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So, You Want More Storage Space...

TheRoosevelt

Android Expert
Oct 11, 2011
815
1,289
USA
For a while now, many of us have been disappointed with the lack of an SD slot on the Galaxy Nexus. With potentially only 16GB of internal memory, it's easy to see how a few movies and apps could eat that up in no time.

So, what's the solution? Essentially, you have two options:


  1. Cloud Storage
  2. USB Hosting

I know most of you already know about cloud storage, but let me run through both real quick (sections are conveniently hidden so you're not assaulted by a wall of text immediately).

1. Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is the storage of your files and media on the "cloud", i.e. someone else's servers. There's a few services that offer this, the most famous being Dropbox (2GB+ free storage), but there are other options such as Minus (10GB+ free storage) and Box.net (idk how much free storage) as well. Then there's also specialized services such as Google Music and Amazon Music as well for, you guessed it, music.

There are a few advantages and disadvantages to cloud storage.

Advantages

  • No need for extra hardware (i.e. SD card, thumb drive)
  • Convenient
  • Automatic synchronization
  • Um, I'm sure you guys can think of more, I'm drawing a blank right now :eek:
Disadvantages

  • Requires constant connection, either via data or wifi
  • Potentially slow over 3G or weak Wifi
  • Streaming movies is difficult, if not impossible (at least with Dropbox, etc.)
  • Eats up a limited data plan quickly
So that leads us to our second option, one that's new with ICS and the Galaxy Nexus:

2. USB Hosting
USB hosting was a feature introduced in Honeycomb on tablets. Now, with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, the feature will be brought to phones as well!

So, what is USB Hosting? Most of the time, you hear it being mentioned when talking about game controllers, and yes, that potential is there. However, USB hosting allows you to do much more than just use your Xbox controller on your phone. It essentially allows you to plug in any USB storage device into your phone, as long as you have the right adapter.

The Galaxy Nexus, like many phones, has a micro USB port (well, technically, it's an MHL port but, you know). There are plenty of adapters out there that will connect a USB device to your micro USB port, and they're dirt cheap (here's one).

So, when you combine
this:
41F0RWoEV8L._AA300_.jpg

with this:
21ia3bDrT6L._AA160_.jpg

you can easily have up to an extra 64GB of storage to access your movies and music when you need it. When you're done, you can unplug it and keep it in your pocket. You're not restricted to thumb drives either, you can plug in an SD reader or even a 1 TB portable hard drive if you wanted.

There's a disadvantage here, too, though, namely, that you have to carry a jump drive (or hard drive, depending on how much space you want) around.

Video Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giJXF5pIITc

TL;DR version:
you can either upload your files to a cloud storage service like Dropbox or plug in a USB drive and access your files from there.

So, there you have it! If this post helped you, feel free to click the little "Thanks" button. If this post angered you, feel free to rant angrily below. If this post kidnapped your wife and children, I'm afraid I can't help you, but you should contact the local authorities :)
 
Cloud storage requires good data connection with unlimited usage, I live in the UK so here generally it sucks and unlimited tends to come with fair usage policys.

I don't think carring round a serperate USB flash drive and adaptor with you is the way to go either.

There options but there not as good as having a microsd card slot.
 
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Is it really that big of a deal to transfer files to and from your computer using wireless or usb? I think this whole,lack of SD support is getting overlooked...

32 gigs is plenty. You will never use the full 28 or so gigs in one shot. if one was to put what they truly want on the SD card and stop thinking about what they may play, listen, watch or use in 8 months there would be no issue. I for one already had the usb idea in my back pocket if it ever came to that.

To test my theory. Try to think about how you can remove 10 gigs to an already full sdcard. You may be surprised as your brain tells your body no to each file even if you know you won't use a file in the near future.

Usb drives are so small nowadays they have become even more convenient to carry. I'm sure most of you spend the majority of your life or will anyhow at work. Connecting a usb won't damage your pride too much. If you're going out and need the space to shoot pictures or need movies for a trip quickly transfer from or to your computer or usb. It would take a few minutes.

No one is so busy that they can't spare 5 minutes. Otherwise stop being so impractical and or impatient.
 
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]USB hosting was a feature introduced in Honeycomb on tablets. Now, with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, the feature will be brought to phones as well!

Ok I know I'm kinda jumping in 'uninvited' so to speak here (as I'm a HTC Desire user and will sadly probably never get the galaxy nexus) but when you say the USB hosting will see its way to phones via ICS, does this mean (hopefully) that any ROM's created that are ICS based as well will have the hosting feature in them?

