Samsung Galaxy S4 SD Card Problem

[KevroniCoal]

Hello, everyone!

So as of today, I got a brand new SanDisk 32GB Micro SD Card for my S4. I think it works just fine (successfully transferred some apps over, etc.). I also am able to have my camera save photos onto the card directly.

However, I encountered a slightly severe problem. I did a foolish mistake of not backing up all of my photos to my computer or trying only one picture before I transfered all of my photos on my device onto the SD Card. What I did was that I first selected all of my camera pictures in the gallery app. Then I clicked the move option in the menu. I chose the card's folder in the menu (the menu showed a list of the other photos folders, like Camera, SBeamShare, Downloads, Screenshots, etc). When I selected it, the loading sign showed up, saying "Moving...", and so I wait.

I waited a good 15 or so minutes for my nearly 400 PICTURES to be moved. And when it finished, what I saw was horrendous. Basically all of my photos seemed to be corrupt so that all I see is this little person logo with a black background (in the attached pictures). I can't really do anything with the files now besides have them sit there hoping I can retrieve them. I can look at all of their details, which still show their file size, date taken, name, etc.
Also, if I wanted to upload one on, say, Google Drive, I get a message that it's an "Unsupported File."

Finally, I tried an attempt of retrieving the files by moving them all back to their original folder by doing the same thing I did before. However, all the files are still in the same state.

Does anyone know what may have happened, and does anyone know a possible at of getting all of my pictures back? I hadn't tried to restart my phone of fellow the SD card yet, since I'm afraid I might make something worse. But if I have to, I might try those options out.

Now I know that jet because I can carry a lot of pictures, doesn't mean I shouldn't be them up as often add I used to! >.>

Anyways, thanks for any help or advice in advance!!

(Also, sorry if there are any typos and stuff, I didn't proofread since it's late! Also sorry if this is a super long post!!!)

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hello, everyone!

So as of today, I got a brand new SanDisk 32GB Micro SD Card for my S4. I think it works just fine (successfully transferred some apps over, etc.). I also am able to have my camera save photos onto the card directly.

However, I encountered a slightly severe problem. I did a foolish mistake of not backing up all of my photos to my computer or trying only one picture before I transfered all of my photos on my device onto the SD Card. What I did was that I first selected all of my camera pictures in the gallery app. Then I clicked the move option in the menu. I chose the card's folder in the menu (the menu showed a list of the other photos folders, like Camera, SBeamShare, Downloads, Screenshots, etc). When I selected it, the loading sign showed up, saying "Moving...", and so I wait.

I waited a good 15 or so minutes for my nearly 400 PICTURES to be moved. And when it finished, what I saw was horrendous. Basically all of my photos seemed to be corrupt so that all I see is this little person logo with a black background (in the attached pictures). I can't really do anything with the files now besides have them sit there hoping I can retrieve them. I can look at all of their details, which still show their file size, date taken, name, etc.
Also, if I wanted to upload one on, say, Google Drive, I get a message that it's an "Unsupported File."

Finally, I tried an attempt of retrieving the files by moving them all back to their original folder by doing the same thing I did before. However, all the files are still in the same state.

Does anyone know what may have happened, and does anyone know a possible at of getting all of my pictures back? I hadn't tried to restart my phone of fellow the SD card yet, since I'm afraid I might make something worse. But if I have to, I might try those options out.

Now I know that jet because I can carry a lot of pictures, doesn't mean I shouldn't be them up as often add I used to! >.>

Anyways, thanks for any help or advice in advance!!

(Also, sorry if there are any typos and stuff, I didn't proofread since it's late! Also sorry if this is a super long post!!!)

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using AC Forums mobile app

Welcome to the forums!
Sorry about the mess that happened. Have you tried to move them to a PC? The files may still be viewed that way.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Thanks for the response! I haven't tried that yet, so I will try it now! Hopefully it might help, although Google Drive doesn't recognize the files and thus wont upload them, so I'm not sure how likely my computer will recognize them.

I'm going to connect my S4 via USB first rather than taking out the SD card; then maybe try the SD card by itself if that might change anything.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Franco Shimose]

i have the same problem right now! exactly the same and i don't know what to do. in my case half of the 450 photos i have are corrupted. there has to be a way of fixing this freakin issue.
the same thing happen with my music, i moved them to the SD card and half of them don't play anymore.
This is really annoying me. So a good advice, don't transfer your music if you have any, in other words don't put anything in the SD card.

