Develop Bugs

Problems Formatting SD Card/Working In Phone

I seem to be having problems formatting my Sandisk 64GB MicroSDXC (Class 10) card in FAT32 & having it work in my AT&T Galaxy S3. The card comes preformatted in exFAT, and it works in the phone just fine that way. But, I heard it's best to format it in FAT32 due to some issues I saw about some people having some of their music files not show-up (if they have a rather large music collection, which I do - 85GB's worth!) in whatever music playing program they're using, so I'm attempting to format it with FAT32 to avoid that. Now, Windows 7 (x64) does NOT allow you to format drives via FAT32 (unless you go into DOS), so I've used a couple of different programs (Fast32Format, EASEUS PartiionMaster); I got a message on my Galaxy S3 saying my SD card was damaged or missing when I used Fast32Format); a bunch of services stopped working on the phone when I formatted it using EASEUS PartionMagic, and I even tried formatting it in NTFS (which I think that Android doesn't support) & got a message my SD card was blank and Android wouldn't even mount it!
What am I doing wrong? How can I format it in FAT32 and have it work in my Galaxy S3?!! Do I even really need to use FAT32 instead of exFAT?
Thanks,
Dennis

dmw_4814 said:
I seem to be having problems formatting my Sandisk 64GB MicroSDXC (Class 10) card in FAT32 & having it work in my AT&T Galaxy S3. The card comes preformatted in exFAT, and it works in the phone just fine that way. But, I heard it's best to format it in FAT32 due to some issues I saw about some people having some of their music files not show-up (if they have a rather large music collection, which I do - 85GB's worth!) in whatever music playing program they're using, so I'm attempting to format it with FAT32 to avoid that. Now, Windows 7 (x64) does NOT allow you to format drives via FAT32 (unless you go into DOS), so I've used a couple of different programs (Fast32Format, EASEUS PartiionMaster); I got a message on my Galaxy S3 saying my SD card was damaged or missing when I used Fast32Format); a bunch of services stopped working on the phone when I formatted it using EASEUS PartionMagic, and I even tried formatting it in NTFS (which I think that Android doesn't support) & got a message my SD card was blank and Android wouldn't even mount it!
What am I doing wrong? How can I format it in FAT32 and have it work in my Galaxy S3?!! Do I even really need to use FAT32 instead of exFAT?
Thanks,
Dennis
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EaseUS worked fine for me - the one thing that screwed me up the first time is when you tell it to format it, you also have to tell it to apply it. And hopefully the "Fast32" was autocorrect - you should just be using FAT32 - and I don't think I changed the block size. HTH

alacrify said:
EaseUS worked fine for me - the one thing that screwed me up the first time is when you tell it to format it, you also have to tell it to apply it. And hopefully the "Fast32" was autocorrect - you should just be using FAT32 - and I don't think I changed the block size. HTH
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologize for bringing up this old-ish thread, but I always see that every time someone makes a new thread, they get bombarded with "use the search feature", so uhh, I did .
I've got a Class 10 SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSD XC card, that refuses to work with my Galaxy S3. I've got CM10 on it, do you think that might be the issue? If so, how do you think I can rectify it (what format would work?)
I've used EaseUS to delete the partition, and recreate using FAT32, but no dice, still getting a "damaged card" notification. I can seemingly use the card fine on my PC and my Mac, but nothing on the phone.
Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated

Vaesar said:
I apologize for bringing up this old-ish thread, but I always see that every time someone makes a new thread, they get bombarded with "use the search feature", so uhh, I did .
I've got a Class 10 SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSD XC card, that refuses to work with my Galaxy S3. I've got CM10 on it, do you think that might be the issue? If so, how do you think I can rectify it (what format would work?)
I've used EaseUS to delete the partition, and recreate using FAT32, but no dice, still getting a "damaged card" notification. I can seemingly use the card fine on my PC and my Mac, but nothing on the phone.
Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this is ominous given that I ordered this micoSD and it just shipped. I read lots of reviews on Amazon and those with S3 phones seemed to have no issues using card as is, although they didn't specify precisely which version of S3 they had. The S3 natively supports 64 GB, so I would think it would work out of the box, so to speak. A number of reviewers said they used this microSD in older phones that supposedly supported only up to 32 GB. They formatted in phone, getting something like 59 GB of usable space.
I'm using stock ROM with CWM on I747.

cm10
it is an cm10 issue

mrky said:
it is an cm10 issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A more complete response...its a known issue with AOSP based JB ROM's. This is pulled from the AOKP FAQ, since it is an AOSP based ROM as well this should help you out.
Will my 64 gb sd card work? Except it works fine with a 64GB card. http://rootzwiki.com/topic/28124-doe...card-standard/ The SGSIII is the first phone to support exfatl, but the support is Kernel based, some people are having trouble with the replacement kernels and exfat support. The solution is to force it to format in FAT32. http://www.online-tech-tips.com/comp...ive-to-fat-32/ I know, because I've done it. --- Don't respond without actually doing research. I have no problem spoon feeding information, especially when the information you put out there can increase misinformation. The SGSII also supports a 64GB card as well. http://androidforums.com/samsung-gal...ing-sgsii.html naturefreak85l;
EDIT - Apparently the links are dead, but there a many methods to choose from to format and SD in FAT32.

FAT Sd card to NTFS

Hello folks!
What happens if I switch my sd card from FAT to NTFS?
And also, I experience a weird problem. Whenever I connect my phone at the PC or I restart my phone, the music and photos are all gone ( from gallery ) but when I search within my sd card I find them all there. What should I do? Do I need another SD?
Every answer will be appreciated,
Thank you for your assistance,
Regards, FranticOrge

Slower
FranticOgre said:
Hello folks!
What happens if I switch my sd card from FAT to NTFS?
And also, I experience a weird problem. Whenever I connect my phone at the PC or I restart my phone, the music and photos are all gone ( from gallery ) but when I search within my sd card I find them all there. What should I do? Do I need another SD?
Every answer will be appreciated,
Thank you for your assistance,
Regards, FranticOrge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slower n always unable to read by Windows 7, I changed my A-RAM 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive from FAT32 to NTFS so that I can be able to transfer file larger than 4GB, but than after I've changed to NTFS, my flash drive start to slow down n my PC not always be able to read it as well. Therefore I changed it back to FAT32 n everything is alright again.

The problem with NTFS on Linux (based) systems is, as I know from the desktop/server Linux, is that Microsoft never released any open source or Linux-based drivers for the NTFS filesystem. Hackers then reverse-engineered the NTFS filesystem and made their own drivers, which made NTFS work on Linux. The problem is, that is is never as good or as fast as the NTFS is on Windows. If you use NTFS under Linux there is a huge CPU load when accessing a NTFS partition. Defragmenting the NTFS drive (within a Windows environment) makes the CPU load under Linux less.
I do not know the precise details how it works on Android, but since it is based on Linux somehow, I expect the same problem.

[Q] I just bought a 64GB MicroSD Card but it the S4 won't recognize it?

I just installed:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2305214
Does MicroSD mounting not work? I format it as NTFS. When I go to storage > mount SD card it just says preparing to mount ...

re: 64gb card
ragingazn628 said:
I just installed:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2305214
Does MicroSD mounting not work? I format it as NTFS. When I go to storage > mount SD card it just says preparing to mount ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove the card and plug it into the converter and plug that into your computer or card
reader then re-format using FAT32 ONLY then put it back in your phone and then your 64gb
sdcard shall work!

Misterjunky said:
Remove the card and plug it into the converter and plug that into your computer or card
reader then re-format using FAT32 ONLY then put it back in your phone and then your 64gb
sdcard shall work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it only gives me exFAT and NTFS

ragingazn628 said:
it only gives me exFAT and NTFS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the Windows drive manager to delete the partition on the MicroSD, do not reformat it with windows, plug it into the phone, and attempt to mount, it should do so but with 0 space now. Format it with the phone. Or look for the tool "fat32format" on the internet (Google is your friend) in order to force a format in FAT32.

ragingazn628 said:
it only gives me exFAT and NTFS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exFAT

Maybe this will help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2041679

ragingazn628 said:
it only gives me exFAT and NTFS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then try exFAT but if you have a windows computer, the default is FAT32.
If that don't work you will need to find a friend or relative who has
a windows computer which you can use to format the card using FAT32.

thanks for the help guys, got it to work now. Can I install apps on the microsd?

re: install to external sd
ragingazn628 said:
thanks for the help guys, got it to work now. Can I install apps on the microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope, you cannot install apps on external sd on the s4 yet.
even the apps2sd is not compatible with the S4.

Misterjunky said:
nope, you cannot install apps on external sd on the s4 yet.
even the apps2sd is not compatible with the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I put MP3s on external SD?

ragingazn628 said:
Can I put MP3s on external SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything but the applications installed themselves. You can store whatever you want on your SD, no limits, just no APPS2SD yet.

re: external sd
ragingazn628 said:
Can I put MP3s on external SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can have all your mp3's, videos, movies, pictures and documents plus backups of the rom and new roms or other
stuff but you just cannot use it to install apps until one of the devs finds a way to create a compatible app which will allow
for app installation on external sd.
Something similar to the apps2sd app which is not compatible with the S4.
Perhaps the developer of that app will upgrade it making it compatible with our phones.

