There are so many wonderful things you can do with a smartphone! It\u2019s almost easy to forget that, as great as they are, they simply don\u2019t have unlimited storage. I\u2019m constantly adding apps, music, photos and other items that I want to keep, which pushes my phone\u2019s memory to its limits. The good news, though, is that there are smart, convenient ways to get extra space if you need it, and I\u2019ll be telling you about those here in a two-part blog series.<\/p>\n
If you use an Android smartphone or a flip phone, the handiest option for external storage is to purchase and install a memory card\u2014or, as it\u2019s more commonly known, \u201cSD\u201d (for \u201csecure digital\u201d) card. These are like miniature, more-powerful versions of the floppy disks we used in our old PC\u2019s. Though they\u2019re not much bigger than a fingernail, they can store enormous amounts of data\u2014typically either 32GB or 64GB, although some can accommodate as much as 128GB.<\/p>\n
An SD card allows you to save additional files directly to the card instead of to your device\u2019s internal memory. The type of memory card you need depends on the age of your phone\u2014<\/strong>some older ones may use standard size SD cards, but most now use the smaller, microSD version.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how they work: your phone holds two types of memory. One, called device memory, stores everything that\u2019s needed to make sure the systems that operate your phone are running properly. The other, device storage, is where your personal files go\u2014things like pictures, music, or apps that you\u2019ve downloaded. A microSD card provides additional storage for the types of items that are normally in your device storage.<\/p>\n