How to Transfer Photos from Android to Memory Card

This is an article that shows you how to transfer photos from your Android device’s internal storage to an SD card. You can do this using Android’s settings, or using the free ES File Explorer app.

Table of Contents

Using a Samsung Galaxy phone

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Make sure the SD card is inserted in the Android device. If you need to insert an SD card, remove the back cover of your Android device.

In some cases, you need to remove the battery from your Android device to see the SD card slot. Remember to turn off the device before operation!

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Open the My Files app. Find and tap the “Samsung” folder in your Samsung Galaxy device’s app store, then tap the My Files app with a white folder icon on an orange background. ^{[1] X Research Source}

The My Files app is installed by default on most Samsung Galaxy phones running Android Nougat (7.0) and higher.

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Tap Images below the “CATEGORIES” heading in the middle of the page. This opens the list of photo albums in the Samsung Galaxy.

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Select an album by touching the album to which you want to transfer photos.

If you want to select all Samsung Galaxy photos, tap Camera here.

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Select the image to transfer. Touch and hold to pre-select an image, then tap any photo to transfer. You will see a check mark displayed to the left of each selected photo.

You can also tap ⋮ in the upper-right corner, choose Edit , then tap each photo you want to transfer.

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Tap ⋮ in the upper-right corner of the screen to open the selection list.

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Touch Move in the selection list to open the archive menu.

If you want to copy the photos to the SD card (still keeping the photos in the Samsung Galaxy’s internal memory), select Copy here.

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Tap SD card below the “PHONE” heading near the top of the storage menu.

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Select a folder in the SD card. Normally, you would tap DCIM and tap Camera to choose the default photo folder, but you can choose any folder on the SD card.

You can also tap Create fpder to create your own folder.

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Tap DONE in the upper-right corner of the menu. This will move the photos to the selected folder on the SD card and delete the photos in the internal memory of the Samsung Galaxy.

If Copy is selected instead of Move , this will save the image to the SD card but keep the original image in the hard drive of the Samsung Galaxy.

Using an Android phone

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Make sure the SD card is inserted in the Android device. If you need to insert an SD card, you will have to remove the back cover of the device.

In some cases, you need to remove the battery of your Android device to see the SD card slot.

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Open Settings

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(Settings) of your Android device by tapping the Settings app with the multicolored gear icon in the app store.

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Scroll down and select Storage in the middle of the Settings page. This opens the list of save folders on Android including the SD card.

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Tap Internal shared storage below the “Device storage” selection group.

Some phones or tablets will show Internal storage here.

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Tap Images near the middle of the menu.

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Select a location for the photo. Tap Camera to view photos you’ve taken with your Android device’s camera. ^{[2] X Research Source}

You can also tap another folder here to get photos from elsewhere (such as apps), if available.

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Select the image to transfer. Touch and hold to pre-select an image, and then select more by tapping the other photo you want to transfer.

You can also touch ⋮ and select Select all to select all photos in the folder.

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Tap ⋮ in the upper-right corner of the screen to open the selection list.

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Tap Move to… near the top of the selection list. This opens the list with archive folders.

If you want to copy photos to SD card, select Copy to … in the selection list.

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Touch the name of the SD card in the selection list to open the card’s folder.

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Select the folder you want to move the photos to. You can tap an existing folder, or tap ⋮ in the upper right corner, select New fpder , and give the folder a name.

Photos are usually saved in the Camera folder, which is the DCIM folder on your SD card.

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Tap MOVE in the lower right corner of the screen. Photos on Android device will be moved from internal storage to SD card.

If you choose Copy to… instead of Move to… , your photos will be copied to the SD card and still stored in your Android device’s internal storage.

Using ES File Explorer

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Make sure the SD card is inserted in the Android device. If you need to insert a memory card, you will remove the back cover of your Android device.

In some cases, you need to remove the battery from your Android device to see the memory card slot.

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Download the ES File Explorer app. Skip this step if you already have ES File Explorer on your Android device. The operation is as follows:

Open Google Play Store

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Tap the search bar.
Type es file explorer
Tap ES File Explorer File Manager
Tap INSTALL (Settings)
Tap ACCEPT when prompted.
Wait until ES File Explorer completes the installation.

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Open ES File Explorer. Tap OPEN in the Google Play Store, or tap the ES File Explorer app.

You need to scroll through a few introductory pages before you can proceed further.

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Tap the blue START NOW button in the center of the screen to open the home page of ES File Explorer.

Skip this step if you have opened ES File Explorer before.

Advice

If the folder you moved the pictures to has some duplicates, you’ll have to tap SKIP , REPLACE , or RENAME , or a similar option when prompted.

Warning

You’re better off copying files to the SD card instead of transferring them, as SD cards are not durable and can be easily damaged.

Steps

Using a Samsung Galaxy phone

Using an Android phone

Using ES File Explorer

Advice

Warning

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