SD card Unexpectedly Removed

[sk8borderx]

I'm having this issue with my Sprint s3. Now my issue is kind of weird. I was running a 4.2.2 build for awhile before I started to get this error. Now I believe in my case this was more of a hardware problem. When my phone would be in my pocket and pressure was being applied to the back of my phone the card would go nuts! Now when I would take it out of my pocket and just let it sit on a table or hold it without touching the back it would end up being fine and no more dismounts would happen.

Now at this point my phone would die in about 2 hours because of all the dismounts while I was at work. I took the phone apart and reconnected the SD card reader ribbons and put it all back together and plopped in my SD card.. It was okay for about 3 hours then it went all nuts on me again.

Now sprint said they would fix my phone for about 50 dollars and replace my sd card reader and if that didn't work they would give me a refurbished phone. Which isn't a bad deal.

So I had to unroot and everything go back to stock reset flash counter blah blah blah you know, the works. So I made it back to stock unrooted 4.1.2 MD4 the lastest and greatest. Now since I went back to stock I haven't had a single dismount (unless it doesn't display an error) I can read my SD card no problem. So I'm pretty confused as to what is wrong with my phone. Maybe a combination of hardware and software.

Edit* - It was happening with any card I put in. First was a Samsung 8 gb. Then a 32 calss 10 (not Kingston or whoever has the known issue) the 32 gb was brand new.

Edit 2* - I am now 100% sure this is a hardware issue for me. After being on stock for about 15 hours my SD card is unmounting again when I put pressure on my phone. Into sprint store I go.

 

[Spike96]

Hi, had the same problem for a little over a week. I own a rooted S4 and loaded 2000 songs onto a 64 Sandisk micro SD card, and music playback just stopped after a while, saying the SD card was unexpectedly removed.
I did have this problem before I rooted, so it isn't that.

It might be the SD card, but...
I'm going to try two other possible solutions that I haven't heard about yet.
I'm thinking that files not transferred over MTP will cause trouble. The first time I loaded my songs, I loaded them through a SD card adapter, and the second time, I used iSyncr over wifi. Right now, I'm loading them over MTP, still using iSyncr (iTunes is where I keep my library), but I honestly doubt this will solve everything.
The only solution that I think will work (which I don't want to do yet) is loading a custom rom.

I'm coming from a HTC Thunderbolt, where there was no MTP and syncs were flawless, so this is quite annoying. I understand you can't use iTunes agent with a S4 either, it won't sync with MTP...
I'm trying everything to get this fixed though.

Edit: It isn't MTP, still getting the error... Probably going to end up returning the card. Maybe a SD speed increase app will work?

Edit 2: ***Solution***
As much as I hate to say it, there really is so solution. I emailed both Samsung and Sandisk and found that Sandisk has admitted to producing a faulty batch of SD cards. If you are experiencing this problem, contact Sandisk and they will give you a new one. Sandisk has found the problem with their cards and fixed it. They will send you a UPS label so you don't have to pay shipping, and they'll do an exchange.
I've tried everything and nothing worked, so you must return the card.

 

[Ex-DeeEh]

My SanDisk Ultra 32GB is also dead after 3 days of mounting and dismounting by my rooted I9505. I am unable to read the card in using Win 7 or Mint Linux.

The problem seemed to have surfaced after i tried to copy some videos onto the SD card using my PC.

Now that i do not have any SD card in my S4, the battery life has shown marked improvement. At the peak of the mounting and dismounting, my battery lasted a little over 4 hours. Last few days it managed to last 8 or 10hrs before needing a recharge.

 

[Helix751]

There seems to be a prevalent issue in the latest jelly bean update in Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3. All is smooth but after sometime this error pops up "Sd card unexpectedly removed" and then "Preparing Sd card".

This is related to the micro SD cards and not the internal storage memory.

Today I experienced this very same problem with my SanDisk 32GB Ultra card and after reading countless postings, found this one that saved my day:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=42941402#post42941402

The solution? A powerful enough blow inside the SD card slot and the card is working again as if nothing... Believe it or not!

 

[biRonic]

Today I experienced this very same problem with my SanDisk 32GB Ultra card and after reading countless postings, found this one that saved my day:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=42941402#post42941402

The solution? A powerful enough blow inside the SD card slot and the card is working again as if nothing... Believe it or not!

not :lol:

I've read about every possible, supposed 'fix' for this thing (and tried them), but every time, even when someone thinks they have found the solution, the problem eventually comes back, including with mine, regardless of the fact that both the SD card and the phone have been replaced (the Maxx HD was replaced with an identical, brand new Maxx HD, and the SD card was replaced with a completely different brand card).

Not to say there's no possibility that someone has finally found a solution, but this one just doesn't even sound like a genuine fix to me. Sorry.
I totally appreciate the fact that yours is now working again, and I don't want to detract from the enjoyment you'll have with it working. I'm just trying to be realistic (not pessimistic.....I know they will eventually fix this problem for real).

 

[Helix751]

not :lol:

I've read about every possible, supposed 'fix' for this thing (and tried them), but every time, even when someone thinks they have found the solution, the problem eventually comes back, including with mine, regardless of the fact that both the SD card and the phone have been replaced (the Maxx HD was replaced with an identical, brand new Maxx HD, and the SD card was replaced with a completely different brand card).

Not to say there's no possibility that someone has finally found a solution, but this one just doesn't even sound like a genuine fix to me. Sorry.
I totally appreciate the fact that yours is now working again, and I don't want to detract from the enjoyment you'll have with it working. I'm just trying to be realistic (not pessimistic.....I know they will eventually fix this problem for real).

Yep indeed.. I agree this "fix" worked for me and maybe just this time and I'm happy with this, but also know (after an SDS dead S3 back in January) that most of the time h/w malfunction solutions aren't just that simple... in general.

Maybe that's why the iPh*ne doesn't come with an external memory slot.. one less trouble to care about, methinks

Regards.

 

[biRonic]

Yep indeed.. I agree this "fix" worked for me and maybe just this time and I'm happy with this, but also know (after an SDS dead S3 back in January) that most of the time h/w malfunction solutions aren't just that simple... in general.

Maybe that's why the iPh*ne doesn't come with an external memory slot.. one less trouble to care about, methinks

Regards.

Haha, I wonder if you're onto something right there. Like, perhaps they tested the scenarios enough in-house to know that the technology just isn't up-to-par quite yet. So now, one of the major reasons some of us went with Androids instead of iFonz (the ability to manually upgrade the storage whenever we like) is a non-issue, and we will start considering the other things that caused more points in the Android column and see how they stack up.

For me, at this point, I'm just using my internal storage as my data location, and only using the 'external' SD card for backups. If the SD card $h!tz the bed and I lose that backup data (which I also have copied to my big computer), it's no big deal.

For my part, I'm going to stick with Android for now, because of all of the other things I like about it, but this definitely has to get taken care of.

 

[Helix751]

Haha, I wonder if you're onto something right there. Like, perhaps they tested the scenarios enough in-house to know that the technology just isn't up-to-par quite yet. So now, one of the major reasons some of us went with Androids instead of iFonz (the ability to manually upgrade the storage whenever we like) is a non-issue, and we will start considering the other things that caused more points in the Android column and see how they stack up.

For me, at this point, I'm just using my internal storage as my data location, and only using the 'external' SD card for backups. If the SD card $h!tz the bed and I lose that backup data (which I also have copied to my big computer), it's no big deal.

For my part, I'm going to stick with Android for now, because of all of the other things I like about it, but this definitely has to get taken care of.

Well, yep.. My comment above was kinda ironic (oh, I admit it.. it was completely ironic). As for me. I'll also keep with Android, its replaceable battery, expansion features and endless hacking possibilities. Iph*nes simply cannot compete with this.

Regards

 

[biRonic]

...its replaceable battery, expansion features and endless hacking possibilities. Iph*nes simply cannot compete with this.

In my case, since I'm on the Razr line (battery not replaceable), that list just shrank a tiny bit. :lol:
I think that ridiculous level to which we're able to hack (er...customize) these things is what keeps me on-board......for now.

Man, if they were to come out with a me-firstPhone (i.e. the phone could be conformed to my needs, instead of me having to conform to the design of the d@mn thing) that had an acceptable screen size, buttons that make sense, and was as fun to use as it is reliable, I would get one, if for no other reason than to be able to use it for a while and see what it's like, so that I could have a slightly-more-valid opinion when telling everyone why I'm still using Android. :lol:

 

[DoveUK]

I had exactly the same problem with my N7100, and, just in case this may help someone with this incredibly frustrating issue, here is as much info as i can remember:

Phone: GT-N7100 (Rooted with Team Win Recovery Project).
Card : SanDisk 32GB (Checked Byte for Byte, using H2testw as soon as i got the card, so i know its genuine)

When i first used the card, i had no issues, everything worked fine, the first time i noticed a problem was after formatting the card to FAT32 (with GParted, leaving allocation tables as default (dictated by the program, not actually clicking on any buttons stating 'default'), since i really know nothing about them, its was only the actual file type i was changing).
I'll point out now, that maybe the card was FAT32 to start with, i'm unsure, i just knew it had to be formatted into that file system (i wanted to use the RedPill Kernel to swap internal and external memory).

Straight after doing this, i started to notice that my phone would tell me that my card had been unexpectedly removed every time i turned the screen on.

Between 7 and 10 different roms.
What i tried that didnt work: SDFormatter, Mini Tool Partition Wizard Home Edition and Fat32Format, GParted.

So... trying different Roms and none of them working, especially that many, implies that its nothing to do with the Roms and that maybe developers cant do anything about it, besides, if it was the Roms, then, surely a LOT more people would have this issue. Instead, it was implied it was something to do with the card itself.

Since it was a new card and since SSD's are old technology and i had tested the card Byte for Byte, i refused to believe it was a physical issue with the card.

This left only one logical culprit (assuming it wasn't the Roms, the phone hardware was fine and so was the card and it wasn't one of the programs i had used to format said card.

At this point, i thought it must be something to do with the fact that it was FAT32, so i popped the card into a reader, chucked it into a USB slow, right clicked it, and formatted as NTFS (setting Allocation unit size to Default allocation size, clicking the restore device defaults button and using the slow format).

Since i did this, i have no 'SD card was removed unexpectedly' reports, exactly none at all, its all behaving as it was the firs day i put the card into my phone.

I hope this info helps someone and / or finally helps get to the bottom of the mystery, since there is just so many totally various 'solutions' to this issue.


DoveUK.

 

[japodude]

same issue

i have an s2 with jelly been upgrade and 32 gig class 10 sandisk card.

started happening after i upgraded to jelly bean too.

Solved: put sdcard into your pc, and use mini tool partition wizard to remove all the exsisting partitions.

create a new primary partition but make the total disk size 16meg smaller at the end. ie leave 16 gig unallocated space.

apply changes and then use windows to fully format (NOT QUICK FORMAT). took about an hour to format a 32gig, but now it work's fine.

was having the problem everytime i came out of standby! but i havnt had the problem all day since i did this this morning.

hope this helps other people.

( My opinion is that if you have used ext partitions before, then you have to re-partition clean using a pc and slow format it clean and voila! I had ext4 partition on there before from my old lg 3d.)

 

[Gogolo2]

ntfs

I installed paragon ntfs app and formatted to ntfs on my s3. So far I haven't had any problems again. Could be a solution.