Develop Bugs

[Q] Can't write to external SD card

I have a brand new Tab S 8.4, received today. I discovered that I cannot write to or erase the external SD card with 1 exception. I can only perform operations on the external SD card if 1) I do it via MTP from my laptop or 2) using Samsung built-in apps For example, I can copy/rename/delete/etc. files using Samsung's My Files app and I can save pictures from the camera to the external SD card.Most downloaded apps (like cameras, document editors, browsers, etc.) will not save to the external SD card. To be clear, I can copy and move files FROM the external SD card using apps such as ES File Explorer.
I tried reformatting the SD card, even tried other SD cards, always the same result. Is there something wrong with my device or the stock firmware? The tab is pretty useless to me without ability to write to the SD card and I don't really like being limited to the stock apps. So, is this something I can fix, that Samsung can fix, or do I have a lemon?

corvus.corax said:
I have a brand new Tab S 8.4, received today. I discovered that I cannot write to or erase the external SD card with 1 exception. I can only perform operations on the external SD card if 1) I do it via MTP from my laptop or 2) using Samsung built-in apps For example, I can copy/rename/delete/etc. files using Samsung's My Files app and I can save pictures from the camera to the external SD card.Most downloaded apps (like cameras, document editors, browsers, etc.) will not save to the external SD card. To be clear, I can copy and move files FROM the external SD card using apps such as ES File Explorer.
I tried reformatting the SD card, even tried other SD cards, always the same result. Is there something wrong with my device or the stock firmware? The tab is pretty useless to me without ability to write to the SD card and I don't really like being limited to the stock apps. So, is this something I can fix, that Samsung can fix, or do I have a lemon?
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Click to collapse
Plz, read the forum rules and use the search button....

boeser said:
Plz, read the forum rules and use the search button....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, did that. All I learned is that I have to root the tab which I hadn't planned on doing. Grrrrrr. Luckily, I am technical enough to do it, but most buyers are not. IMO Samsung should be pushing back hard on Google about this. It involves tens of millions of their customers, plus those of all the other manufacturers as well. These devices ain't cheap, so if I spend my money on one, I want it to work as expected with stock software. There's no point in Google singing the glories of KK and beyond if the OS doesn't do what a normal userI needs it too. When LG did its OTA update to KK for the G Pad 8.3, it allowed writing to the external SD, proving it can be done from the device provider.

it just not with samsung... the problem are with kitkat. so every device that use kitkat will have the same problem. LG/MOTO/TC/whatever android device also got the same problem. except some play smart and include the edited platform.xml into their device.

edan1979 said:
it just not with samsung... the problem are with kitkat. so every device that use kitkat will have the same problem. LG/MOTO/TC/whatever android device also got the same problem. except some play smart and include the edited platform.xml into their device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least via the Samsung-provided apps (camera, browser, file manager) it's possible to write to and erase from the external SD card. Still, it's a sad state of affairs this far into the Android game. And this business with tripping the knox counter when rooting really is annoying. I wonder what Apple offers these days ?

corvus.corax said:
I wonder what Apple offers these days ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same thing since they release the idevice. Lolz
Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk

[Q] External SD card access by 3rd party apps

I have read many pages of info on the restricted access to ext SD cards in Kitkat, and many promises that in Lollipop access could be granted by the user for all third party apps to write to any sd card file / tree.
But none of these articles have actually explained (in understandable terms) how to do this.
Can anyone tell me how we are supposed to grant access to external sd card by third party apps?

I would love to know as well. I'm debating between ordering the 32GB version from gearbest.com, versus waiting for the 64GB version. I would buy the 32GB version if I knew I could install apps to the external SD card. Maybe this is only possible with root and specialized ROM/kernel. Either way, it'd be nice if someone could shed some light on it.

BigMatza said:
I would love to know as well. I'm debating between ordering the 32GB version from gearbest.com, versus waiting for the 64GB version. I would buy the 32GB version if I knew I could install apps to the external SD card. Maybe this is only possible with root and specialized ROM/kernel. Either way, it'd be nice if someone could shed some light on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to be clear, I can move "moveable apps" to the Sd card without any problem, obviously this is a restricted list withing the non-rooted version, but that is not my problem. Similarly, all the preinstalled apps like camera, google play music can successfully write to the Sd card with no additional access required.
My problem is that downloaded apps which should have the authority to modify/write files to the SD card such as MP3 tag editors, are not able to do so.
According to Poweramp, their app can gain permission to do this, but when I get the prompt to "grant access", my Sd card doesn't appear in the list of memories to which I can grant the access requested.
The purpose of my post was to see if (as suggested by some reports on Android 5.x) we can grant access to write/edit files on the Sd card at a generic level instead of doing it in each app, given that the developers of apps at the moment seem to be struggling with this.

