There are two symptoms when the internal memory on the phone is sorely lacking:
- Apps and Android slow down
- The phone prompts you to take action to free up the used space.
The internal memory of the phone has a fixed size, and it seems that it is impossible to increase it. Nevertheless, in the guide we will tell you how to clear the internal memory of your phone from unnecessary files and applications.
By increasing the free space in the Android memory, you will save time and stop noticing the brakes on your phone and tablet. The entire "cleaning" will take at most 20 minutes.
Error: Not enough memory on mobile device
Usually, Android displays such a message if a process or application does not have enough free space in the internal memory of the phone.
Lack of memory can make itself felt by constant freezes. If you don't notice it when you buy a phone, then over time, after installing dozens of mobile applications and getting overgrown with "garbage", you start to notice it.
The question involuntarily arises: are the characteristics of the phone “lying”? If not, why does the same smartphone / tablet work stably for others?
Checking the amount of free memory on Android
When a notification about insufficient internal memory appears, the question arises: how much memory is available, how much of it is occupied?
You can check the free space through the settings of your mobile phone. To do this, go to Settings - Options - Memory (Settings - Device Maintenance - Storage - Storage settings - Device memory). We carefully study the data, paying attention to the following figures:
- Total space - the amount of internal memory of Android
- System memory - the minimum amount of space reserved for system operation
- Available space - how much space is left in the internal memory.
Accordingly, if the built-in memory is not enough, you need to increase the memory on the phone to the size of System memory so that the system does not give a corresponding error.
In the next chapters, I will tell you how to clean the internal memory on Android.
Clearing the internal phone memory
You can remove unnecessary things through the built-in tools of the operating system and through third-party applications. They analyze the occupied space, help identify files that can be safely deleted.
Removing apps from Android system memory
Surely there are applications installed on your phone that hang like a dead weight and are not used for their intended purpose. Their size can reach hundreds of megabytes (including the cache).
You can remove useless programs through: Options - Settings - Application Manager (Settings - Apps).
In Android 8, it is convenient to use the free utility FIles Go to calculate unnecessary applications. For other OS versions, it is available for download via Google Play.
How to remove unneeded applications in FIles Go:
- Go to the Unused apps section,
- We sort applications by modification date or size,
- To uninstall, mark unnecessary programs with checkmarks and click Uninstall.
Video instructions for uninstalling applications:
Transferring files to a memory card
The internal memory of the phone, as already mentioned, has a fixed volume, so it is necessary to constantly check whether there is enough free space for the correct operation of applications and the OS.
In general, Android memory is divided into internal and external. External memory is easy to "increase", since sd cards are inexpensive today (for $ 25 you can buy a 256 GB memory card).
Actually, you can transfer files through any file manager - via phone or PC.
Moving unnecessary applications from internal to external memory card
As an alternative to CCleaner, it is convenient to use the aforementioned Files Go app.
How to increase memory on Android manually
Any file manager is suitable for manually clearing the phone memory. We recommend ES Explorer or Total Commander.
Be careful and only delete unnecessary user files in the internal Android memory that you created / copied yourself.
So, open the file manager, go to the root of the internal memory, start looking for and deleting unnecessary things.
What files are desirable to delete (transfer to a memory card) in the first place:
- Photos, videos, recordings on a voice recorder and other documents saved not on sd, but in the internal memory;
- Documents received by mail or through social networks (most often they are saved in the Download folder);
- E-books and other files saved by third-party applications to the device memory;
- Contents of folders DCIM, bluetooth, sounds.
We use Storage Analyzers (for clarity)
For clarity, we recommend using the Files Go application or any other storage analyzer for Android, which will show which files take up the most disk space and where they are located in the form of a diagram. Among these applications, we note:
Transferring photos and videos to the Google Photos service
It is the photos and videos that “eat up” the most space on the phone, due to them you can quickly free up space on a memory card or in the built-in storage. If your phone doesn't support a memory card, move the files you don't often access to the cloud. The Photos app, or Google Photos, is best suited for this. It automatically uploads photos to the service, where they are available in their original quality through a browser or application.
