# File manager that can create symbolic (soft) links?



## laxity (May 17, 2011)

I want to move my ringtones and notfication sounds from internal storage to /sd-ext. To do this I need to create a symbolic link from /system/media/audio -> /sd-ext/media/audio/

It seems that root explorer is unable to create symbolic links so are there any other android apps available that can do this? I really don't want to have to install the android SDK just to do this so is there an easy way to do this from the phone?

Cheers,
Richard.


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## technoplunk (May 17, 2011)

If your rooted and have terminal installed you should be able to enter the following:

 ln -sf /sd-ext/media/audio /system/media/audio  

I haven't tried it myself in android but its what would work in a regular linux environment.


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## laxity (May 25, 2011)

technoplunk said:


> If your rooted and have terminal installed you should be able to enter the following:
> 
> ln -sf /sd-ext/media/audio /system/media/audio
> 
> I haven't tried it myself in android but its what would work in a regular linux environment.

Click to collapse



Thanks that did the trick. I installed Terminal Emulator from the market and su'd then created the link. After a reboot all my ringtones and notifications are now working from my sd-ext partition 

Cheers,
Richard.


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## technoplunk (May 30, 2011)

Glad to hear it worked, at the time I replied I didn't even own an Android phone yet. 

This weekend I finally picked up a Desire HD.


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## aimeehammond (Jun 2, 2011)

I am trying to do the same thing on an elocity a7 ... rooted, running froyo, Dexter's  mod 1.42. Terminal has su. I enter the following:

Ln -sf /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree /sdcard/olivetree 

I get the message:  Link failed. No such file or directory.

Both directories exist and contain files. I have tried with various combinations of directories existing with or without files ... same thing.

Any ideas? Thanks


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## technoplunk (Jun 2, 2011)

aimeehammond said:


> I am trying to do the same thing on an elocity a7 ... rooted, running froyo, Dexter's  mod 1.42. Terminal has su. I enter the following:
> 
> Ln -sf /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree /sdcard/olivetree
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



Assuming /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree and /sdcard/olivetree are both directories without any functioning links and contain some files that differ from each other, I would do enter the following in the terminal:

cp -a /sdcard/olivetree /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree
rm -rf /sdcard/olivetree 
ln -sf /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree /sdcard/olivetree​
These steps copy all data from one directory to the other.
Delete one of the directories.
Link the existing directory to the removed directories location.


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## aimeehammond (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, Technoplunk. Now I get the message:

Link failed. Operation not permitted. :|


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## technoplunk (Jun 2, 2011)

Does your lines in the terminal begin with a hash "#" character? If it does not then your not running the commands as root.

Try typing 'su' without the quotes then running the commands I suggested above.


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## aimeehammond (Jun 2, 2011)

Yes, I was already running in root ...  did the su ... got the #


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## technoplunk (Jun 2, 2011)

Thinking a little harder about your problem I realize your trying to do a soft link from one portion of a fat32 partition to another. I suspect the issue might be that you can't create soft links on a fat32 partition as it probably isn't supported. Microsoft created fat32 and never supported soft links on it.

It worked for laxity because he was linking from an ext3 or ext4 partition to the fat32. The actual link resided on the ext partition.


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## aimeehammond (Jun 2, 2011)

The file structure of this tablet seems a bit weird to me. /sdcard is the tablet's _internal_ storage. The sub-directory /sdcard/sdcard-disk is the micro sd card. I would have expected it to be in the root directory of the tablet, but it's not. However, I didn't think the internal storage was FAT32. Is it?? 

I'm baffled.


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## technoplunk (Jun 3, 2011)

The "mount" command will list all partitions and their types. Its a bit verbose on my phone. Any fat32 partitions will probably say vfat rather than ext(#).


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## aimeehammond (Jun 3, 2011)

Aha. Several partitions (/system /data /misc /cache) are ext3.

/sdcard and /sdcard/sdcard-disk are FAT32. 

Is there a way to format the internal /sdcard as ext3?

Thanks so much for your help!


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## technoplunk (Jun 3, 2011)

I recommend poking the people in the Elocity A7 section of the forums, they have more experience with your particular device and can likely tell you if it is safe to try or not.


