Some searching leads me to conclude that this problem is not only on my Discover (SGH-S730M), but other phones as well, including non-Samsung.
The common findings (and my second go round with this) are that folders and their files start showing up with duplicates of themselves on the installed SD card. In my case, that would by a SanDisk Ultra 32 GB. Most people report their music folders being duplicated. That is what happened to me the first time around: one of the folders would have the "real" song that would actually play, the duplicate version if selected would return a message that the file could not be played as the file format was not supported. One duplicate eventually became four duplicate folders as the problem "progressed". Then other, non-music, files started replicating themselves as well - although the size of the data actually on the card did not increase as the duplicate folders continued growing. Delete a duplicate folder from the phone... it pops up again almost immediately. Unmount and remove the SD card, start the phone up again, go to music... and all those song files that you only had on the SD card still show up when you go to your music app, even though they are no longer there. Of course, you can't play them, but the screen tells you they're still there.
Does this indicate a registry problem?
This has since progressed to the point where it appears that all files of all kinds on the external SD card have apparently lost their file extensions i.e. .jpg, .pdf, .mp3, etc. Not just within the phone, but when the SD card and phone is viewed as an external device on a PC.
So far, the folders and files on the internal memory appear unaffected by all of this.
Unmounting, removing SD card, starting and stopping phone, then replacing card and remounting does nothing with my problem.
There are references to similar problems throughout the forums here - and elsewhere. Different phones involved, some of which are not Samsungs. Not enough info to know if all reporting this are also running Android 4.04.
Anyone know more about this? Have a definitive, bulletproof way to deal with this once it happens? Or, best of all, a solution that ensures this won't have to be dealt with every month or so? This is my second time around with this, and I don't like the idea of having to wipe out my phone and start all over again from backups every month or so.
Incidentally, contacted Samsung and they said they have no records of this as a known problem, although it isn't hard to find some references to it here and elsewhere on the Internet.
The common findings (and my second go round with this) are that folders and their files start showing up with duplicates of themselves on the installed SD card. In my case, that would by a SanDisk Ultra 32 GB. Most people report their music folders being duplicated. That is what happened to me the first time around: one of the folders would have the "real" song that would actually play, the duplicate version if selected would return a message that the file could not be played as the file format was not supported. One duplicate eventually became four duplicate folders as the problem "progressed". Then other, non-music, files started replicating themselves as well - although the size of the data actually on the card did not increase as the duplicate folders continued growing. Delete a duplicate folder from the phone... it pops up again almost immediately. Unmount and remove the SD card, start the phone up again, go to music... and all those song files that you only had on the SD card still show up when you go to your music app, even though they are no longer there. Of course, you can't play them, but the screen tells you they're still there.
Does this indicate a registry problem?
This has since progressed to the point where it appears that all files of all kinds on the external SD card have apparently lost their file extensions i.e. .jpg, .pdf, .mp3, etc. Not just within the phone, but when the SD card and phone is viewed as an external device on a PC.
So far, the folders and files on the internal memory appear unaffected by all of this.
Unmounting, removing SD card, starting and stopping phone, then replacing card and remounting does nothing with my problem.
There are references to similar problems throughout the forums here - and elsewhere. Different phones involved, some of which are not Samsungs. Not enough info to know if all reporting this are also running Android 4.04.
Anyone know more about this? Have a definitive, bulletproof way to deal with this once it happens? Or, best of all, a solution that ensures this won't have to be dealt with every month or so? This is my second time around with this, and I don't like the idea of having to wipe out my phone and start all over again from backups every month or so.
Incidentally, contacted Samsung and they said they have no records of this as a known problem, although it isn't hard to find some references to it here and elsewhere on the Internet.
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