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How to enable a flash card on Android. How to combine phone memory and memory card - blog about information technology: software, hardware, Internet, services, tips

Installing applications on a memory card is required by almost every owner of an Android device, especially if the internal storage is designed for a small number of files. Regardless of the purpose for which you use your device - for work, study, entertainment, games, the allocated memory capacity may not be enough. If you are interested in how to install an application on a memory card in Android, then you can use two methods - system functions or special utilities. Which we will now look into in more detail.

Android system capabilities

The Android platform, starting with version 2.2, provides a system function for moving content from external memory to a card. This feature does not always work, since its functionality also depends on the properties of each specific program or game.

How to install applications on a memory card in Android:

1 . It is assumed that you already have apk downloaded and installed on your device, which now needs to be moved to SD to free up memory. Open your device settings and go to the applications tab.

2 . The new window should contain several items - downloaded, located on the SD card and all programs. We need the first point.

3 . The downloaded section contains all the software that you downloaded and installed yourself. Now you have to work with all the programs displayed in the list separately, since it will not be possible to transfer all of them at once.

4 . To move applications to the memory card, select any of them in the list and click on it. The display will show all the information about it, including the required amount of memory, access to data and other information.

5 . If a certain program has a function for installing on external storage, then the “ Transfer to SD" will be active - click on it and the moving operation will start.

6 . If the button is not active, then the system tools are powerless in this case - you will have to use third-party utilities.

It is worth noting that the above instructions apply exclusively up to platform version 4.2, including it, but how to save applications to a memory card in Android if the device runs on newer versions of the platform? These include the following OS: 4.4, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0.

In such a situation, you will have to find an additional utility. It may also be necessary to have root rights. However, in version 4.4, in some cases you can still do without additional programs, but a lot depends on the model of the mobile device. For example, Sony made sure that the devices included installation of programs on the memory card in Android directly without additional applications and utilities.

Using third party applications

There are quite a lot of special utilities that solve the problem of installing software on SD, but only a few of them can effectively help the user. The most interesting applications for transferring applications to an SD card should be noted:

  • App 2SD
  • Link 2 SD
  • Total Commander

App 2SD

This is one of the most popular utilities among Android owners, which greatly simplifies working with content. The latest version of the program has a redesigned and improved design.

Basic functions:

  • moving programs;
  • software management;
  • hiding programs.

Directly in the utility, all content on your device is divided into two categories - that which is already located on SD, and that which can be moved there. On Android, transferring applications to a memory card is possible for one selected program or all existing software. If you install a program that can be moved, App 2 SD will notify the user about it.

Every owner of an Android device is extremely dissatisfied with the presence of a large number of unnecessary system applications on his device. There is no way to get rid of them in the usual way - to remove them you need to have root rights. However, you may accidentally touch important files, which may cause the device to malfunction. There is a way out of this situation, thanks to the functionality of the presented program. App 2 SD can hide system content, due to which it will not load the system.
As for managing downloaded applications, thanks to App 2 SD you can remove programs (while performing a full system scan for unnecessary data), clear data and cache.

Download Apps2SD program possible ->
Instructions for working withApps2SD ->

Link 2 SD

The program is designed as a functional application manager, with its help you can not only transfer content to storage, but also clear cache files. The program has the usual software installation function, as well as moving with advanced functionality, which requires two partitions on SD and .
Link 2 SD is suitable for experienced users who understand the features of file systems and SD partitions. Main functions:

  • moving apk., lib., dex files. to SD and back;
  • automatic installation to SD;
  • transfer even of content that does not provide this feature;
  • choosing a location to install new applications;
  • notifications about the possibility of transfer;
  • “freezing” embedded content;
  • clearing cache and data;
  • converting user programs into built-in ones.

Download Link 2 SD program possible ->

Total Commander

Total Commander– a well-known manager among Android and PC owners. The manager provides a huge number of functions that are designed to manage various data in the system. Main functions:

  • moving, copying, renaming, deleting files/folders;
  • data transfer via Bluetooth;
  • selecting and sorting files;
  • built-in archiver;
  • text editor;
  • search for files and data;
  • audio and video player;
  • support for functions provided by root rights;
  • changing file properties, etc.

