"SD Card Unexpectedly Removed" hardware issue solved - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey all,
I thought I would share my findings to help others with the same issue.
Two days ago I kept catching glimpses of a card image in the notifications at the top of the screen, but it would only be for a second so I could not see what it was trying to tell me. But had a quick look and sd card seemed fine and all data was present on handset. A couple of hours later it popped up with "SD Card Unexpectedly Removed". I tried ejecting and reinserting,restarting device and turning off and removing battery all to no avail. So I did a quick search which showed this seemed to be quite a common issue, after reading many threads with people saying the sd card is corrupt or network providers saying it was software and to do a restore. I decided before all that hassle I would open the phone and check the circuitboard expecting it to be a dry solder joint. One thing I will point out that was different to some other users is the fact my sd card was not visible with the phone connected to the computer, so this may not solve all related issues.
THE FIX
Turn off phone, remove the battery, SIM card and sd card. Remove all screws except the one by the 3.5mm jack. Gently pull the white plastic trim that surrounds the card holders and battery but the top part with speaker and camera does not need removing. Once removed if you look to the left of the sd card holder you will see the ribbon that connects the sd card to the main circuit board and at the end of the ribbon is the connector. Mine was disconnected and was loose, even if yours is not loose it would be worth gently pulling it off and reconnecting it. Then reassemble in the reverse order.
This was a nice surprise in the sense it was a very simple fix. However when I mounted the sd card even directly in my pc it was not found, I assume that the loose connector floating about had probably shorted its connections and caused an issue with the sd card. After a handfuls of attempts at mounting it in my pc it was finally detected and I backed up all the data and reformatted the sd card, then copied the data back,mounted it in my phone and was happy to find it all working as expected.
I hope this information will help some of you out, as it was a simple fix to a simple issue and results from searching had no solutions, just lots of assumptions.

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And what can I do
Hi
I read your articles and seem very good but u have a question.
I had the same issue and I saw that every time my phone said I hat message it creates in my sd card a folder named lost. I and then i saw that one part of my battery was going there, ti reconnect the phone with my sd card
I formatted my sd card and did all the things that I found in the Internetbut nnothing works and I just change my sd for another one I had and sincethere u ddon't have any other issue, but my computer detects very good my first sd card and I'm not sure how to fix it.
Any idea?
Regards

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Recently ive just faced this issue, what I did is to insert my 32gb sd card in my PC and run CHKDISK, havent got any error while performing this, thereafter i inserted it in my phone & goodness till now this sd card error hasn't appear yet. (finger crossed).

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Mine did something like this a few times and then the 32GB Sandisk class 10 card died. Couldn't get it to work in any device except Linux based Media player. Luckily managed to copy my nadroid backup and TB backup. Sent to Sandisk and they replaced it. There is already a thread about S3 damaging teh SD cards. May be the loose connection is what's causing the card to to end up dead.

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sak500 said:
Mine did something like this a few times and then the 32GB Sandisk class 10 card died. Couldn't get it to work in any device except Linux based Media player. Luckily managed to copy my nadroid backup and TB backup. Sent to Sandisk and they replaced it. There is already a thread about S3 damaging teh SD cards. May be the loose connection is what's causing the card to to end up dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah,as mentioned I have seen a lot of issues about sd cards, this is the first issue I have had and thought it would be worth mentioning. There is little space when the case is together so it could easily still make contact and seem fine even if the connector has worked loose and cause all kinds of issues. As mentioned mine had the sd icon popping up every now and then before it actually failed. Some users seem to be going through a lot of sd cards with them failing on a regular bassis.

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I've been using my 32gb card since my last phone which was the LG Optimus 3D it is a scandisk class 10 one. Anyway i took it out of the 3D and stuck it into my S3 i still have not had a problem. I did take it out a few times to put a rom in because i wiped my phone and didn't have a rom in the Sd card. Also i dropped my phone and replaced the whole front silver bumper bit the whole digitizer because i dropped my phone while playing basketball. It still works. It has been a year now it has been in two phones and still works great. I must be lucky..
I got mugged for the SD though i bought it last year for £60 from Argos a store in the UK. Now you can get them for half the price oh well.. I am waiting for the 128gb ones to come out so going to buy one lol..

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today also my Sandisk Ultra HC I 32GB it's died, tomorrow I'll test with pc but no sign of life :crying: WTF samsung !!!

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hey i have the same issue with an 32gb sd card, it was workking great and then i was getting the error about
"SD Card Unexpectedly Removed" and then i tried everything i could and my computer detect the sd card and it seems to be working normal but in my phone i have the error over and over again and it was draining my battery too, and the only thing i did was change to another 16gb sd card and this one is working.
maybe there is a problem with the 32gb sd cards

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I have a 16GB Sandisk UHS-1 card and i have been getting this issue as well, and its becoming more and more frequent. Whenver it happens, the ringtones/notifications for certain apps like Gmail and Message get reset as the ringtones i set were stored in the sdcard. Also the photo frame app i have on my homescreen often resets to nothing as the pictures were also stored in the sdcard. Its really annoying because I can leave my phone sleeping, only to wake it up realizing my ringtones are all set to silent and my photo frame has been reset. At least i know its a common problem. damn you samsung!

