[AC Question]

Took quite a few pictures on vacation and slowly they all started not showing me my image but a grey screen and error (image icon with exclamation mark). Only option is to move or delete. The details with the time stamp and size are still available. While taking pictures all showed a preview after being snapped and initially it was only a couple of the images but now they are all gone (just from that day). Some of the images right before it started only have half the image and the bottom half is grey. I unmounted and remounted the card but that didnt help as well as cleared the cache but still no luck. Also tried downloading a different gallery app but that didn't help. All pictures stored to device load just fine. I don't want to format and risk losing my vacation pictures, just wonder how to get them back??

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! The SD card could be corrupt, defective, or counterfeit. Install SD Insight to see if the card is genuine or counterfeit. Counterfeit cards are programmed to report more storage than they actually have, and if you try saving more than the card can actually hold, then files can start getting corrupt.

If it's a valid card, then go to Settings>Storage, Unmount the card, remove it, and insert it into your computer. Can the computer read these files? Backup as much as you can right now, then run chkdsk to look for bad sectors: http://forums.androidcentral.com/amb...d-sd-card.html. If it finds bad sectors, and the photos aren't crucial to save, then go ahead and allow chkdsk to try repairing those sectors. If the photos are really precious, then you'll have to try recovering them using 3rd party software: http://forums.androidcentral.com/amb...ted-files.html

I strongly suggest taking advantage of the Google Photos Auto Backup feature, which can save you these kinds of headaches in the future: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?hl=en