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[Q] low internal phone storage; options for using SD card for apps?

I've run up against the Nexus One's meager internal storage. I don't have that many applications installed and what i do have is essential. My stock, unrooted Nexus One has ~20 mb of free internal phone storage, which prevents me from trying out some of the new applications that are large in size, eg. Angry Birds beta is 11mb or Google Earth is 20mb. What are my options for using my 8gb micosd card as additional storage space?
Here's what i've been able to gather on my options:
1. Froyo's "Move to SD card" option only moves the apk file. Applications themselves need to provide this functionality. I've already removed and uninstalled what I can, and still have very little free space.
2. Apps2SD: requires me to partition my sd card with an ext3 partition and install a custom rom that boots this partition.
3. use SetInstallLocation: requires me to Root device. Would probably have to uninstall/reinstall all my applications.
My phone is stock, no root or custom firmware, and I'd like to keep it that way. I know about the accessibility and ease of the 1-click root application, but working 80 hrs a week, I don't really have the time to mess around with keeping up to date with firmware, bugs, etc. I did this with WinMo and it got pretty old/tiring after awhile. Besides, I've been very happy with the stock android OS and have only consider getting root access to install some programs, but have not been tempted enough to do so. I'm also a Linux/Unix commandline noob and have no experience with android SDK/ADB
Help? Opinions?
Thanks.

Actually you can root your device without reinstalling your applications. The best bet would be to go that route and then use a program like titanium backup (donate version, 3.99) to force move it. The only thing not to do is to move anything that has widgets and doesn't support move to SD as it will no longer display the widget (program will usually still work). That way you don't have to have ALL programs installing on the SD and still have to worry about the installation location. Also, titanium is great to back up all settings incase something horribly goes wrong and either you have to flus your system or you get daring and start installing custom roms.
It's one of the most useful $4 I've spent since I got my N1. And it will stay with me if I ever move to another Android device too.

I'm a bit confused by "force moving" applications via titanium backup and then your statement about not moving anything that doesn't support move to SD. Isn't that what I've already done now when I've moved all programs that support moving to SD?
I understand that programs that require background services, widgets, etc are probably better off on the internal storage as it's likely faster and always accessible as compared to SD storage. But some apps like XBMC remote, epocrates, nytimes, epicurious, adobe acrobat (which are all apps > 3-4 mbs in size) probably dont need to be on internal storage, yet don't support Move to SD by the application developer.

#3 does not require root if performed via adb.

Rusty! said:
#3 does not require root if performed via adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I did this. I now have the ability to move ANY app to SD (although you may want to stay away from moving widgets and the like)
Could somebody post that method? It involved a few simple commands via command line on a windows pc. Something about setlocation....
I have much more room now that I can move everything to SD. I'm not sure why this isn't the default method in FroYo. Does anybody know if there are any serious side effects from doing this? I haven't noticed any so far.....

Download ModInstallLocation. Lets switch the install location to sd card and that lets you use the applications panel to move apps to the sd card. I've got nearly everything that isn't a widget or system app on the sd card. Works great

unknownrebelx said:
Could somebody post that method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Code:
adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

GldRush98 said:
Download ModInstallLocation. Lets switch the install location to sd card and that lets you use the applications panel to move apps to the sd card. I've got nearly everything that isn't a widget or system app on the sd card. Works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Plus you can root using 1-click root app without unlocking your bootloader nor installing any different rom. In fact, nothing will be reinstalled, not even your apps. It's literally 1 tap and you are rooted, then you can benefit from ModInstallLocation hassle free.

wow. that really wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. after using 1-click root, i downloaded Mod Install Location from the market, and set install to 2 (external). then used Android OS' Settings>>Applications>>Managage Applications panel to move most of what I could. there were still some apps that had the option to "Move to SD" greyed out, but most were movable. I'm now up to 55mb free. this will hold me over for now although more installed internal storage, as seen in some newer android devices, would have been the better option.
Do most of you keep setInstallLocation 2 or change it back to setInstallLocation 0 and then switch to move applications as needed? I recall reading elsewhere that somet applications have trouble or don't work correctly when installing to SD card initially.

