Big Al <Bears@invalid.com> wrote

>> Different camera apps work differently, as you noted.
>
> I had a Blu phone that would put everything in main memory
>(of course), until you inserted an SD card. It then just
> started using the SD card for a lot of things, downloads
> and camera were two of the first things I saw.
> It left the old folder in main, but made new ones.
> Kinda confusing but nice that it move a good number of items over.

NOTE: This became long because it's a reference for one in a million people
who want to completely control their data and who never need to search.
*If you have to search - then you're doing something very wrong*

You bring up a good point in that most Android phones "bring over the data"
when you set the apps to use the portable memory sd slot for their data.

Most people do not think ahead when it comes to organizing their computing
devices (whether that's Windows or Android) where I do think ahead on both.

People who think ahead are likely one in a million - but - they have a much
easier time finding things since everything is always where it belongs.

For example, on Windows, I put *nothing* in the C:\Users directory (since
I'm the only user) and also *nothing* goes into the Program Files folders.

The data goes in C:\data and the programs go in C:\apps (although the names
aren't important - the concept is *YOU* determine where your "stuff" goes.

Obviously in C:\data and C:\apps there are well-established hierarchies.
These hierarchies last for decades since they are easily ported to new PCs.
Every PC in the household uses the same hierarchies - so it's all simple.

Nobody ever has to use the Windows "search" feature (which is disabled from
even taking space on the taskbar since a Windows search is *never* needed).

It doesn't matter what hierarchy you choose to store your data in - what
matters is the consistency and completeness of your hierarchy (e.g., I
don't allow catch-all folders such as "misc" or "utils" on any PC).

Of course, your pop-up pull-out cascaded accordion menu (which is pinned to
the taskbar on every PC and which is copied - verbatim - to any new PC)
follows *exactly* the same hierarchy as does the app directory folders.

In the end, everything makes sense, where, for example the data hierarchy
has folders of the organization c:\data\{doc,mail,sys,etc.} just as there
are logical hierarchies for where things go in C:\apps such as
c:\apps\{browsers,cleaners,editors,etc} and, as I mentioned, the menu
folders the same at c:\menu\{browsers,cleaners,editors,etc}.

Likewise, on Android, you maintain your own hierarchy at all times.
Only it's a LOT DIFFERENT on Android than it is on Windows.
You have far less control.

The trick I've found is to meld your Windows skills with Android skills.

The first thing I do when I get a new phone is populate it from the old
phone which is as simple as copying over the data and app hiearchies.

One person in a million (maybe in ten million) can do what I do because
almost everyone lets Android decide where to put apps and data.

I decide where data go on both Windows & Android (for the most part).
I decide where apps go on both Windows & Android (completely).

The most important clever thing to do is when you get a new phone, normally
you can just put the old sdcard into it and everything works just fine on
the new phone with that old sdcard (everything is where it belongs).

But sometimes with a new phone I get a new sdcard - usually bigger.
In that case, I do what I describe below - which one of a million do.

FORMAT
1. I use Windows to name the sdcard 0000-0001 (this is important!).
2. Note: Every Android sdcard is named the exact same name for me!

DATA:
3. On that sdcard, I make a top level 0001 folder (every single card!)
4. I create the data hierarchy under 0001 (\0001\{docs,maps,pics,etc}.

APPS:
5. Using the Nova launcher I back up the *exact* placement of all the
homescreen app icons on the old phone and copy that to the new phone.
6. This copies *exactly* the same app icons to the new phone, only
if the app isn't installed - the icon is grayed out temporarily.
7. To populate the apps, I generally just slide the APKs over from
Windows using screen copy (which installs APKs when you drag & drop).

But there are many ways to repopulate apps - the simplest being you
just tap on the grayed-out icon that Nova launcher brought over into
the correct place on the new homescreen and the app will re-install
from your chosen repo (I don't use the Google Play Store app but I
do use the Google Play Store repository to get the apps the first time).

Note that once you get an app from the Google Play Store repository,
the APK is automatically *not deleted!* (if you set that switch).

So you _always_ have all the APKs you ever installed on Android!

Better yet, if you robocopy over all those stored APKs as periodically
as you do with your pictures, all the APKs you ever installed are on
your Windows storage devices already.

A quick flowchart example is
a. Use Windows adb to list the full path to all stored Android APKs
C:\> adb shell pm list packages -f -3 > C:\tmp\list-of-all-apks
b. Copy all those automatically stored Android APKs over to Windows
C:\> Use robocopy to copy each of those APKs over to Windows
c. Copy them back onto the new phone to easily re-populate the apps!
(Just slide the APKs over from Windows to Android using scrcpy.)
(When you do that, the APK is installed exactly where you wanted!)

I could go on talking about how I melded Android and Windows keeping
control over the file system as much as possible, but I suspect out of a
million people who read this missive, only one will understand or care.

Note though that if you do not make a "0001" hierarchy on the Android
portable storage sdcard (and a corresponding "0000" hierarchy on your
Android permanent internal storage), you'll have a devil of a time finding
your stuff because Android - let's face it - is a mess in terms of
hierarchies it splashes all over both the internal and external cards.

The name of "0000" (for the internal card) and "0001" for the external
storage card is arbitrary - but I've chosen it so that it displays on top
because I don't normally need to mess with any other folders on Android.

It's the same with Windows where I don't normally need to mess with any
other folders than C:\{apps,data,menu,etc.} on Windows.

In summary, using your Windows and Android skills, you can easily put
everything in its place on every Android phone or Windows PC you own.

When you move from one Android phone or Windows PC to another, you just
copy (verbatim!) the folders over - and almost everything works perfectly!
--
Note I never use plural-named folders (except when you can't, such as
"news") but I allowed plurals here for readability and comprehension.