[TUT] How to force install apps to SD card without ROOT!!!

[extend]

That means you are rooted.

Honestly, I'm not rooted. I just installed it on my phone. There are comands that are not permitted, and all of the commands that are not permitted on my terminal emulator are not also permitted on my adb shell when I have my phone connected on my PC. So I assune since the command works on adb shell given my current permissions, I guess it will work as well in terminal emulatr even when not rooted.

 

[praky]

what i mean is to execute these commands via terminal you will NEED to be rooted.

 

[zziga]

hey guys, i need help!
i've followed the procedure step by step, i've done all: installed drivers, installed even kies, installed sdk... i've done all , but , when i type adb devices, the console says : adb is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
i am in the right directory (tools), i've followed all steps and installed everything... can anybody help me?
thanks.

 

[zziga]

nevermind, i installed tools revision 7 and it works

 

[TootieTazzy]

I followed this tutorial to the letter and everything worked as it should.

Thanks so much!

 

[joeycookson]

Not working at all for me, anyone know what I am doing wrong, This is what I get to, I click install packages in the bottom right and this comes up...

 

[joeycookson]

Ok ignore that, I have installed the 3 things it says but now when i plug in my phone it does not promt me to install anything to my phone?

 

[praky]

Doesn't matter. Try the ADB commands. If they don't work then try to install the drivers manually.

 

[mananrishab]

Hi! i have a non rooted galaxy ace with gingerbread!
i read your TUT and got stuck at one point. when i give commands in the command promt, it says invalid directory. i checked the properties of my sdk manager and it has the same location! please help.
thanks in advance

 

[SamsungAceUser]

Note: Works on both froyo & GB

Source:Androinica How to Install Apps to the SD Card by Default on Android 2.2 Froyo (not for Ace)

You can find the latest version of this tutorial here. Though I will try to keep updating this thread too.

Getting Ready:
1. First you have to enable USB debugging on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
2. You need to download and install the latest Android SDK on your computer from http://developer.android.com/sdk/.
3. Install the latest java SDk if you don't already have one.

Tutorial:
1. Extract the package to the folder of your choice [Let's say- C:/android-sdk-windows/], run SDK Manager.exe

2. Close the command / windows command prompt window that opens.

3. In the new window, click on Available Packages to the left. Untick all options you are prompted to download except the USB driver option & Android sdk tools revisionx(13 as of now) & Android sdk platform-tools revision x(7 as of now) if they are there.
(Note-If you get an error message at this point, enable

 

[SamsungAceUser]

Thanks Praky for the wonderful tutorial...
I read and re-read about the memory issues before purchasing Ace but had no option in that range but had to go for Ace(though I actually like it!!) because of the good customer base Samsung has in India..

I purchased it on 10th October and had a Andriod version 2.3.4

The andriod forums have helped me from day in understanding things which I myself could not. The forums have practically answers to all the questions I had till date.

I have installed Whats App,FB, Battery Dr Saver, Angry birds and everything started getting storing on phone memory as expected. My phone was running slow since past two days and took seconds to load messages or phone book though I had 132 MB free..

I installed App2SD and it was of no use at all to me as I couldn't move anything to SD card.
As I have to install many many apps yet, I thought I quickly will go through this tutorial and started installing apps on memory card directly.
I just finished installing and apps like FB, Market, Angry birds, Battery Dr Saver can be moved to SD card now.

Thanks a lot Praky. I am hoping the rest of the apps which I would download would be stored on my memory card.
But I still have 2 questions and if you could possibly answer that would be of great help to me:

1. My memory card currently is 2GB, suppose I install some apps on SD card and later if i have to change my SD to suppose 16GB card do i have to shift them back to phone memory and then again back on card?
2. The apps like Maps, Gmail, Gtalk, are still stored in internal memory. Can they be moved? Do I have to install App2SD to move them??

And I hope I have not ruined my warranty as I still have a year to go

Thanks alot once again!! You guys make Android actually available to ppl like us by enabling us to make customizations!!

