Sd card unexpectedly removed.. Anyone else?

[Karl Thomas]

My phone keeps saying "sd card unexpectedly removed.. Preparing sd card". I think I've limited this problem most of the time to when my phone is on a hard surface such as a table and I press anywhere on the phone with even a slight tap such as typing etc. I haven't encountered it with really any other scenarios , i've even tried smacking it in my hand and that doesn't even bring up the error ,but it is perplexing. It's a brand new flagship phone how can this be? Is it because the back cover is so flimsy and any pressure bumps the SD card, or is the SD card too sensitive.. Any thoughts or fixes?
Thanks AC community

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...-unexpectedly-removed-solved.html#post3751814

 

[Ron Damato]

My phone keeps saying "sd card unexpectedly removed.. Preparing sd card". I think I've limited this problem most of the time to when my phone is on a hard surface such as a table and I press anywhere on the phone with even a slight tap such as typing etc. I haven't encountered it with really any other scenarios , i've even tried smacking it in my hand and that doesn't even bring up the error ,but it is perplexing. It's a brand new flagship phone how can this be? Is it because the back cover is so flimsy and any pressure bumps the SD card, or is the SD card too sensitive.. Any thoughts or fixes?
Thanks AC community

This problem made me bang my head against the wall for two years! Then I figured, hey, you develop hardware, what the hell is happening here?

After cleaning the socket I used an SD ribbon cable and really smacked the phone around. Never got it to disconnect. To spare you an hour of geek talk I narrowed it down to the CARD itself. I was using a new-ish SanDisk 32G card (the gray and red ones) and, despite their size, these cards were all made around the same time. They ALL exhibited this behavior. I bought a 16G Kingston just to double-check and the problem has NEVER repeated...and its been almost six months now. I tested this on two S3s, one a year newer than the other. Same story.

So stop factory-resetting and going nuts! Quite simply put: IT'S THE CARD. Buy a new one from a different manufacturer, clone it with a PC, and drop it in.

Problem solved.

 

[pizza_pablo]

Reviving am old thread to post my experience and results.
I had a Samsung 64GB micro SD card in my Galaxy S4. The phone was locking up while on the wall charger. It took me a bit of research to figure out the cause.
I found this thread, as well as others suggesting using chkdsk on Windows PC to fix the card.
I backed up the card and performed the check, formatted to exFAT and also formatted the card in the phone. Then copied the backed up contents to the freshly formatted SD card.
This cured the locking up, but then I got the card removed followed by checking card notifications.
While backing up the card, I noticed that it was nearly full. Having only a few GBs free space.
I bought a Samsung 128GB micro SD card, from Amazon, formatted it on the PC and the phone, copied the backed up contents from the 64GB card into the 128GB card and have not had any locking up or card removed notifications, for 2 days.
The S4 dies recognize all 128 (actually 120) GBs.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Bashya Rajan Aravazhi]

I'm also facing te same problem with my MOTO G 2 Gen, but when I use the same memory card with my SAMSUNG GALAXY S DUOS 2 , it's perfectly alright.

 

[Angela Caryll]

Why do I keep getting:-sad card removed when it hasn't?

 

[8666Uzn]

The problem here is the memory card. Although memory cards do not have moving parts like a good old hard drive, it can still be damaged through drops.

Whenever I disconnect a usb storage or sd card from any android device without unmounting it first I get the same exact error as the OP. If you never disconnected the card physically then the problem is with your sd card or something small in the connector. If you're card is corrupt, have errors, or any problem like that then it can crash, causing you to get that error. Although a reformat can solve your problem temporarily, it will not save it forever. Once you get errors on a memory device you need convince yourself that storage device will soon corrupt (hours, days, weeks, months, years).

If it happens with all the cards you have used, different brands/size/speed, and you don't drop your phone then the problem may lie with the physical connection with the card and the phone.

"My phone is lenovo s660 , facing same kind of problem, I removed my SD card with out unmounting , I really don't want to loose any of my files stored in it ,now it shows unexpectedly removed error message,can you suggest me a solution the same?"

 

[rcca]

I saw old questions here why the SD errors on our phone saying SD card unmounting, and preparing for SD card, since the post is open still, here it goes for me. Been searching reading all over the webs, and asking cell phone company's why this is a problem for most all of us? my wife has a S4 her phone with a 64gb Patriot only failed once, got corrupted, put a new one in, no problems for 2 years and she never got the unmounted errors.
Now me, I have the S5 for a little over a 1/1/2 year, always with a Patriot 64gb card, yes I have had the corrupt message too, but had no unmounted errors happen. But now since 2 months been having the unmounted errors ever since. I formated it, worked for a few days, back again with errors. Then put a new in one again, formated it still no go.
Been told by Verizon that Sandisk, and Patriots are the worsted cards, form what he heard.
Now for the GOOD news for me, I told the Verizon guy that I have a Gigastone GS-2in1x1064G-R Class 10 UHS-1 microSDHC with adapter they range from $16.00 up to 25.00 in my S5 for 4 days, even forced the raise the temp. up on it too 101 degrees. YAHOO! so far OK.
I had one more extra Patriot one not used or opend it, and returned it to Costco. Going to Frys and get me another Gigastone, and they will have to match the price from Amazon. $15.61 WOW! Good luck for everyone.
Now for a update: It's been about 5-6 days now, I bought a 64GB for a spare and a 128GB both the Gigastone at Frys, they had to price match them, the 128 27.99, and 15.51. The 128GB in my phone has been holding up with no errors. Fast little guy for 128GB.

 

[maryb5150]

I have the MediaPad 8.0 and for the past few days have been getting same error message, however I don't have the option of just taking out the battery and trying the suggestions that others have tried since the back does not just pop off like other phones. Is there any other options that I can try? I have already done a reset.. Plus when error message appears the only way to access my apps. again is to restart my phone until the next error message reappears. I am so frustrated with this....

 

[silentandroid]

I've been Googling "SD card unexpectedly removed." I'm obviously not the only one with this problem. IS THERE NO RESOLUTION TO THIS?!?!

I've been using an LG G3 since December 2014. It's never given me a problem until just this past week when the SD card issue keeps popping up. The original card was a Samsung 32GB micro SD that has lived inside the slot ever since I got my phone, and I use it as the default storage for all my photos and videos (which get backed up to my desktop PC 2-3 times a year. I've re-formatted it both on the PC and on the phone (of which it will unmount during the formatting process), and I've swapped it with another 32GB SD card (for some reason the original Samsung won't get recognized on my GoPro camera, hmmm).

I've tried EVERYTHING...unmounting from the phone, rebooting the phone, reformatting the SD card, using another SD card, wiping the system cache...NOTHING WORKS! I don't want to have to buy another phone as this phone gives me no other problems, plus I have some big expenditures coming up and I don't want the cost of a new phone to add on to that. I also refuse to call LG tech support or any tech support line and be treated as if I know nothing about computers or phones, and that no one else has my problem, ugh.

 

[lordofalllords]

What phone do you use?

 

[nikp]

I was searching half the internet to find a solution to the disconnections of a Samsung EVO 128 GB on Galaxy S4 i9506, with no result. The SD was working fine on other devices, but seemed disappeared on my S4 phone. Finally I used your trick and it helped - now everything works fine. Maybe it just needed a longer (15-20 min?) interruption of the electrical circuit. Thank you very much, I didn't have to go to Samsung service, you saved me about 30€

Same issue, but fixed it. All I did was remove the battery, sd card, and sim for about 15min. Then reinserted everything and booted back up. All works again. Picture and videos on SD card reappeared.