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Empty sd memory card what to do. Broken SD card slot. Wrong SD format

Most users of mobile phones and smartphones are faced with a situation where the phone does not see the memory card. Sometimes this question arises immediately after purchasing the device, but more often than not it fails later, having already become an integral attribute. Everyday life and accumulate important files. There are many reasons why a flash drive is not displayed on the screen and, with some effort, the owner can always eliminate them.

If the phone does not see the memory card, it may be a software problem; this is the factor that is detected in half of the situations. Just as often, defects are the result of a banal flash drive failure; here only a replacement will help, although modern capabilities allow you to recover data from damaged media.

If you lack time and desire, there is always the option of turning to the specialized services of a service center, but they cost money and will cost more than the flash drive itself. Instructions for restoring the browsing function apply to all generations of mobile devices, including older versions. In these cases, in response to the question: why doesn’t the phone see the memory card, one can only throw up one’s hands: he’s tired, he’s leaving. But! Data can always be reproduced in full!

In extreme situations, a reading device will help, from which they can all be easily transferred to a PC.

Factors due to which the phone does not see the memory card

When wondering why the smartphone does not see the memory card, its owner needs to analyze the following points:

  1. Why did it fail;
  2. Find out the current state;
  3. Clarify the causes of failures;
  4. If they touch software, then why doesn’t Android see the memory card.

Then based on the results

  1. Format via PC;
  2. Format via smartphone.

It must be remembered that when installing a flash drive for the first time, difficulties are often caused by its capacity. This is especially true for outdated models that are unable to support modern products.


If new phone does not see the memory card, what to do will tell you the following list, which lists the main problems and ways to eliminate them.

  • Crashes file system. The most common problem, which can be eliminated by reformatting the flash drive;
  • Poor connection to flash reader. The flash drive must be inserted more tightly, and then the mobile phone must be rebooted;
  • The phone does not see the memory card because the reading connector is completely faulty. Only contacting the specialized services of a repair center will help here;
  • The flash drive simply burned out. It will no longer be possible to revive it, but there is still hope for data recovery. Modern features allow you to do this.

The phone does not see the memory card. Procedure

First of all, it needs to be rebooted. Usually this procedure is enough to correct software failures and other difficulties. If after rebooting the phone does not see the microSD memory card, you need to remove the outer cover and take out the battery, behind which the flash reader is located and check the contacts. In other models, the socket is located on the side, here you also need to try to press it more tightly to the contacts. The main thing is not to overpress, so as not to cause mechanical damage.

When there are no positive results, the product is checked on another device. The ideal option is a card reader connected to a computer. The other one would be great too mobile device. If it and all the stored information are available, it means that the problem is in the smartphone and repairs are no longer possible. The main reasons are caused by software deficiencies or damaged contacts.

When another phone does not see the memory card, we're talking about or about defects file structure, or the flash drive simply burned out. In this case, it can no longer be restored, whereas file failures can be easily eliminated by simply formatting the product.

Format using PC

You must remember that during the process all information from the drive will be deleted. If you are sure that the memory card is not visible on the phone due to software problems– no, but the stored information is important, it is better to take it to the repair service.

In another situation, you need to format the flash drive in the following sequence:

  • It is placed in the reader and then in the computer connector;
  • The launch should start automatically. If this is not the case, it means that the phone has stopped seeing the memory card due to its problems. You need to go to “My Computer” and look at the list available connections. The absence of a storage device in it indicates that it has burned out;
  • When there is a display, right-click it and activate the “Format” option;
  • A menu appears on the screen where the user must select a format. It is represented by 2 types NTFS and FAT. The lion's share of flash drives belongs to the FAT standard, which is chosen from the very beginning. If there are no positive results, you can try NTFS;
  • Having determined the format, the owner activates the “Start” option and waits for the operation to complete;
  • Next, the formatted flash drive is checked again to see if it works. It happens that at this stage all questions are removed.

