How To Move All Android Apps To SD Card

How to move all Android apps to SD card
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By SERGEY POVZNER | Published: SEPTEMBER 2 4, 2010
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One of the most anticipated additions to Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) was ability to install applications to SD card. When internal phone memory gets full, Android users have two problems: 1) users cant install any more apps and 2) phone starts working slowly. The slow down is caused by the lower speed of write operations to the internal phone flash memory when its getting full (see this post for more information on this topic), but the bottom line is that having low available space in the internal memory is not desirable. So what should a user do when the phone is running out of internal memory? Uninstalling unused apps is an obvious and easiest solution. Moving apps that support Froyos apps2sd feature to SD card is option.
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John Cult on How to move all Android apps to SD card Suyog Nyati on How to move all Android apps to SD card If your Optimus V is working properly talk about it. - Page 2 - Android Forums on How to move all Android apps to SD card andy on How to move all Android apps to SD card Rahul on How to move all Android apps to SD card John on How to move all Android apps to SD card Jolland Castro on How to move all Android apps to SD card Jolland Castro on How to move all Android apps to SD card Irma on How to move all Android apps to SD card Shaq on How to move all Android apps to SD card
However, for this feature to work developers need to enable this option in their apps and unfortunately many large apps still do not support apps2sd. Turns out there is a hack that lets you move almost any Android app to SD card even if the app developer did not enable this option. More about this hack below, but first lets take look at the limitations of the Android apps2sd feature.
APPS2SD LIMITATIONS
Apps2sd functionality is a step in the right direction. However, the way it is implemented creates some restrictions which you should know about: When an app is moved to SD card, portion of an app still remains in the internal phone memory. On average, you can expect that applications footprint in the phone memory will be reduced by a factor of 2. Note that for some apps the move will save less than 50%, e.g. Google Earth size in the internal memory reduces from 20.5 MB to 15MB, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 reduces from 12.4 MB to 8 MB. If you use a widget on your home screen from an app, this app should not be moved to SD card because the widget will stop working. Android OS doesnt have any batch tools to move all movable apps to SD card at once. You will need to manually move one app at a time by going through the list of installed apps in Settings->Applications->Manage Applications. This means 2 taps per app and is a tedious process. [Update] System apps such as Maps and Youtube cannot be moved to SD card using stock firmware. On some phones Adobe Flash Player is pre-installed as a system app and also cannot be moved. However, they can be deleted on a rooted phone see FAQ below. They also can be moved if you root and install custom firmware such as CyanogenMod 7 see FAQ. [/Update] If you re-flash phones firmware, some backup applications may not restore your apps to SD card, but will restore them to the phone memory. Despite these restrictions, moving apps to SD card is a good way to free up internal phone memory and speed up your Android phone.
MOVING (ALMOST) ALL ANDROID APPS TO SD CARD
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To run commands which will enable Move to SD card button for most installed apps, you need to have adb executable on your computer. Adb stands for Android Debug Bridge and is used for Android software development, but it is a very useful tool to have for any advanced Android user. You do notneed to have a rooted phone to run adb commands. 1. To download the latest version of Android SDK (which includes adb executable), follow instructions from step 2 in the Installing the SDK article from the official Android development site. Note: you do not need to install any other software such as Eclipse for this procedure. 2. After downloading the archive of the SDK, unzip it to any folder and remember its location (lets call this folder <sdk>).
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3. If you are installing Android SDK on Windows machine, you also need to install USB driver as (c) described Povzner. Poweredfor WordPress +section. 2011 Sergey in USB driver by Windows Buddymatic Theme Framework + WPTouch. 4. Connect the phone using USB cable and do not enable USB storage mode. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable USB debugging. 5. Start terminal window on your computer. 6. Navigate to folder containing file named adb (updated to reflect move of adb from sdk\tools to sdk\platform-tools in 2.3): If using SDK 2.2 or older: in the terminal window navigate to <sdk>\tools folder (using cd full-path-to-sdk-tools command). If using SDK 2.3 or later: in the terminal window navigate to <sdk>\platform-tools folder (using cd full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools command). 7. Type the following two lines in the terminal window and press Enter after each line:
adb shell [update] If you get cannot find file error and are using Mac or Linux, type ./adb shell instead. [/update] pm setInstallLocation 2
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8. Now on your phone go to Settings->Applications->Manage Applications. If you have Android 2.3 or later, click on USB Storage tab (may be called SD card). This tab shows a list of apps that either can be installed to SD card or are already on SD card. The ones that have checkbox on the right side are already moved to SD card (credit to Michael Scully for the tip). On Android 2.2 and earlier if you dons see USB Storage or SD Card tab, click on All tab.
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9. Press hardware Menu button and select Sort by Size. 10. Tap on each app that is taking significant amount of space and tap Move to SD card button. Press hardware Back button and repeat. 11. (optional) To change the default installation location for new apps back to the internal phone memory, go back to your terminal window and type:
pm setInstallLocation 0
12. (important) Go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and disable USB debugging. Leaving USB debugging enabled makes your phone vulnerable (e.g. lock pattern can be reset). 13. Enjoy!
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Moving Android Adobe Flash player 10.1 to SD card (apps2sd)

