Moto G,Marshmallow, and storage questions

[rlridgeway]

I received my Moto G, just after Marshmallow was released. I have some questions about storage and how to access it. I do not see an option to store apps on the SD card. Is this because my particular apps do not have permission or is this a general function of Marshmallow?

I understand there there is an option to format the portable SD card as internal. Has anybody had experience doing this? I have read if you do this you can no long access the original internal storage if the format option is selected and you only have access to the newly formatted-to-internal SD card for storage. For example, if I have the 8 gig model plus a 32 gig memory card. After the format I will only have 32 gigs I can use not the 40 total. Is this right?

Also, I have read that speed will be reduced even with a fast memory card. How bad will the speed reduction be?

Can the format-to-internal option be re-set to the original portable setting.

 

[acejavelin]

I assume you are currently setup as Portable Storage, in Marshmallow applications themselves can no longer reside on the SD card (at least I can't figure out how to move them there), but their data can if the app does that itself. Portable storage is only intended as file storage, not for any applications.

If you are setup as Adopted Storage and move everything it asks to the card, you are correct, your SD card replaces your internal storage for the most part (some system apps still reside in internal space but you can't access it directly), and instead of 4.5GB (not 8GB) of space you would have 32GB of space plus whatever the system left on the real internal storage. It is honestly a little convoluted.

Speed reduction is tough, some users seem to have a noticeable slow down, and others little to none, but Android seems to complain the card is slow no matter what when you first set it up (this seems to be a phantom message in some cases). If you have a quality card that is UHS1/Class10 rated the slowdown should be minimal, I usually recommend Samsung cards as they manufacturer their own chips (for example, Kingston uses Samsing chips in most of their cards).

If the internal storage is changed to portable, the system will attempt to move everything if there is room, but it can fail.

To be honest, the best way to do this is with a clean phone, pick the way you want it to be and set up the phone afterward... if you are going to change it, the cleanest way is to factory default and setup again. It can be done without this, but it is cleaner and has much less problems.

 

[rlridgeway]

Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions. Can you revert the Card back to portable once its has been formatted for internal?

 

[Cliff Woolfork]

Yes

Posted via the Android Central App on the Moto G³