SD card as internal storage?

[tendoboy1984]

Why do people say it’s risky to use an SD card as internal storage (for apps) on Android, when it works perfectly fine on laptops and handheld game systems? Does Android treat SD cards differently from other devices?

 

[ocnbrze]

Why do people say it’s risky to use an SD card as internal storage (for apps) on Android, when it works perfectly fine on laptops and handheld game systems? Does Android treat SD cards differently from other devices?

i used to say this up until recently from experience like 10 years ago. i had 2 sd cards that i had setup as internal storage. in the past sd cards would wear out and get corrupted. but these days sd cards and its tech have come a long way from then. just keep in mind that everything will be done on the card. so it will be reading and writing for every application running on the phone, and thus potentially wearing out the card.

i don't think it really is an issue any more. plus most devices now days do not even have this option any more. from the note 8, note 10+ and now with my current z fold 3, i have never had an issue with space. and it should not be with most flagship phones.

 

[svim]

You might want to spend more time researching current technology instead of relying so much upon out-dated opinions. SD card development has progressed since its early days and if your microSD card is newer than a decade or so it's going to be more reliable with better longevity. Your phone's internal storage chip is going to be significantly faster (read and write) and will last longer so using a microSD card as internal will add a bit of a speed lag but for most people the lag will only be notable if they're looking for it to be there. The Android file management gets better with each version release so there is that aspect too.
If you really need more internal storage you'll be better off getting a new phone with more storage, look at using a microSD card as internal to be a workaround convenience measure, not so much as a 'permanent' solution.

 

[mikedt]

Why do people say it’s risky to use an SD card as internal storage (for apps) on Android, when it works perfectly fine on laptops and handheld game systems?

I don't know of any laptops that use SDs as internal storage, and certainly not with Windows or MacOS, Where SDs will always appear as removable storage.And as for handheld games systems, what are you referring to, Gameboys, PSPs, Famiclones etc? Well those definitely don't use SDs as internal storage.

Does Android treat SD cards differently from other devices?

I've never used an SD as internal storage on an Android device, and any devices I've had recently just don't have that option. But as I understand it, the temporary caches and constant read/writes as apps run, can wear out SDs prematurely.

 

[Davdi]

Also, an SD card used as internal storage will be encrypted - so only readable by the phone it's used in. further, if you do a factory reset, the phone will generate a new encryption key, meaning that the card will no longer be readable as it was encrypted using the old (now permanently lost) key.

 

[puppykickr]

I have had multiple failures of SD cards (Lexar and SansDisk), only one of which I was using as internal storage.

I can actually throw an SD card much further than I can trust one.

When they fail, it is usually without warning- and EVERYTHING on the card is lost forever.

Then when you attempt to use it again, you will be asked to format it again.
(Anything on it will be erased.)

You may do so, and it may work afterwards.

Do you trust it after that?

No.
The answer is no.

Professional photographers that use these things in their line of work are the ones to ask about SD cards.
They lose big money if a card crashes with a customer's content on it.
(Think about wedding photographers and such.)

I found this during a time limited search on SD card failure rates.
Although this is from 2017, I can't see much improvement being possible- since my issues all occured from this timeframe onward.
Most recent for me was the complete failure of a 256GB card that had about 30GB on it and was about a month old.

This happened about a year ago, and since then I have refused to invest time, effort, or money in large capacity cards.

 

[Davdi]

On reason that 64GB and larger cards may be more prone to fail is that (AFAIK) they are just multiple 32GB cards internally.

 

[puppykickr]

On reason that 64GB and larger cards may be more prone to fail is that (AFAIK) they are just multiple 32GB cards internally.

Yes!
This is exactly it!

All (newer) cards are 32GB based.
Anything larger is stacks of 32GB 'wafers', and so the failure rate is compounded with each additional 32GB wafer.

These wafers used to be much smaller, even down to MBs.
My first card was a 2GB SansDisk, and it still works just fine.
.
My guess is that even 32GB cards are stacks themselves of some 2, 4, 8, 16, or whatever the lowest capacity wafer currently produced.

The way the wording is, I was under the assumption that 32 was the new smallest, but that may only be for the consumer.

That would also explain the higher failure rates in the 32GB cards over the smaller ones from days past.

 

[Hadron]

Professional photographers that use these things in their line of work are the ones to ask about SD cards.
They lose big money if a card crashes with a customer's content on it.
(Think about wedding photographers and such.)

But no professional photographer is using microSD cards, which is what phones use (and which we often refer to here as SD cards for short). Although they are electrically compatible, they aren't actually identical, and I doubt that their failure rates are the same (I remember reading that microSD is worse, which matches my anecdotal impression, but I don't have hard data on it).

Of course many pros aren't using SD at all these days. Most pro-grade cameras these days use CFexpress cards, and they are increasingly common even in enthusiast-level cameras (my own camera has one of each). Even CFe cards aren't invulnerable, but they are both faster and more robust than SD. But they are also bigger and more expensive, so SD will be around for a while yet (while microSD's only real competition is storage soldered to the motherboard...).