FAQ
Q: Does my phone need to be rooted for this hack to work? A: No. Q: Do I need to setup a full development environment (Java, Eclipse) for this to work? A: No. Q: I dont have time for this hack. How can I check which of my installed apps officially support moving to SD card? Install App 2 SD app from Android Market (or use this download link) and it will list applications for which developers enabled apps2sd support. Q: Can I move all apps to SD card in one operation? A: As far as I know, no (using stock firmware). If you do know a way to do so, please let me know in the comments. Q: Can I move systems apps such as Maps, Youtube, and Adobe Flash Player to SD card? A: No. Moving system apps to SD card is not possible on both unrooted and rooted phones using stock firmware. Q: Can I delete bloatware apps installed as system apps by the carriers? Yes, but only if you root your device. With a rooted phone you could delete unused system apps, but it gets a bit complicated. Deleting some apps may cause problems with subsequent OS updates, so you should be careful. See this list for Android system apps can be safely removed. Instead of deleting, you can freeze unused system apps using Titanium Backup. Freezing an app will remove it from the app drawer and memory and will make sure it is never launched, but it will not free any space in the internal phone storage. Q: Can I move system apps to SD card on a rooted phone if Im using a custom firmware? A: Yes. The most popular aftermarket Android firmware CyanogenMod 7 puts the absolute minimum of the apps in the system folder. CyanogenMod 7 also includes a hack described above to allow most apps to be movable to SD card. As a result, many Android apps such as Maps, Youtube, Gmail can be moved to SD card on CyanogenMod 7, while they are unmovable to SD in the stock firmware. Source: XDA-developers. Related posts
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Speed up your Android: free up internal phone storage List of Android 2.2 (FroYo) apps supporting apps2sd (apps on SD card)
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Speed up your Android: free up internal phone storage
136 Comments
David
Posted October 6, 2011 at 10:18 pm | Permalink
This worked very well on my LG Optimus V (Android 2.2.1). Thank you for sharing this and for making your instructions so clear!
Reply
Aayush
Posted October 9, 2011 at 9:46 am | Permalink
Hi, I tried ./adb devices , it displays ./adb: not found. If I use C:\Program Files\Android\androidsdk\platform-tools>adb devices, it list the device. The button is still inacive and I am nt able to move my apps to DS card. PLz help.
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Robyn
So far Ive gotten to step 6 and I cant find an adb file. I tried updating my phone using the SDK but it didnt install anything. I have an Android Vortex. Help please?
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Ashish
@Sergey Povzner Thanks for clearing out my doubt. Appreciate it. Have a great Day!
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merlin
hmmm. keep running into a wall at step 6. No such thing as a terminal window?
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Sergey Povzner
@David: youre welcome
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@Aayush: the ./ before adb is needed only on Max or Linux. Since your path contains Program Files youre using Windows. If the device is listed its good news, meaning you have the driver and can continue to step 7. The button will be enabled only after you successfully run pm setInstallLocation 2 command. @Robyn: adb file will be on your computer, not the phone. Step 6 describes how to find it. Basically, find the folder where you downloaded the sdk to and inside it find platform-tools folder. @merlin: depending on the operating system youre using it may be called command prompt, terminal etc. Googling should help .
Reply
Balaji Manoharan
Dear Sir, I am using HTC SALSA with android version 2.3.3 (gingerbird) bought a week ago. The storage gets filled very often and unable to install anymore apps. I tried APP2SD app too and though its getting filled often. I tried your steps and when I run the adb from the Platformtools folder , the command window just appears for a sec and then vanishes!! Can you please help !! I even tried running as Admin too and also tried running with the sdk manager open , but in vain. Please help me sort it out!!
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Shaq
Posted December 20, 2011 at 5:08 pm | Permalink
Have you ever figured out the soltuion?im having the same problem as well
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Dhiru
when i run the command C:\program files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb devices it shows adb server out of date killing.. so what should i do??plz reply.. thanks in advance.
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Kenneth
when i type pm setInstallLocation 2, i got pm is not recognized as an internal or external command. thanks in advance.
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Bermie
I can type into the terminal screen. I have found the abd file. When I click on it it simply scrolls and then closes. What am I missing?
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Bermie
NevermindGot it it! Its been a while since I worked with the cmd prompt! Thanks. Worked like a
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charm.
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Sergey Povzner
@Bermie: Glad it worked

