Using a Micro SD card as Internal Memory warning!(solved)

sheppola

On several of the Android and Phone forums I've been on there are concerns about the use of Micro SD cards

being used for,"Internal Memory" to allow more apps to be installed.Having tested the system several times I've come to the conclusion

that not all it's cracked up to be.

There are several things that anyone thinking of doing this should to know.

1:If you,"Soft Eject" the SD using the phone's Storage and Data section it may DESTROY all the Data on the SD card!

2:If you,"Remove" the SD card whilst the phone is on it may DESTROY all the data on the card!

You may have to take the card out and reformat it on a Computer other device.

For PCs I use the free version of MPW(Minitool Partition Wizard),

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

but be careful if you use this software and make sure you are on the correct

drive/Device as you can wipe your computer's hard drives with this software!!

This data may be recoverable using this kind of software,

https://www.4cardrecovery.com/howto/sd-card-format-recovery.html

But only if the card has not be re-formatted after the damage.

**************************************************************************

The SD card can be removed when the phone is off and the data will be intact but as the SD card has been encrypted uniquely to the phone it came out of the card CANNOT be read by another device.This means the SD card is pretty much useless unless used with the above Data-Recovery software and then reformatted.

Finally:

Once the SD card has been formatted as,"Internal Storage" you will NOT be able to transfer/backup files from the phone Via USB cable to a PC/Laptop or Tablet(See later post for possible work-rounds).

You will have to use WiFi/Blue Tooth or backup to the cloud.

Conclusion:

For me I don't like this system and hope Google/Android re-program and make a better system.

There is a way to increase the Internal memory of the phones using an app like Link2SD. The phone will need,"Rooting" and this should only be done if the phone is out-of-warranty or the user does not mind voiding the Warranty and the user knows about these things.

If anyone wants help in using Link2SD I will try to help.

I hope this post helps people and stops them possibly losing valuable data 🙂

allan1954

thanks for the tip.

goonerx2

Not as good as I cracked up to to be believed then, thanks.

sheppola

@goonerx2

@goonerx2 wrote:

Not as good as I cracked up to to be believed then, thanks.

It's a workable system so long as you know it's limitations and make sure you keep regular backups of the Data on the phone but the inability to backup via USB cable is a big,"No-No" for me

davidevans0000

cheers @sheppola

isabel1066

@sheppola well done.

endorphin

@sheppola wrote:
Once the SD card has been formatted as,"Internal Storage" you will NOT be able to transfer/backup files from the phone Via USB cable to a PC/Laptop or Tablet.

Hmm, I'm using adoptive storage with a 32GB SD card on my Y550 (which has 4GB internal storage) and when connected to a PC via USB I can see all of that storage and copy the files on it to and from the PC with no problems!?

sheppola

@endorphin

@endorphin wrote:

@sheppola wrote:
Once the SD card has been formatted as,"Internal Storage" you will NOT be able to transfer/backup files from the phone Via USB cable to a PC/Laptop or Tablet.

Hmm, I'm using adoptive storage with a 32GB SD card on my Y550 (which has 4GB internal storage) and when connected to a PC via USB I can see all of that storage and copy the files on it to and from the PC with no problems!?

It may be dependent on the Android verson/Phone model installed.It didn't work on my Chinaphone(Custom Rom) and on my Moto G3 (Stock Updated rom).

Also with more research you can revert back to Internal Stroage and keep some stuff with a bit of faffing about according to this page,

https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-format-microsd-cards-as-internal-storage

Also if the user does a Factory reset without seeing above they will lose all their data from the adopted SD card ☹

I like to keep backups on my External SD card for when I do a factory reset to make it speedier plus sometimes I like to take the card out and use an SD card reader into my PCs which I can't do if it's used as,"Adopitve/Internal" storage 🙂

giffer23

Good to know, thanks for sharing.

sheppola

Another flaw in the Android optive/Internal Memory system seems to be appearing.People who have deleted files from the phone/s to get space back are not getting the space back.The files/apps are going but the memory table/s are not updating.

If this is the case then very soon the SD card/Phone will be full and therefore making the Total memory of the phone useless.

solvbb

Just a few comments on your suggestions - I have been using Link2SD for about 6 years. There are alternatives like Mount2SD which also work well.

