Galaxy S4: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

[KevroniCoal]

According to a lot of people's reports the card corruption problem seems to occur in conjunction with the phone getting unusually hot. Perhaps the heat, which may be caused by something unrelated to the card, such as battery issues, is damaging cards. Sandisk, however, claims that its cards can be safely exposed to temperatures up to 185 degrees f./85 degrees c. - http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/d...erance-(waterproof,-temperature,-magnetic-and - so high temperature alone probably shouldn't be causing the corruption issue.

Huh! So maybe the heat somehow affects the writing process on the phone, and perhaps it seems that as of now, SanDisk cards are the cards that seem to be most affected by this possible phone malfunction? Very interesting...

Thanks for the info!

You'll forgive me for not reading the entire post, but if you haven't already fixed the issue know that it is due to the fact that you used a Sandisk SD card.... I had the same issue, called Sandisk and had them send me another card and that card took a crap too. My buddy had a Sandisk he took from his Note 1 and tried to use it in his S4 and it too crapped out. I ended up going with a Samsung SD Card and so far so good! Good Luck!

Thank you for the reply!

Have you also tried other brands of SD cards? From other posts as well as yours, it seems like the Samsung cards are the most stable (I wouldn't be too surprised haha).

I'm either going to try and find another brand or see how the cards for my family members' are holding up...

Huh! So maybe the heat somehow affects the writing process on the phone, and perhaps it seems that as of now, SanDisk cards are the cards that seem to be most affected by this possible phone malfunction? Very interesting...

Thanks for the info!

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Oh, also, I'm pretty sure my phone hasn't quite reached that temperature SanDisk claims their cards can handle!

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[lafountain]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Pny made the card I was using, though mine could have been an isolated incident. Though no issues post formatting of card.

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[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Pny made the card I was using, though mine could have been an isolated incident. Though no issues post formatting of card.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using AC Forums mobile app

Sorry I never replied to your other post! I've heard of a lot of people getting that same dismounting problem that you mentioned. I've also read about different methods of fixing it. I think reformatting it to the phone usually is what works!
Perhaps something might change for my problem if I reformat it with the phone again? Hmm

Thanks!

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[doohsun]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I picked this card haven't gotten any problems as you explained ADATA Premier 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Class 10 Flash Memory Card w/Adapter. Definitely sound like you have a bad card. Personally I don't think SD is ask good as they use to be.

 

[redrover69]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I am throwing in my .02 on this topic.

No where am I reading where these people are buying their sd cards from. EBAY? RETAILER? AMAZON???

I got a card on ebay. 24 bucks for samsung class 10 64gb. Popped it in the phone formatted it. Works. take pix and saves to the card...

go back to look and the pix are corrupted.

Anyways

I go to Best buy..pickup a sandisk 64 gb card spent 65 bucks on it. The same card the Samsung rep has in his phone (By the way at Best buy they have Samsung kiosks for help now)

I talked to him about the issues with the card couldnt figure anything out so I bought the card. Put it in with the Rep right there. The card been working FLAWLESSLY for 2 days now.

So....My guess all these issues stem from counterfeit or bad cards sold on line.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

I am throwing in my .02 on this topic.

No where am I reading where these people are buying their sd cards from. EBAY? RETAILER? AMAZON???

I got a card on ebay. 24 bucks for samsung class 10 64gb. Popped it in the phone formatted it. Works. take pix and saves to the card...

go back to look and the pix are corrupted.

Anyways

I go to Best buy..pickup a sandisk 64 gb card spent 65 bucks on it. The same card the Samsung rep has in his phone (By the way at Best buy they have Samsung kiosks for help now)

I talked to him about the issues with the card couldnt figure anything out so I bought the card. Put it in with the Rep right there. The card been working FLAWLESSLY for 2 days now.

So....My guess all these issues stem from counterfeit or bad cards sold on line.

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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[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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!
And thank you all for the help so far!

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[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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!
And thank you all for the help so far!

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using AC Forums mobile app

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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[STARGATE]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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:

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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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[STSVA]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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!

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[Moshe Hazaz]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

Funnily enough, I have the same issue - it's not every pic and it's not every time...
I've reset the phone to save DCIM photos in the phone memory - I then transfer them at the first opportunity to my laptop. Only then do I try to put them onto the SD card: if I do it on the phone using either COPY or MOVE functions, some, many, all or none get corrupted (hence the download onto laptop for safekeeping).
I'll keep an eye on this thread, coz I'm starting to get a little bit hacked-off with this phone... :-(

I have a major issue with music on the SD card as well - see separate thread.

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

 

[rundarlin]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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?

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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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[Digitalrage]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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?

 

[KevroniCoal]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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..?

But in my other thread about this SD card problem, one user commented this:

------

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!

------

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!

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[Jason Moutray]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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-flytouch-3/345645-h2testw-1-4-detecting-counterfeit-flash-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).

 

[odeth07]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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.

 

[Bonnie Edwards]

Re: Micro SD Card Corruption Issues

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.