A memory card is needed to store information. In order not to lose valuable files, memory cards should only be purchased from trusted places.
How to use a memory card
The memory card is easy to use. All modern devices have special inputs for such cards. As a rule, they are located on the side or bottom panels. Usually on the device itself there is an image showing exactly how to insert the memory card (for example, with the beveled corner to the right). Insert it into the connector as needed and start working with the equipment.
Some memory cards have an additional button. By lowering it down to the Lock inscription, you will block the card. Thus, it will be impossible to either delete information from it or write new information.
How to check a memory card through a computer
The simplest option for checking a memory card and its capacity is checking through a computer. You need to insert the memory card into a special slot in your computer or laptop (or using a card reader). Next, you should select the memory card in the detected devices and go to its properties. All the necessary information will be displayed there.
More information on this topic.
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A common question how to enable memory card on phone, interests many owners mobile devices, in which there is very little free space for storing useful information. Sometimes users even need to copy the necessary files into it and free up the memory of their mobile phone.
Installing a memory card on your phone
1. In order to install a memory card on the device, you will need to find a connection slot for this part on the phone itself. As a rule, it is placed on the side of the gadget panel.
2. Then the selected map is loaded here, suitable for the user in terms of volume.
3. It is necessary to check how thoroughly the part is fixed in the slot. If everything is good, an expressive click will be heard. As a rule, you don't have to do anything else to get your phone to detect the memory card. However, there may be exceptions.
What to do if the memory card is not visible to the phone
Often, reading information from a working memory card, as opposed to an elementary one, becomes a real problem. This is why many users are wondering how to turn on a memory card on their phone, if it is not visible as a USB device and is not displayed on the device at all.
1. If such an add-on is installed on your mobile phone, then you can solve the problem by using a card reader. This device is a true universal adapter. His work is focused specifically on reading information from various memory cards.
2. Card readers are different: multi-format, built-in and single-format. That is why when choosing it, you should pay attention to the use of the memory card itself in the phone: Micro SD, Mini SD or SD.
3. To turn on the memory card, you will first need to connect the card reader itself to the PC. On the phone, you need to close all applications and folders.
Then the memory card is removed from the mobile phone and loaded into a special device. After the adapter is connected, the information will be displayed in a folder called “my computer”. As a rule, after the data has been manipulated, the card begins to interact perfectly with the phone itself. However, to be on the safe side, it is still recommended to transfer data from your mobile device to your PC.
Among other tips, it is worth noting that many experts recommend purchasing a memory card that has the largest capacity.
For most people, microSD is just a form factor, but in reality it is not. You can easily insert any microSD card into a standard slot, but not all of them will work, since the cards differ in many ways.
Format
There are three different SD formats, available in two form factors (SD and microSD):
- SD (microSD) - drives up to 2 GB, work with any equipment;
- SDHC (microSDHC) - drives from 2 to 32 GB, work on devices supporting SDHC and SDXC;
- SDXC (microSDXC) - drives from 32 GB to 2 TB (currently maximum 512 GB), work only on devices with SDXC support.
As you can see, they are not backward compatible. Memory cards of the new format will not work on old equipment.
Volume
Support for microSDXC declared by the manufacturer does not mean support for cards of this format with any capacity and depends on the specific device. For example, the HTC One M9 works with microSDXC, but officially only supports cards up to 128 GB inclusive.
Another one is related to storage capacity. important point. All microSDXC cards use the exFAT file system by default. Windows has supported it for more than 10 years, it appeared in OS X starting with version 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard), Linux distributions support exFAT, but it does not work out of the box everywhere.
High speed UHS interface
An I or II is added to the UHS card logo depending on the version SDHC and SDXC cards can support the Ultra High Speed interface, which, with hardware support on the device, provides higher speeds (UHS-I up to 104 MB/s and UHS-II up to 312 MB/s). UHS is backward compatible with earlier interfaces and can work with devices that do not support it, but at standard speeds (up to 25 MB/s).
2. Speed
Luca Lorenzelli/shutterstock.com Classifying the write and read speeds of microSD cards is as complex as their formats and compatibility. The specifications allow you to describe the speed of cards in four ways, and since manufacturers use them all, there is a lot of confusion.
