moving apps to SD card

[IBMJunkman]

Other than freeing up device memory are there any advantages to moving apps to the SD card? Like in a rebuild situation after an OS upgrade? If I move the card to another phone will the apps show up on the screen?

 

[Rukbat]

If you move an app to the SD card, part of the app will be moved, part won't. If you rebuild, you'll have to install the app, then move it again. If you move the card to another phone, part of it will be used, but without any file in it - there won't be any app showing up on the new phone.

Even moving the app to the SD card isn't always an advantage. If only small parts (even a lot of them) can be moved to the card, you don't sabve much space on the phone. For every piece moved to the card, there's a link to it in the phone. (That's how Linux works - if you look for everything in the hall closet, and you want to find something you put in the basement, you need a note in the hall closet saying "my winter coat is in the basement".)

And a lot of apps, although the developer wasn't aware that they wouldn't run from the SD card (no system app will), can be moved to the card (because the developer didn't know it wouldn't run from there, because he never tested it), so you move it to the card and it crashes.

I consider moving an app to the SD card only to back it up (as an apk file), not to run it from the card.. I don't see any advantages at all. If you're running out of room on the phone and move some apps to the card, you'll be running out of room again pretty soon - and have nothing left to do to get more space free.

 

[IBMJunkman]

Thanks. A couple apps I moved had problems so I moved all back. I was trying to make recovery easier if the Lollipop upgrade went wrong. Turns out it went fine using the USB cable. After update I cleared cache and also removed battery. Google Play Services was giving problems but then it updated and I think all is fine.

 

[Rukbat]

If it's not an AT&T or Verizon phone, I suggest (if you don't mind taking a chance with the warranty - you'd have to flash back a stock ROM if you needed warranty service) installing TWRP. Then you can back up the entire data partition at once - all your apps, all their data, everything, even the locations of icons on the homescreens. (There's no way of running SafeStrap in Lollipop that I know of, and you'd have to do that to get TWRP on an AT&T or Verizon Samsung.) If anything changes to the point that you wouldn't want to go from the existing backup to the current state, make another backup. (Keep all the backups on a PC, so you only need the latest one on the phone.)

And read [Samsung] How to flash Stock ROM via ODIN. Even bricking a phone isn't a major disaster, it's just a pain and a waste of a few minutes. (And, depending on the phone, even a hard brick [the phone works the same with or without a battery - like a brick] is just a couple more minutes of wasted time. There are boot images for a lot of Samsungs that can be booted from the SD card.)

 

[t11rmh]

If you move an app to the SD card, part of the app will be moved, part won't. If you rebuild, you'll have to install the app, then move it again. If you move the card to another phone, part of it will be used, but without any file in it - there won't be any app showing up on the new phone.

Even moving the app to the SD card isn't always an advantage. If only small parts (even a lot of them) can be moved to the card, you don't sabve much space on the phone. For every piece moved to the card, there's a link to it in the phone. (That's how Linux works - if you look for everything in the hall closet, and you want to find something you put in the basement, you need a note in the hall closet saying "my winter coat is in the basement".)

And a lot of apps, although the developer wasn't aware that they wouldn't run from the SD card (no system app will), can be moved to the card (because the developer didn't know it wouldn't run from there, because he never tested it), so you move it to the card and it crashes.

I consider moving an app to the SD card only to back it up (as an apk file), not to run it from the card.. I don't see any advantages at all. If you're running out of room on the phone and move some apps to the card, you'll be running out of room again pretty soon - and have nothing left to do to get more space free.

I have moved the apps that I can to my SD card and freed up about 1.2gb of space so it is worth doing.

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