[General Questions and Answers] meladoro:
Hello, world :)

0. Disclaimer

This is my first post. I have tried to research my issue ahead of posting, learn what I could from any related source I found, and compose a clear and thorough request for assistance. Nonetheless, I am a newbie here and welcome criticism. If you find this post lacking, I would much appreciate any suggestions for improvement. Thank you very much in advance.

1. Executive summary

TL,DR: Got a Galaxy A14 5G with only 64GB storage. Wanted to extend with SD card formatted as internal, found the option missing. In addition: the phone has weird CSC/region settings, and I'm trying to learn more about how I might change those or whether they stand in the way of my intended international use.

2. Background and use case(s)

I purchased a Samsung Galaxy A14 5G on eBay, listed in "New" condition by a reseller in Puerto Rico. I would like to use this phone with two SIM cards: one from a US carrier in the US, and one from an Italian carrier in Europe (mostly in Italy). I mention this background because it will become important later, but for now let me focus on the first and main issue, which is not directly related.

3. The main issue

Before proceeding with setting up the SIM cards, I chose to install an SD card, a Samsung PRO Ultimate microSDXC 512GB, in order to expand the meager 64GB built into the phone.

Naively, I assumed I would be able to format this added storage as internal storage, as I have done in the past with other Android devices, including other Samsung Galaxy devices.

However, in the case of this phone, it seems this option has been removed. I would like to restore the option and make use of it, unless it turns out this is not worth doing for some compelling reason.

4. What I've tried

In ADB's shell, the output of sm has-adoptable is, sadly, false.

The problem is very similar to the one in this thread, and I have attempted to follow the steps outlined there. However (like others in the thread) I found that while the recommended commands in the adb shell seem to run without trouble, nothing seems to happen as a result of them.

The partition referenced is not created or formatted, and no matter how many times I issue sm set-force-adoptable true, sm has-adoptable continues to return false.

5. Technical information

Here are some data about this particular phone that might prove useful.

Model: SM-A146U1/DS

AP: A146U1UEU3BWF3

BL: A146U1UEU3BWF3

CP: A146U1UEU3BWF3

CSC: A146U1OWA3BWG1

View attachment 6085044

Service provider software version:

SAOMC_SM-A146U1_OWA_LLA_13_0020

LLA/LLA,LLA/LLA

View attachment 6085045

See screenshots for full information, more version numbers of various components, software revisions, etc.

View attachment 6085046View attachment 6085047

Based on these data, it seems the firmware currently flashed on this phone is likely to be this one.

After manually checking for updates, the phone offers to install an update, which I have not yet applied at the time of this writing. Based on the system update notice, the updated firmware that would be flashed appears to be this one. See below:

View attachment 6085049

From SamFW.com I deduce that the LLA CSC is related to Puerto Rico. This makes sense considering that's where I purchased the phone. However, I cannot find either LLA or OWA in any lists of CSC codes.

6. Where to go from here?

At this point I am not sure how best to proceed. I read this article, and it makes some decent points to the effect that what I'm trying to do might be best altogether avoided.

On the other hand, I am worried about running out of storage, and do not plan to ever remove the SD card in question. Also, I recall formatting as internal storage in the past and not noticing any slowdowns or experiencing filesystem failure. The card in question should be pretty fast and sturdy, for what it's worth.

I would like to at least store apps and their data on the card, and it seems that should be possible to do without setting it up as a system partition. This should sidestep the need for many continuous bursts of read/write activity on the SD card, thus preventing the card's potential untimely death. This article seems to support that idea.

However, with only 64GB internal, I am afraid space might get tight even if I set the SD card as default storage for everything I can and push apps to it, not to mention the annoyance of doing so manually. The smallest I was ever able to keep my footprint without having to obsessively delete unneeded apps, etc., was 108GB out of a 128GB internal drive. I would have bought a 128GB version of this phone's model, but it was truly impossible to find one that was also unlocked and with dual SIM.

7. Wrapup, with potential additional issues, and questions

On the one hand, this phone was not expensive and it is causing me to learn more about the deeper workings of Android. I welcome this.

On the other hand, I wasn't trying to get into serious Android hacking, but just wanted to get a working dual SIM phone that could be used internationally. This seemed perfect for my needs except for the small storage, which I foolishly thought could be worked around by simply purchasing a good SD card.

Other potential problems: I have no idea what to make of the CSC codes and other regional settings for this phone, especially considering they are not documented. Will the phone even behave well/be compatible with carriers in the two regions my use case refers to? Can/should the CSC be changed? Would I need to root and/or flash custom ROMs in order to do this? What if I told you that, on top of everything else, Samsung seems to have also removed the "OEM Unlocking" option from the developer options of this phone, and I've followed all the usual advice I could find (changing date & time, etc.) without luck?

This post is way too verbose already so I'll leave it at this. If you've read this far I truly appreciate you, and would welcome any thoughts.

Any advice? Thank you 🙏