anyone owning a S4 found out how to load apps to SD Card

T

tangoseal

[H]F Junkie
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This is absolutely effing retarded that Samsung or Google would take away the ability to load apps in the S4's SDCARD. What freaking use is an SD card if you cant load apps beside holding videos and music?

So my question remains, has anyone figured out how to move apps to the sd card.

I was going to buy an S4 but this is a major turn off for me and Sam or Google shot them selves in the foot. I know I "might" be able to root one but .... now that these have a supposed locked and encrypted bootloader how are we going to get root for this phone?

Has anyone even seen a root for the US version i.e. US Cellular, ATT, etc...

I am on Craprizon.
 
Uhh .... yes im pretty sure they all have root as of now ...

The T-Mo varient is unlocked boot loader , .....
 
There is an exploit to unlock the bootloader on the AT&T GS4 and the dev is almost positive that the same exploit will work on the Verizon GS4, but he's waiting until the Verizon GS4's launch to release it in order to keep Verizon/Samsung from patching it before the Verizon GS4 is available.

Once that happens, I'm sure there will be a way to flip the internal/external SD card partitions so that your phone thinks that the external SD card is the internal storage, therefor use the SD card to install apps to. I say this because this is how Note 2 owners have gotten around the issue of only having 10-11 GBs of storage available to them after the OS (so it's just a bit better than the GS4 in terms of available internal storage available on the 16 GB models).

To answer your question about what SD cards are for if not for apps; everything else. Yeah, it sucks and I agree Google screwed that up after ICS. I miss having the ability to natively transfer apps to the SD card. I dunno why they would take that feature away when OEMs are still refusing to release phones with 32+ GBs standard (at least until the HTC One came along). I'm hoping there will be a 32 GB version of the GS4 available on Verizon like there was for the GS3. If so, then it is a non-issue, IMO.
 
They took the feature away because too many people would swap SD cards and then not be able to figure out why their apps stopped working. The problem was compounded when app developers started having their apps install directly to the SD card right from the market without the end user's knowledge.

I agree that it's totally stupid though... but it's Google. If they had their way no Android devices would have MicroSD card slots at all.

A better solution would have been to have the option hidden and unlockable, similar to how the developer options are unlocked in Jelly Bean just by tapping build info a number of times on the About Device screen.
 
Blue Falcon said:
They took the feature away because too many people would swap SD cards and then not be able to figure out why their apps stopped working. The problem was compounded when app developers started having their apps install directly to the SD card right from the market without the end user's knowledge.

I agree that it's totally stupid though... but it's Google. If they had their way no Android devices would have MicroSD card slots at all.

A better solution would have been to have the option hidden and unlockable, similar to how the developer options are unlocked in Jelly Bean just by tapping build info a number of times on the About Device screen.
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You're also forgetting about apps people would move and use their widgets and widgets would never work and those people then bitch and complain.

With the app I have on the market I run into more issues with people who still force apps to the SDCard (with various apps on the Play Store) which breaks my app during a reboot. I actually had to re-write the boot up part to wait for MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED and add a 5 second pause just to be sure all the apps were seen instead of just BOOT_COMPLETED to appease these people. They were doing something to change the way Android works and I had to deal with it. Issues like this is why Apps2SD is gone.
 
Vermillion said:
With the app I have on the market I run into more issues with people who still force apps to the SDCard (with various apps on the Play Store) which breaks my app during a reboot. I actually had to re-write the boot up part to wait for MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED and add a 5 second pause just to be sure all the apps were seen instead of just BOOT_COMPLETED to appease these people. They were doing something to change the way Android works and I had to deal with it. Issues like this is why Apps2SD is gone.
Click to expand...
you're a much braver man than I am...
 
CHANG3D said:
you're a much braver man than I am...
Click to expand...

It was annoying when trying to track down the initial bug because I hadn't even taken SD into account since Apps2SD was gone. Wasn't a hard fix and it is an optional setting since the average time for MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED is about 4 minutes. Just a pain in the ass because it shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

The crazy ones were reports where the people have a 32GB phone maxed out and a 64GB SDcard nearly maxed out. 300+ apps installed. It's like WTF dude? You could write a dissertation on why you need 300+ apps and that you use them all on a constant basis and I still wouldn't believe you.
 
