How to Recover Data from SD Card Formatted As Internal Storage

On this page, you'll learn about the causes of data loss on an SD card formatted as internal memory on an Android phone, how to recover data from such an SD card, and why people need to and what happens when they format an SD card as internal memory.

To recover lost data from an SD card, first, stop using the card to prevent overwriting the data. Then, download and install a reliable data recovery software, such as Deep Data Recovery or Disk Drill.

How to Recover Data from SD Card Formatted As Internal Memory
Why Do you Want to Format SD Card As Internal Storage
What Happened to SD Card If Formatted As Internal Memory

Causes of Data Loss on SD Card Formatted as Internal Memory

When adopting an SD card as internal memory, it's encrypted and data is completely erased. If you didn't back up photos or important files on the SD card, you can use data recovery software to retrieve erased data.

Using an SD card as permanent storage can also lead to data loss due to its limited lifespan. As the card is used for frequent read/write operations, its performance will degrade over time, making it more susceptible to data loss and corruption. This is in addition to the risk of losing data due to the lack of backup, making it essential to have a reliable backup plan in place to safeguard your important files.

It'll become slow, corrupt, as a result, data is inaccessible.

How to Recover Data from SD Card Formatted As Internal Memory

To recover data from a formatted SD card or access data from a slowly corrupted SD card, Deep Data Recovery - a professional hard drive data recovery software - can make it possible.

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To recover data from your SD card, you first need to decrypt it so that Windows can recognize it. Since the card is encrypted, you'll need to format it as portable, then follow the tutorial below to recover your data.

#1. Decrypt SD Card from Android Internal Memory

To access storage settings on your phone, navigate to Settings, then select Storage, and finally choose Storage Settings.
Tap Format as portable

format sd card as portable

Tap "Format".

Safely unmount the SD card from your Android after making it portable again.

#2. How to Recover Data from Formatted SD Card

To recover your files from the SD card, download and install the trial version of Qiling disk data recovery software on your computer. Then, connect the SD card to the Windows system using a card reader. Follow the software's simple guide to recover your files.

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Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Here are the detailed steps to recover data from an SD card formatted as internal storage:

Step 1. Choose file types and click "Next" to start

Download and install Deep Data Recovery on your Windows PC.
Use the proper way to connect your SanDisk/Lexar/Transcend SD card to the computer.
Open Qiling SD card recovery software, select the desired file types, and click "Next" to initiate the recovery process.

Select file types that you want to recover

Step 2. Select the SD card to scan

Select the SD card you want to recover data from and click "Scan" to start the scanning process.

Step 3. Check for scan results

Wait for the scanning process to complete.
To narrow down the search results, click on the "Filter" button and select one or multiple file types from the list, such as Pictures, Word documents, Excel files, PDFs, Videos, and more.
Click "Preview" to check if they are the wanted files.

Step 4. Recover SD card data

Choose desired files and click "Recover".
Choose a different location to save the recovered files instead of the original SD card.

Consult with Qiling Data Recovery Experts for a one-on-one manual recovery service, which includes a free diagnosis. After the diagnosis, we could offer various services such as.

Repair corrupted RAID structure, unbootable Windows OS and corrupted virtual disk file (.vmdk, .vhd, .vhdx, etc.)
Recover/repair lost partition and re-partitioned drive
Unformat hard drive and repair raw drive (BitLocker encrypted drive)
Fix disks that become GPT protected partitions

Why Do You Want to Format SD Card As Internal Storage

Formatting an SD card as internal storage means that it will be treated as part of the device's internal memory, allowing you to store apps, files, and data directly on the card, rather than on the device's internal storage. This can help free up internal storage space and provide more room for apps, photos, and other data. It's a way to effectively increase the device's internal storage capacity by using the SD card as an extension of the device's internal memory.

Android devices treat the SD card as part of the internal storage pool, allowing apps to be installed and data to be stored on it, similar to internal storage.

What Happened to SD Card If Formatted As Internal Memory

Your Android phone erases all data on the SD card
Android formats and changes the regular FAT32/exFAT format to ext4 or f2fs, which are more suitable for internal storage. This allows for better performance and more efficient use of storage space.
Your SD card is encrypted, so it can't be mounted on another Android device.

Android's internal memory can be expanded using external storage, but this is not permanent. The good news is that Android allows users to expand their internal memory using external storage, such as an SD card or USB drive.

For Android phones with 4-The Android One device's 8GB internal storage can quickly fill up with app installations, but with Android 6.0 Marshmallow's Adoptable Storage feature, users can expand their internal storage by installing a removable SD card, which can be used to store apps, unlike traditional use for photos, songs, and videos.

To use an SD card as internal storage on an Android device, the card must be formatted, which erases all existing data. It's recommended to back up the data before formatting.

How to Format/Use SD Card As Internal Storage on Android

1. Go to "Settings", and then select "Storage & USB".

2. At the bottom of the list, you should see the SD card's details, including the option to format it and make it "Internal" storage.

sd card format android

3. Once you've copied the contents of the SD card to the computer, you can remove the SD card from the device, and then reboot the device. After it's rebooted, you can start running things from the card.

format sd card as internal memory

 Tip: If a micro SD card is not detected in a device, the formatting procedure may become stuck. Clicking on the provided link can lead to further instructions on how to resolve this issue.