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Root [Virgin Mobile] Apps to SD and other space-saving awesomeness!

insanelycool

insanelycool

Well-Known Member
I have gotten an app2sd type solution to work for this phone, which sorely needs it.
YOU NEED ROOT TO DO THIS!
Also, if you are on Victorious ROM, you should only need Method 2 (Symbolic link for google play music cache), and possibly Foldermount from method 3 (if necessary). At the time of this writing Victorious ROM includes native External2Internal and Link2SD (but you will need to follow the setup instructions for link2sd, just skip step 10!)

Starting with the obvious the storage space on this phone is lacking, but with the solutions here I have managed to install everything I want onto the phone and still have over 1GB of space left on the internal sdcard partition and over 1GB on the internal data partition as well... for the sake of being thorough (for anyone interested in space on all my partitions) I also have 312MB free on the system partition and 475MB free on the cache partition… enough with the numbers; onto the space saving solutions!

There are 3 different methods that you can combine in order to free up space on this phone. You can skip the second one if you don’t use Google Play Music, or don’t want to bother with symbolic links (the paid version of FolderMount will work as well using mounting instead of linking), but I recommend applying all 3 methods as they are all able to accomplish your goal of saving space using the most efficient methods that I have found. Feel free to suggest any corrections or methods that you have discovered!

Quick links to posts for each solution: (For best results combine them all!)
1. Link2SD (links apk, dalvik-cache, and library files of specified apps)
2. Google Play Music to FAT32 storage (only needed if using Google Play Music)
3. - Root External 2 Internal SD (Swaps internal and external)! & FolderMount (move game files to the external card)
 
1. Link2SD (links apk, dalvik-cache, and library files of specified apps)
YOU NEED ROOT TO DO THIS!
At the time of this writing Victorious ROM includes native External2Internal and Link2SD (but you will need to follow the setup instructions for link2sd, just skip step 10!)

The program you will want is Link2SD.
Here are my tips on Link2SD.

First of all you will probably need an adapter for your micro SD so that you can put it into your computer (not while it’s in the phone, but directly). You can try the CWM method (TWRP should work too) but I haven't tested this method. I used my micro to SD adapter and formatted the card using my computer.
You will need to format and make a second partition (don't worry you can backup the files from the SD to you computer before you start and move them back when you are done).

Make sure to read my suggestions and tips below before you follow the Full instructions for setup here (How to install and USE Link2SD). I have also posted the step by step instruction for using mini-tool to make link2sd partition just below the tips.

TIPS:
First of all I used the ext4 file system and it works great.

Secondly, you don't need to go crazy on the size of the 2nd partition like I did. I'm only using 1.1GB of 10GB on my 2nd partition (ext4) right now... I would say 2GB would be more than enough, but if you have the space on your extSdCard, or really go crazy with apps on your phone you could go with more... More than 3GB seems like overkill though as it links files, so some data goes on internal (I have 1GB of free internal space [739MB used].
If I were to fill up the internal memory with linked apps I'm pretty sure I wouldn't break 3GB... but maybe go with 2-3GB to be safe. Let me know if I’m wrong though! Just don't do 10GB like I did, it’s a waste!

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FAST CARD! I have a class 10 32GB SD card and it works great.
Other than being able to use ext4 about 2-3GB in size, follow the directions to the T and it will work!

I also haven’t had any issues linking widget apps, browser, flash, downloaded keyboard app…anything I throw at it. I don’t recommend using the convert to system app option though. The only success I had with that was converting superuser to system (though SuperSu has an option in the app to do this itself if you get the paid version which is well worth it imho).

A few more IMPORTANT tips... use either titanium backup or use ROM Toolbox (like I do; I have pro version and not sure if you need it to back up app settings) to backup the data from TouchWiz home (in case the homescreen loads faster than the partition and you lose your homescreen layout)... its annoying but it has happened on rare occasions like if I pull the battery. It doesn't always reset the homescreen but it has happened. It just makes the icons on homescreen get reset because the partition loaded after TouchWiz, the apps are still there. Read on for my tips that have prevented this from happening to me again so far (over a month without this issue since I did the below tweaks; knock on wood).

Making boot and partition mount faster:
First of all you can use ROM Toolbox or Autostarts (i like this app and bought it years back; so this is the one I used) to ween down on the apps at startup, this will help boot times go faster so that the mount happens quickly. Just don't go crazy disabling things, leave system stuff alone for the most part, use your common sense. The other KEY APP to use is free called Rescan media ROOT (this will stop media files from being scanned at startup and they will only scan as needed / usb debugging needs to be on when you first run the app to disable media scanning). Rescan media root helps a lot with startup speed.

This is a step by step guide on how you can run Link2SD on your device. This tutorial will work for both stock and cutom ROMs. Follow all the instructions carefully to eliminate possible problems.
1. First you have to download Mini Tool Partition Wizard Manager.
2. Insert your SD card to a card reader and open it on your computer. Back up all your files to the computer because partitioning will wipe your data.
3. Open Mini Tool in your computer. Locate your SD card (be careful in choosing and make sure not to choose the drive of your computer)
4. Right click the SD CARD and choose Delete.
5. Right click on it again and choose Create New. Create “FAT32″ partition (This is where all your media files will go. Be sure to make it bigger than the 2nd part) Select “Create as: PRIMARY”
6. Next, create an ext4 partition. This is where your apps will go. I suggest a value of at least 1Gb-2Gb or as high as 10GB if you download and keep every app you come across. Select “Create As: PRIMARY” (make sure that it is both set to primary because it will not work if it is not set to primary)
7. Click the “Apply” button on the top left corner and wait for it to finish the process.
8. Put your SD card back in your phone and turn it on.
9. Download and install Link2sd from Google Play Store.
10. Open Link2sd. You will be prompted to choose between ext2, ext3, ext4 and FAT32. Select ext4. It will say mount script created.
11. Reboot your phone now. Open link2sd and if the message doesn’t show up, you succeded. To check your memory, select “Storage Info”. This will show you the current state of your internal memory, FAT32, and ext4 partition. (listed as ext2 in the graphic). Now you’re done and ready to install vast amount of applications as you wish!
 
2. Google Play Music to FAT32 storage (only needed if using Google Play Music)
YOU NEED ROOT TO DO THIS!

Now I will walk you through finding the google play music folder (where it saves and caches music) and moving it to the extsdcard, and then create a symbolic link from the original internal space (data/data/com.google.andriod.music/files/music) to the extsdcard !!If you have swapped internal and external you will obviously want to take that into account...and instead place the folder in the internal (the physical external sdcard).
Different partition types and all (ext2 and FAT32), but it's working flawlessly.

I'm using the root browser of "ROM Toolbox Pro" (you might be able to use the free version to make the symbolic links). It may not work with other root browsers. I know for a fact that "ES File Explorer" wouldn't even let me past the first data folder because it showed as empty even though there are plenty of other folders there.

1. Open the Root Browser and browse to "data/data/com.google.andriod.music/files/". You will see a folder called "music" in here (if it's not there try downloading a song from your library to your device).
2. (Optional) Before you move the folder you may want to make a bookmark to this location so that you can navigate back quickly.
3. Long press on the "music" folder and then select the move option.
4. Navigate to your extSdCard and paste the folder. -!!If you have swapped internal and external you will obviously want to take that into account...and instead place the folder in the internal (the physical external sdcard)-
5. Long press your newly pasted "music" folder and select the "create shortcut" option (if you don't see it you may need to scroll the menu).
6. Navigate back to the "data/data/com.google.andriod.music/files/" and paste the shortcut!

Enjoy!
 
3. -Full instructions for swapping internal and external SD (Root External 2 Internal SD)THIS IS THE BEST METHOD! and perfect for use with Link2SD!
And games without obbs but large data files-FolderMount (store those game files on external card)
YOU NEED ROOT TO DO THIS!

