How to download an application directly to an SD card. Installing applications on a memory card in Android without root

When a smartphone or tablet running Android OS runs out of memory, the question immediately arises of how to ensure that applications are downloaded to the memory card.

There is a way to transfer already existing programs to microSD and make sure that they are immediately loaded onto external media.

Method No. 1. We transfer existing applications

If Android still has some MB, programs can be installed on internal memory and then transferred to external memory.

The latter happens as follows:

  • Go to settings and select “Applications” there.

  • Next, click "Application Manager".

Note: This instruction relevant for latest versions Android OS. In more earlier versions in the settings there could immediately be an “Application Manager” item or something similar. In any case, you need to look for something that will show all applications.

  • Select the desired application. By clicking on it you will go to its page. There, tap on the inscription “Memory”.

  • On the memory information page, click “Change”. A window will appear in which you need to select where exactly the program will be transferred. Place a check mark next to “Memory card”.

  • In the next window, click "Move" in the lower right corner and wait until the task is completed.

Thus, using standard settings you can easily and quickly move the software to external media. You can also use a computer for this.

Method No. 2. We use a computer

In short, in in this case we simply upload the file with the apk extension to the memory card via the computer. Accordingly, being on external media, the application will be installed there.

Theoretically, the same can be done without a computer, but in this case the apk-downloader site may not work or work but incorrectly. Now you will understand what we are talking about.

So, the procedure described above is carried out as follows:

  • Go to play.google.com and select the app you want to download. Copy the link to it to the clipboard. It's in the address bar at the top.

  • Now go to the above-mentioned apk-downloader website and paste into the only field on it the link you copied in the first step of this list of actions. Click "Generate Download Link". After this, another button “Clock here do download… now” will appear. Click on it. The apk file will be downloaded.

  • That's it. Now you have installation file programs. It can be transferred to a memory card via USB cable, Bluetooth or other ways. If a cable is used, it is important to select the memory card when loading.

  • Then, when the file is on the memory card, just run it. Most likely, the software will be installed on microSD.

Finally, there is another rather sophisticated way to complete the task. But the programs will be immediately installed on the card.

Method No. 3. Additional Applications

In this case, you will need to install only 3 samples of additional software.

The process looks like this step by step:

  • Give your device superuser rights, aka root rights. How to do this is described in this article. Choose any application and install it.
  • Go to settings, section “Memory”, “Memory card” and click “Disable”. Confirm the request if it appears.

  • Download and install the AParted program on your device (it is best to do this from play.google.com). Click on the plus icon on the left top corner and add two sections - one for the cache, the second for the programs themselves. It is important that the first partition is of type “fat32”, the second is “ext2”. This parameter is indicated on the right. Next, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Apply changes.”

  • In the same way, download and install Link2SD (again, we use play.google.com). At startup, a file system selection window will appear, check the “ext2” box. A reboot will occur. After that, open Link2SD again. In the program settings, check the box next to “Auto link”. In the “Installation location” window, select “1st SD card partition”. Finally, in the “Auto Link Settings” window, check all three boxes and close the program.

After this, everything you download from the Play Market will be automatically installed on the memory card.

For modern mobile devices operating system Android problem lack of space for system partition The smartphone is no longer as relevant as it was just a few years ago. Manufacturers have long provided their phones or tablets with four, eight or more gigabytes of internal storage, a significant part of which is dedicated to the system. For most users, this space is enough so that applications can be installed without problems on the internal memory of the device, and not on an SD card.

But appetites and, accordingly, the amount of space occupied by applications are also growing, and if you - active user your smartphone, then one day you may well find that the space on its system partition is running out, or during the installation of an application you will encounter an error caused by a lack of space for its installation. Don't worry too much about this. operating system Google Android provides its users with the ability to transfer already installed applications or installing new ones on an SD memory card, if one is present in your phone or tablet. And for special occasions there are non-standard ones, but quite simple solutions to bypass system restrictions. So, in this short instruction we will tell you how to install applications on the SD flash card of your mobile device.

