How to save files to Xiaomi memory card: full guide

Modern Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones have impressive specs, but often the internal memory is not enough for the growing number of applications, high-resolution photos and 4K video. When the storage is crowded, the system starts to work slower and installing new programs becomes impossible. The solution to this problem is the use of a microSD card, which allows you to significantly expand the available space without having to buy a new gadget.

However, simply physically connecting a drive doesn’t always automatically redirect all files from internal memory to an external medium. MIUI or HyperOS, which by default tends to store data in internal storage to ensure performance, the user needs to set his own recording priorities so that photos, videos and even some applications are installed on the device. SD-map.

In this article, we will discuss all the nuances of working with external drives on Xiaomi devices. You will learn how to format a flash drive correctly, change the settings of the camera and voice recorder, and also discuss the features of working with applications. Competent setting will allow you to forget about the lack of space and enjoy the stable operation of the smartphone.

Preparation and formatting of SD-card on Xiaomi

The first and most important step is to format the drive correctly, so if you insert a new card or use it on another device, the system may not recognize it correctly or may not work correctly. First, insert a microSD into your smartphone slot (usually combined with a slot for the second one). SIM-maps) and wait for notification of connection of new device.

Next, you need to go to the system settings. Find Settings → About Phone → Storage or immediately go to Settings → Memory (the path may vary slightly depending on the version of the firmware). Your card should appear in the list of available drives. Click on it to see the available actions. The system will prompt you to clean and format the drive. Attention: this process will delete all the data on the flash drive, so copy important files to the computer in advance.

Android will offer two use cases: as portable storage or as internal memory. The choice of Inner Memory mode (if available on your model) allows the system to combine space, but makes the card unreadable on other devices without formatting. Portable Storage mode is more versatile, but requires manually configuring the save paths for each application.

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Use UHS-I (U1) or UHS-II (U3) speed memory cards to record video in 4K. Slow cards can cause delays in shooting and interface lags.

Once formatted, the system will assign the card an Android-compatible file system, usually exFAT or FAT32. Now the drive is ready to go, and you can start fine-tuning the save paths for various services.

Setup camera and gallery to record on SD

The most voluminous content that fills your smartphone’s memory quickly is photos and videos. Xiaomi’s standard Camera app stores media files into internal memory by default. To change this behavior, open the camera app and tap the three menu bars in the upper right corner of the screen.

In the menu that opens, select Settings. Scroll down to the Save section to the settings. Here you will see the Save to Settings switch. SD-Activate it. All new images and videos will automatically be fed to the external drive, freeing up precious gigabytes of the main storage.

• 📸 Standard camera: setting is in the menu of shooting parameters.
• 🎥 Video Mode: When switching modes, the save path remains the same for all media types.
• 🤳 Selki Camera: The front camera also uses general save settings.
• 🌪️ Pro and Raw Modes: Heavy Files RAW They will also be written to the flash drive when the option is turned on.

It is worth noting that some third-party photo processing applications (such as VSCO or Lightroom Mobile) may have their own cache and export settings, and must be checked individually in the settings sections of each particular application.

Transfer of music, videos and documents

For multimedia files and documents, the situation is different than with the camera. Xiaomi’s standard file manager (‘Conductor’) makes it easy to move existing files. Open Explorer → Internal Shared Drive, find DCIM folders (photos), Music, Movies or Download.

Select the files you want or entire folders, click on "More" and select "Move" or "Copy." Then go to the root. SD-maps (usually displayed as /storage/sdcard1 plainly «SD-map) and paste files into the appropriate directories, which will free up space, but new files from the browser or messengers will continue to fall inside.

To change the default download path, go to your browser settings. In Google Chrome, this is done through Settings. → Downloaded files → Location of the download folder. Choose yours. SD-In a standard browser. MIUI The path changes similarly in download settings.

It is important to understand that moving system folders (such as Android/data) manually can cause applications to malfunction.

Installation of applications on a memory card

The issue of transferring applications to SD-The card is one of the most complex in the Android ecosystem.Beginning with Android 6.0, Google has introduced Adoptable Storage, which allows you to use the flash drive as part of internal memory. However, smartphone makers, including Xiaomi, often hide or completely remove this feature from the menu to ensure the stability of the system.

If your model supports native transfer, you can try the following path: → Annexes → All applications. Select the app you want, click Memory, and if the button is active, select Change» → «SD-Alas, for most system applications and heavy games (such as: PUBG Call of Duty: This button will not be available (gray).

An alternative solution is to use a memory card to store the game cache. Some launchers and file managers allow you to point the path to additional game files (files). OBB), but APK-The files will still reside in the internal memory, which saves space, but doesn't solve the problem completely.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to force-transfer Google system services or components MIUI This can lead to a cyclic restart of the phone (bootloop) and data loss.

Configuring a voice recorder and other system applications

Besides the camera, there are other file-generating apps in Xiaomi's smartphone.The standard voice recorder, the screen recorder, and the document scanner also take up space. MIUI Flexible configuration of conservation methods.

For a voice recorder, open the app, click three dots in the corner, and select Settings. Find the Save Path and select yours. SD-You can do the same thing in Screen Recording: In the recording settings, specify saving the video to an external drive.

• 🎙️ Recorder: Changes the way for all new audio recordings.
• 📹 Screen recording: heavy video files go straight to the flash drive.
• 📄 Scanner: scanned PDF And the images can be saved on SD.
• 📝 Notes: nested files in notes can also be redirected.

These utilities take a couple of minutes to set up, but in the long run, they save hundreds of megabytes of internal memory, especially for students and journalists who use their phones to record lectures or interviews.

Compatibility issues and speed of operation

Using a memory card has its technical limitations: Even the fastest microSD cards are inferior in the internal flash memory of a smartphone in terms of the speed of random read and write, which can manifest itself in the form of small delays when opening heavy photo albums or when launching games whose data is partially stored on a flash drive.

In addition, the file system SD-It's less resistant to failure than internal memory. A card that is taken out suddenly during writing or when power fails can damage the file table. So it's critical to always use Safe Retrieval or turn off the phone before physically removing the card.

If you notice that the phone started to work slower after installing the card, try checking its speed with utilities like the A1 SD Bench. Low write speeds (less than 10 MB/s) will cause interface friezes, in which case it is better to replace the drive with a more productive one.

⚠️ Attention: Cheap memory cards of nameless brands often have a real volume significantly less than stated. This leads to cyclical overwriting of data and its complete loss.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)