Micro SD card just stopped being recognized

[Something Creative]

So I've been using a SanDisk micro SD card for a few months now with no problems. It's a 32GB class 10 if it matters. I have a bunch of music on there and have my camera save pictures on there when taken. Yesterday it just randomly stopped working. The S3 does not recognize that the card is in there. I then took it out and reinserted it and the phone says that its corrupted and needs to be reformatted. After a few mins it then says that it is unmounted. I take the card out and stick it into my computer and the computer reads it just fine and sees all ~20GB of media on there.

Any ideas what's going on here? Nothing has changed in the last few days with the phone, so i can't imagine why it would randomly not be recognized by my phone but be just fine on a computer. Incidentally, this happened as I was downloading all of my apps from the play store onto a 32GB Nexus 7 i had picked up yesterday. That's got to be a coincidence, right?

Appreciate anyone that can help me here. I know i can reformat it and load all the media back on there, but that doesn't explain what could have happened and i don't want to do that yet as the issue could just randomly happen again.

 

[GSDer]

Just search within the S3 forums for FAT32 or ext3 - I won't try to explain it, but that would be my vote for what your problem really is.

And, yes, it was probably just a coincide that the problem occurred while you were loading up your new 32GB Nexus 7. On the other hand, perhaps your Galaxy S III is jealous - we could test this premise out pretty easily: just send me your Nexus 7 and if you stop having problems with your SGSIII we'll know that was the cause. :beer:

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Tarant]

Its hard to say, The galaxy s3 seems to be all over the place when it comes to micro sd cards. I would just save everything to your computer and then format the card to fat32 which seems to works the best with picky s3's

 

[WAWood8]

I've had nothing but problems with SD cards and the S3. My first S3 "fried" the SD card -- rendering it useless, and fortunately, corrupted the internal file system in the process. So, I got Verizon to replace the phone.

My wife's S3 just this last week had the same SD card "not found" error -- and hers got trashed as well.

These were different brand and speed SD cards -- but the one thing the same, was the make and model phone.

 

[Something Creative]

Not sure what I was supposed to be looking for specifically with the search. That it should be formatted as FAT32? It was formatted that way in a pc. It still works fine in a pc and a mac.

I found one forum talking about restarting the phone, taking the battery out, then inserting the card, putting battery back, and restarting. Tried that and now the SD card isn't even recognized. Like, the phone has no idea that i am inserting a card. No errors, no nothing. The phone is starting to be more trouble than its worth what with all the issues i've also had with that crap kies program.

 

[pinatiger]

Connect to PC. Defrag your phone internal and external memory. You probably dl a bad file.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Tarant]

Yes, the general consensus is to format the card to fat32.

You may have a bad phone(card reader in phone) or a bad sd card. While frustrating it does happen.
On my phone if i put the sd card into the phone (after it clicked) i can wiggle the card a bit and that can make the phone unmount the sd card. Have you tried inserting the sdcard with the phone on, go into settings, storage scroll to bottom and click mount sd card? Or is this when you get the corrupted message?

Just as a general statment. Micro SD cards are often faked so ALWAYS make sure they come from a reputable source. Getting a 64gb card from some guy on ebay for a great price is a bad idea.

 

[funkylogik]

Connect to PC. Defrag your phone internal and external memory. You probably dl a bad file.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

hmm didnt know you could defrag the s3 memory.
our laptop has been reposessed, is there an app?

@op id copy your data, get the card replaced stating that it was in an s3 (the s3 hates sd cards) and write a complaint to samsung.
sh*t like this is happening too much and samsung should be held to account.

this is one of the 3 reasons i wont buy another samsung

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

 

[Something Creative]

Yes, the general consensus is to format the card to fat32.

You may have a bad phone(card reader in phone) or a bad sd card. While frustrating it does happen.
On my phone if i put the sd card into the phone (after it clicked) i can wiggle the card a bit and that can make the phone unmount the sd card. Have you tried inserting the sdcard with the phone on, go into settings, storage scroll to bottom and click mount sd card? Or is this when you get the corrupted message?

Just as a general statment. Micro SD cards are often faked so ALWAYS make sure they come from a reputable source. Getting a 64gb card from some guy on ebay for a great price is a bad idea.

It's worked for a few months now without a hitch, so I don't think it's just a faulty card or phone, although I suppose the phone's card reader could have become defective over time. Card is fine as it works in a pc and a mac. It was also bought from BestBuy, so it is legit.

I've tried to insert it with the phone on and I don't get the option to mount/unmount anymore. It just doesn't recognize it anymore. Initially it gave me the corrupted error message, but that was like twice before it stopped seeing it altogether.

 

[Something Creative]

Connect to PC. Defrag your phone internal and external memory. You probably dl a bad file.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

How do you defrag the memory on the phone via computer?

