Case with extended storage built in - Nexus 6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have access to a 3D printer, and I was thinking of designing a case with a bare flash drive built in. If I cut one of the USB OTG cables down that allows usb and charging simultaneously and fit it in the case design would I be able to have the USB connected and still be able to charge? If that is a possibility, is there a way to trick Android into thinking that the USB drive is instead an SD card? If we could trick Android into thinking it was an SD card wouldn't we be able to merge the flash drive with the internal storage and increase the storage capacity of the phone? My other thought for this idea was using multirom, and just sticking a 256gb flash drive in the case and just booting off of that. Do either of these ideas sound like they would work well at all? I just have the 32gb model and it just isn't enough.

No. The phone will not charge while in USB host mode, if you try to just throw in voltage you'll burn out the flash drive and or damage your phones micro USB port.
You're multirom idea wasnt bad. But all multirom does is allow a system partition to be installed with an image to a flash drive, and then boot it from the flash drive. It still reads data cache and such off your devices partition.
How are you using your storage? I got use to the "no expandable storage" with my lg and Galaxy Nexus.
Are you encrypted? Unencrypt your phone, you'll save 1.5-2gbs of storage capacity. Use Google photos to backup your photos and videos in HD quality and have it delete files after backup. Do you flash roms? Go through your android/data and Android/obb folders and delete everything related to apps you don't use.
It's not a bad idea to backup music/photos/videos to a PC, then wipe internal storage and restore all the photos and such. You would be amazed at how much storage our phones will use that you can't find and delete without digging around.

Deleted as apparently useless...

noidea24 said:
No. The phone will not charge while in USB host mode, if you try to just throw in voltage you'll burn out the flash drive and or damage your phones micro USB port.
You're multirom idea wasnt bad. But all multirom does is allow a system partition to be installed with an image to a flash drive, and then boot it from the flash drive. It still reads data cache and such off your devices partition.
How are you using your storage? I got use to the "no expandable storage" with my lg and Galaxy Nexus.
Are you encrypted? Unencrypt your phone, you'll save 1.5-2gbs of storage capacity. Use Google photos to backup your photos and videos in HD quality and have it delete files after backup. Do you flash roms? Go through your android/data and Android/obb folders and delete everything related to apps you don't use.
It's not a bad idea to backup music/photos/videos to a PC, then wipe internal storage and restore all the photos and such. You would be amazed at how much storage our phones will use that you can't find and delete without digging around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am un-encrypted so I do have that little bit of extra space. I have a lot of music on my phone for listening in the car. LTE is spotty where I live, so streaming isn't a great option. I was under the impression that with a modified kernel it is possible to charge and access a device at the same time. Doesn't the nexus 7 have a kernel that allows that? If that is in fact possible is there a way to trick android into thinking that it's an sd card instead of a flash drive?
This is one such kernel for the nexus 7
https://mehrvarz.github.io/usb-host-mode-power-management-nexus7/
I think my solution my work great if there is a kernel that works with charging and we could get the USB to integrate.

Encryption takes up more space?

Code:
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
lets you use any external storage device as adoptable storage letting you use a OTG drive as internal storage. Could've just been my drive but it stalled at 20% for a couple minutes, mighta finished but my OTG adapter is kinda flaky and lost connection. After a bit of reading I've learned it might be since my phone isn't encrypted and adoptable storage is encrypted by default.
Also from what I understand about OTG things is that you CANNOT charge the phone while it's connection with OTG even wirelessly.
Though with the N6 having USB 2.0 it'll likely be very very slow.

