Android folder paths for microSD and eMMC storage

All Android devices will have the facility to provide external storage which could be one or both of the following:

  • Removable microSD card – some, but not all Android devices provide a microSD card slot
  • eMMC chip soldered to the circuit board of the device – some, but not all devices may contain an eMMC chip either instead of, or as well as a removable microSD card.

Confusingly there is a lot of variation in the folder location for these two areas on different Android devices and different Android versions. The following tables lists some of the folder paths that we have seen used on Android devices for the removable microSD card and the eMMC chip.

Path for removable microSD card

Notes

/storage/extSdCard

  Seen on some Samsung devices

/storage/ext_sd

  Seen on some HTC devices

/mnt/sdcard/external

  Used within Android backups

/storage/sdcard<N>

 <N> is a number – e.g. /storage/sdcard1

Values of “0” and “1” have been seen for removable microSD cards on different devices.

It is possible that USB storage connected via a USB OTG (“On the go”) cable might be mapped in this way with a different number

/storage/usbdisk

 Seen for USB drive connected via OTG cable

 

Path for eMMC storage

Notes

/mnt/shell/emulated/<N>

 <N> is a number which distinguishes between different users on the same device. The owner account has the id “0” so this path will typically be: /mnt/shell/emulated/0 This is believed to have been introduced in Android v4.4.4

/storage/emulated/legacy

 This is believed to be the folder naming structure used in Android v4.4.3 and earlier

/storage/emulated/<N>

 <N> is a number which distinguishes between different users on the same device. The owner account has the id “0” so this path will typically be: /storage/emulated/0

/mnt/sdcard

 This is potentially confusing as it is not the removable microSD card, but the eMMC storage. To make matters more confusing the removable SD card may appear as a sub-folder of this – i.e. /mnt/sdcard/external

shared/<N>

<N> is a number.

This is the folder naming used within Android ADB backups (and which may appear within backup extractions performed by forensic tools)

/data/media/<N>

<N> is a number – e.g. /data/media/0

Seen in extractions of rooted devices