How to force install apps to SD card without ROOT!!!

NOTE: The lastest version of this article has moved here. Please bookmark the new site.

Ace has only got 180 MBs of Internal mem. If you install a lot of apps, you are bound to run into low disk space issues. This tutorial can help solve that problem partially.

This tutorial applies to all phones whether on Froyo or Gingerbread.

Getting Ready:

1. First you have to enable USB debugging on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
2. You need to download and install the latest Android SDK on your computer from http://developer.android.com/sdk/.
3. Install the latest Java SDK.

Tutorial:

1. Extract the package to the folder of your choice [Let’s say- C:/android-sdk-windows/], run SDK Manager.exe
2. Close the command / windows command prompt window that opens.
3. In the new window, click on Available Packages to the left. Untick all options you are prompted to download except the USB driver option. Usb driver option will need an additional packages called Android SDK tools revision x(13 as of this time) & android sdk platform-tools revision x(7 as of this time) at the top of the list.
   (Note-If you get an error message at this point, enable “Force https://…” in the Settings.)
   Click on the Install Selected button in the bottom right corner and follow the prompts. )
4. Do not open Samsung Kies. Connect your phone to your computer with a USB-cable. Your OS will prompt you to install new drivers. Choose to install them from the android-sdk-windows/extras/google/usb_driver folder. Do not mount your device; you only need to plug-in the cable.
   (If you don’t see this prompt like me, that means you have USB drivers already installed!! If you are running into problems with USB drivers, install these manually- SAMSUNG USB drivers )
5. Run command prompt in administrator.
   Type in the following after the “>” at each step (without quotations,and including spaces and capital letters)

   cd C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
   adb devices

   A list of devices attached should come

   adb shell

   A $ sign should pop up

   pm setInstallLocation 2

   Another $ should pop up

And you’re done!! Close everything, disconnect phone, reboot & enjoy!!

Note: Now the phone will be set to install all apps you install onto the SD card. However, already installed apps on phone will have to be manually moved if on phone memory. This process doesn’t move these apps for you, it adds the ability.

It’s preferable to install certain apps to the main memory, since it takes some time to mount the SD card when your phone boots. Apps installed on the memory card will also be unavailable to the system each time you mount your phone as a disk drive. There is no effect on the application performance so long as the external storage is mounted on the device.

In general, apps that integrate with the Android OS and that often run in the background is better to install on the internal storage, while games and most other applications will have no problem chilling outside on your SD card.
Any app using widgets needs to be installed on phone memory.

Hope it helps.

Update:
From what I have come to understand (correct me if I am wrong), Each app will store some .odex files on phone memory to speed up the boot process.
So don’t complain that phone memory is getting lesser after each install. Though if you could’ve installed 40 apps before now maybe 150+ and still have 30-40 mb left. (depends on what kind of apps you install).

Darktremor’s a2sd scripts deodex the apps and COMPLETELY move the apps and cache to sd card but you will need to root and run the scripts.
>> How to install Dark Tremor’s a2sd on Samsung Galaxy Ace (Froyo)

Though an easier way will be to install a custom Rom.

Original blog entry (outdated, not for ACE)

Related Articles:
Save 5-10 MB of Internal Memory by Moving Dump Files to SD Card