How to rename my external SD card?

bsw11 · Apr 13, 2016

When I moved my 128gb card from my Note3 instead of extSdCard it for some weird reason named it 18fa-adfa. It's there a way to rename it. I have Busy box installed, I just need to know the steps to do it. I tried using ES Explorer but got a task failure.

Worst case please tell me how to do a symbolic link.

Thanks.

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Groid · Apr 14, 2016

Use an sd adapter to put it in a pc and rename it there. Or connect phone to a pc in and try to change it in the windows file manager.

bsw11 · Apr 14, 2016

That did not work The drive label is not used as the root folder name. Any body else?

BSW DomPop Note 3

Groid · Apr 15, 2016

bsw11 said:
That did not work The drive label is not used as the root folder name. Any body else?

BSW DomPop Note 3

Did you try putting the microsd card in an sdcard adapter and inserting into a card reader on the pc? This will show as a drive letter and should allow you to rename or format the microsd card.

bsw11 · Apr 16, 2016

Groid said:
Did you try putting the microsd card in an sdcard adapter and inserting into a card reader on the pc? This will show as a drive letter and should allow you to rename or format the microsd card.

That's what I did. Like I said it does not use the label as the folder name.

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themissionimpossible · Apr 16, 2016

No way to rename the microSD, it's a new Android 6 feature: it refers to the microSD using some unique ID, not by the label.
But generally there are other ways to access the SD content, for ex. using /mnt/external_sd or similar

robobub · Apr 18, 2016

Nope, S7E's marshmallow doesn't have those other symlink names unfortunately... Even updating sdcards on the same phone is painful. I have to redo all of my foldersync folder pairs

themissionimpossible · Apr 18, 2016

johnnyz86 said:
Nope, marshmallow doesn't have those other symlink names unfortunately...

I have /mnt/ext_sdcard (or something like this) on my LG G3 with 6.0, on my Mate 8 with 6.0, and now waiting today for my new S7E to verify...

robobub · Apr 18, 2016

themissionimpossible said:
I have /mnt/ext_sdcard (or something like this) on my LG G3 with 6.0, on my Mate 8 with 6.0, and now waiting today for my new S7E to verify...

Ah I guess it's just S7E's marshmallow. From my post on foldersync's community, seemed like lots of people hated MM's folder structure.

Definitely nothing under /mnt except emulated and the UUID, which really sucks. Perhaps we can all complain?

themissionimpossible · Apr 19, 2016

johnnyz86 said:
Definitely nothing under /mnt except emulated and the UUID, which really sucks.

After having received and configured my new S7E I unfortunately must confirm what you said... in the Samsung's MM there are no friendly names referring to the microSD under /mnt nor under /storage, like in other MM smartphones...

bsw11 · Apr 20, 2016

There must be a way to symlnk a name? We need a small app for that. I'm sure rooting is required.

That is the 2nd thing Sammy messed up on, the 2nd is they are defaulting to Always on multi app pop up choosers. It is horrible.

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orlandson · Aug 10, 2016

I just put the card in a SD card adaptor and renamed it on Windows.
Works fine on my S7 G935F with encripted SD card.

walteroa · Aug 21, 2016

any update on this? I received my S7E and I hate this MM naming....

MOReMEMeROM · Sep 29, 2016

Bump.

Same problem here. Some file managers see it as Media Card, some as SDcard, but the majority see it as "random combinations of numbers and letters" that is identifiable to the card otherwise. More annoyingly, some file managers see it as both and treat it as 2 different SD cards each requiring their own permission. Galaxy S7 Verizon using SanDisk 64GB, Samsung 64GB and Samsung 128GB. Same results.

Voyager62 · Oct 14, 2016

Unique ID Not New

themissionimpossible said:
No way to rename the microSD, it's a new Android 6 feature: it refers to the microSD using some unique ID, not by the label.

I thought that quote was hilarious! :laugh: I guess everyone in this thread is too young to have ever used DOS or maybe even the Windows command prompt. This "unique ID" has been around for years. It's simply the Volume ID stored in the boot sector. It can be changed easily on NTFS and FAT32 boot records using a disk editor, Sysinternal's VolumeID utility or with the HardDiskSerialNumberChanger program. The problem with exFAT is that there is a checksum stored and if the boot sector is changed, Windows and Android will think the SD card is corrupt. Use Rufus to format it to FAT32 and you'll be able to change the Volume ID to whatever you want.

Volume in drive G is Sony Xperia
Volume Serial Number is 4E4C-8A5E

themissionimpossible · Oct 14, 2016

Voyager62 said:
Use Rufus to format it to FAT32 and you'll be able to change the Volume ID to whatever you want.

I'm actually using exFAT, for me there are no chances on Android for the slow proprietary NTFS or the obsolete FAT32...

If I understand well, are you really going to use FAT32 on a 128 GB microSD used to store 4K recordings and videos?

Voyager62 · Oct 15, 2016

themissionimpossible said:
If I understand well, are you really going to use FAT32 on a 128 GB microSD used to store 4K recordings and videos?

I was just saying that if you want to change the Volume ID, you're going to have to format the card in FAT32. I don't know if any Android phones support NTFS. When I had MBR hard drives, I used to change the Volume ID's on them so that's why I said it can be done on NTFS.

On my Sony Xperia M4 I'm currently using exFAT, but my LG phones only support FAT32, so I did use Rufus to format the 64 GB SDXC cards to FAT32 for them. I don't need to store anything over 4 GB and FAT32 is much more compatible if I have to use the card in other devices, like my pre-Cinavia Blu-ray player. My phone isn't capable of 4K recording and most apps probably don't write files larger than 4 GB since there are still a lot of phones in use that don't support exFAT at all.

In my opinion, it's good that Android 6 supports the Volume ID, especially if you switch out SD cards, because then an app won't accidentally overwrite data on the wrong card.

themissionimpossible · Oct 15, 2016

I've been using exFAT formatted microSD on all my phones since Lollipop cause AFAIK exFAT access should be faster then FAT32.
Even my latest microSD (Lexar microSDXC, 128 GB, 1800x, UHS-II) comes from factory already formatted in exFAT.

Moreover, exFAT is natively compatible with Windows at least since version 8, no special drivers or utilities needed, even exFAT formatting new media is possible within those Windows versions.

So, whenever possible, IMHO is wiser to use exFAT on latest Android versions.

hammohammo · Mar 18, 2021

hello all
in fact I don't know what happened to my fat 32 sd card
its formatted itself
and its name changed to another symbols
and when i try to recover it couldn't find any data
all media and documents disappear
do any body give some help
1 year work gone
no backup
no way to recover
itried all known recoveing programs on pc and apps on android phone

WLF0X · Jul 22, 2022

It's ****ing moronic something as simple as that can't be done

It's like the search thing that is non-existent on Android

How to rename my external SD card?

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