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Help Samsung Galaxy S3 KILLS SD CARDS!!!!!!

3month n my sandisk ultra is still fine but i keep it backed up though lol.
Seems to be a random thing and all Samsung say is "you should only use samsung accessories"..... umm then they should have different shaped sd card slots that only fit thier own cards.....!
I've had my s3 since black Friday and today my second sd card went the same way as the first one I had put in it. When I woke up the phone, I had a notification that my sd card was removed and to insert a sd card. There is no way to Mount it--settings says to insert a sd card. I haven't had the back off this phone since I inserted the new card Christmas eve.
 
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I've had my s3 since black Friday and today my second sd card went the same way as the first one I had put in it. When I woke up the phone, I had a notification that my sd card was removed and to insert a sd card. There is no way to Mount it--settings says to insert a sd card. I haven't had the back off this phone since I inserted the new card Christmas eve.

I hope you have the receipt. Perhaps after manufacturers have done enough warranty replacements they will start putting some pressure on Samsung. I wish there was a way to monitor sd card health. Although it seems that failures are from a single bad write and not something that can be predicted.
 
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Hey all,

I joined this forum just so I can give my personal results/perspective.
I too am a victim of SD card mayhem. First of all, I have a Verizon branded S3. I have used nothing but 16GB cards that were sold to me by the Verizon store. From the first time I attempted to insert the card it exhibited the SD card removed error. So after a couple reboots of the new S3 phone and reinserting the card eventually it mounted the card. Around 2 weeks later I was greeted with than damn SD card removed error. Once again I popped the card in and out a few times. Rebooted the phone and the card remounted. Later that day the error popped up again. I tried inserting it into my PC and was greeted with the "Card needs to be formatted" message. I decided not to. I had a brand new Verizon supplied 16GB card to use. I popped it into the phone, system mounted it and it was a done deal. Now, ~ 2 months later, I open up the file browser and there's no files or folders on the SD card showing. There was NO warning what so ever. I decided to USB connect the phone to my PC "FOR THE FIRST TIME), I opened Kies and low and behold I couldn't read anything off the SD card. Opening up the native android file manager, it showed the card but couldn't read anything. After multiple attempts I decided to try the card by itself in my laptop. Card is not formatted message. By now I'm upset because I didn't have a current backup. So as a last effort attempt I put the card BACK into the phone and hook up via USB. Windows is taking a looooooong time to show any info. Then all of a sudden I started getting directory listings. SLOWLY getting them. My download folder had been renamed to uownload (that wasn't a typo) and another directory that held all my photos was empty but the LOST.DIR folder now contained all my photos but were renamed to a numerical value with no extension. I saved the majority of the data. Phew.

I'm a firm believer in factory restore anytime after an upgrade which was done immediately following the JB update. My phone is not rooted nor have I tinkered with it. When the first card corrupted I had loaded nothing else from stock on it. I just assumed it was just one of those things. The second time the phone scrapped out a card I had loaded a couple games "Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2" on it. For apps I have loaded Drippler, Speed Test, Led Light and Quadrant. Nothing should cause any problems there.

So once again let me point out that this phone has corrupted 2 cards now. After I formatted them the phone magically mounts the cards and acts like nothing happened. But I certainly no longer trust my phone.

So you see people, for me this was never an issue about:
Incorrectly disconnecting the phone from a PC
or it being a 32 or 64gb sized card
or a virus
Or a 3rd party app
or (insert whatever other ideas I may have missed from this thread.)

I absolutely agree that the # of sales for the S3 certainly speaks volumes about it not be a 100% failure across the board. However this "theory" doesn't disprove the possibility of certain models (whether it's Verizon or sprint or at&t branded or I9300 version) possibly have different revision card readers, cables etc. We honestly don't know exactly what we're dealing with.

Luckily my wife just signed me up for the ultimate Verizon warranty 2 weeks ago.:D
Speaking of Verizon - they have open enrollment going on as of the date of this post. Sign up people :)
I am seriously going to ask for another phone. If you are asking yourself why.....it's because I believe it is an issue with SOME S3's not all. The replacement phone will tell the tale. I'm not trying to be a smart arse here, simply posting my personal experience and suggestions.

For future reference I suggest we also start posting the brand and actual model of the S3. Kind of hard to actually do any real research without the pertinent info being provided.

I have the Verizon branded sch-I535v
 
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Hey all,

I joined this forum just so I can give my personal results/perspective.
I too am a victim of SD card mayhem. First of all, I have a Verizon branded S3. I have used nothing but 16GB cards that were sold to me by the Verizon store. From the first time I attempted to insert the card it exhibited the SD card removed error. So after a couple reboots of the new S3 phone and reinserting the card eventually it mounted the card. Around 2 weeks later I was greeted with than damn SD card removed error. Once again I popped the card in and out a few times. Rebooted the phone and the card remounted. Later that day the error popped up again. I tried inserting it into my PC and was greeted with the "Card needs to be formatted" message. I decided not to. I had a brand new Verizon supplied 16GB card to use. I popped it into the phone, system mounted it and it was a done deal. Now, ~ 2 months later, I open up the file browser and there's no files or folders on the SD card showing. There was NO warning what so ever. I decided to USB connect the phone to my PC "FOR THE FIRST TIME), I opened Kies and low and behold I couldn't read anything off the SD card. Opening up the native android file manager, it showed the card but couldn't read anything. After multiple attempts I decided to try the card by itself in my laptop. Card is not formatted message. By now I'm upset because I didn't have a current backup. So as a last effort attempt I put the card BACK into the phone and hook up via USB. Windows is taking a looooooong time to show any info. Then all of a sudden I started getting directory listings. SLOWLY getting them. My download folder had been renamed to uownload (that wasn't a typo) and another directory that held all my photos was empty but the LOST.DIR folder now contained all my photos but were renamed to a numerical value with no extension. I saved the majority of the data. Phew.

I'm a firm believer in factory restore anytime after an upgrade which was done immediately following the JB update. My phone is not rooted nor have I tinkered with it. When the first card corrupted I had loaded nothing else from stock on it. I just assumed it was just one of those things. The second time the phone scrapped out a card I had loaded a couple games "Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2" on it. For apps I have loaded Drippler, Speed Test, Led Light and Quadrant. Nothing should cause any problems there.

So once again let me point out that this phone has corrupted 2 cards now. After I formatted them the phone magically mounts the cards and acts like nothing happened. But I certainly no longer trust my phone.

So you see people, for me this was never an issue about:
Incorrectly disconnecting the phone from a PC
or it being a 32 or 64gb sized card
or a virus
Or a 3rd party app
or (insert whatever other ideas I may have missed from this thread.)

I absolutely agree that the # of sales for the S3 certainly speaks volumes about it not be a 100% failure across the board. However this "theory" doesn't disprove the possibility of certain models (whether it's Verizon or sprint or at&t branded or I9300 version) possibly have different revision card readers, cables etc. We honestly don't know exactly what we're dealing with.

Luckily my wife just signed me up for the ultimate Verizon warranty 2 weeks ago.:D
Speaking of Verizon - they have open enrollment going on as of the date of this post. Sign up people :)
I am seriously going to ask for another phone. If you are asking yourself why.....it's because I believe it is an issue with SOME S3's not all. The replacement phone will tell the tale. I'm not trying to be a smart arse here, simply posting my personal experience and suggestions.

For future reference I suggest we also start posting the brand and actual model of the S3. Kind of hard to actually do any real research without the pertinent info being provided.

I have the Verizon branded sch-I535v

Welcome to the forums! I'm glad you were able to save most of your data at least. Good idea about listing the phone info. Good luck with your replacement phone!
 
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... So once again let me point out that this phone has corrupted 2 cards now. After I formatted them the phone magically mounts the cards and acts like nothing happened. But I certainly no longer trust my phone.

Me, too. I'm on my third SGS3, the first two BOTH fried their respective SD cards. This one does seem to be doing better (so far) but it also has a Samsung SD card -- the others did not.

But, I'm also on the hunt for a different brand phone. I don't care if this is a "small" problem, or as SOME have claimed, even "not a problem", because for me, the failure rate has been 67% -- two out of three -- and that is way too high to have any trust in this model phone.

Problem is, I really LIKE having an SD card, and many of the newer models don't have those anymore.
 
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Thanks for the warm welcome folks.

I expect no pity about data loss. Clearly anyone that is foolish enough not to do backups deserves what they get ;)

I'm a huge fan of actually researching and comparing notes. Finding similarities and taking a logical approach to nail down an issue. In fact I spent the better part of 2 days reading threads (here and any where Google picked up a thread) about the SD card corruption/destruction issue.
There is clearly an issue and anyone that disagrees (while certainly entitled to disagree) can't turn a blind eye to there being quite a few reports. Most people don't make stuff up just to post heh.

Thus far, I see no "gotcha" info. While a large mass believes it's the size of the card (I disagree), there is also an equal amount that believes it's a Sandisk compatibility issue and also a very small handful of people whom believe it's the cable from the reader to the main PCB.

The card size I highly doubt. After all mine are 16GB cards.
The card being a Chinese knockoff - not in my case as they came directly from my local VZ store.
Sandisk being incompatible. Possibly but I've read people buying the Samsung SD also had those corrupt.
Now the cable thing/reader hardware I could easily get onboard with. The next section covers why.

This is just my gut feeling. I come to this conclusion by being in the PC technology market for over 20 years now. It wasn't uncommon for any PC manufacturer to run short on quantity of certain hardware. When the main supplier couldn't meet the quota, the PC manufacturer had no other option than to pick up another supplier of a particular component. When this happens (for arguments sake) let's say a network card. A network card is a network card by the very definition. However it doesn't mean it's the same brand/model. Typically when this happened the manufacturer uses the same part but adds (rev2) for instance. This could induce an unforeseen problem. Whether it be a driver issue, hardware incompatibility issue, engineering/manufacturing failure or the manufacturer of said card simply had firmware issues. Again - lot's of possibilities right there.

But I do encourage people to also consider what we haven't factually determined is if it's a branded/model issue or not. All of the threads I have read, have not attempted to nail that aspect down. It very well could lead right back to supplier of the cable/card reader PCB being different.

Thanks for listening.
 
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Hi Folks
Brand new to this forum. I took me quite some to read all the comments.
I have my S3 now since september and it's my 2nd SD Card ( sandisk 32 GB) that is damaged now. Same a Gmash, I haven't done any exceptional things that might lead to malfunctioning of my phone.
I just want to add one small remark : since I took the SD card out of my phone my battery takes now more than 2 days before it needs to be charged again. With the SD card inserted, the battery discharged in less than 1 day.

To my opinion, it's not a problem of the SD card but with the phone. I must join cellison in his remark on the components used in the S3 which might be from a different supplier (and thus having a new revision code) and might caused the problems with SD cards.
Might....might .... might...
I logged an issue with Samsung (Belgium) but so far no response.

Will update the thread when I have more info.

best regards
JP
 
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Tonight I was attempting to load a video from my computer to my phone. I was plugged into my computer and transferring the movie to my SDcard (32gb Sandisk). I wait a few minutes while the movie loads. I attempt to play the movie and it says it is not able to play the video. I attempt to play other videos that I have taken from the phone and I get the same message. Next thing you know my phone no longer sees the SDcard, it states the folder is empty!!!! I plug the SDcard into my computer, same thing... EVERYTHING IS GONE!!!! The card is toast.....WTF

When I originally plugged the phone into my pc I received a Verizon/Samsung message asking me to install software to allow for an easier experience with my PC. I did so thinking it would help, not blow up my card...

Is there any recovering the SDCard or is it gone??

Below is a print screen of something I find odd on the phone... what's with all the USBdrives and the dates?!?!

2013-02-07230656_zps899d4c00.png
 
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Those usb drives folder belong under the mnt folder. I have them too. I've used recuva to recover most of my stuff when my sd card got corrupted. The only things that I lost was the pictures in the camera folder. All the pictures in other folders were fine. Now I no longer set my camera to store picture on the external sd card by default. I've learned not to trust my sd card for anything now. I do use it to store pictures, but only after I backup every thing on the computer.
 
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This morning I pop the SDcard back in my computer and sure enough I am able to see all my files, first thing I do was to make sure to back everything up again to be safe.

I went to put the card back in the phone and it is still not seeing the card, any reason my computer is able to read the card but not my phone? I have a 16gb card in the phone that seems to be working fine for now.

Any ideas on how I can get my phone to read this card?!?!
 
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No need to start yet another thread about this. Go to this thread and join the growing number of victims:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/654417-samsung-galaxy-s3-kills-sd-cards.html

Yes, sadly the S3 and sd card issues are being reported in many threads and many forums across the internet.

Between that and the almost universal battery drain issues of that particular phone, I'd think we'd be hearing about an OTA update remedy coming along at some point.
 
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If you put it in your computer, can you check the root directory of the SD card (so the 'main' bit where all the folders are) and turn on show hidden files (I think it's in right click > properties). Are there any individual files beginning .no.....? (E.g .nomedia)

No hidden files beginning with .no

I had been using this card for about 2+ months...
 