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## technoplunk (Jun 3, 2011)

I should also add that changing those partitions to ext3 would mean you could no longer drag and drop files from a Windows pc as Windows can't read that partition type.


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## r.ionescu (Oct 3, 2011)

Same question:



laxity said:


> ...
> 
> It seems that root explorer is unable to create symbolic links so are there any other android apps available that can do this?
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



I don't mind if it's free or paid application!


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## r.ionescu (Oct 27, 2011)

Problem solved!!!
*Root Explorer* v2.17 (estimated releasing date tomorrow, 10/28/2011) has "Link to this folder" */* "Link to this file" and "Create link" options!
No more painful usage of terminal emulators on small screens! 


Thank you Speed Software !


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## Wotim (Jan 15, 2013)

I have a similar problem. The music bib stored by google music should reside on my second sd card. In the moment the app stores the music automatically on the first internal sd card. But I have the same problem that the internal sd card is fat32. So is there any solution to move my bib to the second sd card?

Thanks


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## PIRATA! (Jun 30, 2015)

Hi there! 
I have a similar situation as I got deleted my "lib" file, that is a symbolic link, from my "com.android.mms" folder.
From RootExplorer I remember the file pointing to "... -> com.android.mms", so what am I supposed to type in Terminal Emulator? 

Tnx in advance.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G906K using TapaTalk


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## 3r1clfbo (Nov 28, 2017)

Hello,

Sorry to unhearth this post but I have a similar problem and these command lines do not seems to work.



technoplunk said:


> Assuming /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree and /sdcard/olivetree are both directories without any functioning links and contain some files that differ from each other, I would do enter the following in the terminal:cp -a /sdcard/olivetree /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree
> rm -rf /sdcard/olivetree
> ln -sf /sdcard/sdcard-disk/olivetree /sdcard/olivetree​These steps copy all data from one directory to the other.
> Delete one of the directories.
> Link the existing directory to the removed directories location.

Click to collapse



On my daughter's SGJ5 running 6.0.1, I have an issue with Musical.ly taking too much space because it is storing video files on the phone memory and wont be moved to SD card.

So I got inspiration from your post and thought of creating a symbolic link between the folder where Musical.ly stores its videos to another one on the SD card: respectively '/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files/localvideos' on the phone memory and '/storage/6561-3337/Videos/musically' which I created on the SD card.

I ran the following command using adbputty:

cp -a /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files/localvideos /storage/6561-3337/Videos/musically
rm -rf /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files/localvideos
ln -sf /storage/6561-3337/Videos/musically/localvideos /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files/localvideos

cp and rm worked fine but when I try to run the ln command I get the following error:

ln: cannot create symbolic link from '/storage/6561-3337/Videos/musically/localvideos' to '*/storage/emulated/*0/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files /localvideos': Operation not permitted

Edit: I tried the following command instead (inspired from "https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=62273638&postcount=18")

 ln -sf /storage/6561-3337/Videos/musically/localvideos */data/media/0/*Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files

and that works for creating the symlink but Musical.ly does show anymore Private videos, nor is it possible to create new ones.

Could you please help me with this?

Cheers


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## laxity (May 17, 2011)

I want to move my ringtones and notfication sounds from internal storage to /sd-ext. To do this I need to create a symbolic link from /system/media/audio -> /sd-ext/media/audio/

It seems that root explorer is unable to create symbolic links so are there any other android apps available that can do this? I really don't want to have to install the android SDK just to do this so is there an easy way to do this from the phone?

Cheers,
Richard.


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## technoplunk (Nov 29, 2017)

Wow talk about resurrecting a dead thread.  Referencing me was definitely the right way to get my attention though.

Vendors have used many different paths to point to the SD card over the years. I don't think I have ever had two device that used the same path. So odds are the path that you have found is likely correct for your device.


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## rtyuakatsuki (Oct 16, 2022)

technoplunk said:


> If your rooted and have terminal installed you should be able to enter the following:
> 
> ln -sf /sd-ext/media/audio /system/media/audio
> 
> I haven't tried it myself in android but its what would work in a regular linux environment.

Click to collapse



hi i am doing this with folder whatsapp .Statuses but operation permitted


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