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[Q] Cannot transfer apps to microsd card option to move not showing

Hi, can anyone please help?
I have just purchased the Asus eee pad Transformer and it automatically updated to 3.1. I have put some apps on it through the android market.
I went to put some apps/photos etc onto the removable card to save some internal space but when I went into settings then to applications then to manage applications the option to 'move to sd' was not showing on any of the apps. can anyone tell me why and if possible how to rectify this.... what is the point in having a removable card and cant use it. Any replies would be much appreciated..... thanks Jayne

16GB is not enough space for your apps?
You dont need to move apps to SD card as all internal memory (about 16 or 32GB depending on which version you have) is used for applications.

removable sd can be used for for music, movies and any other 3rd party files..
16gb is more than enough for installing apps... (I think...)
there's no app2sd in honeycomb, this is different from what android 2.x does.

thanks for the replies,
I am not able to put pictures/music etc. on to sd card. how do you do it in case I am missing something
thanks

There are several ways to add to The removable SD card. You can get ES file explorer and transfer from SD Card ( internal mem) to Removable card or if you set up your system right use ES file explorer to transfer from your desktop/laptop to the Removable Memory. If you don't want to do that, just put the removable card in your computer , transfer music and photos to it and return it to the TF. I use a Tonido Plug ( small inexpensive ubuntu server) on my network to store everything, then just download or stream to TF via ES File Explorer.

Thanks for this answer, I was actually also asking myself this question.
I saw that app2sd exists on the android market so I guess it doesn't work on our transformer, right ?
there is also an issue I am facing : I downloaded a free application to measure the speed reading and writting of the new SD card I have installed. Whatever I try, the software always check the SDcard directory (so internal) but never the microsd I have installed.
I tried with another one and there is still the same problem. Is it a honeycomb restriction ?
Working with the microsd card seems very difficult (I am still a newbie that may explains why).

Indeed, most of apps only see your internal SD Card.
I've found something to work around the problem - you just have to edit/modify the vold.fstab file.
You can find it in /system/etc/.
Then replace this line:
dev_mount microsd /Removable/MicroSD auto /devices/platform/sdhci-tegra.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
by this one:
dev_mount microsd /sdcard/_MicroSD auto /devices/platform/sdhci-tegra.2/mmc_host/mmc1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot your TF01!
Now, your TF101 will mount the MicroSD in a directory from the internal SD Card '/system/sdcard/_MicroSD'. All your apps will see it...
PS: you can edit/modify this file with some apps like Root Explorer.

Need Permission
I tried to edit this file but came back with read only tag. I tried to change permissions but again came back read only system file. How do I change the read-only tag?

Found how to do it
I found how I could use adb to pull the file, edit in Notepad and then push it back. It worked.

new SD card: now error: Application not installed on your phone"

Just moved from a 8 GB to a 32GB card. And cannot use it...
First I unmounted the old SD card on the phone, and put in the new, unformatted 32GB. I then choose to format it in the phone. Its a Galaxy S GT-9003i with firmware I9003XXKPN v2.3.5
It formated fine. Then I unmounted the new card, plonked in the old card and connected the phone in USB mode to the Macbook. I also connected the newly formatted SD card via a card reader, and it promptly showed up, with the correct free space (although there was a directory on it already called LOST.DIR)
I then copied all apps from the phones 8GB SD to the 32GB card, using the laptop (drag and drop). This also went fine and without a glitch. I then shut down the phone, swapped out the SD cards and booted the phone on again. As expected, it went to do the usual Scanning USB memory. It completed. The space appears to be taken up, but all apps that are on that USB are inaccesible. Their icons grey Androids with a small SD logo in the bottom right corner.
All other apps (the ones on the phone) work fine. The SD card can be used to copy files to on the computer and to take pictures...
Phone is not rooted.
PLease help, if you have a solution to this...
Many tHanks