Ad
StykerB said:
Code:
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
lets you use any external storage device as adoptable storage letting you use a OTG drive as internal storage. Could've just been my drive but it stalled at 20% for a couple minutes, mighta finished but my OTG adapter is kinda flaky and lost connection. After a bit of reading I've learned it might be since my phone isn't encrypted and adoptable storage is encrypted by default.
Also from what I understand about OTG things is that you CANNOT charge the phone while it's connection with OTG even wirelessly.
Though with the N6 having USB 2.0 it'll likely be very very slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome!! Thank you. I'll do some tinkering maybe this weekend to see what I can come up with. That was exactly what I was looking for as far as adoptable storage!
EDIT: I ran the adb command you gave me through terminal emulator on the phone itself after giving it root access. All 3 flash drives I tried integrated with my internal storage just phone. All 3 were 32gb usb 3.0, but each was a different brand. I built a custom "y" cable, but you can buy them on Amazon. I'm talking with a kernel developer and it seems it is possible to charge the phone at the same time. Both the nexus 4 and 2013 nexus 7 have custom kernels that allow what's called USB OTG Host mode that allows the device to charge and use a USB device at the same time. From what I can tell it's a kernel module that needs to be added. For the nexus 4 it was just a zip file that patched whatever kernel you were currently using. I don't have a lot of experience with compiling kernels, but I'll try and find out what needs to be done and fire my Ubuntu box up.

Related

USB mass storage

Hi,
has anyone succeeded to export the internal or external SD storage as a USB mass storage device? The only thing that works for me is MTP under Windows.
Of what I know it's not possible because the phones usb mass storage only supports one drive.
Our phone has two drives, internal and external SD.
Therefore it has to use MTP for you to see the two drives in Windows.
It's the same for all phones with external and internal memory.
Solution: Unmount SD card, rip it out of the frickin phone, ram it into your computer, start copying HD quality movies super fast, rip it out of your computer and showe it back into your phone! Problem?
Sent from my LG-P880
Yes, but I don't like to open the filigree back side too often.
MrWunderbaum said:
Of what I know it's not possible because the phones usb mass storage only supports one drive.
Our phone has two drives, internal and external SD.
Therefore it has to use MTP for you to see the two drives in Windows.
It's the same for all phones with external and internal memory.
Solution: Unmount SD card, rip it out of the frickin phone, ram it into your computer, start copying HD quality movies super fast, rip it out of your computer and showe it back into your phone! Problem?
Sent from my LG-P880
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for digging out this old thread. But still better than starting a new one.
I am new to android and the 4X HD is my first android phone. Was using iPhone with PWNtunes, which allows for free file transfers to and from the phone (including music & videos) without using ANY additional software on the other end.
Is there really NO way to activate USB mass storage at least for the external SD card ? I mean, I could like copy the files later to the internal memory, but I really hate the idea that I have to open the phone everytime I want to transfer a file. I can't always mail the files.
I am willing to modify the phone in any way, but I often come across computers where I can NOT install any additional software. Even worse I work with Hardware devices (like my car Stereo or my Set-top-box) where there is no possibility to change the Software.
So USB Mass Storage is the only way to go for me. All the google searches I've done so far point out 2 piece solutions, at best, where I would also need to install software on the PC.
Is there really no standardised solution for this that works on ANY Android ICS (like PWNtunes for any iPhone) ?
I would even pay up to 10 € for this feature, a feature that should be included !
With Total Commander and the Android-ADB-Plugin I have access to the entire file system and SD cards of all my Androids.
I don't know about yours but, for me its enough when I select "LG software" (don't know how's in yours cause mine is in Portuguese...), after I just need to run "LGAutoRun.exe" and I can see the internal store and external sd just like if I had "mass storage" selected.
If I have previously selected "LG software" windows just ask me if I want to open to see the files, but thats normal cause the drivers are already installed.
@Bud Cord & @RuedasLocas
Both are again solutions where I would have to run some kind of software on the Host side.
Yes, this will work for Win7 computers BUT IT WILL NOT work for my TV, it will NOT work for my Car Stereo, it will NOT work for my Printer, it will NOT work for my portable mediaplayer, it will NOT work for my DSL-Router, it will NOT work for my DVB-SetTopBox, and so on. For all those other devices that ONLY understand USB MASS STORAGE it will simply NOT WORK.
Yeah USB MASS STORAGE (UMS) is some crappy old block access device. BUT it is also the defacto standart that every USB Device that can read a USB stick supports.
I had a Windows Mobile 6.1 Phone some years ago, it hat UMS, only for the SDcard.
I had a simple Feature-Phone(SE K610), it hat UMS, again only for the Memory card.
I had a Chinese unbranded Phone with dual-Sims and a TV set built in, it had UMS!
I had an iPhone I could Jailbreak it and activate UMS. Every 2$ cheapo USB stick has UMS.
I again want USB MASS STORAGE at least for the SD-Card. I am still trying to find some workaround. Even that the phone was not rootable at the beginning was no dealbreaker for me, but THIS actually IS a dealbreaker for me. I loved to use my Phone as a USB-Stick and plug it in everywhere. I always did that. IPhone has forced me to carry around my own cable, android is forcing me to carry around a regular USB stick.
I hate the phone for not having MASS STORAGE. The worst part is that it seems like Android has adopted this crap, so any Android phone is just as bad.
Sorry for whining, I just thought that there was some simple solution that I am not seeing.

