Can You Move An Sd Card From One Phone To Another

SD cards are fairly inexpensive. That'due south function of the reason they get used so much. But if you have a new-ish i, especially an expensive high-capacity menu, and you switch phones, you lot'll probably want to reuse information technology. I don't blame ya 1 bit, and all you lot actually need to do is clean them up a little and they will drop right in. Hither'south what you demand to know.

More: Best microSD Card for Android in 2018

About those one-time files

An SD carte you've used in an Android telephone will have a agglomeration of files on information technology. Some of them you might have put there, like things you've downloaded; others are placed there by apps like your camera, and others just pop upwardly and might have weird names you don't recognize. Those are all files your old telephone needed, simply your new phone doesn't.

Taking care of the files y'all saved to the bill of fare and media in folders like Pictures or Ringtones is elementary. I'd suggest you copy them somewhere else similar your Google Bulldoze storage, and so you lot can reformat the card (that's just easier), but if you lot want them on your new telephone, you tin can leave them right where they are. Just remember that if you practice format the menu in your new phone, they are gone forever. Services with storage like Google Photos and Google Bulldoze come up gratuitous with your Google account — don't exist afraid to apply them!

Old files can be useful, just just remember that when you lot format the carte du jour, they're gone forever.

You might have a folder chosen DCIM if you've told the camera in your sometime phone to save photos to the SD carte du jour. You tin can take a peek inside of it and you'll see that it's filled with your photos, but tin also have what appear to exist duplicates of photos with a proper noun that's almost the same. Depending on the photographic camera app on your old phone, those are from things like portrait manner shots, panoramas, photospheres, or any other type of photo that'due south not a "regular" moving picture.

Your new phone might not be able to sympathize what to practice with those, especially if y'all're moving from ane brand to another. But Google Photos does. I'd recommend you upload every photograph on your phone to Google Photos, and use the Photos app to delete the ones y'all don't want in the cloud. But don't delete the residuum just still, because Google Photos doesn't save the full resolution and quality of your pictures unless you tell it to do then. Take the whole binder and upload it somewhere the same equally you lot might have done with documents or other things you wanted to keep from the stride in a higher place. This is really a great place to go on the original copies if you lot use an app from the Play Store to create a .zip file from them all.

The important part is to make sure you've saved them somewhere so you lot can have your new telephone format the SD card. That erases everything.

The other files — ones in the Android folder or nested inside some other folder are fine to delete. Some may be encrypted and can't exist read by any other phone; others might not be. But every 1 of them was created past an application and will be recreated and populated in one case an apps demand to practise and so. If you plan to format the card in the new phone as suggested, ignore them. Otherwise, delete them.

Adoptable storage and App Lockers

None of this applies if you used your SD card as an adoptable storage device in your old telephone. When you do that, the card is formatted equally an encrypted drive and tin't exist read past any other device except the phone that encrypted it.

To reuse the card, you lot'll need to reformat it. If your new phone allows yous to use an SD menu as an adoptable storage drive, you lot'll notwithstanding demand to reformat it. You do this through the dialog when you lot showtime insert the card and the system asks you what you want to exercise with information technology.

More: Everything you need to know about your SD menu and Adoptable storage

This same communication probably goes for any type of App Locker app you lot might accept used. An App Locker takes applications and "hides" them or can hide specific content similar risque photos or private documents. Yous need a countersign to run into these subconscious apps and media files. If y'all use the same App Locker app on your new phone it might be able to call back those files, so check earlier y'all format annihilation. I'd suggest yous unlock any media files you want to keep and dorsum them upward somewhere, then lock them back up in one case you're done.

Do y'all really want to reuse your SD card?

SD cards aren't super expensive, simply if you're similar me, you want to utilize anything y'all've bought until it falls apart. That's not the best idea when it comes to SD cards.

Unless your old SD card is Class ten or faster, you don't probably don't want to reuse it. Information technology will brand apps that use the SD carte du jour for information run slower, it will accept longer to re-create files that you like, and your new camera probably can't fifty-fifty use it for things like burst photos or 4K video. Engineering science moves fast and cards that were fine just two or three years agone when you bought your onetime phone are too slow past today's standards.

More: Everything yous demand to know about SD carte speeds and your phone

Thankfully, SD cards aren't nigh as expensive as other types of reckoner storage. The very best high-capacity bill of fare is but going to set you back about $100, and you can get a high-quality, fast SD card for your telephone for nearly $30. If your new phone has a camera that can take Hard disk drive video, you'll exist very glad you sprung for a new carte du jour.

More: Best microSD Card for Android in 2018

If you followed this advice, you can pop your old carte in your new phone and say yes when it asks if you want to format it. In one case that's finished it's ready to become with your new telephone and yous can start filling information technology up again. Remember though, SD cards don't live forever so always be sure to support your important files regurlarly!

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You lot'll detect him writing and speaking his loud stance on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.