How to upgrade your HTC EVO 4G's microSD card
This guest tutorial was written for new HTC EVO users by MildlyDisturbed.
So you've run out of room on the 8GB microSD card that came with your HTC EVO and just picked up a roomier 16GB or 32GB microSDHC
so you can store more music, movies, and apps.
Unfortunately, you've already got lots of applications stored on the stock card (even ones that aren't supported to be there), as well as tons of pictures and music. The last thing you want is to lose all of that and start over from scratch.
Fortunately, moving everything to your new card and having it all work is an incredibly simple process that doesn't require anything you don't already have: 1) an EVO, 2) a computer, 3) a new SDHC card, and 4) tweezers (optional).
- Plug your EVO into your computer and choose the "Disk drive" option from the connection type menu.
- Create a "I'm moving this stuff to the new card" folder on your computer and open it.
- Double-click your mounted EVO (Windows: My Computer > whatever drive shows up new) to view its contents.
- Copy everything (all files and folders) to the new "I'm moving this stuff to the new card" folder on your computer.
- Once the transfer is complete, turn off your EVO (keep it connected to your computer). Take off the back cover and remove the battery.
- Above the preinstalled microSD card, you'll see a little indentation that looks like it was designed for a fingernail to go in it. This is a release lever. Lift it up and you'll see the card lift up a little as well (see photo below).
- Using your fingernails or the tweezers, remove the old card and insert the new card at the same angle the old one came out. Press the release level down to lock the card in place.
- Insert the battery, put the back cover back on, and power on the EVO.
- When it boots/loads up, a lot of stuff isn't going to work because the microSDHC card is blank. Don't worry about this and choose the "Disk drive" option from the connection type menu again.
- Now copy all the files from the "I'm moving this stuff to the new card" folder to the new card in your mounted EVO.
- Disconnect the EVO from your computer, wait while the SD card is prepared/read, and enjoy all the apps, movies, music, and photos that used to be on your old card.
Alternatively, if you have a microSD USB card reader, you can skip the "Disk drive" stuff and just:
- Remove back cover, battery, and old card from EVO.
- Insert card into card reader and plug into computer.
- Move all contents into folder on computer.
- Take old card out of reader and put new card in.
- Move all contents onto new card.
- Take new card out of reader and put in EVO.
- Replace battery and back cover, boot up and enjoy.
This guest tutorial was written for new HTC EVO users by MildlyDisturbed.
So, I did this the other week (the card reader method listed alternatively) and now I can’t pick custom song/tones anymore. They both play the same song in my music folder regardless of whether I select a different one or even a stock sound. When I unmount the card I can select any stock sound and it works fine, but as soon as the card is mounted it defaults right back to that song I didn’t choose.
I also tried deleting the song from the card and it still plays, so I imagine it’s cached somewhere… but does anyone know where? or how to fix this? Thanks!
Thanks for the writeup, MildlyDisturbed/Jenn.
Great write up, but its kinda common sense for real. I did this last week when I got my 32GB card, but I used the cardreader on the computer. Only you need to be careful of is to make sure EVERYTHING is copied to the new card. Right click and go to properties of the folder that you transferred material on the computer and check the file size (8gb or whatever). After you put material on the new card, check the properties of the material on that card too. IF they dont match, format the card and copy again. I noticed the first time I did it, I was missing about 2GB of content,
Well written tutorial! Great work.
Props to Jenn for allowing these great guest articles.
You don’t happen to have “ringdroid” installed do you?
I’d wipe the cache, clear the Dalvik, and delete the song from your music folder and see if that helps.
I don’t think the phone crowd “common sense” and the IT crowd “common sense” are the same. Plus you have a lot of people that don’t know what’s inside their EVO or even decent familiarity with folder concepts (let alone understand that a phone running a linux/java combo uses a FAT32 file system for storage). We have a lot of people who just wanted a phone and have a computer for email and porn.
Without a guide, a lot of people freeze, and will not disassemble their EVO so they can upgrade it. Friend of mine didn’t even know you could upgrade the thing to 32gb and has been carrying around his EVO and an iPod.
So, while this isn’t groundbreaking, it’s just something for people who don’t know and hopefully will try now that it’s presented in a step-by-step guide.
