How to transfer applications to SD card on Android |

Since the early days of smartphones, solving space problems on your Android required transferring applications to the SD card you had.

But of course, whether you could do that or not, it was a complicated lottery.

If you had (or have) a very old version of Android, it is likely that many of the applications cannot be transferred to the SD card or require manual action. There are some solutions to this, but they are based on the use of external applications and you will have to have your mobile rooted. A move!

However, with the most used Android versions today: 10, 11 or 12, in addition to the latest version (Android 13), installing applications on the SD card is much easier, and today we are going to explain how it works and how can you do it.

Why move applications to the SD card?

As technology advances and smartphones improve in their performance such as speed, processor, storage and charging, among many other things, there is one thing that does not change and that is that we continue to need more and more storage.

The app market is very competitive and photography and video with mobile phones does not stop improving. We could say that video games, and especially the images and videos we take with the camera, take the cake in ruining the storage of our smartphone.

This is where you pass applications to the on Android it can save you from a lot of trouble and thus work as smoothly and quickly as possible. Among others, it offers us the following opportunities:

Free up internal storage space on your mobile device.
Allows you to install and use applications that require large storage space.
It makes file and application data management easier as the SD card can be removed from the device and used on another device.
Reduces the possibility of losing important data in the event of device damage or loss, as application data can be backed up to the SD card.
Improves the overall performance of the device, since by freeing up internal storage space, the load on memory is reduced and the processor.

Check if your Android device supports SD card

One of the most common problems is that you see an error message similar to this: “card not recognized.” This can be for several reasons:

That the card storage size is too large and the mobile phone cannot read it properly.
It may be that your SD card is not compatible with your smartphone, or that it does not support them.

For check if your Android device supports SD cardfollow the next steps:

Open the SIM card tray of your device. On many devices, the SIM card tray is also the SD card tray.
If there is an SD card slot on the tray, your device supports SD card.
If there is no SD card slot in the tray, look for a slot on the top, side, or bottom of the device. If your device has an SD card slot, you should find it in one of those locations.
If you can’t find an SD card slot anywhere on your device, your device may not support SD card. Then, you will have to look for other options to expand your device’s storagesuch as cloud storage or external storage via USB.

How to move apps to SD card

If your phone supports an SD card and you have it in place, you will only have to go to the settings section of your device and click on the storage option. Once done, you will see an option to modify it. Choose the option to save or store on SD card and you’re all set!

Ah! And if you need to move internal storage to the SD card on Android 11 and later, it’s just as easy. Just follow these same steps.

During the time it takes to transfer, obviously, the application will not work for you. Once the process is finished, you will have freed up main space on your phone.

Of course, it is likely that in some applications you will not see this “Change” option; in that case, they are not designed to work from the SD, so they will have to remain in the phone’s internal storage.

If you have a phone with ample storage, it would be advisable to use only the SD card to save photos and videos. Everything will work faster!

If not, and apps are starting to feel cramped on your phone, here’s the way to do it.

Formatting the SD card as your phone’s internal storage

This is the first thing you have to do, so go to Settings, then choose “Storage and USB” and, once there, enter the SD card you have inserted.

You will now see the directories that exist and you have to choose the options menu. As always, those are the three points at the top right.

From the drop-down menu that appears when you click, we choose the “Settings” option (on some models it may appear as “Settings”).

As you will see in the image below, it gives you the option to format the SD card as internal storage.

If you are sure that you do not have anything valuable saved or installed on the SD (because everything will be erased with formatting) you click it and wait a while for it to finish.

Once this formatting is completed, it is advisable to restart, and we will have the SD card working as an extension of the internal storage.

From now on, you will no longer have to manually specify or tweak where to install apps! Apps will be intelligently installed in one space or another based on what the developer has determined to work well.

As far as possible, and if the creator of the application has programmed it this way, they will be installed on the SD and you will save yourself the hassle of having to tinker manually.

With this you also have the possibility of transferring applications that you already have installed to the SD so that they do not take up the main space. To do that, follow these steps.

Formatting the SD card as portable storage for your phone

If you prefer to format an SD card as portable storage, keep in mind its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages and disadvantages of formatting SD card as internal storage

Among the advantages of formatting the SD card as internal storage is the possibility of expanding the storage capacity of your mobile phone. Additionally, by doing so, you can use it to store applications, which can improve the performance of the device.

However, there are also some disadvantages that you should take into account. For example, if you use a low-quality SD card, your device’s performance may be affected. Also, as we mentioned before, all the data on the SD card will be deleted, so it is important to make a backup copy before formatting it.

The good news is that you can transfer SD card between different devices. So if you have several phones that support SD cards, you can exchange them and take files everywhere.

Finally, remember that you can also to continue freeing up space. In the end it all adds up and the cleaner the device is, the faster it will work.

After everything you have learned, relax and navigate with the No worries, your way!