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Class and micro sdhc cards?

How much does class speed matter for a smart phone. I was under the impression that it's mainly important for video capture and photography (when using a digital camera).
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App

There is no requirement or restriction on this. Anything microSD or microSD HC will work. Recommended is to get class 2 or better card in order to achieve better speeds when copying stuff from/to phone via USB in disk drive mode.
However under 'anything' do not assume you should go and get the cheapest ever card you find on eBay or something - if card isn't functioning good, phone may experience wired behaviour like resets/etc. Get something recognizable (SanDisk, Kingston, etc).
Some video camcorders require certain class+ card in order to keep up with HD recording bandwidth required. Since D2G can't even shoot 720p, even slowest card will be ok. Not that 720p would have required more...

leobg said:
There is no requirement or restriction on this....
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Click to collapse
Leo are you certain it will take ClassIII memory? It makes sense just not sure the hardware did that.
to the OQ - If they come out with a newer class there might be a compatibility issue with the phone but XDA folks usually finds away to support them soon after via a patch.
Stay away from old legacy (Not Classed) SD cards. Go for the fastest and largest you can afford.
Android rely's much more on the SDcard than WM ever did.

the phone should support up to class 6 (or whatever is the highest class) just fine, class just means the speed of the card, the d2g supports any class micro sd card up to 32gb in size, so as long as you dont exceed that, youre fine. the speed of the card could be a factor for programs that cache to your sd card, youd want a faster sd card if you plan to have programs do that.

I am pretty sure the class is backwards compatible. Kinda like USB 2.0 and 1.0. Its going to use the fastest the device is capable of using. I think it's more the size limits (In the case of android, 32gb) that matters. Granted, I could be mistaken.

Adoptable storage versus root (link2SD etc)

Hello all,
Any help would be very very much appreciated...
I am brand new to the Android world (2 months) and have been following this forum since. I have figured out how to flash my verizon model s7 to the universal, have figured out the best case and best glass screen protector.... I have even read extensively on SD cards and their speeds and the differences between adoptable and rooting....
Here's my question: I am an excessive app user, and yes I know the solution to this is to delete the apps I don't use....
But, I would really like to just store apps on my SD card and run them off of the card
I originally bought a SanDisk Ultra 200GB and a SD Extreme 128GB..... but upon further investigation I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed on what to do and which SD to buy.
From what I can find out there are two options for this:
Adoptable:
But, it's kind of buggy.
I don't want my entire phone, pictures, etc migrated over to the SD, just the ability to fully install apps
There are limitations to which apps can be migrated to the SD card
Best to have a faster SD card versus size, but there is still a significant bottleneck, UHSII doesn't work on this phone... so the SD Extreme or faster is best.
Root (Link2SD etc):
The Root for this phone is very buggy and I have seen quite a few go back to stock. And I don't want to trip KNOX quite yet... still under warranty.
Can move any app to my SD!!
SD doesn't need to be fast as long as I don't mind my apps loading slowly (or transfer the used ones to internal...)
Is there in-game lag, after loading, running from a slower SD such as the SanDisk Ultra?
I am full of competing ideas and the wealth of information on this forum and elsewhere is overwhelming me. I have spend over 20 hours in the last couple weeks researching this issue alone....
Please, any and all guidance and help would be very very appreciated. Thank you!

What did you choose at the end?

Hello! I chose the SD extreme 128. Upon further investigation it seems you cant truly install and run apps, app data and all from the SD card with adoptable, the only way to do that is with root access. So I went for the faster sd which put up really gread numbers. There is an SD card discussion I also posted in with my results and they beat the other same tier cards and rival some of the more expensive ones. I use the card mosty for 3D movies for my gear vr and have put a lot of apps on it (not tbe data of course which takes up the most space). I am awaitkng the day my Samsung warranty expires to root because 32 GB kinda sucks.
However, it would be safer to go with the faster card for adoptable anyway.
Also, I can record HD video directly to it while the 200GB cannot do that.

Backing up to Samsung account problem with SD card

I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?

mikeyaj said:
I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have wifi turned on?

yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card

mikeyaj said:
yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a 200Gb card with loads of images and music and don't have any issues. Did you disable any services with Package Disabler pro? That might be an issue as when you restore a backup from the cloud you have to re-enable all services.

