Help How to use external Sd Card

[BWRpota]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. (SGSII, 16GB MiniSD)
A. "Rooting" your phone is essentially gaining access to areas of your phone intended only for access by the manufacturer.
B. It is downright dangerous for the end user to root his/her phone, as it can be somewhat complicated, can "brick" the phone, and voids the warranty.
C. One can only move documents to the SD card for storage if the phone has first been "rooted", but this is very risky (see "B").
D. There are many ways to move files from your phone to your PC, some of which involve doing so wirelessly (a method I, myself, chose, and was successful, much to my delight and appreciation to the androidforums user kind enough to post the instructions).
Does that just about sum things up?
Why, oh why, can't I store .docx to my SD card? Is there no other way?

 

[lunatic59]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. (SGSII, 16GB MiniSD)
A. "Rooting" your phone is essentially gaining access to areas of your phone intended only for access by the manufacturer.

Not exactly. Rooting is gaining administrative access to the file system. It does enable the owner to change anything on their phone, but that is standard OS permission levels and wasn't done to enable manufacturer dominance.

B. It is downright dangerous for the end user to root his/her phone, as it can be somewhat complicated, can "brick" the phone, and voids the warranty.

It can be dangerous if you start deleting or modifying things willy-nilly. Most people understand the risks and with a moderate amount of caution, it's perfectly safe. The ease of rooting really depends on the phone model. Many phones can be rooted with a one click method which, as it states, is very easy indeed. Most phones don't brick easily, and rooting is very unlikely to permanently brick a phone. Usually phones that have been truly bricked are made that way because they are interrupted during the flashing process. That has little to do with root.

Rooting will void most phone's warranty for support or replacement due to a system problem. Hardware defects are different and if a rooted phone experiences a hardware failure, many times the warranty is honored. It's up to the manufacturer, or carrier.

C. One can only move documents to the SD card for storage if the phone has first been "rooted", but this is very risky (see "B").

No, that's not correct. The SD card is open to the user and you can fully copy, move or delete files there.

D. There are many ways to move files from your phone to your PC, some of which involve doing so wirelessly (a method I, myself, chose, and was successful, much to my delight and appreciation to the androidforums user kind enough to post the instructions).

Tethered, Bluetooth or wifi pretty much covers it. Of course you could email or MMS files as attachments, too.

Does that just about sum things up?
Why, oh why, can't I store .docx to my SD card? Is there no other way?

You should be able to store any type of file on your SD card. Are you saying the file won't copy or you can't open it?

 

[BWRpota]

You should be able to store any type of file on your SD card. Are you saying the file won't copy or you can't open it?

Of course, my difficulty must be the user. I just created and saved a doc to the SD, and was successful. Not sure what I had been doing wrong before. This most recent test went along splendidly. Maybe I've simply become used to using the phone.
I think I had gotten lost in naming the document. Also, before, I had not been adding the ext. .docx, so of course things went awry.
Thank you for your interest in helping.

 

[richar]

Hi

...
In fact when i use a file manager - the memory card is listed as the phone internal memory (i.e.16GB (11GB)), and the external sd card - is listed as a folder called external_sd.
...

Ken

Thanks guys. I have been looking all over to find how to access the external sd card from "My Files".

 

[tikva1106]

sorry guys i finally understood something but this is my situation:

system rom : 879 mb (931 mb free)
internal: 2,11 gb (1,56 gb free)
sd card: 11,8 gb (9,40 gb free)
external sd card 31,3 gb (31 gb free)

question: - is it possible to INSTALL apps on external sd card??? IS THIS DANGEROUS OR...? '
- How to completely exploit my external sd card

i rotted my galaxy note following this guide: [Guide] How to root Stock ICS rom without binary count - xda-developers

thank you very much

 

[Russell Ng]

Just go to manage applications and move the apps using move2SD. It will transfer part of the app to the microSD and placed it in a folder called Android_secure. You would be able to view the folder using your PC.

