Unable to write to SD cards - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've done a lot of searching and can't seem to find any solutions to this problem. Few months ago i installed CM9 on my Galaxy Tab 7+. Everything worked fine to begin with, but after a while i was unable to delete stuff off my microsd card. I wound up buying a new card, copied the music and tv off the old card and installed it. Same problem. Now i have 2 microsd cards that I'm unable to write to at all. I can't write anything to them, can't delete anything off them and can't format them. I've tried using them both in my phone and on 3different Windows PCs with the same results. I have tried the SD card write fix referenced in the Galaxy Tab Plus development section and that didn't fix anything. The problem seems to be with the cards themselves, not the tablet (and phone and multiple pcs).
Mods, I know the problem originated with the tablet, but it doesn't seem to be a tablet issue which is why I posted here. There's also very little traffic in there, I'm hoping for greater exposure here. Thanks!

Minor update. I've played with it a bit more and it seems the problem is that I can't mount the card r/w. In root explorer it tells me /sdcard/extstorages/sdcard is mounted r/o. The Mount R/W button is there, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Also, in recovery adb I'm unable to mount the card r/w. Can only seem to mount it r/o. Also, when I put the card into a USB card reader and plug it into the laptop I can see the files just fine, but can't format the card. When I use the format command from the command prompt (running as administrator of course) it tell me "Cannot open volume for direct access."
Hope this more specific info helps.

Related

[Q] Strange SD card problem

Hi
I had some really strange issues with my SD card files and I was wondering if anyone could help.
Let's start with the start .
I'm running a GB ROM (OneDroid GB06) with Franco's kernel from 02 oct. Using a 16Gb class 6 SD card from A-Data. Partitions made with CWR version 3.1 (I think).
Anyway the problem is like this. I am using my phone as a voice recorder with AndRecorder Free from the Market. Usually record 10-15 minutes (up to 15MB) interviews and sometimes I record like 10 of them without downloading them to the PC. The problem I had was that after I recorded a few of them, when I connect the phone to PC with data cable, I can't see the recorded files in Explorer.
At first I had an issue when connecting the phone in USB storage mode it told me that I had some errors that had to be fixed. I could not see the files I needed in explorer and after dissconnecting from PC the files were gone from OI File Manager as well. I was however able to find them in the LOST.DIR.
I took the card out, put it in a card reader, backed up my files and did a full format and put all my files back. No more "need to fix" messages when connecting to PC, however I still cannot see the files that I record in Windows Explorer while connected in USB storage mode. In Oi File Manager I can see them, play them and even send to Dropbox via WiFi. Or if I take the card out and put it in a reader I am able to see them in Explorer as well.
Anyone has any idea about this? Kernel or ROM issue?
I used the same program (AndRecorder) before on 2.2 and I'm using it on another O1 running official 2.2.2 and never had a problem like this.
Blueyedevil said:
Hi
I had some really strange issues with my SD card files and I was wondering if anyone could help.
Let's start with the start .
I'm running a GB ROM (OneDroid GB06) with Franco's kernel from 02 oct. Using a 16Gb class 6 SD card from A-Data. Partitions made with CWR version 3.1 (I think).
Anyway the problem is like this. I am using my phone as a voice recorder with AndRecorder Free from the Market. Usually record 10-15 minutes (up to 15MB) interviews and sometimes I record like 10 of them without downloading them to the PC. The problem I had was that after I recorded a few of them, when I connect the phone to PC with data cable, I can't see the recorded files in Explorer.
At first I had an issue when connecting the phone in USB storage mode it told me that I had some errors that had to be fixed. I could not see the files I needed in explorer and after dissconnecting from PC the files were gone from OI File Manager as well. I was however able to find them in the LOST.DIR.
I took the card out, put it in a card reader, backed up my files and did a full format and put all my files back. No more "need to fix" messages when connecting to PC, however I still cannot see the files that I record in Windows Explorer while connected in USB storage mode. In Oi File Manager I can see them, play them and even send to Dropbox via WiFi. Or if I take the card out and put it in a reader I am able to see them in Explorer as well.
Anyone has any idea about this? Kernel or ROM issue?
I used the same problem before on 2.2 and I'm using it on another O1 running official 2.2.2 and never had a problem like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Few times the same problem happens to me I am using a sandisk 4gb SDHC card and i clicked some photos from the camera and those photos were visible in the gallery but when i connected to usb storage on computer, photos were not visible... I'm also using FRANCO.KERNEL for gingerbread 2oct but with stock ROM..
First - install Root Toolbox or Dual SD mount widget and try double-mounting the card when connected. If it fails try copying the parent folder to PC or try to list via typing (Should be on the sdcard directory you store the files) dir /a:h or dir /a:s in cmd (Should be your last hope, though).
Otherwise, try setting up a FTP Server and make sure the card is using a FAT32 file system.
Ianis, thanks for the solution, but I just want a way to make it work as it should, not to try and go back in DOS mode just to copy some freaking files.
Did you try:
Ianis G. Vasilev said:
First - install Root Toolbox or Dual SD mount widget and try double-mounting the card when connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try fix permissions in CWM. If that is not helping, use Root Explorer an check file or folder permissions. Also try to swich between R/O and R/W modes.
Try to buy another phone and sd card!
s0v3r3ign69 said:
Try to buy another phone and sd card!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Next time keep your mouth shut. At least this way the other people won't be aware of the disaster that lies within.

