Database Develop

Internal vs SD menory?

Is there anyway to FORCE the apps to use the MicroSD memory instead of the Internal storage?
It seems every app I've installed ( Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, etc) uses the internal memory. I have a 32GB MicroSD that seems to be useless right now. I tried moving all the apps to SD, but they still use the Internal Memory to store cache/files

I have yet to see a fix for this as well. The way I work around this is if the app saves files to the internal storage there is usually a setting in the settings menu that will allow you to change where it saves files. For instance with the TapeRecorder app. It automatically saves files to the sdcard (which Motorola stupidly named the internal storage for). I go to the settings and change the "sdcard" to "sdcard-ext", then it works!

For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.

Sorry this next generation android phone just like Droid X it has dedicated app memory. That memory is used strictly for those apps. U can put 500 apps and not run out of room. SD card is used for media music movies etc
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Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

Groid said:
For the time being, you can use the SD-EXT microsd card for music, videos, pictures, TiBU backups, downloads, etc., but in some cases you need to change some settings to do so. Apps cannot be installed on the external microsd card for now and you should make sure you 'move to phone' any apps which are check marked in the 'media' area or you are subject to losing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this why When I selected "Move to Media Area" the application shortcut disappears from the "All Apps" menu?
I moved 2 games to the "Media Area" and now they are gone... they are still installed, but I have no way of accessing them. (I know they are still installed because when I went to reinstall, it said something about it replacing an app thats already install)

After researching more, and fumbling through the phone I discovered that Motorola has deemed the 8GB of Internal memory as an SDCard.
Another FAIL for Motorola, and I doubt there will ever be a fix for this. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
Stated on the Motorola Forums:
Folks, it's the storage naming system in Android. If you go to any forum for any phone with internal and external memory you'll see the same complaints. There are multiple threads about it here.
Even though in Motorola's file manager you see "internal phone memory" and "SD Card", the internal memory is actually "sdcard" and the external is "sdcard-ext". Like I said, it's like this on every brand of phone with this set up.
So, what's happening is the apps are saving to the internal memory because it is, in fact, the SD card. Motorola has tried to remedy this confusion by discontinuing to say "move to SD" and instead now calls it "Move to Media area".
And no, your external SD is not useless. You can still set your photos from the camera to save directly to your external, you can still put music and movies and all kinds of media on your external and your phone will see them just fine. This is why there is a 16GB card included with your phone, so you can use it for media and if you want to move your apps off of the system memory to save space you move it to the 8GB internal area. Of course 8GB is still plenty of space for apps and other media as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: BFirebird101 stated this to, I don't know why, but when I was scrolling it passed over his post. Didn't mean to restate what he said.

I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Tornlogic said:
I've been *****ing about this problem for weeks and nobody seems to care, and it also seems to not bother anybody either.
Its a crock of sh1t. Yea you can save media files on the real SD card, but how many apps actually find them? Smooth move Motofùckingrola!
Fortunately with some coaxing and about a month of messing around, DoubleTwist can find media files on sdcard-ext. Its about the only worthy music player that can.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Stock Music App seems to find the music files just fine on the MicroSD (just add some to try) and the Gallery Finds the Pictures. But I don't give a damn about Music or Pictures.
I have 123MB of the "Internal Memory" (SDCard) left - after I loaded all my work documents (spreadsheets, powerpoints, etc) & E-books. Right now I have to Move the file from the SDcard (InternalMemory) to the SDCard-Ext(MicroSD) after I've edit it and reuploaded it to Google Docs, then if I want to Edit it agian, I have to move it back to the SDCard(Internal Memory) Just so Google Docs will see it again.

Stock? That's okay, I'll pass. I froze those apps with TiBackup.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

i use videovault and when i pulled my video vault folder from my old backup and loaded it to the external SD, the VideoVault did not find them. There is no way i will load 4GB of videos into my Internal 8GB card just so i can haz my pronz!

What I noticed is this seems to be very similar to how the Xoom and Honeycomb handles sdcards and internal storage (minus the fact that we still cant write to sdcards on stock honeycomb....) so it could be Motorola setup the phone this way for a smoother migration to Ice Cream Sandwich when it comes out?

