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Fanaticalism

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2013
908
158
I agree with the OP. I get that there are work arounds but that is an inconvenience to many people to manually move apps around. Also, it doesn't move the entire app, only small portions of it. Android must focus on streamlining the experience but maintaining flexibility through subsystems in the same way they hid the developer options. Techies are okay with workarounds because enables them to configure things to their needs.
 

GadgetSN

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 7, 2014
376
121
Move app to sd not possible for Z Ultra. Im on 4.4.4. Apparently possible on their lower ramge phones but not flagship devices.

So its not an OS wide native feature then. Ah well.
 

gotluck

macrumors 603
Dec 8, 2011
5,717
1,260
East Central Florida
Move app to sd not possible for Z Ultra. Im on 4.4.4. Apparently possible on their lower ramge phones but not flagship devices.

So its not an OS wide native feature then. Ah well.

I believe it is implemented by the specific OEM in their skin. Stock android does not support it natively.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,878
10,987
I believe it is implemented by the specific OEM in their skin. Stock android does not support it natively.

Probably because Nexus devices have no SD slot. Does any Google Edition phones with SD card have the option?
 

gotluck

macrumors 603
Dec 8, 2011
5,717
1,260
East Central Florida
Probably because Nexus devices have no SD slot. Does any Google Edition phones with SD card have the option?

My ge s4 does not have the option to move apps to the sd card. I use it for media strictly. There are root apps to make it work with symlinking or something but I haven't bothered

Google definitely has a vendetta against sd cards.
 

GadgetSN

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 7, 2014
376
121
I prefer to buy a 64GB SD card for about 30$ instead of 100$ for 16GB or 32GB additional storage.

Yes so do I but you still have a 16gb phone.

I bet most android users dont even know of the limitations and think an sd card is similar to internal memory.

Yes an sd card will easen the burden of low memory but 32gb is still low when apps are 2gb+ or when a certain app can only store/read data internally and your files go over 20gb collectively..
 

Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,725
13,245
UK
Yes so do I but you still have a 16gb phone.

I bet most android users dont even know of the limitations and think an sd card is similar to internal memory.

Yes an sd card will easen the burden of low memory but 32gb is still low when apps are 2gb+ or when a certain app can only store/read data internally and your files go over 20gb collectively..

When I had the note 3 I never came close to filling up the 32 GB of space. When I had the iPhone 5S 64GB I had virtually filed it. Why? Because of music and videos. I didn't even have up to 10 GB of apps. On my ipod touch 5th generation which I don't store music or videos on I've only used 6GB. So on my android devices I use my SD cards for music, videos and photos. Whatever internal memory I have is perfectly fine for apps. I don't have apps that are 2GB. I don't play real racing or whatever kind of game would take up that much space. Also most apps are nowhere near 2GB in size even on ios.
 

Markyboy81

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2011
514
0
Personally I think that 16gb/32gb is enough. I used to fill an sd card but since I've moved networks and can get a decent 3g signal almost everywhere, I don't really have a need for lots of storage space on my phone. I stream music from deezer, upload all my photos to flickr, and videos to youtube. Vive The Cloud!
 

Markyboy81

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2011
514
0
What 16gb android phone is priced higher than a 64kb iphone? Gimmie unlocked prices only - None of these scewed contract pricing tricks!
Agree with this. I think contracts have vastly inflated phone prices.
In other sectors - tvs, computers, cameras etc, pricing seems to be more reasonable.
With phones manufacturers think that they can charge what they like because carriers can hide the real cost by dividing it into 24 easy monthly payments!
 

l3uddz

macrumors 6502
Sep 11, 2014
311
92
The reason Apple went with 128gb is because they don't have external storage option. Yes I would like 128gb on both internal and external too. But as long as I have 32gb of internal and SD slot, it's not that necessary yet.

Also realize, any device that support XC can support whatever the SD card manufacturers make. If card makers decide to make an 500gb or 1TB micro SD card tomorrow, even my S4 will support it.



You must not be updated. A simply Google search found me answers quickly about your device.
https://www.google.com/webhp?source...v=2&ie=UTF-8#q=xperia+z+ultra+move+apps+to+sd




Your reaching now. I've had no problems easily moving the app and ALL it's data to the SD card


God I wish SanDisk would hurry up and release a 1TB SDXC :D

Oh and on topic to OP, I would love Samsung to come out with 128GB internal storage... Hopefully the Note 5 comes out with that to combat the iPhone 6's 128GB ;x

Imagine 128GB Internal Storage + 256 GB Microsd (hopefully this gets made by next September =p)
 
Last edited:

kdarling

macrumors P6
That's the trouble with them. What is the OS supposed to do when the card and its data just disappears?

That's why Apple engineers took the easy way out and ignored the whole idea. Can't blame them. But...

In real life, on Android devices, most people use the SD slot once to _add_ more storage, and then never take it out again until they're ready to sell the phone (or upgrade to another).

So the removal problem never occurs.
 

pdqgp

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2010
2,131
5,460
Yes an sd card will easen the burden of low memory but 32gb is still low when apps are 2gb+ or when a certain app can only store/read data internally and your files go over 20gb collectively..

I have hundreds of apps on my Note 3 and have plenty of room left. It's easy to store large databases of maps and their related data on the microSD. Again, no issues.

tempFileForShare_zps7cytsjej.jpg
 

Dontazemebro

macrumors 68020
Jul 23, 2010
2,173
0
I dunno, somewhere in West Texas
It depends on the device and the app. Some apps and devices will allow it and some won't.



Just like some native apps on Android end up taking more than 8GB of storage.


That's not android's fault, that's per developer. Android has included the option to move to Apps to SD, the onus is no longer in them. We can't blame android for lazy 3rd party developers who fail to make use of this.
 

gotluck

macrumors 603
Dec 8, 2011
5,717
1,260
East Central Florida
you can always manually move large app files to the SD card with symlinking with root access, even if the dev of the particular app does not support app2sd. It is a relatively intensive process and must be done on a per app basis, but it is possible.

one reason I will probably stick with android, basically anything is possible with some elbow grease

I'm sure there are some xposed modules that simplify the process too
 

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Aug 17, 2007
19,579
10,875
Colorado
The lack of onboard storage has kept me from getting a Galaxy S5 and other Samsung products. Coupled with that is they take up a ton of room with their OS leaving even less of the onboard storage available to the user.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,080
19,080
US
The lack of onboard storage has kept me from getting a Galaxy S5 and other Samsung products. Coupled with that is they take up a ton of room with their OS leaving even less of the onboard storage available to the user.
This a problem Samsung has to address at some point. They have to slim down TW and optimize it like say HTC does with Sense.
 

Breaking Good

macrumors 65816
Sep 28, 2012
1,451
1,225
That's not android's fault, that's per developer. Android has included the option to move to Apps to SD, the onus is no longer in them. We can't blame android for lazy 3rd party developers who fail to make use of this.

Actually, as others have posted it is Google's fault, because the feature is not native to the Android OS. Therefore it is not consistent across Android devices, even when those devices are running the same version of Android.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,878
10,987
Actually, as others have posted it is Google's fault, because the feature is not native to the Android OS. Therefore it is not consistent across Android devices, even when those devices are running the same version of Android.

No it's really the manufacturer's fault. Android is open source, so it's up to manufacturer's to cover themselves when they include hardware features that no Google/Nexus device has. Which is why nearly most manufacturer's recently provided updates for most models that includes micro SD slots, so apps can now be moved. You can't expect Google to cater to what other manufacturers do with their devices.
 
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