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USB storage or SD card storage?
- Thread starter julesy
- Start date
That's another name for the internal storage volume.
Presumably you don't have an external microSDHC card installed in the slot above the battery.
Let me add just a little more technical confusion explanation ...
Android has, for apps, two general locations. Internal and external. Internal phone memory is where the system and apps reside. External is used for user data, media and large caches like maps. When the original Android phones were being developed they kept the phone's built-in memory all internal and external was for a MicroSD card in an expansion slot. This external location is always mounted at /sdcard/.
As manufacturer's started to build in 6, 8, 10 and more GB of memory into their handsets, they soon realized that it was inefficient use of the resources. Most people, even with hundreds of apps installed, will rarely get to use more than 2GB of internal memory, so they partitioned the internal memory into a system and storage partition. To make sure the storage partition was always found, they mounted it at /sdcard/ making Android believe it was external storage.
Most, if not all of these phones also have a slot for a MicroSD card. Since you cannot have two partitions share the same mount point, manufacturers had to create a special mount point for the card slot. Some put it in /sdcard/external/ some use /external/ but it's not standardized, so while Android will scan all mounted partitions and make the media on them available to the system, it will not use the MicroSD card as the external storage location.
Android has, for apps, two general locations. Internal and external. Internal phone memory is where the system and apps reside. External is used for user data, media and large caches like maps. When the original Android phones were being developed they kept the phone's built-in memory all internal and external was for a MicroSD card in an expansion slot. This external location is always mounted at /sdcard/.
As manufacturer's started to build in 6, 8, 10 and more GB of memory into their handsets, they soon realized that it was inefficient use of the resources. Most people, even with hundreds of apps installed, will rarely get to use more than 2GB of internal memory, so they partitioned the internal memory into a system and storage partition. To make sure the storage partition was always found, they mounted it at /sdcard/ making Android believe it was external storage.
Most, if not all of these phones also have a slot for a MicroSD card. Since you cannot have two partitions share the same mount point, manufacturers had to create a special mount point for the card slot. Some put it in /sdcard/external/ some use /external/ but it's not standardized, so while Android will scan all mounted partitions and make the media on them available to the system, it will not use the MicroSD card as the external storage location.
Dear Lunatic59 and Slug,
Thanks for your confusion/explanation...
1) So System Storage is where all the android application files are kept?
2) USB storage is a partition of the internal hard drive where the user can keep his files. This is listed in the file directory as mnt/SDcard. Is this correct?
3) So I don't have an external SD card? I assumed that my Samsung Galaxy S2 shipped with one in! :-(
Where are my Apps and associated data stored?
Thanks again
Thanks for your confusion/explanation...
1) So System Storage is where all the android application files are kept?
2) USB storage is a partition of the internal hard drive where the user can keep his files. This is listed in the file directory as mnt/SDcard. Is this correct?
3) So I don't have an external SD card? I assumed that my Samsung Galaxy S2 shipped with one in! :-(
Where are my Apps and associated data stored?
Thanks again
chanchan05
The Doctor
The Samsung Galaxy S2 doesnt ship with SD cards because it already has an onboard USB storage. Most other phones dont have it, or only have 1 or 2gb storage on the phone.
For the most part, yes, although it is possible to move some apps to the "SD card" partition if the developer permits it.
Bingo
The easiest way to find out is to open the phone and see if you can see a card in the slot. Location is on page 16 of the user manual.
Apps are stored in different locations although mostly all on the system partition. In general terms the carrier apps and apps that are core components of Android are stored in protected folders that users (without root) don't have permission to access. Free apps are stored in user accessible folders although that would depend on the app. And paid apps are also protected to keep users from freely distributing the files once it is installed.
Data, especially, large amounts of data like graphics for games or downloaded media are stored on the external partition (sdcard) in either a folder named for the app or a hidden folder. On linux based systems folders that start with periods are hidden.
On a similar issue, I've got a Galaxy S2 with an SD card installed. I use Go Launcher Ex.
When I upload MP3s from my Windows PC they get stored into USB storage and not the SD card. My USB storage is running low. Can I move MP3s from USB to SD and can I set it so things are automatically uploaded to SD?
Thanks in hope
Steve
When I upload MP3s from my Windows PC they get stored into USB storage and not the SD card. My USB storage is running low. Can I move MP3s from USB to SD and can I set it so things are automatically uploaded to SD?
Thanks in hope
Steve
chanchan05
The Doctor
Depends entirely on how you move the files. For example, if you move the files via windows explorer, then its kind of your fault because you are moving to the wrong drive: you should be seeing two drives in My Computer, one corresponds to the USB storage, the other your SD card. You should have been moving to the other drive.
If you are using a sync app, like WinAmp, you should have set up WinAmp sync folder.
Once you mount your phone as storage, as chanchan05 stated, you should see two removable drives pop up. One will be your internal storage partition and the other will be your SD card. You can easily drag and drop between them, but if you have any playlists set it will break them.
It doesn't allow me to drag and drop from Internal to External folders.
chanchan05
The Doctor
We were talking about when you mount the phone on your PC. You did say the problem was when you put mp3's in it.
