The manufacturer should indicate how much memory your phone supports . You should only research its technical specifications on the official website or on alternative websites such as gsmarena.com (preferably the first). Specifically, the “expandable memory” part.
Generally you will see something like “up to 512GB” or something similar. In theory, that means that you can only put a micro SD card of equal or less capacity than indicated .
Despite what the manufacturer has said, it is possible that an external memory with a higher capacity than the one specified also works . So I have verified.
For example, the idea is to put an external memory of 64 GB in a cell phone whose specifications indicate a maximum of 32 GB. This would help if the micro SD falls short and buying another cell phone of higher capacity is not an option.
However, I just want to expose this discovery, not recommend it due to the risk of data being erased or not working optimally.
64 GB memory card in a cell phone that can hold 32 GB
Memory card (external memory) capacity on Galaxy S3 and S3 mini
To achieve this, you really don’t need a trick. Even possibly all the memory is useful. In this example, you could use all of those 64GB of SD.
The only thing important for this to work is the following:
- It is necessary to remove the current memory card that is placed in the cell phone (if one has been inserted) from Settings> Storage> Remove SD card .
- Only after having done the above you should put the largest or highest capacity micro SD card.
- Once the card is inserted, the phone may indicate that it needs to be formatted. In the event that this does not occur you can go back to Settings> Storage and use the Format SD card option .
128 GB microSD card in cell phone that supports 32 GB
Fat32Format program
If the previous method does not work (the micro SD is not recognized or does not show its full capacity), this is another alternative (with the help of a computer), which would even serve to go even further. For example, running a 128GB card on a phone that officially only supports 32GB.
- Download the Fat32Format program on the PC (click on the image that appears there).
- Put the microSD card in an SD adapter and insert the adapter into the PC
- Run the indicated program, choose the letter of the storage unit assigned to the memory (you can see it in “My Computer”) and click on “Start” to format.
- Finally, insert the memory card into the cell phone.
The two methods indicated allow you to force the operation of a memory card of greater capacity than the one that technically supports a cell phone. But as I said, I cannot guarantee normal operation on all devices. For example, some recoverys may not recognize a higher capacity SD. Also regarding the permanence of the data stored in the SD. Take the precaution of backing up your information in the event of a possible loss of data.