What happens when you Unmount SD card on an Android?

So you’re exploring your awesome Android phone (or Android device) and while in the Settings you stumble upon the SD card and phone storage (or Storage) and find an option to Unmount or Mount SD card. But what happens when you unmount the phone storage on your Android device? Good question and here is a brief description of what this does and why it is important.

If you have an SD card vs. don’t have an SD card

If you have an SD card also referred to as a memory card in your Android phone then the device should give you the option to unmount SD card. If you do not have a memory card in your phone or if you just placed a card into your Android phone, and have not yet powered the phone back on after doing so, then the option will read Mount SD card. This is also good to know if you want to test to see if your memory card is working correctly. If you insert a memory card and your memory card is reading Mount SD card and it’s grayed out and won’t let you tap that option then the phone isn’t reading the memory card properly and you might want to look into buying another memory card or looking into warranty options. Also remember to check for damage on both the card and the phone.

Inserting and removing a memory card

This is where the mounting and un-mounting comes in. If you ever want to remove your memory card from your phone then you should go into your devices Settings then tap on Storage (or SD card and phone storage) > and tap Unmount SD card. This will tell the phone to stop communicating or transferring information from the memory card to the device, or vise versa from the phone to the memory card, and allow you to remove your memory card safely.

If you do not unmount your SD card or power off the phone before removing your memory card then you can corrupt any files that might have been transferring when you removed the card and run the risk of damaging the memory card.

Corrupted or malfunctioning SD card

If you think that your memory card might have corrupted files or might be malfunctioning then I recommend that you save the information from the memory card to a computer and then erase/format the SD card.

Format SD card

You can erase a memory card using your phone with very little effort by first clicking the option to unmount SD card. When it’s done it often gives you a message to let you know that the SD card has been successfully unmounted and is now safe to remove. If it doesn’t then it should just switch from saying unmount SD card to Mount SD card. When it’s done, you will be presented with the option to Format SD card.

DO NOT FORMAT AN SD CARD UNTIL YOU HAVE SAVED ALL OF THE INFORMATION TO A DIFFERENT SOURCE. Formatting the SD card is like performing a factory data reset on a phone. Formatting it will erase ALL of the information currently saved to your memory card.

Now you know

A quick recap with some other important tips to keep in mind

  • You should ALWAYS either unmount your SD card or power off your phone before removing your memory card.
  • Unmounting the SD card does NOT result in a loss of data or anything saved on your SD card. It simply tells the phone to stop showing things from the memory card.
  • Some applications use the memory card to store information to, or function properly. When unmounting your SD card from your phone you might get a little warning message letting you know that unmounting the SD card can cause some applications to stop functioning properly. That’s fine. Just press ok.
  • You do NOT need to unmount your SD card to remove the back of your phone. You only really need to unmount your SD card when you plan on physically removing the memory card from the phone.
  • You can unmount the SD card if you want to verify that things are actually saved onto your SD card. If you go into a file you assume is on your memory card, then unmount the SD card, the file(s) on the SD card should vanish.
  • If you just got a memory card or are planning on buying a memory card then don’t forget to set the default storage location of your camera to your SD card by going into your Camera Settings and switching from phone to memory card. That way when you take a picture or record a video it goes directly to your memory card. Then you don’t have to worry about transferring pictures and videos to your memory card later, everything will be saved there already. This also helps provide better security for your media files, should the phone malfunction or become damaged. This allows you to simply take your memory card out of the broken phone, put it in the replacement phone and you’re good to go.

If you have a memory card that is 4GB or less then I recommend you invest in a larger memory card, with a high Class rating. If your memory card is one of the smaller cards you might want to read this article about choosing the best memory cards for smartphones.

Keep enjoying your phone

So now that you know the importance of unmounting your memory card before removing it from your phone you should be in good shape. Make sure to take lots of pictures and videos on your device and don’t forget to set the default storage location for your media to the memory card.

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93 thoughts on “What happens when you Unmount SD card on an Android?”

  1. smartphone info
    I’m new to the smartphone scene, and I’m finding your explanations and instructions very well worded and helpful. Thanks

    1. Thank you Jim

      Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind compliment Jim, I appreciate the positive feedback.

    2. Barbara A Cook

      Thank u for info. on sd card
      Thank u for info. on sd card & the memory . its helped me tremendously .

  2. Android fix
    Haven’t tried your fix-es yet, but very well written for a newby like me to understand!Thanks

    1. Why do you feel the need to…
      Why do you feel the need to put a dash between “fix” and “es”?

      1. I don’t see anything wrong with it…

        I didn’t see anything wrong with “fix-es” I think I like it better than “fix(es)”…

        I think it was more about trying to decide if it should be a singular use (fix), which part of the article might have helped him answer a single question that he had about unmounting the SD card, but since this article covers multiple topics that a person might want to consider he might have been unsure of whether he wanted to use the word fixes instead as he was commenting on the article as a whole. So CB chose to use them both with “Fix-es”.

        Besides, I would say that this article is more about preventative maintenance as opposed to fixing or repairing an existing problem but I do appreciate the kind comment and appreciate the fact that he took the time to post it.

        Thank you CB for posting such a nice comment, and don’t worry we all start out as a Newbie and then work our way up from there; especially when it comes to technology.

  3. After unmount an SD card
    Well I red your comments which are usefull but I have now the following problem:
    – I’ve unmounted an SD card on an ANDROID phoe but now the option Mount is not acessible. What should I do? Can you help me?
    Tahnks

    1. How to fix a memory card that won’t mount

      Hi Francisco

      That doesn’t usually happen when you unmount through the settings, but it is common if you physically pull the memory card out of the phone while it’s trying to sync. In any case your phone is not reading your memory card properly.

      Power the phone off, pull out the memory card, turn the phone on (without the memory card in it) and then wait for your phone to turn on all the way, and then plug the memory card back into the phone, it should read it and let you mount it.

      If it doesn’t for some reason then pull the memory card out of the phone (with the phone on), clean the metal piece of the memory card off, be gentle don’t damage it, some people use a pink eraser to clean it. Don’t use water or any conductive liquid to clean the memory card, then try putting the memory card back in and see if the mount option shows again.

      If that doesn’t work then pull out the memory card, power the phone off, plug the memory card back in, then power the phone back on.

      If the card still won’t read then try the memory card in another phone because it might have malfunctioned (which is extremely rare). If the memory card works in another phone then your phones memory card port might be malfunctioning (more common). Try a different memory card if possible. If it won’t read any memory cards then the hardware on your phone is likely malfunctioning. As a last resort you could perform a full backup (to a computer and Gmail) and then perform a hard reset. This will help rule out any chance of a software issue causing the problem. If you perform a reset and it’s still not reading a memory card properly then there is not too much more that you can do on your end and you might want to look into your other options.

      Chances are though that simply removing the memory card and then mounting it again will fix your issue.

      Good luck Francisco, Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

  4. unmount sd card
    My phone brokenout nd I could not unmount my ad card properly but now when I am using it in different phone it shows blank sd card and ask me to format, it is not readable at computer also, plz provide me the way to save the content of sd card

    1. Not a good sign

      Hi Ravins,

      So let me understand this correctly. Your phone broke, you couldn’t unmount the SD card, you were able to remove the card from the broken cell phone and tried it in a different cell phone but the newer cell phone shows that the SD card is blank and it wants you to format the card. You did not format the card because you don’t want to lose any of the information that is supposed to be saved to the card so you tried to insert the card into a computer to try and recover the information that way but the computer is showing that the SD card is blank as well.

      If that pretty much sums it up then, first let me say that I am sorry to hear that your phone broke.

      An odd thing about your situation is that if the phone was powered off (being broken) then it would have been safe to remove the card from the phone as the phone wouldn’t have been transferring information to or from the card.

      Another odd thing is that even if the card gets removed improperly there would still be information on the card it just might be corrupted… so the fact that the phone and computer isn’t reading anything on the card isn’t a very good sign.

      I’m not sure if the card was erased when the phone was broken, if the card was damaged, if the phone formatted the card because of a malfunction, or what, but from what you describe it sounds like, for whatever reason, there is no information on the card any more.

      Are you positive that there was information saved to the card before the phone broke? What were you hoping to recover if you don’t mind me asking? Pictures and media files would definitely be locatable through a computer. In fact you should see a few files to choose from if you insert your card into a Windows computer and choose the “Open folder to view files option”.

      So as far as saving the content on the card… from what you described there is no longer any content saved on the card. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help Ravins.

      Keep an eye on that SD card though. If it starts losing information that gets saved to it while inserted into the newer cell phone then it may be defective possibly even damaged and might need to be replaced. Good luck, and if you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

  5. So confused
    So I had a Samsung captivate and the screen broke from the inside so all I have is a blank screen I can still power it on etc…I just got a Samsung s4 and when the phone was off I took out my sd card and insertedit in my new phone. I still have my documents and downloaded pics and pictures I had organized in folders but my music and photos in the dcim folder says no items. But when I look on the space it says I have a 4Gb sd card and 1.93 space left . But Its not pulling up everything. With all the things I have its right amount of space So I’m confused.

    1. Here is what I would do…

      Hi Adrianna,

      Going from the Samsung Captivate to the Samsung Galaxy S4? That is a pretty nice jump. I think you will love your S4 too, I have one myself and I love it.

      Before we begin I just wanted to say, good job in turning off your phone before removing the SD card. No corruption of data.

      Here is what I recommend you do to try and locate your missing data.

      Make sure your browsing the correct DCIM folder

      If you are trying to locate the files on your SD card through your Galaxy S4 then make sure that the DCIM folder that you are looking for is the DCIM folder of your SD card and NOT the DCIM folder of your S4. If you would like a reference you can check out How to move pictures and videos to an SD card Samsung Galaxy S4.

      It might not be on SD card

      The information that you are missing might have been saved to the phone before the SD card was inserted, and your cell phone won’t automatically move that previously saved information for you. It would have had to have been moved manually. Sometimes information has to be moved to an SD card manually anyways, so you’re missing data might still be on your Captivate. The only problem is that your Captivates screen is black so you won’t be able to move those things from your Captivate to the SD card because you cannot use your screen to do so.

      There is hope though… Since you can still power the phone on you can connect your Galaxy Captivate to your computer and try to locate your phones information that way. I cannot remember if the Captivate requires you to accept the connection through the screen. If you plug your phone into the computer and the computer doesn’t let you open folder to view files then you might have to tap on the screen a few times to get it to connect. You can probably find a video online showing you how to connect it to a computer so that you know exactly where the option will pop up and where you need to press on the screen. Your display might have malfunctioned but your touch screen is likely to still be operational.

      Replacing the LCD

      Kind of an extreme suggestion but you could also replace the screen on your captivate as well. Replace the screen with a new replacement screen or take one from another Captivate, then you will have access to your data and a backup phone should something happen to your S4.

      Locating files with a Computer

      You can also try plugging your SD card into your computer directly, not through a phone, and browsing it that way as well. If you don’t see your missing information through your S4 though it’s probably not on the SD card and is still on your Captivate.

      I hope that helps

      I hope that gets you on the right path Adrianna. Thank you for being so descriptive in your comment. You provided just about every detail I needed to know exactly what the issue is and what type of phone you are having these issues with. It really helps take the guesswork out of troubleshooting, and lets me sort of pinpoint possible options that are available, so I hope these suggestions help you recover your missing information.

      Thanks again for the comment, thanks for visiting the site, and if you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

      Oh and I bought a 32 GB memory card for my S4 and if you plan on taking more pictures and videos with your new phone I suggest you upgrade as well. 4GB just isn’t what it used to be. If you would like some tips in choosing then you can read How to pick the best memory card for an Android smartphone. And don’t forget to make sure the default storage on your S4 is set to the SD card. That way when you take a picture it will get saved directly onto your memory card instead of the phone.

  6. I cant see the sd storage info on my phone

    hello. I think I broke my card or something. I got a 64gb card and I put it in my phone. once I inserted it I could see that it was good and had the correct amount of storage on it. it was straight out of the pack. my phone asked me if I wanted to format it  and I said yes. after that I couldn’t see any info about an sd card at all. as if it didn’t have one inside it. it just  says its preparing the card and then nothing happens. it works fine on computer. I can switch over and see files. what should I do. did I break the card.

    1. There can be a few reasons why this is happening

      Hi Jackson,

      The good news is I don’t think that you broke your SD card, especially since the card works “fine on the computer”, and don’t worry about formatting your SD card. Formatting an SD card is usually required after inserting a memory card into an Android phone for the first time.

      There can be a couple reasons why it’s not working. Let’s start with a few of the basics and go from there.

      What kind of phone do you have and does your cell phone support a 64GB memory card? Some phones DON’T. Some phones only allow you to go up to a 32GB card so check to make sure that your phone supports a 64GB memory card. If it doesn’t then that could be part of the problem.

      If your phone supports a 64GB card then…

      Check to make sure you don’t/didn’t remove the SD card prematurely – If you insert your card and then remove it improperly, by just pulling it out and not un-mounting it first for example, then your phone might have trouble reading it until you re-insert it properly.

      Re-insert your memory card – Power your phone off, re-insert your SD card, and then power the phone on. You might have tried this already when you tested your SD card on your computer but if you didn’t then make sure to try it.

      Re-format the card – If your phone is at least showing that you have an SD card then see if it will allow you to format it again. The first format might have had a hiccup and re-formatting might allow the card to work on your phone properly.

      Test your card – if you have another phone to try your SD card in then try it in that phone to see if it seems to only have issues on one specific phone or multiple types of phones. If your SD card works fine in another phone then you can narrow it down to an issue with your original cell phone. If it won’t work in any phone then you might have a defective memory card that will need to be replaced (it doesn’t sound like this is the case in your situation as your memory card still works on your computer, but it’s not a bad idea to check if possible).

