Help Apps cannot be moved to SD Card

[kanezfan]

I just bought a 32gb card and moved my music and pictures to it. My question is, can I also move the apps I installed onto it and will they still just work or do I have to do something to make my phone know where they moved? Will the icons remain on the screen I put them on?

Would be nice to just be able to transfer this card to a new phone when the time comes to upgrade and just have all my stuff ready to go.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I had an iphone up until a month and a half ago.

 

[Rachel A]

I just bought a 32gb card and moved my music and pictures to it. My question is, can I also move the apps I installed onto it and will they still just work or do I have to do something to make my phone know where they moved? Will the icons remain on the screen I put them on?

Would be nice to just be able to transfer this card to a new phone when the time comes to upgrade and just have all my stuff ready to go.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I had an iphone up until a month and a half ago.

First off, installing an app to an SD card only moves parts of the app. There are always other bits left behind that are required so you'd never be able to just move an SD card to another phone and have those apps available.

Given that the S3 comes with, at a minimum, 16GB, you should have plenty of space. Having said that there are some apps (games) that have multi GB files that are usually downloaded separately. I think from what I've read that you do need to be rooted to be able to move these files, and even then, the method only works for some publishers.

 

[kanezfan]

OK thank you. It's not a huge deal as I don't have a ton of apps and I'm assuming that when I upgrade in two years, the Play store will have a list of the stuff I already own and I'll be able to just download it all again. I love that I can add storage to this thing though, never going back to Apple.

 

[Rachel A]

OK thank you. It's not a huge deal as I don't have a ton of apps and I'm assuming that when I upgrade in two years, the Play store will have a list of the stuff I already own and I'll be able to just download it all again. I love that I can add storage to this thing though, never going back to Apple.

Yes, it will. In addition if you decide to root then you'll be able to back up your apps and restore them on a new phone in a matter of minutes.

I have had a 32GB Xoom tablet for a year and a half now and have thrown hundreds of apps on it with total abandon and I still have 8GB free. Also have about 8GB of music on it as well.

Welcome to the happy side!

 

[Russell Ng]

Move2SD does not work on SGS3 since its not partitioned that way like the SGS2.

 

[Szadzik]

Move2SD does not work on SGS3 since its not partitioned that way like the SGS2.

There is still Symlink. Root required. Allows to change around SD and extSD.

 

[tony22]

I just got the Galaxy s3 and I rooted it, I can't movie my apps to my sd card is anyone having this problem oh, I also installed spb shell 3d can anyone help.

Thanks.

 

[jerofld]

I just got the Galaxy s3 and I rooted it, I can't movie my apps to my sd card is anyone having this problem oh, I also installed spb shell 3d can anyone help.

Thanks.

You should find your answer in this thread.

 

[GalaxyS3Friens]

check the guide out over at galaxy s3 apps ! I couldnt figure it out either then somebody at s3 apps found a way ha

 

[shortride]

It would be nice to be able to move the apps the card so when you have to have the phone reset to factory settings, you don't have to start over again like I've had to do twice.

 

[Szadzik]

It would be nice to be able to move the apps the card so when you have to have the phone reset to factory settings, you don't have to start over again like I've had to do twice.

Moving apps to sd has nothing to do with factory resetting and backup.

 

[SUroot]

It would be nice to be able to move the apps the card so when you have to have the phone reset to factory settings, you don't have to start over again like I've had to do twice.

Factory reset deletes apps on sd card too

 

[hbryder]

Found this on Drippler last night haven't tried but thought I would share App2ExtSD2 You can get more info by downloading drippler for s3 from the play store. Says you must be rooted.

 

[SUroot]

Found this on Drippler last night haven't tried but thought I would share App2ExtSD2 You can get more info by downloading drippler for s3 from the play store. Says you must be rooted.

It basically swaps /extSdCard with /sdcard. So your microsd becomes the "internal" sd

 

[VelsClubber]

That's not such a bad idea, I will have to get a 32GB card but only in the event Samsung or Google doesn't come up with a solution to write apps to the SD card.

