yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Hi commodoor,

I have not root the phone and I am using the official Hero rom 2.73.707.9

If format SD can solve the problem, could you please tell me how did you format to fix that?

Because I have already tried format my SDHC in my WinXP (tried via the card reader and via the phone already). uncheck quick format and format as FAT32. It does not solve this problem.

For more information, my problem is not related to file system FAT32, but might be related to the size of the card. Here are what I tried.

- microSD 2GB (stock) FAT32: working

- microSD 1GB FAT16 or FAT32: working

- microSDHC 4GB class 6 FAT32: NOT working

- microSDHC 8GB class 4 FAT32: NOT working
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
i formated using gparted (i'm a linux user).

after formating i went to album, like it supposed to it said "no images". so i made a picture and went to album. the picture showed up there. To test if the thumbnails worked i looked in .thumbnails and there it waas an *.raw. IT WORKED. i still was wondering if it would work if i put new images. it also worked. and is still working

i'm still testing it. if you try doing the same as me and look if it works.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
-- srry double post --
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Thank you very much for your information.

Now I'm thinking about using gparted on Windows boot cd.. or maybe I'll install ubuntu in VMWare. still thinking...

so first thing I should try now is to format with unix apps, right?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
don't use ubuntu in vmware it doens't work well with sd cards can cause troubles. try using ubuntu live cd.

The best is to use something like gparted (i hate windows format) there are also windows apps that does the same. look what it does for you i hope this will fix everything.

i think the problem is caused when we trying to delete ./thumbnails manually.

i still didn't find the real reason that couses this its really a mystery. and if you don't have a rooted android then the problem isn't rooting the phone.

if you didn't root so you don't use ap2sd right. so thats also not the reason. this problem was caused when i deleted ./thumbnails. if someone didn't delete ./thumbnails manually and has this problem please post it. and post also what you tryed to fix it this will help me finding a slution.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
I'll try to find another apps that better than windows format. (because I have tried use windows format already and it doesn't work)

I have never root my phone and not use app2sd as well.

in my case, I didn't delete .thumbnails manually. I just changed the sdcard.. from 2GB stock to sdhc 8GB.

When I changed back to 2GB stock, the .thumbnails was created correctly.

oh.. by the way, maybe format sdcard is not the solution for this problem. because I have formated my 2GB stock with my windows XP and I can still see .thumbnails on my 2GB sdcard.

This is very confusing, right? I have already submitted question to HTC support, but not get any answer so far..
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
damn its really a mistery we have used al the options i think.

1) its not the size of the sd card or class

2) its not because the sd is FAT32 instead of FAT16

3) deleting cache from manage programs doesnt work for everyone

4) formating also doesn't help for everyone

5) its not because the phone is rooted

6) its not because the ap2sd

7) its not caused by deleting .thumbnails manually

8) as last not everyone has this problem :s

So what did WE do that f**** the album??? did i missed something. it also can be different for everyone becasue for some formating worked for others clearing chache and for some none of this.

could you post here what you send to htc?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
I don't have any idea too.. why some working, some don't....

About my question to HTC, I wrote in Thai to HTC Thailand.

So I'll translate their answer and post here as soon as I get the answer from them. (but I don't know if they will answer or not)
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
in my xperiance htc always have answerd qeustion.

if its a positive or a negative answer thats a different storry :P
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sixpackbud:
What a mystery this issue is.

I was one of the first having this problem and gave up after having tried all I could think of. Since then I am following this thread closely to see if someone can figure this out.

Quite funny actually. People get tired of not finding a solution after a while and the thread goes down for a couple of days and then some new ones starts all over with the same testing again.

I would not be surprised in the end if this issue is related to the fact that the album software having problems creating thumbnails when reading speed from whatever sdcard increases over a certain limit. That's the only common diffrence I found in the four cards I played around with.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
lol, sixpackbud, I'm almost give up too.. actually, if there is anyone who can test the card speed like you, it would be better to analyze..

(for me, I have only high speed card at the moment, I don't have the slow card to test if it is working on slow one)

However, in commodoor's case, it might not related to card speed, isn't it? because he did only format and it fixed his problem?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] salmanbodla:
Hi,

I have this problem from the very beginning and realized it only after reading this thread. The details are:

CARD: Sandisk 8GB class 6. The stock 2GB works fine

ROM: Official update 2.76.405.5

ROOTED: Yes, but the problem was there even before rooting

PARTITIONS: Before only FAT32; Ext3 (512MB), Linux-swap (256MB), and the rest as FAT32. I am NOT using A2SD though, and the swap is also on off at the moment.

DELETED .thumbnails: Initially it was not deleted; then only after reading this thread, I deleted it. This did not fix the problem. But I had the problem even before deleting the .thumbnails folder.

