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App 2 SD ?

Murf1

Murf1

Android Enthusiast
I was reading reviews of the F3 on the Virgin site. Someone said that on Android 4.+ you can no longer move apps to the SD card. Is that true?

thanks
 
From what I've seen it is true. There is no option to move to the SD card. After getting my normal app's I have around 700 mb left.
 
Once ics was announced (4.0), the feature to move apps to sd was in fact done away with.

Just lately android 4.3 reintroduced the option to move them.

But for now, your best bet if your up to it would be obtaining root and using link2sd to force apps onto the sd card.
 
That's crazy! Why would they want to take away that feature thereby making the phone less useful/desirable?!? Can/will an Android 4.1.2 phone be able to upgrade with a patch from Virgin or other normal means to be 4.3 or do you after to buy a new phone to get that?
 
Murf1 said:
That's crazy! Why would they want to take away that feature thereby making the phone less useful/desirable?!? Can/will an Android 4.1.2 phone be able to upgrade with a patch from Virgin or other normal means to be 4.3 or do you after to buy a new phone to get that?
Click to expand...

As of right now, the only devices with 4.3 are the gs4 (leaked builds so far I think) and newer nexus devices.

In the future if you decide to become a root user, there could be some 4.3 roms that would allow moving apps to sd with a repartition.

To my knowledge, it's actually a Google thing that stopped us from being able to move, wasn't dependant on carrier/manufacturer.
 
Selling phones at a premium price that have 16,32gb of storage over a base phone with say 8gb, would be impossible. If all phones had the ability to move apps to the SD card. That's provably why google and phone manufacturers are happy to remove that option. I wouldn't doubt that they all go the apple way and have no sd card, and tiered prices for more gb's.
 
It all comes down to security and Google trying to appeal to businesses. Data is a lot harder to compromise on the device, vs and SD Card. SD Cards can be encrypted, but then I believe you lose the benefit of swapping in and out and using it on other devices. Google and the carriers also want you to use cloud services so they can make money on the part of their services people actually use which is data. More cloud usage for Google means more opportunities for ads. I am really surprised Maps and Gmail don't have ads yet.

Also, any phone that has App2SD between 4.0.x-4.2.x was done so by the vendor, not google. The S4 patch for App2SD has nothing to do with Android 4.3, and was in process prior to the announcement of 4.3
 
Ok. I think I'm confused. I'm thinking on my LG Optimus Elite there is 2 internal memories native to the phone (not counting removable SD card). When you install an app it goes to the default phone internal location. I run an app called "Android Assistant 18 features" and it has an App2SD feature. Not all apps can be moved, but the ones that can Android Assistant will pop up and ask if you want to move it. If I choose to move it, it jumps to a native android OS Manage Applications and you click the "Move to Internal Memory" button. I believe it moves it to the other Internal memory on the phone (1GB in size I believe), not to my actual removable SD card.

That is the feature I'm wondering if you can still do on the Android 4.+. ?

thanks
 
If you are referring to USB storage vs SD storage listed on the details screen on an app, the USB storage is actually just your SD card. This was something that started with Android 4.x. It is a work around manufacturers use to work around no native App2SD. Google it for more details as I won't be able to explain it as well as I would like.

With that said, since I have never used an Elite am not sure if that's what you are talking about or not. But there was also for a short time where manufacturers were partitioning internal storage. One area for apps, one for everything else and was accessible via USB. The second area could be used for app storage via App2SD.

I think that's what you might be referring to on the Elite. If that is the case I don't know if it can still be done on 4.x But from using my wife's F3 it does not have the secondary internal memory. In regards to the first method, she has not put an SD card in yet so I can't check but I will take the other owners at their word that moving to the SD card isn't supported. USB storage and SD storage on each app is listed though.
 
I should have specified - the Elite is on Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread). See the screen shot below. The "Move to Internal Memory" button is what moves it from the default install location to what I think is the another place it refers to as "SD card", but is the internal/built in storage area. NOT my real/removable SD card. If an app is on this "SD card", then the button will say "Move to Phone".


2013-08-01-22-24-35.jpg


See below. What it calls RAM is where I think it default installs apps to. What it calls SD card is where some apps can be moved to. I know this is not my real / removable SD card because the real on is 8GB. Also, when I plug the phone to USB on my PC, it will map 2 drives - the internal "SD card" and the actual removable/real SD card (8GB).


