How to Use an SD Memory Card

This wikiHow teaches you how to transfer data between an SD card and a computer. You can use SD cards on digital cameras, phones, tablets, and most computers.

Table of Contents

On Android

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Insert the MicroSD card into the device. This process varies by device and not all Android products support MicroSD. No Android devices support standard SD cards.

Tablets usually have a MicroSD card slot along the side of the device.
If your phone supports MicroSD, the slot is usually located below the battery, but if the battery is non-removable, the MicroSD card may be along the side of the device.

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Open Settings

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with a gear icon located in the Android Drawer app.

You can also swipe two fingers down from the top of the screen and then tap the gear icon to open Settings.

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Scroll down and tap the Storage option in the middle of the Settings page.

On a Samsung device, tap Device maintenance and then select Storage .

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Click the memory card’s name below the “Removable” section on the storage page.

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View data on SD card. You can scroll down on your memory card’s folders, or tap a folder on the SD card page to see what’s inside.

For example, when clicking on the Images option, additional folders will appear.

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Transfer files from the memory card to the phone. To proceed, you:

Tap an item that you want to move.
Click
Click Move to… or Move .
Select Android external storage.
Tap MOVE or DONE (Done).

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Tap the “Back” button in the upper-left corner of the screen. You will return to the Storage (or Device Maintenance) page.

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Transfer files from the phone to the memory card. To proceed, you:

Click on Internal storage
Select a file or folder.
Click
Click Move to… or Move
Select the SD card name.
Tap MOVE or DONE

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Format the SD card if prompted . Formatting the SD card is necessary if the memory card was previously used on another device (such as a camera) that does not use the same file system type as the Android device.

If you get a message that the card doesn’t work or isn’t compatible with your device, reformatting may fix the error.

On Windows

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Insert the SD card into the memory card slot on the computer. If your computer doesn’t have a card reader, you can buy an external memory card reader that connects via USB.

MicroSD cards should be used with a memory card reader to fit most common SD card slots.

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Open Start

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. Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

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Open File Explorer

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. Click the gray file cover icon at the bottom left of the Start window. The File Explorer window will open.

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Select SD card. Click the name of your memory card on the left side of the File Explorer window.

If you can’t find your memory card, click This PC , then double-click the SD card’s name under the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the page.

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View files inside SD card. You can scroll down through the files and folders on the page to view, or double-click a file/folder to open it.

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Transfer files from SD card to computer. To proceed, you: