jebus197 Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Hi is it possible to install apps to external SD card in Android 4.2.2+ any more? I'm sure I remember I used to be able to do this in older versions of android.I tried the ADB method:adb shell pm set-install-location 2but I get an error message saying:"insufficient storage available"I tried a whole bunch of apps including Apps2SD, Link2SD, etc, but these all say that because I have an emulated internal SD card that is shared with the OS I can't move my apps. I don't really understand this as I have a 32GB external SD card in my system.All apps like Link2SD do is open up the application manager anyway, where in the past you had the option to stop the running app and move it to SD. You couldn't do this with all of them, but you could do it with most.Is there any way around this? I'm surprised not more people would like to move/install their apps to their external SD card.. Many phones are stupidly limited in the amount of internal storage they have, even some of the most expensive ones. For the record I am using a GBox MX Midnight 2 media player. Not that it matters as I have an 8 inch LG Androd tablet with a 64GB eternal SD card I would like to be able to do this with too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 Anybody? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetor Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 i'm using Link2SD and while it does work, it's very limited (i'm using a 4.4 ROM, mind you). Also you must use a Class 10 card and the amount of trashing of using apps directly on the SD card it will kill it more quickly. The reason people are using this kind of apps is because internal storage is much bigger now and people are having less issues of running out of storage; if they want they can still have a SD enabled smartphone and store in there all the music, videos and pics, leaving the internal storage for the apps (which is more then enough). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted October 12, 2014 Veteran Share Posted October 12, 2014 It is my understanding that by default, Google officially killed installing anything on to SD card that requires the ability to both read and write in Android 4.*.* and up. So for example I have a Comic Book Reader as an app I use, and the app can read any comics I have stored on my SD card, but that is it, it can only read them. If I tried to organize them into folders, rename them, etc., the app either crashes or I just get an error message. That is because the app cannot write to the SD card. So that is why so many apps do not let you move to the SD card, as they usually need to read and write. No write means the apps have no way of storing their data, and most apps require data to run properly. As pointed out, you can get around this limitation by rooting your device. To me though that is a stupid solution to a problem they never should have introduced to begin with. Android has always been about providing more freedom to the end user, that is why it appeals to so many people, and this to me is one of the most basic of features in regards to freedom. They should have never removed it. For me it is most annoying on my Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. Rooting the Xperia series can introduce some funky behavior with the stock apps and also automatically void my warranty, so I tablet that would be perfect otherwise is close to being ruined. I am constantly deleting stuff as I purposely went with the 16GB model to save some money hoping I could use the SD card for additional read and write storage. Again I know I can root the device, but I should not have to. They really dropped the ball here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmatik Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Ah, that's a shame. I pre-ordered the Note 4, my first foray into Android (minus my Kindle Fire but that doesn't count). I was hoping I'd be able to use the SD card for downloading music or for photos but if the OS can't write to the card... So, without rooting, what is the best way to make use of the SD card? I guess I just move stuff from my PC to the SD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 I know you guys are trying, but you have misread what I said I think. None of the apps on the app store, or any command line tricks seem to work for me, 'because my device has an emulated internal SD card (sd0) and these apps are not written to enable moving to SD1 (which would be a second SD card). There are almost no usuage scenarios in Android where it is envisaged that there would be a second SD card in a device, so no one (including Google) codes for it. Manufactirers do it however because it seems Android still requires an SD card, for whatever reason. The consensus appears to be that the reason Google killed SD card functionality in 4.4, was because they wanted more users to shift over to using their Google drive and other products. But it seems like an insane decsion to me too. Are there no genious hackers out there who know how to get around this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draconian Guppy Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Ah, that's a shame. I pre-ordered the Note 4, my first foray into Android (minus my Kindle Fire but that doesn't count). I was hoping I'd be able to use the SD card for downloading music or for photos but if the OS can't write to the card... So, without rooting, what is the best way to make use of the SD card? I guess I just move stuff from my PC to the SD? In what sense?... There's a lot of FUD going on with this... You need to use a player/app that takes ownership of the folder it is installed... I had the same issue with n7 music player, couldn't download cover arts properly, until devs fixed it and the app could now write to SD card. Poor coding is not android fault. http://www.androidcentral.com/kitkat-sdcard-changes?nopaging=1 It's simple, really. Prior to Android 4.4 KitKat, applications ? provided they had permission to access the SD card ? could read and write to any area on removable storage, including the system folders like DCIM, Alarms, etc. That has all changed, and now third-party applications ? as in ones you download from Google Play or elsewhere ? can only write to files and folders that they have created or have taken ownership of. his keeps things "tidy." Apps aren't dumping files everywhere on the card ? something we've all encountered ? and instead have one central location to put all their files. There also are some serious security concerns that were addressed by not letting an app write files just anywhere. This means that Jerry's Awesome Photo Viewer app can still scan your entire system for images, build a thumbnail database of them all and save it to a folder on the SD card. But it can't move or save the pictures themselves to folders ? including the Pictures folder ? on the SD card because it does not "own" those folders. If programmed right, it could save copies of the pictures to Jerry's Awesome Photo Viewer's own folders on the SD card. The folder is part of the app, and if you uninstall it, the folder goes, too. The old method of putting anything anywhere you want is gone, forever. The other side of the coin is that Jerry's Not Awesome App that steals your data no longer has write access to every file and folder on the SD card. Yes, previously any application that declared permission to read and write to the SD card was allowed to write files to any folder ? including your system folders, and any folder something like a banking app might have made. Any type of file, too. That includes files that could be read when another app starts up and affect the settings or way that app works. It was a complete and total security nightmare, and why a lot of people ? including yours truly ? did not want phones with SD cards. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-bypass-Android-44-KitKat-external-SD-write-/?ALLSTEPS Buttus 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon89 Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 As pointed out already, rooting is mandatory; especially if you would like to move apps with the "private data" that still stays on the device internal storage with android native "App to SD" method You need to create an "ext4" partition on your external sd card, then use Link2SD to link/move apps there. The paid/premium version of Link2SD allows you to move the app's "private data" as well. I suggest you read the link2sd description. (Btw, i'm using this setup on my rooted Lg Optimus G, with the latest android 4.4.4) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebus197 Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 Doesn't work for me. Link2SD can't see the second formatted ext4 partition on my SD card. It can only see the emulated (SD_emulated) card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahorsepip Veteran Posted October 14, 2014 Veteran Share Posted October 14, 2014 http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/app-handleexternalstorage-t2693521 With above xposed module you should be able to move most apps to external storage. The sd card issue you're having might be because of the way the firmware was written for your device, It might be possible to change it's mount point to ext_sd but I'll have to look into that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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