sd card not being used

[mosko]

hi i connected a sd card to my android phone
i dont think it is using the sd card as extra storage
have i done it wrong please see attachment
cheers

 

[puppykickr]

Looks fine to me- the card info, that is.

Get back onto that page you took the screenshot of, and tap the phone statistics.

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage

Wait for the info to load up, and you will see a breakdown of what is using space on the device.

Is it personal pics and videos, music, or documents?
If so, then these should be moved to the SD card.
That is what the card is for.
If this is it, then no need to go further- but you can anyway.

Is it apps you have put onto the device?
If so, you need to eliminate some of that.
The SD card will not help you with this.

Tap the Apps section, and wait for the apps on the device to appear- first alphabetically, then ordered by size. This is automatic, but takes a few seconds.

Now tap the overflow, usually a three dot icon, and select Show system.

Tap the top app, and hopefully the size is due to a cache that can be cleared.

Continue on down the list of apps, seeing what large caches can be cleared.

If you come across an app that offers an option of Manage space or similar, choose that and clear whatever you can through that way.
Google Play Services is one like that.

Once you have done what you can this way, it will be time for some choices.

On a device with such limited resources (I have them as well) it is important to keep only what is necessary as far as apps go.

By far, the most painless ones to lose- and also some of the largest- are shopping and social media apps.

The good thing is that the majority of these are websites that are able to be reached by a browser, so the apps are not needed at all.

Another space waster is the pile of Google apps on our devices.
If you are not addicted to Google, it will increase the performance of your device with each of the Google apps you can disable and uninstall the updates.
This will also save a good chunk of device space.

A good rule of thumb is to leave as much empty space on a device as the device has RAM.
Another is to maintain around 70% capacity of the internal memory.

This gives the device 'breathing room' and allows for the best performance.

If you are using Chrome, I will guess that it is rather large.
If so, export your bookmarks, and then disable it after getting used to another browser.
To get you started, here is a link to a much better browser that I have used for years.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/

Any questions about it, or features desired, just ask.

 

[mosko]

hi cheers for your help so to use the sd card i have to manually transfer over photos ect i thought it would change my internal storage from 8.17 gb to another 32gb to aprox total of 40 gb also what is internal shared storage 7.04 gb used of 7.28 gb

 

[Hadron]

No, it won't do that. The SD card provides a second storage device, distinct from the internal storage. It uses a different filesystem (with poor security), and the technology is slower, less robust and less reliable than the internal storage chips.

It's a good place to store media and similar, files that are written once and then left in place. It would be a bad place to store things that are constantly being read (because it would slow the phone) or updated (because the card wears out from constantly writing to it).

Some phones have the ability to "move apps to SD". If yours can do this then if you go to Settings > Apps, select an app you installed (not a pre-installed one) you will see a "move to SD" button. If you don't have that then the phone doesn't include this option (a legacy feature retained by some manufacturers on some phones). If you do then you can move part of that app (static elements like the apk and some libraries, but not things like the app data that are constantly being updated). But it's a manual process you do yourself.

Some phones do have the option to format the SD card "as internal storage". If you do that then it will behave like part of the internal storage, but as noted above that means the card wears out quicker (and can no longer be used in another device without reformatting it). I've no experience with this option as the phones I've owned since it was introduced didn't support it, and I personally would rather buy a phone with adequate storage than rely on this. But if you are desperate for space you could see whether you have it. Formatting the card will of course delete anything that's on it, so back up its contents first.

The funny thing to my eye is the "internal storage 8.17GB out of 36.99 GB used". Because those numbers look like the sum of the internal + SD card, which is surprising since the SD is not generally counted as internal storage. So have you already formatted the SD card as internal?

 

[mosko]

No, it won't do that. The SD card provides a second storage device, distinct from the internal storage. It uses a different filesystem (with poor security), and the technology is slower, less robust and less reliable than the internal storage chips.

It's a good place to store media and similar, files that are written once and then left in place. It would be a bad place to store things that are constantly being read (because it would slow the phone) or updated (because the card wears out from constantly writing to it).

Some phones have the ability to "move apps to SD". If yours can do this then if you go to Settings > Apps, select an app you installed (not a pre-installed one) you will see a "move to SD" button. If you don't have that then the phone doesn't include this option (a legacy feature retained by some manufacturers on some phones). If you do then you can move part of that app (static elements like the apk and some libraries, but not things like the app data that are constantly being updated). But it's a manual process you do yourself.

