Does not see the flash card, the first thing you need to do is reboot. There is a possibility that the device does not recognize the memory card due to a software glitch. In this case, such a simple manipulation will help between the phone and the card.
Problem with contacts
If this method does not have any effect, look for a possible cause of the failure in the departed . You can check this by removing and inserting the memory card. Also, the contacts of the phone or flash card could have oxidized. To clean dirt on the connectors, you need to gently rub them with a regular rubber band, and then wipe the contacts with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.
Correcting memory card errors
If the described methods do not help, you need to remove the flash card and check it using a card reader for errors using Windows OS. To do this, go to the “My Computer” section, in the window that opens, right-click on the memory card disk icon, select “Properties”. Next, you need to switch to the “Service” tab and click the “Check Disk” button. The program will check and repair damaged areas of the flash drive. This should fix errors in the card's file system. After this, you need to insert the flash memory into the phone and check its functionality.
Formatting a flash card
If this method does not bring the card back to life, it is necessary to use drastic measures, such as formatting. Before formatting, you should copy all data on the flash memory to a computer, since after this operation all information on the card will be lost. To format a flash card using Windows OS, you need to right-click on the memory card icon in the “My Computer” menu, select “Format” and follow the instructions.
Help from specialists
If none of the above methods help, you need to take the card to a service center. Our specialists will find and eliminate the cause of the problem themselves or offer alternative solutions to the problem.
In order to avoid problems with flash memory, you should remember that the memory card is very sensitive to any physical impact, and therefore requires careful handling. She is also afraid of moisture, direct sunlight and sudden temperature changes. In addition, you should not disconnect the card while transferring information.
Over the past few years, the digital technology market has seen a significant increase in the share of mobile devices - smartphones and tablets running Android, iOS and Windows. The range of “smart” phones continues to grow even now, which cannot be said about the flash memory built into mobile gadgets. Compared to the ROM capacity of desktop computers and even laptops with SSD drives, the memory size of smartphones and tablets is very small, barely enough to store applications and photos.
On the other hand, most smartphones and tablets support memory expansion by installing MicroSD and MicroSDXC cards, the memory capacity of which can reach 2 TB. It’s quite a worthy alternative to a hard drive, but, alas, just like with hard drives, troubles can also happen with SD cards. One of the most common is a malfunction when the smartphone does not see the memory card. Users have to face the same problem when connecting other storage devices, for example, the same flash drives connected using an OTG cable.
Our task today is to figure out why the phone does not see the memory card and what can be done to fix this problem.
Temporary failure
Let's start with the simplest and most obvious things. Sometimes in the Android operating system, like in any other OS, minor glitches occur, as a result of which certain functions stop working. This also applies to the device’s recognition of an external drive. If the card was previously detected normally and suddenly stopped, reboot the gadget. If the problems are temporary, after a restart the SD card will become visible in the system.
The memory card has failed
This is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a memory card, especially if valuable data for the user was recorded on it. To prevent damage, carefully remove the card, inspect the contacts for signs of damage, oxidation, etc., and then insert it into another mobile device or connect it through an adapter to a computer or laptop. If the memory card does not work on the phone, but is recognized by the laptop, even with errors, it is very likely that the file system is damaged. Such a card can still be saved, or at least data can be recovered from it using special programs.
If the memory device does not show any signs of life, it is probably completely out of order. But even in this case, do not rush to throw it away. A non-working card should be taken to a service center, where it will be checked by competent specialists. At the same time, you should rule out hardware problems in the phone itself by inserting a working SD card into it. If it is not determined, with a high degree of confidence we can talk about a breakdown of the built-in card reader.
Operating system files are damaged
If the SD card is visible in the boot menu Recovery, but is not detected in the operating mode of the smartphone, this may indicate problems with the system software resulting from damage to OS files by viruses or by the user (on rooted devices). If you suspect damage to system files, try restoring them using the “wipe cache partition” functions of the Recovery mode.
Some special applications have this same function, for example, 4EXT Recovery And TWRP Recovery(the recovery option is called the same in them). An alternative option is to reset the device to factory settings and first create a backup copy of important data and applications. What should I do if the phone does not see the microSD memory card even after a reset? Look for other probable causes of the failure.
The memory card is not compatible with the phone
There are currently four generations of microSD cards: SD 1.0, SD 1.1, SDHC and SDXC. Smartphones and tablets that can work with the latest generation of cards will also work with previous versions of drives, but older phone models will not see SD cards of the new format. If you bought, say, an SDXC card and, having inserted it into an old phone, realized that the gadget does not recognize it, return to the store and consult the seller about this. Perhaps the purchased card is simply not suitable specifically for your gadget.
