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I did get my card from Amazon, from the Amazon seller. The packaging of the card was the legitimate SanDisk package - never opened and no sign of any attempt to open it (absolutely brand new).
Not everyone also posted what class their SD cards are, since there could always be the possibility that the problem is between class 10 and lower class cards. I'm not sure if that would really affect much though...
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OK I found out that the card also lets PDFs become corrupt. I copied one PDF (560.7kb large) onto the SD card around a week ago. I checked on that same file (going through the folders using the My Files app, then opening using Adobe reader). Adobe can no longer open it ("Error - The document cannot be opened because it is not a valid PDF document"). The file name still is the same (..... .pdf, seen from the file details).
An additional strange thing I've noticed: some photos that I have that are not "corrupt" but instead lost their quality. I had some pictures that I took for fun of this pocket knife, for example. After I took them (like a week or so ago?), I could zoom in onto the letters all the way and see them perfectly clearly. Now, it seems like I took the photos with a 3MP camera or something (just an exaggeration kinda haha).
I'm going to do another "test" by cleaning out the SD card (reformatting it on the phone [or should it be done on the computer?] - AFTER backing all the photos!) and trying to save pics again by copying and also taking pics. Afterwards, I'll again reformat the card and try the card out on this tablet.
I'm thinking that if my tablet can handle the card perfectly, then it's likely the phone's (or, at least mostly the phone's) fault. If the card still seems to not work properly (any sort of corruption, loss of photo quality, etc) then I think it may be safe to say that I should look into another SD card/refund.
Any suggestions or concerns of this "test" I'm going to do will be appreciated! :P
And thank you all for the help so far! :D
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So far, to my absolute complete astonishment, the SD card is working basically flawlessly on my GS4 after backing up my files, formatting the SD card on the phone, unmounting the card, removing then reinserting the card back into the phone, then again reformatting the card.
I spammed the heck out of the card with tons of new photos taken from the camera (both photos just from the camera as well as recording a video and taking snapshots while recording). I also copied 6 pdfs onto the card as well as copying 10+ photos through the Gallery app. Everything that I have placed onto the card so far has been stable.
However, I didn't make this experiment completely controlled. I didn't (and still don't) have my Otterbox case on while taking pics and copying.
If the problem is linked with overheating, then it may possibly not have showed up during this test since the heat had been able to dissipate much faster than with the thick case on. I'm going to wait a little bit before putting my case back on then respamming the SD card with more pics and files.
Hopefully it will still keep the files and photos intact!! (Knock on wood)
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Let's hope, and good luck!
May the Force be with you!
:thumbup::cool:
Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!
So two days or so ago, I noticed the same, haunting logo of a corrupt photo in my gallery... Of course, I was kind of disappointed that it had reappeared once again. However, I'm thinking that perhaps it was because I overloaded the SD with all these pictures and a few videos in a very short amount of time.
It sounds weird, but I was taking a ton of pictures of this beetle I found in my house. I decided to take a lot of pictures, trying to get a real clear shot. I also at a point started recording a video while taking more pics while recording. I'm thinking that since it seems that only the photos taken in this time have become corrupt, maybe they pictures only turn bad if I overload the SD (and thus only those photos taken at that moment become corrupt)? Since my last update, I haven't noticed any corruption of photos (I haven't checked other file types) or videos until this incident.
..Oh, actually I think a few other random photos I took one time also became corrupt. I didn't take a whole photoshoot this time - I may have taken only 3 or 4 photos max. So I'm not sure what happened there.
The only other thing is that (I think around the time frame of the randomly corrupt photos I just explained) some of my photos just lost their quality completely. I think I explained this problem before. They just seem to become blurry and are not sharp at all.
(Side note: the pictures I take are usually prefectly fine right after I take them - I can view the photos right after the shot and they are perfect. I've only noticed the photos becoming corrupt at random times -like when I go back and look at the photos awhile afterwards [which can vary from minutes to hours after the shot]. What could explain this..?)
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I'd suggest backing up all image files to a computer or other external storage site as soon as you record them. Then you'll have a baseline for comparison with the files on your SD Card.