Some phones do have the option to format the SD card "as internal storage". If you do that then it will behave like part of the internal storage, but as noted above that means the card wears out quicker (and can no longer be used in another device without reformatting it). I've no experience with this option as the phones I've owned since it was introduced didn't support it, and I personally would rather buy a phone with adequate storage than rely on this. But if you are desperate for space you could see whether you have it. Formatting the card will of course delete anything that's on it, so back up its contents first.

The funny thing to my eye is the "internal storage 8.17GB out of 36.99 GB used". Because those numbers look like the sum of the internal + SD card, which is surprising since the SD is not generally counted as internal storage. So have you already formatted the SD card as internal?

hi hadron cheers your info is very helpful i made my sd card internal from the e8 smart phone users manual see attached

if i open internal shared storage it shows apps system and cache data
if i open sd card it shows apps none but see a breakdown of what is using space on the device.
so it looks like personal pics and videos, music,documents are being saved on to the sd card
so i am limited to what i can do

also on internal shared storage if i click on three dots it says migrate
this will free 253 mb on the sd card?

 

[Hadron]

I don't know, I'm afraid. I know you can migrate stuff between the 2 volumes (internal and microSD), but that's about all I know, since formatting as internal is a feature I've never used. Truth be told it's a feature I've never had, since I've not had a device with a microSD slot running anything more recent than Android 5.

 

[mosko]

I don't know, I'm afraid. I know you can migrate stuff between the 2 volumes (internal and microSD), but that's about all I know, since formatting as internal is a feature I've never used. Truth be told it's a feature I've never had, since I've not had a device with a microSD slot running anything more recent than Android 5.

hi hadron cheers for your help i now know how the sd card works
i will get another phone soon with more storage

 

[mosko]

Looks fine to me- the card info, that is.

Get back onto that page you took the screenshot of, and tap the phone statistics.

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage

Wait for the info to load up, and you will see a breakdown of what is using space on the device.

Is it personal pics and videos, music, or documents?
If so, then these should be moved to the SD card.
That is what the card is for.
If this is it, then no need to go further- but you can anyway.

Is it apps you have put onto the device?
If so, you need to eliminate some of that.
The SD card will not help you with this.

Tap the Apps section, and wait for the apps on the device to appear- first alphabetically, then ordered by size. This is automatic, but takes a few seconds.

Now tap the overflow, usually a three dot icon, and select Show system.

Tap the top app, and hopefully the size is due to a cache that can be cleared.

Continue on down the list of apps, seeing what large caches can be cleared.

If you come across an app that offers an option of Manage space or similar, choose that and clear whatever you can through that way.
Google Play Services is one like that.

Once you have done what you can this way, it will be time for some choices.

On a device with such limited resources (I have them as well) it is important to keep only what is necessary as far as apps go.

By far, the most painless ones to lose- and also some of the largest- are shopping and social media apps.

The good thing is that the majority of these are websites that are able to be reached by a browser, so the apps are not needed at all.

Another space waster is the pile of Google apps on our devices.
If you are not addicted to Google, it will increase the performance of your device with each of the Google apps you can disable and uninstall the updates.
This will also save a good chunk of device space.

A good rule of thumb is to leave as much empty space on a device as the device has RAM.
Another is to maintain around 70% capacity of the internal memory.

This gives the device 'breathing room' and allows for the best performance.

If you are using Chrome, I will guess that it is rather large.
If so, export your bookmarks, and then disable it after getting used to another browser.
To get you started, here is a link to a much better browser that I have used for years.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/

Any questions about it, or features desired, just ask.

hi i need more of your good advice
i want to free up my android phone if uninstall these apps will it
affect others or anything
google play book
google news stand
google play games
google pingyin
google indic keyboard
device manager
date widget
cheers

 

[mikedt]

hi i need more of your good advice
i want to free up my android phone if uninstall these apps will it
affect others or anything
google play book
google news stand
google play games
google pingyin
google indic keyboard
device manager
date widget
cheers

Two obvious ones from that list: Do you need Chinese or Hindi keyboards? The others like "device manager" might be essential frameworks for your apps and device, or you may not be able to remove without rooting your phone.

 

[puppykickr]

As @mikedt says.
Also, as a general rule, I disable anything from Google.
(My gaming device is the exception.)

Trial and error is the best way to discover what you can and cannot do without on any device.

As for Device Manager and the like, I despise this type of app.
Most cannot be disabled.
I do periodically clear all data on these annoying apps.

But keep in mind that these apps are all in a separate area of device memory that you have no access to- so even if you could eliminate all of them you would gain no space, except for any updates and data the apps have collected.

On the plus side, it could free up some resources and possibly speed the device a noticible amount.