Rooting so I can put apps on SD card

[pgw78]

I've got a Verizon RAZR M running 4.1.1. I'd considered rooting early on, but decided it wasn't necessary for me. I'm happy with the stock ROM and so on, and I didn't think it was worth voiding the warranty for the advantages rooting would provide. Especially after I found out that choosing "uninstall updates" actually wiped most of the bloatware completely off my phone.

Thing is, now my onboard memory is filling up. I bought a nice big high-speed SD card specifically so I could install and run apps off it... only to find out that Motorola disabled that option. The explanation I saw was that running apps off the SD card was one of the more common ways root exploits gained access, so they wanted to cut off that route. Ironically, that decision is now exactly what has me seriously considering rooting my phone.

Before I go ahead, though, I want to check: Will rooting my phone allow me to enable that feature? Moving apps to SD, installing apps to SD, and running apps off SD? If so, what do I need to do to make that work? Is there a setting I can change? An app that will work? (App2SD doesn't support the RAZR M, but maybe it would work rooted?)

Anything else I should know before I take the plunge? I've read the FAQs on this site and a few others, but are there any specific issues with the RAZR or anything else I might not have come across? (I saw a post saying that the RAZR checks and reports whether it's ever been rooted. Anyone know anything more about that?)

Thanks.

 

[AlphaTango414]

First off this is the OG RAZR forum so not sure about your M but as far as I know there is still no root for JB so you don't have that option.

Keep in mind not all apps are able to be put on the SD card. If you do even if they say not to it will not be right and probably won't work at all. Sometimes it keeps the app from staying sync d or the ability to use a widget. Next for the apps that you can move to the SD card, understand that it stores the data there and that's all. It still runs on your phone using some of your available RAM.


What apps do you have installed to take up all our internal memory? Or are you saying you have low RAM?

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[pgw78]

Sorry, didn't realize M didn't fit here. (I thought the RAZR, RAZR MAXX, and RAZR M were pretty much the same phone. The MAXX has a bigger battery and the M is a little smaller - mostly because of the battery - but otherwise the specs, hardware, etc are the same.)

I thought there was a root for the RAZR, even with Jelly Bean.

I realize not all apps can be moved to SD, and that even when you do that they still generally take up some room on the phone's native memory. But I'd like the option to clear things up and move them around.

I've got a bunch of different apps. 30 megs here, 200 there (Firefox is big), another 50 for that... it adds up pretty quickly. And I just bought the latest Humble Bundle for Android, which turns out to include some pretty big game files. I had to try them a few at a time, and clear out some old stuff just to make room for installation.

My phone seems to have different ideas about how much memory I have and what's available, depending on how you ask. If I look at storage, it says I have 8gb total internal memory, about 2gb of apps, less than 50mb of other stuff... and less than 1gb free. OS and firmware aren't listed, but I think they take about 4gb. OTOH, if I look at the app screen, it says I've used 3.6gb but have about 1gb available. Either way, I don't see how the numbers add up.And If I put much more on it, it starts telling me I'm running out memory and it's going to have to shut down services. Even if I have a few hundred megs free, it won't let me update a 10mb app.

 

[AlphaTango414]

As I mentioned, I didn't know of one. Ever since I switched to a Motorola phone and being stuck with a locked boot loader and this phone being pretty slow on this forum I don't try to keep up. I check in from time to time.

Glad to see people have root abilities for JB.

Also the phones are similar but could and probably have different builds.

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