How To Remove File System Limit On Android Phone? The 13 New Answer

In a computer, a file system — sometimes spelled file system — is how files are named and where they are logically placed for storage and retrieval. Without a file system, stored information would not be isolated into individual files and would be difficult to identify and retrieve. With increasing data capacities, the organization and accessibility of individual files becomes more and more important in data storage.

Digital file systems and files are named and modeled after paper-based filing systems, using the same logic-based method of storing and retrieving documents.

File systems can differ between operating systems (OS) such as Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux-based systems. Some file systems are designed for specific applications. Major types of file systems include distributed file systems, disk-based file systems, and special purpose file systems.

How File Systems Work A file system stores and organizes data and can be thought of as a sort of index to all the data contained on a storage device. These devices can include hard drives, optical drives, and flash drives. File systems specify conventions for naming files, including the maximum number of characters in a name, what characters can be used, and, in some systems, how long the filename suffix can be. In many file systems, file names are not case-sensitive. In addition to the file itself, file systems contain information in the metadata such as the size of the file and its attributes, location and hierarchy in the directory. Metadata can also identify free blocks of available space on the drive and the available space. File Tree Diagram Example A file system also includes a format for specifying the path to a file through the directory structure. A file is placed in a directory – or a folder in the Windows operating system – or a subdirectory at the desired position in the tree structure. PC and mobile operating systems have file systems in which files are stored somewhere in a hierarchical tree structure. Partitions should be created before files and directories are created on the storage medium. A partition is an area of ​​the hard drive or other storage that the operating system manages separately. A file system is contained in the primary partition, and some operating systems allow multiple partitions on a hard disk. In this situation, if a file system gets corrupted, the data in another partition is safe.

File Systems and the Role of Metadata File systems use metadata to store and retrieve files. Examples of metadata tags are: creation date

date changed

Last Access Date

Last backup

File creator user ID

Access Permissions

File size Metadata is stored separately from the file’s content, with many file systems storing the filenames in separate directory entries. Some metadata can be stored in the directory, while other metadata can be stored in a structure called an inode. In Unix-like operating systems, an inode can store metadata unrelated to the contents of the file itself. The inode indexes information by number that can be used to access the file’s location and then the file itself. An example of a file system that uses metadata is OS X, the operating system used by Apple. It allows for a range of optimization features, including file names that can be up to 255 characters long.

File System Access File systems can also restrict read and write access to a specific group of users. Passwords are the easiest way to do this. In addition to controlling who can modify or read files, restricting access can ensure that data changes are controlled and limited. File permissions such as access or feature control lists can also be used to moderate access to the file system. These types of mechanisms are useful for preventing access by regular users, but are not as effective against outside intruders. Encrypting files can also prevent user access, but is more focused on protecting systems from outside attacks. An encryption key can be applied to plaintext to encrypt it, or the key can be used to decrypt ciphertext. Only users with the key can access the file. With encryption, the file system does not need to know the encryption key to manage the data effectively.

Types of file systems There are a number of types of file systems, each with different logical structures and properties, such as: B. speed and size. The type of file system may differ depending on the operating system and the requirements of that operating system. The three most common PC operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Mobile operating systems include Apple iOS and Google Android. Major file systems include: The File Allocation Table (FAT) is supported by the Microsoft Windows operating system. FAT is considered simple and reliable and is modeled after older file systems. FAT was developed for floppy disks in 1977 but later adapted for hard disks. While FAT is efficient and compatible with most current operating systems, it cannot match the performance and scalability of more modern file systems. The global file system (GFS) is a file system for the Linux operating system and a shared disk file system. GFS provides direct access to shared block storage and can be used as a local file system. GFS2 is an updated version with features not found in the original GFS such as: B. an updated metadata system. Both the GFS and GFS2 file systems are available as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The Hierarchical File System (HFS) was designed for use with Mac operating systems. HFS can also be referred to as Mac OS Standard and was superseded by Mac OS Extended. HFS was originally introduced in 1985 for floppy disks and hard disks, replacing the original Macintosh file system. It can also be used on CD-ROMs. The NT file system – also known as the New Technology File System (NTFS) – is the standard file system for Windows products starting with Windows NT 3.1. Improvements over the previous FAT file system include better metadata support, performance, and disk space utilization. NTFS is also supported in the Linux operating system via a free, open-source NTFS driver. Mac operating systems provide read-only support for NTFS. Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a vendor-independent file system used on optical media and DVDs. UDF replaces the ISO 9660 file system and is the official file system for DVD video and audio as voted for by the DVD Forum.

File system vs. DBMS Like a file system, a database management system (DBMS) efficiently stores data that can be updated and retrieved. However, the two are not interchangeable. While a file system stores unstructured, often non-contiguous files, a DBMS is used to store and manage structured, contiguous data. A DBMS creates and defines the constraints for a database. A file system allows access to individual files at once and addresses each file individually. Because of this, functions like redundancy are performed at the individual level, not by the file system itself. This makes a file system a much less consistent form of data storage than a DBMS, which manages a data repository once defined. The centralized structure of a DBMS allows for easier file sharing than a file system and prevents anomalies that can occur when separate changes are made to files in a file system. There are methods to protect files in a file system, but for heavy security, a DBMS is the way to go. Security in a file system is determined by the operating system and can be difficult to maintain over time as files are accessed and authorizations are granted to users. A DBMS keeps security restrictions high and relies on password protection, encryption, and limited authorization. More security leads to more barriers to data retrieval, so in terms of general, easy-to-use file storage and retrieval, a file system may be preferred.

Beware of Scam Messages: Samsung reminds all consumers to remain vigilant against scam messages impersonating Samsung to avoid being scammed out of their money and personal information.

Beware of Scam Messages: Samsung reminds all consumers to remain vigilant against scam messages impersonating Samsung to avoid being scammed out of their money and personal information.

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When you buy a new Android phone, chances are it will come with plenty of bloatware pre-installed. While you can uninstall these third party bloatware apps, some of the apps are installed as system apps and cannot be removed. This is especially true across the entire suite of Google apps. Unfortunately, if you’re not a fan of Google Play Music or Google Duo, you can’t remove them from your phone. The easiest way to get rid of system apps is to root your phone. The bad thing is that rooting your phone is not easy and you will void your phone warranty by doing so.

Here are some ways to uninstall bloatware/system apps in Android without root.

Also Read: How to Free Up Storage Space on Android

Uninstall/disable bloatware

As for third-party bloatware, most can be easily uninstalled.

1. Go to “Settings -> Apps & Notifications” on your Android phone.

2. Tap on “See all apps” and find and tap on the app you want to uninstall.

3. If there is an “Uninstall” button, tap it to uninstall the app.

4. If you see a Disable button instead of an Uninstall button, it means the apps cannot be uninstalled but can be disabled.

