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Is there anyway to FORCE the apps to use the MicroSD memory instead of the Internal storage?
It seems every app I've installed ( Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, etc) uses the internal memory. I have a 32GB MicroSD that seems to be useless right now. I tried moving all the apps to SD, but they still use the Internal Memory to store cache/files
I have yet to see a fix for this as well. The way I work around this is if the app saves files to the internal storage there is usually a setting in the settings menu that will allow you to change where it saves files. For instance with the TapeRecorder app. It automatically saves files to the sdcard (which Motorola stupidly named the internal storage for). I go to the settings and change the "sdcard" to "sdcard-ext", then it works!
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
Sorry this next generation android phone just like Droid X it has dedicated app memory. That memory is used strictly for those apps. U can put 500 apps and not run out of room. SD card is used for media music movies etc
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Groid said:
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this why When I selected "Move to Media Area" the application shortcut disappears from the "All Apps" menu?
I moved 2 games to the "Media Area" and now they are gone... they are still installed, but I have no way of accessing them. (I know they are still installed because when I went to reinstall, it said something about it replacing an app thats already install)
After researching more, and fumbling through the phone I discovered that Motorola has deemed the 8GB of Internal memory as an SDCard.
Another FAIL for Motorola, and I doubt there will ever be a fix for this. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
Stated on the Motorola Forums:
Folks, it's the storage naming system in Android. If you go to any forum for any phone with internal and external memory you'll see the same complaints. There are multiple threads about it here.
Even though in Motorola's file manager you see "internal phone memory" and "SD Card", the internal memory is actually "sdcard" and the external is "sdcard-ext". Like I said, it's like this on every brand of phone with this set up.
So, what's happening is the apps are saving to the internal memory because it is, in fact, the SD card. Motorola has tried to remedy this confusion by discontinuing to say "move to SD" and instead now calls it "Move to Media area".
And no, your external SD is not useless. You can still set your photos from the camera to save directly to your external, you can still put music and movies and all kinds of media on your external and your phone will see them just fine. This is why there is a 16GB card included with your phone, so you can use it for media and if you want to move your apps off of the system memory to save space you move it to the 8GB internal area. Of course 8GB is still plenty of space for apps and other media as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: BFirebird101 stated this to, I don't know why, but when I was scrolling it passed over his post. Didn't mean to restate what he said.
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Tornlogic said:
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Stock Music App seems to find the music files just fine on the MicroSD (just add some to try) and the Gallery Finds the Pictures. But I don't give a damn about Music or Pictures.
I have 123MB of the "Internal Memory" (SDCard) left - after I loaded all my work documents (spreadsheets, powerpoints, etc) & E-books. Right now I have to Move the file from the SDcard (InternalMemory) to the SDCard-Ext(MicroSD) after I've edit it and reuploaded it to Google Docs, then if I want to Edit it agian, I have to move it back to the SDCard(Internal Memory) Just so Google Docs will see it again.
Stock? That's okay, I'll pass. I froze those apps with TiBackup.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
i use videovault and when i pulled my video vault folder from my old backup and loaded it to the external SD, the VideoVault did not find them. There is no way i will load 4GB of videos into my Internal 8GB card just so i can haz my pronz!
What I noticed is this seems to be very similar to how the Xoom and Honeycomb handles sdcards and internal storage (minus the fact that we still cant write to sdcards on stock honeycomb....) so it could be Motorola setup the phone this way for a smoother migration to Ice Cream Sandwich when it comes out?
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
You would think with all the Smart/Nerdy People on this site, someone would come up with a way to Rename the partitions Motorola has setup.
If it was just possible to rename the "SDCard-Ext" To "SDCard" ...
The reason you have no issue is Asus did a hack mod to get the SD card to work. Moto did the same on European xooms but on USA version its a google product there fore moto has no control on software manipulation. As for apps to SD card there is no need the device has dedicated app storage stritctly for apps.
KoolAidJunkie said:
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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With Interop Unlock, there's any chance to install or move apps on SD cards?
Currently testing this out. Games won't work too well on an SD card unless you own a class 10
Could you post which registry key to change to install on SD?
Its not simply a registry key.
