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Root transfer apps to external SD from internal storage

R

ruckingoodtime

Member
Ok, I have done a lot of searching, and have found answers for other phones but nothing for the 4g and I'm not sure that it's the same so don't want to try it. I have rooted my phone and downloaded link2sd. I tried formatting and partitioning SD, but afterwards my computer won't read it and my phone will only read 1 partition. Can someone help me out with this? I love the phone, but think it's absolutely stupid that you have to save all apps to internal storage. I was able to link a couple things to SD card with link 2 sd, but like I said my computer won't read it and only half my 16gb card was available. I reformatted and put everything back to how it was until I hopefully get an answer...
 
1) Most apps can't be run from the SD card (it depends on whether they were written to be, and most aren't).

2) Even if you move the app to the SD card, a link has to remain in main storeag because that's where android and other apps look for it.

3) It's not stupid - the SD card capability was put in to store data - music, pictures, vieos. It was never designed to run apps from. The fact that a few apps can run from it is just luck.
 
So the F7 is capable of doing this, but the warp 4g isn't? My warp sequent, I could transfer my apps to my external storage card (SD card). So that makes no sense..... Why can't I transfer those exact same apps to my external card instead of the internal and save space? All of my apps that I transferrred on the sequent to sd card, actually went to my sd card. If I transfer to SD now, it saves to the internal "sd"(memory). Nothing is saved besides pictures to the external..... Not sure you're getting what I'm saying.
 
links2sd should work. The reason you only see one partition is because links2sd uses ext filesystem which windows can't read. Plug it in to a linux machine and you will see both partitions and be able to copy, delete, etc.
 
ok so how should I go about partitioning? Should I have 1 or 2 partitions? If so Do I use FAT32 or ext2? It's a 16gb sd card. I do need to be rooted correct?
 
You need to be rooted to run Link2SD.

As far as partitioning, how much room are you going to need for your apps? Make the partition a little larger than that. (ext3)
 
Rukbat said:
You need to be rooted to run Link2SD.

As far as partitioning, how much room are you going to need for your apps? Make the partition a little larger than that. (ext3)
Click to expand...

ok I am rooted and that's what I thought. If I make the partition say 9 GB do I set the other for pics and everything for the remaining? if so what format? Or is that the same thing?
 
ruckingoodtime said:
ok I am rooted and that's what I thought. If I make the partition say 9 GB do I set the other for pics and everything for the remaining? if so what format? Or is that the same thing?
Click to expand...

The links2sd partition needs to be ext2/ext3 (not sure which, sorry) and the rest of the space should be fat32
 
SuperR said:
The links2sd partition needs to be ext2/ext3 (not sure which, sorry) and the rest of the space should be fat32
Click to expand...

Does it matter which is first? I tried that and my phone wouldn't read the remaining fat32. Should I do first half ext and second fat32? Or other way around?
 
ruckingoodtime said:
Does it matter which is first? I tried that and my phone wouldn't read the remaining fat32. Should I do first half ext and second fat32? Or other way around?
Click to expand...
When i did this a few years ago, i had cwm format the sdcard. Not sure if the current cwm still does this, but at the time it allowed you to choose an ext partition size and made the rest of it fat32 automatically. Unfortunately since i did it this way, I don't know how it set up the partitions.
 
I'll try it with an sd card I have laying around, before I mess with my good one.If I figure it out and everything works correctly I'll repost how I did everything. That way others will be able to do the same if they want. I'm surprised I didn't find someone else asking the same question... I found questions and posts but nothing for the warp 4g specifically.
 
I,m in the same boat no external sdcard.es file explorer will read sdcard1 but i can,t download anything on it.My expertise is lagging when it comes to rom developement but i remember reading somewhere about using adb to mount sd1 or sumthing to that effect.
 
WEll I used a 4gb card I had laying around. I formatted it using minitool partition wizard on my desktop. I made the first partition fat32 and the 2nd ext3. I put it in my phone and started link2sd, it asks which partition is my 2nd partition on card and I selected ext. It asks to reboot the phone. I then used link2sd to link the biggest apps that I had and linked them to my sd card. I compared storage space before and after, and my space on inernal card increased after linking them. So I think that I figured it out. I also took a video and some pictures. The space that you create for fat32, is going to be where your videos and pictures are saved and that space will show up in your storage, the ext3 will not...
 
ok so I've been messing with ADB and tried one thing to try to get my phone to save to sd card, but it didn't seem to work. Everything looks good when I put in the commands but phone doesn't respond to it so I'm going to guess that it's not capable with the warp 4g. Is there a way through adb to move apps to external sd card?
 
I had the same exact problem brought a new sdcard 16g and was able to read and write to sd1.Maybe rooting corrupts sd card ?
 
