Samsung Galaxy A21 - Move Apps to SD Card?

[TenaciousTins]

I see someone has asked this before but an appropriate answer wasn't reached.

I just bought my Dad a Samsung Galaxy A21 as a massive upgrade from his little dinky J3. He had also been using an S8 on the side for his games since his J3 didn't have space. On that phone (and many other Samsungs), the option to move apps to SD card is there. Not all apps, but some bigger ones like Facebook and Messenger.

On this new phone, that option isn't available on any of the apps. Is there a way to force some apps to the SD card? I can't believe I would have spent quite a lot of money on a phone just to find out that he can't play his games on it, just like he couldn't on the old one.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, that option to move apps to SD card been gone sometime now, its just not reliable, it could cause system freeze, not fast as internal storage and get corrupt very easily.

 

[TenaciousTins]

That's weird...I have a Samsung Galaxy S10+ that I got earlier this year and it is up to date and it still has the option to move some apps to the SD card. Did Samsung quietly do away with it on the 2020 phone models or what?

 

[mustang7757]

That's weird...I have a Samsung Galaxy S10+ that I got earlier this year and it is up to date and it still has the option to move some apps to the SD card. Did Samsung quietly do away with it on the 2020 phone models or what?

Last time I remember moving apps to SD card on Samsung was I believe the S5, I've had pretty much all the S series and Note series and currently the s10+ and Note 20U.

I believe there is a way to.do this with abd commands but like I mentioned earlier not worth it . Is yours the international version? I'm not sure those can move apps to SD card ?

 

[TenaciousTins]

All I do is go to settings, apps, then I click on which app I want, then I click on Storage, and under "Storage Used" I can change whether it's internal or external storage, if it is one that I can switch to external. If not, it just says x amount of space used in internal storage. I am in the US and bought the phone directly from Verizon. My S8 that I gave him also had that functionality, but it wasn't compatible with my phone service or his so it's just used as a wifi phone now. But still allows for the apps to be stored on external storage.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Attaching a screenshot of my S10+ app storage settings where you can see it says I can change where the storage is.

 

[joeldf]

I've had the S8 and now using the S9, and neither ever had the ability to move apps to the SD card.

Now, some apps do have the option to use the SD card for data storage, but that's it. And that's not quite the same thing.

Back the OPs issue. The A21 will have at least double the internal memory. Just set the camera to save to the SD card, and any other media related files.

 

[TenaciousTins]

That's what I meant I guess - change the data storage to the SD card. Sorry about that. I wasn't aware there was a difference.

 

[joeldf]

Attaching a screenshot of my S10+ app storage settings where you can see it says I can change where the storage is.

This is what I was talking about. It's data storage. But it's not the app itself, and the amount would depend on the app. Facebook probably just stores cached images there. Only some apps have this option. Besides Facebook (which I don't use - only the browser for that), for example, Netflix and Discogs does. Strangely, the Android Central App does, but the AC Forums App does not.

 

[TenaciousTins]

The A21 doesn't even have that option - when I move app storage to my SD card, it frees up a LOT of space. But the A21 doesn't have that option at all. It's all internal.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

That's weird...I have a Samsung Galaxy S10+ that I got earlier this year and it is up to date and it still has the option to move some apps to the SD card. Did Samsung quietly do away with it on the 2020 phone models or what?

I've haven't been able to put apps on the sd card of a Samsung since back around the time kit Kat or lollipop came out well over 5 years ago. Some app data could be moved, but the app itself couldn't. Samsung was one of the first to listen to Google and block it because of the bad experiences it caused Android users.

 

[mustang7757]

Ok Facebook, telegram gives the option for move the apps data to the sd card, so certain apps you can do the data

 

[joeldf]

The A21 doesn't even have that option - when I move app storage to my SD card, it frees up a LOT of space. But the A21 doesn't have that option at all. It's all internal.

I'd agree, that's weird. My S9 is on Android 10, One UI 2.5. Maybe there's something about the A21's hardware that Samsung felt made even just app storage not possible.

 

[TenaciousTins]

I had him take a screenshot of an app that he has where the data is stored on his SD card on his S8, but the option for it is not even there on the A21. It doesn't even say stored internal, it just shows the stats. I guess the overall answer is "no", data can't be stored on an SD card. What a bummer!

 

[ManiacJoe]

Many of the modern apps that use lots of storage space now let you move their data to the SD card (camera, maps, games, GPS...).
Check the settings in the individual apps.

