Lack of internal memory on a smartphone - step by step instructions on how to use an SD card as internal storage. Connecting a memory card to a computer or laptop

Technologies for the production of gadgets are rapidly developing, but in the middle price segment no attention is paid to great attention internal storage, which typically ranges from 8GB to 16GB. Considering that most of the volume is occupied by built-in programs, places for games and additional information almost does not remain and there is a need to install applications on the Android SD card directly.

When buying a phone or tablet, you must immediately purchase a memory card. By default, all information is downloaded immediately to the internal drive, but through the settings you can easily arrange automatic saving of photos, videos and music to an external card, the allowable volume of which largely depends on the resolution of the operating programs of the gadget itself.

Not all devices are designed to install a drive larger than 128 GB, so you should carefully read the phone's instructions before making a purchase. In this case, the internal storage will be open for applications, but its volume may not be enough for a large number of desired games that “get heavier” in the process of improvement by manufacturers, and the necessary utilities that make work and life easier.

Much depends on the modification of the gadget, sometimes such a simple method is available on highly equipped devices. First of all, you need to check whether you can get by with simple actions:

In new versions of the operating system, it is impossible to install the application on the Android SD card by default. To do this, you need to know some tricks and download special programs.

Actions for versions of Android 5.0 inclusive

In older versions of the system, it is quite easy to figure out the sequence of actions and free up internal memory, improving the speed of the gadget. To do this, just enter the main settings and go to the application tab, and then select the item "transfer to SD media". The program itself will carry out the transfer of information.

Additional data stores such as "gallery", "music" and applications for reading e-books, after saving to external media, they will automatically upload information to the SD card without additional settings. Thus, the internal storage will be freer, which will improve the speed of the device as a whole.

It should be borne in mind that the features of certain games and programs sometimes make it impossible to transfer them to an external drive. That is why the manufacturer's built-in programs are not installed on SD, and their forced transfer can disrupt the processes inside the gadget. The operating system always warns of this possibility, so do not be afraid to make a mistake.

Saving applications to an android memory card from 4.2 to 5 inclusive is quite simple if you follow the following algorithm:

1. Go to the "applications" tab and select the "downloads" section, where all the previously installed software is located.
2. Select a program to transfer from the list and click on it.
3. Check access to data and required amount memory.
4. Click on the "record to SD" section, if any.

The rest of the process will take place on its own. Active gamers should not forget that any game in which the speed of interaction is important will work better while being in the internal memory.

Combining external and internal

Installing the application on an android memory card from the fifth version and above will require additional steps, since the system itself is installed differently than in older versions, but there is a new utility - Adoptable Storage, which allows you to combine internal and external drives into a single database.

When this function is activated, the gadget system will automatically calculate the total amount of memory based on the storage parameters and display it on the display. In order to use the utility, you need to do the following:

After such formatting, the external drive cannot be removed and placed in another gadget, this may damage access to the recorded information and it will no longer be possible to configure it again.

Sometimes you need to release urgently RAM and reset all apps, videos, music, photos to removable disk. This is done in a few simple steps:

This method is not suitable for transferring pre-installed software.

Reliable helpers from outside

If the above options could not be implemented, then the device itself does not have enough functions. However, there are two ways to get around these restrictions and download additional software and install games on SD without any problems. android map any modification:

• using a computer;
• by downloading third party software.

Long way - computer

If you use a portable computer, you will have to be patient, but this process will pass without the risk that always accompanies obtaining Root rights. First of all, you need to go to the Play market website through a PC, find the application for download and copy the link to it from the browser line. Then do the following step by step:

Sometimes it turns out to do this with a flash drive. If you have any difficulties, you will have to use synchronization software, for example, the well-established Phone Explorer program. You can download it from the Play Market or from the site of the same name and install it first on a tablet or phone, and then on a PC. To transfer data you will need:

• open the application simultaneously on the computer and gadget;
• choose the type of connection, for example, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth;
• find the downloaded application in the PC memory;
• transfer it to the external media of the gadget.