Speed class
Makrikrovka speed class for regular cards represents a number inscribed in the Latin letter C The Speed Class is associated with the minimum write speed to a memory card in megabytes per second. There are four in total:
- Class 2- from 2 MB/s;
- Class 4- from 4 MB/s;
- Class 6- from 6 MB/s;
- Class 10- from 10 MB/s.
By analogy with the marking of regular cards, the speed class of UHS cards fits into the Latin letter U Cards running on the high-speed UHS bus currently have only two speed classes:
- Class 1 (U1)- from 10 MB/s;
- Class 3 (U3)- from 30 MB/s.
Since the speed class designation uses the minimum entry value, theoretically a card of the second class may well be faster than a card of the fourth. Although, if this is the case, the manufacturer will most likely prefer to indicate this fact more explicitly.
Maximum speed
The speed class is quite enough for comparing cards when choosing, but some manufacturers, in addition to it, use the maximum speed in MB/s in the description, and more often than not even the write speed (which is always lower), but the read speed.
Typically these are the results of synthetic tests in ideal conditions, which are unattainable in normal use. In practice, speed depends on many factors, so you should not rely on this characteristic.
Speed multiplier
Another classification option is the speed multiplier, similar to the one used to indicate the read and write speed of optical discs. There are more than ten of them, from 6x to 633x.
The 1x multiplier is 150 KB/s, that is, the simplest 6x cards have a speed of 900 KB/s. The fastest cards can have a multiplier of 633x, which is 95 MB/s.
3. Objectives
StepanPopov/shutterstock.com Choose the right card taking into account specific tasks. The biggest and fastest is not always the best. In certain use cases, the volume and speed may be excessive.
When buying a card for a smartphone, capacity plays a bigger role than speed. The advantages of a large drive are obvious, but the advantages of high transfer speeds on a smartphone are practically not felt, since large files are rarely written and read there (unless you have a smartphone with 4K video support).
Cameras that shoot HD and 4K video are a completely different matter: both speed and volume are equally important here. For 4K video, camera manufacturers recommend using UHS U3 cards, for HD - regular Class 10 or at least Class 6.
For photos, many professionals prefer to use several smaller cards to minimize the risk of losing all the images in force majeure circumstances. As for speed, it all depends on the photo format. If you shoot in RAW, it makes sense to invest in microSDHC or microSDXC class UHS U1 and U3 - in this case they will reveal themselves fully.
4. Fakes
jcjgphotography/shutterstock.com No matter how trivial it may sound, it is now easier than ever to buy a fake under the guise of original cards. Several years ago, SanDisk claimed that a third of SanDisk memory cards on the market were counterfeit. It is unlikely that the situation has changed much since then.
To avoid disappointment when purchasing, just use common sense. Refrain from buying from untrustworthy sellers, and beware of offers of “original” cards that are significantly lower than the official price.
Attackers have learned to fake packaging so well that sometimes it can be very difficult to distinguish it from the original. You can judge with complete confidence the authenticity of a particular card only after checking using special utilities:
- H2testw- for Windows;
If you have already experienced the loss of important data due to a memory card failure for one reason or another, then when it comes to choosing, you will most likely prefer a more expensive card famous brand than the available “noname”.
In addition to greater reliability and safety of your data, with a branded card you will receive high speed and a guarantee (in some cases even lifetime).
Now you know everything you need to know about SD cards. As you can see, there are many questions that you will have to answer before purchasing a card. Perhaps, best idea will have various cards for various needs. This way you can take full advantage of the equipment without exposing your budget to unnecessary expenses.
Do you want to use your MicroSD card as a real storage expansion and install apps on it? To do this you need to format it like internal memory. This is quite easy to do on most phones, but unfortunately some manufacturers, such as Sony, LG or Samsung, do not have this feature by default. But if your smartphone is equipped with Android Marshmallow or newer, then you can use the command line. However, after this, avoid Android updates. We will tell you how to combine memory correctly in this article.
Go to:
Easy way
If you're lucky, your smartphone will allow you to do this without connecting it to your PC. This method will likely be your only hope if you use 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
- Tap your SD card's name.
- Tap the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen.
