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Running apps off SD

B

By_design

Newbie
I am interested in how you choose whether an app should be installed on the device or on the microSD. Has anyone had any problems with running apps off the microSD. My SD is speed level 10, up until now I have run all my apps off the device memory.
 
Far as I can tell, all apps have to be installed on internal memory, then most but not all can moved to the SD.But doing so still leaves a chunk in the internal memory, so you can never run any app completely off the SD. Even if you could, it'd certainly be slower that way.
 
Well, yes, I do too, and I can tell by the fact that those apps don't launch if I remove the card. But something, at least its entry to the launcher log, lives in internal memory. Someone here can explain this better than me...
 
On phones which support "move to SD" that function moves the apk and library components of the installed app. App data, the dalvix files (.dex), and other installed components are not moved. Depending on the app this may move most of the app (excluding app data) or about half of it. It was worse in Froyo, which only moved the apk (moving the library components was introduced in Gingerbread).

Not all devices with a removable SD card allow you to move apps at all. It depends on android version and the manufacturer.

Apps like Link2SD (root required) allow you to move some of the other elements as well. And there are root scripts which can move everything, but as said there's a performance hit.

(Since my current device doesn't have a removable SD card I've not been following the state of this as closely as I once did).
 
I can't do it on my newer 4.1.2 tablet, but fortunately i have lots of internal memory in addition to the SD card which is only used for data.

I can do it on an older 2.3 phone and it is an absolute necessity. Internal memory is very limited so i have stopped updating built in apps which i dont normally use. The only downside for me is that if I reboot, I lose the original app icon and just get the generic android app icon for any app running on the Sd card.
 
For about 2 years, I've been using Link2SD (root required) on my (outdated 600MHz ARMv6) LG Optimus S in order to run my apps (to the extent possible) from an EXT4 partition on my Class-10 32GB SD card. All of my SD-card-based apps work just as well from SD card as they did from internal memory-- including my performance-sensitive media streaming apps, e.g. SprintTV, WatchESPN, DishAnywhere (video streaming), Pandora, XiiaLive (music streaming), & GrooveIP (voice-over-WiFi).
 
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