Samsung Galaxy S4 SD Card Issue

[bluepuma09]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue

I experienced this problem with the SD card that came with the phone. I removed the card and checked it on my laptop to see if it was a phone or card issue. The card read well on the computer, so I inserted it back into the phone. The phone actually detected the card and displayed "preparing card". However, just when I thought it was all good, the phone displayed "Damaged Card", and suggested that the card be reformatted. I saved all my sd card stuff onto the computer and reformatted the card. The card worked and has been working OK after doing so...

 

[acemartini]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue

I seem to have the SD issue too. First it is a Kingston (i read that it should have the least number of issues) and it ran great for two months. Then over the last few weeks the phone ran very hot and the battery didn't last 10 hours and finally it started rebooting every 15 minutes (wow, work was not happy with the mobile jingle over and over). Went to the store and they had no clue and are warranty exchanging for new. Based on this tread i tried to check it in my laptop and besides not being recognized it got very hot. I then tried in my S4G and sure enough not there. So i have a new phone on the way but i am out the SD card. I think i will see if i can sell the new S4 and go with a different phone . Bummer as i see lots of activity on XDA is for Samsung which is why i stuck with them (i am running Android 4.3 on my Galaxy S4G, and its really good, thanks to the devs!)

 

[Stlouis92]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue

Well, since the only application using inodes on the SDcard is the photo application, it seems normal to me that only those files and directories are affected by the unexpected unmounting of the card.
When you'll make your music tests, you may find that only music files/directories are touched.
Surprisingly, I never encountered this sort of issues. The typical issue I'd have is that the Camera switches back to internal storage because the SDcard has disappeared, and when that happens while the camera is writing the photo file, then the photo is either incomplete or unreadable.

 

[misst1217]

You are not the only S4 Owner that is experiencing this problem. So am I. I have the S4 with a 64gb Sandisk sd card installed and it does this approximately 2 - 3 times a week even though my sd card is correctly seated and I have not touched the sd card since I initially installed it. I can definitely verify that this problem was not occurring *until* we received the update that allowed the operating system to move apps over to an sd card. I restart my phone everytime this happens and the restart seems to resolve it.

 

[hovermet]

This thing happened to me a week ago.
My 32gb U1 adata was working properly until i receive the message saying the sd was removed unexpectedly. Then it remounted itself. The card wasn't broken. Everything loads, i even formatted the card again, but it just becomes boiling hot for whatever reason(the sd slot) even when im not using the phone. I also tried the card on another phone and pc. it doesnt get hot at all. I restarted the device, cleaned the slot, made sure the sd card is attached properly, but it just heats up. It removes itself again if i left there for too long. is it that update screwed it up? none of these were happening before.

 

[gene1215]

I bought an 8GB Sandisk for my S3 and same thing happened after a month. The phone stops responding whenever I access the SD card to view the pictures. I have yet to buy an SD card for my S4 and hopefully to find a solution for the card issue.

 

[Brunothesheep]

I'm incredibly frustrated atm with both my phone/SD card issue and the fact that Samsung chat agents apparently do not know how to read the information I'm giving them.

I've had my S4 since late June, purchased a 32gb PNY SD card the same day. Everything was fine for weeks. 3 weeks ago I had my first SD card error, reformatted the card and everything was ok for about a week. Woke up a week ago Wednesday to 'SD card damaged' and the phone pretty much unresponsive, so I restarted the phone and hit the shower. When I got back to my phone it was stuck in perpetual boot loop and no matter what I did, it wouldn't stop.
Performed factory reset, and reformatted card. Moved audio/movie back to SD card, redownloaded my apps. Synced other files (contacts) back to phone.

Last night was my son's first ever marching performance with the HS band. Took several videos. On the way home, he wanted to watch them. Gallery froze every time. Videos were inaccessible. When we came home, I hooked up the phone to my computer to transfer the files and delete them after, no go. Immediate I/O message. Sigh. Reseated card in case it had become unmounted. Nope, didn't fix it either. Removed SD card and plugged it directly into microSD slot in my PC. Didn't work either. I'm currently performing the long format suggested by someone else in this thread (sorry, can't remember your name atm), and I hope this will fix it.

While all of this was going on, my phone got piping hot just below the flash and drained a good 40% of the camera in less than one hour... I have noticed this issue in the past, and it's usually an indicator for me that my card and phone are about to go to war with one another. Phone gets hot around SD card/sim slot, battery drainage? Yup, better watch out because it's about to get ugly.

So far Samsung Chat is no help. I had to repeat myself several times to get info across and the agent would still ask for the same info again. Rather frustrating. I'm also told that is must be an SD card issue.
I'd love to post the chat log here, but it's already as long as War & Peace and we're not done chatting yet. Sigh.

Eta: The agent insists it's definitely a card issue and has nothing to do with the phone. Obvious stall tactic, no manufacturer wants to come out and admit that there is something wrong with their product. I would suggest that everyone who has issues with this to forgo using Samsung Chat and go directly to Samsung technical support. Their phone number can be found on their website.

 

[Haalcyon]

I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I just had my Note 8.0 eat its 32GB SD card yesterday. Either the micro SD cards are exceedingly cheap nowadays or there's something about Samsung devices that destroys a lot of them. Are they being overvolted?

I'm keepimg my fingers crossed that my 64GB Sandisk Extreme in this here S4 doesn't bite it...it wasn't inexpensive.