I upload to Dropbox as well as Google+ automatically after taking photos and I think videos. I don't think too much quality is lost doing this, although I haven't really checked and compared haha
But thank you for the suggestion! :D
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I had the same problem but I did some more analysis:
1. I used 64G SAN DISK Class 10 and after couple of days some of the pictures were corrupted (Black images shown).
2 .I Formated the SD Memory card and save my images from my PC but after about one week it was corrupted again.
3. Very important observation is that when I insert teh SD card to my laptop all information was there and the picture can be seen smoothly. SO THE PROBLEM ISNT IN TEH CARD ITSELF.
3. I replaced the SD card to a 32G Kingston class 4 and the problem has not happened again.
4. I installed the same 64G SAN DISK Class 10 in another Samsung S4 belong to my friend and now it is 2 weeks it works fine witohut any issue.
By doing this my conclusion is that the card is not damaged as it was working fine with my PC and in my friend S4, I think SAMSUNG has a compatebility problem with some cards in Galaxy S4, I thing that Samsung must have a information about the issues mentioned in this site and other sites.
As part of the testing to approve a new phone many tests run to identify and clear this kind of issues.
I think the problem is inside the S4 itself with some kind of SD cards or some kind of high speed of memory cards.
I hope SAMSUNG is reading this observation and will contact me to help me with this issue as my phone is under warrenty period but not in my country.
Thank you
I had my s4 for 2 days back in July when it corrupted the SanDisk sd card I had been using in my S3 for over a year. I was told it was the sandisk sd card. I lost all my photos. So I purchased a new pny sd card through bestbuy per the samsung reps suggestion. It worked until about 4 weeks ago, when the gallery began freezing. I ended up backing my phone up & then it started working ok again. It was only freezing with the sd card. Now here it is again, freezing & not showing the photos on the sd card or corrupting them. I think it is a s4 issue with all sd cards not the sd cards themselves. I want the extra space, that's why I have a phone that allows the sd card. anyone have another suggestion?
I'm also thinking that the problem isn't strictly only from the SD cards we use. People here have been using various brands and classes of cards, most of which seem that they have had some sort of corruption issue.
Have you noticed any trends with the issues? For example, I noticed if I take a ton of videos or photos and have them saved directly to the card, those photos are likely going to be corrupted or lose their quality. However, if I only take a few pictures, the photos seem to stay fine... Before my card unexpectedly started working like normal recently (a couple weeks or so ago), only 5 or so files (pdfs, other media, etc) could be transferred to the card without being corrupted. Any more and they would likely be unusable afterwards.
I guess my only suggestion right now would be to have photos automatically upload to Dropbox, Google+ or any other place, or to save the files manually to a computer whenever your can so you won't lose them all the time.
Thanks for the reply, and good luck!
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So after reading both your post, is it right assume that this issue is actually related to the "move" function within the S4, specifically moving folders that contain a lot of pics from the internal memory to the SD card? I just went off on the ebay seller that I bought my new sd card from and after reading this post, I'm starting to think this is related to the phone and not so much the sd card. I lost the majority of my pics and I'm completely devastated. I assume that's a lost cause and they can not be recovered either?
Sorry for your losses! :L
From my own experiences, it *does* seem that the likelihood of photos/videos becoming corrupt during/after moving/copying/saving directly to the SD card increases as the size of the load being transferred/saved increases.
-[For example, just a few minutes ago I took a short 25s, 52.1MB video which was saved directly to the SD card. It seems to be holding for now, but if something happens to it, I'll let you guys know! (Otherwise, assume it's still ok!).
I've mostly experienced corruption issues if I were to save a real big load (can't think of how many MB/GB, specifically) - like taking a multi-minute video WHILE taking snapshots. (Of course, there were/are times where corruption occurs 'randomly,' or when my files 'unexpectedly' stay perfectly fine [[like after taking a video with snapshots, the files will remain intact]].
In general though, taking a succession of videos or photos seems to be the most likely, or at least an acceptable, possibility of why our photos abs/or videos have become corrupt. So I'm kind of thinking it may not be [completely] due to the SD card (although we can't truly rule it out yet).]-
But as of now, I haven't been able to set aside the time to attempt to recover any of my [many] corrupted photos and videos yet. I might actually try to do or after this reply..? :P
But in my other thread about this SD card problem, one user commented this:
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I registered just to post help for this as I just went through this 3 days ago. MY card gave me "card error, need to format" I have all my sons photos on it along with various important documents and family movies. I about had a heart attack when i saw that message.
