[Q] What to do about a slow SDcard affecting performance? - General Questions and Answers

I have just benchmarked my 8G removable storage card, and got only 1.31MB/s write speed. The two internal cards got 1.73MB/s and 1.47MB/s respectively. Is this slowing down my system? I often notice that Elixir's widget shows that the system is using the disk intensively (shortcut to top shows iowait above 50%). What can I do about this?

gromky said:
I have just benchmarked my 8G removable storage card, and got only 1.31MB/s write speed. The two internal cards got 1.73MB/s and 1.47MB/s respectively. Is this slowing down my system? I often notice that Elixir's widget shows that the system is using the disk intensively (shortcut to top shows iowait above 50%). What can I do about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
set cache
optimal set is 2048
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sdincrease.it

Last updated May 17, 2011...for Android 1.6 and up? :silly: I'm not sure this would really help. Setting the cache size would help to optimize for speed. It wouldn't help poor performance.

gromky said:
I have just benchmarked my 8G removable storage card, and got only 1.31MB/s write speed. The two internal cards got 1.73MB/s and 1.47MB/s respectively. Is this slowing down my system? I often notice that Elixir's widget shows that the system is using the disk intensively (shortcut to top shows iowait above 50%). What can I do about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would buy a higher class card.
maybe my memory is off but that write speed seems really low, unless you have a class 2 card, then its still low.

bweN diorD said:
i would buy a higher class card.
maybe my memory is off but that write speed seems really low, unless you have a class 2 card, then its still low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a Kingston 8Gb "MicroSD HC" SDC4. I don't know if it's class 2 or not.
Also, does it really make a difference? If the system is thrashing the disk, then all the usage should be in the two internal sdcards. Is that right?
What kind of card would be a good replacement?

gromky said:
It's a Kingston 8Gb "MicroSD HC" SDC4. I don't know if it's class 2 or not.
Also, does it really make a difference? If the system is thrashing the disk, then all the usage should be in the two internal sdcards. Is that right?
What kind of card would be a good replacement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a class 4 which means the r/w speed should be higher than you are reporting. IMO either your phone can't support any higher speed or something is wrong with the card.
The class of the card does matter and can cause some operations to be slower in comparison to say a class 10 card.
I don't know why your phone is thrashing the card, unlikely normal, but it could be. Other possibilities are issues with the phone software, or issues with the card like partial corruption or bad sectors, even bad pics or vids can cause the system to scan the card too much.
Look in battery stats and see if the media scanner usage is high, this would indicate a corrupt file.
Alternatively, I would test the card for errors. Grab a card tester from Google search, put the card in your PC, copy the entire contents to your PC, run the test program. If no errors, put the card back into the phone and format, then copy back your files.
If errors, get a new card. I have always bought sandisk class 10 from an eBay reputable seller. Read up on the seller wherever you get it from so you don't get a fake card.
Sent from my LG-VS980 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

bweN diorD said:
Its a class 4 which means the r/w speed should be higher than you are reporting. IMO either your phone can't support any higher speed or something is wrong with the card.
The class of the card does matter and can cause some operations to be slower in comparison to say a class 10 card.
I don't know why your phone is thrashing the card, unlikely normal, but it could be. Other possibilities are issues with the phone software, or issues with the card like partial corruption or bad sectors, even bad pics or vids can cause the system to scan the card too much.
Look in battery stats and see if the media scanner usage is high, this would indicate a corrupt file.
Alternatively, I would test the card for errors. Grab a card tester from Google search, put the card in your PC, copy the entire contents to your PC, run the test program. If no errors, put the card back into the phone and format, then copy back your files.
If errors, get a new card. I have always bought sandisk class 10 from an eBay reputable seller. Read up on the seller wherever you get it from so you don't get a fake card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, so it shouldn't be this slow. Class 4 should be enough. The problem shouldn't be my phone, it's a Xiaomi Hongmi/Redmi and it was manufactured last year.
I've checked the battery usage and media scanner isn't listed. Do you know how I can figure out which program is thrashing the disk?
It's a microSD card so it won't go in the computer. I have a USB adapter somewhere, but those greatly slow performance.

gromky said:
Ah, so it shouldn't be this slow. Class 4 should be enough. The problem shouldn't be my phone, it's a Xiaomi Hongmi/Redmi and it was manufactured last year.
I've checked the battery usage and media scanner isn't listed. Do you know how I can figure out which program is thrashing the disk?
It's a microSD card so it won't go in the computer. I have a USB adapter somewhere, but those greatly slow performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Class 4 should be running at 4mb or better.
Sorry I don't know how to tell what is causing the excessive r/w on the card.
Most newer PC's have a SD card slot, you just need the adapter that frequently comes with the card.
The performance through USB isn't really relevant, that's not the purpose of connecting it to the PC. You want to check it for errors or damage. A slower connection method will just make the process take longer.
Just follow my previous post instructions and backup your files first. I think the checking program is going to format the card to run its tests, its been a long time since I used it, I don't remember exactly.
Later when I get home I can help you find a program if you haven't found a good one by then.
Sent from my LG-VS980 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

gromky said:
Ah, so it shouldn't be this slow. Class 4 should be enough. The problem shouldn't be my phone, it's a Xiaomi Hongmi/Redmi and it was manufactured last year.
I've checked the battery usage and media scanner isn't listed. Do you know how I can figure out which program is thrashing the disk?
It's a microSD card so it won't go in the computer. I have a USB adapter somewhere, but those greatly slow performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, this is what i used last time http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2...standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/
there is a "direct" download link a little down the page.
the tool was made for checking for fake cards, but if you give it a quick read, you will see its going to check for errors, report the condition of the card, and more.
hope that helps.

