Nokia 635 won't detect SD card

[rhapdog]

I'm here because my new SD card (SanDisk 32GB) stopped working. It has been in my phone for a couple of days, and I moved all possible apps and music to it. It was fine for another day but when I turned it on this morning, all of those apps were greyed out tiles.
I rebooted a few times, then I pulled and reinserted the card a couple of times. No help.
I put it in my PC card reader and saw a long list of corrupted files. Just garbage characters in place of file names, dates, and sizes. It may have had something to do with adding some extra music yesterday or not, but now it looks like I'll have to wipe it and hard reset and see how far the restore gets me.
Wish me luck!

What a pain! Good luck with it. If it continues to happen, you may have a bad SD card. I'd definitely reformat the card in the phone as well. You may want to run some sort of write/read test on all the sectors of the card to make sure it's not bad, just in case. I'd hate to see you lose something highly important, if you haven't already.

 

[wendell grogan]

first time here, but I tried the advice of doing a factory reboot with the SD card in, worked perfectly. I had already done all the usual techniques to work the problem before without success
'Thanks

 

[Frank Bailey]

i have to say that it is the phone i have had my phone for about 7 months now and have had to buy 5 yes i said 5 microsd cards and that is getting $$$ crazy. each card is $50 and up. they work for a little then they **** out. all good cards bought 2 from local boost mobile store and 3 from local staples store they have ranged from 32gb up to a 120 gb card and they all have been killed by this phone. i will be getting a new phone soon maybe then i can save some money.

 

[Reagan Brewer]

I installed a ADATA 64 gb and also tried a Kingston micro SD card on my new Nokia 635 phone. When I checked the Storage Sense, it showed the SD card not found. I have tried many times without success. Any ideas or advises will be appreciate it.

 

[WeAreNotAlone]

SD Card not being detected, STORAGE SENSE can't see a installed SDcard, Why and a FIX.

BE SURE TO POST A DETAILED FOLLOW-UP ON WHAT TRANSPIRES PEOPLE!
The problem is NOT with the device but within the Windows 8.x phone OS.
Everyone that's having this problem (even if the below fix works for you) should:
A: Find a Nokia Service Center and make them "fix" it. (Play stupid if the below fix works)
B: Bug Microsoft, make a report /complaint, etc.

Have some info that might help:

I've been all over the net looking for info "STORAGE SENSE" not showing a installed SD card as I have a Nokia Lumia 635 (Boost/Virgin?Sprint) in which is brand new in which AFTER using it for basically a hr after firing it up for the first time installed a Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10 microSD Card with Adapter purchased directly from Wal-Mart.com as there were alot of FAKES being reported on Amazon /Ebay. Figured if there was a problem I could handle the exchange locally.
(Lots of fakes being cards that are for example really only 8Gb and the card has been tampered with to make it look like it's 64GB and if you write files smaller than 8GB.. depending on how"good" the card is data might get written to the card but files larger than the "real" size of the card of course fail to write.)

INFO on the Fakes, and info/ link to app named "h2testw" to test:
(App says it can be on Hard drives, usb, dvd/cd, etc)
https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/

Anyhow these are the cards I ordered:

Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10 microSD Card with Adapter
Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10 microSD Card with Adapter - Walmart.com
(Card made in Korea, adapter China. 10 yr warranty on SD, 1 yr on adapter.)
(Samsung has a PRO series @ twice the speed.)

These cards are formatted exFAT which cards over 32GB use (64-128GB currently). 635 is rated to handle up to a 128GB sd card.

I purchased several 64GB Evo's cards and tested with a Windows 7/8 app h2testw that writes and verifies as many 1GB files in succession as there is available space on the card.
IIRC a 64GB card formats to 59GB so 59 files... a "fake" would only have 6 /7 files...for a fake that was really 8GB in size.

Anyhow I tested each card for 72 HOURS on a MicroCenter TW700 Win8 tablet. Tried them in a couple of Android devices with sucess.. so cards appear functional.

Stuck one of the cards in the Nokia 635... upon powering up I expected a notification a SD card was found. NOTHING.
Navigating to settings>Storage Sense results in only free space of internal memory showing, Micro-SD card section is showing no sd card... and all the sections below in which you can tell apps to store data on a SD card are greyed out.

Searching the net the first solution is to "RESET" the device -which wipes out all data on the device (and may delete preexisting data on a SD inserted!!!!)
*SEE NOTES BELOW ON WHY THIS IS DONE, and WHY I THINK THE REASON "STORAGE SENSE" is as dumb as they come!)

Second option (IMO RIsky) was to remove the battery with device powered up and insert Sd while powered up, it being said OS would then recognize card... Problem with that such while device is powered on is not recommended AND the "fix" stopped working if you turned off the device..

SO:
Tried multiple resets. SOFT reset thru the OS, and HARD RESET via buttons:

Make sure the battery fully charged
Backup all your important data
Power Off Your Nokia Lumia 635
Press And Hold Volume Down + Power Key
Release Buttons when device will vibrate.
When you will see exclamation mark
Press this sequence of keys: Volume Up -> Volume Down -> Power button -> Volume Down
Device will start the reset process.