Staying cool, I did a big search for corrupted SD cards and came across this freeware program:
Its called
Zero Assumption Recovery
(feel free to google search it- its quite popular with this "life challenge"
The tool is not totally free--EXCEPT the photo and video portion recovery.
I have a 32 gb card and it took about 60-70 minutes for the whole process- end result?
ALL 4513 photos and videos were able to be saved/found and moved over to my pc.
You need a card reader and some patience,
here is the link
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm
MUST READ-- when you do the move/copy do not use your SD card as the backup- always move it to the computer !!!, if you try to restore it on the card- it will corrupt for good!
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I myself am not sure how 'legit' this may be, since I haven't been able to search about it or even try the link yet.
Does anyone know if this possible method of recovering corrupted video and picture files really works? I'm tempted to try it out real soon; but that may have to wait until another time...
If anyone is planning to try it: just remember to BACK UP the files you'll want to recover, just in case! If I find it to seem legit, I'll plan to copy all of the files for recovery and test the program out. If I do manage to try it out, I'll let your guys know!
Finally, sorry for the super extremely long reply! Aahhh! :P
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I bought a 32GB PNY Class 10 Micro SDHC Card for my SII (yes, TWO) and I have the same issue. I am, however, running with a custom ROM.
The micro SD card works flawlessly reading and writing when inserted into an HP laptop. I used the h2testw (http://androidforums.com/gome-flytou...sh-drives.html) to test the entire 32 GB of the micro SD card using a Windows 7 laptop. No errors and more than satisfactory write speed (~16 MB/s).
i can notice that we all have the same problem with the sd card.can we forward this issue to samsung/android? its so frustrating not able to use sd card on this smartfone.
I upgraded from a S1, where I had very few picture file corruptions, to a S4. I transferred the same SD card I was using into the new phone (after backing up the contents). 2 months of happy use, then one morning I woke up to discover the phone had turned off overnight. When I turned the phone back on, the SD card was corrupted. Replaced it with a spare, and within 2 days that one was dead too.
I rang my phone carrier, who transferred me to Samsung, who assured me that they had never heard of this problem before - and no suggestions on cause ir fix. I think it could be arcing.
That was the first week of Oct. I don't have an SD card in at all at the moment. I don't want to rely on one until they sort this out.
I'm wondering if this problem is very prevalent to most S4 users or not. I sister hasn't experienced any issues with hers yet (although she barely knows how to use it or save onto it...).
Also, I have experienced the corruption issue one again the past few days. I would take just a few photos of something and realize that some of the photos have become corrupt not too long after. I'm absolutely confused as to what specifically causes this annoying problem. :\
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Get a Samsung sd card and most if not all your problems will go away. Had same issues with sandisk and Polaroid cards in s4. Read somewhere to get Samsung card, did and haven't had any problems from s4 or N3. Read somewhere sandisk formatted for windows only??? and that was causing problems. Also read sandisk had a bad batch of cards at some point last year. Samsung cards are a little pricey comparatively but if you want external memory to work its worth it. I know there are a lot of threads concerning Samsung phones and sd cards with a thousand suggestions. This one worked for me.
ATT N3
To add more information about the problem, I've noticed that when I have my photos automatically upload to Dropbox or Google+ after taking pictures, the photos that become corrupt are also corrupt online. This is telling me that the corruption of the files is pretty fast, or that the uploading is just slow or late.
If it is the latter, then the speed of uploading after taking a photo is at fault. However, if the files are becoming corrupt before even uploading, then this may mean that the photos are possibly ruined instantaneously right after taking the photo (although, some instances contradict that claim...).
Just an FYI!
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I'd suggest trying an experiment. Set your camera to save to internal phone memory with backup online. Take some test shots. Then set the camera to save to the external SD card with backup online. Take some more test shots. See which, if any, are corrupt from the internal memory and which, if any, from the SD card. That should help determine whether it's the SD card at fault.
