, the big difference is that the system will prefer the partition on the card for everything new and the internal memory won't get filled up creating no "wiggle room" for installs and updates to unpack.
 

Rukbat

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Does it do any difference to move apps from device storage to adoptable storage? Because I've moved all my apps to sd card doing that, but idk what difference it makes if the card and device are merged
You don't move anything anywhere with adoptable storage - Android decides what goes where. The only problem is that SD storage doesn't last as many write cycles as eMMC (the internal storage in the phone) storage does. And if the card goes, you're left with a phone with almost nothing installed on it. It's a band-aid for small (8GB and smaller) phones (in 2016 - maybe by the end of next year it will make sense to use it on 16GB phones, as apps get still larger).

The original rule of thumb still applies - buy a phone with as much internal storage as you'll need for as long as you plan to own the phone - then double that amount. When you start running out of space in a few years, it's time to get a new phone.
 

The Blue Blur

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Thanks but I still don't understand adoptable storage. I only want a straightforward answer because you are saying things I've never heard of. When I changed my sd to internal storage, my phones own storage changed from 4 gb to 8 gb, while the sd card stayed at 29 gb. I don't understand how that works at all.

App2sd gives me the option to move all apps to adoptable storage (presumably sd card) but I thought they merged so I'd only have 1 storage option. The other thing about having apps in adoptable storage is that Titanium Backup doesn't detect it at all until I move it back to internal storage.

So the only question I want answered is, where does the adoptable storage come from and what difference does it make, and why does Titanium Backup not detect any apps in it?
 

Rukbat

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Adoptable storage means that you have storage - you no longer have internal and external storage as separate entities. So you can't "move" apps from internal to external - they don't exist - only "storage" does, and Android puts apps wherever it wants to put them.

"where does the adoptable storage come from"

From the SD card, if you mean "where, physically".

"and what difference does it make"

Some apps just won't run from sd(1) (external storage - and if you can't follow this far, find a book that explains Linux, because there's no other way of saying it), so Android mounts the SD card as part of sd(0) so all app can run from it.

"and why does Titanium Backup not detect any apps in it?"

Because there is no "external storage", and that's what TB is looking for - sd(1). There's only sd(0) on the phone now, being built out of the eMMC storage in the phone and the SD storage on the card. (The problem is that SD doesn't hold up as well as eMMC, as far as number of write cycles, so the card won't last as long as the phone - and you'll lose all the apps and data that are on it.)
 

The Blue Blur

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Ahhh, thanks so much! So app2sd is just making up a load of nonsense then, telling me that I can move apps between Internal and adoptable storage... well, thanks, and this officially closes this thread now.

I've got newer problems unrelated to this, if you wouldn't mind having a look if you know what I can do about it, I'm making a thread about it just after posting this reply.