New sd card huge issues

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

I'm a newbie to this stuff so bear with me

I bought a new sd card. Inserted it today and found out that it wasn't appearing in any of my file managers and so I couldn't move my media to the sd card. I started exploring and in the settings I found an option which was something like "move files to sd card and free up 6.8 gb" so I did it.

After it was done , sd card was still not appearing in my file managers. In the phone settings when I click on sd card storage it says that 6.8 gb of APPLICATION data is in my sd card , but it doesn't show any of the apps in it. Also , my phone has gotten much slower , and a lot of my apps aren't working , and my YouTube isn't loading since doing that (I use [redacted by Mod]).

Worst part of it is I don't know what kind of data is occupying my sd card , and I don't even know how to move it back to my internal storage. Phone settings says it's application data , gallery says it's media it's one big mess.

Plz help me I really need this problem fixed and I don't want to factory reset my phone

 

[Mooncatt]

When you first inserted it, did it prompt you to format as internal/adoptable storage?

Have you tried tethering to a computer and trying to access the card that way?

What make and model phone?

You said it moved application data to the card. Are you still able to access all of your apps ok?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Go to Settings>Storage and select the SD card. Do you see an option to migrate data back to Phone Storage and/or to reformat the card?

BTW, we don't allow discussions about the app you mentioned, since it is used to bypass paywalls.

 

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR READING
Yes it did. I selected it as internal storage. I shouldn't have done that?

I connected my phone to my pc and only my sd card memory was showing up in the folder and not my phone internal storage.

Same is the case in my phone on 3 different file managers. They are showing "internal memory" which is actually my sd card memory(I just found out right now) and they aren't showing my phone memory.

I removed my sd card and when I did my file managers weren't showing anything , they all give some error like "sd card missing" or something.

I use xiaomi mi a2 lite. This whole thing started when I inserted my sd card and couldn't transfer my data from phone memory to the sd card (because at that time my file managers for some reason weren't detecting my sd card). After that I formatted it as internal storage but I still couldn't transfer files. Then I selected a "migrate data" option in my storage settings. It transferred a lot of my data to sd card including media and app data.

Now my mobile is working slow and some apps aren't loading. Yt loading was also slow , but when I removed sd card and used yt , it was working perfectly fine , but then some apps weren't opening because the app data is in my sd card.

How do I get myself out of this mess?

 

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

Welcome to Android Central! Go to Settings>Storage and select the SD card. Do you see an option to migrate data back to Phone Storage and/or to reformat the card?

BTW, we don't allow discussions about the app you mentioned, since it is used to bypass paywalls.

Sorry about that , I didn't know.

I don't get the option to migrate data back to phone memory , and I'm getting the option to "format as portable" only.

 

[B. Diddy]

This is one of the problems with Adoptable Storage (i.e., formatting the SD card as Internal Storage) -- performance usually takes a hit, since read/write speeds on SD cards will always be slower than onboard memory.

Go to Settings>Storage and look around the options there. Show us a screenshot of what you see. http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

 

[Mooncatt]

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR READING
Yes it did. I selected it as internal storage. I shouldn't have done that?

This is your underlying issue. When you format as internal storage, the OS treats the actual internal storage and SD card as a singular data storage unit. This is why you won't see separate internal storage and SD card storage in your file explorers. If your phone has 32 GB of internal storage, and you add a 32 GB SD card, the file explorers should see a single 64 GB block of storage. In theory, all of your data should still be accessible, but shown within the normal internal file structure.

The issue is adoptable storage is often problematic, as you're starting to see. To compound the problem, fixing this could result in lost data. When formatting the card as internal, the phone encrypts the card in such a way that it is not useable in anything else. You couldn't even put it in your computer's card reader and access anything. Your only option would be to try reformatting it as external/portable storage. Doing so will reformat the card, and maybe require factory resetting the phone. Make sure you backup everything, because you don't know what may get deleted.

If space is an issue, put media and stand alone files on your SD card (some apps can save their info there automatically via app settings), and only have apps on the Internal storage.

 

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

This is your underlying issue. When you format as internal storage, the OS treats the actual internal storage and SD card as a singular data storage unit. This is why you won't see separate internal storage and SD card storage in your file explorers. If your phone has 32 GB of internal storage, and you add a 32 GB SD card, the file explorers should see a single 64 GB block of storage. In theory, all of your data should still be accessible, but shown within the normal internal file structure.

