SD Cards failing in Galaxy S3: Samsung's insane response.

[rteichman]

My second SanDisk card failed last week. 32GB worked for about 5 months no problem then just suddenly died. I only have my music on it which is backed up so no great loss other than the cost of the card. Pretty annoying though. This time I bought a Samsung card with a warranty from Micro Center (never bought a warranty before). Next time it fails, it won't cost me anything.

 

[gnr_2]

You need G+ or Picasa for that I believe.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

When i got my phone I had nothing Google. I had an account for Google Groups, docs and calendar but it wasn't a Gmail account. When I set up my phone, that is the account I used. However, something happened and I needed to recover my contacts. That's when I learned that everything was backed up but couldn't be accessed until I switched to my Google account to an actual Gmail account. I've never tried finding my photo backup because I don't use my phone for important photos, I have a camera for those, but when I do, I immediately move them to my computer. But Google supposedly has them somewhere.

Sent from my totally awesome Sprint Galaxy Nexus, even if I don't know all its secrets yet.

 

[Downtown Taco]

When i got my phone I had nothing Google. I had an account for Google Groups, docs and calendar but it wasn't a Gmail account. When I set up my phone, that is the account I used. However, something happened and I needed to recover my contacts. That's when I learned that everything was backed up but couldn't be accessed until I switched to my Google account to an actual Gmail account. I've never tried finding my photo backup because I don't use my phone for important photos, I have a camera for those, but when I do, I immediately move them to my computer. But Google supposedly has them somewhere.

Sent from my totally awesome Sprint Galaxy Nexus, even if I don't know all its secrets yet.

You make Google seem like my ex girlfriend...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[derk]

I tried that already and it doesn't work. When my first Sandisk sd card was formated as FAT32, I lost data regularly. When formatted as exFAT, I don't lose data it just unmounts unexpectedly.

 

[Kenny Bell]

I'm also getting a similar problem in my Galaxy S3 I9300. My Sandisk 64GB card purchased in January recently failed. I can also smell a burnt smell around the SD card slot now so I think it may have caused some permanent damage.

 

[Colin Mackie]

Hi Folks
I don't do forums very often but i read this post while I was looking at my wifes Samsung Galaxy S3 which had stopped "seeing" the micro sd pluged into it. Its physically possible thoogh probably not advisable to remove the card while the phne is running. But since the card seemed stuffed and my ph could not read it either ... hey why not see if the connections were the problem.
when to "settings / storage, scrolled to the bottom and looked for the display to change when i plugged it in.... and it did ! change from "mount SD card " to Total space available, space used , unmount sd card etc.

...so taking the card in and out while phone turned on worked for me/us. hope this helps someone else.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Folks
I don't do forums very often but i read this post while I was looking at my wifes Samsung Galaxy S3 which had stopped "seeing" the micro sd pluged into it. Its physically possible thoogh probably not advisable to remove the card while the phne is running. But since the card seemed stuffed and my ph could not read it either ... hey why not see if the connections were the problem.
when to "settings / storage, scrolled to the bottom and looked for the display to change when i plugged it in.... and it did ! change from "mount SD card " to Total space available, space used , unmount sd card etc.

...so taking the card in and out while phone turned on worked for me/us. hope this helps someone else.

 

[ready4android]

I got the galaxy s4. I used for a week and my micro SD card (16 gb) already went blank, without any photo I took, and I am trying to recover all the photos but nothing happens, I follow the steps of the developer options, and the card didn't work, what else I can do?

 

[Melissa Del Rio]

This did not work for me.

 

[MrMiddleFinger]

ive been using 32 gig sandisk ultra micro card in Galaxy s3 for 6 months then exactly 5 days after updating to Android 4.1.2 the sd card stopped working in galaxy s3 and anything else, im still wainting on a aswer from sandisk

 

[rexinu]

Posting this as it may help others

Alright so ive been having very similar issues as others with my sandisk microsd 32gb "mounting, unexpectedly removed etc". The only difference is i noticed my cards still worked in the computer when using them via an sd card adaptor. I also noticed that if i applied pressure in certain areas at the back of the phone i could get the sd card to read, once i let go it would stop. After changing the whole sim/sdcard tray i still found it wasnt working correctly. I decided to remove the back cover and place some sticky tape over the sd/sim card tray in several layers so that when i screwed the back plate on there would be constant pressure on the tray. Turns out it worked and i have not had any problems with the microsd since.

I am assuming that my problem could have been due to dropping the phone or some slight damage, either way some people might be experiencing the same problem but thinking its the sd card instead of the phone. Its worth a shot

 

[sellfonetek]

SanDisk Responsible for Malfunctioning Galaxy S3 Micro-SD Cards

SanDisk is the one stating the issue is their fault, they recognize it and are fixing the issue.