If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)

You would think with all the Smart/Nerdy People on this site, someone would come up with a way to Rename the partitions Motorola has setup.
If it was just possible to rename the "SDCard-Ext" To "SDCard" ...

The reason you have no issue is Asus did a hack mod to get the SD card to work. Moto did the same on European xooms but on USA version its a google product there fore moto has no control on software manipulation. As for apps to SD card there is no need the device has dedicated app storage stritctly for apps.
KoolAidJunkie said:
If ICS looks anything like the "leaked" video then ill pass.
It seems that MOTOROLA Android devices are the only ones with the MicroSD issues.
I have an Asus Transformer android tablet that has absolutely NO trouble at all when it come to read/write access of the MicroSD.
Motorola seems to fudge everything up. But verizon doesnt off any better phones (IMO)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

Where did all my storage go

I have used a reported 6gig out of 11 on my /sdcard0, and yet when I run sd analyst in es explorer it doesn't add up as you can see in the attachment.
Sd analyst seems to be correct because I don't have any huge games installed. So where did all my storage go?

Its all the apps Samsung puts on there that you cant delete.
If somebody starts a class action lawsuit on this device like they did with the iPad I am all over it. Its not even remotely fair that a 16gig device has 8.9gig free because of 3+ gigs of bloatware you cant delete.
I have an SD card, but the lack of app space is concerning me.

Except I'm not running touch wiz. I'm running a CM12 ROM. Any way if I'm reading it right, this is just counting /storage/emulated/legacy the user data partition. Very weird.

barth2 said:
Except I'm not running touch wiz. I'm running a CM12 ROM. Any way if I'm reading it right, this is just counting /storage/emulated/legacy the user data partition. Very weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That does not make sense? I hope one of the Devs can come up with the answer to this mystery!

Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't it that if you root your device and get a rom let's say CM, as far as I know CM doesn't eat up a lot of space meaning depending on the contents of that rom, that 3gb bloat ware should be gone right?? Also this is what frustrates me with Samsung, we just can't have the option to write over to SD cards which I know can be a liability but look at the what we need to deal with. There's no 32gb version in my country so I'm always cramped up for space and I hate it, having to remove apps and games just to get by.
Sent from my SM-T805

Well I wiped my internal memory (drastic measure) and started over and now it looks correct. Not sure what was behind it.

More information would be great here. I know there's an incredible amount of Google bloat on these devices, but perhaps there is some information missing from the ES File Explorer results. I'd recommend downloading a dedicated app cache cleaner and a dedicated storage analyst app to get an accurate idea of all the things that are taking up storage. Some of the biggest offenders are browsers, but the one I've seen eat up a whole gigabyte on unknowing users' phones is usually the sneaky Google+.
Storage analyzer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.levelokment.storageanalyser
1Tap Cleaner
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.acc.free
steelbrachen said:
with Samsung, we just can't have the option to write over to SD cards which I know can be a liability but look at the what we need to deal with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, with Google Android Kitkat, it was decided that apps should only be allowed to write to their own sandboxed folders on the SD card anyway. Samsung has always been pretty good about at least allowing file management via a first party app, and even managing which apps can use the SD card are listed in the application manager, so I fail to see how Samsung is at fault here. (Meanwhile, in addition to demanding restrictions across the board to SD cards in Kitkat and then Lollipop, Google's more focused on forcing a social network on their users than writing a file manager for all the devices that DO have SD cards... or providing any decent AOSP apps in general.)
Sent from my Galaxy S5

Without going into too much detail the amount of available space is affected by the partition layout of the device. Esp with cm or custom rom that only takes up a couple hundred mb; the system partition ends up with a lot of unused space. If you were willing the modify your default partition table you could reclaim some usable space. Though I would place this in the advanced user grouping and would not recommend attempting it.

Move Apps to External Storage

did we lose this capability in the Note 8? still haven't found a setting and my aqua mail isn't letting me select my extSD for storage of attacments. anyone find it or is it gone? any workarounds other than root?

I honestly thought that ability was removed several years back. Like maybe 3-4 years ago. I could be mistaken.

PsiPhiDan said:
I honestly thought that ability was removed several years back. Like maybe 3-4 years ago. I could be mistaken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. wtg Sammy. take away the functions we use most. why allow large external sd cards if you can't store anything there. zero permissions to access it for important apps and no way to move hoggy apps there. nice. definitely rooting again. so tired of paying for fewer and fewer really usable features. dumbed down devices are not my thing.

toenail_flicker said:
did we lose this capability in the Note 8? still haven't found a setting and my aqua mail isn't letting me select my extSD for storage of attacments. anyone find it or is it gone? any workarounds other than root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haven't tested it yet, but found an option under Developer Options. hope it works.
Settings>Build (enable dev options)>Developer Options>Force Allow Apps on External

PsiPhiDan said:
I honestly thought that ability was removed several years back. Like maybe 3-4 years ago. I could be mistaken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it was . Google removed that ability in kitkat.

Some applications have option to move to SD, but not all: settings/apps click on application, then storage. If you don't see "storage used - change" then that app is not movable. However SD card is not as reliable and fast as internal store, so I wouldn't move important apps even if I could.

toenail_flicker said:
haven't tested it yet, but found an option under Developer Options. hope it works.
Settings>Build (enable dev options)>Developer Options>Force Allow Apps on External
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried this and it shows that it was "moved" to my SD card. The storage being taken up increased but on the internal storage it reflects the same. So probably didn't work.
Edit: Okay so it does work but not for all of the Apps/Games I tried. I'd say about 10% of the apps I tried didn't actually go over to the SD Card but the rest of them did.

GallardosEggrollShop said:
Just tried this and it shows that it was "moved" to my SD card. The storage being taken up increased but on the internal storage it reflects the same. So probably didn't work.
Edit: Okay so it does work but not for all of the Apps/Games I tried. I'd say about 10% of the apps I tried didn't actually go over to the SD Card but the rest of them did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some clarification for me...
so even though inside the "apps info" tab on a particular app, if it says "external storage" it may still live on internal? or will it show "internal"?

marctronixx said:
some clarification for me...
so even though inside the "apps info" tab on a particular app, if it says "external storage" it may still live on internal? or will it show "internal"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, at least from what I'm currently experiencing. For example I had 18.2GBs before I moved GTA San Andreas which is roughly 2.8GBs. From what I can tell it didn't increase my space on the internal as I still have the same 18.2GBs but it also took up more space on my external SD card. So I don't know if it is some false positive but I've restarted a few times and installed other apps. The storage still hasn't changed. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this phenomenon?

GallardosEggrollShop said:
Exactly, at least from what I'm currently experiencing. For example I had 18.2GBs before I moved GTA San Andreas which is roughly 2.8GBs. From what I can tell it didn't increase my space on the internal as I still have the same 18.2GBs but it also took up more space on my external SD card. So I don't know if it is some false positive but I've restarted a few times and installed other apps. The storage still hasn't changed. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this phenomenon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the follow up.
I moved some things over to SD card (i have a 400gb SSD card) like WhatsApp, philips hue, instagram.. things like that. Nothing serious like any CPU intensive apps. I "see" SOME more internal storage open up but i need to look into it further myself.
Still thanks for starting this discussion. I miss the old days of moving apps to SD (there used to be a program , apps2sd, that would do this in the early days of android) and 64gb is not a lot of storage for apps today. Most of us have over 100+ apps (on a power user device like this device, I would have expected more).
If understand its safer to keep apps internally so as to now cause issues, but having their ability to Mose simple apps like WhatsApp and such, can help.
I don't plan to root so being able to do this and KNOW it will work is intriguing.

allmine1976 said:
Yes it was . Google removed that ability in kitkat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have kitkat on my N4 and I still have that ability. I am rooted of course.

pete4k said:
Some applications have option to move to SD, but not all: settings/apps click on application, then storage. If you don't see "storage used - change" then that app is not movable. However SD card is not as reliable and fast as internal store, so I wouldn't move important apps even if I could.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the bigger picture for me, until root, is being able to allow different apps to store their images, docs, etc. on my extSD. things aren't working the way I think they should. man I hate knox. need root now.

