There are certain tricks to regain a couple of MB here and there, like clearing the cache that some applications use, but for those with a taste for apps and games, the phone storage limitation has been quite a nuisance. Android users with root access have been able to enjoy the Apps2SD utility, but getting it to work is a comparatively complicated process. Frozen yogurt to the rescue!
To install an app to the SD card on Android, the application itself needs to support it. In my experience though, most current apps can be moved to the external storage. However, the system installs all new applications on your devices internal memory by default, except for those that explicitly request external installation. Luckily, its possible to make your Android 2.2+ phone put apps on the SD card by default instead. Heres how:
1. First you have to enable USB debugging on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
2. Now you need to download and install the Android SDK on your computer from the attached file. Once youve downloaded and extracted the package to the folder of your choice, run SDK Setup.exe and click on Available Packages to the left. If you get an error message at this point, enable Force http: in the Settings. From the list of available packages, select Usb Driver package, click on the Install Selected button in the bottom right corner and follow the prompts.
3. Connect your phone to your computer with a USB-cable. Your OS will prompt you to install new drivers. Choose to install them from the android-sdk/usb_driver folder. Do not mount your device; you only need to plug-in the cable.
4. Next, run a command prompt and navigate to the Android-SDK\tools folder. In Windows, this is done by selecting Run from the Start Menu (or by pressing Win+R) and typing cmd. You change drives in the command prompt by entering the drive letter followed by a colon (, and change folders with the CD command. For example, to enter the Android-SDK folder, simply type cd android-sdk.
5. In the Android-SDK\tools folder, type in adb devices and you should get a serial number starting with H in return. All you have to do next is entering adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2. Youre done! Android will now install apps to the SD card by default.
6. To switch back to storing software on the internal memory, enter adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0.
To install an app to the SD card on Android, the application itself needs to support it. In my experience though, most current apps can be moved to the external storage. However, the system installs all new applications on your devices internal memory by default, except for those that explicitly request external installation. Luckily, its possible to make your Android 2.2+ phone put apps on the SD card by default instead. Heres how:
1. First you have to enable USB debugging on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
2. Now you need to download and install the Android SDK on your computer from the attached file. Once youve downloaded and extracted the package to the folder of your choice, run SDK Setup.exe and click on Available Packages to the left. If you get an error message at this point, enable Force http: in the Settings. From the list of available packages, select Usb Driver package, click on the Install Selected button in the bottom right corner and follow the prompts.
3. Connect your phone to your computer with a USB-cable. Your OS will prompt you to install new drivers. Choose to install them from the android-sdk/usb_driver folder. Do not mount your device; you only need to plug-in the cable.
4. Next, run a command prompt and navigate to the Android-SDK\tools folder. In Windows, this is done by selecting Run from the Start Menu (or by pressing Win+R) and typing cmd. You change drives in the command prompt by entering the drive letter followed by a colon (, and change folders with the CD command. For example, to enter the Android-SDK folder, simply type cd android-sdk.
5. In the Android-SDK\tools folder, type in adb devices and you should get a serial number starting with H in return. All you have to do next is entering adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2. Youre done! Android will now install apps to the SD card by default.
6. To switch back to storing software on the internal memory, enter adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0.