Source
r/MotoG•
fnot

Annoying adaptable storage in Marshmallow

I got Marshmallow on my Moto G 3rd gen and of course I hit that update button faster you can say... well Marshmallow! But now I'm really bothered with the new adoptable SD card storage options and how it's implemented. The way I see none of the options are good, especially if you have the 8GB version of Moto G.

  1. Format your SD card as an internal storage. It gets encrypted and you can no longer read it in other devices. The phone uses it as main storage area for apps, but SD card access is always slower than internal memory access so performance will drop (depending on your SD card). You also have the risk of the SD card failing due to quality issues or wear out (due to increased I/O).

  2. You keep your SD card as portable storage, but now Android only lets you store certain data on the SD card. Apps and app data by default will be stored on internal flash, and can no longer be moved to the SD card as in Lollipop or earlier versions. So if you happen to have low internal storage space - which you are bound to have with the 8GB Moto G - you won't have much room for apps left. For example I can no longer download offline maps in HERE maps, because I don't have enough free space, the maps are big (>100MB) and they can only be stored on internal memory since I have opted to keep my SD card as portable. I guess this can be fixed if app developers update their apps to support Android M (anybody who can confirm if this is the case?), but so far I have not been able to find a solution to this problem.

So what do you choose? More storage space, but sacrificing speed and perhaps durability/reiability? Or flexibility of having a portable SD card but it can no longer be used to store apps or app data.

EDIT: In HERE maps you can change the setting to save to SD card as henrykazuka writes below, but my comment is still valid for other apps.

Posted Mar 1, 2016, 12:38 PM UTC · edited

06
vurey3rd Gen (XT1541 - Europe)•

I have an 8GB/1GB Moto G 2015 and have just sent a corrupted 32GB Sandisk U3 SD card back to Amazon, less than 2 weeks after I received it. I'm wondering whether it was faulty or whether formatting it as internal storage had anything to do with it failing. Performance seemed to degrade over the last couple of weeks. I wiped the cache partition again yesterday and when I booted back up it wasn't recognised.

Fair play to Amazon for sending me a replacement the next day, but I wonder if this one will fare any better? Performance seems fine, for now.

2
frank-zafka3rd Gen (XT1541 - Europe)•

Is the moto g even able to read u3 cards at its maximal speed? I read somewhere they are limited up to uhs 1...

1
vurey3rd Gen (XT1541 - Europe)•

Something isn't right with it in any case. Performance was crappy again. Formatted the SD card as portable storage and everything improved.

The adoptable storage is a nice idea, but in practice the performance issues aren't worth it :(

1
henrykazuka•

Are you sure you can't make Here store the maps on the SD card? It's an option inside the app and not an Android option. I don't see why that would have changed.

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fnotOP•

You're right, I found the setting in Here maps. But neverthless the statement about apps and app data being moved to internal flash memory unless the SD card is converted to internal storage still stands though. It seems unless the app specifically supports Android M and portable storage, its data is stored on internal flash.

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mrsaturnboing•

I was under the impression that portable storage mode of Marshmallow was no different than the normal handling of SD cards in Lollipop.

1