Need help balancing my storage

[BJL321]

My internal storage shows 14.80 GB used of 32.00 GB, and my SD card shows 155MB used of 64.00 GB.

I'd like to install Audible and related audio books on my SD card. How do I go about doing this?

Also, is there a way to transfer files from my internal storage to my SD card or change settings so additional files go to the SD card?

 

[Scott337]

In the Camera app Settings you can select Internal or External for where pictures are stored. The same goes for apps like Playb Music, you can select a storage location within the apps Settings menu. As far as Audible and where it stores files...I am not familiar. It might have options for Internal or External storage.

 

[B. Diddy]

The ability to install an actual app to the SD card depends on if you formatted the card as Internal Storage or External Storage. If you format the card as Internal Storage, the phone regards the card as part of its Internal Storage, and therefore is supposed to increase the space where apps can be installed. In practice, though, this doesn't always work well, because some manufacturers don't implement it well. I believe Lenovo/Moto is notorious for not doing this right -- we've seen a lot of complaints here about people who format the card as Internal, and yet the phone keeps telling them they're too low on storage to install more apps (even thought there's plenty of space left on the SD card).

 

[BJL321]

This card was set as internal storage. I guess I can go to the Cricket store and have them do a fresh install, yet when they do this I always end up losing data. Any suggestions at how to make sure I don't lose anything during this process?

 

[B. Diddy]

As I mentioned above, I think it's a Lenovo problem -- it's a relatively common complaint here that Moto phones with SD cards formatted to Internal Storage still favor installing apps to the physical Internal Storage, and then give a low storage warning even though there's plenty of room on the SD card. If you want to reformat the card, go to Settings>Storage, select the SD card, and look for an option to migrate the data back to Phone. Afterwards, you should be able to reformat the card as Internal Storage, but the same thing will probably happen.

 

[BJL321]

Based on what you're saying, wouldn't it be preferable to reformat the SD card as external storage?

I don't think there's anything of significance on my SD card. It lists 3 files: DCIM, which is empty, android_secure, which is empty, and Android, which has a data file folder that includes file folders for my apps (which are also empty).

 

[B. Diddy]

Yes, I'd recommend formatting the card as Portable, and using it to store media files and documents only.

 

[BJL321]

In the past, when I've had Cricket reformat my Moto G5 Plus, I've lost some of my contacts and all of my texts. Is there a way I can make sure to save all of these before the format? Before formatting, they stored the contacts on the cloud but said texts can't be saved.

I sense you are telling me to install all programs on the internal memory yet all files that have nothing to do with the running of the program (ie audio books, videos, documents, photos, etc.) are to be stored on the SD card. Please confirm this.

 

[B. Diddy]

I strongly recommend that you save all contacts to your Google account, not the local Phone account. You can tell which account a contact is saved to by looking at its details in the Contacts app. Contacts saved to the local Phone account don't get synced anywhere automatically, and are therefore prone to complete loss if something happens to the phone, whereas contacts saved to your Google account get synced to the cloud automatically (where you can access them from any device logged into the same Google account).

Texts can be backed up and restored easily: https://www.androidcentral.com/how-back-up-restore-text-messages-android

You are correct -- when you format a card as Portable Storage, it's used for storage of data files like media and documents. Apps can also utilize the card to save some of their data, but they don't use the card to store anything that's require for the app to run.

 

[BJL321]

Thank you for the feedback. When I have a chance I'll follow your instructions and reformat my SD card as portable storage. I appreciate the help.