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GS3 destroying SD cards?

My shiny new Galaxy S III has now destroyed two 32gig micro SD cards on me. About two weeks after I installed the first card, my phone started giving messages about the SD card being improperly removed, then it would immediately try to re-mount it, then would say it was removed again, then finally started just repeating the "unable to mount SD card" error until I physically removed the card. I argued with best buy to give me another one, and now today (about two weeks after installing the new one), the same thing happened. I put the card into a USB reader to try it on my computer, and now even my PC does not recognize the card.
Has this happened to anyone else? What can I do to fix this?! I pre-ordered the phone from verizon, so I'm now well out of warranty replacement time.

codeman0624 said:
My shiny new Galaxy S III has now destroyed two 32gig micro SD cards on me. About two weeks after I installed the first card, my phone started giving messages about the SD card being improperly removed, then it would immediately try to re-mount it, then would say it was removed again, then finally started just repeating the "unable to mount SD card" error until I physically removed the card. I argued with best buy to give me another one, and now today (about two weeks after installing the new one), the same thing happened. I put the card into a USB reader to try it on my computer, and now even my PC does not recognize the card.
Has this happened to anyone else? What can I do to fix this?! I pre-ordered the phone from verizon, so I'm now well out of warranty replacement time.
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I have a 32gb MicroSD card and haven't had a problem. I do wish I could use it more as internal memory rather than hardly usable external storage...but that's a different issue.
Sorry I couldn't help, but just wanted to say that Galaxy S III does support that much external storage. Maybe a hardware issue? Try troubleshooting it with another MicroSD card.

codeman0624 said:
My shiny new Galaxy S III has now destroyed two 32gig micro SD cards on me. About two weeks after I installed the first card, my phone started giving messages about the SD card being improperly removed, then it would immediately try to re-mount it, then would say it was removed again, then finally started just repeating the "unable to mount SD card" error until I physically removed the card. I argued with best buy to give me another one, and now today (about two weeks after installing the new one), the same thing happened. I put the card into a USB reader to try it on my computer, and now even my PC does not recognize the card.
Has this happened to anyone else? What can I do to fix this?! I pre-ordered the phone from verizon, so I'm now well out of warranty replacement time.
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Click to collapse
Gotta be the cards you're getting I would think. I had a 16gb card that came with my Droid x almost 3 years ago in it for almost 2 months before the card finally crashed.(I'd abused that card tho, carried it in my jeans pocket, left it sitting on my table etc) Then I put my 64gb in it. It's been a little over two weeks now and no probs with it. I've written too it and erased and so on so I've actually used it. It's almost full now actually lol.

I have that same 16 GB from the droid x. Do I still need to format it if I flash a ROM? And how do I check what format its in
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

My 32gb card was doing that on stock until I finally installed a custom rom. No problem since.
Synergized GS3

SD card gs3 issue
I also had trouble with my external 16gb card after flashing 2 ROMs (synergy & beans v9). I was not even able to get a computer to recognize the sd card after the flashing.
I thought it had to do with using a stock, then rooted stock, then custom kernel. i thought the combination and repeated TBU access over a 4 day period just trashed it. maybe there is more to the story?

1) What is your ROM flashing history (what roms, how long were each installed)?
2) Which rom did you notice the problem on?
3) Were the original and replacement cards the same make/model?
4) What format were the cards in (FAT32, exFAT, or other)?
5) are/have you overclocked your cpu?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

bby144 said:
I have that same 16 GB from the droid x. Do I still need to format it if I flash a ROM? And how do I check what format its in
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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nope. all i did was take my 16 gig from my droid x (that OEM card is tough) and slap it in my s3.. and it works.

mybook4 said:
1) What is your ROM flashing history (what roms, how long were each installed)?
2) Which rom did you notice the problem on?
3) Were the original and replacement cards the same make/model?
4) What format were the cards in (FAT32, exFAT, or other)?
5) are/have you overclocked your cpu?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
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Thanks for the responses guys. I'm still fully stock, I haven't done anything to the phone (yet). I don't know what the format was, I just put them straight into my phone and let it do whatever it wanted to do. The original and replacement are the same make and model, from the same store. So before i panicked too much, I was considering buying a new/different card from amazon and seeing if it does the same thing still.
Just didn't know if anyone else was experiencing this, or had any thoughts on why that would randomly happen on a completely stock phone?

