Database Users

SD Card problems...

Hi all,
For some reason my Atrix has stopped recognising my external SD card - I've tried multiple cards, formatted them etc etc and still nothing. Has anyone else had this problem?
Cheers

No, are you sure its in all the way? Make sure its mounted too and if its plugged in set the USB mode to "none" and wait a minute - just covering the basics
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

When you formatted make sure you re-mounted
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Thanks for the responses.
The card is all the way in, but it appears the phone doesn't recognise it at all. In the SD card settings it doesn't show anything is inserted, so I can't mount it. In the file explorer, when I choose SD Card it says 'Insert SD Card'.
It was previously working :/

Did you ever try and force it in or rip it out? In which case the sensors could have been damaged on the phone, try the sd's on a different phone, if it works then its deffinitely the atrix
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

It could also be that the sd's. Are formatted incorrectly so that the system doesn't recognise them
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

I had this problem with my Atrix, but it was a physical problem, not software.
You might need to bend two pins to make contact so that the Atrix can read the card.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/1
At the very bottom is a picture of the phone with the back off. If you look at the SD card slot using the Huge View, you will see two small plates on the lower left of the picture (at the end of the SD card slot) that are slightly parted. When you put your card in, those two plates must touch for the SD card to be recognized.
Push them very slightly to make them closer and try again.

There's a lot of mounting, inserting, hardware and software going on in this thread.
Although I don't recommend forcing it in. It may not be accustomed to such force.
Ok all gutter thinking aside, is it just your SD cards? Maybe brand issues? If not, have you tried INSERTING someone else's....card to see if it makes a SOLID connection to the PORT? (Last one I promise).

Try it in a different phone, if it doesn't work its the sdcard if it does then its your atrix and you should either fix it or claim warranty
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Thanks again for the responses.
I have tried several cards in there now, to no avail. The phone did previously recognise the SD cards but it hasn't worked in about a week now. Unfortunately, I'm in the UK and I bought my Atrix from the US - I'm guessing Motorola will probably kick up a fuss regarding the warranty...
Cheers

SirMerkel said:
Thanks again for the responses.
I have tried several cards in there now, to no avail. The phone did previously recognise the SD cards but it hasn't worked in about a week now. Unfortunately, I'm in the UK and I bought my Atrix from the US - I'm guessing Motorola will probably kick up a fuss regarding the warranty...
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you at least take a look at the pins to see if they're in contact when the SD card is inserted?

I had the exact same problem! It did appear to be the pins not making contact, however in my phone i didn't need to bend anything i just needed to slide the card a little unconventionally.
Basically if you are holding your phone with the battery facing you and the side with the sd card at the bottom left of the phone, place your finger on the card once it has already been inserted and slide it down as much as possible. In my phone it turned out there was a tiny little wiggle room in that direction, and when i pushed it it recognized right away and stayed that way. Maybe yours is the same!
Good luck!

It does appear to be the pins - Thanks guys!

SirMerkel said:
It does appear to be the pins - Thanks guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you resolved it!

32gb micro sandisk not mounting ??

hi,just tried my new 32gb sandisk & it wont stay on,i plugged it in & it says i can safely remove & when i mount it it appears as 29gb and then vanishes again,ive erased the card but still wont stay & also restarted phone ??? any ideas ? is the card a duff ?
bloody hell now my old card is doing the samething & all my data,music & videos etc are not showing ?
none of my cards will stay mounted & ive factory reset also,they just appear & disappear 16gb & my new 32gb sandisk ?
notification keeps coming up to safely remove sd card

There is a little switch that clicks down when you put the back down. Be sure the back cover of your phone is all the way one or it won’t mount.
Also once you change cards your old card will not work in your phone again (data wise).
The phone seems to marry to the card then forget the old card. I learned that the hard way when I put a smaller card in while I rooted my phone (all I did was format the other card at that point). Then I put my main card back in all my games had to be reinstalled.

You can copy all the data files from one card to the other and the phone will recognize both properly
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.

Not that I know of. Like I said it forgot my SD after putting a new one in and formatting it. So i'm guessing one at a time.

ncaissie said:
Be sure the back cover of your phone is all the way on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
slide your finger pressing firmly at the edges of the back cover all around

thanks for the info folks,i didnt know the bloody cover had to be on to get the micro sd working

kenf2210 said:
thanks for the info folks,i didnt know the bloody cover had to be on to get the micro sd working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, it's actually more convenient because it allows you to change sd cards without restarting your phone.
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.

kenf2210 said:
thanks for the info folks,i didnt know the bloody cover had to be on to get the micro sd working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, had the same issues at first, and this was the solution.

