Develop Bugs

SD Card keeps becoming unavailable

Has anyone else come across the problem where the micro SD card seems to just stop being available to the phone? I'd say maybe once or so a day, anything that reads data from the SD card, such as the music app, stop working. If I try and play a song, it just hangs and does nothing.
I tried a search and somebody in the G1 forum had a similar problem but it didn't really contain any conclusions on what it is likely to be.
Anyone else had this issue? What is it most likely to be, the phone or card?
Thanks.

yeah I've had this occasionally with the camerea and seperately the 3d gallery software I installed.. have no idea why

Yea I've had that a couple of times actually. Just have to turn it off and on again and its ok, but its annoying.

Yeah, rebooting does sort it out, but it's starting to happen every day now, sometimes a couple times a day. If it's just a dodgy card or whatever I'd rather get T-Mobile to sort it sooner rather than later.

hmm a dodgy card.. included with the phone, that sucks

Backup your SD Card data and then try formatting it to see if that helps.

Cheers, will give that a go tomorrow. I might ring up T-Mob tomorrow anyway just to make them aware of the issue I'm having.
If I format it, will I be able to copy all the contents back on to it?

aljwatson69 said:
Cheers, will give that a go tomorrow. I might ring up T-Mob tomorrow anyway just to make them aware of the issue I'm having.
If I format it, will I be able to copy all the contents back on to it?
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Click to collapse
Yes, back it up to hard drive on your PC, then after you have formatted your SD card, copy back the contents from the hard drive to your Removable disk (SD card).

I've had this a few times Took the card out, reinserted and restarted the phone. Seemed to fix it, but it is annoying.

Sorry I can't remember when and how I know this.
But backup the card on your PC
Then format it in/with the phone and this should solve the problem I believe

I had killed one of my 16 GB card in Nexus one.
I found a problem that if i use Win 7 or Vista i must remove the device by using safely remove the USB device. Since now am doing this way i never had any problem.
Word of warning you could simply kill a card if you just remove a device.

My first thought was it has something to do with the USB connection. If you safely remove device in Windows - the phone 'prepares' the SD card.

I was having the same issue. I connected to the PC and mounted the SD card. I performed a disk check on the card and it found some errors which it then repaired. I then unmounted the card
I haven't had any issues since.

I formatted my card yesterday and haven't had any problems so far. thanks for the advice.

I ended up replacing the card. All of the previous advice didn't work for me or if it did it didn't last. I reckon there was a bit of a dodgy batch supplied by SanDisk.
~Since replacing I've had absolutely no problems whatsoever, it used to happen at least every 48hours. Very annoying when you try to take a photo and it tells you there's nowhere to save it.

I've been having problems too when taking pictures, which is really annoying!
And i'm not sure whether this is a related problem or not, but it could be...when trying to receive a file over bluetooth it sometimes says it doesn't have permission to receive the file or something along those lines, could this be the SD card playing up?
I'm on T Mobile, would they replace the SD card?

Not sure if it is the same reason, but I had all kinds of problems including the one you've described.
I'm on Orange, they told me that my SD card wasn't covered by Orange Care (the orange phone insurance). I said I didn't have Orange Care anyway and that surely it comes under the 12 months manufacturers warranty. They said pop it into the shop which is a bit of a drive and would cost me more than the value of a new card to get there.
At the time I wasn't certain it was the card as I didn't have a 2nd to try it with. Given my problem was very intermittent I decided the bother of going into the shop - it wasn't worth it for a £5 card. Now that I've bought a new one that works perfectly, I'm going to head into the shop with the old one next time I'm passing. The problem is I don't really need it replacing now! You could always lie and tell them you've tried your friends card at home for a couple of days and it worked perfectly?! No harm in trying.

hassan said:
I had killed one of my 16 GB card in Nexus one.
I found a problem that if i use Win 7 or Vista i must remove the device by using safely remove the USB device. Since now am doing this way i never had any problem.
Word of warning you could simply kill a card if you just remove a device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhh - maybe I've had luck, but I use my over 1 year old 8gb cl6 card from magic/mt3g and never use that win function while unpluging anything (not while data transfer). So maybe depends on quality or manufacturer?
Sent from my HTC Desire

