22
votes
Accepted
Some folders and files not showing up on PC when connected via USB
This is a known issue. Go to app manager and find 'external storage' and 'media storage' and clear data and cache for them, then reboot, and wait up to 10 minutes and then connect to PC via USB.
...
- 1,817
20
votes
Best file system for an external SD card
The answer to your question is built into your phone's OS.
1. Put the SD card in your phone
2. Reformat the SD card with your phone(Settings --> Storage/Storage & USB)
3. The file system on the ...
- 616
19
votes
Accepted
adb push not working on /system, read only
The sequence of commands that worked for me was
adb root
adb disable-verity
adb reboot
adb root
adb remount
If I don't reboot, remount does not succeed.
- 411
17
votes
Accepted
Can I access "/data/user/0/" folder in Android emulator from Ubuntu PC?
For this, Android Studio has the feature called Device File Explorer that will allow you to view the connected device or emulator internal files. This is useful especially when you are utilising the ...
- 186
13
votes
Accepted
How to disable dm-verity on Android with "user" build type ROM?
I'm going to give a general overview of how dm-verity and related things work on Android according to my limited knowledge. Situation might differ on different devices and ROMs.
HOW IS DM-VERITY ...
- 19.9k
12
votes
Accepted
How can I enable last_kmsg?
Back in 2012, /proc/last_kmsg (1) used to be a dump of kernel console messages, exported after reboots by Android's ram_console functionality (CONFIG_ANDROID_RAM_CONSOLE), which used persistent_ram (...
- 19.9k
11
votes
What's the Android equivalent of /etc/fstab?
I realize that this is an old topic, but some of the answers here actually hindered my efforts to learn about fstab and Android because they so strongly imply that the fstab situation in Android is ...
- 211
11
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to change file permissions on Android's internal storage?
On all operating systems based on Linux kernel - like Android is - it's possible to set permissions on files (including directories) provided that filesystem supports UNIX permissions (uid, gid, mode)....
- 19.9k
10
votes
Where on the file system are SMS messages stored?
Looks like it moved to data/User_DE/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases with Nougat.
At least, this is where it can be found on my Nexus 6. Hope this helps.
- 101
9
votes
How can I view the Android internal partition table?
Old thread but found something nobody else has mentioned... just in case anyone finds it useful.
ls -la /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name
The directory contains named symlinks to all the partitons.
9
votes
How to decrypt the corrupt SD card formatted as internal storage?
Even it does not fully answer the question, here's a guide to decrypt the external storage formatted as internal. You do need to be root on your phone, however.
The gist is that we search for strings ...
- 361
9
votes
Why is there no option to choose size in TWRP's resize partition feature?
First to clarify, Resize Partition is different than Resize File System, TWRP provides latter option. It resizes the ext2/3/4 filesystem to the size of partition it's created on. Filesystem size can ...
- 19.9k
9
votes
Why my DCIM folder is empty seen in the computer but not empty in the phone
For accessing your Android device via USB in "File Transfer" mode your computer uses the MTP protocol. This protocol allows to list and read/write the files from/to your device.
What most ...
- 19k
9
votes
Accepted
How can I know if fstrim was run when I put my phone on charging over night?
A charging, idle device over night is not the only way to run fstrim, there are other ways, too.
Quoting from this old article about scheduled fstrim on Android:
The Android framework will send out a ...
- 19.9k
8
votes
How can I view the Android internal partition table?
You can use fdisk via busybox on a droid. So, assuming you have the busybox binary on your rom, and it's on your path, the command would simply be:
busybox fdisk [the various fdisk options...]
...
- 181
8
votes
Accepted
Is there a way to access the phone filesystem from computer, wireless?
This solution works even over a hotspot. Simply enable Portable Hotspot on your mobile device, then connect your laptop to the Hotspot WiFi network.
Tip: If you want to prevent the laptop from using ...
- 260
7
votes
Accepted
Are files created in "/storage/emulated/0" supposed to appear in "/storage/sdcard0"?
I've checked on one of my devices, and as the comment chain already suspected, you don't need to worry about everyone having access to everybody elses data. First:
/storage/sdcard0 -> /storage/...
Izzy♦
- 90.8k
7
votes
How to change the modified date of a file without root?
SHORT ANSWER:
You can simply touch the file or provide any time and date in past or future:
~$ touch /sdcard/test_file
~# debugfs -R 'stat media/0/test_file' /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata | ...
- 19.9k
7
votes
How to unpack/repack system.img of android ROM?
These commands don't work always: sometimes the system_new.img size becomes greater than system.img.ext4 and hence it doesn't flash on the device. As per my knowledge, the new image size should be ...
- 981
6
votes
When should fstrim run?
The article referenced in @mattm's answer is a bit outdated. IdleMaintenanceService was removed in Lollipop, things have changed. On Pie, scheduled fstrim is triggered from StorageManagerService (1) ...
- 19.9k
6
votes
Error "Function not implemented" when creating symbolic link
The filesystem you're trying to create the symbolic link on doesn't support symbolic links. All the native Linux filesystems (ext2-4) support symlinks, but the DOS filesystem used on SD cards doesn't, ...
- 34.9k
6
votes
Accepted
What does the /data/system folder store and its significance?
data/system folder contains system configuration files critical to maintaining device's state. Access to the directory is restricted by the system apps only, so if the device is not rooted the folder ...
- 178
6
votes
Is there a way to access the phone filesystem from computer, wireless?
According to the mentioned requirements, more powerful tool to use is Sambadroid. SambaDroid is a native port for Android of the popular Samba for Linux. This application allows you to share/manage ...
- 9,985
6
votes
Accepted
Which part of Android directories contains so-called proprietary blobs?
Yes, binary blobs are part of Android filesystem. Android can't boot without them as they are kind of hardware drivers for the device. Most of those are found under /vendor/lib(64), some also under /...
- 19.9k
6
votes
How do I find what type of file system is of an attached USB or SD card?
Related question: How to detect filesystem type of un-mounted partition?
Just to complete some missing pieces:
Usually we use mount command to see mounted filesystems, it works without root e.g. ...
- 19.9k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the "u#_everybody" UID?
As stated here:
Cross-user interactions are blocked using the everybody GID.
Android reserves UIDs / GIDs ranging from 10000 to 19999 for apps. AID_EVERYBODY is one of the special groups, which is ...
- 19.9k
6
votes
Accepted
If I reset my phone, will it also TRIM the fragmented eMMC?
Android supports fstrim but it only works if the phone is idle for a long time while charging
It's not so. On newer versions, Android runs fstrim with a daily schedule, provided that the conditions ...
- 19.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Filesystem format used for SD Card by Galaxy S3
The reason is, at least with Samsung devices and cards larger than 32GB, Samsung or Android formats the card with the exFAT file system, but incorrectly identifies the partition type as "FAT32 (LBA)", ...
- 86
5
votes
Where is the Home folder?
If you're trying to access the files you see in your device when you're plugging it in a computer, then it's there :
/storage/emulated/0/
/sdcard/
- 300
5
votes
Check and fix SD card errors within Android itself?
While other answers are correct (at least partially), just to add some extra notes. On recent Android releases you don't need to run filesystem check manually as vold handles this automatically. See ...
- 19.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible