[TIP] Moto G LTE, Official SD Card FAQ, Tips & Tricks

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BitingChaos

Senior Member
Apr 18, 2011
275
76
St. Louis
Hey all,

Invaluable info on what can and can't be done with your SD card on the Moto G LTE and Moto E with KitKat direct from Moto...

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/7e59cc7baf

I've seen this "guide" a few times.

It mentions always powering down your device before removing the SD card, as you don't want the system writing files when you are removing it. Isn't that the whole point of the SD card Unmount function?

It works like any other computer. Unmount the SD card (Settings -> Storage) to ensure nothing is writing to it. I've safely removed an SD card from my Moto G. It's designed to be removed and reinserted while the device is powered on.

Also, this guide repeats the "32GB max" that Motorola has stated, although the device apparently has no issue working with 64GB and 128GB SD cards. No one has found a limit to what size it supports.
Posts pop up every now and then with people saying they've used a 64GB+ SD card without issue. Having a page called "SDCard Bible" for a device and then telling people known wrong information isn't the best idea.
 

castuis

Senior Member
Jan 21, 2011
183
42
Miami, Florida
I've seen this "guide" a few times.

It mentions always powering down your device before removing the SD card, as you don't want the system writing files when you are removing it. Isn't that the whole point of the SD card Unmount function?

It works like any other computer. Unmount the SD card (Settings -> Storage) to ensure nothing is writing to it. I've safely removed an SD card from my Moto G. It's designed to be removed and reinserted while the device is powered on.

Also, this guide repeats the "32GB max" that Motorola has stated, although the device apparently has no issue working with 64GB and 128GB SD cards. No one has found a limit to what size it supports.
Posts pop up every now and then with people saying they've used a 64GB+ SD card without issue. Having a page called "SDCard Bible" for a device and then telling people known wrong information isn't the best idea.

The guide tells you you can use larger than 32gb cards

"What types of cards are supported? And will larger cards work?
Moto G 4G/LTE supports SDHC cards up to 32GB. When inserting an SDHC card, and if the card is good and formatted, the device will display “preparing SD card” and the SD card available storage will be viewable in storage settings. Moto G 4G/LTE and Moto E natively support SDHC (FAT32) formatted SD cards. Larger cards will need to be reformatted."

You can stick in any size card you find if its formatted to fat32 but seeing as fat32 is limited to 32gb it's pretty pointless unless that's what you have laying around the house to use or find one for cheaper than a 32gb card with the same read and write speeds.
 
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neu - smurph

Senior Member
May 14, 2013
276
89
Google Pixel 4a
There is no 32GB limit for FAT32 formatted storage in general, only in the official SDHC card spec. Windows machines honour this limitation if formatting a card using the native formatter, but it is easily easily worked around with third party disk management tools, and probably by formatting on the phone (that larger partition size is achieved by using a non standard cluster size). The card isn't compliant with the official spec, but most devices aren't concerned about that.

However for a device to claim official 'compatibility' with cards over 32GB (SDXC) the device would need to support exFAT and the manufacturer would have to license that from Microsoft. Google haven't and won't, some OEM's (i.e Samsung but not Motorola) do. So any compatibility with >32GB cards is unofficial.

The article does clearly state When removing your card, powe​r off your device or unmount the card first., so not sure why you have an issue with that advice.

Kudos to whomever the author is in my book, particularly as SD card limitations under stock KitKat cause so much angst and confusion amongst the general user populace.
 

guest_2011

Senior Member
Jul 20, 2012
1,288
92
Is it the the rom (lollipop) that limits exFAT/64gb support? If so, would CM12 fix it in moto g? I bought g3 2015. Migrated exFAT 64 GB samsung evo card to the G. Card empty, not recognized. Formatted in phone. FAT32 64gb supported but i prefer to have support for files larger than 4GB. My other phone gs3 supports exfat/64gb running cm12 5.1. New to moto, not sure what custom roms are available and if exfat support is rom dependent.
 

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    I've seen this "guide" a few times.

    It mentions always powering down your device before removing the SD card, as you don't want the system writing files when you are removing it. Isn't that the whole point of the SD card Unmount function?

    It works like any other computer. Unmount the SD card (Settings -> Storage) to ensure nothing is writing to it. I've safely removed an SD card from my Moto G. It's designed to be removed and reinserted while the device is powered on.

    Also, this guide repeats the "32GB max" that Motorola has stated, although the device apparently has no issue working with 64GB and 128GB SD cards. No one has found a limit to what size it supports.
    Posts pop up every now and then with people saying they've used a 64GB+ SD card without issue. Having a page called "SDCard Bible" for a device and then telling people known wrong information isn't the best idea.

    The guide tells you you can use larger than 32gb cards

    "What types of cards are supported? And will larger cards work?
    Moto G 4G/LTE supports SDHC cards up to 32GB. When inserting an SDHC card, and if the card is good and formatted, the device will display “preparing SD card” and the SD card available storage will be viewable in storage settings. Moto G 4G/LTE and Moto E natively support SDHC (FAT32) formatted SD cards. Larger cards will need to be reformatted."

    You can stick in any size card you find if its formatted to fat32 but seeing as fat32 is limited to 32gb it's pretty pointless unless that's what you have laying around the house to use or find one for cheaper than a 32gb card with the same read and write speeds.
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    My 128GB SanDisk card is working well!