How to install applications on an SD card for Android versions from 2.2 to 4.2.2

The very first versions of the OS Android feature Transferring applications to an SD card was not supported, although for the first smartphones with a small amount of internal memory it would have been most relevant. Starting from version 2.2, this function began to be included by developers as standard in device firmware. It is worth noting that not every application can be transferred to a memory card, even if you have the latest version of Android installed. This depends on the application developers, who simply may not provide such a function for it.

So, how to install an application on an SD memory card, if it provides such a function? If you want to free up space on the system partition of the device by transferring already installed programs to a flash drive, you need to perform the following sequence of actions:

1. Open the menu of your device and go to “Settings”;

2. Select "Applications";

3. Go to the “SD card” item, you will see a list of all programs that support transfer to an SD card;

4. If you have old version Android OS, you need to go to the "Manage Applications" item and go to the "Third Party" tab;

5. Select the application that you would like to transfer to the memory card by tapping on it with your finger;

6. You will see an application window, where it will be indicated how much space it takes up in the device’s memory, buttons for forced stop, uninstallation, etc. We are interested in the "Move to memory card" button;

7. If this button is active, press it and your program will be transferred from the internal memory of the device to the SD card. Inactive button indicates that this application Does not support transfer to memory card function.

8. By re-entering the application window after the operation is completed, you can observe that some data still remains on the system partition. This is fine. The main thing is that most of the files were moved to the flash card, freeing up precious space for us.

There are also specialized utilities that can install applications onto an SD memory card. One of them, which is also free, is AppMgr II I. This program can move apps, hide system applications, supports batch operations with applications and much more.


Installing applications on an SD card for Android versions 2.1 and lower

As mentioned above, in Android OS versions 2.1 and earlier, installation and transfer of applications to a memory card are not provided. But this problem You can get around it if you have some patience and minimal knowledge to perform simple operations with your smartphone or tablet.

Before installing the necessary specialized software and carrying out further manipulations with it, we strongly recommend that you do backup copy everything that is stored on your memory card. In the future, this may help you save a lot of nerve cells.

Also, for applications that work with data transfer to function, you need to have Superuser rights (Root access) on your device; take care of this in advance if you have not yet “rooted” your smartphone or tablet.

To work with a flash card you need to download free program MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition. After downloading and installing the program on your PC, perform the following steps:

1. Connect your device to the computer with a USB cable as an external drive;

2. Delete all partitions on the SD card;

3. Create a primary FAT32 partition on the flash card for your data;

4. Create another primary partition ext2 (the new version also supports ex3/ext4 partitions), it will store the data of applications transferred to the memory card;

5. Reboot your smartphone and make sure that the memory card is visible. Now you can copy your previously saved personal data to it from a backup copy;

6. Application data is transferred to the memory card separate program. One of the most popular is the free Link2SD, which can be downloaded from Google Play Market.

7. Install Link2SD, give the application root rights. The program is ready to work;

8. Select the apk file that you want to transfer to your memory card and select "Create link". The selected application will be transferred to your SD card. To return it back, you must select the "Remove link" item.


How to install applications on a memory card for Android 4.4.2 KitKat

Due to the fact that Google company, an Android OS developer, has changed application protection algorithms in new version its Android 4.4.2 operating system, some device models may experience problems with transferring installed applications to a flash card. Some developers of applications for mobile devices with the Android 4.4.2 operating system are concerned about solving this problem by promptly preparing updates to their programs that can bypass this problem. Also, some manufacturers have solved this problem in firmware updates for their devices, as, for example, Sony did for Xperia models T2 Ultra and Xperia T2 Ultra Dual.

For those who want to be able to write programs to an SD card on Android 4.4.2, but this is not provided by standard capabilities, there is the SDFix application: KitKat Writable MicroSD

We hope the transfer instructions we provided user programs on a flash card will be useful to you, and your applications will find their place on the memory card of your phone or tablet, freeing up valuable space on your device. Be careful when performing operations with a memory card and always back up your data before you start doing anything with your phone. Good luck!

