Develop Bugs

[Q] Internal mem. FULL app data files to SD card?

Ok, so I understand the whole 2GB's System Storage & 11.something Internal Storage that somehow make up 16GB right?
I bought a 32 GB micro SD card that is virtualy not even being used by the phone. I have enough space on the 2gb portion for all of my apps, my problem is that whenever I download an app like GTA3, Six Guns, or Modern Warfare it saves all the date files on the 11gb Internal instead of the 32GB micro SD.
This is so dumb, I have already filled the 11gb's with so much app data and I wanted to know if there is a workaround or something, maby disable the 11GB's Internal storage so that I can have 32gbs for all the data dump. Anybody had this problem???

Its very annoying right, I cant get link2sd to work either because of the way this s2 is partitioned. Depending on what ROM or version Android your running you might be able to unmount internal sd in storage options, or maybe try the data bind method thats somewhere in these forums.
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bump...also interested in a solution for this.

Me too
Lurking from my e4gt using Tapatalk 2

Yes. It is very annoying I know how you feel.

Unable to move any apps to new SanDisk 64gb class 10 sdcard

I purchased new 64 GB SanDisk class 10 sdcard and inserted in my phone. My phone however will not move any apps to the card and none of the apps I have are able to move its data to the new card.
It seems that Samsung used an internal storage as "sdcard" and the true sdcard is called an "external sdcard" that most applications does not have access to / or is programmed accordingly. Which essentially renders the card useless.
Have anyone came across this problem?
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Yup, same problem here. Hopefully someone will find a way of working around that soon.
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Yup you said it, samsung made a stupid desicion wit that
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

keinam.ty said:
I purchased new 64 GB SanDisk class 10 sdcard and inserted in my phone. My phone however will not move any apps to the card and none of the apps I have are able to move its data to the new card.
It seems that Samsung used an internal storage as "sdcard" and the true sdcard is called an "external sdcard" that most applications does not have access to / or is programmed accordingly. Which essentially renders the card useless.
Have anyone came across this problem?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a thread that goes into great detail on this problem in the international gs3 section. It's actually Google who's coding this in now, but alot of manufacturers are using a workaround, but not samsung. The card is pretty much good for music, movies, and any large downloads you may want to transfer there. To my knowledge Cyanogenmod & possibly AOKP still work the way it should, but touchwiz based roms will not. There is an app somewhere on XDA that will allow you to store large data files for games to the sd, but again, I believe it's in the i9300 forum. I hope this will help you some.
Edit: check out xda tv on YouTube, and there's a recent video from the new girl Erica where she covers some type of work around for the gs3 I think?

Thanks, that almost sounds like it's better to root? Touch Wiz isn't that bad but I am not a fan of it. Samsung was nice to let us disable all bloatware but making the sd card useless is really idiotic. I almost want to say what's the point of the scared then?
I'll do ssome more research on this thanks.
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If the app has separate data downloads try this for me, move the data to the external sd card, delete data and app from the internal sd card. redownload app and see if it recognizes the data on the external card. I mad copies as back up of a few big meg data downloads on the external card. I did an odin recovery, when I downloaded the apps again they found the data on their own on the external card.

stevessvt said:
If the app has separate data downloads try this for me, move the data to the external sd card, delete data and app from the internal sd card. redownload app and see if it recognizes the data on the external card. I mad copies as back up of a few big meg data downloads on the external card. I did an odin recovery, when I downloaded the apps again they found the data on their own on the external card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An interesting thought, I can definitively move data to external card – I’ll try this tonight and report back. Thought even if this works it still isn’t a solution.
For example;
1. Many backup applications hardcode the SDCard’s location which in this case it always will be internal memory
2. Navigation data gets downloaded into internal memory
3. Google music gets downloaded into internal memory, I could not find any option to move it – its simply unavailable.
4. I don’t have to move all apps to the external card, but the few games/apps stored in the external card sounds like a good idea sine those are not essential for me (especially the once with lots of storage requirements).
5. Any podcasts / videos also won’t go to the external storage
6. Some applications lets you backup their settings like preferences RSS lists etc – all those also go to internal memory.
In my opinion the following must happen:
1. “All developers” must update their applications to accommodate for S3’s changed card location
2. Google must update its code and allow apps / data move to external card.
I’ll call t-mobile to see whatever they have to say about this.

