Anyone else tired of the SD internal vs external discombobulation?
- Thread starter cyber3dx
- Start date
REMilk
Member
This post is my own personal opinion about the use of external storage versus internal storage. Please do not attack or vilify my opinion on this usage, but rather provide your well thought-out views on this topic. Your views and opinions most likely will be much better than mine.
In this writing supporting the Droid 3, I have defined the following phrases:
I have actually been thinking about this a great deal. At first, I was concerned because the ext-SD card was, and is not, being accessed by the developers of most apps. Many are primarily using the int-SD for data storage.
Now that I have been using the Droid 3 for the past 6 weeks, this is no longer a major concern, but rather a small amount of work to use it in this fashion.
1. At this time (10/14/2011), I have 6.7 GB available out of 16 GB on my ext-SD. I made a fundamental switch and I only keep music, videos, and pics on the ext-SD card. This gives me a storage area, that is under my control and not under the control of the developers. Every app I use for music, video, and pics has no problem with recognizing the appropriate data on the ext-SD card. In addition, they all recognize the the appropriate data on the int-SD card, so I have additional storage capability. I wish the camera and the video camera had the ability to save to the ext-SD card rather than the int-SD card. In reality, I am actually storing less and less in the area of music and pics on my ext-SD card as I am increasing my use of cloud storage for these items. By taking this approach, I have added a little work, in that I manually move items from the int-SD card to the ext-card, such as pics taken with the camera, video taken with the video camera, or files transferred via Dropbox, SugarSync, Awsome Drop, etc.
2. At this time (10/14/2011), I have 11 GB available out of 16 GB on my int-SD. I use the storage on the int-SD for app data storage and needs. All music, pics and videos I manually move to the ext-SD card. This area also holds ebooks for the various ebook readers, and is the on-device storage area for DropBox, SugarSync, Awsome Drop, etc.
I am not 'moving' apps form the 2 GB "app area" to the "media area" of the int-SD. This is because there appears to be a problem in that sometimes the addressability to the apps is broken when apps are moved to the "SD Card (int-SD)". Once this is resolved, I will move apps to the "media area" of the int-SD. I still have 1.25 GB within the app area, so today it is not critical to me that this functionality does not work. It may be in the future.
It would be nice if the developers added a choice between the int-SD and the ext-SD. One of the reason I see for developers using only the int-SD, is that their apps use the exact same path to reach storage regardless of device. I am not totally versed in the file structure of the Android, but to move to the ext-SD card requires programming changes in the access of 'additional data areas' such as on the ext-SD within the Android family. I cannot tell you if this is a minor or major change. At a a minimum, programming changes would be needed to support not only the selection screen of the proper 'path' (int-SD or ext-SD), but also some file manger capabilities to allow one to select the proper 'path'.
Good Luck,
Bob
A bigger concern is the lack of consistency in the nomenclature for these two storage areas, even within the Android operating system they are not consistently called the same.
In this writing supporting the Droid 3, I have defined the following phrases:
- ext-SD card refers to the optional micro-SD card that is installed by me or at my request (The Droid 3 app "Files' calls this SD Card)
- int-SD card refers to the internal storage that came with the Droid 3; part of this area is called "Media Area" under the "Manage Applications" setting. (The Droid 3 app "Files' calls this Internal phone storage)
I have actually been thinking about this a great deal. At first, I was concerned because the ext-SD card was, and is not, being accessed by the developers of most apps. Many are primarily using the int-SD for data storage.
Now that I have been using the Droid 3 for the past 6 weeks, this is no longer a major concern, but rather a small amount of work to use it in this fashion.
1. At this time (10/14/2011), I have 6.7 GB available out of 16 GB on my ext-SD. I made a fundamental switch and I only keep music, videos, and pics on the ext-SD card. This gives me a storage area, that is under my control and not under the control of the developers. Every app I use for music, video, and pics has no problem with recognizing the appropriate data on the ext-SD card. In addition, they all recognize the the appropriate data on the int-SD card, so I have additional storage capability. I wish the camera and the video camera had the ability to save to the ext-SD card rather than the int-SD card. In reality, I am actually storing less and less in the area of music and pics on my ext-SD card as I am increasing my use of cloud storage for these items. By taking this approach, I have added a little work, in that I manually move items from the int-SD card to the ext-card, such as pics taken with the camera, video taken with the video camera, or files transferred via Dropbox, SugarSync, Awsome Drop, etc.