Related

Maximum SD Card speed?

does anyone know the max sd card transfer speed of the pad, and the dock?
i am looking at a 128GB SDXC card (yes, its a lot, but this is replacing a dead laptop for the foreseeable future) , UHS-1 60mb/s, or a 45mb/s one. will the UHS card actually have any benefits in the dock, or simply when transfering data to it from the PC.
many thanks!
I'm currently running a Class 10 (200x) 32 GB SDHC in the dock, branded Dane-Elec. Runs fine. I don't know if it takes 32+ GB cards, though... And to be honest, while heavily dependent on what you actually do with it, for most purposes a high-speed card should suffice...
ishamm said:
does anyone know the max sd card transfer speed of the pad, and the dock?
i am looking at a 128GB SDXC card (yes, its a lot, but this is replacing a dead laptop for the foreseeable future) , UHS-1 60mb/s, or a 45mb/s one. will the UHS card actually have any benefits in the dock, or simply when transfering data to it from the PC.
many thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently using two Sandisk cards:
- microSD class 10 30MBps SDHC Ultra (16GB)
- full SD class 10 SDHC Extreme 45MBps in the docking station (32GB)
They get better speeds than the built-in disk, but it is still not great. It seems to be about 15-18Mbps write for SD, 6Mbps write for microSD and 30-32Mbps read for both (as compared to 12/18 of the internal memory).
The fastest way of moving data still seems to be external USB HDD...
Hope this helps, haven't tried any other yet. I have tried both FAT32 and NTFS though. They seem to give similar results (I had no problems using NTFS on my SD card so far, which is a good sign).
d14b0ll0s said:
I'm currently using two Sandisk cards:
- microSD class 10 30MBps SDHC Ultra (16GB)
- full SD class 10 SDHC Extreme 45MBps in the docking station (32GB)
They get better speeds than the built-in disk, but it is still not great. It seems to be about 15-18Mbps write for SD, 6Mbps write for microSD and 30-32Mbps read for both (as compared to 12/18 of the internal memory).
The fastest way of moving data still seems to be external USB HDD...
Hope this helps, haven't tried any other yet. I have tried both FAT32 and NTFS though. They seem to give similar results (I had no problems using NTFS on my SD card so far, which is a good sign).
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I haven't used an external drive yet, but I agree with the observation that the transfer speed is not optimal, no matter what card I plug in (I have transplanted a few I normally use in my DSLR just for testing; they are all fast cards, as you can imagine). I transferred several documentaries and a lot of photographs yesterday evening and it took ages, mainly due to the fact that the transfer process hangs up the entire device (!) regularly. It seems to happen after about 70 to 80 MB are read into (temporary?) memory and apparently are only then buffered out to the main storage. Let's hope a custom ROM can straighten this issue out...
Thanks. Given these figures, would you install apps on the main memory, if a 30mbps rated micro sd for best performance?
Sent from my LT26i using xda premium
ishamm said:
Thanks. Given these figures, would you install apps on the main memory, if a 30mbps rated micro sd for best performance?
Sent from my LT26i using xda premium
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In my case internal memory is faster than microSD. You don't really have the option, unless you play with the filesystem and mount your MicroSD on /mnt/sdcard instead of /Removable/MicroSD. In the Infinity /mnt/sdcard is just a folder within the internal memory by default (many apps use it though, so they had to arrange it this way). I don't think there is any reason to change this, as internal memory seems faster and that's whole 64GB of it (OK, maybe 56 available, but still a lot..).
Perfect thanks, I thought though that there were current issues with I/O speeds until someone could fix it in a Rom. Or has this been addressed in the new firmware?
Sent from my LT26i using xda premium
ishamm said:
Perfect thanks, I thought though that there were current issues with I/O speeds until someone could fix it in a Rom. Or has this been addressed in the new firmware?
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Click to collapse
Hopefully I could tell you in a few days, but honestly I don't think it has (can't try it out yet, as the firmware released is Taiwanese version, and I'm on the World-Wide).
The Infinity is not that far behind other new tablets or rather it's not only TF700's problem, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28416635&postcount=2842
However, after changing the scheduler to sio and doing some tweaks (see my post on it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1758160), it's running pretty smoothly (unless you want to do a lot of CPU-heavy jobs while having huge reads or writes in the background, in this case it can get frustrating, but.. there is no real alternative these days).
d14b0ll0s said:
Hopefully I could tell you in a few days, but honestly I don't think it has (can't try it out yet, as the firmware released is Taiwanese version, and I'm on the World-Wide).
The Infinity is not that far behind other new tablets or rather it's not only TF700's problem, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28416635&postcount=2842
However, after changing the scheduler to sio and doing some tweaks (see my post on it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1758160), it's running pretty smoothly (unless you want to do a lot of CPU-heavy jobs while having huge reads or writes in the background, in this case it can get frustrating, but.. there is no real alternative these days).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. As i've ranted earlier, the new firmware provides fixes for camera issues, not for the I/O the TF700 so obviously suffers from. Having said that, it is not like the tablet in itself is useless as it is -- far from it -- but remains a mystery to me why they didn't spot this in advance (like with the Prime's issues with GPS and wifi), It seems like ASUS develops a device by letting several teams work onindividual components, and, when they get their specific part up and running, just put it together and relese it. I have a distinct feeling that neither device was actually and properly tested.
But, still, I'm pretty happy with the device overall.
I think you need to read this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1767755
From what I see my UHS-1 card that doesn't work is initialized as DDR which means the max speed for the TF700T µSD is 50 MB/s (as that is the only DDR speed).
The full size SD socket uses a USB host so the big question is is it USB 2.0 or 3.0!
All specifications says USB 2.0 for the dock, so I would assume that's correct, even for the TF700 dock.
Asus has finally responded that there is limited UHS-1 support in the µSD slot.
For now you are better off not trying UHS-1 in there. The may come up with a patch...
external memory limits
ishamm said:
does anyone know the max sd card transfer speed of the pad, and the dock?
i am looking at a 128GB SDXC card (yes, its a lot, but this is replacing a dead laptop for the foreseeable future) , UHS-1 60mb/s, or a 45mb/s one. will the UHS card actually have any benefits in the dock, or simply when transfering data to it from the PC.
many thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Careful there with a 128gig card, I read somewhere that there is a 32 gig upperlimit on recognizing cards and sticks...
tho I do wonder if you formatted it into enough partitions it might read them all?
kokoPedli said:
Careful there with a 128gig card, I read somewhere that there is a 32 gig upperlimit on recognizing cards and sticks...
tho I do wonder if you formatted it into enough partitions it might read them all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the dock uses a sdhc compatible controller and simply exposes the card as a mass storage device for the system, then there is really no such limit. The SDXC cards which supports >32GB does so due to the SD's FAT specification not for actual addressing and such.
SDXC cards are accessible as SDHC but standard specifies ExFat as default filesystem. This may not work on units not compatible with ExFat, but a reformat will fix that. In the TF700T's case we have already seen users use 64 GB cards breaking that 32GB barrier.
We have also seen the TF700T mount ExFat, although it seems to fallback to NTFS.
The thing he should be carefull of is UHS in the µSD socket as it's still wonky.
In the dock I suspect a UHS card will simply be treated as a normal SDHC card, but UHS cards usually have better class speeds so may be a benefit even with the dock doing USB2.0 hosting.
Edit:
To back up my claims see here...
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2520/~/sd/sdhc/sdxc-specifications-and-compatibility