Don't know about big game data like gameloft and EA games. They save the data in the USB storage (11.5GB) directly. You could try moving the file and see if that game still works. If doesn't, just move it back.

 

[paulh666]

Just go to manage applications and move the apps using move2SD. It will transfer part of the app to the microSD and placed it in a folder called Android_secure. You would be able to view the folder using your PC.

I have a new Galaxy Note 2 and in the Applications Manager, after selecting any application, there isn't an option to 'move to SD'. And, I have tried applications like Apps2SD and after choosing an application to move, it just goes to the App info in the Application Manager.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Russell Ng]

You didn't do anything wrong. If the Note 2 is like the S3, then there will be no partition of 2GB for apps and 11.5GB for USB storage. Everything is in one place, and the move2SD doesn't work in your case.

You can bind the external microSD if you are rooted or if someone figures how to change the move2SD that it works in your case. Either way, advice does not apply to you.

 

[athegn]

Using Windows Explorer, in my Win 7 64 bit system, I have "show hidden files" radio button on.

In Explorer I have:-

Computer > GT-I900P > Phone, the phone's internal sd storage but I do not see a folder Andriod_secure nor do I see that folder when in Computer > GT-I900P > Card, my 64GB card even though there are a number of apps on SD Card:-

Menu > Settings > Applications > App shows dialog "Move to phone" therefore must be on sd card (Internal - Computer > GT-I900P > Phone above)?

Should I see Andriod_secure?

 

[Russell Ng]

Try using USB mass storage mode.

 

[frogger10]

Is there any way to transfer amazon kindle books I've read from my Samsung tablet app to my SD card to free up space. As I get more books, it takes much longer to open the Amazin Kindle app, so I assume it's due to large number of books currently in there.

 

[bengtang]

I have Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, 1hich has about 1GB internal memory, 1GB internal USB memory, and a 32 GB MicroSD card.

I have just spent a long time trying out all the Move2SD and App2SD apps on google play store, and none of them work to transfer apps from the internal memory to the SD card, they only move them to the internal USB memory which it thinks is the SD card. The SD card is basically useless.

Here are some workaround i found on Youtube (have not tried them yet):

How To Move Games & Apps To External Sd Card From Internal Memory on Android 4.0 & Above
How To Move Games & Apps To External Sd Card From Internal Memory on Android 4.0 & Above - YouTube
(basically using the built in file manager to manually move folders back and forth, very troublesome)

How to move apps to external sd card Android - Directory Bind
How to move apps to external sd card Android - Directory Bind - YouTube

How to REALLY put apps on external sd card android
How to REALLY put apps on external sd card android - YouTube

The above 2 videos use directory bind to map directories on the SD card to the internal SD card/USB memory.

Galaxy Note 2 - Install Games and Apps to SD Card (Swap Internal with Micro Sd) - Cursed4Eva.com
Galaxy Note 2 - Install Games and Apps to SD Card (Swap Internal with Micro Sd) - Cursed4Eva.com - YouTube

Galaxy S3 - Install Games and Apps to SD Card (Swap Internal with Micro Sd) - Cursed4Eva.com
Galaxy S3 - Install Games and Apps to SD Card (Swap Internal with Micro Sd) - Cursed4Eva.com - YouTube

The above 2 videos use some kind of hacking tool to make the phone think the external SD card is the internal one. You should use this with care and make sure you know what you are doing.

The next few use Android SDK, which does not need rooting:

Moving all android apps to SD card WITHOUT ROOTING
Moving all android apps to SD card WITHOUT ROOTING - YouTube

Move all Android applications to SD card without Rooting your phone.
Move all Android applications to SD card without Rooting your phone. - YouTube

How to install Android Apps on SD CARD by default without rooting
How to install Android Apps on SD CARD by default without rooting - YouTube

 

[Slug]

The methods listed for the Note2/S3 won't work as those devices shipped with Android 4.x and their filesystem is partitioned accordingly.

Also the method for "android 4.0 and above" does not apply to an S2 as the original pre-4.x partitioning schema is retained to ensure backwards compatibility.