If you are a user of an Android phone, tablet or smartphone, it is almost inevitable that at some point you will run out of free space.

Don't worry - there are several simple steps so that you can install applications on the memory card.

Today, smartphones and tablets have begun to take on a greater role in our lives and the problem of data storage has become more pressing.

Not taking a lot of pictures or moving them to a computer or to the cloud solves the problem, but the best thing would be to install applications and everything else on an SD memory card, which greatly expands the capacity of the devices.

To install or move apps to your storage card, there are several possible scenarios you can consider.

Some of them depend on the firmware version installed on the at the moment, others have restrictions imposed by the developers.

In addition, it is not unimportant that an application installed on a memory card will work slower than on the internal one.

Therefore, it would be better to use this solution only for programs that are not needed very often or those whose effectiveness does not necessarily depend on the storage location.

How to install applications on a memory card in Android 6.0

Converting an SD card into an internal storage medium is a new concept introduced in Android 6.0.

This solution is different from traditional way using cards in tandem from your phone or tablet computer from several points of view.

By default, you have the option to use a flash drive to store movies, music or photos. In addition, you can copy a lot of things to it from your computer.

Converting an SD flash drive into an internal storage medium makes the device recognize it as a place to store applications and data obtained through those applications, in addition to photos, music and movies.

From that point on, you take the step where the card will store applications unless the developer explicitly prohibits it.

By the way, it's worth knowing that you can move applications from the internal memory at any time, regardless of whether you want it or are convinced that it will work faster.

The big problem with converting a flash drive to internal memory is that it will have to remain in the phone permanently and cannot be used by anyone else portable device or PC.

Moreover, if you remove it, there is a high chance that the proper functioning of the device will be affected.

All these restrictions are due to the fact that the flash drive is formatted in file system EXT4 and Linux systems Encrypt data using the AES 128-bit algorithm.

Most important aspect The thing you should note in all this information is that it would be good to back up your data before starting this process.

NOTE: It's a good idea to use a flash drive from famous brand, SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, Sony, etc. but in any case, the installation wizard that is included with the operating system will check performance.

First steps to installing applications on a flash drive in Android 6.0

When you connect a flash drive, a “master” should appear. In the first step, it will ask if you want to configure new map memory as internal or removable disk.

We are in this specific case We are developing a scenario in which we check the box next to the line “Use as internal memory”.


Please confirm that you agree. Then you will be offered another confirmation that if there is your data on the flash drive, it will be deleted.

The final step will involve actually formatting and encrypting the external drive.

Finally, to make the process easier, you will be asked to move most of the data that can be transferred from the internal memory to the formatted one.

If you do not want to move applications to a memory card, but only images, movies and documents, then it is better to choose a flash drive as a portable storage medium.

How to move applications from internal memory to sd card on android

To move, click “Settings” and go to the “Memory” section.

There we select “Device memory”.

Then click “Browse”.

Now at the very top right, select “Options” and click “Change”.

Now click “Options” again, click “Move” and select “Memory Card”

Now create a folder or select an existing one.

Now one click at the very top right on the word “Done” and wait for the process to complete.

NOTE: developers often make changes to their own basic version Android, so if the built-in method doesn't work, .

Moving apps to the memory card in older versions of Android

Depending on the device interface installed by the manufacturer, the procedure may differ. On Nexus, look for the “Device Manager” and “Application Menu” sections. On a Samsung, in Settings, click "Applications" and go to "Application Manager."

You will be prompted for several actions. You can ignore them, just click “Move to SD card” and wait a bit.


Find the apps that are taking up the most space and repeat the process.

Soon you will have a lot of space. It is quite possible that moving to an SD flash drive will not work.

You will receive notifications that the software developer has decided to prevent it from moving back and forth. Good luck.