“Disabled” means the app is dormant, doesn’t appear in your apps list, and isn’t recognized as an installed app.

Tap the Disable button to disable the app.

For Xiaomi phones, first install Hidden Settings for MIUI app.

1. Open Hidden Settings for MIUI.

2. Go to “Manage Applications” and find the application you want to disable.

3. Tap the Disable button.

Uninstall system apps on Android with adb

adb is a powerful tool for debugging your phone. It also includes commands to manage app packages (uninstall packages in this case).

1. To use adb, you need to install adb on your desktop computer.

For Linux, you can simply install “Android Tools” from your software center or package manager.

For Windows, follow the instructions here to install adb.

2. Next, you need to enable “Developer Options” on your phone. Once enabled, go into Developer Options, scroll down the list and enable “USB Debugging”.

3. Connect your phone to the desktop with a USB cable. If prompted, change the Load Only mode to File Transfer (MTP) mode.

4. In Windows navigate to the adb directory and start the command prompt in this folder. For Linux, just open the terminal.

Type the following command to start adb and check if the phone is connected.

ADB devices

If you see an entry in the Device List section, your device is connected.

5. Start the adb shell.

ADB shell

6. List all packages installed on the phone.

pm list packages

The list will be very long. You can use grep to narrow down the list. For example, to show only Google packages, use the command:

pm list package | grep ‘google’

7. Find the name of the app you want to uninstall. The name is the entry after Package: . For example, the package name for the Google Contact app is com.google.android.contacts .

If you’re having trouble identifying the package name, just go to the Google Play Store in your browser and search for the app. Check the URL for the package name.

8. Enter the following command to uninstall the app.

pm uninstall -k –user 0 package name

You should see the word “Success” if the uninstall was successful.

The –user flag in the above command is important because it tells the system to uninstall the app for the current user only (and 0 is the phone’s default/main user). There is no way to uninstall the app from all users unless you root the phone.

As a warning, uninstalling system apps can damage the system, so only uninstall apps that you are sure about. Apps like Gmail, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies, etc. are safe to uninstall, but never remove Google Play Store or its associated files. If the phone becomes unstable after uninstalling a specific app, either reinstall it from the Google Play Store or factory reset your phone.

Disable system apps with debloater tool

If you find the process of ADB commands a bit tricky and tedious, luckily for you there is a debloater tool that simplifies the process of disabling unwanted apps on your Android device.

Some features of this debloater tool are blocking or disabling apps on your Android device, unlocking all apps at once, importing blocked entries, etc. It’s a pretty simple tool: once your device is connected, it will show you a list of Apps installed on your Android phone.

Note that to remove the apps you need root access on your Android phone. This tool will not uninstall system apps from your Android phone without root access. However, disabling apps is also efficient as the disabled apps won’t run in the background and consume your phone’s resources.

Here’s how you can use the debloater tool:

1. First, make sure USB debugging is enabled on your Android device.

2. Download and install the Debloater tool on your Windows PC.

3. Connect your phone to the PC with a USB cable. Open the Debloater tool and wait for it to detect your device.

4. Once your device is detected, the “Device connected” and “Syncing” notifications at the bottom of the interface will turn green, indicating the connection was successful.

5. To populate the list of apps installed on your Android phone, click the Read Phone Packs button just below the Activity Status menu.

6. Just scroll through the list of apps and check the box next to the app you want to disable.

7. After the selection is complete, click the “Apply” button at the top. The tool performs this task and gives you a completion message.

Note: a word of caution. Please do not disable any system apps as it may damage your phone by bricking it. Always double check before choosing an app.

Wrap up

Depending on your phone manufacturer, some phones come with very little bloatware and the system apps can be easily disabled, while others are full of third-party apps that you can’t remove or disable at all. Using the instructions above, you can uninstall bloatware system apps from your Android phone without rooting your phone unless you are considering rooting your phone.

On your phone, you can usually find your files in the Files app. If you can’t find the Files app, your device manufacturer may have a different app. Learn how to get help for your specific device.

Important: Some of these steps only work on Android 10 and later. Learn how to check your Android version.

Some of these steps require you to touch the screen.

Find and open files

Open your phone’s Files app. Learn where to find your apps. Your downloaded files will be displayed. To find other files, tap Menu .

. To sort by name, date, type, or size, tap More Sort by. If you don’t see Sort by, tap Modified or Sort . To open a file, tap on it.

delete files

Open your phone’s Files app. Tap on a file. Tap Delete and Delete. If you don’t see the Delete icon, tap More Delete .

Share, print, save to Drive and more

share files

Touch and hold the file. Tap Share .

Perform other actions, e.g. B. Print or add to Google Drive

To open a file, tap on it. Look for more options in the top right. If necessary, tap More .

Find music, movies and other content

You can download files like music, movies or books in different apps. To find this content, go to the app you downloaded it in. For example, learn how to find downloaded videos in the Google Play Movies & TV app.

Transfer files to a computer

If you connect your phone to a computer with a USB cable, open the computer’s Downloads folder to find the files that are on your phone. Learn how to move files between your computer and phone.

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment Computer systems organize data in a hierarchy that begins with bits and bytes and progresses to more complex groupings of data: Fields: Groups of characters, words, or a whole number

: Set of characters, words, or a complete number Records : Set of related fields, describes an entity (a person, place, or thing about which information must be kept – each characteristic of an entity is an attribute

: group of related fields, describing a (a person, place or thing about which information must be kept – each characteristic of an entity is a File : group of records of the same type

: Group of records of the same type Database: Group of related files

Figure 6-1

FIGURE 6-1 THE DATA HIERARCHY A computer system organizes data in a hierarchy that begins with the bit that represents either a 0 or a 1. Bits can be grouped to form a byte that represents a character, number, or symbol. Bytes can be grouped to form an array and related fields can be grouped to form a record. Related records can be collected to form a file and related files can be organized in a database. In most organizations, the traditional approach to information processing meant that databases and other systems tended to grow independently without an enterprise-wide plan. Accounting, finance, manufacturing, human resources, and sales and marketing have all developed their own systems and data files.

Figure 6-2

FIGURE 6-2 TRADITIONAL FILE PROCESSING

Using a traditional approach to file processing encourages every functional area in an organization to develop specialized applications and files. Each application requires a unique data file, which is likely a subset of the master file. These subsets of the master file result in data redundancy and inconsistency, processing inflexibility, and wasted storage resources. Problems arising from the traditional file environment include: Data redundancy: duplicate data in multiple files resulting in data inconsistency, different values ​​for the same attribute

: duplicate data in multiple files, resulting in different values ​​being used for the same attribute Program Data Dependency : changes in programs that require changes to the data

: Changes in programs that require changes to the data. Lack of flexibility

Bad security

Missing data exchange

It’s a bit difficult to explain in just one sentence what exactly a file system is.

