[Android Central Question]

Using Huawei phone

[mustang7757]

Hi, welcome to Android Forums

I'd like to recommend creating a account so me or other members can assist you, as guest have limitations in replying here and if we need further Information to communicate with you.

I'll provide a link to register, please come back to your post so we can further assist you . Thank you

https://forums.androidcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=409154

[mustang7757]

Shouldn't have a option to move apps to SD card , they stop doing that

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which Huawei phone? When you insert a new SD card, does it give you the option to format as Internal Storage vs Portable Storage?

[Rukbat]

1. "Moving apps to the SD card" doesn't actually move the app, it moves pieces of the app, and the pieces are usually pretty small. For each piece moved, there's a link left in internal storage, so if the piece isn't much larger than a link, you're not saving any space. Formatting the SD card as Internal (or Adoptable) storage is the only way to actually increase your storage space for apps.

2. All Android apps have to maintain their current state at all times. (If you switch to another app for a moment, and there's not enough free RAM, Android will kill the previous app. When you switch back to it, Android will run it again, telling it "start where you left off".) So an app that does a lot, like a game with constantly changing scenery, has to be writing almost constantly. eMMC and ufs storage is built for that. SD isn't. SD is for "write once read many" files - like pictures, videos, music, etc. So if you put an app on an SD card, either by "moving" it or by formatting the SD card as adoptable storage, be prepared to replace the card a lot more often than it's supposed to last. (SD is rated in number of writes - huge, but not infinite.) A card that should last 10 years or more (I have SD cards that are getting close to 20 years old that still work fine - but who needs a 32MB card?) may fail after a few months, depending on the apps on it. So if you want to help WD (they acquired SanDisk in 2016) or Samsung (the only manufacturers of the chips used in the cards), put apps on the SD card. Otherwise don't.

If the phone is too small for all the apps you need, you have 2 real choices:

a. Buy a phone with more internal storage. That's why even people who don't need "the latest and greatest" upgrade their phones. My oldest smartphone, with just a bit over 117MB of user storage is useless today.

b. Save all your apps as .apk files on the SD card (Apk Extractor will do that or, if you want to back up a lot of them, use App Backup & Restore). Then only keep the ones you use regularly installed. If you need one you don't use all the time, install it from the SD card (just find the .apk file in a file manager and tap it), use it, then uninstall it.