codeman0624 said:
I was considering buying a new/different card from amazon and seeing if it does the same thing still.
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That sounds like your best bet. There are plenty of crappy cards out there. My ADATA 8GB class 10 has been great so far. I have noticed that the GS3 gets really hot right near the cards (micro sd and sim). Can't be great for the cards long term.
I've had my VZW GS3 since 7/5 and have been fine with my card. I've seen plenty of people who've had trouble with FAT32 vs exFAT, but none who have lost their card.
I have seen a ROM break cards before (an early AOSP gingerbread build for the Fascinate claimed one of mine), so I've actually been looking. This is the first thread I've seen.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

mybook4 said:
That sounds like your best bet. There are plenty of crappy cards out there. My ADATA 8GB class 10 has been great so far. I have noticed that the GS3 gets really hot right near the cards (micro sd and sim). Can't be great for the cards long term.
I've had my VZW GS3 since 7/5 and have been fine with my card. I've seen plenty of people who've had trouble with FAT32 vs exFAT, but none who have lost their card.
I have seen a ROM break cards before (an early AOSP gingerbread build for the Fascinate claimed one of mine), so I've actually been looking. This is the first thread I've seen.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
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I've also noticed it gets really hot toward the bottom of the phone. Now that I think of it, both times I noticed the SD card issue right after taking the phone out of my pocket. Maybe it's just getting too hot? I wonder if my case is also holding in a lot of the heat and making it worse? I wish there was a way I could test things without breaking an SD card every time!

My GS3 fried a new 32gb card that I put in it after about 3 weeks. Randomly got an "unreadable SD card error", can't correlate with any specific activity. I reformatted the SD card & it works again in the phone. I was rooted, running stock at the time. Maybe it's the heat, but I don't recall it being hot at the time (I also don't recall it not being hot...)

Try sandisk.I was having problems with lesser brand
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

I have been using the 32 GB San Disk brand card that came with my thunderbolt and it's been working great.
I really don't know what could cause that to happen to a card and I haven't noticed any other reports of it happening with this phone.
If it comes down to it VZW SHOULD give you a replacement because it could be something to do with the card slot in the phone. I would try talking to them if you can't get it worked out.

So going on the theory that maybe it's just getting too hot, I just ordered a 16gig sandisk ultra micro SD card. It claims to be "temperature proof", whatever that means. Hopefully that clears things up, otherwise I'll have to deal with Verizon, and I'll be super mad if they give me a refurbished phone when this issue actually started two weeks after I got the phone.
If I don't post back here then you can assume all has gone well!

16gb card from droid x
same as others, used the same 16gb card from my droid x, transferred to the bionic when it was released, and now have been using it in the GIII since release. no issues.

I don't believe the phones are getting too hot to do the damage. The hottest temp my battery has gotten had been 106 and they say that heat damage isn't even a concern until around 140 or so. I would think the cards could take the same if not more than the batteries.

I had a similar problem, my sd card wasn't destroyed, but it would randomly become unmounted. It started happening after I hooked my phone up to my corporate email and it forced me to encrypt my device. After I removed the corporate account it stopped happening. This was all on stock TouchWiz from the factory.

codeman0624 said:
My shiny new Galaxy S III has now destroyed two 32gig micro SD cards on me. About two weeks after I installed the first card, my phone started giving messages about the SD card being improperly removed, then it would immediately try to re-mount it, then would say it was removed again, then finally started just repeating the "unable to mount SD card" error until I physically removed the card. I argued with best buy to give me another one, and now today (about two weeks after installing the new one), the same thing happened. I put the card into a USB reader to try it on my computer, and now even my PC does not recognize the card.
Has this happened to anyone else? What can I do to fix this?! I pre-ordered the phone from verizon, so I'm now well out of warranty replacement time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had my 64gb SD card for a month and so far nothing went wrong. did you buy your SD cards from a reputable source? I have always used sandisk SD cards try buying one from Sandisk or even Samsung. if you bought your card from ebay make sure the card works, I have heard that some times people sell damaged cards for very cheap. But other than that good luck.

16 GB class 10 sandisk 30 mb/s version died on me with this phone after 2 weeks, stock ROM, formatted with phone. It was brand new.
The error I had was it became read only. And no it was not fixable, I tried everything. Low level format, checking permissions, different OS's, putting it in SD adapter and messing with lock switch on there.
I read class 10s are more prone to die quicker and aren't necessarily better, but just different from a lower class. Ie a lower class will last longer because it read and writes differently and doesn't skip certain safeties like a class 10 does.
Running a class 4 16gb sandisk now and it is annoyingly slow.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

SD Card Constantly Unmounting

I got a new SanDisk 32GB SD Card and since putting it in the phone 2 days ago it has unmounted itself twice. The second time was during a lengthy write operation. I think the first time was during a short write operation. But I think both times was during writing to the card.
Nothing will let it remount other than a reboot. I can't take it out and put it back in and have it autodetect and mount. Nor can I put a different SD card in and have that card auto mount.
I'm not sure if this could be a ROM problem or if it's an obvious bad SD Card. (Though I'm leaning toward the card being bad since I never had this happen in the previous year I've owned the phone with any other cards, then it happens 2 times in 2 days since getting a new card)
I'm going to try reformating the card again and see if that makes a difference. But obviously it could be 3-4 days before I know if it doesn't unmount itself again.
Anyone have any thoughts on this in the mean time? Any suggestions on how to test the card? Or things to do to make this better? Or should I just take it back to the store and get a new one? (Which i don't want to do if it's not a card problem because then I'll just have the same problem)
I'm running Bruce's CM10 Kang Jan 3rd build.

