Galaxy S4: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

[monsieurms]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I too lost important photos of me and my girlfriend enjoyng a meal in the shard for our first anniversary, I too was furious.

Apart from "recovery" programs, which may or may not work after the damage is done, I've always backed up instantly to the cloud. One nice backup feature (works with Facebook or Google+) is that if you set Facebook, etc to sync photos (sync tends to be turned on by default when you install the app), it will backup almost instantaneously, depending on whether you have it set for "wi-fi only" or wi-fi and data. Other programs will back up on a schedule and include other things---like Lookout antivirus---but the nice thing with this Facebook feature is that your pix are never lost if there is some emergency that destroys or loses the card.

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

So it appears pictures saved to the internal memory on the phone do not have any issues, right? Only ones saved or moved to an SD card, regardless of brand?

My card is a brand new Samsung MicroSD 64 GB and the only pics impacted were 99% of the ones I took yesterday or moved to the card yesterday during the afternoon. I did test pics later after we got home saved directly to the card and THOSE pics did not corrupt! Yet...?

Hopefully I can recover the corrupt ones. The really weird thing is how the output resolution was corrupted to -1 X -1 Resolution.

 

[Giggles0045]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I have just recently purchased the Galaxy s4 and have had problems with the micro sd card. I loaded in my old card from my previous phone it was a 32g class 10 samsung card. It had a large collection of songs and a couple of play lists that I got to enjoy for a few days. I was impressed with the fact that I got to listen to them for 10hours before my bluetooth batteries would die on me, pretty impressive. A few days latter my phone no longer recognized the card. I coul dnot even view the card on my computer with a card reader. I then stuck in a cheaper 8g class 4 card that I had loaded it with a a bunch of music and got to play that for a while. then I was trying to take a picture and it wasn't working so good for me. phone locked up had to remove the battery. when I reinstalled the battery and tried again no luck. I was running short of time so I just turned the phone off. less than 1/2 hour later had another look the pnone did not recognize the card any more and the battery had gone from 98% to 17% battery.

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I went back to Verizon today and dumped my S4 and got back in the iPhone 5S.

These issues with the S4 are too widespread. I'm just hoping I can save my pics it ruined yesterday.

 

[Giggles0045]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I have just recently purchased the Galaxy s4 and have had problems with the micro sd card. I loaded in my old card from my previous phone it was a 32g class 10 samsung card. It had a large collection of songs and a couple of play lists that I got to enjoy for a few days. I was impressed with the fact that I got to listen to them for 10hours before my bluetooth batteries would die on me, pretty impressive. A few days latter my phone no longer recognized the card. I coul dnot even view the card on my computer with a card reader. I then stuck in a cheaper 8g class 4 card that I had loaded it with a a bunch of music and got to play that for a while. then I was trying to take a picture and it wasn't working so good for me. phone locked up had to remove the battery. when I reinstalled the battery and tried again no luck. I was running short of time so I just turned the phone off. less than 1/2 hour later had another look the pnone did not recognize the card any more and the battery had gone from 98% to 17% battery.

 

[monsieurms]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

For the record, I have had an S4 for nearly a year now. I had to reformat 1 card (*that, in the Galaxy Note 2014, not the S4). I have never had a corruption issue, or lost data and once reformatted the cards worked perfectly. I've been using the same 64gb SanDisk in my S4 since the beginning. It shows no problems at all.

 

[kingb71]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

crazy question but is everybody just installing the micro SD cards in the device, or are they formatting them before 1st use? I had a card I didn't format corrupt on me (saved it with a scan disk & defrag on my PC), but have since changed to a bigger card, which I formatted first using my device

 

[KevroniCoal]

crazy question but is everybody just installing the micro SD cards in the device, or are they formatting them before 1st use? I had a card I didn't format corrupt on me (saved it with a scan disk & defrag on my PC), but have since changed to a bigger card, which I formatted first using my device

When I got my card, I just put it in and formatted it right then and there with my phone. Didn't have it in another device prior

So it appears pictures saved to the internal memory on the phone do not have any issues, right? Only ones saved or moved to an SD card, regardless of brand?

My card is a brand new Samsung MicroSD 64 GB and the only pics impacted were 99% of the ones I took yesterday or moved to the card yesterday during the afternoon. I did test pics later after we got home saved directly to the card and THOSE pics did not corrupt! Yet...?

Hopefully I can recover the corrupt ones. The really weird thing is how the output resolution was corrupted to -1 X -1 Resolution.

Curious on how your res is -1 x -1. Mine tend to keep their resolution - but a lot of other data seem to be gone (see the photos). I have a screenshot of a corrupt and good photo taken from my phone.

Since the corrupt photos still have a reading of memory on them (ie the 3.2 MB etc), perhaps, just maybe, this shows that they still have memory of what the photo was of and thus the picture can be recovered? I'm not sure how much of the space used by the file can be for much else

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

When I was at Verizon yesterday, the associate said he had not heard of these SD Card issues with the S4. However - when I told him what had happened and about the threads on this website, he went and looked in his Verizon forums and online tech support and found that yes, there is a reported error with some (not all) S4s involving the phones firmware/harddrive and its ability (or failure) to not only save photos directly to the SD card from the camera but when photos are moved. It has to do with how the phone's drive 'communicates' the data for the pictures and corrupts it in doing so.