That’s why I decided to write an article about it. This post is intended to provide a general overview of file systems. But I’ll sneak into the lower-level concepts as well, as long as it doesn’t get boring. 🙂

What is a file system?

Let’s start with a simple definition:

A file system defines how files are named, stored, and accessed from a storage device.

Every time you open a file on your computer or smart device, your operating system uses its file system internally to load it from the storage device.

Or when you copy, edit, or delete a file, the file system processes it in the background.

Whenever you download a file or access a website over the Internet, a file system is also involved.

For example, when you access a page on freeCodeCamp, your browser sends an HTTP request to freeCodeCamp’s server to retrieve the page. If the requested resource is a file, it is retrieved from a file system.

When people talk about filesystems, they might be referring to different aspects of a filesystem depending on the context – this is where things start to seem tricky.

And at the end you might be wondering: WHAT IS A FILE SYSTEM EVEN? 🤯

This guide will help you understand file systems in many contexts. I’ll also cover partitioning and booting!

To keep this guide manageable, I will focus on Unix-like environments when explaining the sub-concepts or console commands.

However, these concepts remain relevant to other environments and file systems.

Why do we even need a file system, you might ask?

Well, without a file system, the storage device would store a large block of data at a time, and the operating system wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.

The term file system takes its name from the old paper-based data management systems where we kept documents as files and put them in directories.

Imagine a room with stacks of paper scattered everywhere.

A storage device without a file system would be in the same situation – and it would be a useless electronic device.

However, a file system changes everything:

However, a file system is not just an accounting function.

Disk space management, metadata, data encryption, file access control, and data integrity are also the responsibility of the file system.

It all starts with partitioning

Storage devices must be partitioned and formatted before first use.

But what is partitioning?

Partitioning divides a storage device into multiple logical regions so that they can be managed separately, as if they were separate storage devices.

We usually partition using a disk management tool provided by operating systems or as a command line tool provided by the system’s firmware (I’ll explain what firmware is).

A storage device should have at least one partition or more if required.

Why should we split the storage devices into multiple partitions at all?

The reason is that we don’t want to manage all storage space as one entity and for a single purpose.

It’s just like how we divide our workspace to separate (and isolate) meeting rooms, conference rooms, and different teams.

For example, a basic Linux installation has three partitions: one for the operating system, one for the user files, and an optional swap partition.

A swap partition acts as a RAM extension when RAM space is running low.

For example, the operating system can (temporarily) move part of the data from RAM to the swap partition to free up space in RAM.

Operating systems continually use various memory management techniques to ensure that each process has enough memory to run.

File systems on Windows and Mac have a similar layout, but they don’t use a dedicated swap partition; Instead, they manage to switch within the partition where you installed your operating system.

On a computer with multiple partitions, you can install multiple operating systems and choose a different operating system to boot your system each time.

The recovery and diagnostic programs are also located in dedicated partitions.

For example, to boot a MacBook into recovery mode, you need to hold down Command + R as soon as you restart (or turn on) your MacBook. This instructs the system’s firmware to boot with a partition containing the recovery program.

However, partitioning isn’t just a way to install multiple operating systems and tools; It also helps us separate critical system files from ordinary files.

No matter how many games you install on your computer, it will not affect the performance of the operating system because they are on different partitions.

Going back to the office example, having a call center and engineering team in a shared space would hamper the productivity of both teams, as each team has its own efficiency requirements.

For example, the engineering team would appreciate a quieter area.

Some operating systems, such as Windows, assign a drive letter (A, B, C, or D) to partitions. For example, the primary partition in Windows (where Windows is installed) is known as the C: or C drive.

In Unix-like operating systems, however, partitions appear as ordinary directories under the root directory – we’ll get to that later.

In the next section, we’ll delve deeper into partitioning and learn about two concepts that will change the way you look at filesystems: system firmware and booting.

Are you ready?

Let’s go! 🏊‍♂️

Partitioning schemes, system firmware and booting

When partitioning a storage device, we have two partitioning methods (or schemes 🙄) to choose from:

Master Boot Record (MBR) scheme.

GUID partition table (GPT) scheme.

No matter which partitioning scheme you choose, the first few blocks on the storage device always contain important data about your partitions.

The system’s firmware uses these data structures to boot the operating system on a partition.

Wait, what is the system firmware? You can ask.

Here’s an explanation:

A firmware is low-level software embedded in electronic devices to operate the device or boot another program for it.

Firmware exists in computers, peripherals (keyboards, mice, and printers), or even in home electronics.

In computers, firmware provides a standard interface for complex software such as an operating system to boot up and work with hardware components.

However, in simpler systems like a printer, the firmware is the operating system. The menu you use on your printer is the interface of its firmware.

Hardware manufacturers create firmware based on two specifications:

Basic Input/Output (BIOS)

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

Firmwares – BIOS-based or UEFI-based – reside on non-volatile storage, such as a flash ROM attached to the motherboard.

When you press your computer’s power button, the firmware is the first program to run.

The job of the firmware is (among other things) to boot the computer, run the operating system, and give it control of the entire system.

A firmware also runs pre-OS environments (with network support), like recovery or diagnostic tools, or even a shell to run text-based commands.

The first few screens you see before your Windows logo appears are the output of your computer’s firmware, which checks the health of hardware components and memory.

The initial check is confirmed with a beep (usually on PCs) indicating everything is OK.

MBR partitioning and BIOS-based firmware

The MBR partitioning scheme is part of the BIOS specifications and is used by BIOS-based firmware.

On MBR-partitioned hard drives, the first sector on the storage device contains important data for booting the system.

This sector is called MBR.

The MBR contains the following information:

The bootloader, a simple program (in machine code) to initiate the first phase of the boot process

(in machine code) to initiate the first phase of the boot process. A partition table that contains information about your partitions.

BIOS-based firmware boots the system differently than UEFI-based firmware.

This is how it works:

As soon as the system is turned on, the BIOS firmware starts and loads the boot loader program (contained in the MBR) into memory. Once the program is in memory, the CPU begins execution.

Having the bootloader and partition table in a predefined location like MBR allows the BIOS to boot the system without having to deal with a file.

If you’re curious about how the CPU executes instructions located in memory, you can read this beginner-friendly and fun guide to how the CPU works.

The bootloader code in the MBR occupies between 434 bytes and 446 bytes of MBR space (out of 512b). In addition, 64 bytes are assigned to the partition table, which can contain information about a maximum of four partitions.

However, 446 bytes is not large enough to hold too much code. However, sophisticated boot loaders like GRUB 2 on Linux divide their functionality into parts or tiers.

The smallest piece of code, known as the first-stage bootloader, is stored in the MBR. It’s usually a simple program that doesn’t take up much space.

The job of the first stage boot loader is to initiate the next (and more complicated) stages of the boot process.

