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32 GB Micro SD card question!

I bought a 32 gb micro sd off ebay! I've heard of some people getting bad cards off there. The one I've got is a Sandisk 32 gb class 4.
I've been able to do these things:
-It reads 30.9 gb available space after formatting it.
-Format it from the phone.
-Move my apps to it and they function fine.
- record video and take pictures and view from the phone.
Now when it comes to putting MP4 movies on it, I've been able to get 3 to work. Any others I put on it it either won't read them or the video doesn't play right. I have a class 2 16 gb sandisk that has no problems at all.
My questions are these. How do I know if I got a fake one, is there a way to test it? Are there any ideas on a way to fix this?

I'm running a 32gb class 4 card in my phone with no problems.
Are you saying that the <i>same files</i> work on the 16gb card, but not the 32gb card? I'm having a hard time with that idea; the card doesn't care what the file is; its only job is to store the bits.
It is possible that you're hitting a bad spot on the chip, and that the larger video files happen to be the ones hitting the bad spot, but I've never actually heard of an SD card that "sort of" works; every one I've ever had has either worked or not worked.
If you're having trouble with video files in general, the problem is more likely the encoding of the video files. If you're trying to view downloaded movies, you could be hitting unsupported resolutions, bit rates, or encoding schemes. There also seems to be a wide variation in h.264 encoders, so some will work great and others will fail miserably.
One thing you could do is find an encoder that works for you, then run any movies you acquire through that encoder to ensure that you have a uniform resolution, bit rate, and h.264 encoding setting.

TomXP411 said:
I'm running a 32gb class 4 card in my phone with no problems.
Are you saying that the <i>same files</i> work on the 16gb card, but not the 32gb card? I'm having a hard time with that idea; the card doesn't care what the file is; its only job is to store the bits.
It is possible that you're hitting a bad spot on the chip, and that the larger video files happen to be the ones hitting the bad spot, but I've never actually heard of an SD card that "sort of" works; every one I've ever had has either worked or not worked.
If you're having trouble with video files in general, the problem is more likely the encoding of the video files. If you're trying to view downloaded movies, you could be hitting unsupported resolutions, bit rates, or encoding schemes. There also seems to be a wide variation in h.264 encoders, so some will work great and others will fail miserably.
One thing you could do is find an encoder that works for you, then run any movies you acquire through that encoder to ensure that you have a uniform resolution, bit rate, and h.264 encoding setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Tom thanks for helping OP out. Regarding the 32gb card, how much did you pay for it? I was looking in amazon and they are 45 dollars. Did you find a better deal?

tcross8361 said:
I bought a 32 gb micro sd off ebay! I've heard of some people getting bad cards off there. The one I've got is a Sandisk 32 gb class 4.
I've been able to do these things:
-It reads 30.9 gb available space after formatting it.
-Format it from the phone.
-Move my apps to it and they function fine.
- record video and take pictures and view from the phone.
Now when it comes to putting MP4 movies on it, I've been able to get 3 to work. Any others I put on it it either won't read them or the video doesn't play right. I have a class 2 16 gb sandisk that has no problems at all.
My questions are these. How do I know if I got a fake one, is there a way to test it? Are there any ideas on a way to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
30.9 gb sounds right. The rest of the card is dedicated to storing a map of where the files are stored.
If you think the video files are corrupted, try playing them on your computer from the card.....they should work. In that case you just have a funky file that isn't working in your phone.
Moboplayer is my favorite media player, if it needs any extra codecs to work, it'll let you know. Just make sure to change the video decoding to "software" after that, I believe.
Sent from my Frankenphone using Tapatalk

What are you guys using to get all of the files transferred from an old card to the new card, I have formatted it on the phone, on the computer, tried copying from the computer to the card using a USB adapter, tried copying over the same way but in 3 separate batches, The phone is seeing the card and 26G free, but none of my programs are showing up. I am now trying this, formatted the card in the phone, and copying through the phone.

idbl_fanatic said:
What are you guys using to get all of the files transferred from an old card to the new card, I have formatted it on the phone, on the computer, tried copying from the computer to the card using a USB adapter, tried copying over the same way but in 3 separate batches, The phone is seeing the card and 26G free, but none of my programs are showing up. I am now trying this, formatted the card in the phone, and copying through the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just used a card reader and copied the files onto the computer then from my computer to the new card. Also i think it was a bogus card. The guy offered a full refund but now that he got it back, I havent heard from him. I filed a buyer protection claim. I read a n article in ebay forums about bogus 32 gb cards being sold. They're only 2 or 4 gig cards made to look like 32's. Anyone else heard of this?
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App

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.

Backing up to Samsung account problem with SD card

I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?

mikeyaj said:
I can get my phone to backup to the Samsung account and cloud but if my sdcard is In it takes an ungodly amount of time to calculate the amount of music I have on the sdcard so I give up.
I've switched it dso it doesn't backup my music (which is on the 128gb memory card) but it still wants to calculate it every time.
I want to be able to backup without having to take the memory card out
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have wifi turned on?

yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card

mikeyaj said:
yes
it works perfectly........... but only when the sd card is out of the phone. before backing up it seems to want to calculate how much music is on the sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a 200Gb card with loads of images and music and don't have any issues. Did you disable any services with Package Disabler pro? That might be an issue as when you restore a backup from the cloud you have to re-enable all services.