2013-08-01-22-35-27.jpg


I hope that helps to explain it a little better.
 
The ram is the actual available ram for the OS (512mb minus gpu/system requirements), the ROM is the memory for the system and apps. SD card is the internal SD card.

After 4.0 their are few devices set up like that anymore, but their are some. I'll take a look more on the f3 but in storage / click apps it will show about 1gb available, and storage 1.2gb available. I'll look into it more but it definetly had no option to move them.

I can say cm10 on my blaze and a100 does have move to SD card on certain apps (if it is coded for it). "Move to SD" meaning to the internal SD card. But its not a stock ROM, so it really doesn't compare too much.
 
Was able to verify on my wife's phone that there is no App2SD unrooted and stock. You are stuck with 1.2 GB for apps. Which is just okay in my book. At least there is the SD card, for pics, videos, music, etc. With just around a 1 GB of storage on my phone I find I have to constantly to dump the cache for updates to install. If I don't have 200MBs free I frequently can't update most apps from the play store even though they are taking only a fraction of that space. My wife only uses half the apps I do so I doubt it will be a problem for her.

So I guess to directly answer your question you have 1.2GB for Apps period. No moving can be done on stock unrooted. If you want to root there is talk of people attempting link2SD.
 
Thanks guys for your input on this. I took the plunge and bought the F3 off Amazon last night for $162. So I'll see how it works out. I may have to prune back the number of apps I have. However, one thing I believe I've noticed looking at Jelly Bean online is it looks like it has built in functionality that I had to install apps to get to the same function on Gingerbread. So that should help some there.
 
so i just used the link2SD app and after setting up my external SD card i was able to free up around 100mb. im now at 824MB free space.
 
DragonSlayer95 said:
As of right now, the only devices with 4.3 are the gs4 (leaked builds so far I think) and newer nexus devices.

In the future if you decide to become a root user, there could be some 4.3 roms that would allow moving apps to sd with a repartition.

To my knowledge, it's actually a Google thing that stopped us from being able to move, wasn't dependant on carrier/manufacturer.
Click to expand...


agreed, but let's look at this. In the year 2013 (or 14) when manufacturers are making MSRP $299 mid range phones with 4GB internal memory, leaving only 1.2GB available to the user (example LG Optimus F3), they are likely to run out of space very quickly especially if they are coming from Android v2 where they always stored most of their apps on the SD card.

the reasoning was "hey just buy a SDHC memory card if you want to store stuff, then you'll never run out of room". which is fine for photos/videos and files (music) but not apps. when an average online app is maybe 50MB these days, this is a real problem. buy a brand new snazzy phone, install maybe 10-12 apps (essential or entertainment/social) and good luck installing much more without already seeing a problem.

in the end, it was just a bad decision by Google in the first place. makes your typical consumer, even someone who is somewhat tech savvy, not want to buy a new phone if it comes with Android vs other choices (iPhone, Lumia, etc), and bad for competitors of the GS4 as well if they are the only ones who offer this. though I can see how that would only be a temporary advantage.

implying to people "you must root your phone and install 3rd party apps, which are unsupported, to make any use of the potential your device" is just a terrible marketing and product planning strategy. :o not everybody wants to do this, especially business users, or just adults who can't be bothered.
 
Murf1 said:
Thanks guys for your input on this. I took the plunge and bought the F3 off Amazon last night for $162. So I'll see how it works out. I may have to prune back the number of apps I have. However, one thing I believe I've noticed looking at Jelly Bean online is it looks like it has built in functionality that I had to install apps to get to the same function on Gingerbread. So that should help some there.
Click to expand...


good deal, I don't know who is offering 10% off the list price on Amazon, I checked there today but didn't see any deal? maybe you want to post this ;)

I got mine for $179.99 about a week ago from VM site. they offer a slight discount via sites like eBates for those willing to try.
 
DragonSlayer95 said:
If you choose to root and create a second partition on your sd card for it, ya
Click to expand...


due explain because its not working for me nothing is the phone is new and rooted completely now i regret ever buying it at all I wonder if the GS3 mini has this same problem hope not! LINK2SD doesn't work for me it fails every time trying to send apps to wrong sd
 
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