android phone - can't seem to move apps to SD card

londonman81

I have a HTC Desire phone and it won't install any more apps due to insufficient storage.

However when I try to move apps on to the SD card through settings,it doesn't do it because the option is greyed out. The odd thing is that I already have three apps saved on the SD card, so I can't understand why it won't allow me to move more onto it. The SD card has plenty of space on it.

Any ideas why this might be happening?

jtk174

Not all apps can run from SD and the move to SD card will be grayed out.

What apps are you having issues with ?

johnnyboyrebel

londonman81 wrote: »

I have a HTC Desire phone and it won't install any more apps due to insufficient storage.

However when I try to move apps on to the SD card through settings,it doesn't do it because the option is greyed out. The odd thing is that I already have three apps saved on the SD card, so I can't understand why it won't allow me to move more onto it. The SD card has plenty of space on it.

Any ideas why this might be happening?

What you will find is that some apps simply cannot be moved to the SD card hence why you get the greyed out message, presumably this is due to the way they are installed. Pretty much like if you moved the .exe file of a program on a pc and then you clicked your normal shortcut.

Example, on a pc by default a program may install into c:/ drive, 'program files' and upon installing will also add a shortcut to your desktop. Every time you open the shortcut, it looks in c:/ drive, 'program files' and opens that executable file. A shortcut isn't anything on it's own, it simply allows you to open a program easily without having to manually find it in 'program files' each time.

If you were to move the .exe file out of 'program files' then clicked the shortcut it wouldn't work as the file it is looking to open isn't there anymore.

Presumably, with your phone, a program may be installed in a folder called 'apps' within your phones internal hard drive (I don't know the structure of a HTC file directory so using 'apps' as an example) and with an app that can be moved, when you move it to SD card it copies the shortcut and the .exe file but with some apps it probably cannot move the .exe file therefore doesn't allow you to move it as if it just used the shortcut it would not then open the app.

thor

My friend has a Sony Experia x8 and he too is unable to move apps to his sd card. His problem is different to the one described by the op. He does have some apps where the option to move to sd is greyed out as well but we know those are not moveable anyway. He also has some where you can click on the sd move option but only gets the following message 'failed to move application'. His sd card has plenty of space and is accessible from within the phone and can store photos and videos taken by the camera but he cannot move an app to it. Does anyone know why this is happening?

GunJack

So, if you were to delete an app and re-download it, would you have the option to install/save in a different location, i.e. the sd card, alternatively is it possible to move the location of the apps(or whatever) to the sd card? Not familiar with android at al, and having similar issues with Mrs G-J's Galaxy Ace (first android device in the house)

kwikbreaks

It doesn't work that way. You download and then the install normally follows automatically. Once that's done you can move to SD (if the program was coded so that you could and your Android version supports it - my Desire does so I can't see this being an issue).

Not all of the program goes to SD some still shows as phone memory - I'm guessing that some parts have to remain RAM resident and they are grouped into one lump with the stuff that can be in SD (probably fixed data rather than instructions) in another and that's the chunk that can be moved. There is user data involved too and I'm not certain where that goes.

I've found that the only way to install something big which is capable of the move to SD (eg angry birds) is to delete one or more of the fairly large apps, do the big install, move to SD then reinstall the apps you deleted if you need them. You might also try a cache clearing app as that can sometimes be quite big and does seem to come out of phone memory.

I think this is all cleared up in later Android releases - I have a Nexus 7 tablet and you don't get the move to SD option although some of the tablet memory is a virtual SD.

johnnyboyrebel

thor wrote: »

My friend has a Sony Experia x8 and he too is unable to move apps to his sd card. His problem is different to the one described by the op. He does have some apps where the option to move to sd is greyed out as well but we know those are not moveable anyway. He also has some where you can click on the sd move option but only gets the following message 'failed to move application'. His sd card has plenty of space and is accessible from within the phone and can store photos and videos taken by the camera but he cannot move an app to it. Does anyone know why this is happening?

It just does, some apps cannot be moved, some can. It has nothing to do with the SD card or how much space is available on there.

kwikbreaks wrote: »

It doesn't work that way. You download and then the install normally follows automatically. Once that's done you can move to SD (if the program was coded so that you could and your Android version supports it - my Desire does so I can't see this being an issue).

Not all of the program goes to SD some still shows as phone memory - I'm guessing that some parts have to remain RAM resident and they are grouped into one lump with the stuff that can be in SD (probably fixed data rather than instructions) in another and that's the chunk that can be moved. There is user data involved too and I'm not certain where that goes.

I've found that the only way to install something big which is capable of the move to SD (eg angry birds) is to delete one or more of the fairly large apps, do the big install, move to SD then reinstall the apps you deleted if you need them. You might also try a cache clearing app as that can sometimes be quite big and does seem to come out of phone memory.

I think this is all cleared up in later Android releases - I have a Nexus 7 tablet and you don't get the move to SD option although some of the tablet memory is a virtual SD.

Listen to this guy, he seems to have more knowledge than me on the subject, my comments are just from past experience so not official android advice

marleyboy

OP download App; "App 2 SD" from the Play Store (free download) and this will move some (not all) of the apps to your SD card.

denwhatshisname

titanium backup also moves stuff to sd that app2sd can't

T_T_2

thor wrote: »

My friend has a Sony Experia x8 and he too is unable to move apps to his sd card. His problem is different to the one described by the op. He does have some apps where the option to move to sd is greyed out as well but we know those are not moveable anyway. He also has some where you can click on the sd move option but only gets the following message 'failed to move application'. His sd card has plenty of space and is accessible from within the phone and can store photos and videos taken by the camera but he cannot move an app to it. Does anyone know why this is happening?

This is more likely to do with the fact that the X8 runs on either android 1.6 (Donut) or the upgraded 2.1 (Eclair), neither of which will support apps from an sd card if the phone is not rooted or a newer flash of android.

Ash_McCloud

You can move all your contacts to the SD card on some HTC's.. people>menu>export to sd card. That frees up a bit of room