That feature is there so hotswapping your memory card won't cause data corruption.
Sent from my R800

Inesplicable deletion of files

Looks like the phone, inexplicably deleted all the directories and files that were stored in my 32 GB Class 10 Lexar micro SD card. It happened once, a few days ago, and today I was at the point of listening to some mp3s when I realised that it happened again today, although now only the "music" directory was deleted.
Does anybody have an explanation?

Which rom, anything suspicious installed, anything new installed, rooted, connected it to a different computer, anything else which might help others to help you?
Also, wrong forum.

could be faulty card. also make sure you do not just eject the card from phone and/or computer without first properly unmounting it.
if it is a new card, or you do not care about data on it, reformat with this tool
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

Well, I'm on stock ROM KI4 (Android vers. 2.3.4), my phone is unrooted and I never touched the card since I first put it in the phone, 2 months ago. However the first time I had the unpleasant surprise to find all the directories deleted I was on a previous ROM (android 2.3.3), so it seems that the issue is not ROM dependant. I do have quite a few apps that I downloaded from forums and therefore may be suspected to play tricks. It may be these, or it may indeed be compatibility issues with the micro SD, but what seeems strange to me, is that I don't get errrors in reading or writing files on that memory, but simply all of a sudden, at the point of opening a file, I realize the file no longer there together with its entire directory...
Ok, I was just wondering if I was the only one experiencing this issue, and as it looks so, then I'll keep monitoring the situation to see if it happens again, in such case I'll try to investigate more deeply the possible causes.
Thank you both for the useful sugggestions, and kreoXDA for the link to that utility... It may become handy!
And sorry if I am in the wrong forum (am I?). I thought that this was the right one.

JuniorGG said:
it may indeed be compatibility issues with the micro SD, but what seeems strange to me, is that I don't get errrors in reading or writing files on that memory, but simply all of a sudden, at the point of opening a file, I realize the file no longer there together with its entire directory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend checking your SD card using h2testw.

No actually, I haven't... thank you, I'll do it!

oinkylicious said:
If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend checking your SD card using h2testw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a similar program, SDCardTester, in the Android market, so you can test on the SGS2 itself.

Ok, that would a more significative test. And it will let me test the card even now that I am away from home and I have no access to a PC. Thank you.

If you bought a 32gb sdcard off ebay at a knockdown price then I suspect you have been conned.
Try the sdcard test as suggested, it is probably a 1gb card with false code.
If it is from ebay, Dont return item either as recorded delivery will be too expensive, greater than cost of card, phone ebay and they should refund you.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

No I'm quite sure that the card is not a fake. I have been using it for 2 or 3 months, filling it almost fully with no problems of capacity, speed, data corruption or whatsoever. Yes I bought the card from ebay, but from a well respected seller at "normal" price and it definitely came sealed by the manufacturer in its original blister.
I've just tried testing with SD Card Tester and everything looks OK. I get about 10 MBps r/w that if I'm not wrong is compatible with the class of the card.
I'm suspecting more android or some malware, rather than the card or some incompatibilty issues, to have erased all its contents except one directory with 5 pictures in it.
Well, as I said, for the moment I think the best thing I can do is simply to keep monitoring the situation.
Thank you mates anyway.

You need to do the capacity test...
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

I have been having a similar issue with a genuine 16gb class 10 from kingston. Files dissappearing or beconing corrupt. Assuming its a faulty card but not had chance to check.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Me too... it's not easy to perform an exhaustive test...

And here we go again... yesterday I noticed that all the apps that were installed on the sd card had gone... this thing begins to hurt my nerves...

Are you sure the files are deleted or did the as card just unmount?
Happened to me and I just restarted phone, all good.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

In fact, that's the first thing I suspected, but unfortunately unmounting / mounting the SD card, even phisically removing / reinstalling it from the slot, and shutting off / turning back on the phone didn't solve the problem...

Well just to give some more info. Its def not a mount/unmount issue as the card contents become corrupt randomly. Im just wondering if its a spec issue as in is class 10 causing a problem. My card is being swapped out by kingston so i will update when I can.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

JuniorGG said:
it's not easy to perform an exhaustive test...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JuniorGG said:
And here we go again... yesterday I noticed that all the apps that were installed on the sd card had gone... this thing begins to hurt my nerves...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yet you still haven't followed the advice in the thread, which was to run h2testw or SDCardTester to check the true capacity of the drive, and ensure data written to is is not corrupted.