You can test the card with SD card tester from the market. It will tell you if the card is reading and writing as it should be and also the speed at which it is completed. I believe the app is simply called SD card tester. Hope this helps. Best wishes and good luck.

I too am having problems with a new SanDisk 32g card. Within a day of putting it in my phone starts bogging down and freezing. Card is always unmounting, sometimes it says blank card. I put my old 16g back in and problems are gone. This will be the second SanDisk I got that was doa. Not very happy with them.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2

I had the same problem a year ago. I found that it depends on witch class the sd card is. Class 2 cards is too slow when it comes to read/write speed. Class 4 is fater and so on. I now use a class 10 card and I haven't had any problems since.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

MicroSD card gets corrupted every reboot (CleanROM)

My SD card gets corrupted every time I reboot my phone. I'm using a 32GB Sandisk Ultra formatted as FAT32. The phone has CleanROM 5.6 installed (I've wiped, redownloaded, and reinstalled the ROM a couple of times).
Any ideas or experience?

Probably going bad. Mine did similar things when it was going bad. I formatted and did every trick I could find online many times to see if I could get it to work, nothing worked.
I ended up getting it replaced by SanDisk. Pretty easy to work with and I got it back within 7 business days.
I keep all my roms and zips on my internal and do not flash anything on my sd card.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

jonnythan said:
My SD card gets corrupted every time I reboot my phone. I'm using a 32GB Sandisk Ultra formatted as FAT32. The phone has CleanROM 5.6 installed (I've wiped, redownloaded, and reinstalled the ROM a couple of times).
Any ideas or experience?
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Does the card work anywhere else? I had a Sandisk Ultra UHS-1 Class 10 go bad in mine as well. Some of the research I did I found out it was a common inssue with those kinds of cards, especially if they were exFat because of the way Samsung uses their own proprietary exFat system.

I've done a large write+verify using it in an SD card slot on a laptop and it worked fine. The card is only about a week old, and it's done this since the beginning. I don't expect Sandisk would replace it since it works fine in Windows but not my phone.

They should replace it. Mine was mounting and unmounting over and over again. They didn't have any problem replacing it. No reason not to call. The only downside is a no or if they say yes, you will be without the card for about 7 days.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

If it's only been 7 days, take it back to the store or order a new one and then send this one back. That being said... I've had 3 32GB sandisks go bad in my phone, to the point of even being corrupt in Windows. I'm using a 64GB now, and knock on wood, it's been working fine for about 2 months so far... There have been a few threads about cards going bad in these S3's. Dunno if it's just coincidence or what.

I bought it from Amazon and have done a lot of returns there lately, so I contacted Sandisk. They agreed right away to replace it, so I'll do that.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Did you buy it online? If so it might be fake. Read more by googling fake micro sd. Apparently they make a 1gb memory card look like 32. It will just overwrite itself making data corrupt

Had the same issue with the same card. For me it was a hardware issue. When the card is inserted it clicks and comes back out a little. On my phone it came out a little too much and was losing connection with the card over and over and telling me the card was corrupted. All I did was push the card back in until there was resistance from the locking mechanism. Haven't had an issue since.
Now I say it's a phone hardware issue but really it could be that the card is too short or the cut outs where the locking mechanism holds on to are too low.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

zmedhaug said:
Did you buy it online? If so it might be fake. Read more by googling fake micro sd. Apparently they make a 1gb memory card look like 32. It will just overwrite itself making data corrupt
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I got it direct from Amazon, and it held and verified 30 GB of data with no problem. It's definitely real.

[Q] sd card woes with i535

im on my second s3 (first one screen shattered) which ive had for about 3 months now and since new i got a 32gb scandisk 10 sd card, everything was working fine till about a week agao then i started getting "sd card unexpectly unmounted" i would remove the card, reinstall, then would get the message " preparing sd card " then phone would show card but either say "blank card or unsupported files" then sometimes the phone wouldnt read that there was a card installed. i tried pressing mount sd card and nothing would happen.
now the strange thing i have a galaxy tab2 and the 32gb works great in that, so i tried formatting card with tab2, reinstalled iinto s3 and same problem. now i did take the 2gb card i had in my s3 and it works fine,the phone is rooted and have always ran Cleanrom or Wicked sensations roms. i did a loy of searchs but havent had much help on finding an answer.
somebody please help.
Bill

anyone?