It's not even about wether it is class 10 or not. WP7 devices had huge problems with their internal SD cards due to the fact that the random access time was terrible. The SD card class tells you only about transfer rate though.
StevieBallz said:
It's not even about wether it is class 10 or not. WP7 devices had huge problems with their internal SD cards due to the fact that the random access time was terrible. The SD card class tells you only about transfer rate though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep. random access is worse on most (big) class 10 cards afaik
It should be possible. You might have to install the app on your phone. Create the directory on the SD card and move the files to the SD card. And find a way to redirect all entries from the phone to the SD card. Access time shouldn't be a big factor, because windows phone apps load into the phones memory. This is all speculation though. I don't think you can install from the store to the phone. Unless there's a way to change the install path of apps in the registry. Again, all speculation.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
Access time was a huge issue with SD cards on WP7. And it was "supported" there. I don't assume it would have become less of an issue on an OS that does NOT support it.
aclegg2011 said:
It should be possible. You might have to install the app on your phone. Create the directory on the SD card and move the files to the SD card. And find a way to redirect all entries from the phone to the SD card. Access time shouldn't be a big factor, because windows phone apps load into the phones memory. This is all speculation though. I don't think you can install from the store to the phone. Unless there's a way to change the install path of apps in the registry. Again, all speculation.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got the same thought recently. If it would be possible to create a junction link in Phone\Data\programs, then it should work, cause windows doesn't really "know" that junctions are only links, it handles this as a directory...
on a "normal" Windows it must be a shell command like
mklink /j C:\Data\programs\{GUID from App} D:\{copy of the entire GUID-App-Directory from C:\Data\programs}
sorry for my "poor" description, but maybe someone got an idea...?
You all are missing a really critical problem: apps (unless they have ID_CAP_PUBLIC_FOLDER_FULL or similar) cannot actually access the SD card (ID_CAP_REMOVABLESTORAGE goes through an out-of-process RPC service; the app itself still can't access the card). Trust me, moving an app's binaries and data files to a location that the app cannot access does *not* end well (in related news, I can't launch Calculator on my phone anymore).
Oh, by the way, symlinks require some registry tweaks (in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem) to work. Otherwise, you get these nasty and useless error messages about the link being "disabled" if you try to do anything with it (creating it works, but not much else). This probably won't affect hardlinks or junctions, though.
So, Samsung have boasted that they can have 128GB SD card support.... what is the point in that if you can't install apps to it... All the guides i've followed have not been clear enough in regards to using my 64GB SD as the "internal" I've tried numerous apps from Link2SD and Internal2ExternalSD none of which have worked
I've also tried to partition it in the hope it would work that way, but no... it just took off what I partitioned and the excess was still displayed as SD storage!!!
Does anyone have any ideas?? because I'm really tempting to take the phone back.. a waste of money in my eyes.... who the hell at Google thought 16GB would be enough to store games and apps on..... Please... Please someone help me here, has anyone managed to use their SD as internal??
PS I also know that KitKat took away move to sd support... so before anyone says that, I know =)
Google are the one's we should be venting our anger at. Samsung do make the devices with more storage so they've covered their backsides on that one, but it's Google that in my opinion have done this deliberately to force us all to use cloud storage. I do however believe that Samsung and other manufacturers should be going back to Google and applying pressure on them to rethink.
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I have many games installed on my memory card?
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app
have you ever even tried an S5 or you just making assumptions?
Because it has app moving built in and works just fine.
I have my S5 rooted, installed NextApp SDfix (from google play), FolderMount and everything's working perfect on SD.
All my apps are automatically installing to my memory card fine on my s5...all thats on internal mem is the sammy junk
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MOD EDIT: Comments removed
Anyway, so am i doing something wrong...because i play a lot of big games I.E. ones that take over 3GB, so when i "move" to sd... it transfers about 80MB out of 3GB... please explain what i've done wrong???? I've never used a Samsung before!
Seriously, it was a genuine question, I even went into the Samsung store today to enquire about it all...
zagaradrian said:
I have my S5 rooted, installed NextApp SDfix (from google play), FolderMount and everything's working perfect on SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you just explain how you managed to get your games to install on the SD then? all i can put on there is music, photos and well..other media... installing games doesn't seem to work...
CraigUK87 said:
Anyway, so am i doing something wrong...because i play a lot of big games I.E. ones that take over 3GB, so when i "move" to sd... it transfers about 80MB out of 3GB... please explain what i've done wrong???? I've never used a Samsung before!
Seriously, it was a genuine question, I even went into the Samsung store today to enquire about it all...
MOD EDIT: Some comments removed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What amount is transferable to the SD card is dependent on the game, not the phone or the SD card itself. large games rely on downloadable data which is not transferable, because they need to be located in a certain place in the phone in order for the game to run (usually android/obb or android/data).
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MohJee said:
What amount is transferable to the SD card is dependent on the game, not the phone or the SD card itself. large games rely on downloadable data which is not transferable, because they need to be located in a certain place in the phone in order for the game to run (usually android/obb or android/data).
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I understand that...can i move the "Android" folder across to the SD via a file browser app... would that work? or will the S5 not read the files anymore... I've just tried that foldermount app... moved my spotify songs across, only to find Spotify losing all the music and then asking to redownload it.... is there a way to maybe mount the SD as a mirror... or at least as the internal card itself.. with other people saying that it "works" fine.. then maybe they arn't reading what I'm asking correctly..
"Attention Wal-Mart staff, we need a clean-up in aisle 6!"
Ok members, I see a lot of tempers and un-called for comments from several participants. Keep in mind XDA rules require respecting other members. That includes the use of profanity and name calling.
Now, I'll clean out the off-topic posts, and maybe even edit some comments. Anymore "mud-slinging" regardless of who throws it, and the thread will get closed.
MD
EDIT: Thread cleaned and edited some comments from some posts.
Folks, if you don't wish to help, then kindly move along to some other thread without posting silly comments.
Also, please be aware of how you post, and that it doesn't come across as whining or complaining. A well thought out precise question will usually result in a precise answer.
And if any member sees a violation of XDA rules, their "ONLY" course of action is to "Report Post". Not add further fuel to the fire, as then it turns into a mess and moderation must come and clean it up. Regardless of what some think, XDA is a development site, Not a social network. Please read the rules.
Thank You and keep it clean.
MD
CraigUK87 said:
Can you just explain how you managed to get your games to install on the SD then? all i can put on there is music, photos and well..other media... installing games doesn't seem to work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, follow those steps (or the missing ones...)
- root your phone
- install and run SD fix; as result, writing to external SD works like before 4.4
- use some application like FolderMount. You can choose different folders from internal memory and link them to another folder on external card. For example: after installing one game (normal, on internal memory), choose in Foldermount the obb folder (that is where almost every app put big amount of data) and link it to a folder on external SD (as result, foldermount will offer you to move existing data). Set Foldermount to automatically mount it on boot, and voila!
link: at operating system level, that directory seems as on internal memory structure, but in reality it resides on external card.
Thanks, to the guy above.. it's all sorted now!
As anyone can understand a bit of frustration was inevitable... considering how much this phone cost and SD.... but appreciate the help.
I'm on Omega Rom 2.0 (KitKat) and after I'm moving and mounting real racing 3 or dead trigger 2, when I try to play the game it downloads the data again from the Internet. I have 64 GB Samsung UHS -1 external Sd card. Any suggestions? Thanks.
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The point of it? Storing all your music, videos(series and films) and offline maps on it so you can keep your internal memory as free as possible for apps that haven't been updated to work with KitKat.
Apps can read from the SD without issues. You don't need to write to the SD to play media.
That said, it still installs all my apps onto my SDcard. (Which I don't want it to.)
It's ridiculous how apps utilize the SD cards on a stock S5.
Let's say you install an app that takes up 100mb, and decide to move it to SD with the device manager. It will maybe reduce the on-device size to 90mb and move 50mb to the SD, and suddenly the app takes up a total of 140mb. Just an example, but this seems to be the case for every app.
Apoxx said:
It's ridiculous how apps utilize the SD cards on a stock S5.
Let's say you install an app that takes up 100mb, and decide to move it to SD with the device manager. It will maybe reduce the on-device size to 90mb and move 50mb to the SD, and suddenly the app takes up a total of 140mb. Just an example, but this seems to be the case for every app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic!! (irony)! That's Samsung allright!