Sent from my S4/Note 8.0/Note 10.1

 

[Brunothesheep]

I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I just had my Note 8.0 eat its 32GB SD card yesterday. Either the micro SD cards are exceedingly cheap nowadays or there's something about Samsung devices that destroys a lot of them. Are they being overvolted?

I'm keepimg my fingers crossed that my 64GB Sandisk Extreme in this here S4 doesn't bite it...it wasn't inexpensive.

Sent from my S4/Note 8.0/Note 10.1

Ouch.
I do believe it has something to do with Samsung and the way the phones access data on the cards. But of course, they won't admit to it readily..lol. (After all, even the Samsung cards are being eaten!!)

I'm also insanely jealous of your Note 8.0. I'm still trying to find someone to buy my iPad so I can get a Note 8..lol

 

[Haalcyon]

Ouch.
I do believe it has something to do with Samsung and the way the phones access data on the cards. But of course, they won't admit to it readily..lol. (After all, even the Samsung cards are being eaten!!)

I'm also insanely jealous of your Note 8.0. I'm still trying to find someone to buy my iPad so I can get a Note 8..lol

The Note 8.0 is a descent tablet...very versatile. ..it's my on-the-road partner and movie machine...and jukebox.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[mb8183]

I bought 2 S4s a week ago. Noticed it was very hot around the flash too. Two days ago inserted sandisk 16gb into one and a lexor 16gb in the other. Lexor unmounted yesterday so switched cards with other S4. Lexor appears to be dead. The heat has to be "frying" these cards. My iphone 4 never had any problems so this is quite an adjustment. But I won't go back to apple. I hope Samsung steps up to the plate and fixes this problem.
My question is: Does anyone else having the heat issue?
Thank you!

 

[Ultra Galaxy SD]

I bought 2 S4s a week ago. Noticed it was very hot around the flash too. Two days ago inserted sandisk 16gb into one and a lexor 16gb in the other. Lexor unmounted yesterday so switched cards with other S4. Lexor appears to be dead. The heat has to be "frying" these cards. My iphone 4 never had any problems so this is quite an adjustment. But I won't go back to apple. I hope Samsung steps up to the plate and fixes this problem.
My question is: Does anyone else having the heat issue?
Thank you!

Yes, the heat issue started as soon as I moved some apps to the SD card. Ater trying several suggestions and no luck, I moved the apps back to the phone and the heat problem is gone.

 

[Stlouis92]

I sometimes noticed the heat, but I did not see any correlation between the heat and the fact that the SD card would unmount "itself". And my card was never damaged (SanDisk 64GB).

 

[Haalcyon]

I noticed my Samdisk Extreme looks physically different on the back than my SanDisk Ultra. Interesting and I'm trying not to draw conclusions but I will say my Extreme has proven very reliable across multiple devices. I, unfortunately, can't say the same for my Ultras.

Sent from my Sony Xperia Tablet Z "The Sleeper Dohickey?

 

[overlyobservant]

10 day old Galaxy S4 (with whatever updates have been applied) and a 3 day old 32gb Sandisk Ultra ... had my first unmount/remount episode this morning,

Corresponded with Sandisk - they admitted to a production problem and them still having a large batch of bad SD cards in circulation. Mine was purchased 3 days ago at Walmart.

They explained they have caught/fixed the problem and that all cards returned would be exchanged with a new SD card from their "good batch" - They stated at least a 10-14 day turn around time.

But, now after hearing other manf. cards are doing the same or worse, I have to wonder.

Also, it's been stated that it might have something to do with apps on the SD but, at present, I don't have any apps on the SD (only in device storage)

Hoping a hard answer about this comes down the line soon. As it is, I can't trust putting my photos/videos or downloads on an SD card - I love the phone, but this is definitely a deal breaker.

 

[Crosscut49]

I went to XDA and someone said that exFAT wasn't supported by custom ROMs such as CM, AOSP, etc. So I formatted my card on my computer to Fat32 using this program (Windows 8 didn't give me the option to format in Fat32 for some reason). I plugged it into my phone and didn't have any problems after that, at least, for now. I'll let you guys know if any issues pop up.

 

[Maria Esponoza]

This is a known issue with the SGS4. Actually, if you start to see that it will eventually wipe all of your data. I had this happen and called Verizon. I lost all my pics! Anyhow, I told them I didn't trust my phone so they sent me a free 32 GB SGS4 so I can store all my pics on the internal memory instead of SD Card. Its worth calling and complaining about. When I called they said they had a "white paper" on the issue, but no resolution.

 

[angad]

I have SGS4. Using sandisk 32gb ultra. Same problem. Need to restart phone to gt card back online. Hav formatted it yo exfat but still no luck.. I guess need to go for Samsung Sd card only.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Jotspissedoff]

I have a Samsung card purchased from Samsung and have the same issue. I called Samsung and they make out they have never heard of this problem. First he blamed the card until he found out it was a Samsung card. Then he asked if I bought the phone from a licenced dealer. Again all purchased from Samsung. His advise is to keep taking the battery out then back in everytime I have the problem. Seriously is this the help they offer. And I thought Apple were bad.

 

[Symbiote X]

Samsung must do something about it! It is not acceptable. Same issue Stock rom. Ultra Sandisk 64 gb. Keep getting the unexpected removal of the sd card error. My pc wont even see my sd card. I should have bought the HTC one instead. I'm pissed!