Storing photos, videos, apps and other important files on your smartphone is an unbeatable convenience. But every device comes with a built-in limit, meaning that you need to choose between making hard choices about what to delete, or find an alternative way to store them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, if you use an Android smartphone or a flip phone, there\u2019s a handy option available. You can add external storage to your device by purchasing and installing 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\u2014in fact, some can now accommodate up to 2TB of extra storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adding a microSD card won\u2019t be an option for everyone\u2014iPhone models, for instance, can\u2019t accommodate them, or you may just not want to deal with having a physical storage device. But for those who can, 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\n\n\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\n\n\n