[Q] Music file transfer issue with new sd card

Hello xda peeps
I recently bought a new 32gb Kingston, class 4 sd card for my SII (ics)
I put the card into my phone, connected my phone to my desktop through the usb, and no matter how many different ways i try to transfer my music files onto the card, it fails. I have tried connecting through the USB mass storage utilities option, i have tried through MTP (although this wasn't available as an option until i downloaded and installed Kies), and i have also tried through Kies.
With each option, the files will transfer up to a certain point - around 15 albums or so, then after that, the files either don't copy across at all, or when i do manage copy them, they are totally corrupted, and they sound like they are skipping almost how a cd would skip if it is scratched or something. The actual files are fine (checked on my desktop) and i have copied files across in the past using the same computer (different sd card - 16gb Sandisk), same usb cable (although i have tried using a different one just in case), ao i am at a bit of a loss as to what is happening?!
I may still be in the dark ages somewhat with my desktop as i am running XP, but i didn't think this would be a problem really if i was simply connecting with USB mass storage or MTP and just dragging and dropping files.
Any ideas? The last thing i can really think of is that it is a dodgy sd, but does anybody here have any idea of any other issues which might be the problem?
Many thanks in advance!
Will
Sounds like the card to me. A way to check would be to find a PC (or buy a cheap one; I can pick one up for <$20 here) with a card reader & see what happens trying to transfer files that way & then putting card in the phone.
If that works OK, you could always try a full format of the card in Windows as well & then try transferring files again.
MistahBungle said:
Sounds like the card to me. A way to check would be to find a PC (or buy a cheap one; I can pick one up for <$20 here) with a card reader & see what happens trying to transfer files that way & then putting card in the phone.
If that works OK, you could always try a full format of the card in Windows as well & then try transferring files again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply, and yeah, i suspect it most likely is the card - the last thing to try really is what you suggest - trying to copy the files through a card reader in a laptop. I'll also try formatting in the pc as previously i've been formatting in my SII
One thing that was puzzling me a tad though and i did find a bit curious was that until i installed Kies onto my desktop, the option of MTP was not there. When the 'action' dialogue box popped up on screen, there was no option to open the folder to explore - it just gave me options to either transfer files using WMP or Photoshop. Similarly, when i opened up 'My computer', it was not showing as an external drive.
This was leading me to think that maybe there was some kind of conflict that i was unaware of using an old XP
Thanks again!
Installing Kies would have installed up to date drivers which probably activates MTP; Samsung may not have supplied M$ up to date drivers for XP directly/to include in Windoze Update maybe ?
No worries Hope you get it sorted, if it's still giving you dramas after trying those couple of things, post to this thread & I'm sure someone will have other ideas to try.
Edit - Had a lightbulb moment. If your phone is rooted/you're running a kernel with CWRecovery, you could try formatting the external SD card from there. One thing to be aware of if you try this, make sure you know the mount points for external/internal SD for the particular rom you're using; make sure internal is internal/external is external or whether they're swapped around like they used to be (might still be on some roms ?) on some roms. Last thing you want to do is accidentally format your internal SD
willdogon said:
thanks for the reply, and yeah, i suspect it most likely is the card - the last thing to try really is what you suggest - trying to copy the files through a card reader in a laptop. I'll also try formatting in the pc as previously i've been formatting in my SII
One thing that was puzzling me a tad though and i did find a bit curious was that until i installed Kies onto my desktop, the option of MTP was not there. When the 'action' dialogue box popped up on screen, there was no option to open the folder to explore - it just gave me options to either transfer files using WMP or Photoshop. Similarly, when i opened up 'My computer', it was not showing as an external drive.
This was leading me to think that maybe there was some kind of conflict that i was unaware of using an old XP
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MistahBungle said:
Installing Kies would have installed up to date drivers which probably activates MTP; Samsung may not have supplied M$ up to date drivers for XP directly/to include in Windoze Update maybe ?
No worries Hope you get it sorted, if it's still giving you dramas after trying those couple of things, post to this thread & I'm sure someone will have other ideas to try.
Edit - Had a lightbulb moment. If your phone is rooted/you're running a kernel with CWRecovery, you could try formatting the external SD card from there. One thing to be aware of if you try this, make sure you know the mount points for external/internal SD for the particular rom you're using; make sure internal is internal/external is external or whether they're swapped around like they used to be (might still be on some roms ?) on some roms. Last thing you want to do is accidentally format your internal SD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers! And yeah i'm sure i'll be back later if things don't work!
Phone isn't rooted - just got stock 4.0.4 running, and all i've tried is formatting it through the phone so far - I'll try through a laptop later
Just an update on this.
Seems like it was a card issue. Put the card into a laptop, formatted, opened it up, tried to copy files over & the same thing happened. It told me all files copied successfully, but when i put it into my phone, the majority of the files were missing.
Thanks for the help!