Immediately after the MBR and before the first partition begins, there is a small area of ​​about 1MB called the MBR gap.

The MBR gap can be used to place another piece of the bootloader program if needed.

A bootloader like GRUB 2 uses the MBR gap to store another layer of its functionality. GRUB calls this the level 1.5 boot loader, which includes a file system driver.

Stage 1.5 allows the next stages of GRUB to understand the concept of files instead of loading raw instructions from the storage device (like the first stage bootloader).

The second stage boot loader, now able to work with files, can load the operating system’s boot loader file to boot the respective operating system.

The logo of the operating system is displayed here…

Here is the layout of a storage device with MBR partition:

And if we enlarge the MBR, its contents would look like this:

Although MBR is simple and widely supported, it has some limitations 😑.

The data structure of MBR limits the number of partitions to only four primary partitions.

A common workaround is to create an extended partition alongside the primary partitions as long as the total number of partitions does not exceed four.

An extended partition can be divided into multiple logical partitions. Creating extended partitions differs depending on the operating system. In this quick guide, Microsoft explains how it should be done on Windows.

When creating a partition, you can choose between primary and extended.

After this is solved, we will encounter the second constraint.

Each partition can be a maximum of 2 TiB 🙄.

And wait, there’s more!

The content of the MBR sector has no backup 😱, which means that if the MBR gets corrupted for some unexpected reason, we have to find a way to recycle this useless piece of hardware.

This is where GPT partitioning stands out 😎.

GPT partitioning and UEFI-based firmware

GPT partitioning scheme is more sophisticated than MBR and does not have the limitations of MBR.

For example, you can have as many partitions as your operating system allows.

And each partition can be the size of the largest storage device available on the market – actually much larger.

GPT is gradually replacing MBR, although MBR is still widely supported on old and new PCs.

As mentioned earlier, GPT is part of the UEFI specification that replaces plain old BIOS.

This means that UEFI-based firmware uses a GPT-partitioned storage device to handle the boot process.

Many hardware and operating systems now support UEFI and use the GPT scheme to partition storage devices.

With the GPT partitioning scheme, the first sector of the storage device is reserved for compatibility with BIOS-based systems. The reason is that some systems might still use a BIOS based firmware but have a GPT partitioned storage device.

This sector is called Protective MBR. (Here the first stage bootloader would be on an MBR partitioned disk)

After this first sector, the GPT data structures are stored, including the GPT header and partition entries.

The GPT records and GPT header are backed up at the end of the storage device so they can be restored if the primary copy becomes corrupted.

This backup is called secondary GPT.

The layout of a GPT partitioned storage device looks like this:

In GPT, all boot services (bootloaders, boot managers, pre-OS environments and shells) reside in a dedicated partition called EFI System Partition (ESP) that can be used by UEFI firmware.

ESP even has its own file system, which is a special version of FAT. On Linux, ESP is located under the path /sys/firmware/efi.

If this path cannot be found on your system, your firmware is probably BIOS-based firmware.

To try it out, you can try changing the directory to the ESP mount point like this:

cd /sys/firmware/efi

UEFI-based firmware assumes the storage device is partitioned with GPT and looks up the ESP in the GPT partition table.

Once the EFI partition is found, it looks for the configured bootloader — typically a file with the .efi extension.

UEFI-based firmware gets its boot configuration from NVRAM (a non-volatile RAM).

NVRAM contains the boot settings and paths to the operating system’s boot loader files.

The UEFI firmware can also perform a BIOS-style boot (to boot the system from an MBR disk) if configured accordingly.

You can use the parted command on Linux to see what partitioning scheme is used for a storage device.

sudo parted -l

And the output would be something like this:

Model: Virtio Block Device (virtblk) Disk /dev/vda: 172GB Sector Size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Disk Flags: Number Start End Size Filesystem Name Flags 14 1049kB 5243kB 4194kB bios_grub 15 5243kB 116MB 111MB fat32 msftdata 1 116MB 172GB 172GB ext4

Based on the above output, the storage device ID is /dev/vda with a capacity of 172GB. The storage device is partitioned based on GPT and has three partitions; The second and third partitions are formatted based on the FAT32 and EXT4 file systems, respectively.

Having a BIOS GRUB partition means the firmware is still BIOS-based firmware.

Let’s confirm that with the dmidecode command as follows:

sudo dmidecode -t 0

And the output would be:

# dmidecode 3.2 Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs. SMBIOS 2.4 available. …

✅ Confirmed!

Format partitions

When the partitioning is complete, the partitions should be formatted.

Most operating systems allow you to format a partition based on a variety of file systems.

For example, when formatting a partition in Windows, you can choose between FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems.

Formatting involves creating various data structures and metadata used to manage files within a partition.

These data structures are one aspect of a file system.

Let’s take the NTFS file system as an example.

When you format a partition in NTFS, the formatting process places the main NTFS data structures and the Master File Table (MFT) on the partition.

Okay, let’s get filesystems back with our new background on partitioning, formatting, and booting.

How it started, how it’s going

A file system is a set of data structures, interfaces, abstractions, and APIs that work together to consistently manage any file type on any storage device.

Every operating system uses a specific file system to manage the files.

In the early days, Microsoft used FAT (FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32) in the MS-DOS and Windows 9x families.

Beginning with Windows NT 3.1, Microsoft developed the New Technology File System (NTFS) which had many advantages over FAT32 such as: B. support for larger files, allowing longer file names, data encryption, access management, journaling and much more.

NTFS has been the standard file system of the Windows NT family (2000, XP, Vista, 7, 10, etc.) ever since.

However, NTFS is not suitable for non-Windows environments 🤷🏻.

For example, you can only read the contents of an NTFS-formatted storage device (like flash memory) on a Mac OS, but you can’t write to it unless you install an NTFS driver with write support.

Or you can just use the exFat file system.

Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) is a lighter version of NTFS created by Microsoft in 2006.

exFAT is designed for high-capacity removable media such as external hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards.

exFAT is the default file system used by SDXC cards.

Unlike NTFS, exFAT offers read and write support even in non-Windows environments, including Mac OS – making it the best cross-platform file system for high-capacity removable media.

So if you have a removable disk that you want to use on Windows, Mac, and Linux, you need to format it to exFAT.

Apple has also developed and used various file systems over the years, including

Hierarchical File System (HFS), HFS+ and recently Apple File System (APFS).

Just like NTFS, APFS is a journaling file system and has been used since the introduction of OS X High Sierra in 2017.

But what about file systems in Linux distributions?

The Extended File System (ext) family of file systems was created for the Linux kernel – the core of the Linux operating system.

The first version of ext was released in 1991, but soon after it was replaced by the second extended file system (ext2) in 1993.

