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Changing SD card in Marshmallow?

So, Marshmallow for Pure should be right around the corner, and it's nice to be able to use SD card as internal memory. My question is, when I need to upgrade the SD card (say, from a 32GB to 128GB in the future), what is the process? The thing is I have a 32GB card lying around, and I don't need a storage at the moment, so I plan to just start using that for now. But then later, may need to upgrade it to a larger/faster card.

namartlu said:
So, Marshmallow for Pure should be right around the corner, and it's nice to be able to use SD card as internal memory. My question is, when I need to upgrade the SD card (say, from a 32GB to 128GB in the future), what is the process? The thing is I have a 32GB card lying around, and I don't need a storage at the moment, so I plan to just start using that for now. But then later, may need to upgrade it to a larger/faster card.
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This is from the Styles update notes: https://motorola-mobility-en-in.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/108821
Expandable Storage
Android Marshmallow enables your SD card to fully extend device internal storage rather than just being used for media files.
After inserting a new SD card to your phone, you will see a notification to set it up. You can choose to use your new SD card as a portable storage or as internal storage:
Portable storage: use your SD card to store your pictures, videos, audio and other media files. You can remove the SD card at any time and transfer it to other device.
Internal storage: in addition to media, you can store downloaded apps and games, all their media and data. The SD card acts as an extension of the internal storage of your phone.
If you have an SD card inserted in your phone when you upgrade it to Android Marshmallow, the card will be defaulted to portable storage. Any existing application stored in your SD card before the upgrade will run as expected (in portable storage). In order to move any new application to the SD card, you have to adopt it as internal storage first. To set your SD card as internal storage:
Back up and preserve any data you have on the card, as formatting for internal storage will erase it.
Swipe the status bar down with two fingers and tap the gear icon at the top right corner of your screen.
Once in the Settings menu, scroll down and tap Storage & USB, then select your portable SD card from the list.
Tap the menu icon (3 vertical dots) at the top right corner of the SD card screen and select Settings.
Select Format as internal and follow the steps in the tutorial.
Important: when the SD card is adopted as internal storage, it is formatted and encrypted to protect your information. It cannot be removed and transferred to other device. If you want to use the SD card as portable storage or in another device after adopted as internal storage, then you need to format it. When doing so, please remember that formatting erases all the data stored in your SD card.

thanks, I have read that but doesn't seem to answer my question... I suppose someone could write an app to do it... migrating from one SD card to another...

Dump the smaller card's data on to a pc, then transfer that to the larger card. But if you choose to designate it as internal storage I think you'd have to dump it into the cloud first.
Sent from my SM-T230NU using XDA Free mobile app

namartlu said:
So, Marshmallow for Pure should be right around the corner, and it's nice to be able to use SD card as internal memory. My question is, when I need to upgrade the SD card (say, from a 32GB to 128GB in the future), what is the process? The thing is I have a 32GB card lying around, and I don't need a storage at the moment, so I plan to just start using that for now. But then later, may need to upgrade it to a larger/faster card.
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My assumption is that since this is a formatting to internal storage extension, then you will later (when ready to upgrade to the larger storage card) dump the current data either into a cloud, or usb into a desktop by copying/moving the files (app, media, system etc) onto the desktop into a new folder with just those files, (maybe name it moto x files) then copy/move them from the desktop folder onto the device with the new larger memory card via usb after it's been formatted as the new internal extended memory.

If we change the SD card to internal storage will it mean that sdcard read/write operations will be slower??

So, if adopting the SD card as internal encrypts the card what happens if you try to download music to it from a streaming service like Rhapsody? Will it successfully download? Will it successfully play back in the Rhapsody app on the phone? I have the feeling Rhapsody support won't even have a clue what I am asking. ?

opti1 said:
So, if adopting the SD card as internal encrypts the card what happens if you try to download music to it from a streaming service like Rhapsody? Will it successfully download? Will it successfully play back in the Rhapsody app on the phone? I have the feeling Rhapsody support won't even have a clue what I am asking. ?
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I believe as long as it is in the phone it will work as normal. If it is removed from the phone you won't be able to read it.
Sent from my Moto XPE

'convert' to adaptive storage

I feel like such a noob. I have a 16 GB model with a 128 micro SD card. I was expecting MM to come out much earlier than this (I'm on Verizon) but some time ago I had to not only point my music to the SD card but I also had to move a bunch of apps to the SD card in Lollipop because I was running out of space.
What is the most direct and foolproof way to backup my phone (not rooted), convert to adaptive storage and then get back to where I was with the least amount of work?
Thanks for any suggestions