2. At this time (10/14/2011), I have 11 GB available out of 16 GB on my int-SD. I use the storage on the int-SD for app data storage and needs. All music, pics and videos I manually move to the ext-SD card. This area also holds ebooks for the various ebook readers, and is the on-device storage area for DropBox, SugarSync, Awsome Drop, etc.
I am not 'moving' apps form the 2 GB "app area" to the "media area" of the int-SD. This is because there appears to be a problem in that sometimes the addressability to the apps is broken when apps are moved to the "SD Card (int-SD)". Once this is resolved, I will move apps to the "media area" of the int-SD. I still have 1.25 GB within the app area, so today it is not critical to me that this functionality does not work. It may be in the future.
It would be nice if the developers added a choice between the int-SD and the ext-SD. One of the reason I see for developers using only the int-SD, is that their apps use the exact same path to reach storage regardless of device. I am not totally versed in the file structure of the Android, but to move to the ext-SD card requires programming changes in the access of 'additional data areas' such as on the ext-SD within the Android family. I cannot tell you if this is a minor or major change. At a a minimum, programming changes would be needed to support not only the selection screen of the proper 'path' (int-SD or ext-SD), but also some file manger capabilities to allow one to select the proper 'path'.
Good Luck,
Bob
A bigger concern is the lack of consistency in the nomenclature for these two storage areas, even within the Android operating system they are not consistently called the same.
My problem with the current separate areas is the info that will be lost with a factory reset, unless there is an option to keep the data on the internal memory. I haven't factory reset yet, so i don't know.
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REMilk
Member
Based on my experience with the OG Droid, you should not have to worry about your data on either the ext-SD or within the "media area' of the int-SD when you do a 'factory reset as it only resets the phone area (partitioned area of the int-SD card).
The data an the on the ext-SD card is not touched, the data and files in the Media Area of the int-SD are not touched.
That being said, after a 'factory reset' and your apps are restored, you may have to reestablish the linkages between the apps and the data.
Bob
@REMilk you can set the camera to save to the ext-SD. It should have asked you the first time you used the camera after installing the ext-SD, but if you go to Camera/Menu/Settings/Storage Location and choose SD card instead of Internal Phone Storage then you will save the step of manually moving them. This saves pics and videos to the ext-SD 
REMilk
Member
@REMilk you can set the camera to save to the ext-SD. It should have asked you the first time you used the camera after installing the ext-SD, but if you go to Camera/Menu/Settings/Storage Location and choose SD card instead of Internal Phone Storage then you will save the step of manually moving them. This saves pics and videos to the ext-SD
Thank you for the information. I just updated my settings. This will make it easier for me.
This is a bit confusing sometimes, but I haven't run across any situation in which it's caused a serious problem for me. I notice that Titanium Backup lists "External storage" as "/mnt/sdcard", which is incorrect for the Droid 3, but even this hasn't seemed to cause a problem because I can easily set the backup/restore directory to sdcard-ext. Has anyone run into an insurmountable problem caused by this somewhat bizarre naming convention?
Saik0Shinigami
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If you manually move the folder with some backups in it and "search for backups" in titanium it will change the backup folder to wherever you moved it. I used that function to switch it to the external sd card.
-Saik0
johnaferraro
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I had my TB file on my SD card and lost everything after I did my factory reset. I realized after and changed the storage settings to sdcard-ext. Just as u have, I've moved what pics, videos and any other media to my sdcard-ext and after all is done my internal SD is virtually untouched and its great. Got about close to 40, lots of media and plenty of space. Its very.......annoying the way they have figured the storage thing, but with a little time, of can b used to ur benefit. A lot of people complain about music skipping when u get a text, or a keyboard messing up once in a while. Look at how far tthese phones have cone and how much work these developers put it just to make sure they get that little bit closer to perfection. I've got the X2. Forum after forum of complaining and after I rooted, took the time to learn about my phone, and put a little work in, I have no complaints. Give thanks to the developers, read the forums, and if u want better, then make ur phone better
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