SD Card Question

[David Rosen]

So I'm in the process of moving to an S7 Edge from a Moto X Pure.

I'm considering adding an SD card because my Pure had 64gb internal storage and the S7 Edge obviously only has 32gb. I know without messing around with various stuff I'm not going to be able to install apps on the SD card.

So what DOES go on the SD card other than photos taken from the camera?

And I mean like by default as an option, without messing around, rooting, installing 3rd party apps to make it go on the SD card. Is there a list out there of popular apps that will make use of it? Like for example I'm pretty sure that Spotify will not save your downloaded playlists to it (stupid). What about Google Play Music? Will it save to the SD? Etc etc.

I don't download music to my phone normally other than pinning playlists from those two mentioned apps and downloading podcasts through the Howl Premium app. So I'm not looking for what I can transfer over from my PC to the SD card.

Thanks!

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi there. By default, only the camera pictures will go to SD card (and I STRONGLY suggest you change that setting back to Internal Memory and only move to SD card once you're certain those pictures have been backed up elsewhere).

In other apps, it will depend on each one to determine if it supports SD card storage or not and if there's a setting for you to point further downloads to it. For instance, you can tell Play Music to store offline data to SD card, but there's no setting on the stock browser to save downloads to SD card by default. So this one is really on a per-app-basis.

Some apps can be moved, partially, to SD card as well. Since Samsung chose not to implement Adoptable Storage here (but there is a trick to activate it without root, although you need a terminal session, but that's another topic), the main app file will always reside in internal memory. From there, each app dev can decide if they let extra files to be moved to SD card, like media, game saves, extra downloads, etc.

 

[santims]

Some apps can be moved, partially, to SD card as well. Since Samsung chose not to implement Adoptable Storage here (but there is a trick to activate it without root, although you need a terminal session, but that's another topic), the main app file will always reside in internal memory. From there, each app dev can decide if they let extra files to be moved to SD card, like media, game saves, extra downloads, etc.

you have a link to another thread for that?

 

[SpookDroid]

you have a link to another thread for that?

Galaxy S7 and S7 edge tips: How to enable microSD Adoptable Storage | BGR

 

[David Rosen]

yea see that's the reason i'm really on the fence about bothering putting an SD card in. If it's essentially just for the camera (and you're saying it's best to not even turn that feature on and better to move them manually)... It seems like I'm better off just pretending I just have 32gb and that's the end of it. It would be nice if there was a running list out there of popular apps that do have SD card support built in. I believe the Doggcatcher podcast app can set the SD card as the location for downloading episodes for example.

 

[SpookDroid]

Even if Adoptable Storage was included with this phone I wouldn't trust the SD card with my pictures. SD Cards are quite unreliable, really. They're fine for extra media content, but I wouldn't trust them with anything important that hasn't been backed up, say, like a weekend's worth of pictures from a camping trip with no data or WiFi to back up to Photos. (True story, sadly).

 

[oneformula]

i use the SD card on this s7 edge (and my prior samsungs and LGs) for music and videos and some large apps.

there is NO WAY you should trust your pics to an SD card. but guess what? you shouldn't trust them to the phone memory, either! use auto back up.

use the SD card for EVERYTHING you can. and use back up for anything important

 

[David Rosen]

Yea I'm not sure about this trusting the SD Card for pics when Dropbox automatically backs them up anyway as soon as I'm on wifi... If I lose my pics on the way home to wifi maybe it wasn't meant to be haha.

But still, is there ANYTHING else useful with SD cards if you're not rooting your phone? That's kind of the point of the thread. I just can't seem to find any other use... Transferring MP3s/videos from a computer, or allowing the Camera app to automatically store pics on the SD so it doesn't take up internal space... Those are the only two things as far as I can tell...

 

[oneformula]

Yea I'm not sure about this trusting the SD Card for pics when Dropbox automatically backs them up anyway as soon as I'm on wifi... If I lose my pics on the way home to wifi maybe it wasn't meant to be haha.

But still, is there ANYTHING else useful with SD cards if you're not rooting your phone? That's kind of the point of the thread. I just can't seem to find any other use... Transferring MP3s/videos from a computer, or allowing the Camera app to automatically store pics on the SD so it doesn't take up internal space... Those are the only two things as far as I can tell...

My 128hbllgb card is full - couldn't subbing without less memory. And if they offered the memory non-sd, or would be cost prohibitive. .

 

[David Rosen]

Looks like the answer for the most part is no. Just transferring mp3s/videos from my computer, or taking pics from the camera. Kind of sucks. But I think I'll survive as long as I'm active with erasing game I don't play too often.

 

[alarsen77]

I am curious why everyone is so against the SD card for pictures and saying that they are unreliable? My Professional Canon Digital SLR camera uses an SD card to store pictures to and I have never had an issue losing pictures from it? SD cards were originally designed for camera use. I am not trying to come across as sounding argumentative here. I am just really curious if there is something I am missing or not understanding.

 

[chanchan05]

I am curious why everyone is so against the SD card for pictures and saying that they are unreliable? My Professional Canon Digital SLR camera uses an SD card to store pictures to and I have never had an issue losing pictures from it? SD cards were originally designed for camera use. I am not trying to come across as sounding argumentative here. I am just really curious if there is something I am missing or not understanding.

Because an SD card, or any flash memory for that matter, has a finite number of write/deletes before it wears out and becomes unusable. When used as primary storage for programs (as a lot of Android users tend to do, moving apps to SD cards), these experience a lot of writes/deletes as the apps are being used. Changes in the data of the app on every use for example, a new save game, or a new entry hence editing of the database, creation of temp files during use and deletion after use, etc. All these contribute to decreasing the usable lifespan of the card, and the problem is sometimes this can be unpredictable.

 

[alarsen77]

Because an SD card, or any flash memory for that matter, has a finite number of write/deletes before it wears out and becomes unusable. When used as primary storage for programs (as a lot of Android users tend to do, moving apps to SD cards), these experience a lot of writes/deletes as the apps are being used. Changes in the data of the app on every use for example, a new save game, or a new entry hence editing of the database, creation of temp files during use and deletion after use, etc. All these contribute to decreasing the usable lifespan of the card, and the problem is sometimes this can be unpredictable.

So if I wasn't using the SD card for apps at all and it was only being used for pictures/video then it should be fine correct?

 

[msnider23]

The SD card really isn't all that useful in its current implementation, I would rather see the adoptive storage option. A large number of my apps won't even allow a move to SD. Even better would have been a 64GB version of the phone.

 

[Alanhd]

For you the SD card might not be useful but for me it is, I have 30gig of music on there and that's only a very small portion of my library. More goes on every day. Plus I put movies on there to stream to the TV.
I have no fear of the card going bad, everything is backed up automatically and the first sign of a problem it will get swapped out.

 

[chanchan05]

So if I wasn't using the SD card for apps at all and it was only being used for pictures/video then it should be fine correct?

It should last longer. That's all I can say. While cards nowadays hold up better, there is still that occasional lemon.