How can I (permanently) remove an sd card without harming apps on the device Forgive me if this is already asked, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  (Most results involved 1 device and moving data between 2 sd cards.  I have two devices and I want to move all data off the sd card to the first device so I can move the sd card to the second device.)

I've upgraded devices (HTC Thunderbolt to Samsung Galaxy Note II) and would like to remove my SD card from the Thunderbolt and use it in the Note II.  To get a clean start, I will format the sd card before placing it in the Note, and I know how to do this.

I want to keep my Thunderbolt and use it as a "poor man's tablet".  It's already removed from the cell service and I'll just use it on the home WiFi messing around with some odd projects.

I've already uninstalled a bunch of apps, and moved any remaining ones from the sd card back onto the Tablet.  What I don't know is how to protect the apps that remain from getting damaged when I separate them from the files they've been storing on the sd card.

For example, there's a lot stored in:


/sdcard/Android/data/  (such as Google Maps and Swiftkey)
/sdcard/data/
/sdcard/.android_secure/


How do I protect the apps on the Thunderbolt from being harmed from permanently removing the sd card?  Do I have to clear all their data, or uninstall/reinstall them after removing the card?
As Izzy said in the comments really your best option is to just buy a new card. They are super cheap especially if you buy online. I just looked on Amazon and the cheapest 16 GB SD card I could fine was just over $12.00 US. I'm sure you can go to your local electronics store and pick one up for around $20.00 US if you don't want to deal with buying online and shipping and whatnot.

But, if you are stingy (most of us are, lets be honest!), make sure you have migrated all of your apps back to internal storage with AppMgr III. Once this is done you can shutdown the phone and remove the SD card.

If you want you can create a backup of your SD card just in case you need the data on it in the future. You can just copy and paste all of the files into a folder and then compress it, or you can create a disk image of the drive, whatever is more convenient to you. 

Then turn on your old device with the card NOT inside of it. Go through all of your downloaded apps and see if any of them were relying on data on the card. Once you find the apps that need the SD card you can then choose to uninstall and reinstall them, or see if you can transfer the files off of the SD card and then back onto the device and then point the app to the folder. It might take a little bit of screwing around, but perhaps the feeling of having extra cash in your wallet will overcome the frustration of dealing with data migration. Good luck!