Samsung Galaxy S3 not recognizing SD Card

[Becka Knaak]

No matter how many SD cards I try the phone will not recognize that there is an SD card in it. This is definitely a phone issue.

1. First, the SD card that came in the phone from Sprint (Samsung 8GB MicroSD class 2), which worked fine for more than a year, became corrupt. The phone showed a message that there was no SD card. I completely turned off the phone and opened it up. The SD card was installed properly. I pulled it out and tried the card in my laptop and my printer and got a media error. The card was corrupt. Ok, just get a new card, right?
2. I bought two new SD cards - Lexar MicroSD Class 6 - one 16GB and one 8GB. Both are recognized by my laptop and printer - nothing wrong with the cards.
3. For each card I turned off the phone completely, installed a new card and turned the phone back on.
4. Then I went to the phone settings > Storage. Under SD card - nothing (see pic). The cards are not recognized.
5. I plugged each of the new cards into my laptop and ran the chkdsk command. Both cards "Windows has checked the file system and found no problems."

How do I fix the phone? Can I fix the phone?

 

[Golfdriver97]

No matter how many SD cards I try the phone will not recognize that there is an SD card in it. This is definitely a phone issue.

1. First, the SD card that came in the phone from Sprint (Samsung 8GB MicroSD class 2), which worked fine for more than a year, became corrupt. The phone showed a message that there was no SD card. I completely turned off the phone and opened it up. The SD card was installed properly. I pulled it out and tried the card in my laptop and my printer and got a media error. The card was corrupt. Ok, just get a new card, right?
2. I bought two new SD cards - Lexar MicroSD Class 6 - one 16GB and one 8GB. Both are recognized by my laptop and printer - nothing wrong with the cards.
3. For each card I turned off the phone completely, installed a new card and turned the phone back on.
4. Then I went to the phone settings > Storage. Under SD card - nothing (see pic). The cards are not recognized.
5. I plugged each of the new cards into my laptop and ran the chkdsk command. Both cards "Windows has checked the file system and found no problems."

How do I fix the phone? Can I fix the phone?

Welcome to the forums.
What is the card formatted to?
Depending on the format, the phone may not be able to read the card. Higher class cards use a different format, and that format can obviously read by your PC and printer.

 

[Becka Knaak]

Welcome to the forums.
What is the card formatted to?
Depending on the format, the phone may not be able to read the card. Higher class cards use a different format, and that format can obviously read by your PC and printer.

IDK. How do I determine that?

 

[Golfdriver97]

IDK. How do I determine that?

Insert the card into your PC and right click on it. Then click properties, and that should tell you format type.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Becka Knaak]

It turns out the SD card DID just need to be formatted. It was not a phone issue at all.

I formatted it as NTFS (based on this 3 Ways to Format an SD Card - wikiHow).
Plugged it back into my phone.
My phone finally recognized that there was a card in there. However, it said something like "card is blank or has unsupported files".
I clicked the message and it asked if I wanted to format the card (with warning that it would erase the card). I selected "Format" and now all is peachy!

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Golfdriver97]

It turns out the SD card DID just need to be formatted. It was not a phone issue at all.

I formatted it as NTFS (based on this 3 Ways to Format an SD Card - wikiHow).
Plugged it back into my phone.
My phone finally recognized that there was a card in there. However, it said something like "card is blank or has unsupported files".
I clicked the message and it asked if I wanted to format the card (with warning that it would erase the card). I selected "Format" and now all is peachy!

Thank you so much for your help!

Glad it got sorted out. See you around the forums!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[samIOW]

Hi,

Sorry for hijacking the thread,,,, But I have exactly the same problem. I have tried 2 separate 32GB SD cards but none of them are being recognised. I have also tried formatting them both at fat32 still nothing also after reading the he had formatted his as ntfs I tried the same and hoped for response to format , Nothing.. I am not sure what to do, the phone is a Samsung S5 which is only a few weeks old, Is it a phone problem??? any help/advice would be greatly received...

Thanks

Sam

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

after reading the he had formatted his as ntfs I tried the same and hoped for response to format

It's not hijacking a thread to post about the same problem - much better than creating a new thread for the same (or similar) issue.

You didn't say whether or not you were successful in formatting the SD cards as NTFS - did that work properly on the PC?
Were you able to try the cards in any other devices (Camera; other phone; TV; etc)?

