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

[JHBThree]

And now you know why Google has dropped support for SD cards in AOSP

 

[Aquila]

They should change the bullet point, "SD Card Support" to "SD Card read/write is somewhat reliable on certain cards unless the phone decides to brick the card."

 

[speedspeed]

just got a new s3 and within 15 mins it killed my 32gb sdcard
pc also dont read him anymore

 

[Cindy Beckham]

JIm B - Cindys husband, I just had the same problem with my SCAN DISK 32 gb micro sd card. Here is what I figured out. I was able to put it in my wife's Galaxy S3 and download the pictures and data on it. I took it out and reinstalled it several times to confirm it worked in her phone. Here is what I think happened after all my trouble shooting. My phone had updated the firmware and it quit working. My wife's phone had the old firmware. I confirmed the issue by updating her firmware and the sd card would not show up. The card was formatted with old firmware and worked with old firmware, now it dont work with the new firmware. I tried it in a camera and computer but they asked to format the sd card. I have seen so many issues with the S3 I did not want to take the chance of totally losing 32 gb of space. So I now have an SD card I am waiting for a fix for. I have notified both Samsung and Scan Disk of the issues along with transcripts from both support agencies. Hopefully we can get a fix sent to us. Between Samsung, Scan Disk and the T-Mobile I should have an answer soon. Keep in touch and I will update you on their answer. If you know anyone else with the same issues dont reformat till we get some answers.

 

[derk]

Hopefully we can get a fix sent to us. Between Samsung, Scan Disk and the T-Mobile I should have an answer soon. Keep in touch and I will update you on their answer. If you know anyone else with the same issues dont reformat till we get some answers.

That's an interesting theory and good troubleshooting. My first S3 which I bought in Oct came with firmware older than 4.0.4. I dont remember exactly what version it was before that. I upgeade to 4.0.4 the first day and it had sd card problems right out of the gate with pny,sandisk and kingston. 2 months later, I upgraded to 4.1.1 and had same problems but seemed to be worse.

I have a replacement s3 I got from ATT on March. It came with 4.0.4 and I put 4.1.1 on it the day I got it, and the only sd card issue I have is unmounting randomly, but data is not destroyed on it like my first s3.

What firmware version do you suspect works?

 

[Rick Ivy]

I've had the same issue and the first one was damaged by the phone. I replaced it 2 months ago and last Friday it began doing the same thing. ATT replaced the phone, but less than 6 hours it start all over again. Today the Best Buy phone guy suggested that I switch to a 16 Gig card. Let's see what happens now...

 

[vkalou]

I own an S3 since December. When I bought it I also bought a 32GB SD card. I've been using it without any problem until about 2 weeks ago. At that time the phone started complaining about the SD card being unformatted etc or failed to mount it at all.

I read about this problem in various threads. Most of the people complained but none proposed a valid solution. All except for stas333 who gave this answer: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-galaxy-s-iii/240489-sd-card-unmounting-itself.html#post2633130

It is not a software problem (it would have been corrected by Samsung till now) nor a problem of the SD card (mine works when I put it in another phone or the PC). So, either the SDHC i/f in S3 has a bug or the SDHC connector is the source of the problem. Since I could not do anything about the SDHC i/f (after all it worked until 2 weeks ago and it still does occasionally), I tried to "fix" the connector. stas333 suggests you put a sticky note on the card and place it inside the slot. I used blanco correction fluid and put some of it on the top side of the SD card, at the part which is above the pins (that lie on the bottom side). I waited for it to dry and then put some more. After a few minutes I used a tape (sellotape) to cover the top side of the SD card (and the area that I had put blanco on). The purpose was to make sure that blanco was not turned into pieces when the SD card was placed into the slot. Then I put the SD card inside the slot (with care...). So far it works.

There is high probability that the SDHC connector is the source of the problem. It explains why this happens to some SD cards but not all (maybe the "good" ones are a bit thicker). It also explains why some cards are eventually destroyed. Since there is no good connectivity between the SD card's pins and the connector's pins, the card is destroyed when i.e. the power pin does not have good contact and thus the power to the card is switched on and off too quickly.

Well, in any case the procedure is quite safe and you've nothing to lose. It would be better to switch the phone off before trying this out. Be careful when you slide the SD card back into the slot so that whatever you put on top of it to make it thicker remains in place!

 

[speedspeed]

i wished it was so easy
but my whole card is completely destroyed, and is not beeing read anymore at all

 

[sameer0324]

I got my S3 in october, i had put my first bootleg sd card in november and the damn thing got fried in a month.

In December, I got a new sd card from san disk and thought it will be good enough to store my info.

Today, I see a sign in my notifications saying blank SD card. I am on the phone with AT&T at the moment where they said they are going to replace my phone and charge me to do a master reset.

 

[derk]

Plain and simple. It's a Samsung s3 hardware defect with micro sd cards that affects some folks. Samsung won't own up to it.

 

[alan sh]

My second one failed yesterday (it worked the day before). I'm not bothering with SD cards any more unless Samsung come up with a fix.

I don't see how it's a software fault - the card is destroyed. But I'm prepared to be wrong.....

Alan

 

[derk]

My second one failed yesterday (it worked the day before). I'm not bothering with SD cards any more unless Samsung come up with a fix.

I don't see how it's a software fault - the card is destroyed. But I'm prepared to be wrong.....

Alan

I was a long time iPhone user for 4 years. I switched in October. I am really enjoying Android with the exception of this hardware issue. I am switching back to Apple because Samsung hasn't done anything about this issue.

 

[mastermjr2004]

Hey People,

Here is my first post. Having the same issue as many others. This only happened a couple of weeks ago. Im wondering if the issue is due to the new firmware upgrade:
I9300XXEMR2, as i never had the issue previously. I keep getting "Memory Card has unmounted unexpectedly". Also previously i had rooted and had custom rom Omega 33.1 which is also the same firmware. I had that rom version a couple of months and then the issue occured. Iv had many previous omega roms installed as i was always updating when a new one came out. So i decided to go back to stock. which is what am on now. I did all the updates and issue has ocurred again!. Seems that when my phone goes to sleep mode and i awaken it, i get the message popping up. Was everyone on I9300XXEMR2 when this happened?

Thanks,

Matt

 

[EndlessDissent]

No, I don't think it has anything to do with the update. It's happening across all variants of the S3, and the international version is the only one with that update. It's just a general bug in all S3s.

 

[scaramouch1]

I've had an s3 JB 4.1.2 quad 1.4 since last july
Sandisk 32gb UHS-1

I had OTA 22mb update a 4 days ago don't know what the update was for though

I did have problem twice with this card months ago wouldn't work faulty
so I pressed the phones onboard format a few times and this fixed the problem card works ok

the SD card disappeared on my s3 the same day I got it back by pressing the screen on off button on right side of phone a few times
I noticed turning this button on or off could make SD card disappear
seems to be ok at the moment

s4 quad 1.9 JB 4.2.1

 

[neil154]

I have just read on a different forum (but do not have the link) that Sandisk has admitted they have a problem on their 32 & 64 GB cards and if you contact them they will replace yours.

 

[mastermjr2004]

Yes you are right, Sandisk have said that they are apparently aware that there are issues with their cards on some samsung phones and have issued a fix with a new batch of cards sent out. I read it on the Sandisk support website. So as far as i have read, Sandisk are happy to replace the cards, but ud have to fork out for the sending of the old card and return of the new one. So as for other makes of cards, similar issue maybe, am not sure!

 

[AxlMyk]

As I've written here before, do not format the card. They come ready to go from SanDisk.
I've had a 64g SDXC card in mine for several months now, after the first 32g card failed.
If you MUST format, use SDformatter on your PC or MAC. https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/
Your SD adapter must be exFAT compliant.

 

[derk]

As I've written here before, do not format the card. They come ready to go from SanDisk.
I've had a 64g SDXC card in mine for several months now, after the first 32g card failed.
If you MUST format, use SDformatter on your PC or MAC. https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/
Your SD adapter must be exFAT compliant.

I think s3 owners are seeing 2 separate related issues either at once or different times.

1)hardware defect Sandisk sd card
2)hardware defect in Samsung s3 sd card slot.

I am not using a Sandisk card anymore. I didn't format the sd card, but I am still having random unmounting by my replacement s3.

 

[AxlMyk]

That's entirely possible. But it seems SanDisk cards have had the most problems. And it seems that in every case, the card was formatted in the phone.

--Tapatalk on SGS3.