SD card erased after kitkat update??

[kerri1204]

Okay, what the heck. I just got my forced update and everything on my SD card is gone! Can't even FIND the thing on menu screens. Where are all my pictures???? I am livid.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi Kerri1204,

Picture memories are very important! It saddens me to hear that you are not able to locate your pictures after the update. Are you not able to locate the gallery icon in your list of applications? Have you tried powering the device off/on?


Thanks,
PamelaF_VZW
Tweet us @vzwsupport

[LRVassar]

For reference, the update doesn't affect your SD card at all. The pictures should still be there if they were in fact saved to your SD card. Have you attempted plugging your device in to your computer and read the SD card directly?

[BirdOnTheBeach]

I beg to disagree with you, LRVassar.  I just had an update pushed on me from Samsung yesterday, and I woke up this morning to a phone with lots of app icons grayed out and a message "SD card not installed".  Except my SD card was still there. 

Upon removing the card and trying to look at it on different computers, it is simply ruined.  I can't see it in any kind of file manager.

If you search the forums for "SD Card" or "SD Missing" or similar terms, you will find a LOT of people reporting this issue.  It is the last straw for me with Samsung.  I've struggled a lot over the last 6 or 7 months with this phone, since they forced the 4.3 update on me.  Another issue is battery life.  I've been watching my battery drain today, lost 40% in 2 hours.  While not using it.

It shouldn't be this hard to use these tools, and these companies should not be pushing their updates (always referred to as "awesome updates" by Verizon reps...sheesh) when they know how much harm they are causing so many people.

[LRVassar]

Are we talking about a physical SD card or internal storage? If physical SD card, no, the update won't affect it at all. The internal storage may be a different story.

[wvchemmakr60]

Not to butt in here, but the man is correct at least as far as my own experiences.  I had my first external SD card corrupted out of the blue, one day it's working and the next it is toast.  I do vaguely recall the tech saying something about an update but that was last year.

Just after our latest update, I had the same problem.  The SD card was still in the slot but the phone could not see it and refused to look.  I took the card out, put in my PC and formatted 4 times.  Put it back in phone and recognition but no data will go there automatically.  I can move it manually but checking boxes to make it happen does nothing.

I am glad there are people who live for a challenge

[BirdOnTheBeach]

My SD card is a physical card.  And it got erased.  It is kaput.  Dirt.  Trash.  Gone.  Invisible.  My phone cannot see it, none of 5 different laptops using both slot adapter and USB adapter have made it visible.

I have not been successful in recovering any of it, and am jealous of those who've been able to.

Samsung, at the very least, owes me a card.  They can't replace the pictures of my grandson :-(.

[vzw_customer_support]

@BirdOnTheBeach,

Let's get to the bottom of this! I can totally understand how upsetting it can be to lose those precious pictures.

What phone do you have? Were only the pictures erased from the SD card? Did you have music or videos saved on the SD card? If so, are they still there?

JohnB_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[BirdOnTheBeach]

Dear VerizonWirelessCustomerSupport:

There is nothing to get to the bottom of.  I had a LOT of stuff on the card; pictures, documents, music.  There is NOTHING LEFT. 

And it's not like it was just erased or rearranged;  it was rendered invisible.  The phone cannot see it, none of my 5 computers can see it, other phones that take cards also cannot see it (husband's Droid 3, Samsung Convoy).  I've tried everything.

Verizon cannot replace what was lost, ESPECIALLY MY TRUST, and I am giving up on this piece of garbage phone and, most likely, any other smartphone.  Canceling my smartphone and my data plan, and dropping one line off my plan.  There goes $100 a month for Verizon.  Not that it will hurt the company.

My device is a Samsung Galaxy S3. 

[stef7]

Dear BirdOnTheBeach.

All might not be a total loss. There are programs out there that attempt to recover SD cards. just Google SD card recovery.

Here's an article:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224577/6_data_recovery_tools_for_SD_cards_USB_drives_and_mor...

I cannot say that I've every used one of these programs.

Good luck.