Apart from LG K20 Plus the other variant of K20 have 16 GB internal storage instead of 32 GB. Out of 16 GB, hardly 9 GB is left as usable space.

As a result, you would occasionally see this error message “Storage space running out”.

The temporary solution can be clearing the cached data, emptying the trash folder & deleting apps, photos, videos, etc to free up internal storage space. The better solution can be making the SD card as your default storage space for apps and games.

There’s a hidden feature on LG K20 called adoptable storage. Adoptable storage can help you to install apps and games on the SD card thus freeing up your internal storage space.

To move apps to sd card we need to write certain commands in ADB mode with the sd card installed. So, Let’s check out the procedure to move apps to sd card on LG K20 & K20 Plus –

 

How to move apps to SD card on LG K20 Plus

NOTE: Make sure that you’ve installed the Micro SD card in your K20 Plus which you wish to use as the default storage.
I would suggest a very high-speed micro SD card. At least a Class 10 Micro SD card is preferable. Your card will be wiped in the process so keep a backup of your data.

First of all, Let’s download and install the necessary files on our computer.

1. LG K20 Plus USB Driver to be installed on the computer

DOWNLOAD

2. Minimal ADB & Fastboot to be installed on the computer

DOWNLOAD

Once the installation of the above files is done, we’re ready to proceed further –

Let’s divide the process into steps

STEP 1: Enable USB Debugging & Install ADB Interface Driver

On our LG K20, we need to turn on USB Debugging in Developer options.

If you’ve not enabled Developer options on your K20 yet,  please visit this post – LG K20 Plus How to Enable Developer Options

Now, open Settings, and Go to General Tab, Scroll down to Developer Options and open it.

Look for USB Debugging in developer options and turn it on as shown above.

 

 

Now, we are ready to connect our K20 to PC via USB data cable.

You can keep the USB connection mode as “Charging” or “File Transfer” on your K20.

Now, wait for the ADB Interface driver to install.

After the installation of the ADB interface driver, you’ll be prompted to “Allow USB Debugging” from the connected computer.

Take “OK” to approve it.

You may get this pop-up at a later stage as well. Keep a tab on your screen for this pop-up request.

STEP 2: Install Micro SD in K20 & write ADB commands using Minimal ADB & Fastboot

Now run “Minimal ADB and Fastboot” on your computer which we installed previously.

On the command prompt screen, type adb devices and hit enter.

You connected phone mode should show up under the “List of devices attached”

My connected phone model is visible as LGMP260 which is the model number of  LG K20 Plus MetroPCS.

If it shows “Offline” that means the ADB interface driver is not installed successfully.

If it shows “Unauthorized” that means you’ve not approved USB debugging request on your phone.

 

 

Now type adb shell sm list-disks and hit Enter on your computer keyboard

It shows the disk as 179,64 

This can vary based on your Micro SD card. The command line will change accordingly.

It can be 179,128 in your case so change the command line in the next steps accordingly.

 

The next command is adb shell sm list-volumes all

Type this and hit Enter

 

 

Now type adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true  and tap enter on your keyboard

 

In the next step, we’re going to partition our SD card. You can either use the whole sd card space as adoptable/internal storage
or use a part of it as adoptable storage and the reset as regular portable storage.

This step is going to take some time to partition the SD card depending upon the speed of your micro SD card.

I’ve used a 4GB SD card so I’ve used the complete storage space as adoptable storage.

So, in my case, the command line is adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 private

If you wish to partition 80% of space as adoptable storage and 20% as portable storage the command line would change to

adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 mixed 80

So you can change the partition size as per your requirement by changing the command line.

 

 

 

 

The next command line is adb shell sm set-force-adoptable false type this and hit enter.

 

 

The final command line is adb shell sm list-volumes all   type this and click enter

STEP 3: Reboot phone and Migrate Data from Internal Storage to SD Card

Now reboot your LG K20 Plus and Go to Settings < Storage as shown above.

Tap  “SD card” and hit the “3 dots” icon located at the right-hand top corner.

Now select “Migrate data” among the listed options.

Tap “Move” to free up your internal storage space. You can see it says “After the move, any new files and app data will be saved to the SD card”

After the files are moved, we are ready to use the SD card as internal storage.

As the app data is stored on your SD card removing it can throw an error. So keep it installed on your phone.

 

STEP 4: If you wish to remove your SD card and Migrate the data back to Internal storage

To migrate the data back to Internal Storage from SD card.

Go to Settings < Storage < Internal storage and open it

Now select the “3 dots” icon at the top-right corner and tap on “Migrate data”

This way the data would migrate back to Internal storage from SD card.

Now that the data is migrated back, we can format the SD card to use it as portable storage.

STEP 5: If you wish to Format the SD card and use it again as a Portable Storage

To use the SD card again as portable storage –

Go to  Settings < Storage < SD Card and open it.

Now tap the 3 dots icon at the right-hand top and select “Use as portable storage”

Tap “Format” to wipe the SD card as portable storage.

 

The SD card is formatted back to the normal state as Portable Storage.

 

If you’re facing any issue, please leave a comment below.