[Q] Is it the SD card at fault? - Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

hi all,
thought i would ask here as my questions in the rom specific forum are getting swamped by every asking for the dev to install specific programmes or people asking wht OJ death is..
im just trying to narrow down if my SD card is faulty, the rom is causing the issues or i have or am doing things wrong.
on random occasions i have lost apps, photos and other info from my SD card.
the first time it happed i did a nandriod backup prior to a rom update.
right after the nandriod back up my phone booted up and every photo i had taken in the last 2 days were gone.
thankfully using Recuva data recovery program in windoiws i was able to find and restore the photos.
i then updated my rom the Open desire rom, the one that enabled the OTA menu system. as far as i know there were no other things changed in the initial update.
after rebooting all my sd card data was wiped.
BUT.... some of the apps on the sd card were still there and some were gone, as well as apps on the phone, some were gone some was not.

chuxsta said:
on random occasions i have lost apps, photos and other info from my SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not alone... I too have a similar issue, with an un-branded, un-rooted Desire. The first think I noticed was a duplicate "Backgrounds" folder appearing in the 3D Gallery - which in itself is odd, because the standard Gallery app only shows it once.
Weirdly in one version of the folder I have a few less images than the other, but they're otherwise all duplicates and can only be found in one visible "Backgrounds" directory on my SD card. It's not just the Gallery app aither - some others (like Wall Switch) also see two "Backgrounds" folders.
Then I noticed a number of images had mysteriously disappeared from another folder - in both Gallery apps. The only app that's crashed is Wall Switch - which is probably related, as it's looking for images in that "Backgrounds" folder. It works fine most of the time though.
If any images have gone missing, I should be able to get them back as I recently upgraded to a 32GB card and copied all my files across before doing so. However, I'm more concerned that there's a problem with the new card. (Which, for the record, was not a cheap one from eBay.)
As such, I'll be spending some time this weekend testing the new card to see if I can identify any issues... but I too have a couple of questions in that regard:
i) Is there any benefit in formatting the card in the phone before use? (It came pre-formatted so I first checked it for errors in Windows first, then just started using it.) I realise before Froyo the phone could not format such big cards, but I think that may have been resolved now.
ii) What's the best way to verify the integrity of the card? (e.g. Will error checking via Windows - XP in my case - suffice?)
EDIT: I took the card out and copied the files (minus my MP3 library) back to the 4GB card that came with the phone. When I ran with this card the duplicate directory disappeared. CHKDSK found no problems on the 32GB card, but I reformatted it in the phone anyway and then copied everything back to it and all is now fine. I'm assuming the phone did a "Quick Format" rather than a full one, as it only took a few seconds. I'm not too worried about the missing image files as these may have been inadvertently deleted anyway. Fingers crossed the problem is behind me now, but I'll keep an eye on it.

I am having similar issues, it's almost like the SD card is not fully loaded, and tried to load but can't. Things are missing, and then they are there. I am using a new 16GB over the original 8GB.
I am rooted though, am I able to do a format of the SD card?
Also when I choose to make it work as disc drive, nothing happens, does not show up on system.

bmancell said:
I am having similar issues, it's almost like the SD card is not fully loaded, and tried to load but can't. Things are missing, and then they are there. I am using a new 16GB over the original 8GB.
I am rooted though, am I able to do a format of the SD card?
Also when I choose to make it work as disc drive, nothing happens, does not show up on system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the same issue when i first rooted my phone i was able to put the card in an old HTC and it showed up as a drive in USB mode and i was able to run a file recovery tool to extract the data
then re format and copy the data back to it..
but the current issue is just random and strange...
stuff just seems to disapear as far as the phone is concerned ...
as i have already mentioned i had stuff vanish after running nandroid back up..