In addition to Google Photos, you can look at alternatives such as Dropbox, Flickr, or Microsoft OneDrive.
Even when the photos are only available on the server, you can easily access them if you have an Internet connection. And most importantly, this is a really convenient and fast way to free up a couple of gigabytes of internal memory!
Clearing memory: questions and answers
1. The phone did not have enough internal memory, I sent half of the photos to the sd card, then I open them, and they are all kind of cloudy. I tried to transfer it back to the internal memory of Android, but the pictures are the same. How can I get my old photos back, i.e. so that it was cleaned up as before without any distortions.
2. I didn't have enough internal memory in my phone, I wanted to clear it. I transferred the data (photos, music) to the memory card. Now the files cannot be read, although the phone sees the card. How can you get back at least a photo?
3. Phone Samsung A5. I did not know how to increase the internal memory, I moved the folders with music and files from the internal memory to the sd card using a laptop. After that, when opening the folders, they were all empty. Files and music cannot be seen by either the phone or the computer. The internal memory of the phone did not seem to decrease after that. How do I find these files?
Answer... It is likely that you did not copy the originals to the memory card, but sketches. The originals of the photos may have remained in the internal memory of the phone. If this does not happen, it will help you.
If there is not enough space in the device's memory, you should copy the files to your computer (make a backup copy) and only then move them to the memory card. It will be useful for you to read the instructions on how to clear the internal memory on Android (see the text above).
I have a Sony Xperia phone, when I go to the Play Store, I want to download some program, the system says that there is not enough memory on Android, although the flash drive is 16 GB! What to do?
Answer... Most likely, the "not enough memory" error on Android is due to the fact that there is not enough internal memory - this is where the installation files are downloaded from Google Play.
- Transfer the most voluminous files from the internal memory of Android to your sd card.
- Uninstall unnecessary applications through the file manager or Files Go.
- Use the CCleaner utility to clean up unnecessary files in your phone's memory.
I cleaned the phone memory, deleted a lot of folders. And now I can not watch the gallery through Android, writes: "The storage is not available." How can I get it back?
Answer... You probably deleted the photo folder on the memory card (SDCARD / DCIM / CAMERA) when cleaning. You can recover files from there using CardRecovery or PhotoRec programs.
How to swap memory on Android and what is it for? Should such manipulations be done at all and are they capable of causing irreparable harm to our device? Such questions are often of interest to people in whose submission a device with a small amount of built-in memory turned out to be. If your smartphone has a corresponding volume equal to, for example, four gigabytes, then you know that using such a device is nothing but a pain. For uploading a sufficient number of multimedia files to it is very, very problematic. So how do you swap memory from internal to external on Android?
Introduction to the problem
By the way, one should not think that only the Android operating system suffers from such a problem as a small amount of built-in memory. It is also on "Ayos". These two systems are in constant competition with each other. Occasionally, “Windows Fone” also interferes in single combat, but it soon turns out to be thrown out behind the tatami. What is the topic of IOS touched upon? There are facts that invariably prove the "exposure" of this operating system to users. Initially, her code was a mystery. Nevertheless, a similar trend is taking place. But the operating system "Android", developed by the specialists of the company "Google", is now becoming more and more closed to potential developers with each update. This is what annoys people who are so used to this operating system.
Why do you need to know the answer to the question of how to swap memory on Android?
Currently, the OS we are talking about no longer allows users to install applications with the appropriate software - the so-called cache - on an external memory drive. In our case, let it be a microSD memory card. Probably, the owners of devices with a volume of 32 gigabytes and above will grin, but what about people who have at their disposal from 4 to 8 GB, some of which (note this!) Go to the maintenance of the operating system? The optimal way out of this situation is only to perform certain manipulations. And here it is more important than ever to know the answer to the question of how to swap memory on Android. Actually, this is not difficult to do. However, extreme attention is required and, by the way, straight arms. If you have these parameters, then we will move on to considering the meaning of the operation in order to understand what and why will be performed.
How to swap memory on Android 5? What to do with other versions?
There is a way out of this situation, when we have only a couple of gigabytes at our disposal for the location of the multimedia contingent. It consists, firstly, in the acquisition of external A, and secondly, in the software replacement of a certain code that can convince our device that the internal is external. Well, and, of course, vice versa. Thus, the smartphone will perceive the microSD card as an internal card. I would like to note that the question of how to change memory cards in places on Android sounds fundamentally incorrect, since several external drives cannot take part in this process.
What do you need to replace?
Regardless of what version of the operating system you have installed and the device of which manufacturer you have, we need the same set of utilities. These are programs called Total Commander (which is known by a huge number of users). Additionally, you will need to obtain for the device.
Replacement process
In order to start the operation, open the Root Explorer program. We move to the address / system / etc. There you need to find a file called vold.fstab. In it, you should find the lines and parameters that are responsible for the mount points of external and internal memory. They are called, respectively, like this: SDcard and extsd. After that, it will be necessary to swap the parameters. This completes the active phase of the operation. Do not forget to back up your files, and remember that such operations are performed by the user at their own risk.
Unfortunately, the lack of space on the internal storage of Android devices has recently been felt quite strongly, because with the development of the capabilities of the operating system itself, many programs and games have become much more demanding on free resources and gadget memory. That is why many people use removable SD cards. But Android applications do not always want to be installed on a memory card.
General installation information
In any version of the Android OS, the installation of applications to the memory card is disabled by default. In principle, if the device itself and the OS version support this feature, as they say, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. After a little digging in the settings, you can set your own parameters.
This is a relatively short and simple process, which will be discussed a little later. You can install applications to your memory card in other ways. Let us dwell on these situations for now.
Downloading applications to a memory card
Before solving the installation problem, let's consider downloading content to a removable one. The fact is that in Android, installing applications on a memory card in most cases should be closely related to the process of downloading installation distributions, since they can also have quite large volumes.
Almost all Android devices support downloading content to an SD card, regardless of the version of the OS itself or the installed firmware. To set the location for saving files to a memory card, you just need to enter, for example, an Internet browser and in the advanced settings specify removable media as the storage location. You can do the same in the case of taking photos, when you need to use the settings of the application itself to configure.
You can do it even easier by downloading applications using your laptop or, and then copying them to an SD card. In principle, the download location can also be changed in any file manager.
Methods for Installing and Relocating Applications to SD Cards
Now about the most important thing. It is not so difficult to use the installed or already installed applications from the memory card. First of all, you need to see if the device itself supports such capabilities. It also happens that the transfer, and even more so the installation, of applications to removable media is simply blocked by the manufacturer of the gadget. What to do in this case?
For Android OS, applications can be installed on a memory card in several ways. For example, you can first install a program or game using the standard method on an internal drive, and then move it to another location (in this case, to an SD card).
Third-party utilities can be used for direct installation on a card. It is clear that the creation of applications for Android in most cases implies the ability to install or transfer them to another location.
Using system settings
If there is a need to install an Android application specifically on removable media, there are several aspects to consider first. The first step is to go to the settings, where to select the "Applications" item, and then go to the settings for applications themselves. There is a special line "Transfer to SD-card". If the device or an application installed on the internal memory supports this function, the transfer will be performed within a couple of minutes, after which an active “Move to phone” button will appear for each transferred program or game.
As already clear, in the Android OS, the application will be launched from the memory card at the end of the transfer process.
But don't be in a hurry to rejoice. Sometimes, both mobile devices themselves and the creation of applications for Android simply do not provide for the use of such functions. In addition, you may even need root rights or use the "super user" mode.
Best programs
There are a lot of programs for transferring either direct or games to removable media today. As a rule, almost all programs of this type are classified as freeware (free). True, here it is worth paying attention to the fact that some utilities are very easy to use, and you will have to tinker with some professional programs to figure out what's what.
