When y'all get a brand new phone out of the box, it always gives yous meridian performance. But this may exist brusk-lived in one case photos, apps, files, and updates accumulate and hog system resources.

Ane of the best ways to deal with an Android telephone that tends to experience sluggish over time is by expanding its storage using an SD card. This little device, the size of your thumbnail, has been around for more than ii decades and can hold big amounts of data depending on its capacity.

Their capacities range from 128MB up to 1TB depending on the type of SD card. Be certain to check the maximum microSD card chapters your device supports before you lot become one.

While we'd similar all phones to come with unlimited storage, that's probably not in the offing whatever time presently. Plus, your phone won't magically motion all your files and images to the SD card one time you insert it. You need to ready it up to agree your files, apps and media. This way, you'll free up precious storage infinite on your telephone's internal retention.

Not all Android phones support microSD cards though. Some also require you lot to ready the SD card every bit internal storage before migrating data.

How To Transfer Files To An SD Bill of fare On Your Android Telephone

  • Transfer files from Android internal storage to SD menu
  • Transfer images from Android internal storage to SD card
  • Change default camera storage to SD carte
  • Transfer apps from Android internal storage to SD card
  • Storage alternatives

Note: Nosotros've used the Samsung My Files app for the instructions below on a Samsung Milky way S8+ (running Android Pie), but they should be similar for most Android phones.

Transfer Files From Android Internal Storage To SD Menu

The benefit of saving your files to your SD card or other external storage for that matter, is that you tin can swap them to a different device. This is particularly helpful when yous desire to share information with some other device, upgrade your own device efficiently, or motility files to long-term backup or storage.

To move your files from your phone's internal memory to an SD card, utilize your telephone's File Manager app (in our case, it's My Files).

Using File Manager

  • Open up File Manager or My Files from its location on your phone.
  • You'll see a list of the dissimilar file categories and the storage options available on your telephone. Tap the Documents binder.
  • At the upper right side of the screen, tap Carte du jour (three vertical dots) to show a drop-down list of actions.
  • Tap Edit and select All the files, or choose private files you lot want to move.
  • Tap Move.
  • Go back to My Files using the Abode icon, and tap SD Card. Tap the desired location on the SD bill of fare and select Movement Here. If you're unsure, y'all can always tap Abolish to start over.
  • Your telephone volition start moving the files to the SD card. Do this for whatever other files y'all'd like to move to the SD bill of fare.

Annotation: If your telephone doesn't have a pre-installed file manager app, like Samsung'south My Files app, you tin can download and install a third-party app to aid y'all with this.

Transfer Images From Android Internal Storage To An SD Card

Do yous need to make room for your precious memories? You tin move all your images from your phone's internal memory to the SD bill of fare.

  • Open My Files (or your File Manager app) and tap Internal Storage.
  • Tap DCIM to open information technology.
  • Detect Camera and long-press on it.
  • Tap the Menu (three vertical dots) icon at the pinnacle and tap Edit.
  • Tap Move on the lower left side of the screen (the position of this menu depends on your device). Go back to My Files using the Abode icon, and tap SD Card.
  • Tap DCIM. If you lot don't have a binder labeled DCIM on the SD card, tap Create folder and characterization it DCIM, and then tap Done to set off the transfer.

Note: While y'all tin assign your images to be transferred to the SD bill of fare, not all phones let you assign screenshots to capture and save on SD. In this case, you'll accept to keep copying and moving your screenshots to the SD card so they don't make full upwardly your telephone.

Change The Default Camera Storage To SD Bill of fare

Instead of having to move your images and videos to your SD carte every time, you can alter the directories on the Photographic camera app so that the SD carte becomes the default storage location.

It'll save the media files to the DCIM folder, only you need to ostend that your camera app offers this option showtime. If non, you can always download a different camera app from the Google Play Store.

  • Open the Camera app on your telephone. Tap the gear menu icon at the upper-left side to open Settings.
  • Tap Storage Location.
  • Tap SD card (information technology can be labeled every bit External Storage or Memory bill of fare depending on your device)

From now on, all photos or videos you take volition be saved directly to the SD card.

Transfer Apps From Android Internal Storage To The SD Carte du jour

  • Open Settings on your telephone and go to Apps>App Info.
  • Tap Storage and so tap Modify next to the default storage. Select your SD card.

Note: If the Motility to SD card option is greyed out, it means the detail app you're trying to move cannot be transferred, because not all apps can be moved.

Plus, non all phones allow you to transfer apps. Some won't permit you motion whatever apps to the SD card at all. This is entirely at the discretion of the app's programmer or the device manufacturer.

If your phone allows yous to move apps, you should note that the apps won't be available on the telephone if you remove the SD card.

Storage Alternatives

If your SD card fills up and yous run out of infinite, yous can use a memory card reader to move the files or images to your computer. From there, you tin back up the files or images to an external drive with higher capacity, or upload to online cloud storage like Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox for the long-term.