So for me it seems it happens shortly after bootup. Yes I give it enough time.
But once I open the all programs area, I see it load all of the icons. Maybe some issue with it not loading untill I open that area up.
Also, most of issues seems to be coming from the App Organizer Application, it's updated often so hopefully my issues will go away.
*As I play around with things it seems almost all my issues are related to the program. Even the issue with it not showing up on my computer when connected through USB. It does show up, just takes awhile, and once it does my Apps Organizer icons flash. So related.

try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18971539
some cases seems related

Related

Lingering EVO issues (SD Card, Camera, etc.)

I'm having some lingering issues with my EVO even after running OTA updates. I am running a rooted stock ROM, currently software version 1.32.651.6 (I have not attempted the latest OTA update yet).
In particular are two problems - SD card issues have remained even after the OTA update. This was present even before rooting but after installing the first update (I went to a "full-service" store on opening day and they set it up themselves, assuming everyone would want it - luckily I could still get root). Issues include the Camera application reporting permissions problems randomly when trying to save pictures to the SD card, HTC's music application freaking out and coming to a near freeze trying to crawl the SD card during one of its troublesome spurts, and files disappearing from file explorers. So basically run of the mill, pre-first-OTA sd card problems. But occurring after the update and both before/after rooting.
Second is a problem with the camera itself. When first booting, HTC's included photo/video application will instantly crash after showing the camera icon on the black background. Google Goggles freezes for about 10 seconds then reports it was unable to connect to the camera. After the phone being on for about half an hour, these issues (seemingly) go away until the next reboot.
Last, and least frequent but still troubling, is a problem with the device powering on. At least twice I have been unable to get the device to turn on after powering it off, forcing a pull and replace of the battery to get it working again.
As far as I know, all of these issues could be either hardware or software. Even the power problem - my best guess is that the phone never powers off fully, but is instead locked inside of a deep sleep state and thus can not turn on until a battery pull forces the entire system off.
The questions being - first, are there any known solutions to the above problems? I have found many threads in particular regarding SD card issues, but none that seem to report these problems post-update. The others I have seen little to nothing about.
Second - if there are not known solutions, would it be prudent to return the phone as it may likely be a hardware problem?
Since it seems I'm forced to take the last update if I get a replacement, I may likely have problems getting a full root back. I'd like to avoid that if possible - having root works wonders for doing application development using non-native (unexposed) API's (Which - side note - since I'm developing for 2.1 at the moment, other than hacking for direct access to a Surface, does anyone know of a _fast_ way to do direct blits from native code? glTexImage2d is insanely slow).
Thanks all any help. Again, apologize if any of these are solved and gone problems, but I wasn't able to procure anything myself.
I'd go for the replacement, sounds like a defective unit..
Be sure that the folks here at xda will get root working regardless of OTA.
replace the unit, i'm very particular about my phones, if there is anything wrong with it I replace it.
I too have the SD card issue, I have updated, i have rooted, re-rooted, flashed new rom, different roms (fresh and sd) and it has always given me the sd card issue. Sometimes it wants to be a pain and not work at all, sometimes its good for at least a week or two. I am waiting for a little longer to make sure when I get a replacement its a newer version.
SD card permission errors --- POSSIBLE FIX
I hope/think/believe I fixed this error for those interested, I use my EVO for work and need it to work without a hitch....
Here goes (**Note i am a noob with smartphones with a dangerous amount of IT knowledge - disclaimer for those brave enough to browse around the root files and SD card files; I am not responsible for you bricking your phone, I am only trying to help those in need and putting in my 2 cents_)
Download and open the app ---> Root Explorer (or any other root explorer for that matter) from Android market.
Once Root Explorer is open (look up top/left it will say) Mounted as r/o (means read only) - press the white button to mount it as r/w (read & write)
Press and long hold on the SD card directory (folder) - you will get another window from which you must select the permissions option.
Under top option USER - check all marks -- READ WRITE AND EXECUTE & click OK.
VERY IMPORTANT - Click on the (white button) Mount as r/o to write protect your root files on your phone again.
I just applied this fix about 45 mins ago and seems to be working......updates to come if issues persist or re-surface. (**Note I could not see photos or play music and some apps were also giving me FCs (intermittently) due to permission or write errors to SD card; and now it seems to be working like nothing ever happened.)
What I have ::: stock ROM on EVO supersonic with recent HTC updates applied - standard 8Gig SD card provided with phone / had rooted but put back stock ROM for preference issues.
Hope this info helps some folks...very frustrating issue.
Cheers
SD card permission errors --- POSSIBLE FIX
ONE LAST SIDENOTE COMMENT -
I transfer data to my PC often (running Win 7 32bit_)
It is crucial that you right click on "safely remove hardware" icon on the lower right side (next to date and time) and WAIT until windows tells you
..."It is now safe to remove your hardware" --- I was just taking the plug out when done and it appears as if that could have started or compounded these issues with the SD card.
I too get the could not connect problems at times. And I have lost access to the SD card a few times. Some say its Fring that causes the problem. But after removing it I still have camera issues. I noticed that having the LED Light on while trying to open the camera will cause this problem.
I am running CM6 RC1 so this is to be expected from Release Candidates. Sit tight. It will get fixed.
Well after a full 24 hrs...no issues with the read write error on my EVO SD card, I think that when the phone is removed from PC incorrectly (i.e. pulling USB cable out in mode other than "Charge only" i.e. HTC sync, Disk Drive, Internet sharing - it causes it to "corrupt" the permissions on the SD card - It is still working like a champ and i am waiting impatiently for my EVO Froyo update ... feedback appreciated for those whom tried this fix and had it work....txs
@LF142
Hi there. So I followed all of your instructions above and downloaded Root Explorer. However, every time I change the permissions, they don't save. User, Group and Other is always switched off at root level. Do you think this may mean my SD card is corrupted?
I rooted it with BakedSnack.
I now want to un-root it as I miss taking shots, looking at my shots, listening to my tunes etc.
But I want to keep all my apps. All my texts and everything else. Whats the best way to go about this? I am also a bit of a n00b and I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, but when Froyo releases tomorrow (apparently) do I have to unroot to receive the update?
Thanks