Could be a fake SD card. Did you buy it from a reputable seller? Fake cards can be incredibly slow or take ages to scan contents because they often use shady tactics to make the card appear to be 128Gb for example when accessed on a phone or PC while in reality being much smaller in capacity (2-16gb etc). These fake cards can look incredibly convincing too so dont be fooled by an elaborate copy.

Here's an app from the Play Store that can check if you have a counterfeit sdcard, SD Insight. The app isn't compatible with the S8 but if you have an older phone you can test your sdcard.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi

Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages

mikeyaj said:
Card has been used in 3 Samsung phones. Never had this issue before. Is not a fake card and not disabled and packages
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If its been with you for at least 3 phone cycles, was the speed ever really that good to begin with? It sounds like it may be an older card perhaps. Keep in mind, technology moves quick.
If you happen to be using a card that was cheap/midrange only a couple years ago, it would stand to reason that it may be underwhelming and feeling pretty slow by today's standards.
Download an app along the lines of "A1 SD Bench" and run a test for me. Post your Read/Write speed results in here for us when you're finished.
If the result of this test is poor you may want to look at the newer UHS-I supported cards if speed is becoming an issue.

I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why even bother posting if you "you can't be bothered to test the issue?"

Because I decided I wanted to.
I tend to do what I want and considering the card is in 100% working order what's the point.
If times have changed and I've gotten to answer that it's old tech I can replace it with newer tech.
Thanks for your help but I can assure you I'll post what I want, when I want, how I want. I don't have to do anything I don't want to when I've already been told the card is old tech

mikeyaj said:
I bought the card pretty much when 128gb micro SD cards were released and use it every day in the phone with no problems to play music and store pics
To be fair I presume that means it's old tech and I've been meaning to replace it. Just bought a brand new Samsung 256gb one.
Don't understand what any of the jargon means regarding sdcards and can't be bothered to test the issue.
To be fair it never occurred to me that the card is a bit long In the tooth as I've used it with the s7 edge with no probs. So just surprised the s8 struggles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes, I figured that was the case. It will be interesting to know if that new card solves your problem. If you still want to run a quick benchmark on your old card its not as involved as it sounds. If you use the app I recommended before you just choose your SD card in the UI and it should only take a few minutes to run a speed test.

Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

My 2 year old 200Gb card:
Read 1692.00MB/s
Write 14.81MB/s

mikeyaj said:
Read speed: 33.97 mb/s
Write speed: 10:78 mb/s
Presume this is rubbish. I bought the SanDisk card the week 128gb cards were released in the UK so it's quite old now but never had any problem with it.
All photos and all my music is on the card. Never had any issues with it. Have now purchased the following:
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.

xeathpk said:
Oh wow, that write speed is pretty terrible. The read speed is "passable" I guess but still below average and well below the UHS-I cards.
I had one of the first 64GB Sandisk cards (around the time of the Galaxy S4 I'd like to say?) so I know what you mean but that thing was relegated to my drawer long ago after I realized just how agonizingly slooow it was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it isn't slow
it's perfect for listening to music from and saving all pics to. perfect to the point of there would be no need to change the card. exceptional performance.
why the s8 has issues trying to calculate the amount of music on it to back-up even when i've toggled it NOT to backup music is a bit of a stupid upgrade on the s8 when the s7 was fine.
maybe samsung haven't figured out that most sd card users just throw pics, film and music on it so it doesn't need to be super fast as they've toggled off the backup option. seems to be a really strange software decision to try and calculated stuff to back up you don't want backing up lol

Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:

xeathpk said:
Objectively it is on the slow side but I understand what you mean. If all you plan on doing is copying a load of files to it once and only need it to access a few songs or pics here and there than you're right it should be fine. Let us know if you're able to solve your issue with a new card or whether the problem persists. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used it all an excuse to buy the 256gb card though.
Is the one I've bought any good?
Samsung MB-MC256DAEU 256 GB EVO Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I Grade 3 Class 10

Its quick as hell. "Up to 95MB/s Read and 90MB/s Write speed with UHS-I, Class 10 and U3 compatibility."
It should serve you well for quite a while I'd imagine. Even I'm tempted to get one right now.
Waterproof (IEC 60529, IPX7)
Temperature-proof
X-ray-proof
Magnetic-proof
10 year warranty
Not bad, not bad.

I've never had a Samsung card . Always had the sandisk ones

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
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KrisM22 said:
Use a card brand other than sandisk and size 32GB or less.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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rb1979 said:
Thanks both of you, I'll do some testing around and get back to you with my findings.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 .
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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).
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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KrisM22 said:
Yes, both of these cards test at about R=81 , W=66.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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No. Sadly I don't. Is there no other way round to format it?