Forcing Apps to install to the SD Card without root

El Presidente · December 23rd, 2011, 12:25 AM

One of the biggest complaints levelled at the HTC Wildfire S is the severe lack of internal memory. There are ways around this, one of which is forcing downloaded apps to install to the SD Card. There are a couple of pre-requisites, but the process itself is relatively straight forward.

You'll need HTC Sync installed (or at least the drivers that come with HTC Sync) and ADB (Android Debug Bridge) or the Android SDK. The SDK itself is a >100MB download and can be relatively difficult to install, however if you head here, look under the section entitled Mini SDK, click show, you can download a zip file called SDK-Tools.zip. Once downloaded, extract the contents of that folder to a folder of your choosing. I recommend somewhere easy, like C:\SDK-Tools as you'll need to navigate to it via a command prompt later.

You'll also need to enable USB Debugging on your phone, that's easily enough done by heading to Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging. You'll get a warning message, but just ok that you'll be fine.

Once you've done all the above, the process is as follows:

1. Connect the Phone to the PC in Charge Only mode
2. Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> CMD, you'll need to run as Administrator)
3. Navigate to the folder you extracted ADB to. In my case, the command would be "cd\SDK-Tools" (minus the quotes).
4. Type adb devices and press enter. You should then see the serial number of your phone displayed on screen. If you don't check, that USB Debugging is enabled and you're connected in Charge Only Mode. If you get an error stating" 'adb' is not recognized as an internal or external command", it might well you've another SDK-tools folder within the original. If this is the case type "cd\sdk-tools\sdk-tools" and try again.
5. Type adb shell, press enter.
6. Type pm setInstallLocation 2 press enter (it's important you enter this exactly as written as it's case sensitive)
7. Type exit, then disconnect your phone.
8. PROFIT!

You can now move apps that are already on the handset to the SD Card. Head to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Click an app -> Move to SD Card. All new apps will install to the SD Card.

It's worth mentioning that apps with active widgets cannot be moved and a certain portion app will remain on the phones data partition, but this goes a long way to assist with the lack of internal memory!

Pics for the ADB stuff below:

Harish Harris · December 23rd, 2011, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

One of the biggest complaints levelled at the HTC Wildfire S is the severe lack of internal memory. There are ways around this, one of which is forcing downloaded apps to install to the SD Card. There are a couple of pre-requisites, but the process itself is relatively straight forward.

You'll need HTC Sync installed (or at least the drivers that come with HTC Sync) and ADB (Android Debug Bridge) or the Android SDK. The SDK itself is a >100MB download and can be relatively difficult to install, however if you head here, look under the section entitled Mini SDK, click show, you can download a zip file called SDK-Tools.zip. Once downloaded, extract the contents of that folder to a folder of your choosing. I recommend somewhere easy, like C:\SDK-Tools as you'll need to navigate to it via a command prompt later.

You'll also need to enable USB Debugging on your phone, that's easily enough done by heading to Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging. You'll get a warning message, but just ok that you'll be fine.

Once you've done all the above, the process is as follows:

1. Connect the Phone to the PC in Charge Only mode
2. Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> CMD)
3. Type cd\ and press enter until you are in the root directory of your PC. This is denoted by a C:\>.
4. Navigate to the folder you extracted ADB to. In my case, the command would be "cd\SDK-Tools" (minus the quotes).
5. Type ADB Devices and press enter. You should then see the serial number of your phone displayed on screen. If you don't check, that USB Debugging is enabled and you're connected in Charge Only Mode.
6. Type ADB Shell, press enter.
7. Type pm setInstallLocation 2 press enter (it's important you enter this exactly as written as it's case sensitive)
8. Type Exit, then disconnect your phone.
9. PROFIT!

You can now move apps that are already on the handset to the SD Card. Head to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Click an app -> Move to SD Card. All new apps will install to the SD Card.

It's worth mentioning that apps with active widgets cannot be moved and a certain portion app will remain on the phones data partition, but this goes a long way to assist with the lack of internal memory!

If needed, I can post some pics later to make the process a little easier to understand.

Thanks a lot for the post buddy. I will give it a try.
It would be helpful if you post any screen shots too as i'm a beginner when it comes to android and stuff

El Presidente · December 23rd, 2011, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harish Harris

Thanks a lot for the post buddy. I will give it a try.
It would be helpful if you post any screen shots too as i'm a beginner when it comes to android and stuff

Yeah, no problem mate. I've just finished nights so I'm in need of a sleep but I'll sort something out later on today for you.