I got my Zenfone 2 in the mail today from Amazon US. I'm not able to authorize any 3rd party apps to write to my external SD. ES File Explorer and Quickpic both send me to Android's baked in file manager to grant access to external SD card, but it doesn't show up for me to select. May as well still be on Kitkat. Very disappointing.

root needed : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=fr
This is the same old kitkat bug so this fix work also on LP 5.0 (i'm using it) and should be solved on 5.1..

If you haven't already done so please try apps/settings/ASUS Customized Settings/App installation settings/choose default installation location, internal storage or external storage 'if allowed.'
For ASUS ZenFone Quick Service and FAQ:
http://www.asus.com/us/support/self-service/11/
http://www.asus.com/us/Phones/ZenFon...esk_knowledge/
Sincerely
ASUS_USA

Asus_USA said:
If you haven't already done so please try apps/settings/ASUS Customized Settings/App installation settings/choose default installation location, internal storage or external storage 'if allowed.'
For ASUS ZenFone Quick Service and FAQ:
http://www.asus.com/us/support/self-service/11/
http://www.asus.com/us/Phones/ZenFon...esk_knowledge/
Sincerely
ASUS_USA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it..you can copy or paste files to...ext and int...but you can only modify/ write once file transferd to internal sd....while files on external cant modify unless your using fx or es file manager.....

Sprint LG G5 android app Storage has no option to move to External_SD (SD card)?

I have the Sprint LG G5 running ZV5 and I'm having a problem where I can't change the Storage settings for any apps (like Snapchat or GoPro app) to use the external SD card. For example, normally in Settings > Apps > GoPro > Storage, I should be able to click on Storage and move the app and it's storage to the external microSD card (app/data/cache). However with this it shows:
"Storage
631.35 MB used in Internal storage"
With no option to move or use the portable/external SD like it normally does on my other phones.
On my older Sprint LG G4 I can move apps this way to use the microSD card so the internal 32GB doesn't get full (both GoPro and Snapchat fill up gigabytes quickly!). Thanks for any help, maybe I'm missing something simple!
PS. Just wanted to clarify that the SD card does work for photos/movies using the default LG camera app, which is fine. So the microSD card is "working". But I want other video/cam apps like Snapchat, GoPro (with it's 4k videos), and my 3DR solo drone app to use the SD card as these apps generate much larger files! This worked normal on the LG G4 and now I'm stumped with the G5. Thanks for any help.

It is there, just reorganized/hidden. That part that tells you how many mb of internal storage used, is actually a menu button. It looks like an item, not a button, but it is actually clickable. Click it and a storage menu opens, under 'Storage Used' click change and select SD card
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

Move app to SD Card not available
PedroDaGr8 said:
It is there, just reorganized/hidden. That part that tells you how many mb of internal storage used, is actually a menu button. It looks like an item, not a button, but it is actually clickable. Click it and a storage menu opens, under 'Storage Used' click change and select SD card
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Hi Pedro, actually that is how I normally would get to it, but it's not working. The screen it takes me to when clicking the Storage used area doesn't have a Move to SD Card option or any reference to where the app is stored (see Screenshots attached). Any idea what's going on here? Are you able to move apps to SD Card? Thanks again!

danboarder said:
Hi Pedro, actually that is how I normally would get to it, but it's not working. The screen it takes me to when clicking the Storage used area doesn't have a Move to SD Card option or any reference to where the app is stored (see Screenshots attached). Any idea what's going on here? Are you able to move apps to SD Card? Thanks again!
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Click to collapse
I just tried around three dozen apps and with one exception, the only ones that didn't allow me to move them were system apps and apps that were pre- installed with the device. The one exception is Spotify, I think that is because that app has this setting built into the app itself. Everything else, I could move.
Edit: In fact, just installed Snapchat to test. Sure enough that feature is there.
Which G5 software version are you on (ZV3, ZV4 or ZV5)? I'm on ZV5.
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

Wow, thanks! I'm on ZV5. Maybe I need to reformat the microsd card in the phone, I'll try that and see if it works.
EDIT - well, it's still a no go, still the same issue. I took out the card, and on my mac and formatted it as a mac format so the phone would be forced to reformat it. Putting it back in the phone and turning it on, it did pop up with an option to format it. After formatting on the phone there still is no option to Move to SD in the Storage settings (like you have in your screenshot). I'm wondering if I have a dud or if my microSD card is incompatible somehow? Its a fastest I could find Samsung 128gb Pro+. When I get home I'll try a different SD card (I have a Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb there) and see if that works any better. Thanks for any ideas.

