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MicroSD HC: Did your files disappear?

It happened to me 3 times in 3 days. The entire contents disappeared with no reason. I have never experienced this issue, but it is getting me out of my nerves.
My SD card is a Sandisk 8 GB SDHC.
I have scanned the card using a card reader and it seems that all the files are there, but they're unlinked. The space is used, but the files are not accesible, so when I go to Storage Card, I find it empty.
It's TOTALLY annoying. Please, give your experience if you have this problem.
Have you lost all your MicroSD card contents and you don't know why?

My Sandisk 8gb card came with a USB2 card reader that is great speed-wise; but twice I lost all the data when using it. I didn't realize it might be related at the time, but then I misplaced the reader and switched to using the adapter kind -- the SD sized thing that you slip the microSD card into (my laptop has a SD card slot). It's been a few months now, and with constant switching of the card between my Touch, Touch Cruise and laptop, I've not lost the data since.
While I can't say for sure it's related, it hasn't happened since I stopped using the USB adapter that shipped with the card.

I think it's not related to the use of the adapter since the first time I lost my files I was on a route using Tomtom 7. In my way back, I had to go without the navigator :S No maps, and the videos and pictures that I took, totally lost.
Fortunately I have an application that is pure gold to recover every disaster that could happen (recovers partitions even after formatting the disk, and files with their original names). It's not pleasant for me to use this application ("[email protected] Partition Recovery Enterprise"), but this is becoming too usual...
By the way I'm using udK's WM6.1 ROM R6, even though I don't think it's related to it.
My MicroSD is formatted in FAT32 with 32KB clusters.
Any ideas about how to fix this problem?
The last time I lost the contents I was about to sync music with WMP (with the USB connected).

Good luck... I'm using the ROM that shipped with the device. Guess the only way to know if it's related to a cooked-ROM is to re-install the official ROM and see how things go.

I'm using HTC original ROM and 8Gb Sandisk card with no problem for more than 3 months. My fingers are crossed

I'm using HTC original ROM and 8Gb Sandisk card with some issues (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=407046&highlight=bodisson), but no files are missing.

Sometimes I get extra file names with really weird characters. Usually, if I reinsert the card, these go away and I can access normally the card.
(SanDisk 4GB SDHC)
George

6ITdtvFQqY said:
Sometimes I get extra file names with really weird characters. Usually, if I reinsert the card, these go away and I can access normally the card.
(SanDisk 4GB SDHC)
George
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here...

SuperJMN said:
It happened to me 3 times in 3 days. The entire contents disappeared with no reason. I have never experienced this issue, but it is getting me out of my nerves.
My SD card is a Sandisk 8 GB SDHC.
I have scanned the card using a card reader and it seems that all the files are there, but they're unlinked. The space is used, but the files are not accesible, so when I go to Storage Card, I find it empty.
It's TOTALLY annoying. Please, give your experience if you have this problem.
Have you lost all your MicroSD card contents and you don't know why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that happened to me twice..my problem was solved by installing an sd enhancement cab file. almost everything appeared back in my sd.
i have an HTC touch cruise. here is a link for the cab file..try it if you want, maybe you ll solve your problem
http://www.sendspace.com/file/kr98xz

did you use something like sktools for change pathes of temp/cookes files of I.E or so on?
If yes it could following happend:
You change the destination path for some application like InternetExplorers Temp and Cookies pathes to point to Storage Card.
After this you removed the card on any time.
The device cannot find the path to the Storage Card and creates a folder "Storage Card" on the root of the internal device memory.
If you insert a card again, it show you onliy the content of the new folder.
Regards
Daydoo

Dudes,
I'm bought a sandisk 8gb micro SDHC about a month ago.
Filled it almost to the brim with music and podcasts.
I regularly uses great programs like S2P and BeyondPod for music and podcasts to listen with my Bluetooth A2DP headset.
Had no problem until recently where the entire card is not readable anymore
Symptoms:
1) the phone started not to recognise the SDHC, where it could not detect any inserted card
2) the failures on the SDHC gave me corrupted files. I was able to repaired these by using the Windows XP chkdsk and fix error command
3) by the 3rd time i did this, the card was not readable at all
Suspects:
1) every time polaris hang, i would press the reset button. I suspect tat this would corrupt some files (possibly even the entire SDHC ??)
2) every time polaris hang, i think the phone was running more than 1 app at the same time. In my case, it was probably S2U2 and S2P or BeyondPod, together with BT A2DP.
Don't think it was caused by these great apps, but rather the way Polaris or WindowsPPC handles multi tasking
Will be returning the 8gb SDHC soon for a replacement.
Any ideas on how to prevent this from happening again ?
(other than not running multiple apps at the same time)
Thx
BTW, i'm running windows 6.0, the original HTC polaris rom

Also have a Scandisk 8gb card in my Polaris...
Problems im suffering is that now and then the storage card looses connection.... I can not see it on my mobile and also its not showing up using ActiveSync.
It happens really often and mostly when im using software that depends on it like IGO. The application crashes because it can not access the files needed.
Ive read somewhere that this only happens with scandisk cards so im considering buying a kingston card.. can anyone verify this??