File system crash
The same MicroSD cards can be used in different devices - smartphones, laptops, cameras, etc., but this versatility sometimes leads to problems. So, a completely serviceable SD card that previously worked in another device is often not readable on a phone, but can be read on a PC without any problems. The reason for this is most often either a failure in the file system of the card, or a file system that does not match the mobile device. The problem is resolved by formatting it in FAT32, the file system used by most smartphones in memory cards by default.
It is best to perform formatting on a computer using a built-in or third-party program, for example, SD Formatter.
File system errors can also cause other types of problems. If the memory card is not readable on the phone and it is impossible to write data to it, but it itself is detected, this often indicates the presence of FS errors. Although a more serious reason cannot be ruled out - wear and tear of memory cells.
Problems with a flash drive when connected via an OTG cable
You can connect not only a microSD card to a mobile device, but also a regular USB flash drive using an OTG cable or adapter. As is the case with memory cards, the phone does not always see the flash drive. Since flash drives and microSD cards use a similar type of memory, everything said above equally applies to flash drives with a USB connector.
However, before checking the flash drive, the quality of the connectors, etc., you need to make sure that the smartphone supports the technology USB OTG On-The-Go, which provides power supply via a micro-USB port to an external drive. To do this, you should either study the documentation for the phone or install the application on it USB OTG Checker, which will show whether the gadget supports working with external USB drives or not.
If it does not support, it makes sense to contact the service center and find out if there is a way to provide such support at the software level, that is, by installing or updating the firmware.
But there are other reasons why the phone does not see the flash drive. If the media has a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connector (and most of them do), the smartphone must have a version of Android no lower than 3.1 installed. There is a high probability that a flash drive that is too large will not be detected, as well as a flash drive formatted in the NTFS and ExFat file system. In relatively rare cases, it is not possible to connect an external USB drive to a smartphone due to the lack of .
There are also models of gadgets that are not capable of automatically mounting a USB drive. To connect a flash drive to them, you need a special application, for example, StickMount. And one moment. It has been noticed that the phone sometimes does not see a flash drive or micro SD card if the file system of the drive has too large clusters. Try reformatting the media, selecting the minimum cluster size in the FAT32 system.
Memory cards (microSD) are often used as additional data storage on mobile devices. Losing access to this storage can be a real disaster for the user, because many people keep photos and other personal files on them, which often exist in a single copy. In addition, access to applications that were located on this media is lost.
Why can’t my phone see a memory card or USB flash drive that was working and read properly just yesterday? How to solve the problem on your own?
How to figure out the culprit
The source of the problem can be software and hardware errors both in the memory card (flash drive) itself and in the phone.
The reason is most likely in the card (flash drive) if:
- It is not detected or detected but not read by different devices.
- It stopped being read immediately after using it on another device.
- It has visible mechanical damage.
- When inserting a card into the slot (connecting a flash drive), the phone freezes, reboots or turns off. Provided that it reacts normally to other removable media.
The culprit is most likely the phone if:
- It does not detect or detects but does not read any microSD card or flash drive.
- When installing any card or connecting any flash drive, it turns off, reboots or freezes.
- The card slot (USB connector) has visible mechanical damage.
- The failure was immediately preceded by some actions with the phone: installing applications, updating firmware, anti-virus scanning, resetting to factory settings, etc. Or accidents - impacts, falls on the floor, etc.
When connecting flash drives with a full-size USB type A connector to mobile gadgets, OTG cables and adapters are used, which are also often the cause of such situations.
Unfortunately, in many cases there are no obvious signs of “guilt” of one or another device. For example, when a card or flash drive is not detected by a specific phone, while others read it normally, and the phone regularly reads all drives except this one.
Why are memory cards and flash drives no longer detected and read?
In about half of the cases, the cause of the failure is a drive failure. I already talked about the site. The same thing can happen with a card. In addition to the problems described, they often encounter another one - the formation of an oxide film on the surface of the contact group, which creates an obstacle to the exchange of data between the card and the phone. In addition, being small and fragile, micro SD cards are easily broken mechanically, much more often than flash drives.
