Database Users

SD Card Problems

if someone could help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated.
ever since about 3 days into flashing freshes 0.1 ROM, I have been getting unexplained SD problems. for example,
1) I would open up the camera and I would get an error mesage saying " cannot write to SD card: no sufficient privileges.
2)when i open up my music app,(I have about 10 albums of music in my music folder on my SD Card), I get a force close, or just no music would show up at all.
3) when i use a file explorer like ASTRO, I would go into a folder that I know has files in it, yet it's showing me an empty folder, or when i try to delete a file i would just get an error message.
4) and finally, when I open up my gallery, it would either get a force close, or say SD card is unmounted, or just show no pictures at all.
I updated freshes 0.2 rom thinking it may have solved the problem. but it didn't
then flashed Damage's 3.0 Rom and still same problems.
Is this software related or just my SD card going bad,( its the stock 8GB card that came with it.
It never used to be like this. just started happening about 3 days ago
I posted this in Q&A but no answers. thought posting here would help out more.

The OTA update is supposed to fix this issue for good. If you don't want to do the OTA, then just try formatting the SD card while connected to your computer.

I have been having the same exact issue with my EVO. I started on the fresh.1 then .2. I tried 2 other roms and still was having the same issue.
After a reboot it would work for a little bit then work off and on.
I downloaded the sd-formatting tool and did a full erase and format while connected to a windows box. Then reformatted again with the evo.
Same issue still.
I plan on ordering a new class 6 sd card from new egg tomorrow to see if it is just a batch of bad/faulty sd cards.

If you haven't installed the OTA update, there really isn't much fault with the device itself, seeing as how it's already been fixed.

I'm currently running:
RvU 1.3.2.
"This is based off of the latest leaked RUU that has the OTA update included (1.32.651.6)."
I thought the OTA update is built into most of the ROMs currently available or am I missing something.
If not how do you go about installing it. I have had the phone check for updates but it says that there are no update available.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my first android devise so I'm a little new to this.

im running omj's 1.3 rom and i have the sdcard issue all the damn time its driving me nuts.. is the fix not in this rom or does it not matter ? it seems like any time i use a file system too to access the fs or use dropbox or anything the sdcard gets all fu**ed up and i need a reboot to fix it.

halehouse said:
I have been having the same exact issue with my EVO. I started on the fresh.1 then .2. I tried 2 other roms and still was having the same issue.
After a reboot it would work for a little bit then work off and on.
I downloaded the sd-formatting tool and did a full erase and format while connected to a windows box. Then reformatted again with the evo.
Same issue still.
I plan on ordering a new class 6 sd card from new egg tomorrow to see if it is just a batch of bad/faulty sd cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let me know if this fixes things

I just placed my order on newegg for a new class 6 sd card. So we will see in a couple days if this fixes it or if I'm just missing something.

I swapped sd cards with a friends EVO and it words perfectly in mine. I have downloaded about 150MB of podcasts to the sd card without issue. Astro manager is now able to drill down and has no issues seeing sub folders.
I will post back if I have any other issues as well as when I get my new SD to confirm that it is still working without issue.

I was having the same intermittent issue with the sd card, running the OMJ EVO 2.1 Eclair v1.3 ROM...swapped out the sd card with one from my old samsung jack and so far I have not had any issues...tried to duplicate the sd card errors just doing what i normally do but seems to be working fine now...

so its just bad SD cards being shipped out with them?

@halehouse what Gig is the SD card you ordered? Im looking for a 32gig class 6 microsd and cant find one ANYWHERE. except the scandisk website...if i wanted to pay 200 for it

kenfly said:
@halehouse what Gig is the SD card you ordered?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just orders an 8Gig class 6 card.
A few days ago the second sd card that I had gotten from another EVO (that was about to be taken back to sprint) failed. Showing blank card, and several format attempts did nothing.
I dot my new class 6 sd card from new egg 2 days ago and it is working perfectly so far. Faster transfer rates also.
I think it may be an issue with the sd cards but I really not for sure.

[Q] Bad SD Card?

