[TIP] Force all apps to SD on FROYO

[dudyk]

What i'm trying to understand that the nexusone has flash memory of 512mb but my phone only has roughly 180mb to start with. then i have to use force apps2sd in order to save some of my internal memory. i want to know if anyone has 512mb memory like the phone should have?

The phone has 512MB for everything, that's including the OS (that's about 180MB), your data and applications (about 200MB) and cache that improves some of the performance, especially on FroYo.
You have even less than 200MB to start with since on your fist boot the applications allocate space for their data.

 

[khaytsus]

What i'm trying to understand that the nexusone has flash memory of 512mb but my phone only has roughly 180mb to start with. then i have to use force apps2sd in order to save some of my internal memory. i want to know if anyone has 512mb memory like the phone should have?

512M - ROM (OS/Apps/Radio) - Data - cache = around 190M free out of box as I understand/remember from first installed.

 

[EwanG]

512M - ROM (OS/Apps/Radio) - Data - cache = around 190M free out of box as I understand/remember from first installed.

SO if I have an SD card in it, why can't the phone be "intelligent" and move out at least the data? I understand that apps are more problematic (which is why it's only an option in Froyo), but I get nervous about installing too many apps as it is.

Don't suppose there's an app to let you move things out like there used to be for the old DOS machines when they had the 640K limit but you could buy 1-2 megs of RAM?

 

[khaytsus]

SO if I have an SD card in it, why can't the phone be "intelligent" and move out at least the data? I understand that apps are more problematic (which is why it's only an option in Froyo), but I get nervous about installing too many apps as it is.

Don't suppose there's an app to let you move things out like there used to be for the old DOS machines when they had the 640K limit but you could buy 1-2 megs of RAM?

So yeah, there's Apps to SD, which Froyo can do. It only moves the apk itself, not the data.

There are alternatives which move everything, but require a custom ROM.

 

[MaxCR]

I ran a cross this little tip to force all apps to be installed on SD.

Unlock move to SD card for existing apps:
adb shell
pm setInstallLocation 2

How / where do you run these lines to enable the app2sd?

Will it work on a none-rooted stock 2.2 Desire?

 

[mtw4991]

How / where do you run these lines to enable the app2sd?

Will it work on a none-rooted stock 2.2 Desire?

I believe you must be rooted to run adb commands, plus have the SDK on your desktop. Assuming all of this, the command lines would be:

adb shell
pm setinstallLocation 1 (1 for internal, 2 for sd card)

Don't forget to change back to 2 after installing to internal

 

[BelgianAtheist]

No need to root, just install the SDK so you can do an adb shell

 

[derfasaurus]

So I've done all this, getInstallLocation shows that 2 [External] is the place to install to but still apps like G4 and Baseball Superstar 2010 do not / will not allow me to Move to SD. Anyone able to move these apps using this method?

 

[khaytsus]

So I've done all this, getInstallLocation shows that 2 [External] is the place to install to but still apps like G4 and Baseball Superstar 2010 do not / will not allow me to Move to SD. Anyone able to move these apps using this method?

I suspect they are protected apps, and no, they will not move if so.

 

[BelgianAtheist]

I had been switching from 0 to 2 and back because I think some apps should not be moved to the SD even if possible (widgets etc.) and I thought on setting 2 it would always install to the SD but I've noticed that it moves apps that natively can move to SD immediately but apps that normally have the button greyed out are installed to the phone. So I'm keeping it on setting 2 for the moment.
I've not done extensive testing.


I have a question though do phones with large internal memory (not on SD card), like the Samsung Galaxy which is listed with "8GB internal memory", see all that memory as RAM?

 

[derfasaurus]

I suspect they are protected apps, and no, they will not move if so.

Ah, okay, so that's what defines it.

You just made my day with that little tidbit, by "pirating" my own purchased apps I can now move them to SD. Copying it out of app-private to the SD card, backing up with Titanium Backup, uninstalling and installing the APK from the SD card you can install to the SD card. Now updates may be broken, won't know until they provide one I guess.

 

[kimidroid]

For those of you not very comfortable with ADB or don't have a PC handy this moment, you can simply use the terminal on your phone..

Just:

su
pm setInstallLocation 2

Enjoy!

Worked on first try without reboot

I tried doing this and via the adb method. However after I download an app from marketplace, the phone internal storage decreases although under the Manage Application shows the downloaded app is already in SD Card.

I believe this is not normal..

 

[khaytsus]

I tried doing this and via the adb method. However after I download an app from marketplace, the phone internal storage decreases although under the Manage Application shows the downloaded app is already in SD Card.

I believe this is not normal..

ONLY part of the total program space goes to the SD. Basically just the apk itself. All data or other things created by installing the application are still in /data in internal storage.

 

[thomaspsmith]

I ran a cross this little tip to force all apps to be installed on SD.

Unlock move to SD card for existing apps:
adb shell
pm setInstallLocation 2

This is brilliant! Thanks so much for the tip!

 

[Izakvdm]

Non rooted want to move apps

Ok so my main problem is that I want to move apps like FB and some of the other 'system' apps to SD. The above solution works fine for most downloaded apps but it still eats up local storage space.

How do I force even the greyed out ones to move to SD.
I have a Desire running Froyo and not rooted.

 

[android_master]

ONLY part of the total program space goes to the SD. Basically just the apk itself. All data or other things created by installing the application are still in /data in internal storage.

yes that's exactly i believe it always goes,most of the data remains in internal storage only

 

[shivaranjan]

I have set this in CM 6 settings and I also use Titanium backup to move apps to SD

 

[Izakvdm]

Still unfortunately does not help us users with unrooted phones as Titanium Backup can only be used on rooted devices.....

 

[zaidam]

I'm using move2SD software from the market & set it to External. All install software will be install on SD Card

 

[vegetaleb]

I am using ''app 2 SD'' free app from the market, very easy to use but only 1/3 of the apps can be moved