[Q] cm7 cannot save to internal sd

Hello. I.ve checked the first 40 pages of the forum and have seen this posted before but with no answers. I.m running cm7 on a 16gb NT, and for the most part, everything is good. However, I want to use my internal space to save things to, like pictures from the internet, etc. Whenever I try now, a message says I Don.t have an external SD card installed, which I Don.t, but I have almost 8 gigs of internal space I.d like to use. Also the media player installed with cm7 says no SD card installed. Surely there must be a way to use the internal space and have the apps detect it as an SD card?
There is a way, I haven't tried myself, that involves swapping internal with external memory, by tweaking build.prop and vold.fstab files. This makes the internal memory external, though the label remains as the original.
And you don't have 8gb internal memory (unless you reparationed it) but 1gb only.
when i go to storage in settings, it says i have 5.5G of internal storage and 7.45G of additional storage under /mnt/media. i haven't repartitioned anything myself, but this was a pre-owned nook, so maybe the original owner did. also, i do have the "internal storage" box checked in cyanogen settings... Any ideas? Or do you have more info on the file editing?
pournstarr said:
...
Or do you have more info on the file editing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2068595
^^ link above is the method but for cm10 where storage is mounted as storage 0 and 1, in cm7 its emmc and SD card (or something like that)
So does anyone have the exact commands to use for cm7 in the fstab? Also, will I be adding these lines or replacing ones already there?
Does anyone have an answer for this? Its hard to believe all the NT owners out there are contented letting all that space go to waste...
Well, I'm not letting any space go to waste!. I put lots of stuff in my internal storage. Either I put it there when transferring from PC, or I transfer files between sd-card and internal.
But that's beside the point.
Check over in the Nook Color section and maybe you can find useful info there. I know it was discussed and solved for CM7 on the Color. Shouldn't be too different for the Tablet. One would think... and possibly be terribly wrong...
( I don't think there is a huge interest in CM7 for the NT any more.)
Has this issue been addressed in cm10? Does the nook recognize the extra internal space as a place to save stuff to from the internet and read files from like with media players? Sorry for being meticulous about this, but I bricked my other NT messing around trying to access this space (I unmounted and formatted it and believe I wiped my internal partitions) and don't want to mess up this one as well. Thanks for any help...
There doesn't seem to be an easy fix for this in CM10. However much I would appreciate having it done I don't think it's worth taking risks messing with things I don't understand, so I pop in an sd-card to keep the apps that want it happy. (Those of you that have more of a clue might think differently though.)
Things I want to stay on the Nook I put internally like I said in my previous post. Pictures, some books, soma PDF magazines, a couple of film clips... All in my internal "MyFiles" folder.
And how do you open those files, with a file explorer or with actual programs? Because like I said right now, even if I did have music stored in that internal space, the media player is telling me there is no sd card inserted and therefore won't even search for any music files.
I open from a file explorer and it asks me what I want to use and if to set to default the first time.
Edit: And also (I had to go check this to be sure I wasn't remembering wrong), once opened with Gallery the app seems to "remember" that there are albums in eMMc as well and they show up wvwn with sd removed. This is in CM10, mind you, if it acts differently in CM7 I wouldn't know.
