[jonaaibosk]

Hi guys. I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S4 and decided to get a memory card so that I could put my music on it, to save me carrying my old iphone around as an ipod. My SD card arrived and I managed to put 881 songs on it no problem. However when I'm now trying to put more music onto my SD card the songs either don't play or play around 1-5 seconds before skipping to the end and then going to the next track.

These same songs work fine when I put them on the internal storage, but, again, as soon as I try to move them on the SD card they don't work.

I'm just using the standard music player that comes installed with the phone.

Right now it's not a huge issue as I have enough space on the internal storage to keep these songs but it seems pointless having a memory card with over 54GB of available space if I can't use it.

I've searched all over the Internet for a solution for this and found nothing.

Can anyone help???

[Patrick Schroedl]

For the purpose of troubleshooting, I would try using a different media player app, like MX Player. It might also not hurt to follow this advice, posted by me a while back regarding similar media issues:

There's a component of Android running on your phone known as the media scanner service. This service is responsible for, in short, 'indexing' the media files on the device and providing a reference to these files to applications which request such existent media -- i.e. the Gallery or Music apps. Occasionally the media scanner does get 'confused' -- for lack of a better term -- and may skip over or ignore files for any number of reasons. Sometimes, rebooting the device will fix the issue; the media scanner performs a full indexing when the device is powered on. However, if this is not the case, you'll need to manually trigger the scanner service to re-scan the available storage. There are applications in the Play Store that will do this for you programmatically.

Here are two such applications, with no endorsements or guarantees from me.

Rescan SD Card! - Android Apps on Google Play
Scan Media - Android Apps on Google Play

It sounds like the music app you're using is able to recognize the presence of the music files, so I can't say whether this would help any of your playback issues.

[jonaaibosk]

Thanks for the reply. I tried restarting and re scanning the SD Card but had no success. I've noticed that once I've put the songs on the SD card they work for a few minutes before they start skipping. I then get a message saying that the device doesn't support the file format, which is nonsense as the files are MP3 files.

I've also noticed that after the phone tries to play the songs and fails, it completely deletes them from the SD card so using another player isn't really an option

It just frustrating that I have 54GB of space on my SD card and I can't use it and am having to use internal storage space

[Patrick Schroedl]

It's possible the card has been corrupted or damaged in some way. You might try formatting it and then moving the data over again, or using a different card. Unfortunately, there is one other possibility. You didn't state who you purchased the SD card from, but it's common for counterfeit cards to be sold as larger than they actually are. The partition size is commonly set to an invalid number on these cards, making them likely to stop working properly when the actual physical storage fills up.

I recommend using the h2testw tool to test the SD card while it is in the computer. It will list information for capacity, speed, and any problems it encounters.

[jonaaibosk]

That could be the very problem. I got the card from eBay at a reduced price as it was an 8 GB reformatted to 64 I'm guessing if I get a proper 64gb card my problems should go away.

[gxgs]

8 GB reformatted to 64? That statement is like saying you divided by zero.

Was it a 64 GB card but the partition was sized at 8 GB and you resized it to 64 GB?

Anyway, if its a cheap ebay card, theres is a good chance that's problem. And, if it isn't right now, it will be in the future.

[jonaaibosk]

I didn't do anything to the card. I bought it from eBay. That's all.

Don't think there was any need for the divide by 0 comment though. I'm only giving the details that were listed on the description on ebay

"These are brand new upgraded / reformatted memory cards. Upgraded means that a 8 GB card was reformatted to be able to use the 64 GB"

[Patrick Schroedl]

I didn't do anything to the card. I bought it from eBay. That's all.

Don't think there was any need for the divide by 0 comment though. I'm only giving the details that were listed on the description on ebay

"These are brand new upgraded / reformatted memory cards. Upgraded means that a 8 GB card was reformatted to be able to use the 64 GB"

The statement about dividing by zero is accurate in the sense that it is equally as impossible to reformat a flash memory card to a larger size than its physical capacity allows while retaining proper functionality. I don't think it was meant in spite, though if it was, yes, it would be uncalled-for.

Unfortunately, it sounds like your card is, in fact, a counterfeit. The h2testw tool can verify that for you. Sorry that isn't the fix you were hoping for!

[gxgs]

I didn't do anything to the card. I bought it from eBay. That's all.

Don't think there was any need for the divide by 0 comment though. I'm only giving the details that were listed on the description on ebay

"These are brand new upgraded / reformatted memory cards. Upgraded means that a 8 GB card was reformatted to be able to use the 64 GB"

It was an analogy or something to explain that what you stated is impossible, even if you weren't the one that came up with the statement but the seller from whom you purchased it. I honestly don't see how you could even be insulted by that or have taken it personally. An 8 GB can't be reformatted for 64 GB simply because it doesn't have the hardware to do so, you can may make it look like a 64 GB by hacking a few things, but it will never have a capacity of 64 GB, unless the card was a 64 GB one in first place. Just in the same way you can't take an 8 oz bottle and market it as having a capacity of 1 gallon. Or, in the same way you can't divide by zero. It just simply isn't possible. I guess I'll post with smileys next time.

We already know what the problem is and its the card. If you want a working card, buy a samsung, pny, san disk, patriot, toshiba, g.skill, kingston and not from ebay, but from newegg or any other reputable electronic retailer/store. These are just a few of actual legit memory makers that will allow you to use the full size of the card at good speeds. Look for class 10 or UHS 1 type, anything lower may be too slow for the android media scanner if you will be adding a lot of files to it.

[Aesthete18]

You should be more careful next time. From what I've read and personal experience, SD cards tend to have issues with S4 anyways, buying it off eBay may not be such a good idea. Spend some time doing research or ask around here next time before you purchase, you can get some sound advice from the people here.

In any case, you might wanna try these suggestions by Brian7751: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...ml#post3422773. It did not work for me but my SD card wasn't even readable. Yours can still store stuff, there might still be hope.

[RoyFishall]

You should be more careful next time. From what I've read and personal experience, SD cards tend to have issues with S4 anyways, buying it off eBay may not be such a good idea. Spend some time doing research or ask around here next time before you purchase, you can get some sound advice from the people here.

In any case, you might wanna try these suggestions by Brian7751: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sam...ml#post3422773. It did not work for me but my SD card wasn't even readable. Yours can still store stuff, there might still be hope.

Interesting advice, thanks to all.

But I can tell you I have a similar problem with my galaxy mini 3 with the sd card.

I have a definitely genuine Samsung 64 gig sd memory card, which I returned because of the problem I'll get to in a moment and was given a new one despite it being tested as OK. The replacement has not cured the problem.

The phone will recognize it, will record movies from the camera and store the mp4s on the card, will play back 20 gigs of my videos and photos (as much as I have used so far) no problems, take hundreds of stills and store them and they can be seen in the gallery, the files can be drag/dropped via usb to the pc no problem.

But.

When I try to copy my mp3s from the pc to the phone via usb the files play much in the same way as has already been described by the other poster, a few seconds, then skips to the next track, finally resulting in the message about file type.

The card works perfectly in my pc and laptop, I even left it in the card reader on the pc having files copied onto it until it reached its capacity, everything could be read and accessed no problem.

It would appear there is some problem, with the phone or the android system that fails to recognize or play mp3 files on the sd card, but is happy with internal storage.

Does anyone actually know what this is all about and hopefully a solution?

[John Meloche]

Same problem with a note 4 and a generic 256gb card. Retailer's (usadiscountwarehouse) website says to reformat. Did that on my Mac, same problem. I will see if the warranty they offer works for me.