Well the best thing is to make sure, you safely remove your hardware before removing the sd card from the pc or otherwise change the device settings of the memory card to "optimize for quick removal" in the device manager

I recently switched from a non-sdhc card (1 GB) to a SDHC 4GB kingston.
weirdest of all things is that i lose certain applications, but not all!
For instance i have TomTOm installed. Stopped functioning and lost the icon. But SK Tools still works. :S
I'm not very happy with this, since i use my phone ALOT with TomTom and all the other apps i installed on it. Especially at work.
Gonna try the artemis sd fix... Hope it works.

Could it be that you'd made a rom-upgrade with the sd-card in the phone? I had the same problem - lost files on sd-card - with the original 1GB-Card and a new 4-GB-SDHC. I think (and hope) that leaving the card while upgrading has reasoned this issue. After reformating the card in the pda the problem has gone for me . Thank you for your answers...
Steffen

steffa77 said:
Could it be that you'd made a rom-upgrade with the sd-card in the phone? I had the same problem - lost files on sd-card - with the original 1GB-Card and a new 4-GB-SDHC. I think (and hope) that leaving the card while upgrading has reasoned this issue. After reformating the card in the pda the problem has gone for me . Thank you for your answers...
Steffen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i actually did leave the card while upgrading. But i didn't lose any data until a few days AFTER the upgrade. And i frequently soft-reset the device.
I solved my problem (i think) by deleting 'program files' on the storage card and making a new 'program files' folder. It works for a few day now. (keeps fingers crossed)

I did a ROM upgrade (udK Diamond R7) without the microSDHC card, and yesterday night I lost all my files for the nth time.
The space remains used. I was listening to a podcast (that was stored into the card), and suddenly, when I ran the File Explorer to do something, all the files were missing. The podcast played correctly, but when I tried to re-open it, the file could not be found.
I'm feed up with this problem. It is like having no card at all...
Please, we need somebody to fix it. Is it happening to other brands of only Sandisk?
Thanks.

I simply turned my phone off. Then back on again and storage card had turned into storage card 2. Everything I had on the card was lost. So I carried on using the card and now its storage card 3 and the data from when it was called card 2 is now lost.
copilot often asks me to insert map data.
Ive found that if I remove the card and close all programs before I turn the phone off I dont lose data.
O2 told me to send it in for replacement. That was months ago. Not had chance yet. Might be too late!?

udk's r7 must be faulty, i lost my destinator files 2 times and dawg i didnt took a backup for quite some time. no favorites for me now :<

sedde said:
udk's r7 must be faulty, i lost my destinator files 2 times and dawg i didnt took a backup for quite some time. no favorites for me now :<
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean that the problem might be the cooked ROM? Maybe we can isolate the problem with this approach.

[Q] USB Mass Storage Won't Register

When I connect my phone to my PC (Windows 7 Home Premium) i get the notification for how to connect. but choose USB Mass Storage, it will not connect. sometimes if I wait a minute or so it will, an occasionally it will just work. Sometimes it will also work if I chose windows media sync and them explore on my computer, but not always. This is driving me insane since it won't do anything consistently. The problem started a while ago. Not sure If I had rooted yet at that point, but I was on a stock rom. Currently running Supercharged V5. any help would be greatly appreciated

If you have any apps stored on your SD card, it can mess it up. I had bootstrap stored on mine and was having similar problems, removing the apps should solve the prob.

No Apps on SD Card
Don't think that's the problem. I keep all apps on my phone because there is more than enough space and my SD card is full of music. it is a fairly low quality card though. Could that be the problem? I'm not exactly sure what class, but it was super cheap

I heard of class 10 SD cards having trouble, I have Samsung class 6 in mine and it is working fine.

Mudslinger42 said:
I heard of class 10 SD cards having trouble, I have Samsung class 6 in mine and it is working fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mines only class 4

[Q] Transfered apps

Hi guys.
I'm having an issue on my XL.
This happens every time I transfer an app to internal(via settings->apps) or on SD(titanium backup, clean master).
After a reboot, it doesn't immediately show up in the app drawer. Eventually, after 6-10 seconds it does shows up at the end of the drawer.
Its very annoying...
Any help or suggestions REALLY appreciated
Notes: 4.2.2, BL Unlocked, rooted, tried re-flashing all stock FWs and pre-alpha CM but nothing worked :crying:
Also sorry if I missed something, its late and I'm starting to hear some wierd conversations in my head...

Brzi99 said:
Hi guys.
I'm having an issue on my XL.
This happens every time I transfer an app to internal(via settings->apps) or on SD(titanium backup, clean master).
After a reboot, it doesn't immediately show up in the app drawer. Eventually, after 6-10 seconds it does shows up at the end of the drawer.
Its very annoying...
Any help or suggestions REALLY appreciated
Notes: 4.2.2, BL Unlocked, rooted, tried re-flashing all stock FWs and pre-alpha CM but nothing worked :crying:
Also sorry if I missed something, its late and I'm starting to hear some wierd conversations in my head...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is quite normal. You have sent a file/app to SD card and it is not immediately available when system loads. After system loads, it starts to read SD card and then you see your apps.
Even If you use a faster sdcard like class 10, you might see improvement but there will be always a delay.
Further, the more apps you have on your phone, the more time it will take to read your SD card.
How often you restart your phone ? I hardly restart it in months.

Hnk1 said:
This is quite normal. You have sent a file/app to SD card and it is not immediately available when system loads. After system loads, it starts to read SD card and then you see your apps.
Even If you use a faster sdcard like class 10, you might see improvement but there will be always a delay.
Further, the more apps you have on your phone, the more time it will take to read your SD card.
How often you restart your phone ? I hardly restart it in months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I restart it quite often lately...
I'm aware that forcing transfer to SD is risky, but as I said, this doesn't happen only if I transfer an app to SD, but also to internal memory. And that didn't happen before.
For an example, I flash a generic ftf, turn on the phone, reboot and transfer Office Suite to interal memory.
Also, I use a class 10 Kingston 32 gb.

Brzi99 said:
Well I restart it quite often lately...
I'm aware that forcing transfer to SD is risky, but as I said, this doesn't happen only if I transfer an app to SD, but also to internal memory. And that didn't happen before.
For an example, I flash a generic ftf, turn on the phone, reboot and transfer Office Suite to interal memory.
Also, I use a class 10 Kingston 32 gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry to disappoint you but it has always been there for me when I had many apps/more than 50% full internal or SD memory in all phones I used EXCEPT Nexus devices. (It only has one memory. Not two or three )
The phone reads internal memory and SD card the same way, you can think of both as two SD cards. One which is removable and other not.
Try clearing dalvik cache. It might help but chances are slim.
Here what you do , restart your phone and do something else for a bit like a glass of water, or check what's in fridge to eat

Hnk1 said:
I am sorry to disappoint you but it has always been there for me when I had many apps/more than 50% full internal or SD memory in all phones I used EXCEPT Nexus devices. (It only has one memory. Not two or three )
The phone reads internal memory and SD card the same way, you can think of both as two SD cards. One which is removable and other not.
Try clearing dalvik cache. It might help but chances are slim.
Here what you do , restart your phone and do something else for a bit like a glass of water, or check what's in fridge to eat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha thanks for your adivce
Yeah, tried cleaning dalvik cache... surprise, surprise, it didn't work.
But hey, it's nothing fatal. All of my apps fit in phone memory.
Still, thanks for clearing it up for me.

Major issue - apps on SD card "dissappear"

Hello all,
I spent the last couple of hours to install a large number of apps, games etc. to my shield tablet (after a lollipop factory reset). I moved most apps to the SD card from the app manager.
Then, I restarted - and all the apps i moved to to the sd card have disappeared. A few seconds later they came back in the application folder - but they did not come back to the desktop.
I tried again - put them on the desktop and in folders - then restarted. The same thing has happened: they disappeared from the desktop.
Initially they were not in the app folder either - but then they appeared a few seconds later.
It seems like lollipop has difficulty seeing if there are a large number of apps on the SD card and therefore removes them all from the desktop?
This is a major issue as I never experienced such a thing with Kitkat...
Any thoughts?

I had this same issue and solved it. It is an SD card formatting issue.
My suddenly root-less Shield's apps couldn't write into my SD card and some icons kept disappearing from the home screens. I dug into the first issue (since Lollipop reportedly removes Kitkat's limitation in that aspect), and it seems all you need to do is format your card (in a PC) in NFTS. Cards come in exFAT by defect and formatting them in android uses that format as well, and for some reason apps in Lollipop can't write in an exFAT card. Formatting in NFTS not only allowed my file explorer to write onto the SD card, but it stopped the icons disappearing from my home screen as well.
Hope this helps!

Varmer said:
I had this same issue and solved it. It is an SD card formatting issue.
My suddenly root-less Shield's apps couldn't write into my SD card and some icons kept disappearing from the home screens. I dug into the first issue (since Lollipop reportedly removes Kitkat's limitation in that aspect), and it seems all you need to do is format your card (in a PC) in NFTS. Cards come in exFAT by defect and formatting them in android uses that format as well, and for some reason apps in Lollipop can't write in an exFAT card. Formatting in NFTS not only allowed my file explorer to write onto the SD card, but it stopped the icons disappearing from my home screen as well.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the help. I am able to write to the SD card (Formatted in the tablet).
The issue I think is a timing issue:
Lollipop boots up - before it loads the long list of apps from the SD card.
So immediately, during boot, those apps I moved to the SD card are not visible, therefore their icons are removed from the desktop or folders.
Then, a few seconds later the SD card read completes and the apps become visible in the apps folder. However, by that time the icons on the desktop are already drawn, so the apps are not on the desktop (or dock) any more.
Very frustrating. I will try to use an alternative launcher now - hoping that that will work better ...
If it does not, I will try moving the apps back to main memory to see at how many apps do I start getting the problem. (If I had only 5-10 apps on SD card, this problem did not existed. I experienced it only when I moved 20+ apps to SD)
Either way: this is not normal...

If you formatted in the tablet you're still in exFAT. I had the same delay you speak of, but it's gone now with my card in NFTS. Never had an icon disappear ever since I reformatted, I even tried just now to make sure and everything works like a charm. I think you should give it a try, even if it is to discard possible sources of error.
Anyways, good luck!

Varmer said:
If you formatted in the tablet you're still in exFAT. I had the same delay you speak of, but it's gone now with my card in NFTS. Never had an icon disappear ever since I reformatted, I even tried just now to make sure and everything works like a charm. I think you should give it a try, even if it is to discard possible sources of error.
Anyways, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you mean - makes sense. Will copy all data from microsd to my PC - reformat and recopy. Lets see how that changes things.
Thank you

Gadgetguy2005 said:
I see what you mean - makes sense. Will copy all data from microsd to my PC - reformat and recopy. Lets see how that changes things.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update: formatted card to NTFS. Results are exactly the same. The apps on the microSD take about 10 seconds to show up (I have about 50 apps on the microsd...).
So that did not solve the problem.
I will set up nova launcher now. Lets see if that helps to solve this (not a real solution - but could be a good work around)

Gadgetguy I think your tablet did not update correctly, becuase after updating to lollipop I have 0 issues, no lag, wifi is much better - getting 2-3 bars where previously getting only 1 and no issues related to sd card (i am on the same formatting when i took my card out of the box)... Or maybe there is a problem with build and results of upgrade vary from tablet to tablet and i am one of the lucky ones
Goodluck, hope you find your solutions soon

What is your SDcard ? Brand ? Model? NTFS ? Cluster Size ?

Judge584 said:
What is your SDcard ? Brand ? Model? NTFS ? Cluster Size ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADATA Premier Micro SDXC UHS-1 U1 CLASS10 64GB Memory Card - formatted NTFS, default cluster size (dont remember what I used - will check).

If default it is 4kb. Try with the max : 64kb.
For reference, mine is a SamsungSDXC Pro UHS-I 64GB

Mine is Samsung Grade 1 Class 10 64GB Evo Micro SDXC Memory Card, Fat32 - for reference too

Unresolved Issue
First, since when is NTFS the preferred format for Android??
Second, this same issue has been unresolved and persistent on the Google Now launcher for a long time, research it. All these format and speed questions are grabbing at straws. The issue is REAL and nobody is owning up to it. Google never has and now Nvidia will not with their launcher either. The new Nvidia launcher looks and acts just like the Google now launcher in form, function and this bug.
Nova Launcher does not have this issue and I was forced to switch to it even though I hate the overhead.

Judge584 said:
If default it is 4kb. Try with the max : 64kb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this necessary/recommended? I just reformatted mine with the default and I haven't copied anything over yet, so if this is better in any way, I'd like to go ahead and reformat now.

