Making Things Clear As To How Android Handles SD Cards

Yamucha

Member
Jun 27, 2017
5
0
0
Visit site
Hi!

I got my very first Android phone.

But i'm having a hard time understanding as to how Android manages SD Cards.

I read on the internet that there are 3 methods Android handles Apps on SD Card;

1 = Simply can't. Most manufacturers, like Huawei, outright forbid you from moving the apps to SD Card.

2 = This seems like the most common. A portion of the apps is moved to SD Card but a very small portion. Still manufacturer dependent, like Samsung.

3 = Root! Have unlimited access to your phone. Dunno if using this method completely moves the app instead of leaving most of it in the internal storage.

Now, can some of you explain the reasoning behind this?

Is it because how Android OS is coded and it would be a hassle to implement true, move everything associated with the app to SD Card?

Or

It's because of the greed of the corporations?

I jumped ship from Windows Phone 8.1 to Android because WP8.1 sucked, had horrible multitasking, didn't have developer support even Microsoft abandoned both WP8.1 and 10 but one thing they did right was having a proper SD Card implementation.

You just choose the install location on storage setting and from that moment on, everything, including the install packages, downloads to SD Card.

Even Symbian had it.

Do my only option is to root? Will that make the phone/OS utilize my SD Card fully and not just "move a small portion to SD Card" kind of deal?

I was excited to finally being able to play games and have Gamepad support but now there is the SD Card barrier on my way. I guess we won't have our dream devices anytime soon.

Still, its better than WP8.1. I'm not complaining but there are so many good games on Android. What's the point of them being there if i will not be able to install them?
 

anon(238680)

Well-known member
Mar 22, 2011
4,840
13
0
Visit site
Welcome to the forums as a new member. I can see absolutely no reason why greed would play any part of moving apps to an SD card. They aren't moved entirely because the phone still has to control them and can't do so on the SD. Also, have no idea why you think you can't install games unless all of it goes to the card. Many large games place the bulk of their data on an SD if available, but you have to have a fast card. And, if games are all you want, newer phones with 64gb of storage don't need cards. I really disagree with your entire post.
 

ManiacJoe

Trusted Member
Aug 5, 2015
6,326
3
38
Visit site
Moving your apps to the SD card is not really the option you are looking for. Apps are best left on the internal storage.

Your SD card is best used for your media files (photos, music, videos, documents) and data.

Of the apps that use large amounts of data (camera, maps, GPS, some games), check the app settings to see if they allow you to store the data on the SD card as many do allow that.

If your phone allows it, you can format the SD card as internal storage, but this has pros and cons.
 

Yamucha

Member
Jun 27, 2017
5
0
0
Visit site
Hi! Thank you for your reply!

So, it is ultimately a design choice as to how Android OS functions.

The reason as to my reasoning was that, yes, devices with large internal memory exits but they are also a bit pricier in Turkey. I got meself Huawei P9 Lite and it was the most affordable phone with Android 7.0 and 128GB SD Card support.

My phone came with around 6GB free space. I'll see if i can make the most use out of it after i delete some apps.
 

Yamucha

Member
Jun 27, 2017
5
0
0
Visit site
Hi! Thank you for your reply!

But why though? I understand it is a design choice as to how Android OS works but SD Card provide cheap storage for the bucks vs the internal one.

I formatted my SD Card as internal storage. Although not related, Huawei prohibits app data to be moved between the storages. I mean, on Samsung phones, i saw an option to change location. That option is not present in my phone but it's as you said, granting permission to storage make apps utilize SD Card for some cache operations.
 

smvim

Well-known member
May 16, 2014
1,066
34
48
Visit site
Hi! Thank you for your reply!

But why though? I understand it is a design choice as to how Android OS works but SD Card provide cheap storage for the bucks vs the internal one.

I formatted my SD Card as internal storage. Although not related, Huawei prohibits app data to be moved between the storages. I mean, on Samsung phones, i saw an option to change location. That option is not present in my phone but it's as you said, granting permission to storage make apps utilize SD Card for some cache operations.
You might want to alter your perceptions that microSD cards are stable, reliable, and capable of long-term archiving. That's just not the case, the physical media inside each card is similar to but not the same as the NAND flash chips in our phones. Also, while a card formatted as adoptable (still only for some models, not all) is using the same filesystem as the internal storage (ext4), cards formatted as external, removable will default to a variation of FAT (Microsoft's outdated File Allocation Table) making them even less reliable as FAT itself has limitations on file size, metadata storage, and without periodic maintenance longevity. So don't look at microSD cards as being the same as adding a second hard drive to a computer, they're simply constrained in certain ways.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
942,383
Messages
6,913,789
Members
3,158,387
Latest member
Artistnos