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27 May 2019  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
Take photos and videos with cameras or Android phone and save in SD card. But SD card inside gets not reading or working suddenly? How to find data inside? Follow steps here to fix the SD card.



Generally, SD card can not be read suddenly is mostly caused by the poor connection. And the following issues could lead to the poor connection of SD card.

Reason 1: Oxidation in SD Card Pin-out make it can not be read

After a long time of no-use of the SD card, the pin-out will get oxidized. We can remove the oxic horizon with the following 3 methods：
1. [Recommended] Eraser
2. Pencil.
3. Alcohol cotton ball (Please wait it to be dried before using the device.)
sd card connecting component

Reason 2: SD card is out of shape

Sometimes we keep the SD card in the pocket and forget to take it out. Finally, the SD card blend and get out of shape. If you meet such situation, please find something flat and heavy like some book and place the SD in the bottom. Generally, the shape of the SD card will return to be flat.

Please do not try to make the SD card flat manually. Because this behavior will bring physical damage to the SD card.

Here we also list other solutions of solving the SD card can not be read in different devices besides physical reasons.

Windows 10/8/7 can not read SD card

The most common notification we receive is “You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it” if Windows fails to read the SD card. Once we receive such notification, the first and the most important thing is to recover important data from the SD card with professional data recovery software. And then, we can format the SD card to regain its usage.
Attention: If Windows notifies you that “Windows was unable to complete the format”, your SD card may reach its lifespan and need to be low formatted.
Here, we recommend you to try the free version of professional data recovery software – Renee Undeleter to recover data from SD card.
Preparation: Download and install Renee Undeleter.
press to the download button
download button mac5
Step 1: Launch Renee Undeleter and select “Whole Partition Recovery”.
select whole partition scan in renee undeleter
Step 2: Select the target SD card and click “Next” to process the scan.
select target disk to process scan
Step 3: When the software scan, you can preview the files in the scan result.
preview before recovery
Although Renee Undeleter is a shareware, it has 20MB free recovery quota (Click here for more information). We recommend users can make use of this 20MB to ensure the recovery of important files.
Step 4: Fix the SD card with Windows built-in chkdsk tool.
Press Win + S button and type “cmd” in the pop-up window. Right click “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”
run command prompt as administrator in start menu
Step 5: Please type “chkdsk X:/F”. Please modify the X to the drive letter of your SD card. And /F means fix the SD card.
type c to check the c disk
However, sometimes SD card can not be read could be caused by the SD card drivers’ incorrect installation.
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Digital camera can not read SD card

When we meet such situation, the best and fastest way is to format the SD card with format tools in camera. Here we take Canon Digital Camera as an example.
If you want to find back data inside the SD card, please connect the SD card to computer with Multicard Reader. After connected, please try to recover data from SD card with data recovery software (Such as Renee Undeleter). Attention, remember to use the “Eject” function in PC to safely remove the SD card.
error information in camer
Here we take Canon Digital Camera as an example.
Step 1: Press “Menu” button and select “Format card” in “Setting” menu. Then please press “OK” button.
format SD card in camera
Step 2: Select “OK” in the pop-up window. 
confirm to format the SD card
If PC can or data recovery software can not read your SD card as well, you need to connect with the SD card manufacturer for repair or exchange.
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Android phone can not read SD card

If your Android phone can not read the inserted SD card, please try the following methods one by one:

Solution 1. Restart your Android phone

We can try to make the smart phone read the SD card via restart it. The very beginning Android system would get into different troubles like fail to read the SD card after running for a few days because of the unreasonable design. Restart can help users solve this problem.

Solution 2: Remove the dust from the card holder in Android devices with hairdryer

Android phone with imperfect design has a large gap in the back. Dust can get into the mobile phone via the gap and stay in the memory card holder. Here, we can remove the dust from the memory card holder with hairdryer. Please turn on the cool mode and blow the card holder for about 3 minutes.
remove dust from memory card holder

Solution 3: Remove the SD card directly

We can remove the SD card directly from the Android phone when it’s running. Wait for about 3 minutes, insert the SD card and wait for the reload.

Solution 4: Update the OS of your Android device to the latest version

Sometimes, this problem could be caused by the Android system. If the SD card can not be read due to the system, it is necessary to update the system to the latest version. Generally, Android devices will update automatically. If you do not get the update, please update the system manually.

Solution 5: Format the SD card

If the methods above can not make the SD to be read in the Android devices, the only way left is to format the SD card. This situation could be caused by the following reasons:
  • There are too may data fragmentation in the SD card which will lead to the reading speed of SD card in PC get slowly and finally fail to read it.
  • The SD card gets a virus. Users may browser some virus websites and download files with virus. And finally infect the SD card.
If you want to recover data from the SD card, please refer to the data recovery methods in How to Repair SD Card when SD Card Not Recognized.
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