Why do my micro SD's always end up needing to be formatted?

[ZoeiiJade]

Hi,

So i don't know if i just have terrible luck with technology but the last two phones i've had, Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 and now my Samsung Galaxy s5 Mini have had issues with the micro SD cards, i only buy Sandisk cards 16 or 32 GB and i really don't use much data, i have about 5 apps and clear the data regularly and had about 3000 photos. It's the first time it's happened on my s5 mini which i've had for 1 year but i don't want to keep having the same issues with loosing all my things over and over like my last phone. I had to buy a new card every time which was annoying but i was paranoid it would happen again. This phone said it was syncing all my things to google + but i found nothing in the back up google + page which is even more annoying but i did transfer images via USB at Christmas, i never touch the SD card ever! The recent case was my phone was working great, i got in the car and put my phone in the holder of my car, got to uni and then everything on my phone was gone and it said "format SD card" i installed 2 recommended restore programs but 0 files found. I don't want this to keep happening, what am i doing wrong and what should i do?

 

[thecomicbookandme]

It's the first time it's happened on my s5 mini which i've had for 1 year

Hi Zoeiijade,
SD cards fail, plain and simple. All you can do is buy the best one that you can and that usually means most expensive. As soon as you notice any malfunctioning of the card, back everything up to your computer through a card reader.
Keeping everything backed up on a regular basis is a great policy.

Yea, heavy and a bottle of bread.

 

[can3gxw]

Two things right off the bat... (1) - where are you buying your cards? If you're buying them off eBay, don't. Get them from someplace like NewEgg or Amazon where they're (mostly) guaranteed to be legit. There are TONS of fake cards around, and people looking to save a bit of money usually don't in the end.

Cards can (and will) go corrupt, but not as quick as what you're referring to. A good card will also have a good warranty.

Download and install "SD Insight" from the Google Play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi) and see what it comes back with for your card's information. It will tell you if the card is actually signed by Samsung and what the ACTUAL size of it is.

Also - make sure your photos are being backed up to Google Photos. You mention "Google +" but Photos got separated from that, so there MAY be a chance your photos are backed up. Log into a computer and go to PHOTOS.GOOGLE.COM, or download the Photos app from the play store. If your photos got backed up, they will be there. If not, TURN IT ON NOW so you don't lose anything in the future.

Set the quality to "high" and it will not take up any of your Google storage space.