It works well for expanding the data partition so you can install more apps. However, the consequence of using it is that the SD card gets used a lot more, when SD cards do have a limit to the number of rear / writes, so using a good quality card is more important.

I have lost data from a card used in conjunction with Link2SD - and as you suggest you must not remove the SD card while the phone is running other wise corruption can occur.

I also use Minitool and usually format a data partition as ext2 or ext 3 with the balance being a normal FAT32 partition. You can read the entirety of the SD card (both partitions) if you have a computer running linux. If you put the SD card in a windows computer, depending on the partition order you will just see the FAT32 partition and may get a suggestion to reformat the SD card (don't do it). Because of this it is possible to take your own backups of apps and data on the sdcard

For file management I use old versions of ES_explorer and Storage Analyser. Like many apps ES explorer got bloated and ads started to become too intrusive. I don't think Storage Analyser is in Play any longer, but the apk should be readily discoverable on the net. I have not seen the space loss you refer to, but that might be because I'm not using current versions of Android - are you sure the issue is not related to use of a recycle bin.

sheppola

@solvbb

More great info and just what these threads need 🙂

I don't know about the memory loss on the deleted files it's just a few posts whereby people cannot get the space back even after rebooting the phones.

As you know there's so many versions of Android and I don't mean just the Base versions there's every Vendor/Phone maker that changes them to suit their Agenda.It's surpsing there aren't more problems :O

I used to use ES file explorer but like you say it's become bloated and I had trouble with it overlaying on my Cheap Chinaphone.Found a better alternative in Total Commander,

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander&hl=en_GB

Like ES is supports OTG(On The Go) USB file transfers.give it a go and see what you think 🙂

leigh2180

WoW! thanks @sheppola,

learned a few things here... not only about phones but also about what's going on with our Walkman!

have a good evening, we will 🙂

leigh2180

".. inability to backup via USB cable is a big,"No-No"..." Yep, us too @ sheppola and @goonerx2

Thanks, L

sheppola

@goonerx2

Thanks, L

I've just been doing some more testing on my spare Android phone and there is a way to use USB cables/adaptors to transfer/backup files when using,"Adoptive Memory"(SD card as Internal Memory).

You need a file Manager that supports OTG(On The Go) on your Android phone.

I use Total commander,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/All-in-One-all-in-1-USB-Memory-Card-Reader-Adapter-for-Micro-SD-MMC-SDHC-M2-UK/264289926067?hash=item3d88e83bb3:g:rXUAAOSwlUhbkQin

You can plug the OTG Adapter into the phone and then plug the USB stick into it and then use,"Total commander" to move files off or onto the phone.You can then transfer the files from the USB Stick(Or Micro SD card in a USB Adaptor) onto any other supported device.

Note:The explanation is more involved than the actual practice.It's a doddle once you know what you are doing/using.

Somewhere I have a Standard USB to USB data cable so might even be able to use the OTG Adaptor and,"That" cable to directly plug the phone into my windows Laptop again like the,"Good-old-Days" 😀

solvbb

There is another alternative for backing up data files, if you have a PC, cloud storage or a NAS to store the backups on.

Use an FTP package - I have recently discovered AndFTP.

It woks well and I upload pictures directly to a website and my own NAS devices at home. You can have a number of profiles for different devices as well.

sheppola

@solvbbwrote:

There is another alternative for backing up data files, if you have a PC, cloud storage or a NAS to store the backups on.

Use an FTP package - I have recently discovered AndFTP.

It woks well and I upload pictures directly to a website and my own NAS devices at home. You can have a number of profiles for different devices as well.

That's a good idea but my posts are for people who may not have a good,"Data Package" and want physical backups along with or instead of,"Cloud" backups 🙂

solvbb

Backing up to a NAS or a PC is a physical backup, and because you can generally only do it across a LAN (home network) no data usage is required, it's all over WiFi.

Backing up to cloud storage, if done on wifi (say at home), doesn't need any data usage either.

Of course once you have backed up, you can also delete older photos etc from your phone, releasing space back to the data partition, which is sort of where this started with increasing restrictions on the use of SD cards under Android

gcase64

@solvbb.

Thanks for this information.It is of great importance to myself and infact all users of an SD card in an Android device.

pinkunykorn

Thanks for the info