Problem with wife's Android phone and the SD card

[mikeymikec]

My wife has an Alcatel OneTouch Idol S phone with an 8GB Micro SD card in it. The card was in her old phone and she didn't have any problems with it in that one. Because of problems with this phone and that card, we've backed up the necessary stuff from the SD card at least once and then had the phone format the card, then only copying across necessary stuff (photos, music, that sort of thing). Previous problems included the phone saying things like the SD card has been surprise disconnected (I can't remember the exact wording but that's what it amounted to). Also it occasionally doesn't show all the photos on the photos folder.

The current problem is with the music collection. It had been working fine, and when my wife got another album for Christmas, I ripped the album using the same app (and version) I've always used and copied it to her phone via USB (it can be told to act as a USB Mass Storage Device). I then very safely disconnected the phone (safe disconnect on PC first, then told the phone to disconnect the USB Mass Storage, then unplugged the cable), then when I started the Music app, it didn't show any albums. Google Play Music shows the same thing.

Rebooting makes no difference. It was the case that when I removed the new album that the Music app could then see the music again, but we tried other things like transferring a different album (music list disappears in app), then deleting an old album (list still non responsive), remove the new album (no diff) and now we can't get the music app to see the music again.

This morning I tried running chkdsk /f /v /r on the USB Mass Storage Device, it got midway through and then the USB Mass Storage Device surprise disconnected from the PC. No errors in the event log.

Another thing - the phone can also connect to the PC as an MTP device. In this scenario, it presents itself as a phone device but with two storage devices. The internal storage only has 300MB or so left despite the phone being told to install stuff on the SD card (IIRC we factory resetted the phone then formatted the SD card at the same time). Also, both storage drives have Music folders and I get differing results for the content of the Music folder almost every time I check each one using this method. As the MTP method of connecting gave me no confidence of it working properly I've always used the Mass Storage Device method for file transfers (which has always given me a consistent / sensible file listing).

IIRC the phone is running Android 4.2.x or 4.4.x, I can check that if it's important. No OS updates available.

I suppose trying a new SD card would be a cheap thing to check. Otherwise I'm wondering whether this phone simply can't handle SD cards properly or is faulty in some way. An expensive solution would be to buy her a Nexus 5 as I trust mine to "just work".

If anyone has any other ideas I would appreciate the suggestions.

I think the next thing I'll try is to clear out the music folder and try transferring one "known to work" album over to see if that works.

 

[lxskllr]

You don't have a spare card of any size you can check? It sounds like it's maybe a physical issue, either with the card, or the port.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've just ordered a 16GB card so that'll arrive tomorrow.

 

[styrafoam]

Not uncommon for things like a sd card or thumb drive to misbehave for a while before they give up completely. Sounds like a dying card.

 

[JeffMD]

When you were doing the chkdsk, did you use a card reader or were you still using the phone as a reader? Never use the phone to run low level scans like chkdsk on. If you don't have a USB reader to directly access the card for cases like these, now it the time to get one.

It does sound like you need to run another chkdsk on it as the file table and expected storage don't match. In the future when transfering files I suggest using the MTP mode. Infact on kitkat and above you no longer get direct access to the sd card. MTP mode is more of an intelligent hand off of known file types, you request the phone saves a copy of the file, the phone determines if an app can open it (and warns you if you don't) and then the file is handed to the android OS where the OS then does the file save. This way the OS does not save a file until the transfer is complete, and you can disconnect when ever without worry that an unfinished file is being written.

 

[salvorhardin]

How old is the card? Cards usually start to fail on me after about 4 years, at which point I usually get a bigger card or I'm on a newer format. Also, when formatting use https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/ to format the card.

 

[lopri]

Can you view the transfered files in a file manager instead of music player on the phone?

 

[lopri]

BTW - 4.4 changed the way how SD cards are handled, so it matters whether the phone is running 4.2 or 4.4.

http://www.androidcentral.com/kitkat-sdcard-changes

Edit: I am not sure if Mass Storage mode is allowed in 4.4. (unless you have root access, of course) That means only MTP/PTP and what you experience may be an intended side effect of the KitKat security feature.

 

[salvorhardin]

It looks like it's 4.2 going by the alcatel website.

 

[mikeymikec]

Yup, 4.2.2.

The card is probably 3-4 years old at a guess.

chkdsk - I had the phone connected to the computer with the SD card in. I have an adapter somewhere, but I haven't been able to remember where.

I bought a new card, it arrived yesterday. I backed up the contents of the old card (during which it surprise connected at least once), inserted the new one, told the phone to format it, factory resetted the phone, so far so good (though it was an intermittent issue most of the time).

I went for a factory reset because while my wife likes to complain about technical problems, she rarely actually goes out of her way to fix them and is reticent to seek my help, saying that she feels like she's de-skilled in technical troubleshooting since we hooked up. Hence if I get the opportunity (ie. consent) to fix a problem, I'll do everything I can to fix it in one go, albeit at the potential expense of not knowing exactly what caused the problem.

When I find the adapter, I'll try running another chkdsk on the old memory stick. I think the suspicion of the card dying is probably on the money though because I have a sneaking suspicion that her old phone started giving problems in similar-ish ways before she replaced it.

 

[Oyeve]

I have a stack of 8GB cards that do this as well. Turns out they are ever so slightly thinner that sometimes they lose contact. A very tiny piece of tape on top alleviates that for the most part.

 

[mikeymikec]

The phone is still acting screwy with the new SD card, FYI. I think I'll just get her a Nexus 5 unless anyone else has some ideas. Her phone provider wants to send the phone away for repair, which has the notion of "three weeks without a phone" written all over it, and no guarantee that they'll pick up on an intermittent issue.

@ lopri

Re: file manager - we haven't tried that, but given that the gallery app and the music player both have similar problems, it seems likely that this issue is more than just an application-level issue.

 

[lxskllr]

Oyeve's suggestion sounds reasonable. I'd try to press the card tighter against the contacts, either with tape, or shoving something thin above the card.