microSD card partially malfunctions

[Vegasus]

What would cause an Android phone's microSD card to become partially unusable? A few days ago my phone has started up with a message that the card is missing, even though it's plugged in. I rarely move the card so I doubt the connector is worn. Apps installed on the card crash as soon as they're launched. The card can no longer be written to, but photos and podcasts stored on it can be viewed and played.

What's likely to fix this? Reformatting the card? Replacing it?

The phone is a Motorola Moto G4. The latest Android version is 7.0 and the updater says it's up to date, so there are probably no more updates for this phone. The card is a SanDisk Ultra 128 GB microSDXC I (10). I set up the card as internal storage. I think I got the phone and the card on Christmas 2016 and the card worked fine as internal storage until a few days ago.

I turned the phone off, removed and reinsert the card, then turned the phone back on. The phone no longer displays the error message of the card being missing but everything the phone does that depends on the card continues to malfunction as it had before.

 

[UsandThem]

It sounds like the SD card is failing, so really your only option would be to replace it, and move any data off of it that you need before it totally dies.

 

[Zaap]

^ Exactly that. Get everything you value off it quick, and replace it. Thankfully, 128GB is only $20 or so. Once replaced or data shuffled off safely, you might try reformatting the card and seeing if it works OK. But for me, once media gets flaky I have a hard time trusting it with anything I wouldn't want to lose.

 

[Vegasus]

I got all my photos off of it. Everything else I care about was already backed up to the cloud. I tried reformatting it as removable storage. It said the reformat worked but I couldn't write anything to it. I tried reformatting again as an extension of internal storage but it said the reformat failed. I ordered a new SanDisk "Endurance" card.