Android Apps get installed to the internal storage of device by default, but due to less internal storage, it becomes difficult after some time to install more. Hence you must move your Apps from internal storage to SD card and set SD card as default location to install Apps. This article will help you do this, without any rooting process.
This trick will work on Android 2.2 or later. And for changing the default installing location, we will be needing ADB (Android Debug Bridge), included with Google's Android SDK.
Enable USB Debugging
Enable USB debugging on your Android device. Open the Settings screen, tap Applications and select Development. From the Development menu, select the USB debugging checkbox to enable it. This will enable debug mode, allowing you to change the settings on your Android device from your computer.
Install the Android SDK
Download and Install Google's Android SDK on your computer. If you don't already have Oracle's Java JDK installed on your computer, install it before installing the Android SDK.
Step 1
After installing both JDK and Android SDK, launch the SDK manager from Start Menu.
Step 2
The ADB (Android Debug Bridge) isn't installed by default though it is included in the Android SDK Platform Tools Package. Select this package and click the install button to download and install it.
Step 3
After this, connect your Android device through USB cable. Windows must locate the device and install the appropriate drivers automatically. If it doesn't, then you will have to download and install the drivers from your Android device's manufacturer.
Using ADB
Now we will be using ADB (Android Debug Bridge) to access and modify our Android device through our Computer.
Step 1
Open Windows Explorer window and navigate to the folder,
C:\ Program Files \ Android \ android-sdk \ platform-tools, you will see a folder with all the files of Android SDK. For
Step 2
Next, launch a Command Prompt window in this folder by pressing and holding the shift button, right-clicking in the folder, and selecting Open Command window here.
Step 3
Run the adb devices command and you should see your connected Android devices.
Step 4
Run the following command to set the default install location to your SD card :
adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2
If you want to revert back this change later and install apps to internal storage by default, run the following command : adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0
0 - Represents your device's internal storage.
2 - Represents the external storage, which is SD card in this case.
Moving Apps to SD Card
Now Apps that earlier couldn't be moved to external storage from system storage, can easily be moved now. The button to move Apps to USB or SD storage is now enabled (earlier it was disabled) and can be used to move Apps from system memory to SD card.
To move an App to the SD card, Open Settings screen, tap Applications, and select Manage Applications. Select the app you want to move and tap the Move button on its details screen.
Hence now, your SD card has become default memory for Apps installation and your already existing Apps are also transferred to your SD card.
