• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Accessories New microSD going read-only

Today I made an upgrade from a SanDisk microSD 8GB to a 32 GB Kingston microSD but for the while it keeps showing that it goes into read-only mode because the SD card started working incorrectly. So I did formatting, unmounted and mounted again to see if it would fix and guess what? It keeps happening. I don't know what to do. My phone is Samsung Galaxy A01 (16GB ver.)
 
It should just work no problems in your Galaxy A01, especially a low capacity micro-SD like 32GB.
Suggest you check it with SD Insight, and it should show the manufacturer as "Kingston".
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi
You may want to return it for exchange or refund, if it doesn't work out.

I bought it from an all phone/electronic retailer shop.

That doesn't really a mean a lot to me, especially where I am(China).

I bought a new Samsung 512GB micro-SD for my phone, and as I wanted to be sure what I got was genuine and not duff or fake, I bought it directly from Samsung.
 
Upvote 0
It should just work no problems in your Galaxy A01, especially a low capacity micro-SD like 32GB.
Suggest you check it with SD Insight, and it should show the manufacturer as "Kingston".
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi
You may want to return it for exchange or refund, if it doesn't work out.



That doesn't really a mean a lot to me, especially where I am(China).

I bought a new Samsung 512GB micro-SD for my phone, and as I wanted to be sure what I got was genuine and not duff or fake, I bought it directly from Samsung.

So yes, the SD card is definitely a fake one. Did a test last night with True SD Card apk and thr maximum capacity is 12 GB. I am going to the store to get my refund.
 
Upvote 0
So yes, the SD card is definitely a fake one. Did a test last night with True SD Card apk and thr maximum capacity is 12 GB. I am going to the store to get my refund.
If you can't return it, you can repair the SD card by wiping all partitions on it, and then giving it a partition that's slightly less than its true capacity. Of course, that requires some computer skills (and smartphones are computers). It will still probably be a low-quality card, and it could even have security risks, so don't use that card to store the only copy of any important files!
 
Upvote 0
It's so common to get fakes these days that a utility such as h2testw is becoming necessary. Many times they fake capacity, so that 120GB card is actually 12GB and anything after the 12GB self-corrupts.

I hope you're successful in that refund. I never could return such items as they're considered 'opened box' and therefore only exchange with same item is allowed. A lot of times a store has a policy against returns of 'opened software' but try arguing the difference between software and hardware with a teenager who's only tech skills is how to operate the cash register at McDonald's.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Windroid
Upvote 0
It's so common to get fakes these days that a utility such as h2testw is becoming necessary. Many times they fake capacity, so that 120GB card is actually 12GB and anything after the 12GB self-corrupts.
Operating systems (such as Android and Windows) need to come with a utility akin to H2test built in. More to the point: Operating systems need to stop trusting that a disk has the capacity the disk's firmware claims it does. The user must be warned that the system doesn't know what the disk's true capacity is, and given the option to test the disk.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Unscrupulous sellers will often take no-name memory cards (usually 8 GB or less); rewrite the boot sector to read a MUCH higher capacity; and resell it as a bargain card. You can write "20 Liters" on a 5 Liter bucket all day: but you're not going to get any more than 5 liters of water in it (ebay is notorious for sellers listing 5 TB microSD cards, although there is no legitimate capacity higher than 1 TB). Once the physical capacity of the card is reached, new data overwrites old and critical files will disappear forever, never to be recovered. That's why I test every flash memory I buy to make sure it's legitimately the advertised capacity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AugieTN
Upvote 0
I haven't bought an SD card since like 2013 so I'm luckily unaffected. I've been reusing the same cards since Android 2.3 was launched.
That's fine, so long as you don't need the higher capacity and faster speed of modern disks. But SD cards are cheap enough that, when you start worrying about space, I'd recommend buying a larger more modern one. Just buy it directly from SanDisk (or another reputable manufacturer)!
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones