after the problem when smartphone makers thought creating devices without expandable storage was a good idea, now we see manufacturers adding an sd card slot to phones again. If you’re ready to expand your storage, it’s as simple as learning how to mount an SD card to your Android device.
here we show you how to mount your sd card, unmount it and what all this mounting nonsense means in the first place.
why mount your sd card?
Regardless of what device you put an sd card in, you’ll need to mount it, which means the sd card becomes readable to whatever device it’s in. think of it as a mini-install, which makes the sd card visible to the device and makes it work well with the processes and software on your specific phone. when you unmount it, the sd card is disconnected from your device.
if you don’t mount an sd card on your android device, your device will not be able to read it. if you don’t unmount your sd card before removing it, you risk losing data on the card, since you didn’t give it a chance to disconnect at the software level before removing the hardware (sort of like turning off your pc on the mains in instead of going through the shutdown process).
how to mount an sd card on your android phone
mounting an sd card should be as simple as inserting it into your android device and then following the prompts to “mount” it. Some newer smartphones automatically mount your sd card without asking, while on others you may need to go to “settings -> storage -> sd card” and follow the prompts to mount it from there. is assembled, it is ready to use with your android device.
how to unmount (or eject) your sd card
For the most part, the term “unmount” has been replaced with the much more familiar term “eject” these days, because it essentially means the same thing (although don’t expect your sd card to pop out of your android device). phone like a vhs tape).
To eject your sd card, go to “settings -> storage”, then tap the “eject” icon next to your sd card. alternatively, tap all the way to your sd card, then tap “eject”. (some older phones will have an “unmount” option, which does the same thing).
most of you will already know this, but just to be sure, unmounting/ejecting does not erase the data on your sd card (not to be confused with formatting, which will completely erase your sd card).
sd card not detected by phone
if you try to mount an sd card on your android device, but it is not recognized, you should try to format it on your pc with “exfat” format, which can be read by most android phones. insert the sd card into your windows pc, right click in file explorer and then click “format”.
The main options you want to select in the new window are “exfat” and a drive size of 1024kb, which is a good default.
If that doesn’t work, try inserting a different microsd card into your phone to determine if the problem is with the phone or the card.
using sd cards without an sd card slot
Even though newer Android devices ship with more and more storage, you may still want to use an SD card to quickly back up files to external storage. If your device doesn’t have an SD card slot, you can still technically mount an SD card on your Android device. you will only be able to use it for file storage, but it gives you an additional option.
you will need a portable usb cable adapter. If you have a micro-USB charging port, you’ll need something like the UGreen Micro USB 2.0 OTG Cable On The Go Adapter. If you have a usb-c charging port, you’ll need something like the jsaux type c otg cable. Connect a standard usb flash drive or usb card reader to the type a end and the other end to your android device.
Use your desired file manager to move files to your sd card or usb drive from your android device. remember, this is for file storage only, not app storage.
summarizing
You should now know everything there is to know about the increasingly integrated process of mounting and unmounting (see ejecting) an sd card. if pc’s are anything to go by we may get to a point where you can simply remove sd cards without having to “eject” them first, but for now keep playing it safe and mount and unmount according to our guide .
do you want to use your sd card as android internal storage? just follow these steps.
image credit: flickr / maurizio pesce
