One of the longest-running debates in recent years in the Android ecosystem has focused on the presence or absence of a microSD card slot. During the early years of Android, this external storage was almost mandatory to be able to install various applications without our phone running out of memory, with the consequences that this has on performance. Over time, microSDs began to disappear more and more frequently.
Throughout Android’s history, there have been versions of the system where it was not possible to use the microSD card as app data storage, which has changed relatively recently. Then we will offer you a short tutorial on how to pass data from applications to microSD both in Android Marshmallow and in previous versions.
How to transmit app data to microSD from Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Move applications to the microSD in Android 11 Google saw this MicroSD cards won’t disappear from the mobile landscape, so you have decided to facilitate the method of moving apps to this external storage. The most recommended, before starting, is format the card after making a backup copy of what it contained.
The next thing to do is go to settings and go to the apps section and select the ones you want to transfer to the microSD card. Once done click on ‘Storage’ and once you enter you will see at the top that it is selected ‘Internal storage’.
To transfer the data from an app to the microSD, you just have to go to the settings, in the apps, choose the app you want and where it says Storage, press edit and choose SD card.
Click on ‘Edit’ and select ‘SD card’ and confirm your choice. After a while (during which you will not be able to use the app) you will have the data transferred to the microSD and you will see that where it says “ Internal storage ” it is now “ SD card ”. If you want to return to the original state, just do the process in reverse.
We must warn, yes, that not all apps can be switched to microSD, and you can easily tell why by following the mentioned route, the option to switch to SD card will not appear. It should also be mentioned that it depends on the terminal model, in some cases (like in the Huawei Mate 9) it can’t be done this way and you will need to configure the microSD as the default storage, which requires a reboot.
Move apps to microSD in versions prior to Android 6.0 Marshmallow (root)
For previous versions, with a few exceptions, we will have to go root the phone, so in that case you will have to ask yourself if it is worth going through this process, if you haven’t already. After the phone is rooted, the first thing to do is to partition the microSD using a program on the PC such as MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
When installed, connect the card to your computer (it is not uncommon today for them to have an SD card reader) and start the program. When you have recognized the microSD, right click on the storage bar and choose ‘Wipe off’. After that right click again and this time choose ‘Create’.
In the “Create as” section, leave the option ‘Primary’ and in the File System, select “FAT32”. Now assign a space in the bar that appears under “Size and location”, assign a space that will remain unformatted. After that press “OK” and on the screen you will see a bar next to it that says “Unallocated”.
Now click on it and select ‘Create’ again, but this time in ‘File system’ we will choose Ext2 if we use custom ROM and Ext3 or Ext4 if it is a stock ROM. After that click on “OK” and on the main screen, in the upper left area, click on “Apply”. It will be in this section where you can transfer your apps from internal storage.
Now we go back to your phone, insert the microSD card and download an app to transfer data to the microSD, such as Link2SD, to which you you will need to give ‘root’ permissions. When you run the application, choose the second partition (Ext2, 3 or 4, depending on which one you have chosen) and, if everything is correct, it will ask you to restart the mobile.
Link2SD asks for root permissions, once you have given them select the second partition you created on the microSD card and if all goes well when you restart the mobile you will be able to transfer apps to the microSD from Link2SD .
In case of non-operation, you will receive a message indicating you did not choose the right partition, in which case you will have to format the card again. If everything went well, after restarting the phone and running the app, the installed apps will appear, select the one you want and choose Move to SD.
This second method seems a bit complicated, but once you get used to it, it is very simple and it is safe for your card or phone Except for the root part in case you want to go through this process. Are you using any of these methods to transfer apps to microSD?