Root it and use titanium backup

stevevetter said:
I feel like such a noob. I have a 16 GB model with a 128 micro SD card. I was expecting MM to come out much earlier than this (I'm on Verizon) but some time ago I had to not only point my music to the SD card but I also had to move a bunch of apps to the SD card in Lollipop because I was running out of space.
What is the most direct and foolproof way to backup my phone (not rooted), convert to adaptive storage and then get back to where I was with the least amount of work?
Thanks for any suggestions
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Click to collapse
Move apps back to internal storage, but free up space if you don't have it; you can copy the entirety of user-facing internal storage via MTP to a temporary directory on a PC, if you absolutely need the space for apps. Then, copy the entirety of the SD card to a temporary directory on a computer using either a microSD USB reader or via MTP through the phone itself. This will take an hour or so (maybe much longer) depending on how much data needs copying. If you don't need to free up space from internal storage, deal only with the SD card data.
You can then format the SD card as internal, and copy everything back to it via MTP. Moving apps to the SD card in MM is a bit more clumsy, and hopefully Google will fix that. But, as it stands, you have to individually move supported apps to the SD card by tapping on the app within Apps, and selecting Storage. Total step backwards, IMO.
Keep in mind that MM defaults to USB charging when connecting your phone to a computer, so pull the notification shade down, select USB for charging, then use the File Transfer (MTP) option.

so I think I followed Jason.Droid's suggestion right
I didn't feel like rooting to go about this so I did the move & copy thing. With minimal usage all things seem to work fine.
I am surprised by one thing though. I had thought that integrating the SD card via adaptive storage was supposed to just 'abosorb' it into what is shown as internal storage. Instead what I see is a summary at the top of 18.66 GB used of 133 , then a line item for Android OS, a line item for internal storage (7.11 GB used of 9.50 GB) and line item for the SanDisk SD card (5.04 GB used of 117 GB).
Is this how it is supposed to look? Does MM just handle where to put apps and data from now on so I don't get the internal storage full errors? Do I have to flip a setting to indicate to install apps on the SD card (like it was @ android 2.2)?
I'm expecting MM to just handle it. I also noticed the SD card option in Camera settings is now gone, so that to me is another indicator I'm in good shape.
Thanks again for any comments/confirmation.

How to copy files to the SD card when using an internal storage in Moto X Pure?

I wanted to use the micro SD card for storing my application in Moto X Pure. But it looks like if I use the micro SD card as internal storage (which looks like is the only way I can move apps to SD card if it is mounted as Internal Storage) I cannot copy files to it from PC. When I connect it via USB to PC (formatted as internal storage) and use File Transfer option I can only see the internal phone storage and not the SD card internal storage. If I format it as internal storage I cannot access it outside of the phone since it is encrypted so that also does not work. I wanted to copy files to the SD card and also use it for my larger apps location but looks like I cannot have both Anyone has resolved this or is there another way? I do not want to use the SD card as portable drive since then I cannot move apps to the SD card i.e. do not get the option to manage storage on the apps. This is with MM.

obb to sd module, maybe its working with large obb on sd card

How do I browse the SD Card?
Don't know how I can copy files to SD card. Is there a file explorer that I can use to browse the SD card if I have formatted it to act as internal storage?
---------- Post added at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 AM ----------
Also, my laptop does not detect my phone when connected via USB Debugging. Please help! I am not able to browse my SD card on my phone and internal storage on my laptop.
punjabi.dhiren said:
Don't know how I can copy files to SD card. Is there a file explorer that I can use to browse the SD card if I have formatted it to act as internal storage?
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punjabi.dhiren said:
Don't know how I can copy files to SD card. Is there a file explorer that I can use to browse the SD card if I have formatted it to act as internal storage?
---------- Post added at 08:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 AM ----------
Also, my laptop does not detect my phone when connected via USB Debugging. Please help! I am not able to browse my SD card on my phone and internal storage on my laptop.
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Use something like ES File Explorer App to browse the content of the SD card in the phone. When you connect the phone to your laptop, you need to look at the notifications and change the "USB For File Transfer" from "Charging only" to "Transfer Files (MTP)".

for transferring media files there is an option under Settings>Storage to move to SD Card.

I experience the same problem... It appears the microsd card is not visible to the PC for file transfer after selecting to use the sdcard as internal storage.
This means if your internal memory is full you can not copy the files over (as it stores it only in the internal memory space and it isnt smart enough to spill into the sdcard).
This is a big pain in the ass. So essentially microsd as internal memory means you cant get your pictures etc from the phone or store extra music to the phone. You are still limited to the 10gigs on the 16gig model etc.
This is a super let down...

