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[BIrONIC]

PUNCHLINE: If you have experienced it, please go

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Trust me, I know this is not a new issue but since I didn't see a thread on this forum specifically dedicated to this particular problem yet, I figured I'd create one to support the cause of getting Google to fix it, by pointing people with this problem to the defect issue case in Google's system (

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__________________________________

In case you're unfamiliar with it, or if you're wondering if it's what you've experienced,
 

here's my story...

When I had a Bionic (had it for over a year, and after 5 'replacements', it was finally replaced for real this January with a Droid Razr Maxx HD), I had problems with the SD card auto-unmounting all the time. So, I was happy to finally have a good working phone when I got my first Maxx HD.

Then, that shiny, new Maxx HD was also replaced (with another shiny, new Maxx HD), partially because of problems with the SD card auto-unmounting (and a faulty USB/charging port).

So now, I have a new Maxx HD, and I also bought a brand new PNY, Class 10, 32GB MicroSD card, just in case the problems were coming from a faulty 16GB SanDisk card that I had.

It seemed to be working just fine since the replacement (last weekend), and then, this weekend, I got the dreaded set of notifications....

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  42.18KB   19 downloads


Then, when I went into the system settings to check on what it had to say in 'Storage', this is what I saw...

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  27.07KB   18 downloads


Then, when I went into 'Files' to see what it looked like in the file browser, the item that listed the SD card gave a reading of "0.00 GB available"

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  37.94KB   18 downloads

^^^^ Of course, all the while, the card is actually still plugged in, and hasn't been changed or anything.
In fact, contrary to some of the anecdotal evidence (an oxymoron anyway), there doesn't seem to be any trigger event that we can see, and in my case this weekend, it just happened out of the blue when I wasn't even doing anything on the phone at all.


I then went through the long, drawn-out cycle of trying this and that to attempt to get it back in operation...
* restarted
 -nothing
* physically removed the SD card, and restarted, and then put it back in and restarted
 -nothing
* tried same as above with power on, and power off, multiple times, in different order, etc
 -nothing

Finally, I decided to remove the card and plug it into my Windows computer, and on there, it came up immediately, and I was able to easily copy everything from it (just to make sure I had it backed up).

Then, this morning, I went to Best Buy (where I got the phone). The first guy (Best Buy Mobile tech) said he hadn't ever heard of such a thing, and it seemed odd when it's such a common problem out there. I suggested that he Google "SD card unexpectedly removed". He did, and was intrigued with the mass of results.

     When I asked one of the other guys that I recognized from before, he immediately knew what I was talking about, and echoed the presence of all kinds of threads about it all over the place. When I asked his opinion (i.e. is it a carrier problem, or a hardware manufacturer problem, or something deeper, caused by Google back in the 'Android OS factory'?), he suggested it goes back to Google and a basic OS issue.

     The fact that I see threads about this problem from all kinds of people that own many different phones from various manufacturers, connected to various mobile service provider networks, his general inclination seems to go along with what appears to be going on out there (....and....right freakin here, unfortunately).


I've tried a few of the suggested 'fixes' out there, but I'm not sure yet if any of them actually work, because some of the stories I've read suggest that it could be working just fine for a long time, and then (sometimes a week, or even 6 months later) bam! the problem comes back again.

This is really annoying!!

Worse yet, people are losing data to this problem, because, for some of us, when it happens, it doesn't simply make the SD card become unavailable, it actually blows away a big chunk of the data sitting on it.   :/

After reading through most of the main threads out there on the forums and blogs, etc, it really does seem to me now like it's a problem at the OS layer, and that the responsibility for this problem lies with Google.

I'm not sure if there has been any sort of official acknowledgement of this problem yet, but I did find an entry for it here...

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If you have experienced the 'SD card unexpectedly removed' problem,
please go to

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,
and click the star (the easy way to +1 the defect issue).

 

[cmh714]

Where did you format the sd card? On a PC or the phone? I have an XT912 with a 64GB sd and let the phone format it and havent had any issues. Having said that, yes many seem to have your problem on various devices.

[BIrONIC]

Where did you format the sd card? On a PC or the phone? I have an XT912 with a 64GB sd and let the phone format it and havent had any issues. Having said that, yes many seem to have your problem on various devices.

I have never formatted it. I simply plugged it in, and let it do whhat it wanted, but it never did any formatting that I know of. Instead, it simply noticed that it was inserted, and just began using it.

It is part of my plan to format it, just to see if it helps, but since others have done that, and then had the problem come back a number of months later, I'm not very confident that it will actually be a permanent solution.

[BIrONIC]

I saved all of my stuff that I still wanted from the SD card to my comp, and then formatted it today, before getting back to

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.
It appears to be working just fine, of course.

I will try to remember to come back here and post updates here if anything significant comes up with the SD card issues in the future.

[BIrONIC]

UPDATE: OK....more info on my situation...

In my

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, I'm to the point where I got it re-updated from 4.0.4 up to 4.1.1.
Here's the deal though....while it was on 4.0.4, the SD card was working just fine, but now that I updated to 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean), the SD card disappeared from the OS.

 

As with my report earlier in this thread, when I go into the system settings to check on what it has to say in 'Storage', this is what I see...

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  27.07KB   1 downloads

Also, when I open 'Files' to see what it looks like in the file browser, the item that lists the SD card gives a reading of "0.00 GB available"

 

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  37.94KB   1 downloads

 

WTF?

 

 

 

Next, I am going to remove the SD card from the phone, plug it into my computer, not change anything abou tit, and then put it back in the phone to see if that brings it back like the other time...

[BIrONIC]

Doh! 
Just now, while I was sitting here, typing, the phone suddenly decided to notice that it has an SD card plugged in (i.e. I haven't done anything to it yet), and prepared it, and now it's there.

Sheesh!

 

 

EDIT: Oh....now there's something in the LOST.DIR folder too, and I assume it's related to the SD card's latest disappearing act.

So, whatever is going on, it was NOT fixed by doing the format of the card in the phone.

[joewest644]

Having an issue myself with the same PNY 32gb card I bought recently. Sometimes it was working sometimes it would decide to be blank. I had no luck getting it formatted using the phone or windows, had to download SDformatter to get it working. still having issues with corrupt data though. I think i'm going to try and send it back to the company since walmart won't let me exchange it.

[BIrONIC]

Having an issue myself with the same PNY 32gb card I bought recently. Sometimes it was working sometimes it would decide to be blank. I had no luck getting it formatted using the phone or windows, had to download SDformatter to get it working. still having issues with corrupt data though. I think i'm going to try and send it back to the company since walmart won't let me exchange it.

 

I don't think it's the card's fault though, because everyone that's having this is reporting it with different phones, different OS/update/build versions, different generations of cards, different sizes, different classes, different manufacturers. It really seems like a problem with the core Android system.

So, if you do return the card, you're extremely likely to just have the same problem with whatever card you get as a replacement.