2-3 weeks since I've formatted my card and now I'm carefully unpluging my phone only when it's charging it hasn't happened ever since
Zilch said:
I've had this a few times Took the card out, reinserted and restarted the phone. Seemed to fix it, but it is annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to say it, but it will happen again. Have card reader or other phone prepared, just in case your sd card stops working totally

[Q] Phone freezes when trying to access photos on ext. SD Card

I have 812 pictures in my Camera album on my external Toshiba 32GB Class 10 SD card. When I first got the phone in December, everything worked great, even after transferring from my EVO 3D. Now, whenever I try to access my stuff on my SD card through the Gallery app, it just freezes. I can hit home and exit the app, but back doesn't work and I cannot scroll anywhere. I can still access pictures via ASTRO and save stuff on to it..I just don't anymore, in case it goes corrupt. Any solutions? I tried searching, but no one seems to have the same problem as me..

Lol. Sounds like a simple cache issue with the gallery. Go to settings, application manager, all apps, find gallery, try clearing cache, and if that doesn't solve the problem, delete data. This will not delete your images. I think it may or may not delete your thumbnails. Just scroll over the images again and a thumbnail is remade. Nothing will harm your photos.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

kkarson said:
I have 812 pictures in my Camera album on my external Toshiba 32GB Class 10 SD card. When I first got the phone in December, everything worked great, even after transferring from my EVO 3D. Now, whenever I try to access my stuff on my SD card through the Gallery app, it just freezes. I can hit home and exit the app, but back doesn't work and I cannot scroll anywhere. I can still access pictures via ASTRO and save stuff on to it..I just don't anymore, in case it goes corrupt. Any solutions? I tried searching, but no one seems to have the same problem as me..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm... I would normally say that the 800+ images in one gallery might be the cause of the problem. But you say that it was working fine previously. Even then, I'd recommend to split the images into different folders (maybe based on month they were taken) to minimize the amount of thumbnails that gallery has to process and look through.
I'm assuming you've done the MA6 and MB1 updates. Perhaps upgrading the phone to 4.1.2 caused this? I haven't heard of anything similar on XDA, but I'd stick with kkarson's approach and clear cache from the gallery app. Hope that works for ya!

Already tried clearing the cache and data from the Application Manager, but still the same results. I have a folder of old camera photos from my EVO 3D with 1780 photos in it, and it opens and I can view the photos perfectly fine, with no lag or freezing. But when I open the "Camera" folder on the ext. SD card, it just freezes and I have to go back to the home screen. I just upgraded to MB1 today and still the same results..
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

Maybe there's corrupted files on the SD card causing the phone to choke when it tries to read them. If you have windows 7 or XP you can put the card in your pc, (with a card reader or usb card reader), then right click on the card and choose properties. Select the tools tab in the properties box. The first option is error checking which will scan the disk and fix errors (if fix errors is checked). However, if there are corrupted files on the SD card it might be going bad and should be reformatted.

I have the same issue. I havent found a fix. I even formatted my external SD card.. didnt help.

MadFlava said:
I have the same issue. I havent found a fix. I even formatted my external SD card.. didnt help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No fix. Your Sd card is done. The fix is get a new one.
Also the op likely has Sd card problems and not a phone problem.

EzDuzit said:
No fix. Your Sd card is done. The fix is get a new one.
Also the op likely has Sd card problems and not a phone problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The card isnt that old and isnt giving any read/write errors.
I guess that could be the case.. its a class 10 Sandisk card.. I would think it would last more than a couple of months.

MadFlava said:
The card isnt that old and isnt giving any read/write errors.
I guess that could be the case.. its a class 10 Sandisk card.. I would think it would last more than a couple of months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you benchmarked your read/write speeds to your external sd?

MadFlava said:
The card isnt that old and isnt giving any read/write errors.
I guess that could be the case.. its a class 10 Sandisk card.. I would think it would last more than a couple of months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at a Sandisk 32GB class 10 ultra card that I got right after xmas so it's only 3 mopnths old. It started spitting out corrupt files after only 1 month. Eventually I'll get another card. But if my phone ever random restarts, or suddenly locks up, or I notice media is using a lot of battery, I know if I run scan disk on the card it will show errors. It lasts for a few weeks between formats.
There are also tons of posts from people that have had sd card failures on this phone (also with new cards).
Scan of my card after phone acted up.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I bought a new class 10 PNY card today. Once I get some pictures on it, I guess we'll see if that was the issue.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

MadFlava said:
I bought a new class 10 PNY card today. Once I get some pictures on it, I guess we'll see if that was the issue.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont worry you're not alone, theres a thread in general that had a ton of posts and the thread title was "If your sdcard failed on you, what recovery were you on?"
Many have had to purchase 2 or 3 cards until they got one that didnt go bad or corrupted. If you got the sdcard (the one that failed) very recently, you could call the manufacturer and tell them it failed on you, I'm sure they would send a replacement because I've seen others do it and they got their replacements in a timely manner

CNexus said:
Dont worry you're not alone, theres a thread in general that had a ton of posts and the thread title was "If your sdcard failed on you, what recovery were you on?"
Many have had to purchase 2 or 3 cards until they got one that didnt go bad or corrupted. If you got the sdcard (the one that failed) very recently, you could call the manufacturer and tell them it failed on you, I'm sure they would send a replacement because I've seen others do it and they got their replacements in a timely manner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the new card doesnt work any faster than the old card. At this point, Im thinking its not the card.

I guess I'm just gonna have to get a new card....this one is only 6 months old!!
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

My Verbatim class 10 16gb sd card works just fine on my SGS2 and computer but it freezes like hell the SGS4. i want it in my SGS4 ...any advice please..i formatted and still the same

kremori said:
My Verbatim class 10 16gb sd card works just fine on my SGS2 and computer but it freezes like hell the SGS4. i want it in my SGS4 ...any advice please..i formatted and still the same
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't the section for the S4.

Camera images never saved, disappeared from gallery.

To make a long story short, I took some irreplaceable pictures today that disappeared.
I have my camera saving to my 64gb memory card. I took a few pictures and a couple of panoramas and they ended up showing up glitchy and useless.
They didn't appear in the gallery with the exception of a few images.
It looked odd.
I rebooted the phone and tried to go into the gallery and they just weren't there. The previews showed up momentarily and then they vanished.
Now when I try to take a photo to go to my external memory, it works fine. It didn't pre-reboot.
Is there a method of:
A: Recovering my lost 10-15 images.
B: Ensuring that this doesn't happen in the future.
For the record, my card seems to be working fine. Music on it loads up quickly as well as any other images that I loaded onto it. Files open and there is zero lag. I don't suspect that the card is corrupted or anything.
Thanks guys.

silentecho13 said:
Is there a method of:
A: Recovering my lost 10-15 images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try something like Recuva: https://www.piriform.com/recuva
I successfully used that to restore files deleted from microSD cards a few years back.

johnus said:
You could try something like Recuva: https://www.piriform.com/recuva
I successfully used that to restore files deleted from microSD cards a few years back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I'm unfortunately on a Mac. Guess I'll boot into boot camp and install it and give it a go.
I hope the pictures actually existed as files though and not some cached object.

Update:
Overnight, the saving issue arose again. I'm forced to use internal storage when using my camera.

I've seen this problem before. So SD cards don't work well with Samsung devices. I bought a Samsung SD card and never seem this problem again. I recommend you do the same.

b0Ne83 said:
I've seen this problem before. So SD cards don't work well with Samsung devices. I bought a Samsung SD card and never seem this problem again. I recommend you do the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I wasn't broke :/
I'm using a SanDisk 64gb. Guess I've gotta dig up some cash and get a Samsung.
I don't see how this is an issue though.
What is your card formatted in? My current is in exfat. I'm thinking the format may be an issue.

It may be a kitkat issue. Google "kitkat SD card write". Root users are using a fix that sets permissions so the sd card can be written to by all apps as expected.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app

Dumbo53 said:
It may be a kitkat issue. Google "kitkat SD card write". Root users are using a fix that sets permissions so the sd card can be written to by all apps as expected.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right before I came across your post, I found some info on the kitkat issue with sd cards. I'm guessing that's what's causing this problem. Odd because it's the default Samsung camera that's messing up.
Oh, how I miss root. I just hope we get root soon. I'm pretty close to selling this phone and hopping on Tmobile.