From what I have experienced, saving photos as well as uploading them from the internal memory had no issues whatsoever. For the SD card, problems occur (either right when the pic was taken or some time afterwards).
Recalling back last week, I took many pictures of this husky puppy at school. I "accidentally" got the chance to do a test by saving many pictures to both the internal memory and SD. I took a good amount of shots by normally using the camera - these were saved to the SD. Then I decided to do a burst shot. The burst was not set to save to the SD, so they all (20 photos) were saved to my internal memory.
Looking at Google+, I see that only 4/14 shots uploaded from SD are ok (the other 10 have become corrupt). 20/20 shots uploaded from the internal memory are fine. This is also reflected in my phone's gallery app.
Looking at what has happened, it can be concluded that the problem stems from the SD card - I just don't know how fast the corruption occurs after taking photos and why exactly it happens.
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That seems to nail it down pretty definitely. Might be time to try a new SD card.
The SD Card issue seems to be a hit or miss. Recently my wife & were in NYC when suddenly she noticed all her info, ALL OF IT, was missing from the directories. I checked the card and it did not appear in the file manager. I tried her card in my phone, (both are Galaxy S4's), and the memory card was not recognized. I put in a spare for her phone to use while we were on vacation and once home I placed her SD card in the freezer, it was of course inside the plastic case for protection. I left it there for 2 days then let it warm to room temp and used my laptop to access the now visible files and move them to a folder on the computer. I did have to utilize the freezer 2 times during this process but managed to recover every file she had on the SD card. "THIS WAS BTW A SAMSUNG 16GB SD." I purchased new high speed ScanDisk SD cards and transferred all her files to the new card, other than some reorganizing all is well. We now have DropBox set up for automatic photo backup and have set up "Backup Pro" to handle all SMS, MMS, Call Logs, etc.. on a daily backup schedule.
My guess would be a glitch in the Samsung phone firmware that causes the SD card issue but it could have been the card as well. My card was the same, purchased and installed on same day, and I have no trouble although I too will be replacing the Samsung SD card. This doesn't help much with giving a fix for the problem however the intent is to give everyone a possible way to recover the files. Once removed from the freezer I did not view any files until after they were all transferred and I did nothing else on the computer until the task was complete. Warning ahead that this took quite some time to complete but having recovered all the pics and files was worth every second. Good luck to all.
Thank you for the very detailed and informative reply!
I'm wondering if the class of the card may have some effect on these issues? Perhaps the phones prefer class 10s over 4s (what I currently have)?
Where did you hear of the freezer "trick?" Was it technically to let the card cool down a great deal? Because I know when the S4 is using the card extensively, it can get pretty hot, which can possibly be a factor into these issues as well.
Odd that the SD card that decided to fail on you guys was a Samsung.. It makes me wonder if it's strictly the phone's fault or if the problems only occur with a combo of a bad SD card and a phone problem.
Let us know if you stumble upon any other issues again with your card(s)!
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I couldn't say if the SD card being a 4 or 10 makes any difference. The new cards I just installed are 10 for the higher speed.
As for the freezer trick, it is an old computer trick I learned long ago. When a hard drive fails sometimes the data can be recovered by placing the drive in the freezer for a couple of days. My guess would be this has nothing to do with "cooling down" but rather more to do with a temporary correction on the corrupt part of a drive as result of the extreme cold. I had never tried with an SD card prior to this but I figured it was my only shot. The important thing to remember is not to panic and attempt the many things we all do when data disappears. I have noted by past experience the trick is to NOT do anything aside from moving the data to a known good drive and once there taking a look at the result. I have lost data on hard drives by attempting to look before transfer. It sounds like a joke but it does work, just have to have the patience to wait out the long transfer time, I imagine due to the corrupt source.
If this info helps even one more person save memories then my time was well spent in sharing. Good luck!
P.S. My opinion would still be that the phone itself creates this problem and not the SD card. After all, this appears to be non exclusive to any particular flash drive/SD card but very exclusive to the GS4.
Another recovery method is if you have a way to read sd cards on your computer, a program named recuva works real well. Have used it on hard drives, flash drives, and sd cards. In the case of the sd cards, once recovered, I do a full format and everything seems to work fine afterwards.
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