Vermillion said:
It was annoying when trying to track down the initial bug because I hadn't even taken SD into account since Apps2SD was gone. Wasn't a hard fix and it is an optional setting since the average time for MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED is about 4 minutes. Just a pain in the ass because it shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

The crazy ones were reports where the people have a 32GB phone maxed out and a 64GB SDcard nearly maxed out. 300+ apps installed. It's like WTF dude? You could write a dissertation on why you need 300+ apps and that you use them all on a constant basis and I still wouldn't believe you.
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I don't know what kind of apps you develop. I had convinced my company to go web app and create browser apps with frequently loaded pages and images for majority of all apps. That cut down app size by quite a bit and made cross-platform updates much easier. But our apps are essentially cloud apps to begin with.
 
Why the hell would you want to put apps on the sd card?? The phone has 2GB of memory and even more in the internal sd card which is usable as combined app/media space. The days when phones used to run out of ram and so we needed tricks like loading from the sd card or using app2sd tricks are long since gone.
 
No kidding. Done are the days of the HTC Desire, which had wwhat, 256mb of storage space? 4-5 apps and you were DONE without Apps2SD. I can't imagine anyone needing more than a few GB, even with a few games.
 
The divide is actually about 7GB (9GB total but 2GB is used by the OS) for apps and about 7GB for the fake SD card which games will used to store additional assets.

This divide is actually quite good (and used by every single 16GB phone since 2012). Most large games will be balanced evenly automatically meaning you have almost the full 14GB available for apps.
 
CHANG3D said:
I don't know what kind of apps you develop. I had convinced my company to go web app and create browser apps with frequently loaded pages and images for majority of all apps. That cut down app size by quite a bit and made cross-platform updates much easier. But our apps are essentially cloud apps to begin with.
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I simply updated a firewall and am keeping it alive. Droidwall was purchased by Avast! so development was stopped and I used it a lot in the past.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jtschohl.androidfirewall

That's my version of it. Simple, small and it works. I'm quite please with the amount of additional functionality I've added and the app still very small.

Since I am on a Share Everything Plan with the wife (6GB/mo) I figured it would be nice to stop all the games and other apps from accessing data like I used to do with Droidwall. Plus I'm not a fan of Rovio getting my location data. Sorry but they don't fucking need it. If they want to show me ads I'm fine with that but to get my location data? Um...no thanks.
 
MrCrispy said:
Why the hell would you want to put apps on the sd card?? The phone has 2GB of memory and even more in the internal sd card which is usable as combined app/media space. The days when phones used to run out of ram and so we needed tricks like loading from the sd card or using app2sd tricks are long since gone.
Click to expand...

Because the 16GB version of the GS4 has like 4-5GB free after all the bloatware and operating system files... LOTS of people have purchased or downloaded and installed WAY more than 405 measly gigabytes of apps. We are NOT discussing ram which has nothing to do with this conversation in any amount of capacity. On my GS3 I have over 20GB of games I purchased and thankfully because of a Root and using my 32GB SD Card I am able to install and run all of these space intense apps. I dont want to have keep shuffling apps off and on my phone. I want to install them all just as I have been and millions of others,.

I think you do not understand the point of this question.

Not to mention that a high quality class 10 sdcard can easily load apps as fast as the internal ram in many cases.
 
tangoseal said:
Because the 16GB version of the GS4 has like 4-5GB free after all the bloatware and operating system files... LOTS of people have purchased or downloaded and installed WAY more than 405 measly gigabytes of apps. We are NOT discussing ram which has nothing to do with this conversation in any amount of capacity. On my GS3 I have over 20GB of games I purchased and thankfully because of a Root and using my 32GB SD Card I am able to install and run all of these space intense apps. I dont want to have keep shuffling apps off and on my phone. I want to install them all just as I have been and millions of others,.

I think you do not understand the point of this question.