Some applications and files disappear from SD card after SAFELY removal in Windows 7

Good afternoon, dear xda-developers forum members.
I really hope to find some help here.
In last two months I had the following issues:
1. This one happened two times already: after using my phone as a flash in windows 7 and "safely removal" of it, all my applications which were installed on SD card were saying that "Application is no longer installed" when I tried to run it, although other documents and files were readable from ASTRO File Manager, i.e. SD card was mounted. In Settings->Applications all these applications had black icons with SD card image on it and rather with package name than regular application name(for example com.navitel instead of regular Navitel, etc.). I've restored all these applications from Titanium Backup, but I'm afraid that there is something more disappeared also which I don't know about.
2. My "Android" folder on sd card became a file with weird contents(this folder was used for NFS Shift data only). I couldn't restore it. Again: if this folder corrupted, then there is definitely something else also corrupted.
After I saw these things for the first time, I used Windows checkdisk with auto-fix errors. It found a lot of files and put it into "FOUND.000" directory. I recognized in these files few apk-files of installed applications from SD and also few images from my SD. Then I restored applications to SD card and for some time it seemed ok. But one time it happened again.
My assumption is that Android fails to re-mount SD card after I disconnect it from PC.
I don't know what to do... is it Android bug or is it Desire bug or what? I swear that I ALWAYS make "safe USB removal" in Windows before disconnect the USB-cable and I ALWAYS wait for the message "It's now safe to disconnect your device".
I'm very disappointed with all that Please, advise me something useful...
P.S.: If needed I can give you any debug information you want, I'm a programmer, so I've been around
You could try to format your SD card, just backup the contents first, see if that works. As for Android, it does a pretty good job of mounting straight after. What version of Android are you running?
GoogleJelly said:
You could try to format your SD card, just backup the contents first, see if that works. As for Android, it does a pretty good job of mounting straight after.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will, but strange that it happened, because I formatted the flash before using it for the first time...
I have two assumptions:
Maybe I shouldn't press power button to switch the screen off just after disconnecting USB cable from PC. I was doing that as a habit, because every time you disconnect your phone from PC, the screen turns on.
Maybe I shouldn't try to run application which is installed on SD just after disconnecting phone from PC. Maybe I should have waited for a minute. I've tried to do it once, because I wanted to see the result as soon as possible, so the phone said that "Application is no longer installed", I though that Android haven't mount SD yet and tried later. It worked. But next time when I used USB cable, all SD-card apps became uninstalled.
GoogleJelly said:
What version of Android are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, forgot to mention. I'm using HTC Desire with Android 2.2(2.10.405.2).
Fast Boot option may be the culprit
In case anyone checks this old thread...
CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////
Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.
I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.
I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.
//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.
Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).
The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).
I will report back here on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1873670
(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (although this thread appears to be the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins) :angel:

Data Loss?

Sadly, last week my Droid Incredible got stuck in a reboot loop that I was unable to get it out of. At the time, I thought it was no big deal since most of my data (emails, contacts, voice messages) were stored safely in the cloud. I figured that if I tried a Factory Reset, it would only be a small pain to re-download the apps, and I might lose some data such as game scores. My phone had not been rooted (didn't think I needed to), and I went ahead with the Reset. Afterward I rooted the phone, made a backup of the freshly re-installed OS, and installed Cyanogenmod,
Skip forward to today. I took a few photos and while I was viewing them in the gallery, I noticed that none of my pre-Reset photos were there. Now I am at home and notice that my earlier photos are nowhere to be found. I always assumed they were being stored safely in the SD card and not in the Internal storage. However, I have just finished searching the SD card, the current Internal storage, and the post-Reset backup files. I am sadly realizing that the photos must have been previously stored on the phone's Internal memory (STUPID, HTC!!!) and are now lost forever. Is there any chance they may still be hiding out in an area I haven't though of, or is there any way to run diagnostic-type tools on the internal memory to try and recover the bits of lost photos? Most of them weren't all that important, but I would be so sad to lose many of them. Any help would be appreciated.
If they were on the SD Card and somehow got deleted you can try RecoverMyFiles to see if it will recover them.
Code:
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/
Have used it many times in the past with great results.
Yep. I've used similar software to recover files from an SD card. But I'm fairly certain now that the files were being stored internally. I know this may be a lost cause, but I'm really hoping someone has figured out a solution.
salviati said:
Yep. I've used similar software to recover files from an SD card. But I'm fairly certain now that the files were being stored internally. I know this may be a lost cause, but I'm really hoping someone has figured out a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you changed the setting to store internally then no. By default it saves them to the SD. It is a known issue in just about every rom including stock that this happens one in a million times. Odds are you won't be able to recover. All I can say is to back them up on a PC regularly from now on. Doubt you will ever see that problem again, but you can never be too safe. I lost some great photos I took on my original Droid.

Apps on SD disappeared???

Hi everyone,
In panic mode right now...
I downloaded an app that helps you find all your apps that can be moved to the sd card. So it found 150 or so. After an hour of manually moving each one, I had over 400mb of free internal space and only like 40 apps left on the main phone storage. Awesome... but then this morning I noticed that things were running real slow... so I rebooted my phone. When it came back up I noticed some of my home screen shortcuts had become generic android icons. I went to my launcher & lots of apps were missing. I have a LOT of apps so I can't quite confirm yet whether its all the apps I moved to sd but it seems that way.
When I go to the market I see apps that I had yesterday as not installed. I have astro but I'm not quite sure what folder to look in to see if the apps are all still there, just not being seen by the android system maybe?
I've been driving all morning so I haven't gotten to research this much yet. Just rebooted a couple times hoping to fix it but no luck yet.
Any help is majorly appreciated. As soon as I'm at a computer ill be working on this all day. Freakin disaster!
Dave
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
update to my question
so now that i'm in to work i can mess with this... quick update...
when i go to manage applications and go to "on SD card" i get a big list of apps that have the names like "cn.miren.browser" instead of Miren Browser and "com.alphonso.pulse" instead of Pulse which is kinda normal except usually they then refresh with the regular name and the size listed underneath. well it's been sitting here for 5 minutes now and hasn't change and it still says "Computing..." under each one and instead of the normal icons, its sort of a grayed out generic Android icon with an SD in the bottom right corner of the icon.
so clearly it still knows that these apps are there. it just maybe can't access them? i dont know. could it be the sd card? this is the original 8gb sd card that came with the g2...
any thoughts?
???
so i found out that the sd card had some errors in the file system. so i let windows fix the errors. no help (although my phone boots WAAAAAYYYYYY faster now).
so then i found that i have an extra 8gb microsd laying around (which also happened to be a better, class 6 one too). so i cleared it off and copied over alllll the files to it. booted up. STILL NO GO.
anyone have any ideas here? i'm really running out of ideas here.
when i boot, everything runs great, but all my apps that are installed to sd are gone. also it never says "preparing sd card" in the status bar when booting. then if i go to manage applications it never finishes "computing" the size of apps. if i go to "on sd" it shows all my apps, but says computing, and i can't access them, uninstall them, move them, etc. i'm totally out of ideas here and i really don't want to have to do a system restore.
anyone?
think im having the same problem . has ur market gone too?
fix?
ok so i ended up getting mine fixed using these steps that someone from a company that makes an apps2sd app sent me... the only difference i had to do was since my phone also wouldn't recognize my pc, i had to pop the sd card into my pc directly to delete the .android_secure folder... i don't want to mess up your phone or anything so make sure to read around a bit more before trying this, but this is what worked for me. after i started adding all my apps back one by one i've been fine ever since.:
"I guess the problem is ".android_secure" is not recognized by Android.
Would you try the following steps (I am not sure if it works)?
1. mount phone with PC
2. backup all files under .android_secure
3. delete .android_secure directory
4. unmount
5. try to move an app (any app) to SD card (it forces Android to
create .android_secure on SD)
6. mount phone with PC
7. restore all backuped .android_secure/* files to .android_secure
8. unmount => check if it recognized the apps that you moved to the SD card"

[Q] Lost photo's on FrostyJB_4.1.1-v6

I am running FrostyJB_4.1.1-v6 on my Tmobile SGS3 and from one day to the next all my photo's in the Camera folder are gone. I didn't delete them and nobody has access to my phone. Any idea what happen or how I can get my photo's back?
Thanks!
You have to get recovery software. I've had it happen to me once too on an earlier version of that ROM. It overwrote my dcim folder on my SD card.
Thanks psykhotic, I will try that when I get home. I will do the research but am assuming this software will be ran from my PC. This has me really stressed out, I hope am able to revoer the files.
As long as you dont write anything new to the card, you should be able to get at least some of your data back. Ive heard of people generally having good luck restoring deleted files from flash media.
No idea why it wouldve done that in the first place though. Id re-download and reflash the rom though.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
So far I have tried one app called Undelete (for root users) and it found some video files that I deleted a few days ago but it didn’t find any images from the external/DCIM/Camera folder.
As far as re-writing I accidently did, I didn't notice the pictures were gone until this morning when I snapped a few and notice those new pictures were the only ones in the director/gallery. I haven’t done anything since then.
I been using the ROM for about 4 days and I had taken lots of pics since then and I had ported the old ones before the new ROM. I can re-flash it but am starting to think my SD card might be going bad. The only thing I have changed was upgrading to a new SD, the new SD has given me a failure once saying the card had been ejected (it wasn’t) I had to open my phone and re-insert. But it only gave me the error once. Then again what are the odds that one folder is being affected by the SD card...
Thanks for your replies.
Yea run it from the PC. I had to remove the SD card and plug it into my desktop. It took awhile to do a FULL scan but I got everything back.
It's running on my PC now and I can see it's working!!!!!!
TestDisk is amazing and seems to be finding a lot more that I imagined.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
Thank you guys so much for your help

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