Allow OneDrive app on Android to be moved to SD card including storing offline files
Unfortunately, I cannot keep this Android app because the app cannot be moved to secondary storage. I'm like every Android user and have limited available space on primary storage. Because of the OS and other required data that must be stored on primary storage, I have to move apps to my SD card after I install them in order to make room. I understand that users must first install apps to primary storage on Android. That's fine. Users should then be able to move apps like this to Secondary Storage in App Storage Settings. This app does not allow that. Sadly, I have to uninstall this app now since I don't have enough space on my primary storage to keep it.
To be clear, developers can enable apps to be moved to SD Cards. I understand that there are legitimate reasons why some apps can't be moved to secondary storage. For instance, App Widgets or Alarm Services will no longer work from apps run on Secondary Storage. I'm not sure if those examples apply to this app, but again, my opinion is to let the user make the trade off. Some users like myself will give up features just to be able to move the app to SD Storage. For me, it's better to be able to keep an app with limited functionality than have to uninstall it altogether.
I've heard that some developers prevent their apps from running on SD Cards simply because the app may run slower. I surely hope that is not the reason with this app. My opinion is: Let the user decide. As it stands, I can't use this app at all because I don't have enough space to keep it installed on my primary storage.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DEVELOPER: If there is not an unsurpassable reason to allow users to move your app to SD Cards, then please change the "android:InstallLocation" attribute in your app to allow it to be moved to an SD Card after installation. If you are worried about a second-rate user experience, then simply display a warning to the user of the functionality that will be lost by running the app from an SD Card. If you haven’t heard this suggestion from other users, then please keep in mind that many are probably just uninstalling your app when they run out of primary storage space on their phone. Users with an SD card in their phone usually have tons of available storage there, so there is never a reason to go through those apps and uninstall them. In other words, another good reason to allow your app to be moved to SD Storage is the users are much less likely to uninstall it to make room for other things on their limited primary storage.
If there are legitimate reasons that your app can't be moved to a device's SD card, then please at least create a setting in the app that allows users to store the App Data on the SD card.
Thank you so much for considering my suggestions and feedback. I'm passionate about this because I would otherwise like to be able to keep and use your app. :)
Anonymous
shared this idea
You can install the OneDrive app on an SD card including using for offline files and folder. This is now fully rolled out on the latest version of the Android app.
216 comments
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AlG
commented
DropBox allows android devices to save to the SD card, and OneDrive does not. So I use DropBox throughout all of my devices and PC's even though OneDrive comes with Windows 8 and 10. I only use OneDrive for sharing very large files.
Microsoft ... you are pushing for one account throughout all devices but yet this request has been there for over two years, and still is ignored. And this is a major obstacle from using OneDrive on an Android device. If you really want us to use your accounts then you need to fix this.
As a footnote also to Microsoft:
DropBox has honoured their earned bonus storage but now OneDrive it taking it back. So my OneDrive account will be dropping from 30 GB to 5 GB, which no longer fills my needs for sharing larger files. So I am thinking about uninstalling OneDrive and using DropBox exclusively. -
Marco
commented
One Drive still can't access access a SD card on Android tablets - at least on my Samsung. The first post i see commenting on this issue is from 2014, we are in 2016 and it hasn't been resolved yet. I consider this a major flaw, but apparently Microsoft doesn't think so.
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Tom
commented
Up/download function of the sd card
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Andy
commented
Allow the user to use SD card storage for offline/locally cached content.
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Anonymous
commented
It will be great to be able to sync our media files from the sd card. I am even having problems with my Android and the OneDrive regular sync :(
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Ashley Monchamp
commented
We should be able to move the application and the stored data to the mountable SD card. Not looking for speed while access the cloud and I don't want to eat up a lot of my internal data
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Ralph
commented
I have a Samsung Tablet (Android) with an SD Card.
I want to be able to either put the One Drive app on the SD Card, or at least specify that whatever local storage it uses for local copies and other purposes be on the SD Card,
Otherwise System Memory gets used and that is a limited resource. -
Rakesh Patel
commented
I'm using One Drive for Business and use an Android phone.
