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.

Microsd's get corrupted in my Vibrant

Th weirdest thing happening on my Vibrant with Eugene R2 rom.
When I put a microSD in the slot, it can not use it past 2.19 gb (like if it was a corrupted card), but when I use the same card in my TP2 or in the SD card reader of my laptop, everything is fine. I first noticed this when I was copying over all my files and I kept getting the same errors I have had with fake cards in the past, so I tried my old faithful 8gb and sure enough, when I plug my vibrant as a USB drive, I can not navigate most folders and runing the checkdisk gives me hundreds of corruption errors. When I try to format, it tells me the max is 2.19 gb. When I take the same card (which had always been fine) and put it in the sd card reader, everything is back to normal, including attempting to format (it gives the proper size). My vibrant is doing this with all cards I have tried up till now.
Any clues?
Thanks

Did you ever run an older ULF kernel at some point? Are you running one now?
I had similar issues with both my SD card *and* the internal SD, which was causing all sorts of random system glitchiness. In my case, I suspected that this was due to the problems in early ULF kernels that caused filesystem corruption. I ended up using Heimdall (you'd use Odin if you're on Windows) to restore an official Samsung firmware, then I reformatted both SD cards, and from then on everything was fine.
There's probably a less drastic approach to be taken, but restoring to stock from Odin/Heimdall is a pretty surefire way to get rid of all the gremlins.
Incidentally, it was at that point that I decided to stop flashing anything except official or leaked Samsung ROMs until CM gets released. The price for being an early adopter is just too high

I am not sure what ULF kernels are, but all I have had is stock, then Eugene, then I did a restore to my stock backup (that screwed thigns up) so I reflashed eugene. I don't know how to use odin\can't figure out what files i should use.

julienrl said:
Th weirdest thing happening on my Vibrant with Eugene R2 rom.
When I put a microSD in the slot, it can not use it past 2.19 gb (like if it was a corrupted card), but when I use the same card in my TP2 or in the SD card reader of my laptop, everything is fine. I first noticed this when I was copying over all my files and I kept getting the same errors I have had with fake cards in the past, so I tried my old faithful 8gb and sure enough, when I plug my vibrant as a USB drive, I can not navigate most folders and runing the checkdisk gives me hundreds of corruption errors. When I try to format, it tells me the max is 2.19 gb. When I take the same card (which had always been fine) and put it in the sd card reader, everything is back to normal, including attempting to format (it gives the proper size). My vibrant is doing this with all cards I have tried up till now.
Any clues?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Julie, I had this same problem with both this ROM, and my proceeding one, ASOPish; as have many, many others!
I too have been wanting a fix, but have not come across one. Because I am able install data onto my micro sd card via the adapter this is what I have resigned to doing. There was a mounting fix posted last month some time, but it didn't work for me, though others state that it did for them.
Sorry I couldn't give you a more workable solution, but at least, for me, this way does work.

FYI I had this problem until nero V3
Eat at Joe's

Having micro sd issues also. I tried moving some music and pics from the internal sd. It put the names but 0 data. I erase them and they come back. I reformatted the 8gb card it said 8gb free. I go back to the gallery or music player and they are all back. Check the sd with a file manager and thete they are.

t1n0m3n said:
FYI I had this problem until nero V3
Eat at Joe's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hum... anyone else with this problem fix it by using nero v3?

This is happening on all 2.2 roms.
One issue was fixed, where the internal and external cards were being read opposite to what there were ..., but the issue of reading external sd above 2gigs is still there ...
If I remember correctly, this was the issue when 2.2 was released for the N1 .... they forgot to re-add support for sdhc cards... that's why they pushed 2.2.1.......

