How to move apps to your SD card on the Galaxy S8

By Andrew Martonik
last updated

With 64GB of internal storage on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ most people won't need to use their SD card for more than media storage, but if you're finding a crunch on internal storage you can move apps there, too. Not every app can be moved to the SD card, but if you shuffle a few around it could make a difference for you.

Thankfully, apps won't move to the SD card unless they know they can do so without issue. So long as you have a good SD card in your phone, you'll be good to go. Now here's how to move the apps.

How to move apps to your SD card

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll down, tap on Apps.
  3. Scroll to find the app you want to move to the SD card and tap it.
  4. Tap on Storage.
  5. You'll notice that a majority of apps won't support moving to SD card. If there's no "change" option, it simply can't be moved.
  6. Tap the radio button next to SD card.
  7. To move the app back to internal storage, simply go through the same process again and select "internal" in the settings.

As noted above, you'll see that most apps can't be moved to the SD card. This is for good reason: many apps know that they can't keep high levels of performance when they're on the SD card, or need special permissions only allowed by being on the internal storage. If the app can't be moved, just move on and see what others can be moved instead.

Andrew Martonik
Andrew Martonik

Andrew was an Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central between 2012 and 2020.

20 Comments
  • Dumb question: even for those apps that will run from the SD card "without issue", is there some performance trade-off? I usually keep the apps on my device and the docs, pics and files on the SD card.
  • There is a small performance drop but what you are doing now (apps on phone, media on sd card) is usually what most do. Moving apps to the SD is mostly for people that have tons of apps and need the extra space on their device
  • I've been doing that on my Xperia Z3. No noticable performance issues, if any.
  • I haven't noticed any difference with the apps I moved.
  • I have to say I'm pretty surprised to see this article since so many people on here say you shouldn't put your apps on an SD card. Aside from that, the fact that there are numerous threads on here about people having trouble with the S8 random restarts and it seems like it could be linked to the SD card...again I'm surprised to see this, No comment from Samsung on it yet though After having 2 different S8+ that would restart and move the apps on my home page around (that were installed on my SD card) It would occasionally "ghost" then and eventually started deleting them off my home page.....they were still in the drawer though and worked fine that way. Anyway I ended up returning the second one and going back to my old Note 4.
  • The exact same thing happened to me. Verizon says it is a know issue with Nouget and the S8+ (what I have). I had to take all of the apps that I had moved to the Samsung 256 gig card and move them back to internal memory. The photos that are being saved to the card are not causing a problem "yet". What a pain and I can't believe this website hasn't done there homework and "NOT" recommended moving the apps until it is fixed.
  • I think the poor S8 gets blamed for a lot of Nougat related issues. Nougat is half baked at best and has lots of bugs and even the things is meant to do are not always so good..
    I still maintain, putting apps on SD card is fraught with danger and will end in tears..
  • This issue is ruining the phone for me.
  • With the 64 GB of onboard storage, I find little need to do this now. Put the pics, music, and vids on the SD card and leave the apps internal.
  • Does it actually move the app, or does it just say it did, and keep decreasing the amount of phone storage you have? My S4 had the ability to move the apps to the SD card, but my available space on the phone always decreased in the exact amount of listed storage the app used. It was an "on paper" move to the SD card, but not really.
  • Is there still no adoptable storage on Samsung's yet?
  • SD cards can not adequately handle that storage yet. The read / write speeds are no where close to the internal memory
  • I don't recommend it. Treat the SD card as secondary storage for media. Don't use it for apps unless you use a budget phone with very limited amounts of storage;
  • Have apps on my note 4 on the SD card with no problem. Strange the 'newer, better' phone can't handle it according to some on here.
  • Developer Options: Force Allow Apps On External.
  • With my Motorola G+ I put in a 32Gig class 10 SD card and formated as internal storage that doubled my storage. Can you do this with the S8?
  • Installing external storage is bad, since it's a lot slower. Class 10 doesn't mean anything anymore, all SD cards have been class 10 for years now.
  • I've tried doing that on previous phones, and while it took space on my SD card, I didn't really see it clear space in my internal storage by the same amount. Usually I'd only get a tiny bit more internal storage.
  • I have moved app's over to the SD card but there is one thing I dont like about doing it - when on the SD card on my S8 at least I can no longer use the widgets but the apps do work.
  • I tend to keep apps on the phone and media content on the sd card