Question about Storage (Samsung Note9)

[Deleted User]

Hello everyone,

I'm on a Samsung Note 9 with 512G SD card - encrypted. I've moved most of the apps from *internal storage to *external SD card. I did this to all my apps one by one.

However, every time when I reboot my device. All storage of each app switched back from *external to *internal, and I have to do all the setting for each app again.

Am I not supposed to reboot the machine with external SD card? lol it sounds ridiculous. Can someone help me to make sure the storage sticks to *external?

Thank you in advance.

Yutaka

 

[mikedt]

Quite frankly I thought Samsung removed or disabled the provision to move apps to an *external SD. My Galaxy S7 doesn't have it. Have you rooted your Galaxy Note9, and running a custom ROM?

 

[Dannydet]

You have 512mb, not GB storage.
By default your device will only be able to load apps to internal storage only, even though it may allow you to move to external

 

[Hadron]

There are 512GB microsd cards now, though they are not cheap (and if yours was cheap then it's probably not really 512GB - fake cards, reprogrammed to appear to have more capacity than they really have, are common).

I presume this is the old Android 2.3 style "move to SD" rather than formatting the card as internal (which Samsung traditionally don't allow), and that you mean you have a 512GB card rather than a 512 GB phone (whose internal storage, confusingly, can be addressed as /sdcard). If so then no, there should be no problem with rebooting, so if anything changes after a reboot that means it didn't really move in the first place.

Note that moving apps that way only moves part of the app, and doesn't move the app's data, so it may still use significant internal space even after being successfully "moved".

 

[Deleted User]

No custom ROM - but I'm not moving the apps. I'm moving the *app data* from internal to external.

Quite frankly I thought Samsung removed or disabled the provision to move apps to an *external SD. My Galaxy S7 doesn't have it. Have you rooted your Galaxy Note9, and running a custom ROM?

 

[Hadron]

How are you moving these data? And which data do you mean: stuff in the user-accessible part of the internal storage or stuff in /data/data (moveable with root, but will need symbolic links set up to work, will wear the card faster and will slow the app - the last being the reason Samsung remove the option to format cards as internal storage on their flagships).

 

[Deleted User]

The 512GB micro SD card - not *internal storage - also came from Samsung. No it's no cheap and that's why it really bothers me. :-(

I'm running Android Pie. The attached screenshot (from Google) is exactly what I've been doing.

Problem is, after rebooting, the storage location will switch from *external to *internal. Are you suggesting it's an issue of bad SD card? Would it because I had the card encrypted??

There are 512GB microsd cards now, though they are not cheap (and if yours was cheap then it's probably not really 512GB - fake cards, reprogrammed to appear to have more capacity than they really have, are common).

I presume this is the old Android 2.3 style "move to SD" rather than formatting the card as internal (which Samsung traditionally don't allow), and that you mean you have a 512GB card rather than a 512 GB phone (whose internal storage, confusingly, can be addressed as /sdcard). If so then no, there should be no problem with rebooting, so if anything changes after a reboot that means it didn't really move in the first place.

Note that moving apps that way only moves part of the app, and doesn't move the app's data, so it may still use significant internal space even after being successfully "moved".

 

[Deleted User]

They did? I can see the option to format the card under Device Card --> Storage.

I think it's the user-accessible part of the internal storage. Please see image attached.

How are you moving these data? And which data do you mean: stuff in the user-accessible part of the internal storage or stuff in /data/data (moveable with root, but will need symbolic links set up to work, will wear the card faster and will slow the app - the last being the reason Samsung remove the option to format cards as internal storage on their flagships).

 

[Hadron]

Do your phone's storage settings offer the choice of formatting the card as either "internal" or "external", and if so which (if either) did you do? The Android 2.3-style "move to sd" instructions look identical to that apart from one word ("internal"), so if you followed those steps on a phone that didn't support formatting a internal they would still appear to work. This is why I'd like to confirm exactly how the card was formatted, so we know for sure what the setup is.

For a long time Samsung have not allowed formatting as internal on their flagships, but it's possible that's changed. However, they also do allow it on some phones, so it's also possible to find instructions for this from Samsung that might not fully apply to a particular phone.

In any event, no, things should not change after a reboot. And given that it takes time to move hundreds of MB or more of data between storage devices if the boot takes its usual time I doubt that it is really moving anything (i.e. have doubts about whether it really moved in the first plce).

 

[Deleted User]

No I don't see the options for either "internal" or "external". When I click "formed" button it simply asks me to confirm. Please see screenshot attached.

However, I didn't format the SD card with the device. I formatted it on my MacBook Pro, copied some files to it, before inserted to the Note 9. Theoretically it should not be a problem?

Thank you so much for your help!

Do your phone's storage settings offer the choice of formatting the card as either "internal" or "external", and if so which (if either) did you do? The Android 2.3-style "move to sd" instructions look identical to that apart from one word ("internal"), so if you followed those steps on a phone that didn't support formatting a internal they would still appear to work. This is why I'd like to confirm exactly how the card was formatted, so we know for sure what the setup is.

For a long time Samsung have not allowed formatting as internal on their flagships, but it's possible that's changed. However, they also do allow it on some phones, so it's also possible to find instructions for this from Samsung that might not fully apply to a particular phone.

In any event, no, things should not change after a reboot. And given that it takes time to move hundreds of MB or more of data between storage devices if the boot takes its usual time I doubt that it is really moving anything (i.e. have doubts about whether it really moved in the first plce).