How to move apps to sd card on an unrooted device: A noobs guide. Updated 09/02/11

carlos67 · Oct 30, 2010

Many thanks William for your excellent guide. However.......

I was wondering if you can do other things once you have the command shell window open such as:-

1. Disable the annoying startup jingle on the Desire?
2. Change the "wake from sleep" button from power button to say home or menu button?

It seems logical that you could be able to. Surely if you can change a fundamental behaviour of the phone (option to move apps to SD card), then you could do other low level things like 1 & 2 above????

Hmmmmmm. Interesting.

Look forward to some answers from the gods.

droidzone · Oct 30, 2010

You can do those by flashing the neophyte rom. Don't think adb has commands for that.

LECTER · Oct 30, 2010

carlos67 said:
Many thanks William for your excellent guide. However.......

I was wondering if you can do other things once you have the command shell window open such as:-

1. Disable the annoying startup jingle on the Desire?
2. Change the "wake from sleep" button from power button to say home or menu button?

It seems logical that you could be able to. Surely if you can change a fundamental behaviour of the phone (option to move apps to SD card), then you could do other low level things like 1 & 2 above????

Hmmmmmm. Interesting.

Look forward to some answers from the gods.

Get Silent boot from the market to turn off start up tone.

droidzone · Oct 30, 2010

MonsterLancer said:
I'm a complete noob. I tried the steps but when i installed a few apps i got the device low in memory again...i have a 16Gb Sd card so i know i didnt max that out. any tips..

(to show my noobness i dont even know what froyo is)

The option still doesn't perfectly move apps. Only those that were primarily designed to be allowed. Just changes the default setting toggle. If u want a more refined solution, suggest u try app2sd+ after installing an extra partition.

carlos67 · Oct 30, 2010

LECTER said:
Get Silent boot from the market to turn off start up tone.

I know that this will do the job but it will mean "another" app running in the background, so not the ideal solution. Apparently the silent boot app uses 2mb of RAM??? Thats 2mb i dont want to use up for this app. Would prefer the fundamental way but one thing putting me off rooting is the warranty issue.

I have a 2 year warranty on mine and this is reassuring. If i could get the same ROM that I have on it now (SLCD Unbranded Froyo 2.2 stock) saved somewhere then at least if I root and need to send in under warranty, then I can flash back to stock before sending off.

Will look for my current ROM and if I find it and download it, will then be extremely tempted to go ahead and root.

droidzone · Oct 30, 2010

carlos67 said:
I know that this will do the job but it will mean "another" app running in the background, so not the ideal solution. Apparently the silent boot app uses 2mb of RAM??? Thats 2mb i dont want to use up for this app. Would prefer the fundamental way but one thing putting me off rooting is the warranty issue.

I have a 2 year warranty on mine and this is reassuring. If i could get the same ROM that I have on it now (SLCD Unbranded Froyo 2.2 stock) saved somewhere then at least if I root and need to send in under warranty, then I can flash back to stock before sending off.

Will look for my current ROM and if I find it and download it, will then be extremely tempted to go ahead and root.

What u need is a stock RUU for slcd. Try searching for one. Mine is an Oled, so I.m not sure where u can get a good one.

LECTER · Oct 30, 2010

carlos67 said:
I know that this will do the job but it will mean "another" app running in the background, so not the ideal solution. Apparently the silent boot app uses 2mb of RAM??? Thats 2mb i dont want to use up for this app. Would prefer the fundamental way but one thing putting me off rooting is the warranty issue.

I have a 2 year warranty on mine and this is reassuring. If i could get the same ROM that I have on it now (SLCD Unbranded Froyo 2.2 stock) saved somewhere then at least if I root and need to send in under warranty, then I can flash back to stock before sending off.

Will look for my current ROM and if I find it and download it, will then be extremely tempted to go ahead and root.

Why would you care if it takes up 2mb's if you move it to sd?? William's guide does not void anything! :thinking:

carlos67 · Oct 30, 2010

Lecter,

2Mb of RAM, not storage. RAM is precious, storage (that is SD storage) not as much so.

LECTER · Oct 30, 2010

carlos67 said:
Lecter,

2Mb of RAM, not storage. RAM is precious, storage (that is SD storage) not as much so.

Sorry, was reading from my Desire and not on my Desktop.

droidzone · Oct 30, 2010

I don't see why that app has to be running in the background just to disable a start up tone. Use it to disable the tone, ten disable the startup of that program.

flyte · Oct 31, 2010

anyone else notice that the app sizes reported in the settings / applications / manage applications list is no longer accurate?

Before moving apps from phone, (like fantasy guru), it reported the size as 6mbs. After moving it the Sd card, it is only .97 MBs.

Also, my internal storage isnt freeing up as much space as expected.. is there some artifacts that aren't getting cleared / moved??!?!

jaybo1973 · Nov 1, 2010

Hi

I have looked at this thread many times before and I finally feel brave enough to attempt it. I am sick of having to delete apps to install new ones. I am on a work computer now, so it looks a bit daunting because I cant actually have a go:

Would it be better to uninstall my apps before I start, then reinstall them? If so, will app brain remember what I have had had?

Most of my apps have move to SD option on them anyway, I guess this method moves more of the app? Some newer apps do go straight to SD already. If I was to leave my apps on and do this. What would I have to do with the apps that are already on SD that were put there using the froyo method?