CyanogenMod - Install Location

Hi, I've been using GingerDX v022 (and Alfs v08a kernel) for quite a while and I'm happy with it but one thing bothers me.
Sometimes when installing large apps with low internal phone memory left the system still tries to install the app on the phone leaving me with like 4 MB of internal memory and then I have to manually move the app to sd card using the application manager. I would prefer Android to install apps to sd card by default (while still letting me move them to phone memory when I want).
In CyanogenMod settings I found two options that I find somewhat confusing. One is "Install Location" and it allows me to select sd card, which is exactly what I want but here's what I find confusing... The option "Install Location" is right next to "Allow Application Moving" and even though I have "Allow Application Moving" unticked I can still move apps to sd card. Are these two options related to a different system of moving apps to sd card (e.g. to a separate partition instead of the .android_secure thingy)? Because I still want to use .android_secure and I'm not sure if "Install Location" option might somehow mess it up.
Long story short: Does "Install Location" in CyanogenMod settings work with Gingerbread's built-in moving apps to sd card?

Long story short: Does "Install Location" in CyanogenMod settings work with Gingerbread's built-in moving apps to sd card?[/QUOTE]
Yes it does.. How do you find Install Location confusing? It's sort of self-explanatory, isn't it?

I thought "Install Location" might have been a subsetting of "Allow Application Moving" (and "Allow Application Moving" some completely alternate app2sd method). Now looking at screenshots I see that the English tooltip under "Allow Application Moving" says "Allow moving of any application to external storage" while the Polish translation says something like "Allow moving applications to external storage" and omits the word "any", which kinda changes the meaning.
So I'm guessing "Allow Application Moving" simply bypasses the block that some apps have on being moved to sd card?

Not sure that's the case at all..
It just facilitates being able to use the sdcard as an install media. That's all..

I changed "Install Location" in CyanogenMod settings and it didn't really do anything. Some apps still install in phone memory while others on sd card, like before.

Soo... Does anyone know how to make this option work?

CuriousJack said:
Soo... Does anyone know how to make this option work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The question to your answer is: Some apps are movable using native apps2sd and some apps are not (that is indicated actually in the info of the app, seen in links2sd, you can see an sdcard icon on the right and says that it is movable, if there is no icon, it is probably recommended that you don't move the app using native apps2sd). If you want to move apps that are not movable using native apps2sd, use links2sd.

No, that's not the case. The apps I'm talking about ARE movable and CAN be moved using the built-in interface but they install in phone memory by default and then have to be moved manually (using the regular Android app manager, not some brute force method). I don't want to force apps that normally cannot be moved to sd to install on sd, I want the movable apps to choose sdcard as the default location.

CuriousJack said:
No, that's not the case. The apps I'm talking about ARE movable and CAN be moved using the built-in interface but they install in phone memory by default and then have to be moved manually (using the regular Android app manager, not some brute force method). I don't want to force apps that normally cannot be moved to sd to install on sd, I want the movable apps to choose sdcard as the default location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have such issues with GingerZaraki or FroyoPro..
I set to Automatic..

Okay, then let me rephrase the question. Does anyone KNOW if "Allow application moving" in CyanogenMod settings needs to be turned on for the "Install location" setting to work?
And to clear up any confusion, I didn't mean that all apps install in phone memory, just some. The thing is... the decision isn't up to me and I would prefer it to be my decision.

Does anyone KNOW if "Allow application moving" in CyanogenMod settings needs to be turned on for the "Install location" setting to work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that when Allow Application Moving is turned ON that it works..

Now I tried with both "Allow Application Moving" On and Off, and I installed Ustream app from Android Market for test. The app still took ~9 MB of phone memory instead of installing on SD card as the "Location" selection in CyanogenMod would suggest. Meh...
Any idea of something like a terminal command that could override the default install location?

[Q] titanium backup broken- only backs up to internal memory

Hi,
Just got a new LG L90 and wanted to back it up. On my old phone, I used TB and it worked ok most of the time.
But this newer version only backs up to the internal memory which is a no-no. After I discovered that it was defaulting to internal memory, I moved the directory to the sd card, went into prefs and changed it to the sd card. I figured something was wrong when TB claimed there were no backup files in the directory when clearly there were.
But I did a backup anyway, pointing to the SD card, yet it went right back into internal memory.
No error messages, just doesn't work.
Fixable, or get something more modern?
Thanks.