      Watch your class – check the class of your memory card to make sure that it’s not too slow. This isn’t typically an issue but a memory cards class is the speed that the memory card will allow you to read and write information to and from it. If you have a memory card with a slow class/speed then when syncing or transferring information to or from the card you might get a “processing” message as it tries to move your information.

      Mount if possible – If your phone is giving you the option to mount your SD card then make sure to do so otherwise your phone won’t communicate with your memory card.

      Damage – memory cards are pretty durable these days, and since your SD card works on your computer chances are that it’s not damaged. But do a quick inspection of the card to make sure that there are no signs of physical or liquid damage.

      When I got my 32 GB Micro SD Card I wasn’t thinking and right after I inserted the card I ejected it to make sure that it ejected as easily as it inserted, which it did, but my phone was syncing the SD card when I ejected it (last thing to cross my mind at that particular moment) and when I went to check my memory card to make sure it was mounted properly my phone wasn’t reading it at all. It was as if the memory card wasn’t even inserted.

      A quick re-insertion of the SD card was able to fix my cell phone and get it up and running again. Just follow the suggestions I just listed and as long as your phone accepts 64 GB SD cards I think it should help.

      If you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask. Just make sure to provide any troubleshooting steps you might have already taken, what model of phone you have and any other pieces of information that might help to narrow down the cause of your issue.

      Thanks for visiting the site Jackson, I hope these suggestions help, and don’t forget to set the default storage location for your phones camera to the SD card storage instead of the phones storage once you get your memory card up and running.

  7. Heey , so im haveing
    Heey , so im haveing problems with my android phone my memorie card sd says threse not enough space on my sd card I erased alot of stuff on it and im not sure what to do? What dose unfromating really ,mean I have an samsung galaxy s3 and it says unfromating? Im not sure what that mean I do not want to lose my picuters or my music app I download a wholet back please help me I dont know what to do I dont want to lose anything like my picuters or my music paridice app I download what should I do what dose this mean!? Thanks I hope you can help me!!!!?

    1. Thank you

      Thank you JD for taking the time to leave such a nice comment. I appreciate it, and I am glad that you liked it.

  8. MTP/PTP??
    Hi I just bought a 64gb SD card for my Galaxy Note 3 and the unmount and format SD card options are greyed out (unusable)with the caption “MTP or PTP function is active”.
    What does this mean?

    1. re: MTP/PTP??
      Maybe you were connected to another device (e.g. laptop) via USB at the time. Unplugging the device should make the MTP/PTP options available again.

  9. leftover data
    Hi, i was wondering if you had any suggestions to help me please. I have a samsung galaxy s2, with a 32Gb micro-sd card. I’ve taken the sd card out many times to add & remove music & photos. I don’t always remember to unmount the card first however. I have noticed recently that when i put the card back in, the music i deleted is still listed, though it wont play. How do i get my phone to forget about the files that arent there anymore? I’ve tried a cache cleaner with the card out, but that didnt help. Thanks in advance

  10. i pulled out the sd card without using the unmount option
    i pulled out the sd card from my s3 without using the unmount option. but now when i put it back in, my s3 says “sd card removed unexpectedly or safe to remove sd card” sd card does not work and not shown by phone.what to do? plz help me

    1. Not a good thing but…

      Hi Hari,

      Make sure to always unmount or power your phone off before removing the SD card as it can cause issues like this or worse including corrupting your data. Not a good thing but luckily it sounds like this issue should be fixable.

      I recommend that you power your Galaxy S3 off, remove the memory card, power it back on, once its powered on all the way then I would power it back off, reinsert the memory card and then power the phone back on. Test it and see if that fixes it.

      If your memory card still won’t mount properly then I recommend that you plug your card into a card reader save its data to a computer and then reformat the memory card, and then try it again.

      If that doesn’t work then try your card in another phone and if it won’t work in a different phone (or device) then it’s likely your memory card will need to be replaced.

      Good luck Hari. I think that should work though, from what you described in your comment it sounds more like a communication issue than a damaged defective or broken memory card.

      Let me know how it goes, I look forward to your response.

    1. Yep

      Hi Cathy,

      Yes, you may take out your old SD card and then replace it with the new one. Just make sure to power your phone off, or unmount your SD card before you remove your original and you’ll be in great shape. The only thing that you might have to worry about is moving the information from your old card to your new card.

      I find that connecting your phone to the computer and saving your information from your old memory card to the computer is one of the easiest ways to move your information. Once you save the information from your old memory card onto a computer you can replace the old card with the new one, plug your phone back into the computer and then transfer the information from the computer to your new SD card. Most of the transfer process is as easy as dragging and dropping or copying and pasting. If your computer has a card reader it will be even easier as you can just insert the memory card directly into the computer.

      If you chose to do that then I recommend that you insert your new SD card into the phone first so that the phone can setup your card with the needed files and there won’t be any questions as to why you can see a DCIM folder (or other folders) on your old card but your new card is empty. Just a suggestion though.

      I hope that helps Cathy, thank you for visiting the site and if you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

  11. mobile phone memory is not working
    dear sir i have a karboon a8 mobile phone which has 2gb inbuilt memory and also 2gb memory card. some day ago my memory card get damage so i have format it. but when it didnt work. unfortunately i have format my 2gb inbuilt card also.
    Now the main problem is when i capture the photo from camera it shows the message no external storage available. means inbuilt 2gb memory cant be accessed or shows in file manager. also when i connect my mobile with pc it doesnt show memory card.which was earlier displaying. i have done everything like reset mobile, version updation all are effortless

    1. Not a good thing. It sounds like a hardware problem

      Hi Rajaram Jat,

      Sorry to hear that you are having problems with your phone and or memory card. From what you said in your description it sounds like there can be a few things that can be causing this to happen.

      Memory card – the memory card itself may be malfunctioning or worse, as you said in your description, that it could also be damaged. If the memory card has liquid or physical damage then formatting will not help and it will need to be replaced. It sounds like your phone requires a memory card to function properly and if you have not yet tried another memory card then I recommend you try that first. Hopefully it’s the memory card and not the phone itself.

      Memory card slot – another possible cause that’s even less desirable is that the slot where the memory card sits in the phone has become damaged and is causing the phone not to be able to read the SD card properly or even at all. This too is not a good thing as the phone itself would need to be sent in for repair or likely need to be replaced.

      Since you said that you already formatted your internal storage it’s less likely to be a software issue as a reset usually fixes those types of problems. I am assuming that you formatted your “2GB inbuilt card” or internal storage by performing a factory data reset on your cell phone which removed all user data and put the phones settings back to factory default. If this is the case then it’s less likely to be a software issue on the phone as a hard reset or factory data reset usually fixes those types of problems.

      From your description your issue sounds more and more like a hardware issue and unfortunately it’s likely that either the memory card or the phone itself is going to need to be replaced.

      Make sure to try a different memory card or to try your questionable memory card in a different device to narrow it down to a bad memory card or the phone itself. A defective, malfunctioning, or damaged SD card will be the easiest and more affordable piece of equipment to replace.

