SD Cards Slow Down Android... Sorry if it's been asked before...
So I know plenty of people will probably get riled up over this, but I'm gonna ask it anyway...
Do Android phones get slowed down by having an SD card installed?
Before you jump right to the NO answer, because I know that most people think that this is one of the major plusses of Android as an OS, and everyone uses SD cards... Hear me out...
I've had a T-Mobile G1, G2, MyTouch 4g Slide, Galaxy S3, Note 3 and Note 4. With every single one of them I've used SD cards. I've always had pitifully slow experiences, but I love Android so I stick around. It's always great when I first get it, or after a system wipe. But once I put in an SD card, things start to slow down. No I haven't been using the same SD card. Yes I've formatted the SD cards in various stages of using them. They're all top of the line, highly recommended cards. Whatever is recommended in the forums as the best of the best at that time is what I've gotten. They're not particularly full. The main reason I get them is for the camera, because all those pictures and videos can fill up my internal storage which I have to use for apps and games. I currently have around 10gb free on my 32gb Note 4. I wiped my phone (and formatted my 64gb card) less than a month ago because of bad performance. After getting all set back up and running great, I popped back in my freshly formatted 64gb card. Pretty much right away I started noticing the difference in performance. Now it's been a month and I actually have stuff on the card, and it's just dreadful. Opening the camera can take a solid 10 seconds. Sometimes I hit home and everything is just frozen for 5-10 seconds before the home comes back up. Opening Facebook brings up a white screen for at least 3-5 seconds. Opening the app switcher always takes 5 seconds (that's a known bug from what I've read). It's just laggy. It's awful. And again, I've formatted the card, so I know there's not some data on it that's causing the issues. As for whether or not it's the card itself? Well like I said, in a history of 6 phones, I've probably had 8 or 9 different cards. So while I haven't specifically tried a different card in THIS phone, I can 99% guarantee that a different card wouldn't make a difference. Plus if that WAS the problem... What did I get 8 or 9 bad cards out of 8 or 9 cards? is the microSD card industry that bad? haha.
So anyway. I think this weekend I'm gonna figure out what is on my card currently since the last format (who knows what apps put what on there), and see if it will be cool for me to just pop out the card and try living SD-free for a little bit, even though it's gonna be impossible to manage storage with just the 32gb included. But if it works faster, then I'll know for sure.
In the meantime, I'm just curious. Am I alone here? I know I'm not, because I have a couple friends who used to call me crazy but have recently started saying (and acting like it's THEIR observation and I never said it before) that Android with an SD Card in sucks. But I'm wondering in this forum, since I"ve gotten help in here in the past, who agrees with me?
Here's hoping the T-Mobile variant of the Note 5 has a bare minimum of 64gb storage (praying for 128). I'll gladly pay extra for it.
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2 comentarios
Hi @kylemccaulley2 ,
I've experienced no problems with a SD Card installed, especially not the time lag that you describe.
Have you tried starting in 'safe mode' to see if performance improves ?
If it does then a downloaded app may be the problem.
Do you have an A/V app installed for instance? That may be one cause if it checks the SD Card as well on start up or when opening apps.
Just a thought.
- de jayeff
I think you may be on to something. My Samsung S5 is totally sluggish, and I believe it started after adding an SD card. Some apps allow you to decide whether to install them on the SD card or not. Putting them back in internal storage might help, although they might still use the SD card for work space. Moving apps off the SD card and removing it and/or removing the SD card and reinstalling the apps would be a way to test the theory. It's also possible that all the Android security updates we get gradually slow down the system, because they probably add additional checking in many places, or new less efficient designs. It stinks when you are forced to buy new hardware because software slows down over time.
- de Simon Baker