minor glitches when playing video from external SD card (Sandisk 16GB)

When I play video stored on my internal storage, it is smooth. I can watch a 90 minute movie video without noticing any glitch at all.
When I play video stored on my external storage, there are glitches. One glitch every 1-2 minutes. These are not big glitches, just a brief deviation that gets your attention. If I listen, I think it is skipping a fraction of a second of the audio. (It may be skipping a fraction or second of the video display also, but my eye doesn't detect it). It's not a huge deal: ...... but just something that I notice and it's a minor irritation.
Since it occurs only on external sd, not internal storage, I assume it is the speed of the sd card. I have a 16GB Sandisk SD card. If I remember right, it's "Class 6"
I don't hear any glitches when listening to MP3's off of external sd, works just fine with no glitch ever.
SUMMARY: no problems on internal sd, no problems on mp3's. The only problems are videos on external sd.
It seems to me that the external sd can't quite keep up with the high transfer rate required for video playback.
Has anyone else seen this?
Any observation about which SD cards do this and which don't?
By the way I'm running rooted 2.3.6 from qkster's package, with Zen's Infusion A kernel. Holo launcher.
I haven't tried boosting to 1600Mhz. I'll try that and report the results later.
electricpete1 said:
I haven't tried boosting to 1600Mhz. I'll try that and report the results later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried it - no difference. Glitches still occurred with cpu max frequency set to 1600.
You should try to format your external card and then try again.
Also, it could be your external card is to slow on reading
Should not be that slow if it is class 6 though...
Maybe try other card on your infuse with same video file.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
zpzp96 said:
You should try to format your external card and then try again.
Also, it could be your external card is to slow on reading
Should not be that slow if it is class 6 though...
Maybe try other card on your infuse with same video file.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I have also noted the SD card media scanner runs to scan my external sd card more frequently... almost every time the phone comes out of sleep. I think this symptom coincides with me adding more files to my external SD.
I will try reformatting now as you recommended.
Question: is it better to reformat sd card in the phone or on the pc?
(if on the phone, there is no question of file system... I'll let the phone pick the format. If on pc, I'm not sure what format to pick... I'm using Entropy's kernel with voodoo lagfix enabled... does that mean external cannot be formatted to FAT32? )
The bigger problem is the constant scanning every time I turn the screen on. It was a nuisance, and I think it was draining my battery.
It gave the error message "sd card unexpectedly removed".
There are threads on this for some other Samsung devices.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1933743
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2031009
There was a suggestion Sandisk cards in Samsung devices tend to have the problem.
I transferred my files to my pc, formatted sd in the phone, no problem until I transferred files back... then problem started recurring.
I reformatted in the PC to Fat32. Put files back on. Seems to be much better. But very close monitoring using SD Card Monitor program....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5zZGNhcmRtb25pdG9yIl0.
... shows it is still have problems. I'm going to break down and buy another sd card. Perhaps another brand.
electricpete1 said:
The bigger problem is the constant scanning every time I turn the screen on. It was a nuisance, and I think it was draining my battery.
It gave the error message "sd card unexpectedly removed".
There are threads on this for some other Samsung devices.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1933743
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2031009
There was a suggestion Sandisk cards in Samsung devices tend to have the problem.
I transferred my files to my pc, formatted sd in the phone, no problem until I transferred files back... then problem started recurring.
I reformatted in the PC to Fat32. Put files back on. Seems to be much better. But very close monitoring using SD Card Monitor program....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5zZGNhcmRtb25pdG9yIl0.
... shows it is still have problems. I'm going to break down and buy another sd card. Perhaps another brand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your SD card has problem for sure.
It shouldn't scan that often and it shouldn't say it is unexpectedly removed.
Seems either phone's card reader or the card is very unstable. That is why you are having problems in video files.
If the SD card benchmark program shows that tour SD card is performing bad, I beehive you got fake Sandisk SD card or really low class SD card.
From this point, I believe getting new SD card is the best solution here.
PS. You should put the SD card on PC then run benchmark on PC to see how it performs on PC. If it performs too much faster on PC, then the problem might be your phone's card reader.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Symptom went away with new sd
Before replacing the sd card, I had 100+ sd card events recorded by theSD Card Monitor program in a 24 hours period.
After replacing the sd card, I have 0 events recorded by the SD Card Monitor program in a 24-hour period.
The new SD is a Lexar 32GB Class 10 for $45 at Target. (preformatted as FAT32)
It was cheaper than the $70 32GB SanDisk they're selling at Best Buy.
I'm tempted to say the problem is solved.
On the other hand, one thing I noticed on the old SD was that the old sd symptoms got worse with time... I don't think they were there when the card was new. So I'm not sure if I've really solved the problem or just reset the clock waiting for the new SD to act up under whatever influences degraded the old one. Time will tell. For the time being, life is good. That scanning upon coming out of sleep was a real PITA.. slowed down the phone just when you picked it up to use it... actually dropped two phone calls recieved while phone was sleeping.. I presume because the phone wasn't able to handle scanning and answering at the same time.
Perhaps it was a fake SanDisk. Where'd you buy it from? Lots of fakes on eBay.
I bought the SanDisk (that had the problems) at Best Buy.

Your SD card likely isn't the problem

I was going to post this in response to a couple of people in the development sections but my post count is too low so I'll post it here instead.
The SD slot in this phone seems to have an issue with corrupting SD cards, I've had to format both my old and new SD card multiple times with this phone as it becomes unusable every few days. I'm not versed enough in hardware to know if this is a bad connection between the SD slot and the "motherboard" of the phone. I've seen a number of people have their SD cards go bad with this phone and I assume that means we had a manufacturing issue. It would be really cool if a hardware hacker experiencing this issue could take a look inside and confirm whether or not the hardware is connected correctly.
Well, perhaps there's a high number of bad readers....
I've had the same card in my Q since the day I got it (mid-September), no issues.
Mine wouldn't read the day I swapped up from My Epic 4g Touch to This phone, So I popped in an sd reader backed up my data then let the Moto format it, no issues sence
Curious to know what class of card you guys are running. I've been running a Patriot class 10 but my previous was a class 4 without branding that came with my old Transform.
I'm really hoping that I just had my old SD card die at a bad time and that my newer SD card was just sent bad. Today I couldn't get the card to read from the SD slot in my computer, and it would not be cool if my phone caused it to become that way.
Solust said:
Curious to know what class of card you guys are running. I've been running a Patriot class 10 but my previous was a class 4 without branding that came with my old Transform.
I'm really hoping that I just had my old SD card die at a bad time and that my newer SD card was just sent bad. Today I couldn't get the card to read from the SD slot in my computer, and it would not be cool if my phone caused it to become that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Class 10 Maxell
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2074251
No issues here. I tossed the crappy class 2/4 that shipped with my Epic long ago.
Well I found an extra class 4, 2 GB SD card lying around the house when I was cleaning today. It may be that the local shipment of phones was bad, so if this SD card goes on me then I'll try exchanging the phone in another town just to be safe.
Just out of curiosity does anyone know whether Sprint orders enough phones for replacements with their original shipments? I'm not from a very large town so I'd imagine they would keep replacing with phones from the same batch.
I've got a Samsung 32GB class 10 mSD.
Nearly everytime I reboot my Photon Q it says "SD Card is damaged".
Go into settings, Mount SD Card once or twice and it works.
I've read, that other Android Devices have also problems with that size of SD Cards. (Google)
I had also problem in recovery restoring a backup, the restore process didn't went correctly
(said that everything was fine), had to use my 2GB mSD, which worked nicely and the backup also.
So I think it's an android/kernel issue than a hardware issue.
I have noticed that I get the corrupt sdcard error everytime I try to use the "mass storage" or "media device" setting with Windows.
I use Ubuntu 99% of the time and leave it connected in "camera" mode, have never had that pop up like that...
I usually just use ADB to copy everything anyway so I do not miss the "mass storage" mode at all.
Just had a 16gb class 10 microcenter branded card go belly up on me. Phone just all of a sudden said it was removed and now nothing seems to recognize the thing. The mount option is completely greyed out, and does the same on my note 10.1 if i pop it in there.
When your cards have gone did they completely disappear and refuse to read?
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
I wonder if it's the c10 cards...
You guys really shouldn't be using high class cards in a phone - there's really no benefit, as phones use SD card's very differently from camcorders or cameras...
On my ooooold phone, anything above Class6 was bad juju. I have always had class4 or lower cards, no fried cards (yet... lol)
kinda what I am feeling too. Not sure what class card I have but it was just a cheap 32gb from wallmart... Only had that error pop up once with this one though, and that was after trying to use usb storage.
Sent from my XT897 using xda premium
arrrghhh said:
I wonder if it's the c10 cards...
You guys really shouldn't be using high class cards in a phone - there's really no benefit, as phones use SD card's very differently from camcorders or cameras...
On my ooooold phone, anything above Class6 was bad juju. I have always had class4 or lower cards, no fried cards (yet... lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Class 10 shouldn't make a difference to a device. The class/speed only comes in to play when transferring data from/to a computer, which will be faster on Class 10 vs Class 4 or 6.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
arrrghhh said:
I wonder if it's the c10 cards...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As best as I can tell, thats a negative. Ive been running with a 32GB class 10 since around when the phone was released, and Ive had no issues. Quite surprising on its own, seeing as I abuse the poor thing. True that class 10 arnt useful for the phone specifically, but some shops only carry class 10 cards.
@hfase
I dont seem to have any issues with mass storage, with ~1GB written a day. Im quite curious as to why some people have this issue.
ADegtyarev said:
As best as I can tell, thats a negative. Ive been running with a 32GB class 10 since around when the phone was released, and Ive had no issues. Quite surprising on its own, seeing as I abuse the poor thing. True that class 10 arnt useful for the phone specifically, but some shops only carry class 10 cards.
@hfase
I dont seem to have any issues with mass storage, with ~1GB written a day. Im quite curious as to why some people have this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it's all down to the quality of the actual card itself?
Perhaps the cheaper no-name / off-name brands have a much higher failure rate....?
I'm not really sure, short of actual hardware issues on the device.
AW: Your SD card likely isn't the problem
Well here is my experience:
I am using a new san disk 32GB class10 micro sdcard. It was never format ed/ used before. The q itself formated the disk.
I have had no problems until using the twisted asanti prebuild
Version. Since then I only got problems with the qu saying the sdcard would be corrupt, after reboot. ( I expected some additional wired things, like the currents widget, which I deleted before reboot reappeared). So I would suggest it is an error in un mounting the sdcard before shutdown, which causes this failure.
Since I usually do not reboot the phone expect for flashing new roms, I had no trouble since then.
Hope this might help to further circle the problem, and maybe find a solution for this.
Sent from my awesome XT897
Since CM10 I haven't noticed any SD-Card issues, but I have the feeling, that there are some issues, which aren't detected.
In the last few days my CM10 was acting weird.
1. The gallery (together with the camera app, 2in1 app) disappeared in the App Drawer (was still in /system/app) and didn't appear again after overwriting gallery2.apk again.
2. The Google Weather App had a graphical issue, so I was sure, that there was a flash issue by restoring ASA14 and flashing CM10 (from SD-Card!).
I solved this issue in copying the nandroid backup and CM10 to the phone and flash it from there.
I have tested my SD-Card in my external cardreader, it had no issues in doing so.
My guess is, that the SD-Card needs more power than the Photon Q can give and is losing some read/write commands.
arrrghhh said:
Maybe it's all down to the quality of the actual card itself?
Perhaps the cheaper no-name / off-name brands have a much higher failure rate....?
I'm not really sure, short of actual hardware issues on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think This may have hit the nail on the head. I have had a couple cheap discount cards die but they really died. Cant even read in the PC and one even got really hot when plugged in. Got a good branded card from amazon and havent had a problem since.
Mordannon said:
I think This may have hit the nail on the head. I have had a couple cheap discount cards die but they really died. Cant even read in the PC and one even got really hot when plugged in. Got a good branded card from amazon and havent had a problem since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used better Samsung and Sandisk cards and have had this issue. It just randomly wipes all my data and creates the LOST.DIR with it all in there, but file names are all renamed and would takes years to sort through and try to figure out what is what. All my photos, music, etc.. were basically gone then. It didn't matter that the card was a name-brand or not. I've had the issue with several cards.
I constantly have this problem as well, and I've found that mounting the SD card with a reader or in another phone in a Linux environment fixes it for the most part. I think files still get lost, but you get most of what you had back.
I got a 32GB UHS1 card last week and it hasn't had a problem.

