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Can't copy .android_secure folder and files to new SD card

H

HealingHands33

Newbie
I wanted to upgrade my Galaxy S2 from a 2GB external SD card to a 32Gb card, so I formatted the new 32GB card, then tried to copy the contents of the old 2GB card onto the new 32GB card. Everything copied fine except the .android_secure folder and its contents, which generated an error message and refused to copy.

When I installed the new 32GB card, at first my phone generated "App not installed" messages when I tried to open certain frequently-used apps, but now everything appears to be running fine. However, when I plug the phone into my computer and check out the contents of the SD card, the .android_secure folder is nowhere to be found. On the other hand, when I go into X-plore on my phone and enable the viewing of hidden files, I can see the .android_secure folder, but it shows no files in it.

I still have the .android_secure folder and all its .asec files on the old 2GB card, as well as a backup copy saved on my computer. Is there a way that I can get these files into the .android_secure folder on the new card, or is it even necessary, as my phone seems to run fine without it? I have a recent backup of the phone on MyBackup Pro, but don't know if I should try to restore these applications, as they are already on the phone and working, even though they are not shown in the .android_secure folder.

In short, I'm stumped. How badly have I messed this up and how can I fix it?

Many thanks in advance for any and all help.

Cheers,
HH33
 
If everything is working fine, relax. The phone will create an android_secure directory automatically if it's needed.
 
.android_secure along with other folders such as DCIM are setup when a new SD card is used with a particular device to help facilitate the transfer and use of apps, digital images etc. Because each microSD has it's own unique CID(Card Identifier or Identification number) all storage is usually unique to that card & device. If your device is running as root it would probably be better just to copy the app's .apk file over to the new 32G microSD then unpackage and install it. That way you get all the app's contents and reduce the risk of broken file in the transfer process. .android_secure should handle the rest on reboot. Good luck.
 
ndex477 said:
.android_secure along with other folders such as DCIM are setup when a new SD card is used with a particular device to help facilitate the transfer and use of apps, digital images etc. Because each microSD has it's own unique CID(Card Identifier or Identification number) all storage is usually unique to that card & device. If your device is running as root it would probably be better just to copy the app's .apk file over to the new 32G microSD then unpackage and install it. That way you get all the app's contents and reduce the risk of broken file in the transfer process. .android_secure should handle the rest on reboot. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the helpful explanation. However, my Galaxy S2 is not rooted, so should I still re-install each of the .apk files which were on the old SD card, or else do a Restore of those apps within MyBackup Pro? That <seems> like a bunch of unnecessary work, as the apps already appear to be working fine on the phone, but I'm not sure if there are other reasons to do it.

I apologize if this is an elementary Android question, but all my experience is in Windows, not Android or Linux, so I appreciate any clarifications from the expert users on this site.

Cheers,
Al
 
What was the error message when it refused to copy? I've copied .android_secure folders between cards before with no problems (not using Windows, but I can't see why that would matter). You should make sure Windows Explorer is set to show all files (by default it will not display some system files), but that's the only thing I can think of.
 
Hadron said:
What was the error message when it refused to copy? I've copied .android_secure folders between cards before with no problems (not using Windows, but I can't see why that would matter). You should make sure Windows Explorer is set to show all files (by default it will not display some system files), but that's the only thing I can think of.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your post. I just went through the procedure again so I could get the actual message. I put the old 2GB card in the card reader in my desktop PC, then tried to use Windows Explorer to copy the .android_secure folder to the new 32GB card in the phone. Please bear in mind that all the other folders on the old card were copied perfectly onto the new one without a problem.

The error message I got is shown below:
Error-Cannot_copy_.android_secure.png


Perhaps one of these further points may help:

A) When I originally copied the files from the 2GB card to the 32GB card, both cards were in my card reader in my PC. Neither card was in the phone.

B) When I now look into the 32GB SD card in my phone (ExtSDcard) with ZArchiver, I do see a .android_secure folder there, but it is empty.

Many thanks to you or to anyone who can make any sense of this.

Cheers,
Al
 
ndex477 said:
.android_secure along with other folders such as DCIM are setup when a new SD card is used with a particular device to help facilitate the transfer and use of apps, digital images etc. Because each microSD has it's own unique CID(Card Identifier or Identification number) all storage is usually unique to that card & device. If your device is running as root it would probably be better just to copy the app's .apk file over to the new 32G microSD then unpackage and install it. That way you get all the app's contents and reduce the risk of broken file in the transfer process. .android_secure should handle the rest on reboot. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Hi HealingHands33,

I've read through this thread and realized something that ndex477 wrote (stated above). The FOLDER is what is unique, the .asec files themselves are not, so you can just go into the folder on your computer, select all the files, and take those .asec files to your new micro SD card. This should work, and sorry for the lateness lol.
 
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