Database Info

[Q] My phone identifies the SD card and data on it, but few things are accessible

Alright, first let me start by saying that I hope this is in the right area and i'm sorry because i'm sure this question has been asked to death.
I have a Galaxy S 3 Running stock with android 4.0.4 (Not rooted)
I also have a SanDisk Ultra 64GB SDXC class 10 MicroSD card (Formatted to FAT32)
I have had the phone a month and for probably the first week I was using the card in the ExFAT file format...Then random card identification problems started to pop up. So I scoured the web for a short time and found that the issue could be solved by reformatting the MicroSD to FAT32 at the expense of not being able to have single files larger than 4GB. Everything worked for a good week, then suddenly the phone didnt know I had music on it anymore, my player stopped and i confusedly navigated through songs that weren't there. I removed the card and reinserted and the files worked again.
Well today the phone is doing the same weirdness again, it is identifying that there is in fact a 64GB MicroSD and the amount of data is correct. It is also allowing me to navigate to the files in ASTRO, even my PC still detects and allows me to Add/Delete files from the MicroSD...BUT my phone will NOT use it. For example, if I go to camera and want to take a picture with the destination being the MicroSD, the phone says "What MicroSD?", also my media gallery is empty (Save for the files stored in the internal storage) and my music player is empty as well.
Anyway, I didn't know what course of action I should take. Does it sound like one or both of these items needs to be returned/reformatted/smashed with a hammer?

I am not sure if the sgs3 supports 64gb cards, i suggest you first try with a 32gb card to see if it is a card reader problem or a mmc problem
Sent from my GT-I9100
If I helped you, please hit the thanks button!

ramnex said:
I am not sure if the sgs3 supports 64gb cards, i suggest you first try with a 32gb card to see if it is a card reader problem or a mmc problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's the case why does it state on all the North American Cellular phone websites that the phone supports "Up to 64GB MicroSD"? Seems crazy that such a large feature could be so buggy.

La Tortuga said:
If that's the case why does it state on all the North American Cellular phone websites that the phone supports "Up to 64GB MicroSD"? Seems crazy that such a large feature could be so buggy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GSIII (international and US) variants do support 64 gb micro sd cards. It's advertised on the box.
It sounds like your sd card is failing you. Definitely backup all your data to a computer and think about replacing this micro sd card via manufacturer warranty.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

+1. Sounds like bad card.

Ok I will try that. My next question is when I get the new sd card should I format it into the FAT32 file format?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

La Tortuga said:
Ok I will try that. My next question is when I get the new sd card should I format it into the FAT32 file format?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want recovery access must be Fat32. Otherwise does not matter.

Thanks for the advice my good man. I'll post an update after the (hopeful) free exchange.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

[Q] SD card just died

I've had a 32 gig micro SD in my phone for a while now. I recently took my Siii out of my pocket only to find that it says the SD is unmounted. Odd, but not unheard of in the world of custom roms (paranoidkangdroid 2.something, rather recent though, 4.2.2 JB) So i do the sensible thing: Run into the storage menu, and lo and behold, its not registering. I pop it out and in, not registering. I reboot, and the damn thing still isn't registering. Then I take an old 2 GB micro SD and try it. This one worked just fine. 32 gig however does not. I move to my PC. Pop it in a micro to regular SD adapter, and the computer doesn't mount it. It does mount every other microSD of mine though. So can anyone tell me what the hell happened, and how I can recover my stuff?

Actually you can't, your sd card is corrupted and it's known to happen with this device that's why I always keep a weekly backup on my computer with everything. Especially the ones ordered from amazon the high capacity ones as far as I've seen.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Addiso said:
Actually you can't, your sd card is corrupted and it's known to happen with this device that's why I always keep a weekly backup on my computer with everything. Especially the ones ordered from amazon the high capacity ones as far as I've seen.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well ****. I guess you're right, it just showed as unsupported file format.

nrock2256 said:
Well ****. I guess you're right, it just showed as unsupported file format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I had actually a 16 gb one die on me, ordered me a 32- one and has been running good so far..
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Addiso said:
Yeah I had actually a 16 gb one die on me, ordered me a 32- one and has been running good so far..
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And now its not. This is frustrating. I don't want to spend money on a new card dammit.