This was connecting the phone to the PC via USB and starting up Kies on Windows 7.
Then under 'Options', I specified 'Use External Memory First' - which should solve the uploading issue longer term.
I then opened Windows Explorer and opened 'Card/Media' in one window and 'Phone/Media' in the other. I selected everything from 'Phone/Media' and dragged to 'Card/Media'. I got the message:
"Cannot copy <name of track> - The device doesn't allow files to be placed in this location."
And that's my difficulty.
Incidentally, Kies informed me that new firmware is available for my phone. However, I was worried that installing it would cause my data to be lost. Is this a concern?
Then under 'Options', I specified 'Use External Memory First' - which should solve the uploading issue longer term.
I then opened Windows Explorer and opened 'Card/Media' in one window and 'Phone/Media' in the other. I selected everything from 'Phone/Media' and dragged to 'Card/Media'. I got the message:
"Cannot copy <name of track> - The device doesn't allow files to be placed in this location."
And that's my difficulty.
Incidentally, Kies informed me that new firmware is available for my phone. However, I was worried that installing it would cause my data to be lost. Is this a concern?
chanchan05
The Doctor
Updates via Kies would not delete anything. Next time when you connect, don't use Kies mode, use mass storage mode. Also it would depend on the file you are trying to copy.
Hi.. i recently updated my galaxy s2 with the new ice cream sandwich - Nova1.0.1beta 1.. however, when i got my fone back, sdcard/usbStorage is empty. 
but the storage says it has 9.53GB/11.50GB used. how can i retrieve the files?
cannot save new files to the usb storage either...
how can this be solved?
help...
but the storage says it has 9.53GB/11.50GB used. how can i retrieve the files?cannot save new files to the usb storage either...
how can this be solved?
help...
I also have the same issue although it is unclear to me if the mount point has just been moved.Hi.. i recently updated my galaxy s2 with the new ice cream sandwich - Nova1.0.1beta 1.. however, when i got my fone back, sdcard/usbStorage is empty.
cannot save new files to the usb storage either...
how can this be solved?
help...
Has anyone got any information on this?
stefanhinz
Lurker
So I got a Galaxy II from my phone provider with Android 2.3.6 installed (IIRC). I recently upgraded to Android 4.0, as provided by Samsung. The phone didn't blow up or anything, but I've got a nasty bug now. When connecting the phone to the (Linux) PC with the USB cable, I can see the folders fine, including DCIM and usbStorage. I can copy files from the PC to the usbStorage or the DCIM folder, just like before. But after disconnecting USB, when looking at the folder I copied the files to (usbStorage or DCIM/some-subfolder), there's nothing! Connecting to the PC again, I can see them in the PC's file manager (Dolphin under KDE), or on the command line, where they'd show up like this:
atlas/media/9650-11FF> l usbStorage/
insgesamt 4480
-rw-r--r-- 1 stefan users 4582266 2. Aug 15:24 L001-LESSON.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 stefan users 1006 2. Aug 15:24 L001-LESSON.txt
But when looking from the Galaxy, no luck. Nothing. Digging further, I keep finding lots of items in LOST.DIR (not sure though if they're related, all 4 KB in size), and often enough items in .Trash-1000/files which are certainly related (sometimes even with the exact same file names). I guess there's a bug in Samsung's "File-Stor" Gadget. As said initially, the bug wasn't there in the previous Android version.
atlas/media/9650-11FF> l usbStorage/
insgesamt 4480
-rw-r--r-- 1 stefan users 4582266 2. Aug 15:24 L001-LESSON.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 stefan users 1006 2. Aug 15:24 L001-LESSON.txt
But when looking from the Galaxy, no luck. Nothing. Digging further, I keep finding lots of items in LOST.DIR (not sure though if they're related, all 4 KB in size), and often enough items in .Trash-1000/files which are certainly related (sometimes even with the exact same file names). I guess there's a bug in Samsung's "File-Stor" Gadget. As said initially, the bug wasn't there in the previous Android version.
awesomeashnic27
Lurker
I am having the same issue.... I moved all of my music over to my sd card by plugging it in to the PC directly. I play all music through google music player on my phone. Instead of being on the sd card, it's on the usb storage. Not sure how that happened. Any help would be appreciated.
Very useful info so many thanks for this explanation, but I still dont quite see the link between the quotes machine specs and actual storage.
So I have an elderly SII and am wondering about what to move to. That makes me look at the quote machine sizes and then back at this thread and what I see. So my phone is currently reporting:
System: 1.53Gb/1.97Gb
USB storage: 1.58Gb/11.50Gb
SD Card: 2.12Gb/7.40Gb
Looking via USB I see two 'disks'/mount points:
Phone: 1.58 of 11.40, e.g. the 'USB storage' figures
Card: 2.11 of 7.39, e.g. the SD Card figures
Now these figures say there's lots of space available...9.9Gb on the phone-based USB alone, but...
I've recently been having issues in updating aps due to 'insufficient space' and have for a while been moving those aps that will go to the SD Card, but still space issues.
Using a rather nice piece advice on "Moving Your