can't remove my SD card

[ShaggyKids]

Hi,

I just tried to remove the SD card on my Galaxy S3 and I cannot get it out. This is the first time I've tried to remove it. I found a video here:

Samsung Galaxy S3 - Remove backside/Battery/SIM/SD-card - YouTube

but when I look at my SD card slot it appears this is no card! It doesn't stick out (black plastic) on the left like the one on the video and gently pushing on the metal "casing" for it, it doesn't seem like there is a card in it because it depresses. I've stuck my fingernail down into that recessed area on the left as far as I can to see if I can lift the entire metal casing out and I can't (which I'm guessing is GOOD thing!).

I've been able to save backups to the SD card via My BackUp Pro but I always get an error on the auto-backups that it can't save to the SD card, I just never investigated before but tonight I had some time. I'm thinking there HAS to be a card in it, but for the life of me it sure doesn't seem like it. When I open My BackUp Pro (Manage, Restore, View etc) I can see the lists of backups so again there's GOT to be a card in the darn thing wouldn't you think?

If I take it to the VZW store and they find there isn't one in there how the heck am I supposed to prove it was never there in the first place?

The tip of the SIM card is visible and pops out nicely just like in the video. But there seems to be no "tip or edge" to the SD card. If I tip the phone to look inside the slot I see silver (on the bottom of the slot) and no black plastic SD card.

Any suggestions? The VZW store is like 30mi from here so I'd prefer to not have to drive there. I really don't want to damage my phone!

Thanks,
Deb

 

[ansextra]

Did you install the SD card yourself? I've never heard of Verizon providing SD cards with the S3 (although there may have been deals I am not aware of). The SD card your phone sees is actually a virtual SD card. If you look at a file manager there is a virtual SD card as well as an actual external SD card (if you have one installed).

 

[ShaggyKids]

No, I didn't install my own. I just assumed it came with one like my Thunderbolt and my Rezound. That sucks, they probably cost more than I can afford but now I guess I go window-shopping. Thank for saving me any more headaches trying to pop out a non-existent invisible SD card.

 

[Branta]

You can't remove what ain't there! If you want to prove beyond doubt that the slot is empty, find a spare card (steal from another phone?) and try inserting it.

 

[ShaggyKids]

You can't remove what ain't there! If you want to prove beyond doubt that the slot is empty, find a spare card (steal from another phone?) and try inserting it.

OMG! Never thought of that. I just grabbed the SD card outa my Thunderbolt and dang if it didn't slide right in there! So, now how do I get the backups, photos and whatnot from the virtual card to the real card?

Thanks for saving me some $$$ Branta.

Oh, nevermind looks like my PC is reading both of them. I'll have to format the sd card - jeepers thought I did that already so it's still got TBolt stuff on it.

 

[NotJustAPhone]

The GS3 doesn't come with an external SD card installed. Unless you put one in your phone, you don't have an external SD card. The SD card directory you see is actually a folder in your GS3's external memory named sdcard.

Sent from my SGSIII

 

[ShaggyKids]

Ok, now I have another question - may sound stupid but I found the backup I made before I inserted the SD card ON the real SD card I inserted. Does the virtual SD card duplicate the stuff onto the real SD card or something?

 

[NotJustAPhone]

The real SD card is called extSdCard. It should not contain duplicates of files stored in the virtual SD card.

Sent from my SGSIII

 

[ShaggyKids]

The real SD card is called extSdCard. It should not contain duplicates of files stored in the virtual SD card. Sent from my SGSIII

Ok, must be stuff from my TBolt then. Went window shopping for an SD card, under normal circumstances I'd just buy one but hubby's out of work right now so I can't spend on thin dime that isn't absolutely necessary until we get some more income in this house. If I reformat the real SD card from the TBolt which was reset to factory awhile back and currently just a dust collector pending the need for a backup phone if ever needed, I should be able then to reformat it again, re-insert in the TBolt and then reset the TBolt again, yes? I know this all sounds really basic to most of you but I haven't messed with the hardware on any phone for like a year so I'm real rusty.