GerJ · December 23rd, 2011, 07:47 AM

Thanks for the info! Two questions, however. Does this also work with Android 2.3.5? And if installed with a previous version, did updating to 2.3.5 go withoiut a hitch??

El Presidente · December 23rd, 2011, 08:20 AM

Yep, it should work with any Android version above 2.2. I've no idea about the upgrade though, I know I've done it on 2.3.3 but I've not upgraded to 2.3.5 yet as my handset is branded. I imagine you'd have to run the commands again after the upgrade though.

JosephSayRelax · December 24th, 2011, 07:43 PM

I did all this and it all went fine except when I went to do that pm setInstallLocation 2, i copy as needed and it says ""pm " is not reconginized as an internal or external command... "

Yeah :S

And another question, Is it possible just to place the micro SD card as the internal memory. Make the phone believe that the micro SD card is the internal memory?

I'm an android noob so yeah :S lmao thanks man.

hpguru · December 25th, 2011, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JosephSayRelax

I did all this and it all went fine except when I went to do that pm setInstallLocation 2, i copy as needed and it says ""pm " is not reconginized as an internal or external command... "

I got the same result but then I typed the adb commands in lower case and it worked just fine. Not sure if that was it or it just needed time to connect but it worked.

JosephSayRelax · December 25th, 2011, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpguru

I got the same result but then I typed the adb commands in lower case and it worked just fine. Not sure if that was it or it just needed time to connect but it worked.

what do you mean typed the adb commands in lower case. from the start? so like start over typing adb Devices... or like the install in lowercase.

billbick · December 29th, 2011, 08:58 AM

Hello,

New to the forum, thanks to all for providing a site to discuss (and tweak) the Wildfire S phone. I performed all steps as described in the thread, and it seems to have worked, but when I go into Manage Applications, and try to move something (like HTC Likes, for example), the move to SD card button is grayed out. What apps have others been able to move to the SD card? Or will apps installed after this tweak be installed the SD card?

Phone Info
HTC Wildfire S (Virgin Mobile)
Android 2.3.4

khendeeh · December 29th, 2011, 09:20 AM

how can I download HTC SYNC in to my wildfire s? It says the content is not supported on the phone. No application can be found to 9open this file.

What to do?

Thanks

Kingduffy · December 29th, 2011, 09:18 PM

hello,
i have follow all steps, but when i type 'adb devices' it says 'adb is not recognized as an internal or external command'. please help me.
thanks.

Harish Harris · December 29th, 2011, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khendeeh

how can I download HTC SYNC in to my wildfire s? It says the content is not supported on the phone. No application can be found to 9open this file.

What to do?

Thanks

You need to download HTC Sync to your computer..

karolisb · December 30th, 2011, 09:20 AM

Does it work with S-ON devices?

xuerebx · December 30th, 2011, 01:23 PM

It works!

davejp · January 3rd, 2012, 01:07 AM

Thumbs up!!

Cheers for that, nice one.

El Presidente · January 3rd, 2012, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harish Harris

Thanks a lot for the post buddy. I will give it a try.
It would be helpful if you post any screen shots too as i'm a beginner when it comes to android and stuff

Do you still need pics? Apologies, I got a little sidetracked with the festive season and totally forgot about this.

let me know and I can upload ASAP.

Pootie Tang · January 3rd, 2012, 02:06 PM

yes please, pics would be greatly appreciated..MUCH THANKS!

Harish Harris · January 3rd, 2012, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

Do you still need pics? Apologies, I got a little sidetracked with the festive season and totally forgot about this.

let me know and I can upload ASAP.

Thanks for your reply. I think i can do it after reading the comments.
But pics would be of more help

El Presidente · January 3rd, 2012, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pootie Tang

yes please, pics would be greatly appreciated..MUCH THANKS!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harish Harris

Thanks for your reply. I think i can do it after reading the comments.
But pics would be of more help

No probs, I'll get them uploaded once I'm home from work.

What do you need btw? Everything, or just the ADB stuff?

Harish Harris · January 4th, 2012, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

No probs, I'll get them uploaded once I'm home from work.

What do you need btw? Everything, or just the ADB stuff?