I've moved all my documents, videos and mp3 over from Gdrive onto One Drive. The experience has been faster and stable and on the whole, I'm happy with the One Drive experience.Is storing Folders and Files Offline onto an SD Card a priority and high up on the list of big win improvements to One Drive? If not, it really should be!
Cloud Storage works really well. I have all my important files in one place and this is split into 3 as a failsafe. One copy on an external drive, another on my PC hard drive and the other offsite and on the cloud. I'm covered in case something catastrophic happens.
I understand the reasons behind the push to get customers to upload on the cloud, it seems however that Microsoft, Dropbox and Google Drive have forgotten the equally important part of the equation - the retrieval.
We've been oversold the "access your files at any time!" aspect, because we can't. Trying to a) locate and b) download a file if you've uploaded a few gigs worth of data and many files it's nigh on impossible. Phone Coverage can be patchy and slow, you may be on a train and unable to download anything. Not only that it’s expensive on a data cap. Yes, Wi-Fi is the next best thing, but if you've forgotten to download the stuff you want when you get out the house, trying to find a Wi-Fi spot can be a nightmare.
Onboard phone memory is a shrinking commodity if half isn’t already taken up by bloatware then downloading day to day emails and apps will wipe out your storage. That's why everyone buys SD Cards!
If I upload 60 gigs worth of music... I'd like to have access to it immediately... and only realistically possible if I download it to an SD card.
The problem is duplication and file structure. Since I can't specify where I want to save things and in the manner I want to I can easily end up working on the wrong file in the wrong place and updating the wrong thing.
Allow us to save folders with files onto an SD card, by specifying a save location, not just individual files one at a time. what’s the point of that?. Allow us to "freeze" syncing (or have a one-way sync on certain folders) after downloading to an SD card to prevent mishaps with faulty cards and lost phones and mass deletion from our online cloud storage. And allow us to "thaw" or resume sync when connected to Wi-Fi or have prompts to do so at certain times (maybe a clock widget in the app to display last time since sync?) to ensure all devices are up-to-date.
None of the other big players do it. You've turned a corner with all your new products of late. Start innovating again instead of following. Make it happen One Drive Folks!
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Stewart
commented
I see that there is now an option to select files for offline use. Does anyone know where these are stored on Android?
Interestingly, if I tap on a file displayed on the onedrive app (which I marked for offline access) it works. If I try and select the so called offline file from within an app by pointing it at the onedrive folder, it fails to work.
Even more interesting i sthat in the first instance where the file is opened by the app, the app stated that the file is on the SD card! -
Anonymous
commented
With access to removable media, OneDrive for Android could work like for PC Windows, where you choose what folders to have offline access. Currently you can only select specific files, but this is not useful if you want your Music in your phone, or other files you want to access when you're in a plane or without wi-fi.
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Stewart
commented
I understand that on Android 4.x there were issues with permissions on SD cards. However, I believe that Android 5.x allows apps to set permissions and also for users to set permissions(?).
With the introduced ability to make files offline, the SD card support is ESSENTIAL. Another app, HERE by Nokia, gets round the issue in Android 4/5 by using the app path in the \android\ folder on the SD card and allows offline maps and data to be placed in a location that has read/write access.
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Lello Leschiera
commented
Please support OneDrive folder on SD card, otherwise no possibility to use OneDrive on convertibles!!!
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Hansen
commented
running short of space if i want my documents and pictures on offline mode.
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Anonymous
commented
I'm having the same issue. As you said, this issue renders One Drive almost unusable to many of us. ::shrugs::
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Be living
commented
One Drive does not show up on my SD card when I choose a folder path to save something on my phone. I would like for One Drive to create a folder on my SD card, perhaps called "One Drive" or something. This folder that is on my SD card would synchronize with One Drive, perhaps the folder in One Drive would be called "Android Phone ID#1234" or something.
In other words, the One Drive folder "Android Phone ID#1234" would completely sync, both ways (or perhaps one way optional), to the corresponding "One Drive" folder located on my phone's SD card.
This would allow for simple upload to my One Drive storage, and also download.
Thank you for reading.
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stx
commented
The android app cannot see the sd card on android phones. I keep music, photos, etc on the sd card which OneDrive can't access. This makes OneDrive unusable. As a note, dropbox supports sd.
