I have a Lenovo tab P12 and an sd card (128gb) has been added to it. If I move the file from tab to the SD card, the file appears on the SD card. But if I delete the original file from the device, the file also disappears from the SD card. Why did this?

Matti Niskasaari

Hi @Mattianiskasaar ,

Welcome to the Lenovo Community!

I'm sorry to know about the issue you're experiencing when you're managing your files on the Tab P12 tablet. May I ask, is the SD card formatted as portable (external) storage?

Though, when you move a file, it should no longer exist in the original location. However, if you are copying the file instead of moving it, deleting the original should not affect the copy on the SD card.

Please ensure you are using the "Move" option rather than "Copy" when transferring files. If the problem persists, it might be worth checking if the SD card is set up as internal storage or portable storage, as this can affect file management.

Thanks,
Adriel_Lenovo

The sd card is an internal storage space, i.e. the card is installed in the sd drive of the tablet. I have formatted the sd-disk. But when I move, for example, the camera image from the tablet's Pictures folder to the sd-disk's Pictures folder, the image does not leave the tablet's folder but remains in the Pictures folder. It will have a small sd disk icon in the upper right corner. However, the icon is not visible if it opens. The image transferred to the sd drive is displayed normally, but if I delete the original image from the tablet, the image from the sd card also disappears.

Matti Niskasaari

Hi @Mattianiskasaar ,

Thank you for the additional information. When an SD card is formatted as internal storage, it becomes part of the device's main storage, and the system manages it as such. This means that files are not truly moved between the internal storage and the SD card; instead, they are managed as a single storage pool.

The behavior you're experiencing, where the file appears to be in both locations and deleting it from one location removes it from both, is consistent with this setup. The small SD card icon indicates that the file is stored on the SD card portion of the internal storage.

To avoid this issue, you might consider reformatting the SD card as portable storage if you want to manage files separately between the internal storage and the SD card. You can find more information on how to set up your SD card as portable storage in this Google support article.

If you need further assistance, feel free to ask.

Best regards,
Adriel_Lenovo