Adoptable Storage : Explained!
When Android 6.0 a.k.a Marshmallow was released last year, a bevy of features were introduced. One among them was the Adoptable storage.
What is Adoptable Storage?
Android has always supported external storage media (SD cards for example) but they were limited in access. Adoptable storage is basically adopting an SD card to act like the internal storage of the device.
Why Adoptable Storage?
There are two main things to be considered when thinking about Adoptable storage.
- Storage
- Security
Since the SD card is adopted as the internal storage of the device, the space associated with it is now added to the internal storage space. The devices with limited internal storage can take advantage of this because the space associated with the SD card is now added to the internal storage space of the device.
Also when choosing to adopt the SD card as the internal storage, it is formatted as a local, 128-bit AES encrypted EXT4 drive and mounted as part of the system. This means that when the SD card (mounted as internal storage) is removed, the data associated with it cannot be accessible outside of its device premises. This proves to be very useful for those who wants their information to be very secure.
Why not Adoptable storage?
As useful can it be, adopting your SD card as your internal storage doesn’t come without compromises.
- Speed
- Life of the external storage media (SD cards)
The internally adopted SD card will never be as fast as the flash storage built into the phone. There will be performance drops when moving files to the device.
The SD cards are manufactured for a specific amounts of read/write processes. When the same is adopted as internal storage, the amount of caching, reads & writes are higher than usual. Due to this the life of the SD cards are usually shorter when adopted as internal storage space.
Should my SD card be adopted as internal storage?
Well it depends on your preferences.
If your device’s internal storage is low enough and you want some way or the other for it to expand, Adoptable storage is the way to go.You may get a reduced performance with reads/writes, but hey your space is now manageable!
If security is your main concern, you may adopt the external storage media. Your data will be safe because it’s encrypted. But if the SD card is removed by accident or lost due to some reason, the device wouldn’t work as expected since the SD card would’ve been adopted as part of the entire system. The device can then be made to work normal only by performing a factory reset.
If neither storage nor security is your concern, I’d recommend to use the SD card its usual way, i.e., as an external storage media. The device’s speed as well as SD card’s life wouldn’t be affected.
