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Get adoptable SD Card storage on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, no root
Samsung’s devoted following has a saying among them: “Samsung giveth, and Samsung taketh away.” Lo, for it was with great joy that the people greeted the Samsung Galaxy S6, bedecked with glass and metal and splendor, but the Korean smartphone manufacturer frowned upon its followers saying, “Thou art no longer worthy of removeable batteries or microSD storage.” And so the people wept. But then, a new ray of hope in 2016: the Samsung Galaxy S7, alive with microSD returned and blessed with water resistance. “But no adoptable SD Card storage,” said Samsung, lest we forget our place.
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What we’re talking about here is the ability to have your smartphone consider expandable storage a partition of its internal storage. Although it’s nice to have this semi-permanent storage, the downside is that, once your SD card is formatted for this, you can’t just drop files, photos, and video onto it, then pop it out and move that data to another device with a card reader.
In spite of the playful image I portrayed above, Samsung disabled adoptable storage not to keep us humble, but rather because they believed their primary userbase would be more interested in portable SD cards. This decision has upset a few of the more hardcore members of the Android community, but behold a hero has risen. Modder Paul “MoDaCo” O’Brien has figured out a way to enable adoptable storage on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
Although the method may confound casual smartphone users, it doesn’t look particularly complex. No rooting is required, and any careful user willing to read the relevant documentation should be able to pull off this ROM adjustment fairly easily. All you need is a PC and Android Debug Bridge.
Since this method doesn’t require rooting, what we can infer from this is that Samsung didn’t actually disable adoptive storage on a system level. They just took the option out of the UI. If you’re one of those who were disappointed with the S7 line for its lack of adoptable storage, this information might make you reconsider whether or not to make the purchase. To take a look at MoDaCo’s methods, head on over here. And, as always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