[HOWTO]Mount USB

People have asked since discovery of our beloved Ouya once you've got it out of the box you may have noticed that their is a USB port on the back.
After quick maintenance of my own personal testing USB will simply not run from stock.(Not that I'm fully aware of).
There are a few key ways of going about this, two ways as far as we know.
But I'm only teaching one.
First off, if you've plugged up a USB and didn't get a mount, there are a few steps to take to attempt to fix. I've got a positive affect to this, others have had different.
So let's start off first by using the ADB method of getting root a.k.a Superuser onto out device using the tut in the dev area.
Once you've accessed this, download "[root] StickMount" from the market. Assuming that this .apk can't be found on Google let's use an app to pull your .apk from the downloaded stuff you've gotten in the Google Play Store.
Now there are a few apps that do this, I used App2SD and rebuilt the .apk myself(which took a good while recoding), once you've pulled the .apk either load it tons cloud storage area you use, or side load it, you can also find a tutorial in the dev area as well.
Once you've got the app loaded make sure you set the setting properly to detect the USB you plan to use! This is key to getting something detected. From here you should be able to check in your file explorer and locate "ExternalSD" or whatever you see it fall under. If, and only if the USB doesn't show up, that may mean you've got the wrong format. I want each and all of you to give FAT32 a go as this is standard.
Warning, I don't know who all has tried this so if you're not happy with the occurrence, don't come beating my door in.
If there's anybody who ends up with a successful outcome, please leave feedback!
If nobody gets anything I'll just make sure to have this thread locked or closed.
If you're suffering any other issues, try this.
krankdroid said:
Since my 8 GB USB storage formatted FAT32 worked by just plugging it in, i am not to say what format storage should be formatted in, but seeing that this is just Android, i don't see how setup should differ in anyway from most other devices.
Now plugging in storage does not bring up any notifications on the OUYA since notification area has been disabled.
So you need to use a file explorer to navigate into the USB storage. Sadly, OUYA decided not to add something as simple as access to your own file system.
in "Make" "Software" open the browser. navigate to this:
http://bit.ly/13SJxOB
i shortened the URL since the full URL is a pain to write on a controller:
http://gdown.baidu.com/data/wisegame/86f47585c4eed74f/ESFileExplorer.apk
Once downloaded. go to "Manage" "Advanced" "Storage" and open up downloads. select the "ESFileExplorer.apk" app you just downloaded and head back to the main menu.
"Make" Software" and next to the browser you should see the app icon for the ES File Manager.
in the file manager that has the default start page in your internal SD card storage. Just select your "USB Storage" instead of "SD card"
installing something like StickMount and needing superuser privileges is totally overkill for just accessing external storage.
if the root and stickmount way works for 1000 GB+ storage sizes i have no idea. However i don't see how it should affect external storage size
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're doing it wrong, then. Mine mounted my fat32 USB ssd right out of the box. No extra apps or haxx needed. It mounts to /mnt/usbdisk or something along those lines.
gianptune said:
You're doing it wrong, then. Mine mounted my fat32 USB ssd right out of the box. No extra apps or haxx needed. It mounts to /mnt/usbdisk or something along those lines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't for you then.
Sent from my HTC One VX using xda app-developers app
All Ouya's should mount a harddrive with no problem. You just have to plug it in when it is off or restart using a app or the terminal. It just has to be OFF not in sleep mode.
samt3 said:
All Ouya's should mount a harddrive with no problem. You just have to plug it in when it is off or restart using a app or the terminal. It just has to be OFF not in sleep mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, there's different methods for different formats.
Terabytes won't read unless you've got a certain thing installed.
If this was useful to you, I can only ask of a favor!
Check out my YouTube channel!
http://WWW.YouTube.com/user/TheDarkRosary
Subscribe if you will!
Ouya-XD said:
No, there's different methods for different formats.
Terabytes won't read unless you've got a certain thing installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true, all of a sudden this week there were many people having trouble using their USB drives. Mine used to work until sometime this week. NTFS included. I was able to mount an NTFS-formatted 1TB Seagate Expansion drive earlier tonight. What I had to do was root my Ouya and use the USB OTG Helper app. I made a post on OuyaForums about it here.
NssOne said:
This is true, all of a sudden this week there were many people having trouble using their USB drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a "2"gb, or 2,000,000,000 bytes. 1.86 real gb... anywho, its a Lexar jump drive I wanted to copy files with, and I have a single FAT32 partition and was not able to mount it simply by plugging it in. Tried rebooting, and re-plugging the device. It doesn't work. I imagine it may with stickmount.
