Internal storage slows down d3???

[km75]

So this is the prognosis. I was experience some lag on my phone. Not detrimental by any means but still noticeable. Redraws on my homescreens. App drawer popping up a little slow. Little things like that. All in all the phone just wasn't as snappy as it was when I first got it. So I decided to do a factory reset. I did a factory reset before and only realized after the fact that if you have any music, pics etc stored in internal storage and you format it before re-setting you lose everything that's on there. So this time around I was smart enough to go in there and started moving everything I wanted to save to the sd card. This is where it got interesting. The more items I started to move the faster the phone got. I mean in some instances (for ex: going back and forth from >internal storage>move>external storage) the process was almost instantaneous. It started going so fast I actually thought I was starting to skip some steps. Now when I hit the icon for my app drawer it comes up like when I first got the phone and there were only the pre-installed apps on there. Bottom line everything is just quicker. Needless to say I completely dismissed the need for doing a factory reset since I felt there was no longer a need for it. From now on I guess I will keep an astute eye on what goes into the internal storage and keep it as clear/empty as possible. BTW if anyone is wondering none of my apps are installed on the internal storage. They're all on the phone side. There are a couple of reasons why I posted this. First, I just wanted to know if anyone out there could tell me why I experienced this. Second I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this.

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[sangelopez]

how do i move apps to sd card?

 

[km75]

how do i move apps to sd card?

I have to edit what I wrote. My intention was to say that none of my apps are on the internal storage side. They are all on the phone side.

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[cloudstrife05]

That's interesting. I thought it would be the other way around. I just moved around 15 aps to my SD. For the first time my d3 is running just a tad less snappy.
Ill try it and thanks for the tip.

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[Maverick0984]

I just want to make sure everyone is clear on how the storage is handled on the Droid 3, based on the posts here it seems like some terms are being thrown around carelessly that might confuse someone.

The Droid 3 comes with 16GB of internal storage. You can add your own micro SD card if you like, no big deal.

Of that 16GB of internal storage, you get ~2GB for apps installed "on the phone." You also get a "fake" SD card of about 11.5GB that the phone treats as an SD card, but it is no different than the 2GB app storage hardware wise. This is why when you go to move an app, it says "Move to media area", instead of "Move to SD" like it used to in other iterations of phones. You aren't actually moving apps to an SD card. You are just moving them to a different mount point on the same storage hardware.

If you actually install your own micro SD card, it is really only going to be for media like photos, music, or movies. The Droid 3 mounts it on a separate mount called sdcard-ext or something similar, don't have my phone on me right this second. Apps can interface with it, and you'll find Music apps still search and find your music, etc, however the Android OS doesn't treat it like additional app storage of any kind, and Apps themselves, when they think they are storing certain data to an SD card, they are actually storing it on that 11.5GB internal storage that appears as an sdcard.

...

Clear as mud?

I just want people to know that nothing is actually getting stored to an sdcard. Moving apps back and forth to phone storage and media storage is still all using the same medium so there really is no rhyme or reason to notice a speed difference. I might just say it was a coincidence, or moving some of those apps that were actually running, killed them to move them, freeing up some ram, and making things appear quicker for that moment in time.

 

[km75]

I just want to make sure everyone is clear on how the storage is handled on the Droid 3, based on the posts here it seems like some terms are being thrown around carelessly that might confuse someone.

The Droid 3 comes with 16GB of internal storage. You can add your own micro SD card if you like, no big deal.

Of that 16GB of internal storage, you get ~2GB for apps installed "on the phone." You also get a "fake" SD card of about 11.5GB that the phone treats as an SD card, but it is no different than the 2GB app storage hardware wise. This is why when you go to move an app, it says "Move to media area", instead of "Move to SD" like it used to in other iterations of phones. You aren't actually moving apps to an SD card. You are just moving them to a different mount point on the same storage hardware.

If you actually install your own micro SD card, it is really only going to be for media like photos, music, or movies. The Droid 3 mounts it on a separate mount called sdcard-ext or something similar, don't have my phone on me right this second. Apps can interface with it, and you'll find Music apps still search and find your music, etc, however the Android OS doesn't treat it like additional app storage of any kind, and Apps themselves, when they think they are storing certain data to an SD card, they are actually storing it on that 11.5GB internal storage that appears as an sdcard.

...

Clear as mud?

I just want people to know that nothing is actually getting stored to an sdcard. Moving apps back and forth to phone storage and media storage is still all using the same medium so there really is no rhyme or reason to notice a speed difference. I might just say it was a coincidence, or moving some of those apps that were actually running, killed them to move them, freeing up some ram, and making things appear quicker for that moment in time.

