Help Newbie. Internal ROM and moving apps to external SD card.

[shyFluttershy]

Hello, everyone. I'm a thoroughly green and completely wet-behind-the-ears newbie. I got my Samsung Galaxy Reverb from Virgin Mobile on March 7, and I've never had a smart phone before.

One thing I recently noticed is that my phone does not seem up to specs. It's supposed to have 4GB internal ROM, but it only reports 2. Also, it's supposed to have 768MB of RAM, and it only has 610. Tech support told me that when I fill those 2 gigs, another 2 will become available to me, but I am skeptical of that strange claim. Now, if those 2 were reserved by the system and not available to me for storage, that would be different.

My bigger problem is that I bought a 64GB microSD card to expand my storage capacity, but I quickly discovered that I can not move or install any of my apps to the SD card. A friend told me that I would have to root it in order to do that, but that makes me nervous. I've heard of things that can go terribly, terribly wrong. I'm not that much of a techie.

Is anyone here willing and patient enough to take this newbie by the hand and explain to me step by step what I should and should not do, things I should expect, etc? Like I was told that merely by achieving root access, I lose the default launcher. I've been trying out different launchers, so that particular thing won't be a problem, but I would never have predicted that wrinkle.

Again, all I want is to be able to move/install apps to my external SD card. I don't intend to do any fancy modding.

Thank you so much!

 

[Anamacha]

I'm not sure about the majority of your questions, as I'm fairly new to the SGR myself. But since I can compare its behavior with at least my old phone (an LG Optimus V), I feel fairly comfortable in making the following claim:
Memory on the SGR appears to be "shared" between the phone and the SDcard. In other words, you put on it what you need to be put on it, and the phone will decide where it ultimately lives.

So it's available to you, so long as you have it installed -- but things aside from pictures and media are not explicitly stored on the card.

Does that make sense?

This is all based on my observations. It may well have no basis in fact.

 

[shyFluttershy]

I'm not sure about the majority of your questions, as I'm fairly new to the SGR myself. But since I can compare its behavior with at least my old phone (an LG Optimus V), I feel fairly comfortable in making the following claim:
Memory on the SGR appears to be "shared" between the phone and the SDcard. In other words, you put on it what you need to be put on it, and the phone will decide where it ultimately lives.

So it's available to you, so long as you have it installed -- but things aside from pictures and media are not explicitly stored on the card.

Does that make sense?

This is all based on my observations. It may well have no basis in fact.

Does that make sense? Sort of. There are certain things I've been allowed to move to the external card, notably pictures the camera takes and screenshots happily save by default to the SD card. But my internal storage is so small that this doesn't do me much good.

I've managed to find a few answers in the All Things Root sub-forum, because I think doing that is the only way I can do what I'm looking to do.

Thanks.

 

[zonexfx]

Hello, everyone. I'm a thoroughly green and completely wet-behind-the-ears newbie. I got my Samsung Galaxy Reverb from Virgin Mobile on March 7, and I've never had a smart phone before.

One thing I recently noticed is that my phone does not seem up to specs. It's supposed to have 4GB internal ROM, but it only reports 2. Also, it's supposed to have 768MB of RAM, and it only has 610. Tech support told me that when I fill those 2 gigs, another 2 will become available to me, but I am skeptical of that strange claim. Now, if those 2 were reserved by the system and not available to me for storage, that would be different.

My bigger problem is that I bought a 64GB microSD card to expand my storage capacity, but I quickly discovered that I can not move or install any of my apps to the SD card. A friend told me that I would have to root it in order to do that, but that makes me nervous. I've heard of things that can go terribly, terribly wrong. I'm not that much of a techie.

Is anyone here willing and patient enough to take this newbie by the hand and explain to me step by step what I should and should not do, things I should expect, etc? Like I was told that merely by achieving root access, I lose the default launcher. I've been trying out different launchers, so that particular thing won't be a problem, but I would never have predicted that wrinkle.

Again, all I want is to be able to move/install apps to my external SD card. I don't intend to do any fancy modding.

Thank you so much!

You would need to Root your Android in order to be able to do this.
Once done, you can Link, Map, Move Internal SdCard App Folders to External

This works for any app, game folders. If you know linux, it create symlinks.

 

[shyFluttershy]

You would need to Root your Android in order to be able to do this.
Once done, you can Link, Map, Move Internal SdCard App Folders to External

This works for any app, game folders. If you know linux, it create symlinks.

I go back and forth between Windows and Ubuntu, so I know a little bit about Linux. If memory serves, a symlink essentially makes thing X functionally and practically be in place A where thing Y wants to look for it, even though in reality it's in place B. Either that or it re-defines place A as place B.

I can see how that can really be useful. Thanks.

And speaking of Ubuntu, my computer does not properly recognize my phone when I connect it. What program should I install? (Windows has no problem recognizing my phone.)

 

[sheureka]

Check the first thread (Root the Reverb - No PC Required) in the Reverb - All Things Root. If you just very carefully follow the instructions it's easy.