In the 2000s, the third extended file system (ext3) and fourth extended file system (ext4) were developed for Linux with journaling capability.

ext4 is now the default file system in many Linux distributions, including Debian and Ubuntu.

You can use the findmnt command on Linux to list your ext4 formatted partitions:

findmnt -lo source,target,fstype,used -t ext4

The output would be something like:

SOURCE DESTINATION FSTYPE USES /dev/vda1/ext4 3.6G

File system architecture

A file system installed on an operating system consists of three layers:

Physical file system

Virtual File System

Logical file system

These layers can be implemented as independent or tightly coupled abstractions.

When people talk about filesystems, they’re referring to one of these layers, or all three as one.

Although these layers differ depending on the operating system, the concept is the same.

The physical layer is the concrete implementation of a file system; It is responsible for storing and retrieving data and managing space on the storage device (or more precisely: partitions).

The physical file system interacts with storage hardware through device drivers.

The next layer is the Virtual File System or VFS.

The virtual file system provides a consistent view of different file systems mounted on the same operating system.

So does this mean that an operating system can use multiple file systems at the same time?

The answer is yes!

It is common for a removable storage device to have a different file system than that of a computer.

For example, on Windows (which uses NTFS as its primary file system), a flash drive might have been formatted to exFAT or FAT32.

However, the operating system should provide a uniform interface between computer programs (file explorer and other apps that work with files) and the different mounted file systems (like NTFS, APFS, ext4, FAT32, exFAT and UDF).

For example, when you open your file explorer program, you can copy and paste an image from an ext4 file system into your exFAT-formatted flash memory—without having to know that files are managed differently under the hood.

This convenient layer between the user (you) and the underlying file systems is provided by the VFS.

A VFS defines a contract that all physical file systems must implement in order to be supported by that operating system.

However, this compliance is not built into the core of the file system, which means that a file system’s source code does not include support for every operating system’s VFS.

Instead, it uses a file system driver to comply with each file system’s VFS rules. A driver is a program that allows software to communicate with other software or hardware.

Although VFS is responsible for providing a standard interface between programs and various file systems, computer programs do not interact directly with VFS.

Instead, they use a uniform API between programs and the VFS.

Can you guess what it is?

Yes, we are talking about the logical file system.

The logical file system is the user-side part of a file system that provides an API that allows user programs to perform various file operations such as OPEN , READ , and WRITE without having to deal with storage hardware.

On the other hand, VFS provides a bridge between the logical layer (with which programs interact) and a physical layer set of various file systems.

A high-level architecture of the file system layers

What does it mean to mount a file system?

On Unix-like systems, the VFS assigns a device ID (such as dev/disk1s1 ) to each partition or removable disk.

Then it creates a virtual directory tree and places the contents of each device as separate directories under that directory tree.

Assigning a directory to a storage device (under the root tree) is called mounting, and the assigned directory is called a mount point.

However, on a Unix-like operating system, all partitions and removable media appear as if they are directories under the root directory.

For example, on Linux, the mount points for a removable device (such as a memory card) are typically located in the /media directory.

Once a flash memory was attached to the system and thus automatically mounted to the default mount point (in this case /media), its contents would be available in the /media directory.

However, there are situations when you need to manually mount a file system.

On Linux it works like this:

mount /dev/disk1s1 /media/usb

In the above command, the first parameter is the device ID ( /dev/disk1s1 ) and the second parameter ( /media/usb ) is the mount point.

Please note that the mount point should already exist as a directory.

If it isn’t, it needs to be created first:

mkdir -p /media/usb mount /dev/disk1s1 /media/usb

If the mount point directory already contains files, those files will be hidden while the device is mounted.

metadata of files

File metadata is a data structure that contains data about a file, such as

file size

Timestamps such as creation date, last access date and modification date

The owner of the file

Mode of the file (who can do what with the file)

Which blocks on the partition are allocated to the file

and much more

However, metadata is not stored with the file content. Instead, it’s stored somewhere else on disk – but linked to the file.

In Unix-like systems, metadata is in the form of data structures called inodes.

Inodes are identified by a unique number called an inode number.

Inodes are associated with files in a table called inode tables.

Each file on the storage device has an inode that contains information about it, such as: B. the time it was created, modified, etc.

The inode also contains the address of the blocks allocated to the file; On the other hand, where exactly it is located on the storage device

In an ext4 inode, the address of the allocated blocks is stored as a set of data structures called extents (within the inode).

Each extent contains the address of the first data block allocated to the file and the number of contiguous blocks the file occupied.

Whenever you open a file in Linux, its name is first resolved to an inode number.

The file system uses the inode number to get the respective inode from the inode table.

Once the inode is retrieved, the file system starts assembling the file from the data blocks registered in the inode.

You can use the df command with the -i parameter on Linux to view the inodes (total, used, and free) in your partitions:

df-i

The output would look like this:

udev 4116100 378 4115722 1% /dev tmpfs 4118422 528 4117894 1% /run /dev/vda1 6451200 175101 6276099 3% /

As you can see, the /dev/vda1 partition has a total of 6,451,200 inodes, of which 3% have been used (175,101 inodes).

To view the inodes associated with files in a directory, you can use the ls command with the -il parameters.

ls-li

And the output would be:

1303834 -rw-r–r– 1 root www-data 2502 Jul 8, 2019 wp-links-opml.php 1303835 -rw-r–r– 1 root www-data 3306 Jul 8, 2019 wp-load .php 1303836 -rw-r–r– 1 root www-data 39551 July 8, 2019 wp-login.php 1303837 -rw-r–r– 1 root www-data 8403 July 8, 2019 wp-mail .php 1303838 – rw-r–r– 1 root www-data 18962 July 8, 2019 wp-settings.php

The first column is the inode number associated with each file.

The number of inodes on a partition is determined when you format a partition. That is, as long as you have free space and unused inodes, you can save files to your storage device.

A personal Linux OS is unlikely to run out of inodes. However, business services that handle large numbers of files (like mail servers) need to manage their inode quota intelligently.

However, on NTFS, the metadata is stored differently.

NTFS stores file information in a data structure called the Master File Table (MFT).

Every file has at least one entry in MFT that contains everything about it, including its location on the storage device – similar to the inodes table.

On most operating systems, you can get metadata through the graphical user interface.

For example, on Mac OS, if you right-click a file and select Get Info (Properties in Windows), a window appears with information about the file. This information is retrieved from the metadata of the respective file.

space management

Storage devices are divided into fixed-size blocks called sectors.

A sector is the minimum unit of storage on a storage device and ranges from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes (Advanced Format).

However, file systems use a higher-level concept as a unit of storage called blocks.

Blocks are an abstraction about physical sectors; Each block usually consists of several sectors.

Depending on the file size, the file system allocates one or more blocks to each file.

Speaking of space management, the file system knows every used and unused block on the partitions, so it can allocate space to new files or get the existing ones when requested.