Verified Utilities

Although many users go through the process of obtaining root rights without problems, there are many difficulties in case of an unsuccessful attempt. It is not recommended to do this on a newly purchased phone that has not expired the warranty period, because after installing root rights, the warranty will not be valid and any breakdown or stress in work will be corrected at the expense of the owner.

Manufacturers know that very often when trying self installation root access, the device starts to slow down or loses many functions, and therefore limit the warranty from such cases. It is better not to take risks and use proven software, with which you can either get what you want without such access, or be sure that even root rights in combination with it will not hurt:

Forced expansion

This method can be used by a person familiar with the basics of programming, since when changing the default location for installing software, you will have to make changes to the phone through a computer. Download on PC android program Debug Bridge (ADB Run) and check for a USB connection on your smartphone. Pre-obtained root-rights will facilitate the implementation of the following actions.

Do you want to use microSD card as a real memory extension and install applications on it? To do this, you need to format it as internal memory. This is fairly easy to do on most phones, but unfortunately some manufacturers like Sony, LG or Samsung don't have this feature by default. But if your smartphone is equipped with Android Marshmallow or newer, then you can use the command line. True after that, avoid Android updates. How to combine memory correctly, we will tell in this article.

Jump:

The easy way

If you're lucky, your smartphone will allow you to do this without connecting it to a PC. This method will most likely be your only hope if you are using more new version Android (7.0 Nougat or 8.0 Oreo). Here's how to check:

• Install the SD card in android phone and wait for it to be recognized
• open Settings > Storage
• Touch the name of your SD card.
• Touch the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
• Click "Settings" .
• Select Format as internal memory.
• Click "Clean and Format"
• Android will then prompt to transfer the data

If your smartphone does not allow you to do this, the process becomes more difficult. We will move on to it below.

What to do if your phone won't let you format microSD as internal storage

Some smartphone manufacturers disable the common Android feature to format a microSD as internal storage, hiding the ability to do so from your phone. But you can still activate this process using a PC without requiring any root privileges.

The exact steps vary depending on the Android version of your phone. This method worked well with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 8.0 Oreo, but we ran into trouble on Android Nougat.

For phones using Android 6.0 Marshmallow

When the MicroSD card is formatted as internal memory, applications can be fully stored on it. This means that if you download the application overall size 2 GB, then the SD card should have 2 GB of space. If, however, the MicroSD card is formatted only as a backup, there will not be enough memory, as it says PLATYPUS_DIARRHEA on reddit.

Just because a menu option is invisible doesn't mean it doesn't work. A few days after posting on Reddit, it was revealed that it was also possible to format the MicroSD card as internal storage in the Galaxy S7 using the command line. We have successfully tested instructions with samsung galaxy S7, Sony Xperia Z5 and LG G4, running under Android control 6.0 Marshmallow.

All three smartphones work from the factory or have been updated with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and have a microSD card slot. Also, there is no menu option to format the microSD card as internal storage. The feature is only available on HTC One A9 and Motorola on all Moto smartphones.

Why did Samsung, LG and Sony hide this item? I connected each of the three smartphones to the computer, and each of them had one microSD card.

I then entered in the commands described in my blog. Once you open a command prompt window and connect your smartphone, you can enter the first command:

• adb shell

Now the command line is ready to run system commands on your smartphone. In this case, we want to format the SD card or part of it as internal storage. Even if Sony, Samsung and LG deny us this option in the graphical user interface, we can still execute this command through the console. First, however, we need the ID of the SD card. You can find it out with the following command:

• sm list disks

In my case the disk is called 179.64 . Perhaps yours is different. Note the exact ID. In the following command, we will format and partition the MicroSD card. Your content will be removed. If there are important files on the card, copy them to another drive or computer. If you want to keep a MicroSD card in your smartphone all the time, you can now partition all your memory. To do this, enter:

