I was kinda running out of space on my FP3 with Android 10 (Genshin Impact takes up quite a bit) and decided to buy an SDXC card in order to free up space. The phone offered me to use it as internal storage (and I, having read only the SD card page on the FP website) thought it’d be fine.
Obviously (as everyone seems to know except the official page about SD cards), internal storage was a bad idea which didn’t even work. Apps couldn’t load properly and all that good stuff. So I reversed to external storage.
But then the thing is, the camera saves stuff to the internal memory by default, as seems to do every other app. Extensive search hasn’t lead me to a way of changing that default so that at least some apps start saving new media to the external SD.
So my question is. Did I just predictabily get almost absolutely no benefit by buying a new SD card, or is there something else I’m missing?
While I cannot provide any experience of my own with setting the external SD card (“portable storage”) as the default saving target, you can always move stuff to the SD card manually (most conveniently with a file manager app, but in some way it even works through Settings > Storage). You don’t need to do it all the time, every once in a while should work.
Please note some apps like Whatsapp will allow to move their media folders to the external SD, but it will probably break the link between the app and data (the photos will be fine on your SD, but they won’t show in Whatsapp). This is usually not the case with standalone camera or music playing apps though, so there should be no problem with them working like described.
Do you know how you made it? I don’t see any option in the native camera app neither on Open Camera (…and any new photos end up on the internal folders).
Hi Rusca
You can set Open Camera to use portable SD storage. This app has very extensive settings possibilities so here is where to go:
After launching the app, open the settings > More camera controls
Make sure Storage Access Framework is activated.
Then go to Save location (just above SAF).
This will launch the Files app so you can choose, and if necessary create, the folder to which you want Open Camera to save files.
You will need to allow Open Camera to access files in that folder (you’ll be asked).
One thing though: after taking a photo, the “quick access” button in bottom right corner which opens the Gallery app (by default G Photos) will not allow you to see the latest photo straight away. You have to wait, presumably for it to be indexed. I personally don’t find this a major drawback, but some people might. You can run an app like Gallery simultaneously.
If you’re using the standard Camera app, in the app settings under “Storage” you can choose between “Phone” and “SD Card”. If you choose SD Card I think it will use the DCIM > Camera folder.
