How to use SD Card in Android for extra storage [Tip]

Is your Android device short of storage space? Do you wish to use an SD card in your Smartphone to increase the storage space? Android 6 Marshmallow offers some exciting features to support an SD card in your Android device. So, let’s look at how we can use one to increase the storage space in your Android device.

Ways to Use an SD card in an Android Device

Not so long ago, Nexus Smartphone stopped supporting SD cards and has recommended people to move away from the use of SD cards. But, with Android 6 Marshmallow, Android has come in strongly in support of the use of SD cards. You can use your SD card in two ways with your Android.

External Portable Storage: For many years, Android has been using the SD card as a portable storage option. This means you can just take your SD card from the Smartphone and put it in your computer to copy the latest photos and videos from your Smartphone. With or without the SD card, the Android Smartphone continues to work properly.

Internal Storage: With Android 6 Marshmallow, you can use an SD card as an internal storage option too, in some selected models. Here, the Android device considers an SD card as a component of its internal storage system. You can easily download any category of apps and install it on your SD card and your smartphone will automatically read it from there. The issue with this approach is that Android devices write the data in a special way. This ensures that other devices cannot read it. This means, in short, if you’re using an SD card as an internal storage system, then you cannot copy the content from the SD card to another device. The advantage of using this technique is that if your phone is low on storage, using an SD card as an internal storage system helps.

Experts recommend that it is best to use an SD card as an external storage option so that you can take it from your smartphone and put it in any other device to copy the contents from the SD card.

Steps to Use an SD Card as a Portable Storage Option

If you need to use an SD card as a portable storage option, the process to set it up is very easy. Switch off the phone and insert the SD card inside the microSD slot in your smartphone. Your phone will automatically accept the SD card. Now, select the option “Use as portable storage option.” By going to Settings and from there Storage, you can view the contents of the SD card and know how much space is remaining.

Steps to Use an SD Card as an Internal Storage Option

There are only a few models that support the ability to use an SD card as an internal storage option. In such models, insert your SD card into the microSD slot in your phone and when it asks, select the option “Use as internal storage” option so that your phone uses the SD card as an internal storage option.

Conclusion

Having the ability to use an SD card as a storage option is a great feature on certain phones. This feature is very important if you have the habit of saving a lot of data on your phone.

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