LINDA file manager: Selecting thumbnail view in linda file manager and browsing your photos from there does create a .thumbnails folder and files, but those files have ".tbn" extension, instead of ".raw".

Deleting cache and data of the Albums app does not fix the problem.

QUESTION @ commodoor:

How do you use gparted. I never used Linux; always use Windows (XP). I did partion my card into 3 partitions (above mentioned) using the "parted" script from ADB shell, and then converted Ext2 to Ext3 using Amon_RA's recovery image.

One more thing, ASTRO file manager only once created a folder on my SD card... since then, I can't create any more folders (any folder) using ASTRO, but Linda works well.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
i double checked the extension of the thumbnails it was .raw :s very weird you have .tbn

to use gparted:

first you have to download ubuntu live cd (there is also a gparted live cd but ubuntu is beter)

http://www.ubuntu.com/

start you pc with the cd in. and use ubuntu without installing. when ubuntu is started pres "ctrl+F2" there will come a windows called "run application" typ in that window "sudo gparted" and check the box beneath that where it says "run in terminal". Gparted would now start.

before starting put your sd card in the pc.

here is a little tutorial for Gparted:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

it shows how to resize a partition in your case you have to choose format to.

and here you can download gparted live cd if you like: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

------------------------------------------------------------

but in overall i think all the htc apps are sluggish they are very slow(not all) they still have to bring another update to hero to fix little bugs and make things faster(response).
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] salmanbodla:
Thanks commodoor, I will give gparted a go. Sorry let me correct myself... the .tbn files were only generated after I used Linda file manager to view the files. By using the stock Album app, the .thumbnail folder can be created but no files in it.

So all I have to do is to download either ubuntu or gparted live CD, burn it on a disc and then insert it in a CD rom. Sorry it has been a long time since I played with all this stuff... could you remind me how to boot system from the CD rom??
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Hi commodoor,

I have got answer from HTC already, not good, they can't reproduce my problems..

here is my question and their answer

So they don't have problem with the 8GB class 6... I'm thinking if it's problem in hardware? because some people get this problem, while some don't..

what do you think?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZenorGR:
I don't think it's hardware related, since I used to have the issue but now it's gone.

Maybe it has to do with rooting/custom ROM's and album application.

Please try to change the .thumbnails folder permissions, via windows or any other method and see if it fixes the issue.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] salmanbodla:
How do you change permissions? Could you please explain?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
About root/custom ROM, I don't think it's root cause of this problem. because I havn't root my Hero at all.

About .thumbnails folder permission, I tried 'ls -la' in Terminal app and the permission is already dwrxwrxwrx, so I think it is not related to permission, isn't it?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ballandbiscuit:
I have not rooted or used a custom ROM. I am using the latest official ROM from HTC and I have an 8GB transcend SD card and I am getting no thumbnail files. Tried formatting the card and clearing the app data and cache but no luck.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
update status about question to HTC.

They have tried test with Kingston MicroSDHC 8GB class 6 with about 300 pictures in it.

They said they can see many thumbnails files were generated. They suggest me to use high speed card instead.. but I have already used class 6 card but it is not working...

I'm asking them if they can test with another card..

I'll update here if I get more answer from them.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
arry u was off for a time i was busy so had no chance to look here.

mormally a F8/F9 would let you choose boot cd. its diff. by motherboard so you have to look. or there is an bios option here you can edit the boot order.

changing the permission is easy with linux you can do it as followed:

chmod -R 777 /"locationoffolder"/.thumbnails

this will give everyone permission to read/write/execute.

i'm stil looking how to fix it. mine is fixed by formating the cd card. i will do more tests this week.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] salmanbodla:
OK, thanks, and is it F5 to go into bios? BTW, why dont you do this test: format your card again in Windows and see if you can recreate the problem. If yes, then there should be something wrong with Windows formatting. I am sure people have tried formatting the 2GB stock cards in Windows and those still work perfectly... Mystery man!!! ;)
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
ok here is the problem with formating on windows, i don't have a windows machine all the machines are linux :P.

but i will try to do it tommorow at school i had some different test that i wanted to do.

maybe i will not be able to find the problem/solution but we have to try testing so we we can point that is not the problem

i have now couple of sd cards (1GB,2GB,4GB,8GB and 16GB) i will test all these sd cards
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ajones7279:
So are people stilil having this problem? I plan on getting the Hero for Sprint and I wonder if it'll have this problem.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sixpackbud:
No solution yet for those with this problem as far as I know. :(
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Hi, I want to let you guys know that I can solve this problem on my Hero.

Actually, it's not that call solve... but my Hero can create thumbnails as usual now...

Recently, I have just bought the Sandisk MicroSDHC 16GB class 2... I don't think it will solves, I just want more storage..