He offered to swap my S4 for a new S4 but when I asked him if he could guarantee another replacement if it happened again he said that would up to Samsung as it would then be a warranty issue. I did seriously consider upping the ante and getting the 32 GB S4 but they would have had to order it. So, I decided to go back to the iPhone 5S.

Now, I'm trying to recover my photos using the ZAR program which is running as I'm typing this. Having read through mutliple threads about this issue, I am 100% confident the problem is with the phone and NOT with the cards. I had a brand new Samsung 64 GB Class 10 card. While at Verizon yesterday, I showed him the corrupted 'photos' and even took some then tried to transfer them which they then immediately became corrupt.

I believe his statement that the problem is in SOME (not all) S4's hard drive/firmware is dead on. While a few issues may have been with questionable cards or practices, I have no doubt this is an S4 issue. Good luck to all who are frustrated with this issue as I don't see any quick resolution until Samsung initiates a recall of the affected phones and offers replacement with proven good devices.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

When I was at Verizon yesterday, the associate said he had not heard of these SD Card issues with the S4. However - when I told him what had happened and about the threads on this website, he went and looked in his Verizon forums and online tech support and found that yes, there is a reported error with some (not all) S4s involving the phones firmware/harddrive and its ability (or failure) to not only save photos directly to the SD card from the camera but when photos are moved. It has to do with how the phone's drive 'communicates' the data for the pictures and corrupts it in doing so.

He offered to swap my S4 for a new S4 but when I asked him if he could guarantee another replacement if it happened again he said that would up to Samsung as it would then be a warranty issue. I did seriously consider upping the ante and getting the 32 GB S4 but they would have had to order it. So, I decided to go back to the iPhone 5S.

Now, I'm trying to recover my photos using the ZAR program which is running as I'm typing this. Having read through mutliple threads about this issue, I am 100% confident the problem is with the phone and NOT with the cards. I had a brand new Samsung 64 GB Class 10 card. While at Verizon yesterday, I showed him the corrupted 'photos' and even took some then tried to transfer them which they then immediately became corrupt.

I believe his statement that the problem is in SOME (not all) S4's hard drive/firmware is dead on. While a few issues may have been with questionable cards or practices, I have no doubt this is an S4 issue. Good luck to all who are frustrated with this issue as I don't see any quick resolution until Samsung initiates a recall of the affected phones and offers replacement with proven good devices.

Good to know that there are at least some other forums taking about this issue.
If it IS the firmware, I'm assuming that an update from Samsung might be able to fix it? (I'm just saying this since you can update the firmware of the device in the settings..). Unless it's possible that there's some sort of physical error in the device that wouldn't allow OTA updates to fix it..?

But hopefully the program you're using works for you! Let us know how it turns out. I still haven't managed to try and do something about my corrupt photos. I'm curious if it can work for me haha

Oh btw, I'm to lazy to look for it, but how long is the warranty for the phone, or does it depend on the carrier? Because I recently (a few months or less ago) got a different issue with my phone not giving me any notifications at all when receiving a text. I don't know if this is a carrier issue or the phone. So if I could, perhaps I could trade for a new S4..

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Well, after downloading four different recovery programs I still am not able to recover a viewable photo from the session of my daughter trying on wedding dresses. I tried Recuva, ZAR, Vibo-Soft, and Remo Recover) - all had zero luck in recovering the corrupted files except Remo Recover but even the 'recovered' photos showed up as Corrupted File and I was not able to preview/view them.

The photos are in the DCIM portion of the SD card. They are there taking up ~1.5 MB space per picture yet all say they have an output resolution size of -1 x -1 pixels! How can that be?

Does ANYONE know of a program that might be helpful?

 

[Blackie_X]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

It's interesting to read this is continuing to happen to more of us, and some are asking when will Samsung provide an update...yet no one seems to actually be telling Samsung about the problem, even saying they've heard Samsung deny there's a problem. So, please, do tell them
I'm lucky that at the moment, SanDisk are accepting the card may have a fault, so I'm pursuing that to at least get a replacement card.

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

It's interesting to read this is continuing to happen to more of us, and some are asking when will Samsung provide an update...yet no one seems to actually be telling Samsung about the problem, even saying they've heard Samsung deny there's a problem. So, please, do tell them
I'm lucky that at the moment, SanDisk are accepting the card may have a fault, so I'm pursuing that to at least get a replacement card.

Well I did via their customer support website per this email below:

Hello,

I want to express my extreme disappointment with the quality of your Galaxy S4 phone. (By the way, your drop down menu does not show the model number SCH-1545 as a choice!). I used this phone to take ~85 pictures of my daughter buying her WEDDING DRESS on Saturday, saving the pictures directly to the brand new Samsung Micro SD 64 GB Class 10 memory card - and the phone ultimately corrupted everyone of them but 1, as well as other pictures I had stored on the memory card.

