External sd and internal sd card

[lpulle]

Guess i missed it or was not paying attention. I see where sometimes a post refers external sd card. How do I get a file into it and how do I manage it. I've been using Astro for file manager.
Thanks

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[lpulle]

Guess I'm not the only one that doesn't understand about sd cards. Maybe making headway -- if I drop a file I want to run into the sd card from the computer, then it will be in the sd/external. Right?? Like the zip file that Jungle King talks about in the new update file.
Please understand- I plain don't understand.




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[jpcalhoun]

Guess I'm not the only one that doesn't understand about sd cards. Maybe making headway -- if I drop a file I want to run into the sd card from the computer, then it will be in the sd/external. Right?? Like the zip file that Jungle King talks about in the new update file.
Please understand- I plain don't understand.




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The reason, as I understand it, that memory configuration is different than previous Android devices is a deliberate engineering move by Motorola (it is the same on the Bionic) to get prepare both phone internal memory configuration so that it will conform to Ice Cream Sandwich requirements. That said, if you take a picture, download a file (any file) it is going to be saved in the internal storage called sdcard (also referred to as Media Area). There is also a directory that is labled external sd card. That is the 16gb sdcard that came with the phone. You can move files from one storage location to the other, but by default the phone will initially save the download file or picture etc in the internal sdcard. You should be able to move files with Astro...I don't know if you need the paid version to do this or not. Hope this helps. Oh yea, if you are moving files from your PC via USB then you should be able to place the file in either internal or external sdcard.

 

[SallyC]

But remember, with both the camera and your browser (and probably other apps) you can change your default download location to your external card.

 

[lpulle]

Ok--got it. Installed sd card manager and found everything. Just a file on the card. Thanks all.

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[Jungle King 76]

I just wanted to go ahead and add a little write up for anyone else who comes here looking to understand the differences between these two storge locations.

With previous Droids (pretty much everything before the Droid 3 if I am not mistaken) everything was automatically saved to your SD Card. If you did not have a removable sd card in your phone, you had no storage space for things like pictures, music, other files. Now they have reserved a portion of the phone's built in storage for what they call internal storage or "media area". However, you also have an external sd card which is the removable physical sd card. Note: I am referring to Mototorola phones when I mention pre-droid 3 and post. I am not familiar with storage practices of other manufacturers.

How do you navigate to each and tell the difference? That depends of what files service you are using. Here is the breakdown:

Stock file manager that is already on the phone:
1. Open your app drawer and click on the file manager app (it may be called "my files" or "file manager" etc.)
2. The stock file manager actually lays it out straight forward. You either see "internal storage", or "sd card"
3. You can move files from one to the other by simply long pressing on it and selecting either move or copy and then going to where you want to place it and select paste from the menu.

Market file manager like astro:
If you downlaod a file manager from the market like astro, es explorer, etc. you will notice that they typically do not indidcate "internal" or "external" instead you will most likely see "sd card" and "sd card-ext". The "ext" is short for external and this is the actual removable sd card. The folder labeled as just sd card is actually the internal built in storage area of the phone.

Windows file explorer.
If you plug your phone into your cpu using usb and you select USB mass storage on your device so it knows you want to share your storage with you PC, you will likely get two windows (if yu have auto play enabled) that pop up with the standard question of "what would you like to do". Once again, these two storage places are labeled differently. Each of these two storages will be given a drive letter and a name. One will likely be called MOT, this is the internal phone storage. The other should actually say "removable storage" and is the actual removable sd card on your phone. If for some reason they do not display "names" and only show you drive letters on your pc, you can go ahead and open both on your computer to take a look inside. Your phone's internal storage will have a file (near the top usually) labeled ".cache" and your external sd card typically will not have that file.

Hope this helps.

 

[lpulle]

Thank you Jungle King 76. Clears it up for me. You all are great.

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