IN mobile devices On the basis of the Android operating system, the memory card plays an important role. You can store everything on it that is better not left in memory. mobile phone: music, videos, some applications, photos and other files. Let's see how you can download to a mobile device's memory card. Android based various information.


What is it for? The answer is actually quite simple: to have more free space on a mobile device. Although today smartphones are released with internal memory capacity of up to 16 GB, there are still many gadgets in use with insufficient memory. If the device has only 1 GB of built-in memory, 400 MB of which is occupied by the operating system, then there is not much left.

Of course, for some people 600 MB is enough. But it's worth installing necessary games and applications that will begin to occupy the cache and leave behind unnecessary files, and there will be no space left at all. But you still need to store multimedia information somewhere. Don't forget the simple ones push-button phones. For them, the concept of internal memory does not exist at all.

A memory card is a necessary and useful element

If you need additional storage for information, you need to know how to properly download data to a memory card in Android-based mobile devices. However, before you buy an SD card, you need to know what the maximum capacity supported by your device is. You can obtain such information by examining the passport included with the device. You can also get the necessary data from online stores and various websites. Since the memory card will always be inside the mobile device, it is necessary to choose only high-quality products. Once you purchase additional storage, you can save various information on the memory card. You can store it on a flash drive various applications.

How to download information to an Android memory card

To perform this operation you will need a phone, a memory card and a USB cable to the device. It is advisable to use the original cable; another may not be suitable. Connect your mobile device to your personal computer when USB help. On touch screen device, select a memory card. Open My Computer and locate the flash drive.

Open it. Here you will see which files and folders created by the Android operating system are on the memory card. To make using a memory card easier, it is better to create special thematic folders, for example, “Music” or “Video”. Before copying the necessary data to the Android memory card, you need to select the files.

After that, you just need to copy them to a directory on the memory card. The data transfer is now complete. If you don't have a USB cable or it doesn't work, you can use the adapter that comes with the SD card. A laptop usually has a special port. If you are using a regular desktop computer, then you cannot do without a special adapter that connects to the USB port. In general, as you already understand, there are several ways to download files to an Android memory card.

Cloud storage

It’s no longer a secret to anyone what cloud storage is. It's pretty good solution in case you want to download the necessary data to the memory card of a device based on the Android operating system. Cloud storage is a special space on the Internet where you can record the necessary information.

It's something like hard drive located on the Internet. The disk space is located on a server owned by a specific organization. Similar disks can be of two types: disks search engines, for example, Cloud Mail.ru and Yandex Disk, and independent ones, such as Mega or Drop Box. Such services are provided free of charge disk space, from 2 to 100 Gigabytes.

It doesn't matter what storage you use, but if you use Mail or Google, you can use cloud storage from these services. To do this, you will need to open your email and log into the cloud. Upload the files needed for printing there. The easiest way to do this is by simply dragging and dropping.

Before downloading data to the memory card of your Android mobile device, you need to install Play Market special application. Install and launch the application on your mobile device. After that, log in and download required file, having previously selected a location to save. Please note that it is best to use Wi-Fi to install the application and download data.

Creating an FTP server

There is another quite one on the Play Market interesting application called FTP server. It is interesting because it can be used to turn a mobile device into an FTP server. By connecting to such a server, you can exchange files and other information. The main condition is that the phone must be connected to the same router as personal computer. If this condition is met, you can install the application and run it. Click on the big red icon that is in the middle of the screen.

The icon will change to green. The IP address will be displayed below. It is needed in order to access the file system of the smartphone. Open My Computer and enter this address in address bar. It looks the same as in an Internet browser. Instead of the site address, the path to access folders and files is displayed here. After this you can press Enter. The utility allows you to fully control all information: delete, copy and create new files. When downloading files to the memory card of an Android device, you may accidentally lose necessary information. The recovery process will be quite difficult.

How to transfer utilities to a memory card

It is very easy to download applications and utilities for an Android device without using a memory card. But Android has a feature from the very beginning that allows you to transfer games and applications to an SD card. This way of organizing space allows you to save space. After all, even 100 MB plays a big role on a mobile device. This function is necessary. To save applications on a memory card, you need to use the following algorithm of actions.

