[GUIDE] The Generic SD Issue (READ FIRST)

KingAmir · Sep 29, 2012

This thread has been created to address the hundreds of "Ma SD Don't Work" Threads spawned in the Accessories forum. After seeing and answering many of these, I though it would be appropriate to simply create a thread for this.

Almost 80% of all of these defective SD card threads have common solutions. I will list these below.

Kingston said:

1) A corrupt SD card:

Deftone said:
SD cards, especially the Micro SD generation can be damaged very easily if you are not careful. Any physical damage to the card will or the gold contacts will cause it to become unreadable. You know your card is corrupt when the computer cannot explore the card. SD cards can be damaged by forcing them out of the device they are in. If your SD card has become stuck in your computer, camera, MP3 player or printer.

It is best to take the device to a professional to have it removed, rather than trying to force the card from the device using probes, such as paperclips or screwdrivers. If the casing for your SD card becomes damaged or you accidentally damage the inside of your card, you could lose the data currently stored on the card and render the card useless in the future. Also, once it is corrupt, you cannot even sell it for parts or use it as a paperweight because of its low weight.

2) Dirty Contacts:

Deftone said:
If the gold contacts are dirty in anyway, this will mean the device will not be able to read it. Using a finger can scratch the contacts and make it corrupt. Instead use a cloth, microfiber if you have one. The reader, (device) will also accumulate dust over time. Clean out the reader with an earbud. This may also solve this issue.
ADDITIONAL: Thanks to hb-kevin for mentioning that you can " clean the contacts with denatured alcohol. It's a cleaning alcohol that is perfectly safe on electronics such as computers, motherboards, and phone parts. If all else fails, try giving the contacts a gentle scrub with some alcohol and a soft toothbrush. "

3) Corrupt Data:

Deftone said:
Removing an SD card from a computer without properly ejecting it can cause software damage to the card. Removing your SD card while your computer is trying to read it or removing the card from a camera or MP3 player that is powered on could cause your SD card to lose the data that is stored on it and force you to reformat the card before using it again. Many tools can be found online to help you with this pursuit.

4) Casing:

Deftone said:
SD cards are enclosed in a small plastic casing that can be easily damaged if the card is left unprotected in a pocket, chewed on by the dog or stepped on. If the casing for your SD card has become damaged, do not put the card into a device (it might become stuck). Instead, take the card to a data recovery center in your area and have a professional recover any files you might need from the card.

5) The "Write Protected" Issue

Deftone said:
On many SD cards (not many micro) there is a physical switch on the side of the card. This is a write lock. This means that if the switch is up and locked, the sd will refuse any data trying to be written to it. As a result, no data will be copied to the card - if it is in a computer, you will get a popup dialogue notifying you that it is write protected, just flick the switch.

The write protection could have also been enabled in a computer. To disable it, just right click on the SD in my computer and then click properties. Then go to attributes. If "read only" is checked, uncheck it. This could be the source of your problems.

Please hit thanks if you found this useful.
Please read this before posting another SD thread.

If any further help is required, please leave it down below.

EDIT: Thanks to Cooleagle for making this a sticky. Because of the stick, many more people will see this first and not have to create a thread.

KRAZYADROIDMASTER · Sep 30, 2012

Nice guide maby we need it to stickied.

Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

KingAmir · Sep 30, 2012

KRAZYADROIDMASTER said:
Nice guide maby we need it to stickied.

Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Thanks for taking the time to read it. I have PM'd cooleagle the mod but nothing yet. If I still have nothing by tonight, I will PM another mod because cooleagle might be too busy.

'cooleagle' · Sep 30, 2012

Looks like a nice guide buddy, has been made a sticky.

Keep up the good work & Cheers !

KRAZYADROIDMASTER · Oct 3, 2012

'cooleagle' said:
Looks like a nice guide buddy, has been made a sticky.

Keep up the good work & Cheers !

Thanks for making it a sticky.

Hope this helps a lot of people, Lately I have seen a few SD card threads.

Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Green Ranger · Oct 26, 2012

I've actually been wondering about this because I got a free one with a product I bought off ebay (don't remember what) and I decided to use it the other day but it won't read at all. Turns out contacts were really dirty. Thanks for this thread.

KingAmir · Oct 27, 2012

Green Ranger said:
I've actually been wondering about this because I got a free one with a product I bought off ebay (don't remember what) and I decided to use it the other day but it won't read at all. Turns out contacts were really dirty. Thanks for this thread.

Made my day bro.
Good to see it helped.

Thanks

soufianeh · Oct 28, 2012

32gb kingston corrupted

hello , please help me, i have a 32gb kingston SD card, i just want it to work again, i dont care of the files in it,please if is there a solution , post it here, thanks in advance
PS: my pc's card reader doesnt work , i have my galaxy s2 , and a usb cable

KingAmir · Nov 1, 2012

soufianeh said:
hello , please help me, i have a 32gb kingston SD card, i just want it to work again, i dont care of the files in it,please if is there a solution , post it here, thanks in advance
PS: my pc's card reader doesnt work , i have my galaxy s2 , and a usb cable

Hey,

Thanks for using the sticky properly. You said you just want it to work again. Have you tried everything I suggested? If so then please come back and tell me exactly what is the problem. Is there an error or is nothing showing up. Please expand. Also, if you can I would suggest trying to get a new card reader. But please read through my thread thoroughly before replying again. It saves us a lot of time.

Thanks

Hit thanks if you found the thread useful.

Paced98 · Nov 3, 2012

Thanks, this could be useful for my friend. He had a messed up sd card, hope I could get it to work with this.

