APPS2SD: Free up space on your Android in 3 easy steps

A lot of people have been telling me recently that they can’t install certain applications because they have no space left on their phone. Now we’re talking about internal memory here, not the SD memory. And yes, it’s true to say that on the first phones that came out (such as Dream, Magic, Hero and co.) the internal memory in terms of installing applications is nothing to shout about. More than once you’ll have found the Memory Full icon on the notifications bar, so let’s have a look at how to avoid it.

Step 1 Clear data

If you go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications you’ll see a list of all the installed apps. If you go into one of them (Twitter, Navigator, etc…) you’ll see different storage data. One of the options here is Clear Data. This will delete all data stored by the application and should free up quite a lot of space.

But remember, this is a short term solution because this data will reaccumulate and you’ll be back to square one.

Step 2 Clear Cache [Roots only]

Just like on a computer, you can delete cache. You can use an application directly to do this, but you’ll need Root access.

Step 3 Move applications to the SD [Root only]

Note: With Android 2.2 Froyo and NOT rooted: only a few applications can go on to the SD. ROOTED + Any ROM that fully supports Apps2SD: no problem, they’ll all go on.

This is the function that we’re all waiting for and that’s gradually being implemented in Android 2.2 Froyo. Unfortunately, we still depend on the developer implementing it on his application. BUT if you’re ROOTED you can activate this function and transfer all your applications to the SD without any difficulties. This is a definitive way of solving the problem of storage, since you’re left with all the SD space for installing applications. Here are a couple of applications (there are many more available) that will help transfer to the SD.

This should work for all Androids (it doesn’t), but in any case, if you have Android 2.2 it’s guaranteed to work for a few apps.

Note: Don’t transfer widgets to the SD because they’ll stop working.

I hope this advice helps you free up more space on your phone for installing applications. Another way of reading it is: here are two more reasons to root if you haven’t already!

Happy applications discovery!

[Via elAndroidelibre]