[Update - May 2013] To see whether this procedure may work on your phone, check out the new blog post [Follow up] List of phones that work with “How to move almost all apps to SD card” procedure and comments to this post. Please note that this procedure does NOT work on the best selling Samsung Galaxy S3. [/Update]
[Update - March 2013] To help fellow Android users know whether this procedure will work on their phone, please submit this anonymous form (link: Google Forms) indicating whether it worked for you. Thanks! [/Update]
One of the most anticipated additions to Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) was ability to install applications to SD card, because it helps to free internal memory. When internal phone memory gets full, Android users have two problems: 1) users can’t install any more apps and 2) phone starts working slowly. The slow down is caused by the lower speed of disk write operations to the internal memory (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 Android phone is running out of internal memory? Uninstalling rarely used apps is an obvious and easiest solution. Moving apps that support Froyo’s apps2sd feature to SD card is another option. However, for this feature to work developers need to enable apps2sd in their apps and unfortunately many large apps still do not support it.
It 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. And the best part: obtaining root is not required for this to work. More about this hack below, but first let’s 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 that app still remains in the internal phone memory. On average, you can expect that application’s 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 – from 12.4 MB to 8 MB.
- If you use an app widget on your home screen, this app should not be moved to SD card, because the widget will stop working.
- Android OS doesn’t 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.
- System apps such as Maps and Youtube cannot be moved to SD card using stock firmware on unrooted phone. On some phones Adobe Flash Player is pre-installed as a system app and also cannot be moved. Providers may also install bloatware as system apps, which also cannot be moved on unrooted phone. However, on a rooted phone system apps can be deleted or moved – see FAQ for details.
- If you re-flash phone’s 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
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 not need to have a rooted phone to run adb commands.
- 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.
- After downloading the archive of the SDK, unzip it to any folder and remember its location (let’s call this folder <sdk>).
- If you are installing Android SDK on Windows machine, you also need to install USB driver as described in USB driver for Windows section.
- Connect the phone using USB cable and do not enable USB storage mode. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable USB debugging.
- Start terminal window on your computer (on Windows: click Start, type “cmd” and press Enter).
- In the terminal window, navigate to folder containing file named “adb” (<sdk>\platform-tools folder) using this command: cd “full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools” (replace “full-path-to-sdk-platform-tools” with an actual path as shown in the screenshot below).
- Type the following lines in the terminal window and press Enter after each line:
- adb devices
- This checks that the phone is connected and is in the correct mode. You should see one entry in the list of the attached devices. If you get “device not found” error, see Troubleshooting section below.
- adb shell
- If you get “cannot find file” error and are using Mac or Linux, instead type: ./adb shell
- pm set-install-location 2
- (If this command doesn’t work try using the “old” command: pm setInstallLocation 2. Thanks to polosco for the tip.)
- exit
-
Command prompt commands on Windows
- adb devices
- 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 don’s see USB Storage or SD Card tab, click on All tab.
-
Android USB storage tab
- Press hardware Menu button and select Sort by Size.
- Tap on each app that is taking significant amount of space and tap Move to SD card button. Press hardware Back button and repeat.
- (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
- (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).
- Enjoy!
Moving Android Adobe Flash player 10.1 to SD card (apps2sd)
Share your experience (optional, but greatly appreciated)
To help fellow Android users know whether this procedure will work on their phone, please submit this form (link: Google Forms) indicating whether it worked for you or not. Once sufficient number of responses is submitted, I will update this post with the results.
Troubleshooting
- “Device not found” error in step 7. Make sure that the phone is connected and is in the USB debugging mode (step 4). On Windows, this error can also mean the driver is not installed properly. Double check that you followed USB driver for Windows steps. If you still are getting this error, try installing a driver for your manufacturer from this link: Tether “ADB” Driver Installation for Windows.
- “Permission denied” error: make sure that you correctly typed commands.
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: Can I move systems apps such as Maps, Youtube, Adobe Flash Player to SD card?
- A: On unrooted phone using stock firmware, no.
- Q: I don’t have time for this hack. How can I check which of my installed apps officially support moving to SD card?
- Install “App 2 SD” application from Android Market and it will list applications for which developers enabled apps2sd support.
