Android 4.3 'move to SD' feature

[Analyss14]

Guys,quick question. I haven't been on stock rom for a long while but I kind of missed using the S-pen and someone suggested a stock-based custom 4.3 rom that I actually like so I've stuck with it for the time being. Now, I never really bothered with move to SD mods because I've learned to use my internal and external memory more efficiently but I figured if it's feature in TW I might as well take advantage since I'll be traveling abroad for two months come Dec. Well I've noticed that even after the apps are "moved" to the SD card, I don't regain any usable space on my internal card. I downloaded a game that's 779MB. My internal reduced from 3GB to 2.2GB. Okay. So I moved the game to my SD card. It moved 778MB to the SD card and 656KB remained on my phone. However, my internal only went from 2.2GB to 2.3GB. What?

I went back and calculated all the games I moved over and I've barely recovered more than 500MB for close to 30 games/apps moved to SD. All the games are still taking up close to their entire size in internal memory. Then what's the point? I have a 64GB class 10 card. Can someone enlighten me on what the hell is going on? I normally would just shrug of when things fail this like this but actually being tempted to use it and then finding it broken is really irritating.

 

[Analyss14]

Also, I should point out that none of the storage is taken up by game data. Usually when I finish game and haven't touched it for a while I just clear data and uninstall. However, I will be traveling with a organization that specializes in providing AIDS/HIV care and education to developing nations, so I will going to multiple small villages across five countries. I'm not counting on having any kind of service for a good majority of the time so I thought "great" I'll take advantage of this new feature and download every game I've ever bought so I have something to occupy my time during the plane/train rides. I haven't downloaded any games on my phone since I got the N7 so every game currently on my phone is newly downloaded and never opened, so, no game data.

 

[MrMLK]

Did you take a look at the SD card? What was actually moved?

 

[Analyss14]

I did and the apk shows up twice in both memory. It's almost like it's duplicating the apks instead of moving them but after clearing my cache and rebooting all the "moved" apps are showing as a default image of a grey SD card under the downloaded section of the app manager. They still show up in my app drawer normally but in the manager they have no app icon only an image of an SD card. Weird. Is there an alternative mod that plays well with the 4.3 firmware update that you can recommend? I'm trying to find a module for xposed that will allow this seamlessly but the only one I see is for pinning All Access files to SD card.

 

[gldnbear]

We went on vacation overseas this past summer. My son inherited a Galaxy Tab 2 for the trip. It has only 8 GB of internal storage. I rooted the Tab and installed an app called Folder Mount. This allowed me to move the big data folders to the physical SD card. It worked really well for games. You just need to be careful as you approach the internal memory limit because you need to install the game to the normal internal memory, then move the big data folder to the physical SD card with Folder Mount.

 

[Analyss14]

Thanks I'll try that. Instead of creating a new directory in my SD card and mounting it back to internal it appears that it just literally makes an absolutely useless copy on my external card. Maybe I'll flash a different rom and see if the problem persists.

 

[snake2332]

It's because /sdcard/ is a partition on the internal memory. Your ACTUAL sdcard is mounted as /extSDcard/. When you choose to move data to SD card, with some apps the data goes from somewhere-I-don't-know to /extSDcard/.android_secure/ if the app supports that. But most large games still have their data in /sdcard/android/data and /sdcard/android/obb, which does NOT get moved anywhere. I don't know why Application Manager shows it move that data. Kind of dumb, huh? It's like the OS itself doesn't know that /sdcard/ is not an actual SD card, lol. It's been like this since the Galaxy Nexus and ICS 4.0, which didn't have an SD card slot. Maybe that's why they made /sdcard/ a partition on the NAND.

There is a solution though. It's called FolderMount. You need to be rooted of course. FolderMount makes an alias, basically pointing a folder on internal memory to a folder on your extSDcard. It works well. I have 30GB+ worth of games installed on my 16GB Galaxy S4, which only has 9GB free memory to begin with. FolderMount is really easy to use, too. I just have it redirect my entire /obb/ folder, so when I install new games even, they are putting their data on my actual SD card. I guess there is also an app called app2sd, but it doesn't work in Android 4.3. I use FolderMount on my Note 10.1 (2014) and my Galaxy S4 and love it.

 

[stillhere153]

I just updated SPH-L900 from 4.1.2 where "Root External 2 Internal SD APK" worked like a charm
went to 4.3 a couple hours ago, not realising that the app 2 sd feature does not include data, moving all my files back to internal sd now so that I can use this method... so far users are reporting success

[APP][ROOT] FolderMount - Link folders from internal SD to external to free space - xda-developers

edit attempting this now

EDIT^2... S4 user method, not working on L900 w/ 4.3
EDIT^3... ugh looks like I need some sleep cuz it's working now

 

[stillhere153]

Success
16gb SPH-L900
With the following installed
GT Racing 2
Real Racing 3
Asphalt 8
Minion Runner
And a boatload of other apps moved to sd via AppMngr3

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Luis Casco Arias]

Does anyone know how the move to SD card works on android 4.3? I have moved several apps to the extSDcard, but while it says the storage has moved, it is not reflected in the storage summary. It seems that there is an emulator layer now and it may br accounting for data movef to SDcard. Any ideas?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Zuhair Ali1]

Use GL2SD app (https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ils?id=com.slf.ListglApp&hl=en&token=0mbTc15Z). Of course your phone needs to be rooted. By far the best app I've ever seen on moving the data to the sd card. It acts as a virtual drive just like how you mount the games on PowerISO or Daemon Tools on PC. Just open GL2SD move the app data to sd card. DO NOT open the game from its shortcut as it will ask you to download the data after you have moved. Hence open GL2SD select the game you wanna play and VOILA! it is so easy. I've
Real Racing 3
Asphalt 8
GT Racing 2
Injustice
Modern Combat 4
Call of Duty Strike Team
Batman Arkham Origins
Assassin's Creed Pirates
Gangstar Rio & Vegas
FS 14 and many many more on my 64GB SD card. I have 8.9GB free space on my internal memory and the games work smoothly. Hassle free app.

Using Galaxy SIII GT-I9300