Being a Desire user I'm watching XDA and the Root forum here for the Desire with the Dev's waiting for source code and then launching into creating an ICS Rom for the Desire...I'm just hoping to see the hosting in that as that would really help alot.

I do agree with you that ok while its sometimes more convenient to have EVERYTHING you want on one card in the phone, its no hardship really to carry say a usb stick or something. I guess its really the general 'consumer' wants EVERYTHING on one, I mean cloud storage to the general 'layman' is starting to be widely more used but I don't see hosting usb as much used right now. Though I guess if the iPhone usb it more then probably everyone would follow (as it sometimes shown alot in market trends).
 
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We already discussed this a little before, but just because it is supported in the OS does not mean it will work with the hardware. You need the device to be able to actually power the storage being used and the device FW set up to use it. Not seeing a phone do this in a stable manner (generically), if at all (unless small flash drive).

Perhaps with a powered flash device (powered USB hub or powered hard drive), or a smaller flash device like some have had luck with the Xoom 1 (before sd cards finally worked).

If it does work- great!

Added:

Has anyone actually verified flash devices work at all on the Nexus, yet alone un-powered?
 
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Is it really that big of a deal to transfer files to and from your computer using wireless or usb? I think this whole,lack of SD support is getting overlooked...

I almost never remove my microsd card from my phone, that's not really the point.

I have a 16GB SGS2 with 32GB microsd card, that leaves me with about 41GB for storage, of this I have about 4GB free. I'm now considering getting a 64GB microsd card. :)

Now the Galaxy Nexus will in reality either have around 11GB of storage or 25GB, now if I had a phone with nice HD screen whats the first thing I might want to put on there? HD video! a decent quality HD movie will take up around 2-3GB each, recorded video at 1080p obviously takes up allot of space.

Graphics intensive games take up around 500MB to 1GB each and they are getting bigger, it all adds up, within no time at all you will run into storage issues especially with the "16GB" version which will be the most widely available version, some countrys I doubt will even see the "32GB" version.

It seems to me allot of users just havent thought this through.
 
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I almost never remove my microsd card from my phone, that's not really the point.

I have a 16GB SGS2 with 32GB microsd card, that leaves me with about 41GB for storage, of this I have about 4GB free. I'm now considering getting a 64GB microsd card. :)

Now the Galaxy Nexus will in reality will either have around 11GB of storage or 25GB, now if I had a phone with nice HD screen whats the first thing I might want to put on there? HD video! a decent quality HD movie will take up around 2-3GB each, recorded video at 1080p obviously takes up allot of space.

Graphics intensive games take up around 500MB to 1GB each and they are getting bigger, it all adds up, within no time at all you will run into storage issues especially with the "16GB" version which will be the mostly widely available version, some countrys I doubt will even see the "32GB" version.

It seems to me allot of users just havent thought this through.

Even if the device ships with a gig or two more free, same premise. The more apps you install, the less media and more reliance on remote storage (cloud), since no SD option and no confirm the Nexus usb is host and will power a flash device (awkward, but still would be an option).

Seems some will be caught up in the Nexus buzz in this forum (understandable) and maybe get the Nexus and realize they would have been better off with a device having an SD slot. Cloud happy people and lower media users will be oblivious that the sd slot is missing.

Media loving data cappers are best served avoiding the 16gb version, at any rate. IF the 16gb version is the only option.
 
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Even if the device ships with a gig or two more free, same premise. The more apps you install, the less media and more reliance on remote storage (cloud), since no SD option and no confirm the Nexus usb is host and will power a flash device (awkward, but still would be an option).

Seems some will be caught up in the Nexus buzz in this forum (understandable) and maybe get the Nexus and realize they would have been better off with a device having an SD slot. Cloud happy people and lower media users will be oblivious that the sd slot is missing.

Media loving data cappers are best served avoiding the 16gb version, at any rate. IF the 16gb version is the only option.

I hope users have sense to avoid the 16GB version, but they are going to charge a nice premium for the 32GB version so no doubt some will settle for it.

But cloud storage from my experience is only useful for small files, images or music, images and music take up a very small percentage of what is actually on my phone, you can't use cloud storage for game date, or large files like movies or hd video, it's not practical and it won't work.
 
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There options but there not as good as having a microsd card slot.

Oh, I agree completely, a built-in MicroSD slot would be ideal, but since this phone definitely won't have one, I was exploring the alternatives.


When you say the USB hosting will see its way to phones via ICS, does this mean (hopefully) that any ROM's created that are ICS based as well will have the hosting feature in them?