marctronixx said:
Still thanks for starting this discussion. I miss the old days of moving apps to SD (there used to be a program , apps2sd, that would do this in the early days of android) and 64gb is not a lot of storage for apps today. Most of us have over 100+ apps (on a power user device like this device, I would have expected more).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're welcome. did a search and was surprised someone hadn't already brought it up. I haven't seen anything that I can move, and it appears as if it's not working at all for me on Sprint. I'll check again later. got tired of things that didn't work and started to play.

toenail_flicker said:
the bigger picture for me, until root, is being able to allow different apps to store their images, docs, etc. on my extSD. things aren't working the way I think they should. man I hate knox. need root now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google has been screwing with SD card access since Kitkat, if I remember correctly. They don't use it on their phones and messing with permission and all kinds of nonsense to make people move away from SD card to use and pay for their stupid cloud. At least now the permissions are set properly. Anyway, root could be difficult on Snapdragon, S8 just got root few weeks ago, around 6 months after release, so don't hold your breath. But I'm finding that a lot of stuff requiring root can be accomplished with ADB, I just wish somebody made a comprehensive list of ADB tricks. In the past I used root mostly for disabling bloatware and adding functionality, like adding AC3 codec, but there are workarounds for some of those things, just hard to find sometimes. Knox doesn't bother me too much, I may be using it's secure folder for sensitive data, like banking, credit cards, I just hope it's as secure as they say it is, because I have my doubts.

pete4k said:
...I'm finding that a lot of stuff requiring root can be accomplished with ADB, I just wish somebody made a comprehensive list of ADB tricks. In the past I used root mostly for disabling bloatware and adding functionality, like adding AC3 codec, but there are workarounds for some of those things, just hard to find sometimes. Knox doesn't bother me too much, I may be using it's secure folder for sensitive data, like banking, credit cards, I just hope it's as secure as they say it is, because I have my doubts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good info about adb. I'm out of practice with it and, yes, a comprehensive list of working adb commands would be great. I'm not in a hurry for root. I know it takes a while. and if we don't get it (I would be surprised) I can deal.

toenail_flicker said:
the bigger picture for me, until root, is being able to allow different apps to store their images, docs, etc. on my extSD. things aren't working the way I think they should. man I hate knox. need root now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not one to root but the main reason i want SOME apps on SD is their folders they store their data in, like whatsapp for example. Conversations in WhatsApp span many years and gigs of videos and photos in a few of those conversations. Having that on an SSD card would be choice.
P.s. Lol love your screen name bro... :good:

Go into developer options and you can turn it on. You can put majority of your apps on your card. No system apps.

marctronixx said:
I'm not one to root but the main reason i want SOME apps on SD is their folders they store their data in, like whatsapp for example. Conversations in WhatsApp span many years and gigs of videos and photos in a few of those conversations. Having that on an SSD card would be choice.
P.s. Lol love your screen name bro... :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks.
and exactly what you said. some apps like whatsapp... and others. it's just necessary. for the moment I just want the permissions fixed and that's going to take disabling knox and/or applying a fix to do both like for the N4. not sure that type of thing is even doable anymore.

Ill keep an eye out on this thread. If you found more tips/updates on this please post.
I just moved a LOT of stuff over to SD. Evertying i could. Some things, google maps for example, didn't have the option of moving over, so maybe some of these will stick..
I was one danergously low on internal storage, but if i can move things over, I will.

jason504 said:
Go into developer options and you can turn it on. You can put majority of your apps on your card. No system apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found it on another screen instead of where I thought it would be. nice. it's working.

APP access to SD Card

I have an MS-N950U1, stock, running the latest update S2BQL2. Most apps cannot use/have access to SD Card. I tried enabling the "FORCE ALLOW APPS ON EXTERN....." under Developers Options - Please see photo attached, but still, apps have no access to SD Card.
Anyone knows if there is a write fix similar t the one that was available on the Note4/Kitkat?

