How to move apps to microSD card on Android mobile

One of the longest-running debates in the Android ecosystem in recent years has centered on the presence or absence of a microSD card slot. During the first years of Android, this external storage was almost mandatory to be able to install several 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 the history of Android, there have been versions of the system in which it was impossible to use the microSD card as storage for application data, which has changed relatively recently. Then we will offer you a small tutorial on how to transfer application data to the microSD both in Android Marshmallow and in previous versions.

How to move app data to microSD from Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Google saw this microSD cards are not going to disappear from the mobile landscape, so you decided to make it easier to move apps to this external storage. The best thing to do before you start is format the card

after backing up everything in it.

The next thing to do is go to the 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 entered, you will see at the top that it is selected ‘Internal storage’.

Click “Edit” and select ‘SD card’ and validate your choice. After a while (during which you won’t be able to use the app) the data will be transferred to the microSD and you will see that where it says “Internal storage” it now says “SD card”. If you want to return to the original state, you just have to do the process in reverse.

You must warn, yes, that not all apps can be moved to microSD, and you can easily tell because by following the mentioned route, the option to switch to SD will not appear. It should also be mentioned that it depends on the terminal model, in some cases (as in the Huawei Mate 9) can’t do it that way and you’ll need to set microSD as the default storage, which requires a reboot.

Transfer applications to the microSD in versions older than Android 6.0 Marshmallow (root)

For previous versions, with a few exceptions, you will have to root the phone

, so in this case you should ask yourself if he deserves to go through this process, if you haven’t already done so. Once the phone is rooted, the first thing to do is to partition the microSD using a program on the PC like MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Once installed, plug the card into your computer (it’s not uncommon for them to have an SD card reader these days) and launch the program. When it recognized the microSD, right click on the storage bar and choose ‘Remove’. After that right click again and this time choose ‘To create’.

In the “Create as” section, leave the option to ‘Primary’ and in File System select ‘FAT32’. Now allocate space in the bar that appears under “Size and Location”, allocate space which will remain unformatted. After that tap on ‘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 a custom ROM and Ext3 or Ext4

if it’s 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 move your apps from internal storage.

Now we go back to your phone, insert the microSD card and download an application to transfer data to the microSD, such as Link2SD, which 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 goes well, it will ask you to restart the mobile.

If that doesn’t work, you’ll get a message saying you have not chosen the correct partition, in which case you will need to reformat the card. 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 does not pose any danger to your card or phone except for the root part in case you want to do this process. Do you use any of these methods to transfer apps to the microSD?