• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Why do cheap phones only accept 32gig micro-sd cards as max?

JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
all these phones came out in 2015 and were on sale for $20-$30 @Best Buy this year:
Moto E, LG Tribute 2, Alcatel Elevate

they have a 32gig micro-sd card as the limit.

whats so special about a 64gig micro-sd card?
 
mvbighead said:
I'm assuming they don't support SDHC. I suppose they gotta make them cheap somehow, right?
Click to expand...
you mean sdxc?

interesting.. did not know 64+ gig sd was in SDXC format.
also did not know that the limit for fat32 for sd cards was 32gigs.

I thought the fat32 limit was 2terabytes (ie: hard drives) thus it never occurred to me that there was a format change between 32gigs and 64gigs sd.

now the obvious question:
why is it 32gigs the limit for fat32 in sd cards where as it's 2tb for hard drives?
 
JEDI said:
you mean sdxc?

interesting.. did not know 64+ gig sd was in SDXC format.
also did not know that the limit for fat32 for sd cards was 32gigs.

I thought the fat32 limit was 2terabytes (ie: hard drives) thus it never occurred to me that there was a format change between 32gigs and 64gigs sd.

now the obvious question:
why is it 32gigs the limit for fat32 in sd cards where as it's 2tb for hard drives?
Click to expand...

Yep, looks like an SDXC limitation. I got the wrong subversion there.
 
My $30 Lumia 640 takes a 128GB card. You have the wrong cheap phones 😛

(Though I admit Windows 10 Mobile is an epic cluster)
 
JEDI said:
now the obvious question:
why is it 32gigs the limit for fat32 in sd cards where as it's 2tb for hard drives?
Click to expand...

Cause... reasons......

Not sure if there would be some technical reason other than maybe it need more processing power or need to bake in a better controller hence it would cause the soc to cost more and cause the phone to cost more too.

It still better than flagship phones having NO support for any external storage at all
 
Dahak said:
Cause... reasons......
Click to expand...

It could also be the larger cards work fine and they just didn't bother to validate on larger cards when the handsets were released. Testing, validation, updating the specs, documentation, and website costs $$$$
 
Yeah i agree its bullshit.I had to buy 32gb for my Moto E because it couldn't take more and my card is almost full.
 
Nashemon said:
Because 32GB was a lot in 2006 when SDHC came out. In 2026, when modern SD cards are 32TB, will you wonder why the limit on SDXC was 2TB?
Click to expand...
Given the known rate of advancement in storage, and computing in general? Yes, I will wonder why they limited it 2TB. This will happen well before 2026; with capacity increasing by a factor of 1000 every decade, and the largest SD card (full size, not micro) at 512GB already, you can expect the limit to be hit in only 2 years time. Micro SD cards will take a little longer to go from 200GB to 2TB - about 3 and a half years. If I was the cynical type I would assume it was planned obsolescence.

p.s. I didn't mean for all the links to be SanDisk, that's just what came up first in Google.
 
I just bought a 29.99 Lumia 640 LTE and put a 128GB microSD in it. That's a fair amount of storage, would be more than I could imagine using except that I have a ton of MP3 files. I could fill the thing with them, but finding stuff wouldn't be simple unless I work up a more sophisticated tagging system than I'm using. That's one more project...
Mr Evil said:
Supporting SDXC requires paying Microsoft for the privilege of using exFat.
Click to expand...

I suppose that's why Microsoft baked it into my Lumia 640, they own Lumia (they bought out Nokia's mobile phone operation), I guess exFAT is their baby too. It's funny, I tried copying a bunch of data to the card by plugging it into a USB card reader and that into USB input of my Synology DS214play NAS last week. Wouldn't work. I called Synology support and they said they don't support exFAT. I didn't ask why, but I guess the answer is quoted above -- they didn't want to pay Microsoft.

Well, I got the data in by copying it over my network.
 
Last edited:
monkey333 said:
Your point? The op was stating his phones spec said up to 32g cards, I was merely stating that mine works beyond 32.
Click to expand...


How much or type of card support is licensed. It's not free, that's why cheap phones don't support high end standards like UHS, etc. I thought that was obvious by my post?
 
thesmokingman said:
How much or type of card support is licensed. It's not free, that's why cheap phones don't support high end standards like UHS, etc. I thought that was obvious by my post?
Click to expand...

All I was stating before was, my cheap phone does. Was that not obvious in MY post?
 
thesmokingman said:
Goof for you? I don't understand why you're being argumentative?
Click to expand...

I'm not. My first post was to refute manufacturer specs stating that the limit is 32g, it is not. As with many devices, the spec limits do not match the real world. Many times it seems that companies print this limit 'just in case'. Most, if not all the devices I've owned have allowed for larger sd cards than the specs outline. If you have a disagreement, spell it out. Just posting my experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top