SD card pronlem

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Android Central Question

I just set up an 64GB SD card as internal in my Moto G5s Plus and migrated the data. SD card shows data was moved to it but the internal storage still shows that it is almost full . Shouldn't the 37GB that was moved to the SD card be removed from internal storage ?
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! Moto has been notorious for implementing Adoptable Storage poorly. What you describe is a relatively common complaint. Not sure if there's anything you can do about that.

I'll move this to the Moto G forum for more specific traffic.

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html
 

smvim

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Read through this guide from Motorola on your model:
https://support.motorola.com/us/en/documents/MS128420/
Try and set up your microSD card again, offhand it sounds like you installed a 64GB card into your phone but still need to go through the process of reformatting it so it's acting as an supplement to the internal storage instead of just a typical portable card.


Keep in mind that when you re-format a card to be internal it's a fundamental change to the card. By default microSD cards are formatted with either FAT32 or exFAT as their file systems. Any FAT file system is Microsoft's proprietary file system and just about any common operating system will include at least basic support for it. But FAT is also out-dated and no longer actively supported, so it has a lot of issues as far as current technology and there's no way to update it. But it continues to live on as the default file system for external storage media since it's essentially operating system-agnostic.
When you format a microSD card as internal (a.k.a adoptable storage), the card is changed to use the ext4 file system and it's encrypted. ext4 is the same file system that your phone's internal storage is using so both will be using the same file system. Then encryption also virtually ties the card only to your phone as the encryption key is stored in your phone and it prevents you from using the card on any other device. So don't remove your card once it's set as internal, for the most part your phone now considers the card to be another component. Also, a card set as internal is going to be viewed differently. Your Settings menu will still see it as it is but a file manager app will not. Again, the card is now considered to be just part of the overall file system structure, so a file manager app doesn't view it as a separate volume any longer, it's just part of the overall internal storage. You, the user, don't interact with the card now, it's the Android operating system on your phone that manages what does and doesn't get written to the card.
If you change your mind later and want to use your card as portable again, you can go through the steps of reformatting the card back to its original state (back to FAT32 or exFAT and the encryption removed) using the Settings >> Storage menu. This might also require you to reinstall some apps too. But read through that guide in its entirety. Be sure your card is UHS-1 or faster card:
https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/
A card used as Internal needs to be fast enough so it doesn't slow down the whole system. A slower card might be fine as a portable card but adoptable storage is more demanding. And it's better to just get a more capable card to begin with, it doesn't cost that much more for a good card. A lot of people shop for cheapest price expecting the same quality, but that often just results in lower performance and shorter usage life.
 

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