The most basic unit of storage in ext4 formatted partitions is the block. However, the contiguous blocks are grouped into block groups for easier management.

The layout of a block group within an ext4 partition

Each block group has its own data structures and data blocks.

Here are the data structures that a block group can contain:

Super Block: A metadata repository that contains metadata about the entire file system, e.g. B. total number of blocks in the file system, total number of blocks in blockgroups, inodes and more. However, not all block groups contain the superblock. A certain number of block groups store a copy of the super as a backup.

a metadata repository that contains metadata about the entire file system, e.g. B. total number of blocks in the file system, total number of blocks in blockgroups, inodes and more. However, not all block groups contain the superblock. A certain number of block groups store a copy of the super as a backup. Group Descriptors: Group descriptors also contain accounting information for each block group

Group descriptors also contain accounting information for each block group inode bitmap: each block group has its own inode quota for storing files. A block bitmap is a data structure used to identify used and unused inodes within the block group. 1 denotes used and 0 denotes unused inode objects.

Each block group has its own inode quota for storing files. A block bitmap is a data structure used to identify used and unused inodes within the block group. denotes used and denotes unused inode objects. Block Bitmap: a data structure used to identify used and unused blocks of data within the block group. 1 denotes used and 0 unused data blocks

a data structure used to identify used and unused data blocks within the block group. Identifies used and unused data blocks. Inode Table: A data structure that defines the relationship of files and their inodes. The number of inodes stored in this area depends on the block size used by the file system.

a data structure that defines the relationship of files and their inodes. The number of inodes stored in this area depends on the block size used by the file system. Data Blocks: This is the zone within the block group where file contents are stored.

The ext4 filesystem even goes a step further (compared to ext3) and organizes block groups into a larger group called flex block groups.

The data structures of each block group, including the block bitmap, the inode bitmap, and the inode table, are concatenated and stored in the first block group within each flexible block group.

When all data structures in a block group (the first) are concatenated, more contiguous data blocks are freed in other block groups within each flexible block group.

These concepts may be confusing, but you don’t need to master them in great detail. It is only intended to represent the depth of file systems.

The layout of the first group of blocks looks like this:

The layout of the first block in an ext4 flex block group

When a file is written to disk, it is written to one or more blocks within a block group.

Managing files at the block group level greatly improves file system performance, as opposed to organizing files as a single entity.

Size vs size on disk

Have you ever noticed that your file explorer shows two different sizes for each file: size and size on disk.

size and size on disk

Why are the size and size on disk slightly different? You can ask.

Here’s an explanation:

We already know that depending on the file size, one or more blocks are allocated to a file.

A block is the minimum amount of space that can be allocated to a file. This means that the remaining space of a partially filled block cannot be used by another file. That’s the rule!

Since the size of the file is not an integer multiple of blocks, the last block could be partially used and the remaining space would go unused – or be zero-padded.

So, “size” is basically the actual file size, while “size on disk” is the space it occupied despite not using all of it.

You can use the du command on Linux to see it for yourself.

du -b “some-file.txt”

The output would be something like this:

623 icon-link.svg

And to check the size on disk:

du -B 1 “icon-link.svg”

Which will lead to:

4096 icon-link.svg

Based on the output, the block allocated is around 4 KB while the actual file size is 623 bytes. That means each block size on this operating system is 4 KB.

What is Disk Fragmentation?

Over time, new files are written to the hard drive, existing files grow, shrink, or are deleted.

This frequent change of storage medium creates many small gaps (empty spaces) between files. These gaps are due to the same reason that the file size and the file size on disk are different. Some files don’t fill the entire block and a lot of disk space is wasted. And over time, there will not be enough subsequent blocks to store new files.

Then new files must be saved as fragments.

File fragmentation occurs when a file is stored as fragments on the storage device because the file system cannot find enough contiguous blocks to store the entire file in a row.

An example of a fragmented and non-fragmented file

Let’s make it clearer with an example.

Imagine you have a Word document called myfile.docx .

myfile.docx is initially saved to disk in a few contiguous blocks; Let’s say the blocks are named like this: LBA250 , LBA251 and LBA252 .

If you now add and save additional content to myfile.docx, it must occupy more blocks on the storage medium.

Since myfile.docx is currently stored on LBA250 , LBA251 , and LBA252 , the new content should preferably reside in LBA253 , etc. – depending on how many more blocks are needed to accommodate the new changes.

Now imagine that LBA253 is already occupied by another file (maybe it’s the first block of another file). In this case, the new content of myfile.docx has to be stored in different blocks somewhere else on the disks, e.g. B. LBA312 and LBA313 .

myfile.docx was fragmented 💔.

File fragmentation puts a strain on the file system because each time a fragmented file is requested by a user agent, the file system must collect each piece of the file from different locations on a disk.

This overhead also applies to restoring the file to disk.

Fragmentation can also occur when a file is first written to disk, likely because the file is huge and not many contiguous blocks are left on the partition.

Fragmentation is one of the reasons why some operating systems slow down as the file system ages.

Should we care about fragmentation these days?

The short answer is: no more!

Modern file systems use intelligent algorithms to avoid (or detect early) fragmentation as much as possible.

Ext4 also performs a form of pre-allocation, reserving blocks for a file before they’re actually needed. This ensures that the file does not become fragmented as it grows over time.

The number of blocks preallocated is defined in the length field of the file’s extent of its inode object.

In addition, ext4 uses an allocation technique called lazy allocation.

The idea is that the allocation requests are not written into blocks of data one at a time during a write, but rather are collected in a buffer and immediately written to disk.

Because the file system’s block allocator does not need to be invoked on every write request, the file system can make better decisions when allocating available space. For example, by placing large files separately from smaller files.

Imagine a small file is sandwiched between two large files. Now when the small file is deleted, there will be a small gap between the two files.

Distributing the files in this way leaves enough gaps between the data blocks, which helps the file system manage (and avoid) fragmentation more easily.

Deferred allocation actively reduces fragmentation and increases performance.

directories

A directory (folder in Windows) is a special file used as a logical container for grouping files and directories within a file system.

Directories and files are treated the same under NTFS and Ext4. However, directories are just files that have their own inode (for Ext4) or MFT entry (for NTFS).

A directory’s inode or MFT entry contains information about that directory as well as a collection of entries pointing to the files “under” that directory.

The files are not literally contained in the directory, but they are associated with the directory in such a way that they appear as children of the directory at a higher level, for example in a file explorer program.

These entries are called directory entries. Directory entries contain filenames associated with their inode/MFT entry.

In addition to the directory entries, there are two other entries. That . Entry pointing to the directory itself, and .. pointing to the parent of that directory.