At first, after I put the blank 16GB card, format, and take a picture, no thumbnails created, so I gave up.

Then I format again and move my photo about 20 pics to the cards, this time the thumbnails were generated.

I'm surprise, I didn't do anything more than what I have tried with another cards. the photos in the new card are the same file as I used on the previous card too.

So I'll summarize my result here:

- hard reset Hero : NOT working

- try put the same photos on all cards below

+ Sandisk 1GB MicroSD: working

+ Sandisk 2GB MicroSD: working

+ Apacer 4GB MicroSDHC class 6: NOT working

+ Kingston 8GB MicroSDHC class 4: NOT working

+ Sandisk 16GB MicroSDHC class 2 : working

Strange.... so I can conclude that my case, it's working only with Sandisk card.. I don't know why my hero stick to the brand..

Any idea?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ajones7279:
Hmm...maybe it's the class? Idk. Anybody with a Sandisk 16gb class 6 tried? I want to get either an 8 or 16 gb card for my future CDMA Hero.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Solved (for me) but further analysis needed

Hi,

I had the same problem as many of you (empty /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails directory and no creation of e.g. .raw-files in that directory through HTC app "album").

SHORT:

-I SUPPOSE FAT32 blocksize (german "Zordnungseinheit") was the solution (Changed from 8KB to 4KB).

LONG:

As far as I was not willing to do a forensic test and change one piece after another (sorry folks), I changed all what came into my mind. I give you the startconfig, deltas and what I did:

UNCHANGED:

HTC Hero white (recovery-image: RA-recovery 1.2.2 installed on device)

SDCARD class 6 (Transcend) 16 GB

Modaco 2.2e

NO 3rd partition (swap)

BEFORE (not working thumbnails):

42 apps installed

1st partition 15,4 GB Fat32, Blocksize "Default" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322/de says it had to be 8 KB for a the 15,5 GB partition

2nd partition: ext3 600 MB

AFTER:

1st partition 16 GB Fat32, Blocksize 4 KB

2nd partition: NONE

Process:

Backup (copy) SDCard-files to Computer

Removed ext3 partition within XP (WinXP XP-GUI-Tool (German: Einstellungen -> Systemsteuerung -> Verwaltung -> Computerverwaltung -> Datenspeicher -> Datenträgerverwaltung)

THIS REMOVED MY FAT32 Partition !!! (fortunately I did backup first :->)

Format SDCard under XP GUI, fast format: NO blocksize 4 kb

Restore (copy) files to SDCard

wipe data (Hero recovery-image)

(re)flash ROM

reboot Hero

register with exisiting google account

did not install any apps

open album

check contents of .thumbnails directory through ADB and USB: THEY ARE THERE !! (before: directory existing but empty)

Copy further pics to DCIM, restart album: new thumbs created

took a picture, restart album: new thumb created

Now I will reinstall my apps and have a look if they are causing any trouble. At the moment I think blocksize, apps2sd or some faulty/corrupted files are causing the issue, but not the card speed directly.

Ciao

Lopiuh
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] commodoor:
I did this to it works but if you delete .thumbnails manually it stops creating thumbnails and have to do the whole proccess over.

like i said it has nothing to do with the sdcard they all work (don't know 32GB).

@lopiuh

what if you try to delete the .thumbnails manually. does it creat new thumbnails?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Yes deleting .thumbnails results in recreation of the directory and the contents after viewing pics in album.

Suspiciously from yesterday to today album created 251 thumbs for 131 pics. After deleting and recreation there are exactly 131 thumbs. Maybe unmounting the fat32 partition for usb access does mess album in doubling the thumbs. I will investigate.

Cheers
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Ok I know what is doubling my thumbs. The two different viewing modes in album generate two version (different resolution) of thumb files.

Everything is fine after proceeding the above written steps. Reinstalling my apps with astro - no problems so far.

Cheers
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Hi lopiuh,

Could you please tell us how to format FAT32 blocksize as 4KB instead of default 8KB ? I don't see any blocksize option in WinXP format tool.

Thanks
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stripealipe:
Well, again i've checked into this and i just don't understand how you've set a 4kb block size when the smallest option under Windows XP Disk Management is 16kb...?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Ok see attached screenshot (in german language). My XP allows 512 B, 1024 B, 2048 B, 4086 B, 8192 B, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB. Don't know why yours is more restrictive. (Partition type: FAT32) The way I launched the dialog is described in my first post.

Cheers
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZenorGR:
lopiuh has probably found the solution. When I formatted the card I also used 4096 if I can recall correctly. Then did wipe/re flash ROM and it was working as I said in previous posts.

So the solution is probably somewhere there.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stripealipe:
Aghh... no more messing for me. It's all possibles, and i've tried so many times now...