The ADB stuffs will be enough for me

El Presidente · January 4th, 2012, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harish Harris

The ADB stuffs will be enough for me

I'd just added pics to the post 5 mins ago!

Harish Harris · January 4th, 2012, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

I'd just added pics to the post 5 mins ago!

Cool.. thanks a lot

Harish Harris · January 4th, 2012, 11:40 AM

It worked!!! My phone went from 30MB to 50MB free memory.
And for the folks who said when they type "adb devices", it gives the message 'adb is not recognized as an internal or external command', you would have extracted the sdk-tools to C:\sdk-tools\sdk-tools. Even i did the same. So you need to type "cd\sdk-tools\sdk-tools" in the command prompt. Hope this helps some one

.

But i still need to move Gmail and Facebook to the SD card. But sadly i have to root my device to do that

Thanks again el presidente for your help.. cheers!

hytekk · January 6th, 2012, 01:29 AM

Works great! Thank you very much!!!!

Sash1 · January 6th, 2012, 10:01 AM

Hi,

Can anyone help as I dont know what I am doing wrong.

I saved mines in the default download so when I type mines I put
'downloads\sdk-tools\sdk-tools\adb device' after c:\user\**** and thats fine it brings up that killing and shows me the serial number, Im confused as what to do next as the prompt screen goes back to c:\user\**** and then when I type adb shell it does nothing and says that not recognise stuff etc

I have different variations off trying to type adb shell but not getting anywhere passed this stage.

Can anyone help?

Thank

El Presidente · January 6th, 2012, 10:05 AM

Navigate to the adb folder again, then just type adb shell and see what happens there. The adb devices bit is just to make sure the PC is talking correctly to the phone.

Sash1 · January 6th, 2012, 10:34 AM

I did it- thanks very much for all your help everyone- I done what you said El Presidente and it gave me a long run down of all these adb compnents on the run screen which was weird but it worked,I put adb shell in again and its all done now.

Cant move everything but Some have been moved over to the sd card giving me more space- thats Great

El Presidente · January 6th, 2012, 10:37 AM

Glad you've got it working!

aronnn8 · January 7th, 2012, 02:40 AM

I can't get past step three. It says, "'sdk-tools' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." I have no idea why it's not working.... Help! Thanks so much.

El Presidente · January 7th, 2012, 03:28 AM

Hi Aronn8, are you just typing sdk-tools or cd\sdk-tools? From the screen shots, it does look as though the cd\ bit is part of the directory so I can understand the confusion.

cloud1629 · January 8th, 2012, 11:11 AM

hello. need help. downloaded all the prerequisites, extracted everything. cmd as admin, but when i typed adb devices, it doesn't show my device. it showed "List of devices attached", but underneath it is a total blank. what did i do wrong? thanx

El Presidente · January 8th, 2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cloud1629

hello. need help. downloaded all the prerequisites, extracted everything. cmd as admin, but when i typed adb devices, it doesn't show my device. it showed "List of devices attached", but underneath it is a total blank. what did i do wrong? thanx

Is USB Debugging enabled?

cloud1629 · January 8th, 2012, 06:59 PM

yup, debugging mode enabled. turned off the fastboot from the settings. btw, my phone is s-on, does it make any difference?

cloud1629 · January 9th, 2012, 10:15 AM

ok, got it working now. need to uninstall HTC sync and reinstall the ones in the sdcard. saved tons of MB on my internal memory. thanx a lot!

El Presidente · January 9th, 2012, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cloud1629

ok, got it working now. need to uninstall HTC sync and reinstall the ones in the sdcard. saved tons of MB on my internal memory. thanx a lot!

Glad it worked

Strange that it did with an older version of HTC Sync though, but as long as you got there in the end!

gazL · January 10th, 2012, 02:25 PM

hello all,
i have 1 problem, i was going so well until it can to step 6.. it says

error: device not found

what do i do?

-
gary

El Presidente · January 10th, 2012, 03:03 PM

Is USB Debugging enabled and it's def in charge only mode? Also, one of the posters above said re installing HTC Sync helped them out too.

gazL · January 10th, 2012, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

Is USB Debugging enabled and it's def in charge only mode? Also, one of the posters above said re installing HTC Sync helped them out too.

yes USB debugging is enabled and in charge mode only, and i have re-installed ..

