Why can't I move apps to SD card?

Valsim

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Damn. Well that just sucks :-( .

Yeah I noticed that when I do move an application to my SD card, something actually moves. But it is insignificant compared to what stays on the internal memory of the device. For example Heroes of Might & Magic HD game, which takes 2,17GB of memory. And when I move it to the SD card, only around 100MB actually move, while the majority stays on the device. Which again means nothing when you have a 16GB internal memory, and 128GB of SD card memory. If only it was the other way around. To move 2,16GB to the SD card, and the 100MB staying on the device.

I was very disappointed with my Windows phone which I got two years ago, when I found out the lack od applications it had. But now what does it matter to me when soon I won't have any more space where to install them. On my Windows phone it was a matter of clicking a few buttons and voila, all of the aplications from now on are being installed on my SD card instead of the internal memory. So naturally I'm now even more disapointed with Android because of giving you soo many nice applications, and no options where to put them. I feel soo cheated for not knowing this because I would have never bought the device. But not in a million years did I suspect that something in theory this simple, is going to be a problem.

Brew Swayne and B. Diddy thank kindly you for your answers and help.
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Probably sell the device and buy myself a Windows tablet.
 

B. Diddy

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Sorry that you're in this situation. The SD card has never been a good option for app installation, because it was never designed to work that way on Android. In addition, SD cards are notoriously unreliable -- the quality of the memory chips that are used is bottom of the barrel, even for well-known brands (according to a friend I know in the industry). This means that SD cards have much more chance of failing or getting corrupted, compared to onboard memory. If that happens, then any apps you have installed to the SD will fail -- and you can imagine that if any important system apps were installed there, the whole system could crash.

With Android, it's always best to get as much internal storage as you can afford. If you plan on using it for a lot of apps and gaming, then 32 GB is probably the minimum. In the future, basic guides for a platform may be helpful as you research your purchases, like this one: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ting-started-android-updated-2016-nougat.html
 

Brew Swayne

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Damn. Well that just sucks :-( .

Yeah I noticed that when I do move an application to my SD card, something actually moves. But it is insignificant compared to what stays on the internal memory of the device. For example Heroes of Might & Magic HD game, which takes 2,17GB of memory. And when I move it to the SD card, only around 100MB actually move, while the majority stays on the device. Which again means nothing when you have a 16GB internal memory, and 128GB of SD card memory. If only it was the other way around. To move 2,16GB to the SD card, and the 100MB staying on the device.

I was very disappointed with my Windows phone which I got two years ago, when I found out the lack od applications it had. But now what does it matter to me when soon I won't have any more space where to install them. On my Windows phone it was a matter of clicking a few buttons and voila, all of the aplications from now on are being installed on my SD card instead of the internal memory. So naturally I'm now even more disapointed with Android because of giving you soo many nice applications, and no options where to put them. I feel soo cheated for not knowing this because I would have never bought the device. But not in a million years did I suspect that something in theory this simple, is going to be a problem.

Brew Swayne and B. Diddy thank kindly you for your answers and help.
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Probably sell the device and buy myself a Windows tablet.

The OS is far less important than the storage capacity of your device. If you go to a Windows tablet, but only purchase one with 16GB of storage then you're still going to be in the same boat. This particular tablet is not really designed to be a gaming tablet. It's a low cost tablet that's really for someone who wants to browse the Web, shop online, video stream, check Facebook or Twitter, and maybe play simple games like solitaire or candy crush.

The external storage (especially for devices with less than 32GB of storage) is really for things like your music, photos, videos, while internal storage is for the OS and apps.
 

Valsim

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B. Diddy & Brew Swayne:

Again thank you sooo much for your feedback and suggestions. I wasn't aware of the whole story with the SD cards. It's definetly good to know, but again makes me sad it is the way it is. I also wasn't aware of the low performance of gaming on Microsoft tablets. I mean it's not like I'm going to play some hard core games on the tablet, but it's nice to at least have an option to play some good ones.