I too face this similar problem. Use a Nokia 8gb card, don't know if Nokia manufactures it or not. Anyway, my files get deleted too. Apps also get corrupted. Is this a sd card slot problem. Maybe it's faulty?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

No one??
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Droid X SD Card not reading

Well i bought a Droid X yesterday for my dad for 60 bucks phone works great just the backlight is dead. The Problem i am having is my micro sd card does not read i have formatted it in fat32 and still a no go. I have no clue what i am doing wrong. The SD card does read in my Xoom and my bionic so i know its not the sd card. and the chips in my phone and tablet does not work in the droid x.

SD Card remount
I had a problem, and have fixed the same problem for many friends, where my SD card could not be read. My first recommended fix is:
Goto Settings > Storage > Unmount SD Card
Then simply remount the SD Card once the unmount has completed.
If this does not work let me know and we'll try something else.

well i just found out one of the pins for the sd card is shot so the phone is shot. Is there anyway i can save the phone or is it just trash now.

I really don't like TouchWiz at all, so, when the first ICS sources became available, I started porting AOSP to our device.
There are still some major and many minor bugs, but ROM seems to be stable and usable.
Please look for buglist below, so you can decide, do you need to flash it or not.
I'll try to fix those bugs as soon as possible, so please, don't ask when something will be fixed, I really don't know for what. I'd like wast more for Louis Vuitton Luggage
Description: This is clean and clear ICS (4.0.3) without any modifications. This is not CM, just AOSP. It may be used with tablet or with phone UI.

Take out the SD card and put it in another phone and when something pops up, you press ok then when its done, you put it back in your phone at it should work fine

jakson0100 said:
Take out the SD card and put it in another phone and when something pops up, you press ok then when its done, you put it back in your phone at it should work fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still a no go i have swaped around 5 sd cards.

razielleonhart said:
still a no go i have swaped around 5 sd cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you've swapped around several microSD cards in your phone and none of them work, your phone is the problem. It more than likely has a dead card reader.
The only fix for this is to get a new phone.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

infazzdar said:
If you've swapped around several microSD cards in your phone and none of them work, your phone is the problem. It more than likely has a dead card reader.
The only fix for this is to get a new phone.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok thanks people if i cant use the sd slot i am going to kill this phone

(Guide/How-To) How to Fix a Non-functional microSD

This guide/how-to will show you how to fix your non-functional microSD card.
Things you need:​-Broken microSD
-Blackberry (tested with a Curve)
That's it!
How I came across this fix and some backstory:​Your microSD card might not really be broken. Just follow these easy steps to fix your "broken" microSD. The other day, I tried to flash a ROM from my external SD. In recovery, it said that there was no external SD mounted. I knew that wasn't true, so I took a deeper look in. I also tried to manually mount the SD card in the settings menu. I tried changing my ROM, trying putting the microSD into different devices, but no matter what I did, the microSD couldn't be read. I even considered returning to stock.
I was on Amazon, already looking at some new UHS-1 Sandisk cards. I figured I needed a faster and bigger card anyways. That was when I noticed a Blackberry Curve next to me. I hadn't tried putting the microSD in it yet, so I said to myself, "What do I have to lose? It's already not working. It can only make it better." I put in the microSD and voila! The BlackBerry recognized the card and asked if I wanted to format it. I hit yes and the BB formated the microSD with no issues. I put my microSD back in my T-Mobile Galaxy S2, and guess what? The phone recognized it! Another plus is the fact that with the BlackBerry format, there was only one folder. Normally, when you format a card in a phone, there are A LOT of folders. I just deleted the BlackBerry folder so basically, I had a completely empty card.
Formal Instructions on how to fix your microSD:​1. Put your not-functional microSD into a BlackBerry.
2. The BlackBerry should ask to format the card. Hit yes.
4. Connect your microSD to a computer. Open it up.
5. Delete the folder called "BlackBerry" (optional).
6. Your microSD card should now work fine.
If this thread helped revive your broken microSD and saved you money by not buying a new card, please click the thanks button.

Can't u just format it on a pc?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

fadownjoo said:
Can't u just format it on a pc?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might not show up. My microSD only showed up in the BB. This is just if nothing can read the card.