Do you know anyone else with a smartphone that you could try it on, or to borrow their card and see if it works in your phone?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[AxlMyk]

Install SDformatter to the PC and use that.

AC App on SGS3

 

[aj865]

Install SDformatter to the PC and use that.

AC App on SGS3

Hi I also have the same problem with my Galaxy S3 not recognising my sd card. It had been working fine up to a month ago and it has just dissappeared from the system. I haven't been able to check this on a computer yet but the fact that its full of music is a little worrying that I have lost data that I haven't backed up. Why would the file system on the sd card change so android couldn't read it. Has this been something to do with the last firmware update. I have had this sd card for five years in many different phones without any problems. Help

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

Why would the file system on the sd card change so android couldn't read it.

There have been a few posts about some bug that exists in the Google bug tracker database (laying the blame at Google's feet); I haven't dug that far, so I can't comment on that.
I never had a problem like this with my previous smartphones but had a problem right out of the gate with my S3 and a SanDisk 64GB card. There was some blame accepted by SanDisk but people continue to have problems, particularly when putting large amounts of music on the SD card, so I'm not sure how far that goes.

Your best bet is to try formatting that card using https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/ or just ditch it and get another one that you can trust. Be sure you have a backup plan in place in case it happens again.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[ThePurpleAndroid]

I have tried everything suggested in this thread and I still can not get my father in law's S3 to recognize the SD card. I have formatted it in NTFS, I have used the SD Formatter program suggested. I am having no luck with this issue. If there is any other suggestions, please help me out here.

 

[GSDer]

I still can not get my father in law's S3 to recognize the SD card.

You've tried different SD cards? And they work fine in other phones? If so, sounds like there's a hardware problem with the SD card tray in the phone. http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-sim-card-tray-repair/ (Note: the SIM card and SD card are both on the same module.)

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[MNC4mykids]

I am having a similar problem. Today, my S3 gave me a message not to remove the microSD card without unmounting (but the card was still in and the back was still on it). I tried restarting but still no microSD card recognized. Then I removed and reinstalled the card again without it being recognized. I took the microSD card out of the phone and tried the microSD card from my tablet and it worked in my phone, so not a problem with the phone hardware. I tried the microSD card from the phone in the tablet and nothing. I tried it in an adapter in my laptop and nothing.

Any suggestions would be great. I have several recent pic's on this card that I have not backed up yet and do not want to have to resort to re-formatting the card if I can help it but do not have any other ideas how to get these pic's and data off of the card.

 

[Clau Claudius]

I've got exactly the same problem and it also happen yesterday.
The sd from phone can not be recognized anywhere but an other sd is readable by the phone. It is a kingston 16gb with lots of data.

 

[GSDer]

I am having a similar problem.

I've got exactly the same problem

Unfortunately this is a somewhat common issue - the S3 corrupts SD cards such that they can't be recognized in the device any longer, and often the SD card is completely unusable afterwards (i.e. can't even be reformatted in the phone or on a computer).

The only solution is to use another SD card and to take preventative measures - backup the SD card on a regular basis and utilize an app to backup pictures to the cloud.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[Clau Claudius]

Does any connection between the size or brand of sd and the problem?

 

[GSDer]

Does any connection between the size or brand of sd and the problem?

I'm not aware of any specific data to support that. Early on SanDisk had a load of problems with the S3 and admitted to some problem, and they supposedly redesigned their SD cards, but people continued to have problems (perhaps a fewer number than before? It's hard to quantify data here in the forums).

I had a 64GB SanDisk high performance SD card (one of the early production line) get totally trashed by the S3. I replaced it with a 32GB Samsung SD card and haven't had it crap out, but I have noticed that when trying to record video to the SD card the Camera app often freezes and locks up the phone, requiring a battery pull and resulting in the loss of the video. If I record the video to the internal memory this problem doesn't occur. YMMV.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[Clau Claudius]

Thank you so much GSDer!

One lost question. Any suggestion to recover data from sd?

 

[GSDer]

There are services you can drop some bucks on that will try to recover your data (just do a Google search); if I'm not mistaken the common programs that you'd plunk down $50 for that would run on your computer will be useless here since your SD card isn't recognized on the computer - sorry.

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