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Help Android keeps creating unwanted folders on my ext SD card

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Can anyone suggest why this is happening and how to fix it? I apologise in advance for a long winded post.

My device is a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 GT-N8020 running Android 4.1.2. The device is rooted.

The OS keeps creating folders on my external SD card even after I've deleted them. I've tried re-formatting the card and even tried a different card but the result is the same: every time the external SD card is removed or re-inserted (or un-mounted/mounted) or the tablet simply switched off then on again (after deleting the unwanted folders) they are automatically re-created on boot up.

Background (I'm not sure if any of this info is relevant but you never know)

I keep loads of books on my SD card and use Moon Reader Pro v4.0 to access them. Before and since purchasing the Pro version of this app, I tried and uninstalled many other book readers to try them out. All these other book reader apps have been uninstalled.

The folder structure on the ext SD card looks like this:-

My Documents > Art and Literature > Fiction, Non-Fiction, Finance and so on. Within these sub-folders are dozens of separate folders named after the authors.

The folders that keep getting re-created are

My Documents > Art and Literature
Anthony Trollope
Edith Wharton
Jack London
Sinclair Lewis

Just these four. The existing folders with these author's names contained within the Fiction sub-folder itself are unaffected.

I mention these details because, as they are book folders, I assume the problem must have something to do with book readers I've previously installed then uninstalled but I could be wrong.

The Moon Reader app developed says it cannot be anything to do with his app. I've searched for any settings or data folders that could have been left behind by previous book reader apps and deleted anything that looks suspicious but without success.

Thank you if you've read this. Any advice would be most welcome as I am at a loss.

Trevor
 
Bg260 said:
You can do it manually or you can do it through the app manager. When you uninstalled your book applications, did you wipe data first?
Click to expand...

No, I just installed them in the normal way. Only when this problem appeared did I start looking for any folders (on the internal and external sd storage) which might be related to the uninstalled apps. I've never seen this problem before but then again, computers always seems to come up with some new, never before encountered behaviour.

App manager doesn't show anything suspicious but I may be missing something.
 
From my experience cache data is treated differently on external storage. As regular maintenance, time permitting, I will go through my sdcard to look for anything abnormally large. There are several storage analyzing apps that can help show where some of these areas are.
Also, when uninstalling an application, do it through the app manager and wipe all data before uninstalling, Some apps will leave data in the hope that you will reinstall, but as Chan Chan stated if it is an active application that you are using the data will be recreated.
There isn't anything malicious about it, like I said it "enhances the user experience" speeds up loading rates, and that's what we all want. Right? ;)
 
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Don't know about improved user experience. I just want to learn how to control things when it comes to issues like this.

I have little expertise with Android. The closest I've come to problems like this are with MS Windows when occasionally I encountered a directory that could not be deleted.

In this case, I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that it is not being cause by anything on the ext SD card itself because
1. I tried a completely new card and the same folders appeared
2. I formatted the SD card on a PC to completely clear it before re-formatting on the Android tablet and they still re-appeared.

As you recommend, I will certainly wipe all data before uninstalling in future. However, without any specific step-by-step instructions I don't see any way towards a fix for this right now. You also mention "storage analyzing apps". Is there one you can recommend? Again, I'd assume I'd need to be looking on the OS/int SDS card itself for the source of the problem.
Thanks
Trevor
 
I'm sorry. I thought left this link earlier.

DiskUsage

Basically, there really isn't anything to fix. It is a function of most operating systems. Many, users don't even know it's there.
If you want to delete it, then delete it.
I see this app recommended quite a bit.

SDMaid

I always use a more hands on approach.
 
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