I edited my post to reflect that. What i was referring to was actually going into the files and moving items that were actually on the internal storage side and permanently moving them to the actual sd card side. I wasnt referring to moving apps to the sd card. That option isnt even available. Well not that i know of anyway. When you get the chance check how much stuff actually goes to the internal storage side. Some of the music i downloaded from the internet directly from my phone went directly to the internal side. Some files/folders are automatically created when you download an app. For instance when i downloaded 'evernote' it automatically created a folder on the internal storage side. Another example would be that i downloaded 'BUMP' and had people share items with me through it. Everything that was shared with me through this avenue including pics created a 'BUMP' folder on the internal storage side. There was even a 'Slacker' folder that i just plain deleted seeing how i never use it. Never even opened the app up. I moved a few more files as well and for whatever reason some of them automatically went back to the internal storage side. Also things that i downloaded such as the skype hack to enable the FFC automatically went to the internal storage side as well. Its these type of folders/files that i moved to the sd card side. Maybe the speed/performance increase was coincidental. But i originally posted this thread a few hours ago and i am still seeing the increased performance in speed. Any theories besides the ones you mentioned?

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[Maverick0984]

I edited my post to reflect that. What i was referring to was actually going into the files and moving items that were actually on the internal storage side and permanently moving them to the actual sd card side. I wasnt referring to moving apps to the sd card. That option isnt even available. Well not that i know of anyway. When you get the chance check how much stuff actually goes to the internal storage side. Some of the music i downloaded from the internet directly from my phone went directly to the internal side. Some files/folders are automatically created when you download an app. For instance when i downloaded 'evernote' it automatically created a folder on the internal storage side. Another example would be that i downloaded 'BUMP' and had people share items with me through it. Everything that was shared with me through this avenue including pics created a 'BUMP' folder on the internal storage side. I moved a few more files as well and for whatever reason some of them automatically went back to the internal storage side. Also things that i downloaded such as the skype hack to enable the FFC automatically went to the internal storage side as well. Its these type of folders/files that i moved to the sd card side. Maybe the speed/performance increase was coincidental. But i originally posted this thread a few hours ago and i am still seeing the increased performance in speed. Any theories besides the ones you mentioned?

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All of those things that got downloaded and installed to the internal side, the App thinks it is installing to an SD card. Moving that stuff to the *actual* SD card, will break whatever the app did, and the app will likely recreate the folder/files back on the internal storage (fake SD) side. So now you'll have duplicate data.

If it is downloaded music, well, that is raw media, and that will probably stay on the *actual* SD card, and whatever music app you use will still find it.

Any system data, preferences, cache data, etc that an app creates will always be on the internal side (fake SD). You can move that somewhere else, but it is essentially the same thing as deleting it. The app is looking at the /sdcard/ mount for that data, and you've moved it to /sdcard-ext/ and it isn't smart enough to know and go look there because unfortunately, the Droid 3 is a bit unique in its handle of internal data like this and the Android api's would need to be altered to add this feature and then the app would then have to be updated to include the check of this. Unless more phones get released that handle things like the Droid 3 does, it is unlikely that app devs will code specifc things into their apps, just for the Droid 3, a single phone.

As a test, load up Evernote, and see what happens. I would expect that folder you moved to be recreated from where you moved it. Worst case, it might even force it to continually force close if it doesn't know what to do.

 

[km75]

All of those things that got downloaded and installed to the internal side, the App thinks it is installing to an SD card. Moving that stuff to the *actual* SD card, will break whatever the app did, and the app will likely recreate the folder/files back on the internal storage (fake SD) side. So now you'll have duplicate data.

If it is downloaded music, well, that is raw media, and that will probably stay on the *actual* SD card, and whatever music app you use will still find it.

Any system data, preferences, cache data, etc that an app creates will always be on the internal side (fake SD). You can move that somewhere else, but it is essentially the same thing as deleting it. The app is looking at the /sdcard/ mount for that data, and you've moved it to /sdcard-ext/ and it isn't smart enough to know and go look there because unfortunately, the Droid 3 is a bit unique in its handle of internal data like this and the Android api's would need to be altered to add this feature and then the app would then have to be updated to include the check of this. Unless more phones get released that handle things like the Droid 3 does, it is unlikely that app devs will code specifc things into their apps, just for the Droid 3, a single phone.

As a test, load up Evernote, and see what happens. I would expect that folder you moved to be recreated from where you moved it. Worst case, it might even force it to continually force close if it doesn't know what to do.