don't think so, even if you did the app most likely would not work properly unless you knew how to optimise it yourself and it doesn't sound like you do
leave apps on internal memory and keep music/video/pictures on sd card (get a good one)
way less head ache

j_hansen said:
don't think so, even if you did the app most likely would not work properly unless you knew how to optimise it yourself and it doesn't sound like you do
leave apps on internal memory and keep music/video/pictures on sd card (get a good one)
way less head ache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has nothing with app optimization. Apps give you the choice of storage location, the problem, external SD doesn't show up. Back in the days, there was a "write fix" to be flashed to give apps access to external storage under kit Kat, I think.
Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk

ispot said:
This has nothing with app optimization. Apps give you the choice of storage location, the problem, external SD doesn't show up. Back in the days, there was a "write fix" to be flashed to give apps access to external storage under kit Kat, I think.
Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it isn't exactly app optimisation but was trying to explain in an easy to understand way that it is not possible like the same way it was back in note 2 and 3 days

There is a way to do it but I haven't tried. Something along the lines of making your SD card "Adaptive Storage". Did some research on it a few months ago and it's honestly more trouble than it's worth. 64gbs isn't enough for some of the apps I would like to keep on my phone but I've managed to just keep it to the bare essentials.

Since Android 6.0, Google has tighten the 3rd party apps freedom or movement

Apps to SDCard or SDCard as internal storage

How do I move apps from internal storage to sdcard?
I can find no option like that on the apps information. I installed an app that moves them but that just opens the app informations where there is no button to change the storage medium.
Also I read it might be possible to format the sdcard as internal storage. Maybe that's needed prior to moving apps.
But I can't find a way to format as such too.
The only thing I was able so far was to set the storage to sdcard for the nokia camera app.

DarsVaeda said:
How do I move apps from internal storage to sdcard?
I can find no option like that on the apps information. I installed an app that moves them but that just opens the app informations where there is no button to change the storage medium.
Also I read it might be possible to format the sdcard as internal storage. Maybe that's needed prior to moving apps.
But I can't find a way to format as such too.
The only thing I was able so far was to set the storage to sdcard for the nokia camera app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess android one devices don't have the feature to have SD card as adoptable storage.
Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

that would be quiet disappointing and does not make much sense either as there still is the option to force being able to move apps to sd.
at least partly this is a bug though or maybe a feature?
I installed the sd-card just recently after I setup the device and most apps.
seems if I clear cache and data of an app at least that will now be stored to sd.
some apps like google maps or nokia camera app allow to choose data location.

DarsVaeda said:
that would be quiet disappointing and does not make much sense either as there still is the option to force being able to move apps to sd.
at least partly this is a bug though or maybe a feature?
I installed the sd-card just recently after I setup the device and most apps.
seems if I clear cache and data of an app at least that will now be stored to sd.
some apps like google maps or nokia camera app allow to choose data location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an option in developer options. Force allow apps on external

I hsve same problem. Got 32gb, fast samsung card. I can't move any apps to it, but copying files work, also cam.
I think option in developent settings is here because of anrdoid one, same as bootloader unlock, won't do nothing.
Can other ppl move apps to sdcard on n7+? Or does this only happens on Samsung card?

I got a replacement device and a new 256GB Samsug card. I'm not offered to format as internal storage as well. There is the option to force apps to sd but it won't work.
I guess there might really be no way to use the card other than media/data storage. And hope apps allow to choose data storage like some google apps and the camera app do.

Got this info at nokia's community forum:
Moving apps to SD is not supported on the 7, as it does not support adopted internal storage. It would perform badly regardless of the SD card used, as the built in storage is significantly faster. Use the SD only for data, as intended; there should be plenty of internal space for apps with larger data stored on SD.
So.. I think ill go root way, something's so much better on rooted device. I like command my own device my way, not google's way..

Edstro said:
Got this info at nokia's community forum:
Moving apps to SD is not supported on the 7, as it does not support adopted internal storage. It would perform badly regardless of the SD card used, as the built in storage is significantly faster. Use the SD only for data, as intended; there should be plenty of internal space for apps with larger data stored on SD.
So.. I think ill go root way, something's so much better on rooted device. I like command my own device my way, not google's way..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bootloader is non unlockable atleast officially.
Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

K.khiladi said:
The bootloader is non unlockable atleast officially.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, but i know guy who can do it =)

Edstro said:
Yea, but i know guy who can do it =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please share how unlock. Cause really want root acces
Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Read nokia7plus rooting from message board, still need to pay like 5euros from unlock... Too bad..
---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:21 PM ----------
I cant give name to user who does it..