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Help cant update apps on sd card.

awdcivic

Newbie
May 26, 2011
44
2
I have a thunderbolt with alot of my apps on the sd card. whenever i get updates i get a bunch of update unsuccessful notifications. when i click on the notification it takes me to the market with a pop up screen that says installation error Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card. only option is ok. if i try to update it multiple times the same thing happens. now if i take it off the sd card it will update normally, but i would rather not take 20 apps off and put them back on every time i get an update. when i first put apps on the sd card they would always update but they havent been for weeks now.
also i use optimize toolbox and it tells me which apps can be put on the sd card.
 
I have the same problem. Started 2 weeks ago after my phone rebooted while some apps were updating.

I have tried a factory reset, clearing the market apps cache, uninstalling and reinstalling -- the only thing that works is moving to the phone.

I believe some apps do update on the sdcard, but i am not sure. I will pay more attention in the future to where apps are when they fail. I still have about 4 apps that won't update.

Android really is buggy.
 
Upvote 0
none of my apps were updating on sd card.. i deleted a bunch of unnecessary stuff off sd card dragged important stuff to computer.. then reformatted the sd card 4 times on phone (it then updated a game i moved to sd card for testing) then dragged important files back. now 2 hours later i am currently moving two apps to sd card for testing and it looks like its working =)
 
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Hi,
Here is some info. The card is not bad, and you do not have to move the apps off of the sdcard and onto the phone to update and then back, also you will not have to format the card again!

I had the same problem and this fixed it.

Turn off the phone remove the sdcard and insert it into your pc,laptop, mac sdcard reader slot.

Browse to the card on your computer and look for this directory .android_secure notice the period before the android.
If you do not see the directory then you need to allow your file manager on your pc to show hidden files since it is hidden by default.
Now in the directory look for only this file smdl2tmp1.asec
!!!This file needs to be deleted!!!
After deleting only that file place the sdcard back into your phone and now all apps are still there and you can now update any of them :)

I hope this helps anyone out with this problem.
If you have any questions just ask :)

Thanks,
Bryan
 
Upvote 0
This same solution also works if anyone is having trouble installing apps from the Amazon AppStore. I was having a problem installing apps from Amazon (some apps would neither install nor update). It seems the file gets corrupted and does not allow installation of some apk files. By the way, this can also be done by plugging the phone and placing it into drive mode. The file can be deleted the same way. :)
 
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how many apps do you all have that you need to put them on the SD card. i have 60 apps and i still have 2GB of internal storage left.

IMO, the ONLY time to use "apps to SD" is when you literally dont have any more internal storage left. unless there is some other benefit to having apps on the SD card, i would just keep them internally unless you are out of internal storage.
 
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how many apps do you all have that you need to put them on the SD card. i have 60 apps and i still have 2GB of internal storage left

I have 7 apps installed on my internal memory according to the App2SD application, with 5 of those totalling only a little over 1.5 mB.

That leaves me with 14.98mB free out of a total of 147.62mB on my HTC Desire. Apparently that's their one Achilles Heel and has been rectified on newer HTC models. I've managed to replace Google Reader and Twitter with 3rd party apps, but sadly Flash, Maps and the Market are all irreplaceable and immoveable.

I've a year and a half to go on my contract, so I'll be stuck if anything else handy turns up on the market, that can only be installed to the internal memory.
 
Upvote 0
Hi,
Here is some info. The card is not bad, and you do not have to move the apps off of the sdcard and onto the phone to update and then back, also you will not have to format the card again!

I had the same problem and this fixed it.

Turn off the phone remove the sdcard and insert it into your pc,laptop, mac sdcard reader slot.

Browse to the card on your computer and look for this directory .android_secure notice the period before the android.
If you do not see the directory then you need to allow your file manager on your pc to show hidden files since it is hidden by default.
Now in the directory look for only this file smdl2tmp1.asec
!!!This file needs to be deleted!!!
After deleting only that file place the sdcard back into your phone and now all apps are still there and you can now update any of them :)

I hope this helps anyone out with this problem.
If you have any questions just ask :)

Thanks,
Bryan

I had the same problem and this seems to have done the trick.


KJ
 
Upvote 0
I have same problem. I look this file in SD card, but it was not there. And when my move my app to sd card to phone memory then it will update..
plz help.
This thread is 3 years old. Android hasn't officially supported moving apps to the sd card in years - although some vendors and apps still allow it - it's never really worked right.

For now, you've got the right workaround.

Google has promised to revisit this and fix it in Android M, coming later this year to the Nexus and next year to other branded phones.
 
Upvote 0

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