Is my phone broken or just sd card problems?

[Jet Man]

I have had a transcend sdhc micro sd card for about 2 years (i think), it was just working normally until now. I cant download anything, create folders, rename files, delete files, and things like that. If im not wrong i believe it may have been set to write protected. Before the card was broken, i was using a charger cable to move files to my laptop. So i went ahead i bought a new one. I bought a samsung evo plus sdxc micro sd card, and that worked for a little. It would randomly write protect the card. I had to keep restarting my phone whenever that happened. And whenever i succesfully downloaded something, it often corrupts it. So is my phone just broken? Or is it the sd card i bought? Any help would be appreciated (sorry for the bad english)

 

[mustang7757]

Which phone?
Where are you purchasing the sd card from?

I'll leave a Link to register so you can communicate here as a guest account you can only post questions but can't reply

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! There's no write protect switch on a microSD card, so this kind of thing is usually due to a problem with the card or with the card reader. Since it happened with a new card as well, then make sure the phone's SD card reader is clean. Use a can of compressed air to blow it out, and if it's a phone where you can actually access the SD reader contacts, use a small cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean them.

 

[Jet Man]

Well my phone is a 2 years old samsung j2 prime which i bought from a local store, the old transcend sd card which i also got from the local store, and the new samsung evo card from an online store.

 

[Jet Man]

Welcome to Android Central! There's no write protect switch on a microSD card, so this kind of thing is usually due to a problem with the card or with the card reader. Since it happened with a new card as well, then make sure the phone's SD card reader is clean. Use a can of compressed air to blow it out, and if it's a phone where you can actually access the SD reader contacts, use a small cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean them.

I dont have a compressed air can, and a cotton swab doesnt fit. Is there any other solution?

 

[B. Diddy]

Compressed air is cheap and easy to get at your local office supply or tech store -- for example: www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-8-oz-cleaning-dusters-2-pack/8045009.p?skuId=8045009

 

[Rukbat]

If the card can move even a little when it's in position, slide it back and forth a couple of times, in case there's any oxidation on the card contacts or the contacts in the phone. (Not more than a couple of times - you don't want to wear off the very thin gold plating.)

If cleaning doesn't fix the problem, it's the phone - which is what I suspect. (Considering the current price, replacing the phone would be cheaper than having it repaired.)

 

[smvim]

If different microSD cards from different manufacturers both have problems, that's a strong indicator there's a problem that's not because of the cards themselves.
When using those cards to transfer files between your phone and your laptop, do you dismount the card each time you remove it? It sounds like each card is getting its file system corrupted because it's not being dismounted properly.

 

[Jet Man]

I guess my phone is broken? One last question, so i found one more thing, with the samsung card it always creates a lost.dir folder and inside are weird things, like files with questionable names but i cant post them since it is marked as spam. The file names are just random symbols and letters. And the those files have all have different dates and sizes, like a 3.72gb sized file and was made in September 29 1994. Is this a virus?

 

[B. Diddy]

Yes, it's certainly possible that there's a problem with the phone's SD reader itself.

LOST.DIR is where files that become corrupted or weren't saved correctly get stored -- for example, if you were in the middle of recording a video and the Camera app or the phone crashed, the unsuccessful video file would be saved there as a coded file. It's possible to try to recover it by renaming it with an .mp4 extension. Since your card keeps on failing, it's not surprising that files are showing up there.

 

[Jet Man]

Yes, it's certainly possible that there's a problem with the phone's SD reader itself.

LOST.DIR is where files that become corrupted or weren't saved correctly get stored -- for example, if you were in the middle of recording a video and the Camera app or the phone crashed, the unsuccessful video file would be saved there as a coded file. It's possible to try to recover it by renaming it with an .mp4 extension. Since your card keeps on failing, it's not surprising that files are showing up there.

I see... guess i'll have to start saving up again

 

[Jet Man]

Alright, about the lost.dir thing. I was wrong about that, so whenever i restart my phone the lost.dir folder is empty. The folder would soon be filled with those questionable files i was talking about in a previous post. And so i restart my phone again, i moved some folders from my internal storage to the sd card, after a while all the folders i moved is filled with those questionable files and the things i had in the folders were corrupted. I just thought i should post more of my findings here, im sorry for reviving this thread.

 

[B. Diddy]

Still sounds like a problem with either the card or how the phone is accessing the card. Hard to say what those unknown files are, but they could represent data that was unsuccessfully saved or transferred to the card (and this could just be temporary or cached data, not just your own data).

 

[Jet Man]

Still sounds like a problem with either the card or how the phone is accessing the card. Hard to say what those unknown files are, but they could represent data that was unsuccessfully saved or transferred to the card (and this could just be temporary or cached data, not just your own data).

Well i do remember trying to copy some files from the trancend sd card to the samsung one, i canceled it though. But i dont remember trying to copy 426 files. I also dont remember the files being over 3.47 gb size and being made in 1980, but that might be the main source of the lost.dir problem. Would force deleting them on a computer with a charger cable work?

 

[B. Diddy]

You could unmount the card, remove it, and insert it into the computer and try deleting the files using Windows File Explorer.

 

[Jet Man]

You could unmount the card, remove it, and insert it into the computer and try deleting the files using Windows File Explorer.

Sorry for the late reply. Unmounting the card and inserting it into my computer results in the unknown files to dissapear, just like when restarting the phone. And using the charger cable still doesnt let me delete the files, it just says the storage is write protected. Is there a way to force delete them?

 

[B. Diddy]

That could still be consistent with an SD reader problem on the phone. If the file actually isn't there, then there wouldn't be anything to delete. Have you already considered backing up what's on the card to your computer, then reformatting the card and seeing if the problem recurs?

 

[Jet Man]

That could still be consistent with an SD reader problem on the phone. If the file actually isn't there, then there wouldn't be anything to delete. Have you already considered backing up what's on the card to your computer, then reformatting the card and seeing if the problem recurs?

I tried formatting the samsung card a couple days ago, the problem is still there, meanwhile formatting transcend card, nothing happened the files are still there and its still write protected. Guess i'll have to accept that the reader is broken and give up, thank you for helping me all the way up to here!