Thanks again

 

[SamsungAceUser]

oh and the path i tried using was this
cd C:\android-sdk\platform tools
any help would be very appreciated

This is the way I did..
When I launched my command prompt , I was on this directory:C:\Users\Harsha>
The I entered : cd C:\ ( means change directory to C:
the I moved to C directory and command prompt showed this:
C:\>
after that I did not type anything but instead pressed tab until I saw android-sdk-windows(the folder where i installed drivers)
selec the folder which appears and enter
once u r intot hat sub folder press tab again until you find the sub folder's name appearing..
In this way you dont make any mistakes in writing the directory path
once you you reach the desired location, then start typing commands..

Hope it helps

 

[praky]

1. My memory card currently is 2GB, suppose I install some apps on SD card and later if i have to change my SD to suppose 16GB card do i have to shift them back to phone memory and then again back on card?
2. The apps like Maps, Gmail, Gtalk, are still stored in internal memory. Can they be moved? Do I have to install App2SD to move them??

1. Yes.
2. No, they can't (without rooting)

 

[praky]

Hi Praky,

Can you please tell me from where do I install JAVA SDK? Did you mean JAVA ADK? I am not a developer and not well versed with these things. So thought of confirming with you.. Rad Installing SDK tutorial.. it seems i need to install Eclipse and SDK pakage.

No eclipse needed.
Just install the latest Java SDK from the official website at the default location & you are good to go with the rest of the tut.

 

[praky]

Hi! i have a non rooted galaxy ace with gingerbread!
i read your TUT and got stuck at one point. when i give commands in the command promt, it says invalid directory. i checked the properties of my sdk manager and it has the same location! please help.
thanks in advance

You must be typing wrong. Check for typos. Be in the same directory(in CMD) where u installed Android SDK.

 

[dnana]

thanks praky now i am having more space

 

[vincyc]

Hi Praky, is possible to reverse the process? I mean once you have decided to install by default the apps to sd modifing the setting of a keys in the phone sw or fw (actually i don't know) as you are accessing as developer it's possible to restore the default setting like launching a command to re-set the parameter to original?

 

[praky]

Yeah. Reflashing or updating firmware will put you on default setting. Otherwise it can be done via ADB too (pm setinstalllocation command). Or you can simply move all apps back to phone memory. However, it would be hard to understand why one would do so?

 

[vincyc]

Yeah. Reflashing or updating firmware will put you on default setting. Otherwise it can be done via ADB too (pm setinstalllocation command). Or you can simply move all apps back to phone memory. However, it would be hard to understand why one would do so?

I'm not sure if will void the warranty. Also I didn't understand very well if once the procedure is done app2sd application will work without routing or not. Thanks in advance for your time

 

[zt3]

tried it successfully the first time I did it.. just followed the tutorial step by step..

 

[Droid2011]

Hi! I followed all of the steps and got a message that appears like a menu:
0)system chooses
1)internal
2)external

When I enter 2 it reads "access denied"

However, after I enter "adb shell" I get a $, and after I enter "pm setinstalllocation 2" I get another $ and then the menu. It's suppossed to work right? Because it doesn't work at all; my phone keeps installing apps onto the main memory and you can;t even move them to sd. I am using Android 2.3. Is it suppossed to be rooted?

 

[rachhollo]

ive got up to stage 4. so i have installed the SDK manager. but when i plug my phone in i don't understand what to do? I have downloaded Kies and the USB downloader but niether seem to work? the OS prompt doesnt come up? nothing pops up and theres nowhere for me 2 choose install?
please help.

 

[praky]

no worries in case of no prompt. Go further with the procedure.

 

[Droid2011]

Hey Praky,
In my case, does the appearance of the menu I mentioned signal that the process is complete, or am I doing something wrong? Also, almost all of the apps still cannot be moved to the sd card. Is this normal, or did something go wrong? I am running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Thanks.

 

[praky]

After which step did you get the menu? Which apps are getting installed to phone mem?