On a side note, if you’re seeing missing data while copying it might be the source card and not the destination. Wife’s EVO got upgraded recently and the card kept flaking out during copy. I thought it was the new card we were copying to (also formatted and compared), but evidently the system hard-battery-died due (I believe) to a bad Seidio charger (RMAed now) and corrupted the SD card in the EVO. This is why I recommend copying it to the computer (Jenn changed my piece slightly and added the alternate method)
I would get rid of my iPod if they had things that could dock my Evo easilly :(. I guess a “headphone jack” cable can always work.
Are you talking just physically dock it or dock and play or sync to it?
I ask because they do make a cradle for the thing that’s decent for at a computer desk.
In a car I wouldn’t bother docking it, that’s what bluetooth is for. Well, that and to drain the battery as fast as possible.
My car has bluetooth, but its not capable of streaming the music off my phone through it. Is there an app for that, or is my car too old for that technology. Its a 2006 Nissan Maxima. I can take calls through the bluetooth, but not music.
Luckily it has a tape deck, so I use one of those tape deck adapters to play my music from the phone.
I think Mark F is referring to a music/speaker dock like the many available for ipod/iphone devices. I too have always wanted something like this for my EVO. A dock I could easily slide my EVO into and then play music/podcasts through it’s speakers. You’d think they could use the HDMI port some how, it transmits audio, but unfortunately I think this will remain a dream. :-(
Connecting speakers using the headphone jack just isn’t the same. Plus the speakers are just speakers, they don’t have a dock to hold your phone, you have to set your phone down on the table next to them.
In reply to TheGreatONE — Amen Mildly Disturbed. I’m an idiot when it comes to both, and this blog and the articles in it have been well written and IMMENSELY educational to me personally. Keep it up, there are lots of us out who who really appreciate it! I guess I would ask, what difference does the card class make? I’ve seen class 4 and class 10…any real difference in the performance. I’m trying to get a 32GB for as cheap as possible…is it worth paying the extra $$$ for the higher class card? Thanks!
I agree so much with Air Guitar. I’ve been around the block a few times with computers, but the EVO and all the info found here can really blow what little mind I have left. I really appreciate the help I’ve gotten from Jen and others on this site. I rooted my phone last week and it’s showing that it’s not running Froyo 2.2 any more. I’m not sure why, but the battery life is incredibly better, I hate to do much more. I’d love to delete the bloat that Sprint put on the EVO, but I can’t even find those on my uninstall app list? Gosh, I was I was smert ask som ov yous guys..
Class of card = speed at which it can read/write. However, the write speed is going to be pretty consistent with the EVO, just the read speed changes… and only changes when you root and install a custom kernel that allows changing of the buffer size (or install Sprint Lovers) – so if you’re never going to root, lower class cards will be fine.
The value is all in how you use it. If you are going to be pulling a lot of data in multiple files off at a time (looking through gallery quite a bit) it’s worth it. On a rooted phone with a few hundred pictures on it my phone was pretty damn slow in the gallery… now it’s quick and responsive.
I think I’m probably one of the few people in the world who didn’t know what he was talking about. Makes sense now.
Hrmm, hdmi-out sends digital signals, would need a converter of some sort. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make a plastic-molded charging dock with some sort of converter for audio at the base. Wonder why that has not been done yet.
Rrrr? Rooting does not change android version – flashing roms does… Under software information what does it say the version is? (menu, settings, about phone, software information)
As for removing sprint bloat, I know you can if you purchase Titanium Backup from the market (you can freeze it / unfreeze it later if you find you need it) – it runs about $5.50 in the market, there’s something else there for 99 cents that claims to do the same freezing job. (I just searched Bloatware on appbrain) – just rooting doesn’t put the bloatware into the listed uninstallable apps
Hi, MD. I didn’t think rooting would change the version either. But, doing as you mentioned, I am actually running 2.2. (do you know if rooting will allow me to update to Ginger when avail?) Glad I wasn’t missing out on the ability to removed the bloat from some apps list. Thanks for all your help, Mildly!
PS.. I do have Titanium installed, but being the free version, it’s not allowing root privaledges and thus won’t allow me to remove bloat.. guess I’ll have to pay upgrade it.
Yeah, you can upgrade now to Gingerbread – Cyanogenmod 7 is Gingerbread if I’m not mistaken, and as of Nightly build v6 it supports everything on the EVO. Googling it the result for their website says “CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Gingerbread”. Your like or dislike of CM7 will determine if it’s a path for you though. I liked it but needed a couple of things that Sprint Lovers had that just refused to work for me on it.
Whenever Sprint gets around to releasing it you can always unroot, unfreeze bloat and install the OTA, or just download the update and install from whoever had it 2 weeks before sprint decided to release it – I think G&E posted links to the new Sprint ROMs (as modified by a rom dev) about 2 weeks before the OTA came out.
yeah, I think only pay allows freezing apps. I remember that’s why I originally bought it and now I don’t even use that feature as I dumped the whole ROM and just went with one that didn’t include the bloatware.
So I have a question for MildlyDisturbed concerning “hidden” files.
I noticed that when allowing hidden files to appear, there are a handful more, and I was wondering if we should be grabbing those up too for the changeover, since you didn’t specify.
Thanks MD! Can’t ever see myself rooting my EVO, (too afraid of messing something up and voiding something…) so lower class card it is! Thanks again! AIRPOCALYPSE Loves You!
Your Stereo in your car has to be capable of playing Bluetooth Audio if not it will only act as a phone!!
I am using my Pioneer Avic N4 with the CD-BTB200 Bluetooth setup and I can play my music From my EVO through the car stereo!
Thanks for your information, mildly. I’ve seen some of the dev Roms and they seemed pretty difficult for me to install. I assume the Ginger upgrade will, too. Ugh. This Amazon mp3 bloat is the worst. But I sure have great battery life after rooting.
There are evidently less expensive freezing apps… can’t say how well they work, but I saw one for 99 cents
Sorry I’m not sure if I worded my question to you correctly.
I meant when following the steps in order to change over to another microSD card, when hooking up the phone to the computer in order to move over files, I noticed that when (in Windows) you allow “hidden” files to be present, there are a handful more files there to see on the microSD card that is already on the phone. So my question is, should we grab those files to move them over as well…or leave them be?
my computer (laptop I use to talk business to the phone) does not see hidden files, I copied over. Have not noticed anything different.
Er, slightly drunkish at the moment, so not know why I replied like I did to your question earlier, assuming sober mildlydisturbed had his reasons…
I’d say copy them… didn’t hurt me to not, however your milage may vary.
ah, yes, I see now… ignore what I originally replied… copy as much as you can. Reply ro Scott went to you.
Cool I figured as much. Thanks for the info sir…
Have fun in all your boozy bliss…
No notable difference in battery drain.
Think it’s the same drain
My Evo was giving me the Low on Space warning, and I saw that I had less than 40MB of free space on the phone and less than 30MB of free space on the standard 8GB microSD card. I upgraded to a 16GB microSD card, deleted some clockworkmod backups, and now I have 10+GB of free space on the card, but the Low on Space warning persists. I have moved all possible apps to the SD card. What else must I do to free up space on the phone, and utilize the free space available on the card, to make this Low on Space warning disappear? I feel as though this should be a common problem.
Is there some type of GrandPerspective app for Android? http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
yes, it’s called DiskUsage.
Might want to check out using titanium or something to force some of the apps that say they can’t be moved off to the SD card…
If you’re using any browsers taht keep their cache on the main card see if you can’t change it (Dolphin does this if I remember right)
will it work if i am going from an evo shift to an evo (didn’t like the keyboard)? I want to be able to move all my apps and stuff to my new phone but i have my doubts that this will work.
Also, what is a good 32 gig sd card to buy? I have been reading a lot of posts about the 32GB cards not working well. any thoughts?
i bought a kingston 32gb class 4 sdhc card from amazon for $40. however i would like to mention if upgrading to a 32gb card from a smaller one you must format the card to exfat which everyone else failed to inform us..just for those nubes.
I want to swap my stock 8gb catd for a 16gb card.
Need suggestions regarding the manufacturer of choice.
I figure class 4 is good enough, Maybe Sandisk.
I have a Trancend SD card for my digital camera which performs well. Don’t know how their sdhc cards perform though.
Suggestions are welcomed.
Using 4gb on my current card to date.
Obviously looking for a microsdhc.
im having trouble installing my 16gb sd card. i followed all of your steps and when i got to one of the final steps when you turn the phone back on and connect using it as a USB Drive. that option is not available for some reason. also when i insert the new card into my computer using the adapter its not being recognized and doesn’t show up in “my computer” help please
My EVO would not start after replacing the SD card (32GB for 8GB), replacing battery and back cover. I had to disconnect it from computer for it to start, but afterwards I connected it as disk drive, copied all the contents back to the 32GB card and everything was fine.
I’m having the same problem. Anyone with some help here? Anthony, did you get it to work? If so, how?