Adding memory card did wonders for performance

Over the last few months the performance of my Priv has been average at its best... and the rest of the time slow... stuttering and larger apps barely worked. I was constantly having to reset the phone to maximize performance. That being said.. I had pretty much maxed out the memory on the phone, didn't even have enough to install updates for some applications. So the other day I finally get around to buying a memory card.. a scan disk extreme 68G... and whoa... it's like a new phone! I set it up for use as internal memory... it immediately prompted for photos and videos to be moved over on its own. In the last few days since the install I've noticed considerably less heat build up, much faster speeds from the phone and zero freezing and crashing. I never would have guessed that minimal memory would have affected performance so much...

on the road with my BlackBerry

Setting it up as internal is a really bad idea. I'd back it all up, reformat the card as external, and move the media back on it again.

why is internal a bad idea? Other than the card would have to be reformatted for a different device?

on the road with my BlackBerry

If it gets one bad sector and goes corrupt, you can't take it out and fix it, so you can recover whatever is stored in it. Further, if by chance any critical resources of the OS end up on it, which shouldn't but could happen, then you also have a phone to restore. If you plan on keeping it set up as internal, make frequent backups.

https://www.androidcentral.com/adoptable-storage

Thanks!

on the road with my BlackBerry

Originally Posted by David Theado

why is internal a bad idea?

If anything ever goes wrong, your SD becomes a piece of high tech garbage. You cannot reformat it, you cannot recover anything. It doesn't take the card going bad, even if the card remains perfectly good, an update can scramble the encryption code, rendering the card, (and everything on it)useless. If the Priv breaks, the card cannot be read in anything else, so all data there is no longer available.
Just reformat it as external, now, while you can, move all your pics, vids, music and whatever files you might have generated to it. You'll be surprised how much internal memory that frees up.
BTW any apps moved to SD set as internal WILL open and run slower. Enough to notice? Depends on the app(s),

The internal option is there for really cheap phones, think third world $75 devices with barely enough internal to run the OS.

Careful with this solution, most micro-sd cards are not designed for high write usage so they are be prone to failing this way.

OP, listen closely to the advice. I learned the hard way when the SD card corrupted and I had to do a complete reset--no fun.

Augers for more ram in newer devices to emerge...

Posted via CB10

For the time being, and the next few years 32 gig is plenty. As apps get more complicated and sophisticated, requiring more space, more internal will be needed, but thats a few years down the road.
Those phones that don't have an SD, already need a whole lot more memory.
Now if want to put 1,728 apps on your phone, you might have a problem, but for 99.98% of us 32 is fine.

Is it possible to have the SD card set as external storage but encrypted? I'd be worried that if I lose my phone, somebody would have free access to my data.

I just got the keyone, which is my first android phone. Trying to figure out how best to use my sd card. It sound like setting it as external storage is best, but I want it to be encrypted. I'd appreciate any advice. Love the phone though. It's an impressive device.

Originally Posted by yyz321

Is it possible to have the SD card set as external storage but encrypted? I'd be worried that if I lose my phone, somebody would have free access to my data.

I don't think so. Not sure why they did not provide such an option.

What I do or don't do... I don't keep anything private on the sd-card. I keep personal info in files stored in Internal Memory. The card has music and pictures and videos and generic docs. I back up photos that are saved to the sd-card fairly regularly.

Really odd they'd take that out of the security settings, especially being Enterprise focused. However...

While I agree the odd chance you lose or have your phone stolen is disconcerting, I'd recommend against it. You can password protect the card with many file managers. I know with MiXplorer that I use it's possible. If you encrypt you can't take it out without decrypting and read it, which means if a file becomes corrupt, everything on the card then is lost forever.

Originally Posted by yyz321

Is it possible to have the SD card set as external storage but encrypted?

Originally Posted by tjcs

I want it to be encrypted.

Originally Posted by BigBadWulf

Really odd they'd take that out of the security settings, especially being Enterprise focused. However...

Google took encryption away, I think KitKat was the last version that allowed SD encryption, so nothing to do with BB or enterprise.
Most decent file managers will allow you to create encrypted files or sectors. Piktures, (photo gallery app) will allow you to encrypt pics and vids on the SD, I assume some of the other ones do the same.

As FF22 alluded above, if you are set as external, you have complete control of what is on the card. The phone is not going stick your passwords over there, or anything else you haven't specifically told it to.
If a stranger gets ahold of your pictures and vids of cats, vacation in Timbucktwo and maybe some grandkids, big deal. It'll prob bore him so bad, he'll toss the card right there. Any music on the phone is prob available all over the place. You may, possibly have some sensitive data on other files - don't put those on the SD, or use a file manager that will secure them.
And of course the alphabet agencies, foreign or or domestic, will get what ever they want, regardless of encryption or where it's stored. Google prob has a back door too.
To all those that think the SD needs to encrypted, I'd like to know just what you saving there.
I suppose if you are married, and like to take pics and vids of sex with your mistress(s), might be a good idea to make sure your wife can't access them. But for 90+% of us, there is no need to encrypt the SD.

Originally Posted by Wezard

Google took encryption away, I think KitKat was the last version that allowed SD encryption, so nothing to do with BB or enterprise.

Thanks! I hadn't tried before this thread, and a Google search suggested it was still possible.

I had done a quick look for possible ways to encrypt it a while back. What I found was encryption that you had to do through the phone. Kind of bringing up all the draw backs of encrypting as internal. Or encryption with a separate key, stored in my head, (or a post it on your monitor if you fly that way).
The latter option required you to put in your code to view, then remember to lock it back afterwards.
I found nothing that would encrypt and decrypt following the phones lock / unlock status, AND allow me pull the card and encrypt / decrypt using MY code.
Apparently the Piktures encrypted files require that you put in an unlock code every-time you want to look at them, not sure if relocking is any kind of automatic or not. Kind of a pain in the rear.
I believe the file mngr and vid encrypt methods require you to decrypt with the phone before using in another device. I could be wrong.
Then I realized there's nothing on there that needs encrypting. You could take all of it and publish it online and in the newspaper, no big deal. It would just bore a lot of people. I think there might be a topless pic of my wife, but we're in our 60's, and it was more of a glamor type than porn, so even that isn't a big deal.
I think encrypting the SD, for the overwhelming majority of us, is A- paranoia, and B- the wow or cool factor, (not necessarily in that order). I can definitely understand the wow / cool, but not to the point I have to jump through hoops to use the card, or take a chance on ending up with an encrypted card that can't be accessed at all.

My Galaxy S7 Edge has always offered external SD encryption. Locks/unlocks with the phone. It can be done!

@Wezard, I just checked on my Z Force running Nougat, and SD card encryption is there, so BlackBerry must have removed it. I still strongly recommend not doing it, but it is odd they took it out.

No clue about Nougat, but Marshmallow in it's native form will NOT support SD encryption in external or portable mode.
There are ways to do it, the good ones require root. Motorola may have added it, BlackBerry should have. But BB did not remove it.

Originally Posted by johnb_xp

My Galaxy S7 Edge has always offered external SD encryption. Locks/unlocks with the phone. It can be done!

When I was looking for a user friendly way to do it. Samsung, and Galaxy users had by far the most complaints that it couldn't be done.
You have set your SD up as internal or adopted memory, about half this thread is about how bad of an idea that is. Your card will still show up on a file manager as external, but it's really not.
If you pull the SD out, A- your phone won't work properly, and B- the card cannot be read or used in any other device.
Read the whole thread.

My Galaxy S7 Edge has always offered external SD encryption. Read the whole post. :rotfl:
My SD was encrypted and NOT used as internal memory before the Nougat upgrade. Even with Marshmallow! All you had to do is tap a button that says "Encrypt SD" in the storage section of Settings. I'm not saying you should switch to a Samsung phone at all, in fact if BBs had more security features like this (and I didn't just get BOGO a S7 from AT&T) I'd blast back asap!
Attachment 427147Attachment 427148

Comes now the idea to be able to partition the external SD card so as to have designated some internal and some external, nice...

Posted via CB10

It's an OEM choice whether to offer SD internalization or SD encryption: Samsung went one way and BlackBerry went the other. Most other OEMs don't even bother with SD cards in the first place now.

Attachment 427175
I believe this is from the same article in Android Central. Once encrypted, the card cannot be used in any other device. This defeats the whole reason of having an external or portable card.
And if anything goes wrong with the phone, everything on the SD might as well be sucked into a black hole, cuz you will never be able to access it.
Perhaps this is why I remember seeing so many complaints from Samsung owners, the option was there to encrypt, but basically worthless, because it rendered the SD unusable in other devices.

Question - Is this a native Google Android feature, or something Samsung came up with and implemented? Either way, it's something BlackBerry should have done, even though it's a bad idea for most of to do it.

Originally Posted by Wezard

Either way, it's something BlackBerry should have done, even though it's a bad idea for most of to do it.

Exactly!