Misterjunky said:
Then try exFAT but if you have a windows computer, the default is FAT32.
If that don't work you will need to find a friend or relative who has
a windows computer which you can use to format the card using FAT32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't actually true after a certain version of windows i think since vista(May be wrong) exFat is the only option you get.

re: exFAT
mike105217 said:
This isn't actually true after a certain version of windows i think since vista(May be wrong) exFat is the only option you get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google it and look it up,
Ever since windows xp fat32 was always the default when formatting usb flash drives(memory sticks) and sdcards.
Right now I am running windows 8 but I ran all the other prior versions of windows including windows xp.
When formatting hard drives, even external usb hard drives then windows (all versions) default to NTFS.
I never seen any versions of windows operating systems defaulting to exFAT.

Misterjunky said:
Google it and look it up,
Ever since windows xp fat32 was always the default when formatting usb flash drives(memory sticks) and sdcards.
Right now I am running windows 8 but I ran all the other prior versions of windows including windows xp.
When formatting hard drives, even external usb hard drives then windows (all versions) default to NTFS.
I never seen any versions of windows operating systems defaulting to exFAT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your right actually I got confused its actually partition space anything over 32Gb is out of a normal fat range for windows.

1) Make a LiveUSB stick of Ubuntu.
2) Boot into the USB stick.
3) Use GParted to format to Fat32.

blackknightavalon said:
1) Make a LiveUSB stick of Ubuntu.
2) Boot into the USB stick.
3) Use GParted to format to Fat32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you could search for 1 of the thousand formatting utilities that will do it and not have to download a 2gb file.

Do you know if due to the size of the memory card the phone takes a lot more time to load stuff??? I do not want to buy a 64gb if it will slow my phone a lot. If that's the case i may have to buy a 32gb card. Please tell me your input on this.

tones160 said:
Do you know if due to the size of the memory card the phone takes a lot more time to load stuff??? I do not want to buy a 64gb if it will slow my phone a lot. If that's the case i may have to buy a 32gb card. Please tell me your input on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What slowdown? My phone boots and loads VERY fast.

blackknightavalon said:
What slowdown? My phone boots and loads VERY fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well not in that sense but let's say if you would like to play a video or a song you have saved in your 64GB card. Does it still play it right away or have you experienced any slow downs? Someone who i know that works closely with phones informed me that it slows down the phone when loading files such as mp3 files or video files. Thanks dude.

Best SD Card filesystem?

Hello all,
I got myself a 128GB micro sd off Amazon. I was wondering if anyone had tried out a different filesystem than what is on the card as standard.
As standard it comes with Exfat, would something like ext4 be a good improvement?
Help and advice would be great, thanks =)

I think you should try this official tool from SDA to format your card the best possible. https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

I just usually let the phone format it for me, and go from there. Never had a problem that way.

dratsablive said:
I just usually let the phone format it for me, and go from there. Never had a problem that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 same here the only difference between the two (fat32 and ext) is that one allows the transfer of files over 4GB. Iirc anyway. Just not sure which.

Thanks everyone =)
Will let the phone do the deciding

Just do ExFat. it allows for large files to be stored (backups) and has very quick read and write speeds as compared to Fat32.

Any way to get around the 4GB size limitation of FAT32 file system on Pixel for OTG?

I can't figure out how to get around the 4GB file size restriction on the Pixel 3. I never had any problems using an exFAT file system on external hard drives/USB drives on previous phones.
It seems that if I attempt to use exFAT or NTFS file systems on my drives, the Pixel will not recognize it, format it back to FAT32, and I'm back at square one.
I've tried to wirelessly transfer files from PC to phone through Portal, using the external drive as the storage device, but that didn't work either.

double0psycho said:
I can't figure out how to get around the 4GB file size restriction on the Pixel 3. I never had any problems using an exFAT file system on external hard drives/USB drives on previous phones.
It seems that if I attempt to use exFAT or NTFS file systems on my drives, the Pixel will not recognize it, format it back to FAT32, and I'm back at square one.
I've tried to wirelessly transfer files from PC to phone through Portal, using the external drive as the storage device, but that didn't work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??? I have a 128 gb USB c thumb drive formatted fat32. It's working fine on my pixel 3.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I can get FAT32 to work. But FAT32 limits file sizes to less than 4GB. I'm trying to have larger movie files on a USB drive to watch on a long trip. Can't put them on a FAT32 formatted drive because they're way too large. And Pixel doesn't support exFAT or NTFS.
I'm trying to find a way around this, unless I really just have to resort to splitting all of the files into smaller segments. Was hoping not to have to do that though.