• sm partition disk:179,64 private

The operation takes a few seconds or minutes, depending on the capacity of the memory card. If you want to use only a certain percentage so that other devices can read it, you must exclude it from the personal section. The 50:50 split command looks like this:

• sm partition disk:179.64 mixed 50

This is the end of Paul O'Brien's guide, but not the end of the job. If you now want to use the reallocated memory, you must migrate applications and data as well. This can be done through the "Storage" section in the menu android settings. Select the MicroSD card, then go to the top right side menu and press "Move data". You cannot select this menu item before splitting.

Now all downloaded applications will be completely written to the MicroSD card. Only system apps and updates use internal memory. This means that you will never get an error due to lack of space.

Smartphones with Android Oreo

Recent Android updates have changed the rules a bit, but it's still possible to use this method with ADB. Just start working with ADB by the method above, but after entering shell adb you will be prompted to set certain values.

Enter the following lines to unlock the ability to format microSD cards as internal storage on your phone:

G8141:/ $ sm set-force-adoptable true
G8141:/ $ sm list-disks
disk:179.0
G8141:/ $ sm partition disk:179.0 private
G8141:/ $ sm set-force-adoptable false
G8141:/ $ exit

We tested this method on a Sony Xperia XZ Premium running Android 8.0 Oreo and it worked. In the screenshots below, you can see a 16 GB microSD card installed as internal storage:

Problems with system updates and Nougat

Some readers have reported difficulties installing system updates in Android 6.0 after using the above methods. Upgrading to Android 7.0 Nougat is not possible after installing MicroSD as internal storage. Our test devices with Android 7.0 Nougat don't even respond to the console commands shown above.

Due to the lack of documentation on the web, we can only recommend that you perform a series of operations before updating the system. Back up your photos or music to your computer or the cloud and free up as much space on your SD card and smartphone as you can.

Delete unnecessary applications and return the data to the internal memory. Then format the MicroSD card as removable media. Only then can you safely install the Android update.

What's the catch?

MicroSD cards do not work as fast as the built-in memory of a smartphone. So don't waste your money on cheaper ones and instead buy yourself memory cards with reasonable read bandwidth. Extreme Pro and MicroSD from Sandisk were, in our opinion, the best in terms of price / quality ratio. With a write throughput of 74 MB/s, you shouldn't experience lag. Such cards are best suited for installation as internal memory.

Interestingly, only the LG G4 was able to read the extended memory correctly. Samsung showed unnatural a large number of occupied memory, and Sony's memory was even negative. However, we didn't have any complications, and even when we were connected to a computer, we were able to access all of our data properly, although we could only see the general and not the specific part of the memory. Difficulties arose only in the case of a system update (see above).

Memory Boost: Complete Success

We subjected all the smartphones described above to a single endurance test. We have installed Final Fantasy IX on all devices. The game size is 1.8 GB. After installation, it is easy to see which of the two types of memory, internal or SD card, was used. In all cases, after installing on the SD card, there is 1.8 GB less space. This degree of success cannot be achieved with SD cards formatted as external memory, as full data migration is not possible.

Compare the values ​​of internal memory and SD card memory in the screenshot to confirm.

What happens if you remove the microSD card?

Of course, the question is what happens if the MicroSD card disappears from the system. In fact, this creates a serious problem for your applications. Eventually, they can no longer access their data. Since sections from your operating system and factory reset information is still stored in the internal memory, a removed or broken SD card cannot do much harm. When we removed the microSD card, the app icons simply disappeared, and when we reinstalled them, they returned back.

If you lose or break your SD card, your data will be lost. Since they are encrypted as internal memory, you may not hope for data recovery. Instead, use regular backups. So feel free to enjoy the cheap memory expansion of your Marshmallow smartphone.

Safe removal of an internal broken SD card

To safely remove the SD card from your smartphone, you must reverse the process above. Since your internal storage space is probably not enough, you first need to transfer your photos and other data to another storage, such as HDD your PC.

Then go back to settings "Storage and USB drives" and press "Move data to internal memory" on the menu. Then format the SD card as an external memory. Perform both steps (backup and format) so that your data cannot be lost and you can use the SD card with other devices.

Users of mobile devices with the Android system are often faced with the need to move some of the information from the internal memory to the SD card. After all, even resources modern models, the amount of ROM (internal memory) of which reaches 4–6 GB, will eventually cease to be enough even for useful applications- not to mention gaming. The way out of the situation is to move programs to an external drive in one of the ways suitable for this, or install applications and games on a memory card (flash drive) on an android.

Option for older Android OS

1. By opening the system settings;
2. By going to the application menu and opening the properties of one of them;
3. By clicking on the "Move to SD card" button. The absence of its activity means that the manufacturer has forbidden the transfer of information.

Using Special Applications

All applications are divided into three groups in the AppMgr manager:

Already located on the SD card.

A simple file manager interface and the ability to transfer several applications from one storage to another at once speed up the process of freeing ROM from unnecessary data. And let you see big picture, rather than opening the settings of each program one by one. The result is increased device performance.

Method for new systems

Starting with Android 6.0, users have been able to use an SD card as internal storage. This allows, first of all, to expand the size of the device's ROM, and, secondly, to immediately transfer applications to an external drive, without manual or software movement. To set up a map, you need:

After rebooting the system, part of the ROM will be stored on the external card. The size of the internal drive will become larger, and on the external one, on the contrary, there will be less space. And when you download the program, it will automatically be installed on the SD card.

Transfer applications with root rights

If the user needs more space, and all the programs available for moving to the card have already been transferred, you can use root access. The rights of the "superuser" will provide special utilities such as KingsRoot. After that, you can install an application like Link2SD and work even with system files and programs that have a ban on movement.

To date, the method of storing data on portable flash drives has gained quite a lot of popularity. And now all manufacturers of flash drives are fighting for the creation of the smallest in size and large in terms of memory flash drives, leading positions in minimum sizes occupy Micro SD cards.

Micro SD flash cards are by far the smallest storage devices that have been put into mass production.

Due to the very fragile structure, these drives often become unusable due to physical damage, or incorrect completion of work with such flash drives.

It is not uncommon for cases when, after a short period of work with a card, it ceases to be read or is not detected at all by devices, so you cannot rely on the long-term operation of such a drive. I advise you to use the Micro SD card as a space for work, and not for permanent storage of information. Although every day the manufacturers of such SD cards improve their durability and bring them closer to the possibility of using them for permanent and durable storage of information.

Reasons why the computer may not detect the Micro SD card:

· Hardware problem.

Flash drive failure.

· Assign an already assigned partition letter.

· File system conflict.

· Malicious programs in the operating system.

If your Micro SD card is no longer detected by your phone, camera or other device, then you need to remove it and insert it into your computer to diagnose, identify and fix the problem.

Let's move on to reviewing and eliminating the most common causes of failure of such a flash drive.

How to check if a Micro SD card is detected on a computer?

In order to understand whether your computer has detected your Micro SD card, you can use 2 methods.

First way. Open my computer and check the connection of the new partition. If you have a new disk, then the flash drive is defined.

The second way. If nothing appeared in the explorer, then it is worth checking whether the computer has determined at all that an SD card was connected to it. To do this, go to my computer, right-click on the computer and select "Manage" from the drop-down menu.

After that, the Computer Management window will open, in it there is a menu on the left side. We need to select the "Disk Management" section.

In the displayed statistics, we can see all the drives connected to the computer, determine their volume, or set the partition letter.

If you did not see your SD card in this list, then read the following reasons and their solutions.

hardware problem

If you are trying to connect your SD card to a computer through an adapter or through a card reader, and nothing happens, the first thing to do is to check these interface devices for operability.