Could you use gparted and split sd card into two partitions? Use partition1 for internal and partition2 for files/media.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Ptikjp said:
I experience the same problem... It appears the microsd card is not visible to the PC for file transfer after selecting to use the sdcard as internal storage.
This means if your internal memory is full you can not copy the files over (as it stores it only in the internal memory space and it isnt smart enough to spill into the sdcard).
This is a big pain in the ass. So essentially microsd as internal memory means you cant get your pictures etc from the phone or store extra music to the phone. You are still limited to the 10gigs on the 16gig model etc.
This is a super let down...
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Actually I just struggled figuring out how to put media on my SD card via micro USB, after combining the SD with the phone's internal memory.
Now I used the Android manager that's available for Mac. And it worked flawlessly. It doesn't show the SD card content only the entirety of storage. But I tested this buy making a folder on the internal. (Via Android manager)
Then I called it *Google play music*
I put about 14 gigs of music on the phone and went to view and monitor my storage change on the phone under settings and low and behold!
Only the SD card memory increased not the internal
So it's not a let down par se. If it works for music it'll work for anything bro.

And that's after I finished.

masterjay21 said:
And that's after I finished.
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Ill try to use Android Manager to manage this and i iwll let you know if it works. Its crappy that i need a third party software to manage what worked without issue before, but it is better than nothing. Thank you.

Marshmallow Flex Storage: How to upgrade to higher capacity MicroSD card?

Hey all,
Forgive me if this question has been asked before (Google did not help me find an answer) but I'm looking for the "best practice" method of upgrading my MicroSD card once it's already been mapped to internal storage using Marshmallow's "Flex Storage" capability.
I bought a 32GB Moto X Pure Edition and promptly installed my fastest MicroSD card (a 32GB PNY U3 Turbo card) and set it to function as internal storage after the Marshmallow update.
Since then, I bought a 64GB U3 card so that I'd have ample space for music and video. What I'm trying to figure out is the process to:
1) Take a snapshot of my internal storage (i.e. copy to an external HDD)
2) Remove the "old" microSD without any detrimental affect to installed applications
3) Mount the "new" larger microSD as internal storage
4) Copy everything back to the new internal storage
Is there a documented process for doing this, or some sort of migration tool I can use to upgrade the microSD capacity?

Good question

Bumpage. Has anyone seen anything on the nets describing the storage upgrade process for Flex Storage?

Probably not possible unless you flash a new ROM over the old. My understanding is that the sd card, once made to be part of the phone storage, is that it is 128bit encrypted in EXT4 format.

bw03 said:
Probably not possible unless you flash a new ROM over the old. My understanding is that the sd card, once made to be part of the phone storage, is that it is 128bit encrypted in EXT4 format.
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The thing is I currently have more internal storage free space available than actual data stored on my SD, so ideally there should be a way to migrate my data back to true internal storage, eject the SD, and replace with a bigger card?
Even if I have to do it manually, I want to make sure I don't screw with installed apps.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Might be a stupid question but have you tried taking out the card and seeing what happens?

I think the moral here is to start with the largest capacity card you think you'll need. 64GB cards are dirt cheap these days. Unless you need your entire mp3 collection on your phone, I doubt there is a real need for anything bigger.
I mentioned this in another thread, but probably more appropriate here. There is a way to partition the card for both internal and external storage. Portion of it is used for apps/data while the rest for pics/music and is visible when not in the phone.
The question is, can you create a twrp image of the system & internal storage with one sd card. Replace it with a different one, repartition it (in recovery), then restore your data?
http://blog.sam.liddicott.com/2016/02/android-6-semi-adopted-storage.html

Hello,
There might be a solution.
(Please notice I translate the android names from French, so there might be some variations)
In the settings/storage, click on the interal memory line.
In the settings -the 3 dots top right-, you might be able to transfer data from SD to internal memory.
Then, you can format back you sd card, remove and replace it, and voila, that should work.
My 2 cents,

SD card for app storage

I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.

I have not tried, so take the advice as a suggestion, perhaps android can be "fooled", which I doubt.
After creating a bulk partition in android, move the SD to Windows and resize that partition, and create a second partition on the remaining capacity and hide it.
Now move the SD back to android and see what happens.
If android will reformat the partitions again then I can't advise anything else.
However, if android accepts the memory, then the next step is to discover the partition in Windows and recheck the SD in android.

ze7zez said:
I have not tried, so take the advice as a suggestion, perhaps android can be "fooled", which I doubt.
After creating a bulk partition in android, move the SD to Windows and resize that partition, and create a second partition on the remaining capacity and hide it.
Now move the SD back to android and see what happens.
If android will reformat the partitions again then I can't advise anything else.
However, if android accepts the memory, then the next step is to discover the partition in Windows and recheck the SD in android.
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Well, I was trying to work on that and now the Android Storage module (in Settings) keeps crashing when I open it. IDK what happened here. I've reformatted the SD card, I've removed the SD card, I've rebooted the table multiple times. I'm almost to the point of having to restore the tablet from scratch ... again.

Try this:
Link2SD - Apps on Google Play
Complete app management, move to SD, clear cache, remove bloatware and more
play.google.com

JR1979 said:
I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.
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You're trying to convert a partition in sd card as internal storage and leave the rest as an external storage. Not possible as far as I know.

TheMystic said:
You're trying to convert a partition in sd card as internal storage and leave the rest as an external storage. Not possible as far as I know.
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Thats a bummer but that is what I was feeling was going to be the outcome. I guess I'll just go with it as internal storage then and be rlefated to wireless transfer of my books, etc. To the tablet. Any thoughts on why my Storage module keeps crashing now? Something definitely went nuts somewhere along the way here. It was running fine.. until I start poking around with this. I'll probably just do a rebuild again tonight.. if I can find my steps notes.

I also don't think it's possible to do what you have in mind. It's also important to remember that Windows will only mount the first partition of an SD card. It won't see any other partitions without 3rd party software installed.

JR1979 said:
Thats a bummer but that is what I was feeling was going to be the outcome. I guess I'll just go with it as internal storage then and be rlefated to wireless transfer of my books, etc. To the tablet. Any thoughts on why my Storage module keeps crashing now? Something definitely went nuts somewhere along the way here. It was running fine.. until I start poking around with this. I'll probably just do a rebuild again tonight.. if I can find my steps notes.
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The reason people want a micro SD card is to be able to move it around between devices, so it is not a good idea to convert it into 'internal storage' for two reasons:
1. You can no longer move the card around (not without reformatting it again).
2. This process would significantly slow down the system if the OS starts saving apps, data and files on the micro SD card because it sees this space as internal storage.
Because of how you partitioned the SD card and tried converting only a part of it as internal storage, my guess is the process caused corruption somewhere, and the system is crashing because of that. I'm afraid you'll have to do a factory reset and start from scratch. I hope your files are safe.

JR1979 said:
I'm using a 400GB SD card. I saw a comment about creating 2 different partitions on it as I want to use part of it for app storage and the other part for file storage, The second partition would be exFAT so I can remove the card and transfer my books, music, etc. to it by attaching the SD card to my laptop as I understand that Windows would not be able to recognize the partition that would be formatted as internal storage. I did format the SD card using my laptop as two separate partitions. My Samsung Galaxy Tab A saw both partitions. I selected the 96GB partition as I wanted to use that for app storage and selected the option to use it as internal storage. Unfortunately when I did that, it appears that the system set the whole CD card up for internal storage. Does anyone have any insight on how to accomplish this - use part of the SD card for internal storage and part of it for storage that would be recognizable by Windows? Thank you very much.
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Click to collapse
You should NEVER use an SD card for internal storage. They are MUCH to slow for that purpose. Today's SoC have RAM chips mounted directly on top and are several times faster than the fastest SD card bus. And low end tablets, which includes ALL Tab A devices, use a USB bus with limited bandwidth. So using faster SD cards is pointless as they will still only be as fast as the bus. SD cards are fine for storing video, audio, text and downloaded files, but NOT for running apps. Doing so will cause the device to be laggy at best, and cause crashes at worst.

blaacksheep said:
I also don't think it's possible to do what you have in mind. It's also important to remember that Windows will only mount the first partition of an SD card. It won't see any other partitions without 3rd party software installed.
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The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.

ze7zez said:
The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.
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I meant that it won't mount the second partition, although you can see it in Disk Manager.

blaacksheep said:
I meant that it won't mount the second partition, although you can see it in Disk Manager.
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Click to collapse
Windows 10 mounts both of these partitions, assigns them letters and you can use them (read and write).

ze7zez said:
Windows 10 mounts both of these partitions, assigns them letters and you can use them (read and write).
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Click to collapse
I stand corrected! Previous versions of Windows could not do that.

ze7zez said:
The two partitions on the USB flash drive can be seen* in Windows without third-party software.
*I don't have an English Windows interface.
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Click to collapse
Something strange in that attachment. Since when do Android SD cards have NTFS partitions? As far as I know, the internal storage partitions that Windows couldn't read were formated as Ext3 or Ext4 and the external as either FAT32 or exFAT.

lewmur said:
Something strange in that attachment. Since when do Android SD cards have NTFS partitions? As far as I know, the internal storage partitions that Windows couldn't read were formated as Ext3 or Ext4 and the external as either FAT32 or exFAT.
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Click to collapse
Don't suggest the volume label. Partition K: is FAT. The example shows that Windows can show two partitions on a USB stick.

ze7zez said:
Don't suggest the volume label. Partition K: is FAT. The example shows that Windows can show two partitions on a USB stick.
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Click to collapse
Of course it can. It can show several. But NOT the two partitions created on an Android SD card because one of then is formated in a file system Windows doesn't recognize and that is what the poster was talking about.
edit: Disk Manager will actually show the partition but it won't be assigned a drive letter because Windows can't mount it.