Save Android Apps to SD-Card with FolderMount Easily

You will agree with me that prior to the release of Android OS version 5.0, many brand name android phone manufacturers restricted users from moving apps from the phone’s internal memory to the SD card. Luckily nowadays, the current android os supports the transfer of games and apps to the external sd card. However, the process while easy is not complete or thorough. As a result of this inconsistencies, special 3rd party android apps that can do a good job of it are still thriving. On today’s topic, we shall be discussing how you can easily save the android apps to SD-Card with FolderMount

Must Read: 7 Smart Ways to Create More Internal Storage Space on Android Devices

Fellow Android phone users out there will agree with me that it is so frustrating to have your device with the following storage breakdown:

1. Internal memory / phone memory: 2gb to 4gb

2. Internal Storage / USB Storage: 11.50gb

3. SD CARD: 16GB or larger!!

From the analysis above, the largest available storage which happens to be the sd card has no capacity to mount your heavy games apk files and data directly. What I mean is this, if you download for example NOVA 3 Android HD game which is about 2gb in size, you need to install it on your android phone’s memory which of course is the default memory.

Consequently, your massive 32gb sd card storage will be untouched. You can only use it directly for your videos and or music or as a mere backup.

Don’t Miss: How To Backup Already Installed Android Apps Offline Without PC- No root needed

Table of Contents

How FolderMount is Useful

Luckily, foldermount app has come to the rescue. With FolderMount, you have an independently-developed app from XDA that allows you to mount internal memory folders to external memory (sdcard partition) of your Android device.

This will make the system believe that it’s making use of the internal storage, whilst putting the actual data in the larger partition. In doing so, the app will allow you to keep only the essential APK files for various apps in rather-scarce internal memory, while the associated app/game data would go to the external memory, putting you in a win-win situation.

Since a lot of users don’t mostly utilize all the external storage, this would be an ideal solution, especially if you have an Android device that follows this distinction or comes with low internal memory.

Especially Relevant: 4 Methods of Installing your Games and App Apk & data Outside the Play Store

Important Features of the FolderMount

Mount internal SD card folders to external SD folders.
Move content from internal to external when a pair is added. (Dialog prompt)
Support for Android 2.3 – 9.0.
Holo themed throughout and an intuitive GUI design.
It will check SDCARD mount status and remount if necessary.

The free version of the App has the following limitations:

Only 3 mount pairs allowed
File Explorer does not list the sizes of the displayed folders
Some restrictions apply on the type/path of the source folderNote: when you purchase the “pro” from within the app, you can remove all limitations. However, in all honesty, the free version is good enough.

Why Would you Need this app?

Today some apps store big files over the internal SD card (e.g. games, podcasts, offline RSS content, pictures, videos, offline navigation software). Even in newer android devices, you can only save your huge app data on the internal memory even where it is possible to move the Apk to SD Card.

Typically, users have a small internal sd card size (~16GB) while the external SD is a lot bigger (~32-64GB or more). Most of these apps users download from the Play Store save their application data in the internal sdcard by default and don’t have an option to use the external SD card to store data so they starve your internal SD card memory.

FolderMount is the solution to this issue. This app has the ability to link folders in your internal sdcard to folders in your external sd card thereby populating the internal sdcard folders with content that really exists in the external card.

By extension, this helps us free space and have multiple games/apps with big data stored simultaneously without the need to uninstall. For Nexus devices with no external sdcard, this application should help link folders to a USB flash drive for example.

Why this Application is Different (Statement from Madmack the developer of the app):

There are a few apps that already do this. However, this application differs in that:

a) Some of the existing apps aren’t maintained anymore. FolderMount will be maintained as time progress.
b) While most of the previous apps work properly in most cases, I found them not very intuitive to set up initially and were lacking some necessary “sanity checks” before linking folders. I intend to keep this app as intuitive and bug-free as possible.
c) Support for Android 4.2.2! No app will currently do that for you, so here it is.

At this point, this is the app is super BETA. Expect to find some hiccups here and there but please do provide your feedback. Suggestions for features and improvements are welcome.

Tutorial to Easily Save Android Apps to SD-Card with FolderMount

First off, the app requires android v2.3 or newer to run
Secondly, make sure your phone is rooted, otherwise, the app won’t launch. You can use our universal rooting guide here to root your phone.
Add a folder pair. The source is the internal sd card and destination is your “extSdCard”
After adding, FM will offer to move the files for you. Click yes.
Wait until the move operation is done then click on the PIN. If PIN turns green, you’re all set.

The files will exist in both the source and destination after mounting. This is expected and is normal. The files you see in your internal sdcard actually reside in your external sdcard now and if you “unpin” the pair, you’ll see that your internal sdcard is empty again.

Disclaimer: This app does not guarantee functionality in any way, shape, or form. It is not my responsibility if this app does not work, breaks your sdcard or eats your kittens. Users should apply their discretion.

Download the apk file FolderMount-0.2b or download the latest version from google play store