SD card question.

hi all,
i got my A9 2 days ago and have a fault with it rebooting randomly and will be getting it replaced,,
but my question is about the SD card aspect..
i fitted a Lexar 64GB Class 10 High Speed Micro SDXC Memory Card and after formating as internal and migrating the data i had a system message saying that the card was slow and suggested using a card class 3 or better.
is this normal? have not noticed any performance issues since doing so.. just curious to see if anyone else has had similar messages after putting in the SD card.
I might be off base here, but is it possible that the card itself is a fake? Have you run a speed test on it?
jellmoo said:
I might be off base here, but is it possible that the card itself is a fake? Have you run a speed test on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have run a couple of tests but not sure what speeds i should be getting for this card..
cant post a screen shot yet as im a new user..
the results from an extended accurate test
are
1.52 GHz
read 38.6Mb/s
write 38.6Mb/s
when running one of the tests it did say that its cached the data as either there was too much free space or the SD card is slow.
Honestly, that's a little weird. The results seem a little low for a high end new card which should have speeds of 80Mb/s and up, but also too high for a fake which is usually lower than 10Mb/s.
Since you're getting the device replaced anyway, it might be a good idea to re-check once you have the new unit just to make sure it isn't some bizarre issue with that specific handset.
To compare, I've currently paired my A9 with a 32GB Samsung Pro card, and haven't seen such a warning message.
Download A1 SD Bench from the PlayStore.
Tikerz said:
Download A1 SD Bench from the PlayStore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the results are from that app.
jellmoo said:
Honestly, that's a little weird. The results seem a little low for a high end new card which should have speeds of 80Mb/s and up, but also too high for a fake which is usually lower than 10Mb/s.
Since you're getting the device replaced anyway, it might be a good idea to re-check once you have the new unit just to make sure it isn't some bizarre issue with that specific handset.
To compare, I've currently paired my A9 with a 32GB Samsung Pro card, and haven't seen such a warning message.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what speeds are you getting?
I have a SanDisk 128GB class 10 and I get 43.70MB/s read and 12.45MB/s write using A1 SD Bench.

