Friday, January 16, 2015

I can't update Android apps installed on the sd card anymore

Connect your device to your PC (you may need to have the USB drivers that came with your phone installed)I've recently started having a problem with updating my Android apps.

If they were located on the SD card then the update would fail after it was downloaded.

After searching around for quite a bit, the following did the trick:

  • Connect your phone to your PC
  • When the connection is detected by the phone, it may ask you if you wish to switch to USB storage. Say yes.
  • From your PC, go to the phone's drive (that should have just appeared in Explorer) and navigate to /sdcard/.android_secure/. 
  • Find the file called smdl2tmp1.asec and delete it
  • Disconnect the phone
  • Done!!

 [UPDATE 1dec2014]
A number of people have commented that they can no longer find the file smdl2tmp1.asec.
I have been told by others (but have not tested myself, as I don't have the problem) that another option is to connect the phone to a PC and use Windows Explorer to look at the SD card and try to find that file.

 I am afraid I don't have any other suggestions :-(


[Blatant plug! See my article about my album on Google Play.]
 ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
Posted by at
Labels:

17 comments:

  1. BenbowJune 23, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    Had the same problem. This also did the trick for me. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joel KarlssonJune 25, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    Thanks! I had been searching for a solution to this all day. Tried clearing the dalvik cache etc etc etc.. now it works like a charm!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AsoumisAugust 31, 2011 at 4:15 PM

    This was the only thing that worked, I had tried clearing the cache etc etc, I was so disappointed!
    Thank you so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mārtiņš BriedisOctober 1, 2011 at 8:21 AM

    I'm glad I found this post. Thanks! Works perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  5. troikasDecember 3, 2011 at 5:14 AM

    Thanks my friend!!! i really need that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dan RobinsonJanuary 17, 2012 at 2:07 AM

    Legend - cheers dude.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AlanFebruary 9, 2012 at 6:54 AM

    Great tip Nick, linked from my blog - http://usesmallicons.blogspot.com/2012/02/android-unable-to-update-apps-on-sd.html. Copied as well, if that's a problem just let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJune 25, 2012 at 4:00 AM

    Thanks you so much for posting this! I was trying everything to figure out what was wrong with my phone. I had PLENTY of space on my SD card, so I didn't know why I was getting that message. But this did the trick!

    ReplyDelete
  9. SkoadJuly 28, 2012 at 8:34 AM

    Was hoping this would work for me but no luck.. only because I dont have a smdl2tmp1 file. =/

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousOctober 2, 2012 at 7:13 AM

    Awesome! cant believe it was that simple!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousOctober 24, 2012 at 6:20 AM

    Skoad, try looking here,
    ./mnt/secure/asec/ – access to this folder requires root and a program like Root Explorer

    ReplyDelete
  12. Kousik AdhikaryMarch 27, 2013 at 9:02 PM

    AWESOME! Worked like magic for me! Finally I got updating again!
    :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. GaborFebruary 4, 2014 at 9:51 AM

    Hi, I have same problem, but on S4 with android I can not solve the problem, because I can't find this folder.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousNovember 30, 2014 at 10:08 AM

    Hello. I cant find this file. Can someone help?

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousNovember 30, 2014 at 10:14 AM

    Nick please help those of us who cant find this file. What can we do? I have pending around 12 apps that wont update.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ndamoulakisJanuary 16, 2015 at 3:26 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. ndamoulakisJanuary 16, 2015 at 3:27 AM

      See the new info at the bottom of the article. Other than that, I am afraid I have no more info :-(

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)