- Q: Can I move all apps to SD card in one operation?
- A: Using stock firmware, no. If you know a way to do so, please let me know in the comments.
- 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 such as Gmail, Google Maps to SD card on a rooted phone?
- A: Thanks to Dominique Tardif for this tip: “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 apart 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 example, my gmail, facebook, maps etc. are all on my sd card now.”
- Q: Can I move system apps to SD card if I’m using a custom ROM?
- A: Yes. The most popular “aftermarket” Android firmware CyanogenMod puts the absolute minimum of the apps in the system folder. CyanogenMod 7 also by default enables the hack described in this post 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. Note that to install CyanogenMod the phone doesn’t need to be rooted, but bootloader needs to be unlocked.
Source: XDA-developers.
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1056 Comments
Hi, great guide, nice and simple, just about…
Got stuck at
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb devices
List of devices attached
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb shell
error: device not found
says there aren’t any devices found, I’m not sure what to do now…I’ve installed google usb driver and enabled debugging before i connected the phone to the computer, btw i had a Wildfire
Where am i going wrong, please reply!
Hey I’ve had the same error too, but I downloaded the wrong packs. I have android 2.2 installed and I downloaded android 4.0 packs. Make sure you download the right packs!
Now it all works thank you very much!
Sam,
I had that problem, and then I realized I hadn’t followed the instructions on actually installing the USB driver here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/oem-usb.html#InstallingDriver.
Hope that helps!
I got stuck in the same step. I’ve already installed the USB driver for my phone and still doesn’t work.
Depending on your phone model, Google’s USB driver may not work with your device.
Try this link to find the right driver:
https://github.com/ClockworkMod/TetherResources/wiki/Windows-Drivers
Thanks guys!
Intall the Driver / CD Included in the box when you bought you phone. That is the driver you need to install for your phone to show in adb devices.
Thanks!! Worked like a charm on my HTC Evo 4G Sprint phone. Didn’t free as much memory as I had hoped though. Maybe freed up 30MB, still only have 67MB internal memory free.
Good guide. It worked for me in my HTC explorer.
Really, i m gonna get it tomorrow.
may i go for it ?
Thanks a lot. I really worked very well on my Dell XCD35
Can u please make a video showing how to do this? Thanks a lot!
I did all the steps and tried even to move the same application (adobe flash player) but the option to move it to SD is still gray. Can you advise? Thanks,
Mo, it didn’t work on my Alcatel 915D One touch. All the programming steps worked, but no check boxes, and still the Move to SD card is grey.
Is there something I have missed?
Did you get a solution?
Thank you.
I was almost without internal memory space.
you didn’t answer me and i found my question.
Nice post. Everything worked fine for me. But I seriously think the above post should have mentioned to download JDK (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html). Also we need to install JDK (minimum version 1.5) and then run SDK manager from unzipped folder of android SDK starter package to download platform-tools folder mentioned in the above hack. (Since, the Android SDK archive initially contains only the basic SDK tools. It does not contain ADB tool / platform-tools folder.)
Not able to move apps to SD card in android 4.0 ice cream sandwich
“Move to SD card” button is not present, is it expected behavior for android 4.0 ice cream sandwich?
Thanks in Advance
Mohamed Muzzammil
please help. i have tried doing everything. my phone shows up in device manager and everything, debugging is on, yet when i type adb devices it just says no devices recognised. this is making me very unhappy as i really really need to do this. i brought a 32gb sd card for a reason, and dont want my phones tiny built in memory to fill up.
ps im using the sony erricson xperia mini pro
Que buena esta esta aplicación me ayudo mucho, requiere un poco de paciencia entenderla. Saludos y Gracias de nuevo.
I am still not able to move the apps that I want to move?
I got all the way to the last stop on my not rooted LG Optimus S running Android 2.3.3. I enter:
$ pm setInstallLocation 2
I get:
pm setInstallLocation 2
[1] Killed pm setInstallLocation 2
$
And then I can’t move anything from my phone. Any suggestions on what I should do?
Same exact situation! Nothing useful comes up when I google this problem either
Anybody come up with a solution to this? Same exact issue and I’m tearing my hair out with this phone.
I’m also having the same problem!
