How do I Copy Installed Android Apps to USB Pen Drive?

The Android mobile OS is one of the most user friendly that I have ever used. With so many applications that can be downloaded from games to health apps to business related applications, you can do it all with your phone.

There is one small issue though. The default storage for any application is the internal storage of the device, and sometime this storage fills up pretty quickly with all the apps, photos and music I have on my phone. I’ll admit the first time I tried to move data and applications to my micro SD（SD cards, How They Work and How to Use Them） or pen drive, I completely got it wrong. And I ended up having to reload the applications.

So, being a nice guy, I would like to share with you the best and easiest way to copy installed Android apps to a pen drive or USB storage.

Step 1

Back up your phone completely! This is no joke. So many people don’t do this and then when your phone crashes for whatever reason they complain that they have reload everything. Data is corruptible and whether it’s your pc, tablet or your phone, you must do regular backups. Especially if you are going to change setting of any kind.

Step 2

On your phone navigate to settings and view your available storage. You should be seeing phone storage and USB storage. Make sure that your phone has mounted the pen drive storage.

Step 3

Now you go to your application management menu and view the downloaded apps on your phone. You will only ever be able to transfer downloaded apps to USB storage. Any other apps could affect your phone and crash your OS. For each app you have installed there will be info or details tab. Under this tab you will see if you are able to move the app to the USB storage.

Step 4

Apps like games often take up large amounts of space and I have yet to find a game that cannot be moved to the USB pen drive. On the App Info tab select the transfer option. Of course, make sure that there is enough space available for the app on the USB. Once the transfer is complete you will notice that the app still has some data on the internal storage. This is normal and that’s the data that is needed for the app to run on your phone.

Step 5

I have found that the best way to confirm if the app still works is to restart the phone once the transfer is complete and then to test the app to make sure that it works. Of course, at any time you will be able to reverse this process by simply transferring the app back to the internal storage of the phone.

Step 4-a

If you are wanting to move the applications to a pen drive or your PC storage. I would suggest that you download a 3rd party app to assist with that. Also, you need to make sure that when you have the OTG
cable attached to your phone that it recognizes the USB or your PC before you start.

There are a variety of file transfer applications available in the App Store, many of them free, and depending on the version of your Android OS you can simply install the correct version.

Remember its always best to update your software and application to the latest version before doing any of this so that you don’t experience any issues.