I have gone through three SD cards now (sandisk, lexar and samsung). All three unmounted and said was damaged, but all three would work in my computer. I am using a Lexar 16gb now, and had the issue 3 days ago. I was so frustrated I just left it and didn't bother trying to fix it until today when I had time. Put it in the phone a few times, did not show up at all. In the computer (using a usb adapter) it showed up just fine. So I reformatted the card in disk utility (on a mac), put it in my phone and now it works fine (probably for another couple weeks till it happens again). What I find weird is that the sandisk and samsung cards did not work at all in my computer after the same problem, but the Lexar did and is now working again in the phone... I thought atleast the samsung would've worked after reformatting..?
Samsung Galaxy S4 SD Card Issue
- Thread starter Joel Innard
- Start date
Hi all , well you can add me to the list of unhappy unlucky customers...... i can?t believe that Samsung have not resolved this issue ,,, i emailed a Samsung agent and he had never heard of this problem wtf...he told me to reset everything ..... i thought no way im i doing that..i would lose all my apps etc. ,im used to losing music and photos ... well i read earlier on this thread about using original Samsung card s ,,, till now i have been using a Medion 16 gb class 6 (Aldi) well that's dead now..... so had to do something ,,,,so i bought a Samsung 32 gb class 10...cost about 21 Euros, and have been testing it for 4 weeks now and have absolutely no issues ,,great right so that solved my problems ....will let you know if all goes balls up.....
I was having the same problem when I got my Galaxy S4. I had a Sandisk 8gb card in my Galaxy s2 and never had a problem. When I put that card in my Galaxy S4 I started getting the error messages that my SD card was disconnected unexpectedly. I bought a Sandisk Ultra 16gb card and it did the same thing. I formatted the card in my computer and got the same results.
I contacted AT&T and they sent me a replacement phone, I put the same 16gb card in the replacement, and in less than 1 hour it was doing the same thing.
I decided to try a different brand of card and bought a PNY 16gb card. When I put that card in the phone, I formatted it using the format feature on the phone. Since that day I have not had a problem.
Just to see if it was the different brand of card or the in-phone format that did the trick, I put the Sandisk Ultra 16gb card back in the phone and formatted it through the phone. After loading my pictures and music on the card, I played my music through the phone all day while working in my garage and didn't have a problem (it never took more than 45 minutes to see the problem before). I'll keep watching it to make sure it's fixed, but it seems the in-phone format did the trick for me.
In the interest of full disclosure, it has only been a week without problems, but the issues happened immediately before so I'm optimistic the problem has been fixed.
EDIT: The problem returned with the Sandisk Ultra card, so I put the PNY back in. I went a week without problems with that card so it appears the problem is a conflict between the Sandisk cards and the phone.
I contacted AT&T and they sent me a replacement phone, I put the same 16gb card in the replacement, and in less than 1 hour it was doing the same thing.
I decided to try a different brand of card and bought a PNY 16gb card. When I put that card in the phone, I formatted it using the format feature on the phone. Since that day I have not had a problem.
Just to see if it was the different brand of card or the in-phone format that did the trick, I put the Sandisk Ultra 16gb card back in the phone and formatted it through the phone. After loading my pictures and music on the card, I played my music through the phone all day while working in my garage and didn't have a problem (it never took more than 45 minutes to see the problem before). I'll keep watching it to make sure it's fixed, but it seems the in-phone format did the trick for me.
In the interest of full disclosure, it has only been a week without problems, but the issues happened immediately before so I'm optimistic the problem has been fixed.
EDIT: The problem returned with the Sandisk Ultra card, so I put the PNY back in. I went a week without problems with that card so it appears the problem is a conflict between the Sandisk cards and the phone.
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thank you so much i tryed everything till i found your post , it worked a treat , i cut a little strip off an old store card and placed it underneath when i inserted sd as per instructed and hey presto it found it , its as though the back of the sd card has to be slightly raised so the brass contacts are all touching , as you said poor design on samsungs part dodgy solder or something other than this very common issue which samsung seem to ignore , its a great phone , so glad i found your thread ,
Underneath ? you mean between the phone and the bottom of the card where the contacts are ? Not between the top of the card and the metallic card holder's top ?
The problem is definitely with the S3 and S4 and has nothing to do with the brand of card. I've had Samsung, Sandisk, Kingston and PNY Class 10 cards in 4 different SII's for 2 years and never had a problem. I recently bought two new S4's and installed the Sandisk in one and the Kingston in the other. Last week the Sandisk started to unmount. Last night all of a sudden I get a message on my S4 screen saying there isn't a SD card installed. I check the storage settings and there is no SD card recognized as being installed. I remove the card and re-install it. It's dead. I try it in my laptop and the other S4, it's stone dead...been fried. I try the other brand cards I have and they're all recognized immediately by the phone. I got to Kingston's site and in their support forum, they acknowledge that it's a known fact that S3's, S4's and Note II's, cook memory cards. See below:
*ADVISORY* My microSD card worked in my Android 4.1 or 4.2 device but after a short time, it is no longer accessible and has locked up. How do I resolve this issue?
A problem has been identified with some microSD cards and Android 4.1 & 4.2 based devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Samsung Galaxy Note II that causes the card to become unresponsive after being used for a short time. Kingston Technology has taken the necessary measures to resolve the issue but it is always a good idea to keep a BACKUP of ALL important data. If you are experiencing this problem, please contact our Technical Support department for a resolution.
Similar comments were found in Sandisk's forum, not to mention Android Central's forums and numerous other web sites. I just spoke with tech support at Samsung and they know about this but won't / don't do anything about it. Samsung REALLY needs to resolve this FAST before they're hit with a class action law suit. Even though the tech said to try Samsung SDHC cards, they're also known to fry. Once the memory card is cooked and no longer "recognized" by a device (given a drive letter), then no data retrieval company or data retrieval software is able to salvage what was on the card. It's gone forever! Thanks Samsung, for destroying the only wedding pictures taken at my friend's wedding (it was on a boat, so no pro photographer).
*ADVISORY* My microSD card worked in my Android 4.1 or 4.2 device but after a short time, it is no longer accessible and has locked up. How do I resolve this issue?
A problem has been identified with some microSD cards and Android 4.1 & 4.2 based devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Samsung Galaxy Note II that causes the card to become unresponsive after being used for a short time. Kingston Technology has taken the necessary measures to resolve the issue but it is always a good idea to keep a BACKUP of ALL important data. If you are experiencing this problem, please contact our Technical Support department for a resolution.
Similar comments were found in Sandisk's forum, not to mention Android Central's forums and numerous other web sites. I just spoke with tech support at Samsung and they know about this but won't / don't do anything about it. Samsung REALLY needs to resolve this FAST before they're hit with a class action law suit. Even though the tech said to try Samsung SDHC cards, they're also known to fry. Once the memory card is cooked and no longer "recognized" by a device (given a drive letter), then no data retrieval company or data retrieval software is able to salvage what was on the card. It's gone forever! Thanks Samsung, for destroying the only wedding pictures taken at my friend's wedding (it was on a boat, so no pro photographer).
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Start with your wireless provider. I have Verizon, they contacted Samsung who said they had never heard of this. :/ Samsung suggested I try another card brand and contact them if it happens again. Verizon tech support said they had never heard of this problem either. We need to elevate this ASAP. Call your wireless provider please.
Surprise Surprise : today I discovered that the issues my mother had on her samsung phone were ... exactly the same we do have here.
Phone is GT-S5839i running Android 2.3.6 GINGERBREAD, SDcard has no brand and was delivered with the phone (2GB).
Tried thick paper card on top : no success either.
Still, the card works in my S2, as usual...
Phone is GT-S5839i running Android 2.3.6 GINGERBREAD, SDcard has no brand and was delivered with the phone (2GB).
Tried thick paper card on top : no success either.
Still, the card works in my S2, as usual...
Hi....this is my first time posting in a forum. I just got the S4 & am having the same SD card issue. I have a Sandisk 64gb card that I was using in my Asus MeMo pad tablet. It worked fine for the several months I had it in there. I placed it in the phone & got an initial message that the card was damaged & needed to be formatted. So, I backed up everything on the card to the computer & reformatted it (on quick format) in the computer since the phone wouldn't allow me to do it. I placed it back in the phone & added my music & it started again giving me the sd card removed unexpectedly message. I called AT&T & they of course had never heard of this issue. So the tech support guy had me reformat the card in the phone. I did that. I added music/pics & everything worked fine for a day or so. He said if that didn't work that I would have more than likely need to do a factory reset of the phone due to a possible software issue. Today, as I was scrolling through my pics....again....the files on the card were not being recognized and the card was removed unexpectedly. Using the data cable the phone came with the computer wouldn't recognize either the sd card or the device memory upon multiple attempts. Finally it did after reinserting several times. So, I went in to AT&T today and spoke with a representative about the issue & he took his sd card out of his phone & put it in mine & of course...his worked just fine. He said he had not heard of anyone else having this problem. So he also suggested a factory reset. Came home....did the reset....as soon as I inserted the card....immediately gave me the sd card removed unexpectedly message repeatedly after restarting the phone several times. I can't even get to the place to reformat it in the phone since it keeps unmounting it. Called AT&T again to tell them the reset didn't work. "First time I've had a caller with this problem...." So they're sending me a new phone......we'll see what happens. In the meantime I found this forum & discovered how many people are having the exact same issue. I am trying one last thing--the format someone suggested not using the quickformat option. It's taking a long time. There has to be some solution if so many people are having the same issue!! They could at least give me a different message like "SD card removed as expected". It's very disappointing since I have a ton of music/pics/videos I want on the card & can't use. Thought maybe it could have been an app or something...I use playerpro & iSyncr but after the reset they weren't on the phone anymore & the issue was still there. I will post after this last format attempt & after the new phone arrives.
I'd bet you'll have the same issue with the new phone...
I tend to think it's software related : the card reader in the GT-S5839i seems to be different from the one in the S4 (though I'm not entirely sure). So, if not hardware, ...
I tend to think it's software related : the card reader in the GT-S5839i seems to be different from the one in the S4 (though I'm not entirely sure). So, if not hardware, ...
So I just got the Samsung s4 and bought a 64gb SanDisk ultra micro SDXC card from ebay which I'm guessing was already fried because as soon as I put my pics and music on it and put it in my phone I got the "sd card damaged error" and it kept unmounting and freezing my phone so I'd take it out and reformat it but the pics and music wouldn't show up correctly. Just to be safe I ran h2testw to make sure it wasn't a fake and that came back fine. So I went to Best Buy and bought a brand new version of the same card and now it's working perfectly but I guess we'll see. One note prior to the 64gb card I had a 32gb SanDisk Class 4 SDHC card which gave me no problems whatsoever...I'm wondering if the class has something to do with it...
hi I lost over 3000 family pictures, lots of my 1 year old from birth, I am absolutely gutted. Had the phone about 20 mins, took my memory card from the s2 which I had for a long time, placed it in the s4 to see all worked well, played around for the phone, getting all my contacts on and setting the phone up. the pictures looked great on it, all showed up. Was checking the new features when all of a sudden it said memory card un-mounted so reinserted it but nothing happened. I felt the memory card and it was boiling hot. Put it in the pc but nothing, tried again the next day and the day after that- nothing again. I was devastated, I've lost so many pictures. I was about to back it up but thought id put it in the phone for a minute to check it out and in such a short while I lost it all. Samsung offered no hope, simply saying send the phone back but if I did that it would have taken it over the time I could get a refund. I sent it back the next day and will never get a Samsung again. Totally gutted - whats the point having a good phone and a good camera but then having to worry you will loose all your memories. Its a great phone but I cant take that risk again - I feel sick to the stomach thinking about all the pics lost.
Your pics are probably still there : don't write anything on it and find a recovery tool somewhere.
Got the GT-N7105, worked fine with 1GB and few weeks ago changed for a 64gb worked fine for 3 weeks or so lost all may media files twice not even my laptop will recognize the SD card is dead.
Help please!!
Help please!!
Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue
I get the same problem on my 32g sandisk card in my S3. I have no problem with music loaded onto the phones internal memory, but load music onto the card using any method and formated by any method and file names get changed and contents disappear.
Not all files are affected which leaves me wondering if it could be something to do with the amount of data loaded onto the card. If i batch load a bunch of folders ( each containing music from a different artist maybe), they are all corrupted as soon as i disconnect the usb or re-insert the sd card into the phone and the folders are empty and renamed ( ?usic~, ?ovies~, ?pps~ etc ) when i check them on the phone.
If i load each folder separately, waiting until copying of one folder has finished before starting the next folder copying everything goes ok, but maybe a few hours or a few days later many of the folders and files suffer the same fate as above. However, some folders remain unchanged with contents still intact but this allways seems to be 2 gig worth or less each time.
Also, a large number of files named ? appear which can only be deleted by connecting to a pc/laptop either via usb lead or putting card itself into card reader. When long pressing and selecting details on these ? files you get the size = 0kb, name = ? and date created, which is when the sd card files were corrupted. I am beggining to think that these 0kb ? files are the remnants of the vanished files. I am going to keep a record of the total number of files on my sd card at each stage of testing below and when the corruption re-occurs i will see how many ? files are present and compare to the number of lost files.
I have just loaded 6gig of music into my S3s on board storage and another 1.8gig onto my 32gig sd card. At present all is good and my camera is saving pic`s and video to the sd card with no problems. If this keeps going ok for a fortnight then i will make a back up, then increase the amount of music/data on the card a gig at a time and test for a couple of weeks after each addition to see if i can narrow it down to the amount of data on the card.
I know it`s a pain to do things in this drawn out way but actual size of sd card doesn`t seem to be making a difference and until something else pops up to explain whats going on i`ll give this a go and let folk know if i have any joy.
I get the same problem on my 32g sandisk card in my S3. I have no problem with music loaded onto the phones internal memory, but load music onto the card using any method and formated by any method and file names get changed and contents disappear.
Not all files are affected which leaves me wondering if it could be something to do with the amount of data loaded onto the card. If i batch load a bunch of folders ( each containing music from a different artist maybe), they are all corrupted as soon as i disconnect the usb or re-insert the sd card into the phone and the folders are empty and renamed ( ?usic~, ?ovies~, ?pps~ etc ) when i check them on the phone.
If i load each folder separately, waiting until copying of one folder has finished before starting the next folder copying everything goes ok, but maybe a few hours or a few days later many of the folders and files suffer the same fate as above. However, some folders remain unchanged with contents still intact but this allways seems to be 2 gig worth or less each time.
Also, a large number of files named ? appear which can only be deleted by connecting to a pc/laptop either via usb lead or putting card itself into card reader. When long pressing and selecting details on these ? files you get the size = 0kb, name = ? and date created, which is when the sd card files were corrupted. I am beggining to think that these 0kb ? files are the remnants of the vanished files. I am going to keep a record of the total number of files on my sd card at each stage of testing below and when the corruption re-occurs i will see how many ? files are present and compare to the number of lost files.
I have just loaded 6gig of music into my S3s on board storage and another 1.8gig onto my 32gig sd card. At present all is good and my camera is saving pic`s and video to the sd card with no problems. If this keeps going ok for a fortnight then i will make a back up, then increase the amount of music/data on the card a gig at a time and test for a couple of weeks after each addition to see if i can narrow it down to the amount of data on the card.
I know it`s a pain to do things in this drawn out way but actual size of sd card doesn`t seem to be making a difference and until something else pops up to explain whats going on i`ll give this a go and let folk know if i have any joy.
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Re: Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue
Seems yet another issue.
Are you sure the cache is flushed before removing the card from your computer ? Looks like you remove the card before the buffers are emptied.
You're not mentioning that "unexpectedly unmounted" message we all have here : is it the case for you too ?
Seems yet another issue.
Are you sure the cache is flushed before removing the card from your computer ? Looks like you remove the card before the buffers are emptied.
You're not mentioning that "unexpectedly unmounted" message we all have here : is it the case for you too ?
Re: Samsung Galaxy S3 SD Card Issue
I have had the unexpectedly removed message when using the camera and storage changed to phone. I can go a couple of days without using the phone so no doubt the message has popped up unnoticed.
As for clearing the cache, if you mean do i always remove safely thus avoiding file corruption and or card damage then the answer is yes, whatever the device, if the option is available i use it and i have never had problems until i got the SG3.
UPDATE. I said i would let folk know of any changes. On my sd card, i have 3 parent folders for the purposes of this troubleshooting. LOST.DIR, (Check Disk) created by system at boot which is empty. MUSIC inside which are folders named after the artist, obviously containing music by that artist only, and DCIM which was created by the camera app when i used it to shoot a few photo`s for this test. Inside DCIM is a folder named Camera, again created by the camera app itself.
Yesterday my DCIM folder was renamed to ?CIM but it`s contents were still there and unchanged ( Camera folder containing 4 photos taken at start of testing ).
I went to my camera and took a photo expecting the "storage changed to phone" message to pop up but it didn`t. I went back into my files and checked my sd card and found that although the camera is still using it for storage, it has created a new DCIM folder containing a new Camera folder and the photo is in here. Same for video (just shot a few seconds to check).
Strangely, in my file storage directory settings, for this testing i set my image directory to use extSdCard/DCIM/ whilst all others are set to use sdcard0 (phone). Of course the camera app overrides any file system storage directory settings for pictures & videos taken with the camera, which is why video taken goes to extSdCard and not storage/sdcard0/VIDEO as the camera app itself is set to use the ext` sd card.
Usually i have the file storage directory for all items set to use extSdCard/ but on this occasion all directories are set to use sdcard0 apart from Images (set as above to extSdCard/DCIM), and when corruption occurred in the past it hit all folders at the same time, but not this time. This time only the DCIM folder was changed so could having the file system storage directory set to use extSdCard be allowing the system to corrupt data on the card.
I will leave the directories as they are and wait to see if any other files or folders are affected and if any of my test photos vanish from extSdCard/?CIM/Camera or the newly created DCIM folder. By the way, I deleted the first new DCIM folder and changed the File Directory to point to the renamed folder "?CIM" just to see if the camera would revert to using it but as expected it didn`t, instead it just created a new DCIM folder, although it is still using the ext` sd card. Even if you rename the DCIM folder created by the camera, the camera will cease to use it and again create a new one for your snaps.
NEW UPDATE. Today on checking i find that the new DCIM folder created by the camera yesterday has also corrupted. Renamed to ?CIM as with yesterdays DCIM folder.
BUT, today the Camera folder inside has also been renamed to ?amera and the photos and short video clip have vanished. On checking the ?CIM folder (the original DCIM folder that was corrupted and renamed yesterday) i find that it`s Camera folder has also been renamed and the contents vanished, yet still not one of my music folders or tracks have been affected. Just as yesterday.
When i tried to delete the corrupted folders nothing happened so i ejected the card and popped it into my laptop which informed me of problems and asked if i wanted to run a fix. I opted out and tried deleting the folders in explorer but with no joy. I ejected the card then reinserted and allowed it to be fixed (took about 20 seconds). I was then able to delete the folders with no problems.
