Android – Move your apps to SD
One of the major gripes of Android users is the disk space problem. The problem is that you can really only install applications on the device’s internal memory. Froyo allows you to install apps on the SD card… but only if the developer actually enables that feature in his app. There are a lot of apps in the Android Market that do not have this feature enabled (and yes… Flash Player is one of those apps) but there is an easy solution.
Well… Easy… Provided that you are familiar with the Android SDK and have no problem using a terminal window.
The trick is actually pretty simple and all credits go to Jason Patel who posted this on the Modaco Nexus One forum.
- You need to make sure that you enabled “USB debugging” on your phone.
- You need the Android SDK but I’m sure you have that installed by now, right? ;-)
- Connect your phone to a USB port, open up a terminal window, and type “adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2” (without the quotes). ADB is part of the Android SDK.
This will enable the move to SD card option for all applications. - Go to the Applications menu in the Settings menu and move your apps to your SD card.
- To restore this setting back to default type “adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0“.
So far I have not encountered any problems with any of the apps that I moved to SD… That said… Please note that there’s no guarantee that this won’t break or slow down your apps. If you encounter any issues I’d love to hear about them though. Just leave a comment below…
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Thanks !
It’s working very well !
Unfortunately it doen’t work for Flash Player.
Done.
And for those who my be wondering how to enable USB debugging:
Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development -> enable USB Debugging
Doesn’t seem to work for Samsung Galaxy S with internal 16GB SD card
:-(
In most cases there are no problems, but consider that you run Twitter from your SD Card –
and then you pull out the SD Card. Boom! But most modern devices won’t allow to remove SD Card
without removing the battery – so I guess it’s totally fine ;-)
Does this only work for Froyo phones or can older OS versions work as well?
After this trick – there are still apps that cannot be moved (the move to SD option is dimmed out still), Flash is one of them.
@Derek: I think the “Move to SD” feature is specific to Froyo
@Serge: Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a try on my 2.1 phone. But I don’t have high hopes.
The procedure works well, don’t forget that you also need the Java Development Kit to use the Android SDK.
I had to run the command given twice.
I note the following applications lose their widget when moved to SD:
Colournote
Fann Battery Status
The following applications/plug-ins don’t seem to like moving to SD, and can’t be moved back without reinstallation:
360 People
Funambol Sync
I’ll let you know of other issues as I come across them.
The procedure works.
I have not had any problems with any of the applications i have moved… So far.
Some applications cannot be moved, which was expected.
HTC Desire
Is step 5 required or optional? I mean, one I run the command to switch the Install Location to the SD card … is there any reason to switch back if I want to ALWAYS be able to move installed apps?
Thanks.
@ZenTsang: I don’t think step 5 is required. I haven’t rolled it back to the default setting and it’s working just fine ;-)
@Serge Thanks!
Just extra info… I have an HTC EVO 2.2 rooted. I just used the standard unrEVOked 3.21 … no custom ROMs added.
I moved almost every app over that I could. I tested all of them afterwards and they all test fine. Some apps still couldn’t be moved, but that’s ok.
I noticed an interesting issue though. The available storage status of the phone and SD Card is displaying incorrectly. And apps like “Apps 2 SD” don’t seem to realize the apps are now on the card. So the amount of available memory isn’t changing. I only show 82mb free on the phone but moved about 150mb to the SD card.
So is there an app or a shell command to see how much memory is actually available on the phone now that I moved all the apps?
This is why I was wondering if reverting the command (step 5) would fix the displayed memory issue. I can do the trial and error thing, but figured I’d ask if anyone has tried.
I get “Error: unknown command ‘setInstallLocation’”… HTC Legend. Any ideas?
thanks seems to work well on HTC Desire :)
I have done this succesfully – however it seems that the Market – Downloads section does not seem all the apps I moved to the card… and does not show any update necessary either….
This does work, I did this a couple of months ago when i read it from another site(techcredo) And its great, but you cant move widgets, & live wallpapers to sd. They will NOT work. Also any major apps or programs needed in the phone shouldnt be moved like a launcher or anything that you might need when you phone is connected to the pc( sd card in unavailable at that time), or at start up(reboot etc.) Also if you dont have alot of room on your sd it will make your phone slower & apps slower.