How To Get More Storage On Android Without Sd Card

Android has supported SD cards since the G1 started it all. The overall idea is simple enough — slap an SD bill of fare in your phone and expand the storage and then you have room for more stuff. While this is more often than not the example, there are a few things to know about, particularly earlier you get out and buy one.

We've rounded upwards everything y'all need to know about buying and using an SD menu with your Android to try and make everything as simple as it can exist.

SD carte form factors

Before you do anything, make certain your phone tin use an SD card! Since so many different companies make Android phones in then many different models, you volition run across some that don't take a slot for a carte du jour. Phones from Google are this way, and every name you recognize when information technology comes to making phones has made at least one model that doesn't have support for an SD card. If y'all're non sure, poke around the outside of your phone to see if whatever doors or flaps open upwardly, or catch the manual out of the box and see what it says.

Phones use the smallest microSD card form factor.

Once you've got that sorted, you need to make sure you go the right type of SD menu. For your Android phone, y'all're looking for the microSD grade factor. SD cards come up in 3 different sizes. An SD card is the biggest — a little larger than a stamp — and is used for things like standalone cameras. The Mini SD form factor is about half the size of a full SD menu and they aren't very pop. Chances are yous won't e'er purchase anything that needs a Mini SD menu. The microSD bill of fare is nearly the size of your fingernail and the one nosotros're looking for.

When yous buy a microSD card, you lot often get an adapter in the package. The smaller card slides into the adapter so information technology can fit into something that needs a full-size card — like your computer — besides as something like your phone that needs a microSD bill of fare. Continue track of this, because it's pretty handy when transferring pictures or video from your phone to your computer.

SD card storage versions

There is a method to the madness of all those messages you see.

The next matter you lot need to know is the storage version. Y'all can purchase microSD cards, microSDHC cards, and microSDXC cards. A microSD card was designed to agree up to 2GB of data, though a few 4GB versions are available that work exterior of the specifications. microSDHC cards (Secure Digital High Chapters) are designed to agree up to 32GB of data. microSDXC (Secure Digital eXtra Chapters) cards are designed to hold between 32GB and 2TB of data. It's important to know what version your phone tin use. Virtually modern phones — Android or otherwise — will be able to use a microSDHC card. Many newer phones are capable of using a microSDXC card.

There are no piece of cake-to-see differences between a phone that can use a microSDXC card and one that can't. You'll need to consult the documentation that came with your phone or hop into the forums and ask other folks who have already plant the reply. The versions are astern compatible (a microSDXC card slot can use a microSD or microSDHC card) but there is no forrad compatibility, and if your phone tin can't use a microSDXC carte, it won't always work.

SD card speed classes

No carte is going to exist equally fast as the listed maximum.

Yous demand to sympathise the speed class ratings. Those are the numbers and letters you see printed on the carte du jour and the packaging. The short version is to never buy one with a number lower than 10 when it comes to speed class, and if y'all use a telephone with a 4K camera, go even faster and look for a UHS form bill of fare.

We've broken down the specifics of what all this really means and which you need, and you tin can read that right here:

Everything y'all demand to know about SD carte speeds and your phone

Adoptable storage and yous

Yous'll probably see people talking well-nigh adoptable storage when SD cards and Android are in the conversation. It'due south a really neat thing that your phone probably doesn't have and chances are you're better off for it.

The idea is to use a fast SD carte and brand it a permanent part of the system. One time information technology goes in, it never can come out or all your stuff stops working. It'south also a part of the telephone it came out of and nothing else volition be able to apply it unless you lot reformat it and start over.

This, and concerns almost operation, is why most companies making Android phones don't let you utilize Adoptable storage without hacking it in yourself. On Android things that aren't phones — like the NVIDIA Shield Television receiver for example — you can plug in USB stick drives or hard drives and "adopt" them into the organization. This makes a little more sense and a 500GB USB drive is a corking match for your Android TV box. We go into details at the link below.

Everything you demand to know about your SD card and Adoptable storage

Should I encrypt my SD card?

This is one of those things that if y'all have to ask, the answer is usually no.

SD card encryption is a peachy manner to make sure nobody can see annihilation yous have stored on your bill of fare without existence able to sign into your phone, but there are a few drawbacks:

Information technology takes a footling longer to read something from or write something to the SD bill of fare. Not a lot simply it's a definite thing.
You can't take the carte du jour out and do something similar transfer pictures and music from a computer.
If your phone dies, you've lost everything on the bill of fare because your phone is the only thing that can decrypt it.

Proceed all this in heed if you decide to try information technology, and make certain to accept a good plan to go along your data backed up somewhere else.

Quick Q&A

How should I format my SD carte du jour? Insert information technology into your telephone and follow the instructions in the notification you go. Since there are several different file formats an SD card can utilise, you lot should let the phone pick the one it wants. Don't worry, your card will notwithstanding work in a figurer to copy files.
Exercise SD cards go bad? Yep, but that's becoming less of a affair with recent cards. Your SD bill of fare has a express amount of times it can exist read from and written to before it starts to accept errors. If you first to get errors when you lot are using information technology, consider buying a new one before information technology goes bad. As mentioned, newer cards last longer than cards from just a few years ago.
Is my SD card waterproof? Maybe. It will say on the packaging if it is designed to become wet. Ever try to non let it get moisture, only if it does, don't stick it into annihilation until information technology dries, then take a Q-tip and some 99% rubbing alcohol and clean the copper contacts on the end you plug in. Let that dry and give it a try.
Why does Google detest SD cards? I don't think it hates them because every Chromebook can use 1. Officially, Google says SD cards are non as secure and having more than one storage drive is messy for the end user. Feel free to add your own theory hither.
Which SD card should I buy? Only yous know the answer based on how you lot will use information technology. We've done our research, and you can bank check out our favorites here:

Best microSD Card for Android

When it comes to using SD cards in your phone, things don't need to be disruptive. Afterward y'all meet all the hype from companies making them, take a infinitesimal or two and read through this once more, and then think about what you demand a bill of fare to do. It actually is that uncomplicated.

Jerry is an apprentice woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's cypher he tin can't accept apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll observe him writing and speaking his loud stance on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.