I have three mobile devices that have expansion storage, by plugging in a MicroSD card. Or so they say. And yes, you can plug in a MicroSD, and it gets "recognized". You can even explicitly tell the device to put data there. But that is about the extent of it. It makes usability almost nil.
Example one: After a recent map update, my Garmin Nuvi GPS told me that my internal storage was almost full, and that I should consider adding more. So I added a MicroSD to double the storage. What happened? I can now see two "drives" on the device, but the GPS OS has no idea how to use the additional storage. There is no way to span volumes that I can see (and I have Googled this). I can put photos on the expansion storage, I suppose. Yeah, the GPS can display photos. Whoopee. But if the maps get much bigger, I'm boned.
Example two: I purchased a Motorola DROID RAZR M smartphone. It had a reasonable amount of storage, but I added a MicroSD to double the storage. What happened? Again, Android seems clueless about "just using" this extra storage. I can explicitly store my files there, but I can't say "all user files go on the expansion SD", nor is there any way to span volumes that I can see (and I have Googled this).
Example three: I received a Dell Venue 8 Pro with Windows 8 as a gift. The primary storage is about 60 GB. So I added a MicroSD to double the storage. What happened? Well, Windows recognized the "external drive". It would even allow me to move all of my user libraries over to it - by changing the "Location" property - something you have to do for each library. I wish Windows would support simply moving the "Users" directory over to another volume, or better yet, span volumes. But noooo!
Even worse, moving to the latest Windows 10 update failed because I had some files on an "external" drive. What's more, OneDrive cannot sync to an "external" drive. Jeez-louise! Shouldn't I get to decide if I want to treat a drive as "external" or not? A microSD that I tuck inside a covered slot that isn't even accessible when the case is installed, doesn't seem very "external" to me! Windows could just ask.
Bottom line, I have three microSD cards that have successfully "expanded" storage in three devices, and I have no usable way to make any practical use of it. I'm a technology geek; If I were really motivated, and I had the time, I could probably hack a work-around. But casual users? Fuggedaboudit! That's lame! Come on, OS vendors! Can't you get creative about making expansion storage a plug-n-play proposition?