Discussion of SDcards used on any device

Moving the intent of a few posts on LineageOS thread to here.
rb1979 said:
Hi everyone,
Some of you reported that SD Card stopped working. This happened to me too today after about 20 hours after the latest update. The case with me is it doesn't fix itself even after a restart. I'm kind of stuck, whatever I want to do with the SD Card it wants me format it. I always had it as internal storage with apps and other things there. I have the the backup from the before the update. Will that fix if I restore it? Just want to mention that I update every week and never missed one. I had very minor issues up until now. Week in and week out everything has been fine and I started using the rom with the first release, all clean, full format and then weekly over the air updates every single week.
If anybody know any solution please let me know, if nothing works or I don't hear anything I'll probably try the backup restoration. BTW, to be specific about SD card no working I always get two notifications, one is "Unsupported SanDisk SD card" and the other is "SanDisk SD card missing"
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KrisM22 said:
Use a card brand other than sandisk and size 32GB or less.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rb1979 said:
Thank you for you help, I really appreciate it. The problem I see, right or wrong, is that I had this card for a year with no issues, first under stock rom, then under CM, and now under LineageOS up until the latest update with no issues at all. So it's just hard for me to take the card as the problem. Especially after seeing other people reporting it too lately. Do you have more information than just that? Meaning LineageOS and won't ever get along with sandisk or size larger than 32GB because of some external hardware limitation or something like that. Or this is just general knowledge what works best with LineageOS? In the first case I can think about case I can go and invest into a new card but in the second case I can just wait it out until codebase improves. It would good to know more so I can make better decisions.
Thanks for your help again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KrisM22 said:
In my experience, most folks presenting SDcard problems have sandisk. I personally have had problems with sandisk that has led me to avoid them. I prefer samsung. There are many others. edit currently using a pny U3 32GB, but it's an old one and only does 56/29MBs R/W.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
adityak1303 said:
+1 @KrisM22. I agree that almost all the users that state that there's a problem with their SD card were using a SanDisk SD card including myself. @rb1979, if you really think that your card isn't faulty, then try using it in some other phone. If you face the same errors then your card is faulty. If it works fine on the other phone, only then can it be considered as a problem with the ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rb1979 said:
Thanks both of you, I'll do some testing around and get back to you with my findings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KrisM22 said:
I just ordered one of these because I want to test the 64GB thing as it keeps coming up.
Samsung 64GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME64GA/AM) - $23 + some silly $3 thing to get free shipping over $25. There are faster ones out there but I'm a cheapskate and don't use it enough to justify it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's most of it - then it goes verbose and wobbly.
I welcome any and all comments about SDcards!
There is no OT here but remember the XDA rules and try to be nice to folks. You can learn without trying to control others' behaviour.
No need to pretend you are TD. (allusion to Alice in Wonderland - Top Doormouse)
Thanks for creating this thread. There are surprisingly few other recent threads that discuss this topic on XDA apart from the one I've previously linked to (https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/micro-sd-write-access-format-exfat-t3358275). Also, I'm bringing over the well informed SD related comments that you left behind.
---------------------------
I've got to push back on the apriori assumption that these are specifically Sandisk brand card issues without knowing the specific details of the issues and seeing actual logs, and also without knowing the history of the individual cards in question (details of every device it was connected to and how it was connected, what OS and what file management methods were used, and how full the card typically is, and how frequently it might be disconnected in the middle of a file operations, among other things).
We must be mindful of the fact that the majority of SD cards in circulation are Sandisk cards which means that the majority of reported problems will be on Sandisk cards but this does not mean that the Sandisk cards are experiencing proportionately more issues than other brands. I don't doubt individual experiences, but it they may not speak to a larger picture. For example: Having supported large systems (>300 devices) running Linux directly from SD cards I did not see more problems with Sandisk cards than others. We've not seen enough evidence here to declare that this this is a Sandisk problem.
rb1979 said:
...I had this card for a year with no issues, first under stock rom, then under CM, and now under LineageOS up until the latest update with no issues at all.So it's just hard for me to take the card as the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that a card has been used for a long time under different circumstances does not support a logical argument that the problem is in the ROM, in fact that supports the logical argument that the problem is with the card.
adityak1303 said:
....if you really think that your card isn't faulty, then try using it in some other phone. If you face the same errors then your card is faulty. If it works fine on the other phone, only then can it be considered as a problem with the ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good advise since, if the cards is having problems it should bring the problems to the other devices. Testing a different card in the first device on which the problem was noticed is also a good test.
--------------------------
Here is some supplemental information specific to Sandisk SD cards' built in data protection on cards experiencing failure. https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/micro-sd-write-access-format-exfat-t3358275. To summarize what is there: An SD card may begin to fail unknown to us, and then when the built in data protection is invoked it "breaks" the card with a dirty bit at beginning of drive so it cannot be written to or formatted but still allows us to copy data. The symoptoms when that data protection is invoked are similar to those bing reported by people who can no longer mount the card in Android devices (Android devices require read and write access to mount the card, unlike when the card is access via card reader on computer).
Just an update. I tried to format the card as portable storage (after this failure as internal and being burned I have hard time trusting it now) but it fails. I didn't do any testing with other phones just went straight for format. I might just buy another card. I think the phone specs say it's 32 GB max, is it still the case with different OS or not (meaning it was due to software not hardware) if I could get something higher than 32 (the current broken one is 32) I would go for it.
Thanks
rb1979 said:
Just an update. I tried to format the card as portable storage (after this failure as internal and being burned I have hard time trusting it now) but it fails. I didn't do any testing with other phones just went straight for format. I might just buy another card. I think the phone specs say it's 32 GB max, is it still the case with different OS or not (meaning it was due to software not hardware) if I could get something higher than 32 (the current broken one is 32) I would go for it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe after you use it as internal, and then try to use it as external, you first have to write an MBR on it and a partition formatted FAT32. i use a bootable stand-alone GPARTED to do that.
http://gparted.org/
Moto says it's limit is 32GB. Folks have, I believe, used much bigger cards on it. Don't know what is the limiting factor - be it software (ROM) , hardware, or licensing (exfat for Microsoft). I have ordered a 64GB Sammy which I should get in 1/2 week so I can test. Course I wouldn't be doing exactly what you would be doing so the test would only show that the G3 could read/write to it. I will only use it as external storage. I don't really "need" 64GB but it will allow me to be a bit more sloppy vis a vis nandroid backups.
It could be that after you format yours, that it will suddenly work just fine. Then again I just had a thumb drive go belly-up from I/O errors - once in a great while, it happens.
KrisM22 said:
... Moto says it's limit is 32GB. Folks have, I believe, used much bigger cards on it. Don't know what is the limiting factor .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a 128gb in my Moto G (3rd - XT1540 2GB), and I have used the card for a long time. It works just fine for me, and the space is obviously fantastic to have. Every now and then (every few months or so, I'd say - maybe 3 times in the 18 months I've had it), it does become corrupted, though, and I get those same error messages. A backup, wipe/re-format, and restore, and I put it right back in my phone and it works just fine again. Seems like that's happened in other devices, though, too.
The card is a SanDisk Ultra SL128 (Class 10/UHS-1, man'd Jan 2016). I've only ever used it for external storage, never adopted, and I've only ever formatted the card as FAT32, using my PC. I'm running stock Android 6.0 24.24.1 at the moment, with TWRP.
beachfl said:
I've got a 128gb in my Moto G (3rd - XT1540 2GB), and I have used the card for a long time. It works just fine for me, and the space is obviously fantastic to have. Every now and then (every few months or so, I'd say - maybe 3 times in the 18 months I've had it), it does become corrupted, though, and I get those same error messages. A backup, wipe/re-format, and restore, and I put it right back in my phone and it works just fine again. Seems like that's happened in other devices, though, too.
The card is a SanDisk Ultra SL128 (Class 10/UHS-1, man'd Jan 2016). I've only ever used it for external storage, never adopted, and I've only ever formatted the card as FAT32, using my PC. I'm running stock Android 6.0 24.24.1 at the moment, with TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - Becoming corrupted every 6 months seems excessive, but with heavy use...? So what do you use it for? Also it sounds like you are using something other than the phone to format it...?
At least you are ready for it and just re-format it!
beachfl said:
I've got a 128gb in my Moto G (3rd - XT1540 2GB), and I have used the card for a long time. It works just fine for me, and the space is obviously fantastic to have. Every now and then (every few months or so, I'd say - maybe 3 times in the 18 months I've had it), it does become corrupted, though, and I get those same error messages. A backup, wipe/re-format, and restore, and I put it right back in my phone and it works just fine again. Seems like that's happened in other devices, though, too.
The card is a SanDisk Ultra SL128 (Class 10/UHS-1, man'd Jan 2016). I've only ever used it for external storage, never adopted, and I've only ever formatted the card as FAT32, using my PC. I'm running stock Android 6.0 24.24.1 at the moment, with TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That may not be drive corruption but rather a corrupted file or files. If it is localize drive corruption it may still be there without having any impact until some data is written to that part of the drive. Unlike platter based hard drives, when these drives actually start to fail they may invoke a built in data protection (dirty bit) which resembles being locked in read only mode preventing the drive from being formatted which is obviously not your case. Have you ever done a sector scan of the drive, eg chkdsk <driveletter> /f /r or done a full format (as opposed to quick format)? Either of those things may flush out localized damage and the scan might fix it but they would take a long time.
KrisM22 said:
Thanks - Becoming corrupted every 6 months seems excessive, but with heavy use...? So what do you use it for? Also it sounds like you are using something other than the phone to format it...?
At least you are ready for it and just re-format it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I guess it is kinda a small PITA lol. Could just be from me starting and cancelling or moving too many things at once, I don't know.
I've never actually come close to needing all that space to TBH. I could probably do just fine with a 64, but it's nice to know I could record or store hours of HD video, for example, if I need it. I got nearly 30 gigs of music on it. I keep tv and movies on there, too, in case I get caught bored somewhere. Full Nandroid and Titanium backups are on there, as well.
I use a microSD adapter and a small (76 kb) utility for Windows called FAT32Format (Ridgecorp).
---------- Post added at 22:00 ---------- Previous post was at 21:45 ----------
IronTechmonkey said:
That may not be drive corruption but rather a corrupted file or files. If it is localize drive corruption it may still be there without having any impact until some data is written to that part of the drive. Unlike platter based hard drives, when these drives actually start to fail they may invoke a built in data protection (dirty bit) which resembles being locked in read only mode preventing the drive from being formatted which is obviously not your case. Have you ever done a sector scan of the drive, eg chkdsk <driveletter> /f /r or done a full format (as opposed to quick format)? Either of those things may flush out localized damage and the scan might fix it but they would take a long time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had that problem before, too, but not on the 128 I have in my phone now. That is very frustrating. One of my 32 gb cards suddenly went into "read-only" mode as you describe, and nothing I can do will get it useable again. All the files are still readable from it (except the part of one huge video file that is on the bad sector that seems to have caused the problem).
So right, my 128 card doesn't have that problem, and seems to be corrupted files, as you say, not the drive itself. I do actually do what you talk about - when I do find I have to re-do the 128 sd card in my phone, I run a Windows chkdsk /r before I re-format it, and a chkdsk /f afterward, as a check. The chkdsk /r does take quite a while, yeah .. a few hours.
Cheers
beachfl said:
Yeah I guess it is kinda a small PITA lol. Could just be from me starting and cancelling or moving too many things at once, I don't know.
I've never actually come close to needing all that space to TBH. I could probably do just fine with a 64, but it's nice to know I could record or store hours of HD video, for example, if I need it. I got nearly 30 gigs of music on it. I keep tv and movies on there, too, in case I get caught bored somewhere. Full Nandroid and Titanium backups are on there, as well.
I use a microSD adapter and a small (76 kb) utility for Windows called FAT32Format (Ridgecorp).
---------- Post added at 22:00 ---------- Previous post was at 21:45 ----------
