Why can't my sd card work after transfering data from another sd card?

[Windows Central Question]

I have a Lumia 640 and moved everything I could to a 16g sd card, then I transfered the contents to my PC then I transfered from my PC to 64g card and my phone is not finding or loading the apps that was on the first card. I know I did something wrong but can it be resolved?

 

[AV2RY]

I would
1. Format 64gb card on phone, then
2. transfer everything back on it..

 

[neodk]

I didn't think that you could move apps from the phone to the SD, then to a PC, and from the PC to another SD card. Wouldn't that all but assure that people could pirate Windows Phone applications quite easily?

 

[Diamond67]

AFAIK, it's impossible to copy the contents of a Lumia phone SD card to another card and start using it with your phone.

 

[rhapdog]

I can absolutely confirm that you cannot manually move apps from one SD card to another SD card. The apps are encrypted and one of the encryption keys is the serial number of the SD card. If you move them to another card, they cannot be decrypted.

You will need to move apps to your phone, then to the new SD card from there, using the built in feature in Storage Sense. It's the only way besides uninstalling and re-installing all the apps.

The only things you can move are personal documents stored on the card, music files, etc.