Another group of reasons is programmatic in nature, that is, it is associated not with the drive, but with its contents. Among them:
- Unrecognized file system. This can happen if the card or flash drive was previously used on a PC running Windows and formatted in NTFS. Or it was in another smartphone and was formatted in exFat. For removable media to be readable on any version of Android, it should be formatted in FAT32.
- The removable drive is infected with malware. The reason for the lack of access to it may be blocking by the antivirus that runs on the phone, or the actions of the malicious program itself.
- The file system of the memory card or flash drive is damaged. Reasons: incorrect shutdown (for example, during recording), use on a faulty device (including connection to a faulty reader or adapter), unstable power supply, viruses, etc.
Why doesn't my phone detect or read memory cards and flash drives?
Reasons on the phone side can also be hardware or software. The first group includes:
- Mechanical failure of the memory card slot or USB connector. Often easily identified by eye. In this case, the phone most likely will not recognize any SD card. And if the USB socket on it is broken, then there will be problems not only with reading flash drives, but also with charging.
- Malfunctions in the electronic components of the board. A failure can manifest itself in the fact that when installing any drive into a slot, the phone freezes, reboots, etc. Or an apparently intact slot and a working card are not detected in the system in any way. Or they are identified and disappear.
- Malfunction of devices connected to the phone (SIM cards, etc.). It manifests itself in the fact that problems with recognizing a memory card (flash drive) arise only when connected together with a faulty device.
Software reasons:
- Incompatibility with microSD cards of a certain type or size (lack of driver). In such cases, cards can be detected, but incorrectly and without access.
- Operating system failure. It appears as errors “SD card does not work” and other similar ones. Or the removable media is not detected at all.
- Installation of blocking applications.
- Virus infection of the phone.
How to fix the problem yourself
Below is a sequence of actions that will help you fix the problem in about 80% of cases (in the rest, only a service center or buying a new drive will help you out). If the previous action did not give the desired result, move on to the next one. Recommendations for flashing devices are provided for reference only. They are performed at your own risk.
If the likely culprit is a card or flash drive:
- Make sure there are no mechanical failures of the drive. Some of them (the connector blade) can be easily removed with your own hands if you know how to use a soldering iron.
- Clean the memory card contact group with an eraser or wipe with alcohol. This will remove the oxide layer from their surface and restore signal transmission.
- Connect the media to your computer (if you are using a reader or adapter, make sure they are working). Make sure its file system is supported by your phone. If not, format to FAT32. Do not forget to first copy the information from it to another medium, for example, to a PC hard drive.
- Scan the media with an antivirus program.
- Check it for file system errors. To do this, you can use a standard Windows tool (the chkdsk utility, which is used to find and fix disk errors): open the drive properties in Explorer, go to the “Tools” tab and click “Check”. In the next window, check “Automatically fix system errors” (by the way, in Windows 10, auto-fix for errors is enabled by default, so this window does not appear).
- If the probable cause is a failure of the firmware of the flash drive, in some cases it can be restored using service software, which can be found on specialized web resources. However, after this procedure there will be no data left on it. In addition, if the firmware is unsuccessful, the drive may completely fail.
If the likely culprit is the phone:
- Make sure there is no mechanical damage to the memory card slot or USB socket.
- If a slot has not been used for a long time, dust may have accumulated in it. If possible, remove it with a brush or dry cotton wool wrapped around a toothpick. If the slot contacts are accessible, remove the battery from the phone and clean them with alcohol.
- Disconnect all external devices from the phone, except for the problematic drive, and restart the system. If after this it is detected normally, the reason is something disabled.
- Scan your phone for malware infection.
- Uninstall apps that you installed shortly before the crash.
- Temporarily remove your antivirus (it may block removable media).
- Do a factory reset.
- Reinstall your phone's operating system.
If the likely culprit is not identified, use the recommendations from both groups that best suit your situation.
The available memory size of modern Android smartphones allows you to store a huge amount of data.
But when the initial volume for everyday needs is not enough, microSD cards come to the rescue. Unfortunately, embedded equipment does not always work as expected for various reasons. Let's try to figure out why the memory card refuses to work on the phone and how it can be fixed.
Problem with contact
If the removable drive recently worked properly, first of all you need to check that it is connected correctly to the smartphone. Even a slight misalignment of the SD card can lead to a data reading error. In addition, during operation, the contacts of a mobile device may become clogged, which becomes a common cause of failures and errors.
To solve this problem, you need to remove the memory card from the device and carefully clean the slot paths, removing any dust particles that have gotten inside. When reconnecting the microSD to the phone, you need to make sure that the memory card is inserted the correct way and is securely fastened.