More edit: I now checked on the kids' Nook Color running CM7, and both QuickPic and MX Player allow you through settings to decide where it looks for media. I still prefer going through a file explorer though.
and now we come to another issue... i cannot for the life of me get my computer to recognize my nook properly. i was going to add the files from my computer and then locate them with a file explorer, but when i connect it, either through the regular cm7 interface or through CWM, the computer cannot access the internal drives. it sees the nook, because 2 more drives open up, but i don't think i have the correct drivers, because it doesn't show up in ADB either. when i do adb devices, it comes up blank. the driver now lists the nook as Android ADB interface, don't know if thats correct or not, but doesn anyone have the proper windows 7, 64 bit drivers for this? nothing i've tried can gain access to those drives, or having the nook come up in adb...
Is this the first time you try to transfer files from PC to Nook? Has it been working before? Just to know if something has suddenly gone wrong .
You should get a prompt at the Nook telling you to enable USB storage or something like that. You probably need to go to settings and enable USB debugging or somethig similar as well.
Edit: I have never ever used ADB, so I have no clue how to fix things there!! I just use regular Windows File Explorer.
pournstarr said:
and now we come to another issue... i cannot for the life of me get my computer to recognize my nook properly. i was going to add the files from my computer and then locate them with a file explorer, but when i connect it, either through the regular cm7 interface or through CWM, the computer cannot access the internal drives. it sees the nook, because 2 more drives open up, but i don't think i have the correct drivers, because it doesn't show up in ADB either. when i do adb devices, it comes up blank. the driver now lists the nook as Android ADB interface, don't know if thats correct or not, but doesn anyone have the proper windows 7, 64 bit drivers for this? nothing i've tried can gain access to those drives, or having the nook come up in adb...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running cm7 alpha? I think there was this problem in that but was fixed in beta
yes this is my first time trying to transfer files from the PC to the Nook, I installed cm7 as soon as I got it (which was this xmas). I don't have my computer on right now, but I'm 99% sure when I unzipped the release it said beta. Team-B version. nothing ever pops up on the Nook or the computer screen when I plug it in, I can only see the drives that get added to my computer, but can't access them.
After plugging to PC via USB you should get prompt on tablets notification bar. Did you get that?
Sent from my ST21a
This is from the Nook Color section, but it shouldn't be too different for the Tablet. Post 2
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1760487
ok i see the notification on the bar and it says usb debugging connected. when i click on it, it brings me to the settings mentioned in that other thread that asawi linked, but the android debugging mode is already checked. i followed that other thread and it turns out that guys cable was bad, so i tried the other cable i had that came with my other NT and still no luck. i doubt both cables i got could be bad... any other ideas?
Edit: ok queer. i restarted the nook while the cable was plugged in, and then i did get the usb storage connection option. however, after i hit connect, i don't see the drives in my computer. so i updated the driver automatically, and it went from android phone back to usb composite device. then i the drives popped up in my computer, but i still can't connect to them. i tried adb throughout all these options and i didn't get the NT to show up in the devices list at all.
You don't get the " turn on USB Storage"? There's usually 2 notifications when connecting. The setting you mention and the "turn on USB storage"

