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How to move apps to sd card on an unrooted device: A noobs guide. **Updated 09/02/11**

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If you're smart, DO NOT do this to your phone! Unfortunately, I learned the hard way more than once. I have an Incredible 2, and for some dumb reason, HTC decided to put only 1 gig of internal memory on it, so I figured I'd try this out. Everything will be working fine, then the next minute, your phone will not recognize any of the apps that are on your sd card, but will show everything on a file explorer. Your phone will not allow you to unmount your card, it will not allow you to install, uninstall or update ANY of your apps that are on your internal memory from the market, your app2sd app, or from your manage applications list. You will have to do a master reset, and start all over again! Trust me! I tried this about 5 times to see exactly what the problem was, but couldn't find anything wrong with what I was doing, because all I was doing was downloading basic apps from the market, excluding any task killer, anti-virus, or battery widget. Once again, if you're smart, DO NOT DO THIS TO YOUR PHONE!
 
We know you had a bad experience but many do not.

Agreed its a dirty trick which isn't anywhere near as good as rooting, but for many it works. You have warned against this in this thread already.
 
SUroot said:
We know you had a bad experience but many do not.

Agreed its a dirty trick which isn't anywhere near as good as rooting, but for many it works. You have warned against this in this thread already.
Click to expand...

That's right.
Just tried few minutes back on stock desire, it was smooth.
Even widget worked after, uninstall and install procedure
 
SUroot said:
Different versions of the SDK have adb in different places. The first post has way too many steps.

As we are interested to know if this works, please would you mind testing this method first:




If that doesn't work, please follow the below. Below is like the first post but with all the unnecessary steps taken out. I suggest you get rid of your sdk and download the one below.
Click to expand...

SUroot, I have a Nexus One unrooted on 2.3.4 and had to use the second method. First(jackpal) method would give me a "Permission Denied" error.

I also tried your original method with attaining the drivers via HTC Sync but had to go to your "...toolsonly.rar" link and download drivers for N1 from XDA via a thread called "Getting Nexus One ADB/USB Mount working (Driver)". I suspect this is just model specific though.??

Anyways, thanks SUroot and all others in this thread, you made my N1 kick a$$ again!

*BTW, in my case, this did survive a reboot without the problems sashman1972 was reporting.
 
After doing this and moving all the apps, that I could, to the SD card (Google Maps, Youtube could still not be moved), my internal available memory is still just 34mb. I thought doing this would have freed up a lot more space. Is 34mb internal available memory good/bad/normal, as I don't have a clue?
 
cb3190 said:
After doing this and moving all the apps, that I could, to the SD card (Google Maps, Youtube could still not be moved), my internal available memory is still just 34mb. I thought doing this would have freed up a lot more space. Is 34mb internal available memory good/bad/normal, as I don't have a clue?
Click to expand...
I'd suggest to analyze what is taking so much space?
Look at Settings - Applications - Manage Applications, look at All list and sort it by size. What are the top 10 in that list?

Also run 1Tap Cache Cleaner and see if that helps.
 
Top few are:

Maps - 10mb
Internet - 9mb
Handcent - 7.32mb
Ninjump - 7mb (sd)
Market - 5.5 mb
Swype - 5.2mb
Google+ - 5mb (sd)
Angry birds - 4.5mb (sd)

and most other smaller apps are on sd also.

I tried 1tap cache cleaner but it would only free up around 4-5 mb so not really worth it, but thanks for the reply.
 
@cb3190,
Internet is using too much data. You can open Browser in Applications and clean data (backup your favorites first).
Maps size can be reduced by uninstalling the update.
How large is the Contacts Storage?

The ultimate solution lies with rooting though.
 
Uninstalling maps updates was good, i now have 44mb free, contacts storage is only 500kb.

I don't think I'll be rooting any time soon just incase anything goes wrong but I probably will in the long term if I have to..
 
I followed this process a little while ago and all seemed to be working fine, however I now find that I cannot install the latest update to apps that are on my SD card as it says there is insufficient stoage space availabl
e, despite having 2.79 GB available space on my SD card. There is only 15.73mb on my internal phone storage space - despite having moved everything I possibily can to my SD card, but why can I not update apps on my SD card?
 
JayGee1969 said:
I followed this process a little while ago and all seemed to be working fine, however I now find that I cannot install the latest update to apps that are on my SD card as it says there is insufficient stoage space availabl
e, despite having 2.79 GB available space on my SD card. There is only 15.73mb on my internal phone storage space - despite having moved everything I possibily can to my SD card, but why can I not update apps on my SD card?
Click to expand...
You need to have minimum of 25MB internal storage space if you want to install/update apps without any issues. The large free space on SD card is irrelevant, since part of the apps partially remain in internal storage (even if you think you have moved them completely).

Try to do the same analysis as I've suggested above (July 2nd, 2011 10:51 PM).
 
williamj1 said:
Good luck. Any questions just ask. Ill check back regularly too. Hopefully, this guide is a little simpler for noobs :)

William
Click to expand...
Hey there, I got to step 15 to where you have to enter adb shell, and all I get is device not found.............................help!!!!! I am so frustrated, anything you could help with would greatly be appreciated. Thanks
 
KarateChick said:
Hey there, I got to step 15 to where you have to enter adb shell, and all I get is device not found.............................help!!!!! I am so frustrated, anything you could help with would greatly be appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...
The guide was later refined. Try these steps:
SUroot said:
You dont need to do any of that. All you need to do is below:

Just follow these exact steps. Nothing more, nothing less

1) download and install htc sync



2) download sdk and extract to C:\


3) Connect your phone by USB


4) Open command prompt (in Windows)


  • Go to Start > Run
  • Type "Cmd" and press OK


5) In the black window:


  • Type "cd\android-sdk-windows\tools" and press enter (or platform-tools if you have adb in there)
  • Then Type "adb shell" and press enter
  • Then Type "pm setInstallLocation 2" and press enter
Click to expand...
 
To be absolutely honest I have no idea what Adobe Air is on there for - I just assumed it was one of the standard apps on the phone as I don't even know what it does
 
its like a platform to run web apps or something but havent found anything that actually uses it. May as well uninstall it if you can :)
 
soory gays can someone tell me how to do this on wildfire s its the same or its only for disare .
thanks
 
It should work on any android 2.2+ handset. However for non HTC devices they will have to get drivers another way. For you and for me, HTC sync supplies those drivers.

All I can say is it should work. Try it and let us know.
 
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