Need to clean up some storage space on your Android phone? You might want to think about moving some apps from main memory to your storage card. If you’re running Android 2.2 and up, many apps include an option that lets you move them manually to the storage card — but other apps do not. For instance, Adobe Flash Player 10.2 insists on hanging out in your primary storage area — even though it takes up about 12MB of disk space.

There are a number of apps that let you move stubborn programs like Flash Player 10.2 to the SD card, but most of them require root access. But it turns out you don’t need to root your phone to move Flash Player and other apps to your SD card. You just need to download the Andorid SDK on your computer and run a simple command.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Download the latest Android Software Developer Kit for your phone. The SDK is available for Windows, OS X, or Linux.
  2. Install or unzip the SDK on your computer.
  3. Open a command terminal and navigate to the Tools folder in the SDK directory (If you’re using Windows, just click the Start Menu, select “run,” and type “cmd” (without the quotes) and hit enter to open a terminal window).
  4. Make sure “USB debugging” is turned on in your phone’s settings.
  5. Connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable.
  6. In the terminal window on your computer type “adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2” (without quotes).

That’s it. Now you can go into the application menu on your phone and select apps one by one and manually move them to your SD card. Also, by default most apps that you install from now on will be installed to the SD card automatically.

You can restore the original settings by typing “adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2” into the same terminal window.

Note that not all apps can be moved. System tools like the Android Market or Google Maps, for instance, are going to stay in your main storage. This trick won’t work with devices running Android 2.1 or earlier versions of the operating system.

There are also some apps that you probably don’t want to move to your SD card. Home Screen widgets for instance, or other apps that load when you boot your phone are probably left in your primary storage.

via reddit and Luis Rei

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

5 replies on “How to move almost any Android app to the SD card (without root)”

  2. Once upon a time,were considered only watches.Replica Watches not yet introduced and people had to bear the simple watches they were happy.There was simply no need for Replica Rolex since most of the watches were simple and affordable.In those days most of the watches were simple timepieces and most were affordable. Yes, there were hints that made his body in gold, but it was not enough to go to the people and order. Now was not that expensive, nor that watches them. Replica Breitling. The new generation professionals have enough money to be able to enjoy the finer things in life.
    However, not all of them have the financial capacity to go for brands such as replica tag heuer, replica cartier, replica omega, etc. These professionals are now hoping to have found with these cheap replica watches. Then there are two major advantages in the luxury watches replica. Firstly, you do not have to pay an astronomical price for it, and secondly, these replica audemars piguet for most leaders and the more expensive brands are available. People like to see and show love, especially with the girls. The best way to show your class is by wearing replica panerai. Can you imagine what impression you make on your friends and colleagues when you wearing Cartier replica panerai in the morning and Piaget replica watch in the evening?

    There are many website selling replica watches but how to chose a good one is very important.Here is a good one for you.It is also my friend tell me that.they have many good and cheaper Bertling,Omega and rolex replica
    Once upon a time, were considered only watches. [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/]Replica Watches[/url] not yet introduced and people had to bear the simple watches they were happy. There was simply no need for [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/rolex-c-2.html]Replica Rolex[/url] since most of the watches were simple and affordable. In those days most of the watches were simple timepieces and most were affordable. Yes, there were hints that made his body in gold, but it was not enough to go to the people and order. Now was not that expensive, nor that watches them. Recently, there has been a wave of [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/breitling-asia-replica-c-122.html]Replica Breitling[/url] have been on the market. The new generation professionals have enough money to be able to enjoy the finer things in life.
    However, not all of them have the financial capacity to go for brands such as [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/tag-heuer-c-7.html]replica tag heuer[/url], Replica Cartier, Replica Omega, etc. These professionals are now hoping to have found with these cheap replica watches. Then there are two major advantages in the luxury watches replica. Firstly, you do not have to pay an astronomical price for it, and secondly, these [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/audemars-piguet-c-8.html]replica audemars piguet[/url] for most leaders and the more expensive brands are available. People like to see and show love, especially with the girls. The best way to show your class is by wearing [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/panerai-c-9.html]replica panerai[/url]. Can you imagine what impression you make on your friends and colleagues when you wearing Cartier [url=http://hotreplicawatches8.com/]Replica Watches[/url] in the morning and Piaget replica watch in the evening?

  4. Good deal….it worked 1-2-3 on my and my wife’s phones. Note however that it didn’t work until I navigated in the command terminal to the “platform-tools” folder (in sdk) rather than the “tools” folder. First make sure to check the directory path where you installed/extracted the Android SDK program before proceeding to type in the terminal window. When navigating in the command terminal first type “cd” and space before accurately typing the next folder name in the directory path before you hit enter, until the folder “platform-tools” is the last folder on the last command line, Then type the “adb shell” by itself and hit enter. You should get the $ symbol by itself at the command prompt and then type “pm setInstallLocation 2” and hit enter again.You should get the $ again by itself. Check your phone and you should now be able to move some of the apps off the internal memory onto the SD card. New downloaded apps are supposed to install automatically onto the SD card. Not sure how the phone knows which ones to keep in internal memory still or install onto the SD card, but I guess that is why they call them smart phones. Peace, be Still, and Know, I AM is God. Amen.

Comments are closed.