Do I Need To Format My MicroSD Card Before Using It In My Phone?

Several customers have emailed us this week to ask whether or not they need to do anything with a MicroSD card before putting it into their mobile phone.

If the MicroSD card is brand new then there is no formatting required. Simply put it in your device and it will be usable from the word go. If the device needs to do anything it will most likely prompt you or format itself automatically or when you first save an item to it.

If the card has been used previously (we'd recommend taking a copy of anything that might be saved on it you want to keep before using it in your phone) or you bought a used online, then you might want to consider formatting it to erase anything that might be on it. In some cases, you can do this using your phone but the most common way is when on your PC using the built-in format function on Windows or MacOS.

As a side note – if you are planning on selling a MicroSD card yourself, we recommend backing up items you need and then erasing all contents. You can do this by manually deleting the items and then running a utility like Roadkill's Disc Wipe to fully wipe it.