LG Tribute 5 & Tribute 2- Set SD Card as default storage for Apps

Budget prepaid smartphones offer a great value for money & these days they are fast enough to cater the daily needs. However, low internal storage is a deal breaker for many. It’s not that the storage space cannot be increased with a memory card, the issue is with the android system which plays unfair and leaves a little space for android apps. There are thousands of android apps on play store but very little space is reserved for android app installation.

The android system (up to Lollipop) is such that it won’t let you install the app directly to SD card no matter what. The most you can do is move a portion of app data to SD card after installation. You have to do this manually for each app you wish to move to SD.

This issue is taken care of in Marshmallow with adoptable storage where the apps can be installed directly to memory card . However, as of now,there is no 6.0 update for Tribute 5 and it seems highly unlikely looking at the Sprint’s past track record.

So the question is how to install the app downloaded from play store directly to sd card ?

To achieve this, first thing is rooting your LG Tribute 5

Once rooted, we’ve to add a 2nd partition to SD card which will be used for app installation.
The second step is to link the newly created partition to internal storage. An app can be linked to SD card via Link2SD app. With Link2SD you can also set SD card as your default app location. This way your new android app will automatically install to SD card.  Now let’s check out the actual procedure

LG Tribute 5 – How to install Android apps directly to SD card 

Aparted – Create 2nd Partition

Download and install Aparted from Play store or from below link

DOWNLOAD

It is recommended to use at least Class 10 micro SD card to create the second partition as apps will be loaded from it. I’ve partitioned my  64 GB Class 10 SanDisk ultra SD card.  The size of my first partition is 52GB and that of the second partition is 12GB. I’ve used approx 20% of space for 2nd partition as it’ll be used for apps and games only. Let’s see how to do this –

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Open AParted app and if prompted allow Superuser root access

Click on “Settings” Tab on top right corner.

Uncheck ” Protect internal Partitions” and accept the warning.

Now move to First Tab i.e “Create” and click on “ADD” to create the first partition.

 

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When you’re on first partition page, It’ll say Part 1. Slide the bar towards the right to assign space to the first partition. My first partition size is 51794 MB.

Note that the first partition type is “FAT32”

Again click on “ADD” to create the second partition.

Now the page will say “Part 2”

Space left after creating the first partition is 12070 MB. You can either use this complete space to create 2nd partition or reserve some space for 3rd partition.

I’ve used the remaining space to create 2nd partition. To do this slide the bar to the extreme right.

The 2nd partition type should be ext2 so click on “FAT32” to change partition type

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Select “ext2” from the list

Click on “APPLY” to create the two partitions. Accept the Warning and Proceed

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You may be asked to remove and reinsert the sd card. Do the same and wait for process to complete

Check the last screenshot above with partition details.

LG Tribute 5 LS675 – Remove Ads from Youtube Videos & Android Apps

Ads are fine as far as they are not forcible. When there is no option to skip an ad in youtube or a full page popup comes from nowhere in an android app, it gets annoying. These kinds of ads force you to view it before proceeding to actual content. Watching an ad should be at the user’s discretion.

Ads in Youtube App can be disabled by an Xposed module called Youtube Adaway. If you’ve heard about Xposed for the first time don’t worry follow this step by step guide to install Xposed in your tribute 5 .

LG Tribute 5  – How to remove Ads from Youtube Video –

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We’ve to download an Xposed module called Youtube Adaway to remove youtube video ads. To install this module, Open Xposed Installer and Click on “Download”.

If you’ve opened download section for the first time it will take some time to load the available modules. Type “Youtube”  in the search bar, “Youtube Adaway” will show up. Click on it to open.

Slide towards the right to download and install the apk file. You can also download the file from below link –

DOWNLOAD

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Once the module is installed, you’ll notice the option to “OPEN” this app is grayed out. It’s because this app has no user interface.

Go to Xposed installer once again. Hit “Modules”, Check “Youtube Adaway” and reboot

Now open Youtube app and watch any video, It’ll be free from ads.

 

LG Tribute 5 – How to remove Ads from Android App – 

There are two Xposed modules which are capable of doing this. They are Ad Blocker and MinMinGuard. Ad blocker has no user interface. Just install it, activate the module and reboot phone.  With MinMinGuard you can selectively choose to remove ads from only those apps which you find annoying.

Adblocker –

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Adblocker and Youtube Adaway are the products from the same developer, and both of them lack any user interface.
Install Adblocker in the same way as “Youtube Adaway” from “Download” section of the xposed installer.  You can also download it from the below link –

DOWNLOAD

MinMinGuard –

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Download MinMinGuard from Xposed repository or from below link.

DOWNLOAD

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“Check” it in Modules section & reboot phone

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MinMinGuard allows you to either automatically block the ad from all installed apps or selectively create your own whitelist as shown above.

Please do share your feedbacks and queries via the download section below

LG Tribute 5 LS675 Hard Reset / Factory Reset

A couple of months ago i bought an LG G2 Sprint from eBay. It was a new but unboxed phone, even the original screen protector was in place. I turned on the phone tried to do the initial setup. To my dismay, i found that it is affected by a bad touch.I had to touch a few times before the screen recognized any input. I was very frustrated as no one can expect this from a new phone. I immediately captured a video of the touch behavior and sent it to the seller. He said I should try to do a factory reset. I was so disappointed I said,  I just want to return the phone as its a hardware issue. He sent me the return shipping label. I was just about to pack it and sent it back when I thought let’s
give it one try. I did a factory reset via recovery and voila, the touch started working in a perfect manner. So, I realized one thing that before drawing conclusions, a factory reset should be always given a chance.

Factory reset or Hard Reset should not be the first troubleshooting step if anything goes wrong with your phone. If your phone is frozen, gets hot, draining the battery faster than normal, no sound, stuck in boot loop etc. you should first try a soft reset. i.e turning the phone off and on. In Tribute 5, you can do this by removing and re-inserting the battery and then turning ON the phone.

If this doesn’t solve the problem then check if a 3rd party app is causing trouble. To test this, boot the phone in Safe Mode. If its working fine in safe mode that means an external app needs to be removed. Uninstall the apps one by
one until you find the culprit.

If all the above basic troubleshooting steps are exhausted, then you should proceed to next step i.e Factory Reset. Before doing this, backup your important data as the internal phone storage will be wiped completely.

How to Factory Reset / Hard Reset LG Tribute 5 LS675 –

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If your phone is turning on, the touchscreen is working fine & you’re not locked out, then the factory reset can be performed via System Settings < Backup and Reset. Settings can be accessed directly by Long Pressing the recent apps key or via Notification Bar.

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On “Backup and Restore” page you can take a backup of your account data. Photos, Videos, and Documents stored in internal memory will get wiped, so you should move it to your memory card before resetting the phone.
Click on “Factory Data Reset” and it’ll take you to the confirmation page.
Click on “Reset Phone” and wait for the process to complete.

LG Tribute 5 Factory Reset via Recovery Mode –

In case you’ve bought a used Tribute 5 which is locked with previous owner password or locked out due to some other reason, the factory reset has to be performed via Recovery Mode.