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Naveed Hamza
I am not able to find the USB driver for HTC Salsa. HTC website is very ambiguous about it. Anyone found a hack, please help.
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Naveed Hamza
Awesome work dude .. worked seamlessly . But I still have a lot of internal memory occupied by application that still cant be transferred to SD card. Also CyanogenMod 7 doesnt support HTC Salsa yet So any other solution ??
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mynameisstolen
Works great. Thanks! Excellent instructions. Rooted HTC Evo

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Muhammad Ovais Khan

Thank You Dude, it realy worked, and I have free space on my xperia arc.
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Jeyarajan
Thanks for your wonderful work. I have space in my phone.

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Santiago
Thanks a lot for the howto! It takes some time to do all this SDK stuff and update it to get the adb file, but its worth it! Thanks again!
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Ulysses Saice
Posted November 1, 2011 at 7:56 pm | Permalink
Im glad to have discovered your website. I am going to come back. Do excuse my English Im Indian
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national.
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Naveed Hamza
Posted November 3, 2011 at 3:54 am | Permalink
Even though I successfully did your hack on my HTC Salsa some days back, but right now I am again terribly short on internal memory. I am not even able to open the gallery as it shows Phone is low on storage space(Even though 1.24GB space in free on SD card & only 3.39 MB on internal). Thats bloody disgusting!! Is there a way of making the SD memory (entire or portion of it ) act as internal memory. Also will rooting my phone help me Or is there any other solution which you think i should adopt. Do reply Sergey !!
Reply
Sergey Povzner
@Naveed: if you root your phone and create a second partition on SD card, you can use Link2SD app to move apps to that second partition. Heres the market link for Link2SD, authors thread at xda, and brief installation instructions. Remember to do a full backup before rooting or partitioning SD card. Also, you should not leave so little free space in the internal memory when you get that low space warning, some apps such as sync may stop working. Id try to keep at least 15-20MB free.
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merlin
works like a charm! Still i do not understand why this has to be so complicated. This should be a standard option for all non-critical apps. IMHO a major fail by HTC. HTC Desire
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joe
I ran adb shell and it worked, but when I tried to run pm setInstallLocation 2, I got the message that pm is not recognized as a command. When I tried to rerun adb shell it gives an error: device not found message. Any ideas how to take it from here? Thanks.
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pranky
Posted November 20, 2011 at 9:21 pm | Permalink
it really works.gr8 work dudethnx a lot

