Apps not really moving from device to SD card? What's this all about?

[pbryant_knight]

Hi all,

I've been reading through these forums and other pages on the web about this issue and no one seems to have a definitive answer. Why aren't the apps "really" moving from the phone to SD card when you click the Transfer to SD card button?

I'm new to the Android world and came across from the iPhone. Now, i was reluctant to do this as i like the stability of Apple devices. I have several and they have never broke or crashed. Altough i love the S4 and think the phone is amazing, so far in the week i've owned it i discovered first that i couldnt really transfer apps to the SD card and secondly, my last SD card crashed and wiped everything on it, including all my recent photos since i picked the "save to SD card" option to free up space on my device for the apps that i cannot really transfer across. (admittedly it was a cheaper brand SD card so i bought a Samsung 32GB high speed one and so far have had no problems, touch wood)

The latest update was supposed to enable users to store apps (that have the developers permission) onto the SD card. This is the only reason i moved from apple as i had a 32GB iPhone and ran out of space with having lots of games on it. when the update was announced i thought "wow, i can have this fabulous phone AND all the same games and apps i have on my iPhone". Why then, when i pick the "move to SD card" option does it say thay have moved but in reality, they are still on my device and hogging all the space? These are the apps that have permission to be moved as well (Ie: i know the likes of GTA - Vice City doesn't have the option to move as the devs musn't have allowed it).

This is seriously affecting my enjoyment of the phone as i have loads of games in my app wishlist that i can't download due to the SD storage thing not working and also the really crappy amount of space you have free when you get the phone.

SOMEONE out there must have an idea of why this is happeneing, and/or a solution to the problem. Is it a problem with the update? Is it due to this "virtual SD slot" on the device itself? Are Samsung looking to fix it in an update in the near future?

Any help appreciated as this is driving me nuts!! Especially when my phone lies to me and tells me they have transferred to the SD whenn they really haven't.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hi all,

I've been reading through these forums and other pages on the web about this issue and no one seems to have a definitive answer. Why aren't the apps "really" moving from the phone to SD card when you click the Transfer to SD card button?

I'm new to the Android world and came across from the iPhone. Now, i was reluctant to do this as i like the stability of Apple devices. I have several and they have never broke or crashed. Altough i love the S4 and think the phone is amazing, so far in the week i've owned it i discovered first that i couldnt really transfer apps to the SD card and secondly, my last SD card crashed and wiped everything on it, including all my recent photos since i picked the "save to SD card" option to free up space on my device for the apps that i cannot really transfer across. (admittedly it was a cheaper brand SD card so i bought a Samsung 32GB high speed one and so far have had no problems, touch wood)

The latest update was supposed to enable users to store apps (that have the developers permission) onto the SD card. This is the only reason i moved from apple as i had a 32GB iPhone and ran out of space with having lots of games on it. when the update was announced i thought "wow, i can have this fabulous phone AND all the same games and apps i have on my iPhone". Why then, when i pick the "move to SD card" option does it say thay have moved but in reality, they are still on my device and hogging all the space? These are the apps that have permission to be moved as well (Ie: i know the likes of GTA - Vice City doesn't have the option to move as the devs musn't have allowed it).

This is seriously affecting my enjoyment of the phone as i have loads of games in my app wishlist that i can't download due to the SD storage thing not working and also the really crappy amount of space you have free when you get the phone.

SOMEONE out there must have an idea of why this is happeneing, and/or a solution to the problem. Is it a problem with the update? Is it due to this "virtual SD slot" on the device itself? Are Samsung looking to fix it in an update in the near future?

Any help appreciated as this is driving me nuts!! Especially when my phone lies to me and tells me they have transferred to the SD whenn they really haven't.

Cheers

Peter

Welcome to the forums and Android!!
Even back in the days of Gingerbread, an app couldn't fully transfer to an SD card anyway. The app without the SD card involved is already segregated into at least two parts. Those can't be moved. Once you add the SD card, that is one more place for the OS to look.
I know the S4 has low memory due to the extra features. Try moving other stuff to your card.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[shanghaichica]

The only saving grace is that at least the internal memory is not partitioned as it was on previous models and you have more control over where your stuff is going.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[pbryant_knight]

Thanks for the input guys.

I have moved everything else to the SD card (And then the dame SD crashed and i lost it all) but even with that, it leaves just over 8 gig free for apps. Take away the smaller apps like Ebay, IMDB, Whatsapp messenger and the like and i'm left with the capacity on the phone for around 2 or 3 high end games.

By having a Smarthone like this eleviates the need fro a PSP or other portable games console as well.

Why would Samsung announce that you can transfer apps to the SD card then? Seems like a total waste of time.

Surely there MUST be a solution or update coming soon?

Peter

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the input guys.

I have moved everything else to the SD card (And then the dame SD crashed and i lost it all) but even with that, it leaves just over 8 gig free for apps. Take away the smaller apps like Ebay, IMDB, Whatsapp messenger and the like and i'm left with the capacity on the phone for around 2 or 3 high end games.

By having a Smarthone like this eleviates the need fro a PSP or other portable games console as well.

Why would Samsung announce that you can transfer apps to the SD card then? Seems like a total waste of time.

Surely there MUST be a solution or update coming soon?

Peter

Sorry your card crashed. Was everything replaceable?
Something that would be big for Samsung would be the ability to delete the smart features. I think they are fun additions, but wish I didn't have to have them on a Stock ROM.

Sent from a SlimROM S3.

 

[pbryant_knight]

The things that i had transferred to the SD card were saved on my PC, the photo's i took at a car show on the Wednesday night were lost. As a result, i'm now saving all new photos to the phone again in case i have a similar SD problem.

I hear what you're saying about the smart features. I mean, yeah, technologically they are great but in reality how often do you use them? Take air gesture, i turned mine off. I mean really, how lazy do you have to be to not want to let your finger travel that extra few millimetres to touch the actual screen.

About the transferring of APPS though, top and bottom of it is that according to samsung it works..........in reality.........it doesn't!! Damn you Samsung!!

Peter

 

[Farish]

I don't have any large games on my phone atm, but attached is a screenshot of a smaller game where 98 percent of it is on the SD Card.

This is really up to the developer to do, for example Bard's Tale will allow you to store 3.5gb of high res game data on the SD Card. That was even before this Samsung update.

There is no way for Samsung to force application makers to move data on the SD card if they don't want to.

Also don't expect anything with DRM to move over to the SD card unless you want to root your phone.

 

[Raptor007]

Some of the apps do move their app data as well to the SD card, but that is very developer dependent since ICS 4.0 and Google removing support for putting apps/app data on the SD card developers I think have been either sloppy or simply dropped it off their to do list. What they should be doing is have the app search for an SD card and if available attempt to put app data on the card and if it can't put it internally. As long as Samsung offers microSD I will buy their phones . . . unless someone else offers 64GB internal storage or higher on Verizon.

 

[pbryant_knight]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Farish, where it states that the app is on the SD card (as shown in your screen shot), is it really there? Try moving to the phone, then back to SD card and see if the allowance for the phone actually increases and the SD card decreases. This is what i thought. I got the same info as in your screen shot but the actual allowance for my phone and SD card hadn't changed. give it a go and you'll see what i mean.

It states that xxx of data is now on the SD card, when it really isn't.

Another member on here with a similar threrad stated that the phone itself has an "emulated" SD slot where the phone saves this to.

Peter

 

[Farish]

Not sure but my disk space change. I am going to download a large game and give it a try. I do know that the 2gbs of maps from my TomTom app is on sd card after I moved it there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[pbryant_knight]

Nope, just tried it again with Real Racing 3 and Navfree. Still says that the Data is on the SD card when really it's on the phone hogging space. Tried every app i have and it's always the same, space never really changes excepet for a few meg? Seriously, try and move stuff over and see what happens.

I want to know how this "emulated SD" card in the phone is working? I have a feeling that all the crap is being stored there, still o0n the phone which is why it still registers it as SD data.

Peter

 

[Farish]

Nope, just tried it again with Real Racing 3 and Navfree. Still says that the Data is on the SD card when really it's on the phone hogging space. Tried every app i have and it's always the same, space never really changes excepet for a few meg? Seriously, try and move stuff over and see what happens.

I want to know how this "emulated SD" card in the phone is working? I have a feeling that all the crap is being stored there, still o0n the phone which is why it still registers it as SD data.

Peter

It moves the apps not the app data. It all depends on the developer once again. As I said before, Bard's tale put 3.5 gigabytes of data on my actual SD card. It won't work the way you want it unless the developer does it that way.

 

[pbryant_knight]

Yeah, but have you checked the actual SD card. All my apps say that the data is on the SD card but it isn't actually there. It's on an Emulated SD card within the phone.

I wan't Bards Tale anyway so i may try to download that. Problem is that if i do, and it doesn't store it on the SD card, there isn't enough space on the phone so i'll have wasted my money

 

[moosc]

As for your pictures use either Google+ or Dropbox and let them go to the cloud. This is one reason that Google eliminated the SD card support. Brought to much trouble and headache. It also has do with security SD cards aren't as secure as internal storage.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

 

[Farish]

Yeah, but have you checked the actual SD card. All my apps say that the data is on the SD card but it isn't actually there. It's on an Emulated SD card within the phone.

I wan't Bards Tale anyway so i may try to download that. Problem is that if i do, and it doesn't store it on the SD card, there isn't enough space on the phone so i'll have wasted my money

Sigh, yes I checked the actual SD Card, I had to delete the folder from there because after I uninstalled the game it and it left the 3.5gbs of data on the game card under the name Bard's Tale.

 

[jnoake]

I have this too, I know exactly what the OP is talking about. Some here seem to be missing the point.
There was a firmware update to the S4 that re-enabled this functionality, but when you move an app that the developers have provided for, it does not end up on the external SD card.
It is no good wittering about how Google didn't want this because of all the 'problems' it caused - this is a well known risk and if it does not work as expected then the user just moves it back to the phone. In previous phones all that usually happens is that widgets are unusable - fine, I don't use them anyway.

