What else can you transfer to a memory card from your phone memory
If your smartphone has small internal memory (less than 32 gigabytes, for example), it’s worth saving the situation and transferring media files to an additional device, since they “eat up” a lot of space. You can use microSD or USB flash drive. The operating principle for both drives is almost the same. The only difference is that microSD is inserted into a separate slot, and USB is connected via an adapter cord.
Step-by-step instructions using the example of the “Explorer” application on Xiaomi phones:
- Insert microSD. Installed additional devices are automatically detected by the phone.
- Go to the application, select the section with the folder image at the top.

- Select the folder or file you want to transfer by pressing your finger on it.

- Icons will appear on the bottom panel — send, move, delete and “More”.

- Click the “Move” icon (indicated by four arrows pointing in all directions). The application will proceed to select locations where you can move the selected file/folder. In our case, we need to move it to an SD card.

- Select SD card.
After these manipulations, you can connect the SD card to any other gadget, and then view photos or transfer them to the memory of another phone.
↑ replacing internal memory with external memory
This method allows you to deceive the system, i.e. Android will consider the SD card to be the device’s memory. One of the main advantages is the fact that all applications will be automatically installed on the flash drive. Ideal for devices with very little internal memory.
- Install Total Commander
. - Launch and give Superuser rights.
- Go to “File system root”.
- Next is the “etc” folder, and in it find the “vold.fstab” file.
- Click on the file, then “Edit”.
- The file contains many lines that begin with # (the hash symbol). But we need a line that starts with the words “dev_mount” and without (!!!) a hash at the beginning.
There should be 2 such lines: the first indicates internal memory, the second — external.
For example, if your lines are:
- dev_mount sdcard/mnt/ sdcard
- dev_mount extsd/mnt/ extsd
Then they should become:
- dev_mount sdcard/mnt/ extsd
- dev_mount extsd/mnt/ sdcard
That is, the most important thing is to swap the words after /mnt/.
- You don’t need to change anything else, click the “Save” button (floppy disk icon).
- Reboot the device.
4 check if the privatespace function is enabled
In MainSpace, go to the Settings app, find and open the PrivateSpace section. If Enable is displayed, the PrivateSpace account is not registered.
If Sign in is displayed, a PrivateSpace account is registered on your phone. To delete your PrivateSpace account, follow these steps:
- Open the application Settings
, find and open the section PrivateSpace
, click icon
or
in the upper right corner to delete your account PrivateSpace
. - If you did not find the option PrivateSpace
, function Hide PrivateSpace
may be enabled. To display the option PrivateSpace
follow these steps:
Total commander
Total Commander is a well-known file manager with powerful tools and more functionality. It makes using your smartphone much easier.
Compared to the usual file manager that can be found on any Android smartphone, Total Commander offers more than any other program can.
Interestingly, at first, when the application first opens, the user may be put off by the complex design of the program. Yes, Total Commander is known not only for its functionality, but also for its unattractive appearance. However, over time you can get used to it and successfully use the program.
Let’s look at how to transfer photos from internal memory to microSD using Total Commander.
- Go to the “Root Folder” section.

- Press your finger on the DCIM folder. When the menu appears, you need to click on the “Copy/Move/Send” item.

- Select the location where you want to move the photos (SD card).

- Click “Move”.

Photos using the Total Commander application have been transferred.
Option 2: reactivation
Android also has microSD software eject functionality for its safe removal from the device. Sometimes the user accidentally or inattentively uses this function, and as a result receives an inoperable media. Fortunately, this action is reversible — in Android 11 you need to do the following:
- Open “Settings”
and go to section “Storage”
. - All storage devices recognized by the phone should be displayed here, including the memory card. Usually it is named accordingly, and under its name there will be a note “Extracted”
. - Tap on the name of the card, and then in the pop-up window use the button “Connect”
.
If the drive is working properly, it will be put to work immediately.



