Problems playing music stored on micro SD card - Galaxy S5

[AC Question]

Hoping someone might be able to give me some advice on what to do...
I recently got an S5 and bought a new 32GB micro SD card to store my media on. I had no problems moving photos but am having issues with MP3s. Some, but not all, of the MP3 tracks I transfer are either very glitchy and play oddly, or won't play at all. I have tried copying them via USB while the card is in the phone, AND using both an SD card adapter and a reader to copy them directly from a laptop - always with the same result. There are no problems with any music stored on the phone's internal memory. I also formatted the card, but the issue remains.

Should I be requesting a new micro SD card, or is this a known fault I can work around somehow? I have tried searching for answers but am not sure what to do, so would be grateful for any advice. Thank you!

 

[walnutoil]

I should also say I've tried transferring the files across on the phone itself from internal memory to SD card, but with the same result.

 

[Jeff the Man]

I'm having the same problem. Have you found a solution?

 

[Rukbat]

Try putting the card into a laptop or desktop (using an adapter) and playing the songs, and you'll probably have the same problem. It sounds like either a class 4 (slow) card or a defective one. (I can't get any more specific without having the card and running tests on it.) Try a known-good Class 10 card, if you can.

Depending on the make of card, the manufacturer may replace it, under the assumption that it may be faulty. (The cheaper the card, the less likely that is. SanDisk is about the most expensive card out there, but about the easiest company to work with when you have a problem like this - their tech support will try almost anything to get you working. Of course knowledgeable techs don't make minimum wage, which is one of the reasons their cards cost more.)

 

[KeepItReal]

Backup all the files on the SD card to your PC. Format the card IN the PC, using FAT32, long format. Put that blank card in your phone, and format that same card in your phone (settings, storage, format SD Card). Then, copy all files back to the card, and try them again. Could be a bad card. Even my slowest SD Card played everything fine. You may wish to back up phone, and Factory Reset as well, if the above process doesn't work. It could very well be the phone's SD slot. Then take it to your carrier for warranty or insurance replacement.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

Format the card IN the PC... and format that same card in your phone.

Formatting the card in the phone totally undoes formatting it in the PC. It's like washing the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. You're washing clean dishes. In this case, you're formatting a blank card, making it a blank card - which it already is.

If you format it in the PC and not the phone, some phones won't like it - it's missing a couple of files. If you format it in the phone, and not in the PC, it'll work in either the phone or the PC (and probably in most cameras if it has a DCIM folder tree). All the PC cares about is whether there's a FAT32 partition on the card. Some phones need more than that.

Also, if you want to put an ext4 partition on the card, you can't on the PC unless you're running Linux on it (or have one of 2 programs that will format Linux partitions on a Windows PC). You can on the phone. (And if you've formatted the card in a PC, you'll be destroying the partition you created in the PC first - making the PC formatting a total waste of time.)

 

[KeepItReal]

I was just using format the card in the pc to erase the files. However, I have had many experiences of taking a card from the pc formatted card, as long as it's fat32, and having multiple manufacturers phone read/write to the card. They worked fine. I have come across a card from a Motorola Droid Maxx (genetic no name) that would not be read in the HTC M8, but viewed fine in my Samsung Note 2. Copied all files to the pc, formatted card in pc (fat32, to erase card) then just formatted the card in the HTC M8 just too be sure. Put that M8 formatted card into pc and copied the files back. Voila, the HTC M8 saw all the files. Formatting FAT32 in the pc will work.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

Formatting FAT32 in the pc will work.

In almost all cases. Formatting a non-defective card in the phone will work in all cases. Always eliminate as many possibilities (no matter how rare) when troubleshooting. If you're trying to fix the one case in a million that the phone won't read a card formatted in a PC, and you assume it should, you can spend months trying to fix things that aren't problems.

Most people here are fixing phones as a hobby, or to save money, but that's no reason to not follow best practices especially when following them not only costs nothing, but it eliminates needless work. (Formatting the card in the phone erases files too. [Erases the file listings in the directory, if you're a purist. The files themselves are only "erased" when they get overwritten by another file.])

 

[Marc Robson]

I have a similar problem. Music on the sd card plays with a metallic sound on my phone or car. But when I plug a USB cable into a laptop the music plays five thru the laptop