fletchb1 said:
Hi,
Just got a new LG L90 and wanted to back it up. On my old phone, I used TB and it worked ok most of the time.
But this newer version only backs up to the internal memory which is a no-no. After I discovered that it was defaulting to internal memory, I moved the directory to the sd card, went into prefs and changed it to the sd card. I figured something was wrong when TB claimed there were no backup files in the directory when clearly there were.
But I did a backup anyway, pointing to the SD card, yet it went right back into internal memory.
No error messages, just doesn't work.
Fixable, or get something more modern?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, same thing. I looked closer and found out what is going wrong. It is defaulting to /mnt/sd but that is pointing to internal memory. I am not sure if this is a LG or Android problem but anyway, I found the real location but it won't let me select it for some reason. Did kitkat move away from /mnt locations? I am going to keep digging .. I don't know android that well but know general linux and /mnt was used for years.

fletchb1 said:
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, same thing. I looked closer and found out what is going wrong. It is defaulting to /mnt/sd but that is pointing to internal memory. I am not sure if this is a LG or Android problem but anyway, I found the real location but it won't let me select it for some reason. Did kitkat move away from /mnt locations? I am going to keep digging .. I don't know android that well but know general linux and /mnt was used for years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google introduced new security features in KitKat. Apps are no longer allowed external sdcard access without some kind of patch. I use, with CM11 and also LG Stock, Xposed framework with 3 other modules. They are "HandleExternalStorage", "KitKat SD Card Full Access", and "XInternalSD". I also use Link2SD to help conserve user data space.

shinobisoft said:
Google introduced new security features in KitKat. Apps are no longer allowed external sdcard access without some kind of patch. I use, with CM11 and also LG Stock, Xposed framework with 3 other modules. They are "HandleExternalStorage", "KitKat SD Card Full Access", and "XInternalSD". I also use Link2SD to help conserve user data space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks..I did some reading and stumbled apon this info. Surprised TB is not away of the issue though. I found something in the playstore that changes permissions and now it is working.
I guess I need to relearn the newer androids as I am coming from 2.3
Thanks again.

When Did We Get the Ability Again to Move Apps to the SD Card?

When Did We Get the Ability Again to Move Apps to the SD Card?
I noticed this in the Note 4 and was surprised and excited. I probably was not mindful about the KitKat operating system before stumbling onto this.
I thought this feature was only possible when rooting and using ROM's like CyanogenMod. I thought the ability to move apps to the SD was discontinued after Gingerbread because of Security & Privacy concerns.

arjun90 said:
When Did We Get the Ability Again to Move Apps to the SD Card?
I noticed this in the Note 4 and was surprised and excited. I probably was not mindful about the KitKat operating system before stumbling onto this.
I thought this feature was only possible when rooting and using ROM's like CyanogenMod. I thought the ability to move apps to the SD was discontinued after Gingerbread because of Security & Privacy concerns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I bought my Note 4 I could not use third party apps like Root Explorer to move files to SD. The only thing that worked was the "My Files" app that came bundled with the phone. That was all fixed once I rooted and flashed a custom rom like Dynamic Kat or FireKat. I think there is a build.prop fix and/or an xposed module fix (e.g. Wanam) if you don't want to flash a custom rom, but yes that still requires root as far as I know (but I could be wrong ).

My Note 4 was never rooted, and I have the ability to move apps to an SD card using Clean Master.
sefrcoko said:
When I bought my Note 4 I could not use third party apps like Root Explorer to move files to SD. The only thing that worked was the "My Files" app that came bundled with the phone. That was all fixed once I rooted and flashed a custom rom like Dynamic Kat or FireKat. I think there is a build.prop fix and/or an xposed module fix (e.g. Wanam) if you don't want to flash a custom rom, but yes that still requires root as far as I know (but I could be wrong ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Practical difficulty with adopt SD as internal storage

Hello.
Its been a while and I've been using the SD as an internal memory for a while. While I love this feature there is a very weird thing with this feature that if you move an app to SD and if it gets an update, it gets moved back to the internal storage which is slightly inconvenient. However more inconvenient is the fact that all the app data gets lost in this updation procedure.
Would any kind soul suggest a workaround or a script to get around this annoying glitch? I mean I really love this feature but it obviously needs polish from Google.
Also another thing is while shifting these apps back to SD, it sometimes says not enough space (despite having lots of it). On the second try it shifts. Any idea what's up with this?
Thanks!

