New SD card, now apps 'missing' from phone.

[Unit25]

Hi all,

I just picked up a new microSD card for my Samsung Galaxy Note (international version), and after I put it into the phone, it seems that some of my apps are 'missing' and their icons have been greyed-out. I understand this means that the apps were installed onto the original SD card, but I'd like to know how to swap them back over to the phone.

ALSO, is there any way to set it so that apps are installed to the phone by default? I don't remember being asked this when I installed any of the apps, but is there an in-phone setting to specify the install path, or does the individual app just choose where it wants to go? If not, is there a way to move them from the SD card to the phone's internal memory once they're installed? The internal memory has about 9 gig of free space on it, and I plan on only using it for apps, while putting all of my media/files/pics/etc on the SD.

I tried copying the files from my old SD card to my laptop, then to the new card, but while it did work for some of the apps, it didn't work for all of them. Do I just leave the new card in and re-download the apps once I get hooked up to WiFi? (I work at sea on a ship, so I have to wait til we make port before my internet is good enough to download things).

Thanks for any assistance,
Joe

 

[Hadron]

Hi Joe,

The most important thing is to copy over a folder called .android_secure. Note that the name starts with a ".", so it's considered to be a "hidden" file, so if you can't see it make sure your file viewer is set to show all files. That's where apps moved to SD live.

You can move apps between phone an SD using the Applications menu (manage apps, select app, then there will be an option to move it). With Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) there's a tab in the manage apps menu to show just apps which can be moved to SD, which also shows whether they are currently on SD. Don't offhand know whether this is different in ICS.

There is a default install location parameter, but the way I know of changing it on an unrooted phone involves using ADB (Android Debug Bridge, the reason for the "usb debugging" option in the settings). I don't know about setting up adb drivers for a GNote (maybe someone in the Note forum will), but there's a thread in the Galaxy Ace forum that might contain some clues. Once you have your computer set up to talk to your phone via adb it's just a simple command. Although that thread is about forcing apps to sd ("pm setInstallLocation 2"), you can also force them to internal by using the command "pm setInstallLocation 0" instead (for completeness, "1" would be "auto", i.e. whatever the app developer set as preferred).

Good luck