The issue is adoptable storage is often problematic, as you're starting to see. To compound the problem, fixing this could result in lost data. When formatting the card as internal, the phone encrypts the card in such a way that it is not useable in anything else. You couldn't even put it in your computer's card reader and access anything. Your only option would be to try reformatting it as external/portable storage. Doing so will reformat the card, and maybe require factory resetting the phone. Make sure you backup everything, because you don't know what may get deleted.

If space is an issue, put media and stand alone files on your SD card (some apps can save their info there automatically via app settings), and only have apps on the Internal storage.

Alright thanks for your help. One more thing I want to ask is that if I back up using the option in settings , would my sd card data also get backed up. And how will I access the backed up data in case I have to factory reset my phone

 

[Mooncatt]

Alright thanks for your help. One more thing I want to ask is that if I back up using the option in settings , would my sd card data also get backed up. And how will I access the backed up data in case I have to factory reset my phone

I don't have any experience with your phone, so hard for me to say what would be backed up via your phone's own backup utility. It may only backup your OS state (I.e. Current settings, login info, saved Wi-Fi access points, etc), or it may backup most everything. In your case, I would manually backup everything yourself. Make a list of all of your apps that you can reference later to know what to re-download. Most apps will sync their data to cloud servers, but wouldn't hurt to check their settings to make sure that's done first. For media and other files you want to keep, copy (don't move) them to your computer via USB. If you need to keep any text messages, look for a way to export or back them up from within your messaging app. If that isn't possible, there are backup apps for this you can use. Some save to your Gmail, others offer local backups that you can copy to your computer as well.

When time to restore, use your existing Google account info. You will be prompted to download your existing apps automatically from the Play store. Do that, then reference your list to find and manually download any it missed. Your contacts would be synced to your Google account and automatically download. Copy (again, don't use the move command) any files from your computer back to the phone or SD card.

 

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

I don't have any experience with your phone, so hard for me to say what would be backed up via your phone's own backup utility. It may only backup your OS state (I.e. Current settings, login info, saved Wi-Fi access points, etc), or it may backup most everything. In your case, I would manually backup everything yourself. Make a list of all of your apps that you can reference later to know what to re-download. Most apps will sync their data to cloud servers, but wouldn't hurt to check their settings to make sure that's done first. For media and other files you want to keep, copy (don't move) them to your computer via USB. If you need to keep any text messages, look for a way to export or back them up from within your messaging app. If that isn't possible, there are backup apps for this you can use. Some save to your Gmail, others offer local backups that you can copy to your computer as well.

When time to restore, use your existing Google account info. You will be prompted to download your existing apps automatically from the Play store. Do that, then reference your list to find and manually download any it missed. Your contacts would be synced to your Google account and automatically download. Copy (again, don't use the move command) any files from your computer back to the phone or SD card.

Sorry if my questions are starting to feel repetitive.
My phone says that backed up data in google drive includes call logs , messages , contacts , app data , and device setting. Media is backed up in photos and whatsapp data is also backed up in google drive. This should cover everything right?

What's confusing me is if the backed up data is only my phone memory data or my sd card data as well.

 

[Mooncatt]

Sorry if my questions are starting to feel repetitive.
My phone says that backed up data in google drive includes call logs , messages , contacts , app data , and device setting. Media is backed up in photos and whatsapp data is also backed up in google drive. This should cover everything right?

What's confusing me is if the backed up data is only my phone memory data or my sd card data as well.

The only thing I can think of that would be missed is other stand alone files not specifically mentioned. PDF files immediately come to mind, so check for that and other random oddball files you can think of. I use to have a note taking app that would backup locally in its own proprietary format, which needed a manual copying off the device for safe keeping.

 

[Ahmed Ibrahim12]

The only thing I can think of that would be missed is other stand alone files not specifically mentioned. PDF files immediately come to mind, so check for that and other random oddball files you can think of. I use to have a note taking app that would backup locally in its own proprietary format, which needed a manual copying off the device for safe keeping.

Thanks a lot. Its fixed now.

 

[mustang7757]

Thanks a lot. Its fixed now.

Hi, welcome to AC !
Glad to hear your issue was resolved