Among the simplest means of transferring programs to removable media are popular packages such as AppMgr Pro.
This application automatically analyzes the data of installed applications, and then gives the result in the form of a sorted list, which separately indicates applications for Android, which can be transferred to the memory card without any problems. After selecting the required applications and confirming the actions, the transfer will be carried out automatically without any damage to the system.
The Link2SD utility is no less interesting. But an ordinary user will have to deal with it for a long time, because you will need to split the map into partitions from a computer, for example, using the MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition software package, one of which must have (Primary), and the second - ext2 (depending on the device and version "Operating systems" it can be ext3 / ext4). It is in the second section that portable or installed programs will be stored.
The most extreme case is the use of a mobile device connected to a computer or laptop via a USB interface. To install applications on a memory card, you will first need to install the program on both your smartphone and your computer. Once connected and synchronized, applications can be installed directly from the control program window from a computer terminal.
There are a large number of software products of this type. Separately, it is worth highlighting, say, Mobogenie or My Phone Explorer, and the second utility supports not only Android devices. It is quite simple to work with such programs. You just need to select the installation file and specify the location for installing the program (again, if such support is available for both the device and the program).
Forced installation of programs on a memory card
In some cases, you can try to apply another non-standard method. In Android operating systems, installing applications on a memory card using this method is called forced.
The essence of the process itself is to install the ADB RUN program on the PC. On a smartphone, when connected via a USB port, it must be allowed
After launching the application on your computer, you will need to enter the following commands:
Su - if there is (if not, the command is skipped).
pm getInstallLocation("0" by default).
pm getInstallLocation 1- installation in the device's own memory.
pm getInstallLocation 2- installation on a memory card.
pm getInstallLocation 0- return to default parameters.
In principle, there are not many commands, but you see for yourself, this is not the most convenient way. Although in some cases it can be used quite effectively when other methods do not help.
Application health problems
It is believed that installing programs on a memory card in the Android OS is far from everything. After installing or migrating an application, you need to launch and test it. If the launch does not occur, or the program does not work as it should, you will have to repeat the above steps from the beginning. You can try to move the application to the initial location and check its performance there. If everything is fine, then the matter is either in the program, or in the memory card, or in incorrectly performed transfer or installation operations.
Conclusion
To summarize, we can say that the simplest and most common ways to transfer and install applications to removable storage devices were considered here. Naturally, each utility has its own characteristics, as well as portable or installable programs. Even different modifications of mobile gadgets, not to mention versions of Android OS or firmware, can play a very significant role. But in most cases, at least one method will be effective for many.
Perhaps the main and most noticeable feature of the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow for ordinary people is the ability format microSD card as internal storage... The announcement of this feature, as expected, impressed many, however, neither LG's Nexus 5X nor Huawei's Nexus 6P had the ability to expand memory using a memory card, so they simply forgot about it for several months.
Now, in March-April 2016, new flagships began to appear on Android 6.0 Marshmallow (Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, soon to appear in Russia and LG G5), and other smartphones began to receive an update to this version of the system - the problem became urgent again ...
The speed classes of the device can also be found on the memory card: C4 or C10 (Class 10), or UHS Speed Class 1 (U1), UHS Speed Class 3 (U3)
It should be noted right away that format the memory card as internal storage not every one is possible. You need to pay attention to the small Greek number "I" right on the map. It means that it is an Ultra High Speed (UHS-I) type card. It is important to note that the UHS-I card type supports a wide variety of speed classes, including Class 4 (C4), Class 10 (C10), U1, and U3. The higher the speed, the no worse, since this is the case using a memory card as an internal drive (Format as Internal Drive) may affect the speed of applications.
The Greek number on microSD stands for Ultra High Speed - UHS-I or UHS-II type of memory card. The latter has two rows of contacts and is not supported by modern smartphones.
But this is not the main point. The fact is that manufacturers are extremely worried about the speed of their system and the absence of brakes and constantly complain about the memory cards that users insert into the smartphone. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of today's memory cards on the market support UHS-I and quite pass in speed, the big brands simply missed this important feature. As a justification, the fact is given that the internal storage in modern smartphones still works faster than memory cards.