As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this option either, but it can only be done if the memory card is known to be functional.
Restoring work
Restoring the operation of a MicroSD card is a specific case when a media that was successfully recognized before suddenly ceases to be detected by the same device. In this case, there was no damage to the media or phone, no changes were made to the phone software, etc.
This method is quite effective, but only for old cards. And only on the condition that they worked properly before. There is no point in using this method for new cards.
- Connect the memory card to a PC or laptop to make sure it is working properly;
- Open Explorer and right-click on the map;
- Select Properties from the drop-down menu;
- Go to the Service tab;
- Run Disk Check, having previously specified the need to automatically correct detected errors and malfunctions;
- In the same section, you can conduct a Surface Test with automatic recovery of damaged sectors (although this is not necessary).
A more complex option is troubleshooting by working in the HKLM branch. This is done as follows:
- Find the SYSTEM directory in the folder tree;
- In it, open the StorageDevicePolicies section;
- The parameters that need to be changed will appear on the right side of the window;
- Assign a zero value to the defining parameter (write the number zero in parentheses in the combination 0x00000000
).
The card should now interact normally with the phone.
Using the android debug bridge program on a PC
You can use a specialized utility to change the default location for installing applications, even if you do not have such an item in your phone settings. The program is called Android Debug Bridge and is only available for the computer, so you will need to connect your device to the PC and follow some steps:
- Download the program from this link
and open the archive; - Unpack the contents of the archive in the root directory, that is, where your operating system is located. Usually this is the local drive «C». That is, your path should look like this: C:adb;

- In the settings of your phone, also without turning off “Developer Mode”, turn on “USB Debugging”, and connect your smartphone using a cable to the computer;


- Wait until the system automatically installs all the necessary drivers and launch the command line as an administrator;

- Next, in command line mode, enter the command cd c: adb to access the directory we need and press Enter;

- If everything was entered correctly, then you need to enter another command: abd devices and press Enter to confirm the operation;
- You should see information about the connected device marked successfully. This indicates that the system has recognized a new device;

- Next, enter the command adb shell pm set-install-location 2 and press Enter;

- If everything is entered correctly, the default location for installing applications will be the SD card. For those who don’t know, the value “0” is the internal memory of your phone. If something happens, you can always return the standard values using the same principle;
- Turn off your device and check its functionality.
How to find apps that take up a lot of space and reduce their size
We found out that memory itself cannot disappear; there are always some applications behind it.
The question is which ones, because everyone has different ones installed. Therefore, it is necessary to find out which applications take up the most space on
on your device: open Menu → Settings → Applications or Application Manager → Manager
applications (if there is such an item) → will open
list of applications. Below each application you will see how much memory it takes up.

Check the applications one by one and identify the ones that take up the most memory. We need to work with them further.
If messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, .) take up a lot of space, then most likely your memory is filled with pictures, videos, stickers and voice messages. This happens unnoticed because these files are downloaded automatically.
WhatsApp:
there are three dots in the chat list
top right → Settings
→ Data andstorage
→ insection Autoload media, items Mobile network
, Wi-Fi
, In roaming
→ remove everythingticks.
Also in item Storage
you can see how much space the files take up for each contactand
delete them by selecting the contact and pressing the button Free up space
.Telegram:
there are three dashes in the chat list
top left → Settings
→ Data andmemory
→ insection Autoload media, items Via mobile network
, Via Wi-Fi networks
, Вroaming
→ move the switches to the left.Viber:
there are three dashes in the chat list
bottom right → Settings
→ Data andmultimedia
→items Autoload on GSM network
and Autoload via Wi-Fi
→ uncheck all the boxes.
If other applications are taking up a lot of memory, then most likely the cache is filling up the memory. Possible
try removing it for each application.
Important information!
Deleting the cache is not a one-time action. You will have to repeat it every time the memory runs out.
Removing the cache should not, but may, affect information stored in the application.
Deleting the cache should not, but may affect the further performance of the application.
It is impossible to accurately predict how an application will behave after deleting the cache, because the programmer who wrote it may have associated important functionality with it. Therefore, if the application stores some important information, do not delete the cache.
To delete the cache: open Menu → Settings → Applications or Application Manager → Manager
applications (if there is such an item) → select the application for which you want to delete the cache → Memory
(if there is such an item) → Clear cache.
How to transfer photos to a memory card on an Android device?