My poor 8gb card currently sits in my phone in a working 2gb, 512mb, 32mb partition scheme. Anything above 2gb fails miserably.

I did try just formatting and 8GB card as 4096 blocksize and trying that but it didn't work, and i don't see why you'd have to then wipe, flash etc etc just to somehow make it work....

All a bit rubbish really, and i have to put it on the record, HTC support have been absolutely *useless* and most unhelpful. Having worked on Apple Mac support, i'd have to say that their department seems to be full of 'jobsworths' who really don't know their product or market at all.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZenorGR:
Just for your information, when I formatted the SD card, I did it on windows 7/VMware(not that it should matter).

About the HTC Support, yeah they didn't help me out either but if they can't reproduce the issue then they will not be able to help us out.

They said that it works fine with the SD cards they used.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
my XP format tool cannot select different cluster size than the default allocation.

Anyone can confirm that the cluster size is the root cause of this problem?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Btw I have the latest servicepack installed. Try commandline format. Setting the blocksize is a rather old feature. Maybe it was integrated to the GUI with a patch/servicepack. Hope that helps.

Cheers
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sixpackbud:
Anyone else confirming that this really works or is it just another long shot which happened to fix it for one person.

B.t.w. Modaco rom 2.5 did not make any difference.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
sad... my problem come back again..

I have done nothing, only hard reset.. the sd card still the same, never remove or format, but now the thumbnails does not generate at all...

Still investigating the problem, but I think it is not related to the format card, because it is working before hard reset. same card.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
for your information,

I have formatted with 4k cluster but it does not solved, the thumbnails still not generated. Now I'm trying with all ranges of clusters..
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
format with cluser size 4K,8K,16K does not fix.. I'm give up at the moment.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lopiuh:
Uhh uh this is really sad...
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stripealipe:
Confirmed here too. Formatting to different cluster sizes, including 4096, have made no difference.

Formatting my 8gb into a 2gb/512mb/32mb partition DOES work as i previously stated earlier in this thread and this is how i have it running for now. My Hero Album application, or associated code, simply does not like partitions larger than 2gb.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
Yes, I have tested like stripealipe and the results is exactly the same.

So 1 solution we can found for this problem at the moment is to make the disk size = 2GB or less... The HTC Albums thumbnails has problem with SD larger than 2GB..

I have tested by using the 16GB card that has problem. I split into 2 partition, reduce the size to 2GB for primary partition. Now my HTC Albums can generate thumbnails as usual.. even I tried delete /sdcard/dcim/.thumbnails folder many times, it is still generate the thumbnails perfectly.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nicelad_uk:
So there is still no fix for this in place...?

I have a Sandisk Class 6 8gb card and have the issue

Also have an Integral Class 2 16gb with the issue

Absolute pants.

Has everyone informed HTC?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Helbore:
Hold on a sec, but am I understanding that this issue is fixed if you have a 2Gb partition on the SD card?

Because SD cards are formatted with FAT32, right? There used to be a 2Gb limit with FAT16, right? Seems a bit of a coincidence to me, that? Could this have something to do with the way Hero/Android reads FAT tables?

Might be reading something into nothing there, but it peaked my IT spider-sense, that.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
ZenorGR has already asked HTC Support Europe, and me asked HTC Support Asia as well.

Both answer the same, they said they can't reproduce this problem, they said they don't have this problem with their Hero and their card, even the card size is larger than 2GB..

So they are not much help, they are only trying to say there is no problem and close the ticket.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shirato:
hmm, good idea, but I have already tried format with FAT32 in the 2GB card and it is still working fine. both FAT16 and FAT32 are working on the 2GB card.

So it might not be the problem in file system type or the cluster size as we have already tried, I think.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] stripealipe:
Yes, this definitely seems to be a partition size problem and not cluster size or FAT tables.

I've formatted my 8gb in a variety of ways and only when the primary partition is 2GB or less will it work, however it is formatted. Everything else works fine, like Apps2SD etc.

We need someone who has good knowledge of the Android OS itself to have a ponder on this problem... It's just who do we give the questions too?!
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Helbore:
I was thinking more that this might be a bug in the HTC album software, in which it can't write to the partition because it cannot understand the file table - ie. it doesn't recognise that the partition can be larger than 2Gb, so it fails to successfully write the thumbnails (or their headers in the file table).

Obviously it isn't a wider problem with Android, or we wouldn't be able to view anything on SDHC cards. But it could very well be some coding problem in the part of the software that creates the thumbnails. Unfortunately, that would mean it is down to HTC to fix the problem and there would be very little we could do about it (aside from maintaining a 2Gb partition on our SD card)
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nicelad_uk:
Give em to Modaco, he knows everything!