I am now going to put the card back into my phone, create a new DCIM/Camera folder by taking a few snaps, change the Images directory to the phone (sdcard0) and the Music directory to extSdCard/MUSIC and wait to see what happens.
If all stays well i will change the Images directory back to using the ext sd card in a week or two and add a gig of additional music.
P.S. The LOST.DIR was empty before ejecting from laptop and is still empty now back in phone.
I have had the unexpectedly removed message when using the camera and storage changed to phone. I can go a couple of days without using the phone so no doubt the message has popped up unnoticed.
As for clearing the cache, if you mean do i always remove safely thus avoiding file corruption and or card damage then the answer is yes, whatever the device, if the option is available i use it and i have never had problems until i got the SG3.
UPDATE. I said i would let folk know of any changes. On my sd card, i have 3 parent folders for the purposes of this troubleshooting. LOST.DIR, (Check Disk) created by system at boot which is empty. MUSIC inside which are folders named after the artist, obviously containing music by that artist only, and DCIM which was created by the camera app when i used it to shoot a few photo`s for this test. Inside DCIM is a folder named Camera, again created by the camera app itself.
Yesterday my DCIM folder was renamed to ?CIM but it`s contents were still there and unchanged ( Camera folder containing 4 photos taken at start of testing ).
I went to my camera and took a photo expecting the "storage changed to phone" message to pop up but it didn`t. I went back into my files and checked my sd card and found that although the camera is still using it for storage, it has created a new DCIM folder containing a new Camera folder and the photo is in here. Same for video (just shot a few seconds to check).
Strangely, in my file storage directory settings, for this testing i set my image directory to use extSdCard/DCIM/ whilst all others are set to use sdcard0 (phone). Of course the camera app overrides any file system storage directory settings for pictures & videos taken with the camera, which is why video taken goes to extSdCard and not storage/sdcard0/VIDEO as the camera app itself is set to use the ext` sd card.
Usually i have the file storage directory for all items set to use extSdCard/ but on this occasion all directories are set to use sdcard0 apart from Images (set as above to extSdCard/DCIM), and when corruption occurred in the past it hit all folders at the same time, but not this time. This time only the DCIM folder was changed so could having the file system storage directory set to use extSdCard be allowing the system to corrupt data on the card.
I will leave the directories as they are and wait to see if any other files or folders are affected and if any of my test photos vanish from extSdCard/?CIM/Camera or the newly created DCIM folder. By the way, I deleted the first new DCIM folder and changed the File Directory to point to the renamed folder "?CIM" just to see if the camera would revert to using it but as expected it didn`t, instead it just created a new DCIM folder, although it is still using the ext` sd card. Even if you rename the DCIM folder created by the camera, the camera will cease to use it and again create a new one for your snaps.
NEW UPDATE. Today on checking i find that the new DCIM folder created by the camera yesterday has also corrupted. Renamed to ?CIM as with yesterdays DCIM folder.
BUT, today the Camera folder inside has also been renamed to ?amera and the photos and short video clip have vanished. On checking the ?CIM folder (the original DCIM folder that was corrupted and renamed yesterday) i find that it`s Camera folder has also been renamed and the contents vanished, yet still not one of my music folders or tracks have been affected. Just as yesterday.
When i tried to delete the corrupted folders nothing happened so i ejected the card and popped it into my laptop which informed me of problems and asked if i wanted to run a fix. I opted out and tried deleting the folders in explorer but with no joy. I ejected the card then reinserted and allowed it to be fixed (took about 20 seconds). I was then able to delete the folders with no problems.
I am now going to put the card back into my phone, create a new DCIM/Camera folder by taking a few snaps, change the Images directory to the phone (sdcard0) and the Music directory to extSdCard/MUSIC and wait to see what happens.
If all stays well i will change the Images directory back to using the ext sd card in a week or two and add a gig of additional music.
P.S. The LOST.DIR was empty before ejecting from laptop and is still empty now back in phone.
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