Mobile Phone locked Microsd with Write Protection

[restore reset reinstall]

due to earlier laptop system restore and backup files, i had a new sandisk uhs-i microsd card for my android lenovo mobile to help downloading restore files.

after inserted the card during the first time use, the mobile system said that the format of new card cannot be used and requested a format. I continued. However I was not sure if there had been any formatting option for me though i supposed no.

after setup, i used it within the mobile and nothing strange.

lately, as restore done, and i would like to use the card with the laptop for file transfer, the issue came.

(1) the card was placed to work inside a function well adaptor physically unlock for write. However its write protected, and formatting not allowed.

(2) diskpart to "attributes disk clear readonly" showed successful, but next when "clean" Windows stated "write protection"

(3) so no formatting could be done

(4) card still be read by mobile, add or erase files no problem, just only no write right for other devices

After check online, maybe the sdcard was being formatted as Internal Storage, instead of the Portable Storage. And many victims exist there.

Worst of all, as having been applied to downloading laptop files and as some backups, I carried out a system restore (factory reset) for my mobile.

So not sure if once an internal storage format had been done, it would ve permanent. Or just phone being factory reset cannot control the sdcard (but still write???)

and though the phone could still leave an option to format the sdcard into portable storage and after done, the card is still write protected.

I suppose this doesnt really make sense, and i suppose Lenovo should open its door to clean any encryption over the firmware or the registry within the sdcard.

(A) the phone only disallows unwanted erase of data by other devices but allows read anyway, so its not for privacy or confidential concern

(B) the phone itself after factory reset could still both write and read on the card, so they got the key

(C) write protection only helps protecting the phone system only for a clean card to put back into the phone, but why is it a need to keep write protection when users had chosen to use as portable? phone code error?

(D) not sure if such encryption violated any encryption law

(E) obviously such act violated seriously the green policy of the whole world, as the life span of modern phone lasted a few years, lenovo doing so would also limit the life of any storage card. Should the function well storage be disposed after the mobile dead?

I am not sure if this only happened ot Lenovo phone, i suppose they should release an update of format tool for all physically external storage to eliminate the write protection!

Please help!

 

[Hadron]

I'm afraid that some parts of your post are not clear to me. However if you had formatted it as internal storage no other device would be able to read it at all (other than via the phone, i.e. connect the phone to the computer via USB and view files that way). So I'm pretty sure you didn't do that. For the same reason I don't think it's encrypted, because again if you had done that the computer wouldn't have been able to read it (formatting as internal both formats as ext4 and encrypts the card, but you can also encrypt without formatting as internal, so I'm treating these as separate things even though the practical effects are the same: in neither case would your PC have been able to read it).

microSD cards are finnicky little things, and you sometimes do have problems where a card works fine in the device that formatted it but not properly in another. I suspect it's something along those lines you are dealing with here rather than any feature of the phone. It might also be an indication of a poor quality card, but frankly I've had cards from top brands (such as Samsung) fail after a short period so I'm not so sure that's a useful distinction. I would never have huge faith in any microSD card, to be honest.

I would forget your points (D) and (E): if you had encrypted it this would not have violated any laws, and if you had formatted it as internal you could always format it as portable again, so neither applies.

(I might add that replacing smartphones every 1-3 years, as many people do, is a far greater ecological offence than having to replace a microSD card on a similar timescale would be. Our disposable consumer society, based on the "externalisation" of costs (i.e. dumping the costs of your activities on someone else, including the environment) has a lot to answer for, but even if your theory about the microSD card were true, which it isn't, you would be focussing on the mote and missing a lot of planks).