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---------- Post added at 01:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:45 AM ----------
ShadowLea said:
The point of it? Storing all your music, videos(series and films) and offline maps on it so you can keep your internal memory as free as possible for apps that haven't been updated to work with KitKat.
Apps can read from the SD without issues. You don't need to write to the SD to play media.
That said, it still installs all my apps onto my SDcard. (Which I don't want it to.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But alot of people, me included, uses files in a much more interactive way than just "reading" from them. I need apps to be able to modify document, movies, music files etcetera! And for that the apps need WRITE permissions, which now is no longer possible.
This new KK sdcard rules really messes this up.
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I like to keep my media collection stored locally since I don't have a large data plan. Expandable storage on devices will NEVER be pointless.
Please give up and stop buy 16g phone, so 32g phone will come for every brand . I insist buy s.version to have 32g. I just cannot accept android phone treat customers as a fool.
Sent from my SM-G900S using XDA Free mobile app
osvanberg said:
This new KK sdcard rules really messes this up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App developers just need to update to support /mnt/extSdCard for writeable storage, is that really too much to ask?
This is really akin to the old days when apps on Windows assumed they could write to "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Windows" ... that's just a bad idea, and lazy (the wrong kind of lazy).
Hi All, at the risk of being flamed with a crazy n00b question, I'm trying to figure out the best way to use the microSD card. Got 3 of these Kindle Fire's for Christmas for my 10, 8, and 5 yr old boys. The parental controls look fabulous for my needs for them, the obvious problem is the internal storage. I'm reading up as much as I can, realizing root is my saving grace (Thank you Tomsgt!!!!) for getting apps to move to the microSD card, I'm trying to figure out the best/easiest program to make this actually happen.
What are you all using? Any pre-requisites to make this happen (besides root)? Do I have to setup symbolic links, or is there a way to make this all automagic? Is there a way to make content automatically download to the SD card or do I just need to plan on managing this a little an app at a time to move after install?
I tried Link2SD, followed some guides I found, but the immediate problem I found was I wasn't able to copy anything onto the FAT32 partition when it's in the Fire and the Fire is in my computer. Maybe I need to just take the card out and copy content (movies and stuff) directly onto the card that way, but it just doesn't seem quite right.
Ultimately my goal is to get all apps (not system apps obviously) and content to the microSD card.
Thanks so much for your help to this n00b (typically an iPhone user, having a fun time trying to drink from a firehouse trying to live in both worlds)!!
I've been using Link2sd for a number of years. And I find it very helpful for the fire. 1st off you need to repartition the SD card. Set both partitions as primary. 2nd partition I set as a ext2. I have it setup to automatically move new apps to 2nd partition via settings.
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Thanks for responding back! I'm working to try to get link2sd working, but am running into an issue.
I've rooted, installed link2sd, rebooted, and when I launch the app I can choose whichever of the 2 I've created (44GB FAT32 and 20GB EXT2), in either case, after I choose that I'll see a screen that says: "Root Access Warning", "Link2SD could not obtain root access."
In an effort to try to 'start over', I've downloaded the latest firmware, re-installed, went through the basics, did root ONLY (no OTA blocks, nor ad bocks), and just tried re-installing Link2SD, but I'm getting the exact same behavior and unable to move apps.
Got any ideas or thoughts?
Thanks a ton!
Short Version:
I formatted ext2, but had to choose ext4 upon startup of link2sd.
Long Version:
I got it worked out. Stupid. When I formatted the SD card on my computer, I KNOW I told it to go ext2 because every guide I read said use 2 since it'd be better for stock ROMs. When launching link2sd every time I said use ext2 it would tell me it couldn't obtain root. I went and got the link2sd app from google play (I had previously only been using the one from the Amazon App store) and it's pretty obvious the one in the Amazon App store is out dated, or stripped down or something. When I launched the latest link2sd, I would get mount script errors. I then proceeded to just start trying other partitions, and when I chose ext4, BAM, looks like that's the ticket.
Hopefully this might help other poor unsuspecting souls.
Is LINK2SD the only way to do this ?
I'm running the resurrection-remix rom and wondered if there's something built in that I'm missing.
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Connorsdad said:
Is LINK2SD the only way to do this ?