  12. app icon not visible
    I bought a new sd card for my s3, transferred everything from the old one but now i cant some of my apps have disappeared. I have re-installed most of them but the icons are not visible.
    Has anyone got idea how to fix this?
    please HELP!!!

    1. Restoring app icons

      Hi Michael,

      It sounds like you are missing the shortcut icons that used to be on your home screen(s). If this is the case then you’re in luck as it’s a really simple task to restore them once you know how to do it.

      To add a shortcut icon to your home screen all you need to do is tap and hold on the desired app under your applications and it will let you drag it to the page that you want then stop holding the app, reposition as necessary and enjoy.

      Detailed instructions for the not so tech savvy: Tap on your Home key (it’s the big button on the bottom center of your phone under the display) this will take you to your Galaxy S 3’s Home page or Main screen, then tap on the “Apps” icon (bottom right of screen), this will display all the apps on your phone (remember that they are arranged alphabetically if you’re looking for a specific app), once you have found the application that you would like to have displayed on your home screen simply press and hold your finger down on that app, the screen will change and you can drag the icon to any of your phones main screens. If you decide you want to delete the icon from your main screen you can simply hold your finger down on it and then drag it to the “remove” trashcan icon which will appear on the top of the screen. Remember that dragging an icon to the “remove” trashcan simply deletes the shortcut icon itself and doesn’t remove the application from the phone. To remove the entire app from the phone you will need to uninstall it.

      Side Note: As far as app data, app data and information from applications can save to an SD card but the actual app often save to the phones internal storage. After resetting a phone custom and third party applications often need to be re-downloaded but once its reinstalled the app can often access the phones memory card and restore the stored data all by itself. This can be a useful piece of information should you ever need to reset a phone or transfer app data from one phone to another.

      I hope that answers your question Michael, oh and don’t forget to make sure that your Camera is setup to automatically save the pictures you take to your SD card. It will help keep them safe should your phone ever malfunction or accidently gets damaged. If you would like to check the default storage location of your camera then click HERE for some detailed instructions with pictures.

      Thanks for visiting the site Michael, if you have any more questions then don’t be afraid to ask.

  13. unmount sd
    Should i change my sd card since it complain low space, is 6gb okay for my phone? Thanks for good explanation u give or what must i do? I need a feedback.

  14. Brittany Hensley

    S3 Galaxy Broken
    Ok so I broke the inside screen of my s3 (led screen) so my phone doesn’t show anything but black. I bought a new s3 and put my memory card in the new phone. None of my pictures or videos are one the memory card and I know they were saved on there. And its weird because all of my contacts and the pictures that go with my contacts are showing up. But all my photos and videos I had before at lost? Ive tried plugging it up to a computer and it doesn’t show any pictures or videos either.is there a way to get my old picture and videos back?

  15. I used to transfer files
    I used to transfer files between my pc and sd card by connecting d mobile via USB data cable. But recetly i have a problem, I could find only d files in d mobile memory but d files in d sd card is not shown. My sd card is not detected by anyother mobile either. It works only with my mobile in which i used to have this sd card. Plz help

  16. How can i unmount the SD card on the Huawei Ascend Y511?
    My Huawei Ascend Y511 dont have a SD Card Un-mounting system..
    How should i unmount my SD Card?

    1. It’s ok, just turn your Huawei off and then remove it

      Hi DhonG,

      It should have an Unmount SD card option under the settings and storage… if a Mount or Unmount option is there but it’s just grayed out then your phone isn’t recognizing that there is an SD card inserted into it.

      If you cannot located the Unmount SD card option under your settings then just power off your phone before removing the memory card and it will be fine. You just don’t want to unplug the memory card when the phone is transferring information to it as it can cause the information to be incomplete and corrupt, which of course can cause problems later.

  17. Transferring files off of a Toshiba Excite 10 tablet
    I have a Toshiba Excite 10 tablet on which I can see several photos and videos in its internal storage. However, when I connect it to the computer, I am only seeing some of the videos when I open the Camera folder within the DCIM folder. I need to transfer those videos to an external drive as my storage is maxed out but I can’t see them in order to transfer them.

    I also have a 32 GB SD card in the tablet which appears not to be recognized. It does not show up as an option for storage and instead of reading ‘unmount SD card’, it reads ‘mount SD card’. I put the card into a laptop to try and see if there are any photos on it but the message was that it needs to be formatted. I know that this will also erase the card. Is there any other way to ensure that there is nothing on the card before formatting it? Am I correct in saying that it needs to be formatted as exFat? And if so, how do I do that?

    1. Saving the media files on your Android

      Hello Nick,

      You have a lot of good questions. Thank you for being specific and providing a lot of details. It helps take a lot of guesswork out of the equation.

      You are correct as far as your memory card is concerned. If you format the SD card then it will erase all the data saved to it. When first attempting to use a memory card it will likely need to be formatted to work with your device properly. Your tablet should have asked you if you wanted to format it as soon as you inserted the SD card for the first time, assuming of course that the memory card was new and hadn’t been used before. This might be why the tablet is reading “mount SD card” as opposed to “unmount SD card” as the tablet cannot communicate with the card. likely because its not formatted properly.

      If your SD card doesn’t show any files through a tablet or a computer and your only option is to format the memory card then it sounds like you are going to have to format the memory card. From your description, if your Android tablet isn’t communicating with the card then the tablet wouldn’t have saved any information to it. So if the tablet was the only thing that you really used the card in I wouldn’t be too nervous about losing anything. If you were using it in something else prior to using it in your tablet then I would try to insert it into that device, check for any data, and back that data up through that other device (if possible), and then format the card.

      I don’t know the history of that card so I cannot say for sure, but I am guessing that there isn’t anything on that card for the format is going to effect. I would plug the card into the tablet, see if you get a prompt to format, confirm the format, and then move as much of your tablets information to that external memory to free up space on the device itself.

      I am not too familiar with the Toshiba Excite 10 tablet so I cannot really comment on its file management system BUT since its Android you should be able to download a file management application from the Play Store (like ASTRO File Manager) which will let you find the files on your Android as well as copy those files to your SD card.

      I hope that helps, if you have any more questions than don’t be afraid to ask.

  18. files on phone
    i have an alcatel dol mini phone which has no sd card.recently,i mount my phone,after i unmount my phone,i can see all those files on my files manager,but,unfortunately all those pictures and videos are not shown on the camera and video application. i think this is not a serious problems since my files is not missing,so,could you please help me out?

    1. I might need you to provide me with more details…

      Hi Hannan,

      I am not sure I understand your question… So you have an Alcatel Idol Mini Android cell phone which has no SD card?

      Without an SD card there wouldn’t be an option to unmount it, so I am assuming that you got a memory card, inserted it into your cell phone, mounted it, the cell phone and memory card started to communicate with one another, you un-mounted the SD card, and after un-mounting it when you went into your gallery either through the cell phones list of applications or through the camera app and your media files (like pictures and videos) were not showing like they are supposed to.

      You wanted to make sure that you didn’t accidently delete your media files so you accessed them with a file manager and they were still there. For some reason you just cannot see them in your gallery.

