Your phone, tablet or laptop’s internal memory may be able to store a lot of photos, but it will run out of space eventually, and you can transfer photos to an SD card to free up space. Sending photos to a portable memory device also allows you to take photos from one device to another very easily. So, we are often asked the question – How Do I Transfer Photos from Internal Memory to SD Card? – so we thought we’d explain how below.
Transfer Photos from Internal Memory to SD Card
Prepare the SD Card
You may need to format your SD card first. Some memory cards are not formatted to start with, and you want to make sure yours is ready to use or you will not be able to transfer anything over to it. If you have tried to transfer photos to the card but have not been successful, see if there is an option to format the card first. You can find out by going to your phone or other device’s Settings, and then on to Storage, and from there check Devices. When you find the SD card, there should be an option to format it, if that needs to be done. This will erase anything stored on the card, though, so make sure it is not already in use.
Also make sure that there is enough free space on the SD card to send the photos to it that you want to. You might need to delete files on the SD card or transfer them somewhere else to make room for the new files.
If you are buying bulk memory cards, then these new cards may need to be formatted but should not have anything saved on them already.
Transfer the Photos
You might need a file manager app to send photos from one storage device to another. Some phones have one included, but if not, you can find one on the Play Store or on your phone’s app store. A relevant app may be suggested to you the first time you try to transfer photos.
To send photos between storage devices go to Settings and then over to Storage. Alternatively, you may want to go to File Manager, if you are on a tablet or something other than a phone.
In the Storage section of your device, you should see your different storage options, like SD Card/Memory Card and Internal Memory. Go to Internal Memory and select your photos there. Then, choose the option to send them to another storage device, and you can select the SD card from there.
You may need to look in the DCIM folder (see here) on the Internal Memory or SD card to find photos. You may also need to create that folder first for photo file transfers.
You can set your SD card as the default storage device for new photos in your settings. You can do this from the Camera app and the settings area there. Choose Storage Location and set that to SD card so that all future photos taken will be stored directly to your SD card.
Last Updated: December 15, 2022