I'm running the resurrection-remix rom and wondered if there's something built in that I'm missing.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I certainly can't say for sure, but, it definitely appears that this is truly the only app I can find that will actually allow you to move ALL aspects of an app to the SD Card. I've tried several others and all they end up allowing you to do is move the program itself, not the content. Which, for something like Knights Of The Old Republic, sucks 'cause the app's like 40 MB, and the content is 2GB. The kicker is that Link2SD is "free", but it's basically not functional until you purchase the license. I suppose they do this so you can first see if you can get it all to the point JUST BEFORE you can move content, because as I've found, there are several steps. Once you're ready to move, you're good to go, just need the license and you can proceed forward. I'm still in the middle of playing with it, but it appears that there are settings which will auto place EVERYTHING onto the SD card if installing from an online app store. Truly worth the 2 bucks and change to actually open up your SD card.
(on a side note, I totally understand one reason why this *could* be a bad thing to do, and that's only if your microSD card is slow. The internal memory on devices is likely as fast as you can get, but the budget microSD cards are definitely going to be slower. I seriously doubt it'll prevent an app from opening, all it means is that you just need to go into it with your eyes wide open that it might launch apps a little slower... which... for me I could care less 'cause these fires are for my 10, 8, and 5 year olds )
Just found foldermount on the playstore, sounds ideal, I'll report back here.
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Connorsdad said:
Just found foldermount on the playstore, sounds ideal, I'll report back here.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app works a treat
I highly recommend paying the small price for the pro version to remove the limitations.
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link2sd isn't the only app that's severely out of date on the Amazon appstore. I find that to be very common.
Foldermount works well, but nothing beats the simplicity of link2sd. Most notably, sometimes on bootup Foldermount can take some time to do its thing, whereas link2sd links are usually immediately functional. I don't know what difficulty you had with the free version; I used it successfully for years (and supplemented it with Foldermount for two offline navigation apps whose data storage was particularly bad) before finally paying the $2.35 for the Plus version which basically just adds the ability to move an app's data as well as the app itself.
When you have a ton of apps on a slow SD card (regardless of link2sd vs. Foldermount etc) the whole system can get very slow and even unresponsive, far beyond a tolerable mere need to wait for an app to open. However, if that happens then you know what you need to do...uninstall some apps. I try to keep apps that run all the time on internal. That helps. And yeah, if you're using link2sd/Foldermount/etc then definitely don't cheap out on a slow card.
Using a Samsung Memory 64 GB Evo MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 1 Class 10 Memory Card at the minute, hopefully good enough. Poor decision not to be able to store apps on an external card as standard tbh.
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I have an MS-N950U1, stock, running the latest update S2BQL2. Most apps cannot use/have access to SD Card. I tried enabling the "FORCE ALLOW APPS ON EXTERN....." under Developers Options - Please see photo attached, but still, apps have no access to SD Card.
Anyone knows if there is a write fix similar t the one that was available on the Note4/Kitkat?
don't think so, even if you did the app most likely would not work properly unless you knew how to optimise it yourself and it doesn't sound like you do
leave apps on internal memory and keep music/video/pictures on sd card (get a good one)
way less head ache
j_hansen said:
don't think so, even if you did the app most likely would not work properly unless you knew how to optimise it yourself and it doesn't sound like you do
leave apps on internal memory and keep music/video/pictures on sd card (get a good one)
way less head ache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has nothing with app optimization. Apps give you the choice of storage location, the problem, external SD doesn't show up. Back in the days, there was a "write fix" to be flashed to give apps access to external storage under kit Kat, I think.
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ispot said:
This has nothing with app optimization. Apps give you the choice of storage location, the problem, external SD doesn't show up. Back in the days, there was a "write fix" to be flashed to give apps access to external storage under kit Kat, I think.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it isn't exactly app optimisation but was trying to explain in an easy to understand way that it is not possible like the same way it was back in note 2 and 3 days
There is a way to do it but I haven't tried. Something along the lines of making your SD card "Adaptive Storage". Did some research on it a few months ago and it's honestly more trouble than it's worth. 64gbs isn't enough for some of the apps I would like to keep on my phone but I've managed to just keep it to the bare essentials.
Since Android 6.0, Google has tighten the 3rd party apps freedom or movement