I don't see why an Ice Cream Sandwich ROM would be missing any of the OS features, unless it was a physical limitation of the device, i.e. it couldn't produce enough power to power a flash device. In all probability, though, if ICS comes to the Desire, USB hosting will too.


Perhaps with a powered flash device (powered USB hub or powered hard drive), or a smaller flash device like some have had luck with the Xoom 1 (before sd cards finally worked).

If it does work- great!

Added:

Has anyone actually verified flash devices work at all on the Nexus, yet alone un-powered?

While there's no official confirmation, unpowered flash devices work, people have been able to do it with the Xoom, like you said. However, the Xoom uses regular micro USB, not MHL, which could cause a difference. Personally, my somewhat-educated guess would be that unpowered flash devices will work on the Nexus, but it remains to be seen. Powered devices definitely would work though, although I don't see how much that would help you from a portability standpoint.

I hope users have sense to avoid the 16GB version, but they are going to charge a nice premium for the 32GB version so no doubt some will settle for it.

Well, Steven's source (a.k.a. Love Tunnel) said that as far as he/she knows, it's $299 for the 32GB version, which is the same price as the Bionic and the Razr. Nonetheless, I'm sure many will settle for the 16GB version because it'll probably be $200 or $250, assuming Steven's source is correct about the 32GB version.
 
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I guess MHL may be different, but I wouldn't get my hopes up about powered devices. I'm not sure anyone has confirmed anything about a 32 GB flash drive working on any Android device. And even some smaller flash drives don't work well- something to do with the ones that have software installed on them or something. Even my full-size SD card reader doesn't work with USB host on my Tab (and that's with the Samsung proprietary adapter, even) says it's too high powered- the micro one does work fine though. Portable hard drives will work, but they need to have an external power source. So I wouldn't make any assumptions yet.
 
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It seems to me allot of users just havent thought this through.

I think a lot of us just don't care. :) I just checked my D2, and I'm using about 7 GB total between the phone and the SD card and that's from over a year. Storage is just not a big deal to me, I couldn't care less about watching HD movies on a small phone screen (especially since I have a Tab) I stream my music and have never had an issue, and use Pogoplug if I need to access files. I just don't use my phone for anything that requires a lot of storage, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.


Also, FWIW, Pogoplug does stream movies pretty well, and has a lot of advantages over actual cloud storage, IMO, so that's something to check out as well.
 
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I think a lot of us just don't care. :) I just checked my D2, and I'm using about 7 GB total between the phone and the SD card and that's from over a year. Storage is just not a big deal to me, I couldn't care less about watching HD movies on a small phone screen (especially since I have a Tab) I stream my music and have never had an issue, and use Pogoplug if I need to access files. I just don't use my phone for anything that requires a lot of storage, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Also, FWIW, Pogoplug does stream movies pretty well, and has a lot of advantages over actual cloud storage, IMO, so that's something to check out as well.

Let me guess are you one of those people who buy a
 
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Media hounds are a minority of us, but as Amazon, Google, Apple, Motorola, etc push the cloud and Netflix type services and along with this carriers push 4G, the 2gb cap breaches will explode- which is what the carriers are $counting$ on ;)

There is a showdown coming with consumers that will probably involve the FCC and is timed just "perfect" for 2012 elections. I expect this to be an issue in 2012 and the parties noted above are causing an oil and water blend for consumers.

Contradiction in terms: Absurdly low data caps + 4G + cloud storage: I see no math solution that applies any form of logic.

Added:

Think about it folks. Just ONE Netflix hi def film or one streamed from the cloud will KILL the 2gb cap. $30 for one view on a phone? Not adding up and doomed to failure. Using unlimited users as a rationale is futile, since that is an eroding user base for the rolling install base of users. Cappers are the growing trend in the mix.
 
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OP -- nicely written. :)

We already discussed this a little before, but just because it is supported in the OS does not mean it will work with the hardware.

...

Has anyone actually verified flash devices work at all on the Nexus, yet alone un-powered?

Not that I've seen. I didn't known USB OTG existed until I saw it mentioned on the Galaxy S2 Wikipedia page a week or so ago. (I've never used an S2 so I can't confirm how well it actually works.) Since then I've been eagerly keeping my ear to the ground for reports. And while it sounds like MHL is confirmed, and therefore that the Nexus likely shares the same USB controller as the S2, I haven't seen any confirmation -- official announcement, successful test, or otherwise -- of USB OTG on the Nexus yet. It'll make a big difference to me so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


32 gigs is plenty. You will never use the full 28 or so gigs in one shot.