The functionality does not provide a special option for installing applications to external storage, however, it is thanks to the support root rights it becomes available.

Download Total Commander possible ->

Conclusion

Now you know how to transfer applications to a memory card, what may be required for this, what difficulties users encounter most often. It should be noted that this function is considered very useful, since over time the amount of available memory in the device becomes less and less, and you don’t want to get rid of important programs. Unfortunately, automatic installation of programs on SD is not possible, so after each installation you will have to move the content to external storage yourself.



The internal memory on smartphones is not endless, and photos, videos, documents and applications take up quite a lot of space. This is why most devices have an SD card slot - this allows you to significantly expand your memory reserves.

And yet, users are faced with the following problem: the phone has external storage installed, but all applications are automatically downloaded to the internal memory. Because of this, a notification constantly appears that there is not enough space. On Android, this problem can be solved in several ways.

How to download games and applications to an SD memory card

There are several ways to use an external card to download applications and games to it. So, you can set the SD card as the default memory, move applications using standard settings or memory consolidation.

Setting the default external SD drive

You can set the SD card as the default memory, and then the smartphone will determine it as a priority for storing data.

To do this:

Some applications will still be saved in the internal memory, this is determined by their settings.

Using Settings to Move Apps

Unfortunately, in the settings there is no option to select automatic installation of applications on external media. But you can manually move some of them (not all applications support such a transfer).

To do this:

There is another option: you can transfer applications not separately, but all together. To do this:

Combining internal and external memory

This method is available for smartphones with Android version 6.0 and higher installed.

Video: how to set up downloading games and applications to an SD card

Video: Moving games to an external drive using Apps2SD

Using an SD card and the methods described will help significantly relieve the internal memory of your smartphone. They are quite simple, so any user can handle them, even if he is not very well versed in technology.

The capabilities of the device can be seriously expanded if you replace the internal Android memory with a memory card. This will allow you to install many more applications on your tablet or other gadget, but the main requirement for performing this update is to have root rights on the device. Let's look at ways to use an SD card as the device's system memory, as well as the conditions associated with this.

Risks and conditions for replacing the gadget’s internal memory with an SD card

Before repeating the steps below, the user should consider several important points:

  1. The lifespan of the SD card will be greatly reduced due to frequent read/write cycles when running applications.
  2. The speed of the gadget may drop noticeably if you use a low-end MicroSD card.
  3. If you make a mistake when editing a system file, the phone may not boot next time - you will have to reflash it.

In general, the procedure (especially for inexperienced users) is quite risky, so it makes sense to carry it out exclusively for old gadgets with a small amount of their own memory.

Using the Root Browser utility and editing the vold.fstab file

To swap memory, you will need to install Root Browser from Google Play.

Let us repeat that you can only fully work with it on rooted devices. After running the above application:


In Android, sdcard stands for internal memory, and extsd stands for external memory, i.e. SD card. By replacing these lines, we actually swapped these types of memory. On some systems these pieces of code may look different, for example like this:

They need to be replaced as follows:

After completing the described procedure, reboot the gadget. Before doing this, be sure to check that there are no errors in the modified code, so that there is no need for reflashing in the future.

The second way to increase memory using Link2SD

The application is available on the Play Market and only works on devices with root rights. This file manager does not physically replace the device’s internal memory with an external drive, but it is capable of transferring any utilities to an SD card, significantly saving the gadget’s resources.

The peculiarity of the application in question is that the MicroSD itself will have to be split and properly formatted. Therefore, copy everything valuable from your card to your computer and start dividing the drive into sections.

Dividing the device card into sections if there is a custom Recovery

Every Android device has a recovery mode, but the method described below is only suitable for devices with . If you've never heard of CWM, move on to the second drive partitioning option. Next, we’ll tell you how to solve the problem if your device recovery mode has the Partition SD Card item:

Partitioning a MicroSD card via a computer

Connect the card to your laptop or PC. To do this, you can use a card reader or other equipment, the main thing is that it must be defined as a drive and not an MTP media device. Next:


Turning on a SD memory card is not difficult on any Android tablet or phone, more precisely on a Lenovo, Nokia, LG and so on smartphone, but here I will focus on Samsung j1, j2, a5, j3, duos, and if there are pictures, they will be used with samsung galaxy a3.

When turning on, check whether it is inserted correctly. Make sure your phone supports the type (eg MicroSD - etc.)

Make sure that the smartphone supports, for example, 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB, otherwise it will not be able to “catch” it.

If you have Android 6.0, then compared to previous versions it has undergone significant changes in the use of maps.

Unfortunately, Google hasn't explained these changes to users, and they aren't as simple or straightforward as they seem.

When Android 6.0 detects the card format, it suggests using it as memory, which changes practically nothing from previous versions.

Here we lose the ability to move apps to the memory card (this option was only reserved for marshmallow cards formatted as internal memory).

Of course, after you get root rights, a lot can be changed, but doing this in Android 6.0 is not easy.

If the SD is used as internal memory, this leads to loss of access to the built-in memory and the ability to store only programs and their data on it (again, if you have root rights, you can bypass this) and the SD becomes invisible in other devices (because it is encrypted) .

I hope this short description will help you decide what to do with your memory card in Android 6.0.

Saving files in Samsung directly to a memory card

Judging by the questions in Samsung, there really is a problem with saving files directly to a memory card via Bluetooth and downloading applications.


In this case, we try to do the following. Go to Settings, go to Memory and select Default Memory. Then we indicate where to save. Ready!

If your Android smartphone does not have such options, then without root rights it will be difficult to transfer files, and it is impossible to get them in stock firmware (on Android 6).

Also, it may be impossible to transfer already installed applications to the SD card if the developer did not foresee such a situation.


You can solve this problem with Root rights and installing the Link2SD application. Only if you want, get the license yourself.

I don’t want to describe how, because it doesn’t always end successfully. Yes, I didn’t fully answer the question “how to enable a memory card on a Samsung phone,” but this is only because there is no built-in method, especially in new versions of Android. Good luck.

Many smartphone users sooner or later face the problem of low memory. This is especially true for budget phones. 16 GB is not much. Moreover, if the ROM is even smaller - 8 GB (yes, there are such models).

Buying a microSD only partly solves this problem. We advise owners of Android phones to use the Adoptable Storage function, which allows you to combine the ROM and memory card into a single logical partition.

Unfortunately, the Adoptable Storage feature only appeared in the latest versions of Android (starting with Android 6). We will show you how to correctly combine memory and microSD in Android 7 (in other versions of Android this procedure is similar).

Before merging, you have two memories: the phone's internal memory (ROM) and external memory (microSD). Even if you set the memory card to be the default write drive, some data will still be written to ROM. And the smartphone’s memory will fill up over time (even if there is a lot of free space on the memory card). We'll have to clean it up.

But after merging, you will get a single memory. Its volume will be equal to ROM + microSD.

Step 1
Turn off the smartphone, insert a memory card (microSD). The phone must be charged at least 15-20% (do not let it discharge during the setup and pairing procedure!).

Step 2
We turn on the phone. If the memory card is clean, an SD card detection message will appear and you will be prompted to set it up.
In my case, information arose that the SanDisk SD card is not supported. That's how it should be. The fact is that it was previously used on another phone and was already combined. During this operation, all information is encrypted and the data will not be visible on another phone.

Step 3
You will be prompted to configure the card as Portable media(standard use), or as Internal memory. Choose the latter.

Step 4
Please note that once setup is complete, this card will only work on that phone. All information that was previously on the card will be destroyed.

- After formatting, the memory card will be encrypted. Access to data will only be possible from this smartphone. After a factory reset, you will also lose access to your data.
- If the memory card fails, you will lose data, so take care to set up a backup (especially since Google already advises doing so).

Step 5
After formatting was completed, a message was displayed stating that the SD card is slow, which can cause problems and reduce data transfer speed. You can ignore this message, but try to use high-speed Class 10 cards.

Step 6
Transfer the proposed part of the data from the internal memory to the memory card.