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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).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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

Anyone got a UHS-1 microSD card working?

I've been at it back and forth with Asus and SanDisk support now as I have yet to get my SanDisk Mobile Ultra 32GB UHS-1 card to work properly in the TF700T.
First card worked erratically and died completely, second card doesn't work at all.
The log of the tablet sais read errors but the card work perfectly in both PC and android mobile (x10 Mini).
Tablet sais it's DDR so I assume it uses DDR50 mode which is the most complicated mode to use due to the data timing.
Has anybody else got a UHS-1 card and had it work reliably in the TF700T ?
When mine was working I was getting sporadic read errors causing copy file from card to device to fail, and video to stutter.
(File copy was aborted by "paste files failed" message.)
These cards would offer much improved io performance vs a normal card and their improved latency should make em improve responsetime too.

I popped by a shop today and tested the UHS-1 card in a TF300 too. It got a hissyfit and went into a mount-loop.
Bought a SanDisk FCS-HS3 UHS-1 compatible USB3.0 reader to test the card on a pc and it performs great. (Well writes are within class 10 spec, and reads are fantastic.) See attached Atto run.
Also got a 32 GB Class 10 Lexar card to see how the TF700 likes it. No problems and everything seems smooth.

I have Sandisk Ultra Micro SD SDHC UHS-I 16GB Class 10 30MB/s and it's been working fine so far, it even rescued me when I needed a firmware update after bootloop, only with lower write speeds than SD, USB disk or internal memory (somehow I get somewhere near ~10/20 W/R on internal and ~20/10 on SD, pendrive, USB HDD etc., btw, seems a bit strange to me, as I would expect it the other way around).

d14b0ll0s said:
I have Sandisk Ultra Micro SD SDHC UHS-I 16GB Class 10 30MB/s and it's been working fine so far, it even rescued me when I needed a firmware update after bootloop, only with lower write speeds than SD, USB disk or internal memory (somehow I get somewhere near ~10/20 W/R on internal and ~20/10 on SD, pendrive, USB HDD etc., btw, seems a bit strange to me, as I would expect it the other way around).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like how my first card performed. Not fast.
I wish the SD test apps could show a graph like HD Tune on pc. To see how smoothly the card operates.
I know that any errors are masked by android and it resets card and continues thus making a card that hang all the time just appear slow.

tha_kreature said:
That sounds like how my first card performed. Not fast.
I wish the SD test apps could show a graph like HD Tune on pc. To see how smoothly the card operates.
I know that any errors are masked by android and it resets card and continues thus making a card that hang all the time just appear slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not about UHS-1 though, I get the same with USB pendrive or HDD.

This is the same test on the same card in a NON UHS-1 reader.
As you can see the readings are drastically different.

tha_kreature said:
This is the same test on the same card in a NON UHS-1 reader.
As you can see the readings are drastically different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry if I'm missing something, but on your screenshot I see 19 MB/s read and 9,5 MB/s write on average on your PC, so how is that different from what we were discussing as the speeds we were getting on the tablet?
Edit: I see your earlier post showing 40+ MB/s read speeds, but this was USB 3.0, wasn't it.
Edit: I forgot we were discussing microSD speeds. If you get 19/10 on your PC, this is in fact 50% more than I'm getting with microSD on the Infinity. It surely shows a major difference.

d14b0ll0s said:
Sorry if I'm missing something, but on your screenshot I see 19 MB/s read and 9,5 MB/s write on average on your PC, so how is that different from what we were discussing as the speeds we were getting on the tablet?
Edit: I see your earlier post showing 40+ MB/s read speeds, but this was USB 3.0, wasn't it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, USB3.0 with a reader using UHS-1. The UHS-1 is the most important part as that increases the bandwidth between controller and card and also reduces some delays on completion etc.
On the tablet I was getting good speeds and then pauses/breaks getting the average very low on old card. Log showed errors. New card doesn't even mount.
Edit:
It does however show how the tablet is trying to moungt it and what speed it talks to it, also what capability it has.
Edit2:
USB 2.0 can do 40 MB/s too btw, but usually max 30-35. The UHS-1 makes the difference.

