microsSD cards, which ones work, or not

[Guzzler3]

For those of us that have WP8 phones with microSD card expansion, I thought it would be nice to start a thread where people can post which cards work, or don't. To save others the pain of buying and exchanging.

The easiest, quickest test is to try to record video at 720, and 1080p, while moving the phone around. On playback it should be as expected, no stutters or jitters.

This is what I've found, so far:

Phone: Nokia Lumia 810

Card: Patriot 32GB microSDHC Class 10 Flash Card (PSF32GMCSDHC10) - doesn't work well. Locked up the phone when trying to record any video, soft resets (vol dwn+pwr button) didn't work. Had to pull the battery each time. Ended up corrupting the phone and having to do a full reset/restore.

Card: Sandisk 64GB Class 10 (SDSDQUA-064G-A11A) - doesn't work well. Recording video (720p) ends up jittery.

Card: Kingston 32GB Class 10 (SDC10/32GB) - works fine recording video at both 720p and 1080p.

Card: Samsung 32GB Plus Series Class 6/UHS-1 (MB-MPBGB/AM ) - works fine recording at video at 720p and 1080p.
This card surprised me, as it's a Class 6 card, but is UHS-1 that can record up to 48 MB/s. It's also the least expensive card I tried. The only downside was it doesn't come with microSD to SD adapter.

So, add what you've found. Please include the manufacturers model number in parentheses if you could, it's usually in fine print on the packaging, somewhere ;-P

 

[jiayit]

I have a Class 4 TOSHIBA 16GB card that is NOT working.
Will update the model number once my nail grows back from breaking when removing the back cover of the 820. @_@

 

[Matt174e]

Just ordered the Sammy, crossing my fingers. The Sandisk 64GB is total garbage in my phone. Hopefully an update will eventually fix this.

 

[RichHowerton]

I tried two different Sandisk Micro SD XC Class 10, 64gb cards, and neither would record video for squat. Went with a Samsung 32 gb card, and works fine. Still holding on to the 64gb card with hopes a bug fix..

 

[RichHowerton]

new update applied today (portico??), and can now record to 64gb sandisk card, no skipping...

 

[wmgreenjr]

Card: Sandisk 64GB Class 10 (SDSDQUA-064G-A11A) - doesn't work well. Recording video (720p) ends up jittery.

Card: Kingston 32GB Class 10 (SDC10/32GB) - works fine recording video at both 720p and 1080p.

Card: Samsung 32GB Plus Series Class 6/UHS-1 (MB-MPBGB/AM ) - works fine recording at video at 720p and 1080p.
This card surprised me, as it's a Class 6 card, but is UHS-1 that can record up to 48 MB/s. It's also the least expensive card I tried. The only downside was it doesn't come with microSD to SD adapter.

Have you had more time with each of these cards to see which one STILL works best. I assume it will be the Kingston or the Samsung but just want to see if you have had any more issues with any of these, or any new comments. After my recent issue with my current MicroSD card (supposedly the 'old' SDSDQU-064G) I have several on the way (all three listed in the quoted text above). It is overkill but all were cheap except for the 'new' SDSDQUA-064G. I still have not received my OTA phone update (Lumia 820) so all of my issues may be fixed when that happens....but I have been waiting for the OTA for quite some time to no avail (ATT network by the way).

My phone had all of my music on my current MicroSD card (the old SanDisk) and a few photos. Then one night I was taking a photo and the phone locked. Since then my SD has been recognized by the phone - but no data can be saved to it or retrieved from it by the phone. The card is fine - in my computer I did several different formats, tests, etc... I can use the card just fine in the computer. If I save anything to the card from the computer and then put it in the phone, everything just shows up in the MicroSD 'other' storage section and all of the apps don't retrieve the photos or music from it. This was after formatting from the phone, from the computer, and trying EVERYTHING.

So, since I have the other MicroSD cards on the way and I assume there may be issues accessing information from even the new cards at this point, I did a full reset. Was not as painful as I thought and already have everything as it was before EXCEPT for the MicroSd card of course. I am not putting in my current card (which worked fine for some time until the phone lock up) - I am waiting for the new cards to get here. As much as I want to do some testing on this 'old' card I am going to wait for the new ones.

Which leads back to any more input you (or anyone else) have on the three listed cards above. Thanks for any extra info

PS I am waiting to confirm photos/videos can be created/saved/stored properly to whichever card I end up using before trying your new method of music syncing to the phone (from the other thread).

 

[Guzzler3]

I'm still rocking with the Samsung microSD card without any issues. Photos and video recordings on the card are still nice and smooth. Music is just fine, I haven't had any read errors at all on it.

I no longer have the Sandisk, as I returned it as faulty (got screwed on the restocking fee). The Patriot I use in my Surface RT for extra storage/transfer files around.

 

[wmgreenjr]

I'm still rocking with the Samsung microSD card without any issues. Photos and video recordings on the card are still nice and smooth. Music is just fine, I haven't had any read errors at all on it.

I no longer have the Sandisk, as I returned it as faulty (got screwed on the restocking fee). The Patriot I use in my Surface RT for extra storage/transfer files around.

Great Thanks! As you have gone through all of the same issues I may start with the Samsung (the new SanDisk came in today but I will wait for the others). Any issues with the Kingston since that post or same status?

 

[Guzzler3]

I didn't keep the Kingston. I was used at the Microsoft store for diagnostics, and I was short on funds at the time to keep it.

 

[enthuz]

Thanks Guzzler3 for starting this thread. It is a great help so I don't buy the wrong card. I was really hoping that the Sandisk 64GB card would work now as one posted after some update was ran. I hope more can confirm and/or post other 64GB cards that are working fine with the latest updates using your testing methods.

 

[wmgreenjr]

Here's an interesting write-up on SD cards over at XDA forum: [INFO] All about Memory Cards - xda-developers
The parts about lower classes vs higher classes as well as sequential read/write vs random read/write were interesting. I'm-a-learning :smile:

It'd be interesting to see if the cards that are causing us issues share a specific benchmark trait (for example: lower random write speeds may be causing the issue - or vice versa - or maybe sequential writes are causing havoc - etc...). But there may not even be a correlation to come to a conclusion and we are just stuck with trial and error. I did try to find an all-inclusive website detailing benchmarks of the majority of microsd cards but results are scattered throughout many sites. This all may be moot anyways after firmware and OS updates.

 

[Robert Novak1]

using the Sandisk recommended card, I have no issues recording video with either camera to the SDSDQUA-064G-A11A card. It works extremely well for me. Curious to see what the OP results are now that the first update was releasd in Jan....

 

[th0mas96]

Hey!
I have ne problems with the Sandisk 64GB card, it's the format of the card that makes problems. it's SD-XC, which means it comes with ExFat, which doesn't work well on WP. After reformatting it to fat32, it works perfectly (Lumia 820).