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christine
I did all the instructions you provided but when I tried to move some apps to my sd card, the move to sd card button is still not highlighted which means I still cannot move it to sd card. What should I do?
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Adam
Hello, Thanks for the great step by step instructions. I am however stuck on point number 6. I am not sure what (using cd full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools command) means and when I click on adb in the platform-tools folder a terminal window pops up with all kinds of commands, and that I cannot modify. So I opened a new terminal window and put in the commands from step 7 for Mac but it still just gave me an error code. So I go back to step 6 and Im stuck again not knowing what to do any help? Thanks again
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Stephen
Posted December 4, 2011 at 12:17 am | Permalink
Hi, Please help me. I did all the steps in the instructions. But I am stuck at steps 6 & 7. When I clicked the adb.exe, It comes out a terminal command prompt and automatically run for a few seconds (eg. 3 or 4 seconds) and then the terminal window closed. I cant type any new command in the terminal window. Why is this happen? Please help me
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Millad
Phenomenal, Its phenomenal man, great job .. I appreciate it After long time I can update and install new apps on my beloved HTC Desire Thanks
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Stephen
Hi, Please help me. I did all the steps in the instructions. But I am stuck at steps 6 & 7. When I clicked the adb.exe, It comes out a terminal command prompt and automatically run for a few seconds (eg. 3 or 4 seconds) and then the terminal window closed. I cant type any new command in the terminal window. Why is this happen? Please help me For your information im using HTC wildfire S OS version 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Reply
ermal
I have HTC Wildfire S and it works for me, thnx a lot, now i can move every program on SD card
Reply
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Irma
Hello there! First at all: Thanks for posting this. Me Ive got the same problem like a few others in here: Im stuck at step 6. Every time I try to open the adb in the folder platform-tools a terminal window pops up for a few seconds and disappears then, without that I could do anything. Is there anything I can do? My phones free space is starting to become very little, which really sucks. Im greatfull vor any help.
Reply
Sergey Povzner
@Adam, Stephen, Irma You probably are double clicking on adb.exe from the explorer. Instead, you should launch the terminal (step 5. On Windows: Start >Run, type cmd and hit Enter). Then type the following command in the terminal: cd full-path-to-sdk-tools substituting full-path-to-sdk-tools with the actual path to folder containing adb.exe file (e.g. cd c:\sdk\android-sdk\platform-tools) and hit Enter. This path depends on where you saved android sdk in step 1. Ill update steps 5 and 6 to make this a bit more clear.
Reply
Irma
Uh, and Im using a HTC Wildfire S with android 2.3.3.