jmhalder said:
I have a "2"gb, or 2,000,000,000 bytes. 1.86 real gb... anywho, its a Lexar jump drive I wanted to copy files with, and I have a single FAT32 partition and was not able to mount it simply by plugging it in. Tried rebooting, and re-plugging the device. It doesn't work. I imagine it may with stickmount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Certain Jump drives will not mount because the USB port does not supply enough power. Powered USB drives or very efficient ones will work.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
samt3 said:
All Ouya's should mount a harddrive with no problem. You just have to plug it in when it is off or restart using a app or the terminal. It just has to be OFF not in sleep mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I have an 8GB usb stick and it doesn't work no matter what I do or what format I put it in. Haven't tried this method yet but what you're talking about does NOT work for everyone. And the powered 2TB external drive just causes Ouya to freeze every time at boot.
altimax98 said:
Certain Jump drives will not mount because the USB port does not supply enough power. Powered USB drives or very efficient ones will work.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never seen a powered USB flash drive. Furthermore, if a flash drive isn't mounting due to the port not outputting enough power, then the drive or the mobo is broken or otherwise failing to adhere to the spec. External hard drives (spinning platters) of the type common a few years ago when flash drives were cost prohibitive generally DO require an external power source (or at least draw from 2 USB ports), but they generally aren't referred to as jump drives. In my experience (which is considerable but not infinite) most flash drive issues tend to be due to bad connections after the drive is beat up or by managing to write past the end of the drive. Flash media is generally reliable and does not draw more power than the USB port puts out by spec. I highly doubt that power supply problems are a common cause of mounting issues.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
jmhalder said:
I have a "2"gb, or 2,000,000,000 bytes. 1.86 real gb... anywho, its a Lexar jump drive I wanted to copy files with, and I have a single FAT32 partition and was not able to mount it simply by plugging it in. Tried rebooting, and re-plugging the device. It doesn't work. I imagine it may with stickmount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this
v. v.
It seems that you just wanna shun the method I gave you.
If you dont want help, that's fine with me but please don't come into my threads to tread on my method.
Firstly, I need to know!
Are you rooted or stock?
If either, have you installed Ouya Plus?
If so! Try the given method above or Google an apps that suits your needs.
We are here to help, and I'm telling you right now that this method has worked for me, and maybe other users.
FACT:
Not all Ouya have been able to read USB from start, more than others have reported having issues with USB and have had to use the root method to even get a reading.
TIP:
Wanna check and see if your device is/has been read?
Please either use FX File Manager or Astro as these are the best at the moment. Both can be found and side loaded onto the Ouya.
Once you've installed either one, go to the manager, do you see an "External Drive" or "USB Mounted Drive" on the device? You're good to go.
ADVICE:
Did this not show up for you?
SOLUTION:
The butter to the bread is as easy as my method above yet not all people have been as lucky as I.
NssOne said:
This is true, all of a sudden this week there were many people having trouble using their USB drives. Mine used to work until sometime this week. NTFS included. I was able to mount an NTFS-formatted 1TB Seagate Expansion drive earlier tonight. What I had to do was root my Ouya and use the USB OTG Helper app. I made a post on OuyaForums about it here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this was useful to you, I can only ask of a favor!
Check out my YouTube channel!
http://WWW.YouTube.com/user/TheDarkRosary
Subscribe if you will!
how do you get apps2sd to read the external usb and not internal? the usb stick shows up but apps2sd only sees the internal
Predator04 said:
how do you get apps2sd to read the external usb and not internal? the usb stick shows up but apps2sd only sees the internal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only heard of Apps2SD working with ROOTed Ouyas only.
If you can't find the solution here, go and check the official forums, there are some people there who helped me.
Sent from my HTC One VX using xda app-developers app
Ouya-XD said:
I've only heard of Apps2SD working with ROOTed Ouyas only.
If you can't find the solution here, go and check the official forums, there are some people there who helped me.
Sent from my HTC One VX using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah its rooted. i guess this method does not work.
Predator04 said:
yeah its rooted. i guess this method does not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since my 8 GB USB storage formatted FAT32 worked by just plugging it in, i am not to say what format storage should be formatted in, but seeing that this is just Android, i don't see how setup should differ in anyway from most other devices.
Now plugging in storage does not bring up any notifications on the OUYA since notification area has been disabled.
So you need to use a file explorer to navigate into the USB storage. Sadly, OUYA decided not to add something as simple as access to your own file system.
in "Make" "Software" open the browser. navigate to this:
http://bit.ly/13SJxOB
i shortened the URL since the full URL is a pain to write on a controller:
http://gdown.baidu.com/data/wisegame/86f47585c4eed74f/ESFileExplorer.apk
Once downloaded. go to "Manage" "Advanced" "Storage" and open up downloads. select the "ESFileExplorer.apk" app you just downloaded and head back to the main menu.
"Make" Software" and next to the browser you should see the app icon for the ES File Manager.
in the file manager that has the default start page in your internal SD card storage. Just select your "USB Storage" instead of "SD card"
installing something like StickMount and needing superuser privileges is totally overkill for just accessing external storage.
if the root and stickmount way works for 1000 GB+ storage sizes i have no idea. However i don't see how it should affect external storage size
krankdroid said:
Since my 8 GB USB storage formatted FAT32 worked by just plugging it in, i am not to say what format storage should be formatted in, but seeing that this is just Android, i don't see how setup should differ in anyway from most other devices.
Now plugging in storage does not bring up any notifications on the OUYA since notification area has been disabled.
So you need to use a file explorer to navigate into the USB storage. Sadly, OUYA decided not to add something as simple as access to your own file system.
in "Make" "Software" open the browser. navigate to this:
http://bit.ly/13SJxOB
i shortened the URL since the full URL is a pain to write on a controller:
http://gdown.baidu.com/data/wisegame/86f47585c4eed74f/ESFileExplorer.apk
Once downloaded. go to "Manage" "Advanced" "Storage" and open up downloads. select the "ESFileExplorer.apk" app you just downloaded and head back to the main menu.
"Make" Software" and next to the browser you should see the app icon for the ES File Manager.
in the file manager that has the default start page in your internal SD card storage. Just select your "USB Storage" instead of "SD card"
installing something like StickMount and needing superuser privileges is totally overkill for just accessing external storage.
if the root and stickmount way works for 1000 GB+ storage sizes i have no idea. However i don't see how it should affect external storage size
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for helping, I'll make sure to add this to the OP
Sent from my HTC One VX using xda app-developers app
Mine wouldn't work right out of the box. I turned it on and set it up. Plugged in my 2.5" spare laptop USB 3.0 HDD. Nothing. 32gb NTFS Thumb drive. Nothing. 16gb FAT32. Nothing. MicroSD 16gb (used in my MK808). Nothing. Thought my USB was blown. Plugged in a PS3 Sixaxis controller and it worked. So something was strange.
Read online that there was a firmware patch that must have broke some things. I'm assuming this broke if a USB was previously mounted.
Only a Factory Reset would fix it. Plugged in the USB HDD and it booted right now first time. Spent 2 days screwing with it.
So if nothing mounts, factory reset. It SHOULD mount out of the box. FAT32 and NTFS are both confirmed to work with no additional apps.
player911 said:
Mine wouldn't work right out of the box. I turned it on and set it up. Plugged in my 2.5" spare laptop USB 3.0 HDD. Nothing. 32gb NTFS Thumb drive. Nothing. 16gb FAT32. Nothing. MicroSD 16gb (used in my MK808). Nothing. Thought my USB was blown. Plugged in a PS3 Sixaxis controller and it worked. So something was strange.
Read online that there was a firmware patch that must have broke some things. I'm assuming this broke if a USB was previously mounted.
Only a Factory Reset would fix it. Plugged in the USB HDD and it booted right now first time. Spent 2 days screwing with it.
So if nothing mounts, factory reset. It SHOULD mount out of the box. FAT32 and NTFS are both confirmed to work with no additional apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset, still wouldn't work. I lost hours of work to set it up.
I managed to fix it with a script after about 5 hours
XblackdemonX said:
I did a factory reset, still wouldn't work. I lost hours of work to set it up.
I managed to fix it with a script after about 5 hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which script???? lol cant just say that and not give info! how rude haha
Ouya-XD said:
Thanks for helping, I'll make sure to add this to the OP
Sent from my HTC One VX using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah no problem. However i REALLY fail to see how this belong in the development section. This should be for ROMs, MODs and tweaks, not really how best to get a build in stand feature working. No matter how bad it has been implemented by OUYA.
Could some of the mods look into moving OP's topic?

