my tablet is not using my external SD card for storage I have an 8 gig SD card I plugged into my tablet. When I go to settings and look at storage I can see I have a 7.2 gigs free on my external SD card. I downloaded a 700 meg file to /mnt/sdcard/Download but after doing this and checking storage I see  there is still 7.2 gigs free on my SD card. 

I also have torrent programs which point to this same location on my SD card to save files. but none of these programs can actually download any files because they are reporting this location as only having 100 megs free, so I have concluded that my tablet is lying to me. Mnt/sdcard isn't actually my sdcard! this is infuriating how do I fix this?

This is an Azpen A727.

Android version: 4.2.2

I have rooted my tablet as well.

Edit: okay so I read that the actual location of the SD card is a folder called mnt/extsd. I rooted my tablet but when I try to use the folder as the download location for my programs it says I don't have access how can I grant the programs access?

I get error my app (a torrent) throws when trying to set the sdcard as the download location- the right location of the SD card. I can create folders extsd but can save any files there
I also have the A727. :)  

It appears that whoever designed the system should have been more careful with how he named stuff -- the internal hard drive is called "sdcard," as you mentioned in your question.



To use the SD card on your tablet, you need to hit the "SD card" button on the top of the screen (using the built-in file manager), as in the picture shown below. There you can see the folder labelled "extsd" = external SD card. (as opposed to the internal one?)



Then, when you open that folder, you can access the files on your SD card. Enjoy! :)