SD MEMORY CARD the default storage

[Anonymous User]

I have recently bought a Samsung galaxy A10. It came with a 2 GB Ram and a 32 GB SD Memory Card. I'd like to ask you how can I make the SD Memory Card the default storage on my Samsung?

Also how can I transfer applications from the internal storage to the SD memory card? 

[AzadRobertson]

Good point there. I have a LOT of stuff on my sd card that I cant afford to loose

[rippedoff]

Does anyone know why my a10 is saving video and pictures to both my sd and internal storage when camera settings are set to ad?
This phone is a nightmare due to not being able to store apps to sd card, I feel ripped off the should have made this clear before I purchased it 😡

[Fionaj]

not all android as my old Samsung you store apps etc on sd card 

[MALPHONIC]

Actually doesnt apply to all android devices.. i was using a Hauwei P9 before... it allowed me to set the memory card as default storage... i had a 128 GB memory card.. so you can imagine  at that time, that was ample storage 

[JM45]

Assume I am an *****, then subtract 25 IQ points, I am now exceeding my grasp. So, that being said, can you explain how to do this in a simple step by step proceedure? Remember, I still wear Ger animals.

[Pierre2Grenoble]

Three years and a half later, has someone been successful in mounting the SD Card just for data storage purpose? I mean without having the default data storage location changed back to the phone upon every app update.

To explain my need: I just want to separate the storage of installed apps and data produced by these apps as pictures, movies, download, screenshots, and so on.

Currently, as least starting from Android 10 and still with Android 12 on Samsung Galaxy devices, being able to choose the storage location default target is depending exclusively on apps settings as the Samsung Android customization does not allow to change this target as a overall setting for all apps or better as a per app individual setting.

The fact is that a few apps are built to offer this setting: Samsung Internet browser for downloads, Samsung Camera, Google Photos and maybe a couple of others I do not use then I'm not aware of. I jumped here for help just because I wanted to find a way to store my screenshots to the SD Card instead of the internal storage but was unable  to find a setting for that in my A6 (Android 10) and A50 (Android 11) devices.

Based on the detailed post from @SemihAbi post for using the ADB shell, has someone been successful in having the SD Card being maintained as the default storage for data apps over the apps next coming updates?

Thanks in advance to share your experience about that particular point.

Looking forward to your feedback!

[Pierre2Grenoble]

I finally decided to respect Samsung decision to not authorize the use of the SD Card as an extension or a preferred location of the internal storage for apps installation. I agree with the facts that SD card performance is usually significantly slower than internal storage and SD cards are known to fail under heavy use, further adding to the downside of Android Adoptable Storage functionality.

So I prefer using SD cards in my smartphones as regular, removable, swappable storage medias, i.e. the way you'd use a flash drive in a computer. Nevertheless I strongly believe it's a pity that Samsung does not offer to have this SD card storage feature available for ANY app or system functionality that stores user data in the phone. It should be my own and sole decision to where I want to store my data.

This being said and after reading a lot here and in other communities like xda-developers or Quora, I was left with four options for my need to store only my user data but all of them that I want on a SD card:

1. do nothing but just use my file manager My Files to move data manually from the internal storage to the SD card for all apps not managing such an SD card, doing such moves regularly and whenever data are produced => easy but tedious;
2. automate a bit the previous option with a dedicated app for moving my stuff like Files To SD Card. There are many with a high maturity, free or not;
3. go a bit further with automation apps like Automate or Tasker just to completely make the move automatic anytime there are files created in dedicated user folders in the internal storage;
4. create symbolic or maybe hard links of data internal folders to related folders on the SD card to get a transparent move to the Android OS. I found this approach particularly interesting but I did not test it with using the Linux "ln" command in a ADB shell. I would have searched if an app could offer the feature easily to avoid using a PC for an ADB console.

Finally I just stuck to the first option 🙂 because my main need deals with the storage of my screenshots on a SD card rather than on the internal storage. It is weird that the app Samsung Camera offers the choice to choose the SD card as the storage location but that the "Samsung capture" Android feature does not for the storage of the screenshots. Both camera pictures and OS screenshots are displayable in the Samsung Gallery app so I took advantage of this feature to easily but manually move my screenshots to the SD card directly from the Gallery.

I achieved this working the following way:

1. I using the My Files app, I first created  a folder structure /DCIM/screenshots on my SD card;
2. I then moved all the screenshots from the  same folder of the internal storage to the newly created screenshots folder by using the three dots menu upper right corner;
3. this created a new "screenshots" album in the Gallery app similar to the default one but designated by a little SD card black icon in the lower left corner;
4. now whenever I take another screenshot, it still will be saved to the device internal storage, but I will be able to move it easily to the new SD card "screenshots" album directly in the Gallery app.

I can still move these screenshots to my SD card by using the My Files app, both "screenshots" albums will be updated accordingly in the Gallery app. For that purpose I created two Favorites in the My Files app to access the two "screenshots" folders more quickly during the move.

Hope it helps! Understanding that this solution just answers the question "how to make the SD card the default location for screenshots" with a manual workaround that can be easily automated.