On Linux you can use the ls in a directory to show the directory entries with their associated inode numbers:

ls-lai

And the output would be something like this:

63756 drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 Dec 1 17:24 . 2 drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 1 Dec 17:06 .. 81132 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 18 Feb 06:25 Backups 81020 drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 2 Dec 07: 01 cache 81146 drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 Oct 16 21:43 crash 80913 drwxr-xr-x 46 root root 4096 Dec 1 22:14 lib…

Rules for naming files

Some file systems enforce file name restrictions.

The limitation can be the length of the filename or the case sensitivity of the filename.

For example, on NTFS (Windows) and APFS (Mac) file systems, MyFile and MyFile refer to the same file, while on ext4 (Linux) they refer to different files.

Why is that important? You can ask.

Imagine you are creating a website on your Windows machine. The web page contains your company logo which is a PNG file as follows:

If the actual filename is Logo.png (note the capital L), you can still see the image when you open your webpage in your web browser (on your Windows computer).

However, once you deploy it to a Linux server and view it live, you see a broken image.

Why?

Because under Linux (ext4 file system) logo.png and Logo.png point to two different files.

So keep that in mind when developing on Windows and deploying to a Linux server.

File Size Rules

An important aspect of file systems is the maximum file size they support.

An old file system like FAT32 (used by MS-DOS +7.1, Windows 9x family and flash memories) cannot store files larger than 4 GB, while its successor NTFS allows file sizes up to 16 EB (1000 TB).

Like NTFS, exFAT allows a file size of 16 EB. This makes exFAT an ideal option for storing massive data objects such as video files.

There is practically no file size limit in the exFAT and NTFS file systems.

Linux ext4 and Apple’s APFS support files up to 16 TiB and 8 EiB, respectively.

File management programs

As you know, the logical layer of the file system provides an API that user applications can use to perform file operations such as read, write, delete, and execute.

However, the file system API is a low-level mechanism designed for computer programs, runtime environments and shells – not for everyday use.

However, operating systems provide out-of-the-box handy file managers for your day-to-day file management.

For example, File Explorer on Windows, Finder on Mac OS, and Nautilus on Ubuntu are examples of file manager programs.

These utilities use the logical file system API behind the scenes.

Aside from these GUI tools, operating systems also expose the file system APIs through command-line interfaces, such as Command Prompt on Windows and Terminal on Mac and Linux.

These text-based interfaces help users perform all kinds of file operations as text commands – just like we did in the previous examples.

File Access Management

Not everyone should be able to remove or modify a file that they don’t own or don’t have permission to do.

Modern file systems provide mechanisms to control user access and functions related to files.

User permissions and file ownership data is stored in a data structure called Access-Control List (ACL) on Windows or Access-Control Entries (ACE) on Unix-like operating systems (Linux and Mac OS).

This feature is also available in the CLI (command prompt or terminal) where a user can change file ownership or restrict permissions on any file directly from the command line interface.

For example, a file owner (on Linux or Mac) can configure a file to be publicly accessible:

chmod 777 myfile.txt

777 means anyone can perform any operation (read, write, execute) on myfile.txt. Please note that this is just an example and you should not set a file’s permission to 777.

maintaining data integrity

Suppose you have been working on your thesis for a month now. One day you open the file, make some changes and save it.

Once you save the file, your word processor sends a “write request” to the file system’s API (the logical file system).

The request is finally passed to the physical layer to store the file in multiple blocks.

But what if the system crashes while replacing the older version of the file with the new version?

In older file systems (like FAT32 or ext2) the data got corrupted because it was partially written to disk.

This is less likely to happen with modern file systems since they use a technique called journaling.

Journaling file systems record every operation that is about to take place in the physical layer but has not yet taken place.

The main purpose is to keep track of the changes that have not yet been physically committed to the file system.

The journal is a special allocation on disk where each write attempt is initially stored as a transaction.

Once the data is physically placed on the storage device, the change is propagated to the file system.

In the event of a system failure, the file system recognizes the incomplete transaction and rolls it back as if it never happened.

That is, the new content (that was written) can still be lost, but the existing data would remain intact.

Modern file systems like NTFS, APFS and ext4 (even ext3) use journaling to avoid data corruption in case of system failure.

database file systems

Typical file systems organize files as directory trees.

To access a file, go to the appropriate directory and you have it.

cd /music/country/highwayman

However, in a database file system there is no concept of paths and directories.

The database file system is a faceted system that groups files based on various attributes and dimensions.

For example, MP3 files can be listed by artist, genre, year of release and album – all at the same time!

A database file system is more like a high-level application that allows you to organize and access your files more easily and efficiently. However, you cannot access the raw files outside of this application.

However, a database file system cannot replace a typical file system. It’s just a high-level abstraction for easier file management on some systems.

The iTunes app on Mac OS is a good example of a database file system.

Wrap up

Wow! You made it to the end, which means you now know a lot more about file systems. But I’m sure this won’t be the end of your filesystem studies.

So again – can we describe in one sentence what a file system is and how it works?

We can not! 😁

But let’s end this post with the short description I used at the beginning:

A file system defines how files are named, stored, and retrieved from the storage device.

Okay, I think it does for this article. If you notice anything missing or that I’m wrong, please let me know in the comments below. That would help me and others too!

BTW, if you like more comprehensive guides like this, check out my site decodingweb. dev and follow me on Twitter, because along with freeCodeCamp, these are the channels I use to share my everyday insights.

Thanks for reading and happy learning! 😃

Explanation: Two types of user interfaces for computer operating systems are CLI and GUI. CLI stands for Command Line Interface. In a command line interface, a user enters commands at a command prompt using a keyboard. The second type is the GUI or graphical user interface. With this type of user interface, a user interacts with the operating system by working with icons and menus. A mouse, finger, or stylus can be used to interact with a GUI. PnP is the name of a process by which an operating system allocates resources to various hardware components on a computer. The other answers are examples of application programming interfaces or APIs.

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon (on the QuickTap bar) > Apps tab (if necessary) > Tools folder > File Manager .

When you think of your smartphone, apps and interfaces probably come to mind first. Beneath all that superficial stuff, however, our modern mobile devices are filled with files – folders and folders of them! – just like the clunky old computers we’ve relied on for ages.

We might not be confronted with our phones’ file systems all that often, but it’s valuable to know they’re there — and to know how to make them work for us when we need to. After all, your Android device is a productivity powerhouse. It can juggle everything from PDFs and PSDs to presentations and podcasts. It can even act as a portable hard drive and hold all kinds of important files you need in your pocket (and not just in a faraway cloud). Your mobile device can hold a lot of data, and there may come a time when you want to dig in and deal with it head-on.

Here’s everything you need to know to get under the hood and start using your phone’s file management features.

Manage files on your Android phone

You might not realize it at first glance, but Android actually gives you access to a device’s entire file system – even from the device itself.

