Summary

It’s time to expand your storage on your Steam Deck.

But is it as easy as popping in an SD card?

Do you have to do any special formatting?

steam deck lying on a table

Bertel King/MUO

Let’s take a look at how to install an SD card on your Steam Deck.

Can I Use Any SD Card on My Steam Deck?

The Steam Deck is not fussy when it comes to SD cards.

screenshot of the steam deck storage screen

Write and read speeds are very important for performance reasons, so choosing a faster card is beneficial.

Don’t spring for the fastest, though.

The Steam Deck will only reliably read up to 100MB/s.

screenshot of the steam deck settings menu showing an option to format the SD card

We have a great selection ofthe best microSD cards for the Steam Deckif you haven’t selected one already.

Start by inserting your SD card into your Steam Deck.

If you follow this prompt, your SD card will be ready to go in no time.

screenshot of the games options menu on the steam deck showing a game installed on an SD card

Press Y to open up the options menu and hitFormat Drive.

First, your SD card won’t be as fast as the Steam’s built-in SSD.

Secondly, accessing folders on your SD card is a little different from accessing your SSD.

Screenshot of an SD card mounted on the Steam Deck showing its location as primary

You’ll find your SD card located at the bottom right-hand side of the Dolphin explorer window.

Steam games will be located in thesteamappsfolder of this gadget.

However, unlike Windows, this isn’t the true file path.

Just see to it you’re using a fast enough card for the demands of the game.