Help Desire SD Memory Card(s) problem

[Vip8888]

I've had my Desire for about a month and a half now, but have been having problems with my SD Card, which seem to be getting worse. Intermittently I get a message saying something along the lines of 'the backup can't complete as the SD card can not be accessed'. I also sometimes experience the problem trying to snap a photo, only to be told that there is no SD card (which of course is really bl**dy annoying).

When this happens I can still see the card using the ES File Explorer, including seeing the contents, but if I try to open a file (e.g. a photo) I can't view it.

I have searched the forums/the Internet and the general recommendation seems to be to reformat the card which helps for some people. Someone also suggested the SDMount widget to re-mount the card when it happens. I've tried using two different cards (the included 4GB card + a 16GB Sandisk card), reformatted both several times, but I still get the problem. I ran a memory card test tool on the 16GB card and couldn't find a problem. The only way I've found to get access back is to unmount the card and then restart the phone.

Does this mean my phone is faulty, or could it be some software causing the problem? Is anyone else having the same ongoing problem?

 

[ijb]

I have the same problem with the supplied 4gb card, the problem only began after I'd had the phone for a couple of weeks, it now happens once or twice a day. I don't have another microSD card to confirm the problem lies with the phone.

As well as getting the "Cannot back-up SD card" message, this also prevents me from using ringtones on the SD card, accessing music etc. until I reboot the phone.

Very annoying, I might have to take the phone into a T-mob shop, though I doubt I'll be able to recreate the problem for them.

 

[brad-short]

I get this too. I have posted this on other sites and forums too. Restarting phone seems to work fine. But yeh, it must be an OS or App issue. My SD cards were fine too. Also it sometimes fixes itself! Like now, my phone has been fine today, but last night it was telling me it could not backup etc etc. .

 

[brad-short]

Well my card became corrput again lat night. Unmounting and mounting had no effect. This was a 16gb card which was formatted fat32. I had recently transferred some mp4 vids to it. Came to watch them later and boom, corrput. Lost everything.

Have put in the 4gb card that came with the phone to see what happens with this one.

 

[shmicky]

If i buy a new SDcard do I need to format it in the phone before I use it ?

 

[brad-short]

***Update*** 48hrs and no corruption on the 4gb card that came with the phone.

 

[Edd]

posted in the other thread i think the auto back up is causing the problem and is changing the permissions on the card, i have disabled this to see if it happens again

 

[NineToTheSky]

I have used my 16gb card for some time in several phones, with no problems. In my Desire, when I have changed the battery, and restarted, it has reported that the card is corrupted, and needs to be formatted. This has happened twice, and only when I change the battery. After formatting, it works fine - except that when I try to restore my data from my PC to the USB connected Desire, it says it can't read from the source file (remember that's my PC's hard drive). When I put the card in my laptop there are no problems transferring.

 

[suicida]

That's exactly what happened to me, except I didn't change the battery I only charged my phone overnight.

 

[brad-short]

Still no corruption on the 4GB card. I wonder if we need to be looking at HC card compatability?

 

[ijb]

@brad-short

Like you, my microSD card was playing up, and fixed by a reset. But now, its saying the card is corrupt, and a reset (or removing-replacing the card) doesn't help. This was the 4gb card supplied with the phone. Looks like I'm going to have to visit a T-Mob shop...
http://androidforums.com/members/brad-short.html

 

[Anthony1]

Just a quick question: Do you guys regularly plug your phones in to a PC and mount the card so that it can be seen by the PC?

The reason I ask is because I've only had an SD card issue once, and that was when I mounted it on a PC. I usually access my phone from PC via Wifi, and I've never had an SD card problem other than that one occassion.

 

[ijb]

@Anthony1

I do mount the card on my PC fairly regularly. The last time I did it was Wednesday, about 36 hours before the card failed.

 

[Anthony1]

@Anthony1

I do mount the card on my PC fairly regularly. The last time I did it was Wednesday, about 36 hours before the card failed.

Hmm, mine was straight after. Doesn't seem to be linked in your case.

 

[brad-short]

I think we may be on to something. I too mounted my SD card and copied to it, then put it in my phone. Might be that the card is better off in phone at all times

 

[clint328]

How do you change the automatic back up option?

 

[Edd]

How do you change the automatic back up option?

settings/privacy/settings-back up my data

 

[dspenca]

I've not long had my desire, I moved the storage card from my previous phone in to the Desire (16gb no previous issues). Three weeks old and I recieve a couple of messages about being unable to back up the phones settings. I could still access photos etc on the card, a couple of days ago however I installed google earth, and recieved a message saying the app could not read from the memory card. I unmounted the card and could not remount, restarted the phone and the card is now always shows as corrupt. I have put back the original card and have had no issues so far.

I can't remember the make of the 16gb card but it wasnt a cheepy and had been using it for over a year in my previous phone. I know they dont last forever and do deteriate but this has caused me to lose a lot of family photos etc. I do hope this is a s/w bug that HTC pick up on and fix quickly as this sort of problem in the media can be very damaging.