I spoke to t-mobile and was told I can return the phone if I don't like it. Essentially the SD card is “useless” and according to T-Mobile’s rep only works with pictures and videos – the phone is sold as is. Apparently they know nothing about this and never heard of any plans for a fix.
They also gave me phone number to Samsung’s support which I’ll call tonight and report back.
I wonder how that works after the phone is rooted with custom ROM. Has anyone tried this? Please let me know if you did….

If your going to return it, simply use Odin to go back to factory fresh stock.

I think this is a push for more of us to use cloud storage which is cool but I like using physical sd card for storage..
I'm having to make do with my 16gb internal as games get bigger and eat up storage. My 64gb is almost useless if I had known this I would have gotten like a 32gb card and saved some cash.
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But don't return this phone. It's still legendary!
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I agree, this phone is FAN-FUKING-TRAGIC.. Best phone by far. Ummm, how do we use the cloud to store stuff though? And could we use it to move apps and free up space? Sorry if my questions are dumb to some, just not sure what the cloud is
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Did you try doing what I said?

The cloud is pretty much a usb stick u don't have to carry around with you. You can't store installed apps there but you can store anything else on it like apks to install later music, docs. Pretty much anything you would store on a usb.
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@ stevessvt Yes I have but it did not work - I am pretty sure I screwed something up 
I don’t think I will be returning this phone, there isn’t anything better on T-Mobile unfortunately and S3 has better specs then Latest Nexus. Now I think I will research about S3 rooting and whether it makes sense to root this phone and put custom ROM on it.
Thanks everyone!

This isn't Samsungs doing, it's how Google has made android from ics on. Other manufacturers that make their phones able to install apps on your external sd are using a workaround by modifying the code, but I've read that it's really not ideal? If your using titanium backup to keep your apps backed up then you need to run a backup. Then go into your internal sd & move the TB folder to your external sd. Go back into titanium backup & select preferences from the settings menu. There select backup folder location & hit the Detect button. Now your backups should go to external storage.
You can also go under settings in the stock Web browser & change your download location to external so that large roms download to external sd. If your using the new version of twrp for the Tmo gs3 that they released today, then you can check the box under backup that says backup to external. That will also save room on your internal storage.
Personally I prefer all of my apps on internal. They open faster & write data much faster to internal then to an sd card. I really only use my sd card for holding movies, backups, & large file downloads. As I stated in my previous post, AOKP & Cyanogenmod still can install apps to sd if that's what you prefer. I honestly think we should be able to choose for ourselves, but unfortunately I don't make the rules. If you look in the international section I read a thread somewhere that had an app that will let you store the large data files from games on your external storage. That's the only apps that really take up a significant amount of space. Music can take up a lot of space, but with Google play music keeping 20gb of music in the cloud for you, that shouldn't be much of an issue to those of us who are in good coverage areas. I hope this helped some of you to maximize your storage space.

Just a friendly advice...T-Mobile is the last place you want to go for any answers. The people who work there (most, not all) are complete stupid over the top freakin' idiots. They know nothing and often times just search their data base or google something for answers. Most 99.9% do not have any first hand knowledge of anything about phones. They just know the same $#!t you can read off the box....
Complete idiots..
Anyhow, just hang tight as I'm sure there will be work around this in the very near future. It's not a big deal at all.... just do what fellow member: stevessvt said...it works....
Good luck!
keinam.ty said:
I spoke to t-mobile and was told I can return the phone if I don't like it. Essentially the SD card is “useless” and according to T-Mobile’s rep only works with pictures and videos – the phone is sold as is. Apparently they know nothing about this and never heard of any plans for a fix.
They also gave me phone number to Samsung’s support which I’ll call tonight and report back.
I wonder how that works after the phone is rooted with custom ROM. Has anyone tried this? Please let me know if you did….
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I don't see how you can fill 16gb with just applications anytime soon
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es7241 said:
I don't see how you can fill 16gb with just applications anytime soon
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Games and some utilities apps, my iPhone was 32 gb after 6 months I had 3 gb left and only 1gb of music
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Let me first off apologize for getting a lil off topic with this question, however, I Just got the SGS3 (which by the way is the GREATEST PHONE EVER MADE!!! If God or Allah or Buda or whatever higher up, power that be owned a phone... It would be this one. LOL) OK, back on track now. So I'm coming from an HTC phone and I have a TON of bookmarks stored on my browser that I want to transfer over to my new phone. My question is, where can I find my browsers bookmarks using file explorer so that I can zip it up in a file to send to my phones browser? Or is there a better, easier way to do this??
Please help
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add SD to INTERNAL space possible?