The fact is that that if you shut down the phone and take out the SD card, put into a card reader and look at it on the computer, there is NOTHING that relates to the apps that should be there.
It does not matter if only 5% of the app can be moved - I STILL want it to move because every byte is PRECIOUS!

Instead of making excuses for Google, can somebody with knowledge please assist in sorting this out.

 

[gimpy1]

If you are rooted, look at the app "folder mount" and see if it might be what you are looking for.

In my file manager system, root Explorer, the storage locations for the internal days is, emulated, legacy and 0. I don't understand it, but they all have data and it appears to be the same or real close to it. The storage for the sd card is listed as "extsdcard".

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4

 

[pbryant_knight]

I have this too, I know exactly what the OP is talking about. Some here seem to be missing the point.
There was a firmware update to the S4 that re-enabled this functionality, but when you move an app that the developers have provided for, it does not end up on the external SD card.
It is no good wittering about how Google didn't want this because of all the 'problems' it caused - this is a well known risk and if it does not work as expected then the user just moves it back to the phone. In previous phones all that usually happens is that widgets are unusable - fine, I don't use them anyway.

The fact is that that if you shut down the phone and take out the SD card, put into a card reader and look at it on the computer, there is NOTHING that relates to the apps that should be there.
It does not matter if only 5% of the app can be moved - I STILL want it to move because every byte is PRECIOUS!

Instead of making excuses for Google, can somebody with knowledge please assist in sorting this out.

Thanks, i'm glad to see that someone understands what i mean. I tried again with Real Racing.........Everything points to the fact that the1.whatever gig is now on the SD card but in reality, it's not there.

I wrote to Samsung themselves and recieved this reply.

"Counselor answer

Customer reference number: 2116066612
Please quote your customer reference number when contacting Samsung
Email response ID: 2116876727

Dear Peter,

Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Support.

Unfortunately moving an application completely over to the SD card was never available on the Android OS without full support from the developers of the applications. Some developers will allow more information from their applications to be stored on to the SD card compared to other developers.

Unfortunately the ability to move to the SD is restricted through the application, and the application itself will determine how much of its information can be stored on to the SD card. Some applications will allow more than others, it is dependent on how much permissions it requires and which information requires direct communication with the device.

Unfortunately Samsung cannot address how applications are developed as the developing of applications is down to the developer which crates it. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

If there is anything else we can help with, please let us know.

Our Customer Support Team love feedback! Share your thoughts on this response by completing the survey at the bottom of this page.

Kind regards,

Thomas
Online Support Team
SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre"

They seem to be missing the point too. The point being that the devs have allowed the app data to be stored on the SD card and more importantly "the phone says it IS now stored on the SD card" after transferring it but alas, it is still on the phone under the "emulated" SD card. (probably why the phone thinks it is now on the SD card.

Damn you samsung....................

Peter

 

[Quazonk]

Just picked up an S4, moving from an iPhone 5, and oh my actual dear Jesus in heaven am I ever regretting this monstrous mistake.

I bought the phone plus an additional $140 64 gig SD card, thinking I now have an 80 gig powerhouse on my hands. Instead I go to transfer the apps I've downloaded onto the SD card, and after "successfully" doing that, my 16 gig internal memory now has....1 free gig left? What in the blue hell is that about? So I wasted 140 bucks thinking I'd have more phone storage? What a complete waste.

The user interface on this thing is absolutely disastrous. It has to be the least user-friendly OS in the world. With my first iphone, I picked it up and had the whole thing figured out in about half an hour. For the Galaxy, I have spent my entire morning on Google asking how to do the most menial tasks. How to close background apps, how to save images from Google image, how to enable/disable autocorrect. I'm sorry Galaxy lovers but this thing is a complete piece of ****. I can't wait to get an iPhone back, as utterly unimpressed as I am with the shockingly lazy update they made with the 5S.

 

[STSVA]

Just picked up an S4, moving from an iPhone 5, and oh my actual dear Jesus in heaven am I ever regretting this monstrous mistake.

I bought the phone plus an additional $140 64 gig SD card, thinking I now have an 80 gig powerhouse on my hands. Instead I go to transfer the apps I've downloaded onto the SD card, and after "successfully" doing that, my 16 gig internal memory now has....1 free gig left? What in the blue hell is that about? So I wasted 140 bucks thinking I'd have more phone storage? What a complete waste.

The user interface on this thing is absolutely disastrous. It has to be the least user-friendly OS in the world. With my first iphone, I picked it up and had the whole thing figured out in about half an hour. For the Galaxy, I have spent my entire morning on Google asking how to do the most menial tasks. How to close background apps, how to save images from Google image, how to enable/disable autocorrect. I'm sorry Galaxy lovers but this thing is a complete piece of ****. I can't wait to get an iPhone back, as utterly unimpressed as I am with the shockingly lazy update they made with the 5S.

You know that 5S is calling to you.