Device incompatibility
Before purchasing a new memory card, you need to check its compatibility with your mobile phone. Modern smartphones use the microSD media type. This format, in turn, has four generations (SD 1.0, SD 1.1, SDHC and SDXC), the main difference between which is the amount of available memory and data reading speed. For example, SD 1.0 can hold from 8 MB to 2 GB, while SDXC can hold up to 2 TB.
As for support from mobile devices, it is backward compatible. Smartphones that work with a certain microSD format will also function with older versions.
Smartphone malfunction
In some cases, errors in displaying SD card data may be caused by the Android system. Incorrect operation of applications and the action of virus files can block reading information from external media. This may cause the memory card to appear to be faulty.
The simplest and most obvious way out of this situation is to remove the malware and then reboot the device. To do this, you need to download a good antivirus program. If the SD card is in working condition, but the smartphone refuses to recognize it, you can try doing a factory reset. You need to understand that all data from the phone will be deleted.
Incorrect formatting
Software glitches that occur during the microSD cleaning procedure may cause it to not work. In this case, you will need to re-format via a computer.
First, you need to insert the removable storage medium into the card reader and wait until the system recognizes it automatically. After this, you need to right-click on the microSD in Explorer and select “Format”. In the “File system” section, you must specify “FAT32”, since Android does not support other formats.
Memory card failure
When none of the above methods help, the cause may be an internal problem with the memory card. This happens when, after prolonged use, the contacts wear out and the signal does not reach the board. Sometimes a breakdown occurs due to mechanical damage to the SD card or a manufacturing defect.
You can check the performance of the media using another smartphone or computer. If none of the devices sees it, you just need to buy a new memory card. If the data stored on it is important, you can contact a service center for help. There is a chance that the data can be recovered.
We talked about the main types of SD card faults and how to fix them. Most problems can be solved on your own, but if the equipment fails, you will have to replace it.
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Support for external memory cards is an important criterion for many Android users when choosing a new device. Luckily, most of them still support this option. However, failures may occur here too - for example, a message about a damaged SD card. Today you will learn why this error occurs and how to deal with it.
The message “SD card is not working” or “SD card is empty: needs formatting” may appear in the following cases:
Reason 1: Random single failure
Alas, the nature of Android is such that it is impossible to test its operation on absolutely all devices, therefore, errors and failures occur. Perhaps you moved applications to a flash drive, it crashed for some reason, and as a result, the OS did not detect the external media. In fact, there can be many such reasons, but almost all random failures are corrected by rebooting the device.
Reason 2: Poor contact between slot and memory card
A portable device like a phone or tablet is subject to stress during use, even when it is in a pocket or bag. As a result, moving elements, which include the memory card, can move in their grooves. Therefore, if you encounter an error about a damaged flash drive that cannot be corrected by rebooting, you should remove the card from the device and inspect it; It is also possible that the contacts become contaminated with dust, which in any case penetrates into the device. Contacts, by the way, can be wiped with alcohol wipes.
If the contacts on the memory card itself are visually clean, you can simply wait a while and insert it again - perhaps the device or the flash drive itself just got hot. After some time, insert the SD card back, and make sure that it is seated all the way (but do not overdo it!). If the problem was poor contact, after these manipulations it will disappear. If the problem persists, read on.
Reason 3: There are bad sectors in the map file table
A problem most often encountered by those who like to connect a device to a PC and, instead of safely removing it, simply unplug the cord. However, no one is immune from this: this can cause an OS failure (for example, shutdowns when the battery is low or an emergency reboot) or even a banal file transfer (copying or Ctrl+X) using the phone itself. Cardholders with the FAT32 file system are also at risk.
As a rule, a message about erroneous recognition of an SD card is preceded by other unpleasant symptoms: files from such a flash drive are read with errors, files disappear altogether, or digital ghosts appear. Naturally, neither a reboot nor an attempt to remove and insert a flash drive will correct the cause of this behavior. In such a situation, you should act like this:
Reason 4: Physical damage to the card
The worst case scenario is that the flash drive was damaged mechanically or through contact with water or fire. In this case, we are powerless - most likely, the data from such a card will no longer be recoverable, and you have no choice but to throw away the old SD card and buy a new one.
An error accompanied by a message about a damaged memory card is one of the most unpleasant that can happen to users of devices running Android. Fortunately, in most cases this is just a single glitch.
