Android - your experiences with internal SD

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gzt

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#230459 24-Feb-2018 19:11

What are your experiences with internal SD in Android?

100% reliable or less than that?

I've owned a couple of phones where SD worked for a while and then asked for a reformat. I gave up on internal SD.

paulchinnz

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#1963611 24-Feb-2018 19:18

Had 2-3y total with S3 and S8+ with SD cards (SanDisk and Samsung EVO+, respectively). No problems.

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hio77

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#1963612 24-Feb-2018 19:20

i had 1 sd card that corrupted, but there was no obvious sign.... the card still worked, data was intact.

made the device endlessly scan the SD card. Gained about 4 hours in battery life removing it...

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richms

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#1963613 24-Feb-2018 19:21

Have had occasionally a message about the SD needing a format and a reboot solved it, problem is apps using it for storage like spotify would just decide to download stuff back to internal storage, fill that up and the whole phone stopped working properly as a result. Not erroring out about the sd being inaccessable, just gave up and saved to phone space.

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andreajnz

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#1963615 24-Feb-2018 19:46

Have had about 3 years with Samsung J5.

The card seems to be just fine; the problem is that every app that can use the SD card storage, goes back to internal storage with every update. Then have to go in and move the app to external storage.

And of course - again not an issue with the SD card as such - no Google apps can use external storage.

I will definitely get more internal storage next time, because so many apps cannot be moved to the SD card.

mdav056

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#1963656 24-Feb-2018 22:21

The family has been using various makes of SD cards of large internal SD cards in various Samsung phones and tablets for at least 10 years, and no problems at all (most have been in 2-4 different devices, and are very old now!).

gml

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#1963677 25-Feb-2018 00:30

gzt: What are your experiences with internal SD in Android?

100% reliable or less than that?

I've owned a couple of phones where SD worked for a while and then asked for a reformat. I gave up on internal SD.

I assumed that you meant Android "internal storage" which involves using an SD card as part of the internal memory pool. But most of the comments appear to be about external or "portable storage" on an SD card. The difference has only existed since Android 6.0 Marshmallow in 2015.

Similar to you, I used "internal storage" but stopped after losing data due to a unexplained problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Marshmallow#User_experience

"When designated as "Internal" storage, the storage media is reformatted with an encrypted ext4 file system, and is "adopted" by the operating system as the primary storage partition. Existing data (including applications and "private" data folders) are migrated to the external storage, and normal operation of the device becomes dependent on the presence of the media. Apps and operating system functions will not function properly if the adopted storage device is removed. If the user loses access to the storage media, the adopted storage can be "forgotten", which makes the data permanently inaccessible.

Hammerer

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#1963724 25-Feb-2018 09:16

I see that android.com calls it "adoptable storage".

https://source.android.com/devices/storage/adoptable

Android has always supported external storage accessories (such as SD cards), but these accessories were historically limited to simple file storage, due to their expected impermanence and the minimal data protection offered to traditional external storage. Android 6.0 introduced the ability to adopt external storage media to act like internal storage.

Warning: File-based encryption cannot currently be used together with adoptable storage. On devices using file-based encryption, new storage media (such as an SD card) must be used as traditional storage.

When external storage media is adopted, it’s formatted and encrypted to only work with a single Android device at a time. Because the media is strongly tied to the Android device that adopted it, it can safely store both apps and private data for all users.

openmedia

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#1963761 25-Feb-2018 10:01

I've had issues on an old Motorola G LTE (XT1039) where the SD card could get corrupted if you used it as the primary photo storage.

Overall very few other issues.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

qwertee

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#1963778 25-Feb-2018 11:20

No problems using an SD card.

All music is on it and often copy over photos from internal to SD to save space.

afe66

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#1963784 25-Feb-2018 11:40

I've an HTC 10 and have 128gb SD card.

I had the option to merge the internal memory with the card to create some sort of raid but I prefer to have SD separate as I can remove it and access everything if needed and if I get new phone can just reinsert the SD card and all photos music video is there rather than part of a raid.