Apps2ROM (ROOT) - Move your updated applications to System ROM

**lrfrog** · 09-30-2011, 05:12 PM

Hi everyone,

As most of you might know, when you update an application which is already in your ROM, the application is not really updated in ROM (As it is supposed to be Read Only Memory) but newly installed in user applications. This causes some people like me to manually move the updated APK from User to System applications or request "updated packages" to flash through recovery.

There are at least 2 reasons to that need:
- We do not have a lot of memory in our devices so why wasting space with duplicated APK.
- People using Samdroid's Apps2SD might want some applications to be in ROM instead of SD because it loads faster.

With this problem in mind, I decided to develop an application that would let you select the applications that should automatically be moved from user memory (/data/app/) to System Memory (/system/app/).

User interface description:
On top you have:
- Your Rom free space and estimated space after reboot (AR)
- Your User free space and estimated space after reboot (AR) (This is not accurate if you use Apps2SD)

After loading, the applications shows you the list of all your applications.
On the right side, you will see 2 lights and a toggle button.
- The first light indicates if the application is in system memory (green = exists, red = not exists)
- The second light indicates if the application is in user memory (green = exists, red = not exists, yellow = will be moved on next reboot).
- A toggle button that activates auto-move of the application.

If you click on an application icon, you will have some information about the application.

Select the application you wish to automatically move, save the configuration and enable Apps2ROM on the bottom.

Use your phone normally, next time you restart your phone, applications will be moved.

In some cases, mapping between system application and user application might not be done automatically. In that case, a popup will prompt you to map it by manually selecting a system APK. If you made a mistake selecting the wrong APK, you can unmap it through the application information popup window.

Beware:
- You need to be root to enable the automatic app move.
- I tested it on my Spica on Android 2.2 with and without SamdroidTool's Apps2SD.
- Haven't tested it with Link2SD (might work or not, I'll be glad to have some feedback about it)
- Always have a look to the estimated ROM free space After Reboot (AR) and never let it drop too low as future application update might be bigger than current installed one. I don't know how the ROM behave when it has too few space!
- If for any reason you wish to uninstall the application, don't forget to disable it before! (bottom right toggle button).

Anyway, as always, BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM in case you accidentally override the wrong application (might only happen if you manually mapped the wrong APK).

Feel free to give me some feedback, I hope you enjoy it

Version 1.0.0 is now on Android Market

Download link: Download on Market

If updating from any version before 1.x.x, please READ THIS:
Before installing the final version, you have disable Apps2ROM and uninstal it as I changed the package name (Or you will have 2 versions of Apps2ROM in your system so it might not disable itself properly). Doing so, you will loose all your previous selection.
If you wish to backup your current Apps2ROM configuration, after disabling apps2rom but before uninstalling it do the following:
- copy /data/data/com.lrfrog.apps2rom/files/userSystemAppInfo.xml to your sdcard
- uninstall apps2rom
- install new version from market
- copy userSystemAppInfo.xml from your sdcard to /data/data/com.lrenault.tools.apps2rom/files/userSystemAppInfo.xml
- Launch new version and you should have your configuration back
- Enable Apps2ROM
If the directory /data/data/com.lrenault.tools.apps2rom/ does not exits, launch Apps2ROM and close it. The directory structure will be created.

Updated to version 1.2.3 on market
Change log for 1.2.3
- Fixed crash while exiting application.
- Optimized startup app loading.
- Added cleaning of Dalvik-cache duplicates after moving an application.

Change log for 1.2.0
- New "Move now" button
- New fully automatic system app detection
- Added version info for both user and system app
- Improved compatibility
- Improved error detection and management

Change log for 1.1.3
- Compatible with more devices
- Less "fake enabled"
People having problems with previous version should Disable, save and then re-enable after updating to newest version. Most problems should be fixed.

Change log for 1.1.2
- Added sort by selection
- Fixed Enable button not working on some devices (/system/etc/init.d/ does not always exists so it is created if not found)

Change log for 1.1.1
- Bug fix: on some devices Apps2ROM might not be enabled properly (should be rare).
- Added control: configuration must be saved at least once before enabling Apps2ROM

Change log for 1.1.0
- Added sort menu. (sorted by name, duplicates, system or user applications).
- Added save on exit option in preference menu.
- Added version number in application information popup.
- Default minimum free space in ROM set to 10MB.
- Added translations (French and Italian)
- Minor code change on Enable button.

Change log for 1.0.0:
- Added control to prevent user to fill all ROM memory
- New preference menu that lets you manually override the value of minimum free space to leave in ROM
- Better management of screen orientation change
- Fix bug on enable button: if you didn't granted Super user permissions it let you think that it's activated but it wasn't (can't be done without ROOT).
- Android (And Cyanogen6+ ?) "Move application to SD" detection (it will prompt you to manually move back application to internal memory if you want Apps2ROM to move them in your ROM).

Change log for 0.9.4:
- Fixed not moving selected applications when Apps2ROM is Enabled or remaining active when disabled

Change log for 0.9.3:
- Removed Busybox call

Change log for 0.9.2:
- Fixed some interface alignments
- Replaced Toggle buttons by Check boxes in application list (should be less confusing)
- Added Help menu with info and imaged tutorial

**Xi0N** · 09-30-2011, 09:21 PM

I like it... i will definitely try it , thanks!

**Fragless11** · 10-01-2011, 01:13 AM

I'll try it. Thx.

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**Xi0N** · 10-01-2011, 02:21 AM

Wow... the usage is confusing..... how to use it?

**zenofilter** · 10-01-2011, 07:18 AM

I can't see the download link ...

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**WackerX** · 10-01-2011, 10:10 AM

Does it support moving applications from system to user?

**lrfrog** · 10-01-2011, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Xi0N

Wow... the usage is confusing..... how to use it?

Hi XiON, I'm sorry to hear that. I thought that the description was clear. I'll try to rewrite it in other words:

The application shows you the application list with 2 lights and one button for each app.
First light indicate if the app is in your ROM
The second if it is in your user app
example: You have an older version of GMail in your system and never updated it, you will see 1st light green and second red
Then you update GMail from market you will see 1st light green and second green (because you have the application duplicated)
If you previously clicked on the button on the right of GMail, the second light would not display green but yellow (means it will be moved to system application on next phone boot).

The button on the right of each application indicates that you want that application and its future updates to be moved to system applications overriding the system application if it exists. This button can be enabled any time but nothing will be done to your applications until you save your changes and enabled the global enable on the bottom of the application list and restart your phone.
I believed that Id would be a bit clearer if I put check-boxes instead of toggle button in front of each application (should I?)

Then you don't have to launch the application anymore, if the global enable is on, each time you restart your phone, it will be checked if one of the application you selected is in your user apps, and if it is, it will be moved to your system application.

I hope it is clearer now. If not, please be more specific of what part is not clear ^_^

---------- Post added at 01:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 PM ----------

Originally Posted by WackerX

Does it support moving applications from system to user?

Hi WackerX, no, it does not support it, but I have it on my list of things to add.

@zenofilter, Sounds strange, I can still see the link :-/. Anyway I'll put another link with an updated version in one or two days.
For now, I do not wish to have multiple links on download platforms so I stick with Samdroid's internal links.

**Xi0N** · 10-01-2011, 04:34 PM

Ok, that explanation is clearer..

My suggestion is that you include an explanation like that in a "Help" menu.... specially the need to reboot... and a checkbox at the right would be better IMHO.. on top of the list, something could indicate each column's description: App name - Internal/External storage - Move to internal?

Looks nice .. and the idea of the app is wonderful... keep it up!!!

**jcariveau** · 10-02-2011, 12:13 AM

Your app looks nice, and confirms what I thought, /data/app/ for user, /system/app/ for system... but I seem to have a problem

Verizon branded Samsung Gem (i100)
Rooted with VISIONary+
Running Android 2.1-update1

The app installs fine, asks for superuser (and is granted), sees all my apps, changes the little lights to say it will do it's thing, saves... reboot... **nothing**... apps still in the same spots, lights still lit as 'pending'... it remembers, it sees everything, but it's not *doing* anything...

**lrfrog** · 10-02-2011, 01:40 AM

@Xion: An Help menu with a screenshot is planned to be made ;-) This is a pre-release to have some feedbacks. And thank you very much for yours (and also for the great work you did with with your ROM Spicagen Basic Edition that I used and liked ;-) ).
Next version will have check-boxes to be clearer.
About the labels, I prefer not adding them but providing an help menu. The reason is that the last 3 columns with lights and buttons are small and a clear label would not feet on top of it.

@jcariveau: It's nice to have a feedback from another phone (and Android version) as I could only fully test it on my Spica.
Did you click the global Enable button on bottom right (I believe yes as it asked you for SU permissions). Also did you do everything in the "right order": select apps to move then save then global enable? It should work even if you enabled (bottom right) before saving but It happened some time that it didn't worked on my previous test version at home.
About your problem, can you check if you have a file called Apps2ROM in your /etc/init.d/ directory?
If not, try to disable the global button (bottom right), save again and then Enable again and check if the Apps2ROM file have been created. If that resolves the problem, I'll investigate to understand why it haven't been created last time you tried.