***************
Reseting the phone didn't work for me.
SD was still NOT showing as being present
Looking on the net I saw one post saying right after the Nokia Lumia Experience TOS page? was displayed and you "ok'd" it SD card appeared.

That didn't happen for me...
(If I had to guess upon allowing the 635 to fully update prior to 8.10.14226.359 (Current as of 2015-07-11) that stage of the reset used to display but that no longer shows now.)

Anyhow= SD card isn't working.

Doing more searching I read posts on the 630 in which the SD card holder instead of being the conventional PUSH in, PUSH again to release has a different design- that you have to engage a "lock" before SD will read... and I read a tidbit about some SD slots being crooked /bent/distorted as a reason SD might not be showing.

So removed battery, inspected the "Slide-in" type, held by fiction sd slot of the 635 and all looks good. Saw a post mentioning Nokia Care? (Service) center Googled around with the intent I'd drop it in their lap and let them fix this problem and bill MicroSoft /Nokia on this but it was late.

Last option for the night was installing a app called FILES, by Microsoft Corporation that is in the Lumia Collection in the MS Store as I had read the FILES app was being reported to be able to "See" the files on the Sd card.

Installed the FILES app and think I rebooted and "STORAGE SENSE" is now showing SD card is present and gives options that were previously greyed out.

So that may be the fix for those whose SD isn't showing.

If you have luck with the above, please do a detailed follow-up and post the above on other sites.
Microsoft /and or Nokia doesn't seem to be doing anything to address this issue!

Note: Everyone having the issue even if the above works for you should file a case /trouble ticket with Microsoft/Nokia...
*************


NOTES:

In reading the very lacking manual for the 635 or during my travels on the net searching for info on "STORAGE SENSE".... the brain dead app not recognizing a installed Micro-SD card I saw mention of NEVER removing the SD once installed.

I think the reason for this and why it is said you have to do a FULL RESET of the device which wipes everything out is Microsoft being paranoid about apps on the MS being pirated (You've got to be kidding-most apps are el-crap-ola on a stick), and most likely the DRM folks have made sure that the SD is being encrypted at some point /they are "marking" the SD in some manner (Marrying the SD to the device)...

So this requires a full reset... and that the "STORAGE SENSE" app isn't getting any confirmation such has occurred...

Hence it doesn't see it...Until by chance you install the "Files" app.


PS: When the brain dead Win 8 OS app "STORAGE SENSE" was not seeing the Sdcard a app called SD Card Speed by Amaze Pictures v2.2 when a attempt was make to test the card gave a error code (duh) with a "Com" in it.
(Should have written that down)
With the Sd card now appearing speed on the 64GB EVO is 16.11 Mps...


.

 

[josegomez21]

resetting your phone will detect your SD card i tried it and it DOES work

 

[gsistanich]

Ok my Nokia Lumia 635 is doing this I went to setting and properly took out my micro SD card and when i put it back in it don't read it tells me it needs to be formatted im guessing the phone is bad because I had that SD card in other windows phone and no problems

 

[Shelby E]

I have tried everything suggested here - including resetting my phone - and nothing has worked. Did your phone ever find your card?

 

[GelockS]

Mine did...
I went into a Windows PC, downloaded GUIFormat from the net.
Formatted my new 64gb microSD card on that PC using FAT32.
Inserted the card into the phone. The Phone did NOT recognized the card.
Went into settings --> about phone and reset the phone.
After doing all initialization almost at the end the SD card was recognized...

Windows Phone works in a weird way... hopefully Windows 10 mobile will be better.

 

[boomerang323]

Hi all,
I've had the same problem, and I think some posters on here (and on other threads about the same issue) are not fully understanding the problem.
It's NOTHING to do with the electrical contacts on the SD card. The phone is using the card, but won't let Storage Sense see it - so effectively the card is now a read-only item (i.e. useless).
I have the "Files" app but that just proves the card is ok, it doesn't allow me to store new photos and apps on the card.
Re-setting the phone is a pain - I'd need to set up everything again, and wouldn't work anyway because I had the problem by setting up my NEW phone with the card in it, i.e. it was "reset" as part of that process.
Reformatting the card is no good either - because I'd lose all the apps on it. There is no guarantee that the backup/restore process would bring them back.
The problem is because (I think) Windows phones seem to "brand" any SD card with that phone's ID so it can't ever be used in another Windows Phone. My problem is because I'm transferring the SD card from my previous Windows phone. The card sill works in my old phone - I checked - another reason not to reformat the card, I'll just keep it in my old phone once I've solved the problem - like this:-
I think the best solution is to buy a brand new card, insert it in the phone and buy / download all my apps again. I can copy the photos etc on to it using a computer, but by the way the phone doesn't then see them in the Camera Roll.
What a pain.
Windows Phones are about as frustrating as they can possibly be.
:devil: