storage problem on my samsung galaxy A3

[Android Central Question]

I have a samsung galaxy A3 with 16GB internal storage I also have 16GB SD card. i recently moved my app from internal storage to external storage in particularly my audible app which take up 4.3 GB data and some other apps which take the most amount of storage. Even after this my phone is still telling me that I don't have enough space so in frustration I moved 1/3 of the top apps that take up the most space but the phone internal storage doesn't free up.

What am I doing wrong, I need advice.

 

[Rukbat]

Moving asn app to the SD card doesn't free up much space, if any. (Google looks for apps in internal storage. Apps are written in pieces [mostly class files]. Each piece is moved to the card separately, and a link to that piece is left in internal storage so Android can find it. If the piece is about the same size as the link [which it usually is], you haven't freed up any internal storage, you've just made the app load slower.)

And wherever the app is, it's still storing its date in the same place, so unless you can change that in the app, you're still going to have 4.3GB of internal storage taken up by the app's data.

About the only thing you've accomplished is that, if the app is one that's constantly changing (like a game), you've shortened the life of the SD card. (Google apps have to keep their current state at all times - by writing it to storage. If you bring another app to the foreground [make it visible on the screen] Android, if it needs more room in RAM to run tat other app, kills an app or two. Then, when you bring a killed app to the foreground, Android tells it to run starting at where it left off. So to you it appears that the app has kept running - even though it wasn't.) If it's a fast-paced game, it's writing to storage almost constantly. eMMC storage - internal storage - is designed for that. SD storage is rated in the number of write cycles, so you're shortening the SD card's life by running an app on it.

SD cards are for data - music, movies, emails, pictures, things you usually write once and read many times. If the phone doesn't have enough internal storage, you have 2 choices:

1. Get a phone with more internal storage.
2. Use an app like Apk Extractor to make an .apk file of an app you're not using all the time and store the file on the SD card. When you need that app, uninstall another app you don't use all the time (and have made an .spk file of), and install the app you need now.
   
   It's a lot of work, but it's either money for a new phone or a lot of work to not have to buy a new phone. Counting on "Moving" apps to the SD card doesn't gain you much, and it loses you a lot.