Try using a computer to reformat your sd card. My 16gb card has been corrupted more than once and that always did the trick
 
This is the wort phone I ever had. Should have kept my O.G. Warp or gone Sequent. Gonna go with S3 or S4 next.
 
sb43 said:
This is the wort phone I ever had. Should have kept my O.G. Warp or gone Sequent. Gonna go with S3 or S4 next.
Click to expand...

not a great piece of hardware ill admit, but what else could you get with dual core, that size screen, and lte for that price? and does boost even have the s4 yet??? last i checked they were still on the s3 and it was still way more expensive with the only difference being the stock os and the quality of the hardware, same number of cores, same data connections, same screen size

now they may have the s5 out, i know they were trying to get the jump on that one, so if you got $700 to blow thats gonna be the best thing around, but our options are rather limited... and ridiculously pricey
 
junkie2100 said:
not a great piece of hardware ill admit, but what else could you get with dual core, that size screen, and lte for that price? and does boost even have the s4 yet??? last i checked they were still on the s3 and it was still way more expensive with the only difference being the stock os and the quality of the hardware, same number of cores, same data connections, same screen size

now they may have the s5 out, i know they were trying to get the jump on that one, so if you got $700 to blow thats gonna be the best thing around, but our options are rather limited... and ridiculously pricey
Click to expand...

I think it's a decent phone. It's definitely the better of all the warps IMO, and I've had them all. The first 2 I put roms on and increased the clock and everything but I'm not doing that to this one, I do have it rooted, but just to remove bloatware and try to use this link2sd. The only complaint I have is that you can't move the apps to ext sd card like you could with the others. Sure it says move to sd card, but that's the internal (4gb) That gets used up pretty quickly, which is why I'd like to be able to move the apps to ext sd. But I still haven't been able to really figure it out. I thought I did but nope..... I tried using adb and chaning the save location, went through the motions but when I actually tried to move something to the ext sd, it didn't work. Isn't there a way to use adb to push apps to ext sd card?
 
well, you can always put them on the sd but the problem is the rom wont read them properly, there are alternative options but all would involve manually hacking to some degree

one would be to hack the rom and swap the internal sd link for the external one, whichever is linked to the /sdcard symlink and set as the primary storage will be used for link2sd

there is another possible method that has rattled around in my brain for a while, but it is only theoretical, i cant promise it would work properly or at all... but it would not require an external app and as far as im aware would only require you to make a few changes to the boot.img...

if you were to remove everything from the /data/app directory, move it to a specific folder on the sd, then do a symlink from the folder on the sd to the empty /data/app folder, in theory it should recognize the sdcards folder as the normal app installation folder, any apps put in there would recognize as if they were installed on the phone, and any apps installed normally would be rerouted to the sd, the drawbacks however would be the read and write speed of the card compared to the hardwired memory, as well as the fact that the sd card doesnt get mounted right away, which at best would cause a lag between when you start the phone and when the apps start showing up in your menus, and startup apps would in turn possibly fail to start... worst case would be that the link fails because when the device attempts to make it, the sd card isnt mounted so the directory does not exist

there is a chance this could do horrible things, but if you have a good backup you should be fine if anyone would like to attempt it

edit: there is another potential drawback to that method, NO apps could be stored in the phones memory, in turn possibly wasting the entire space
 
junkie2100 said:
well, you can always put them on the sd but the problem is the rom wont read them properly, there are alternative options but all would involve manually hacking to some degree

one would be to hack the rom and swap the internal sd link for the external one, whichever is linked to the /sdcard symlink and set as the primary storage will be used for link2sd

there is another possible method that has rattled around in my brain for a while, but it is only theoretical, i cant promise it would work properly or at all... but it would not require an external app and as far as im aware would only require you to make a few changes to the boot.img...

if you were to remove everything from the /data/app directory, move it to a specific folder on the sd, then do a symlink from the folder on the sd to the empty /data/app folder, in theory it should recognize the sdcards folder as the normal app installation folder, any apps put in there would recognize as if they were installed on the phone, and any apps installed normally would be rerouted to the sd, the drawbacks however would be the read and write speed of the card compared to the hardwired memory, as well as the fact that the sd card doesnt get mounted right away, which at best would cause a lag between when you start the phone and when the apps start showing up in your menus, and startup apps would in turn possibly fail to start... worst case would be that the link fails because when the device attempts to make it, the sd card isnt mounted so the directory does not exist

there is a chance this could do horrible things, but if you have a good backup you should be fine if anyone would like to attempt it

edit: there is another potential drawback to that method, NO apps could be stored in the phones memory, in turn possibly wasting the entire space
Click to expand...

I like the possibility and u may have stumbled upon something new that can be used as a workaround for things (maybe to fix issues in CM's as well..?)
That being said - I'll test for u, junkie
 
well cm as far as i know works fine with sd, no problems there. problem in older phones that caused sd not to work in some newer cms was kernel issues, it couldnt actually mount right so that is not gonna be helped by this you can symlink it all you want it still wont work, the current cm that runs on this device though wouldnt be glitched like that though, it just doesnt have any network connection so its rather useless. that would be hroarks work found in the oudhs section of the site though not here and you may have to have a warp kernel built for it im not sure which devices hes made a release for
 
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