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How do I access adoptable storage?

S

sao

Lurker
I am setting up my next phone. It is a CAT S61. It runs android 8.1

I have installed a 256GB SD card, formatted as internal storage. It appears to have worked correctly. How do I access that storage? I cannot find it on the phone using any file managers I have tested, nor is it accessible via USB when connected to the computer.

My intent is to load my library of files and documents on it. I would like it to be secured storage in the event the phone is lost. It is my understanding adoptable storage will do that, however, I have been unable to access that storage.

Thanks for your help.
 
Once you format a microSD card as 'internal', the card is changed in various ways. It's file system is switched to match the file system of the internal storage in your phone, and it gets encrypted with the encryption key tying the card solely to your phone. It's also meant to be left inside your phone as the Android operating system running on your phone now considers the card to merged with the internal storage. Don't remove it to transfer files, and don't bother trying to use as a separate storage media, your phone's OS is doing all the file/folder management now.

From the sound of if, you should reformat your microSD card back to portable. Since you want to continue manually transferring files/folders to your card, setting it up as internal is the exact opposite of what you need. Check your sources for that advice.
 
I think you misunderstood my intent.
I do not wish to use it as removable storage.
I do want it encrypted. I have no intention of ever removing it from the phone. The only possible case where it might get removed is if it were to be replaced with a larger one, but surely the phone will be worn out long before I need that much more storage space.

It's a 256GB card. I have about 90GB of files and documents to put on it (not through a removable card, but uploaded to the phone.
Even after formatting it as internal storage, the space does not show as available on the filesystem. My file manager shows only 40 something gigabytes available, which is not sufficient.

I guess the short question is, where in the filesystem does adoptable storage get mounted? That should be where I should drop files, should it not?
 
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But the issue is you want to manually copy files to and from your microSD card, so you need to reformat the card back to portable (external). Once it's adoptable, your phone's operating system does all the file/folder/app management, not you. If you want to encrypt your card, format back to portable and then encrypt it (that option should be in your Settings menu somewhere, most likely in a menu option referring to 'Security'.
 
There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on this, but if you can help me out on this, I will try your recommendation. For the moment, the phone is blank and I have nothing to lose.

I want this card to be permanent, irremovable storage. I want it to be encrypted so it cannot be read without unlocking the phone. So, which is more appropriate, portable or internal? I thought portable storage was formatted fat32, and thus encryption was no longer an option.
 
It's not that conflicting. There's actual well-sourced documentation coming directly from manufacturers and developers. Again, check the validity of your sources, if you're relying on personal opinions as factual that's part of the problem. My comments fall right into that category, this is an unofficial, volunteer help forum with no direct ties to a Android or any manufacturer. Since you obviously don't believe me, this is a good example. Don't believe everything you read in a comments section of some web site and do some research. Things like Android's adoptable storage is well documented not hidden in any secret archive.
 
I'm just trying to make this work. I didn't say I didn't believe you. I'm trying what you have suggested right now. The format has completed, and I'm searching for the option to encrypt the drive.
 
The option to encrypt the microSD card will be dependent on whether CAT opted to include the feature. Some phones do, some don't. Just looking at what's in front of me at the moment, a Moto phone does not, an older Samsung does. If yours does not, keep in mind there are fundamental differences that are by design different between portable and adoptable, and it's not a matter of making a card do what you want in ways it can't be used for.
If you want to use your card as a portable media, but you want to have its content you copy to it encrypted and CAT doesn't allow for encrypting microSD cards, think about using folder encryption apps that are readily available and store your files inside a secured folder:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=folder encryption&c=apps&hl=en
 
It doesn't appear that they allowed the option to encrypt the card when used as portable storage. That would have been a good enough solution.

I tried using it as internal storage, and uploading the files I need to keep on it. Those files landed on the internal storage. I was able to use the "migrate data" button one time to copy them over to the SD card. Copying additional files fills the internal storage again, but the migrate data button doesn't work a second time. I get errors about being out of space while there is still about 170 GB available on the SD card.

I will look into the folder encryption apps. I need to find out if they will allow me to browse the file system from the apps I need to read the files (lots of pdf manuals, some videos).

I'm still struggling to understand why I can't access it directly when formatted as internal storage. I understand the system is doing it's own management of which files land where, but it's still a linux file system right? There has to be a mount point for that storage somewhere, right? Or is it something not visibile/accessible without root access?
 
sao said:
...I'm still struggling to understand why I can't access it directly when formatted as internal storage. I understand the system is doing it's own management of which files land where, but it's still a linux file system right? There has to be a mount point for that storage somewhere, right? Or is it something not visibile/accessible without root access?
Click to expand...

But Android is not just another 'Linux' distro, it may run off the Linux kernel but it's its own separate, unique, and different platform. There are obvious similarities between the two but one cannot be swapped with the other -- their underlying foundations are quite different and development is only increasing the gap between the two. That said, Android's adoptable has at least some characteristics not unlike Linux's LVM, but just to re-emphasize the contrasts, adoptable is not a Linux feature nor is LVM an Android feature, at a base level the two platforms are just too different from each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Volume_Manager_(Linux)
https://opensource.com/business/16/9/linux-users-guide-lvm
 
I don't know what made the difference, but I tried it again, and now it appears to be working. Files are loading onto the phone, and this time it appears to be landing directly on the SD card. On the storage menu, the quantity used of the SD card is increasing, while the space quantity used on the internal storage is remaining constant. I don't know what makes the difference, but if it's going to work, I'm going to take it. If I get all the files and apps loaded, and it's still leaving plenty of available space, then I should be good to go, and I can move my service to this new phone.
Thanks for your help.
 
Lurker, in your about statement... what exactly were you referring to when you said ("I tried it again")... what did you try again??

I very much want to move data to the SD Card thats merged. How did you do it??
Thanks,
Rob
 
If you do use adoptable storage, please use a good quality card (Sandisk/Kingston etc.) and not something cheap from a random online source.
 
sao said:
I am setting up my next phone. It is a CAT S61. It runs android 8.1

I have installed a 256GB SD card, formatted as internal storage. It appears to have worked correctly. How do I access that storage? I cannot find it on the phone using any file managers I have tested, nor is it accessible via USB when connected to the computer.

My intent is to load my library of files and documents on it. I would like it to be secured storage in the event the phone is lost. It is my understanding adoptable storage will do that, however, I have been unable to access that storage.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

How much internal storage does your file manager indicate that you have? If it's been integrated it's plug and forget ext4 doesn't care about separate drives. On my computer as an example, /home spans two drives, the OS takes care of it.
 
File managers give different views of your storage after adopting your Sd as internal. On a Moto E 2nd gen and a Moto G5 (anroid 6.0 and 8.1) ES filemanager only shows the Sd and calls it "internal". X-plore calls it "Samsung SD-cart" and gives the path /storage/emulated/0, which now points to the Sd cart. "Root" is listed separately and can not be accessed of course. The data of X-plore agrees with the data in settings section of these devices.
 
See, the internal storage and the external storage are of two different kinds. The internal storage is faster than the external one. So if you use the external as your internal storage, the apps won’t run that smoothly as they are running on the internal. As the apps always saves data in the storage and if the speed of the saving data won’t be that good, it will start lagging. So my recommendation is that don’t do it and even try to make run all the apps and data on the internal storage. It will provide you a better experience.
 
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