If you use a card reader to connect the card, then try inserting a known working Micro SD card into it, if a known working card is also not detected, in this case check and reinstall the card reader drivers. If after all the attempts made nothing has changed, then most likely the problem is in the card reader.

If you are using a laptop, then most likely you are trying to insert an SD card through an adapter, directly into the laptop's built-in card reader. If nothing happens when using this connection method, then I recommend checking the drivers for the built-in card reader first, and then checking the adapter for operability.

Drivers for card readers can be downloaded and installed from the manufacturers' official websites, if you have a portable card reader that connects via a USB port, then download the drivers from the manufacturer's website. In the event that you use the built-in laptop card reader, then you can download the drivers from the official website of your laptop manufacturer.

In order to check whether the driver of your card reader is detected by the system, you need to open the "Device Manager", to do this, press the key combination Win + R and in the "Run" line that opens, enter the command "devmgmt.msc".

The "Device Manager" window will open in which you can see devices on which the driver is not installed. Such devices will be marked with a yellow triangle with exclamation point. If there are no such devices, then expand the "Portable devices" section and make sure that the computer has detected the card reader itself in order to discard the option of a non-working device.

Flash drive failure

In the event that you have checked the performance of the above devices and made sure that they are in good condition, then it is worth checking the Micro SD card for physical damage, cracks, chips, deformation or damage to the outer layer, since such a flash drive consists of many small tracks, which are easy to scratch and tear.

Try to connect it to any device - a smartphone, camera, etc. If the flash drive is not detected in any device, then most likely it is physically damaged and cannot be repaired. Only the presence of important information on the map can motivate you to contact the service center.

Assigning an already assigned partition letter

This type of problem is quite common. This happens when an SD card is connected to a computer, the system assigns it the same letter as the existing partition, because of this a conflict occurs and we do not see our flash drive in the list of computer disks.

In order to fix this type of problem, open the "Computer Management" section described above.

After getting into the "Disk Management" section, we need to find our flash drive, focus on its volume, select a disk that matches the volume of our Micro SD card. Right-click on it and select "Change drive letter or drive path ..." from the drop-down menu.

A window will open in which we need to click the "Add" button.

In the window that opens, select the letter for this section and click OK.

Done, we set the letter to our section, now we check its presence in the explorer.

File system conflict

It is not uncommon that there are cases when a flash drive is defined, but it cannot be opened. The reason for this may be a file system conflict or a damaged file system of the Micro SD card itself. If the data on the flash drive does not play any role for you, then you can try to format it to the NTFS file system.

To do this, right-click on the flash drive and select "Format" from the drop-down menu.

In the formatting window that opens, in the "File system" section, select NTFS, set the Volume Label and click the "Start" button.

Thus, we formatted the Micro SD card to NTFS format, after which you can open it.

Malicious programs in the operating system

Faced with the problem of determining the Micro SD drive, you may not suspect that all this may be to blame malware, so-called viruses that can block USB ports and prevent your computer from working with your memory card.

In this case, it would be best to perform a full system scan with your antivirus program, or resort to free antivirus programs who can help you with this.

One of these I will advise you is Dr.Web CureIt!

The program is absolutely free and is intended only for scanning and finding virus programs and removing them.

To download this program, go to the official website of Dr.Web at the link https://free.drweb.ru/cureit/

Download the program and start scanning.

After the end, remove all found malware and after restarting the computer, try connecting the Micro SD card again.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons why your computer does not see the Micro SD card, so it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question “Why does my computer not see the memory card?”, As this can be caused by various problems. In order not to make a mistake and solve the problem, it is worth doing all the steps described in this article in turn.

Also, do not forget that when formatting, all information from the flash drive will be deleted.

And I advise you not to keep important information on drives of this type, so they most often fail to work due to a very fragile structure. Use these types of drives to work directly with files, saving them to more secure locations.