Oh hai man XD
Sent from my Baconator Over-9000

Tezlastorme said:
Oh hai man XD
Sent from my Baconator Over-9000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey storm !
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

android88 said:
This guide/how-to will show you how to fix your non-functional microSD card.
Things you need:​-Broken microSD
-Blackberry (tested with a Curve)
That's it!
How I came across this fix and some backstory:​Your microSD card might not really be broken. Just follow these easy steps to fix your "broken" microSD. The other day, I tried to flash a ROM from my external SD. In recovery, it said that there was no external SD mounted. I knew that wasn't true, so I took a deeper look in. I also tried to manually mount the SD card in the settings menu. I tried changing my ROM, trying putting the microSD into different devices, but no matter what I did, the microSD couldn't be read. I even considered returning to stock.
I was on Amazon, already looking at some new UHS-1 Sandisk cards. I figured I needed a faster and bigger card anyways. That was when I noticed a Blackberry Curve next to me. I hadn't tried putting the microSD in it yet, so I said to myself, "What do I have to lose? It's already not working. It can only make it better." I put in the microSD and voila! The BlackBerry recognized the card and asked if I wanted to format it. I hit yes and the BB formated the microSD with no issues. I put my microSD back in my T-Mobile Galaxy S2, and guess what? The phone recognized it! Another plus is the fact that with the BlackBerry format, there was only one folder. Normally, when you format a card in a phone, there are A LOT of folders. I just deleted the BlackBerry folder so basically, I had a completely empty card.
Formal Instructions on how to fix your microSD:​1. Put your not-functional microSD into a BlackBerry.
2. The BlackBerry should ask to format the card. Hit yes.
4. Connect your microSD to a computer. Open it up.
5. Delete the folder called "BlackBerry" (optional).
6. Your microSD card should now work fine.
If this thread helped revive your broken microSD and saved you money by not buying a new card, please click the thanks button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry but does not work for my Sandisk 8GB formatted by curve 8520 =(

bckd00r said:
I'm sorry but does not work for my Sandisk 8GB formatted by curve 8520 =(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it on a Curve 8520 as well and it worked fine.

bckd00r said:
I'm sorry but does not work for my Sandisk 8GB formatted by curve 8520 =(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This solution not for all cards If you card is password locked - it can help to format. If card totally dead - solution not applicable.

ildaris said:
This solution not for all cards If you card is password locked - it can help to format. If card totally dead - solution not applicable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My card wasn't being read by anything besides the Blackberry.

.
Cool tip

Thanks this worked. I had an old card to and it wouldn't read in my epic 4g touch and it really worked tx.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

stereo386 said:
Thanks this worked. I had an old card to and it wouldn't read in my epic 4g touch and it really worked tx.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good .

android88 said:
This guide/how-to will show you how to fix your non-functional microSD card.
Things you need:​-Broken microSD
-Blackberry (tested with a Curve)
That's it!
How I came across this fix and some backstory:​Your microSD card might not really be broken. Just follow these easy steps to fix your "broken" microSD. The other day, I tried to flash a ROM from my external SD. In recovery, it said that there was no external SD mounted. I knew that wasn't true, so I took a deeper look in. I also tried to manually mount the SD card in the settings menu. I tried changing my ROM, trying putting the microSD into different devices, but no matter what I did, the microSD couldn't be read. I even considered returning to stock.
I was on Amazon, already looking at some new UHS-1 Sandisk cards. I figured I needed a faster and bigger card anyways. That was when I noticed a Blackberry Curve next to me. I hadn't tried putting the microSD in it yet, so I said to myself, "What do I have to lose? It's already not working. It can only make it better." I put in the microSD and voila! The BlackBerry recognized the card and asked if I wanted to format it. I hit yes and the BB formated the microSD with no issues. I put my microSD back in my T-Mobile Galaxy S2, and guess what? The phone recognized it! Another plus is the fact that with the BlackBerry format, there was only one folder. Normally, when you format a card in a phone, there are A LOT of folders. I just deleted the BlackBerry folder so basically, I had a completely empty card.
Formal Instructions on how to fix your microSD:​1. Put your not-functional microSD into a BlackBerry.
2. The BlackBerry should ask to format the card. Hit yes.
4. Connect your microSD to a computer. Open it up.
5. Delete the folder called "BlackBerry" (optional).
6. Your microSD card should now work fine.
If this thread helped revive your broken microSD and saved you money by not buying a new card, please click the thanks button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man, was considering to buy a new one :beer:
Sent from my LG-E400 using xda premium

If you get *really* desperate, have stuff on it that can't be replaced, and have a few days to burn, you can also try to rip the bits from it using an Arduino (or any other microcontroller).
The easy part is pointing at address=0 and sequentially reading it a bit at a time, byte by byte, via SPI. The *hard* part is interpreting it as a filesystem. I know code exists for FAT32, but I'm not so confident about ext2/3/4 or NTFS. For those, you might have to come up with a way to get the raw data into a form DD can recognize.
The point is, a microSD card is pretty hard to physically destroy. It's one of the few devices we have left that can be low-level read by fairly simple means (in theory, you could probably read it with a 3v DC power source, a SPST toggle switch, two momentary buttons, a LED & resistor, a soldering iron, and some wire... one button for MOSI, one button for SCK, and the LED for MISO. Flip the switch to transition ~SS from high to low to reset the latch, and press away. Ok, maybe debounce it, too...
It wouldn't do you much good that way, but it's an example of just how easy it IS to rip raw bits from a microSD card. No real timing requirements (AFAIK, microSD timing is entirely static). Apparently, this is kind of how the first home computers worked, too...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

