• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help My files : SD v Internal

TobesEtc

TobesEtc

Android Enthusiast
When I open My files the top options (Home & Up) are greyed out as unavailable.

Just below that it shows /sdcard (indicating, I assume, that I'm looking at the SD Card). Below that it lists all the files (I assume on the SD Card - yes?)

I don't seem to be able to look at the USB Storage on the device (which I'd have thought was called the device storage, but appears not to be...) How do I change between looking at files on the phone and on the card?

FYI, within Settings>Storage I have the following:
SD card 7.5 GB and the option to unmount the SD Card.

Then I have USB storgae 11.5GB

The I have Device Memory 1.71GB
 
if you have an sd card in there (an actual sd card, not internal), it should show up on your computer as two different things.

if you're trying to use the "My files" app, either home or up should be selectable so you can navigate to the actual sd card.

it's also possible that the "My files" app could only be for internal storage but this would be strange. wouldn't put it past Samsung, though, because i think it's strange to call internal storage an sd card.
 
Well, I certainly have an SD card in the phone, because when I connect to a PC I can see two loactions Phone/SD Card...and all my music is on the card.

But when i open My Files on the Phones Apps it will only let me see the SD card...
 
TobesEtc said:
Well, I certainly have an SD card in the phone, because when I connect to a PC I can see two loactions Phone/SD Card...and all my music is on the card.

But when i open My Files on the Phones Apps it will only let me see the SD card...
Click to expand...

so the "My files" app actually sees sd card and not internal storage? if this is the case, it appears the phone is set up to see the sd card and not internal storage after an sd card is installed. sounds like you have to remove the sd card if you want that app to show internal storage files again.

have you tried Astro from the market or anything similar?

edit: when you use the "My files" app, what folders do you see listed?
 
On the SGS2, /sdcard is the phone's internal memory, and /sdcard/external_sd is the microSD card you stick into the slot by the battery. It's a bit confusing; it took me a few minutes to figure that one out when I got mine last week.

One other thing -- if you're trying to look at the card through the My Files app on the phone (or some other Android file explorer) and on the PC at the same time, you probably won't see your inserted SD card on the phone. Most phones will dismount the inserted SD card so Android can't see it, but the connected PC can; it's to prevent both from trying to write the same file at the same time.
 
cool. i figured it prob had to be in there somewhere. the whole "sd card" thing being actual internal memory is certainly causing some confusion for some here. really can't understand why Samsung would do that. why not just call it internal memory? lol
 
I'm guessing, but it may be that the "internal memory" is actually a microSDHC card that isn't physically accessible to us normals -- sort of like what MicroSoft tried to do with Windows Phone 7.
 
3waygeek said:
I'm guessing, but it may be that the "internal memory" is actually a microSDHC card that isn't physically accessible to us normals -- sort of like what MicroSoft tried to do with Windows Phone 7.
Click to expand...

good point. well here's to hoping they think of something else to call it lol :D
 
I wish they would think of something else to call it!
You should consider that most apps consider location 'sdcard' to be the external memory and not the internal. This means that all HD Gameloft games expect the data folder to be in 'sdcard', which now is internal memory.
Also, if you use GPS apps like Sygic or CoPilot, they will also insist that the maps data folder is on 'sdcard'. For me this is a problem, as I want these things to use the SD card I added and not the internal memory, which on my machine is now down to 5Gb!
I raised it with Gameloft and they couldn't help. I raised it with Samsung tech support and after I they had misunderstood the question and sent me a stock reply (about installing apps to sd card) I asked again and they just replied that I should write to their head office! Not sure why, as I would have thought it was Tech Support that should be providing an answer to this issue. Consequently, I have seen no point in writing to Head Office about an issue that should be addressed by their Tech Support group.
This is a problem that will only get worse, as developers will be releasing even larger apps and games to use the new range of dual core devices that will be emerging this year. I don't understand why Samsung couldn't have stuck to the standard of naming the external sdcard, 'sdcard'! The internal memory could have been names any damn thing, so why give it the name sdcard?
 
3waygeek said:
On the SGS2, /sdcard is the phone's internal memory, and /sdcard/external_sd is the microSD card you stick into the slot by the battery. It's a bit confusing; it took me a few minutes to figure that one out when I got mine last week.

One other thing -- if you're trying to look at the card through the My Files app on the phone (or some other Android file explorer) and on the PC at the same time, you probably won't see your inserted SD card on the phone. Most phones will dismount the inserted SD card so Android can't see it, but the connected PC can; it's to prevent both from trying to write the same file at the same time.
Click to expand...


Thank you so much. I am new to andriod technology and I was in such a quandary as to why I can't access my sd card. Thanks!!!!! you are surely a life saver.
 
I agree with sentiments here. Took me a while to figure out what is going on also.

While we are on all things storage...can someone tell me why I keep seeing LOST.DIR everywhere. Must be created by android or samsung?

Is there any conventions on the files created in storage \sdcard ? I see some files in the root created by eBay app, other stuff littered around in there..?
D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom