yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Wrong sir. Foldermount does NOT move the game data when mounted. When you get around to actually using foldermount (or if you reread my op) you'll see that you (1) select the source folder (2) select the target folder (3) Then move the data. Foldermount will ask you if you want the data moved, but I think you're confusing this with the idea that each time the folder is mounted the data is moved to the sdcard. This would be incredibly tedious.

When you press the gray "pin" what happens is that a mount point is made fooling the system into thinking the data is still in its original place instead of the sdcard. When you unmount the folder by pressing the green pin that data is NOT copied back to your internal card. I hope that clears it up.

As for link2sd that assumption is also incorrect.

Using your example of sdcard0 = internal storage. sdcard1 = fat32 (or exFat if your kernel supports it, I'm not even sure link2sd would see exFat) sdcard2 = ext4 you would:

create links (which actually copies all the APK files to sdcard2 which would be your ext4 partition. make it small. you won't need over 5gig.

your game DATA (and anything else you care to store) would exist on sdcard1 which would be your fat32 partition. This is where foldermount copies the data.

take a look at the screenshot I've attached. It is my setup. you will note:

my internal is 85% free

the "SDCARD" (which is also the internal card. just named differently for legacy software that looks for this mount point) is of course also 85% free because it's the SAME card. Just named differently.

my extSD is 42% free. I have a 64gb card and well over 300+ apps and music and movies on my phone not to mention my NANDROID backups. This is where foldermount will copy the data when you setup the mount point. It will only copy this once. Unmounting the folder will cause that folder to "vanish" from the system. it does not delete the data. It just removes the mount point.

my SD Card 2nd Part is 74% free. This is where link2sd will copy the apk files. They are relatively small so 4.19 GB used is a LOT of apk's.

you will also see /SYSTEM and /CACHE which are exactly what they say they are. Their own partitions. Not internal.

In short if you follow the OP you can't go wrong and all mysteries will be revealed. Worst case? You don't like it, reformat it back to default, deleting the ext4 partition and resorting from your backup.

I hope this answers your questions or at least makes you want to try this. Once you get the hang of it you'll love it.

As for emulated storage?

Click me.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] blade22:
but when i mounted the folder (green pin) and checked the folder of sdcard0 the data file was there and also in sdcard1 and when on unmount(gray pin) no data file was present in sdcard0 but was present in sdcard1 :confused:

yeah I saw the screen shot...I will try it soon and post it here

the main reason I want to prefer this method is bcoz

- my internal storage is 2 GB (some games such as NFS:MW are over 1.8 GB in size :p)

- it's safer than swapping internal & external using script :victory:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
No the data was NOT there. It is a mount point. Not the actual data. to prove this unmount the folder. then go back and look. If you did this correctly that mount point will now be gone and the folder would now look "empty". The folder would be there but the data within would not

More screenshots. Notice that the data file "vanished" on the internal card when I unmounted gta3. I can assure you I didn't delete it :). When I remounted the folder the data reappeared.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] blade22:
oh yes, i saw a folder (which I named in folder mount) in file explorer.

so if I check the size of sdcard0 i will see the reduced size right?

in both of the screenshot above there is no change in used 1.44GB free out of 8.16GB,even though 1.2GB gta3 is present in another???strange :D
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
There's no change because the data did NOT change. I didn't move any data. I deleted a mount point.

You're not understanding what a mount point is. It's not data. The data is on the external SDCARD. Exactly where it should be. It is working correctly.

When you're driving and see directions to a town, The town isn't the sign is it? Mount points are the same thing. Just a sign, pointing to where the data really is.

Using the above analogy if I knocked down that sign would the town be deleted? Of course not.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] blade22:
:cool: oh so its like a Mirage (optical illusion)...u see the data file but its actually present in sdcard so thats why no change in internal storage size..fooling the app/game

I got it :good: so that's the reason u r using link2sd + foldermount..gr8
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Excellent. And you're welcome. :highfive:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Correct. For phones with emulated storage such as ours that's 100% true. only the APK file is moved.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] blade22:
Hmmm...will try it for sure as I'm dying to play HD games on it
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
I answered this. Scroll up.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] blade22:
i will make 2nd partition and both the sdcard partitions will be primary :D

and any method/app which can tell if my phone supports ext4/ext3 etc or not?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
read the OP man. :) I say this in there. I'm all for helping but I'm not really into spoon feeding when all you have to do is read my OP. I'm not coming down on you but put yourself in my place: This thread has thousands of views. 18000+ to be precise. It's been around for a while. It's a proven method. Just follow the steps. I think we're done here. I've answered all of your questions (some twice, maybe even 3 times. with screen shots.). Good luck to you.

Also I'm not asking you to hit the thanks button, but it would be nice if I did in fact help you..
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] hunterbeav:
Can I use aparted it's an app to partition the sd card from the phone.The idea is to make 2 partitions both primary correct. Then follow your guide from there.Thanks
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mw86:
Correct they need to be primary partitions and not extended or anything else.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ozgadgetguy:
Just tried this after also discovering folder mount yesterday. Thanks for the instructions, all went well and I moved almost 2Gb of apps to my ext4 partition. I have the rest as exFAT (as it was originally).

My only query is how to backup the whole SD Card (both partitions) from Windows as it doesn't natively support ext4 I think?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Click me. or you could copy the entire partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ozgadgetguy:
Unfortunately I've had to give up on this app.

When the folders are linked it actually works fine but about 50% of the time after a reboot or restart it is giving me an error/warning and I have to relink (followed by a reboot) or quick reboot. After that I lose all my folders/shortcuts and have to recreate them all.

Happened about 4 times today. Its a bit too painful and obviously something is incompatible with my system.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Well you're not giving me much info to help you so I'm not really sure what to tell you. No one else is having this problem and as I said before this is a well established thread with over 18K views.

Maybe if you tell me what rom, kernel, mods you have I can help you out? Specifically what error/warning message are you seeing?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ozgadgetguy:
Sorry, I wasn't intending to try to debug the issue, however in case it helps I am on an Xperia Z1, stock ROM 14.1.G.257, no kernel mods.

At boot I kept getting a warning about "being unable to mount at boot so it was done later and as a result my linked apps are not available" - sorry I don't have the exact words but I hope this is enough for you to know what warning it is referring to.

It gives a couple of options to resolve - relink or soft reboot. Doing a relink then tells me reboot anyway so there's not much point i.e. I may as well just reboot. After reboot it is usually okay but sometimes takes two. Then I have to recreate the shortcuts because they are all gone.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Ok I know exactly what is wrong. It appears that your kernel doesn't support init.d. you will need to download and install a kernel that supports this in order for the mount scripts to work properly. I can't really recommend one as this is a Samsung Galaxy S4 forum (sprint). But I can tell you that init.d support is required for foldermount and link2sd to work. Maybe search the Xperia Z1 android development forum and see if there are any custom kernels for your phone with init.d support?

Edit:

I did a search for you. This kernel for your phone HAS init.d support.

Sent from the rabbit hole.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] jazzlover:
Where has all of the storage gone?

Okay I'll begin by thanking you for all the work you do here! This is about how difficult it is for me to understand the android filesystem. I finally started to get the point after I removed my SD card from my Sprint s4 phone.

Now I see that I have a file under root called storage and in that file there are subfolders, sd0 and "emulated" that appear to contain some of the same subfolders and data.

I should confess that I have installed several versions of CM 10.2 and also installed and had to remove CM 11 in the effort to move some applications from my meager storage to my Sd card. I'm currently running CM 10.2, rooted. High-end Chand to partition the external Sd card according to instructions here in order to free up some internal storage.

Can someone help me understand whether what I am seeing are unnecessary duplicates or are all of those files required. Second follow-up question when I move things to the external Sd card do I move move both copies of both are required ?

If some kind soul can directly to the right spot to do more research I'll be glad to do my part. So far using the search engine is led me here which is the first place I've seen the subject dealt with rationally.

Thanks again,

Jazz
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Ahh sorry I'm finally getting around to answering this. I do try to be faster in my replies. What you are seeing are not files. They are called "mount points" They point to where the data actually is. They serve the purpose that some apps call for "sdcard" and some call for /storage/emulated/sdcard0 and some call for others. To use my prior analogy they are a kin to a road sign pointing to where the town is. The sign isn't the town. It's just a pointer. In fact foldermount uses this very process to "fool" the system into thinking the files still reside on your internal storage.

I hope this helps. :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Ophbalance:
For some reason the linked file is dying on me after the MJA OS update. It works, for a time, but eventually the app goes AWOL. I had uninstalled link2sd yesterday. All the linked files I previously had, I also made sure to redownload and set them to automatically link on install. They worked yesterday, but at some point overnight the link crapped out and left a default icon with the apps name like "com.<something>.<morestuff>". Is it just me?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
No. It appears link2sd does not work with MJA. I've been hoping tbey would update it soon.

EDIT: I am pleased to report that the latest update has FIXED the problem with MJA! I knew they could do it! :)

Go to the playstore and download version 3.0. This should remedy this problem.

Sent from the rabbit hole.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] prboy1969:
[MENTION=1274198]rawintellect[/MENTION] just wanted to say thanks :) . Going to be trying this out on my buddies GS4 this weekend. Will post up after I test it out for a bit.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mw86:
Sorry for late reply but all you need to get initd is this. No need for any special kernel it will work on any rooted android device.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=32716399

Live by that app... been using it since ICS...

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

Yup a nice big update just day ago :)

Strangely on my gti9500 it never had stopped working. Glad its resolved
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Ophbalance:
Might could be I buggered something up on my phone. I grabbed the latest (today). It's showing 3.0, but the links aren't surviving a reboot. Maybe I should reformat the SD card and give it another go.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Make sure you have init.d support as noted above.

Sent from the rabbit hole.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] eric_dsr:
app2sd and folder mount

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and thanks for the great how to.

Got everything working perfect including getting the SD partioned found a great app on the market to do it with, got link 2sd setup and linked 62 apps only problem I'm having is I can't find the apps to move with folder mount I can only find 20 of the 62 apps i moved with link 2 sd i can find them with root browser but if i look for them on foulder mount. t says its not compatable with loading from root foulders thanks.

I'm running infamous ROM s4 BioShock kernal with init'd compatible with the 64 microsd
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Specifically what folder are you trying to mount? You cannot just mount /system/data or /storage/sdcard0/android for instance. it has to be a specific folder.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] eric_dsr:
Any of the app folder's as in the main game files like you were talking about your Gta4 file, I've already moved the apps with link 2 SD but when I open foulder mount i cant find The folder for the game or app so I can move it to my SD I fallowed everything in your first post it all worked perfect but I can't find the main folders for the apps I can find them with root browser but when I open foldermount I can only find maybe 20 of the app file's out of maybe 60 apps I moved and when I try to go to the folder I found using root browser it gives a warning thru folder mount that it can't open root folders
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Maybe you're having superuser problems? Try fixing permissions in recovery. I can add GTA3 just fine.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] eric_dsr:
I can load files but for some reason I can't find all the app files that I moved with link2sd with folder mount, there all there with root browser using jrummys ROM toolbox pro for example I can find adobe reader but it won't show angery birds but in the same folder with root browser its there my main reason for using this is for music downloader so I can link the save folder on my SD card all the music files are wiping out my internal storage I moved it to SD with link2sd but i cant find it with foldermount tried to load a screen shot but it won't let me from my phone also doesn't show anything in my obb folder maybe something wrong with my rom
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
did you at least TRY to fix permissions? Help me help you and please do as I suggest? Otherwise I don't know what else to tell you? This is working. This has been working. There is something wrong with your particular setup.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] eric_dsr:
Yeah ran fix permissions reinstalled everything and I can see all the Files with my other file explorers just not with the foldermount well thanks for trying ill keep messing with it and ill post if i can get it working i was thinking of trying a different kernal
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Try removing the link with link2sd. I doubt that will help as it only moves the app file and the lib files and cache. Not the DATA.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Great instructions. And THANK YOU. Heres where im at. Stock rom and kernel. Just rooted. Can I free it up anymore? Do I just need to go into folder mount and go crazy? Lol I dont play games just have some apps w alot of data id imagine. Any thoughts?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Definitely focus on the apps with huge data. I use an app called storage analyzer from google play to identify large files. Of course foldermount shows you large files too but storage analyzer does it better IMHO.

here's the link to it.

Storage Analyzer
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Are their any apps that do the same as folder mount that are free? Im limited to only 4 pins.....unless I get creative and just make sub folders in each ...like 1 folder for music apps and move subsonic and such intonit. Then move like games to another and separate. U get the idea. Thank u again though so much!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Hmmm none come to mind that create mount points like foldermount. Sorry.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Updated the OP with a solution for force close errors after linking apps to the SD card.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] brux4me:
good guide. thanks.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Can u show me what u moved? Im only down to 63% free. Im guessing u have the full version that lets u move more stuff. I think im gettin a hang of it just not gettin the results close to u yet. Any advice is appreciated.

Edit.

My big issue is subsonic. I stream from my own server and my download speeds are down to like 5k instead of pullin mbs to dl a whole album in seconds. This only happened after the linl2sd and foldermount stuff. Is the linking the culprit? Anykne else experience something similar?

