While your device comes with internal storage, you may feel that it’s simply not enough. How to use SD card as internal storage? Fortunately, a lot of Android devices allow you to use expandable memory to give you up to extra space.

Using your SD card as the internal storage will let you store everything – apps, pictures, videos, audio files, and more – in your SD card by default.

In this post, you’ll discover how to use an SD card as internal storage on your phone.

 

How to Use SD Card as Internal Storage

On many Android devices, it’s possible to store everything – all the content including photos, videos, apps, and more – in your SD card. You can set your SD card as the primary storage media. This will make Android treat your SD card as internal storage.

However, note that not all Android phones support this process. For starters, almost all high-end Android smartphones today come with high internal storage space and no provision for using an SD card. So, the question of using an SD card doesn’t arise for such phones. Although a lot of mid-range and budget smartphones do support SD cards, many do not support using them as internal storage.

Therefore, before attempting to do this operation, ensure that your device is capable of doing so.

how to set sd card as internal storage

Step-by-step Instruction

Here’s how to set your SD card as internal storage on your Android device:

  1. Open the Settings app
  2. Select Storage
  3. Tap on SD card
  4. Hit the menu button and select Storage settings
  5. Choose Format as internal
  6. Hit Erase and format
  7. Hit OK
  8. Migrate your data (or choose to do so later)

That’s it! This is how you set your SD card as internal storage.

Downsides

Note that this process has its own downsides. First, your phone will only work when the SD card is inserted. And, if you remove the SD card, it will trigger a factory data reset.

Other than that, there may be performance issues in case the speed of your memory card is slow. So, make sure that the SD card you use is fast enough for optimal usage.

Check out the list of the fastest micro SD cards here

And if you want to know how fast is your SD card you can use one of the 5 free tools for checking its speed

Formatting an SD Card

When using an SD card as internal storage on an Android phone, formatting the card is an important step that should not be overlooked. Formatting the SD card for internal storage will erase all data on the card and prepare it for use with the device.

This process sets up the SD card to work seamlessly with the phone’s operating system, making it an extension of the device’s internal storage. Properly formatting the SD card also ensures that apps and data can be moved to the card without any issues, freeing up space on the phone’s internal storage for other uses. In short, formatting an SD card for internal storage is essential for maximizing storage capacity on an Android phone.

If you’re looking for guidance on how to format an SD card for your Android phone, we recommend checking out our article on How to Format SD Card for Android Phone.

 

Can I Set Files to Save to my SD Card Automatically?

In case you don’t want to use your SD card as internal storage for your phone, but still want to store all the content in it so that you don’t run out of phone memory, you can set files to save to your SD card automatically. It saves you from having to move them yourself. Here’s how to do it.

Setting your photos/videos to save to an SD card automatically

  1. Open the Camera app
  2. Tap the settings cog
  3. Tap Storage location
  4. Tap SD card

This will automatically save all your photos & videos to your SD card.

Setting internet downloads to save to an SD card automatically

  1. Open the Internet app
  2. Tap the menu icon. It looks like three lines in the bottom right of the screen. You may have to drag the screen up to see the menu option
  3. Tap Settings
  4. Tap Sites and downloads
  5. Tap Save downloaded files to
  6. Tap SD card

This will automatically save all your downloads to your SD card.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

I hope this guide helped you know about the whole process of how to use an SD card as internal storage on Android 🙂

 

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