Modern phones and tablets use excellent camera modules, which sometimes allow you to take professional photos. However, as the quality of the images themselves increases, so does the size of the photographs, which take up a lot of space.
If your device runs out of free space, you should free it up. This can also be done using a memory card, to which we will transfer photos and, accordingly, free up space on the device.
In order to transfer images to a memory card, you will need the memory card itself, installed in your smartphone or tablet, and a file manager.
Here is the memory card:

After you install the memory card in your smartphone, you can make sure that the device “sees” it. To do this, go to “Settings” and select the “Memory” subsection (or “Device Maintenance”, as is the case with Samsung and the One UI firmware).


Here, find the “SD memory card” item. As you can see, our device recognized the card.

Now you will need a file manager. You can use any application of your choice as a file manager, since the transfer process itself will be similar. If FM is already installed in your firmware, you can use it. If not, download using Google Play Store. We will use Samsung’s built-in file manager — “My Files”.

Click “Images”.

Select the files that you want to move (press and hold the file, then select others if there are several of them). At the bottom of the screen, click «Copy» or «Move» — depending on what you need to do.

Let’s go back a step and select the “flash drive” we added.

If you want to add files to the root of the memory card, just click “Move here”.

It worked.

You can create a folder by clicking on the three dots and selecting “Create Folder” from the menu.

Specify the name of the folder.

Open it and transfer files in the same way.

As you can see, nothing complicated. In this way, you can transfer other files to the memory card, with the exception of applications, or you can transfer from the memory card to the main memory.
Which company should I choose?
When choosing a flash card, you need to pay attention to the speed indicator: the higher the speed, the faster the files are recorded and the more high-quality and smoothly the sound and image are reproduced.
The speed is indicated on the body in classes or multipliers:
- SD Class 2 (respectively 13x) indicates a recording speed of 2 Mb/s;
- SD Class 4 (27x) — from 4 Mb/s;
- SD Class 6 (40x) — from 6 Mb/s;
- SD Class 10 (67x) — from 10 Mb/s.
Attention! Additional designations on SDHC and SDXC (I II or III) indicate the ability to communicate at higher speeds due to the improved UHS bus interface.
UHS I has two architectures and provides speeds of 50 Mb/s and 104 Mb/s, UHS II speeds up to 156 Mb/s and 312 Mb/s, and UHS III speeds up to 624 Mb/s.
No less than speed, reliability is important when choosing a flash drive. To keep it high, choose brands with their own enterprises, which include:
- Taiwanese company Transcend.
- South Korean company Samsung.
American developers:
Help. SanDisk Extreme Micro SDXC Class 10 UHS Class 3 tops the list of the best smartphone cards in 2021 and 2020.
Not recommended:
Transfer captured photos and videos to a memory card
To transfer existing photos and videos to a memory card, you can use the built-in My Files application available on your Samsung or any other file manager. I’ll show you the method for the built-in standard application:
- Open the “My Files” application, and open “Device Storage” in it.
- Press and hold your finger on the DCIM folder until the folder becomes checked.
- Click on the three dots at the top right and select “Move”.

- Select «Memory Card».

The folder will be moved, and the data will be combined with existing photos on the memory card (nothing will be erased, don’t worry).
Connect the memory card to the Samsung phone
Note that there are many different devices on the market, varying in volume. Smartphone manufacturers are constantly announcing new models with increased parameters. For example, Samsung released a smartphone with 1 TV (1024 Gb). Of course, such a gadget is sold at a high cost and is not available to everyone.
Important indicators:
- type: MicroSD, SDHC, SDXC, etc.;
- class – the higher the better. Indicates the number of megabytes transferred in 1 second. Class 10 is considered optimal — a good combination of speed and cost.
Manufacturers of mobile phones in the instructions for the device recommend the use of certain options, limiting the minimum parameters for correct operation with the Samsung galaxy.
Note that an sd card can work as a removable storage device (like a USB drive) or as the internal memory of a mobile or tablet.
Important: if you make the card an internal storage medium, it will be linked to the gadget in which it is installed. After extraction, it will have to be formatted for subsequent installation.
Installation instructions:
- Find the connector to install. In modern Samsung phones — in the location of the SIM. You will need a special tool in the form of a needle. Older versions — the compartment is located under the battery under the back cover.