ok. Here's the deal. I'd try to do this myself but I have next to no android knowledge other than how to use the things. I was going to get a 64gb card and do the ext sd swap trick I've seen on here BUT... half my hours were cut at work and I can no longer afford to get a 64gb card. I do have a 16gb in the phone now. I was hoping a way to make the phone think that 16 was part of the internal storage so I could extend the internal storage to the sd card. Does that make sense? Is this possible at all? Could anyone make it possible? If I added up the internal with my 16 that'd be 32gb which would be a nice size. I have apps in the app store that I can't install right now because of the limited 16gb (11 usable) space on my phone. I would really appreciate any help you guys could offer me in making my 16gb card work for apps along with my internal storage. Thanks so much!

Wrong section bro :/
Next time ask in Q&A section.
As for your question, as far as I know, that isn't possible. You can either use the internal or swap and use the sd card. You cannot merge both together, though.
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This does not belong in development section...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27807857
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1849860
Sent from my Slim Beaned d2spr

dcninja said:
ok. Here's the deal. I'd try to do this myself but I have next to no android knowledge other than how to use the things. I was going to get a 64gb card and do the ext sd swap trick I've seen on here BUT... half my hours were cut at work and I can no longer afford to get a 64gb card. I do have a 16gb in the phone now. I was hoping a way to make the phone think that 16 was part of the internal storage so I could extend the internal storage to the sd card. Does that make sense? Is this possible at all? Could anyone make it possible? If I added up the internal with my 16 that'd be 32gb which would be a nice size. I have apps in the app store that I can't install right now because of the limited 16gb (11 usable) space on my phone. I would really appreciate any help you guys could offer me in making my 16gb card work for apps along with my internal storage. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you're 'asking' would be to physically the hard memory of the nand chip - its not going to happen,
Best thing you could do is install what apps you could, then use something like titanium backup and batch move other apps to the sd card. Don't move widgets or any app you use as a widget to the sd card, or you lose widget functionality.
Along with this should be posted in Q & A.

Please read forum rules before posting
Questions go in Q&A
Development is for developers only to post threads with releases
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yes yes it was posted in the wrong section, I'm sorry. It was moved to q and a so it's all good i guess...
as for my question, there's no way to join the two partitions together like you could hard drives on a computer?
if not... what is this app2sd about? If I used it would I still have my icons on the homescreens for all my apps or would it be some kind of fugly method of launching the apps on my sd card?
if I replaced my internal with my 16gb sd card would that give me a little more space since android is installed on the 16gb that the phone comes with? Currently my phone says it has 11GB usable space on the storage section... soooo if I used my 16gb would that give me 16GB usable? That'd help with my memory a little bit...
and finally... if I made the 16gb my internal... would it be possible to copy movies and emulator roms to the main phone storage since i'm using sd for apps at that point, or does that just totally negate the internal storage for everything?
sorry to ask so many questions. thanks for the help in advance. sorry about posting in the wrong section.

dcninja said:
yes yes it was posted in the wrong section, I'm sorry. It was moved to q and a so it's all good i guess...
as for my question, there's no way to join the two partitions together like you could hard drives on a computer?
if not... what is this app2sd about? If I used it would I still have my icons on the homescreens for all my apps or would it be some kind of fugly method of launching the apps on my sd card?
if I replaced my internal with my 16gb sd card would that give me a little more space since android is installed on the 16gb that the phone comes with? Currently my phone says it has 11GB usable space on the storage section... soooo if I used my 16gb would that give me 16GB usable? That'd help with my memory a little bit...
and finally... if I made the 16gb my internal... would it be possible to copy movies and emulator roms to the main phone storage since i'm using sd for apps at that point, or does that just totally negate the internal storage for everything?
sorry to ask so many questions. thanks for the help in advance. sorry about posting in the wrong section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a really confusing question. Have you filled up your internal storage with apps? If so you can extend larger apps to install on the sd card and they'll run normally, unless the app involves a widget. You should never move apps that have widgets over to the sd.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

how do I install larger apps to the sd? Also, what would the point be of switching my sd to internal storage like that one mod floating around here if I can just use the internal and install apps to my sd as well?

dcninja said:
how do I install larger apps to the sd? Also, what would the point be of switching my sd to internal storage like that one mod floating around here if I can just use the internal and install apps to my sd as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search for an app on the market called App 2 SD. There doesn't seem to be a way to do it without a 3rd party app on this phone.
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MikeWjF said:
Search for an app on the market called App 2 SD. There doesn't seem to be a way to do it without a 3rd party app on this phone.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya i searched for app2sd in the marketplace and they don't work. i think there's only one floating around on the forum here that works with the s3 but i hear it's real clunky too where you don't have icons on your home screen you have to open app2sd and launch some stuff from there which is just weird i dunno. I might bite the bullet and grab a 32gb card and hope that's enough...