Not to mention that a high quality class 10 sdcard can easily load apps as fast as the internal ram in many cases.
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It's actually 8.8GB which is a tiny bit more than 4GB :/ Point still taken though.
 
tangoseal said:
Because the 16GB version of the GS4 has like 4-5GB free after all the bloatware and operating system files... LOTS of people have purchased or downloaded and installed WAY more than 405 measly gigabytes of apps. We are NOT discussing ram which has nothing to do with this conversation in any amount of capacity. On my GS3 I have over 20GB of games I purchased and thankfully because of a Root and using my 32GB SD Card I am able to install and run all of these space intense apps. I dont want to have keep shuffling apps off and on my phone. I want to install them all just as I have been and millions of others,.

I think you do not understand the point of this question.

Not to mention that a high quality class 10 sdcard can easily load apps as fast as the internal ram in many cases.
Click to expand...

Stopping the ability to install to SD cards is one of those things where there are way to many winners on the dev side and not that many losers on the consumer side.

Google has less idiots who don't know that the SD card might have some apps on it and come complaining to their local phone store about why X doesn't work anymore. That one helps everyone from the phone carrier to google to the phone maker since any one of them might have a bad name for that. On the carrier and phone maker both gain from the fact they can charge an extra $100 to give you a measly extra 16 GB of nand which is awesome profit for them. And in google case anyone who opts of cheaper devices might send more stuff into their cloud services.

But who gains if you allow apps to go to the SD card? Well the answer is only the tech savvy who know how to use it properly.
 
Ok I admit if the S4 really has that little space, then this functionality is needed. Google took a number of bad decisions with ICS, like removing support for sd cards. Samsung is still allowing sdcard and removale batteries, I think Motorola will not allow this anymore as well.

Installing 10gb of games has to be a corner case though. I will look on XDA, maybe there's an app that let's you do app2sd without root? I think the solution has to be in the app, they sould allow data to be moved to sd card if present.
 
MrCrispy said:
Ok I admit if the S4 really has that little space, then this functionality is needed. Google took a number of bad decisions with ICS, like removing support for sd cards. Samsung is still allowing sdcard and removale batteries, I think Motorola will not allow this anymore as well.

Installing 10gb of games has to be a corner case though. I will look on XDA, maybe there's an app that let's you do app2sd without root? I think the solution has to be in the app, they sould allow data to be moved to sd card if present.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Google needs to bring back app2sd natively, even hiding it would be awesome.

Hoping that Moto keeps the SDcard and removable batteries as apart of their phones far into the future.
 
Man, stop beating this issue with a stick.

Google will never bring it back.
 
What do owners of phones do that dont even have expandable memory. I dont hear or see them complaining.
 
Blue Falcon said:
I have a Galaxy Nexus. I am complaining. Loudly.
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I guess you got a GSM/16GB Gnex? I thought the Verizon/32GB Gnex was sufficient for space. I think I would have passed on it and waited for the GS3 (even with my hella-slow OG Droid) if they hadn't offered a 32GB Gnex when they launched.

I can't comprehend why Google cheaped out on another 16GBs (32GB total) that might cost them another $5 to put in the last two GSM Nexus phones. If they're not going to support external storage on their phones, they should at least offer then with a sufficient amount of storage. I'm sure many people would have even paid another $50 (which is ridiculous) for a 32 GB Nexus phone if cost was a factor.
 
T4rd said:
I guess you got a GSM/16GB Gnex? I thought the Verizon/32GB Gnex was sufficient for space. I think I would have passed on it and waited for the GS3 (even with my hella-slow OG Droid) if they hadn't offered a 32GB Gnex when they launched.

I can't comprehend why Google cheaped out on another 16GBs (32GB total) that might cost them another $5 to put in the last two GSM Nexus phones. If they're not going to support external storage on their phones, they should at least offer then with a sufficient amount of storage. I'm sure many people would have even paid another $50 (which is ridiculous) for a 32 GB Nexus phone if cost was a factor.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind not having a MicroSD card slot if they included a decent amount of storage in current generation phones.

NAND is dirt cheap these days, we should be seeing 32GB entry level handsets and 64 - 128GB should be the norm.

And I fucking LOVE the snobs who pop into threads like these with quips like "8GB should be plenty for app storage on your phone, what are you people installing?".

Truth is Android has become a multimedia powerhouse, and along with that comes devices with 3D capability that rivals desktop GPUs from just a few years back. Now we have entered an era where we have multi-gigabyte games on Android that take advantage of that horsepower and as shocking as it may seem some of us might actually want to install more than one of these titles on our devices.