For bigger data transfers I'm actually relying more on full-size SD card in the dock or USB disk. Which is of course a possibility only if one is carrying a dock..
---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------
Yes, there is no question we have the lags to blame. My microSD writing speeds start with 30-35 MB/s for a few seconds (which is a lot more than I'm getting on my laptop with this card), then the lags make it drop even to 6 MB/s. So these are all the I/O issues we were discussing in so many threads here. Not much will come out of further benchmarks until we get an update (JB / kernel / smaller firmware fixes / hopefully anything)

d14b0ll0s said:
For bigger data transfers I'm actually relying more on full-size SD card in the dock or USB disk. Which is of course a possibility only if one is carrying a dock..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Untill the 17'th I won't have access to any docs...
Attached is a shot of the dmesg output from where it detects the card.
Notice it registers it as a ultra high speed DDR SDHC. DDR must mean it is considering using the UHS mode DDR50 which is a complicated mode requiring calibration. It also seems to assume/try NTFS first.
I can't see any attempts of uing card in normal SDHC mode after the UHS failing, nor any normal non DDR UHS modes.

d14b0ll0s said:
For bigger data transfers I'm actually relying more on full-size SD card in the dock or USB disk. Which is of course a possibility only if one is carrying a dock..
---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------
Yes, there is no question we have the lags to blame. My microSD writing speeds start with 30-35 MB/s for a few seconds (which is a lot more than I'm getting on my laptop with this card), then the lags make it drop even to 6 MB/s. So these are all the I/O issues we were discussing in so many threads here. Not much will come out of further benchmarks until we get an update (JB / kernel / smaller firmware fixes / hopefully anything)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like you to scour your dmesg log after one of those glitches, and also after inserting the card to see if there is any significant difference.
My card dipped in speed but usually did not log errors. I think the first retry is not logged if successfull.

tha_kreature said:
I'd like you to scour your dmesg log after one of those glitches, and also after inserting the card to see if there is any significant difference.
My card dipped in speed but usually did not log errors. I think the first retry is not logged if successfull.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get any errors after (re)inserting the card apart from those from tntfs saying the boot sector is invalid, so it's quitting after finding out this is not NTFS (because it is FAT32 ;>).
Tell me what errors do you get specifically, so I could grep my logs looking for them.

d14b0ll0s said:
I don't get any errors after (re)inserting the card apart from those from tntfs saying the boot sector is invalid, so it's quitting after finding out this is not NTFS (because it is FAT32 ;>).
Tell me what errors do you get specifically, so I could grep my logs looking for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my attached pic.
See how it identifys card ans ultra high speed ddr.

tha_kreature said:
See my attached pic.
See how it identifys card ans ultra high speed ddr.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I missed the last post on the previous page.
Doesn't look good, I don't get any of these in my logs apart from the NTFS assumption, which might be the normal thing (a late attempt to solve the NTFS compatibility issues).
I would try sio if I were you.
Mine doesn't say anything about ultra speed DDR SDHC however, it only gives the "new high speed SDHC card" output..
I'm not sure what you mean by saying that it doesn't treat it as SDHC afterwards - where would you want to have it reported?

d14b0ll0s said:
Sorry, I missed the last post on the previous page.
Doesn't look good, I don't get any of these in my logs apart from the NTFS assumption, which might be the normal thing (a late attempt to solve the NTFS compatibility issues).
I would try sio if I were you.
Mine doesn't say anything about ultra speed DDR SDHC however, it only gives the "new high speed SDHC card" output..
I'm not sure what you mean by saying that it doesn't treat it as SDHC afterwards - where would you want to have it reported?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your card works as it does not infact support UHS-1. It's probably one of the "Ultra" cards not "Ultra UHS-1".
The difference is a small U on the card with a 1 in it. (See attached.)
Sandisk has the same card in identical packaging, except for the UHS-1 support. The difference is drastic on PC, and apparantly catastrophic on TF700T and TF300.

See my logs attached.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

tha_kreature said:
Your card works as it does not infact support UHS-1. It's probably one of the "Ultra" cards not "Ultra UHS-1".
The difference is a small U on the card with a 1 in it. (See attached.)
Sandisk has the same card in identical packaging, except for the UHS-1 support. The difference is drastic on PC, and apparantly catastrophic on TF700T and TF300.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact, mine is not UHS-I, but regular SDHC, sorry about misinforming you, I was initially thinking about getting the one you got yourself and then misclicked on the auction, LOL, I can see it now, bummer! I think it's even class 4, not class 10 (how much slower can it be because of it?). My full-size SD in the dock is UHS-1 and it's been performing well (Sandisk Extreme 32 GB 45 MB/s class 10).

d14b0ll0s said:
See my logs attached.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Definately a non UHS card.
So far I've found or read about Sandisk Ultra in these flavour:
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 6
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 10
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 10 UHS-1
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 6
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 10
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 10 UHS-1
The packaging on my card sais SanDisk Mobile Ultra but the card sais only SanDisk Ultra. (First card said Mobile Ultra.)
It's really odd how there is always differences on pics I find.