Charius · Nov 7, 2012

I just bought a new Samsung 16Gb Class 10 micro SD card to replace my old 2Gb card.

First thing when I plug it in, it says it is damaged, and gives me an option to format the card. > Formatted using the phone, the card does not show up. From storage I can activate the SD card as it is still not showing, and the same thing comes up, over and over again. If I plug in the old one, no problem there, working like a charm.

I inserted it to my laptop with the SD adapter that came with it, and it shows up just fine ( size 15Gb). Windows XP format tool does not allow format to NTFS so I looked forward, ended up downloading HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and SDFormatter. I got the card formatted to NTFS, but my phone still is saying the same thing.

What can I do next?

userofandroid · Nov 9, 2012

Nice guide..thanks a ton...what about the "write protected" error that are frequently coming up these days - any thoughts on that one?

vrilandrov · Nov 10, 2012

Deftone said:
If the gold contacts are dirty in anyway, this will mean the device will not be able to read it. Using a finger can scratch the contacts and make it corrupt. Instead use a cloth, microfiber if you have one. The reader, (device) will also accumulate dust over time. Clean out the reader with an earbud. This may also solve this issue.

I never thought that finger scratches can be harmful with sd contacts. I used to wipe those plates with my fingers.

Thanks for the info!

KingAmir · Nov 10, 2012

userofandroid said:
Nice guide..thanks a ton...what about the "write protected" error that are frequently coming up these days - any thoughts on that one?

Hey,

This is because the physical switch on your sd is on lock. Try sliding it the other way. This will un-lock it.
If this fails you could try right clicking on your sd in my computer. Going to properties and then unchecking read-only.
Thanks for this, I will add it to the guide.

Charius said:
I just bought a new Samsung 16Gb Class 10 micro SD card to replace my old 2Gb card.

First thing when I plug it in, it says it is damaged, and gives me an option to format the card. > Formatted using the phone, the card does not show up. From storage I can activate the SD card as it is still not showing, and the same thing comes up, over and over again. If I plug in the old one, no problem there, working like a charm.

I inserted it to my laptop with the SD adapter that came with it, and it shows up just fine ( size 15Gb). Windows XP format tool does not allow format to NTFS so I looked forward, ended up downloading HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and SDFormatter. I got the card formatted to NTFS, but my phone still is saying the same thing.

What can I do next?

Hey There,

My best bet would be that your card is corrupt. Try formatting to other formats (FAT32). Then see if it works. Have you tried everything in the guide?

P.S: Thanks to all others for the support, I will try and answer any questions that you post here.

XThe_GManX · Nov 26, 2012

I've had some of these problems throughout the years but 90% of the times it was because on my microSD to SD converter (those SD cards that have a microSD slot in it) I didn't put the card very well or it was just one millimeter out. I really hate how these converters don't have that "click and lock" thingy when you put the microSD card, it's really helpful to keep them inside.

Also, this caused corruption sometimes.

milzaaam · Dec 14, 2012

Looks like a nice guide buddy

KingAmir · Dec 16, 2012

XThe_GManX said:
I've had some of these problems throughout the years but 90% of the times it was because on my microSD to SD converter (those SD cards that have a microSD slot in it) I didn't put the card very well or it was just one millimeter out. I really hate how these converters don't have that "click and lock" thingy when you put the microSD card, it's really helpful to keep them inside.

Also, this caused corruption sometimes.

I will look into adding that to the guide when I have a spare moment.

Thanks

milzaaam said:
Looks like a nice guide buddy

Appreciate that!

boyheadkick · Dec 24, 2012

i bought a 32gb transcend micro sdhc yesterday..went home, placed it in card reader, wrote backup on it, worked fine, i could r/w on it with my laptop..then i placed it in my phone [xperia sola 6.1.1.B.1.54 stock rooted bl locked], booted it and explored it using astro and root explorer, worked fine, i could r/w on it with those apps...the problem is when i open walkman there are no songs/albums detected, so i tried exploring an album and playing it via astro and walkman was able to play the song but just the one song i selected..its also the same with sony album app there are no pictures detected from external card, so i tried viewing a pic the same way i played the song, i was able to view the one pic i selected..there are no errors popping up, which is why its so confusing..i managed to make it work last night by clearing dalvik cache, but when i woke up this morning the problem began again..any advice?

btw on stock camera app i selected external memory as save location, when i open the app it says memory error but when i take a pic it can save there as well, i took a pic and album was able to see the new pic but not the old ones..am i missing something with permissions?i already tried changing the permissions for external memory using root explorer but failed, something about sd file systems not allowing permission changes..i already formatted it countless times to fat32 still the same..it really is working fine, its just that the apps arent able to access it for some reason or another..

update: i just restored my phone with backup from 2days ago and cleared my dalvik cache..its working now..my concern is if i restart my phone im probably gonna go over everything again..this is really weird

lolonne · Jan 14, 2013

hope I could get it to work with this. thanks man

amputasi · Jan 27, 2013

[Help] my microSD not detected

i just bought sandisk 8gb second-hand from my neioghbour.. its has been format before sold to me.. but i put in my nokia 3120 classic, the microSD not detected.. i already copy about 3gb song and pics (that assumed the microSD detected on my PC). when i told my neighbour and put in his phone, it detected.. and again when i put it back to my phone (that nokia).. agan it not detected..
are the microSD is damaged or my phone who can't read the size of the microSD ??

[GUIDE] The Generic SD Issue (READ FIRST)

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