 

[KevroniCoal]

i have the same problem right now! exactly the same and i don't know what to do. in my case half of the 450 photos i have are corrupted. there has to be a way of fixing this freakin issue.
the same thing happen with my music, i moved them to the SD card and half of them don't play anymore.
This is really annoying me. So a good advice, don't transfer your music if you have any, in other words don't put anything in the SD card.

Sorry that you got the problem too! I never tried music, so I have never experienced the music issues! That's mostly cuz I don't have the much of my music on my phone haha.

But I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I posted another more recent thread about this problem (which is still happening) [is there a way I can link the thread to this one if you guys would want to check it out?].

Yea, a good thing to do may be to just not put anything on the SD card at all... But there has to be a way to use the card, since it's meant to have stuff put onto it!

My new thread says about how some of my apps also stopped working. Also, how the videos and pictures that I take with the camera become corrupt when I have then sent directly to the card from the camera.

..Which reminds me, if you save your photos to the SD card, I'd recommend using Dropbox or Google+ to upload and save the files there for safe keeping. In my case, I'm using both just for safety.


Finally, the files are still corrupt when viewed on the computer. I'm hoping there's a way to recover these files - music and photos/videos.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jj14x]

What I did was that I first selected all of my camera pictures in the gallery app. Then I clicked the move option in the menu. I chose the card's folder in the menu (the menu showed a list of the other photos folders, like Camera, SBeamShare, Downloads, Screenshots, etc). When I selected it, the loading sign showed up, saying "Moving...", and so I wait.

Where did you move the photos to? Card's folder - is that the root of the extsd card? or to a subdirectory?
Besides the "My files" app, do you have another file explorer like maybe ES file explorer etc? If so, could you try to navigate your folders to see if you can find the moved files? If you find it that way, try to open it there from within the explorer and see if that makes any difference.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Where did you move the photos to? Card's folder - is that the root of the extsd card? or to a subdirectory?
Besides the "My files" app, do you have another file explorer like maybe ES file explorer etc? If so, could you try to navigate your folders to see if you can find the moved files? If you find it that way, try to open it there from within the explorer and see if that makes any difference.

Hello!

So when I moved them over, it appears that they went into the SD card's own camera folder (/storage/extSdCard/DCIM/Camera). I'm assuming this camera folder is the one created to save the photos that are saved directly from the camera app?

Anyways, when I use both the My Files and ES File Explorer apps and locate the folders, the photos still come out corrupt.
-What I see in My Files is that, when I select the corrupt picture (which, by the way, has a thumbnail of the default gallery icon [yellow flower]), the same corrupt icon loads when opened through the Gallery app. If opened using ES File Explorer through the My Files app (clicking ES in the "compete action using..." pop up), nothing but black loads with a pop up saying "Could not load image."
-When using ES, the thumbnails in the folder are caution signs and opening the actual corrupt files is basically the same as when using My Files. The only "difference" is that the files are listed at the end of the list of files in the folder when using ES.

Ahh sorry for going into much detail! But thank you for the reply!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[KevroniCoal]

So if anyone is interested, I have created a newer thread a little while ago regarding this SD card problem I've been having. It also includes additional problems that I've come across - so if you'd like, check this one out as well!

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/315699-micro-sd-card-corruption-issues.html

Thank you!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[illdini]

Always copy then verify everything was copied correctly, NEVER move pictures (or any other important files).
If something happens during a copy, at least you should still have the originals on internal storage.

 

[KevroniCoal]

Always copy then verify everything was copied correctly, NEVER move pictures (or any other important files).
If something happens during a copy, at least you should still have the originals on internal storage.

Hahahah yea I kind of learned that the hard way in this case. I do typically copy vs move on my pc. I didn't quite expect it in my phone - hence the corrupt files haha

Posted via Android Central App

 

[illdini]

I hope I didn't sound like a jerk, it's just that I've been burned in the past by not making sure I had a good backup/copy of important files(I even got fired once for not making sure the tape backups were restorable).

 

[Run_amuck]

I registered just to post help for this as I just went through this 3 days ago. MY card gave me "card error, need to format" I have all my sons photos on it along with various important documents and family movies. I about had a heart attack when i saw that message.

Staying cool, I did a big search for corrupted SD cards and came across this freeware program:
Its called
Zero Assumption Recovery
(feel free to google search it- its quite popular with this "life challenge")
The tool is not totally free--EXCEPT the photo and video portion recovery.