At the same time, it is extremely difficult to find an unsuitable USB flash drive on the market, and they are not expensive: for example, for 300 rubles, you can already buy a UHS-I memory card with a speed class 10 (C10) and a volume of 16 GB.
But ... big brands have opinions and customers they don't seem to want to disappoint. Therefore, attention, the ability to format a microSD memory card as an internal drive (mount a microSD as an internal drive) is absent from the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, the flagship LG G5. But the story does not end there, the problem of the internal storage is quite acute for the Sony Xperia (in the Xperia Z3 Compact, the user is content with 16 GB of internal memory). Upgrading to Android 6.0 Marshmallow could fix the issue, but Sony Mobile also decided to close the ability to format microSD as internal storage on their smartphones.
This is how the ability to format microSD as an internal storage in a Moto X Force smartphone looks like
Disappointing results
Users of Samsung, LG and Sony Xperia smartphones are deprived of the opportunity to expand the memory even with the correct type of memory card. It is fair to say that this opportunity can be opened by making ROOT devices, but in this case we are discussing what the user gets out of the box. At the moment, of the devices that received the update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, expandable internal memory via microSD is available on Moto smartphones (and will apparently be available on Lenovo and ZUK), as well as HTC devices. It is not yet known about Huawei and Honor, as these devices are not yet receiving updates to Android 6.0.
It remains only to regret that large companies (occupying a fairly large share in the Russian market) took upon themselves such responsibility and decided to simply remove an interesting and important feature, instead of once again explaining to users about the differences in memory cards and simply recommending speed classes and type of microSD drives.
The capabilities of the device can be seriously expanded by replacing the internal Android memory with a memory card. This will allow you to install many more applications on a tablet or other gadget, but the main requirement for this update is to have root rights on the device. Let us consider the methods allowing to use the SD-card as the system memory of the device, as well as the conditions associated with this.
Risks and conditions of replacing the internal memory of the gadget with an SD card
Before repeating the steps described below, the user should consider several important points:
- The lifespan of an SD card will be greatly reduced due to the frequent repetition of read / write cycles when launching applications.
- The speed of the gadget can drop noticeably if you use a low-end MicroSD card.
- If you make a mistake while editing the system file, the phone may not boot the next time - you will have to reflash it.
In general, the procedure (especially for inexperienced users) is quite risky, so it makes sense to carry it out exclusively for old gadgets with a small amount of their own memory.
Using the Root Browser Utility and Editing the vold.fstab File
To swap memory, you need to install Root Browser from Google Play.
We repeat that it is possible to fully work with it only on rooted devices. After launching the above application:
In Android, sdcard stands for internal memory, and extsd stands for external, i.e. SD card. By replacing these lines, we actually swapped these types of memory. On some systems, these pieces of code may look different, like this:
You need to replace them as follows:
After completing the described procedure, restart the gadget. Before doing this, be sure to check that there are no errors in the changed code, so that in the future there is no need for a flashing.
The second way to increase memory using Link2SD
The application is available in the Play Market and works only on devices with root rights. This file manager does not physically replace the internal memory of the device with an external drive, but it is able to transfer any utilities to an SD card, significantly saving the resources of the gadget.
The peculiarity of the application in question is that the MicroSD itself will have to be broken and properly formatted. Therefore, copy everything valuable from your card to your computer and start dividing the drive into partitions.
Dividing the device card into partitions in the presence of custom Recovery
Every Android device has a recovery mode, but the method described below is suitable only for devices not with the standard one, but with. If you've never heard of CWM, go to the second option for partitioning the drive. Next, we will tell you how to solve the problem if your device recovery mode has a Partition SD Card item:
Partitioning a MicroSD card through a computer
Connect the card to a laptop or PC. To do this, you can use a card reader or other equipment, the main thing is that it should be defined as a drive, and not an MTP media device. Further:
