[Q] Internal SD card appears to have died - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi All
I have searched the forums for an answer to this, to no avail. Its not an easy problem to search, but apologies if this has been previously discussed..
After some years of owning and flashing various android phones I have suddenly come completely unstuck. I am not sure what has happened, but I suspect that my internal storage has died. No matter what Rom I load (including returning to stock flashed via Odin) I cannot see the phone's internal storage (i.e. the memory that used to appear as "internal USB" or similar). Instead, the "SD card" is being emulated under the folder "0" in the phone's main storage... I am unsure what is happening here.
This happened after flashing the latest version of Omega Rom (v44). Everything went completely fine as usual, I have no idea why this happened. When I rebooted the Rom had installed but internal storage was missing as described above. For some reason the AOKP elements of the Rom are not present, but the system does seem to work.
I have inserted an external SD card to see if the phone would just use that. No effect. It still appears to be "emulating" the external SD card.
I am not sure where to go from here. I can accept that my internal storage is dead. However, as described above inserting an external SD card still doesn't seem to allow the phone to work normally. It is still trying to emulate the SD card in the phone memory, even on a stock rom. On custom roms this seems to stop the AOKP element from working and I end up with some kind of half way house of custom rom and stock Samsung stuff... its bizarre!
Any help or even just thoughts as to what is going on here greatly appreciated.

I remember that in CM roms there is an issue with the 0 folder thing, but not familiar with it. Maybe someone with more experience could recommend you some action steps.
In case you could always try a full wipe (mega wipe) as it includes your sd card (internal) and leaves nothing on the phone. This will enable you to start from scratch (have a flashable rom on your external SD though).

Related

[Q] ClockworkMod v5 Can't mount /sdcard

I have CWM v5 newly installed. I immediately ran a backup with it and all went well. Now, a little later, I've been looking into CyanogenMod and wanted to tiny baby steps so I was nice and confident with things.
I tried to do another backup from CWM and it said it couldn't mount /sdcard. I tried to restore and the same error. Rebooted a few times and it's the same still.
I booted normally and checked with a standard file manager and /sdcard was fine. I haven't changed anything since the time it was working but I still seem to have broken things
What can I do?
EDIT: Actually, since getting CWM on the device, I have played a little with ADB commands and replaced the bootanimation.zip. Everything works when the phone is booted normally so that can't have caused it. Can it?
You really like new threads eh?
I presume you don't have a physical micro SD card, and you've changed kernels again at some point. Now the sdcard mentioned in newer CWM recovery is the external_sd, which you don't have. Use the internal SD card option.
oinkylicious said:
You really like new threads eh?
I presume you don't have a physical micro SD card, and you've changed kernels again at some point. Now the sdcard mentioned in newer CWM recovery is the external_sd, which you don't have. Use the internal SD card option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love them I do search before hand to see if there are similar threads relating to my device but because there aren't, I thought making a new thread per issue would be helpful. I can keep it all in this thread though if that's the etiquette around here though.
I used kTool to flash the zImage from the link you pointed out in my last thread, that gave me CF-Root v5 and CWM. I haven't changed anything since that point so if it worked once, I don't understand why it won't work again. You have confused me about the sdcard/external_sd. I have a card in the device, and everything normally saves to /sdcard but there's also /sdcard/external_sd which is always empty. I also see /sdcard/usbStorage where I have put some files too, but I don't really understand the naming conventions.
As I said, look for the "internal sd card" option in CWM recovery.
I'll add a bit more in the hope you don't need to keep posting.
If you don't have a physical micro SD card in your phone and you try to use any of the "install/backup/restore to/from sdcard" in newer versions of CWM recovery, it will give an error about being unable to mount /sdcard. Also, as far as I know, /sdcard/usbStorage refers to USB OTG, so unless you've got a USB OTG cable and a memory card/HDD plugged in, you shouldn't be writing files to that location.
Backed up successfully to internal sdcard, although I wasn't able to restore from it first which I don't understand because there should be the original one from earlier somewhere.
Turns out I was wrong, I don't appear to have a card in that SD slot even though I could swear there was one. And I can create files/folders in /sdcard/external_sd/ so I give up, lol.
EDIT: Nope, just the normal USB that came with the phone. I created the files/folders directly in the phone when I tested it.

[Q] Why is my internal storage gone?

My tablet has 8GB of onboard storage and is partitioned. 1GB as "tablet memory" and the other 6GB (approx) as an "internal SD" with the remaining for the ROM. Just recently I noticed that the 6GB partition went missing. It is no longer available to me. However, the tablet restarts and loads the ROM just fine. It also loads my external sdcard just fine too. I'm guessing something is wrong with the partition table? Or is the hardware toast?
I figure since the 1GB is still showing up that it isn't a hardware failure, but I'm not sure. I tried reinstalling my ROM, factory resetting, mounting the internal sd and nothing works. What can I do? The tablet is an Ainol Aurora 8GB model running Essential Clean Rom 1.1a. I tried just to forget it and make due with using just the 1GB and my external SD card but when I try to download apps from the Amazon Market it says that there is no SD card (internal) and that I need it. I didn't try Google Play yet...
Update: when i go wipe the system in CWM it says no apps2sd partition found and something about /sdcard .android secure. Does that have anything to do with it?
Try another ROM basically one stock ROM and after try a custom ROM.When you flash the stock ROM use repartition.IMO that's all.I hope this solution work for you.
Tapatalk 2 send from GT-I9000
Thanks for that. I'll see if restoring the stock rom helps. I doubt it though. I've tried 2 different ones (not stock) and it didn't do anything at all...
Andie00 said:
Thanks for that. I'll see if restoring the stock rom helps. I doubt it though. I've tried 2 different ones (not stock) and it didn't do anything at all...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Andie00, did you ever come to solution to your problem, as I'm experiencing something very similar with CM 10.2 my internal storage just disappear and I can't see it. Otherwise ROM works very well and fast, don't wish to switch to CM 11 which is more buggy in other ways.
Problem gone when I make factory reset/data wipe it worked until next reboot of device.
---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 PM ----------
UPDATE: I find something interesting, if I remove my external SD card physically from device and than reboot phone, Internal Storage return to where it should be, and if I insert external SD after this, it become available as well and phone see 2 internal storages and external SD card.
If reboot device, in Settings > Storage I see first Internal storage normally, second is blank and external SD is visible.
Any idea why it happens and how it can be fixed?
Problem seems to be solved
answering my own yesterday's question
posting this for anyone who facing similar problem, maybe my experience would be helpful for someone.
I've tried to insert different SD card and reboot with it, and after this my internal storage remained visible. so I plugged my sd card to PC, examined it and moved from it to safe place all files which shouldn't belong there. for example I find out external SD contain .android_secure folder with 1.6gb of remains of old programs, though I never installed them to external SD, also I removed folder Android which contain just empty folders without files.
After this boot with that flash was successful and I can see both internal storages and external SD, and now I can use CM 10.2 on my Samsung gt-i8160 which works blazing fast comparing to stock firmware, phone never was so responsive no matter what I did before!
Hope it can help someone.
I posted this in regards to an old Ainol tablet I had. My "solution" was to put back the stock rom.
Andie00 said:
I posted this in regards to an old Ainol tablet I had. My "solution" was to put back the stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for response, Andie00! Glad I don't have to use your solution, so far my phone working better than new on CM10.2

helpp

I've been using cyanogenmod ROM on my tab 2 p3100 that has been acting weird; maps force closing, black screens constantly, apps freezing for extended periods of time, and I want to start fresh. I'm going on a road trip for the holidays and would really like to use maps as they were intended.
I wiped all my personal data but there are still some pictures showing up in gallery and some app folders that didn't get deleted. My understanding is that this is all on the internal SD card. Is the ROM itself (AOKP 4.1.2) on the internal SD card also? If I were to go into CWM and format the internal SD would I lose everything and would the phone be unable to boot or would I be able to simply re-flash the ROM? if i were to put the new ROM on an external SD card would i be able to go back into CWM and flash it from there?
If I'm missing something feel free to correct me or point me in the right direction (a guide would be ideal). I've searched on various sights and can't find exactly what I'm looking for, everything seems a little vague.
Siddharth121 said:
I've been using cyanogenmod ROM on my tab 2 p3100 that has been acting weird; maps force closing, black screens constantly, apps freezing for extended periods of time, and I want to start fresh. I'm going on a road trip for the holidays and would really like to use maps as they were intended.
I wiped all my personal data but there are still some pictures showing up in gallery and some app folders that didn't get deleted. My understanding is that this is all on the internal SD card. Is the ROM itself (AOKP 4.1.2) on the internal SD card also? If I were to go into CWM and format the internal SD would I lose everything and would the phone be unable to boot or would I be able to simply re-flash the ROM? if i were to put the new ROM on an external SD card would i be able to go back into CWM and flash it from there?
If I'm missing something feel free to correct me or point me in the right direction (a guide would be ideal). I've searched on various sights and can't find exactly what I'm looking for, everything seems a little vague.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was wondered this a long time ago also bare with me as i try my best to explain what i know. so since tabs normally come with a lot of internal space and from what my knowledge is it makes the internal the default storage. for every file manager i use it defaults to the internal if you pop a micro sdcard into it the internal will still be the default apps will install on the internal only first (unless you use apps2sd or your internal has run out of storage) as for where the rom is at. yes it is inside the sdcard thats why when we buy the 16gig and we only end up with 14g its for the rom and other necessity's the tab needs to live. i dont know how you would format the internal sd card but im sure you would lose your rom if you do it. its very confusing i lost my stock backup (got the tab 2 also) because i thought the backup went to the external but it when to the internal and i wipped data and flashed a new rom. not sure if i answered your questions or answered any of them at all.
Also please remove this from your signature "hit thanks, instead of saying thanks" you shun yourself saying that we are here to help people not feel cool because we have alot of likes :/

SD card not working in 4.2.2

I recently decided to go from Jedi VX13 to ParanoidAndroid. Since I was going to 4.2.2 from 4.1.2 instead of the other direction, I thought that I wouldn't need to take any special precautions to keep my SD card working. The flash from CWM went fine and the phone booted up normally. However, no matter where I searched, the SD card directory was nowhere to be found.
I have read many posts about the card data being in another place, but I have used Root Explorer and Solid Explorer search functions without any luck. I even installed TWRP over CWM and formatted the SD card from there at someone else's suggestion. The phone can see that a card has been placed into the phone, because the Storage menu gives the Mount SD option. However, every time I press it, I see "SD card is blank or has unsupported file system". I have even pressed the offered format option in the 4.2.2 OS multiple times with no luck. I can't believe that the SD card has to have files on it to be mountable by the OS.
The card is readily accessible in TWRP and on my computer, so the card itself is not in error. I have even taken the step of doing a scorched earth wipe of the internal memory to try to solve this. I am missing some crucial step in the formatting or mounting process, but I am out of ideas at this point. Any help that can be offered is appreciated.
Please close thread
After I was finished typing this out, I flashed the newest ParanoidAndroid build. Not only does it stabilize 4G, but my card is now recognized! Please close this thread as soon as possible.

SD Card issue

So here is the process I went through that made me unable to read my SD Card
Before anything happened, I had CM13 on my Redmi Note 3 phone until 2 days ago, (my sd card was still fine) upon updating to CM14 (from Android 6 to 7.1) my google play kept crashing, so I read that I needed the 7.1 GAPPS version (which i forgot to do) so... I downloaded the PICO version of android 7.1 package and flashed it on my phone... than not only did google play error, but calendar and a bunch others....
so what I decided to do, is revert to the backup I made RIGHT BEFORE i updated anything (like any normal person would do) BUT I saw my SD card wouldnt be found in TWRP, so I went inside my phone to see if my phone recognizes my SD card... and nope, its also not in my file manager, so I went back into twrp and a couple menu's that allow you to select a stroage showed my SD card as 0mb.... weird.... so I took out my SD card from "Broken Phone #1" and put it into "OLD Phone #2" and my files on the SD card are there... alright, made a backup of my SD Card to my computer and formatted the SD card on "OLD Phone #2"... and nothing.
Still not showing on "Broken Phone #1".
I'd like to note that I cant mount the SD card in twrp... i think it doesnt recognize it at all.
So what makes me think theres no issue with my phone's pins, is that I hadnt even REMOVED the tray before the problem started to appear.
Currently my phone is OS' less since i tried reverting to my "stock" CM13 (not 14) and that didnt work so i wiped system cache and data.
I can put in an OS again if it will help to fix the issue, but thats where im currently at, I would love some help from anyone with any suggestions.
Thank you for your time.

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