      Like you said, since you didn’t actually lose the files the situation shouldn’t be too serious. I bet that you can get your files to re-sync by powering your phone off and on. When your cell phone reboots it should scan for media files and then show the files that it found in your gallery. It should show media files found on your phone as well as any saved to your SD card.

      I hope that helps answer your question, if you still have any issues or have any more questions than just let me know as much information as you can and I will see what I can do to try and help.

  19. Carol S. Redmon

    thank you
    I appreciate you being available to help, I was so relieved to be able to contact a helpful resource. Thank you so much.

  20. One Touch Fierce
    Every so often when i want to take a photo i get the ( the sd card does not have enough space. please release some storage.) i only have 1.1 gb of 8 Gb used on the SD card, oddly enough if i reset the phone ( power off power on) it clears the error msg for a day or so then it pops up and i have to reset again…. any suggestions??

    1. Try this…

      Hey Jimmy,

      The Alcatel One Touch Fierce Android smartphone comes with 4GB of internal storage which mean that probably less than 2.5GB is actually available to save user data to. This can fill up pretty quickly on an Android smartphone which is why having a memory card is a wonderful idea. So you’re on the right path my friend by owning a memory card, even though 8GB is becoming less and less common it is still going to be a good way to increase the storage space on your Android. Note: When you decide to upgrade to a larger memory card make sure to consider these memory card buying tips to choose the best one available.

      To get to the point it sounds like the internal storage on your smartphone is getting to be near full and when you take a picture its likely saving to your cell phones storage first which is causing issues as the temporary data may have pushed your cell phone to the brink of its maximum storage space. That’s most likely why restarting your phone seems to help. It is clearing the temporary data on your device and freeing up enough space to take the picture properly.

      A soft reset can also help to fix minor software issues as well, which this might be, but I have a feeling that it is in fact a storage issue because of that error message you are getting.

      Go into your phones Settings and look for a “Storage” option and then check the available space on your Device memory. You can use this guide on How to check the storage space on an Android smartphone as a reference if you are more of a visual person like me.

      If it shows that you have MB or KB of available storage then you’re pushing the limits of your phones internal storage and you are likely going to start noticing some other annoying issues which can begin to creep up on you unless you free up some space on your internal SD card aka internal storage. While you are checking your internal storage go ahead and do a quick check on your external storage as well just for good measure. If its reading 1.1GB used of 8GB then you have plenty of space available on your external SD card and you should try to move as much data as you can to that SD card to free up space on your phones storage.

      I hope that helps, if you have any more questions or need any more help don’t hesitate to ask.

      1. Thank you
        Thank you for the advice. You where correct my internal memory was about 90% full. I moved a lot of stuff to SD card now my phone works again.

        1. Your welcome Jimmy

          Glad I could help. Thank you for coming back to the site and posting a follow up to let me know that it helped. I appreciate it.

          Enjoy your working smartphone my friend.

  21. Unmounting sd card
    Hi
    This just to let you know that is an excellent write up on mounting and un mounting sd cards..
    Will save that to my book marks on S3.
    Many thanks

  22. Making sure that everything is OK
    I put an SD card into my new phone while it was powered on and I wasn’t sure if I heard a click sound so I inserted and removed my card a couple of times putting it in and taking it out while the phone was on… I knew all that stuff about unmounting on a smartphone (and on my PC computer), but I forgot.

    So I turned off my phone and then I inserted the SD card to make sure that it clicked nicely into place, then I powered my cell phone on and the SD card was detected so I mounted it. The phone is showing the memory and it seems to be correct… But is there any way to perform a system check on my Android phone to make sure that everything is OK and nothing got damaged? Is there a way to see if there is any leftover data or something that might confusing the system in a way that might not show immediately? I don’t care about the SD card as much as I care about the phone, and I want to make sure that everything is OK and that nothing got messed up from this dumb mistake.

    Thank you and best regards.

    1. I think it will be ok

      Hi Danilo,

      That kind of thing happens to the best of us. I am guilty of doing that same thing when I first got my Samsung Galaxy S4 and a new 32GB memory card to accompany it. I had to pretty much do what you did in order to get everything setup properly. I powered the phone off and then on and then off again inserted the memory card and then powered the phone back on. Doing this was able to get my S4 to recognize the card and it allowed me to format it correctly.

      As soon as I ejected it I was like “oops, I shouldn’t have done that” and I got a little nervous when my smartphone and memory card didn’t sync properly after the initial startup.

      Everything worked out fine though and it was a quick fix. As long as your memory card is being recognized properly and it is allowing data to be transferred to and from the SD card correctly (without any error messages or anything out of the ordinary) and your files and information on the memory card seem to open properly then I don’t think that there is anything that you need to worry about.

      If you did or do notice any issues with your cell phone not communicating with your memory card properly, you could try to backup all of the information stored on your SD card (saving the data to your phones storage or a PC) and then you could reformat the card to start over fresh.

      Enjoy your working smartphone and working memory card and if you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

  23. Strange problem with sd card !
    Hello all,

    I’m having a problem with my phone (custom rom), my sd card works fine when i boot up my phone but after a few hours of use it starts malfunctioning. For example the camera app, which i have set to save to the sd card by default, says that my sd card is full (!!!). Also all the photos (and files) that I have saved since the last reboot are no longer accessible, although they were before. If I unmount and then remount my sd card, it becomes usable again but all the new files are gone (so the newest file on my sd card is a few months old !).

    Does anyone have a suggestion ? I’m an expert user but I just can’t find what could be wrong, although I suspect it has something to do with the mounting settings for the sd card, which I have tempered a bit !

    Thank you in advance

    1. SD or Custom Rom issue…

      Hi Eythymis,

      An interesting issue you have there. Even more so because you said that it works fine for a few hours before it starts to malfunction. Hard to say if it’s a problem with the phone (and that custom ROM) or an issue with the memory card itself.

      I have seen similar problems with phones that were running on stock software too (rare but I have seen it) so I think the first thing you will need to do is to try and narrow down as to whether it’s a problem with the phone itself or the SD card. Let me ask you some questions that might lead us to the answer.

      • Have you tried a different memory card?
      • Have you tried transferring all of the information currently stored on the memory card to another location (like a computer) and then reformatting the card to try it out when it’s freshly formatted and squeaky clean?
      • Have you tried that memory card in a different smartphone?
      • How much space is left on your SD card? Is it full or near full?
      • How much space is left on your cell phone? Is it full or near full? (This is more important than you might think).
      • Have you tried re-loading your custom software or the stock software back to the phone?
      • I’m not sure if it would help in this particular situation but have you tried hard resetting the phone yet? Trying it as a clean slate?

      If the memory card is malfunctioning and reformatting doesn’t seem to help then you will need to replace your memory card. If the phone is the culprit then it’s likely a software problem and you will need to try and find out what on the phone is causing this to happen…

  24. I truly appreciate you!
    Hi there! Just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all your help. I must say you are truly appreciated by me.. I was an iphone user, and recently switched to the Galaxy Note 3… to begin i am not computer savy lol, However I am truly giving an effort to learn! Staying positive is the way right! ; ) and you educated as well as walked me through the process. Thank you!