I have a 32 gb card and it took about 60-70 minutes for the whole process- end result?
ALL 4513 photos and videos were able to be saved/found and moved over to my pc.

You need a card reader and some patience,

here is the link
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

MUST READ-- when you do the move/copy do not use your SD card as the backup- always move it to the computer !!!, if you try to restore it on the card- it will corrupt for good!

 

[KevroniCoal]

I hope I didn't sound like a jerk, it's just that I've been burned in the past by not making sure I had a good backup/copy of important files(I even got fired once for not making sure the tape backups were restorable).

Oh! hahaha no you didn't sound harsh or anything to me! It's all good!

But sorry to hear of those experiences!

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

 

[KevroniCoal]

I registered just to post help for this as I just went through this 3 days ago. MY card gave me "card error, need to format" I have all my sons photos on it along with various important documents and family movies. I about had a heart attack when i saw that message.

Staying cool, I did a big search for corrupted SD cards and came across this freeware program:
Its called
Zero Assumption Recovery
(feel free to google search it- its quite popular with this "life challenge")
The tool is not totally free--EXCEPT the photo and video portion recovery.

I have a 32 gb card and it took about 60-70 minutes for the whole process- end result?
ALL 4513 photos and videos were able to be saved/found and moved over to my pc.

You need a card reader and some patience,

here is the link
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

MUST READ-- when you do the move/copy do not use your SD card as the backup- always move it to the computer !!!, if you try to restore it on the card- it will corrupt for good!

Oh nice! I will definitely try it out! Hopefully all those pictures I lost can be restored! Thank you for the link! I'll try to update how it goes when I finally get the time to do it!

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ian Richardson1]

Hi ive just come back from holiday and transferred my photos on my Samsung galaxy s4 gallery to my 32gb sd card and I can't view them have I lost them completely are can it be solved please help

 

[Colin Wickham]

Ive got the exact same problem as well. Just copied pictures and music over onto a 32gb card and most of them have corrupted and the files/folders names have changed. I have formatted the sd card on the phone and on the laptop and copied everything again and still had the same problem. I have however just done the same thing on an 8gb sd card and they have worked ok so makes me wonder if its something to do with the size not being liked by the phone even thought 32gb cards are supported?

 

[KevroniCoal]

Ive got the exact same problem as well. Just copied pictures and music over onto a 32gb card and most of them have corrupted and the files/folders names have changed. I have formatted the sd card on the phone and on the laptop and copied everything again and still had the same problem. I have however just done the same thing on an 8gb sd card and they have worked ok so makes me wonder if its something to do with the size not being liked by the phone even thought 32gb cards are supported?

Yea I've wondered if the size of the card effects anything? I think my sister has an 8gb and she doesn't seem to recall any problems (although I don't think she really knows how to utilize the card much haha)

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

[Slow_S10]

It's a little late now but for future reference I also picked up a 32 gb card for my phone and I moved all my photos over to it. But instead of using the phone's built in move feature I just used ES file explorer and copied them from the internal memory and pasted them into the camera's folder on the SD card. Everything copied perfectly, and when I was done I just erased the photos from the internal memory. It's a couple extra steps to do it this way but it's worth it for the peace of mind of not loosing (in my case) 1400+ irreplacable photos.

 

[Kyrie Hayes]

I want everyone to read this understand this is coming from someone who works with AT&T customer service then you tell me how you feel about the people that could help you are not helping you because my sd card was wiped after a three hour concert that I recorded every second. before I even bought the SD card I called Tmobile I called Samsung and I called SanDisk to make sure I was getting the correct card and all three of them wrong because I was watching the videos and watching the pictures as soon as I went to take out my card I lost everything and then my friend writes me this message so any one of your company's tells you they don't know how you lost your data they're lying to you and here's the proof. I went to put it on my computer and my phone lost everything so this is a direct quote and I'm curious to see how people take it.
"Some phones "marry" the sd card & it becomes embedded in the phone and you're not supposed to remove it. Other phones require a certain formatted memory card & just because they fit & appear to work doesn't always mean they actually work. Did u pick out the memory card or a sales rep at the store. Always download the Walgreens app or other photo software maybe Dropbox go to a free wifi spot n hit upload all ur photos before doing anything else if you have important photos."

 

[Kyrie Hayes]

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