oranabana said:
Just moved from a 8 GB to a 32GB card. And cannot use it...
First I unmounted the old SD card on the phone, and put in the new, unformatted 32GB. I then choose to format it in the phone. Its a Galaxy S GT-9003i with firmware I9003XXKPN v2.3.5
It formated fine. Then I unmounted the new card, plonked in the old card and connected the phone in USB mode to the Macbook. I also connected the newly formatted SD card via a card reader, and it promptly showed up, with the correct free space (although there was a directory on it already called LOST.DIR)
I then copied all apps from the phones 8GB SD to the 32GB card, using the laptop (drag and drop). This also went fine and without a glitch. I then shut down the phone, swapped out the SD cards and booted the phone on again. As expected, it went to do the usual Scanning USB memory. It completed. The space appears to be taken up, but all apps that are on that USB are inaccesible. Their icons grey Androids with a small SD logo in the bottom right corner.
All other apps (the ones on the phone) work fine. The SD card can be used to copy files to on the computer and to take pictures...
Phone is not rooted.
PLease help, if you have a solution to this...
Many tHanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried rebooting your phone? If it still does not work, try to unmount your SD Card via settings and then wait for it to successfully unmount and then mount again
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Application not installed on your phone
saywhatt said:
Have you tried rebooting your phone? If it still does not work, try to unmount your SD Card via settings and then wait for it to successfully unmount and then mount again
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, yes tried this one. No luck.... Its a Samsung mirco SD card (Model: MB-MSBGA) class 10
Anyone else..!?

Did u done app2sd in ur phone with the 8 gig 1
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda premium

No not much.
DONT FORGET TO PRESS THE THANKS BUTTON IF HELPED YOU IN ANY WAY

ah ha
So, I cannot even find the app2sd app under My Apps on the Google Play store... weird. Its also not listing under Manage Applications. Would this really be the cause of the problem!?
Anyone else have any ideas, why the phone cannot load the apps copied from the other SD card...!?!

First of all u have to move all apps from the old sd card to the phone. Or while inserting ur new sd, the apps you moved to your old sd will not work
DONT FORGET TO PRESS THE THANKS BUTTON IF HELPED YOU IN ANY WAY

Mebin Robin said:
First of all u have to move all apps from the old sd card to the phone. Or while inserting ur new sd, the apps you moved to your old sd will not work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I canot make sense of this. Firstly all apps on the old SD card will never fit onto the phone (8GB, vs 2GB space), and secondly elsewhere online they always talk about copying files to the new card and then inserting that instead of the old one....
mmmh...!? Whilst I apprecite your post - its not working for me

When apps are moved to the SD card, it isn't entirely moved to the SD card. Only part of it is, that's why when installing apps the space for apps still decreases. Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.

bscraze said:
Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks,I had a look at titanium backup, but it requires root access (my phone has not been rooted). I really dont think one should need to root their phone to move from a small to a larger SD card without having to re-install all apps from scratch...!?

oranabana said:
Thanks,I had a look at titanium backup, but it requires root access (my phone has not been rooted). I really dont think one should need to root their phone to move from a small to a larger SD card without having to re-install all apps from scratch...!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without root you will not be able to backup data(AFAIK)

bscraze said:
...Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I rooted the phone and used Titanium Backup. It created a backup file on the phone memory. I thought, voila, I am good then, popped in the new SD card, formatted it, and did the restore from Titanium Backup... but:
still getting a lot of greyed out files in the application folder and on the home screens... I really cannot believe all this work is needed to swap out SD cards from a smaller to larger capacity! what a pain in the •••

I have the same problem on my new samsung 32gb 10 class micro sd card and still searching for the solution. If anyone have a solution, please, share it for us. Thanks!

martynas393 said:
I have the same problem on my new samsung 32gb 10 class micro sd card and still searching for the solution. If anyone have a solution, please, share it for us. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem to, just backed up my old 16gb card to my pc, installed and formatted a new 32gb card in my S4 and copied the data back over and all the apps that are on the sd card are showing up grey.

Ok, after a quick google, i've found that making a clone of the card and then copying the clone to the new card works
you can use HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool to do this (you'll have to google it as I don't have enough posts to post external links)

heathen666 said:
Ok, after a quick google, i've found that making a clone of the card and then copying the clone to the new card works
you can use HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool to do this (you'll have to google it as I don't have enough posts to post external links)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Yeah that works perfectly! (Apparently there are some "secure" folders in the SD card that start with a period, and the contents do not get copied at all. Those hold the apps and data.) However after using HDD-Raw-Copy it will create an exact replica of the smaller SD card on the larger one and the larger one will appear to be small too, so you must resize your partition or you won't gain anything, your new card will be exactly the same as the old one! You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard home edition which is free to do this: partitionwizard.com :good:

