Hello 
I just bought a FP3 yesterday and I already set it up. When I now insert my sd card I do not get to choose between portable storage and external storage. Instead it automatically chooses portable storage which I do not want. I have already tried removing and inserting the sd card again. Is there an option to manually change to external storage? I would like to avoid a factory reset as I have already installed all apps and set up all my accounts.
It looks as though FP have removed the internal storage option, as card errors can render your entire internal memory unusable - though FP hasn’t confirmed that this is the case.
“portable storage” means external storage here. Android 8 removed the “internal storage” option and this was kept in Android 9.
So why do they mention both options on this page then?
Another issue I have is that when I connect my FP3 to my computer it isn’t recognized. I’ve tried re-formatting my sd card several times like described on the page linked above but to no avail.
Because they probably copy-and-pasted the corresponding Fairphone 2 support article over to the Fairphone 3 section and tweaked it a little here and there in a hurry, see the wording here for the Fairphone 2 … https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001886586
For the Fairphone 3 it makes no sense this way to me, perhaps a case for this list here …
I added it to the error list. Can anyone else confirm my understanding that “portable storage” and “external storage” are not alternative options, but actually one and the same?
There’s portable storage, which is sometimes referred to as external storage.
The other option that exists if the device/ROM supports it is adoptable (or adopted) storage, which is also referred to as internal storage (in some SD card formatting screens) or device storage. These last two terms can be confusing as they overlap with names given to the storage memory built into the device.