 

[ansextra]

No, I didn't install my own. I just assumed it came with one like my Thunderbolt and my Rezound. That sucks, they probably cost more than I can afford but now I guess I go window-shopping. Thank for saving me any more headaches trying to pop out a non-existent invisible SD card.

See what happens when you ASSUME??? At least you understand your phone a bit more now. The big problem that I see with the virtual SD card while it's nice in theory is that everything disappears if you need to do a factory reset.

 

[ansextra]

Ok, must be stuff from my TBolt then. Went window shopping for an SD card, under normal circumstances I'd just buy one but hubby's out of work right now so I can't spend on thin dime that isn't absolutely necessary until we get some more income in this house. If I reformat the real SD card from the TBolt which was reset to factory awhile back and currently just a dust collector pending the need for a backup phone if ever needed, I should be able then to reformat it again, re-insert in the TBolt and then reset the TBolt again, yes? I know this all sounds really basic to most of you but I haven't messed with the hardware on any phone for like a year so I'm real rusty.

Why not just reformat the card and put it in your S3 that you're currently using? Why would you need to put it back in the T-bolt?

 

[MrDoh]

I decided to add an sd card when I thought about backup, too. After I inserted the new sd card, and started working with it with "My Files", I saw that there were two sd cards, sdcard0 (the built-in phone memory) and extsdcard (the "external" sd card that I added). That surprised me, and indicates that all the flash memory is treated as sd cards, both the built-in and the "external" that I added. Since I'm also using "MyBackup Pro", I found where the backups were going on the built-in sd card, and *moved* the data hierarchy to the "external" sd card. It makes a lot more sense to me to backup to a removable card rather than to the phone itself. Now MyBackup Pro backs up only to the external sd card, not to the built-in sd card, the backup data files are not "mirrored" to the built-in sd memory, they only go to the "external" sd card. So the backup data isn't taking up space that I'd rather use for other things on the phone.

One of the benefits of backing up to the "external" sd card is that I was able to do a factory reset after getting the JB update, and it didn't affect the backup data stored on the sd card that I added. And I still have access to the backup data no matter what happens with my connections or WiFi or not.

Ultimately, what I do with the backup data is copy the data onto my PC using the miniUSB cable, and store it there in case I need it (and it also gets copied to my PC's internet backup, of course *smile*). And it goes to the "MyBackup Pro" online storage as well. I like having redundant copies of stuff I don't want to lose *smile*.

 

[worwig]

If I reformat the real SD card from the TBolt which was reset to factory awhile back and currently just a dust collector pending the need for a backup phone if ever needed, I should be able then to reformat it again, re-insert in the TBolt and then reset the TBolt again, yes? I know this all sounds really basic to most of you but I haven't messed with the hardware on any phone for like a year so I'm real rusty.

When I got my S3, I simply pulled the card from my Thunderbolt, erased it in a card reader in my PC, then plugged it into the S3.

Keep in mind, that almost NOTHING on the S3 will automatically write anything to that external SD Card. Everything generally speaking will use the built in internal SD Card. If you do make a point of copying music, videos, and photos to the EXTERNAL SD Card using for example a card reader in a PC, the gallery and music players will see them and play them.

I use my old Thunderbolt SD Card for videos and backups of the S3. I let the S3 keep everything else on the internal SD Card. Keep in mind though, that if anything goes wrong, and you need to replace or reset the S3, the internal files are GONE.

And yes, you can erase that card (or any card for that matter) and poke it back in the Thunderbolt at any time.

 

[ShaggyKids]

Thank you everyone. I'm going to make some modifications to get my backups and a few other things to the external sd card.

 

[droidrider]

When I got my S3, I just pulled the Sd card out of my Sammy Fascinate (I'm going to miss that phone) that had 14 Gigs of music on it, popped it in the S3 and was good to go. Didn't need to reformat anything.