 

[gnr_2]

Yea I tried my laptop and my sons PC to see if there was anyway to read it and its corrupted. My next step is letting one of the Computer guys at work take a look at it but he admitted it was probably not gonna help. I don't understand what happened. Fact is my phone is/was set up identical to hers and hers has had this memory card issue and also the quick battery drain issue. Mine has been excellent so far, knock on wood.

Someone posted this in the comments of the article linked above. Maybe this will help with your wife's card:

This just happened to me. I have a 32Gb Sandisk. All my photos are automatically saved to SD card instead of the phone?s internal memory so naturally they are at risk of being lost forever.

Turn on ?Camera Upload? in Dropbox and every time the SD card mounts, a few will be transferred to your Dropbox account. This may take a while depending on how many pictures you have, but eventually you?ll get all of them in between the SD crashing. Naturally this won?t work for all your data, but at least you have the photos taken with the phone?s camera.

Sent from the Superuser account on my newly rooted Sprint Galaxy Nexus

 

[Whatacrazythought]

I've had my Galaxy S3 for about 9 months. When I put in a 32gb card and formatted it, it began giving me problems with my audio. Much of the time, the audio wouldn't play at all. If I made a call, it would work again for a short period of time, then stop again. I removed the card and rebooted it, and it works fine again. For me, the card just isn't worth it. sd card was a Sandisk 32gb ultra. S3 is on Verizon with android ICS.

 

[RayMabry]

I decided to purchase a Samsung 32 GB Class 10 (Sold directly from Amazon and not a 3rd party seller) from the get-go after doing my research. I figured that way no matter what happened I could point the finger at Samsung. Besides I just would expect better performance if my SD card is the same brand as my device, whether or not that is rational thinking.

I've had it for around 2 months and so far, so good.
I had an issue formatting it in the beginning. No matter how many times I restarted the phone it would get stuck on the reformat. I was pissed, then I decided to unmount it, remount it, and format and it worked.

My suggestion to anyone would be to purchase their SD card from Samsung. If you do so on Amazon, be sure to get one sold directly from Amazon (Samsung Fakes are everywhere on the website). You may pay a higher price, but it's well worth it. You end up with one company to blame if there is an issue.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SolidRZR]

I also had my (PNY 32GB) unsuspectingly go unseen by my S3. I had to plug it into my computer, go to my computer, "right" click on it (my computer could read it just fine), select format, and choose NTFS, click start (it will erase anything on the card). Then I put into my phone (it was already turned on, and I was in settings under storage so I could watch the card mount), It showed up right away and then asked to format it, did so and works fine again. Good luck.

 

[fatboyzlilgirlz]

I'm adding 2 more cells on the sd wipe out list. I've got the sprint galxy 3 Thursday, I had to reformat my sd card. I'm glad I've got everything backed up hoping that I won't lose my electronic life. When I reformatted, I lost nothing. Friday, my husband has a galaxy 2. His sd card is wiped out. Of course Sprint knew nothing about it. I asked if they're up to date with customer service, tell me why you've never heard about this before.Google it, its all over the net

 

[ritacp]

HI

I have the Galaxy Smart Camera, I can view 100% of the photos taken on the camera itself but when I connect the camera to my PC (Samsung also) to print pictures I get the following message "Window photo viewer can't display this picture because the file is empty", this happens for about 60% of the pictures taken I have tried opening it in different viewers and am getting the same message that the file is empty. I have also taken the SD card out and inserted directly into my computer, I get exactly the same message and only 60% pictures are shown I put it back into the camera and 100% are visible. I have tried to wi-fi and bluetooth the pictures but they still do not come out.
I don't know if its a fault with the camera or the SD card.

 

[Patrice Gauthier]

Hi, I just had the same issue with my NEW Samsung Galaxy S4. MicroSD 32 GIGs whent off and can't read it from the phone and also on any pc! I replaced the card with a 8 gig and it was ok. I used the same card with my old HTC phone for 2 years no problems. Bought the S4, put the card in it, used it for 3 weeks and bang! Yesterday everithing when off, the phone could not read the card.

And my card is unreadable. Did you find something about it?

 

[blewvelvet]

I was having problems seeing my files on and SD cards and USB stick. Once I formatted them to exFAT..and recopied my files to them....it totally worked!
(formatting erases the drive completly so be sure to backup your files to another drive first)

Article on exFAT
Use the exFAT File System and Never Format Your External Drive Again

 

[LordAndroid]

I was having problems seeing my files on and SD cards and USB stick. Once I formatted them to exFAT..and recopied my files to them....it totally worked!
(formatting erases the drive completly so be sure to backup your files to another drive first)

Article on exFAT
Use the exFAT File System and Never Format Your External Drive Again

How do i format my Sandisk 32g class 10 in exFAT? My PC is currently running Windows 7

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2