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Has anyone actually tried checking the connection on the ribbon as suggested? Mine has been fine since and works fine.

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Does this method void our warranty? Seems so.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

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SlimJ87D said:
Does this method void our warranty? Seems so.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way anyone would know you have opened it, the screws are all Philips instead of t6. As long as you use the correct screwdriver it won't damage the heads and will leave no sign of entery and it takes around 10 mins to complete. Or you could take it to Samsung to do but seems a lot of hassle for such a simple fix.
Also most people are rooted without concern of the warranty.

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So there's no seals or stickers that are broken?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

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SlimJ87D said:
So there's no seals or stickers that are broken?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, no sticker or seals and just so you know all screws to remove the back are identical, there are only two screws inside which are different but do not need removing for this. You only need a Philips screwdriver ( I used a ph00 x 40) as long as the screwdriver fits the screw well it will not damage the head. Once screws are out a flat head screwdriver or similar are helpfull to prise the back off.

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Hi Guys,
A little feedback from my experience with this.
I too was experiencing the "Unexpectedly Removed" error on my 32GB Class10 Sandisk.
It was playing havok with my setup because I use a 8GB Ext4 Partition on the card, where I move 90% of my apps. (About 6GB of that is used by games + their "external" data), and it keeps my phone and FAT32 partition free for important stuff. (I use Link2SD and DirectoryBind)
The problem is, after the device wakes, Link2SD can't find any of the apps, so I can't start any of them, and I have to do a full reboot to get them back. :/
So, after searching and searching, I couldnt find a valid solution.
I tried with a 16GB class10 Samsung, and a 32GB Class10 Samsung card. Exact same setup. NO ISSUES.
Everything works perfectly.
Then I found this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1933743&page=2
Where most of them are experiencing this error with Sandisk cards.
Apparently, it's a known issue with Sandisk Cards (especially the 32GB models), and cards sold after December 2012 no longer experience this.
I have contacted Amazon.co.uk about replacing the card as it's only 2 months old, still waiting for their answer. Will update if anyones interested.
cheers

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tryerxda said:
Hi Guys,
A little feedback from my experience with this.
I too was experiencing the "Unexpectedly Removed" error on my 32GB Class10 Sandisk.
It was playing havok with my setup because I use a 8GB Ext4 Partition on the card, where I move 90% of my apps. (About 6GB of that is used by games + their "external" data), and it keeps my phone and FAT32 partition free for important stuff. (I use Link2SD and DirectoryBind)
The problem is, after the device wakes, Link2SD can't find any of the apps, so I can't start any of them, and I have to do a full reboot to get them back. :/
So, after searching and searching, I couldnt find a valid solution.
I tried with a 16GB class10 Samsung, and a 32GB Class10 Samsung card. Exact same setup. NO ISSUES.
Everything works perfectly.
Apparently, it's a known issue with Sandisk Cards (especially the 32GB models), and cards sold after December 2012 no longer experience this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A curious question if I may.
Was this a SanDisk Ultra (UHS) card? Most (if not all) Android phones do not have a proper UHS-I driver today and, although the card is supposed to switch down automatically, that transition time can fool the OS sometimes.
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I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying... (via Tapatalk)

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ny_limited said:
A curious question if I may.
Was this a SanDisk Ultra (UHS) card? Most (if not all) Android phones do not have a proper UHS-I driver today
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read something about UHS compatibility, so I got an SD-HC
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B007JTKLEK/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1357264092&sr=8-7&pi=SL75
Is it the same thing?
Hmmm. Ok, might be getting somewhere.
Any idea if these cards have an internal "power saving" system that maybe kicks in if voltage drops below a certain level?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

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tryerxda said:
I read something about UHS compatibility, so I got an SD-HC
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B007JTKLEK/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1357264092&sr=8-7&pi=SL75
Is it the same thing?
Hmmm. Ok, might be getting somewhere.
Any idea if these cards have an internal "power saving" system that maybe kicks in if voltage drops below a certain level?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the red and Grey SanDisk cards are UHS.
Yes, they definitely have controllers and the host device can command them (if it knows how). I know that they allow In System Programming (ISP) for updating firmware. They support auto-standby, power-off and sleep modes but am not certain if the card would switch without command. Check the SD link in my signature if you really need more info.
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I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying... (via Tapatalk)

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I tested my SanDisk 64GB Ultra card in a Note 2 and it had the same symptoms (Mine were worse, with the card locking up while playing music after a few minutes, causing mmc timeout errors in the kernel).
I switched to a Samsung 64GB Pro card and since then I haven't had any issue. It's also twice as fast.
The amount of headaches this SanDisk card gave me is insane, probably the last time I buy a card from them.

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i have sandisk ultra class 10 32gb. try this setup. use minitool to reformat your card then set it the cluster size to 16kb.
for me so far so good. will test this in a couple of days.