Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2019 not letting me move apps to SD card?

[Android Central Question]

Hi - I'm having an issue with my tablet (It's the Galaxy Tab A 2019 8 inch model - wifi only) where I can't move apps to my SD card (though I can move photos and music etc.). I have tried formatting the SD card, turning on the 'force apps to move to external storage' in developer options, removing the SD card and rebooting the tablet. I know some of the apps are SD card compatible as they have moved successfully on my old phone. The SD card isn't damaged physically and it took apps fine on one of my previous phones (Galaxy S4) - I couldn't test it on my current phone as I have an iPhone. I'm a bit stuck for what to do - it's on the latest software update - any ideas guys?

 

[hallux]

Samsung may not support that option any longer. I spot-checked a few apps on my Tab S3 running Pie, I saw the ability to move storage to the SD but no ability to move the app itself.

Moving apps to SD is not a great solution. MicroSD cards are still horribly slow compared to internal storage. They can also be unreliable. Additionally - Android removed native support for that option so any time an app needs to be updated it's actually moved back to internal storage, forcing you to move it back to SD after the update. Not all apps that had that option could even have the entirety of the app moved to the SD, so it didn't free up as much space as you might expect.

Long story short - you're better off buying a device with more capacity than you think you might need. I bought the 128 GB Tab S3 and haven't come close to filling it, even with movies and music cached to it.

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[joeldf]

Hi - I'm having an issue with my tablet (It's the Galaxy Tab A 2019 8 inch model - wifi only) where I can't move apps to my SD card (though I can move photos and music etc.). I have tried formatting the SD card, turning on the 'force apps to move to external storage' in developer options, removing the SD card and rebooting the tablet. I know some of the apps are SD card compatible as they have moved successfully on my old phone. The SD card isn't damaged physically and it took apps fine on one of my previous phones (Galaxy S4) - I couldn't test it on my current phone as I have an iPhone. I'm a bit stuck for what to do - it's on the latest software update - any ideas guys?

Pretty sure that Samsung has not allowed apps to be moved to the SD for quite a while now. They don't allow the option for adoptable storage either - which would let you combine the internal and SD card memory into one bigger pool of memory.

I guess Samsung doesn't trust their customers to not arbitrarily remove the SD card, thus messing the system up, and causing a bunch of service calls.

 

[B. Diddy]

Pretty sure that Samsung has not allowed apps to be moved to the SD for quite a while now. They don't allow the option for adoptable storage either - which would let you combine the internal and SD card memory into one bigger pool of memory.

I guess Samsung doesn't trust their customers to not arbitrarily remove the SD card, thus messing the system up, and causing a bunch of service calls.

Interestingly, it is possible, at least on the S9: https://www.sammobile.com/news/how-to-move-apps-to-sd-card-on-galaxy-s9 (it surprised me to learn this recently as well). OP, you could give that a try. But hallux's cautions still apply. (BTW, this article was from 2 years ago, so it's certainly possible that Samsung has since taken this away -- but give it a try anyway.)

 

[joeldf]

Interestingly, it is possible, at least on the S9: https://www.sammobile.com/news/how-to-move-apps-to-sd-card-on-galaxy-s9 (it surprised me to learn this recently as well). OP, you could give that a try. But hallux's cautions still apply. (BTW, this article was from 2 years ago, so it's certainly possible that Samsung has since taken this away -- but give it a try anyway.)

It appears that you're right. I just tried it on my S9. Move Adobe Acrobat app over.

Although, I'm not really sure if the whole thing is moved, or just app data storage. It's not clear, but it could be the whole app, or most of it.

 

[B. Diddy]

My thought was that it was the same as or similar to the old "Move to SD" feature, that would move a portion of the app to the SD (and not just the additional data, like downloaded books or music). If you try it for an app that isn't otherwise using the SD card for data, and you see a sizable portion of the app now on SD, then it's probably the former.