Idol 4S SD card dismount issues?

[WPWeasel]

I picked up an Idol 4S from my local T-Mobile store yesterday and installed the Sandisk 64GB SD card that was in my Lumia 640 for 1.5 years+ into it. Within hours, the card got dismounted while the phone was running and I got a snarky message stating that I really should "eject" it first per the usual option. Problem was of course that I did nothing to dismount the card - the phone just acts like I physically removed it while the phone is running.

This has now happened at least 3 times in the past 24 hours, so I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software bug. Anyone else run into this? I'm not inclined to think the card is bad, because it ran with zero issues in my Lumia 640 for the aforementioned 20+ months.

 

[Dub-J]

I have had a similar dismounting issue with a SanDisk 128GB card. This same card ran flawlessly in my L640 for years.

I don't think I'm seeing it with the same frequency you are, but it is certainly an annoyance. It's pretty random and rebooting my phone solves the issue, so it doesn't seem to be a physical issue.

I have thought about reformatting the card in my phone, but have honestly not taken the time to do it. Anybody else having this issue? Any tips?

 

[Sedp23]

Haven't used a card in mines yet I will have to get one to try

Sent from Idol 4s

 

[RumoredNow]

I moved a Samsung EVO 32GB UHS-I card into my Idol 4S that was previously used in a Lumia 650.

I formatted it on Laptop first, put it into the Alcatel and booted up. I then moved files onto it via USB from my Laptop.

No issues so far after a month.

 

[anon(50597)]

I had a Samsung 64gb card in my 950. Put it in my unlocked Idol4s on day one and haven't had an issue.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[WPWeasel]

I did some research and the physical thinness of the Sandisk MicroSD cards have been known to cause issues in a lot of devices. I'm guessing this is happening primarily in devices with trays that hold the card, and the card is ocassionally losing contact internally and is being dismounted by the OS because it thinks it has disappeared.

I'm going to order one of the Samsung card to see if that works any better.

 

[3165dwayne]

I'm having the same issues. My strontium 128 GB card had no problems but the sandisk 200GB card was ejected just as often as yours has. I'm testing something out though. I decided to format the card as fat 32. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[WPWeasel]

Well, I bought a Samsung Evo Pro Select 64GB card today, installed it and it did the same thing within 30 mins. Guess I'm taking this thing back to the store.

Shame, because it's a nice phone.

 

[anon(50597)]

Well, I bought a Samsung Evo Pro Select 64GB card today, installed it and it did the same thing within 30 mins. Guess I'm taking this thing back to the store.

Shame, because it's a nice phone.

Maybe you're putting it in backwards.......just kidding.
Sounds like a hardware issue. Going to try a replacement before giving up?

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[3165dwayne]

So far so good. I went through an entire day with my 200GB sandisk card and have yet to see any unmount problems with it formatted to FAT32.

 

[RumoredNow]

Yeah, my 32GB formatted as FAT32.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I hate trays for SIMs and SD cards because they can get jammed inside a sealed device. But they undoubtedly are also not as secured against the contacts either in a tray which may be a factor in this problem.

 

[jes1888]

I hate trays for SIMs and SD cards because they can get jammed inside a sealed device. But they undoubtedly are also not as secured against the contacts either in a tray which may be a factor in this problem.

Well, it could be, elite x3 forums are full of the same topic, and today for the first time this happened like 3 times, annoying!! Considering these two phones have the same hardware, there's gotta be something bad or not working properly, card controller maybe? Because it can't be coincidence that both phones are having the same problem. Elites also enter in a restart loop supposedly because of the SIM card losing connection. People have done soft and hard resets without success. Hp was sending new revised SIM trays to people complaining about the situation and for some the problem is gone and for some still isn't. Good luck!

Sent from mTalk

 

[WPWeasel]

So far so good. I went through an entire day with my 200GB sandisk card and have yet to see any unmount problems with it formatted to FAT32.

Please keep us posted! I'm going to do an exchange for another unit today at the TMobile store to see if that helps. If not, I might try the FAT32 reformat, although there apparently is a 4GB file limitation with that standard. I probably won't exceed that often, but it would prevent me from shooting longer videos and/or loading up larger files (like movies) onto the phone. So that's not an idea solution either.

 

[WPWeasel]

I also called Alcatel to see if they had any knowledge of this issue and/or solutions. Unsurprisingly, they did not. They did offer to pay for shipping so the phone could be "Repaired", but I declined as I intend to swap it out locally. I can't really see hanging onto it either if this is an issue with the replacement as I don't think they have a handle on what the problem is. So I'll probably just cut my losses at that point.

 

[WPWeasel]

Well, exchanged it today for a new Idol 4S and the SD card auto-dismounted after about 7 hours. So that sucks.

Will do a bit more research, but I think this is going back. If anyone sees anything related to to an issue of this ilk being fixed in the insider builds, please do let us know.

 

[jes1888]

Well, exchanged it today for a new Idol 4S and the SD card auto-dismounted after about 7 hours. So that sucks.

Will do a bit more research, but I think this is going back. If anyone sees anything related to to an issue of this ilk being fixed in the insider builds, please do let us know.

Well, I've heard people trying to put something like carton under the sd card to raise it up a little so that it doesn't loose contact. However I don't think that's the problem, since my elite hasn't done it today.

Sent from mTalk

 

[nate0]

I found SD cards useful only if I need to use a file over and over again on different phones or to keep copying data to the phone if I wipe it and want to save time. Otherwise I try to avoid using them. For one if Apps are installed there you can see issues or performance issues even. Files accessed there have to go through whatever controller the SD card is before it gets used, and I am not completely sure but the I/O on that cannot be more or even the same as the channel for the SoC ROM. It could be negligible but still, if it saves me time and a headache I just plan to not use one unless I have to.

 

[anon(50597)]

I found SD cards useful only if I need to use a file over and over again on different phones or to keep copying data to the phone if I wipe it and want to save time. Otherwise I try to avoid using them. For one if Apps are installed there you can see issues or performance issues even. Files accessed there have to go through whatever controller the SD card is before it gets used, and I am not completely sure but the I/O on that cannot be more or even the same as the channel for the SoC ROM. It could be negligible but still, if it saves me time and a headache I just plan to not use one unless I have to.

I don't use them for apps, just music and such. Don't usually have a problem.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I don't use them for apps, just music and such. Don't usually have a problem.

I agree. For some things the tradeoffs make SD preferable to built-in memory. For example, I needed to put thousands of songs, hundreds of wallpapers, and a few movies on my wife's 4S. It takes a few minutes to copy them from my PC to an SD card but well over an hour over USB3 to the phone's internal memory because of all the extra processing hoops inside the phone to make it appear as a storage device to the host. Not to mention that the phone is scrambling to create thumbnails for the files as they are being copied as opposed to leisurely doing that in the background after plugging in an SD card containing them.

On My 1520, 950XL or any phone that takes SD cards, I keep all the music, pics, videos, maps on an SD card. I record videos to the internal memory because the SD card might be too slow for high res, high frame rates but move them later to the SD card. And when I want to update music or videos from another source, it's much faster to pull the SD card and update it on the PC than do it over USB to phone memory.