Samsung Galaxy S4 SD Card Issue

[Gary Fellows]

The video of 'Unmounting' then removing and reinserting doesn't work. Tried that many times in past without success.

Clearly a Samsung issue and they know it!
I had same issue on on mu S3 Got so fed up with it, i bought a S4. Same problem!!!!!
I have interchanged SD Cards (Sandisk 32gb) between phone and tablet, after tranferring data and running disk checks etc on the computer. Worked for a while but then started the problemagain days later. The tablet has had no issues interestingly!!!!

 

[noxcovenant]

As i mentioned in my post in the previous page, using class 4 card actually worked for me. No issues for the past 10 days or so. inserting a piece of paper, under or above the card has no effect at all. this is not a mechanical problem.

Has anyone else tried this "lower class" solution. I know someone yelled BS earlier, but if it works, it works.

I just got a Samsung S4 last week and I figure I'd go directly to Class 4 if this is indeed the solution.

 

[Stlouis92]

As I mentioned earlier, Class 10 Samsung worked for me.

 

[AAlanC]

I ran into the same problem... I lost my photos one morning. My first step was to find a recovery program. I used the Zero Assumption Recovery program. There is a free version. It works well with SD chips. The paid for version works on any storage media, disk or chip. I got most of my photographs back as well as other things I had stored on the chip, a PDF and DOC.

I came across test programs for memory chips, that run on PC's and phones. I checked my newly purchased Samsung chip that came in an unopened Samsung package. The chip was purchased as what was supposed to be a 64gb class 10 chip. But, it tested out as a 1gb chip. It did show in the phone as a 64gb Samsung chip. The test programs show it as NOT Samsung and NOT 64gb. It was a fake chip, a very good counterfeit.

There are videos on YouTube that tell how to identify fake chips.

Trying to ID fakes by the packaging alone is probably shaky. The scammers are doing a remarkably good job of faking the package. The logo on the chip is usually well done too. The back of the chip is about the only way to visually ID a fake. But, you have to have the chip in hand.

You can visit the SanDisk, Samsung, or other name brand chip merchant's wen site to see the chip's front, back, and packaging currently in use.

I tested my previous chip purchases via my PC and they failed. I tested my new purchase before ever putting the chip in the phone. It passed. I got it from Best Buy. Then I placed it in the phone and ran a couple of different apps to test and benchmark the chip. The Best Buy chip was the real deal. It met the specs (benchmark) and had the capacity claimed.

I used SD Insight and A1 SD Bench in the phone. On the PC I used H2TESTw. On the PC side you can print out the fail information that will help you return the chip, as it obviously is not the phone that is the problem.

With the fake chips as soon as I exceeded their capacity they failed, often disconnecting from the PC. As I was loading my recovered photos back in, that usually meant an instant fail, failing before all the images were loaded. With my new chip from a local vendor I have all the photos back in and the chip is still working. As an extra test I've loaded more images, taken more pictures and moved apps to the SD chip. 4 days later I am still running.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

I had this issue with a SanDisk 32GB MicroSDHC U1 Class10 in my GS2, GS3 AND GS4, so stopped using it, this passed December I got another 32GB SanDisk U1, I've been using it for a month now and it seems just fine.

 

[Herman Huynh]

I strongly think that the Samsung galaxy phones that kill all the SD memory cards, it does not matter what type. I had a SG3, with 32GB (kingston), within a week, my SD card was toasted, it did not even read from a PC anymore. I upgraded my phone to S4, it does the same thing-mounting and unmounting the SD card as instructed, and this time it is a 64GB (original Samsung E53 64GB Micro SD XC Pro Class 10 UHS-I High Speed) got totally toasted. I would not suggest anyone to extend their memory by using SD card for any Samsung Galaxy phones. It does not work and that is it!!!!. Don't waste your money on SD cards!!!!

I am really pissed... and I am waiting to switch a different brand.

 

[Stlouis92]

Well, these last posts are very interesting, but there are indeed several different issues.
It would seem that some S3 and S4 are toasting any SD card you put in it, there would be fake SD cards, and there is still the S4 issue with e.g. real Sandisk 64GB cards.

My 64GB SD Sandisk card ran perfectly in my S2 for 2 years. Believe me, loaded with movies and pics, never had an issue.
Once put in the S4, with bristol card pressing it onto the contacts or not, it would unmount anytime.
Moved to Samsung class 10 stuff, loaded with ~45GB of data as we speak, never encountered an unexpected unmounting issue.

 

[noxcovenant]

Has anyone else tried this "lower class" solution. I know someone yelled BS earlier, but if it works, it works.

I just got a Samsung S4 last week and I figure I'd go directly to Class 4 if this is indeed the solution.

Well, I bought a Toshiba "Class 4" sd card on 01/24/2014. If it fails at any point, I will come back to these forums and report it.

 

[leaherno]

Did u ever find a fix for this issue?! And did u end up losing pics and if so were u able to recover them?! THANKU!

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.

 

[mhopewell41]

Hi all I was looking for a related problem for a friend of mine. I have a Verizon S4. I have never had a problem with my sd card with the exception of when I was trying out Link2sd in which case I just saved my info from my sd to my computer and formatted the sd card to fat32 {or exfat32 if you have that option) and then used the phone itself to format the sd. Working like a champ with no problems. Wonder could this be a US Ceullar update situation....my friend just recently got an update and then began to have problems....hope this info helps someone....this is a beast of a phone and I want everyone to enjoy it as much as I do.

 

[Lauren Moussa]

I found the solution to recover all files that were magically deleted from sd card after the new software update. Chek that youtube video How to recover deleted files from your Camera & SD Card - YouTube
It worked for me and it will work for you!!

 

[James Haslam1]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 SD Card Issue - my theory...

NOT ONLY SD CARDS, BUT SIMS AS WELL!

I have a Galaxy SGH-M919 S4 with a 64GB SD type 10 card. After about 4 months of my phone working flawlessly, my phone started telling me the SD card was either bad, needed formatting, or that it was not installed. Then a few months after that my SIM card started to not be identified by the phone, and made me restart the phone. this happened several times a day. Yet the SD card works great in my PC, and my SIM card works in my old phone!

Called Samsung
I contacted Samsung just this Tuesday, and they said that they had no reports of any problems like this at all. I told them to try to Google "Galaxy SIM card restarting", and that they would see several thousand replies about the phone's issue. (Shame on Samsung, of course they know about this! Right!) Anyway, they wanted me to send them my phone. No way! not after that report, I'd rather use a different phone manufacturer who cares and is in touch with their users. Just say'n!

OBSERVATIONS
Anyway, what I've noticed from many days reading threads on this, is that the SD Card and SIM card holder are incorporated into the same part. Also, since the phone body is mostly plastic, not metal, it is vulnerable to twisting-tork of the phone's body, especially when kept in the rear pants pocket and you sit down. My theory is that when you put the phone is a tight space like this, and it gets "torqued", the part that holds the SIM and SD card gets shifted just enough that the connection fails causing the phone to report that it cannot detect the card(s) anymore. Then when removed from the pocket, you get the phone asking you to restart because it lost the connection to the signal provider. Also, for those that cannot get the restart anymore, I think that after months of this "tight pocket torque effect', I believe the solder connections permanently fail, and then you don't even get the restart option anymore, the phone just says you don't have the card(s) installed.

TEST
To test my theory, I started to carry my phone in my hand the past two days, and not put it into my pant's pocket. It seems as if the issue stopped for me. But when I put it back in my rear pant's pocket again...the issue comes back again.

RESULT
In the end, I think Samsung did a terrible job engineering this part that holds the SIM and SD cards. I believe that it is the cause of all our issues with SIM and SD cards not working.

Thoughts?

 

[cgvelmax]

This is the most stuped phone

LOST SIGNAL, unmount Sdcard, problems with Magnetic sensor, knox flag.

Bye bye SAMSUNG

Enviado desde mi GT-I9500 mediante Tapatalk

 

[ICURNvS2]

Hi. My 1st posting....

Has anyone found an app or something to fix this sdcard problem? I have an s4 and recent ly purchased a 16 gb sdmicro chip. My phones internal sdcard is almost full. It sees the sd and says 16gb free but I cannot save to it or transfer. So I connected to my computer and my computer directory shows the phone as a drive, the internal storage, AND and ext_sdcard! So I can transfer apps and movies, music and pictures. But when I disconnect., what I moved is still there but not available by the phone. Why is That?

 

[RonLong311]

Thanks for your suggestion! That worked like a charm! Previously I had reformatted my memory card twice, but the issue kept reappearing. Thank you for stopping this insanity! I tried the following steps
1. Power device down
2. Remove sd card and battery
3. Replace sd card and battery
4. Turn phone on
5. Enjoy functioning phone again!

These steps are the standard method of powercycling the phone, but I decided to try it anyway. It worked!

Ronlong311

 

[yllbaba]

I have a 32 gb sd hc card, it keeps saying blank sd card or unsupported file, I have a lot of pictures on it thats why I do not want to format it but even when I tried to format it it said media format failed? Help!!!

 

[JL-KA]

I used to have this issue with my S4. I moved up to 4.4 on cyanogenmod 11 and haven't had it since.

 

[joyosan]

I found the solution to recover all files that were magically deleted from sd card after the new software update. Chek that youtube video How to recover deleted files from your Camera & SD Card - YouTube
It worked for me and it will work for you!!

Thank you very much!
it can recover my corrupted pic and vids on my S4

 

[mariaandreson]

I have same issue.

 

[Mountain Rain]

The pattern I noticed with my Galaxy S4 [and SanDisk 64] is it's tendency to disconnect from the memory card in cold weather. :'(
I backpack/hike/climb mountains frequently. The card disconnects during music playback while sitting around the campfire
at night--with cold night air temps, or while hiking in the evenings. The problem doesn't happen to me in every day life (or maybe I just don't listen to music from
my phone in every day life--so haven't a chance to notice it then...) I am trying the index card method between the sd card and phone.

[The disconnection has also happened while using the Back Country Navigation GPS app. The GPS program saves the downloaded maps to the sd card, and occasionally the map
disappears during a track recording. --Very annoying when out in the middle of nowhere hiking, especially while going cross-country.]