Try booting a linux live cd and see if you can save anything, thats how I recover deleted tomtom maps in the past.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Please read forum rules before posting
Questions and help issues go in Q&A
Thread moved
Thank you for your cooperation
Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

Addiso said:
Actually you can't, your sd card is corrupted and it's known to happen with this device that's why I always keep a weekly backup on my computer with everything. Especially the ones ordered from amazon the high capacity ones as far as I've seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the SD card damaged or can it just be reformatted with a card reader on a PC (fat I am assuming)?
I was about to start using an SD card to backup the internal storage. It doesn't sound like this is the best option and backing it to my PC would be better.

My set up to start was cleanrom 6.2 with envy kernel running fine for a week. I had my sd card disappear today twice. PNY class 10 32gb less than 2 weeks old from best buy. Popped it in my pc and it was recognized no problem. So I transferred my data, formatted in fat 32 popped it in phone, no problem. Transferred data back and was Ok for a few hours. Swapped my battery for a freshly charged one and upon boot, phone said the card was damaged, to reformat it. So, I pulled it out and popped it in my pc. Pc said card was damaged. I opened a command prompt and ran a chkdsk /f and it fixed an issue with the file system. I then proceeded to restore my cleanrom 6.2 backup. So far so good. I am thinking it had to do with an app, but I can't be sure. Upon googling this, it seems that some people have had an issue with external sd cards with this phone.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium

nrock2256 said:
I've had a 32 gig micro SD in my phone for a while now. I recently took my Siii out of my pocket only to find that it says the SD is unmounted. Odd, but not unheard of in the world of custom roms (paranoidkangdroid 2.something, rather recent though, 4.2.2 JB) So i do the sensible thing: Run into the storage menu, and lo and behold, its not registering. I pop it out and in, not registering. I reboot, and the damn thing still isn't registering. Then I take an old 2 GB micro SD and try it. This one worked just fine. 32 gig however does not. I move to my PC. Pop it in a micro to regular SD adapter, and the computer doesn't mount it. It does mount every other microSD of mine though. So can anyone tell me what the hell happened, and how I can recover my stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure exactly what brand or model you have for your SD card or when you purchase it. However if its a SanDisk and it was purchased before December 2012 there's a chance that it was part of a bad batch. I had the exact same problem with mine I have a UHs 1 32 gig SanDisk. I read somewhere on the internet that there is a known problem with SD cards from that company built before December. When I spoke with SanDisk they confirm that and said the newer batches have been corrected. Long story short if you're using an ultra high speed or for that matter any card by SanDisk call up there customer service explain to them the problem and they will send you a brand new one. The entire process took about a week for me.
Sent from a Shaftamle Galaxy S3
Please hit the "Thanks" button if I helped you!

Did you try my suggestion? Ive recovered numerous files using a linux live cd and/or a mac. Try putting the card in a network printer or mem card reader if linux and mac os isnt possible. Ive recovered my files, including those from a 16gb micro sd card, using those methods in the past.

Okay, so it works
Alright alright, i didn't expect this to get many responses. Anyway, it now works. It appeared to be fried, my mac, PC, ubuntu machine, and OG droid wouldn't even recognize that a card was inserted. Nor would my GS3. My solution? after turning it on and off a few times, I just left the card in it and set it aside for an hour. Lo and behold, it now works. The SD now works. It was fried, and is now unfried. I don't know how, I just guess I am lucky. Or aliens. Either way, I am happy. Not gonna jeep anything more than music on it though... Ah well, thanks for the help XDA!

If I were you, I'd back up everything on that card to my pc, and exchange it if under warranty. If not, chuck it, and purchase another card.
Not worth taking the risk again.
Consider yourself lucky so far

nrock2256 said:
I've had a 32 gig micro SD in my phone for a while now. I recently took my Siii out of my pocket only to find that it says the SD is unmounted. Odd, but not unheard of in the world of custom roms (paranoidkangdroid 2.something, rather recent though, 4.2.2 JB) So i do the sensible thing: Run into the storage menu, and lo and behold, its not registering. I pop it out and in, not registering. I reboot, and the damn thing still isn't registering. Then I take an old 2 GB micro SD and try it. This one worked just fine. 32 gig however does not. I move to my PC. Pop it in a micro to regular SD adapter, and the computer doesn't mount it. It does mount every other microSD of mine though. So can anyone tell me what the hell happened, and how I can recover my stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I have had my sd card corrupt a few times now, so far this has seemed to help me recover my data.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

The problem could be a sandisk SD card:
(Outside link) crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/samsung-galaxy-s3-fault-is-caused-by-sandisk-memory-cards-50010684/
I read about the SD problems after just getting the S3.. decided to get a different brand card from the store.

[Q] Micro SD card problem?

My SD card is a bit bugged recently. Basically, the SD card won't do anything such as accessing photos or music. Also, I tried moving some apps to my SD card, but that resulted with a "CONTAINMENT_ERROR" or something like that. Also, when I try to download apps, it says that there are no space in USB or SD memory storage. I know this is wrong because I don't have a USB storage, and my SD card is 1/3 full, so how can I fix this? I think that I require a formatting on my SD, but that's a last resort, with all my info on it. If that's the only way, please suggest this with an explanation.
If this helps, I remember killing some system processes such as some sort of signing thing which I believe is what signs the apps to install onto my phone. Please help me out here. Oh yeah, I can text and call fine as well as accessing the internet and wifi. Anything involving my SD card such as downloads, however, are a different story. Got suggestions?

Have you tried a card reader on your desktop to pull photos and music from it? If so and cannot then I don't know what to tell you but if you can, pull everything you want off of it then format SD card
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

fabricatedhero said:
Have you tried a card reader on your desktop to pull photos and music from it? If so and cannot then I don't know what to tell you but if you can, pull everything you want off of it then format SD card
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I tried formatting, but it doesn't seem to remove any data. I can move files to my cpu, but when i move apps to my SD card, or at least try, it says [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_BAD_MANIFEST] Do you know what that means by any chance? The moving also says [INSTALL_FAILED_CONTAINER_ERROR] too.

KoreanJoker said:
Yeah, I tried formatting, but it doesn't seem to remove any data. I can move files to my cpu, but when i move apps to my SD card, or at least try, it says [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_BAD_MANIFEST] Do you know what that means by any chance? The moving also says [INSTALL_FAILED_CONTAINER_ERROR] too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be a bit concerned that you can't format the card. Its a good sign that the computer can read the card but not good that you can't format it. See if you can try the card in another smart phone and if you have the same issue its just a problem with the sd card.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app

SD card not letting me add or delete files
I've been spending waaay to much time trying to get this phone to work as I had expected with previous phones (even my LG G2x) giving me less problems. I recently bought a Sandisk 32gb, class 10 micro sd card and after transferring old music, pictures and videos from my old LG G2x with a 16gb card, placing files from my computer back onto my S4 with the 32gb card is a nightmare! Photos are transferred but too out of order to try and deal with although it's more the music problem that has me bugging. I have some success after putting about 3gb or so onto the new 32gb sd card but after that, the sd card flips out and starts using special characters for file names.. Below I attached a screenshot of what I'm going through with another app called V1 Golf for Android. I'm stuck and any help is much appreciated. I can't delete anything on my sd card nor can I add. I've reformatted this card about 4 times now without success. Some say that a Sandisk have been nothing but problems for them, you think a Samsung card could be the fix?

I just have one question for you guys. Are you using a Galaxy S 4G or the Galaxy S4? If it is the latter, please take your questions
here for T-Mobile
here for Verizon
here for Sprint
here for AT&T
and here for International
as this section is for the Galaxy S 4G. Thanks and good luck.

Having issues with 64 gig sd card

I recently got this new SD card from ebay, it works great when im not using it no problems but when i try to move a file over to it it will constantly unmount itself how can i stop this?

Anyone?

What phone do you have? What is the size of file you are trying to move? Ebay is a dodgy place to buy SD cards as there are a lot of fakes ones out there! Usually hacked to give a false capacity and very low quality components used in manufacture with to-good-to-be-true prices. This could be what is causing the issue. I would recommend paying the extra for an SD card from a reputable retailer or a bit of hunting on Amazon.
Sent from my Nexus 7: Pimp Edition.

Galaxy Note 3 it only unmount when transferring files I can not reformat card to anything but exfat

Alexialwolf said:
Galaxy Note 3 it only unmount when transferring files I can not reformat card to anything but exfat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently after contacting the sepler the card is base dos-fat every time I try reformating to nfts it freezes the only other option is exfat which it finishs quickly but dosent change the random unmounting when transfering files.
The movies I have been able to get on there play without issue so only problem is when transferring files

Exfat is still a bit of an 'iffy' format when it comes to Android devices, I would suggest formatting the card to fat32. Windows cannot natively format anything over 32gb to fat32 so I would recommend following the tutorial here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2041679 I have used the software in the tutorial before and it's very good. If that doesn't work then I would say more than likely it's a problem with the card.
Sent from my HUAWEI P6-U06 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Files I Copy to my SD CARD are deleting themselves

Hi everyone,
Starters: Phone is entirely stock, 64 GB San Disk SD Card
So starting yesterday, whenever I copy a new file (mostly mp3's) to my SD card and go to play it off my phone, they are not working. When I go back onto my computer and look up the file it's gone! I've never seen anything like this before. All the files on my SD card that were there before yesterday are still working normally. The mp3s on my internal storage are also working properly.
A separate but potentially related issue is that recently, when I take pictures they show up in my gallery at first, but then they come up as corrupted a few minutes later and then they are gone completely. They are saved to my internal storage. This is not happening 100% of the time.
I'm not sure what's going on with my phones storage. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you !

OsirisOne1 said:
Hi everyone,
Starters: Phone is entirely stock, 64 GB San Disk SD Card
So starting yesterday, whenever I copy a new file (mostly mp3's) to my SD card and go to play it off my phone, they are not working. When I go back onto my computer and look up the file it's gone! I've never seen anything like this before. All the files on my SD card that were there before yesterday are still working normally. The mp3s on my internal storage are also working properly.
A separate but potentially related issue is that recently, when I take pictures they show up in my gallery at first, but then they come up as corrupted a few minutes later and then they are gone completely. They are saved to my internal storage. This is not happening 100% of the time.
I'm not sure what's going on with my phones storage. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure your 64 gig card is legit? Sorta sounds like what happens to the fake ones...Once you hit the magic number (maybe 8 gigs) it starts overwriting.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

I'm sure it's legit. It's a sandisk directly from Amazon themselves. Also, I'm well passed 30 gbs and it's not overwriting it's just deleting the new files altogether.

OsirisOne1 said:
I'm sure it's legit. It's a sandisk directly from Amazon themselves. Also, I'm well passed 30 gbs and it's not overwriting it's just deleting the new files altogether.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kitkat SD card permissions hosing you up? did you ever fix it?
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

dottat said:
kitkat SD card permissions hosing you up? did you ever fix it?
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wouldn't delete the files, would it?
I tend towards your first hunch... Amazon does sell fakes. Never get the "frustration free packaging"!