On phones with a small amount of internal memory, there is a shortage of free space. It is expanded with a memory card, to which photos, videos, music and other data are transferred. But what if there is not enough memory for programs, but there is nothing to delete? The most rational option is to install applications on the Android SD card.

This can be done with standard tools or using third-party software. We'll figure it out simple ways giving almost 100% results.

What applications can be transferred to a memory card?

Unfortunately, not all programs can be transferred to MicroSD. Some developers do not optimize software to run outside of system memory, so there is no way to make it function on a memory card by any means. However, the vast majority of software works well on it. Therefore, even heavy applications can be transferred, freeing up space on the internal drive.

Note! The system allows you to transfer only downloaded programs. It will not be possible to change the built-in directory - they will not start.

Also remember that the speed of writing and reading from a memory card is much lower than from the built-in storage. For this reason, it is not recommended to transport games and other performance sensitive software.

Porting apps with stock tools

It has become possible to install applications on a memory card with built-in services starting from Android 2.2, for earlier builds you will have to tinker and transfer using a PC.

Note that the instruction is not completely universal. In some firmware, the names and locations of the items may differ, but the essence stated in the instructions remains unchanged. We will demonstrate transposition using the example of the AOSP system (naked Android) and the Samsung shell. We will also analyze the nuances for versions up to 6.0 Marshallow and later builds.

For AOSP (up to 6.0)

Following this instruction, the transfer of one program will take about a minute:

The shell will notify you when the application is moved to the memory card.

For Samsung (up to 6.0)

Now we want to show the differences in the procedure using the Samsung firmware as an example, but at the same time justify the thesis that the principle remains the same. So:

Here, installing applications on the card is a little longer, but the main thing is to go to the program menu, select the one you need and interact with the storage options. The same principle will be on other firmware, just the first time, you may have to spend a couple of minutes to figure it out.

For all firmware based on Android 6.0 and higher

In this version, Google revised the principle of interaction of smartphones with a flash drive. Previously, it acted as a portable data storage, now, in addition, it has been added new feature- Adoptable storage. It integrates a memory card with internal storage, which is beneficial, because by default all data will be installed on it. However, it will no longer be possible to insert it into a computer and easily transfer files.

To activate the mode, you need:

Try to make a backup of the data installed on the MicroSD, as everything will be deleted. Android will reformat it to suit its needs, add encryption of information to improve security, change the type file system. Think carefully about what will be more convenient for you, but remember that in the future you can change the way you work with the flash drive, while the documents on it will be lost again.

Move all data to microSD

Porting individual programs is useful. But what to do if the smartphone has little RAM and internal memory of 4, 8 or 16 GB and needs to be released urgently? Android stock services will help with this, because there is a toolkit for resetting all videos, pictures, music, software and even games to a removable drive. To do this, do a few things, namely:

The method is simpler than the previous ones, it is suitable if you want to radically free up space on your phone from programs that have been installed for a long time and take up a lot of space.

Transferring applications using third-party software

It happens that it is not possible to transport software using regular means, but there are many alternative options. We propose to disassemble the two simplest ones: one using a PC, and the second - through special programs, but root rights are required.

Note! Read about how to get root on Android in the topics about your device in order to avoid problems.

Using a computer

The solution is not the fastest, but simple and accessible to everyone, even if there is no root-rights. So:

It is easier to do this through a device synchronization program, for example, My Phone Explorer. First, it is installed on the phone from the Play Market, and then on the PC. The distribution should be downloaded from the official website of the developer.

Now proceed to transpose the application to the Android memory card, for this you need:

This completes the procedure, the application is ready to go.

Using the app

A lot of transfer applications have been developed, we suggest using the multifunctional Titanium Backup utility. To do this, do the following:

If you want to put all the software on a USB flash drive, then after launching Titanium, follow these steps:

Now wait for the process to finish.

These were the most basic ways install the application on the Android SD card, which will always work. If one of the methods does not help, we recommend using an alternative.