Yay! the last and easiest part!
Big thanks to mogulbuster for pointing out "Root External 2 Internal" as an option
Root External 2 Internal SD-Instructions

1. Install Root External 2 Internal SD
2. Open app and grant root
3. Press go at the warning screen to go to the config tab (if its the first time loading). Otherwise just click settings in the top right corner.
4. Don't bother checking any boxes, as the default settings are already set and will work for this phone. WE JUST NEED TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM! Click on view the different devices.
5. It will look like nothing happened, but you can now scroll down further.
6. Find "fs : vfat dev/block/vold/179:33" and click on it.
7. Now just click on the Icon in the top left corner of the app to go back to the main screen.
8. Make sure that "at boot **" is checked and then press the button that says "External > Internal*"
9. You may need to press it more than once for the setting to stick at boot. If you reboot and it doesn't swap automatically, just try pressing the button once or twice and reboot again. It will work!



FolderMount Instructions:
DISCLAIMER YOU PROBABLY DON'T NEED THIS ANYMORE! If you do you will need to get the premium version of FolderMount (in-app purchase $1.99)
if your game's files aren't stored in the "sdcard/" folder... All the obb's and sdcard/data files wont be an issue since we already mounted external to internal! If you haven't done this go back and do it, the app is free and very easy if you just follow the steps above!

1. Download FolderMount on your phone.
2. Open FolderMount and click the plus sign in the upper right.
3. Name the mount whatever you want.
4. Click source and set the source location (choose the folder that contains the obb file)
5. Click destination and set the destination (you can and should create a folder to keep things organized, the option is at the top!)
6. Then click the check mark at the top to add the mount to the list!
7. Make sure it's mounted (the thumb tack next to the mount will be green if it is mounted. You can click it to mount and unoumt individual list items. The tack in the bottom left will mount all list items and the one in the bottom right will unmount all).
8. You may need to reboot. Just be patient when it boots because it is the last thing to load. Takes a while, but not a big deal at all!

TIPS:
-
-For games without obbs, but still have rediculously large files stored on the internal memory (data partition) you will have to google around and figure out what the file path is. I'm not even sure many games do this anymore.

I hope these posts have helped you enjoy your phone more, I know these tricks have helped me tremendously! I don't regret buying this phone anymore! ;)
 
Thank you for the step by step! Rather easy to do. I just finished link2sd. I won't do more as I'm getting a replacement Victory sent. But thanks, nonetheless :-)
 
So does this mean I could buy this phone, root it, and put a 64gb sd card in there and move any apps onto the sd card? The low internal memory of this phone is the only thing keeping me from it. I need 4g Lte or else I'd get the gs2..And the gs3 is just too much.

I'm mainly referring to games like asphalt 7 and modern combat series which are around 2gb each.
 
TriumphLance said:
So does this mean I could buy this phone, root it, and put a 64gb sd card in there and move any apps onto the sd card? The low internal memory of this phone is the only thing keeping me from it. I need 4g Lte or else I'd get the gs2..And the gs3 is just too much.

I'm mainly referring to games like asphalt 7 and modern combat series which are around 2gb each.
Click to expand...

That's my plan. I used Link2SD to move a great bit of app data to the SD card on my Optimus V, and my assumption is that I can offload a big amount of data to the sd card as well using the same method for the Victory.

No matter what you have to have some data residing on the internal app storage, but Link2SD allows you to store as much of an app's data on the SD card as possible and store as little as possible on the internal app storage.

I'm just curious if an app has to fully install on the internal storage first before linking/moving to the SD? For example I tried to install Real Racing 3 and it ran out of room before completely installing on internal app storage.
 
Yeah if there's not enough internal memory to do to the initial install, that would make "moving" it to the sd card not possible.
 
TriumphLance said:
Yeah if there's not enough internal memory to do to the initial install, that would make "moving" it to the sd card not possible.
Click to expand...

CORRECTION! I made a small mistake and jumped the gun with foldermount. I wanted to verify my statement with the specific games mentioned. I was not able to download/install directly to the mount from the playstore. I think before that I had the files from my previous phone, and was able to mount them. I recently did a full factory reset on my phone just to start these methods with a fresh phone. When installing I couldn't get the game to show any download progress (Asphault 7) even though it also didn't give me any errors like normal if you were out of storage space. I fixed this though by using another method.

Root External 2 Internal SD is the app to use, as it swaps the internal and external sd. works great and lets me install now. WOOT! Full instructions coming shortly.
Sorry for jumping the gun a bit earlier today!
 