In the absence of a card reader, all actions can be easily performed using a mobile device.

Format without a computer

So, what to do if you don’t have a card reader, PC or laptop. It doesn’t matter, the product can be easily formatted using a mobile phone, you just need to go to Android “Settings”. They are located in the corresponding list, where the owner can use the “Disable” and “Remove” functions. Most current devices immediately prompt the owner to format the drive. You should not perform the operation right away, because, just like in the case of a computer, the operation completely erases all stored files.

Before this, you need to check the contacts again, eliminating the possibility of a weak connection. After making sure that the connection is sufficiently dense, the user begins the actual process.

– Select the “Clear” option from the menu. It takes little time and usually takes one minute. Then the “Connect SD card” function is activated in the menu and if mechanical faults no, she's ready to go.

When understanding the reasons, you should remember different versions Android firmware. The order of actions depends on this. In other operating systems, the procedure is performed in a similar way; just find the “Settings” category

From time to time, an error may occur on users' SD cards, in which the camera begins to display messages indicating that there is there are none left free space , although the photographer knows that it is empty. If you have this exact situation, then you have come to the right place and our article will help you fix the drive problem.

Let's look at a couple of examples from user stories to explore the topic in more detail.

Case one.

The user deleted some images from the SD card on the laptop and when he installed it back in Sony camera Alpha, she informed him that the drive could not be used because it was full. However, when I try to view the content, the device does not show images.

Case two.

A user with the same camera had a similar situation, but in reverse order. First, the error appeared on the camera and only then, when I tried to connect the card to the computer, the operating system was unable to open the contents of the drive.

Useful articles


Is there a way to resolve the issue? And if so, which one?

If your camera's SD card suddenly encounters a full problem, you might be wondering about the possible causes.

  • 1) There are invisible or hidden files, so the SD card appears full even though there appears to be nothing on it at first glance.
  • 2) Formatting error. You may have removed the card at the wrong time, causing the file system to crash.
  • 3) Camera problem.

Solution one. Show and export hidden files

Step 1. Export and recover hidden files from SD card.

The first thing to remember in this situation is that you should not panic if you lose access to the information stored on the drive. Unfortunately, in standard list software Windows software There are no utilities capable of restoring files, so you will have to resort to specialized third-party software.

Starus Photo Recovery will become good choice for both beginners and professional photographers. The application allows the user to forget about the risks of losing important images from weddings and other important events due to a failure on the SD card.

1. Connect the card to your computer. Launch the Starus Photo Recovery file recovery program and select the drive you want to scan from the list provided.

2. Select the analysis type according to your needs. Quick Scan will allow you to carry out a lightning-fast assessment of the drive, finding everything on it latest files. Full analysis will help produce deep check SD cards and find even the oldest files that you may have already forgotten about.

3. If you wish, you can specify Extra options search, thereby excluding unwanted or unnecessary files from the list.

4. Wait for the scanning process to complete and carefully examine the results. In the presented list of files, you can find the images needed for recovery with a preview option in the window on the right. In addition to the photo itself, Starus Photo Recovery provides the user with the opportunity to see the file creation date, format and resolution in pixels.

5. Having decided on the images that need to be restored, select the ones you need and click Further(by default, all found files are selected). Select the most convenient method from the four offered and complete the data export process.

Step 2: Show hidden files on SD card.

1. Open start menu and enter in the dialog box Control Panel or open it in the right menu.

2. Toggle option View to mode Category and open the menu Design and personalization.

3. Open Folders settings.

4. In the window that appears, open the tab View, scroll down the list of options and select active Show hidden files, folders and drives.

5. Click Apply And OK to save your changes.

Solution two. Format the SD card correctly

1. Connect the SD card to your computer.

2. Open My Computer and find the damaged drive in the list on the left.

3. Right-click on the name and select Format.

4. Select file NTFS system and start the formatting process.

We recommend that you read all possible ways SD card recovery and Flash drives in the article How to recover a damaged flash drive or SD card

Please tell me how to restore the memory card. She just stopped answering at some point, and they left wonderful photos.