I had the same problem, come to find out, it was a cheaply made sd card. Think I paid 10-15 bucks at most for a 32gb class 8 card. I bought a scandisc card and have been fine since.
And just for info.... I read online that others were having this same issue and that it was the card not seating in the slot very well. If you took your phone back to the store they would exchange it. I took it in, got a new phone, and the same thing happened (unrooted, rooted, romed, it didn't matter) Got a new card and it was fixed.
Sent from my PACmaned SCH-I535

Have you tried connecting it to your computer via sd adapter to see if files are there. If you cant read any files it may be a bad card but you can always format it while connected to the computer and see if that helps. If computer reads your files i would suggest you move files to computer, format, then try it on your phone and if it still doesnt work than maybe its the problem suggested above my post with it not seating correctly. Good luck

Recurring SD Card Notification

I have been using my phone since last night and after my last reboot I have a recurring 'SD Card For transferring photos and media' notification. It lets me dismiss it then re-appears after a few minutes. If i click on it it opens up 'My Files' but there are no messages or options regarding the notification. Long pressing the notification loads up 'System UI' App notifications but again nothing that helps remove the notification. Anyone else have this problem? I have looked through every settings page, My Files options, google etc but I have found no solution.

That happened to me too but I don't think there is a fix sorry ?

+1... It's a bummer!

Keeps happening to me too

Tried formatting but that didn't help. Ejecting and re-mounting seems to fix the issue for a few minutes.

I smell a fast patch incoming lol. Especially since there wasn't a zero day patch.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

I only get the sd-card notification after power the phone on. Never comes back unless I shut phone off and reboot. I was having very slow to wake phone issues while I used a new Samsung 128gb class 10 sd-card. I changed UT to a 64gb SanDisk sd-card, class 10 U3. No more issues.

Only happens to me when reboot phone.

same here, only when i reboot my phone, regular s7

Something on my phone is dismounting the sdcard (says something about unexpectedly dismounting for a few seconds) and the message pops back up when it re-mounts. I don't think its a bad card because I just got it last month and used it with my S4 for weeks without any issues. Going to try re-seating the card.

zcubed said:
Something on my phone is dismounting the sdcard (says something about unexpectedly dismounting for a few seconds) and the message pops back up when it re-mounts. I don't think its a bad card because I just got it last month and used it with my S4 for weeks without any issues. Going to try re-seating the card.
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You're not alone so it might just be picky about the cards it uses or maybe this first batch has bad slots... Which would suck. You could try folding a small piece of paper or construction paper and taping it to the top of the card to make it thicker and press against the contacts better. It may just be a thinner card. Make sure the paper is securely taped so it doesn't come off in the phone.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

arcanexvi said:
You're not alone so it might just be picky about the cards it uses or maybe this first batch has bad slots... Which would suck. You could try folding a small piece of paper or construction paper and taping it to the top of the card to make it thicker and press against the contacts better. It may just be a thinner card. Make sure the paper is securely taped so it doesn't come off in the phone.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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Sounds like the same issue some people had with the S2 back when I had it. It was very picky with which SD cards it would allow without this problem. I will also try connecting it to my pc in a card reader and running disk check when I get home.

Really curious if a Samsung card would do this...Anyone using one?

sshafranko said:
Really curious if a Samsung card would do this...Anyone using one?
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I haven't tried a Samsung card but finally gave up and ordered a Sandisk Ultra 128gb. Will try it tonight and report back. The message for the sd card should always appear on boot since the card is re-mounted but it shouldn't appear after that until the next reboot. Previously had a PNY Turbo 64gb U3 card which was dismounting frequently. If someone could report back on Samsung cards that would be great!

Add me to the troubled SD card.

I'm using Sandisk 128GB Class 10. It did the mounted notification for the first little bit it was in the phone. I actually had previous data on mine from my G4....photos, etc.
It didn't go away when I swiped it, so I tapped on the notification and explored the SD Card for a few mins just to see what I had on there (had forgotten), and next thing I know, the notification had gone away. Hasn't come back since...

Same to me also. I use S7 reformat and I get it. When I do a cold boot I get it.

Looks like replacing the PNY Turbo 64GB U3 card with a Sandisk Ultra 128GB U1 card has resolved the issue. Only get the message at boot and that is normal. It is likely that the phone is just picky with SD card manufacturers/chips.

sshafranko said:
Really curious if a Samsung card would do this...Anyone using one?
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I'm using a Samsung elite and it pops up every 10 minutes also controllers don't work with otg cables

Same here
Every reboot
But doesn't bother me