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Moving Apps to SD Card: Why It Doesn't Work & How to Fix It (conversations)
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Mar 11, 2025
This blog post from Fixing-Pro.com explains why moving apps to SD cards on Android is often impossible. Modern Android versions and developer restrictions primarily prevent this, as SD cards are slower and less secure. The article offers alternative solutions to free up internal storage, such as moving media files and clearing cached data. It also details troubleshooting steps for checking SD card compatibility and app transfer capabilities. Finally, the author discourages relying on moving apps to SD cards as a primary storage solution. 🚀 Struggling to move apps to your SD card? Don't worry—I’ve got you covered! In this video, I’ll show you proven fixes for the "Move to SD card" option being greyed out, missing, or not working on your Android device. 📌 Full Step-by-Step Guide Here: https://fixing-pro.com/pro-faq/move-apps-sd-card-fix/
View Video Transcript
0:00
okay so um have you ever like uh tried
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to move an app to your SD card you know
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to free up some space and then like the
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option is just gone or it's grayed out
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it's the worst so we asked you guys to
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send in your Tech frustrations and this
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one was like the the top one yeah it's a
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popular one for sure and we found this
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blog post from fixing Pro that breaks
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down like why this happens and like it's
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not as simple as I thought it would be
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no not at all there's a lot going on
0:27
behind the scenes more than you might
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think so much more so yeah we thought
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we'd do a deep dive into this and like
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see if we could figure out why this is
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such a pain definitely I mean it used to
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be so easy to just like move apps to
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your SD card right it's a simple way to
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manage your storage exactly but now it's
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like a whole thing it is a whole thing
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it's like Android's gotten a lot more
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complex over time yeah and the article
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mentions that things started changing
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like way back with Android 6.0
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marshmallow oh yeah back in 2015 that's
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when Google started like limiting SD
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card access right yeah yeah that was a
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big Turning Point
1:00
they introduced this thing called
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adoptable storage adoptable storage so
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is that like where you can format the SD
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card to act like internal storage
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exactly it basically makes the SD card
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part of your phone's main storage system
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so like is that a workaround then it can
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be but there's a catch okay what's the
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catch it wipes the SD card clean oh so
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like if you're using the SD card for
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other stuff like photos or music yeah
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you'd lose all that okay so it's not
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ideal no not if you're using your SD
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card for multiple things uh but even if
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you okay with wiping it it wouldn't
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necessarily solve the app moving issue
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right because even though adoptable
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storage lets you install apps directly
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to the SD card okay there's still the
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issue of performance what do you mean
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well SD cards even those really fast
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ones they're just not as fast as your
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phone's built in storage so even if I
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like wiped my SD card and used adoptable
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storage my phone could still be slower
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yeah that's a possibility it's all about
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the speed of data transfer okay so
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explain that a little more so think of
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it this way internal storage is like a
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super highway for data okay it's
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designed for super fast communication
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makes sense but an SD card even a fast
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one is more like a back road okay I see
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where you're going with this it's fine
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for like storing files you know like
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taking a leisurely drive right but if
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you need to get somewhere fast like when
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you're running a demanding app uhhuh you
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might hit some bottlenecks on that back
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road that's a great analogy I get it so
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basically the s card can't keep up with
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the speed that some apps need to run
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smoothly exactly and to make things even
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more complicated oh there's more oh yeah
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the article says app developers now have
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a say in whether their apps can be moved
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at all wait really so it's not just
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Google being restrictive nope by the
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time Android 7.0 n came out in 2016 okay
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the move to SD card option was basically
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gone mhm developers got more control
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over their apps I see so they can just
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decide like nope my app app's not going
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anywhere pretty much and a lot of times
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they restrict app movement because of
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those performance issues we talked about
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oh right because if their app is running
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on a slower SD card it might be laggy or
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crash exactly and then users blame the
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app not the storage setup so it's not
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just Google being like we don't want you
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to use SD cards it's also the developers
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trying to protect their apps and make
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sure they run well exactly it's all
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about creating a good user experience
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you know nobody wants to use an app
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that's constantly crashing or freezing
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yeah totally so in a way this whole
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limit on SD card access could be seen as
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like a quality control measure right
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it's a way to avoid potential problems
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and ensure that apps are running on a
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storage system that can handle them
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interesting so it sounds like moving
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apps to an SD card even with adoptable
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storage and all these like Tech work
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arounds it's just not as simple or
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beneficial as it used to be yeah we're
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starting to see a pattern here for sure
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so if certain types of apps just aren't
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meant for SD cards what are they well
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that's a great question and we'll dig
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into that right after the break stick
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with us well think about the apps that
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are like essential to your phone like
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the stuff that makes it work the article
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mentions pre-installed apps you know
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like the Google Play Store yeah or your
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camera app right that stuff needs to
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stay on the internal storage so like
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function properly yeah basically they're
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like the foundation of your phone
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software and you don't want to mess with
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the foundation exactly yeah you wouldn't
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build a house on a shaky Foundation
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right no you wouldn't so those core apps
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they need that like super highway
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connection yep the fast and stable
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internal storage makes sense what else
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the article also talks about launcher
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apps launcher apps those are the ones
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that customize your home screen and
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icons oh right they say it's best to
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keep those on internal storage too why
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is that moving them can cause like
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visual glitches or even prevent your
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phone from booting up properly oh wow so
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like my phone just wouldn't turn on yeah
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could get messed up okay so don't touch
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this definitely not the launcher apps no
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what else um they mention app cloning
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and like moving large game files like as
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workarounds yeah but even the article
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says those have limitations so they're
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not like a universal fix right they're
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more like Niche solutions for specific
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situations okay and speaking of things
