Changing to larger capacity SD card. How to transfer data from old to new card?

[Thoo555]

I just upgraded from an 8GB card to a 32GB. I tried to copy from sdcard to computer (using USB) while still in phone. I ended up taking the card out and inserting it in the computer using an adapter. I copied all the files to a folder, and then from the folder to the new card. That worked fine. I didn't have to move the apps back to the phone.

The lesson I learned here is
Copying the files from the card while in the phone does not copy the .android_secure files for apps installed on SD card.

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No !!!!!! copy everything from the old card, some Android are empty, but in secure.android are the used apps lists NEEDED !!!

 

[Thoo555]

and use XCOPY with verify and rights copy option!!

 

[Dave Thompson4]

Y'all are making an easy job sound very difficult.
I have a new Galaxy Note 7 that came with a 32GB micro card. Samsung sent me a new 256GB storage card, a promotional thing, and I just changed my cards.
I used my laptop to do it.
First, I unmounted the card using the phones storage>unmount option.
Then I made a folder on my desktop.
Used my my micro card reader to copy and paste everything that was on the 32gig card into that folder on my laptop, and then inserted the 256G card into the reader and pasted it all onto that card.
I put my sd card back in my phone and it read the card perfectly and works fine all of my music, photos, data...it's all there.
Oh yeah, before I copied the info from the 32g card, i made sure to tick the "show hidden files" option.

No need to run a command line and no need to stress. Just copy and paste.

If you do not have a micro card reader, use a micro card adapter. If your PC has neither of these readers slots, buy a $15 plug in usb card reader adapter. Very inexpensive very handy. That's actually what I used to complete this task.

Hope this helps you.

Peace...

This works.

Additions:

1. To wipe your old card, format it. But don't do this until you've used the new card and confirmed that it works.

2. For Macbook, to see hidden files: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/show-hidden-files-mac-3520878/

 

[jimglennon]

The method posted by Latitude1316 on 01-03-2018 worked perfectly for me. Just finished checking the phone apps I use most and the phone works exactly like it did with the old card, no issues at all so far. Thank you very much.

 

[itbedave]

The method posted by Latitude1316 on 01-03-2018 worked perfectly for me. Just finished checking the phone apps I use most and the phone works exactly like it did with the old card, no issues at all so far. Thank you very much.

Also just want to confirm for those seeking a solution that Latitude1316;s solution works! See his link for detailed info.

 

[Myhrddin]

This might seem a strange way to do this, but I would insert the card in your PC, copy paste all the files from the card to your PC, and then copy paste again to the new card. Double check everything is there and delete the old card. This does 2 things: PCs can do this faster, and it creates a backup copy of the files.

I got a 128gb MicroSD to replace my older 64gb MicroSD card in my phone.. However, I do have apps on the card and, my phone & card are encrypted.

After having tried to shut off the phone, remove the card and try to copy it to a temp folder on my computer.. yeah, that didn't go so well and I ended up having to just shut down windows, remove it and put it back in the phone..

..then, cabled to the pc, I'm able to copy over the general folder & files like music, pictures and the non-system bits.. But, I want to bring over the apps & other system-stored data that it's not going to allow easily.

And, I'm thinking that maybe I won't encrypt the new card (if possible).. if it needs to be encrypted though, that's okay by me.. it's only for the phone's use and isn't going to need to do anything else.

So ... What's your advice when Android encryption is involved for proceeding.?

Thanks in advance.! Some insight will be Greatly Welcomed.!
I've had enough "Tuba Stew" trying to get this one on my own already.
lol
~Myr

 

[Golfdriver97]

I got a 128gb MicroSD to replace my older 64gb MicroSD card in my phone.. However, I do have apps on the card and, my phone & card are encrypted.

After having tried to shut off the phone, remove the card and try to copy it to a temp folder on my computer.. yeah, that didn't go so well and I ended up having to just shut down windows, remove it and put it back in the phone..

..then, cabled to the pc, I'm able to copy over the general folder & files like music, pictures and the non-system bits.. But, I want to bring over the apps & other system-stored data that it's not going to allow easily.

And, I'm thinking that maybe I won't encrypt the new card (if possible).. if it needs to be encrypted though, that's okay by me.. it's only for the phone's use and isn't going to need to do anything else.

So ... What's your advice when Android encryption is involved for proceeding.?

Thanks in advance.! Some insight will be Greatly Welcomed.!
I've had enough "Tuba Stew" trying to get this one on my own already.
lol
~Myr

When anything is encrypted, only the device that did the encryption can read the data. You would need to use the phone to decrypt the card in order to have other devices read it.