Still a no go
Well the Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb that worked fine in my other phone (G4) does not work the same in my Sprint LG G5 running the latest update (ZV5). So far I can only save photos/videos to the microSD card, no option to move apps shows up. I did find others that have been experiencing this issue (see this video: "LG G5 cannot save your apps to SD Card" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA9Ix5IVPMI ).
However, with the above reply by @PedroDaGr8 who also has the Sprint LG G5 on ZV5, I have hope that it is possible to move apps to the SD card, and I would like to get to the bottom of this issue of why I can't move any apps to SD! Any ideas of what I can try to further troubleshoot this?

@danboarder I just thought of something. I enabled adoptable storage on my SD card. I have a 128GB SD and I figured it would be good to give the system partition another 32gb. I wonder if this also enabled the move to storage option. I used the command line option that was discovered for the S7 which also works for our phone.
Edit:
I used this procedure here:
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

ADB method for adoptable storage and moving apps to SD card
Hi @PedroDaGr8 thanks, I'll try this. Is root required? (is root even an option yet on this G5?)
PedroDaGr8 said:
@danboarder I just thought of something. I enabled adoptable storage on my SD card. I have a 128GB SD and I figured it would be good to give the system partition another 32gb. I wonder if this also enabled the move to storage option. I used the command line option that was discovered for the S7 which also works for our phone.
Edit:
I used this procedure here:
http://www.modaco.com/news/android/...e-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

danboarder said:
Hi @PedroDaGr8 thanks, I'll try this. Is root required? (is root even an option yet on this G5?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root is not required nor is it am option yet.
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

PedroDaGr8 said:
Root is not required nor is it am option yet.
Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@PedroDaGr8 follow up - thanks, it worked! I used the method you linked to using ADB (no root required) and was able to activate adoptable storage, now my Sprint LG G5 can now move apps to SD.

corrupt memory card (internal storaget mode) after reboot or app download

moto G5 2gb version.
I have a Toshiba U3 32gb card set as internal storage formatted in the phone. This card was previously used in my G4 and was fast and worked flawlessly as internal storage.
when I install an app manually from the play store, I get an "insufficient space" error. as per the FAQ that the error links me to, I reboot the phone but then get a message saying SD CARD MISSING REINSERT DEVICE while the card is still in the phone. I then have to reformat the card but the problem will still present itself when I try to install an app again. or just reboot the phone. the card works fine as removable storage, which is kind of useless for the internal apps.
ive read similar faults for the other G5 variants in the forum and online and couldn't find a fix unless I missed it.

Remove the sd card from the device - wait a few seconds then reinsert it (whilst the phone is on & fully booted)

Is that a permanent fix? I've tried removing and inserted a most times still recognise card.

TeamKilo said:
Is that a permanent fix? I've tried removing and inserted a most times still recognise card.
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Click to collapse
You get corrupt sd card sometimes when you install new rom or wipe dalvik/art cache
Normally removing the sd card & reinserting it whilst phone is fully booted allows it to mount successfully
I use my sd card as external removable storage - I don't use as internal as I don't see the point - this phone has 16gb storage - you will never fill it with just apps - anything else you put on external
Plus you need a very high class sd card to get half decent read/write speeds if set as internal

I've not installed any roms, the phone me is completely stock (o2 network version).
I do need it as internal storage as the external storage only seems to store camera photos and not much else. Even whatsapp media is stored on the phone, but will store on the sd card if it's set as Internal Storage. the card itself is a U3 class and i know it operates faster than a class 10.
I just tried taking a photo with card set as external and the camera shuts down with an error after taking a photo. Works fine when I tell the camera to save to phone.
Going to try format the card on the pc and see what happens as it's clearly not working as an external card even tho the phone isn't flagging any issues.

update;
sd has been set as internal for the last few hours so thought id give it a reboot now, and guess what, SD CARD MISSING. i can tell something is definitely wrong. apps stored on the sd are failing to load or are loading after a really long time ie. 1min for 9gag and the QuickPic galllery app just fails to load. speed test on the sd while in the phone report 5mb read and write! on the G4 the same card was in the double figures.

