5

I have a Samsung device of 8GB with an SD card of additional 32GB.

I'm using many apps that cache data for offline use (mainly Google Play Music), these apps are not smart enough to determine the 32GB of available space and take advantage of it, but instead claim 'no space'.

I thought perhaps there is a workaround for it by merging the external storage with the internal so the apps 'think' there is 48GB.
I don't use several SD cards which means I'm not gonna switch SDs back and forth any time soon.

Do you know a hack for it? Or any solution to make Google Music store its stuff into all available space wherever it is?

I've read this link, but since I'm not so much into Android development, I didn't understand it, can anyone refer me or translate it into a more detailed guide (I'm not a complete noob, but I'm not a hacker).

P.S. My device is rooted.

|improve this question
  • 3
    Technically possible, by using a software raid (striping of both partitions). However: You cannot pull out the sd card any more, nor can you use usb storage. Such a merge is not feasible, without proper support by Android, so there's a high risk to lose data. Don't do it. – ce4 Feb 22 '13 at 11:35
2

Instead of mergin your internal an external SD card, I think its easier to just bind the directories with high data to the external SD card. The idea is to link the folder were Google Music stores the offline cache with the SD card, so it will write it there instead of the internal memory. This is valid for any other app that writes to the internal memory, just follow the steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Apps > Running and close Google Music.
  2. Open your file manager and go to /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache and delete all files.
  3. Create a folder in your external SD card, for example MyMusic
  4. Create a file in your internal SD card with the mount options, for example MusicScript.txt
  5. Insert the following in the file (check the directories path as it might change): mount -o bind /emmc/MusicCache/ /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.Android.music/
  6. Go to Google Play store and install Script Manager.
  7. Open Script Manager, grant it root, open the MusicScript.txt file you've created and select Open As > Script/Executable.
  8. Select su and boot and hit save.
  9. Reboot your phone.
  10. Open Google Music and click on Choose on device music. You should be able to see the total space available is the same as the space available in the external SD card.

As an alternative, if you have a kernel that supports init.d scripts, you can skip steps 6 to 8 by adding the file as executable to /etc/init.d/, that way it will be executed at boot.

How to find your internal SD card path:

  1. Use ES File Explorer and it should display your SD card content once you open it. You can check the SD card path in the toolbar at the top.
  2. Use any Terminal (e.g. ConnectBot) and type mount or mount | grep sdcard, the command should display the mount point or path of your internal SD card.
|improve this answer
  • Doesn't look like it worked. Does emmc refer to the external card? – Shimmy Feb 21 '13 at 2:30
  • You have to check your phone layout, some phones or android versions reference the internal memory as either /emmc or /sdcard. You can check this by using any file manager and looking where is mounted your sdcard. – Peter Feb 22 '13 at 8:16
  • Nops, that didn't work. I copied the same paths as it appears in the device file browser for both internal and external memory card. How can I verify that script has run? Perhaps some other script instructions? Can you please be more specific in details, I'm not an Android expert at all. – Shimmy Feb 22 '13 at 10:44
  • I've added how to check your internal SD card path to my answer. – Peter Feb 22 '13 at 11:18
  • 1
    "ES File Explorer" is an app from Google Play (its a file explorer). For console I like "ConnectBot", also found in Google Play. – Peter Feb 25 '13 at 9:28

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.