I've been getting the SD card was unexpectedly removed error for my 8GB card. Can repeat this issue by moving pocket god (or several smaller apps) to the SD card. I can how ever copy 8GB worth of data from a PC onto it, so is this issue with android/my phone or is the SD card just acting weird like this? A 2GB I got with it works just fine, just it isn't large enough to suit my needs.
Things I've tried - erasing card within android, formating to fat32 within windows as well as defragging, and threatening it with magnets.
Phone is HTC Legend running "Gingerbread + CyanogenMod". Download the ROM from derhofbauer.at/android/
Later;
Now when I copy it through the phone usb it now dismounts, but I can copy it fine through an adapter I'm using. Seems this is phone related. Will try using my default firmware tomorrow when I get time. Any suggestions here are welcome and encouraged... Really like the way this ROM looks as well as functions

It may well be the ROM, I saw some stuff on gerrit about fixing it. Check with BlaY0's ROM (or similar) or CM 6.1, see what happens

Is there a way I could go about backing up my exact settings, contacts, apps etc. into my own custom rom so if it isn't the ROM I use I could quickly go back? Still a complete idiot with android so haven't figured out theming yet and like my current ROMs look
edit;
If it was my ROM wouldn't my 2 GB one be acting up as well? Cause it's working perfectly fine, I plan on trying to return the SD card tomorrow but got a feeling they won't accept it back...

CommanderWafflez said:
If it was my ROM wouldn't my 2 GB one be acting up as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might not, 2GB card is most probably SD aka SD 1.x, 8GB is SDHC aka SD 2.0...It might be related...
To backup your settings and ROM I would recommend backing it all up with nandroid (CWM, FakeFlash) or if you want to, you can ue some apps like Titanium Backup, My backup etc...but backing-up/restoring settings/home screens might not work across ROMs, especially going from Stock-like to CM...Contact are saved via your Google account any synchronized afterwards anyway, so don't worry there ;-)

[Q] Any hope for my SD Card?

Short story: Was running the latest (as of Dec. 4-5) ICS ROM(s) - the ones with the SD card bug - and my SD card appears to be shot.
Long story:
-----
I had been using the various betas of the ICS ROMs since I noticed Tytung's first Alpha was out and the ROMs had been improving rapidly. I guess when the headphones issue was fixed it caused problems with reading the SD Card which was documented and seems to be well known.
The constant SD messages didn't bother me much, but eventually I noticed launch icons missing and went to the Market to re-download one of the apps I use (I've been flashing so much, I wasn't sure which apps I didn't bother restoring). The Market app tells me I need a SD Card to install apps, so I just figured it's just the instability of the sd card mount for this latest batch of ROMs and I'll flash an older ROM off my SD card when I get the chance. I also noticed the messages started saying I inserted a blank SD Card but I brushed it off (couldn't look into it at the time).
I get home and find out Clockwork refuses to mount my card which means I can't easily wipe and install something else, so I switch to USB storage mode in CWM to simply transfer a ROM from my PC and my PC only sees ~30mb of my 16GB SD! I initially thought it was just some corruption but I tried all sorts of format and partitioning programs and nothing recognizes more than 30mb of space and none have even been able to format that little space that's showing.
I've been Googling for a while and came up with nothing I haven't already tried so I finally decided to post here. Is there any hope for my SD card? Being the holiday season and for once I've got most of my Christmas shopping done early, I'd rather not waste the little money I have left to run out and buy another SD card right away if it's not necessary.
-----
Does anyone have any ideas how I could fix this? I'd greatly appreciate it because I now stuck with WM6.5 and realize how much I didn't miss it for the past year
This is also a heads up for testers to be sure to upgrade their ROM ASAP (or at least to the kernel that fixes this) if they're on a ICS ROM with an SD card bug. I'm not complaining - I know this is a part of testing early builds (please ignore my sorry post count; I've been flashing for quite a while) - but there's no reason for others to go through this issue if it can be helped.

Have you tried EaseUS?
Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

Yes,
Try Easus Partition Manager and/or MiniTool Partition Manager.
They can help but you will have to format your SD card I think.
Good luck!

I had the same problem. I plugged my card into a USB reader after it working error free, it then said it needed to be formatted and was only showing 30mb. After formatting repeatedly it still doesn't read. I haven't retired any positioning software but i think the card may just be done with.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA App

probably you'll need a replacement.
have you tried the SD formatter? there's like a 0.000001% chance it will work in your case, but why not try it?

[Q] External SD - Tab no see it.....SOLUTION FOUND SEE OP

UPDATE well it looks as though I have found a solution to my woes. I made several attempts of formatting the 2gb card in my laptop to no avail. I tried my old captivate that it originally came out of and the cappy had troubles reading it. I then stuck it in my evo and it registered instant, so I did asdcard format on my evo and then finally the tablet registers the card. In case this helps anyone else
First off someone please enlighten me on the tabs use and the way it mounts the external SD, I read somewhere that it only uses it for media files such as music books and pics. I have an 8GB that belongs in my EVO, and a 2gb that I had for my captivate I was hoping to use in my Tab for now.
Here's my story, maybe someone can shed a little light here: My tab was purchased with Stock 3.1, I was getting annoyed by the constant update request so I went ahead and rooted and installed CWM without incident, then I decided to install the Stock rooted update from here, however when I insert my SD cards they say they are unavailable. So I stick my 2gb in my laptop format to fat32 (should this be different?, typically it works in every other device I own) It still won't read, I did exactly as others point out in other threads but still I am stumped as to how the card is made available to the OS ? Now in a fit of frustration I pulled my 8gb out of my evo put the 2gb in and wham there it is, I put the 3.2 download on the 8gb popped it in tab entered CWM and flashed the update, I don't know if the 2gb is mountable in CWM I will try tonight but the 8gb was mountable through CWM however my 8gb also was not available to Android even after the update.
So what the heck is the use of the external SD and how is it used?

I think you might have an issue with your ROM,
I use my external SD for my titanium backups and other files I want to keep portable. I have used the SD card through my PC via USB and directly by putting into the PC's card reader.
Have you tried using a file manager? I use File Manager HD and the external card shows up as Storage on the left bar.
As for the filesystem, I think I may have originally formatted as FAT but I have also pulled my SD out of my Blackberry and used it to install Honeylicious through CWM,
All in all I dont think you should be having the issues that you are having...
Good luck

If it won't mount in CWM you need to format it in your android phone, that fixed it for me. Once it is formatted correctly you'll see a notification that an SD card is installed. Also my PC wouldn't see it until I put a custom rom on. Also to store items on it you can use a file manager to move things to and from it.
~Sent from my Droid SuperCharge~

>DARKMAN< said:
If it won't mount in CWM you need to format it in your android phone, that fixed it for me. Once it is formatted correctly you'll see a notification that an SD card is installed. Also my PC wouldn't see it until I put a custom rom on. Also to store items on it you can use a file manager to move things to and from it.
~Sent from my Droid SuperCharge~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 8gb card did mount in CWM but would not mount in the OS, or when it would I would get it was unavailable or sometimes even empy when I know there is only about 1 gb free space, I did not test the 2gb in CWM mainly because it was late and I needed to go to bed, but I will try tonight. The 8gb is the one I updated to rooted 3.2 with, I still need to go to 3.2.1 ? Is there a rooted Stock 3.2.1 floating around I really havent looked much into it yet

I have noticed that getting the iconia to read some sd cards is like tossing dice..Most people who have this issue says one card works perfect in every device but not in the iconia.. Some say the card will work sometimes and not others .. Some say the card works in cwm and not with file manager..
The issue here i think is that you have two CARDS THAT ARE FUSSY ABOUT mating with the iconia. OR Your rom .i would read the threads in the rom you are using.. IF still nothing that sounds like your issue ask the DEV about this.. If STILL No luck you can either try to buy a new diffrent card or flash a new rom to try and Diag. this issue..
Good luck..

Silly question
Is your microSD formatted FAT32?
If it is anything else, your unit may have trouble reading it depending on what ROM you are using - Not all ROM's are capable of reading NTFS or other file systems.
Sometimes, microSD's freak out as well, and the only way to get it back to normal is to format it in a Symbian phone (Nokia)
Also, make sure you are using the correct mount point for the card - /mnt/external_sd - Root Explorer and other apps like it can get there.
Other than that, you may just have a bad microSD, I have had many of them die for seemingly no reason.

[Q] Dead SD card reader???

Hi All!
I am a great fan of this forum, Android and my GT540.
I first rooted my phone when is had 2.1, then shifted to the LeWa custom roms and then after the recent update to Miroslav_mm's Project IceScreamSwift I "bit" the bullet and installed this ROM.
Miroslav is an absolute genius, this ICS 4.0.4 ROM is so smooth. I used a 256 MB swap file on my class 4 micro sd and overclocked to 825 Mhz and this thing flys :laugh: I can't believe this GT540 can keep up with the industry's best. The only down side is the 3" screen Thanks Miro!!! Great work.
Anyway, back to my topic. Sadly my SD card reader is not working. I have read on the net that this is a common problem. I wonder whether the swap file had anything to do with it or was it the latest ROM I installed? I'm just wonder whether anybody else had the same problem and is the situation recoverable?
I am going to try and test the card on by PC using and adapter to see if the card is actually gone but I firmly believe it is the reader on the phone since it is not registering or giving any errors. When I tried to mount using the recovery menu it stated no such file or directory.
I read one guy stating that his reader started to work again after some time pasted for no apparent reason. I hope mine does the same
I look forward to your comments. Thanks!

