Hot swap microSD and SIM cards

U

useruser

Member
Original poster
27 September 2026
15
Hi, is it possible to change the microSD/SIM cards while the Shiftphone 8.1 is powered on via USB cable and without the battery in place?

If so, could I modify the plastic housing to allow the cards to be changed without removing the battery? They are on their own small module.

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Hello @useruser ,

Theoretically, Sim and SD Card could be removed and reused in Cable Mode, but whether the System will recognize it without Restart, I do not know - and do not necessarily want to test it on my phone. 😅


Just like the Phone is structured, I see no Possibility to rebuild it ,to remove the Cards without removing the Battery.
 
The Android system is configured to not allow hotswapping, because the battery needs to be removed in order to replace them.

Which means after you did the physical modification, you'd also need to do a software modification to properly function.
 
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R.E.D. schrieb:
Hello @useruser ,

Theoretically, Sim and SD Card could be removed and reused in Cable Mode, but whether the System will recognize it without Restart, I do not know - and do not necessarily want to test it on my phone. 😅


Just like the Phone is structured, I see no Possibility to rebuild it ,to remove the Cards without removing the Battery.
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What is the Cable "Mode"?👀

I thought it would maybe work since Android themself is worked for this many times, although many manufacturer warning about it.
 
amartinz schrieb:
The Android system is configured to not allow hotswapping, because the battery needs to be removed in order to replace them.

Which means after you did the physical modification, you'd also need to do a software modification to properly function.
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But there’s no hardware/electrical limitation here, right? May I ask, why you have intentionally blocked it in software? The phone does work without battery so ability removing cards seems reasonable.
 
The SD Card can be changed (removed and re-inserted) when using without a Battery (only with Cable) you must first remove the Card in the Settings - Storage - choose the SD Card and (tip right on Top the three points) then "eject" the Card.
If you insert the Card again, you have to tap "set up" there, then the Card will be "read in" again.


I tested it on my Shift 8.
Only with the Sim Card I would rather not test this.😉
 
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R.E.D. schrieb:
The SD Card can be changed (removed and re-inserted) when using without a Battery (only with Cable) you must first remove the Card in the Settings - Storage - choose the SD Card and (tip right on Top the three points) then "eject" the Card.
If you insert the Card again, you have to tap "set up" there, then the Card will be "read in" again.


I tested it on my Shift 8.
Only with the Sim Card I would rather not test this.😉
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Thank you🔥

It's okay, but what makes it more suspicious? Files are on the SD card.
 
useruser schrieb:
But there’s no hardware/electrical limitation here, right? May I ask, why you have intentionally blocked it in software? The phone does work without battery so ability removing cards seems reasonable.
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There is no hardware limitation, at least none I am aware of.
It's just a switch in Android configuration files, which changes some behaviors.
We wanted to document the hardware state properly, so these configurations were entered "truthfully".

There also was not blocked something intentionally, because as far as I know these days most configs are ignored or just for visuals.
I just wanted to give a heads-up in this regard.
 
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amartinz schrieb:
There is no hardware limitation, at least none I am aware of.
It's just a switch in Android configuration files, which changes some behaviors.
We wanted to document the hardware state properly, so these configurations were entered "truthfully".

There also was not blocked something intentionally, because as far as I know these days most configs are ignored or just for visuals.
I just wanted to give a heads-up in this regard.
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Can you give me a link to those conf files? :)
Document hardware?

So also switching SIM cards without reboot maybe work? 👀
 
useruser schrieb:
It's okay, but what makes it more suspicious? Files are on the SD card.
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I’m not sure if I understand what you mean, but if you want to know, why I don’t want to test it with the Sim Card, is it so :

I use the modular eSim Module with the Shift 8 and do not want to risk that my eSim profile will be deleted or damaged on it.If I take out the Card during use

With the SD card, the Test was without Risk, as I backed up my Data on the PC.😅
 
R.E.D. schrieb:
I’m not sure if I understand what you mean, but if you want to know, why I don’t want to test it with the Sim Card, is it so :

I use the modular eSim Module with the Shift 8 and do not want to risk that my eSim profile will be deleted or damaged on it.If I take out the Card during use

With the SD card, the Test was without Risk, as I backed up my Data on the PC.😅
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That makes sense😄 I use ordinary sim card so sd card failure is more bad.
 
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