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that can like affect performance oh yeah
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we can't forget about the SD card itself
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that's a big one the type of SD card you
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use can make a huge difference the
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article really stresses that it's not
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just about having an SD card it's about
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having the right SD card so like what
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makes an SD card the right SD card well
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they recommend going for a class 10 or
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UHS one card okay and why those because
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they're designed for faster read and
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write speeds so like faster data
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transfer exactly think about it like
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this imagine trying to stream a 4K movie
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okay from a slow SD card mhm it would be
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a buffering nightmare I can only imagine
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because the card just can't keep up with
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the data demands right so if we apply
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that to apps exactly a slow SD card
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could lead to like lag crashes or even
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like the app just refusing to move
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totally it's like trying to run a
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marathon in sandals you're just not
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going to get very far you need the right
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equipment for Optimal Performance love
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that analogy and the article even
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suggests using an app to test your card
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speed is there an app for that yeah
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there are a few out there they mentioned
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one called A1 SD bench okay I'll have to
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check that out so it sounds like there's
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a whole science to picking the right SD
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card there is but even if you do
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everything right like you get the right
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card you have a compatible Android
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version and you choose the right apps
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even then moving apps to an SD card
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might not be the best solution in 2025
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so what are we supposed to do then
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that's the big question right because
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storage space is limited it is so the
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article shifts gears a bit oh okay and
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talks about some practical storage
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saving hacks that don't involve moving
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apps to the SD card right these are
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things you can do to free up space on
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your phone right now okay I'm all ears
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let's hear it first up the classic move
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your media files to the SD card oh yeah
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that's a good one photos videos music
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documents anything that's not an app I
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feel like I've been doing that since I
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got my first smartphone it's a tried
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andrue method what else another simple
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trick change the default download
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location for like my browser yeah and
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apps like YouTube okay instead of
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automatically saving files to your
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phone's internal storage redirect them
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straight to the SD card ah that's smart
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so you're like preventing the Clutter
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before it even starts exactly proactive
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instead of reactive I like it and then
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there's the classic clearing cached data
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oh yeah that's a good one it can free up
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a surprising amount of space especially
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if you haven't done it in a while like a
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digital detox for your phone out with
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the old in with the new exactly or at
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least in with some Breathing Room makes
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sense what else they also suggest using
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lightweight app
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Alternatives okay like what for example
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if you're a Facebook user uhhuh try
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Facebook light instead of the
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full-fledged app oh yeah I've heard of
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that it has fewer features right but it
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takes up way less space so it's about
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finding that balance between
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functionality and storage efficiency
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exactly you don't always need all the
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bells and whist are there any other
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hacks in the article they do mention um
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one more that I think a lot of people
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forget about cloud storage oh yeah
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that's a good one like moving all those
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photos and videos to like Google drive
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or Dropbox definitely I mean that could
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free of so much space on your phone yeah
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and it seems like cloud storage is
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getting more and more affordable these
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days oh yeah it's really accessible now
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yeah so that's a good option for like
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managing all that data totally and it
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kind of ties into what we've been
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talking about with SD cards like they're
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still useful right but they're not the
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only solution for storage anymore
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exactly the tech landscape has shifted
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yeah we've got faster internal storage
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more efficient apps uh and now we have
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these cloud services it's a whole new
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world mhm so if moving apps to SD cards
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isn't the go-to solution anymore what's
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the bottom line that is the question
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right like what are we supposed to do
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well I think the article sums it up
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pretty well in the conclusion okay it
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basically says SD cards are great for
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storing files but they're just not as
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fast or as secure as internal storage
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and that's why Google's made it harder
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to move apps to them exactly it's not
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that SD cards are bad right it's just
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that they're better suited for certain
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tasks like they're a specialized tool
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exactly they're fantastic for media
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storage backups right you can even use
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them to expand the storage on other
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devices like cameras yep or laptops but
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for running apps that need like speed
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and security yeah internal storage or
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the cloud might be better options
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definitely so the answer to the
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article's question should you even move
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apps to an SD card it's basically it
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depends it depends it all comes down to
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like your Android version the app
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developer the type of app and the SD
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card itself exactly there's no one size
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fits-all ANW you got to weigh the pros
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and cons uh understand the limitations
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and choose the best storage strategy for
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you so it's about being an informed user
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right which is what this whole Deep dive
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has been about we went from being
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frustrated about not moving apps to the
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SD card to like exploring all these
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other Solutions and learning how storage
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works on our phones exactly and
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hopefully now you guys listening feel a
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little more empowered to manage your
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digital lives we hope so and to wrap
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things up I want to leave you with a
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thought okay okay if you could design
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the perfect phone storage solution for
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like 2025 and Beyond okay what would it
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look
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like would you stick with SD cards H
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would you go all in on cloud storage or
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maybe something totally new who knows
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technolog is always changing that's true
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we might have to revisit this topic in
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another Deep dive someday we'll see but
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until then keep those phones tidy those
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Minds curious and thanks for joining us
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on this deep dive into the world of
10:57
technology see you next time
#Mobile Apps & Add-Ons
#Self Storage