Moving Apps to SD Card?

[dan776]

Hey all,

On my Droid X, when I download an app, I can go to the details under settings and there's a button for "Move to SD"

On the Acer, there is no such option.

Part of the reason for getting the SD card was so I could install a ton of apps, but are we limited now to the on-board flash for our installs? What a bummer that there doesn't seem to be a way to move an app to SD...

Anyone figure this out?

 

[Raven312]

There is an App2SD program on the market but I have no idea if it'll work for us. It wouldn't hurt to download and try it out.

 

[Garemlin]

Do yourself a favor and keep them internal. They will run better. There is really no point to moving apps to the SD unless space is an issue. And that would take alot of apps.

 

[dan776]

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best... That's true, there is no real "need" at this point to clear up space, and I definitely have more than enough music and movies to populate onto the SD card... Once I figure out a way to watch a movie without the choppiness or audio sync issues.

I suspect many of these issues will be answered within an update or two.

 

[Icebike]

Do yourself a favor and keep them internal. They will run better. There is really no point to moving apps to the SD unless space is an issue. And that would take alot of apps.

This is not necessarily true.

Buy a fast MicroSD card, Class 4 is sufficient, go for a class 6 if you want. These are getting cheaper all the time.
Remember that any card of class4 or better is rated to RECORDING full HD video (and playback) with no stutter.
Getting Class 6 just assures you of faster transfer.

Don't go overboard with size. 8Gig is plenty big enough for APPs that you want to move to SD.

But where MicroSD makes sense is if you carry around lots of video or music. Then go slower (yes, slower) Class 4, but larger (16 or 32gig) and you can play movies with ZERO choppyness. (You go slower because its cheaper. No other reason).

Apps and games that do not require being available at boot time (no widgets) run just fine off of the MicroSD card.

There is no noticeable slowness in RUNNING these from MicroSD, but a big game might take an imperceptibly bit longer to load. You won't notice this, because you don't use them all the time. Once loaded, even the biggest games I have tested run just fine from microSD.

Keep often used apps on main memory. Move those PIGS out to MicroSD, (Such as that honking big 17MB Nook Ereader, or that 20MB Angry Birds).

The more main memory you keep free the better your Tablet runs. Unused main memory can be be used for Caching files, and paging out sleeping apps, and makes your tablet fast.

 

[dan776]

Thanks, that's very informative. Out of curiosity, how are you moving apps to SD on the Acer? Did you use the market app for that?

 

[Icebike]

Thanks, that's very informative. Out of curiosity, how are you moving apps to SD on the Acer? Did you use the market app for that?

Well, soon as I get back from the store, I'll tell you. ;-)
I am off to buy a MicroSD card as we speek.

I suspect that "Move to MicrosSD will show up as an option in Settings / Applications / Manage Apps, when there is a card inserted. That would be by guess, but I can't be sure.

There is are dozens of App Store apps that move apps.

 

[dan776]

Yeah, unfortunately there is no option to do that where you'd think it should be... just wondering if using an app from Market would disable the app from workinh, like if the Acer was designed to only run apps from internal memory. Let us know if you find a way.

 

[Icebike]

Yeah, unfortunately there is no option to do that where you'd think it should be... just wondering if using an app from Market would disable the app from workinh, like if the Acer was designed to only run apps from internal memory. Let us know if you find a way.

Well the more I dig into it the less I think its possible right now.

This article says Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' will not support microSD cards at launch, although that article is a bit dated.


So maybe its nothing wrong with the Acer, but rather a design decision by Google?

 

[andrew.scott]

App 2 sd is not compatible with Honeycomb. I cannot find a way to move apps to my SD card. I own an Acer A500 and I cannot find a way to move apps. Any help?

 

[Brabian]

App 2 sd is not compatible with Honeycomb. I cannot find a way to move apps to my SD card. I own an Acer A500 and I cannot find a way to move apps. Any help?

<br><br>I'm with Andrew - I've just got my 16Gb A500 and it's running 3.2 but there is no option (even with a 32Gb micro SD installed) under Manage Applications to Move to SD. I've tried Advanced Task Manager and even Apps2SD but neither have succeeded in moving an app to the SD card. Has anyone got a solution, yet?<br><br>Thanks,<br><br>Brabian

 

[Icebike]

<br><br>I'm with Andrew - I've just got my 16Gb A500 and it's running 3.2 but there is no option (even with a 32Gb micro SD installed) under Manage Applications to Move to SD. I've tried Advanced Task Manager and even Apps2SD but neither have succeeded in moving an app to the SD card. Has anyone got a solution, yet?<br><br>Thanks,<br><br>Brabian

Here is your solution: Re-read this entire thread.

Apps to SD is not supported under honeycomb on any device.

Use your SD card (/mnt/external_sd) for your media, music, movies, pictures.
Use your built in storage for apps.

Some apps that use a lot of storage for data have a setting to allow you to select a location for their
data.

Stop looking for a "solution". There is no problem.

 

[Brabian]

Thanks, Icebike - but I'm surprised as Move to SD appeared in 2.2 and I find it odd that it should be missing in 3.2. But thanks for the clarification, anyway. Does anyone know when this will be resolved in Honeycomb?

 

[Icebike]

There is no intention of "resolving" this issue in Honeycomb, and probably not in ICS either.

The future of Android is to have sufficient storage on board for all the apps you could possibly want, and reserve add-in storage
for multimedia and files.

Moving apps to SD was a huge kludge added in 2.2 because there were so many small-memory phones on the market at that time.
It was always intended as a stop gap solution. It caused a lot of problems, anything needed at phone start up couldn't reside
on the MicroSD. Like having part of your desktop computer's operating system reside on a USB thumb drive. Slow at best,
and unreliable if someone walks away with the drive.

You've got 16gig. If you fill that up with apps, you wouldn't have time enough in a month to use them all.
So don't expect it to be changed.

 

[Douvie]

And if you've got the 32GB version you'll have more than enough space to swing a cat. Unless you're a APPMUNCHER and got to have every single app on the market. I have some big apps and currently only have 6GB used of 32GB which includes vids, docs, pdfs and other program data together with all apps and HONEYCOMBE v3.2. Why would you want to put apps on the SD CARD?