Storage: USB v. Internal SD v. External SD

[Devinator]

I have an X2 as well, and, you should only get two. One for internal, one for SD.

The S II internal storage is partitioned into two partitions for some reason. It might mount as one, it might mount as two. But, the issue is that they can't move their app to SD. The OP said that when they do it just gets moved to the non system storage partition of internal storage. They want to move apps to their SD but are not able to do so.

I guess it'd be nice if someone with an S II that has this working would chime in. Netarc, have you posted this in the S II forums? Might not be a bad idea to post there as well. Might catch someone with an S II that has a solution that doesn't read this forum.

 

[jsgraphicart]

I totally posted that last comment thinking this was a one page thread. I missed page two. lol. sorry.

 

[Devinator]

Hahaha, been there, almost done that. So I can totally understand.

 

[netarc]

I guess it'd be nice if someone with an S II that has this working would chime in. Netarc, have you posted this in the S II forums? Might not be a bad idea to post there as well. Might catch someone with an S II that has a solution that doesn't read this forum.

Good point ... when I started thsi thread I assumed it as droid/gingerbread-specific issue, but now realize it's Sammy-specific. I'll post there, thanks!

 

[Devinator]

Yea, I kinda figured that is why you started it here. Since you did, this was a logical place to post it. Good luck with it in the S II forums!!

If you get an answer, maybe you can post it here too. Might as well in case anyone ever stumbles across this thread, ya know?

 

[bobvanjr]

What about when I plug my SII into my computer via the USB cable and it won't let me do anything without going into settings and menu to find the obscure place they put the "connect to PC or USB or whatever" option?

It doesn't give me an option like I had with Sense with HTC.

That's frustrating.

 

[Devinator]

What about when I plug my SII into my computer via the USB cable and it won't let me do anything without going into settings and menu to find the obscure place they put the "connect to PC or USB or whatever" option?

It doesn't give me an option like I had with Sense with HTC.

That's frustrating.

When you plug it in, do you get the USB icon in your notifications bar? I do, but, I don't have an S II, I have an X2. All I have to do is pull down the notifications bar, short press the USB notification, and, it brings up the dialogue for me to select what I want to do with the USB connection. It defaults to Mass Storage for me thankfully, but, it's pretty simple for me to switch it this way. Hopefully you can do the same!!

 

[netarc]

When you plug it in, do you get the USB icon in your notifications bar? I do, but, I don't have an S II, I have an X2. All I have to do is pull down the notifications bar, short press the USB notification, and, it brings up the dialogue for me to select what I want to do with the USB connection. It defaults to Mass Storage for me thankfully, but, it's pretty simple for me to switch it this way. Hopefully you can do the same!!

I plugged in my S2 (USB settings on phone in the default state), whereupon the phone notification showed "MTP Initialization" and the phone showed up as "SGH-I777 Mobile Phone" in Windows' explorer. Opening this up reveals two items: CARD (29.7GB) and PHONE (11.3GB). CARD had three directories: DCIM, LOST.DIR and download; PHONE had many more, 43 directories in all (a mix of apps and standard Android stuff, e.g., Android, BeyondPod, bluetooth, flickr, kindle, cache, etc).

I then disconnected the phone and followed the (2nd set of) instructions here to force USB storage on, at which point two drives showed up in Windows' explorer: an 11.3GB and 29.7GB partition.

The first 'drive' (built-in storage) had a number of folders (48 this time, vs. the above 43) at the root which must have been applications (Camera360, com.lifehacker.mobile, epicurious, Evernote, kindle, redlaser, etc). Curiously, there were also external_sd and usbStorage directories on this partition, both of which were empty??

The second 'drive' (32GB sd card) had only a few directories at the root: .android_secure, .downloadTemp, DCIM, download & LOST.DIR. DCIM is the camera store (I had updated the native camera app to store pix on SD storage) .downloadTemp & LOST.DIR were both empty, download contained some files I had received & opened in gmail.

Finally the .android_secure directory was the most interesting - it was 450MB in size, and contained individual ASEC files which appear to be applications, e.g.: com.amazon.kindle-1.asec, com.bfs.papertoss-1.asec, com.ebay.mobile-2.asec, com.evernote-1.asec, com.linkedin.android-2.asec, com.skype.raider-1.asec, com.yelp.android-1.asec, mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser-1.asec, and many more. (note the duplication of certain apps in both locations, e.g., Evernote, kindle)

Judging from this, then, it appears that the Move2SD function actually is moving apps over to the external SD card, rather than shuffling between the built in "system storage" to "USB storage."

 

[bobvanjr]

That's how it worked on my Evo. Not on my gsII. There has to be something I'm missing.

 

[netarc]

btw, as a quick test I disconnected the phone and used Move2SD to move an app (Infecct), then re-enabled USB storage and verified that there was a new file com.hg.infecct-1.asec on the SD card, in the .android_secure directory.

 

[Devinator]

Okay, so, am I getting this straight? When you move them to SD it really is moving them to SD, not "USB Storage" right? So, then everything is functioning as it should, right?

 

[netarc]

yep, apparently so ... guess I was overanalyzing it, heh. Sorry for the n00b wasting of time, I appreciate your help in trying to sort this out; er, but apparently it were already sorted b4 I ever started freaking about it

 

[Devinator]

Haha, it's all good. We all make mistakes. I'm just glad that it's functioning the way it should be!!