Should my Micro SD card have limitations with FAT32?

[mcriko1]

Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Hi,

I am looking for a way to get all the usable storage from my San Disk 32GB MicroSD card in my Galaxy S5. I have tried formatting to NTFS on a Win7 machine but the card is not readable once inserted back into the phone and needs to be reformatted in the phone. I have even lost music files as anything copied after about 4GB of data gets renamed with strange characters. This looks to be a common issue from browsing the forums, but I can find no solution other than to root the phone.

Anyone out there got a different solution?

Samsung G5
SM-G9000i
Android 4.4.2

 

[AZgl1500]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Format the SD card in the Samsung phone and leave it alone.

You will not be able to get increased storage with FAT because of the increased overhead in the sectors headers.

esFileExplorer is a decent file management tool.

=> * ES File Explorer File Manager - Android Apps on Google Play

 

[cyberdman]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Yes typically the card has to be in FAT32, but just put it in your phone and do a format on your phone. It will set it up right. After that put all your stuff back on it.

 

[P_Devil]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Correct me if I'm wrong but the SDHC (and hence, microSDHC) standard comes pre-formatted using FAT32 and I think it officially only supports FAT32. SDXC (and microSDXC) only supports exFAT. Either way, changing the file system on an SD card really isn't going to open up more storage space. Format it with the phone and you'll be fine. You should also be able to format it with Windows 7 using FAT32 and it will be fine.

 

[mcriko1]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

I have formatted in phone and on PC. I can copy the data to the SD card and I can see that the data is there and that the SD card holds the data, but any media player I use only shows 4GB of music and after a reboot the files get corrupted and they are renamed with strange characters. I had a 16GB card in my Galaxy S2 and i was able to view all data. Why now as the Android OS 'improved' that I cannot access more than 4GB of data on SD card?

Is there a solution for this issue other than rooting the phone and running Paragon NTFS. I want to be able to utilize more than 4GB external storage

 

[mcriko1]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

I have formatted the card in the phone. I can see 32GB of space. I can copy up to 32GB of data to the phone and have copied 20+ GB of data. Any media player will only recognize 4GB of the data. I have tried the inbuilt player, Google Play, MX Player, Winamp, VLC ...it makes no difference and once the phone is restarted all files that were copied after the first 4GB get corrupted. Does anyone have an answer as to WHY this happens? Does anyone have a fix for this?

 

[cyberdman]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

One good question to ask is, where did you get that card? Might be a Chinese fake piece of junk.
Any good card, formatted on the phone should work to it's full potential. Are you transferring the files to your card through the phone? Or are you attaching the card to your computer via some type of interface and transferring drive to drive? The best way would be hooking your phone up to the computer and doing a direct transfer to card through the phone. If after doing this the phone won't play the files either something is wrong with your phone OR that card is JUNK.

 

[AZgl1500]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

I have a Samsung 64 gB SD card and both the phone and my Win7 pc can see all of it....

it has something like 59 gB free still yet on it.

 

[cyberdman]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Still doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good card. People buy fakes all the time. Where did you get it from.

 

[mcriko1]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

I can see 32GB of data available on the card when connected to Win7PC via USB. I have copied more then 4GB of data to phone and can view it on the card in multiple PC's (tested) I copy data from PC to phone via USB direct drop onto card. The data is on card and viewable via Windows explorer. When looking on the phone in my files i can only see 4GB of data and if i reboot the device any folder that is on the card after the 4GB mark is instantly renamed with strange characters.
Card was bought off the net from an eBay store. I have used it in a several other devices with no issue (last was a pair of liquid image goggles with inbuilt camera)

I dont want to wast money and buy another card if this is an actual issue with this phone

 

[P_Devil]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

It sounds like you have a defunct SD card as data loss and seeing only small amounts of data are common problems with knock-off, no name cards. Other devices may not initially have issues until they start hitting the 4GB+ mark with data on the SD card. But, since your PC and your phone are having problems with the card, I'm going to say that the card itself has either become corrupted or it was always a bad card.

You should buy SD cards from known stores (i.e. Amazon, Best Buy, Microcenter, etc.) and not from people on eBay as a way to ensure that it is really an accurate card. Trying to save money with an SD card will almost always come back to bite you in the ****. Microcenter (if you have one near you) sells their own in-house memory card and thumb drives, they are relatively inexpensive. I purchased a 64GB microSDXC card from them two weeks ago for $25. I don't know who makes it but it has the Microcenter brand on it. They even started offering a 128GB microSDXC card for $80. I have a SanDisk 128GB microSDXC card in my Galaxy S5 now as they were the only ones who made a 128GB microSDXC card when I purchased my S5. The Dell Venue 8 Pro, Sony compact mirror-less camera, and Samsung compact mirror-less camera I have all use 64GB microSDXC cards from Microcenter.

 

[Toto39]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Did you put files in folders? There is a 4Gb limit on files in the root of any FAT32 partition.

 

[Bongani Masilela]

Re: Micro SD card limitations with FAT32

Hi,

I am looking for a way to get all the usable storage from my San Disk 32GB MicroSD card in my Galaxy S5. I have tried formatting to NTFS on a Win7 machine but the card is not readable once inserted back into the phone and needs to be reformatted in the phone. I have even lost music files as anything copied after about 4GB of data gets renamed with strange characters. This looks to be a common issue from browsing the forums, but I can find no solution other than to root the phone.

Anyone out there got a different solution?

Samsung G5
SM-G9000i
Android 4.4.2