I’m having the same issue with the same phone (killed)
It seems a number of us w/ the same phone are having the same issue…I was so looking forward to being able to move apps (like Maps which is a huge internal memory hog, though from my searching it may be an immovable app) to my SD card since I have a ton of available memory on my sd card & every time I update an app it seems like I have less & less internal memory available. I’m not sure if killed means changing the default is unsuccessful or what. Ironically, if I set the device to 1 (the internal device) I get the same error…however setting it to 0 (the system autochoose option), it seems to work. Sergey, any thoughts?
Sooooo useful , thanks a thousand times !!! If someone has an issue with the permissions under linux – you have to run adb as root (and do a check – if it’s running – kill it from System monitor ,and run it as root) .
How do I run adb as root? Does that mean I have to root my phone? I was hoping not to do that. When I run the System Monitor what happens is that adb runs twice when I enter pm setInstallLocation 2 so I’m guessing that’s what “killed” means…
Glad it worked and thanks for the tip.
Great write up, thanks very much!
Hi, does anyone know if this will help me move either Swype, What’s App or Facebook to the SD card? These apps seems to take the most space on my phone (Wildfire S). Thanks
It probably will work, but be careful about moving Swype. In the past I remember that when Swype was on SD card, after reboot the default keyboard would reset to the default one, which was irritating (because I assume the list of keyboards is prepared before SD card mount is complete).
Hi, great write up, I’m just wondering with the apps that can be moved to sd, will %100 of the app be moved and therefore say if the sd card moved to another phone the app will be fully functional?
Everything goes well till the last command. I get an error which reads ‘Location’ command does not exist? Please see the print screen on the link below.
http://i47.tinypic.com/33o2suc.png
Crap, the command got renamed to set-install-location in one of the recent SDK updates. Try this new command:
pm set-install-location 2
Thanks for the tip and the screenshot. I’ll update the post to reflect this change.
Hot Damn!! works like a charm!!
although i had to do a little fuss about changing the directory.. but the screen shots help a lot!!
great work!!
Followed every step and every step seemed successful. So I went on to try and move apps like Facebook to the SD cand… Unfortunately the button that says “Move to SD card” is still grayed out and I still cannot move the app. I tried uninstalling Facebook and downloading and installing it again hoping that it would install to the SD card but still it did not…
( This didn’t solve my problem one bit…
Brilliant – after about 4 hours of initially doing virtually every step wrong I finally managed to get it to work! Thanks Sergey. Two questions – is it ok to move HulloMail (voicemail app) to SD card? and also, unfortunately I still can’t move facebook. is there a way round this?
If Facebook was pre-installed on your phone when you got it, then it’s installed as a system app by your carrier or phone manufacturer. See FAQ at the end of this post for discussion of system apps. Moving the voicemail app – should be fine, try it, you can always move the app back to the phone memory if it misbehaves.
i’m having an issue with the computer side. i have a mac and i followed the instructions step by step but no matter what i type in the command window, all it says is no such file or directory. please help!
Wonnnnnnnnderful, really I can’t describe my feelings, thanks a lot, I
i have reached the last step:-
-adb shell following -
$
$ pm set-install-location 2
$ unknown command ‘set-install-location’
Please help me, what should i do…
try $ pm setInstallLocation 2. I recently used it and for some reason it’s still being supported on my end.
Hi Guys,
Both the pm setInstallLocation 2 and pm set-install-location 2 are not working for me. it says they are not recognized commands.
Is it because my android is still 2.1? I have a google nexus one
Guys please help….
Hi there,
I have LG optimus one and I landed on your site while searching to find ways to free up space on the internal memory. I have followed both of your advice and it worked like a charm resulting in freeing up a little bit. Thanks really.
however, today I was able to gain back around 30 mb by uninstalling updates on system apps like google maps, street view, and some others which I rarely use. NOW my LG works faster and it feels like “NORMAL”. Hope it helps someone!
cheers
Great Tip..thanks v.much..!
Can same procedure be adopted for Gingerbread 2.3.4??
Hi Sergey,
Great post; thanks very much for your efforts!
