Question Is my SD card malfunctioning? Should I worry about data corruption?

[Dazzle]

Hello! I copied some files from my Samsung Galaxy phone onto my SD card. Before removing the card, I made sure to unmount it, and yet I received this system notification:

Restart your phone
An SD card was removed unsafely. To prevent your phone from restarting unexpectedly, save unsaved data and restart now.

I inserted it back in to check for data corruption. Everything seemed fine. Could this be a sign that my SD card is malfunctioning? Should I be worried about data corruption?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which Galaxy phone? Had you moved any apps to the SD card? If so, this might be an automatic warning, since removing the SD card (even when unmounted beforehand) might break any apps that were moved to the card.

 

[smvim]

-- Samsung Galaxy? What model of Galaxy?
-- Which version of Android is it running? That might also be useful info?
-- Is this an older, dated microSD card or newer one?
-- You referred to un-mounting step before physically removing the card and then that ominous 'format' message after when you tried to add the card back to your mystery Galaxy. What did you do with the card in the time in between? This might the most important missing point. Did you put the card into a computer or different mobile device?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Where did you purchase this card? Many cheap SD cards found on ebay or 3rd party Amazon sellers are counterfeit.

 

[BerryBubbles]

In any case, I'd make a secondary back-up of whatever is on that SD card for protection of your files.

I've expirence a corrupt SD card, it's no fun.

 

[Dazzle]

Welcome to Android Central! Which Galaxy phone? Had you moved any apps to the SD card? If so, this might be an automatic warning, since removing the SD card (even when unmounted beforehand) might break any apps that were moved to the card.

Galaxy A22
I had not moved any apps to the SD card

 

[Dazzle]

-- Samsung Galaxy? What model of Galaxy?
-- Which version of Android is it running? That might also be useful info?
-- Is this an older, dated microSD card or newer one?
-- You referred to un-mounting step before physically removing the card and then that ominous 'format' message after when you tried to add the card back to your mystery Galaxy. What did you do with the card in the time in between? This might the most important missing point. Did you put the card into a computer or different mobile device?

- Galaxy A22
- Android 13
- I am not sure what you mean by that, but it was a relatively recent purchase
- I did nothing. I removed the card and inserted it back in

 

[B. Diddy]

It might be helpful to test another SD card to see if the same thing happens when you unmount it and remove it. If it doesn't, then that would support the possibility that the problematic card is corrupt somehow.

 

[smvim]

- Galaxy A22
- Android 13
- I am not sure what you mean by that, but it was a relatively recent purchase
- I did nothing. I removed the card and inserted it back in

A dated phone and/or dated microSD card will be less capable and reliable. They both age, a phone to a limiting amount depending mostly on the user and how they've maintained it, and a card even more so. (Its default file system, different from our phones, having inherent weaknesses and the card's physical storage media is not as robust.)
But given you have more recent stuff this is likely to be irrelevant.

Regarding removing the card and doing nothing with it, just reinserting it, why?

Did you power off your phone, remove the card, and then re-insert it before or after restarting?
The card is supposed to be hot-swappable (only when its formatted as External) but it could be helpful to just power cycle your phone Off/On. Your A22 has a combined SIM/microSD card adapter doesn't it? Or are there separate SIM and microSD slots?

Otherwise, be sure to try what B. Diddy suggested, try mounting the card in another mobile device or computer. Confirm if the problem is with the card or some obscure issue with your phone.
If your card works out on another device be sure to back up your data, then try reformatting the card, restore your data, then see if it re-mounts in your A22 normally again. If the card has error messages no matter what device you try, that doesn't bode well for the card. It could require just a re-format to restore it back to working condition (again, its default file system is itself dated and crappy), but if the card has failed, time to just get a replacement. Or in other words, a software issue 'might' be repairable, a hardware issue being more problematic.