I've had that problem before, too, but not on the 128 I have in my phone now. That is very frustrating. One of my 32 gb cards suddenly went into "read-only" mode as you describe, and nothing I can do will get it useable again. All the files are still readable from it (except the part of one huge video file that is on the bad sector that seems to have caused the problem).
So right, my 128 card doesn't have that problem, and seems to be corrupted files, as you say, not the drive itself. I do actually do what you talk about - when I do find I have to re-do the 128 sd card in my phone, I run a Windows chkdsk /r before I re-format it, and a chkdsk /f afterward, as a check. The chkdsk /r does take quite a while, yeah .. a few hours.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great that you're running chkdsk on it. May be caused if you cancel or something happens in the middle of a move. Only other thing I could suggest is to do your format on the phone itself, after you've done everything else on the PC. Don't know if that would make a difference. Shouldn't but I've run across vy experienced folks saying to do that. But... Yeah you've got me hankering to put a 128GB on it...
edit: for read only cards before you trash them I would run them by gparted just to see if re-creating the MBR and partition would change its mind. I have successfully done that with thumb drives but not with cards/adapter/reader.
KrisM22 said:
Great that you're running chkdsk on it..
edit: for read only cards before you trash them I would run them by gparted just to see if re-creating the MBR and partition would change its mind. I have successfully done that with thumb drives but not with cards/adapter/reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, thanks for reminding me about fixing the errors, IronTechmonkey. It's kinda an important step I forgot to mention.
I not sure I have the bad card still. I didn't think about GParted, should have. I tried Paragon, among other things, but to no avail.
What speeds are folks getting from a U3 SDE card? I bought what I thought was a 100/60MB/s card and it does about what my old PNY card did - R=40-50, W=34-40MB/s. Is the phone the limiting factor or did I get a bum card?
KrisM22 said:
What speeds are folks getting from a U3 SDE card? I bought what I thought was a 100/60MB/s card and it does about what my old PNY card did - R=40-50, W=34-40MB/s. Is the phone the limiting factor or did I get a bum card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK the the phone hardware/OS is unlikely to meet the advertised speeds of the cards. Likewise and perhaps more so for USB 2.0 ports and anything using MTP.
I dont know how this compares but for what it is worth: With a Sandisk Utra SDHC (Class 10 - Video, Ultra High Speed Class 1 - whatever that jargon means) touting 80 MB/s read speeds and 40 MB/s* write speeds; the read speeds did consistently approach the rating (getting hot enough to scorch the logo) and the wite speed occasional did. Another factor is the size of files being copied, larger quantities of smaller files taking more time per MB, unless using some dedicated test utility I've never actually done a test of SD r/w speeds on the device. What are you using to measure those?
* In re write speed ratings: Digging into the small print of the specifications may reveal that the manufacturer uses different size cards each for the reed and write speed ratings, effectively padding the write speeds by citing test results from smaller capacity cards.
IronTechmonkey said:
AFAIK the the phone hardware/OS is unlikely to meet the advertised speeds of the cards. Likewise and perhaps more so for USB 2.0 ports and anything using MTP.
I dont know how this compares but for what it is worth: With a Sandisk Utra SDHC (Class 10 - Video, Ultra High Speed Class 1 - whatever that jargon means) touting 80 MB/s read speeds and 40 MB/s* write speeds; the read speeds did consistently approach the rating (getting hot enough to scorch the logo) and the wite speed occasional did. Another factor is the size of files being copied, larger quantities of smaller files taking more time per MB, unless using some dedicated test utility I've never actually done a test of SD r/w speeds on the device. What are you using to measure those?
* In re write speed ratings: Digging into the small print of the specifications may reveal that the manufacture uses different size cards each for the reed and write speed ratings, effectively padding the write speeds by citing test results from smaller capacity cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
Interesting - so you were testing it on windows (?) I did test them on linux and got W=74 on the PNY and 77MBs on the Samsung. That's through a USB3 cardreader.
On the phone I used A1 SD Bench, SD card test, and disk speed test.
Off to try windows...
I was just going to boot up a WinPE and test it there. What prog did you use to test it?
Yes, both of these cards test at about R=81 , W=66.
KrisM22 said:
Thanks.
Interesting - so you were testing it on windows (?) I did test them on linux and got W=74 on the PNY and 77MBs on the Samsung. That's through a USB3 cardreader.
On the phone I used A1 SD Bench, SD card test, and disk speed test.
Off to try windows...
I was just going to boot up a WinPE and test it there. What prog did you use to test it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Windows 7, which reports file data transfer speeds in the copy process window so I did not use a utility. I've done this enough times in geneal, and a few times specifically with large files and a stopwatch, so I know the speed in the file copy window is relatively accurate (for single large files). The speeds you get on linux seem reasonable. I'll test A1 SD Bench on Osprey when I have a chance. Thanks.
---------- Post added at 11:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 PM ----------
KrisM22 said:
Yes, both of these cards test at about R=81 , W=66.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also seemingly reasonable.
My card seem to be working just fine on my Lineage OS. I rebooted by device and now it says it's corrupted. Is there any way out? Will I be able to get my data back?
jay.bhadra1995 said:
My card seem to be working just fine on my Lineage OS. I rebooted by device and now it says it's corrupted. Is there any way out? Will I be able to get my data back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My suggestion would be to copy whatever you can off it and re-format it asap. If you can't read it via phone, try PC.
EDIT: I am assuming you are using it as external. If you are using it as internal, I believe you have lost everything. I know of nothing that can read it. GPARTED can only re-add an MBR and a partition and make it usable again, but all data is lost.
KrisM22 said:
My suggestion would be to copy whatever you can off it and re-format it asap. If you can't read it via phone, try PC.
EDIT: I am assuming you are using it as external. If you are using it as internal, I believe you have lost everything. I know of nothing that can read it. GPARTED can only re-add an MBR and a partition and make it usable again, but all data is lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I copied everything and made a backup. Luckily I use it only as a storage device and not an internal drive for apps. But how do I re-format it? I tried using the format option that my phone gives me but to no avail.
jay.bhadra1995 said:
Yeah. I copied everything and made a backup. Luckily I use it only as a storage device and not an internal drive for apps. But how do I re-format it? I tried using the format option that my phone gives me but to no avail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a little card reader so you can plug it into your PC?
KrisM22 said:
Do you have a little card reader so you can plug it into your PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Sadly I don't. Is there no other way round to format it?

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