The only thing i now have on the internal sd card at the moment are an 'android' file that autmatiaclly returns albeit with only 1 item in it and something called 'android secure' which has a square with a question mark in it next to it. For some odd reason its dated dec 31 1969. No matter how much i tried i couldnt delete that one. Apparently it must be important. I was also able to permanently move the dcim from to the sd card which was just contained some thumbnails. Which was wierd to me bcuz those exact same pics were saved to my sd card as well. Just to give another example. Anything that i downloaded by way of these forums ie: the skype hack went onto the internal storage/sd card under a file called 'forums something or other-tapatalk'. Cant exactly remember the wording. But it stayed on the sd card that i actually bought/installed once i moved it. So i only have 2 folders installed on the internal storage/sd side. Thats it! Where as before i had at least like 20. So now when i look up internal storage i see total space>11.35 gbs…available space> 11.35gbs

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[km75]

I will check on the evernote suggestion. Also you are correct about items being copied. For instance the dcim folder that i moved said just DCIM on the internal storage side but now that its on the sd card the folder/file says DCIM COPY. There are others like this as well

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[km75]

Update: the evernote file/folder is still ONLY on the sd card. Not on the internal storage and it works fine. But now that i checked i do see the music folder under internal storage albeit an empty folder. So that music folder definitely came back. I will look back under internal storage an hour or two from now and check if anything else pops back up. So at the present time i only have 3 files/folders under internal storage but i still have all 11.35 gbs available.

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[Maverick0984]

Update: the evernote file/folder is still ONLY on the sd card. Not on the internal storage and it works fine. But now that i checked i do see the music folder under internal storage albeit an empty folder. So that music folder definitely came back. I will look back under internal storage an hour or two from now and check if anything else pops back up. So at the present time i only have 3 files/folders under internal storage but i still have all 11.35 gbs available.

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I still highly, highly doubt that Evernote will function correctly. It stored program files in a certain location and you've moved them.

Think about doing this on your PC. Moving a bunch of files in C:\Program Files\ to D:\Program Files will break whatever you've done since the program thinks it is installed in C:\Program Files\. This is essentially what you did, however, the app should be able to recreate the folder structure. I don't use Evernote so don't have any idea what it stores in those folders. Perhaps it is useless data so that is why you aren't experiencing any issues, but that is just dumb luck. You are asking for trouble using this as a normal process for your apps. Just because you aren't noticing anything in Evernote, doesn't mean it won't have negative effects in other apps.

Any sorts of "downloads" you've had, whether it be music, or files from these forums, are just downloads. Those are fine to move to the actual sdcard. The issues I am claiming you will experience are when you move app system files. It is important to understand the difference.

 

[km75]

Evernote functions correctly. I actually used the app and not just opened it up. BUT.......the evernote folder reappeared on the internal storage side. So obviously youre right about the fact that its there because its supposed to be. I dont get down and dirty on my computer like i do on my phone (smh at myself) so i dont really understand your analogy but at this point if i dont download anything and something automatically turns up in internal storage i will just leave it. Apparently it will just keep going back there anyway. But if you dont mind can you tell me what you think is the reason for the increase in speed. Because that isnt imagined. Its real. I know you touched on it a little earlier but it would be nice if you could elaborate on that.

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[JohnnyS101]

Sorry so I have a recap, my phone is going slow too, so I have the apps 2 sd app and I want to move all my apps from my sd card to my phone, will this help with the lag? Also it states move to media area which I guess is the sd card? Or is it the app storage, or when it states move to phone that that one is the app storage or is it the ram?

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[km75]

Sorry so I have a recap, my phone is going slow too, so I have the apps 2 sd app and I want to move all my apps from my sd card to my phone, will this help with the lag? Also it states move to media area which I guess is the sd card? Or is it the app storage, or when it states move to phone that that one is the app storage or is it the ram?

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The media area refers to the pre-installed sd card that came with the phone. As far as I know you can't move any apps to an sd card you may have bought/installed. So if you move an app from phone storage to internal storage or vice versa those apps are still technically on the phone. Put it like this if you unmount the sd card that you installed or just flat out remove it the apps are still going to be available to you. Where as if you have songg and pics on the sd card and remove it you will not be able to access them until you reinsert your sd card. In regards to your question about whether moving apps will increase your phones performance, I have absolutely no clues. I wasn't moving apps I was moving files from internal storage to the sd card that I bought and installed. That apps to sd card app that you have will not move any apps to the sd card. It will only let you move it between the phone and internal storage. Ram deals more so with memory than anything else and isn't relevant to what you are trying to accomplish.

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[JohnnyS101]

The media area refers to the pre-installed sd card that came with the phone. As far as I know you can't move any apps to an sd card you may have bought/installed. So if you move an app from phone storage to internal storage or vice versa those apps are still technically on the phone. Put it like this if you unmount the sd card that you installed or just flat out remove it the apps are still going to be available to you. Where as if you have songg and pics on the sd card and remove it you will not be able to access them until you reinsert your sd card. In regards to your question about whether moving apps will increase your phones performance, I have absolutely no clues. I wasn't moving apps I was moving files from internal storage to the sd card that I bought and installed. That apps to sd card app that you have will not move any apps to the sd card. It will only let you move it between the phone and internal storage. Ram deals more so with memory than anything else and isn't relevant to what you are trying to accomplish.

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Okay. Thanks. Ill just move all my apps from my phone to internal storage

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