ArchieBall. said:
Hi All!
I am a great fan of this forum, Android and my GT540.
I first rooted my phone when is had 2.1, then shifted to the LeWa custom roms and then after the recent update to Miroslav_mm's Project IceScreamSwift I "bit" the bullet and installed this ROM.
Miroslav is an absolute genius, this ICS 4.0.4 ROM is so smooth. I used a 256 MB swap file on my class 4 micro sd and overclocked to 825 Mhz and this thing flys :laugh: I can't believe this GT540 can keep up with the industry's best. The only down side is the 3" screen Thanks Miro!!! Great work.
Anyway, back to my topic. Sadly my SD card reader is not working. I have read on the net that this is a common problem. I wonder whether the swap file had anything to do with it or was it the latest ROM I installed? I'm just wonder whether anybody else had the same problem and is the situation recoverable?
I am going to try and test the card on by PC using and adapter to see if the card is actually gone but I firmly believe it is the reader on the phone since it is not registering or giving any errors. When I tried to mount using the recovery menu it stated no such file or directory.
I read one guy stating that his reader started to work again after some time pasted for no apparent reason. I hope mine does the same
I look forward to your comments. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had kind of a same issue, i was using Miros 4.0 ICS ROM, but went back to SDSL 2.1, i had partitioned my sd card before to have native swap of 256 mb, when i tried to flash SDSL 2.1 by Recovery, it would flash it and all, but it wouldnt install it correctly, every time i tried to reboot the ROM, i got stock on Silver SDSL logo, then i would go back to recovery to try and flash it again, and recovery wouldnt read my sd, i would say E:/ is bad, so i thought i might have been my sd card reader, after flashing by fastboot, there was no problem with my sd card, i was able to use it normally, then i tried to flash it again by recovery but same problem, recovery wouldnt read my sd card, i tried using another SD card and it worked on recovery, so i think something happen to my other SD card when i went back from Miros ICS to SDSL 2.1, the card works correctly but i cant flash any rom using recovery with that SD card.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing your experience!
I will give it a try and let the community know if its :good: for me too.

Bad news people. The above didn't work for me. I tried several different ROMs (including flashing the standard ROM) but no luck.
The SD card reader seems to be "dead". The funny thing was that when the SD card disappeared after a few days use of Miros latest ICS ROM (June.2012) it was still working very smoothly despite the lack of the 256MB swap file and SD card. Ofcourse many of the installed apps disppeared too. Now that my sd card doesn't work I can't go back to the ICS ROM since it is only available in "recovery" form. Does anyone know if a "fastboot" form exists?
Now that I have lost the SD card feature I will not be able to use the phone anywhere near its full potential. Very sad indeed. Time for a new phone
Unless anybody else has a solution for the above......the moral of the story is be very careful with ROMs and SD card usage as pointed out by our esteemed developers.
Just for reference only, my last setup when the SD reader was working was (2 GB SD) partitioned as follows:
partition 1: data 1.5 GB
partition 2: ext4 0.25GB for Link2SD
partition 3: swap 0.25GB

Hm you already tried to clean the SD ston on your phone ? maybe it just bacame dirty with the time.

Thanks for the comment andreas! but could you please explain the meaning of "SD ston"?
If you mean the pins in the reader, they appear to be clean.

ArchieBall. said:
Thanks for the comment andreas! but could you please explain the meaning of "SD ston"?
If you mean the pins in the reader, they appear to be clean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oops slot of course yeah okay

Just and update for those interested.
I finally got my hands on an external card reader and discovered my 2 gb card is actually dead. I remember taking a about 30 photos that day when it had the newly installed Miro's ICS and noticed it locked several times. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Anyway, my PC did not recognize the card had been inserted so I couldn't reformat/revive it.
I tried to insert a new 4 gb card into my phone today again (previous attempts failed) but before doing so I carefully bent the connectors in the card reader slightly outward, inserted the card, jammed a piece of paper under the clip (so it would press down and make good contact) and believe it or not it read the card I have since installed "AOKP 4.0.4 ASIS b40" and loven' it.