[Q] Preventing USB access to internal storage?

I've done some searching on this an not found anything really relevant - mostly questions about Media/MTP vs Camera/PTP and the loss of USB Mass Storage capability. My question is something different, and by the time MTP/PTP come into play things have already gone much too far. I'm also not clear whether this is a Nook thing or a Cyanogenmod thing, and I'm afraid that it might be the latter.
Is there any way to prevent access to the internal storage via USB?
On my HTC Amaze 4G (4.0.3) and I believe on my older 2.x based phone I have/had an option for USB connections: "Charge Only" or "Disk Drive" and with Charge Only there was no filesystem access from the PC. That is, in fact exactly how I want it. Heck, on the Amaze I actually have the option of encrypting the data, at least on the removable card. I see absolutely no reason why any shlub who gets his hands on my tablet should be able to freely browse the filesystem with the only requirements being a proprietary cable and a computer with a USB port. Heck, I don't want someone with a hacked charging station to be able to suck down the contents of my tablet (e.g. Jonathan Zdziarski's "juice-jacking" though that's focused more on iOS devices).
Is this really the state of security on modern Android devices?

Nexus 7 Rooted OTG 1TB Hard Drive issues NTFS

Hello,
I have a Nexus 7 that is rooted stock ROM w. Timur kernel with OTG + Hub capabilities. OTG + Charging + Hub capabilities seem to all work fine. My problem is that I have a 1TB external hard drive that I connect to the hub and mount via Stickmount that doesn't seem to want to pull in all of my files. I installed the necessary files to ensure that NTFS read+write worked properly, and it does. The drive mounts without an issue, and all of the files show up in File Manager or File Explorer. However, a massive majority of the files aren't showing up in Play Music or PlayerPro, and I'm not entirely sure why that is. I figured that I would just take a decent amount of time for the app to "pull in" and recognize all the files on the 1TB drive, but I gave it about an hour and I'm still not seeing about 90% of my music library (as in, I'm seeing the original 20/200 or so bands that populated into the app, but no more than those after an hour).
1) Would a different app resolve this issue?
2) Would formatting the 1TB drive to FAT32 resolve the issue?
3) Does anyone know offhand why this is happening exactly?
Thanks!
--Dan

I'm tired of always having full phone memory!

