Chromebooks are fantastic little devices, and their popularity has skyrocketed during the pandemic. However, they are notorious for being light on storage space. Fortunately, many Chromebooks have the option to add additional storage through a USB drive or SD card slot.
This comes in handy when you have files you’ve downloaded or created and you need a place to keep them. But what about when an app needs more storage space? A prime example of this would be the Netflix app which can download videos for viewing when you’re offline.
In that case you’re going to need to enable saving files to the SD card. That’s not much of a hassle, really, but we’ll walk you through the process and show you how to do it.
How to use an SD card for app storage on Chromebooks for apps
First, you’re going to need to make sure external storage is enabled and you have a card inserted in your Chromebook.
- Open the settings menu. You can do this by pressing the search button (magnifying glass key on the keyboard) and typing in “settings” and “enter.”
- Type “storage management” into the search bar at the top.
- Choose “External storage preferences” at the bottom of the screen.
- Toggle on the SD card.
- Restart your Chromebook.
Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve given the app storage permissions before you can save files internally or to the SD card.
To check this, open the settings menu and location the Apps section. Click on “Manage your apps,” navigate to the app you want to give storage permissions to, and toggle it on.
If you don’t see a toggle for storage, then click on “More settings and permissions” to access the permissions menu and enable storage.
Now that you have it all set up, you’ll be able to change the download location if the app supports that feature. Since Netflix is so popular and supports changing location, we’ll use it as our example.
- Open the Netflix app.
- Tap on More.
- Select App Settings.
- Choose Download Location and select SD Card.
And now you can fill up your SD card with lots of Netflix series and movies to watch anytime, anywhere, because you won’t need an internet connection to watch.
Where each app hides the setting to change the download location will differ, if it supports it at all. For example, Amazon’s Prime Video is another app that supports this feature, however, Disney+ does not.
So, be aware, you’ll have to do a little digging in the settings and there’s no guarantee your chosen app will have this option.
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- How to right-click on a Chromebook
- How to take a screenshot on a Chromebook
- How to use Caps Lock on a Chromebook