bitbang3r said:
If you get *really* desperate, have stuff on it that can't be replaced, and have a few days to burn, you can also try to rip the bits from it using an Arduino (or any other microcontroller).
The easy part is pointing at address=0 and sequentially reading it a bit at a time, byte by byte, via SPI. The *hard* part is interpreting it as a filesystem. I know code exists for FAT32, but I'm not so confident about ext2/3/4 or NTFS. For those, you might have to come up with a way to get the raw data into a form DD can recognize.
The point is, a microSD card is pretty hard to physically destroy. It's one of the few devices we have left that can be low-level read by fairly simple means (in theory, you could probably read it with a 3v DC power source, a SPST toggle switch, two momentary buttons, a LED & resistor, a soldering iron, and some wire... one button for MOSI, one button for SCK, and the LED for MISO. Flip the switch to transition ~SS from high to low to reset the latch, and press away. Ok, maybe debounce it, too...
It wouldn't do you much good that way, but it's an example of just how easy it IS to rip raw bits from a microSD card. No real timing requirements (AFAIK, microSD timing is entirely static). Apparently, this is kind of how the first home computers worked, too...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't really understand all of that but it sounds like it would work, lol.

StraTzHD said:
Thanks man, was considering to buy a new one :beer:
Sent from my LG-E400 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice . I'm glad it worked.

Galan,233-7550 ancnsel
android88 said:
This guide/how-to will show you how to fix your non-functional microSD card.
Things you need:​-Broken microSD
-Blackberry (tested with a Curve)
That's it!
How I came across this fix and some backstory:​Your microSD card might not really be broken. Just follow these easy steps to fix your "broken" microSD. The other day, I tried to flash a ROM from my external SD. In recovery, it said that there was no external SD mounted. I knew that wasn't true, so I took a deeper look in. I also tried to manually mount the SD card in the settings menu. I tried changing my ROM, trying putting the microSD into different devices, but no matter what I did, the microSD couldn't be read. I even considered returning to stock.
I was on Amazon, already looking at some new UHS-1 Sandisk cards. I figured I needed a faster and bigger card anyways. That was when I noticed a Blackberry Curve next to me. I hadn't tried putting the microSD in it yet, so I said to myself, "What do I have to lose? It's already not working. It can only make it better." I put in the microSD and voila! The BlackBerry recognized the card and asked if I wanted to format it. I hit yes and the BB formated the microSD with no issues. I put my microSD back in my T-Mobile Galaxy S2, and guess what? The phone recognized it! Another plus is the fact that with the BlackBerry format, there was only one folder. Normally, when you format a card in a phone, there are A LOT of folders. I just deleted the BlackBerry folder so basically, I had a completely empty card.
Formal Instructions on how to fix your microSD:​1. Put your not-functional microSD into a BlackBerry.
2. The BlackBerry should ask to format the card. Hit yes.
4. Connect your microSD to a computer. Open it up.
5. Delete the folder called "BlackBerry" (optional).
6. Your microSD card should now work fine.
If this thread helped revive your broken microSD and saved you money by not buying a new card, please click the thanks button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi sir.. how about if one doesn't have a blackberry?? what should they do?

kanor_ said:
hi sir.. how about if one doesn't have a blackberry?? what should they do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know. This only applies to people who have a BlackBerry. I guess you could try sticking your microSD in different devices and see if something pops up asking you to format your card.

kanor_ said:
hi sir.. how about if one doesn't have a blackberry?? what should they do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
android88 said:
I don't know. This only applies to people who have a BlackBerry. I guess you could try sticking your microSD in different devices and see if something pops up asking you to format your card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you could borrow someone else's blackberry. Just kidding!
Has anyone found out why only blackberry? Do they have a different algorithm to read flash memory?
Sent from my Micromax A110

BabuMoshaaye said:
Well you could borrow someone else's blackberry. Just kidding!
Has anyone found out why only blackberry? Do they have a different algorithm to read flash memory?
Sent from my Micromax A110
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More to the point how about doing some basic fact-finding first and finding out what errors the kernel on the device is reporting when it tries to mount the sdcard, then steps can be taken to solve the real problem rather than relying on magic and what some people might term as beginners luck! A good place to start is
Code:
adb shell dmesg