microSD Cards in Windows Phone 8.1

Zachary Boddy

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Aug 3, 2014
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Okay, so I've updated my music, installed it all on my microSD card, inserted it into my Lumia 830, restarted my Lumia 830, and...nothing happens. Windows Phone 8.1 is absolutely horrible with microSD cards, because they never refresh the information stored on them. They stubbornly insist that the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of songs is something it can't recognize and until it accepts it I can't play my music. Is there any way to force the phone to refresh the information?
 

rhapdog

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Aug 26, 2014
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I usually hook up my Lumia via USB and drag music and whatever files from the PC. Never fails....

This is my method as well. Works every time. Whenever I remove the SD Card from the phone and update it outside of the phone, the phone never looks for the changes. Irritating, as I can write much faster to the card using my USB 3.0 reader/writer than I can through the phone USB 2.0 port, because I have a fast read/write access card. I get about 96MB/s read 50MB/s write using my USB 3.0 reader, but only 18MB/s read and 12MB/s write using the USB 2.0 port of the Lumia. The Phone's access to the card is faster than going through the port, so I guess the port is the bottleneck.

So, while I understand the OP reasoning for trying to do it all "outside the phone," ultimately, it's just a bad idea because of how Windows Phone 8.1 works.
 

Zachary Boddy

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Aug 3, 2014
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I tried to do it the normal way. After half an hour of trying to get my computer to recognize my phone (the computer does but Windows Media Player doesn't) I moved all my music over that way (after formatting the card) and same problem.
 

Zachary Boddy

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Aug 3, 2014
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The way Windows Phone 8.1 handles microSD cards is my least favorite part of Windows Phone by far. It's absolutely infuriatingly frustrating. So far, Windows 10 Mobile has been handling them a little better but I'm still holding out for more change in that department.
 

raycpl

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Apr 6, 2013
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Its possible you may have problem with the PC. .. I couldn't get it to recognise my phone. But after an update (can't recall what it was) its ok now.
 

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