Format SD as internal or removable?

[gordol]

What are people's thoughts on this? Do you format your SD card to extend the internal storage, or do you format it as removable?

 

[Krolt]

I got the fast card I could find ~ 100 ms and got a warning saying it was slow for internal, Googled it and many have the same issue, and the fastest you can get is a long way off the internal so I used mine as removable, you can still put all your Google stuff on there, music films + photos and films from the camera.
So my Sandisk Ultra is removeable.

 

[chanchan05]

I personally think using the card as internal is a bad idea. It's more prone to failure than onboard NAND, and is slower, plus functionality becomes limited. Recent Samsung phones now do have an option to force apps to move to SD card even if the developer set in the app manifest for it not to, so it helps. I don't know if newer Moto has it, but you can try checking in developer options.

 

[gordol]

So If I had formatted as internal and want to switch it, is there a way I can do that without losing data? Or do I just have to suck it and re-load my media?

 

[Krolt]

I just re formatted mine as removeable and it put everything back (I think) I had to wait for it to finish. You can still eject it when it's internal so it just transfers the folders back I am pretty sure.

 

[pizza_pablo]

I would back up the data on the SD card and then format it, in the phone and start over.
I always choose external. I believe that it provides more flexibility ( I swap phones and move the card, periodically).
I have not read much good experiences using an SD card as internal storage, since the option became available with Marshmallow.

 

[Rukbat]

If it's portable (removeable) storage, and you back everything up (to a PC and a cloud account is best, at least for important files), if the card goes, you can always restore the files to a new card. (Most good manufacturers warranty the cards for longer than you'll want to keep them. [SanDisk's warranties are 5 years minimum, Ultra Plus and Extreme cards carry lifetime warranties.]) If it's adaptable (internal) storage and the card goes, there's nothing you can do - you can't back up an adoptable storage card.

But if the phone has limited storage (I'd call 16GB limited these days), you might have to put in an adoptable storage card to make the phone usable for a little longer.

 

[gordol]

I just re formatted mine as removeable and it put everything back (I think) I had to wait for it to finish. You can still eject it when it's internal so it just transfers the folders back I am pretty sure.

I was able to back up the card by plugging the phone into the PC and enabling File Transfer, I was unable to mount the card directly with a card reader.

And, that backup was almost a complete waste of time. I had to then re-delete data for and reinstall several applications that store data on the card, including MediaMonkey, Podcast Addict, PWall, and TomTomGo. And I won't know if that was enough for MediaMonkey until tomorrow morning, as it will take many hours to sync ~7000 tracks of music back over.

 

[gordol]

But if the phone has limited storage (I'd call 16GB limited these days), you might have to put in an adoptable storage card to make the phone usable for a little longer.

Considering the size of the firmware, I'd call 32GB "limited storage" these days. The Moto Z2 Play has 32GB of internal storage, with more than 10GB of that take up by firmware. Something they neglect to tell you at the store.