If apps go straight to SD, what about stuff that needs to stay on the phone i.e. 3D watchdog

I dont get this bit: Copy the second folder into the sdk named "android-sdk-windows" to the desktop.

I am sure it will make sence when I try it

LECTER · Nov 1, 2010

jaybo1973 said:
If apps go straight to SD, what about stuff that needs to stay on the phone i.e. 3D watchdog

I dont get this bit: Copy the second folder into the sdk named "android-sdk-windows" to the desktop.

I am sure it will make sence when I try it

1/ Move them to phone.

2/ Download android-sdk-windows to your desktop and not "my documents".

3/ It will!

xsabrewulf · Nov 1, 2010

well i went to applications and noticed it has been revamped... has an SD CARD tab and angry birds is on it.. so looks like it auto

saboorlatif · Nov 1, 2010

i did the same according to instructions and changed location but the memory of the phone is still filling up ,secondly how do i know my all downloads will be installed on sd card,thirdly there is no option about moving an application to sd card in my application manager. i have htc desire phone.

xsabrewulf · Nov 1, 2010

saboorlatif said:
i did the same according to instructions and changed location but the memory of the phone is still filling up ,secondly how do i know my all downloads will be installed on sd card,thirdly there is no option about moving an application to sd card in my application manager. i have htc desire phone.

I have the desire as well...

I uninstalled angry birds

reinstalled it

it was automatically sent to my SD CARD... i have no found an option to change the location but it went right to my sd card

i dont think there is an option to "move" just uninstall and reinstall

LECTER · Nov 1, 2010

saboorlatif said:
i did the same according to instructions and changed location but the memory of the phone is still filling up ,secondly how do i know my all downloads will be installed on sd card,thirdly there is no option about moving an application to sd card in my application manager. i have htc desire phone.

Doesn't sound like you did it right.

saboorlatif · Nov 1, 2010

there has been a problem after all thess changes my bluetooth is not working.whenever i try to send some file from my comp. by bluetooth it suddenly switched off and file transfer fails.please help to solve the problem

xsabrewulf · Nov 1, 2010

wow google's Voice to Text now works!

impressive.

does anyone know how to get rid of the paper clip when I type a message? it makes the type box very big

MF DROID · Nov 1, 2010

how about making a list of what apps have been moved and are still working perfect?!?

so far i have tested

runnkeeper
google translate
LED scroller
astro
folder organiser

has anyone tried swype?

[EDIT] unless there is allreadt a list i havent seen

droidzone · Nov 2, 2010

Just to clarify..This method uses a Android Froyo option to Enable moving of compatible apps to the SD card. It will not move those apps (usually older versions of apps) where the developer has not specifically programmed it to use the option.

Whereas Android Froyo doesnt by default, move apps to the SD, this changes that option.

So there will always be some apps which remain in memory, and always be parts of all apps in Internal Storage. If you want to move all of your apps including the Dalvik cache (which does occupy considerable space in Internal), the only option out is to root your phone, create an additional ext partition, and install a Rooted ROM which uses ext partition to store Dalvik cache. It will then give you (almost) limitless space on your Internal Storage. Last time I checked, I had 406 apps on my HTC Desire. This is the only method for apps like Google Apps and Adobe Flash, which do occupy a considerable amount of space. (I havent checked the latest versions of these apps if they support Apps2SD..I rooted before that).

So, don't ask the post author why some apps arent going to the SD after you tried the method. They wont.

Silvio · Nov 2, 2010

I too had the "low on space" problem. This is the solution:
[TOOL] Enable APP2SD on Froyo 2.2 devices without the need for root permissions - xda-developers

Needs no root. I don't know how it works. You need to register in an italian (in italian) forum to download the patch. If anyone has trouble with that I can send it via e-mail.
This will solve all memory problems.

peter7769 · Nov 2, 2010

Hi sent you a pm with my email addy

Thanks

Silvio said:
I too had the "low on space" problem. This is the solution:
[TOOL] Enable APP2SD on Froyo 2.2 devices without the need for root permissions - xda-developers

Needs no root. I don't know how it works. You need to register in an italian (in italian) forum to download the patch. If anyone has trouble with that I can send it via e-mail.
This will solve all memory problems.

peter7769 · Nov 2, 2010

i have registered on the italian site but it still wont let me download the patch :-(

SUroot · Nov 2, 2010

droidzone said:
Just to clarify..This method uses a Android Froyo option to Enable moving of compatible apps to the SD card. It will not move those apps (usually older versions of apps) where the developer has not specifically programmed it to use the option.

Whereas Android Froyo doesnt by default, move apps to the SD, this changes that option.

So there will always be some apps which remain in memory, and always be parts of all apps in Internal Storage. If you want to move all of your apps including the Dalvik cache (which does occupy considerable space in Internal), the only option out is to root your phone, create an additional ext partition, and install a Rooted ROM which uses ext partition to store Dalvik cache. It will then give you (almost) limitless space on your Internal Storage. Last time I checked, I had 406 apps on my HTC Desire. This is the only method for apps like Google Apps and Adobe Flash, which do occupy a considerable amount of space. (I havent checked the latest versions of these apps if they support Apps2SD..I rooted before that).

So, don't ask the post author why some apps arent going to the SD after you tried the method. They wont.

Even the op has a2SD+ now

How to move apps to sd card on an unrooted device: A noobs guide. **Updated 09/02/11**

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How to move apps to sd card on an unrooted device: A noobs guide. Updated 09/02/11