[Q] Is there anyway to put apps on your external SD???

Hello guys,
I was wondering if anyone has used app2sd or any others to convert your apps in your internal to external memory
when i tried using app2sd it will put it on my external yes but as soon as i run an application like a game it will re download it and put it onto my internal. Anyone else having this issue?
there is another solution:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2109112
This solution works to swap internal with external but for 64G SD cards people are having issues so I am re framing from doing this method.

don't bother with this; there is so much room in your internal memory, that its a waste of time and effort..you will never fill up your internal app space.
I have 300 apps installed, and still have almost 7 gigs free...

Hi try the rom toolbox from play store to install app on sd card.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using xda app-developers app

wase4711 said:
don't bother with this; there is so much room in your internal memory, that its a waste of time and effort..you will never fill up your internal app space.
I have 300 apps installed, and still have almost 7 gigs free...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not entirely true. Some people play various games which seemingly chew through storage space for all the media bits and pieces. Look through some of the directory bind threads for examples.
-----
I would love to help you, but help yourself first: ask a better question
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

spycedtx said:
That's not entirely true. Some people play various games which seemingly chew through storage space for all the media bits and pieces. Look through some of the directory bind threads for examples.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree. With my 16gb GN2 I find myself low on internal storage all the time. Yes you can install literally 100's of smaller apps but games such as NFS: Most Wanted, Nova 3, Spider Man and many others nearing 2 gigs each or more, it's hard to have more than a few games installed before having to un install just to try out a new game that you're interested in. If you find a good work-around let me know. I've found that App Mgr III doesn't work with our devices (and many others) and my ROM Toolbox Pro only gives you the option to install all apps to either your internal or external without the option to pick and choose which goes where on an app to app basis.
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I use Directory Bind myself with my 64bg card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
I like this program because you select which apps you want to move to the sd card. It takes more work to use but once you get it setup it works flawlessly so far. I have like 25gb of games installed on my phone
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Exactly what I need! Looks very promising. Plan on giving it a try tonight or tomorrow. Thanks
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jev3gs said:
I use Directory Bind myself with my 64bg card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
I like this program because you select which apps you want to move to the sd card. It takes more work to use but once you get it setup it works flawlessly so far. I have like 25gb of games installed on my phone
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you need to select each app separately then? Is there no way to do a batch select at all?
I'll read up on it more.

There is no way to do a batch selection. If you wanted you could select the folder before the game and that would be like doing it via a batch selection.
For example:
Let's say Shadowgun was saved in Android/Data/com.shadowgun/ (again this is not the exact location)
Instead of binding that location you could bind Android/Data/ instead. If you do that you will capture EVERYTHING in that directory now and anything that gets installed there in the future.
The downside of doing it that way is if an app wants to install into that location it will always force it to the sd card which is slower than internal memory. So Games like Asphalt 7 and Nova 3 take longer to load on sd card. So that is why I did one directory (game) at a time so I can choose which games are on the sd while others are on the internal. All games worked though via directory bind that I have tried.
Hope that helps.
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jev3gs said:
There is no way to do a batch selection. If you wanted you could select the folder before the game and that would be like doing it via a batch selection.
For example:
Let's say Shadowgun was saved in Android/Data/com.shadowgun/ (again this is not the exact location)
Instead of binding that location you could bind Android/Data/ instead. If you do that you will capture EVERYTHING in that directory now and anything that gets installed there in the future.
The downside of doing it that way is if an app wants to install into that location it will always force it to the sd card which is slower than internal memory. So Games like Asphalt 7 and Nova 3 take longer to load on sd card. So that is why I did one directory (game) at a time so I can choose which games are on the sd while others are on the internal. All games worked though via directory bind that I have tried.
Hope that helps.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, so perhaps this method is not the best scenario for me as I am looking to have all my Apps and data plus music, videos etc out of internal storage on to sd card. Using this method if you update an app I assume it would go to internal and you would need t do the process for that app over again?
I guess I am wanting a seamless way of just swapping internal-external. The script I am using seems to work very well but I am concerned when I go to a 64GB card. I'll keep watching the posts in the _ext2sdcardnote2internal thread.