Yes it is, you have to be closest to the best setting. 128kb is default out of factory, so go with 64kb the closest you can do with NTFS.

Varmer said:
I had this same issue and solved it. It is an SD card formatting issue.
My suddenly root-less Shield's apps couldn't write into my SD card and some icons kept disappearing from the home screens. I dug into the first issue (since Lollipop reportedly removes Kitkat's limitation in that aspect), and it seems all you need to do is format your card (in a PC) in NFTS. Cards come in exFAT by defect and formatting them in android uses that format as well, and for some reason apps in Lollipop can't write in an exFAT card. Formatting in NFTS not only allowed my file explorer to write onto the SD card, but it stopped the icons disappearing from my home screen as well.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked here, thank you

DavidSchrader said:
First, since when is NTFS the preferred format for Android??
Second, this same issue has been unresolved and persistent on the Google Now launcher for a long time, research it. All these format and speed questions are grabbing at straws. The issue is REAL and nobody is owning up to it. Google never has and now Nvidia will not with their launcher either. The new Nvidia launcher looks and acts just like the Google now launcher in form, function and this bug.
Nova Launcher does not have this issue and I was forced to switch to it even though I hate the overhead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you David : you are probably right. I may have had the same on kitkat, but since there I never used the factory (google or nvidia) launcher I did not run into issues.
On lollipop I wanted to avoid to use a third party launcher - hence the problems.
I use now Nova launcher - and it works. (And formatting to NTFS did not help - it had zero results)

My SD card (Sandisk 64Gb) is formatted to NTFS apps disappearing
I am having the same app disapearances. most of my apps have been moved to my NTFS SD card. I can't format it to FAT32 as my Shield tablet won't recognize it. Under storage it just states to insert SD card and mount it. rather than displaying the stats on the SD card (space used, space free) so my card HAS to be NTFS as of today I am having disappearing apps and they don't appear after a few mins and sometimes I have to reboot my tablet up to 10 times before they show up! this is beyond annoying! what is the point of being able to store apps on external storage when the apps disappear like that?!

I'm on 5.1, having reboot "Android is Optimizing", and stalled loading of apps after boot from NTFS formatted 64 gig class 10 Samsung memory card, along with USB OTG not working. Has anyone came across a solution for any of these?

mskulltula said:
I'm on 5.1, having reboot "Android is Optimizing", and stalled loading of apps after boot from NTFS formatted 64 gig class 10 Samsung memory card, along with USB OTG not working. Has anyone came across a solution for any of these?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wrote a tutorial on how to get rid of the optimizing notice, plus a ton of other improvements for ota 3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3118187

[Q] flashing SD to internal memory f**ked up my device

Hello!
Well, about a month ago i've bought a brand new moto g 2015 8gb/1gb and all went well untill i flashed the external SD card to internal memory and moved the data to it, then my nightmare begun *evil/dreamy music plays*
- the home button do answer when i tap it but there is no function on it
- notifications are not displayed at all...
- moto screen not working
- lockscreen not working
- battery charge speed decreased considerably
- cant reach to quick settings
- factory reset button locked (gray letters, cant tap it)
- moto gestures not gorking
- the phone get really overheated while charging
- some other functiones are locked (same as factory reset)
As it was a brand new phone, i sent it to motorola so they would provably fix it... and they did..... Once i get back to my home with my phone working at 100%, flashed the SD card as internal memory before installing any app on it, so guess what! SAME PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN
hopefully i've downloaded an app so i could factory reset and it worked. my question is (if any one know) why is it happening??? now i cant flash sd card as internal memory coz im afraid it will break my phone all over again...
ANY GUESS?????'

If it happened with two different devices and the same SD card, I'd say the issue is the SD card. Just a hunch.

Nope
sticktornado said:
If it happened with two different devices and the same SD card, I'd say the issue is the SD card. Just a hunch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While i was using it as external memory, nothing happened... Music played normaly, vídeos as well.... Everything so i dont think so

elnazhox said:
While i was using it as external memory, nothing happened... Music played normaly, vídeos as well.... Everything so i dont think so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't say that SD cards are a "one solves all" subject. Wouldn't surprise me if Android just didn't like the SD card you have as internal for some odd reason. Maybe you could keep it as a backup and buy a newer card unless the one you have right now is already new. If that's the case, I would just return it.

Needs to be UHS or better to work as internal reliably. I tried an 85Mb/s card and it still failed after a short time. Not sure that was all card speed, though. I think Mm also has issues setting default permissions.