UPDATE 10 AUG 2010

The original Mem card now has problems..

The card sometimes allows me to read but I get an error every time I try to dowload or update an app from the market place. "The application (process Com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again".... Does this every time with the memory card in. requires fc.

Remove the card everythings fine.
I guess the original card now requires formating, will see if this has anything to do with 2.2 and the fact I moved some apps to the card?

Anyway maybe this helps.

 

[ALDowd]

I have had my Desire for just over a month now (having migrated from an HTC Touch HD). I find that I am getting hangs (presumably with the the SD card) more frequently now than originally (perhaps because my card is fuller?) - particularly when using both music and the eReader application. I am using the 4 Gb card provided with the phone. The problem is usually sorted by switching off the phone and re-starting but that is a bind. Earlier this week (when it hanged in the music player) I had to remove the battery a couple of times to get it to work again, as it would not switch off at all. Just prior to this fault materialising I had the phone connected (using a desk-top cradle) to my PC for charging and I carelessly pulled it off the stand without "safely removing hardware" and I wondered if I had corrupted the card in some way.

Sorry no solutions, just a sharing of my problems. I had visited this discussion thread to see if anyone else had solved the problem, but it seems all are experiencing different but related effects!

 

[batesy]

I have also had similar problems - unfortunately I have found no solution - but wanted to share my problems

Problem: Programs are unable to see files on the SD Card:
Read problems:
Photo's show a broken SD card image,
Music skips on as it cannot read file (sometimes showing the message unable to play this kind of file or something to that effect)
PDF viewer cannot find any files
Write problems:
The camera as it was unable to take a photo as it could not save the file to the card....

When: it does appear to be after charging (or related to the morning as I charge over night). It also took a few weeks to manifest itself
It could be because of a program I have downloaded, such as astro - however I have been careful to only install recommended programs

Work-around: turning it on and off does seem to work, I have also sometimes tried to take the card out and put it back in again for a longer solutions; however turning it on and off again is usually good enough. BUT it is getting a bit annoying now.

I have tried the unmount SD card in the settings (instead of turning off and on) however could not see a way to 'remount' it?

I bought my phone from the cpw so should be unrelated to the network - and will try them to see if they will replace the handset. however can't help feeling that this may be more of a software fault?
It is the supplied card with quite a bit on it but does have a couple hundred mb left free......

 

[mattots]

I've experienced the same issue on and off over the last month or so, having had my Desire since the end of March. It's still got the 4Gb SD card it came with and I've only ever taken it out once (to clean it thinking there might be some dust on the contacts causing the problem!). I rarely connect the phone to the computer to transfer files (use Wifi instead) so its not related to either of these things. A restart always seems to solve the problem, but it is annoying.

I'm planning on getting a bigger SD card (8Gb or 16Gb) soon so will see if the problems persist then or not.

 

[changke]

same here. I finally bought a new 8GB MicroSD to replace the one came with the phone and it works flawlessly now.

 

[ijb]

I am beginning to think that the phones have been supplied with a batch of duff Sandisk cards. When my card failed completely I managed to persuade T-mobile UK to provide a replacement, and they sent an unbranded 8gb card. I've been using it for a week now with no problems.

 

[Renegade_424]

I've experienced the same issue on and off over the last month or so, having had my Desire since the end of March. It's still got the 4Gb SD card it came with and I've only ever taken it out once (to clean it thinking there might be some dust on the contacts causing the problem!). I rarely connect the phone to the computer to transfer files (use Wifi instead) so its not related to either of these things. A restart always seems to solve the problem, but it is annoying.

I'm planning on getting a bigger SD card (8Gb or 16Gb) soon so will see if the problems persist then or not.

Hi I'm a bit of a newbie and am trying to find out how to connect to my Desire through wifi on the pc, my win 7 wont find it and I,ve seen something about discovery mode and wps. Pls help even if it is blindingly obvious.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Vip8888, will post new thread

 

[Fishyweb]

I've also had intermittent issues with "cannot save settings to SD card" type messages. Then, a few days ago, the phone reported the card as corrupt, or damaged (can't remember the exact terminology). After doing some Googling, it seems that this is a common issue amongst Android phones (not just Desire). There were some suggestions that it could be caused by disconnecting the phone from a PC without first cleanly unmounting the "removable drive"; I think I had done this by mistake some time ago, but the problem did not become apparent immediately after that.

Anyway, there were suggestions in some forums about using Windows chkdsk to try to fix the card. I removed the card from the phone and used a reader to connect it to my PC (Vista). The PC immediately recognised that there was something wrong with the card and offered to check and fix the card. I did this, selecting the option to do a sector-level check. Windows eventually reported back that it had found some problems which it had managed to fix, and had put affected files into a "FOUND" folder. I put the card back in the phone and, voila, it has now been working OK for a couple of days. I'm not sure what the files are that are in the FOUND folder, but I've not noticed anything untoward yet.

Hopefully this will help someone out there!

P.S. This is a no-brand 8GB Class 2 card. I've ordered a Sandisk 16GB Class 4 card, which I will be using once it arrives.