Edit 2:

Tried subsonic and ultrasonic. Tried 2 ways. foldermounting entire directory amd then just the folder the music downloads to. Neither way worked. Just heads up incase anyone's messing round tryin to fog this issue out.

Other apps which I dl stuff with I was successful im moving the dl location folder off of the internal card so im officially stumped. Hah:confused:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Foldermount does have limitations. For instance you can't just mount the /sdcard/android folder. I'm sorry but I think you'll have to spring for the app if you want to accomplish what you want to accomplish.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Also my wifi speed seems to have slowed when browsing and some apps like youtube and mxplayer seems to lag as well.

I will consoder buyin if I can figure out how my wifi speed is being affected. Thanks for the replies!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
There should be little to no lag when using apps. The only thing people have reported is slower loading times of video games. I've talked about this in the past and even performed speed tests. I have my browser linked to the sdcard and it performs just fine. What class of sdcard are you using? I have a sandisk class 10 64gb card.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Hey raw

I got a class 10 patriot in mine. Newegg special deal a few months ago .
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
very cool. are you linking your browser to your card? or using foldermount? I would try linking it with link2sd. I already have my cache on my sdcard via the browser app itself.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Well ive been messin round with both. I unmounted folders and unlinked everything. Gonna see if maybe I missed something. I dont have any games or anything. I just wanna free up system space. Only apps on my phone are tunein and subsonic aside from all the stock bloatware that it came with.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Hey raw I stumbled across this

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1410262

Im at work and haven't had a chance to try anything else. But I do have a question. Do I need to format and then partition the sd card? I realized all my pictures and stuff are still in my gallery. In mini tool I just created the 2 partitions. Could this be part of the issue. After running link2sd I went from 58% free to only 64%.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Directory bind does NOT work with our devices. As least the last time I tried it many months ago. I didn't mention it because it simply doesn't work.

Link2sd only moves apps, lib files, and cache files. So that's not a lot. Which is why I recommend making your 2nd partition something small. But every bit helps. Foldermount does the "heavy lifting" and moves the data.

If you were using link2sd you should have had 2 partitions all along. The way link2sd works is it moves all the aforementioned data to that 2nd partition. In my OP I used an example of 10gb. I've now lowered mine to 5gb and it's still not even 1/3 full.

I realize you don't want to pay for foldermount, but it's really worth the money. I mean you paid for a $700 phone. Why not pay an extra $2 (I think) for a product that will make your phone incredible?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Ya I noticed after reading the thread it didn't work with s4s. Im most likely going to buy it amd just move everything I can.

I still cant figure out why its affecting my music apps....BUT I got 1 working. I used link 2 sd and just changed the storage path folder for the music from within the apps settings. Maybe this helps others. Doin that still lets me store the data on the ext sd partition I want.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Raw I wanted to ask. Can you use foldermount for system and data folders? Is that how u freed so kuch space. Right now I have nothing mounted because i have no games. Any advice?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
You can try. foldermount gives you a warning that it MAY not be able to open system folders. What I'm doing isn't complicated. I link ALL apk files, lib files, and cache files using link2sd.

With foldermount I mount any files that are usually contained in /sdcard/android/data and /sdcard/android/obb

My advice? unmount all your folders first. Then run the storage analyzer app I recommended. then take a look at what your space hogs are. Then decide on what to mount/link. Since you don't have any games your situation varies differently from mine. Only you can decide on what to move.

See my attached screenshots. I have a LOT of huge games on my phone. and my internal card is pretty empty.

EDIT: I tried to attach screenshots but XDA seems to have crapped out. I'll try later.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
Thanks so much raw. Im gonna format anf repartition my sd card when I get home.

Im on stock tw rooted mf9. Never updated ...waiting for kitkat. So this gives me something to do!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] sandman121383:
....but now I got terrible lag

Hey raw. I got some crazy free space but with lag inbetween loadin apps my home screens u name it pretty much everywhere. Any system settings I can change to speed it up or do I have to live with it this way. Im on stock touchwiz rooted. Im willing to try dif launchers of thats to blame. Or is it time to flash a rom to take full advantage of the sd linking?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] rawintellect:
Specifically what are you mounting/linking? I would NOT recommend mounting/linking /system/app for instance. you're definitely going to get lag. If you stick to my recommendation of linking user apps and mounting large data files you should have no interaction with your launcher at all. In short you should NOT mount anything that would cause your launcher to malfunction should the sdcard be pulled.

My phone can boot up completely free of errors should I choose to remove the sdcard. If you follow that you shouldn't have any lag issues from foldermount and/or link2sd. No one else has reported these issues.