 

[Becky_Techie]

This might seem a strange way to do this, but I would insert the card in your PC, copy paste all the files from the card to your PC, and then copy paste again to the new card. Double check everything is there and delete the old card. This does 2 things: PCs can do this faster, and it creates a backup copy of the files.

While this is certainly the easiest way to do this, it is NOT the fastest. The PC is restricted by the speed of accessing the card via the reader. So start the copy and sit back and wait...... The backup aspect might be nice.... Unless you have copies of your music which you may already have. I would delete anything on the card that you can simply copy again from your PC like music files. Just be careful to not delete anything you can't copy again.

By the way... You don't have to 'format' the new card. Just copy all the files over and it will be recognized. It is good to Unmount the SD card before ejecting it from the phone. Go to Device Maintenance, click Storage, then Unmount SD Card. It will automatically 'mount' when you put the new one back in with the copied information on it.

 

[Golfdriver97]

While this is certainly the easiest way to do this, it is NOT the fastest. The PC is restricted by the speed of accessing the card via the reader.

True, along with other aspects, being the USB port being 3.0 or not.

Something to consider though....I made that post 5 years ago. There was really no cloud solution back then. Sure there was Dropbox and others, but for shutterbugs, they weren't feasible. Their rates at the time as I recall were horrible for anything above an extra 50 GB. Google Photos, with free unlimited uploading was at least 3 years away, and probably not even on Google's radar at the time. So, in that time, a lot has changed, including the cables and speeds of the ports on phones themselves. Straight plugging in a phone to your PC is faster now than it was then.

 

[Becky_Techie]

I didn't even realize it was that old... thanks for clarifying

 

[Golfdriver97]

I didn't even realize it was that old... thanks for clarifying

No worries. I see you are new to the forums; Welcome. If you'd like, you can create in intro thread here: https://forums.androidcentral.com/new-forums-introduce-yourself-here/

 

[Yaghoub Soltanpour]

OTG and SD card reader

I am travelling and have no access to a PC. I decided to buy an OTG and SD card reader. Ejected the old card, took it off the phone and put it in the reader and inserted the reader in the OTG. Inserted the new SD card in the phone. Connected the OTG to phone. My LG G5 detected the card but for some reason I couldn't access the files. Restarted the phone and everything became fine. Could use free ES File Explorer or phones default File manager to copy files from old to new. Turned on hidden files in settings though.

 

[Talyspops]

ahm sir? how about those files that linked to my old sd card? say those apk with cache, mod or with data files??? (using link2sd here!)

Hey good question bud, I've screwed up my sh*t many times before I came to this conclusion, the hyperlinks that Link2SD creates to redirect to your sd card, the string of numbers embedded in them have characteristics of your old sd card. Such as size of the old card and any partitions. These obviously change with a new larger card.
Another issue is that remember in order to use Link2SD, you had to create a 2nd partition, that's in EXT4 format? EXT2, EXT3, EXT4 are Linux type formats, which Windows can't even see so it'll be kind of hard to move/copy an entire partition your PC can't see.. Course, Linux and Macs can view them but then you'll still have the 1st issue I discussed. I'm a flashaholic, addicted to flashing ROMs on my devices, my goals always been to flash and try out every ROM available for that device. Its a habit to check if a new device is "hackable" and has a decent sized community on XDA first before I buy them, I'd guesstimate I've had round 10 or so various phones & tablets I've messed with.
But anyway, back to your question, the only way around this is to move every app and it's data/cache files back to the phones internal storage. Afterwards there's an option to "clean 2nd partition" which was where your apps used to be, select that bcuz it'll clean up any remnants that might still be around, you don't want to copy that over to the new card and cause issues when make new links again. In case you don't have enough space on your phone to accomadate all apps you had, your only choice is to decide which ones you don't mind losing their data over, bcuz you'll have to re-download them again and start over, unless Google Games has them saved? I'd start with ones that I don't use or use often, you can re-DL FaceBook and any Social Media apps, if you pix or vids saved then make sure you don't delete them. Go thru your apps down the list and delete cache on each one, to scrounge up space. In your cameras folder, "DCIM" there should be a folder named ".thumbnail" make sure you've enabled "show hidden files" in ES File Explorer or your "File" app, otherwise you can't see it. Your phone saves every pic you've shot into that folder. If you've accidently deleted one and DL an app to try to get it back, this folders where it'll look. I've found 7GB of pics there before so deleting it should help regain some space for moving those apps back. If you have hacked or modded games, you'll want to put those OBB folders in a safe spot. I've uploaded them to GDrive before, depends on your connection speeds though. Thats bout all I can think of for now. Good luck