Would JB change that possibly?

 

[Hallian]

Hi .. i have just bought galaxy note 10.1 and moved some books and pics from internal memory to the external memory ...

open "My Files" /Root, browse to the folder containing the files you wish to transfer, tap "Select",check the box for the files to copy from SD Card, tap "Copy", tap the "up Arrow" top line (to get back to /Root),tap "External_SD", browse to the folder you want to copy the files to, tap "Paste"

 

[gbswales]

Hi .. i have just bought galaxy note 10.1 and moved some books and pics from internal memory to the external memory ...

open "My Files" /Root, browse to the folder containing the files you wish to transfer, tap "Select",check the box for the files to copy from SD Card, tap "Copy", tap the "up Arrow" top line (to get back to /Root),tap "External_SD", browse to the folder you want to copy the files to, tap "Paste"

The 10.1 tablet may be quite different from the phone - using this simplistic method on the phone would result in apps that no longer worked. I am not all that clear as to whether this change came about becaus of the Adroid software, or the manufactures implementation of it, but you certainly cannot do this on a galaxy S3 unless you root the phone first. It is quite possible that on a tablet you may be given root administration rights as you have on computers.

 

[Lighthill]

Also have this problem with Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 - ICS.

Cannot "move to SD card". These options not showing at all. HATE IT. Didnt use this much for gaming anyways

 

[Maddy123789]

We need a choice of where to install applications, we have needed this for a long time now.

But since Google devices don't have sdcards it's not a priority for them so Samsung, HTC and others will have to find a solution.

I'm aware of directory binds but this shouldn't be required, it would be like Windows forcing me to install everything on the C drive.

Can somebody guide me how to use directory Bind ... Root and from where i can get it installed
I just have a 2Gb Internal space

Thanx

 

[RyanSupertramp]

This is your first post????

YES!! If you ROOT, you can move them to the sd card.

I don't know why, but this made me laugh really hard. "This is your first post?"

 

[chuymty69]

ROOT
(GL to SD) from playstore
Gracias

 

[ozhog]

I'm aware of directory binds but this shouldn't be required, it would be like Windows forcing me to install everything on the C drive.

That would have to be the best description I have seen yet of this. Samsung really need to get their act together.

 

[smallclone]

No reason to move apps to SD in ICS anyways, the whole internal storage is available for app installation.

Yes there is.

My spotify music collection is about 9GB. All has to be stored on internal memory (Yes I've tried the workaround and it deleted all my files)

This does NOT leave me much space on the Internal memory does it?

The single worst feature of the S3. Advertise "External SD card" space available but negelct to mention that only videos, photos and mp3s can be stored on it.

 

[Lighthill]

Asked from Samsung Tech Support.

Answer is: It is hard to move files to SD cards in newer Android versions. In Jelly Bean 4.1 this feature WILL COMPLETELY be turned off. This is because apps of today require more and more device memory and wont work with SD.

Note to self: f*k.

 

[gbswales]

I don't see why an app stored on an SD card cant be RUN in internal memory, which after all is a temporary status.

Secondly even if this is the reason there have always been some apps where it was marked impossible to move to SD so that takes care of apps that need internal memory.

There will still be a lot of apps that do not need to hog space on the internal memory.

Actually since it is often stored data (like large music collections in Spotify) why isn't it possible to set the data to be stored on external SD. In the same way how can I force apps like my devices camera to save files to the external SD. OK I know I can move them there afterwards but it would be so much easier if I could set the storage location in the first place (if this can be done please describe the process) What about other folders such as downloads etc.

It strikes me that Android needs something similar to the excellent Windows libraries that are in 7 and 8.

I am still firmly of the opinion that the reason Google have dropped this support for moving apps to SD, is to increase the sale value of devices with larger internal memories - costing many times the value of the space on a micro sd. Interesting that this came about as Google moved itself into the hardware market!