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Question

Alon Solomon: Problem in storage area

Mar 9, 2015 5:30PM PDT

Hi all, myself Alon Solomon, I have a micromax android phone having almost all the features. I have the 4 gb of internal storage, and it is almost filled but, but I also have the 16 gb of external storage, where about 5 gb of storage space is left and default memory location is also to the external storage, but whenever I am downloading a new app from google play store, there are insufficient memory space showing. What to do to install the required apps into my phone?

Regards,
Alon Solomon

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Remember
Mar 10, 2015 12:25AM PDT

You're asking a question with prior discussions so I'll keep it short.

To date Android has yet to offer a method to install apps to external memory directly.
Not only that but in newer versions the move to SD Card was removed.

There are folk that can't accept the thousands of prior posts on this question and get really upset. Not much you can do for them.

If you are unlikely to have such a phone then you know to keep it as clean as you can and learn that next time you want more internal storage.
Bob

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Not the solution
Mar 11, 2015 7:16PM PDT

Thanks Bob, for your answer, that means you want to say that, instead of having external memory space, I still have to make my internal memory clear to install new app?

Alon Solomon

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Not the answer.
Mar 11, 2015 10:17PM PDT

I noted you asked a question that has been asked many times. I kept it short but you guessed it.

I can't guess why folk are so put off by how this works. Or they flame on about how it works. Some really lose it and well, so far you need internal memory to install the app. If you use the Google Play Store, you need internal memory for the download as well.

Again, so well done a discussion that I may upset those that want to go over again.
Bob

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Alon Solomon: Problem in storage area
Mar 29, 2015 7:54PM PDT

Hi Bob,
I can't understand what you are trying to tell specifically Are you telling me to upgrade my internal storage? But how can I do it myself? Its a preinstalled feature which can't be changed again....

Thanks,
Alon Solomon

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Re: problem in storage area
Mar 29, 2015 7:59PM PDT

What Bob said that you can only install a limited amount of apps if your phone has a limited amount of internal storage. It's your choice what apps to remove and what apps to install. And it's your choice to buy a phone with more storage if you want to install more apps.

Kees

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Understood
Mar 29, 2015 8:33PM PDT

It is very problematic, sometimes you need many apps to fulfill your needs but just for the internal memory issue I can't!! So strange.

I think the option must be provided by phone to store an app in secondary storage directly. Anyways thanks to both of you.

Regards,
Alon Solomon

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"must be provided to store an app in secondary storage"
Mar 30, 2015 1:24AM PDT

That feature was removed in some versions of Android. So this may be the wrong OS for you.

Why did I write that? Read http://pocketnow.com/2013/08/23/google-hates-sdcards

There are folk that get really upset over that change and again, we can go over it but it won't change it.

As to your apps you can't uninstall, look around for a disable feature. I use that to disable and uninstall any updates to that app, clear it's cache and data and get back some space.
Bob

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mapping
Mar 30, 2015 2:22AM PDT

I don't use Android, prefer older cellphone I have for the little I use it. Check and see if Android allows you to map the external storage to a folder on the internal memory.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/38263/mount-a-folder-from-external-sd-as-data

Unless the SD card is reformatted as an EXT type file system, you probably can't map it to a folder. If you reformat the SD card to an EXT type file system, then the Android system should see it, and you might be able to accomplish what you want, or at least be able to create a folder that symlinks to the partition on the external SD card.

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Android 101?
Mar 30, 2015 2:43AM PDT

Actually it's Linux 101, but aimed at Android users. Shows why an SC card with EXT(2,3,4) file systems might solve your problem. In fact I have several flash memory cards with EXT type file systems and anything from LIVE to FULL installations of linux on them. If the Android phone doesn't have the GParted type software to format SD card to an EXT file system, then you can download a free Linux which will allow you to do that.

The easiest and quickest to use would be a LIVE CD version of Lubuntu Linux.
almost everyone has at least a CD burner now, even if not a DVD burner. No need to use extra bandwith either if all you need is GParted, so could get just that alone. It's about 250 MB size download.


Information on Lubuntu.

32 bit version
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/14.10/release/lubuntu-14.10-desktop-i386.iso

64 bit version
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/14.10/release/lubuntu-14.10-desktop-amd64.iso

You burn the ISO as an "image" to a CD. You then reboot and choose to boot from the CD drive, usually available from a Function key.

You can then find the GParted program on it and use that to format the SD card to an EXT file system.

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this pretty much does the same thing
Mar 30, 2015 3:59AM PDT
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Thanks Very much
Apr 5, 2015 6:37PM PDT

Hi James, I hope you are fine and thank you very much for helping me to sort out my problem.

Thanks,
Alon Solomon

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welcome
Apr 5, 2015 6:54PM PDT

now we both are doing fine. Wink

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Absolutely
Apr 16, 2015 3:59PM PDT

Hi James, you are right. Sorry for being late to reply.

Regards,
Alon Solomon