Could be a fake SD card. Did you buy it from a reputable seller? Fake cards can be incredibly slow or take ages to scan contents because they often use shady tactics to make the card appear to be 128Gb for example when accessed on a phone or PC while in reality being much smaller in capacity (2-16gb etc). These fake cards can look incredibly convincing too so dont be fooled by an elaborate copy.

Here's an app from the Play Store that can check if you have a counterfeit sdcard, SD Insight. The app isn't compatible with the S8 but if you have an older phone you can test your sdcard.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi

Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages

mikeyaj said:
Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages
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Click to collapse
If its been with you for at least 3 phone cycles, was the speed ever really that good to begin with? It sounds like it may be an older card perhaps. Keep in mind, technology moves quick.
If you happen to be using a card that was cheap/midrange only a couple years ago, it would stand to reason that it may be underwhelming and feeling pretty slow by today's standards.
Download an app along the lines of "A1 SD Bench" and run a test for me. Post your Read/Write speed results in here for us when you're finished.
If the result of this test is poor you may want to look at the newer UHS-I supported cards if speed is becoming an issue.

I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why even bother posting if you "you can't be bothered to test the issue?"

Because I decided I wanted to.
I tend to do what I want and considering the card is in 100% working order what's the point.
If times have changed and I've gotten to answer that it's old tech I can replace it with newer tech.
Thanks for your help but I can assure you I'll post what I want, when I want, how I want. I don't have to do anything I don't want to when I've already been told the card is old tech

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes, I figured that was the case. It will be interesting to know if that new card solves your problem. If you still want to run a quick benchmark on your old card its not as involved as it sounds. If you use the app I recommended before you just choose your SD card in the UI and it should only take a few minutes to run a speed test.

Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

My 2 year old 200Gb card:
Read 1692.00MB/s
Write 14.81MB/s

mikeyaj said:
Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.

xeathpk said:
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it isn't slow
it's perfect for listening to music from and saving all pics to. perfect to the point of there would be no need to change the card. exceptional performance.
why the s8 has issues trying to calculate the amount of music on it to back-up even when i've toggled it NOT to backup music is a bit of a stupid upgrade on the s8 when the s7 was fine.
maybe samsung haven't figured out that most sd card users just throw pics, film and music on it so it doesn't need to be super fast as they've toggled off the backup option. seems to be a really strange software decision to try and calculated stuff to back up you don't want backing up lol

Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:

xeathpk said:
Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used it all an excuse to buy the 256gb card though.
Is the one I've bought any good?
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

Its quick as hell. "Up to 95MB/s Read and 90MB/s Write speed with UHS-I, Class 10 and U3 compatibility."
It should serve you well for quite a while I'd imagine. Even I'm tempted to get one right now.
Waterproof (IEC 60529, IPX7)
Temperature-proof
X-ray-proof
Magnetic-proof
10 year warranty
Not bad, not bad.

I've never had a Samsung card . Always had the sandisk ones

400GB Micro SD Card, unformatted size different in PC

Hi there, not sure if this is the right place to answer this question.
Gutted to know that the amount of storage lost on a 400GB Sandisk Card was close to about 32GB. Of the 400GB capacity, 366GB formatted was available to store files. I found this out by multiple people and by putting in the adapter to my computer. I also realised the read/write speeds were slow but acceptable and comfortable for normal use. Later, I put the SD card into my phone (Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus at the time) thinking it would work without an issue. Well, it did. In fact, it worked even better. Read speeds were close to the advertised amount at almost 100mbps and the write speed was just under 50mbps so I was happy. I also came to realise that the formatted capacity on my phone was showing as 394GB instead of the 366GB most people get on their computers.
I now move phone to the Razer Phone, as soon as I pop the SD card into the phone, it asks me that it needs formatting to a compatible format I believe as the 400GB capacity may have been too large or in the wrong file format. I haven't done so yet since there's about 25GB of files I want to keep (transferred from my previous 32GB card).
So I couldn't find the answers online for these two questions.
1) Why was the formatted size different on a computer, and on the Xiaomi?
2) If I were to format the SD card to a compatible format, I'd lose out on a lot of storage due to an unused partition. Correct?
Any responses are appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Question S-L-O-O-O-W external microSD memory