Morciv · January 10th, 2012, 08:06 PM

can i get step-by-step instructions on how to download the adb or android sdk? cuz i cant figure it out for the life of me :O imma complete noob at this....

El Presidente · January 11th, 2012, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gazL

yes USB debugging is enabled and in charge mode only, and i have re-installed ..

Have you tried another cable or USB Port too?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morciv

can i get step-by-step instructions on how to download the adb or android sdk? cuz i cant figure it out for the life of me :O imma complete noob at this....

http://androidforums.com/faqs/443072-adb-guide-updated-12-05-2011-a.html

Are the mini SDK instructions in there ok? That's all you need and it's much easier than the full SDK install. Let me know if not and I'll see what I can knock up.

aronnn8 · January 11th, 2012, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Presidente

Hi Aronn8, are you just typing sdk-tools or cd\sdk-tools? From the screen shots, it does look as though the cd\ bit is part of the directory so I can understand the confusion.

No, I am typing just sdk-tools. I think I've got it figured out. I had to turn the debugging on, and I had to reinstall HTC sync. I'm still not sure if I got it all the way though. I mean I can install stuff to my SD card now, but in command prompt it just didn't seem right... Everything was fine until I had to type adb shell. I typed adb shell and got $. I proceeded to type pm setInstallLocation 2. That same thing came up underneath where I typed it, and then underneath that I got another $. I typed Exit, then Exit came up underneath that. Then it said Exit: permission denied and then another $.

o-o...
This is what it looks like:

c:\sdk-tools>adb shell
$ pm setInstallLocation 2
pm setInstallLocation 2
$ Exit
Exit
Exit: permission denied
$

Should I just not be worried because it worked? Lol, thanks so much. Sorry I'm not that smart when it comes to this stuff! (:

Edit: It seems to work fine when I have my phone connected to my computer through the USB cord. Otherwise, it doesn't download anything if it's not connected.

El Presidente · January 12th, 2012, 02:36 PM

No need to apologise! That's all it should say, it should have worked.

When you disconnect, what error messages are you getting when you try to download?

Tinkk0 · January 14th, 2012, 12:59 PM

- Im a little slow , Lol ; I need step by step instructions and more description please

El Presidente · January 14th, 2012, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkk0

- Im a little slow , Lol ; I need step by step instructions and more description please

That's about as basic as I could make it, sorry.

What looks complicated and I'll see what I can add.

MintyBabesxo · January 15th, 2012, 08:11 AM

It works, thank you so much!

gazL · January 15th, 2012, 09:25 AM

sorry to be such a nuisance, but this is where i am at '

C:\sdk-tools\sdk-tools>adb devices
* daemon not running starting it now at port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
list of devices attached

and that is all, any help?

djthebogan · January 15th, 2012, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gazL

sorry to be such a nuisance, but this is where i am at '

C:\sdk-tools\sdk-tools>adb devices
* daemon not running starting it now at port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
list of devices attached

and that is all, any help?

If it is not listing your device u will have to make sure u have all the proper drivers installed so the computer recognizes it. After u install the drivers, make sure u restart your pc

j00k3r · January 19th, 2012, 03:40 PM

today I bought this phone, love it and just want to say THANK U for this, awsum ! XD
cheers !

android hogg · January 20th, 2012, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billbick

Hello,

New to the forum, thanks to all for providing a site to discuss (and tweak) the Wildfire S phone. I performed all steps as described in the thread, and it seems to have worked, but when I go into Manage Applications, and try to move something (like HTC Likes, for example), the move to SD card button is grayed out. What apps have others been able to move to the SD card? Or will apps installed after this tweak be installed the SD card?

Phone Info
HTC Wildfire S (Virgin Mobile)
Android 2.3.4

Hi, this is a great post as I only want to free up memory, don't want to be bothered with s-off, rooting, etc, etc, but I'm having the same problem: everything seems to have worked fine but i cannot move any application to the SD card. It's a european T-Mobile WFS running Android 2.3.5, HTC Sense 2.1, sw ver. 2.14.118.1, Kernel 2.6.35.10

Here is a screenshot of the command line window, just remove the spaces:

https :// dl-web.dropbox.com/get/public/CropImage.jpg? w=f4b343cb

Cheers,
Alkis

El Presidente · January 20th, 2012, 03:54 PM

Hey Alkis, even with no spaces, that link doesn't work, sorry.

Try moving it to your public folder, then posting.