So fuck yes, I'll keep beating that 'dead horse'...
 
Blue Falcon said:
I wouldn't mind not having a MicroSD card slot if they included a decent amount of storage in current generation phones.

NAND is dirt cheap these days, we should be seeing 32GB entry level handsets and 64 - 128GB should be the norm.

And I fucking LOVE the snobs who pop into threads like these with quips like "8GB should be plenty for app storage on your phone, what are you people installing?".

Truth is Android has become a multimedia powerhouse, and along with that comes devices with 3D capability that rivals desktop GPUs from just a few years back. Now we have entered an era where we have multi-gigabyte games on Android that take advantage of that horsepower and as shocking as it may seem some of us might actually want to install more than one of these titles on our devices.

So fuck yes, I'll keep beating that 'dead horse'...
Click to expand...

Hah, I fully agree. 32GB should be the minimum now. I'm glad HTC didn't make a 16GB One or I'm sure carriers would all have the 16GB version only while AT&T exclusively got the 32/64GB models or something stupid like that. I hope everyone starts following HTC in that regard and that becomes a trend. 16GBs is just not enough for anyone that uses their phone as more than a communications device after you factor in the busted OEM method of calculating storage (1000MBs != 1 GBs) and how much storage is taken up my the their bloatware and core OS.
 
Well that's the business model that is working on most americans, I do agree and think it is funny that in almost 5 years of phones and MP3 players the data storage has not budged. I mean you could buy 64GB mp3 players before smartphones went mass market for less than smart phones are now.

But look at it realistically even the desktop market has gone backwards the move to SSDs set capacity back almost a decade. Most people just don't use that much space anymore and the ones who do manage it, IE I install a game I want to use then uninstall it when I am done. Services like steam make that easy.
 
rudy said:
Well that's the business model that is working on most americans, I do agree and think it is funny that in almost 5 years of phones and MP3 players the data storage has not budged.
Click to expand...
That's the unavoidable consequence of 150% year-over-year growth and new emerging product segments. All the extra memory that Moore's Law says we should be swimming in is going into making more devices, rather than bigger devices. And noone's willing to pony up the billions it would take to spin up a new silicon fab. Not that it would do us any good for years if they did.

I mean you could buy 64GB mp3 players before smartphones went mass market for less than smart phones are now.
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Not with flash memory, you couldn't. Sure, there were larger capacity devices, but they all used those terrible micro-hdds. The largest flash-based iPod at the time was 8gb. I'm sure someone -- somewhere -- made something in a 16gb capacity at the time, but I have no doubt that it was stupidly expensive, and that nobody bought it.

But look at it realistically even the desktop market has gone backwards the move to SSDs set capacity back almost a decade. Most people just don't use that much space anymore and the ones who do manage it, IE I install a game I want to use then uninstall it when I am done. Services like steam make that easy.
Click to expand...
Most people never used that much space. Once they had enough space for Windows, Office, a few thousand ugly photos of their kid/dog/house/truck, and about 50 compressed albums, they were good to go.
 
Blue Falcon said:
I wouldn't mind not having a MicroSD card slot if they included a decent amount of storage in current generation phones.

NAND is dirt cheap these days, we should be seeing 32GB entry level handsets and 64 - 128GB should be the norm.

And I fucking LOVE the snobs who pop into threads like these with quips like "8GB should be plenty for app storage on your phone, what are you people installing?".

Truth is Android has become a multimedia powerhouse, and along with that comes devices with 3D capability that rivals desktop GPUs from just a few years back. Now we have entered an era where we have multi-gigabyte games on Android that take advantage of that horsepower and as shocking as it may seem some of us might actually want to install more than one of these titles on our devices.

So fuck yes, I'll keep beating that 'dead horse'...
Click to expand...
When I was talking about a dead horse, I was talking about people hoping Google brings back microSD and removable batteries. Sorry, it's not going to happen.

But you're talking about how phones should have more memory to begin with. That's something I agree with. 16 GB wasn't even enough after a couple of games and I had app2sd on the GS2.

HTC actually was the first one to do it. 32 GB standard... (actually 27 GB, and 26 GB usable after OS...) Here's hoping Google can continue the trend by making 32 standard on the next Nexus for $299.
 
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