[How To] Swapping the internal and external SD cards

[Guest Baldrik 1]

I am on my second Blade having had a 111 for a short while,which was good. I now have a Blade v.I have nearly used the internal memory so got a 32GB external card but this made no difference, Being new to technology i found this forum and discovered this is a common problem, i understand this can be sorted so the phone saves apps on external sd card thinking it is internal but you have to root it?? In stall a root explorer? My question is HOW!! As i said i'm new to this and not young! Can someone please explain how to do this in an easy none techy way, as easy as possible cos i'm not techy minded at all !! Thank you in advance

[Guest targetbsp]

This is probably the easiest way but isn't the way I did mine so I can't much help with it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460

 

This is how I did mine: http://forums.thedigitalfix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9908955&postcount=91 which is a more detailed write up of KonstaT's original guide but seeks to avoid some issues that may trip people up such as ZTE's driver not working properly.

[Guest Sappermajor]

Hi Baldrick 1

I have replied to your other post on the forum.

I found that even moving as many apps as possible to the internal SD I found that the internal storage /data/ filled up and I could not update/download appps. This happened when there was over 200 Mb of free memory.

My solution was to move the internal apps to a hidden partition on my SD card using Link2sd app. I also use a cleaner app to delete junk files and remove cache files.

Links in my other reply. Hope that helps someone.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Sappermajor

[Guest targetbsp]

From terminal emulator you can use

su

pm set-install-location 2

to allow you to move anything to SD.  Don't move your launcher, keyboard or any app whose widget you use though.

 

I've got 195 user apps on there so far with no need for an ext partition yet.

Edited December 30, 2013 by targetbsp

[Guest seanspotatobusiness]

My phone doesn't have sufficient space for me to move my apps from internal SD card back to the phone so I can't do this. Considering however, that there is plenty of space on my internal SD card and the phone just refuses to put many apps or app data to my internal SD, I don't think I'd actually benefit from swapping. Maybe I could force them to move with pm set-install-location 2 but there's got to be a reason why this is not allowed in the first place.

[Guest targetbsp]

Yeah, this is mostly for apps that download a lot of external data like games and stuff.  They'd soon fill your tiny internal SD.

 

The apps2sd feature didn't exist until Froyo.  And after that it's up to the app developer whether they can be moved or not so older apps probably don't have the 'i can move' flag set.  The only things you shouldn't move are default keyboard and launcher and any apps whose widgets you use.

 

Alternatively you could also make an Ext partition on your SD card and use to Link2SD

[Guest EziMod]

Here's the manual instructions:

 

First you need root

Then you need to edit the file called vold.emmc.fstab in the \system\etc folder

The 2 lines beginning # are commented out and are how these lines appear in the stock rom.  The 2 lines following them are modified to swap the SD cards.

 

So, using a root file explorer, copy the vold.emmc.fstab file to your sd card, connect the phone to your computer via usb, edit the file in a text editor and copy the edited file back to system/etc

#dev_mount emmc    /storage/sdcard0 20 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host/mmc0
#dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard1 20 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host/mmc0
dev_mount emmc    /storage/sdcard0 auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host

 

 

 

Swapping these cards has another advantage too.  I believe the CWM we have atm is looking for .android_secure* on the external card?  Which is where it will be if the cards are swapped but not if they are stock.

 

 

 

*where apps moved to sd card live.

k you help me on my device?

 

this is my original vold file.

 

dev_mount    sdcard    /mnt/sdcard    auto    /devices/virtual/block/nandj    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.2/mmc_host

dev_mount    extsd    /mnt/extsd    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.1/mmc_host    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.0/mmc_host

dev_mount    usbhost1    /mnt/usbhost1    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-ehci.1    /devices/platform/sunxi_hcd_host0    /devices/platform/sunxi-ohci.1  

[Guest shiftyc]

k you help me on my device?

 

this is my original vold file.

dev_mount    sdcard    /mnt/sdcard    auto    /devices/virtual/block/nandj    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.2/mmc_host
dev_mount    extsd    /mnt/extsd    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.1/mmc_host    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount    usbhost1    /mnt/usbhost1    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-ehci.1    /devices/platform/sunxi_hcd_host0    /devices/platform/sunxi-ohci.1  

1. Make sure you don't already have apps moved to the external SD card, if you do, move them back
2. Make a backup - don't skip this
3. Following the instructions, try pasting this into your vold.emmc.fstab:

dev_mount    sdcard    /mnt/extsd    auto    /devices/virtual/block/nandj    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.2/mmc_host
dev_mount    extsd    /mnt/sdcard    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.1/mmc_host    /devices/platform/sunxi-mmc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount    usbhost1    /mnt/usbhost1    auto    /devices/platform/sunxi-ehci.1    /devices/platform/sunxi_hcd_host0    /devices/platform/sunxi-ohci.1  

[Guest gkalen]

I'm not sure, but i swapped sd cards, by editing a line in build.prop, not by editing vold.mmc.fstab .

I mean that external sd is primary storage and internal sd as secondary.

Is this something else or we talk about the same thing? ???

Edited June 4, 2014 by gkalen

[Guest shiftyc]

I'm not sure, but i swapped sd cards, by editing a line in build.prop, not by editing vold.mmc.fstab .

I mean that external sd is primary storage and internal sd as secondary.

Is this something else or we talk about the same thing? ???

 

Same thing.  Many people have used the technique in this thread with great results.  In think EziMod was asking how to do the same thing for a different device.

 

Would you like to share what changes you made to build.prop?

[Guest gkalen]

Same thing. Many people have used the technique in this thread with great results. In think EziMod was asking how to do the same thing for a different device.

It seems easier to me.

Would you like to share what changes you made to build.prop?

It's simple and easy ...

Find the below line in build.prop .

"persist.sys.emmcsdcard.enabled=1"

Then change numper 1 at the end, to zero ( 0 ) .

Reboot and done.

Edited June 4, 2014 by gkalen

[Guest GaBBren]

Can we merge the internal memory and the virtual sdcard? My biggest problem is the little free space in internal memory.

[Guest targetbsp]

Can we merge the internal memory and the virtual sdcard? My biggest problem is the little free space in internal memory.

 

Not that I know of. Wish we could.

[Guest Khuram564]

plz bro......video tutorial link attache 

[Guest Tina Watkins lay]

I am just wondering is the ad card and memory cards go into same slot on side of my are phone

[Guest Tina Watkins lay]

10 minutes ago, Tina Watkins lay said:

Sd cards

 

[Guest jonnieD]

could anyone send me the file vold.emmc.fstab  ?