How Do I Easily Move Apps to External Micro SD card on the PMID701C?

[Lexridge]

Thanks for sharing! That's one drawback to this method. It's hard to keep track of which SD card the tablet is talking about
I hope you had a backup!

Fortunately, I did! Now I am off to try and make my bluetooth dongle work. If I get that working, I will do the happy dance! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Gawd, I LOVE Linux!!! I wonder if the bootloader is locked on this device. I hear this CPU can be over clocked. I have the I (eye) version, btw.

[SingleDad]

Fortunately, I did! Now I am off to try and make my bluetooth dongle work. If I get that working, I will do the happy dance! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Gawd, I LOVE Linux!!! I wonder if the bootloader is locked on this device. I hear this CPU can be over clocked. I have the I (eye) version, btw.

Glad to hear you had a backup!
Yep overclocking slightly is possible. Others are successfully overclocking them up to about 1.152 - 1.2Ghz here. That seems to be the max without delving into voltages, adding heat sinks etc.

[DLBUTLER77]

Help with this Process

Thanks !!!!

[Ron]

Thank you!

I've had a couple people ask me for more information how to do this little mod. It's really not difficult at all. All the info is here in this thread, it's just spread all over the place. I thought it might help if I try to post a quick walk through so others will have the info in one place:

Here's how to make the external sd card (the one you buy and stick in the external micro sd slot) the card the tablet sees as it's "internal sd" card. Basically you have to change a system file and flip flop the names in the file that tells the tablet how to mount the external card and it's "fake" internal sd card.

You can do this all right on the tablet if you want!

REQUIREMENTS:
1. You need to be rooted or otherwise have access to view and modify system files. I used the app, "Root Explorer"

2. You need a micro SD card to put in the external micro SD card slot (DUH!)


PROCEDURE:

1. Install the "Root Explorer" app.
You need a version that will give you full R/W access. I used the one linked to in the ****OFFICIAL Polaroid PMID 701C Thread! -Root, market and more!" thread here. To save you the trouble, here's the link to Root Explorer v2.19:

http://www.qfpost.com/file/d?g=QhuGKTnJL

Basically this gives you access to see and modify the system file you need to modify. There are other ways to do this, I'm just telling you what I did because it worked just fine.

2. Mount R/W in Root Explorer.
Once you've installed Root Explorer, navigate to the /system folder and then make it root accessible/writable by tapping the grey "Mount R/W" button at the top of the screen.

3. Find and Edit the "vold.fstab" file.
Now that you now have root access you can edit the vold.fstab file. In the Root Explorer app Go to /system/etc/vold.fstab

Once you've found that file simply long press it (hold down on it) until you see "Open With" and then choose "text editor"

You'll see a text file. In the 2nd paragraph you'll see two lines that say:

dev mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto
dev mount extsd /mnt/extsd auto

Highlight them and edit the lines to read:

dev mount sdcard /mnt/extsd auto
dev mount extsd /mnt/sdcard auto


4. Save and Reboot!
Press the menu button or tap menu and then select "Save and Exit".
(It should save the original file for you as a backup automatically when you save in case you screw anything up)

Turn off the tablet, make sure your external micro sd card is in the external sd slot and then reboot. (You need to reboot for the changes to the vold.fstab file to take effect)

5. Enjoy your tablet finally letting you put the things you want to put on your external sd card!

This has been a source of tremendous frustration for me during the past few weeks. Every google search I've tried led to folks suggesting App2SD and other apps - clearly not understanding the issue... While the solution is so simple, this tablet is the first Android device that I've played with, however, and I very much appreciate you taking the time to post this!

[SingleDad]

This has been a source of tremendous frustration for me during the past few weeks. Every google search I've tried led to folks suggesting App2SD and other apps - clearly not understanding the issue... While the solution is so simple, this tablet is the first Android device that I've played with, however, and I very much appreciate you taking the time to post this!

Yeah I know! I was in the same boat. App2SD is recommended countless times but it doesn't do what we wanted. I read somewhere App2SD was mainly intended for Froyo or earlier versions of Android where the "move to sd/tf" card wasn't included in the os. With Gingerbread/ICS we have it built into app manager now.

Everyone in this thread deserves a big thank you. All I did was try some of the suggestions others made and gave it a try. Once it worked well enough i decided I'd try to make it a little easier to follow for others who come along later.

