URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Switch to INTERNAL Memory (Android 8.0<)

BlackRazak

Hello commanders.

It's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, if you're using a micro SD as ADOPTABLE MEMORY, to switch F2F files to INTERNAL.
(Apps->F2F->Storage->Switch to INTERNAL)

I've suffered 5+ ERRORS which lead to my SD Card being switched to READ-ONLY, after MULTIPLE crashes, on the following:
Motorola g5s plus (SD625, Android 8.1.0)
Motorola e5 plus (SD425, Android 8.1.0)
Oppo Y85 (Helio P22, Android 8.0)
Motorola Z2 Force (SD835, Android 8.1.0)
Motorola x⁴ (SD630, Android 9.0)

All using different, but well rated U3 A1 cards from PNY, Patriot, Samsung and Sandisk.

Once it occurs, you no longer have WRITE DISK capability, which means you can't take photos, delete/download, update apps, etc.
Only solution according to OEM and vendors were to try and transfer as much to INTERNAL before ultimately REFORMATTING SD.
In some cases this meant losing data, files.

Thanks for listening.

Bntyhntr3232_

Thanks man! I had mine on SD card! Glad I switched back before it was too lste!

BlackRazak

Bntyhntr3232_ wrote: »

Thanks man! I had mine on SD card! Glad I switched back before it was too lste!

It was a painful lesson for me. Lost tons of work files, photos, music and digital comics.
First i thought it was an anomaly, then i realised all my phones (with F2F on it, crashing since the 8.0 update) were doing the same thing.

Quite easy to REPLICATE.
Replicated it over 4 times on different devices + SD card combo.

Play AM, switch to arenas, switch to spotlight, etc, you'll start getting FLICKERING of bots, then "Transformers has stopped. Send system logs?"
Then reboot.
Poof.
Byebye SD.

BlackRazak

ADOPTABLE SD CARD RECOVERY

1- Make a backup of the card
Code:
ddrescue -n /dev/sdc bad-card.img bad-card.log
ddrescue completed in one pass with zero errors. Nice. From here, I'm working with a BACKUP of the card, NOT the card itself.

2- See what's on the card
Code:
fdisk -l bad-card.img
Output:
Code:
Disk bad-card.img: 120.3 GiB, 129116405760 bytes, 252180480 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
bad-card.img1 2048 34815 32768 16M unknown
bad-card.img2 34816 252180446 252145631 120.2G unknown
3- Copy the 2nd partition to a file
Code:
dd bs=512 skip=34816 if=bad-card.img of=bad-card-p2.img
* Your numbers may be different

4- Using the encryption key I found using the link, above, mount (read-only) this (2nd) copy of the card
Code:
losetup -r -f --show bad-card-fs-p2.img

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/loop0 bad-card-fs-p2.img

dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 252145631 crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 0 /dev/loop0 0"

mkdir /tmp/mount1

mount -o ro -t ext4 /dev/dm-4 /tmp/mount1
* Your numbers may be different

nb, the "4" in "/dev/dm-4" can be identified by the minor device-number here:
Code:
dmsetup info crypt1
Name: crypt1
State: ACTIVE
Read Ahead: 256
Tables present: LIVE
Open count: 1
Event number: 0
Major, minor: 252, 4
Number of targets: 1


PS-HUGE thanks to nelenkov

lightningbaron

Interestingly on Moto G6, Storage used is internal shared storage; clicking on change button gives me two options: internal shared storage or Sandisk SD card. I presume it is fine in its current state?

BlackRazak

Switch to INTERNAL shared, @lightningbaron .
I imagine you'll be not too pleased if it were to happen.

Voltron

@BlackRazak..i believe this is only for phones let you use your SD card as Adoptable storage. For those who phone only allows uses of the SD card as External.. it is safe to have the game be saved on the SD card (as external)?

BlackRazak

@Voltron for phones that DISABLE adoptable storage, you're fine.
Brands like Sony, Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, etc DON'T NECESSARILY IMPLEMENT ADOPTABLE.
When it doesn't, the device saves all game files to INTERNAL, and only use SD Cards for MEDIA.
What was originally a money grab by OEMs turns out to be a decent thing, when it comes to F2F.

Voltron

BlackRazak wrote: »

@Voltron for phones that DISABLE adoptable storage, you're fine.
Brands like Sony, Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, etc DON'T NECESSARILY IMPLEMENT ADOPTABLE.
When it doesn't, the device saves all game files to INTERNAL, and only use SD Cards for MEDIA.
What was originally a money grab by OEMs turns out to be a decent thing, when it comes to F2F.

👍 yeah..i was pretty disappointed when i found out the note 8 didn't come with Adoptable.. I guess it works out. lol

lightningbaron

BlackRazak wrote: »

Switch to INTERNAL shared, @lightningbaron .
I imagine you'll be not too pleased if it were to happen.

Thanks mate, it was already there. 🙂 Nothing to do. I used to install apps SD cards on phones with <= 32GB internal storage; owing to 64GB internal storage on Moto G6, it was not warranted.