After this I think I'll be keeping my Samsung Galaxy Tab 9,7", in hope that in near future there will be some work around this problem.
 

Brew Swayne

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No problem. Funny thing is, I primarily use this tablet for a game myself (Marvel Contest of Champions). It takes up about 1 GB of internal storage, which is A LOT of space when you've only got 16GB to work with. To counter that, I didn't overload the tablet with unnecessary apps that take up a lot of space.

I basically use this thing for my game, email, web browsing, and a few misc apps that I use frequently like Amazon, eBay my bank, and that's about it.
 

Valsim

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Just when I thought it's all over, my girlfriend got herself finally a smartphone yesterday. It's an Alcatel Go Play. She also bought a 32GB micro SD card. Off course curiosity got the better of me, so I installed on her device the same game that I installed on my Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9,7" - Dead Effect. Then I wen't to move it to the micro SD card, and to my big surprise, it actually moved completely to the micro SD card. The whole 500 MB. I even tried to play it, and it works flawless. And I was like, what? Why, why, why, why, oh why? Why does it work with on Alcatel Go Play, and not on my tablet. The Alcatel Go Play has an Android 5.0.2 version. I'm puzzled why does it look soo much better and simpler in moving the game to the micro SD card, than with what should be a better version, which is the 6.0.1 version. You would think that newer is better right? But what really bothers me is why does it work on one device, and not the other? Is it because of the Android version? Is it because one device is a tablet, and one a smartphone, but why would that effect the moving process?

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9,7" > Alcatel Go Play
 
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Valsim

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Sory I went ahead of myself. The process is different, but the end result is the same. Just 35,66 MB is moved to the micro SD card, and the majority stays on the memory of the phone. I have miss matched the memories.

But now I noticed an option on Alcatel Go Play, on top of the "Storage" tab - "Default storage location". When I tap on it, it gives me the option - "Phone storage" or "SD card". I selected SD card, deinstalled Dead Effect, and installed it again. This time it really did install the majority of Dead Effect game on the micro SD. So now I got a reverse situation from before. Now 475 MB is installed on my micro SD card, and only 35,66 is located on the memory of the phone. That's just right :) .

View attachment 250207

View attachment 250208

OK so now I know that I will be getting myself an Alcatel Go Play smartphone. But what about the whole story with the tablet? Why can't I find the same option on that device?
 

B. Diddy

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Those screenshots aren't showing. Try posting them this way: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

The Default Storage option is typically for app data, not for app installation. I'm not sure if it's the same as the Move to SD option. The ability to set the SD as the default data storage location depends on the device -- you'd have to ask the engineers at Alcatel and Samsung (or any other manufacturer) to figure out why they decided to include or omit the feature. It's not a native Android feature, so it has to be added by the manufacturer.
 

Valsim

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Thanks for the advice. My friend at work said today the same thing, that it's definetly up to the manufacturer. I'll contact Samsung and ask them about this.
 

Maiken Poulsen

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UPDATE: I did discover the following....

I installed a new app (The Bible App) and after installing it, a message popped up from the apps2sd App saying that this app was able to be moved to my sd card. So I went through the steps to move it, as I did before, and it actually moved it over to the SD Card.

The only thing I can surmise is that (for some unknown reason) I cannot move apps that are already installed, but any new app (that is otherwise not forbidden from being moved such as facebook) I can move over to my SD Card. I am also theorizing that I may be able to uninstall one of my current apps that refuses to move over, reinstall it and then I should (hopefully) be able to move it over to my SD Card.

I will try out my theory and post my results here,
Are there any other apps I could use instead of the Apps2SD? It is not working on my smartphone (LG K8 2017), and I'm having the exact same issues as you
 

Doncankook

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The Tab A with Android 7 has the ability to mov applications to SD memory via the app settings (Settings>Apps> Appname>Storage)

If you see a CHANGE button, you can move the application to SD memory or back to Internal memory.

In general, some apps can't be moved because they use system resources, and need to be in the main memory area, so they can be accessed quickly.
 
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