[Q] External sd problems

Hi guys
I'm having some extremely irritating problems with my A500. It doesn't detect any external sd card I've tried so far. It says external sd is unavailable under storage in settings and the external_sd folder is empty in root/mnt. I've tried 3 different cards so far with no success. Anyone have a any advice for me on how to mount the card? I think the problem might be that it doesn't get mounted when I insert it. I can't root because the GingerBreak mod that's been posted needs an external card to work. So maybe some advice on how to root some other way? Then I can try restore a stock image and see what happens.

I had to insert mine and then reboot the tablet for mine to show inside of a file manager.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

lawmangrant said:
I had to insert mine and then reboot the tablet for mine to show inside of a file manager.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for the tip. I forgot to add it to my original post. I've tried rebooting with all 3 of the cards I have. I'm starting to think it's a hardware problem...

Have the cards you're testing been formatted NTFS or FAT32? If NTFS they probably won't work without some help.
The stock device only deals with FAT32 mSD cards; I haven't tried the NTFSMount app from the Dev forum on an NTFS-formatted card yet, only USB devices.

Vereynn said:
Have the cards you're testing been formatted NTFS or FAT32? If NTFS they probably won't work without some help.
The stock device only deals with FAT32 mSD cards; I haven't tried the NTFSMount app from the Dev forum on an NTFS-formatted card yet, only USB devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. I've formatted the cards multiple times, to FAT32 every time. Might try exFAT tomorrow just to see what happens.

exFAT didn't work. Not that I expected it to, lol. Maybe the GingerBreak apk can be modified to use the usb storage instead of the external sd. Any idea where I can get the source code to take a look at?

If you've tried multiple cards, all FAT32 and all work on other devices, I'd return the tablet while you can, sounds like a hardware problem indeed

Slight problem with the returning, lol. I live in South Africa and ordered my tab from the USA since my own country is so backwards. I don't really mind not having an external sd card, I just wanna root again since almost all the apps I use need root. I'm considering returning, even if it's gonna take a lot of effort, time and money...
EDIT - Another reason I can't return it (and this is a horrible thing) is that SuperUser Permissions is still installed. The recent update made me lose root. So I'm kinda stuck with this app that's proof that I voided my warranty. The only way to get rid of SuperUser is to use some apps that all need root. To get root I need the external sd to work. To get that to work I need to send it for repairs. A very messed up situation

I'm almost positive that it's a hardware issue now. Even when I try to do an update.zip from recovery mode it can't find the file even though it's on the card. Let's hope they don't see the SuperUser app when I return it...
I thought about maybe waiting for Acer to release an update that will unlock the bootloader. But since the SD card slot isn't working I won't be able to install the update. That so much depends on one little slot amazes me. If you wanna know what the single point of failure for an Android device is, look no further.

I know some android tabs came out without external SD card support. I live in the uk and have a 32GB version and the SD card worked out the box. Maybe you have to wait for an update. Just my 2c though. You won't need an external SD to receive OTA updates though.
Sent from my A500

Here's an image of what recovery mode says when I select Install Update from external source. Seems the system can't mount the card. Sigh

I like that message at the end.... "Install from sdcard complete."
You had rooted before the update, which means it had to have seen the sdcard then. So it's unlikely that the hardware just went bad. Are the sdcards your trying of different sizes, classes, and/or manufacturer?
I'd go with the same sdcard you used when you rooted before and reformat it using the HP USB Format tool. Selecting fat32, of course. And don't select quick format. See if that helps. Sorry if I missed somethiing relevent above.
Here's the link to the HP first tool. http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

Lol, the "fake it till you make it" strategy. Fail Google.
I've tried it with the original SD and two other ones. My guess is some app tried to mount the external SD in /mnt/sdcard and messed up some associations or dependencies or something.

I'm amazed. After everything I've tried it suddenly worked. I was busy in settings and accidentally selected storage. And there it was in all its glory... A working external sd card! I'm rooted again, backed up and ready to roll!

To anyone finding this thread hoping for answers for a similar problem: It was a hardware problem indeed. I fixed it myself by opening the tab and bending the MicroSD slot's pins back into place.

[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.