TeamKilo said:
update;
sd has been set as internal for the last few hours so thought id give it a reboot now, and guess what, SD CARD MISSING. i can tell something is definitely wrong. apps stored on the sd are failing to load or are loading after a really long time ie. 1min for 9gag and the QuickPic galllery app just fails to load. speed test on the sd while in the phone report 5mb read and write! on the G4 the same card was in the double figures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many people have issues with sd card set as internal across various devices
If your phone is on stock & unmodified take the issue to Motorola
Obviously ignore them if they tell you that you need to factory reset & all that rubbish - tell them you already have
Sometimes it's just a case of a phone not liking a certain brand of sd card
There's no known fix for your issue that I'm aware of

TheFixItMan said:
Many people have issues with sd card set as internal across various devices
If your phone is on stock & unmodified take the issue to Motorola
Obviously ignore them if they tell you that you need to factory reset & all that rubbish - tell them you already have
Sometimes it's just a case of a phone not liking a certain brand of sd card
There's no known fix for your issue that I'm aware of
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ive arranged for a replacement with o2 but their stock is scarce at the moment. so will update when i get the new phone.
you could be right that its just the phone not liking this specific sdcard. tried a class4 but that was too slow to even attempt a trouble shoot lol.
new problem, YT Studio app fails to load, says Something Went Wrong. this just gets better and better. thanks for the advice.

TeamKilo said:
ive arranged for a replacement with o2 but their stock is scarce at the moment. so will update when i get the new phone.
you could be right that its just the phone not liking this specific sdcard. tried a class4 but that was too slow to even attempt a trouble shoot lol.
new problem, YT Studio app fails to load, says Something Went Wrong. this just gets better and better. thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tested the app on my phone & yt studio works fine
If I was to guess I would say you have a google play services issue - if Google play services was on your sd card running as internal & it isn't in your phone mounted correctly YouTube & other apps that require it will not work
You can either clear data of Google play services from the app settings menu (make sure you have set show system apps from the 3 dot menu on top right) or reinstall it - you will have to search on Google for the apk as normally it's not listed in the playstore

TheFixItMan said:
Just tested the app on my phone & yt studio works fine
If I was to guess I would say you have a google play services issue - if Google play services was on your sd card running as internal & it isn't in your phone mounted correctly YouTube & other apps that require it will not work
You can either clear data of Google play services from the app settings menu (make sure you have set show system apps from the 3 dot menu on top right) or reinstall it - you will have to search on Google for the apk as normally it's not listed in the playstore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cheers bud. ill give that a go, if that fails, ill just do a fresh install and not auto install any of the apps from my google backup.
just dug a bit deeper and found this https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Moto-G...ible-SD-Card-for-Internal-Storage/m-p/3661072
its the card im using. it baffles me how a fast card is running so slow.

[Method] Merging SD Card with Internal Storage

This post documents a method of enabling Adoptable Storage with adb commands on sony phones where previously similar solutions seem hard to find. Please link similar methods if they exist somewhere else, I am curious to read.
Personal success on SO-02K (NTT DoCoMo XZ1c ) fw version 47.2.B.5.38 Android Pie, 128G A2 card.
The method results in a fraction of the microSD Card being recognised by the system to be able to transfer apps to, and another fraction where the sd card remains external storage.
The Stock Camera will only be able to save to the mentioned external storage partition after this process, and it will fail to save to internal storage.
Some apps may not work when transferred to the sd card and have to stay in onboard storage.
Premise
I carried out the process with a freshly flashed phone, with a minimal amount of apps present in the system. I cannot guarantee same success with an almost-full phone, although in principle it should be the same. If anyone has success on a more full system please let me and others know.
ADB Debugging should be turned on in developer options and authorization of PC given in advance; root or bl unlock not necessary.
SD Card will be WIPED in the process. For your data's safety do backup everything on your phone, both internal memory and external memory before proceeding! Don't yell at me if in the end it'll have to be restored.
Process
adb shell
sm list-disks this should return two integers such as 179,0
sm partition disk:179,0 mixed xx where the 179,0 should be your result in step 2 and xx be the amount of space reserved for /sdcard ; wait until command finishes. For the mixed xx see Miscellaneous#2 for explanation. Please also reply if you know the command to revert the changes made in this step, because I'd expect it be useful in the future and I don't know what it is.
Turn on force allow apps on external in bottom of developer settings if haven't done so.
Open camera app, click on OK until warnings go away, then set save directory in SD Card. Test if it saves successfully, if not, see Miscellaneous#1.
Reboot, then try moving some apps to your sd card! Some core function apps are not movable; that is to be expected.
Miscellaneous
If your camera won't allow you to open up settings (keeps saying cannot save), then you have run into a problem I have never seen before. If you can go into camera settings but the SD Card option is greyed out, that means either you have not reserved enough space in mixed xx or the command may have gone wrong. Or the card may not be in perfect condition for Adoptable Storage. You can unplug the sd card to see if the camera works fine after that, but I haven't tried that. If anyone knows the corresponding command to revert the changes made in Process#3, please let everyone know!
The mixed xx part allows a part of the sd card to remain.... an sd card. xx% of the space in your card will be recognised as external(portable) storage by your phone, and is readable by a PC. This portion will be the place where your future photos and videos are saved in, as the camera will fail saving to internal space. Thus you may want to use the fastest card you have and set xx based on your use patterns. The other part, the (100-xx) % of space is recognised by the phone as internal storage that it can put apps in, although some apps (especially some games) will still save assets in the phone's on board storage no matter where you move the main app.
This post is re-written from original post(chinese)

Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.

indago said:
Thanks for sharing this but in my experience it does not work. I followed the guide and It looks like it worked, however now I don't understand how to move the apps away from the internal memory to exploit the new storage space provided by the SD "internal" memory... each time I try to move an app I get a "not enough memory" error message although there are about 64Gb free, no matter what app I try moving. I also noticed that deleting an app from the phone and then re-installing the app in the phone will finally install it in the SD but several apps I tried didn't work any more once re-installed in the SD storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi and Merry Christmas!
I do get system warnings saying the phone is full while it isn't; it seems that Android freaks out a little trying to gather disk usage info when the SD card is merged with internal space. However I can move most non-system-apps.
Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function? I found I didn't include this part in the original writing and might have been a source of confusion. Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work, and perhaps I can try on my phone. I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card.
Another potential source of error is the card itself, in some cases, the card may have bad blocks that Android doesn't correct for and cause read problems, as my SD card now begins to show. Sometimes I wake up to see my home screen devoid of apps, and I have to reinsert and restart the phone multiple times before the SD card gets recognized by the phone again.

Did you move the app with the (Press&Hold App Icon)->App Info ->Storage->Change function?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.
Assuming it was done in App Info, could you tell me what apps don't work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all. I was not able to move any app.
I also wonder how much storage did you allocate to each of the two partitions on the SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
50% of 128Gb, that is 64Gb each.
Another potential source of error is the card itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesn't seem the card, since the remaining 64Gb left for external storage, that is where the camera app is saving photos and videos and some other apps save data, still works fine.

Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).

indago said:
Here it is the screenshot of how Android now sees the storage configuration (android settings > storage) after I performed the procedure described above for configuring adoptable storage (writings are in Italian but I think it should be easy to understand).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine looks the same. I don't know what to suggest. I'll look around on other forums to see if people have the same problem.
This post is re-written from original post in Chinese which in turn is adapted from a lost post on gfan.com.
It also turns out that googling sm partition would give a lot of information most dated back to android 6.

I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.

indago said:
I've been looking around as well, but was able to find only people reporting failures in enabling odoptable storage on Sony devices. However, one difference between your phone and mine is fw version: mine has 47.2.A.11.228 (no brand) - don't know if this can make any real difference.
By the way, I'm wondering whether it could be possibile to install a rarely-used app in the internal memory, then "park" the app in the SD card's external memory by moving its files, then eventually move it back to internal memory only in the case you need opening that app. If it works, it could be a trick for keeping all the apps you want "freezed" in the phone, by taking the usually unused apps in the external memory, then moving one of them in the internal memory only in the rare circumstance you need using it. Then moving it back to the external memory if you think you won't use it any more for a long period. Obviously one could simply uninstall and reinstall those rarely-used apps on occurrence, but that would take more time, consume data traffic and lose the app existing data, so I think that >IF< this kind of trick could be feasible, I'd go for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Striking news in the new year-- my sd doesn't work now. Yesterday I checked everything worked, but now no apps installed on my sd card open. using sm list-volumes shows both internal and portable partitions on the SD are mounted, but the apps still refuse to open.
The card looks like it's corrupted, now the two partitions can't even be recognized with my card reader, I guess I'm screwed.

at my asus max m2 .... working, camera, i can move app to sd card and they still works
butttt the only thing is at settings/storage/ information; it shows numbers that dont are correct and a option "to forget sd card " ?!?!?
well i don't know.....