People keep saying this and it's simply not true. I'm still using a 32GB iPhone 3GS and it doesn't even hold half my music, not even half of my own CD rips.

The rebuttal is then that you won't ever listen to it all at one time, so just rotate music on and off the phone. That's great, except it completely defeats the point of having all my music with me, and having the ability to pick and choose whatever I want to listen to at any time.

Instead I have to plan ahead what I'm going to want to listen to later, which is daft. I don't *know* what I'm going to want to listen to later, that's the whole point. I already plan my daily work schedule, I plan my exercise routine, I plan my travel, I plan my grocery shopping and meals, I plan my nights out with friends... I'm sure as hell not about to start planning out my music listening and relaxation time.

If 16 or 32GB works for you, that's great. It doesn't come close to working for me. Maybe I suffer from some kind of music ADHD, but I end up wanting to hear random tracks or albums from all across my collection. Finding that the track or album isn't loaded is incredibly frustrating.



The cloud has one role at which it excels: allowing access to the same data from multiple devices in multiple locations. But it's getting so much press and buzz that it's now being pushed as a substitute for local physical storage in devices that are already portable themselves, which (a) it isn't, and (b) is patently absurd. The whole idea of iPods and mp3 players was to make media completely portable. By backsliding on the amount of local storage and instead pushing reliance on the cloud, things are actually becoming *less* portable because the cloud simply isn't ubiquitous.

Once unrestricted, high-speed internet access reaches 98% coverage, including in subways and tunnels, on trains, boats, and planes; once battery technology advances far enough that we can get more than 6-8 hours between phone charges while running wireless; once obscene roaming charges are done away with ... then sure, the cloud will work just fine as a replacement for physical storage. But until then, much of the press and marketing ploys surrounding the cloud are a big con.
 
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I really wanted this to be the phone that replaces my OG X but the omission of an SD slot and the possibility of it only coming in at 16gb seem like deal breakers.
While the screen is nice, anything larger then the X in terms of phone size was already less then ideal.
It is nice to know there are some workarounds for added storage however, they feel like unnecessary hoops to jump through just so we can restore (less efficiently) features that should have been implemented in the first place.

When I was traveling a couple of months ago on 18hr+ flights that extra memory card was a life saver.
 
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So this topic came up again in the main thread...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my take-away from the updated information linked to in the main thread (also here: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/447899-usb-mass-storage.html ) is that the Galaxy Nexus WILL NOT support this because it *does not* have a removable SD card, and therefore this feature is not supported in 4.0.

Did I read interpret this incorrectly? (Please convince me I did!)

Edit: so I just saw the applicable posts in the mega-thread; disregard my question. I'm looking forward to this feature, especially for quickly accessing photos off my (real) camera.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...s-post-important-11-19-a-805.html#post3499631
 
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I have just switched from a 32gb iPhone to a 16gb Nexus - This is a personal opinion but I started to really dislike my phone being my iPod. I would rather have separate devices. Think I have a hearing sweet spot for my Sennheiser Px100's so integrated headphones / mic is not an option.

Sold the iPhone - bought a 16gb Nano and and paid the handset cost for my new Nexus contract and still have
 
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I don't think it has been brought up in this thread - if it did I missed it completely - but Verizon is allowing tiered data users to DOUBLE their data cap without any extra cost!

2GB plans turn into 4GB for $30. And on and on. If you're tiered and are considering a phone that relies on the cloud, DO check this out!

http://cache.vzw.com/testNtarget/doubledata_banner_nocta.jpg

Just call Verizon customer service, *611 from your smartphone.

EDIT: And kudos to Roosevelt for great storage solutions! :)
 
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Someone really needs to turn the case idea into a product...or I guess I could

Oh, man, a case that had embedded USB wiring so that you could insert full-sized SD cards into it would be effing badass. The wiring could be wrapped around the bottom so the SD card goes on the back instead of protruding from the bottom. It'd let me do things like pack a bunch of movies if I'm going on a long trip, without the discomfort of extra cabling/protrusions.
 
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Oh, man, a case that had embedded USB wiring so that you could insert full-sized SD cards into it would be effing badass. The wiring could be wrapped around the bottom so the SD card goes on the back instead of protruding from the bottom. It'd let me do things like pack a bunch of movies if I'm going on a long trip, without the discomfort of extra cabling/protrusions.

+1
If this USB OTG really works, then I have no problem with the GN not having a SD card slot
 
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