Reply
Pankaj
It worked wonders for my Xperia Arc. Not all but many of the apps could be moved after following the mentioned steps. Thanks a ton!
Reply
Steve
My Phone: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (Verizon) 380 MB total internal storage (48 MB free) Android version 2.3.2 Kernel version 2.6.32.9-perf Build number 3.0.E.2.89 My PC: Windows XP Pro SP3 installed Java SDK 6 update 30 SEMC Mass Storage USB Device driver ver. 5.1.2535.0 already installed installed Sony Ericsson sa0102 ADB Interface Driver ver. 2.0.10.20010 updated to Sony Ericsson sa0102 ADB Interface Driver ver. 2.0.10.20022 At first adb devices showed nothing. And, adb shell gave the same device not found message. So, I rebooted my PC. After reboot I was able to run both adb devices and adb shell successfully. Then, in the adb shell I was able to run pm setInstallLocation 2 successfully.
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I was able to move many applications to the SD card that could not be moved before. WOW, this is GREAT! Now I have 85 MB free of internal storage. It still seems like not much space, but it is better than before. I tested the apps that were moved to SD, and they still work correctly. Any idea how to move the pre-installed games like: Asphalt 6 (21.14MB), Bruce Lee (11.80MB), Star Battalion (10.44MB), and Crash Bandicoot (7.41MB) to the SD card? I cannot delete or move these games, and they are taking up a lot of precious internal space. Anyway, Thank you so much for these instructions! They worked great for the downloaded apps, but didnt do anything for the pre-installed games.
Reply
Sergey Povzner
@Steve From what you are describing, looks like those 4 games are pre-installed as system apps by Verizon or Sony. I am speechless. Unfortunately, no options for unrooted phone. If you root, you will be able to delete them. Also see todays comment from Dominique on how to move them to SD (once rooted) if you want to keep them (although, you may have to buy them). First step to root is to unlock bootloader. Sony Ericsson is supposed to be relatively friendly regarding unlocking bootloader: http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/
Reply
Dominique Tardif
EDIT Q: Can I move systems apps such as Maps, Youtube, and Adobe Flash Player to SD card? A: No. Moving system apps to SD card is not possible on both unrooted and rooted phones using stock firmware. There is actually a way to do so if your phone is rooted. You have first to uninstall any updates to the system apps in question. Second, using a rooted file manager, delete the original apk from /system/app (android keeps the system app appart from the updates, the latter being at /data/apps). Once this is done, reboot and reinstall the app from the market. It will be installed as a user app and as such will be movable to the sd card. As an exemple, my gmail, facebook, maps etc. are all on my sd card now.
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Sergey Povzner
@Dominique Very nice trick for rooted phones, thanks! Will update the FAQ.
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Irma
Hello Sergey! Wow, thanks for your answer! Well, i did that: I opened the terminal window (over the input cmd in the startmenue), then I
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wrote in cd C:\Users\PK\Downloads\android-sdk_r16-windows\sdk\platform-tools but my computer keeps telling me the path wouldnt exist even tought thats exactly where the folder is. And by writing adb shell, the only thing appearing is device not found. What the heck am I doing wrong?
Reply
Jolland Castro
Hi. when i used the command update, an error occured. update: permission denied What should i do? please send me an mail for you reply. Thanks.
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Jolland Castro
i forgot to mentioned,my phone is xperia ray. im using vista computer. please help Thanks.
Reply
John
I just installed App 2 SD Pro on my Galaxy S2 But after I moved my apps to the SD card, i cannot start my apps, it says App not installed on phone.. PLS HELP
Reply
Rahul
Great post.
Now i can live without rooting my phone a little bit more.. Thanks a lot Sergey!
Reply
andy
C:\Program Files\android-sdk-windows\.den when i try and open program-tools it says PROGRAM TOOLS IS NOT RECOGNIZED AS AN INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL COMMAND,OPERABLE PROGRAM OR BATCH FILE. PLS HELP I GOT A ZTE SCORE
Reply
Suyog Nyati
Posted January 1, 2012 at 6:44 am | Permalink
Thanx for procedure now I can move all app on sd card but only part of app can be moved on sd card How can I completely move installed apps on sd card (data,and remaining part also) I have official firmware
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John Cult
Posted January 4, 2012 at 1:42 pm | Permalink
Im dont know if I have installed the driver or not. Can you tell how to check driver installation? Also Im not able to find the path
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1. By List of Android 2.2 (FroYo) apps supporting apps2sd (apps on SD card) on September 24, 2010 at 9:29 am 2. By Speed up your Android: free up internal phone storage on September 30, 2010 at 8:31 am 3. By Change Install Location on May 15, 2011 at 10:21 pm 4. By Liberare spazio sulla memoria interna - Forum Android Italiano on June 29, 2011 at 12:19 am 5. By Twitted by SegunOlulana on August 13, 2011 at 12:40 pm 6. By Move all your Android Apps to SD Card apps2sd | Michael SCULLY on September 21, 2011 at 11:44 pm 7. By Anonymous on October 24, 2011 at 12:12 am 8. By If your Optimus V is working properly talk about it. - Page 2 - Android Forums on December 30, 2011 at 2:18 pm
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How To Move All Android Apps To SD Card

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