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This is what SanDisk has written on their support site regarding this problem, though it didn't work at all for me:

SD Card Damaged or No SD card error in Android device

When I try to access my microSD card in my Android device I get an error message SD card damaged or No SD card. How can I resolve this?

In some cases the SD card may become unreadable by your Android device. We have found that many times the card is still usable and the data is recoverable. This issue may be resolved by connecting the card to a computer using an external USB card reader. If the card is recognized when connected to the computer using an external card reader you can follow the steps below to recover your data and restore your card to working order in your Android device.

SOLUTION
1. Back up all data on the card.
2. Format the cardusing the computer.
3. Connect the card back to the Android device.
4. Once the card is recognized, format the card in the Android device.
5. Insert the card into the computer and restore the data.
6. Insert the card into the Android device.


After I followed the above steps and formatted the card on my PC and then reinserted it into my S3, it had the same old mounting problems where sometimes it would detect that there was a card inserted and other times it wouldn't. Couldn't even get to step 4, but my PC still reads the card fine though. This is an S3 problem for sure
 
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Yes, sadly the S3 and sd card issues are being reported in many threads and many forums across the internet.

Between that and the almost universal battery drain issues of that particular phone, I'd think we'd be hearing about an OTA update remedy coming along at some point.

I don't think this type of problem can be fixed with an OTA update though. I think it's something to do with bad hardware/components of the phone
 
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This is what SanDisk has written on their support site regarding this problem, though it didn't work at all for me:

SD Card Damaged or No SD card error in Android device

When I try to access my microSD card in my Android device I get an error message SD card damaged or No SD card. How can I resolve this?

In some cases the SD card may become unreadable by your Android device. We have found that many times the card is still usable and the data is recoverable. This issue may be resolved by connecting the card to a computer using an external USB card reader. If the card is recognized when connected to the computer using an external card reader you can follow the steps below to recover your data and restore your card to working order in your Android device.

SOLUTION
1. Back up all data on the card.
2. Format the cardusing the computer.
3. Connect the card back to the Android device.
4. Once the card is recognized, format the card in the Android device.
5. Insert the card into the computer and restore the data.
6. Insert the card into the Android device.


After I followed the above steps and formatted the card on my PC and then reinserted it into my S3, it had the same old mounting problems where sometimes it would detect that there was a card inserted and other times it wouldn't. Couldn't even get to step 4, but my PC still reads the card fine though. This is an S3 problem for sure

This seems to have worked, at least temporarily. My phone recognizes the card now, we shall see how long it lasts!
 
Upvote 0
This is what SanDisk has written on their support site regarding this problem, though it didn't work at all for me:

SD Card Damaged or No SD card error in Android device

When I try to access my microSD card in my Android device I get an error message SD card damaged or No SD card. How can I resolve this?

In some cases the SD card may become unreadable by your Android device. We have found that many times the card is still usable and the data is recoverable. This issue may be resolved by connecting the card to a computer using an external USB card reader. If the card is recognized when connected to the computer using an external card reader you can follow the steps below to recover your data and restore your card to working order in your Android device.

SOLUTION
1. Back up all data on the card.
2. Format the cardusing the computer.
3. Connect the card back to the Android device.
4. Once the card is recognized, format the card in the Android device.
5. Insert the card into the computer and restore the data.
6. Insert the card into the Android device.


After I followed the above steps and formatted the card on my PC and then reinserted it into my S3, it had the same old mounting problems where sometimes it would detect that there was a card inserted and other times it wouldn't. Couldn't even get to step 4, but my PC still reads the card fine though. This is an S3 problem for sure


I tried this with my defective card. My PC isn't recognizing my card. I may be SOL for recovering this card.
 
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I don't think this type of problem can be fixed with an OTA update though. I think it's something to do with bad hardware/components of the phone

I disagree. I think if it was strictly hardware related you would see higher failure rates and cards failing much more quickly. It is very possibly a firmware only problem, but most likely a combination of hardware and firmware. It seems that the failures are related to a bad write caused by a lack of voltage during the write. In my limited knowledge I think that poor instructions could cause that failure.
 
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Just an idea... I had been using every possible charger lying around. Since i bought new sd card I decided to eliminate that variable... So since then regardless usb is usb and 5v is 5v, there could be power fluctuations when charging with non original charger... ? Most failures do happen during night and non usage. Anyway new card is working perfectly for now for 2 weeks+ without so much as a glitch...
 
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