I am having the exact same issues and the same complain.
Being on a device having only 4GB of internal storage (that too only 2.28 GB usable) this "adopt as internal" feature in Marshmallow really came as a boon. However with these issues the whole idea becomes worthless.
I did a bit of search on Google about this feature. For nexus phones on marshmallow there is a "Migrate data" option to the SD card adopted as internal. However this is not available for our devices. It only shows up in the internal storage and lets you migrate from SD to internal? Grrrr....what good would that do?
Any kind of workaround would really help and convince me to keep this phone for another year maybe

I think you're getting confused. We too have the same option but this moving back to the internal storage on updation is something Google needs to address..

psiknight99 said:
I think you're getting confused. We too have the same option but this moving back to the internal storage on updation is something Google needs to address..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since google's nexus phones lack sdcard slots, this feature was probably introduced keeping android one series phones
in mind, however there is so much confusion regarding it's objective at the moment,for it is only partial implementation of sdcard as internal memory. After updates I am aleardy down to 500mb space on internal storage, the point is if despite using sdcard as internal storage if my original storage space still runs out--what purpose does it serve then? I would have used link2sd otherwise,but this feature put me like many others in dilemma.

Yeah mate, really disappointing..

I have the exact same problem
What was google thinking before releasing this half finished feature
I hope there is an update soon to fix this problem

Some apps disappear after reboot
After moving apps to sd, apps like mxplayer, Microsoft word etc just disappear.
They are automatically uninstalled.
Can anyone confirm this??
Also it would be great if someone finds a workaround these problems

Yup Firefox disappears everytime I install it. So do many other apps..

psiknight99 said:
Yup Firefox disappears everytime I install it. So do many other apps..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is so not cool man.
Whats the use of this feature if apps keep on disappearing
My observation is that the apps which directly get installed on SD card have these issues.
The apps that gets installed on internal first and then moved to SD, survives reboot.
Maybe app developers can make changes to their apps to support this functionality.

Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.

psiknight99 said:
Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope that from here on this feature will only improve.
Lets pray that bugs will be fixed soon, and google doesn't scarps this project like other projects.
I am still using it as phone storage.. well something is better than nothing

psiknight99 said:
Clearly a half assed attempt from Google on this..I re-flashed my ROM and didn't chose the portable storage option. Link2sd doesn't work on Marshmallow yet so I'm just stuck with a typical 4GB internal memory crap phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make two partitions on your sd card, select portable storage option in Marshmallow, install apps2sd,it has all features of link2sd for free,I am using it myself.

same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )

DarkAlvy said:
same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.

arshavin69 said:
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But i will have to root to do that right?

arshavin69 said:
Like I said before, simply use sdcard as portable(don't forget to make two partitions) and use apps2sd(it also has an inbuilt partitioning tool), this is by far the best setup as of now to overcome internal memory constraint
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi @arshavin69,
I am trying to use app2sd as you explained, but I am stuck on 2nd partition mounting.
I created 2 partitions by Minitool Partition Manager (because app2sd internal partition manager cause app force close): 1st partitition fat32, 2nd partition ext4.
Once booted up, I choose "portable" and then I open app2sd: app2sd say 2nd partition is not mounted and ask to remount or recreate mount script.
If I try to remount I get an error: mounting /dev/block/vold/179:66 on /data/sdext2 failed No such file or directory.
If I try to recreate the mount script, app2sd ask to choose sd card 2nd partition and file system type.
I am choose /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 and ext4 file system, then app2sd ask to reboot.
After rebooting app2sd says again that 2nd partition is not mounted and ask to remount or recreate mount script.
Could you please explain steb by step what I have to do?
Thank you!
SOLVED dismissing the notification when the phone ask to choose the sd card mount (portable).

DarkAlvy said:
But i will have to root to do that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course!! You can't use even link2sd without root.

DarkAlvy said:
same issue, app disappears or data gets lost or sometimes all apps start crashing untill reboot (when this happens cant modify/write anything on sd card, reboot fixes this though )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your apps disappear after reboot, just transfer them to internal storage and it won't disappear after that

6.0.1 has made this feature unusable.
after updating to 6.0.1 most of the apps cant be moved to external sd.
internal storage gets filled with google apps
this really sucks

abhijitkadam03 said:
After moving apps to sd, apps like mxplayer, Microsoft word etc just disappear.
They are automatically uninstalled.
Can anyone confirm this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! This is the issue that I was facing.