Moving/force-installing apps onto the SD card?

muddlemand said:

Actually this makes me rather pleased with myself! I've had this G1 since Feb 2017 and it was a refurb then. Mid-2018 it slowed down and everyone I knew told me that's all the lifespan I should expect, but instead that's when I had a nose around the internet, found this forum and revived the phone. Spent time on it, but learning is never wasted and is almost always a pleasure, and I enjoy spending time far more than I enjoy spending money. I inherited the G2 in Feb 2018 and kept it as a spare (and have taken it out of the drawer now only because the G1 became unreliable with alarms/notifications - not much point when a 6am alarm tries to wake me at 2pm) - I'm very glad to have a "freebie" spare. The old files I took off the SD card dated back to at least 2016 so if it lasts the rest of this year, I'll take the cost of a new phone on the chin as I've done pretty well on the cheap so far.

And I'm careful to stay backed up in case one or other keels over without warning.

Heavens, that's a scary thought.



I can't get rid of:
- an antivirus;
- a file explorer app (FX is only 10 MB)
- Greenify because without it my battery life was literally half as good (only 4.4 MB);
- AirDroid because I use it all the time;
- AccuBattery because it is lengthening my battery's lifespan, and it's less than 6 MB;
- WhatsApp because the website can't be used without the phone app connected;
- Messenger Lite (only 18 MB) because the browser won't view FB messages but redirects to the Play store for the app (luckily I don't use FB very often so I might uninstall this after all);
- Business Calendar 2 because I live entirely through it(!) on an hourly basis;
- SleepyTime which with a sleep disorder is essential (4 MB);
- Naked Browser, which is unaesthetic and clunky but does allow tabbed browsing and is less than 2 MB!!
- iPrint&Scan which at 75 MB is huge by my standards, but without getting a different printer I have no option;
- Podcast Addict - well, in theory I could *but*... 24 MB not counting the downloaded podcasts;
- Notepad (2 MB);
- some banking apps and a fuel discount app, because you can't do online banking / get the money off without having the apps (and they're far from space efficient, grrr).

I could in theory get rid of:
- Equate calculator but it's only 1.3 MB;
- YNAB - but the whole point is that you log spending as it happens;
- App Manager, 7 MB, but so much more useful than android Settings;
- FairEmail, 13 MB and beautifully customisable;
- Textra, though i'd hate to be without it, it's so much the best thing for SMS;
- a weather app, but I'll be without forecasts (I can never catch them on the radio);
- a gallery app, though Android's own is next to useless;
- Puzzles, but it's my only "game" type app and it's only 6 MB.

I'm already living without:
- my favourite keyboard (I hate the native one);
- any password manager; backup; junk cleaner;
- internet speed check (Ookla won't work in the browser);
- anything to record voice notes/dictation; anything for audio editing;
- an archiver;
- any time/project management; habit tracker; multi timer (linked series of countdown timers, which I used to call can't-live-without); alarm clock that's customisable;
- anything that does anything with PDFs, any video editor;
- not only Wikipedia but all reference apps, dictionaries, subject-specific etc;
- BBC iPlayer; BBC Sounds (and I just realised I've probably lost my downloads when I uninstalled this);
- Facebook (though I had FB Lite anyway, which iirc is about 1/3 the size of the standard app);
- any "socialising" apps except WhatsApp - inculding messaging, forums, Skype, Zoom - I'm even without Tapatalk, though my social life is almost all through it;
- banking/shopping apps (except the banks I mentioned that force it on you);
- Google Home - but if I'm ever to use my chromecast I'll have to install it;
- Mondly, which I was hanging onto in the hope I'll get back to learning Greek sooner or later;
- any apps I had for for fun and/or interest. eg games!!

I clear the cache at least daily, and seek n destroy sent images etc (the ones where they copy themselves) as needed.
I've stopped keeping any photos on the phone and send them all to my laptop as soon as I've taken them.
I don't store music on the phone - was planning to start doing so, but never mind.
I've reduced podcast settings to keep maximum two episodes of each podcast (so now I keep missing episodes! - my listening's always sporadic).
I miss Wikipedia as the app rather than the website, because I'm used to leaving lots of articles open in tabs.
I miss doing text adventures in bed (not the same sitting at the laptop), and if I ever have leisure time again, I'd love to get back into graphics-rich RPGs!

I don't feel I'm wasteful in what I like to keep on the phone. (Wikipedia was the one thing I fantasised about carrying around in my pocket, before I had a smartphone!)
My phone is currently telling me "You're running low on storage" and that I have 691 MB available. - actually that does look as if it's limiting me to a GB.
All of the "can't get rid of" apps come to about 410MB. All of the "could get rid of" add up to another 108 MB. More if I download lots of podcast episodes, but they'd go on the SD card anyway.

Sorry if I'm a bit defensive on

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puppykickr said:

I hate paper, and you made go get some, and a blasted pencil, too.

I don't want to get into all of what you listed, but I will touch on most and give alternatives.

