Android - Is moving apps to SD only available to rooted devices?

  1. The app has to support moving to the SD card.
  2. The feature should be in Android 2.2+.
  3. Your phone doesn't have to be rooted in order to do it.

There are 2 methods of app2sd:

  • The Official method

    • Pros:
      • give the best experience with the least hassle, as you would never mistakenly move apps that should not be moved
      • officially supported
      • does not need rooted phones
    • Cons:
      • Only available in Android 2.2 and above
      • only apps that are specifically marked as movable by the author can be moved.

  • The Rooted method:

    • Pros:
      • works on pre-2.2 phones
      • You can move apps that you know are safe, but the author have not yet updated the app to support app2sd.
      • more variations to suit your specific need, some variants of rooted app2sd will just move all applications, while some other variants allows you to choose which apps you want to move, or move only applications that supports app2sd.
    • Cons:
      • Phone must be rooted
      • May cause system instability if you move apps that are not supposed to be moved (e.g. home screen widgets, apps with background services, etc)
      • Not officially supported

Can I move any apps to sd?

Yes if you use rooted app2sd; No, if you are using official app2sd.

Is there a specific version of andoid that I should run: 2.1, 2.2?

For rooted method, any version should be fine. For official method, you need Android 2.2 or above.

Should my phone be rooted for that? or stock version works too?

Yes, for rooted method, you need rooted phones. For Android 2.2 and above, no, stock version works.


NO, IT IS AVAILABLE FOR NON ROOTED DEVICES AS WELL. For non rooted devices it is possible to move apps to SD too. But only for new Android versions, starting at 2.2.

Usually the apps must be prepared to allow the system to move it to the SD, but you can on your Android device (2.2) move any app to the SD, prepared or not.

This is done with this commands:

adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

So answering you:

Q1) Can I move any apps to SD? A : YES
Q2) Is there a specific version of Android that I should run: 2.1, 2.2? A : 2.2
Q3) Should my phone be rooted for that? Or does it work for stock versions too? A : No root needed, should work on every Android 2.2 Device

Note: do it at your own risk, I mean, widgets on SD will not be able to show on desktop, running services can stop working if they are moved to SD and you umount your card, etc.
Note 2: you need the Android SDK in order to use ADB, you only need to download it from here http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html access and perform the necessary steps to download the SDK. The ADB command is on the TOOLS folder.
Note 3: if you run this command, only new installs will automatically go to the SD card, already installed apps need to be moved manually.

Tags:

App2Sd

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