Use the Memory Card As Default Download Folder on Galaxy Phones Oreo and Nougat vs Marshmallow vs Lollipop ... and 1 more
Edited by Leomar Umpad, Eng, simple as Simpson, Dougie-1 and 20 others
The latest Galaxy phones and tablets from Samsung have generous internal memory on them. With storage spaces ranging from 8GB to 64GB, one can store a lot of files and data on these devices. Average users may find this storage sufficient but people who use their smartphones for personal and business purposes may soon find that the memory for their devices will run out especially if multi-media files are stored on them. When space on a device runs out, one can Free up Internal memory by Installing / Moving Apps to your SD card in Android OS devices of the phone. If you are the type of person who frequently downloads files from the internet, you may find it taxing when you constantly move your downloaded files from the internal memory to the external and removable storage. You can set the external memory as your default storage by following the steps below for your operating system.
Method 1: Oreo and Nougat
Ensure your microSD card is inserted into your Samsung device.
- 1From your home screen or app drawer, tap the "Internet" shortcut.
- 2With Samsung Internet open, tap the vertical ellipsis menu in the upper right corner, then tap "Settings".
- 3On the INTERNET SETTINGS screen, tap "Advanced".
- 4From the ADVANCED screen, tap "Save content to", then tap "SD card".
Method 2: Marshmallow
- 1From the home screen, tap the "Apps" icon.
- 2While inside Apps, tap the "Internet" icon.
- 3When the browser loads, tap "MORE" in the upper right corner, then "Settings".
- 4On the Internet settings screen, tap "Advanced".
- 5Tap the little drop-down arrow and select "SD card".Inside Advanced, scroll down to "Save content to".
Method 3: Lollipop
- 1On the home screen, tap "Apps".
Method 4: Kitkat
- 1 Set the external memory card as the default location for downloaded files
- 2 Questions and Answers
- 2.1 How to set the SD card as the default storage on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
- 2.2 Hello, I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 4?
- 2.3 Computer connection has a problem with my mobile? How can I change my setup to default factory setting?
- 2.4 How do I set up my SD card on my Acer One 8 B-810 Android tablet as the default storage location for downloads?
- 2.5 Phone does not have an "Internet" icon on my Galaxy S5?
- 2.6 I do not have an internet icon on my apps page, what can I do to set up the SD card as default for downloads?
- 2.7 Changing default file locations. How do I change default Picture, video, download, documents folder to SD card in Android 8 Oreo?
- 3 Comments
Set the external memory card as the default location for downloaded files
By default, downloaded files on your phone or Tablet will be directed to the internal memory of the device. This is because these devices do not come with an external memory card on them so using the internal memory as the default download location is the logical thing to do. Depending on the application you used in downloading, you may follow these procedures:
Set the external storage as the default download location of the native Internet application
If you are using the native Internet application that comes pre-installed on your Galaxy device, then follow these procedures to set the external storage as the download location.
- 1Wherever you are on your phone or Tablet, press the Home button, located in the lower-middle part of the device.
- 2From the Home screen, tap on the Apps icon, located on the lower-right part of your screen, to see the applications installed on your Galaxy device.
- 3From the Application menu, locate the Internet application and tap on it.
- 4This will open the native Internet application, tap on the Menu button (lower-left soft button) to view the Internet app menu.
- 5From the list of available options for the Internet, tap on Settings.
- 6From the Settings menu, tap on Content Settings under the Advanced menu.
- 7On the Content Settings page, you will see that the default storage is "Device"; tap on the option to change it.
- 8A pop-up option will show; tap on "Memory card" to set it as the default storage for downloads with the Internet application.
- 9"Default storage" option under Content Settings will now show "Memory card".You have now successfully set the external removable storage as your default download location.
Set the external storage as the default download location for Boat Browser
If you are using Boat Browser, then follow these procedures to set the external storage as the download location.
- 1Wherever you are on your phone or Tablet, press the Home button, located in the lower-middle part of the device.
- 2From the Home screen, tap on the Apps icon, located on the lower-right part of your screen, to see the applications installed on your Galaxy device.
- 3From the Application menu, locate Boat Browser and tap on it to open the application.
- 4This will show the menu options for Boat Browser.With Boat Browser opened, tap on the Menu button located in the lower-right part of your device.
- 5From the menu, touch the Settings option to view and change application Settings.
- 6From Settings, choose Browser Settings by touching on the option.
- 7You will now see the Browser Settings for Boat Browser, tap on "Set download dir" option to change the default download directory.
- 8From the "Set download dir" page, tap on the folder icon to change the default storage location for download.
- 9You are now in the root folder.A popup option will show; tap on the "Up" icon for a few times until you will not see any Up icon anymore.
- 10Tap on it to open the folder containing your storage devices.From the Root location, scroll your way down until you find the "Storage" folder.
- 11From Storage folder, tap on "extSdCard" to get to your external SD card location.
- 12You can tap on the plus "+" icon to add a new folder where you want to put the downloaded files from the Boat Browser.You will now see the contents of your external memory card.
- 13Enter a name for your folder and tap on OK to create the folder.
- 14Tap on the folder where you want to set as the default storage location for downloads.
- 15Tap on OK to set the folder as the default download location.You will be taken to the folder indicated on the address bar.
- 16You can now see that that the download directory for downloaded files through Boat Browser is now in the chosen folder.You are done.
Set the external storage as the default download location for Opera Mobile
If you are using Opera, then follow these procedures to set the external storage as the download location.
- 1Wherever you are on your phone or Tablet, press the Home button, located on the lower-middle part of the device.
- 2From the Home screen, tap on the Apps icon, located on the lower-right part of your screen, to see the applications installed on your Galaxy device.