Go to “Settings” and select the “Applications” section. Here you will see several tabs at once. We will be interested in the “Installed” tab. In order to ensure the convenience of working with installed applications, it is better to use sorting by size. This way you can understand which program is taking up more space. But before saving applications on the memory card, you need to determine which ones are best left in the memory of the mobile device. It is better to leave only the most necessary utilities here.

It could be email clients, mobile applications for use social networks, banking programs, electronic wallets, Internet browsers, etc. Other programs that are unlikely to be urgently needed by the user can be safely transferred to a memory card. To do this, open the application and select the “Move to SD card” option for it. In the same window you can see how much they weigh temporary files and program cache. If they are not stored important information, you can clean out the trash. It is better to perform this operation before saving applications to the memory card of an Android-based mobile device.

APK files

Application and game files in the operating room Android system have APK format. These files perform functions similar to those of executable files. exe files on a personal computer. After downloading the utility from the Play Market, you immediately install it in background. If for a number of reasons the store does not have the required program or the installation file is damaged, you can download the APK file from another source and install the program from it. You can download the program to the memory card of your Android device in different ways.

Download from an Internet browser

Any mobile device must have an application such as an Internet browser. If you didn't install it yourself, use the built-in browser. You need to go into the program and enter in the search “download such and such apk app" After this, you will need to find a suitable site to download the installation file. When you decide on the source, click “download” and download the application to the memory card of your mobile device.

First you need to select a location to save the installation file. After that, go to the folder where you saved the APK file and click on it. On at this stage a security notification will appear. Here you need to select necessary settings and check the box “ Unknown sources" This will allow the installation of applications from unknown sources.

After this, you can install the utility on your mobile device. Please note that in this way you risk encountering various malicious objects. Therefore, before downloading various applications to the memory card of your mobile device, it is better to read in detail the descriptions and reviews of other users. If problems and malfunctions arise when working with this software, you will probably find negative reviews other users.

Using a computer

Few users know that you can install applications and games on a mobile device using a computer. There are two methods you can use here. The first is to download the application from the Play Market website, and the second is to install the application from APK file. If you are using a personal computer, then in both cases you will need to first connect your mobile device via a USB cable and enable USB debugging. In progress this operation as follows. Open the Settings menu and select Developer Features. Here the first place will be the “USB Debugging” option. Mark it with a tick. After this, you can start installing applications.

WITH using Google Play

First of all, open an Internet browser on your computer and go to play.google.com. Before downloading games and applications, log in Google system under the same account that you use on your mobile device. After that, find and open the desired program. Just like in Google Play, click on “Install”. In the window that opens, select your mobile device from the list. Click "Install" again. A message appears indicating that the installation was successful.

Through the utility

Today there are many special utilities for installing programs on mobile phones Android devices. The easiest to use is Install APK. Before downloading the file to your memory card, you need to install the Install APK on your computer. The utility is distributed completely free of charge. Today it can be found on many sites. Now you can simply download APK files required applications and games. Using Install APK, open the installation file. A utility window will appear in which the user will need to select the installation method: via USB or Wi-Fi.

Next, click “Update” and select your mobile device. If the device is not recognized by the system, you may have to install drivers. They can be found on the manufacturer’s website or on the disk that came with the device. Quite often, drivers are supplied through a special service utility. It will be enough to simply install it, and it will offer to install the necessary drivers on your PC.

Micro-USB connector

Many modern mobile devices use one connector for data transfer and charging the device - Micro-USB. The gadget may come with a USB cable that connects to the charger plug. There are also special adapters from USB to Micro-USB, with which you can connect a regular flash drive to your tablet or phone. You can buy such an adapter today at any computer store.

If your device has a small amount of internal memory and you constantly face the need to delete applications, photos and videos to free up more space for installation large applications, then you need to read this article.