 

[Rukbat]

Some apps, like Link2SD, can still do that, but it's a terrible idea for a few reasons:

1. Apps write to storage constantly. (If Android needs RAM space it can kill any background app. When you bring that app to the foreground, Android loads and runs it again, and tells it to pick up from its saved state.) The app writes to where it's stored. Constantly writing to an SD card destroys it a lot faster (it should actually last about as long as you do - decades).

2. Apps are moved one class at a time, not one file at a time. (They're written in Java - everything is a class.) So they're stored but not as files. They're not "linked". (So there's no "entry" - if you look for a list of files on the card, they don't show up. The areas they're put in are marked as used, so they won't get overwritten, but you can never find them. [The apps are marked as having a link to a particular class or data or whatever gets moved, so when Android tries to load that thing, it gets loaded from the card.])

3. Due to #2, if the card goes bad, chunks of the app aren't there, so you can't run it. But you can't uninstall it, because those missing parts can't be uninstalled! So you have to do a factory reset and start again.

Even if you back up the entire card, only files get backed up, unless you store an image of the card, which is beyond the abilities of most people.

4. If the app has to be updated, Android downloads the .apk file (".apk" is just Google's name for .zip) to internal storage, and installs the app in the .apk file to internal storage. If there's not enough free internal storage for that, the app can't be updated.

5. If the app stores things (like contacts, messages, scores, what you've won, etc.), storage is done to the app's folder in internal storage. So you may have a 5MB app, with 20GB of data stored - in internal storage.

There's no way to make Android download to external storage, to install apps to external storage (updating is just installing the newer copy of the app without destroying its data) or to make an app store its data in external storage unless it was designed to give you the choice.

Moving apps to the SD card is meant as a temporary fix, until you can get a phone with more storage, it was never intended to be a long term solution.

 

[a30848375]

I see someone has asked this before but an appropriate answer wasn't reached.

I just bought my Dad a Samsung Galaxy A21 as a massive upgrade from his little dinky J3. He had also been using an S8 on the side for his games since his J3 didn't have space. On that phone (and many other Samsungs), the option to move apps to SD card is there. Not all apps, but some bigger ones like Facebook and Messenger.

On this new phone, that option isn't available on any of the apps. Is there a way to force some apps to the SD card? I can't believe I would have spent quite a lot of money on a phone just to find out that he can't play his games on it, just like he couldn't on the old one.

I saw a couple of posts on the internet about the Samsung Galaxy A21 and being unable to move apps to the SD card. I just got this phone and was very disappointed this is not an option for this model phone for whatever stupid reason? Any other android phone I have ever owned has the option to move apps to external storage. Especially with the A21 only being available with 32GB internal storage? Why this is not a default option blows my mind......

Anyways I found a workaround. You have to enable developer mode and then within the developer options settings, there is an "apps" settings section. Then there is a setting for "Force allows apps on external" toggle that too on. This makes any app eligible to be written to external storage, regardless of manifest values.

There are also other really cool options only unlocked when developer mode is enabled. Like "force dark mode" on all apps even if unsupported. Freaking awesome.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! The reasons for not using an SD card for app storage aren't stupid -- see Rukbat's post just above yours.

Most newer phones don't have this option any more, because Google and Android manufacturers came to realize that moving apps to SD cards can be problematic. You mention that any other Android phone you have ever owned has the option -- that's most likely because those were older (and outdated) phones. The newer Adoptable Storage feature (i.e., formatting an SD card as Internal Storage) was supposed to be a better way of expanding a phone's app storage, but this has proven to be unreliable as well, and we don't recommend using it.

The A21 is a budget phone, and budget phones tend to have less internal storage. They're intended for more basic usage. You get what you pay for, so consumers shouldn't expect a budget phone to be a powerhouse that can install multitudes of apps.

In general, the best way to use an SD card is for storage of your own media files (i.e., photos, videos, music tracks) and documents. Many apps will also have an option in their own settings menu to use the SD card for data storage, so I think that will be more reliable than going through Developer Options.

 

[mustang7757]

Here's a example why SD card are unreliable and crash

.https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-20-note-20-ultra/1028179-gallery-issue.html

 

[siredge]

I'm using a Samsung J7 and I use this feature of saving apps to the SD card all the time. Haven't had any of the problems mentioned other than the one about updates, which is annoying every few weeks when I have to figure out what updated and move it back over. And I don't have a very large number of apps either. About 2-3 dozen besides all of the crap that automatically comes on it and won't uninstall *ahem*Facebook*ahem*.

I stuck with Samsung phones for years because they consistently offered a decent phone with additional memory options and the ability to move apps to sd card. Glad I found out about this before buying another one. Guess I'll keep looking, because the base phone models don't have enough storage and the flagship models cost way too much.