Disable auto install to SD

[snapper.fishes]

This has been ticking me off for a while now.

Quite a few apps on the market (e.g. angry bird, Obenkyo, Reckless racing, etc.) automatically install to the SD card rather than the internal memory. I suppose it make sense for phones with small internal memory, but for some phones that's a non-issue. Also, apps generally run faster on the internal memory.

Is there a way to disable this behaviour, I am getting tired of having to check which apps moved themselves to the SD again every time I get an update.

 

[Frisco]

Are you rooted?

If so you can run this script on some ROM versions (bugless beast?):

su
sysrw
sh /sdcard/disablesdinst.txt

 

[snapper.fishes]

Are you rooted?

If so you can run this script on some ROM versions (bugless beast?):

su
sysrw
sh /sdcard/disablesdinst.txt

I looked up on that list of code, and found the source website.

Seems like the main idea is this line of code

pm setInstallLocation 1

Which forces all app to install to internal by default. However, the problem is that on BB it can't survive reboot. So someone wrote a script "disablesdinst.txt" to modify the startup script "/system/etc/install-recovery.sh".

I looked through my system/etc folder, and failed to find such a file. Fortunately, it seems that the pm setInstallLocation command can survive a reboot on a I9000. I just rebooted my phone, and the default install location is still "1".

I guess it was a good idea to learn a bit of adb

Summary:

adb shell
pm SetInstallLocation 1

P.S. You don't need to be rooted in order to run this command. The root permission was required to modify the startup script.

 

[Frisco]

I ran that on my non-rooted Fascinate a few months ago. It yielded an error, but did work.

I've been wondering since then if rooting was needed in order to squash the errors.

Meanwhile, it seems to be universal.. I'd like more input from those with different Android versions.

I still like the stuff on the SD card, though, and have noticed no differences in speed (only tested with Meteor, Toss It Pro, Field Goal and Doodle Jump).