Home » How to » How to Save Photos to SD Card On Android Phone
In case your phone supports expandable memory, you can set your Android Phone to save photos directly to the SD card, instead of saving them to the Phone’s internal memory. This way you can take as many pictures as you want without worrying about the limited storage space on your 8 or 16 GB Android Phone.
The process to set up an Android Phone to save pictures directly to the SD card, instead of using the phone’s sparse internal storage is easy and the steps below should be applicable to most Android Phones with an SD card slot.
Attach An SD Card to Android Phone
In case you haven’t already done this, insert an SD card into the SD card slot of your Android phone. For this you may need to open the back cover of your phone (where the battery is located), in case your phone does not have an accessible SD card slot. (See below image from samsung.com)
After the SD card is attached, open the camera app on your phone and see if there is a pop up message.
On most Android Phones you should see a popup message asking you if you want to change the storage location to the SD card. It is easy to make a choice at this point, just tap on the option to save Photos to SD card.
In case this message does not appear or you have missed it, you can still set up this option manually by going into the settings of your camera app.
Manually Setup Android Phone to save Photos to SD card
Follow the steps below to manually setup your Android Phone to save photos to its attached SD card.
1. Open the Camera app on your Android Phone by tapping on the camera app icon.
2. Tap on the Gear shaped Settings icon, you will find this located at the upper-left corner of your screen.
3. On the Camera Settings screen, scroll down and tap on Storage location.
4. Next, tap on SD Card or Memory Card.
From now on all the photos that you take from your Android phone’s rear and front camera will be saved to the SD card attached to your Android Phone.
Note: Screenshots will still be saved to your Phone’s internal storage in a folder named DCIM.
- How to Share Single Or Multiple Photos On Android Phone
Have you ever taken photos using your android phone camera app only to notice that your camera was not saving the photos to your gallery on android? Or maybe you realized on your iPhone, the micro SD card is not saving your photos anymore. If your response is yes, then this article will help you fix that error.
Minor factors like full cache, low internal storage capacity, corrupted SD card could be the reason why your camera is not saving on your SD card. If you are using an android phone like Tecno, then it could be that your phone has developed certain issues that could cause this. Let’s look into the various ways this can be resolved.
1. Restart your mobile phone
The first thing to do when you notice that your camera is not saving to SDcard and gallery is to restart your android device. Yes, restarting helps to know if the error is a minor one that your phone can fix.
2. Check Your SD Card Storage
If restarting your mobile device doesn’t change the camera won't save to SD card error, the next thing to do is to check both your internal storage and your SD card storage to see if you still have space there. If the SD card is full, free up some space by using the phone memory cleaner to clean some files. Or simply delete some old photos and files in the gallery that are not in use again.
3. Remount Your SD Card
When you notice there is still enough space in your SD card and your camera is not saving to SD card and gallery, simply unmount the SD card. Unmounting your SD card means disconnecting it from your android device. You can do this by;
- Opening your phone settings
- Click on storage
- Click on unmount the SD card
- A warning dialogue will pop up, click Ok
Once this is done, you can mount your SD card again by;
- Open your settings again
- Click on storage
- And select mount
Or you simply remove your SD card and insert it back into your phone.
4. Clear Cache of Your Camera App And Gallery App To fix Camera not Saving to SD Card
Another way you can fix the camera not saving to SD card is by clearing your camera’s app cache. Every app on your Android device has a cache which is part of the internal storage of your device that saves files temporarily. It helps you open them quickly. When the cache reaches its limits, the app will be unable to store new files. To clear the cache of your camera app,
- Open Settings on your smartphone
- Select Apps and Notifications
- Click on camera from the list
- Tap on storage and cache on the resulting screen
- Select clear cache
- And the trick will be done
For the gallery App,
- Open Settings on your smartphone
- Select Apps and Notifications
- Select gallery from the list
- Tap on Storage
- Tap clear cache and your gallery cache will be cleaned.
5. Format SD card if Corrupted
After following the steps above and your android camera still won’t save pictures, your SD card might be corrupted and a corrupted SD card cannot save pictures.
To resolve this, format your SD card. If the issues persist after formatting, it could likely be that your smartphone has developed some fault and it will require the expertise of a phone technician. Back up all your files before any repairs are done to the phone.
How to Resolve Micro-SD Card Not Saving Files on iPhones
iPhones do not come with slots for SD cards. Rather what can be used as an added storage is a micro SD card. Micro SDcard generally improves the internal storage of a phone. It creates more space for photos, videos, and various media files. So, if you wake up one day to realize your micro SD card is not saving your files anymore or your photos are not saving to the gallery, here is how you can fix it.
- Turn off your mobile device
- Remove your micro SD card and insert it into a PC that functions with windows
- Once your computer recognizes it, right-click on it in Explorer
- Select properties
- On your tool tab, click check now in the Error Check Area
- And your microSD card will be fixed
However, if your operating system does not recognize your micro Sd card, simply do this;
- Open your system’s manager
- Select Disk Management in the list by the left
- When you see your microSD card in the right-hand view, right-click on it
- And change drive letter and paths
- A new window will open once you do this, click on Add and assign a drive letter for the MicroSD card
- After this, it will be visible in window explorer
- Follow the steps formerly described to fix it now.
With this, the issue of the micro SD card not saving files will be resolved.
How to Automatically Save Photos to SD Card
If your Tecno Phone supports an expandable memory like most android phones, you can re-adjust it to save your photos directly to your SD card instead of the phone’s internal memory. Most Tecno phones come with internal storage that can be expanded. All you have to do is fix an SD card and you can start taking as many photos as you like without worrying about limited storage. The process of doing this is quite easy but you should follow these steps to do so. Apart from Tecno, other android phones use the same process.
- On your mobile phone, locate the SD card slot and insert an SD card into it. For some phones, the slot might be at the back while for others it might be on the side
- After attaching the card successfully, open your camera and see if a message will pop-up
- If the pop-up message asks if you want to change the storage location to SD card, simply tap on save photos to SD card
If the message doesn’t appear, not to worry you will set it up on the settings of your Camera app manually. Here is how it can be done;
- Tap the camera icon on your mobile phone and open the camera
- On the upper left corner, tap on the gear-shaped settings icon
- The camera setting screen will pop up, click on the storage location
- Then select memory card or SD card
Once you’ve completed these steps, all photos taken from either your front or rear of your camera app will automatically be saved to your SD card. Nevertheless, screenshots will be saved to the phone's internal storage in a folder tagged DCIM.
With these steps, the issue of your camera not saving to an SD card and photos not saving to the gallery will be resolved once and for all. We hope you found this helpful.