Help droid x2 apps to external sd card possible?

[34DroidX2]

I just got the droid x2 and I am using app2sd but it only lets me move them to media area which is the internal 8gb. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought u could now put apps on your external sd card. I see no options that lets me change this IF this is possible let me know how. Thank you very much.

 

[lunatic59]

I can explain it but I don't have a solution for you. Android has specific rules for where it installs apps. If the app has a specified location, that takes priority. If it is not specified in the app, then the default install location is used. Android has 3 identifiers for app storage location:

0 = Internal
1 = Auto
2 = External (sd card)

If 0 is set in the app, then it can only be installed on the internal storage regardless of the default install location. Widgets, services and apps that periodically poll need to be in the internal storage to run correctly.

Similarly the phone itself can have a default install location set so if the app is set to 1 (Auto) then it will direct the app where to be installed. The only thing you must remember is that 1 is not an option for a phones default location. If the app were set to Auto location and the phone was to, it wouldn't know what the default was.

Out of the box, all Android devices come with the default location set to 0, so if a widget or service was set to Auto, it would go in the right place. Apps that could be moved can always be moved to the sd card manually. You can always change the default to the sd card manually, which is what apps2sd does for you. Ask me if you'd like to know how.

Anyway, newer phones that include large amounts (by current mobile standards) Like the X2 (and my other phone, the Captivate) often partition them so that you don't have a huge amount of system memory that wouldn't be accessible for file storage. On the Captivate (and I am assuming it's similar with the X2) Samsung has a 2 GB partition for the system and the remaining 14 GB partitioned and recognized as an sd card by making its mount point /sdcard.

Therein lies the problem. The path to external storage within Android is /sdcard so apps that are installed to external storage will be there, which is the internal sd partition, not the removable sd card. On the Captivate the path to the removable sd card is /sdcard/sd_external.

It may be possible to redirect the external location to the actual removable sd card, but it would involve editing the init.rc executable script file which may be incredibly dangerous (or not, I frankly don't know). Or, you could actually change the mount points of these devices so the removable sd card was mounted as default external storage, but that would probably require a custom rom to do.

Like I said earlier, an explanation but no solution. If I may ask, why do you want to use the removable card for apps if there's room on the internal partition?

 

[34DroidX2]

I do have 4.5 gbs which is alot for apps on the internal memory so i guess it does not matter I just thought you were suppose to be able to put apps on the external sd. I can basically put music, pictures, and video then on the external sd and thats it? Anyway thanks for your help I appreciate it.

 

[Mel4566]

Go to the Market on your phone and search for a free app called "App 2 SD Free". It will show you what programs, apps, etc. that can be moved to your SD card. It is very simple and easy to use. I also found the "App List Backup" to be very handy.

Best of luck!

 

[vegitalander]

Go to the Market on your phone and search for a free app called "App 2 SD Free". It will show you what programs, apps, etc. that can be moved to your SD card. It is very simple and easy to use. I also found the "App List Backup" to be very handy.

As a frustrated Droid X2 owner, I can tell you for sure that App2SD doe not at all work to move ANYTHING to the sdcard-ext on a droid x2. It simply pulls up the standard app management page with the "Move to Media Area" button whih I could access myself.

The problem here is that the Droid X2 has 4 GB of media area storage where the Droid X had 8. Why they down-graded it I have no idea.

This has been a huge pain in the ass for me and I can't believe that smartphone manufacturers would alienate large portions of their app developing audience like this.

 

[coolpoete]

have you tried Titanium Backup Pro?

 

[lbradf]

I came to this website because of the question originally asked. Based on what I read on this thread and others, I downloaded Astro File Manager. I also hooked my phone to my computer. Doing both, I could see that I do indeed have apps on my external SD card--perhaps transferred there from my old Droid when I got the Droid X2? However, I can't figure out how to open anything that is on there.

Using Astro or my PC, can I just move apps from the external to the internal SD? But most perplexing, what good does the external SD do me if I can't get anything from it?

 

[lunatic59]

I came to this website because of the question originally asked. Based on what I read on this thread and others, I downloaded Astro File Manager. I also hooked my phone to my computer. Doing both, I could see that I do indeed have apps on my external SD card--perhaps transferred there from my old Droid when I got the Droid X2? However, I can't figure out how to open anything that is on there.

Using Astro or my PC, can I just move apps from the external to the internal SD? But most perplexing, what good does the external SD do me if I can't get anything from it?

If you have copied the contents of your old SD card to the new phone, you most likely don't have the apps, but the app data. If you install the app with old data in place it should see it when you launch the app on the phone.