Why we (don’t) want to use SD cards in Android phones

We all know that. We are on vacation, we took a lot of photos and suddenly we are running out of space. An SD card proves to be the most suitable solution in this case. Much has been written about why using an SD card. Why (not) we want to use SD cards in Android phones is discussed in more detail by the makeuseof.com portal.

No one can guarantee the speed of the card

Using the SD card as an emergency storage if needed is definitely not a bad solution. It provides us with enough capacity to back up virtually any content. However, using an SD card as your main storage may no longer be ideal. Such a deployment can be accompanied by several problems. When used with Android, we may encounter several complications.

There are a huge number of different cards on the market. These differ from each other not only in capacity, but also in a number of other parameters. In this case, saving does not pay off. If you buy a low-quality memory card, you will be frustrated by all the delays associated with it after a short time.

The real problems arise if you move a large number of applications to the SD card. The loading and synchronization times for these applications can literally slow down dramatically. Anyone who has reached for any card that is considered at home and expects it to become a high-speed working tool has experience with this.

If you want to use the cards as a photo storage, one of the two high-speed card types is sufficient – UHS-I and Class 10. However, if you also want to use the card to install applications, it is necessary to cut the application performance class on the card. Of the two options (A1 and A2), A2 is the faster one.

We don’t want lost passwords and vanishing shortcuts

This problem is more likely to occur with older phones that have a battery life problem. When the phone is discharged, all application shortcuts that are transferred to the SD card will be lost. This is especially annoying if you have more applications on your phone, among which you have to look for the right one.

Another complication in case of discharging the phone is the often repeated loss of passwords if they are stored on the SD card.

This disadvantage of cards is not a standard and does not occur with every card. However, this is a relatively common problem that can make life uncomfortable.

Searching between files on a memory card is a nightmare

Even though the card is formatted as internal storage, it may not always behave on an Android phone. The phone simply does not see both disks as one.

Therefore, you may have different types of files in your repositories. Music and photos are stored on the SD card, while Chrome documents or downloaded files are stored in the internal Office storage. Fragmentation is more demanding the more applications you use. Such complications really hinder your productivity. In addition, the existence of duplicates may take up too much space, resulting in a failure of the file management systems on your smartphone.

Porucha SD karty

SD cards have one huge drawback. They have a limited number of read and write cycles. Each time you access the data on the card, its lifespan will be shortened slightly. The lifespan then depends on the quality of the card. A quality card from a verified manufacturer will probably live longer than a cheap card from eBay. It’s also true that if you use an old card that has been dusted for years, you never know how it was used in the past and how much life is ahead of it.

In addition, no warning signals may appear before the SD card fails. One day you will simply not find your files on the card. If you have not made backups, you can lose a number of important documents in a matter of seconds.

Migrating to a new phone

Even though many users don’t know about it, the SD card on Android may not always be the same as the SD card (or USD drive) on your computer. On a computer, we can easily transfer such cards from one device to another and access the data on them without any change.

However, if we try to move the SD card from our phone to another or to a computer, we may be unlucky. This happens when we set the card as a local Android storage. The card is encrypted in this case. So it can simply happen that if you buy a new phone and you want to move your card to it, you will be unlucky. When you format the card, you will lose any data that was not backed up.

Reduce gaming performance using an SD card

Games take up the most space on many phones. In the case of simple crosswords or puzzles, it is a space the size of a few megabytes. However, it is no exception that some titles with top graphics and extensive gameplay take up several gigabytes of space in the phone.

Given the freeing up of the phone’s internal storage, it may seem like a sensible solution to move these games to the SD card. However, this is practically not the best idea. Even the most powerful SD cards will simply not be fast enough for modern Android games.

The shortcomings of SD cards in this case are manifested as errors in the game, missing graphics or frequent crashes. These are the types of disadvantages you don’t usually consider when considering using an Android SD card.

Why we (don’t) want to use SD cards

If you’ve read this article and still want to continue using the SD card on your Android smartphone, go ahead. SD cards have their advantages, for which we have been using them for years. However, it is good to know about any problems that may occur. You may never meet them, but it can be extremely frustrating if they arrive. The law of approval preaches that the files you need are lost.

The fact remains that we have many alternatives. With new smartphones, the internal storage capacity of 64 or 128 GB becomes the standard, which is enough space to store several thousand photos or hours of high-definition video. However, smartphones that have internal storage with a capacity of 512 GB or even 1 TB are no exception.

So what are the current options in Android phones

In real life, however, we have more gigabytes of space at hand in various online repositories. Let’s mention, for example, services such as Google Drive, Microsoft Drive, DropBox and many others. These repositories are often free but also for a fee. Their undeniable advantage is access to data anytime and anywhere and high security of data storage. The risk of someone accessing your data without your knowledge is literally minimal. The same is true for data loss.

So what to decide? SD card or alternative in the form of large internal memory or online storage. The decision is yours. The risk of data loss or damage is highest with an SD card. However, you do not need an online connection to access your data on your smartphone. If we are to express our opinion, then the SD card definitely has advantages that speak in its favor.