How to get SD card recognized as Internal storage

[spthomas]

My Samsung J7 (running Android 7) is running out of Internal Storage. It only has 16GB onboard, and after 5.7gb of System Memory and 7.1GB of apps, it's pretty nearly full (only about 400mb of pictures and no music, so that's not the issue, it just doesn't have enough memory). So, I purchased a 64gb SD card and installed it in the slot. I thought it would just add to the Internal storage space giving me 80gb of internal storage, but it comes up as a separate drive. My question is, can I make the SD card the main internal memory and use the internal memory as a second internal drive? Right now the SD card is showing up as external memory and it didn't give me the option of using it otherwise on setup, even if I try to reformat it the only option I get is "format as external".

Maybe broader, what is the best way to allocate the 16gb onboard and the 64gb SD card?

Steve

 

[SpookDroid]

You can, but it requires root and 'hacking' your file system into making the phone think the SD Card is part of your internal storage. Bear in mind, though, that SD Cards ARE finicky and unreliable and, for some reason, especially with Samsung phones, they more often than not, fail. So make sure you don't store data there that you haven't backed up elsewhere.

 

[spthomas]

So if it's formatted as an external drive, can i point apps at it? The whole purpose of the memory cards is that one of my people has run out of memory, mostly music and pictures. Can we point his music app and the camera and gallery to live on the SD card if it's Formatted as an external card?

 

[spthomas]

Ok, after an hour on the phone with first Verizon and then Samsung tech support, the answer is: YOU CAN'T. The memory card is always and forever Portable Storage, and the built in memory is Internal Storage. While some apps (like the camera) will automatically find the SD card ad ask if you want to store the photos on the SD card, for most apps you have to switch storage, AFTER you install the app, one app at a time. And for people like many of my employees that is just never going to happen. So essentially, without a lot of trouble, you cannot expand storage. What you have is all the internal default storage you will ever have.

 

[SpookDroid]

Correct. SD Card doesn't mean that it's for apps anymore. The OS changed a while ago to limit that. While some manufacturers still allow it, the core file still has to reside in internal memory (you can no longer move the whole app to SD card). Moreover, it's up to each developer to decide which parts, IF ANY, can be moved (some allow just file saves, others just external downloads, and some, nothing at all).

And that's why you shouldn't get a 16GB phone in 2018.

 

[lamike]

Correct. SD Card doesn't mean that it's for apps anymore. The OS changed a while ago to limit that. While some manufacturers still allow it, the core file still has to reside in internal memory (you can no longer move the whole app to SD card). Moreover, it's up to each developer to decide which parts, IF ANY, can be moved (some allow just file saves, others just external downloads, and some, nothing at all).

And that's why you shouldn't get a 16GB phone in 2018.

App2sd and another similar apk will format part of your external sd card which will use as internal memory.