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I did a lot of research on Google. There are a lot of tutorials and applications to do that. I tested the most known: App2SD, Link2SD, FolderMount. I even bought their commercial edition to be sure I have all features enabled. Well, none of them work with Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) for this specific use case.

App2SD: the mount is done, if I manually create a file in the media folder with ESExplorer (from the internal storage), the file is actually saved on the extSD. So it does the job. But when I receive a video, I can watch it once within WhatsApp, then if I re-open WhatsApp it says it can't find the video...

Link2SD makes WhatsApp crashing when you try to link everything.

MountFolder is worst (nothing to do with WhatsApp) it says: "FM has detected two troublesome modules. /system/bin/sdcard and system/bin/vold. Would like me to attempt to repair these two files?" I clicked on yes and reboot, system does not boot anymore. I had to do a full restore.

Of course I spent days on the web trying to solve all those issues without success.

Then i had a look at "Adoptable storage" on my GALAXIS J7. I was able to enable it with ADB. I see my external SD as internal storage, but it does not move WhatsApp media files...

Moving app works quite well, but that's not enough compare to media files. This is really what I need.

If someone has a solution (mount, symlink, adoptable storage or whatever) then please let me know. But please only something that you personnaly tested on Android 6.0.1 or above. There are too many theoretical answers on the web, or correct answers but that apply to older version.

thanks, Rod

Rod
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2 Answers2

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actually I realize that the "Adoptable storage" DOES work!

The information about the storage is a bit confusing. You see 2 internal storages, the amount of the first is your real internal storage, the second is the part of your external card that you set as "adoptable". When I used ESExplore and select the internal storage, I didn't realize this is actually the adoptable storage that it shows, and everything has been moved from the original internal storage to that adoptable storage. If I understand correctly everything will now be written on the adoptable storage, nothing more on the real internal storage! This is the part I was missing. So a bit less in term of performance, but you can extand the size to whatever you need. Now the WhatsApp media files are stored on my adoptable storage which is 32GB (coule be more) instead of the original 16GB. To be 100% sure it works, I sent through WhatsApp a lot of big videos till it goes above what I know is my real internal storage :-)

This page better explains how adoptable storage works: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/496sn3/lets_clear_up_the_confusion_regarding_storage_in/

and this one explains how to enable it (it works the same with other models than S7): https://www.xda-developers.com/enable-adoptable-storage-for-galaxy-s7-and-s7-edge/

Rod
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There are basically two places an Android app can store data: its own private storage and the "shared" storage, visible to all applications, under /storage/emulated/0/.

The application private storage will be in the internal flash or on SD card depending on which of the two the application is installed. With an adopted SD card some (but far from all) applications can be moved to the SD card by finding the application under Settings / Storage / Internal shared storage / Apps and clicking on the app name; below "Storage Used: Internal shared storage" there will be a "Change" button if it can be moved. For applications such as Amazon Kindle that do not offer the ability to select where you store data within the application, this is the only way to have them store their data on the adopoted SD card.

The shared data is an entirely separate thing; this is the directories usually seen under /storage/emulated/0/ such as Books, DCIM, Downloads and the like, including any directories you create there. This is as a whole stored either in internal storage or on the adopted SD card and is moved back and forth using the "Migrate data" option. When you initially format an SD card as adopted storage you will be offered the option to migrate this shared data storage to it, and you can move to either the SD card or internal at any time by going to Settings / Storage, picking the storage area that does not currently hold the shared data, and clicking the ⋮ (three vertical dots) icon at the upper right to bring up a menu with the "Migrate data" option.

cjs
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