I just bought an A53 , stepping down from "flagships" because the newest ones all lack expandable storage.
This feature is a MUST for me!
I've found the A53's interfacing to the card slot to be so EXTREMELY slow, to make it unusable!!!
Anyone else seeing this as well?
(I'm using a 1TB SanDisk - about 75% full - that worked quite well in my previous phone)
Is it the Exynos chipset (vs. Snapdragon previously) that is causing the difference?
Is anyone here using a large capacity microSD without any noticable speed issues?
Anything I might do to improve the situation???
(Aside from sending the phone back?)
And if I have to resort to that - recommendations on a good pgone w/ expandable storage - up to 1TB)?
(Many only specced to 256 GB)

What is slow? From internal memory to SD card or via Cport to SD card?
Is it a V30 rated card ie Sandisk Extreme?
On my N10+ with a V30 rated Sandisk:
Internal write 3.4-4gb @ minute
External write 1-2.2 gb @ minute, I believe it was.
An external transfer takes about 3.5 hrs for 400gb of data. Rates very somewhat depending on file structure and type.
The .5tb Sandisk Extreme is slightly faster. Both stream high res vids with no issues. Zero problems with both.
Once in the phone format card with phone before using. Do not remove the card once installed; instead do data transfers via the Cport. Do Not use in other devices unless formatting in new device first as it can cause card corruption. I was able to transfer my older .5tb card to my new N10+ without a format with no issues. However in general I don't recommend this practice. A corrupted card is a very rude surprise.
A used N10+ in good condition trumps a newer midrange Samsung especially if 5G and variable refresh rate display aren't important to you. It's a beast that runs like a she bat out of hell.

Many thanks, Blackhawk for your prompt and helpful reply!
Simply reading from the SD card, and getting a listing of files in s folder is very slow.
Here's an example:
Moving files from one folder to another on the SD card...
9634 files, 12.7 GB ; has taken over 29 HOURS
That's 2 hours per gigabyte.
Other transfers from internal memory to SD are also very slow, and often fail
depending on the file manager I try to do it with.
The card is a SanDisk 1TB Ultra MicroSDXC UHS - 120MB/s, C10
and as I mentioned, it has worked fine on my previous phone.
I've tried several different file managers with varying results.
They vary from completely inoperable to barely functional.
(The 2 hours per gigabyte is the BEST I could come up with )
The card was formatted in the old phone, and some transfers in and out were with a Windows PC in between.
I'll try offloading the contents to another drive and formatting in the A53 before copying back again.
5G is important - and a Note 10+ 5G would be an available option - but only available as refurbished now.
I may go there if the reformat experiment doesn't pan out.
Thanks again!

This is the one that you wanted for best speed. V30 rated. Even so your transfer rates aren't even near the ballpark.
Try reforming the card in the phone. Maybe a bad card; always buy from a reputable source, if it seems too inexpensive it's likely a fake. They are out there! B&H Photo, Western Digital and Amazon are good sources.
Unlikely it's the phone but check the contacts and clean the SD card contacts with anhydrous isopropyl alcohol. Never touch the contacts.
I don't recommend the N10+ 5G variant as it's a first generation 5G and will likely chew up battery life. 4G works well enough to stream vids and many sites cap their downloads making 5G irrelevant. New N10+'s may still be available if you look hard enough. I picked up one 9 months ago, not cheap but in a factory sealed box, perfect condition and running on Android 10.
Although I prefer Pie, 10 is ok, 11 not so much because scoped storage is fully active, 12 I won't touch. Pie is relatively secure unless you do stupid things. This device in my hand load is over 2 yo still running fast and stable.
Snapdragon is the preferred variant (better chipset and heat sink) unless you want to root.
The N10+ has maybe the best display available in terms of white point, color calibration/accuracy and gamma. The variable refresh rate displays are extremely hard to calibrate across the multiple display rates/brightness levels. As such the N10+ likely beats out even the newest Samsung flagships in these specs. Color accuracy is important to me; without accurate color calibration the gamma calibration sucks.
I deliberately chose a new N10+ over the N20U because of the above plus better form factor, the spen is on the right side, better SOT and reliability. The only repair my N10+ has had is a replacement battery. It looks, feels and runs like new. It's a gorgeous beast even today and a blast to use.