- Click "Settings" .
- Select Format as internal memory.
- Click "Clean and Format"
- Android will then prompt you to transfer your data
If your smartphone doesn't allow you to do this, the process becomes more difficult. We'll get to it below.
What to do if your phone doesn't allow you to format microSD as internal storage
Some smartphone makers disable the normal Android feature for formatting 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 Android versions your phone. This method worked well on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Android 8.0 Oreo, but we encountered difficulties on Android Nougat.
For phones using Android 6.0 Marshmallow
When the MicroSD card is formatted as internal memory, applications can be stored entirely 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 writes PLATYPUS_DIARRHEA on Reddit.
Just because a menu option is invisible doesn't mean it doesn't work. A few days after the publication on Reddit, it became known that the command line can also format a MicroSD card as internal memory in the Galaxy S7. We have successfully tested the instructions with Samsung Galaxy S7, Sony Xperia Z5 and LG G4, running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
All three smartphones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box or after an update and have a MicroSD card slot. Additionally, there is no menu option to format the MicroSD card as internal memory. 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.
Then I 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 prompt 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 memory. Even if Sony, Samsung and LG deny us this option in the GUI, we can still execute this command through the console. First, however, we need the SD card ID. 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. Please note the exact ID. In the next command we will format and partition the MicroSD card. Your content will be deleted. 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 only want to use a certain percentage so that other devices can read it, you must exclude it from the private 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 leadership, but not the end of the job. If you now want to use the re-allocated memory, you must also migrate your applications and data. This can be done through the “Storage” section in the menu Android settings. Select your MicroSD card, then go to the top right side of the menu and click "Move Data". You cannot select this menu item before splitting.
Now all downloaded applications will be completely written to the MicroSD card. Only system applications and updates use internal memory. This means you will never receive an error message due to out of space.
Smartphones with Android Oreo
Recent Android updates have changed the rules a bit, but you can still use this method with ADB. Just start working with ADB using 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 16GB microSD card installed as internal memory:
Problems with system updates and Nougat
Some readers have reported difficulties installing system updates on Android 6.0 after using the above methods. Updating to Android 7.0 Nougat is not possible after installing MicroSD as internal storage. Our test devices running Android 7.0 Nougat don't even respond to the console commands shown above.
Due to the lack of documentation online, we can only recommend performing a number of operations before updating the system. Back up your photos or music to your computer or the cloud and free up as much memory on your SD card and smartphone as you can.
Remove unnecessary applications and return data to internal memory. Then format the MicroSD card as removable storage. Only then will you be able to install the Android update safely.
What's the catch?
MicroSD cards are not 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 throughput. Extreme Pro and MicroSD from Sandisk turned out to be, in our opinion, the best in terms of price/quality ratio. At bandwidth 74 MB/s writes you shouldn't experience any 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 an unnaturally large amount of occupied memory, and Sony's memory was even negative. However, we didn't have any complications, and even when we were connected to the computer, we were able to access all of our data properly, although we could only see a general part of the memory and not a specific part. Difficulties arose only when the system was updated (see above).
Memory expansion: complete success
We subjected all the smartphones described above to the same 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, there is 1.8 GB less space once installed on the SD card. This degree of success cannot be achieved with SD cards formatted as external memory, as complete data migration is not possible.
Compare the internal memory and SD card memory values 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 the sections with your operating system and factory reset information are still saved in the internal memory, removed or broken SD card cannot cause great harm. When we removed the MicroSD card, the application icons simply disappeared, and when we reinstalled them they came back.
If you lose your SD card or break it, your data will be lost. Since they are encrypted as internal memory, you may have no hope of recovering the data. Instead, use regular backups. So go ahead and enjoy cheap memory expansion for your Marshmallow smartphone.
Safely Removing Internal Broken SD Card
To safely remove the SD card from your smartphone, you must reverse the above process. Since your internal storage space is likely insufficient, you'll first need to transfer photos and other data to another storage location, such as your PC's hard drive.
Then go back to settings "Storage and USB drives" and press "Move data to internal memory" on the menu. Then format the SD card like external memory. Do both steps (backup and format) so that your data cannot be lost and you can use the SD card with other devices.