[Q] Phone doesn't mount SD-Card, but I can mount it in the recovery mode

Hi,
When the (HTC Desire) phone is powered up it is unable to mount the SD card, and I am unable to have it mounted from the "Settings > SD card & Storage" menu. Having said that, the micro SD card can be accessed from a computer (when plugged in directly to the computer, i.e. no issue with the card), and moreover, when I am in the recovery mode, I can have it mounted and browse it. By the way, the card could be accessed from the phone until I downgraded the O/S, and managed to have it rooted.
When the phone is running normally, and connected to the USB port of a laptop, the laptop does recognize a device connected (can even do ADB), but I believe because the SD card is not mounted, the phone does not offer the option to make the card appear as a disk drive for computer access.
I am running the original (RUU, Telstra) Android 2.2 (2.26.841.2) on a HTC desire, after I had it "S-OFF'ed". After reloading the original 2.2, I had it rooted.
The micro SD card is a 2GB one, with approx 1.5GB formatted as FAT16 (contains typical file and photos), and 0.5 GB as EXT3 (contains nothing at the moment).
HBoot: 6.93.1002
S-Off (thanks to Revolutionary)
Recovery mode: ClockworkMod v5.0.2.0 (I manually loaded it)
I have searched online for solutions, and have not been able to have it fixed. Others seem to have different issues to that of mine. Usually, they cannot mount the SD-card at all (not even from recovery), or their SD card just needed to be reformatted. I think I have indicated that these do not appear to be relevant to my issue at all. I have also tried "Fastboot oem enableqxdm 0", and it made no difference.
I look forward to your kind responses and feedback.
Thank you for your attention.
desiremhtc said:
Hi,
When the (HTC Desire) phone is powered up it is unable to mount the SD card, and I am unable to have it mounted from the "Settings > SD card & Storage" menu. Having said that, the micro SD card can be accessed from a computer (when plugged in directly to the computer, i.e. no issue with the card), and moreover, when I am in the recovery mode, I can have it mounted and browse it. By the way, the card could be accessed from the phone until I downgraded the O/S, and managed to have it rooted.
When the phone is running normally, and connected to the USB port of a laptop, the laptop does recognize a device connected (can even do ADB), but I believe because the SD card is not mounted, the phone does not offer the option to make the card appear as a disk drive for computer access.
I am running the original (RUU, Telstra) Android 2.2 (2.26.841.2) on a HTC desire, after I had it "S-OFF'ed". After reloading the original 2.2, I had it rooted.
The micro SD card is a 2GB one, with approx 1.5GB formatted as FAT16 (contains typical file and photos), and 0.5 GB as EXT3 (contains nothing at the moment).
HBoot: 6.93.1002
S-Off (thanks to Revolutionary)
Recovery mode: ClockworkMod v5.0.2.0 (I manually loaded it)
I have searched online for solutions, and have not been able to have it fixed. Others seem to have different issues to that of mine. Usually, they cannot mount the SD-card at all (not even from recovery), or their SD card just needed to be reformatted. I think I have indicated that these do not appear to be relevant to my issue at all. I have also tried "Fastboot oem enableqxdm 0", and it made no difference.
I look forward to your kind responses and feedback.
Thank you for your attention.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the forum.
I had the same problem once. The solution is very simple but annoying: Many Android phones are unable to mount SD cards formatted with tools like MiniTool Partition Wizard. Reformat the SD card using CWM (ClockWorkMod) recovery and everything will be fine.
Good luck.
It worked
nik10 said:
Welcome to the forum.
I had the same problem once. The solution is very simple but annoying: Many Android phones are unable to mount SD cards formatted with tools like MiniTool Partition Wizard. Reformat the SD card using CWM (ClockWorkMod) recovery and everything will be fine.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear friend,
Thank you so much for your simple tip. It worked! I felt so dumb for not trying it out myself. I guess I was tired of trying things without considering moving my data back and forth. Once more thank you.
AW: [Q] Phone doesn't mount SD-Card, but I can mount it in the recovery mode
desiremhtc said:
Dear friend,
Thank you so much for your simple tip. It worked! I felt so dumb for not trying it out myself. I guess I was tired of trying things without considering moving my data back and forth. Once more thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this IS annoying. I had the same problems and copied my data three times (~ 12 GB). So I can understand that.
Good evening,
I have also the same prroblem.
Is there any manual - instructions that I could follow in order to solve the issue with the CWM?
Thanks in advance.

Unable to move apps to USB OTG, need help

I've read many forums but I'm afraid I'm still stuck.
My phone is a Moto G XT1032, and I have installed Nano 7.1 using the final Rom 4.6 a fully stable build finished January 28th, 2018.
I have always been able to plug in the USB OTG and see it on File Explorer and copy and paste files, but I was unable to read them directly off the USB without it creating a temporary file first.
At that point, it wasn't mounted.
But using root and StickMount I was able to mount my USB, and when it had 2 partitions both were mentioned as having successfully mounted.
But even after mounting it successfully I couldn't read files directly off the USB OTG as it still copies it to Internal Storage first in the Cache before later deleting it, so I copied it to a folder used it and deleted it which worked well for videos but won't work for apps.
I read various forums but the most informative was
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/4-1-how-to-app-100-to-microsd-usb-otg-t2934974
So, hoping the guide would help I took a blank USB and formatted it the same way the thread did
I created two partitions, a Fat32 and EXT3 and I made the EXT3 partition the active one as the guide mentioned.
I found a pro-BusyBox and performed the smart install.
After that I installed LetsGoApp but no matter what I did it did not detect it as a USB OTG that was mounted. I even tried Mount SD 2nd Partition and Hot Reboot but neither worked
It mentioned that if there were problems detecting it to try to use Link2SD
But under storage Info it saw the External SD of my Fat32 but did not see an SD Card 2nd part nor did it allow me to move any apps either.
I'm not sure what the problem is, the only idea I have is to see if reformatting the EXT3 as an EXT4 and seeing if that helped because other forums used it instead.
Is there something I'm missing that would solve the problem?

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