...and a lot more!
Here it is, the SDCard Bible for the Moto E.
UPDATED 5/21/14 - use of ART
UPDATED 5/29/14 - UHS-1
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Moto E and SD card Tips and Tricks
Also covers Moto G LTE
Moto E & SD Card: what is supported
Moto E supports microSD cards of up to 32GB. The SD card slot is located under the removable back cover. Larger cards can be used in the product, but will require a reformat on first insertion. The Moto E SD card support is based on Android 4.4 Kit Kat, with a few improvements unique to Motorola:
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The Motorola camera application can be set to use the SD card as a storage location for pictures and videos. Third party camera applications might not offer this option. -
The user can sideload media, pictures, movies and other content to the SD card from a Windows or MacOS computer. Media sideloaded to the card will be visible by all media apps, including the Motorola Gallery and Play Music. -
The Motorola Gallery, and other gallery apps such as Google+ Photos, will display pictures and movies located in either internal or SD card storage. -
You can attach documents, pictures stored on the SD card to outgoing emails. -
Applications downloaded from Play Store can be moved to or installed on the SD card, if the developer has followed Android 4.4 guidelines. Applications preinstalled on your device, and their updates can not be moved to the SD card. -
Google Play Movies and Google Play Music will let you pin and download purchased content to the SD card. -
The ‘Move Media’ utility (Settings > Storage) helps move media from internal storage to the SD card -
Motorola Migrate will migrate content from your old phone to the SD card. -
The user can use file managers to copy and move content to the card, with some restrictions (see below)
Take care of your SD card
As the Moto E SD card support is based on Android 4.4, you should always power down your device before attempting to remove the SD card from the product. This will avoid damaging your card.
Remember that the performance and life of your cards is highly dependant on its class and quality. For the best results, we recommend at least a class 6 card, and make sure your content is backed up regularly.
What's supported?
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Notes |
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Move apps to SD card when using ART... |
No |
...when using ART, you cannot move apps to the SDcard. Media moves are fine. (You can switch to Dalvik, move apps, and then switch back to ART. ART is a developer option -- use it at your own risk!) |
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Yes |
...move to SD card works fine when the device is encrypted. |
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Use MicroSD UHS-1 card... |
Yes & No |
...the card will work, but the Moto E will not support UHS-1 speeds |
Additional Details & FAQ
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Internal Storage vs. SD Card, Where do applications store their content?
By default, all application will store and save content internally, even if a SD card is present in the device. Moto E’s internal storage is the default storage location of application data, all third party apps will store content on the internal storage, unless these applications have been modified to use the new Android 4.4 storage management framework and API.
Some of the applications preloaded with your device (Motorola camera, Motorola migrate, play music, play movies) offer a setting to change the default storage location -but will only be applicable for this application. Other applications, such as file managers, will let your transfer content to and from the card.
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Making sure your card is mounted
Settings->Storage is the place to look if you need to know whether a SD card is inserted in your device. If the card is present and has been successfully mounted by the system, it will show up under storage settings, “SD Card.” If the card does not show up, it was not mounted correctly. Remove it and re-insert it.
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What types of cards are supported? And will larger cards work?
Moto E supports SDHC cards up to 32GB. When inserting an SDHC card, and if the card is good and formatted, the device will display “preparing SD card” and the SD card available storage will be viewable in storage settings. Moto E and G LTE natively support SDHC (FAT32) formatted SD cards. Larger cards will need to be reformatted.
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Detecting Bad Cards
SD cards can sometimes fail. When a card fails, the system will automatically unmount it, and any attempt to reinsert it will not result in a successful mount.
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When removing your card, power off your device or unmount the card first.
We recommend to always power down your device before removing your SD card. Removing a SD card while the system might still be writing to the card could result in filesystem corruption and loss of data.
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Trying to move content from internal to SD? Use “Move Media” in storage settings...
When inserting a SD card post-purchase, your Moto E will help you free internal storage by offering to move pictures, movies and music stored internally to the SD card, through the “Move Media” application. “Move media” will only move content that is safe to move: pictures, movies and music. Items are moved from internal storage to the card, and are moved to the same location on the card. As an example, a picture stored on your internal storage at this location: /sdcard0/DCIM/MattJones.JPG will simply be moved to /sdcard1/DCIM/MattJones.JPG (on the SD card). Content will still be visible to media consuming applications (Gallery, Music) after being moved. The Move Media dialog on card insertion will only display once for each SD card, and only if there is content to move. You can invoke it manually from storage settings at any time.
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Configure the Motorola Camera application to store pictures, movies on your SD card...
When an SD card in present, you can set it card as the default storage location for your pictures from the camera application. Out of the box, captured pictures and movies will always be stored on internal storage. You can find this setting under the “Storage location” icon in the camera app settings. This setting will only appear when a SD card is present in the device.
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Want to install or move applications to your SD card ? Play store make that choice for you but you can always do it manually under Settings->Apps.
