Really confused about the "sd card as internal storage" feature

[AC Question]

Just got a Moto G 3rd gen (from Koodo) and it immediately prompted me to update to Marshmallow so I did. Since the phone only has 8gb internal space I was eager to update because Marshmallow allows using the sd card as internal storage. However I am confused about how this works.

I put in a 32 gb sd card and it prompted me whether I wanted to use it as portable storage or internal. I selected internal, and it formatted it. Good. However when I installed some apps, only one out of about 10 (Netflix) gave me the option of installing it to the sd card. The other ones installed themselves to the internal storage and as far as I can see they can't be moved to the sd card.

When I go to Storage & USB, it lists the following:
5.36gb used of 36.50gb
Android OS 3.47gb
Internal storage 1.79gb used of 4.53gb (where is this 4.53 figure coming from? The phone is supposed to have 8gb of internal storage)
sd card 101mb used of 28.50gb

I'm really confused by the 1.79 of 4.53 gb part, does this mean I have only another 2.74gb of space left to install apps? What about the other 32 gb from the sd card that it claims to be using as internal storage? As far as I can see most apps are still installing themselves to the internal storage (the true internal storage, not the sd card) and there is no option to move them to the sd card.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! If you set the card to be internal storage (i.e. adoptable storage), then it should report the total internal storage to be the phone's internal storage + the SD card, all in one. Read more here: Inside Marshmallow: Adoptable storage | Android Central

This article also shows a good side-by-side comparison of what the storage menu should look like with the SD card used as portable and when it's used as adoptable (internal): Adoptable storage in Android 6.0: What it is, how it works | Greenbot. Notice that that left image lists the SD card under "Portable Storage," while the right image has the SD card listed right after Internal Storage, without a Portable Storage heading. From what you're describing, it sounds like it's reporting the storage appropriately. It seems that although the card is incorporated into internal storage, the system will still keep track of how much data is in each physical location (onboard internal storage vs the microSD).

The 4.53 GB of available onboard internal storage is not surprising, because of the 8 GB of onboard storage, some of it has to be used by the OS and any preinstalled apps. 4-5 GB of usable internal storage is not unusual (and is actually pretty good, since other phones can have lots of bloatware that takes up space).

Keep installing apps, and don't worry about moving apps to SD. That shouldn't even be an option, since the system is regarding the physical SD card as part of internal storage now.

 

[acejavelin]

You have discovered what many of us have already... The Moto G does not seem to implement the adopted storage quite right. It should replace the original internal storage and any apps installed should go to the SD card (that is now 'internal' storage) but for some reason, this doesn't work quite right on the Moto G.

I don't know if a software update will fix it, or if it is something much deeper in the OS, but your results are very common.