Hiya,
I've pretty green here with my new Nokia 5230 phone. As I'm installing applications and given a choice where to install them, the device or the MicroSD card, I don't know where is the best place to install them?
Is the device memory also used as active memory, like RAM on a desktop computer? So, by installing apps on the device, I losing available memory for running applications?
I tried reading the tutorials first, but didn't see any clear mention of this.
Thanks for any advice!
No, the phone storage memory does not use up any run-time RAM. It is just storage. However, when the phone memory gets full, Symbian phones have tended to start behave badly.
In any case, I always install apps on the memory card and leave the phone memory for messages, contacts, calendar and whatever system wishes to store there.
If an installed app causes problems, removing the memory card usually is enough to clear the situation. If it is in phone memory, in the worst case, the whole phone needs to be reformatted to recover.
There isn't that much space on the device memory ( C: drive) . When you download a movie/clip it can be a lot of MB's . Using Web on your phone it will downloaded first to the C: drive .
To avoid "Memory Full" issues , install and store as much as possible on MemoryCard ( E: drive or on some devices F: drive) . Read this :
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Keeping_It_Clean.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum//forum/thread/84082/
There is a disadvantage : removing the MC from the device is also removing the apps from the device . The advice for a logterm use will be : buy a big MC like 4 , 8 , 16 GB ( or 32 when available) of a solid brand like Kingston , Sandisk , Nokia , Transcend microSD card .
FYI : a few apps won't install on MC , so taking up C: memory .
Regularly make a backup on MC and/or PC , so you can restore data when needed .
😊 Regards jApi NL