Unfortunately, the lack of space on the internal storage of Android devices has recently been felt quite strongly, because with the development of the capabilities of the “OS” itself, many programs and games have become much more demanding on free resources and gadget memory. That is why many people use removable SD cards. But Android applications on a memory card do not always want to be installed.
General installation information
In any version of the Android OS, installing applications on a memory card is disabled by default. In principle, if the device itself and the OS version support this feature, as they say, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. With a little digging in the settings, you can set your own parameters.
This is a relatively short and simple process, which will be discussed a little later. You can install applications on the memory card in other ways. Let's focus on these situations for now.
Downloading applications to the memory card
Before solving the installation problem, let's consider downloading content to a removable one. The fact is that in Android, installing applications on a memory card in most cases should be closely related to the process of downloading installation distributions, since they can also be quite large volumes.
Downloading content to an SD card is supported by almost all Android devices, regardless of the version of the OS itself or the installed firmware. To set a location for saving files to a memory card, it is enough to enter, for example, an Internet browser and specify removable media as the storage location in the advanced settings. You can do the same in the case of creating photos, when you need to use the settings of the application itself to configure.
You can do it even easier by downloading applications using or a laptop, and then copying them to an SD card. In principle, the download location can also be changed in any file manager.
Methods for installing and redeploying applications to SD cards
Now about the most important thing. It is not so difficult to use installed or already installed applications from a memory card. First of all, you need to see if the device itself supports such features. It also happens that the transfer, and even more so the installation, of applications to removable media is simply blocked by the gadget manufacturer. What to do in this case?
For the Android OS, installing applications on a memory card can be done in several ways. For example, you can first install a program or game using the standard method on an internal drive, and then transfer it to another location (in this case, to an SD card).
For direct installation on the card, you can use third-party utilities. It is clear that the creation of applications for Android in most cases implies the possibility of installing them or transferring them to another location.
Using system settings
If you really need to install an Android application on removable media, you first need to consider several aspects. First of all, you need to go to the settings, where select the "Applications" item, and then go to the settings for the applications themselves. There is a special line "Move to SD card". If the device or application installed on the internal memory supports this function, the transfer will be completed within a couple of minutes, after which an active “Move to phone” button will appear for each transferred program or game.
As it is already clear, in the Android OS, the launch of the application at the end of the transfer process will be done from the memory card.
But do not rush to rejoice. Sometimes both the mobile devices themselves and the creation of applications for Android simply do not provide for the use of such functions. In addition, even root-rights or the use of “superuser” mode (super user) may be required.
Top Programs
There are a lot of programs for transferring either direct or games to removable media today. As a rule, almost all programs of this type are classified as freeware (freeware). True, here it is worth paying attention to the fact that some utilities are very easy to use, and with some professional programs you will have to tinker to understand what's what.
Among the simplest means of transferring programs to removable media are popular packages like AppMgr Pro.
This application automatically analyzes the data of installed applications, and then returns the result in the form of a sorted list, which separately indicates the Android applications that can be transferred to the memory card without any problems. After selecting the necessary applications and confirming the actions, the transfer will be carried out automatically without any damage to the system.
No less interesting is the Link2SD utility. But an ordinary user will have to deal with it for a long time, because you will need to partition the card into partitions from a computer, for example, using the MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition software package, one of which must have (Primary), and the second - ext2 (depending on the device and version "OSes" it can be ext3 / ext4). It is in the second section that portable or installed programs will be stored.
The most extreme case can be called the use of a mobile device connected to a computer or laptop via a USB interface. To install applications on a memory card, you will first need to install the program on both your smartphone and your computer. After connecting and synchronizing, you can install applications directly from the control program window from a computer terminal.
There are a large number of software products of this type. Separately, it is worth highlighting, say, Mobogenie or My Phone Explorer, and the second utility supports not only Android devices. Working with such programs is quite simple. You just need to select the installation file and specify the installation location of the program (again, if such support is available for both the device and the program).
Forced installation of programs on a memory card
In some cases, you can try to apply another non-standard method. In Android operating systems, installing applications on a memory card by this method is called forced.
The essence of the process itself is to install the ADB RUN program on the PC. On a smartphone, when connected via a USB port, it must be allowed to
After launching the application on the computer, you will need to enter the following commands:
Su - if present (if not, the command is skipped).
pm getInstallLocation("0" by default).
pm getInstallLocation1- installation in the device's own memory.
pm getInstallLocation2- installation on a memory card.
pm getInstallLocation 0- return to default settings.
In principle, there are few commands, but you can see for yourself that this is not the most convenient way. Although in some cases it can be used quite effectively when other methods do not help.
Application Health Issues
It is believed that in the Android OS, installing programs on a memory card is far from everything. After installing or migrating an application, you need to run it and test it. If the launch does not occur, or the program does not work as it should, you will have to repeat the above steps from the beginning. You can try to transfer the application to the initial location and check its performance there. If everything is fine, then the problem is either in the program, or in the memory card, or in incorrectly performed transfer or installation operations.
Conclusion
Summing up, we can say that the most simple and common ways to transfer and install applications to removable memory devices were considered here. Naturally, each utility has its own characteristics, as well as portable or installed programs. Even various modifications of mobile gadgets, not to mention Android OS versions or firmware, can play a very significant role. But in most cases, at least one method will be effective for many.
