Apps with data on ext. SD Card that is actually still on internal storage

[mauroskov]

Hi guys,
I am left with only 10% of free internal storage and while looking for ways to get some free space, I discovered that a heavy app like Real Racing 3 takes up about 3 GB of my internal storage. All my apps are on the internal storage but when I check Real Racing 3 in Application Manager I can see that almost 3 GB of data should be on the SD Card. I can see the following: Total (2.96 GB), Application (66.65 MB), SD Card App (0.00 B), Data (54.77 MB) and SD card data (2.84 GB). Why aren't those 3 GB on the SD card? The same happens if I move the app to the ext. SD card, those 3 GB stay on the internal storage. The same issue applies to other similar apps: even if I move them to the ext. SD card there are only folders on the SD but no files.
Is there a reason for this and a way to move those 3 GB of data to the ext. SD card? Ideally I would like to keep the app on the internal storage but move the 3GB on the SD, as it should be according to what Application Manager shows me.
I have done some research but I couldn't find a clear solution to this problem.
Thank you for any help.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have? If it's an older one that partitions your Internal Storage into two areas (App Storage and Internal SD), then apps moved to SD will be moved to the Internal SD, not the External SD. If you want to move to External SD, then you'd probably have to root the phone and use an app like Link2SD or App Mgr III.

 

[mauroskov]

Hi B.Diddy,
Thank you for your reply. I have a Galaxy S5 Mini, so a relatively new phone. I do use App Mgr III to move apps, but still... it doesn't seem to move to the external SD. The phone is not rooted. Not sure if I should simply leave it like this or try to root it, I am not a specialist but I hear it can give problems to root.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's odd. So you're saying that although the App Manager tells you that 2.84 GB of Real Racing is on the SD card, you can tell that it's really on Internal Storage? So if you were to connect the phone to your computer via USB and use Windows Explorer to see how much space is left on the external SD card, there's much more than there should be?

Does the phone have the native ability to move apps to SD card? If so, then uninstall App Mgr III and use the phone's own ability. Does that make a difference?

 

[mauroskov]

Hi B.Diddy,

Sorry for the late reply. I was travelling and on the phone this forum is not easy to navigate...

I installed an app called Drives, and also one called Periscope. They both show me that under /storage/emulated/0/Android/data there are 2.83 GB of Real Racing files. And a lot more that I was hoping to move to the ext. SD. I don't know if my phone has a native ability to move apps to the ext. SD, what I know is that in AppMgrIII when I want to move an app it basically sends me to the App Info screen from the App Manager tool of the phone. There I can see that, for example, Real Racing 3 has almost 3 GB of files on the "SD card data", but by reading around on the web I am not sure if this SD card is the external one or a partition of the internal storage.

I have uninstalled both AppMgrIII and Link2SD, and tried to use the Android App Manager to more Real Racing 3. Still the same. On the ext. SD under Android/data/com.ea.games.r3_row I can see a cache and a file folders, but they are empty. The same for many other applications.

After all this, I am not sure that it is actually possible to move any app to the ext. SD on any phone. Other threads say you can only do it if you root your phone.