I’ve reverted back to an HTC Desire running 2.2.2, which is great apart from the minimal internal memory, so I’m keen to clear some space…
I’ve followed all the steps above and installed both the Google USB and HTC drivers (from github as you suggested). I’ve als0 downloaded the whole of the 2.2 SDK Platform.
Everything seemed to work as suggested from the terminal (I changed back to the setInstallLocation as the set-install-location gave was not recognised), but the Move to SD option is still not available on apps with APPS2SD.
It seems like some others below have had the same issue . Any suggestions?
Cheers in advance.
fantastic! i changed mine to ‘setInstallLocation 2 ‘ and it worked fine after ‘set-install-location 2′ failed. Thanks very much! this has solved a huge problem for me!
Thanx! This is useful!
First, when I enter adb devices, it appears to list two devices and indicates they’re “offline”
when I enter adb shell, I get “error: more than one device and emulator
if I try to continue, I get an error that pm is not recognized as internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Running Windows 2010, phone is Samsung Galaxy Epic for which I downloaded the USB driver
Dear Stephanie,
Did you work around this problem – if so how?
Thanks
Nav
It seems like a lot of work to do just to clear some memory… esp when the phone should have already been capable of this…. “For everything IT can’t, Android CAN”…. Yeah, ha ok… “IT” has 4gb memory off top…I hate that i had to delete almost all my apps bc the ones that the droid came with takes almost all the space leaving very little for anything else….
Fantastic Job !! Jail-Breaking feeling….. God Bless ya…….
thanks guys, worked like a charm….keep up the good work
okay, so am I missing something??? If I select sd card (USB storage, from the manage application page, it brings up all the apps I was already able to move through the manage application function without having to through the whole rigamarole of changing the location through the desktop. And it still only offered up a minority of the apps I have on my phone. Why aren’t the developers making the apps so they can be moved to the sd card — with tens of GB on the card and only a few hundred MB on the phone, this is ludicrous.
So anyone who has gingerbread or greater on their Samsung Galaxy Epic — don’t waste your time with this “fix” or supposed work around
Have you read the post? This trick will enable “move to SD card” button for apps that 1) don’t have that option enabled by developers for whatever reasons 2) are not “system” apps (i.e. pre-installed by carrier/phone manufacturer).
On Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 this issue is resolved: no SD card, all 16GB of storage are available for both apps and media.
i have made all this steps but i get this message when i try to move apps in my intern phone memory: Impossible to move , space unavailable ! I have 2,4 GB memory free .Please help !
This happened to me- I think it was because I had the phone attached as external drive. When I disconnected the USB, this error disappeared.
Thanx buddy.. Hats off to u… Works best on HTC Wildfire…. Although some apps are still hard to move, but still I managed to get around 30 MB free space…
Hello SHanky,
Mine is also HTC wildfire …
I manage to go up to the last step
‘ pm set-install-location 2′ , but then I get the Error
‘ Permission denied’ – when i choose option ’2′ -( install on external media).
Where am i making a mistake ???
Need ur Help with this one …. Thanks
well it didn’t work on my eris
time to bust out them skills i have to make it work let me know if thers a way so i don’t have to do all the work
I have a HTC wildfire running Android 2.2.1
I manage to go up to the last step
‘ pm set-install-location 2′ , but the i get the Error
‘ Permission denied’ – when i choose option ’2′ -( install on external media).
Where am i making a mistake ???
Can anyone Help… Thanks
Try using the “old” command: pm setInstallLocation 2
It works.. did it on htc explorer..but the command should be setInstallLocation and not set-install-location..
I had done succesfully in my HTC Explorer. It is working fine… Thanks a lot……
Works a charm, thanks! (I had to use the “old” command, probably still on 2.2)
Glad it worked. Yeah, it looks like whether to use “new” or “old” command depends on the Android version of the device itself. I’ve updated the post to reflect that.
cannot find driver eventhough i have install it. pls help
it this things work on ics 4.0.3 ?
I type cd “C:\sdk\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools”
But then it says
The system cannot find the path specified.
I thought I did everything right up until this step. Help!?! Thanks!
Go step by step
First find the location of folder
Then step by step go to each one directory like
cd c:\
cd sdk
cd android-sdk-windows
like this
You will get there
Same here
Really Helpfull…..Thanks………
AMAZING FIND!!
