Using an SD card in phone

[Misinthe]

Hey everyone, I wanted to get some opinions. I just got my new phone and I am debating about using an SD or not. I've never really had a problem emptying my phone's storage if it's getting full. I just wanted to ask from experience how it works. If I add the SD, does the phone just adds it to the pool memory like RAID 0 or does it uses it as a secondary Storage? Like having separate multiple HDDs? 

Thanks for the comments!

[skimmilk5]

Depends on the phone. Some phones pool it with the internal storage. Some phones treat it externally accessible.

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, kimsejin5 said:

Depends on the phone. Some phones pool it with the internal storage. Some phones treat it externally accessible.

I got the Galaxy S9+. I can't find anything on the interwebs.

[dizmo]

Pretty sure it's a separate entity. What do you want to use it for? Apps or just mass storage for videos/movies/music?

Keep in mind that if you remove the card and you have apps installed to it, you might have to reinstall the app. Not that it's overly difficult, but it could be a pain.

[dcgreen2k]

Most phones with Android 6 and up allow you to combine an SD card with internal storage, so the phone treats everything like a single storage device.

[Misinthe]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Pretty sure it's a separate entity. What do you want to use it for? Apps or just mass storage for videos/movies/music?

Keep in mind that if you remove the card and you have apps installed to it, you might have to reinstall the app. Not that it's overly difficult, but it could be a pain.

Yeah, that pain is the one I'm trying to stay away. I replace my phone every year and with an SD I would have to be worrying about what's in there, backing everything up twice. Making sure it's ready for the new phone and stuff like that. Whereas right now, I just back up my pictures and that's it.

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

Yeah, that pain is the one I'm trying to stay away. I replace my phone every year and with an SD I would have to be worrying about what's in there, backing everything up twice. Making sure it's ready for the new phone and stuff like that. Whereas right now, I just back up my pictures and that's it.

So you're just storing media, or apps too?
You'll have to reinstall the apps regardless if you get a new device. There's files that are still saved to the phones storage.

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

Most phones with Android 6 and up allow you to combine an SD card with internal storage, so the phone treats everything like a single storage device.

I was reading about that and I've found that Samsung doesn't allow Adaptive Storage yet. Didn't have it in the S8 and doesn't have it in the S9 either. So I guess I won't use the SD.

[Donut417]

11 hours ago, Miguel552 said:

Hey everyone, I wanted to get some opinions. I just got my new phone and I am debating about using an SD or not. I've never really had a problem emptying my phone's storage if it's getting full. I just wanted to ask from experience how it works. If I add the SD, does the phone just adds it to the pool memory like RAID 0 or does it uses it as a secondary Storage? Like having separate multiple HDDs? 

Thanks for the comments!

Most phones I have had treat it like secondary memory. Google specifically took out the ability to run apps off SD cards. Some phones might still have this feature, but it depends on the manufacture.