HOW TO INSTALL APPLICATIONS DIRECTLY TO YOUR SD CARD ON ANDROID PHONES WITHOUT ROOTING

The truth is it doesn’t. Here’s how to do this:

Here’s what you will need:

1. An Android device, of course.

2. Android SDK (Download it here). It is quite a big file, so Relax!

3. Windows PC or a Mac.

Steps:

1. Download Android SDK and unzip the contents to a folder.

2. Enable “USB debugging Mode” in your android device. To do this, go to Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable ‘USB debugging’

3. Connect your device to your computer in “charge only” or similar modes but NOT in ‘USB Storage’ mode.

4. Go to the folder where you have unzipped Android SDK and navigate to to ‘sdk’ folder

5a. Windows users: Go to ‘platform-tools folder. Hold down SHIFT key and right-click anywhere in the folder. From the pop-up menu, select ‘Open command window here’. This will open up a command prompt screen.

5b. Mac users: right-click ‘platform-tools and choose [New Terminal At Folder]

6. Now, in the command prompt window, Windows users:

type: adb devices

Mac users:

type: ./adb devices

and press enter. You will see the name of the device connected at the moment.

8. Then windows users type:

adb shell

Mac users type:

./adb shell

and press enter

9. Next, type:

pm setInstallLocation 2

and press enter. (If this command fails, use this: pm set-install-location 2)

10. Done!

11. To verify, type:

pm getInstallLocation

and press enter. If you see an output ” 2 [external] ” means that the process is successful.

Now, in your device, go to settings->Applications->Manage Applications->On SD card (in some devices it may be USB Storage), and check the apps that you would like to move to your SD card.

Also see:

If you are a Samsing Galaxy S Duos and like install games on your SD card, XDA Developers has got a nice post on this.

Also, if you are a Samsung Galaxy 5 user and won’t mind to root your phone, this guide should help you.

If you like to use an app to do this, try AppMgr III (App 2 SD) or Link2SD (Note: Some apps will work only with rooted devices).