• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Transferring apps from internal storage to SD Card

  • Thread starter Thread starter Android Question
  • Start date Start date
A

Android Question

Guest
Ok I don't get this at all. I just recently purchased a brand new SD card but I have absolutely no idea how to transfer all of my stuff on to it. I've searched the internet and can't figure it out.

My internal storage holds almost nothing and slows down my phone so I want everything on my phone (mostly apps) to move from the internal storage to the SD Card. The problem is that its not letting me. I have gone to settings and went to specific apps and attempted to move them to the SD card but the SD Card option does not show up. I don't get it.

Ive also gone to the application manager and it shows the SD card storage but no internal storage so I don't know. I was hoping I could transfer files from there but apparently not.

Im just at a loss here. It seems my phone isn't even allowing me to transfer anything to my SD card. It also installs everything that I download to internal storage. Ive looked and can't figure out how to make the default download to my SD Card.

Would really appreciate if somebody could help me. I have no idea why its this difficult.
 
Moving apps to SD was deprecated in Android 4.0. Some manufacturers put it back for some devices, but most modern phones don't have this option. To be honest it was always a bit weak: it only moved part of the installed app and none of the app data, and it didn't work for apps that need to run at startup (including any widgets you are using).

If you go to Settings > Apps > Downloaded, select an app and see a "move to SD" button then your OS has the option. It may be greyed out because the developer can choose not to support it, but if the button is there you will be able to move some apps. If the button is not there then your phone's OS doesn't include the option.
 
Hadron said:
If you go to Settings > Apps > Downloaded, select an app and see a "move to SD" button then your OS has the option. It may be greyed out because the developer can choose not to support it, but if the button is there you will be able to move some apps. If the button is not there then your phone's OS doesn't include the option.
Click to expand...

See thats the problem. I don't even see it grayed out. It just isn't even there.
 
Yes. That means that your operating system does not support moving apps to SD. This is normal in Android 4.1.

You could root, partition your SD card (physical card, not the emulated "internal" one) and use various apps or scripts to move apps to the new partition. But without rooting there is nothing you can do.
 
You can't install apps to the SD card.
Hadron's suggestion requires root and unsupported hacks.
It is not for people who don't understand what they are doing.

Use your SD card to store music and videos that you wish to carry with you.
Some APPS have in their setup, the capability to store their data on the SD card.
 
glc said:
You can't install apps to the SD card.
Hadron's suggestion requires root and unsupported hacks.
It is not for people who don't understand what they are doing.

Use your SD card to store music and videos that you wish to carry with you.
Some APPS have in their setup, the capability to store their data on the SD card.
Click to expand...
You serious? I can't put APPS on my SD card? Thats gotta be a joke. How am I supposed to store anything on my phone? I thought that was the whole purpose of an SD card...
 
Google's intent was that the SD card should be for media storage, with the internal storage being for apps (though they would have preferred the removable storage to disappear completely). There is actually some technical sense in using internal storage for apps, as it is faster and more reliable than the removable card.

However where this plan fell down was that manufacturers continued making phones with very limited storage. In some cases the manufacturer added back the ability to (partially) move apps to SD. But in others they did not, and it sounds like your phone is one of those.

Google have now recognised that manufacturers are going to continue to make phones with inadequate storage, and in Marshmallow you will be able to fully co-opt an SD card as part of the phone storage and use it like the internal storage (at the cost of encrypting it, so you won't be able to just pop it in a card reader). However that won't help you, since since your phone is clearly not going to get an upgrade to 6.0.

I'm not making excuses for anyone here. Google were silly to assume that manufacturers wouldn't continue to produce inadequately-specced devices which would rely on SD expansion for app space, and the manufacturers who produced those devices were bloody stupid not to put the option back into the software (as noted, some manufacturers did). But I'm afraid that is the situation you are in.
 
Hadron said:
Google's intent was that the SD card should be for media storage, with the internal storage being for apps (though they would have preferred the removable storage to disappear completely). There is actually some technical sense in using internal storage for apps, as it is faster and more reliable than the removable card.

However where this plan fell down was that manufacturers continued making phones with very limited storage. In some cases the manufacturer added back the ability to (partially) move apps to SD. But in others they did not, and it sounds like your phone is one of those.

Google have now recognised that manufacturers are going to continue to make phones with inadequate storage, and in Marshmallow you will be able to fully co-opt an SD card as part of the phone storage and use it like the internal storage (at the cost of encrypting it, so you won't be able to just pop it in a card reader). However that won't help you, since since your phone is clearly not going to get an upgrade to 6.0.

I'm not making excuses for anyone here. Google were silly to assume that manufacturers wouldn't continue to produce inadequately-specced devices which would rely on SD expansion for app space, and the manufacturers who produced those devices were bloody stupid not to put the option back into the software (as noted, some manufacturers did). But I'm afraid that is the situation you are in.
Click to expand...
Thats pretty stupid then. Why make internal storage so small if you aren't going to allow apps to be downloaded to SD cards? My god Android is absolutely awful...

Looks like I have to get a new phone.... Great. Nice work Android or Google or whoever.. Idiots.

Appreciate the help Hadron. Thanks for this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom