1. iBrow's Avatar
    Hello.

    I'm a happy Playbook 16GB owner and starting reading this forum about 5 months ago for tips and details a couple of months before buying the Playbook. Lots of useful info.

    I did a search and didn't see this covered so here is my problem.

    When I copy videos to the video folder - a duplicate is created in the misc\android\Movies\Videos folder. This not only slows the wifi transfer but eats up my free space in a big hurry. My 16GB becomes 8 GB.

    So how do I fix this?

    Deleting files from the android folder also deletes them from my videos folder.

    Is it just me or does this happen to others?
    03-05-12 12:57 PM
  2. FF22's Avatar
    They are VIRTUAL files. They don't really exist. They are like Windows Shortcuts and allow the Android system to find files for those apps. There are a few threads on this issue. So they do not take up any space (well, maybe a tiny bit to create the shortcut but not mega/giga bytes.

    What is also interesting is that while most of the normal folders have their counterparts, the Document folder is treated even differently in Android File Manager apps.
    Last edited by F2; 03-05-12 at 01:26 PM.
    03-05-12 01:24 PM
  3. iBrow's Avatar
    Thanks for that. I guess I panicked.
    I did some further experimenting and copied a 1GB file over wifi (it took 15 mins) and it only took up 1 GB total space while it appears in both locations.

    I've been busy converting movies from my Hauppauge Pvr that play on both my WDTV Live and the Playbook and trying to copy them - make note of what they are - delete what doesn't work.

    When I thought they were duplicates I wasn't happy.
    03-05-12 01:36 PM
  4. VerryBestr's Avatar
    Actually, the shortcut is to the folder containing the videos.

    That little technical difference actually has real consequences. If a video in the Android folder were a shortcut, you could delete it with no other consequences. The original video in the normal PlayBook video folder would still be there.

    However, in this case, you are seeing the contents of a unique video folder from two different paths. If you delete a video in either of two paths (the normal PlayBook video folder or misc\android\Movies\Videos), it will disappear from the other also, because the video itself was deleted.
    03-05-12 01:56 PM
  5. kenorian's Avatar
    OK, so I get that the files are symbolic links. But, I want to play an artist, but not have every song from that artist play twice.
    03-13-12 05:16 AM
  6. FF22's Avatar
    OK, so I get that the files are symbolic links. But, I want to play an artist, but not have every song from that artist play twice.
    Let me ask, what App are you using? The native Music app? When I open it, and chose Artists, I only see each Artist once and if I select that Artist, I only see one listing for any particular song. But I may be going about it differently.
    03-13-12 09:27 AM
  7. kenorian's Avatar
    Using the native music app, sorted by song I believe it was. Can't check because I deleted them all before I read the forums! Each song was listed twice.
    03-13-12 11:09 AM
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