In this article, we will explain in detail how to install or move Android applications to an SD card on a smartphone or tablet and how to get applications installed on the card. Android memory.

How to transfer apps to SD card?

Currently, there are two ways to solve this problem:

  • Storing photos, videos and music in cloud storage
  • Using a microSD memory card

If your Android phone or tablet allows you to install an SD card, then be sure to install an SD card. In that case, external memory will be designed to store photos, videos and music, and internal memory for applications.

However, there are situations when the owner needs applications to be saved to the SD memory card. So the question arises how to install or transfer any suitable application to a microSD card?

So, below we will describe in detail how to make applications installed on the Android memory card by default. As a result of such manipulations, the internal memory will be significantly freed up, which will have a positive effect on the operation of the Android system.

Instructions for devices up to Android 6.0

The instructions below may vary slightly depending on your different phones. On some phones there may just be a button "Move to SD". So you need to pay attention to every word associated with "Move", "SD" etc.

If your device needs to free up internal storage, move any number of apps, photos, or videos to the SD card. Also, open the app "Camera" and go to settings and set save to SD card. Instructions on how to move apps to Android memory card:

  • First, open the notification shade and click on the gear-shaped settings button. You can also login "Settings" through the application panel.
  • Open the tab "Device", go to the tab "Applications" and then "Application Manager". On some devices "Application Manager" has a name "All applications".
  • Then go to your apps list, find the app you want to move. We will be moving the APL app to the SD card.
  • Once you find the application, click on it, then click on the button "Change" as shown below. Select “Memory card” (Click on the picture to enlarge).

It is worth noting that any game or application in which speed is important is best left on the internal memory, since the data transfer speed is much faster on the internal memory of the smartphone than on an SD memory card.

Instructions for devices version Android Marshmallow 6.0 and higher

In old Android versions,SD memory card worked as portable and removable storage. On devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and higher, a feature called Adoptable Storage has been added. So, when you insert an SD card into the device, the system will automatically sum up the internal memory and SD memory card capacity and display the total memory.

The advantage is that all applications are automatically installed on the SD card. As a result, there will be no need to move applications manually.

  • Insert the SD card, open the notification shade and tap "Tune". You can use the SD card as portable storage or as internal storage. If you select the function, the system will format the SD card and then integrate with the device.
  • After this, all data on the smartphone will be installed on the memory card by default.

However, using such a function completely integrates the SD card with internal memory, and now it will not work with other devices. This means you can't just pull it out and plug it into your computer to download music, photos, or videos from your computer.

Be sure to back up any data or information on your computer before selecting a feature "Use as internal storage", since Android will completely format the SD memory card.

It's worth noting that at any time, you can go to settings according to our instructions above and move apps from the SD card back to the internal storage.

Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher

If you are using a smartphone or tablet under Android control 5.0 Lollipop and above. Your device will use the SD memory card as portable and removable storage. This means you can remove the SD memory card and download photos or music from your computer, and then install the SD memory card back into your Android device.

In the event that you need to move applications to an SD memory card, use the instructions below:

  • Open the menu, select "Settings" and then "Applications" and move any app to SD card. To do this, simply click on the application and click on the button "Move to SD card".

However, remember that apps that come pre-installed software cannot be transferred to an SD memory card. Typically, applications installed from the Play Market can be transferred.

Other methods (apps to transfer to SD memory card)

IN Play store Market there are many third party applications, which allow you to transfer applications to an SD memory card. Most of the applications, of course, require root access. But, there are several applications that allow you to transfer applications without root access.

AppMgr III (App 2 SD)

The most popular app, which allows you to transfer almost any application to an SD memory card. It is worth noting that the application does not require root access, which is especially important for inexperienced users.

Moreover, AppMgr III is feature-rich and provides many other useful features.

  • Now open the AppMgr III application and wait for the list of installed applications on your phone to load. After that, click on the application that you want to move, select "Move", and then in standard functionality Android move the app to SD card.