 

[GoneGator66]

Had the same thing happen yesterday. SanDisk 16GB Class 4. No problems for weeks, then nothing. Card was never removed or mishandled. The phone simply stopped seeing it. Frustrating.

 

[WAWood8]

I see another one of these "SD card failed" kind of posts every day! I read (but I can't find the link, now) that Google is pushing phone builders to remove external SD card usage from ALL future phone models. Kind of wonder if this SD card failing situation is intentional -- forcing us to get used to NOT relying on an SD card.

One of the main reasons I bought a GS3 instead of an HTC OneX was that the GS3 DID allow for an external SD card.

I've personally seen three SD card failures in several months -- all different brand and speeds, but all GS3s.

 

[Something Creative]

I see another one of these "SD card failed" kind of posts every day! I read (but I can't find the link, now) that Google is pushing phone builders to remove external SD card usage from ALL future phone models. Kind of wonder if this SD card failing situation is intentional -- forcing us to get used to NOT relying on an SD card.

One of the main reasons I bought a GS3 instead of an HTC OneX was that the GS3 DID allow for an external SD card.

I've personally seen three SD card failures in several months -- all different brand and speeds, but all GS3s.

Thats an interesting theory, that they don't want phones to have external storage. Notice the weak storage in thew new Nexus 4, and it doesn't even have an SD slot. That kind of forces you to use Google Music, Drive, or some other cloud storage method to keep things on.

The expanded storage was def a major selling point of the S3 for me too. It still pisses me off to no end that a Mac and PC will both read the dang thing and play music/watch video/look at pics, but the S3 can't tell it's even there.

 

[blade22222]

Try copying the data off the card then format it in fat32, copy all your data back. Reinsert into phone or if you have another card try that one. Worth a shot.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[Ricky Babalu]

Do you have another card that you could try out? This would narrow down the possible culprit. Since your card works on a Mac and PC then we have to try and determine if the phone has somehow lost the ability to read/communicate with the external storage or if it is some file on the card itself that is giving the phone an issue. If you do not have another card to try then I would suggest to backup all your items on your SD to your PC or Mac, then delete all the contents on the card and re-try your card on the phone (it could be a corrupted file on the SD card that is interfering with the phones ability to detect it).

 

[Something Creative]

Do you have another card that you could try out? This would narrow down the possible culprit. Since your card works on a Mac and PC then we have to try and determine if the phone has somehow lost the ability to read/communicate with the external storage or if it is some file on the card itself that is giving the phone an issue. If you do not have another card to try then I would suggest to backup all your items on your SD to your PC or Mac, then delete all the contents on the card and re-try your card on the phone (it could be a corrupted file on the SD card that is interfering with the phones ability to detect it).

That's a good point. I don't have another card, but I will erase it for that purpose when I get off work.

 

[funkylogik]

google dont want us using sd expansion but they have no say weather a manufacturer uses it or not.. i suppose they could threaten not to allow google apps: playstore, gmail etc but i cant see that happening.
once google give us non-profit, unlimited data then il buy a phone with no expansion.
theres no way the fault with sd in the s3 is a conspiracy lol, thats crazy talk. s3 is a touchwiz android-based phone, not a google phone

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

 

[Something Creative]

google dont want us using sd expansion but they have no say weather a manufacturer uses it or not.. i suppose they could threaten not to allow google apps: playstore, gmail etc but i cant see that happening.
once google give us non-profit, unlimited data then il buy a phone with no expansion.
theres no way the fault with sd in the s3 is a conspiracy lol, thats crazy talk. s3 is a touchwiz android-based phone, not a google phone

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

I don't think the manufacturers want them being used either, especially since they are starting to launch cloud storage as well. ATT just launched a cloud storage service. It's another way to generate revenue for them. Nobody is saying that there is a major conspiracy to make SD cards malfunction, just that it seems things are moving away from expandable storage. It makes more sense for Samsung to sell you 30GB of storage for $5 a month than to make you a phone with expandable storage or an HD that is larger.

 

[Something Creative]

So i finally got around to testing what was going on with the SD card. All I did was delete everything from the SD card on my Mac, no reformatting or anything, just a full deletion. Then I stuck it in the S3, and low and behold, it worked (recognized and mounted).

So I moved all the data I deleted back onto the SD card. I moved it into a new folder on my desktop and then moved the contents of that folder directly on the SD card to ensure it was the exact same files that were originally on the SD card that stopped working. Guess what. It still worked perfectly fine and the S#3 recognized the card and mounted it no problem.

So in conclusion, I have absolutely no idea why the SD card stopped being read by the S3 while having no issues on a Mac or PC, and the testing proved futile as the exact same data on the exact same SD card that was not reformatted worked perfectly fine after not having worked out of nowhere and for no reason. Oh well. Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

[Tarant]

Lol, figures it was something like that, Glad you figured it out though.