How Can I Move Apps To Sd Card In Android 5.0

Smartphone designs and specs continue to grow up to the extent that owning an SD memory card to extend the phone storage capacity might become irrelevant but for most of us still using low-end devices, we are prone to Not Enough Space warning pops up on Play Store whenever we try to install a new Apps.

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For us, in the lower section of the food chain pyramid, a microSD is a cheaper option of expanding our phone storage by moving apps to the card to free up space rather than purchasing a new device with bigger storage capacity.

How you do it depends on what Android version you're using. We'll take a look at them all in this guide.

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Before we get started, consider a few points. Keep in mind Memory cards are way slower than the internal storage and you might notice a slightly worse performance for more intensive apps. And it isn't possible to move preinstalled apps without having to root the phone. Also, on older versions of Android, you might not be able to use widgets associated with apps you've moved to a memory card.

With all this in mind, let's see how to move apps to an SD card.

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How to Move Apps to a memory card on Android 9.0 Pie

If your phone doesn't support adoptable storage, it's quick and easy to transfer apps to an SD card on Android Pie manually. Just remember that you can't do it for every app, and not at all for the pre-installed apps.

Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > App info.
Find the app you want to move in the list and tap it.
Select Storage. If the app supports being moved to a card, you'll see a button here labeled Change. Tap this.
Select the SD Card in the Change storage dialog box. This brings up a confirmation screen. Tap Move to begin.

To move the app back to internal storage, repeat the steps above but select Internal shared storage in the final step. You should always do this when you want to change or remove your memory card.

How to Move Apps to an SD Card on Android 8.0 Oreo

The process for moving an app to the SD card on Android 8 is basically the same as for Android 9:

Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > App info.
Scroll down to find the app you want to move to the card and tap on it.
Select Storage. If the app supports being moved to a card, you'll see a section labeled Storage used. Hit the button marked Change.
Select the card you want to move the app to, followed by Move.

How to Move Apps to a memory card on Android 7.0 Nougat

You can move apps to a memory card on Android 7.0 Nougat through Settings. However, you can't move all apps, and where they don't support it, you won't see the Change button in Step 3.

Go to Settings > Apps.
Locate the app you want to move to your microSD Card and tap on it.
Go to Storage > Change and choose your card from the prompt box that opens.
Tap Move to complete the process.

Depending on the size of the app, it may take a few moments to complete (especially in the case of large games), so don't touch your phone until it's done. To move the app back, repeat the steps and choose Internal shared storage in Step 3.

How to Move Apps to a memory card on Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Moving apps to a microSD card is the same on Marshmallow as it is on Nougat.

Go to Settings > Apps then tap on your chosen app.
Tap Storage > Change then choose the card when prompted.
Hit Move to complete the process.

How to Move Apps to a memory card on Android 5.0 Lollipop

Lollipop has less robust support for memory cards than later versions of Android, but you can still move apps from within Settings.

You're limited in which apps you can place in your external storage; it depends on the developer supporting the option. Also, the entire app doesn't move across to the card either—only part of it does.

You can see which apps you've got on your card by swiping to the right hand tab in the App screen, labeled On SD Card. This makes it easy to identify any that you may wish to move back in the future.

To move apps:

Go to Settings > Apps and tap the app you want to move to your SD card.
Next, under the Storage section, tap Move to SD Card. The button will be grayed out while the app moves, so don't interfere until it's done.
If there's no Move to SD Card option, the app cannot be moved.

Once it's done, the Storage section will update to show how much of the app is now stored on the card (and how much is still in internal storage). The Move button will now read Move to Phone or Move to Device Storage. Tapping on this enables you to remove the app from the card.

How to Move Apps to an SD Card on Android 4.x and Earlier

Support for microSD cards was extremely limited in all Android 4.x versions (including KitKat, Jelly Bean, and Ice Cream Sandwich).

Stock Android didn't support the ability to move apps to an external card at all, as Google seemed intent on phasing cards out entirely.

However, some manufacturers did opt to include the feature in their own versions of the operating system. If your older device supports it, the process is straightforward:

Go to Settings > Apps.
Next, locate and tap the app you want to move to the card.
Select Move to SD card. If this button isn't available, you can't move the app (or your phone doesn't support doing so).

In the unlikely event that you're still using an Android 2.x device, these steps are roughly the same ones you'll encounter. Home screen widgets are not supported in these old versions—you'll need to keep an app in internal storage if you want to use a widget.

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Solomon Obwot

This is the best bio I could come up within 5 seconds after you guys got tired of the other one where I said I write about consumer tech tailored for Africans and addicted to Instagram. Send emails to [email protected]