Moving Apps from internal to external storage

[Hadron]

There is a file manager named x-plore that is very feature rich and will show hidden files, but I wouldn't recommend moving apps with it.

Quite right: if you move app files with a file manager you'll break the app.

To anyone who is tempted, it's obvious if you think about it: if the app developer wrote the app to store its data in a particular folder and you move that folder somewhere else, the app isn't going to know to search your filesystem for the data, it will just see that its data are missing.

The same is true for the app itself: if you were to move the app (or parts of it) using a file explorer (which requires root) the operating system wouldn't be able to find it any more.

There are ways of doing things like this using root, but they are a bit more involved than just moving an app's folders to where you'd like them to be (they involve adding an ext filesystem partition to the SD card and setting up symbolic links, usually using a script or app to automate this as well as mount the extra partition at boot-up). That's what we used to do before the ability to partially move apps to SD was added in Android 2.2, but while it should still be possible it's largely forgotten these days.

 

[Trom]

Quite right: if you move app files with a file manager you'll break the app.

To anyone who is tempted, it's obvious if you think about it: if the app developer wrote the app to store its data in a particular folder and you move that folder somewhere else, the app isn't going to know to search your filesystem for the data, it will just see that its data are missing.

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I think that's mostly true, but on the other hand, Android is based on Linux, and more often than not, the relative path rather than a full fixed path is used, dot slash, dot dot slash, etc, but it's certainly not for the weak hearted to play around at that level. Best bet, take an old unused phone, you can still get WiFi on it without the Sim card, install the app and move it around, if it breaks, and it will, you know for sure!

 

[Hadron]

But relative to what? The apps themselves are installed in /data/app, and keep their internal data in /data/data, neither of which you can access without root. For moving the app to work it would either require the appropriate parts of the app to be moved to the appropriate place in the SD card where the OS will look (which will only work if the phone software supports moving apps in the first place, in which case no need to risk doing it manually) or else placing links from the expected location to the new one (so the OS knows where to find things). I've been using *nix systems since 1989 and spent the early part of this decade hacking my phones, and relative paths by themselves won't solve the problems that manually moving files or folders would produce.

 

[MrJavi]

But relative to what? The apps themselves are installed in /data/app, and keep their internal data in /data/data, neither of which you can access without root. For moving the app to work it would either require the appropriate parts of the app to be moved to the appropriate place in the SD card where the OS will look (which will only work if the phone software supports moving apps in the first place, in which case no need to risk doing it manually) or else placing links from the expected location to the new one (so the OS knows where to find things). I've been using *nix systems since 1989 and spent the early part of this decade hacking my phones, and relative paths by themselves won't solve the problems that manually moving files or folders would produce.

I have to agree, just like to add the obb files to the list.