I hope my last post clarified things. I do reccomend this phone, if for no ther reason than we have a great community here. Finding this forum is one of the best things for this phone, because I will be honest I was regretting getting the phone when I saw the 4GB of storage they boasted was split into 2 partitions! But there are many work arounds, and I'm enjoying digging into androind more than I did with my last phone.

So to recap, Root External 2 Internal SD will let you download and install the games files directly to the external SD! And Link2SD will let you move apps from the data partition. So both of those bottlenecks are solved.

I also figured out how to remount the cache partition and link it to external as well, but it didn't solve my download issue like I thought it might...lol.
 
I did this and set it up with link 2sd and then something happened when I had to reboot my phone it messed the whole link up and now link2sd gives me an error message when I try to link anything something about it failing. What should I do start over?
 
TriumphLance said:
I did this and set it up with link 2sd and then something happened when I had to reboot my phone it messed the whole link up and now link2sd gives me an error message when I try to link anything something about it failing. What should I do start over?
Click to expand...

You did remove the links before doing this right? Did you create the folder /data/sdext2?

Just replace the scripts again, then reboot.

If all else fails, remove the scripts, clear links2sd data (under app management), reboot.

Just to confirm it worked for me, here's a screencap of the contents of /data/sdext2:
Screenshot_2013-07-21-07-56-33_zpsf35b629b.png


And here's is links2sd's storage view:
Screenshot_2013-07-21-07-58-50_zpsbd295735.png
 
JerryScript said:
For details on using a combination of extsd2internalsd and links2sd with a 2nd partition on your sdcard to gain even more space for apps, see this post:

http://androidforums.com/5998675-post259.html
Click to expand...

Hey Jerry, just out of curiosity... have you put any kind of disable media scan at boot into victorious? I found that to be really useful for startup times/mounting ect. I tend to keep music on my phone, both copied from my PC, and the cache from google play... so that is extremely helpful. I don't mind letting it scan when I open the apps to play the music, in fact, I barely notice any difference in the start time of the music apps.
 
i cannot get this to work i followed everything, on mini tool, i think im missing something, when i open link2sd and i check my ext it says i dnt have root but in supersu it says its been granted,,so confused please hellp
 
I might try clearing the supersu permissions and trying to grant it again. If that doesn't work, you might check reflashing root and updating. Did you install busybox as well? Not sure its needed for this, but always a good plan to have it installed and updated as well just in case.

Just FYI, most of us that are using link2sd have moved to using victorious rom, which is basically just an optimized, deodexed and bloatware removed stock rom, with link2sd and internal/external swapped by default. If you have already partitioned your sd card properly you can flash victorious and everything should work once you grant superuser.

Make sure you always do a backup first though before flashing anything or making and big changes.
 
shooot, im rooted with twrp but i dident put victorious on, i backed everything up on my computer, but now my sd card is bad it say so i have to repair it again, but last night i got it to partition, but i couldent find the other half of my card, do i hav eto use victorious rom for this to work, or can twrp work somehow
 
oh and as was i was doin all of that partitioning, i could use the link2sd but when i linked my apps to move them i couldent find them and they disappeared from my phone, like the icons
 
zacharynasty said:
shooot, im rooted with twrp but i dident put victorious on, i backed everything up on my computer, but now my sd card is bad it say so i have to repair it again, but last night i got it to partition, but i couldent find the other half of my card, do i hav eto use victorious rom for this to work, or can twrp work somehow
Click to expand...

The 2nd partition is handled by the rom not recovery. Recovery will format your sdcard but that's it. I don't think the stock rom supports a 2nd sd partition. If you don't want to flash Victorious you could try just flashing Jerry's kernel which should allow you to use the 2nd partition with stock rom if I remember correctly.

Also I never had any luck with twrp partitioning my sdcard. I had to end up doing it using my laptop
 
i used my laptop to partition it using mini tool but i messed it up now im tryin to repair it, it worked before, but now its giving my issues, but you think i should just flash victorious then, can i do that using twrp?, and do you have a link for the kernel if all else fails, and thank you for your help
 
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