Best regards, Mikhail Borisov.

Flash memory has made it possible to make drives compact and capacious at the same time. In just a few years, manufacturers have gone from the SD format, 32x24 mm, to the miniature Micro-SD, 11x15 mm. Now such drives can be seen in laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Therefore, issues related to them unite almost all owners of mobile devices today. Why can data loss occur on the SD card, and what to do in this case?

Reasons for losing SD card data

An SD card is very thin and capricious electronic device. Therefore, anything can disable it:

  • Removing the card from the slot at the moment when the device, camera or phone is writing something to it;
  • Discharge of static electricity from the user's hands when the hands touch the contacts of the flash drive;
  • Device dropped;
  • Sudden shutdown when fully discharged battery

The problem may occur more often if applications have been installed on the card. The likelihood that at the time of a power outage or failure the drive was being written to is higher in this case. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers recommend installing everything important on the phone’s built-in memory, and storing only photos and music on the SD card.

Methods for recovering an SD memory card and data on it

In the most simple cases Regular scanning using the operating system helps: Android or Windows phone. After scanning, file system errors are automatically corrected. At most, only the last photo or song is lost. U Windows Phone 8.1 and higher have their own standard utility Scan SD card. It starts immediately when the phone starts, if the system suspects errors in the removable storage device.

On Android we recommend installing third party program. One of these is. According to user reviews, it helps many.

Recovery using Windows

You can remove the card from your mobile device and scan it using your desktop operating system.

Insert the SD card into the reader and start a normal flash drive scan. To do this, right-click on the shortcut and select properties.

Now you can click the Check and repair SD card button. Errors will be found and corrected.

Formatting the SD card

You can also format the SD card. This is also done through context menu By right key mice.

Please remember that the format offered by desktop operating system, does not always coincide with the one used mobile device. After eliminating the failures, it is better to format the SD card using the tablet or smartphone itself in which it is intended to be used.

SD Formatter

A good solution would be to use the SD Formatter program. It is specifically designed specifically for formatting drives of this type.

This method helps restore the functionality of some models car navigators . When writing a large map file larger than 1 GB to a flash drive, errors occurred. After formatting the SD Formatter and recording all the files again, the navigator began to work correctly.

In some cases, special utilities such as EasyRecovery can help in recovering data from an SD card.

Attention! If ChipGenius did not see the flash drive or SD card and it cannot be read on any device available to you, then all further attempts to revive the drive may be useless.

What should I do if the SD card is write protected?

Another typical failure with drives of this type is transition to the read-only state. If this happened with an SD card, check the position of the switch on the side. Maybe you switched it to read-only mode yourself by mistake.

Micro-SD does not have such a switch. Therefore we are dealing with a controller failure. If the card is branded, then you can look for a special utility from the manufacturer. They are produced for use in service centers. Essentially, these programs reset the controller to original state, which he received at the factory. Sometimes this way you can bring the drive itself back to life.

If something happens to the SD card, then first of all copy all the files from it to HDD computer or other media! This must be done before any operations with the drive. While working with him special utilities, you risk permanently losing not only the flash drive, but also the valuable data on it.

What to do if your SD card regularly fails

There are only two possible reasons: the drive itself or the device in which you are using it. Try replacing the card in your smartphone or tablet with a new one and observe the process. If the failures have stopped, then it is best not to use this capricious drive anymore. At the very important point it will let you down and leave you without important files.

If the smartphone is also unstable with the new media, then there may be a problem with its controller or firmware. Try to find a firmware update for the device and study the experiences of other users. It is known that old smartphones work unpredictably with cards of new formats with high density records. Perhaps things will be better with a simpler 16 or 32 GB card.