When is an SD card not an SD card?

[bachastain]

I'll try to be as brief as possible but I'm new to Android and this took me about 3 days to get this far.

Archos 101 G9 Turbo
Android 4.0 ICS
32 GB SDHC memory card

It started with the internal memory filling pretty quickly as I used the tablet. Turns out that the Camera app is storing my pictures and videos to the tablet's internal memory, not my SD card.

I've read that there should be an option in the Camera app that lets to configure whether it stores to internal memory or the SD card. This Camera app has no such option. It insists on storing to the rapidly depleting internal memory.

I've learned that the Camera app is storing pictures and videos to the tablet location /sdcard, which sure sounds like it should be the SD card. It's not. For some reason on this tablet, /sdcard really points to the internal memory so the pictures are ending up in /sdcard/dcim while the real SD card remains empty.

My guess, for whatever reason, Archos has decided to emulate an SD card within the internal memory, probably so the user doesn't need a physical SD card to use the various apps. Perhaps it also allowed Archos to not include a SD card in the box, saving them a couple of bucks.

Note that /mnt/storage and /mnt/data also points to the same emulated fake sd card.

So where is the real SD card in the file system? It turns out to be here: /mnt/sdcard which apparently no app uses. Looking there, I can see the test files I put there using a Windows card reader.

Ok, now the question. How can I undo this mess? How can I get the Camera to use the real SD card? Whatever file path Camera is using is not pointing to the real SD card.

I thought about trying to reformatting the SD card, but the Format function is missing from Settings -> Storage, even when the card is unmounted. It just ain't there. Again my guess is the Format function was confused by all these redirections and perhaps trying to reformat the internal memory, so they just disabled the function instead of fixing it.

Note that there are other apps also using the fake sd card, but I'm hoping that if I solve Camera it will fix the other apps too.

Thanks for any help!
Bruce.

[viking]

One brute force remedy is to move the files using the files app. There is a nice mode where you can display the source and target areas at once, and move multi.

I havent snooped thru the real directory structure on a g9, but there are apps for that. Your normal view can be distorted because i guess they have symbolic links that usually hide the legacy mess that is preserved for compatibility reasons. Sdcard directory is where the cards used to be, now replaced by flash. Usually the real card is under sdcard/sdcard with whatever preceding junk.

It all makes sense in order to allow legacy apps to work. Googles original mistake was to name directories based on media type rather than function. The media changes, but not the function of core memory, secondary, tertiary, ect.

[bachastain]

Thanks. I'm hoping I don't have to manually move the files myself every so often. While that would be possible for me, the person that will primarily use this tablet is my wife, and this is not something I would attempt to teach her. She would just give up on the camera/video and anything else that required manual file moving.

It doesn't just affect the Camera app. For example I'm trying to use SugarSync and it insists on putting the sync folders on the sd card, which in this case means the fake sd card. Some of the files I'm syncing with my PC can be rather large, so putting those in internal storage would be very bad. Unfortunately, SugarSync, like Camera, does not give the option of moving the files elsewhere, so I'm stuck with trying to fix this. It took me a long time to figure out where the files were really going.

The "Files" Android app is not confused. What it shows for SD Card really is the SD Card. However, what it shows for Internal is really /sdcard which is the internal fake sd card.

For a file explorer, I'm using File Expert to view file file structure and it seems very capable and highly recommended. But even it is a bit confused. When you select "My Files" you get a 2 pick menu that has "SD Card" and "Phone Internal Storage". It gets the Phone Internal Storage location correct, but the SD Card pick shows the fake sd card rather than the real one. To get to the real one I have to use /Phone Internal Storage/mnt/sdcard, which is a pain if I need to use it frequently. I've reported the problem to the File Expert folk, but frankly it's not really their problem if Archos is lying to apps about where the sd card really is.

Very frustrating.

Bruce.

[viking]

I didnt say you had to explicitly move anything... just a fallback workaround.

There is no confusion on the device... confusion is in the eye of the beholder.

It appears confusing because of the android history, not archos attempts to veil it.

I gave you the conceptual basis for understanding the issues... whether a particular app or pc can be configured to do your bidding is then possible, at least by switching apps. I havent tried what you are doing... you would have a better chance of finding someone that knows on the general g9 section because all gen 9 are set up the same way.

[bachastain]

Ok, thanks.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to make the existing apps use the real SD card?

Bruce.