- 3From the Application menu, locate Opera and tap on it to open the application.
- 4This will open the Opera menu.With Opera opened, tap on the "O" icon located on the upper-right part of the screen.
- 5On the list of menu, tap on "Downloads" option to go to the Downloads page.
- 6From the "Downloads" page, tap on the More icon (three vertical squares) to view Downloads options.
- 7Tap on "Settings" to go to the Download Settings page.
- 8On the Download Settings page, tap on "Download folder" option to change the default location.
- 9From the pop-up that will appear, continually tap on the Folder icon on the upper-left part of the pop-up until you get to "My device".
- 10Tap on it to open the folder containing your storage devices.From "My device", scroll your way down until you find the "Storage" folder.
- 11From Storage folder, tap on "extSdCard" to get to your external SD card location.
- 12You can tap on the plus "+" icon to add a new folder where you want to put the downloads from the Boat Browser.You will now see the contents of your external memory card.
- 13Enter a name for your folder and tap on OK to create the folder.
- 14Tap on the folder where you want to set as the default storage location for downloads.
- 15Tap on "Select Folder" to set the folder as the default download location.You will be taken to the folder indicated on the address bar.
- 16You can now see that that the download directory for downloaded files through Opera is now on the chosen folder.You are done.
Individual applications may have different ways of settings their default download location. Some applications do not offer the option to manually change it through their Settings. Is your application mentioned here? Let us know by clicking Yes or No and mention the name of the application that you want.
Questions and Answers
How to set the SD card as the default storage on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
While I'm transferring data from my friend's phone to my phone, all the data is going to the internal storage. I want it to go to the SD card.
As of your Samsung Galaxy Note 3's Android 4.4 update, your phone is no longer able to directly put information or install applications onto the SD card. The phone's internal storage is where all of the new information you put on your phone -- pictures, videos, music, applications, and other files -- will be stored. However, after you've put the information onto your phone, you can use a file browser from the Google Play Store to move the files to your SD card. Here's a list of some of the most popular file browsers available for your Samsung Galaxy Note 3:
If you want to install applications onto your SD card after the Android 4.4 update, you will need to go into your Settings application, navigate to the App settings, tap on the app you want to move to your SD card, and then tap Move to SD card.
See more questions like this: How can I set my default download location to my SD card? I'm using Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360
See more questions like this: I have a Samsung on5 and I'm trying to make my SD card as default storage, but formatting it doesn't work because it doesn't give me an option to make the SD card the storage choice. So how do I do it?
Hello, I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 4?
I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, and I would like to set the default location to SD card
Follow the steps for either Kitkat or Lollipop, further up the page.
Computer connection has a problem with my mobile? How can I change my setup to default factory setting?
Hi, my Galaxy J1 Ace 2016 was connected to PC correctly, but today I can't connect my device to PC. When I connect USB cable, I have no change, only the PC shows one small page with two computer trying to connect to each other for several minutes
See if your USB debugging is enabled. This will stop any USB connection from sharing with your phone.
How do I set up my SD card on my Acer One 8 B-810 Android tablet as the default storage location for downloads?
I have an Acer One 8 B-810 Android tablet. I installed a 32GB SD card for additional storage and to free up my 32GB of internal storage. I need to know how to set up the SD card as the default storage destination for downloads. I also need to know how to move existing files such as movies and pictures from my internal storage to the SD card. I have tried: I have researched the issue on the Internet but none of the solutions I found there apply to my tablet. They involve making updates to the browser content settings, but the steps supplied do not work on my tablet. I also contacted Acer, but their solution did not work. I think it was caused by: I don't think anything actually "caused" this problem. I'm sure a solution exists, I just can't find anyone who can communicate it to me.
If Acer's solutions did not work, you may have a corrupted SD card. It happens more than people realize. You can try reformating the new SD card again to see if it helps. Sometimes it takes more than once.
See more questions like this: Script for default download directory
See more questions like this: In Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, how to move data from internal memory to external SD card?
Phone does not have an "Internet" icon on my Galaxy S5?
Thanks for helping with the answer to the annoying inability of the S5 to install on sd as default. The problem is I don't have an "Internet" icon on my Galaxy S5. Just chrome, and now firefox and opera.
If you do not have an Internet application, you can use any of the three.
- 1You can use any file manager like X-plore. For example, navigate to the SD card and create "downloads".Create a folder on the SD card.
- 2To set the default download location in Opera, either follow the "Set the external storage as the default download location for Opera Mobile" section in this tutorial or just download a file, tap on the small gray triangle above the "Save" button. Select your desired folder (for example, "sdcard/downloads/"). The folder will be used later on by default.Opera.
- 3Open a new tab. Type "about:config" in the search bar. In the search bar, type "download". Find "browser.download.folderList". Tap on "Modify". Set the value to "2". Then, scroll all the way up and tap the "+" button to the left of the search bar. Enter "browser.download.dir". Tap on "Boolean". Change the value to "String". Enter the value, which should be a folder on your SD card, for example, those above "/sdcard/downloads". Tap on "Create".Firefox.
- 4You will have to move files manually by using file managers like the one in step 1.Chrome cannot select the download folder.
I do not have an internet icon on my apps page, what can I do to set up the SD card as default for downloads?
Need SD card to be the default for downloads. do you have a video to follow?
Go to the Play Store or Samsung apps, re-install Samsung Internet, then follow the steps above for your version of Android.
Changing default file locations. How do I change default Picture, video, download, documents folder to SD card in Android 8 Oreo?
How do I change default Picture, video, download, documents folder to SD card in Android 8 Oreo. I am using Samsung Galaxy J6.
You have to go into each app individually and change the default save location to your SD card.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