  25. help!
    Hi! Please can you help me!?! I have a sony xperia phone and I just got an SD card which is 8GB and have mounted it – I then tried to download apps such as messengers etc just general stuff but it says insufficient phone storage available – so how do I switch the apps from downloading to the phone and on the sd card? Please help!

    1. Insufficient phone storage available on your Sony Xperia

      Hi L,

      You have run out of space on your cell phones internal storage and when you try to download an app it is going to want to install onto your phone. After an app is installed onto your Sony Xperia some (not all) applications may allow you to move them to your new 8GB SD card.

      You can check out How to try and fix memory full error messages on an Android cell phone for more information about this issue but what you’ll need to do first is try to free up some space on your phones storage. I recommend you start out by moving all of your media files from your Sony Xperia to your SD card along with any applications on your phone that will let you move them to your SD card. After you have some available storage again you might have a little more wiggle room to download apps and then you can try to move those apps to your memory card.

        1. You’re welcome

          Your welcome L, glad I could help. Just keep an eye on the available internal storage space and you should be in great shape.

  26. factory reset
    If I unmount my sd card and factory reset my phone, am i able to still have my saved data.

    1. Yep, in fact that’s what a lot of people do

      Hi Patrick,

      As long of the information is already saved onto your SD card then yes you can unmount the SD card and even remove it from the phone as an extra precaution before performing a factory data reset on your Android cell phone. That way there is absolutely no chance of the reset affecting any of the information saved to that memory card.

      Unless you specifically tell an Android phone to format the SD card then a hard reset should not touch an external memory card. A lot of people still do this as an extra precaution however just to avoid any possible complications.

      So unmount and reset at year heart’s desire. Terrific question Patrick. If you have any more questions then don’t hesitate to ask.

  27. I unmounted my card and now my phone is not responding to it
    It is quite responsive to another sd card but this one its not… i am really worried about the stuff that is on it since a lot of it is private so I would really appreciate it if I can save them on my own.. its an 8GB and my phone is a Samsung galaxy duos core.

    1. That’s not a good sign…

      Hi Quaa,

      If you simply un-mounted your memory card then I don’t see any reason why it would refuse to work afterwards… I assume that your phone and card were not encrypted and that you didn’t perform any hard resets or anything when the card was out of the phone right? You were able to try a different SD card, which is great as you know that your issue lies with the card and not the phone, but have you been able to try the problematic card in another device?

      If your SD card won’t read properly in anything that you try it in (not even a computer) then you should do your best to reformat it and wipe it clean. Especially if you have personal or private information on it. If your card is totally unresponsive and void of life then you might need a new SD card in which case you should destroy the one you are having issues with so that there is no chance of your private data getting recovered by anyone in the future.

  28. everything’s disappeared?
    i unmounded my sd card so i could remove it to make sure all of my pictures were saved to it but when i put my memory card back in none of my pictures came back.. help?!

    1. Make sure that your SD Card is mounted

      Hi Harri,

      Don’t panic just yet. Sometimes after inserting (or in this case reinserting) a memory card the phone won’t automatically mount it for you. Make sure to check to verify that your SD Card is mounted otherwise your phone isn’t going to communicate with it correctly and your pictures (while still safe on the SD Card) are going to appear like their gone.

      I have a feeling that a quick check of your settings (to verify that it’s mounted) or a restart of your phone should get everything working properly again and bring your pictures back. If it doesn’t then try powering your phone off, removing the memory card, powering the phone on, then off again, then reinsert the card, power the phone back on and check for your pictures.

      Oh, and since your pictures disappeared when you removed your memory card it means that they are in fact saved to it.

  29. SD Card
    my phone automatically started to switch off and when i tried to switch it on it stacked and finally switched off, i removed the sd card and it worked perfectly, when i insert the sd card again it repeated the same story, so what can i do to make it work while the sd card is inserted, please help me.

    1. Sounds like your Memory Card is malfunctioning

      Hi Thom,

      From your description it sounds like your SD card is malfunctioning. Have you tried using your memory card in a computer or another cell phone to see if it will function properly? If it does work properly in another device but it doesn’t work in your cell phone then the memory card port on your cell phone might be malfunctioning. Hopefully that’s not the case though as a malfunctioning memory card port would be a lot harder to get fixed.

      If your memory card doesn’t seem to work in anything then you’re probably going to need to look into your warranty options for that SD card or invest in a new memory card. If you do need to get a new SD card then make sure to review this buying a memory card guide as it suggests what to look for when choosing the best SD card for a cell phone.

      If you can get any type of device to recognize the card then you might be able to reformat it and get it to read properly again. Hard to say for sure but from your description it sounds like your memory card has gone bad.

  30. Help!
    OK, so I had all my apps saved in my sd card, but I happened to switch devices. Now when I install the same apps, (isn’t the data supposed to transfer? For example, if I’m playing a game that is saved on my sd card, and I put the sd card in another phone and install the exact same app, shouldn’t my saved data transfer to that phone? Let’s say I’ve been playing a game for a while, and I saved, if I take the sd card and insert it in another phone with the same app, shouldn’t I be able to continue my game from the new device?) The same data won’t load! I don’t want to start my games all over, since I was pretty far ahead, I would appreciate if you could help me, thanks!

    1. Trying to recover application data

      Hi Fanny,

      Yes, for the most part an app may need to be reinstalled onto the phone but it should automatically seek out any information previously saved to the SD card and then automatically sync that information from the memory card to the app and the phone. This is what is supposed to happen.

      Here are some things that you can do if you are still having issues…

      • Make sure the SD card is mounted – sometimes you have to mount the memory card after inserting it into the phone. If it isn’t mounted properly then it isn’t going to communicate with the phone properly and of course it isn’t going to sync the app data properly. Since you are posting a comment on this particular guide you have probably already verified this but I thought that I would mention it just in case.
      • Restart your cell phone – perhaps a quick reboot will instruct the app to try and sync again.
      • Make sure it’s the right app – common sense I know but still, make sure that you downloaded the exact same application that you were using before.
      • Check for the data using a file manager – I am not quite sure what cell phone(s) you are using but try using a file manager to open the storage on your SD card and see if you can locate saved information for that application. Perhaps there is no data for the app to sync with.
      • Contact the app developer – Not all applications are created equal and you might need to contact the person or people who wrote the application in order to discover how the app saves data and if you need to do something in particular to recover app data from an external memory card.

      I hope that helps Fanny. Good luck my friend and if there is anything else that I can try to do to help you just let me know.

      1. Yes, I have checked
        Yes, I have checked everything, it is mounted correctly, and it works fine. I have installed a file app, but looking for the particular data seems quite some trouble, since sometimes inside a folder There’s a folder, and inside that folder There’s another folder, and so forth. I have spent countless times trying to look for the app data but the files don’t seem to end. I’m not particularly sure of what I’m looking for, either. Also, I have already restarted my phone before, and it won’t work. I hope you can help me, thank you.

