Summary
What if an Android phone's memory card (micro SD or TF card) is not detected and data not showing up? Here in this article, you can get four solutions to make a phone read a memory card properly again. If there are very important photos, videos & documents on the memory card, you need to use EaseUS data recovery software to recover files from inaccessible memory card on a PC.
Stay calm when your memory card becomes undetected on your computer. On this page, you will find one quick fix and a complete solution that can assist you in removing this error from your memory card, SD card, etc. without losing any data. Check the fix and follow to repair your SD card back to work:
Workable SolutionsStep-by-step Troubleshooting
1. Quick FixInsert memory card or SD card to another mobile phone or PC > Check if the card shows up...Full steps2. Full FixFix 1. Update memory or SD card driver...Full steps
Fix 2. Run CHKDSK command to fix SD error...Full steps
Fix 3. Use recovery software to restore data...Full steps
Fix 4. Format memory or SD card to FAT32...Full steps
Case 1: Memory card cannot be detected, and data disappeared from my phone
"My Galaxy S10 screen suddenly turned black. I checked the phone and found that the wallpaper which was saved on my phone memory card and could not be detected by the phone. Meanwhile, all my photos, downloaded images, and some wallpapers are now undetectable on the phone's memory card.
I tried to reboot my phone several times, but it's still not detecting the memory card. How am I supposed to make the memory card work again on my phone and get all my lost photos, wallpapers, and other data back?"
Case 2: Android phone SD card is undetectable, how can I fix it
"I added an external SD card to my Android phone in order to extend the storage space and I saved a lot of valuable data such as photos, videos, and music files. However, the SD card suddenly became undetectable while I was trying to download a fancy video file.
The video app warned me that the downloading process could not finish since there was no device available to save the video. I checked for a reason for why the SD card in my phone couldn't be detected by the app. But when I tried to connect the SD card to my PC, it wouldn't work either. How do I fix this and get the SD card to be readable again?"
If you are having a similar problem that suddenly your memory card or SD card doesn't work or becomes undetectable or even disappears from your Android mobile phone? Relax. See below for an effective method to fix this issue with ease now.
TipDon't make any changes to your memory card or SD card before reading through all the steps below, to resolve the Android memory/SD card not detectable error on your mobile phone.
Quick Fix: Connect memory or SD card to another phone or PC
Simply insert the memory card or SD card that disappeared from your Android phone into another mobile phone or PC. This will help you quickly identify if the issue is with your phone or with the memory/SD card itself.
If nothing is wrong with your memory card or SD card, you'll be able to read and find all your personal data on the card by using another mobile phone or PC.
If the memory card or SD card is still undetectable or nothing was read by the other mobile phone or PC, you'll need to follow the steps below to repair and fix it without losing any data.
Fix "Memory/SD card not detected" error without losing data
1. Update memory or SD card driver
Due to an outdated memory or SD card driver, your Android mobile phone or computer may not be able to read or detect the memory/SD card properly. Just follow the steps below to update the memory SD card driver and make it readable again:
Connect memory/SD card to your PC;
Right-click on My Computer or This PC and choose "Manage".
In the taskbar on the left, click "device manager" and next to "USB Serial Bus controllers" click "+". Then you'll see a yellow exclamation mark.
Right-click and choose "Update Driver Software", then click "Search automatically for updated driver software".
Wait patiently and let the driver to be installed and reboot your computer.
In case searching driver software online fails, you need to know clearly the type of your SD card and manually download the driver on its official website. Try again with the 'browse my computer for driver software' option to install the latest driver.
2. Repair and fix "Android memory SD card not detected" error with the CHKDSK command
If the memory card or SD card has an internal error or bad sectors, it will not be readable nor detectable by your mobile phone or PC. Fortunately, you can run CHKDSK command to repair and fix this issue.
Please follow the below guidelines to fix this issue right now:
1. Right-click on My Computer/This PC and select "Manage", click on "Disk Management" and then find the device in the drive viewer to check out whether the computer can detect your memory card or not.
If it is detectable, jump to the data recovery part to get all Android memory card data restored.
If it is not detectable, continue the process with the CHKDSK command, and follow these steps.
2. Press Win+R > Type: cmd and hit Enter.
3. Type: chkdsk D: / f and hit Enter; (D is the drive letter of your memory card)
Click to copy
Or you can type: chkdsk D:/f /offlinescanandfix and hit Enter.
Click to copy
This should fix the memory SD card error and make the card detectable again.
If you don't have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative.
EaseUS Tools M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It's a perfect alternative to CHKDSK command. Use this one-click tool to solve your computer issues.
To fix file system error or disk error:
Step 1: DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tools M for Free and install it.
Step 2: Open the software and select the "File showing" option.
Step 3: Choose the drive and wait for repairing. After the operation completes, click the "View" button to check the drive.
3. Restore data from memory card/SD card before formatting
In order to avoid an unexpected data loss issue with the Android memory or SD card, the first thing we highly recommend is for you to restore precious data from your card.
Professional data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will help you to restore and extract all Android memory/SD card data with three steps:
Download for PCDownload for Mac
All you need is to download it for free, activate it and follow the steps below to restore your personal files restored:
Step 1. Run SD card recovery software and scan the card.
Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your PC and select your SD card. Then click "Scan" to start finding lost data on your SD card.
Step 2. Check found SD card data.
After the scanning process, you can click "Filter" to quickly find wanted files.
Step 3. Restore SD card data.
You can check and preview found files by double-clicking each one of them. Then click Recover to save found SD card files to a secure location on your PC or external storage.
4. Finally, format memory/SD card into NTFS/FAT32/exFAT
After getting all data restored from the memory card, you may now format the memory SD card so it is usable again:
Go to Disk Management > Right-click memory or SD card and select Format;
Set label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/exFAT) for your memory SD card and click OK.
The memory card or SD card can now be read and detected by your Android phone. You can also import the previously restored data to your card and continue using them on your phone again.