- Carefully inspect the installation site and the location of the contacts, install them in the compartment. Close the branch.

Important: some trays in smartphones do not have space for information storage.
Check if you are using a third party manager app
Connection problems may occur when using third-party dispatcher applications. To eliminate them you need:
- The first step is to select the “Settings” section. Next, find and open the “For Developers” item.
- If this item is missing, you need to go to the “About phone” section in the “Settings” application. Here you should enter the assembly number of the gadget seven times. If a screen lock password is required, you must enter that as well. Then the notification “You have become a developer!” should appear. After all the steps have been completed, you need to return to the “Settings” menu, then you need to click on “For Developers”. After which you will need to activate the “USB Debugging” option, as shown in the figure.
- After activating this option, you need to disconnect the USB cable and then try to connect again. If this does not help resolve the problem, then you should disable the “USB Debugging” option and then re-enable it.
If the above instructions did not help resolve the problem, it means that the problem is related to third-party controller add-ons. This happens when the add-on is not compatible with the Android on which the smartphone operates. In order to establish a connection between the gadget and the PC, you should use HUAWEI HiSuite. How to install this program can be read below:
- The first step is to connect the gadget to the PC using a USB cable.
- Next you need to enter “This computer or My computer”.
- Then in the list of portable devices you need to select and double-click on “HiSuite Downloader.exe”.
- After which you can install the application on your phone. You can also check for new versions in this section. You should always use the latest version of the application.
Note: To install HiSuite on a device that supports Magic UI 2.X, Magic UI 3.0.1, EMUI 9.X or EMUI 10.0.1, you will need:
- Establish a connection between the gadget and the PC.
- Next, go to the “This computer or My computer” section using the desktop.
- Then double-click on the HiSuite disk icon.
- Then select the exe file and double-click on it.
- To download and install the application, you need to click on the “Download” line.
Taking photos and videos on an SD card
The first step (optional if you don’t need it) is to set up the camera so that photos and videos are captured on the MicroSD memory card, this is very simple:
- Open the Camera app.
- Open camera settings (gear icon).

- In the camera settings, find the “Storage location” item and instead of “Device memory” select “SD card”.

After these steps, all (almost) new photos and videos will be saved to the DCIM folder on the memory card, the folder will be created the moment you take the first photo. Why “almost”: some videos and photos that require high recording speed (photos in continuous shooting mode and 4k 60 frames per second video) will continue to be saved to the smartphone’s internal memory, but they can always be transferred to an SD card after shooting.
Note: the first time you start the camera after connecting a memory card, you will be automatically prompted to save photos and videos to it.

Stage 1: initial setup
In “pure” Android 10, the process of initially configuring a memory card is as follows:
Attention! Following the instructions below involves formatting the SD card, so before starting the procedure, make sure that there is no important or valuable data on it!
- After installing the card, a notification will appear in the device’s curtain asking you to configure it, tap on it.
- The configuration tool will open. The system will offer you to choose from two options: combining with internal storage or installing as a removable drive. The first option is recommended for phones or tablets with small amounts of internal memory (16 GB or less), while the second is suitable for all other cases.
- Regardless of the selected option, you will be prompted to format the card, agree to this.
- After the formatting process, you will receive a message indicating that the device is ready for use.




This completes the initial setup of the memory card.
Stage 2: Setup to upload files
If you have chosen to operate the SD card as a removable storage device, you will probably be wondering whether it is possible to configure it to download files. This option is available, but you need to do it for each application that requires the use of a memory card. Let’s use Google Chrome as an example.
- Launch Chrome, then click on the button with 3 dots to open a menu in which select “Settings”.
- Go to the Downloaded Files section.
- Next, tap on the “Location of downloaded files” item, select the “SD card” option in the pop-up menu and click “Finish”.
- After returning to the previous screen, look again at the “Location of downloaded files” option — the Chrome folder should be listed there in the Android / data section in the root of the external drive.




In the usual way, changing this directory to any other will not work due to restrictions that exist in Android.





