[FF22]

Another recent thread mentioned moving to a larger sd-card but when he removed it the phone would not boot. There's been no response yet to what kind of storage he used that card for.

Is it true that you canNOT remove an sd-card formatted as Adoptable or Internal storage as opposed to portable (normal, can can be removed/unmounted)? Is there a procedure needed to "UNmount" this adoptable storage in some manner so that the phone does not go haywire even if apps might need to be reinstalled? Or is a wipe/reload necessary to regain the phone?

I did find a discussion on

Inside Marshmallow: Adoptable storage | Android Central

Which seems to indicate that the phone does not like the removal of one of its "frontal lobes!" if it was Adoptable.

"Once a storage device is adopted, it becomes part of the system and is no longer removable. Sure you can physically remove it, but you'll be prompted to put it back while apps and services crash on your phone or tablet. It's adopted � taken in and loved by the system, and made part of the whole.....

If you try to remove it, things go haywire."

I've not tried this new Adoptable option but anyone who has can chime in. I'm asking since this might come up more frequently as folks experiment with this new form of memory and use for sd-cards and it would be good to know the results.

[anon(9607753)]

Once you format an SD card as internal it is permanently bound to the device. You can remove and reinsert it...but if you remove it and say, reset your phone...even if you use the exact same card and pin as before...goodbye data. What I do is periodically check the card under USB/Storage system menu to ensure no apps have been installed to it, which tends to happen by default once you format as internal. That way, at least you know if you reset the phone, switch cards, etc, that all your apps will be safe, will continue to run as expected, and will (if necessary) install back the correct location if you need to do a restore.

[tickerguy]

Setting storage as "adopted" basically stripes the storage across the volumes to include the new storage location, which results in the total available space being the sum of the parts. When storage is striped losing any of the striped components renders the entire volume unusable.

So yeah, if you "adopt" a card into storage then loss of that card, whether via removal or failure, renders everything on the device GONE and essentially forces a hard reset.

[1122334455667788]

I haven't tried it but I think this should work as long as you have enough internal storage space left:
Settings>>storage and usb>>internal storage
Tap on the three dots in the top right corner. Migrate data.

I would have more confidence that this would work if it didn't have helpful instructions like: during the move, don't remove the internal storage.
I don't think I could remove the internal storage if I tried.

[fmb8]

So how does someone go about setting the SD card as removable? Is it set that way by default or are changes necessary to make it removable.

Posted via CB10

[1122334455667788]

So how does someone go about setting the SD card as removable? Is it set that way by default or are changes necessary to make it removable.

Posted via CB10

Do you mean when you first put it in the device? I think it is removable by default, but prompts you and asks if you want to set it as adoptable.
If you want the SD card to be encrypted you have to set it as adoptable.

[emanuel0ss0]

I never used the adoptable storage feature on my Priv. To me, it's to cumbersome if something craps out and you have to start over from scratch.

I think its personally safer to keep the SD card as portable, expanded storage and not make it part of the device.

[fmb8]

Do you mean when you first put it in the device? I think it is removable by default, but prompts you and asks if you want to set it as adoptable.
If you want the SD card to be encrypted you have to set it as adoptable.

Yes I'm referring to when you first put it into the device.


Posted via CB10

[pompeipete]

Hi F22
I think that was me. I am finding this aspect of android really confusing coming from bb10. When I put the card in there was no prompt and the card appears to show as separate storage yet if I search for files pictures videos downloaded etc the file folders are empty yet the card is almost full.
I tried to copy the card to my windows pc but could not achieve it, as on the phone there appears to be no data to copy so I gave up and just tried changing the card hence the phone not booting. I have replaced the card and rebooted the phone successfully but am back to square one. Have I discovered a bug?

[pompeipete]

Emmnuel
Can you tell me how you made sure your card remained separate because if you see my post further down on this thread you will see I am struggling with this issue on my priv
Thanks

[FF22]

Do you mean when you first put it in the device? I think it is removable by default, but prompts you and asks if you want to set it as adoptable.
If you want the SD card to be encrypted you have to set it as adoptable.

I never did get a prompt on either Priv. The ShopBB one just accepted the card I put in it (from my storage bin). The Verizon Priv had to be Autoloaded after if bricked and never asked about the sd-card either.

Which is okay since I wanted them to be portable. But I've read that you get PROMPTED. Not in my case.

[FF22]

Hi F22
I think that was me. I am finding this aspect of android really confusing coming from bb10. When I put the card in there was no prompt and the card appears to show as separate storage yet if I search for files pictures videos downloaded etc the file folders are empty yet the card is almost full.
I tried to copy the card to my windows pc but could not achieve it, as on the phone there appears to be no data to copy so I gave up and just tried changing the card hence the phone not booting. I have replaced the card and rebooted the phone successfully but am back to square one. Have I discovered a bug?

Yes, it was your thread I was referencing.

It could be a coincidence. If it was NOT ADOPTABLE (folks seem to refer to it as adaptable), it should be removable. As I wrote in that other thread: Main Settings, Storage&USB, there's a UNmount icon to the right of the sd-card's reference line.

You can remove the card and try using a card reader on your computer to copy. If you have issues, there are some sd-card recovery programs.

I have only upgrade size once on my Priv, copying everything to computer, then computer to new, larger card. I have done it more on prior BB (pre-Android) devices.

Good luck.

PS, check if you have the MIGRATE DATA option with the card back in the Priv. Mentioned by that NUMERIC guy!!!!

[FF22]

I haven't tried it but I think this should work as long as you have enough internal storage space left:
Settings>>storage and usb>>internal storage
Tap on the three dots in the top right corner. Migrate data.

I would have more confidence that this would work if it didn't have helpful instructions like: during the move, don't remove the internal storage.
I don't think I could remove the internal storage if I tried.

Ah, that might be the answer. I don't have that Menu or "Migrate Data" option since mine is currently setup as PORTABLE.

[acasas33]

I'm going to chime in with my experience. I had a 32GB card installed as internal storage. For whatever reason it was full after about a year. So I tried reformatting the card to no success. I couldn't delete anything off the card from the phone or with my PC. I had no other option than to buy a new card, I got a 64GB card. So I installed that as the internal as well and everything seemed to work fine. I copied the contents of the older card to the new one. I might have had to reinstall some apps but everything seemed to work fine. It wasn't really noticeable change.

Everything was working fine until about a few weeks ago when after the monthly update my SD card started acting up and eventually bricked. It was no longer readable on my phone or my PC. Some apps acted up but overall the phone was working fine. Except for the fact that I no longer had "extra storage". Today I bought a 64GB card and am hesitant about making it internal storage.

[FF22]

I'm going to chime in with my experience. I had a 32GB card installed as internal storage. For whatever reason it was full after about a year. So I tried reformatting the card to no success. I couldn't delete anything off the card from the phone or with my PC. I had no other option than to buy a new card, I got a 64GB card. So I installed that as the internal as well and everything seemed to work fine. I copied the contents of the older card to the new one. I might have had to reinstall some apps but everything seemed to work fine. It wasn't really noticeable change.

Everything was working fine until about a few weeks ago when after the monthly update my SD card started acting up and eventually bricked. It was no longer readable on my phone or my PC. Some apps acted up but overall the phone was working fine. Except for the fact that I no longer had "extra storage". Today I bought a 64GB card and am hesitant about making it internal storage.

Why are you making it Internal Storage? Have you run into that many problems using the regular Internal Memory for apps (and their data) and using the sd-card for music and photos and documents/pdf files?

[acasas33]

Well internal is adoptable right? I have many apps that I run that take up so much of the 32GB on my PRIV. All my pictures get backed up and saved to the cloud services so I don't have much of that to storage. I find that many apps can't be saved to SD cards unless they are adopted storage. Apps that have large caches to be able to function properly basically take up most of that storage space.

My issue is that once you decide to make that SD card adopted storage you REALLY can't used it anywhere else. No matter what you do to it, it belongs to that phone and that's it.