I had the same problem but I was able to fix without extra software. Took old card out of my phone and installed both externally via flash readers to my pc and copied files from one to the other. View hidden files is turned on just in case any hidden items is also copied. This work great for me all apps are accessible now. Hope this helpped

Here is the step-by-step solution: http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/id-2545604/move-data-card-samsung-galaxy.html
There are two ways described to do it successfully:
METHOD 1 uses the xcopy (or xcopy32) command in a Cmd Prompt windown on Windows. The /h switch used on the command allows the hidden and system files to be copied!
METHOD 2 uses a straight copy from old SD card to the new SD card (or from old SD card to folder on computer, then from folder on computer to new SD card) using the simple drag and drop on Windows. BUT YOU MUST HAVE WINDOWS EXPLORER CONFIGURED TO SHOW SYSTEM AND HIDDEN FILES!
Just to be clear, the solution to the problem is trivial. You are simply copying ALL the files from one SD card to another. There is absolutely no reason that copying ALL files from one SD card, including the complete file structure, to another SD card should not work. Your phone can't tell that you switched SD cards. It only knows the files and file structure it can see on the SD card and if they are EXACTLY the same as they were before the switch, your phone should work exactly like it did before the switch except now it will see more free storage space on your larger SD card (which was probably your goal in the first place) AND your phone may possibly even run faster by accessing the data much faster if your new SD card is a faster class of storage media.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO ROOT YOUR PHONE OR INSTALL ALL KINDS OF CRAZY APPS ON YOUR PHONE OR SOFTWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER TO DO THIS!!!
BUT, the key is that YOU MUST ALSO COPY ALL THE HIDDEN FILES and there are lots of them on Android! Everytime I hear of someone having a problem with switchinging to a new SD card, it is because they did NOT copy the hidden files OR their SD card was not properly formatted (FAT32) for the phone.
Please click the Thanks button if this has helped you!

update to Kitkat OR keep Jelly Bean ?

Hi all:
this time I see Google insist that any new smartphone should be ships with the latest Android version.
What Google is looking for in KitKat ?
For me I will not update to KitKat !
Because of the following:
"The WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission must only grant write access to the primary external storage on a device. Apps must not be allowed to write to secondary external storage devices, except in their package-specific directories as allowed by synthesized permissions."
That means your microSD card is secondary storage and apps will not be allowed to use it, Google has screwed up the KitKat API as they think there is a big security problem with external SD cards !!!!!
Oh... your SD Card is completely useless, applications will no longer be able to create, modify or remove files and folders on your external SD card. As a for-instance, you can no longer use a file manager to copy files from your computer to the SD card over a network.
in short Google want you to use their cloud services instead of your SD card, I feel like we are going back in time, and Samsung is involved in this game.

I agree, this is definitely a bad change. Luckily though, I've never stored apps on my external SD so this is not a problem for me.

You can simply download apps like App2SD and move them to the sd. Obviously you have to have root access...

Failed to write to sdcard1 after ota kitkat

Has any one else lost the ability to write to their socketed sdcard since the 4.4.2?

thesavo said:
Has any one else lost the ability to write to their socketed sdcard since the 4.4.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a "feature" of kitkat. Can't be changed unless you have root.

Seriously?

Yes, see here for fix(if your rooted):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix

thesavo said:
Seriously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a security issue. Before KK, the SD card was wide open to any other process to be able to request read/write to any directory and file, regardless of whether or not they created that file or directory.
Now, under KK, a program can create a file or folder in a "protected" area and only that program has the ability to modify the contents in that folder. It cannot modify other folders or files that it didn't create.

Time to move the podcasts. So my older shows that I worked hard to keep to keep the ext sdcard1 as a target, will have to be copied to sdcard0.too bad.thanks @iBolski
No wonder BeyondPod kept 'accidently' putting shows on SDcard0 for the last year. Even though I "pinned" it to SDcard1 in the advanced settings.