tha_kreature said:
Thanks. Definately a non UHS card.
So far I've found or read about Sandisk Ultra in these flavour:
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 6
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 10
- Sandisk Ultra XXGB Class 10 UHS-1
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 6
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 10
- Sandisk Mobile Ultra XXGB Class 10 UHS-1
The packaging on my card sais SanDisk Mobile Ultra but the card sais only SanDisk Ultra. (First card said Mobile Ultra.)
It's really odd how there is always differences on pics I find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, mine is not ultra, terrible miss-click. I will use it in the phone probably and will order UHS-I class 10, unless others report same problems as yours.

d14b0ll0s said:
In fact, mine is not UHS-I, but regular SDHC, sorry about misinforming you, I was initially thinking about getting the one you got yourself and then misclicked on the auction, LOL, I can see it now, bummer! I think it's even class 4, not class 10 (how much slower can it be because of it?). My full-size SD in the dock is UHS-1 and it's been performing well (Sandisk Extreme 32 GB 45 MB/s class 10).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you insert it and check the log?
See if it does anything different on it vs the other?
Unless it has any U on it it will probably only do standard SD speed of 50 MHz givingv 25 MB/s max datarate.

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
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?

SD Card Recommendations

Anyone use Samsung micro SD cards in their U12 (or other device)?
I've used SanDisk exclusively the last few years, and PNY before that. But, the Samsung Evo cards are consistently $10-$15 cheaper for a UHS-3 128gb card.
Just wondering if anyone else uses them, and how well they work for 4K videos.

the Samsung ones are the best, but the PNY 256GB is UHS III class 10 speed V30 A1, and works very well on my HTC U12+, for the price worth each penny

Ricardo_G said:
the Samsung ones are the best, but the PNY 256GB is UHS III class 10 speed V30 A1, and works very well on my HTC U12+, for the price worth each penny
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got uhs samsung microsd 64gb. I got it from my previous phone note4. No problem. Very quick read and write.

I am using Sandisk's Extreme Pro 64GB UHS-II - https://www.sandisk.com/home/memory-cards/microsd-cards/extremepro-microsd-uhs-ii for my 4K recording and playback... very fast read and write speeds with no problems to report.

AtAM1 said:
I am using Sandisk's Extreme Pro 64GB UHS-II - https://www.sandisk.com/home/memory-cards/microsd-cards/extremepro-microsd-uhs-ii for my 4K recording and playback... very fast read and write speeds with no problems to report.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you save your pictures to the SDCARD or internal storage?
I'm getting the message my SDCARD isn't fast enough when I save to it from the photo app using this Kingston SDCA3/64GBSP 64 GB microSDHCUHS-I Speed Class3 U3 Memory Card so looks like I need to upgade my card. Just that Extreme pro is over £100 so want to make sure it works without any warnings before I pull the trigger on it.
Thanks

Jump1ng said:
Do you save your pictures to the SDCARD or internal storage?
I'm getting the message my SDCARD isn't fast enough when I save to it from the photo app using this Kingston SDCA3/64GBSP 64 GB microSDHCUHS-I Speed Class3 U3 Memory Card so looks like I need to upgade my card. Just that Extreme pro is over £100 so want to make sure it works without any warnings before I pull the trigger on it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I save both 4K videos and pictures to the SD-Card with zero problems. Just make sure you don't encrypt the SD-Card as it impacts both read/write speeds which in turn results in the slow speed warning being displayed.
Cheers
Edit: I got mine at a discounted price of $95

AtAM1 said:
Yup, I save both 4K videos and pictures to the SD-Card with zero problems. Just make sure you don't encrypt the SD-Card as it impacts both read/write speeds which in turn results in the slow speed warning being displayed.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, think gonna have to buy this card as my old card that worked fine in the HTC 10 and u11 is not encrypted and still get the warnings.
Thanks!

Jump1ng said:
Do you save your pictures to the SDCARD or internal storage?
I'm getting the message my SDCARD isn't fast enough when I save to it from the photo app using this Kingston SDCA3/64GBSP 64 GB microSDHCUHS-I Speed Class3 U3 Memory Card so looks like I need to upgade my card. Just that Extreme pro is over £100 so want to make sure it works without any warnings before I pull the trigger on it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was getting the same message for my transcend card, I almost bought a new sandisk card, and stumbled onto the storage settings for the card on the phone. It gives me the option to format the card for the phone. It says that after formatting, the card will only work with the the phone. I am ok with that because it is for the phone and I like to store my pics on the external sd card to not waste space on the internal. Just go to settings > storage > portable storage (select the setting icon next to your sd card) > format