Saves me so much space, thanks!
PS I’ve done it twice now and the old command has been the only one working pm setInstallLocation 2 CaSe SeNsItIvE
unfortunately this still does not work…i have the new ics 4.03 and to top that off I haven an encrypted SD card….do you think there is a workaround to this!?? obrigado!!!
I get step #7 to work (amazingly!), but Step #10 still doesn’t let me move apps to my SD card. The SD card button is still gray. ?? Any thoughts on how I got the commands to work, but still can not move to the SD card?
Thanks!, Susan
Aweome post my phone have too low internal memory 150 nhi only and Twitter and fb use near around 60 mb memory. I really like your post.
Thanx sergery
worked gr8…screen shot helped amazingly!!!!
superb , thanks a lot…..
My phone is rooted and as you suggested in one the FAQs i tried to delete the gmail apk file (after uninstalling updates) using root explorer but it said that it cannot be deleted because the file system is read-only.
I have. Samsung Galaxy-5 handset but there is no option to move files to SD Card,pl tell me how can i get this option on my cell phone.
hi im not sure what this means can someone help me?
I type in the command C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk>adb devices
…and this is what i get back …
‘adb’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.
someone help me!!!
I decided to give this a go as my HTC Salsa’s low internal memory was making me want to hit things. All worked as described (give or take my phone throwing a hissy fit once or twice) but the large apps are the ones that can’t be moved so it wasn’t that helpful in the end. I pretty much assumed that was what would happen and it pisses me off that facebook and hotmail can’t just move. I have 35GB on my SD card and most of that is going to waste while my phone whines about low memory. Oh well, at least it’s not a Samsung.
Hi Guys,
Both the pm setInstallLocation 2 and pm set-install-location 2 are not working for me. it says they are not recognized commands.
Is it because my android is still 2.1? I have a google nexus one
Guys please help….
Hi Arindam. Yes it could be as moving apps to sd is available only from android 2.2 (froyo). Android 2.1 (eclair) doesn’t have this ability of storing apps to external card. You need to update your rom to already 2.2 froyo. Mail me of you want any other help.
@ Sergey Povzner
it working but once i remove my application to SD , phone keeps on rebooting and scaning SD again and again. As per other forums this issue is faced by many other persons also and its it not rleated to any application specific . any solution.
This is Avery nessessry app for Droid phones nice work you guys rock
Had to reset my Wildfire S to factory defaults because every app I moved to SD was still on the internal storage and wasn’t able to delete them…
Even when I deleted all of them my internal storage was still full with all the “ghost” apps.. not going to try this again
Hey there. I’m having issues
I downloaded the SDK and installed ALL the packages (even though I probably don’t need them all but just in case..) as well as the usb driver. Then I get to step number 6. I have the folder saved on my desktop and renamed it sdk but when I try to access it I get the message “The system cannot find the specified path”. This leads me to assume that I’m typing it in wrong… What do I put?? I’m so lost! Please help me!!! I’m running Android 2.3.4 on a ZTE Score (X500)
Well, did all that you said.
Exactly the same steps..
Rebooted my phone, still didn’t get any options as shown! :/
Phone- Samsung Galaxy Ace
Android Version- 2.3.6
Baseband Version- S5830DDKQ8
Kernel Version- 2.6.35.7-perf-CL807529ketut@AOA110#1
Build Number- XperiaTized
Please HELP!
Awesome Guide! Thanks for the tips for those of us who do not want to root there phone.
adb shell
$ pm setInstallLocation 2
unknown command . . . .
thankx alot man…gr8 Post…
does it work with ice cream sandwich? as far as i know, google removed any possibilities to write data from apps onto the sd card.
Waaw.It really works in my explorer!!!
Tnq
Here is the solution complete guide to mount sd-ext on /data
http://myandroiid.blogspot.com/p/how-to-use-your-sdcard-as-internal.html
Hi,
There is a small question, do you require to have partitions on your SD card like those apps2sd and all requires ?
Please let me know.
thanks
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I use my HTC EVO for corporate email and have to use Nitro’s TouchDown client. With the client and my subsequent email data it was taking up most of my internal memory. This has solved that problem!
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