Hi, but is it possible that our phone can not yet add an external card with otg and make it internal memory to increase the phone memory?
I always have full memory, and I can not take pictures or download apps that I must first delete something, all this is nonsense!
The moto x2 is still a very good and performing phone, but is limited by memory, can SD format as internal memory with a workaround? I do not believe that nobody has yet succeeded, let me know !
Most likely not. I'm assuming you have the 16gb one like me. Transfer videos to a computer, those take up a ridiculous amount of space. Also download SDMaid. That'll clean up some space as well. Go into storage and see what's taking up the space and report back.
Make all of your pictures automatically back up to Google Drive/Photos, that relieves a lot of space.
My personal experience and a guide for using a USB otg as internal storage
Dear tanohack,
I ran into the same storage issue a while back and now I have a small micro usb stick configured as adoptable storage. My phone is not rooted (and you need Android 6.0 to perform this). This guide specifically covers how to transfer apps to an USB stick and how to use the stick is internal storage. If you only intend to store music or media on the stick this is not necessary.
tldr: It is indeed possible to have a USB configured as internal storage with a simple ADB command, possibly a great solution to your problem. This can, however, reduce the performance of intensive games on the stick, and it could be cumbersome to carry the stick around.
How to enable the adoption of an usb stick
It is possible to adopt an usb without root, but this is not enabled by default. This is primarily meant for developers to test their apps, but we can use it as well.
To enable it, you only have to perform the following ADB command once:
Code:
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
This is officially mentioned here, but I found it either on Pockednow or Android Central.
If you don't already have ADB you can follow this guide to set it up
The two storage modes and their tradeoffs
When you adopt your external storage medium (the USB in our case) you can choose to ether, only store specific apps (Use as portable storage), or to move your whole storage over to the stick (Use as internal storage). Both options have their pros and cons.
First off, the apps only version. When you use this, only apps could be moved over to the USB. System apps and apps that have disabled it can't be moved over. For all other apps, go to their storage info in the settings to manage their location. If you were to remove the USB stick the apps will disappear from your app drawer and the icons on your home screen will get grayed out.
The downside of this mode is that large games have stored a lot of their data in obb files that stay on your device, even if you move the game itself over to the USB. Your pictures, videos and music files will also stay on your device.
So, how about the second mode? In the second mode, the complete filesystem will be transferred over to the USB, even those obb files. Individual apps can still be moved between the USB and the phone (system apps etc. still stay on your phone).
Great no storage problems anymore, but what are the cons?
First of, I noticed some reduced performance mainly when loading a large game, and while playing an intensive game the frame rate could be a bit more inconsistent.
The biggest con of this mode, however, is that you don't have a file system if the USB is removed. Most apps will still work as natural but the main drawback is that you can't take pictures or videos without the USB. So if you see a cool shot, and you don't have your USB attached, you have to reattach the stick and wait for it to check and recognise it. This could take anywhere from 3 to 15 seconds.
Battery life
For some reason the phone doesn't enter deep sleep and stays awake when the screen is off while the USB is attached. This means that you can't keep the USB connected all the time or you won't be able to reach the end of the day.[/HIDE]
The USB I personally used
I use a 32GB Transcend Jetflash USB stick. It is a fairly small USB stick that can plug directly into my phone. It does however get warm while using it. As I described earlier, the performance could be better but an USB connection simply can't compete with onboard storage, so it's probably not their fault. I assume every USB storage will be this fast.
How I use it at the moment
At first I went all in and and used the USB as internal storage. When I went on holiday I converted to the Portable storage mode to regain the ability to take pictures at a moment's notice. Since then, I haven't moved back. Because only not frequently used apps are located on the USB and I use them even less often because they're on the stick, I haven't used the USB much lately.
miscellaneous
I use Storage Shortcut in combination with Custom Quick Settings to get a handy shortcut to the storage settings in the quick settings.
I use Memory Map application to manually clean my memory few times a year. A lot of apps leave some trash in folders and this app visualizes very well sizes and structure of folders. For example, I found out that Telegram stores all old media files and I needed to turn on auto-clean in Telegram to avoid it. Some apps just keep this garbage on your disk and you just need to delete it manually.

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