        1. Those files can go pretty deep

          Hi again Fanny,

          If the memory card is working properly then that’s a good thing. As you noticed those files can require some serious browsing. You open one folder and then another folder within that one and then another two within that one and then another inside that one and before long you feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole ;). Welcome to the Wonderland of a file directory :).

          Without having your phone in my hand it is going to be really difficult to try and pinpoint the files (if any) so try this first…

          Re-download the app (which it sounds like you did already) and then save some data using that app. Then use that file manager to search for that newly created file for that app data. Typically the file that contains that app data should be within the first few levels of the file directory. If you don’t see it right away on your memory card then switch over and check the memory on your cell phone. I have a nagging suspicion that the app you are using stores its data to the phone as opposed to the SD card. If that’s the case then the data was stored to your old phone and not the memory card and that’s why it’s not auto recovering everything.

          The location where your app stores all of its information is going to depend on how the app was written so I cannot give you step by step instructions on where to look 🙁 but if you let me know what app you have (and it’s not a paid app) I don’t mind downloading it onto my S4 and then tracking down the location (where the app saves to on an S4 that is) and then letting you know what I discover. The location should be relatively the same for most Androids but if you let me know what make and model of phone you are currently using then that might help me with specifics as well.

          If it’s a paid app, or that application stores it’s information in a unique way (like online) then you might still need to contact the app developer for help restoring data to that specific application.

          Let me know one way or the other Fanny and I will do what I can to help you.

          1. It’s kind of embarrassing…
            W-well… my friend got me hooked in these silly dating games, the one I’m particularly concerned of is “shall we date? Ninja Assassin+” (make sure it has the +, otherwise you’ll have to pay for it!) You can get that in the app store, and I’m not sure about my device…. I don’t know what I have…. I’m not very helpful, I know. But all I know is that I’m using an android from cricket… I’m sorry I’m not very helpful in gathering data, but I appreciate you taking your time helping me out! I have tried countless sites, but I’m so clueless, I usually mix people up, so I’m sorry if i do that. Also, I have an 8GB memory card. Thanks for the help so far, I’ll try my best at figuring some things out. Thanks again!

  31. Hello
    Hello. I’ve done all of the steps that you had given. I unmounted my sd card before removing it and transferred all the data to my laptop. Then I put my sd card back into my phone and tried to format the sd card. But I cant find the format button. How can this be? Should I just erase the sd card?

    1. Formatting an Androids SD Card

      Hi Stephanie,

      Formatting your SD card is going to erase everything from the memory card. If that is what you are trying to accomplish and you have already backed up the data from your memory card onto your computer then you can format your SD card through your phones settings.

      I’m not sure what phone you have or what version of software its running on but on my Samsung Galaxy S4 to get to the “Format SD card” option I would go to my Home Screen, tap on the Menu key, select Settings, tap on the More tab, scroll down and tap Storage and then scroll down to the very bottom of the screen to select Format SD card and then I would confirm the command by pressing the “Format SD card” button. These steps might be slightly different depending on what phone you have but you should be able to search through your phones Storage options under its Settings for a Format SD card option as well.

      I hope this helps. If you have any issues or questions just let me know and I will see what I can do to help.

  32. What happens to your data if
    What happens to your data if you take out the SD card from the phone WITHOUT unmounting first? Will you loose all the data?

  33. Damaged sd card
    Hi. So my Note 2 says, damaged sd card. On being clicked, it pops up a formatting box which says all the data will be erased. Please suggest how to solve the issue. In the settings, I have a mount option instead of an unmount, even though my sd card is in the phone itself. Thank you!

    1. Working with a damaged or malfunctioning SD card

      Hello Shreya,

      It sounds like your memory card is either damaged or malfunctioning (or both) and it might be difficult to salvage any of the data on that card… if I was in your place then I would try to remove the card from the phone, plug it back into the phone, cross your fingers and then try to mount it again. If it won’t read through your cell phone then try plugging the card into a computer to see if a computer can read any information on the card. If that doesn’t work then you will likely need to format the card to get it functional again.

      Then I suggest that you backup the information on that card to a computer periodically just in case the SD card starts to malfunction again. If it becomes a common occurrence then to avoid any future trouble you might want to buy a good memory card to replace it.

  34. Unmount sd card, there is no sd card…
    I am using a CELKON mobile phone. I didn’t insert a memory card but when I go to download images from whatsapp it shows an error like “cannot download because no SD card is available. Please insert SD card or unmount it as disk drive and try again”.. My phone has an internal memory of 12 GB and has plenty of storage space available.

    Please help.
    Thanks in advance.

  35. Android 4.2 tablet moving music to external SD card
    Please help!!! I’m so confused. My Toshiba Excite 4.2 tablet’s internal SD card is full (I can’t update my apps) and I have 2-16 gb SD cards but can’t figure out how to put music on them. I can mount and unmount them, but I’m never given the option to format them. I can put my cameras SD card in my tablet and look and the pictures but I can’t move my downloaded music (from Google play) to the other SD cards. One is brand new and I think the other one is empty but I’ve been using the brand new one just in case. I downloaded es file explorer but I can’t find my music. I watched a YouTube video about downloading ROM toolbox to get my music but that app page said it could be very dangerous! I hope you can help, I live in a small town and really need good music in my jeep!! Thank you

  36. SD card
    I have a 14gb SD card. I have moved all the apps on my phone to SD card. But now I want to remove my SD card in order to watch a movie on another bigger tablet that has very small storage. So if I remove the card what happens to my apps? When we use the move to SD card option in app Info window the entire app does not move into the card but I think its only the app data that gets transferred. So once I remove my card will the data of my apps such as some games get removed and will I have to start the game from beginning again?

    1. Apps to SD card

      That might all depend on what application you are using and how that app was written… You might have to give it a try to know for sure but it sounds like your most likely going to be spot on concerning your app data. If you move that app data to the external storage and then remove the external storage then that data won’t be available on your phone until you reinsert the card.

      As always, make sure to unmount or power off your smartphone before removing its memory card.

  37. Help please. SD card suddenly cannot detect…
    Hi admin, I need your help. Yesterday my SD card suddenly cannot be detected while my phone is switch on. So I tried to restart my phone but my SD Card still cannot be detected. Then I switch off my phone removed and reinserted the SD Card, switch it on again and my phone still can’t detect it. I connected my phone to a laptop which couldn’t detect it either. I borrowed my friend’s phone to insert the SD Card and it could not detect it either.

    I bought this 16GB SD Card just over a year ago and its warranty has ended. So what’s the problem? Is it that my SD Card has spoiled? 🙁 I need your help admin. I want to get back all the media in my gallery…

    1. Sounds like a bad memory card

      From your description it sounds like your SD card has malfunctioned. Great troubleshooting by the way. You might want to try inserting your memory card into a PC for good measure but since you mentioned that you have already tried the card in a different phone which was unable to read it as well it sounds like the card is bad and will need to be replaced.