There's probably a better way, but this works decent enough for me for now!

[Lexridge]

Another small tip. Always keep a backup of your modified void.fstab file on your SD card. It is a huge time saver, as I had to re-flash my unit to stock twice today. I am trying too many experiments. lol

I keep a folder on my SD card for everything needed to get recovered back to gapps and mounts and apps, if anything goes wrong. This includes void.fstab, and most importantly, Root Explorer (or ES Explorer, take your pick).

I have always done this on my Droid/DroidX phones, so I could quickly swap ROMS without much of a headache.

[kc9hi]

I thought of this too when I saw the thread, but couldn't remember the name of the .apk. as I downloaded it, but never really got around to actually installing it, as I had more than enough space free. There are a number of these programs floating around on the various Android Markets, so if Link2SD doesn't work for someone or they don't like it, they are others out there like App2SD they can try out.

App2SD and Link2SD are not similar. App2SD functionality is built into Gingerbread and ICS. To use App2SD (or similar apps) the app has to be written to be able to me moved to SD. And the app really isn't moved to SD, just portions of it are. Widgets won't run if they are moved to SD using this method.

For instance move ES File explorer to SD using settings. What was 4.7MB (4.46MB app and 240KB data) becomes 6.49MB (2.16MB app, 4.09MB storage app and 244kb data). So there's still 2.16MB still in /apps/data (which is not located in SDCARD or EXTSD).

Swapping EXTSD with SDCARD in fstab does not affect the size of /apps/data. If you run out of space in /apps/data then it doesn't matter how large SDCARD or EXTSD are. As you can see above, moving apps to SD can help, But each app is still going to take up space in /apps/data and widgets can be moved or they won't work.

Link2SD on the other hand moves the entire app to the external SD card (the app itself, dalvik-cache and library files). And even widgets moved to the SD card this was work.

A real world example is my low end phone. It has a whopping 179MB of internal storage. Before Link2SD it was a struggle to keep 50MB free (the phone would behave strangely if internal storage got below 40MB free. After Link2SD I have about 100 apps and widgets installed. I have 152MB internal storage free and I never think twice about adding another app.

Jim

[jtintle]

I've had a couple people ask me for more information how to do this little mod. It's really not difficult at all. All the info is here in this thread, it's just spread all over the place. I thought it might help if I try to post a quick walk through so others will have the info in one place:

Here's how to make the external sd card (the one you buy and stick in the external micro sd slot) the card the tablet sees as it's "internal sd" card. Basically you have to change a system file and flip flop the names in the file that tells the tablet how to mount the external card and it's "fake" internal sd card.

You can do this all right on the tablet if you want!

REQUIREMENTS:
1. You need to be rooted or otherwise have access to view and modify system files. I used the app, "Root Explorer"

2. You need a micro SD card to put in the external micro SD card slot (DUH!)


PROCEDURE:

1. Install the "Root Explorer" app.
You need a version that will give you full R/W access. I used the one linked to in the ****OFFICIAL Polaroid PMID 701C Thread! -Root, market and more!" thread here. To save you the trouble, here's the link to Root Explorer v2.19:

http://www.qfpost.com/file/d?g=QhuGKTnJL

Basically this gives you access to see and modify the system file you need to modify. There are other ways to do this, I'm just telling you what I did because it worked just fine.

2. Mount R/W in Root Explorer.
Once you've installed Root Explorer, navigate to the /system folder and then make it root accessible/writable by tapping the grey "Mount R/W" button at the top of the screen.

3. Find and Edit the "vold.fstab" file.
Now that you now have root access you can edit the vold.fstab file. In the Root Explorer app Go to /system/etc/vold.fstab

Once you've found that file simply long press it (hold down on it) until you see "Open With" and then choose "text editor"

You'll see a text file. In the 2nd paragraph you'll see two lines that say:

dev mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto
dev mount extsd /mnt/extsd auto

Highlight them and edit the lines to read:

dev mount sdcard /mnt/extsd auto
dev mount extsd /mnt/sdcard auto


4. Save and Reboot!
Press the menu button or tap menu and then select "Save and Exit".
(It should save the original file for you as a backup automatically when you save in case you screw anything up)

Turn off the tablet, make sure your external micro sd card is in the external sd slot and then reboot. (You need to reboot for the changes to the vold.fstab file to take effect)

5. Enjoy your tablet finally letting you put the things you want to put on your external sd card!

Thanks SingleDad, I've been waiting for this, must of missed it in the forums. I run Link2SD on my phone and it works great, so I've been wanting it on the tab, now I will have it, thanks again

[SingleDad]

App2SD and Link2SD are not similar. App2SD functionality is built into Gingerbread and ICS. To use App2SD (or similar apps) the app has to be written to be able to me moved to SD. And the app really isn't moved to SD, just portions of it are. Widgets won't run if they are moved to SD using this method.

Sweet! I knew App2SD wasn't significantly better or different than the built in move to sd function. I knew some of the data was left in internal memory even with moving apps to the SD, I just didn't know there was an app to move things more completely. Thanks for explaining Link2SD, I'm going to check that one out!

[SingleDad]

Thanks SingleDad, I've been waiting for this, must of missed it in the forums. I run Link2SD on my phone and it works great, so I've been wanting it on the tab, now I will have it, thanks again

No problem! I have just been moving apps via titanium backup or the built in function in the OS. You guys just clued me in on Link2SD so thank YOU!

[ronb]

App2SD and Link2SD are not similar.
...
A real world example is my low end phone. It has a whopping 179MB of internal storage. Before Link2SD it was a struggle to keep 50MB free (the phone would behave strangely if internal storage got below 40MB free. After Link2SD I have about 100 apps and widgets installed. I have 152MB internal storage free and I never think twice about adding another app.

Jim

Thanks for the tip.
I have a similar phone, which suits my just fine except for not enough space for installing apps.
It looks like Link2SD requires a rooted phone. Is that correct and what did you use for that?

Anyone have experience with this "swap-SD card" process on a PMID 700? Does it work the same way or similar? With 2GB total, then that being partitioned, this quickly became a problem there too.

RonB

[kc9hi]

Thanks for the tip.
I have a similar phone, which suits my just fine except for not enough space for installing apps.
It looks like Link2SD requires a rooted phone. Is that correct and what did you use for that?

Anyone have experience with this "swap-SD card" process on a PMID 700? Does it work the same way or similar? With 2GB total, then that being partitioned, this quickly became a problem there too.

RonB

Yes. Device has to be rooted. I have a LG Optimus V. I don't remember what I used to root it. It's been so long ago. In my stash of files for the phone I have a copy of SuperOneClick. My guess is that what I used to root it. Just Google for rooting your phone. I'm sure you'll come up with a method for getting it done.

Jim

[matt]

link2sd guinea pig

Okay, after trying link2sd for a while it works but there are issues.

After repartitioning the sd card is now mounted as mnt/extern_sd/179:1 and .../179:0
This loses me access to the sds with anything I have except root explorer.

File Expert will no longer work for backup even changing the backup dir to mnt/extern_sd/179:0/backups.
It gives a parsing error which I take to mean file access error. This was a cool app allowing for numerous wifi modes for vpn,
File sharing, ad hoc, backups to a nas box, etc. Now it will see the folders and files on sd but shows 0kb on all with no access.

File manager sees no files or folders.

It's difficult to troubleshoot when a problem can be OS, app, Drm, device, or user error.

I did install link2sd without rooting, but it is working. (Pmidc is semirooted stock)

Iwonder if using the sd for anything but storage is wise. I'm using a class 10 16gb but the mem pipeline may be different for sd than internal nand. What happens when some brainiac discovers that the tablet will boot to a new OS on the sd card instead of flashing the rom and we go nuts with it?

[N4RPS]

There are some stock apps on the 701C/701i that won't move over to SD card because they were installed as a factory "system" type app. However if you uninstall them, download them from market and reinstall they can be successfully moved to the SD card afterward. For instance, I believe the NY Times app was one example. (Not that I really use it anyway)

Hello!

UIAM, in most cases, you should be able to move system apps back & forth with Root Explorer or another program of that nature, and vice versa.

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[SingleDad]

Hello!

UIAM, in most cases, you should be able to move system apps back & forth with Root Explorer or another program of that nature, and vice versa.

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

I was basically referring to moving apps with the built in "move to SD/TF" function. I had some apps that refused to move that way. I later discovered (and posted) that apps like Titanium Backup, Link 2 SD etc can be used to move some system apps.

Thanks Rob!