Research into this problem via several internet forums shows that this is a CHRONIC problem with the S4, so much so that many people are running from your product.

I had just purchased this phone on January 2 and it had been flawless until Satruday - when it ruined the most important pictures I had taken with it. This is NOT a random event - search the internet and you will see that this is a HUGE issue.

I took my S4 back to Verizon and even they confirmed this issue; their own tech forums cite repeated issues of the S4's firmware corrupting (in random events) photos when either saved directly to an SD card OR when moving from the device's internal storage to the SD card.

Due to this huge problem, I promptly returned my phone and purchased an Apple iPhone 5S.

Again - I am extremely disappointed in your product. I purchased mine at Verizon Wireless in Oregon Ohio and unless you fix this issue will never again buy a Samsung product and will tell everyone I know how unreliable your devices are.

Disappointed in Ohio...
Regards,
XXXXX

 

[monsieurms]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Well, after downloading four different recovery programs I still am not able to recover a viewable photo from the session of my daughter trying on wedding dresses. I tried Recuva, ZAR, Vibo-Soft, and Remo Recover) - all had zero luck in recovering the corrupted files except Remo Recover but even the 'recovered' photos showed up as Corrupted File and I was not able to preview/view them.

The photos are in the DCIM portion of the SD card. They are there taking up ~1.5 MB space per picture yet all say they have an output resolution size of -1 x -1 pixels! How can that be?

Does ANYONE know of a program that might be helpful?

I've had good luck with this:

Memory Card Recovery Software to Recover Lost Photos - CardRecovery
NB:
If you have a card problem, it is important to take it out and stop using it immediately. Once sectors are overwritten with new data, it may be impossible to recover files.

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I've had good luck with this:

Memory Card Recovery Software to Recover Lost Photos - CardRecovery
NB:
If you have a card problem, it is important to take it out and stop using it immediately. Once sectors are overwritten with new data, it may be impossible to recover files.

The card is out all right. I've already returned the phone to Verizon and bought an iPhone 5S.

 

[Antonio Rodriguez6]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I haven't read the whole thread but read enough to understand I had the same issue. Some videos were copying over and others copied corrupted. After reading this thread I decided to call Samsung regarding my Note 3 SD card issue. After transferring me to tech support the guy said he wanted to verify the card and he asked me to take it out, look on the back, and read off the model number. I stopped right there and told him there were no numbers. He then went on to say the card was counterfeit and there is a wide spread issue at the moment regardless of if you buy it from Amazon, Bestbuy or Walmart.
When I was having the issue mt transfer rate within the device was 3 mb tops. I just bought a new Sandisk and its transferring at 7 -10 mb. I transferred my vids and they all work at the moment. I'll update tomorrow and see if its still good.
Verify your card is legit. You can just Google images your card and make sure it looks right front and back.

 

[TuxedoBlackC7]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Antonio - how could you verify the card is legit without opening the package, etc, before you buy?

Great reply and insight.

 

[Antonio Rodriguez6]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Antonio - how could you verify the card is legit without opening the package, etc, before you buy?

Great reply and insight.

I just walked into a radio Shack and explained the issue I had. I asked them what their return policy was and then had them open it right in front of me. Any known retail store will do the same or you can open it, look at it and say okay changed my mind here is the receipt for the card I bought 30 seconds ago.

I bought original one from Amazon and called their customer support. I didn't want to open a case against the seller because of the Samsung tech saying its a wide spread issue and not a retailers fault. Amazon send me a paid shipping label and will refund my cash once they receive the card.

I called Samsung to begin with because that many SD cards going bad sounded odd to me without it being a known or device issue. The counterfeit aspect makes sense

 

[Antonio Rodriguez6]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I just typed out this long response and it disappeared...
I just walked into a Radio Shack and asked them what their return policy was. I then had the clerk open the card in front me and I installed it right in the store. Any reputable retailer will let you open the item before you buy and even if they don't they have to have a return policy.

I purchased by initial card at Amazon. I called their customer service and explained the issue. They sent me a prepaid shipping label and will refund my money once they receive the card.

 

[STSVA]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I haven't read the whole thread but read enough to understand I had the same issue. Some videos were copying over and others copied corrupted. After reading this thread I decided to call Samsung regarding my Note 3 SD card issue. After transferring me to tech support the guy said he wanted to verify the card and he asked me to take it out, look on the back, and read off the model number. I stopped right there and told him there were no numbers. He then went on to say the card was counterfeit and there is a wide spread issue at the moment regardless of if you buy it from Amazon, Bestbuy or Walmart.
When I was having the issue mt transfer rate within the device was 3 mb tops. I just bought a new Sandisk and its transferring at 7 -10 mb. I transferred my vids and they all work at the moment. I'll update tomorrow and see if its still good.
Verify your card is legit. You can just Google images your card and make sure it looks right front and back.

You may have gotten a bogus card, but in my case it was a genuine SanDisk, verified by SanDisk because they provided a replacement by RMA.