      Which stinks if your memory card is no longer covered under warranty as you’ll not only lose the data which was saved to the card but you will have to purchase another card as well. Choosing a quality memory card with a good warranty is always a good idea when it comes to smart devices. Speaking of which, I suppose that any SD card can fail but SD cards are typically pretty resilient little pieces of hardware, out of curiosity what brand of memory card is the card in question and did this start happening after the phone was dropped or exposed to some kind of moisture or did it just happen suddenly for no apparent reason?

  38. MicroSDHC card failure!
    Hi there,

    The other day my Galaxy S4 got stuck in a re-booting loop. I turned it off and when I came back to it a few hours later it notified me that my MicroSD card was “blank or has an unsupported file system”, giving me the option to Format the card. Obviously I don’t want to lose my photos and data that are stored on the card so I’d greatly appreciate any advice you can give!

    I have tried using a MicroSDHC adapter to try and read it on my laptop, as well as a USB adapter, but the card is not detected. (I have tried the adapters with other data storage devices and they work perfectly so I’m quite certain it’s not a hardware issue!) I also tried the card in another phone and it just does not come up.

    Now when I put the card in my phone it initially says that it is preparing the card, then it says the card is blank and finally it stops reading it all together, with no option to mount the card.

    I have a lot of treasured photos on the card which I have foolishly not backed up. Any advice you can give would be hugely appreciated!

    1. Trying to recover your information

      Hi Courtney,

      It sounds like your memory card has malfunctioned for some reason. Time will tell if reformatting the card will allow you to use it again but it sounds like your first priority is going to be to try and save those treasured photos of yours. While there are no guarantees when it comes to these types of situations you may be able to use a data recovery tool for your SD card. Just make sure that you try to recover that data right away. If you reformat the card and start using it right away then you run the risk of overriding information that you might not want overwritten.

      There are many free data recovery programs available online. Just remember that when downloading any free program(s) online you should try to do some research and investigate that program before making your final decision and I usually recommend that you try to download it from the software’s official website and try to avoid downloading it from some random third party site.

      This should give you a fighting chance at recovering your precious photos.

      Oh, and if you choose to continue using that same SD card (this might have been a simple one time glitch after all) then you may want to periodically backup the content of your SD card to another source such as a computer. That way if your SD card acts up again, which it may not, you will have that backup available and you can at that point decide to keep or replace that fickle SD card.

  39. This is a perfect website for a non-technical person…
    Hello… this is a perfect website for a non-technical person like me. I have tried some of your solutions and all of them have worked… and the best part is, you give various alternatives, if 1 doesn’t work for us then another 1 will definitely do… thanks a lot, you do a great job! But I have a small query related to the topic in this article! You might find it a little strange or silly but its just a personal preference, nothing more…

    So the thing is, at times when I am busy I don’t want social apps (which are stored in my sd card, not on my phone) to distract me! I remove the sd card and keep it away, but instead of doing this exercise over and over again I thought I could just unmount the sd card and stay that way (without physically removing it from the phone) and then mount it back whenever I need it! All I wish to know is will it harm the phone or pose any problem if the sd card exists inside the phone and stays unmounted for a certain period of time…?

    Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for the response… 🙂

    1. Unmounting an SD card as opposed to physically removing it

      Hi Samreen,

      Telling your phone to unmount the SD card is simply telling it to stop communicating with the card. So if you are physically removing your card from the phone un-mounting it might be an easier alternative and I don’t think that it would hurt anything. No more than constantly removing the SD card anyways.

      If you don’t mind me asking… what part of the social apps are distracting? You can turn off or adjust notifications for the phone and often you can configure the settings for many of those types of apps as well.

      It might be a little easier then constantly messing with your SD card. If it’s the temptation of using the app however then that might be a whole other story.

      I hope that helps Samreen. Let me know if you have any other questions.

      1. Thanks for the advice, James.
        Thanks for the advice, James. I will try not to mess with my SD card again and again. Basically I’m a student, and a very amicable person. Hence got a lot of friends and so social apps like whatsapp, imo etc distract me, that is why i remove my SD card (which contains all those apps) and keep it away nearing exams.

  40. Dropped phone knocked out battery while transferring files
    I have a galaxy s3 and I recently replaced my 16gb sd card with a 64gb card. While I was transferring my files from old card-to phone/phone-to new card i dropped my phone causing the battery to pop out. In short I lost all my files no big as all pics were backed up but now the 64gb;(which was in the phone when I dropped it) any pictures i save to the card are automatically corrupted. Is there anyway to fix this? I formatted it after i figured out that my files were gone and that didn’t fix it.

  41. I have a problem with my sd
    I have a problem with my sd card can someone help to fix it? The problem is I have formatted my memory card more than 4 times but after a few minutes I get all my files back to the sd card again and it says I don’t have permission to delete it. I have checked for viruses and malware, and there is no such issues and I am not able to download new apps on the phone with this memory card. It says file package invalid and has bad manifest for all the apps. Please help me to solve this. Is replacing the sd card the only solution for this??

  42. Corrupted memory card
    Hi
    I have an lg g3 with a 32gb memory card that i saved pictures to. Some of the pictures were starting to look a bit funny (just greyed out or only half the picture there) so I tried to save all the pictures via a usb, it only saved a few and then stopped. I decided to unmount the card and try it on my computer when i was back from holiday. now the computer says it is corrupted and doesn’t see any files on it and when i reload it onto the phone it detects it and asks if i want to mount it. I have pictures that i thought were backing up onto picasa but aren’t there now (another issue!). I think all is lost, do you have any ideas? Will mounting it do anything worse? Thanks!

  43. I can’t power off my Samsung Galaxy Player YP-G70…
    I have searched everywhere for an answer to this – I have a Samsung Galaxy Player YP-G70 that I need to take the external SD card out of but…I accidentally took the card out many, many moons ago without unmounting it (bad, bad user, I know) and of course I am having trouble with it. I tried to officially unmounts it the correct way through settings, but the player won’t stop trying to unmounts the card – stayed in that mode for many, many minutes. I tried to power the player off through the power button – held it down to get to the choice of “Silent Mode”, “Flight Mode”, or “Power off” and chose Power Off. When I do this the player tries to shut down, but never actually gets there – the Settings, Home, and Back lighted “buttons” remain illuminated and the screen has a slightly back-lit appearance. It can sit like this for a LONG time.

    So – all that said, I was hoping that someone knows how to do the following:
    1 – how to totally power off a player that doesn’t seem to know how to do that so I can safely unmount the SD card while the player is “really” off
    2 – Is there any other way to deal with the SD card problem if I can’t get the Settings Unmount option to work and I still can’t get the player to fully shut down?

    I have tried to hook the player to my PC to download what is on the sd card, but the player and the PC won’t talk to one another. The Player just sits there and spins and the PC twiddles its thumbs waiting to see something, which never happens.

    Thanks so much for any and all advice offered. I am hopeful that there is a solution that will work.

  44. Thanks for help
    Very clear instructions ! I can’t emphasize enough how refreshing it is to be able to follow your suggestions!
    Thank you for your help ! 🙂

  45. Thanks for the info..
    Thanks for the info.. I damaged my SD card But after following your instructions now am happy it’s working again..thanks again

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