The operating system has had its own native file manager since the release of Android 6.0 Marshmallow in 2015, and what started out as an experimental attempt has grown into a powerful tool for basic data manipulation. On Android 6.0 to 7.1, the system-level file manager is somewhat hidden: you’ll have to look in the storage section of your system settings, then scroll all the way down and tap the line labeled “Explore” to find it.

With Google’s Android 8.0 Oreo version, the file manager now lives in the Android download app. All you have to do is open this app and select the “Show Internal Storage” option from its menu to search all your phone’s internal storage. You can then open, move, rename, copy, delete, and share files as needed.

And if you’ve got Android 9 or later on your phone, things get even simpler: on these newer versions of Android, the file manager exists in its own app, meaningfully named Files. Just open it to browse any area of ​​your local storage or connected Drive account. You can either use the file type icons at the top of the screen or, if you want to view folder by folder, tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner and select “Show Internal Storage” – then tap the three-line menu icon inside in the top left corner and look for your phone name.

JR Raphael/IDG The latest version of the system-level Files app lets you browse files in a variety of ways, including a traditional folder-by-folder view.

If you don’t see the Files app on your phone, you’re probably using a device from a manufacturer – like Samsung – who choose not to include this Android system-level element in their software, instead providing their own self-made alternative (supposedly with the aim of pushing its own cloud storage service and/or the cloud storage service of a paid partner alongside Google Drive). Such an app might reside in a folder with the manufacturer’s name in your app drawer, and it might be called My Files – or something like that. You’ll likely find the same basic type of file management functionality in it, just with a slightly different interface and set of options.

If you want to do more than basic file management on the device, a third-party file manager is the way to go. For my latest recommendations for various needs, check out my separate round-up of the best Android file manager apps.

Add to your phone’s local storage

A little-known feature of Android is its ability to connect to even larger capacity external storage devices like USB memory sticks and portable hard drives. A phone just needs to support something known as USB On-The-Go or USB OTG for the connection to work.

A whole range of devices, including Google’s Pixel phones and many Samsung Galaxy products, offer such support. If you’re unsure if your phone does this, your best bet is to google the name along with “USB OTG”. Chances are, you’ll find the answer pretty quickly.

Assuming your device supports USB OTG, all you need is a USB-A to USB-C adapter like this one from Amazon. (If you have an older non-USB-C device, you’ll need a USB-A to Micro-USB adapter instead; you can find many such options on Amazon or pretty much any electronics retailer.) Use the adapters to do that connect an external drive to your phone, and then look for a notification confirming the drive is connected.

From the notification, tap the “Browse” option and that’s it: you can now browse and access all files on your external drive.

JR Raphael/IDG Pay attention to the notification that appears when an external drive is connected and you’ll be browsing the contents of the drive in no time.

When you’re done, don’t forget to return to the notification and tap “Eject” before disconnecting the drive.

Transfer files between your phone and computer

In addition to supporting external hard drives, your Android phone can act as an external hard drive. Just connect your device to a Windows, Mac or Chrome OS computer and you can access the entire file system and easily drag and drop files between it and your desktop.

With a Windows or Chrome OS system, it’s essentially as simple as plug and play. With a Mac, you must first install a special program on your computer before the connection can be established.

For step-by-step guides on these fronts, click on my comprehensive Android file transfer guide.

Wireless transfer of files between devices

Want to transfer files between your Android phone and a computer (or another Android phone, iPhone, etc.) wirelessly? No problem.

Your easiest option is to use a middleman — specifically, a cloud storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. Simply upload the files to a folder within each app on your Android phone and then browse to the folder within the same app on the receiving device (or vice versa).

However, they can be even more advanced – and thereby make your life considerably easier. If you’re transferring between two Android devices in the same physical space, Google’s own Files app (which, confusingly, isn’t the same as the aforementioned Files app that comes preinstalled on many devices) does the job with minimal fuss and hassle. Just install the app on both devices, tap the Share tab at the bottom, then tap the Send or Receive button to set up the transfer. The app automatically encrypts all data sent.

If you use devices on different platforms – and/or devices that aren’t in the same physical location – a cross-platform app called Join is a handy tool to consider (which also has the ability to encrypt its transmissions, although you will need to check the app’s settings to enable this option). Install the app on your Android device, then install the same app, Chrome version, or Windows 10 version on any other device you want to share files with. You can also access the service from a regular website on any desktop computer – for example, if you’re using a Mac with a browser other than Chrome.

Once you’ve logged into the apps on both ends, you can easily initiate file transfers in either direction. On Android, just share a file from any app—a file manager, image gallery, or other file-using utility—and choose Join as the destination. The file will appear on your desktop within seconds.

On a computer, on the other hand, sending a file is as simple as opening the Join app or extension, selecting your phone as the receiving device, and dragging the file into the window.

JR Raphael / IDG Drop a file in Join on your desktop (left) and it will appear a second later on your Android device (right).

Join has a number of other features — including the ability to send a “note to self”-style notification from a computer to your phone, and even paste text from a computer straight to your phone’s clipboard — but even if you’re only using it for wireless file transfers, it pays to have them around. The app comes with a free (ad-supported) one-month trial, and then requires a one-time purchase of $5 if you want to continue using it.

Sync your Android phone’s storage to a computer

Maybe you like having certain files stored locally on your Android phone, but you also want those files to be backed up and stored on your computer. The best of both worlds, right?

Believe it or not, this is actually quite easy to pull off. Just get an Android app called AutoSync available for use with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and Box. It lets you create pairings between a local folder on your phone and a cloud-based folder for free with a single pair of folders and files smaller than 10MB, or for a one-time payment of $5 with no real restrictions.

Install the relevant computer-side app for the service you prefer, make sure it’s synced to your computer’s hard drive – and there you have it: your Android device’s folder is now effectively a part of your PC.

You can even choose to keep the folders synced both ways at all times — so if you add or update a file on your computer, the same changes appear on your phone too.

That’s a wrap!

Congratulations: you’ve officially earned the title of Android File Master. (Seriously — you can even type it into a document, print it out, and stick it on your desk for everyone to know.)

Next: Make sure you understand the ins and outs of Android backup. After all, they also consist of files – and quite important ones at that.

This article was originally published in September 2017 and last updated in February 2020.

Well, to answer your question, I think it’s important to read the insufficient memory tags wiki first to get some insight.

A significant amount of space in internal storage is occupied by “system” ( /system , /data partitions, etc.) and in some cases is reserved space.

Some manufacturers include pre-installed applications (sometimes called bloatware) located in the /data or /system or /cust (in my case) partitions. It is practically impossible to view the breakdown of these files without root privileges. Part of the memory space is reserved for ROM updates, serves as a system buffer or cache memory, etc.

While it’s difficult to uninstall unnecessary applications residing in these “system” partitions, there are some methods that can help you optimize your storage space

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