Table of contents:
- What does it mean to be root?
- Preparing the SD or microSD card
- Option 2: using commands
- We prepare the mobile
- We connect to the PC
- Commands to configure SD card
- Use the SD card as external memory for apps
Just as mobile phones are improving in technology, Android applications are increasing in size in a direct proportion.
This means that the internal storage space of the phone is becoming increasingly scarce. If you think that having 32 or 64 GB of available storage is enough, once you start installing some games, a few applications, and saving photos and music, you will see that your point of view will change.
Therefore, we are going to see how to use the SD card as internal memory in Android without root.
What does it mean to be root?
Until not long ago, if you wanted to use the SD (or microSD) memory card to store applications on it, you had to use some tricks to make your mobile allow you to have access to all its functions. That is what is called being 'root' or what is the same: Super User.
With this role of Super User, or root, you would have access to all the features of the phone similar to the capabilities of an Administrator in Windows.
The good thing is that it will not be necessary to enable this type of operation on our mobile to achieve what we want: to use the SD card as internal memory in Android.
Preparing the SD or microSD card
If it is a new card we will not have any problem when inserting it, since it does not contain any data. But if it is a used card, we should follow these steps.
First we open the menu of our mobile device and go to «Settings» and select the «Storage» option. From there we move to «Portable storage» and we indicate to the system which is our card.
At the top right there is a drop-down menu, we select it and choose the option "Storage settings". We continue with «Format as internal», which will ask for confirmation to «Delete and Format» the card.
As the option says, this totally erases what we had on the card, so it is important to make sure that we do not have important data.
The microSD card is now ready to use as extra internal memory. We can move the content we want or apps without any problem, and have the card as an option configured as the main source of installation.
As we see in the image, the storage will appear as shared internal, although you will continue to see the distribution independently.
Option 2: using commands
The process we mentioned earlier does not work on all mobile devices. Some models have the option "Format internal memory" visibly and others hidden, for example, most Samsung devices. If that's your case, try this method.
A reminder before you start this process: each manufacturer takes different measurements with their terminals, so this process may not work on some models.
We prepare the mobile
First, we enable the options that will allow us to start the process. And the device is ready to use the microSD card as internal memory.
To do this, we enable "Developer Options". Go to «Settings», select «About phone» >> «Software information» and touch 5 times on the option «Build number».
If we do it right, a message will appear informing that Developer Mode is enabled. Now let's go back to "Developer Options" and activate it, as we see in the image:
The next thing is to scroll until we find the option "USB debugging" and activate it.
We connect to the PC
Now we have to connect the mobile phone to our PC using the USB cable. We give all the necessary permissions and continue with the next step on the PC.
First, we download the ADB application , a tool to connect our mobile with the PC with a command environment that facilitates communication between the two. You can download it for Windows - Mac OS - GNU / Linux
For this example we use the Windows version. Download the file and unzip it in a folder that is easy to locate, for example "ADB" in the root location C: \. We open a terminal (pressing the «Windows» key and the word CMD), we write cd C: \ adb and we give «Enter»). This will place us in the folder where we unzip the ADB program.
Within this window we are going to write commands so that the mobile recognizes the microSD card as part of the internal memory.
Commands to configure SD card
First we enable the workbench with ADB to write commands in a special way. These commands are written after the $ symbol that appears on each line.
adb shell
The next command we will write is:
sm list-disks
This command will give us the ID of our microSD memory card, an important piece of information to format the card. In my example it is 179.32.
Let's write the following command to use the microSD card as internal memory on the mobile:
sm set-force-adoptable true
The following command allows you to tell the device to use 100% of the card to add it to the internal memory of the mobile.
sm partition disk:179,32 private
An interesting detail is that we can say what percentage of the card we want to use. In that case we change ' private ' to the word mixed, and then the desired number (for example 50 for 50%).
The whole process looks like this:
It is worth mentioning that, depending on the characteristics of our computer and the capacity of the card, the process may take a few minutes. When the process has finished, we exit the ADB terminal by typing exit. And we follow the same step to exit the CMD terminal.
We disconnect the mobile from the computer and go to «Settings» >> «Device Maintenance» >> «Storage». We choose "Storage settings" and we will see that the microSD card is already working as part of the internal memory of the mobile.
From here we can download applications and install them automatically in the memory of the microSD card.
Use the SD card as external memory for apps
If you have not been able to use any of the above options on your device, then you have to use it externally. Although it is not ideal, it will allow you to transfer the apps manually to the microSD card, and free up space on the mobile.
This applies to users of Android 6.0 onwards, since it gives the possibility of making native configurations. We just have to go "Settings", go to the "Applications" menu and select the application we want to move.
Here you should keep in mind that not all apps can be moved. Returning, once the application is selected we have to choose «Storage», which will show us the option «Used storage» and we choose «Change».
The system will show us the available media, in our case it will be the SD (or microSD) memory card. We select it and then we tap on the "Move" option.
Remember that each mobile device has its own configuration, so patiently follow the steps respecting the options of your model. And if possible, first check with the manufacturer about the requirements of your mobile device before taking any action.
