SanDisk memory card (e.g. micro SD card, SDHC, SDXC, and XQD card) not working properly on an Android phone, digital camera or PC, it means that the memory card is undetectable, unreadable or inaccessible. You can learn complete fixes on this page and try it one by one to fix a not working SanDisk memory card, meanwhile, using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free to recover data from the SanDisk memory card in trouble.
Are you faced with the problem of the SanDisk SD card not showing up or recognizing by phone or PC? Try the methods here to fix it and recover data.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Fix 1. Repair the SD card not working or not detecting | Method 1. Apply SD card repair software...Full steps Method 2. Update the driver and format it into NTFS...Full steps |
Fix 2. Recover the SanDisk SD card data for free | Step 1. Run free SD card recovery software Step 2. Scan the SD card Step 3. Select files and recover...Full steps |
"My SD card was working flawlessly in the past few days. Suddenly, I went into the media on my phone today, and it showed nothing. I go into my phone settings, and it says there is no memory card detected. I tried SD cards from three other friends, and they all registered fine on my phone, so that isn't the issue. I then tried my SD on my laptop, and the laptop won't even recognize I inserted a memory card. What could I do? This is a pressing matter because I need one of those videos off of my SD card by next week."
This is a snippet we picked up on forums.sandisk.com, one customer's SD card has a seriously malfunctioning problem, and soon this post was followed by other old and new customers. They all have this common question: why is my SanDisk memory card not working as it was? And mostly, they are using types like SanDisk Extreme Pro/Plus micro SD/SDHC/SDXC card, and a small Digital camera group is using XQD card.
No matter how large capacity you're using, the minimum 2GB/4GB to medium 32GB/64GB/128GB to maximum 256GB/512GB, it's the same consequence when the memory card is reading, detected or recognized by a device. You cannot take pictures, install apps, transfer files to the computer, or simply cannot open the SD card.
To repair not working or undetectable SanDisk memory card, you have two choices here. You follow either one to restore the SanDisk memory card to reusable status again.
You can try CMD to run a disk check to fix all internal errors on the SanDisk memory card to repair the card. Or you can directly run a free partition manager software for help.
Option 1. Use free partition manager software to check and repair SanDisk memory card
If you prefer simple methods, you can apply EaseUS Partition Master Free with its Check partition feature to repair your SanDisk memory card now:
Option 2. Run CMD command to check and repair SanDisk memory card
Note that the CMD CHKDSK command will erase all data on the SanDisk memory card. So make sure that you recover data from the SD card first with reliable Sandisk recovery software.
Step 1: Press the Windows + X keys to bring up a dialogue, and click Command Prompt (Admin)
Step 2: Type: chkdsk /f c: (replace c with a drive letter of your external hard drive). Hit Enter to let the checking process run.
Step 3: When it's finished, type: exit and hit Enter to finish the process.
Most of the time, checking and repairing bad sectors and file system corruption on the SanDisk SD card will revive the memory card and make it appear on the phone, camera, or PC normally. If it's still not working and it's invisible in Windows Disk Management or Windows command prompt, move on to the next method.
Step 1: Update the SanDisk memory card driver
Step 2: Format and reset the SanDisk memory card to NTFS/FAT32
If updating the driver makes it appear in Disk Management but shows invalid, unallocated, or something else wrong, you can try to format it into NTFS or FAT32 so that the computer can recognize it eventually. (You can RECOVER DATA before or after performing a quick format)
Here is a video tutorial guide that you can also follow to repair the not-working or not-detected SD card on your own. Let's see:
When your SanDisk memory card, USB drive, external hard drive SD card, etc, storage devices become inaccessible, undetectable, or unrecognized, don't do anything to your device. Keep it safe, and then follow the steps below to recover important data.
Professional recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is highly recommended for you. Activate the full version to restore unlimited data from SanDisk memory cards or other storage devices. You can download it for free right here.
When the SanDisk memory card is not working or not detectable, don't worry. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can help you scan, display, and restore all data with ease.
Step 1. Select the SD card to scan
Step 2. Check for scan results
Step 3. Recover SD card data
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