Even with the application that patches the /etc/permissions/platform.xml, I have found certain apps still do not work correctly. Dolphin Browser, for example, cannot switch to /storage/sdcard1. It keeps saying it can't find it and I need to ensure I don't have "USB Mode" enabled, which I don't even have as an option when connected to a PC.
I also have init.d installed on my machine and I had startup scripts that mounted various directories from my external to the internal SD card to "fool" the device so that apps that wouldn't save to the external but the internal would save across a mount. Well, that no longer works. For example, Amazon MP3 will not save downloaded music anywhere except to the internal sd card. I had my startup scripts mount an amazonmp3 directory on my external SD card to the internal amazonmp3 directory on the internal memory card. When I proceeded to download music, it didn't show up in the external directory. However, I noticed that the internal sd card's memory did decrease. I then unmounted the directory and saw that the Amazon MP3 app was ignoring the mount under KitKat and directory saved the files into the /storage/sdcard0/amazonmp3 directory, even though it was mounted to the directory on the external SD card. It did work under JB and ICS, but apparently, with KitKat, some apps will still write directly to the native directory on the internal SD card, ignoring the fact that I've mounted a different directory to it.
The stock Moto camera will write to the external SD card if you go and change the setting for it. However, the Google Camera does not give you any option to store your pictures anywhere except on the internal SD card memory. :crying:
Remember, apps can write to the external card, if you don't apply the "patch", but only to what is considered a protected are (the /storage/sdcard1/Android directory structure) and then, they can only write to a directory that the app created. They can read other directories, but they cannot modify them.

iBolski said:
It's a security issue. Before KK, the SD card was wide open to any other process to be able to request read/write to any directory and file, regardless of whether or not they created that file or directory.
Now, under KK, a program can create a file or folder in a "protected" area and only that program has the ability to modify the contents in that folder. It cannot modify other folders or files that it didn't create.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's official explanation (bull****) as you described above with non stock camera. Basically KK made external storage almost useless. I found this nice description quite long time ago.
https://plus.google.com/+TodLiebeck/posts/gjnmuaDM8sn

Zeljko1234 said:
That's official explanation (bull****) as you described above with non stock camera. Basically KK made external storage almost useless. I found this nice description quite long time ago.
https://plus.google.com/+TodLiebeck/posts/gjnmuaDM8sn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know at this point, Root Explorer still works with it, after setting the correct permissions into the /etc/permissions/platform.xml file. That works for a lot of apps. The only one that I know that is currently broken is Dolphin browser. I cannot navigate to the /storage/sdcard1/ area anymore. It keeps telling me it can't find the file or directrory and that I should make sure the SD card is ready and USB Mass Storage (haven't seen this option since my Droid X2) is not on.
So definitely, Dolphin Browser is doing something differently that even the patch isn't working for it.

Problem is that without root user cannot edit platform.xml and even after that some applications refuse to write to sd card. Another example is OfficeSuite 7 Pro which I bought and now cannot edit file if it's needed. Workaround is to save to internal then overwrite to sd card.
Basically stock Android becoming more and more limited, harder and harder to get root... That's so bad that I wouldn't update to official kk in the case that my phone has locked bootloader.
Read this article http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...use-even-more-issues-for-root-app-developers/

Flixster

I'm hoping someone else has encountered this problem and found a workaround...
I've downloaded Flixster, logged in and accessed my collection of films/tv series. When I got to download them it gives an option of download to phone or download to SD card. I selected SD card but it then says that this is not supported on my device. According to Flixster's website, all Android devices on 4.3 and above should have this facility working. Is there anything I can do to get them on my SD card?

Unless you have it installed as a system app it will not be able to write to SD card.
This is a KK feature where only system apps can write to sd card
Choose internal memory then copy it over using a system explorer, or do it via a card reader in your PC or root and apply the write to SD card fix

gregbradley said:
Unless you have it installed as a system app it will not be able to write to SD card.
This is a KK feature where only system apps can write to sd card
Choose internal memory then copy it over using a system explorer, or do it via a card reader in your PC or root and apply the write to SD card fix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I;m new to the phone and android, could you explain to me how I do this? (the internal memory way)

Tmel14 said:
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I;m new to the phone and android, could you explain to me how I do this? (the internal memory way)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download it to the phone, then transfer it to your PC via the USB cable, then to the SDcard using the USB cable

gregbradley said:
Download it to the phone, then transfer it to your PC via the USB cable, then to the SDcard using the USB cable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By transfer "it" do you mean the app and then transfer the app to my SD card via USB? Or do you mean the movie and then transfer that to my SD card via USB?

You have the app installed, it needs to be on the phone.
Download the movie to internal memory and then move that about.

gregbradley said:
You have the app installed, it needs to be on the phone.
Download the movie to internal memory and then move that about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have to excuse me for being a noob, can't quite figure out how this works. I plugged my phone into my laptop, went into internal storage and cut the files from the phone and then put then pasted them onto the SD card. However, now when I go into Flixster it doesn't recognise them as being on the device and although they are listed in the Movies app, it can't play the files.

Can anyone help on this? My 16Gb internal storage is running really low, could really do with getting the Flixster files on my SD card if possible

Tmel14 said:
Can anyone help on this? My 16Gb internal storage is running really low, could really do with getting the Flixster files on my SD card if possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Though I am not familiar with this Flixter thing, but ones you have downloaded and saved your movie in your SDCARD, why are you sticking to Flixter to play it? You can use your device's movie player or any other 3rd party software that supports the format to play the movie.

nlohani said:
Though I am not familiar with this Flixter thing, but ones you have downloaded and saved your movie in your SDCARD, why are you sticking to Flixter to play it? You can use your device's movie player or any other 3rd party software that supports the format to play the movie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are digital codes for DVDs/Blu Rays I have purchased and have to be redeemed via Flixster. Once redeemed you have the option of streaming it via wi-fi or downloading it to the device. If you download to the device it stays within the Flixster app (they ar enot playable by other media players even though they are mp4 files - guessing they must have some sort of Flixster encoding or DRM). There is an option on Flixster to download them to SD card but it won't let me do it on the Xperia as it doesn't have permission to write to the SD card.
When I connected my phone to my laptop, I found the files within the internal storage and manually pasted them into the SD card but after doing so, Flixster no longer recognised them as being on the device and other players were still unable to play the files.

Tmel14 said:
They are digital codes for DVDs/Blu Rays I have purchased and have to be redeemed via Flixster. Once redeemed you have the option of streaming it via wi-fi or downloading it to the device. If you download to the device it stays within the Flixster app (they ar enot playable by other media players even though they are mp4 files - guessing they must have some sort of Flixster encoding or DRM). There is an option on Flixster to download them to SD card but it won't let me do it on the Xperia as it doesn't have permission to write to the SD card.
When I connected my phone to my laptop, I found the files within the internal storage and manually pasted them into the SD card but after doing so, Flixster no longer recognised them as being on the device and other players were still unable to play the files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure you have already checked the settings in Flixster application, to see if it gives option to read & play contents from SDCARD?
There is some application to convert users apps to system apps. Not sure if even after converting this can be moved to SD or not.

nlohani said:
I am sure you have already checked the settings in Flixster application, to see if it gives option to read & play contents from SDCARD?
There is some application to convert users apps to system apps. Not sure if even after converting this can be moved to SD or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah unfortunately not, just an option where to download to and when you select SD card and then download, the Xperia won't let me.
Would I have to be rooted in order to convert to system apps?

I'm on a Xperia Z3 Tablet and hit the same problem. I've found a way around this which works. The thing you have to bear in mind using this is you cannot download to the SD card directly.
Close Flixster
Using File Commander (or similar) on the device, copy Android>data>net.flixster.android to the same location on the SD card.
Note: Using Windows or similar doesn't give you the same rights to create/modify some of the folders
Start Flixster and change the storage location to the SD card.
Restart Flixtser. You will now see the location under the devices saying On SD Card.
I remove the ones from the internal storage once satisfied.
When downloading a new addition, change the location back to Internal Storage, let it download and then move that across and obviously change the storage location afterwards.
It works for me well on a 32gb card and saves precious internal storage space.
---------- Post added at 04:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
ThornyUk said:
I'm on a Xperia Z3 Tablet and hit the same problem. I've found a way around this which works. The thing you have to bear in mind using this is you cannot download to the SD card directly.
Close Flixster
Using File Commander (or similar) on the device, copy Android>data>net.flixster.android to the same location on the SD card.
Note: Using Windows or similar doesn't give you the same rights to create/modify some of the folders
Start Flixster and change the storage location to the SD card.
Restart Flixtser. You will now see the location under the devices saying On SD Card.
I remove the ones from the internal storage once satisfied.
When downloading a new addition, change the location back to Internal Storage, let it download and then move that across and obviously change the storage location afterwards.
It works for me well on a 32gb card and saves precious internal storage space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note: Remove video files from: Android>data>net.flixster.android>files>wv internal folder - not the others.