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Help HTC Desire low memory /rooting

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frugihoyi

Lurker
I've been getting the "low on space" message on my Android phone (regular HTC Desire) and after looking around I figured that the problem is that my apps are automatically installing to the memory in the phone as opposed to my SD card. What's worse is that many of them can't be moved to the SD card at all. I know my problem is nothing new, but I wanted to hear if I am on the right path...

After looking around some more I figured that what I need to do is "root" my phone. Is that right? I found this page, but I'm not sure if it's what I need: public:unrevoked3 [RootWiki]

Assuming that's the thing I need, will my apps automatically install to my SD card after rooting? Or will I need to change some settings?
 
There is a way to move more apps to the sd card without rooting ....

If you've got 2.2 or higher You can change the default location to the SD card if you want to. And, once that is changed you can move even more apps to the SD card, even though they were installed to internal memory.

If you want to move more apps to the SD card, you'll need to have the Android SDK installed. How-To Install Android SDK On Windows, Mac and Linux

Then on your phone go to settings>applications>development and enable USB Debugging. Plug your phone into the PC using the USB cable.

open a command prompt on your PC (start>run type "cmd" press ENTER)

Change directory to the android-sdk-windows\tools folder

At the prompt type
Code: 
adb devices
and you should see your phone listed as a serial number.

type
Code: 
adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

Done.

Now the default location to install apps is the SD card. And, some apps that you couldn't move to the SD card will now be able to be moved. Keep in mind Widgets and services should always be installed to the phone and not the SD card, so if you follow the steps above and you install a widget afterwards, you will need to go to settings>applications>manage applications and manually move it to the phone. If you want to set the default install location back to the phone, you simply repeat the process but use
Code: 
adb shell setInstallLocation 0
 
Thanks for your help, but I have some issues still...

Let's put aside the fact that it's ridiculous I should have to hack my phone in order to be able to put new apps on it. I followed your directions and now my phone is installing new apps directly to the SD, but when I went through my list of apps there were only two that I could now move to the SD, and I suspect that I had simply forgotten to move them before. So in essence the only thing I seem to have done is given my phone the ability to install new apps directly to the SD so I don't have to move them manually later. I'm still going to have this problem with low memory.
 
This method should allow you to move most apps to sd card that are already installed but it doesnt work for everyone.

Rooting in itself does not give you more space, but with titanium backup you can force apps not designed for sd to sd, but some apps are not designed for a reason.

Anything that has a widget, needs to run on start up or is a user interface will not play nicely if forced to sd card this way. But if rooted, this is the poorest option available. Most people root for space, but its not a decision to jump lightly into.

Please have a look in the root forum. There is a memory and rooting FAQ you should read. Hopefully it explains everything for you.
 
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