These are what I use, on my 8 and 16GB devices.

Antiviruses are junk.
They really are, and only slow your device down.
Most of them are actually security dangers themselves.

For a file manager, use Simple File Manager

Greenify is great, I love it.

As for AccuBattery, be sure it is actually doing anything good. I have never seen a 'battery' app that is not worthless- or worse.

WhatsApp is insecure. There is no debate about this.

As for Facebook and Messenger, use Frost. It is a great combination of the two, and you can even customize the theme.

I did not like Naked Browser. Clunky is being too nice. Try Lightning instead. It is much faster and more capable.

For a notepad, try Notepad from Panagola. It is less than 1MB. If you want more, try Simple Notes from Simple Mobile Tools.

Weather apps are insecure, intrusive, and horrible... just horrible. Et on your browser, and bookmark https://emergencyemail.org It is great.

Simple Gallery Pro is an excellent gallery with editing capability.

I use two keyboards, both are small. Simple Keyboard is my favorite, but sometimes I like to use Hacker's Keyboard. Between the two you should be covered.

Bitwarden is an amazing password manager. It also syncs between all your devices.

A junk cleaner is not needed. Now, to be honest, on a new device they won't do a thing good for the device.
That being said, if the OS is Lollipop or older one can be beneficial.

For Lollipop (5), there are two that work wonders, Fast Task Killer and Fast Optimizer, both by the same developer.
For Marshmallow (6) or newer, I would use Systweak (Android System Cleaner).
If you have Marshmallow (6), Nougat (7), or Oreo (8) then I recommend an older version that has no ads. The newer versions for 9, 10, and up have ads.

Now give me a minute, (or more) and I will make another post that gives all the links to the above apps.

I will answer any questions about these apps, as I use them myself- many for years.

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muddlemand said:

I was just thinking that if I habitually use two instead of one, then that's twice as many to replace over the years. Long term budget forecasting!


Here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-sim-only-contracts/ it says Smarty is now £7/month. I haven't clicked through all the links on that page but MSE is generally up to the minute on these things. On the same page, I see Lebara (Vodafone) and iD Mobile (Three) at £3.99/month, but I'd have to find out if I have Vodafone coverage at home; pretty sure I get no Three signal here. Definitely not with EE. It's the other reason (apart from cost) that i'm with GiffGaff, O2 was my only coverage when I made the choice. (I agree with you on GiffGaff raising their monthly goodybag by 20% like that but it's still best in my situation unless Lebara would work, but for £12/year difference, I may not bother checking!)

Those £3.99 options are for <3 GB, but I think I could manage on that, I rarely use that much. Though I'm using a bit more as my wifi continues to deteriorate, so I now keep data on all day to prevent the many wifi dropouts from causing downloads, backups, everyday life etc etc, to break throughout the day. (Good ol' rural life, eh. They've restarted promising us fibre one day... not putting a date on it yet, though...)

Yes, and that would double my monthly mobile phone costs

I've never thoroughly looked into paying monthly for phones. I got my G1 for £60 in Feb 2017, discontinued, refurb, and as I've said I paid nothing for the G2. I'm hoping to spend zero for at least a couple more years.


Seriously??! I won't say no - I have no pride. That would solve these time-consuming difficulties and leave me the G1 and G2 as spares/backup, and see me through for probably a few years yet! ... Perhaps ignore the other parts of this reply, then.

One day maybe. So far spent £60 total on phones and £60/year on contracts!

Thanks, I'll have a look, always good to gather places for research when I come to do it.

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Hunter19877 said:

Old thread I know.

But I've always been mad at the people who make these phones and devices. Like seriously. 16gbs? 32gbs? That's not enough! My galaxy s7 has 32 internal and I mean it is decent, closest I've came to full was 6Gb.
(yes I love my s7.... I don't care if it's old lol)
But wtf man I don't understand whythey can't make these devices stock with at LEAST 64gb internal. For real some people have a lot of apps. I don't think I'd come too close to filling a 64gb internal... I don't have a bunch of junk. And whatever I do have I move it to the SD card if possible. And I regularly clear the cache in every app and data in some. Most people don't know that little trick lol. I've seen my chrome app accumulate 12gb cache before! Seriously! I hit the clear cache and it went down to like 500kb or something. I was amazed.
And I only have what I consider essential to me. Like chrome. Firefox. Pandora. Reddit, utorrent, PayPal, Newegg, eBay, Amazon, mega.nz, YouTube, fb, Tumblr, Instagram,
Like that's really it. I'm forgetting some... But idk man....
When your internal storage gets cluttered up to the point where you can't install anything else...... That's not good. And it also slows down your phone....

It's like my pc. I have a few hard drives. Won't get into all of'em, but one is specifically for the operating system. NOTHING ELSE! Then the other hard drives I have are for installing programs and games and what not. My rule of thumb that I've learned back in the day from the ogs that taught me when I was learning about computers was whatever drive your operating system is one, keep it as free as possible.

Idk I just wanted to ramble. Lol good day people!

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