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You’ll be presented with two options - to use the card as portable storage or as internal storage. You’ll then want to tap on the Set Up button on that notification. A notification will pop up indicating that a USB drive was detected. Step 1: Insert the microSD card into your phone. However, if you have a phone that allows your card to be used as portable or internal storage, you’ll have to set your card up as portable storage. Your phone will detect it and automatically set it up as portable storage. For most phones, it’ll be as simple as inserting the microSD card. Installing a microSD card as portable storage is easy. If, however, you want extra storage on your phone but don’t want to have to deal with file management, then internal storage will give your device a bit of a storage bump that the phone will manage itself. So which one should you choose, if you have the option? Well, if you’re fine with moving your files around yourself and want the option of taking the card out down the line, you should go for portable storage. When you use a microSD card as internal storage, the phone formats the card in a way that only it can understand - in other words, you can’t simply take the card out and put a new one in, because your phone won’t work quite right if you do. But on the flip side, this means there will be trouble if you take the card out. So what’s the advantage of using it as internal storage, if you have the option? Well, it means your phone has more storage to play with, and it can use it to save apps, data, and even things like background processes. You can still put documents, music, and other files on there, and it makes it a lot easier to transfer to, since all you need to do is take out the microSD card (after properly unmounting it from your phone, like a responsible person) and insert it into your laptop or desktop computer. This means you’re probably going to be forced to use your microSD card as portable storage - which isn’t much of an issue, if we’re being honest. Unfortunately, support for setting a microSD card as internal storage has waned strongly, and it’s fairly rare to find it on a smartphone these days. It used to be that you could choose between setting your microSD card as internal storage (which means your phone treats it like its native storage), or portable storage (which means it’s more like a USB stick in a computer). Websites like GSMArena may also be able to help. Your best way of knowing for sure is to check any documentation you may have received with your phone, or your device’s manufacturer’s website. However, some phones do still come with microSD card slots. Google’s Pixel range has never supported microSD cards (preferring to lean on Google’s own Google Drive for additional storage), while even Samsung has been drifting away from microSD card slots on its newest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It’s sad, but the microSD card has become something of a relic of the past - which means your phone isn’t guaranteed to have one, even if it’s the latest or greatest phone from Samsung or Google. Here’s everything you need to know about using a microSD card on Android. While something of a dying breed, microSD card slot-equipped phones do still exist, and they continue to be an excellent way of boosting your available storage space. Thankfully, a microSD card slot can help. With this being the case, it can be a struggle for an older or cheaper phone to keep up. Using a microSD card as internal storage.
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Using a microSD card as portable storage.
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