double0psycho said:
I can get FAT32 to work. But FAT32 limits file sizes to less than 4GB. I'm trying to have larger movie files on a USB drive to watch on a long trip. Can't put them on a FAT32 formatted drive because they're way too small. And Pixel doesn't support exFAT or NTFS.
I'm trying to find a way around this, unless I really just have to resort to splitting all of the files into smaller segments. Was hoping not to have to do that though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows artificially limits fat32 to 32 gb so if that's all you need it should format it fine. If you need more there are 3rd party apps or you can do it in a windows power shell running as administrator. In a power shell use format /FS:FAT32 X:. Where X: is the drive letter of the device you're formatting.
Edit, you know what. I miss understood your question. I was thinking partition size not file size. Sorry about that.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

jd1639 said:
Windows artificially limits fat32 to 32 gb so if that's all you need it should format it fine. If you need more there are 3rd party apps or you can do it in a windows power shell running as administrator. In a power shell use format /FS:FAT32 X:. Where X: is the drive letter of the device you're formatting.
Edit, you know what. I miss understood your question. I was thinking partition size not file size. Sorry about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, realized I said small when I meant the file sizes are too large. Either way, I'm hoping to find a way to get my pixel to be able to "see" some 8GB or larger files on an external storage device. I've used a couple apps that said they allow read/write NTFS and exFAT file systems, but none have really worked.

I'm just passing through, I don't own a pixel. But normally you need a kernel that supports either ntfs or exfat or both. I saw there are 2 kernels in the development section. Have you tried those?

double0psycho said:
I can't figure out how to get around the 4GB file size restriction on the Pixel 3. I never had any problems using an exFAT file system on external hard drives/USB drives on previous phones.
It seems that if I attempt to use exFAT or NTFS file systems on my drives, the Pixel will not recognize it, format it back to FAT32, and I'm back at square one.
I've tried to wirelessly transfer files from PC to phone through Portal, using the external drive as the storage device, but that didn't work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FAT32 and exFAT are not the same type of filesystem.
double0psycho said:
I can get FAT32 to work. But FAT32 limits file sizes to less than 4GB. I'm trying to have larger movie files on a USB drive to watch on a long trip. Can't put them on a FAT32 formatted drive because they're way too large. And Pixel doesn't support exFAT or NTFS.
I'm trying to find a way around this, unless I really just have to resort to splitting all of the files into smaller segments. Was hoping not to have to do that though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FAT32 is working as it should be.
jd1639 said:
Windows artificially limits fat32 to 32 gb so if that's all you need it should format it fine. If you need more there are 3rd party apps or you can do it in a windows power shell running as administrator. In a power shell use format /FS:FAT32 X:. Where X: is the drive letter of the device you're formatting.
Edit, you know what. I miss understood your question. I was thinking partition size not file size. Sorry about that.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not an "artificial" limit. This is how FAT32 was designed to work.
double0psycho said:
Yeah, realized I said small when I meant the file sizes are too large. Either way, I'm hoping to find a way to get my pixel to be able to "see" some 8GB or larger files on an external storage device. I've used a couple apps that said they allow read/write NTFS and exFAT file systems, but none have really worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those apps never work without root. Even with root, they're still finicky.
[Cruzer] said:
I'm just passing through, I don't own a pixel. But normally you need a kernel that supports either ntfs or exfat or both. I saw there are 2 kernels in the development section. Have you tried those?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As stated here, a custom kernel with exFAT support is your best option.
Please read up on filesystems here.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

bxlegend said:
FAT32 and exFAT are not the same type of filesystem.
It is not an "artificial" limit. This is how FAT32 was designed to work.
k
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree to a point. It was designed to work that way since Microsoft is pushing NTFS for larger partitions. You can certainly have FAT32 partitions larger than 32 gb.

jd1639 said:
I agree to a point. It was designed to work that way since Microsoft is pushing NTFS for larger partitions. You can certainly have FAT32 partitions larger than 32 gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's be careful here because you're confusing file size with partition size. Microsoft is not "pushing" one filesystem over another. The FAT32 filesystem had too many limits for servers which is why Microsoft introduced NTFS. As consumer needs grew, NTFS was made the default for Windows filesystem. The same applies to removable flash storage. To get consumers and manufacturers away from FAT32, Microsoft created exFAT. Microsoft, Apple, and Google are all competitors and they all have default supported filesystems. Microsoft and Apple user proprietary filesystems while Google sticks with open source since it's patent free. Which is why Pixel phones do not support Microsoft and Apple filesystems by default.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

double0psycho said:
I can't figure out how to get around the 4GB file size restriction on the Pixel 3. I never had any problems using an exFAT file system on external hard drives/USB drives on previous phones.
It seems that if I attempt to use exFAT or NTFS file systems on my drives, the Pixel will not recognize it, format it back to FAT32, and I'm back at square one.
I've tried to wirelessly transfer files from PC to phone through Portal, using the external drive as the storage device, but that didn't work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a couple of apps that allow accessing exFAT and NTFS file systems via OTG. Here's one I've used:
https://mixplorer.en.uptodown.com/android
It also allows accessing the files directly, so a slow copy to the phone isn't required for say playing a movie.