dsmturbo said:
Thanks, so perhaps this method is not the best scenario for me as I am looking to have all my Apps and data plus music, videos etc out of internal storage on to sd card. Using this method if you update an app I assume it would go to internal and you would need t do the process for that app over again?
I guess I am wanting a seamless way of just swapping internal-external. The script I am using seems to work very well but I am concerned when I go to a 64GB card. I'll keep watching the posts in the _ext2sdcardnote2internal thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually when you do app updates it updates the info on the extsdcard and not internal.
So what happens is the software tricks the Os into thinking the data is on the internal card when it really is on the ext card. So everything happens automatically. You do not need to move the info every time there is an update.
I would suggest doing a small app and playing with it before you jump in all the way. Use Deadtrigger for an example, it won't take to long to transfer the data.
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jev3gs said:
Actually when you do app updates it updates the info on the extsdcard and not internal.
So what happens is the software tricks the Os into thinking the data is on the internal card when it really is on the ext card. So everything happens automatically. You do not need to move the info every time there is an update.
I would suggest doing a small app and playing with it before you jump in all the way. Use Deadtrigger for an example, it won't take to long to transfer the data.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again. I am keeping an eye on the extsdcard2internalsdnote2 thread as well re: 64GB cards. The App2SDnote2 script I am using works well with 32gb card but unsure about 64gb card.

Possible photo recovery? Deleted via ES File Explorer

This is more of a general Android question rather than a Galaxy S4 question but hopefully somebody has knowledge about it on this board. Basically I had some old, nostalgic pictures that were saved to my external SD card first, and then moved to my internal memory into a special folder via ES File Explorer and I ended up deleting them because I thought I wouldn't need them anymore. I deleted them from my internal memory via ES File Explorer. Mind you, I HAVE done several wipes of internal storage from installing ROM's and whatnot so I honestly think it's beyond unrecoverable.
Do you think there are copies of the pictures saved on my external SD card that a super highpowered recovery program would find since the pictures were put on there first and then moved? Or am I really **** out of luck? I don't know how data recovery works from media storage but I thought maybe these could be recovered.
I have tried using DiskDigger made specifically for Android and scanning internal memory and it did turn up some old pictures but not the ones I was hoping for. Wondering if there's some other method maybe?

I have to look in my tech dvds for a applications that I use.
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KRAZYADROIDMASTER said:
I have to look in my tech dvds for a applications that I use.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's too time consuming you don't have to.
If they're gone, it's fine. I still have them visualized in my mind . Just sucks I deleted them without thinking twice.

Try recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva
If nothing else has been written over the files, they will still be recoverable, as deleting a file only marks the space as usable. If anything has written over that space, however, you are unfortunately SoL. There are higher end recovery software suites that will help recovery partial files and whatnot, but recuva is super easy to use and is free, so I would start there.

brian117 said:
I have tried using DiskDigger made specifically for Android and scanning internal memory and it did turn up some old pictures but not the ones I was hoping for. Wondering if there's some other method maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you scanned the right location? Depending on the camera app and its settings they can be stored on both the internal and external sd card. I'ved used DiskDigger numerous times and it found very old images.
By chance, would this be a 64gb microsd?

braschlosan said:
Are you sure you scanned the right location? Depending on the camera app and its settings they can be stored on both the internal and external sd card. I'ved used DiskDigger numerous times and it found very old images.
By chance, would this be a 64gb microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it's a 32GB. I scanned data for internal and scanned my external card yes. Strange thing is it would display the pictures I already have saved and would make the list really long so going through it was a pain. I'll try it again tonight but I doubt it will work.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

brian117 said:
No it's a 32GB. I scanned data for internal and scanned my external card yes. Strange thing is it would display the pictures I already have saved and would make the list really long so going through it was a pain. I'll try it again tonight but I doubt it will work.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I asked about the card size because I got burnt with a fake 64gb card. Once it was about 6gb full images would start to corrupt or vanish and I couldnt recover them.

braschlosan said:
I asked about the card size because I got burnt with a fake 64gb card. Once it was about 6gb full images would start to corrupt or vanish and I couldnt recover them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up. That has to suck though I'm sorry. You should have returned it right when you found out it was a fake.