I had this problem happen with very VERY irreplaceable pictures, on my backpacking trip to china, one of the most irreplaceable pictures of my entire life was taken, appeared glitchy in gallery, phone reset and it was gone.
after taking out the SD card, and doing many deep scans to try and recover the deleted pictures, it seems the pictures arent there, which leads me to believe it somehow tried to save it in internal memory (which cant be mounted as a drive, so cannot be recovered).
if you can somehow flash an older version of android (like 2.xx) you can mount your phone as a drive, and then attempt to recover deleted data from your internal SD..
yeah all i can say is ,,|,, you samsung.

I too have the same problems as the OP. And I am on SAMSUNG micro SD card! Guess it is one of those first batch gremlins?
However, I think the problem has gone away after I switch on the image "preview" option. Give it a try.

I had the same issue with a 64gGB SanDisk micro SD card. The camera would seem as if it was taking pictures but nothing was actually saved; they just shows as corrupted files in the gallery. I lost countless irreplaceable images from our honeymoon because of this. Once I switched to a 32GB Samsung micro SD card I never had the issue again, also saving the pictures directly to the internal memory solved the problem. I use the SD card for music as well so it has to be something with the phone writing to the SD card. From what I've read it's a issue with the compatability with samsung and non samsung sd cards for some reason.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app

Never had this issue with any of my Samsung phones (S2, S4, and now the Note 4). I'm using a SanDisk Class 10 32GB. I'd recommend pulling the files off the SD and doing a format. Download the App SD Maid as well for routine maintenance on your SD. Good luck.

My 64GB SanDisk SD card was giving unexpected unmounted errors, so I picked up a Samsung 64GB SD card. The unexpected unmount errors went away, but now I have this problem. Pictures are not saving to the SD card correctly. Sometimes it says media not found. Others the preview/thumbnail looks fine but the full view is just grey.
I am going to try saving to internal memory and manually moving to the SD card as I run out of room.
Sent from my iPad air using Tapatalk

Second time having issues with 64gb sdcard

Hi all,
I am getting very worried with this LG g4.
Last December I had a big issue where I was taking pictures and saving in my sd card, and when the card got a bit full(not totally) all photos taken from a certain point in time were corrupted (normal size but no thumbnail and I could not open them anywhere), as conclusion, could copy existing, could not delete with external software, or in any other day.
End up complaining to amazon and they have sent me a new 64sd card, this time from Samsung.
So far so good, until yesterday where I took some pics and realised the last ones were not appearing as thumbnails. My thought: the same issue again. Decided to restart phone...
Error no sd card can be mounted, it is corrupted!!
Restarted again, tried on another phone, still corrupted. I cant open or see any data from it. It says I have to format?
I don't know if I will lose all my data, and I am thinking about presenting a formal complaint to LG. It must be the phone!??
Anyone with the same issue?
Thanks Tiago

It might be your phone or just a couple bad SD cards. I had an issue with the SD card they provided with the promotion, but it was a different issue. There was no data loss. It just prevented writing to the SD or deleting. I had no problem copying files off the card. Since my 1st SD card, I bought a SanDisk Extreme 64GB. It has worked flawlessly for months.

SD card not read by apps in some cases..

Hey guys -
An issue I've been having since I jumped up to CM13, was wondering if anyone could point me at things to check.
Searching, doesn't look like others have had this issue, so..
I'll also note that it's *possible* this issue existed in Viper (before CM13 was finally useable), but that was a while back, and I can't remember clearly.
In either case, some apps can't seem to read the SD card.
Examples - The built-in Gallery. No matter where I have the camera app save pics (Internal or SD), the Gallery won't report any images being found.
Another example is my live wallpaper, which pans and changes backgrounds. In it's settings, I can easily select the directory on the SD card that has the images, but when it starts, it can't display any of the files, reporting that the directory could not be read.
The card is 32Gb, and the issue continued after backing everything up, and re-formating card in phone. (And then copying everything back over.)
So was wondering what else I should take a look at. (Permissions, etc?)
Cheers -
Mike

Faulty sd card for what so ever reason...
Sent from quite brutal hTc 10 ..

Tried a different card this morning - formatted it in-phone, and copied over docs from old SD card (using PC as intermediary), same thing. Wondering if it's some permission thing or something on a folder/mount point.
Apparently I'm the only one having the issue, though, so maybe it's something I've done to my phone. Grr.