Tips on moving your Android apps to an SD card

July 17, 2015

If you're an Android user you know how tough managing space on your device can be. Most Android phones in the affordable price range come with limited internal storage to the likes of 8 or 16 GB. Practically, this is reduced to an even lower size of up to 5 GB owing to the space the phone needs for storing internal settings and other crucial data. And all it takes is a few photos and videos shot with your phone to fill up the remaining space to the brim. It isn't long before you start getting the dread "System space running out" message.

That's when you think of an SD card. Thankfully, most Android phones come with an SD card slot and you can insert a good quality 32 or 64 GB card into it to expand your phone's storage. Once you do so and move all data to the card, your phone can be its normal great self again.

But many users face problems while moving applications to the SD card. This article will act as a guide for the task. If you've been struggling to move apps to SD card, read on and know more.

How to move an Android app to SD card

Open your phone's settings from the Settings menu in the app drawer.
Go to the Application Manager also called the Apps menu.
Tap on the app you want to move to the SD card. On doing so you will see the details of the app including how much space it occupies on your phone, option to clear its cache and data, option to uninstall it or move it to the SD card.
Select the "Move to SD card" option. If you don't see such an option, the selected app cannot be moved to the SD card. If you can't find this button for any app, your phone might not support this feature.

That's it! Your phone's troubles have been put to an end. And since we're always so helpful, here are a few additional things you should know about this process.

How to move an app from SD card to internal memory

Here's how you can move an app back to the internal memory:

Open your phone's settings from the Settings menu in the app drawer.
Go to the Application Manager also called the Apps menu.
Tap on the app you want to move to the SD card.
Select the "Move to device storage" option.

Additional Helpful Information

Before moving an app to the SD card, it might be a good idea to check how much space it is actually taking up to evaluate if in fact it would be worthwhile to move it.
While purchasing an SD card, make sure you go for one that has a good data transfer rate or good speed. The speed of an SD card is generally depicted on the top, something like 10X, 20X etc.
Moving an app to a slow SD card will affect the performance of the app. So if you've already bought a slow SD card, move only those apps to it for which you don't need speed.
If you don't notice an option to move an app to the SD card (its greyed out or not present) that just means that your Android device doesn't offer it. Some third-party apps (read the next section) that you can download from the Play Store could help you with the task.

Third-Party Apps for Moving Android Apps to SD card.

App2SD – This powerful app can move other Android apps to SD card and help you save vital space on your device. Key features of this app include display of detailed app info, support for sharing apps with friends, force stopping of an app, clearing app cache and data etc.

Move App to SD Card – Another great app to save space on your Android device by shifting apps to external storage. Key features include sorting apps by name or size or time, search in market, detailed app info etc.

Link2SD – The most widely used and loved app for moving Android apps to external storage. This app comes complete with most high-end features like linking internal data of apps to SD card, Link dex files of the system apps to SD card, Auto clear cache service and many more.

Should you go the Root way or not?

While most people believe rooting is the way to go while dealing with apps on Android, this view might hold true for only a handful of users. Here's why:

Rooting opens up a lot of options you cannot access otherwise. However, learning to work with root on your phone could be tricky and risky if you're not fully aware of the terminology and proper usage.
If you have root access on your Android device, you can customize your apps way better than without root, with myriad options and unlimited access to features. However, the end result achieved through it might seem like a waste of time and energy for most apps.
The biggest drawback of rooting is loss of warranty as soon as you do so.

Final Words

So there you go - moving an app from an Android phone to an SD card explained easily. We bet you're now thinking it wasn't such a big deal!

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