Some applications are quite large. For Moto E, we have enabled the ability for a consumer to install and move applications from internal storage to his SD card. Applications moved to the SD card still appear in the apps tray, and runs. When installing an application from Play Store, Android will make a install time decision on whether to install this application on internal storage or on your SD card, based on a guideline from the application developer and the amount of internal storage available. Moving applications manually gives you more control.
In Settings, under Applications, the “On SD card” tab, will display a list of applications which can be moved to the card, as well as these already installed on the card. You can move each application back and forth through each “app info” settings view (“move to SD card”). Please wait until each move has completed before exiting the App info panel.
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There are a few important additional details
Moving an application to the SD card only moves the application executable and resources, any data which the application needs (cache, data) might still reside on internal storage (unless the application specifically use the Android 4.4. API)
Ultimately, it’s up to the application developer to decide whether an app can be moved to the SD card. Only applications which follow the Android install location guidelines can be moved, and there are certain class of apps which can’t be moved to the card. If your favorite app can’t be move to your SD card, please contact the application developer first
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Using your SD card for content purchased from Play Music and Play movies
With the updated Android 4.4 Storage API, applications can decide to store content seamlessly on either internal storage OR an SD card. The first two applications using this functionality are Play Music and Play Movies, both preloaded apps on your Moto E.
If you have a SD card inserted in your Moto E, Play Music lets you select the SD card as the storage for your music cache, downloaded or purchased from Google Play music. This setting can be found under the application settings->storage location. Play Movies offer a similar option.
If you used both of these Google applications, we recommend you set both of these settings to “SD Card/External.”
Play Music storage settings
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Play Movies storage settings
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Motorola Migrate
Motorola Migrate has also been updated to take advantage of an SD card. When migrating to your new Moto E, Migrate will automatically detect available storage space and store to your SD card if appropriate, or prompt you to install an SD card.
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Attaching a document on your SD card to an email
Documents, media and pictures stored on the card are always scanned by the media scanner, and available to all apps. With Gmail, or the Android email client, a user can easily attach any file stored on the SD card to an outgoing email. Content is shown by type, and storage location in the Android content picker.
This functionality leverages the Android 4.4 storage access framework. If you are trying to attach (or browse) a specific file on your card, we recommend enabling the “Display advanced devices” option in the file picker. When this option is enabled, your SD card will be explicitly shown as a storage location in the file picker, and you will be able to browse and select specific files on your SD card directory.
As the the download manager only supports “Internal” Storage, you can only save attachment or downloads on internal storage; not on the SD card.
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As the download manager only supports “Internal” Storage, you can only save attachment or downloads on internal storage; not on the SD card.
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Document editing and cloud application
QuickOffice and Google Drive are preloaded on your Moto E are powerful document editors, and leverage the Android 4.4 storage access framework and system file picker (described above) to access local files. You can open files and documents stored on your SD card with Quick Office and Drive through the file picker.
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Side loading content to the SD card
The user can sideload content to his SD card from a tethered PC. Windows support MTP transfer natively, while the MacOS user will need to download the Android File Transfer application. With Android File Transfer, the SD card appears as a separate storage location which files can be dragged to and from. On Windows, your device storage locations (internal and SD card) will appear as devices you can drag content to/from.
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Third-party file managers – access to the SD card
While Android 4.4. currently disables write permission to the SD card in ‘public directories’, Motorola has enabled write access to these directories in our implementation. A user can use a third party file manager to manage, move and delete content in public directories on the SD Card. (DCIM, Documents, Downloads...). As required by Android, write-access to the top-level directory of the SD Card from a file manager application will fail.
Known Issues to watch for:
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Depending on your card class, size and the number of applications installed on the card, it might take longer for applications installed on the card to appear in the homescreen apps tray on power-up. -
If your card is unexpectedly removed, or removed without being unmounted, application shortcuts placed on the homescreen panel may disappear. -
If you intend to permanently remove a SD card from your device, yet there are applications installed on this card, don’t forget to either move applications back to internal storage or uninstall them from the device before permanently removing the card.
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ART and memory
If there is less than 1.2GB of internal memory, you will not be able to use ART mode. The ART option will not be visible. You will have to free up space on the internal drive to use ART. Remember, ART is a developer option -- use it at your own risk!
- OlivierM
Yeah, the SD card slot makes up for the 2GB of internal space. 
Linking to images.
http://m.imgur.com/O2JmLgn,FHhHlsL,NPylpDw
PS. Why does the forum allow you to attach only 1 image?
Off topic:
I've set Google play music to download to external but it appears to still cache music to internal. I'm going to turn off the auto cache setting and see if that fixes things.
Off topic 2:
When signing up for the forum, it asks you to select your device. The list does not have the Moto E though.
EDIT: Hmm, Ranamoorthy seems to have explained my problem. Oh well. I don't really care about benchmarks but ART makes a difference to UI smoothness and I think I'm going to leave it on (at least, there seem to be a lot less stutters. And this is more obvious on less powerful devices like the E and G compared to an N4, N5, N7 2013 or a Moto X). I'd like it if someone could explain what's happening though - just for the sake of my curiosity...
EDIT2: Oh, why does my post formatting get killed when I post?
I'm using chrome from mobile right now...
