I have a Galaxy S5 with Android 5 and got a new 64 GB SD card. What is the best file system for the SD card? FAT32 is not an option because I want files >4GB. Which file system offers the best performance ? Thank you for your help.
-
The only file system you could possibly use is exFAT, because NTFS is not supported by Android. Others like ext4 or similar may or may not work depending on the ROM and how fuse handles them.– GiantTreeCommented Apr 12, 2015 at 14:52
-
1Is ext4 not supported by Android itself?– AskerCommented Apr 12, 2015 at 19:00
-
Depends on how fuse handles it. On the one hand I heard that it works like a charm and on the other hand it doesn't. Try it out and report back if can.– GiantTreeCommented Apr 12, 2015 at 21:05
-
5One more thing to consider is whether you might wish to access the card via an external card reader one day – because that then would require the FS being supported by your computer as well. Not a big deal if you're using Linux – but with Windows, ext4 might limit you to read-only (if you manage even that at all).– IzzyCommented Apr 29, 2015 at 15:31
-
I guess this should be Trial & Error... test some filesystems and see what fits your needs– Remus RigoCommented Mar 27, 2021 at 20:39
Add a comment
|
6 Answers
The answer to your question is built into your phone's OS.
1. Put the SD card in your phone
2. Reformat the SD card with your phone(Settings --> Storage/Storage & USB)
3. The file system on the freshly formatted SD card is the type that will give you the best performance with your phone.
4. Outside the context of your phone the optimum file system is another story.
-
An important point: best in speed, but the last in stability. Commented May 21, 2017 at 12:19
-
Yes, I consider exFAT as good filesystem for SD cards, but it's not supported on my old Android :-(.– pevikCommented Dec 25, 2017 at 19:33
Answering the question, the filesystem used on standard Android devices is "exFAT", which is available from Windows Format application and Android's own filesytem management tools. Hope this cleared your doubt.
-
5
-
6And also please give a reference on exFAT being the standard? To my knowledge, Android usually doesn't even support exFAT out of the box (due to license issues AFAIK).– IzzyCommented Jun 11, 2016 at 19:35
-
-
4FAT is just a /dev/null that occasionally stores things, I'd expect a specialised flash file system e.g. JFFS, YAFFS to be more robust. Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:27
-
1
I'd expect a specialised flash file system e.g. JFFS, YAFFS to be more robustare they supported on Android out of the box? Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 4:50
Ext4 should be supported because Android always supports that internally but unfortunately, the SD card is treated differently and even Android One phones do not support Ext4 for the SD card. The Nokia 7.2 Android One phone will not support Ext4 or exFAT or F2FS for the SD card filing system. FAT is the only option in 2019 !
As far as I understand you should avoid used exFAT as it is much less stable in regards to errors than FAT32, NTFS or other filesystem that can handle multiple read/write better and has multiple file tables.
As far as am aware Windows only supports fat32 if your sd card is under 8g if is over exfat or ntfs. ext4 is only for Linux distros
As Android is based on linux, I am running with ext4. Not sure if it is the best but I don't see how it could not run. I am curious about filesystem optimized for flash memory such as F2FS, etc... All those are readable on any recent Linux and Mac. Don't know for Windows.
