S4 not reading the SD card after the Android 4.3 update?

Well I always thought my luck with updates would end. It did today.

For the most part, the update has been smooth. No reboots. No duplicate text messages.

However, I'm having an issue with the Gallery. I had installed a 32 GB class 10 SD card in the external SD card slot a few months ago. I then switched the camera setting to save pictures to the SD card instead of the internal storage. I moved all the pictures I took previously to the SD card shortly afterwards. Prior to the 4.3 update, the phone registered the images on the SD card and any images on the internal storage. After the 4.3 update, it only sees the internal storage. If I take a new picture with the camera, I do see the new picture in a Gallery album. Both the older pictures and the new picture on the SD card are saved to the same folder on the SD card, but the Gallery only registered the image created after the 4.3 update.

Things I have done to try and fix it. 1. Reboot the phone. 2. Pull the battery, SD card and SIM card for a minute. 3. Downloaded a SD rescanner application. 4. Cleared the data in the Gallery app. (Actually this lost my Picasa albums. until it re-syncs.)

I can see all the images and files on the SD card with a file explorer app.

So has anyone else noticed this? I guess my next step is clearing the cache on the whole phone or a factory reset.

Accepted answers

Ann154

As it turns out, the method for fixing most SD card issues also works for this particular case.

I safely removed the SD card from the phone and inserted it into a card reader on my computer.
I copied the contents of the SD card to a folder on my computer. It was also a great opportunity to backup the SD card.
I ejected the SD card from the card reader and remounted the SD card in the phone.
From the phone, I reformatted the SD card.
Using a Samsung USB cable from another phone, I connected the phone to the computer and began to copy the contents from the folder I created earlier to the Phone's external storage (SD card).
When the file were finished copying, I properly disconnected the phone from the computer.
I checked the Gallery and the Google Music apps and my media (music files and pictures) on the SD card was being found by those applications.

All comments

Ann154

It's worse than I thought. My locally stored music was also on the SD card. Google Music doesn't read the SD card after Android 4.3. The Samsung "Music" can't see any music on the device since it is only searching the internal memory. I don't have the device encrypted either.

Ann154

Clearing the system cache didn't work.

Verizon_Support

That's quite the strange outcome of the awesome update, Ann154. Thanks for already trying so hard to get your gallery back to normal. I have a few questions for you so we can get the details to Samsung for investigation:

1) I see it's a 32GB class 10. What is the SD card brand you're using.

2) Is there any error message you see on device when this issue is seen? Does it randomly tell you the SD card isn't mounted or does it show the card has been removed unexpectedly, etc?

3) Was the SD card used on any other device before your S4?

We appreciate you providing any additional observation which will help us reproducing the issue.

Thank you

JenniferH_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

Ann154

It is a SanDisk 32GB SDHC card (UHS speed class/class 10) purchased brand new.
I don't get any errors about it being unreadable or unmounted. I have been able to verify other applications installed on the phone can read and write to the SD card.
No it was never used in another device. Some of the SD card contents were moved or copied from the smaller SD card I originally had in the phone or moved from the internal memory space in the phone itself.

The only thing I haven't had time to try is a factory reset. It isn't going to get done in the next few days since I want to show it to someone else and it isn't a crippling issue to use the phone as is. I can work around this issue with a file explorer app that was pre-installed on the phone.

km619

I'm having the same issue after I updated to 4.3.

My microSD card is no longer recognized and I can't access any apps or pictures that are stored on the card.

here are the answers to your questions:

1) PNY 32GB class 10.

2) no error - but when I try to access the card, it says "Your phone does not have a SD card. Insert SD Card.

3) I never used it on another phone.

The only thing that I did after the update was enable the new Photos auto-backup feature.

Flyinseamnky

I had the same problem. So the simple fix I found:

1) Turn off your phone.

2) pull out your microSD card.

3) put the microSD card in either an adapter, or reader.

4) at this point my computer automatically launched the auto-scan/repair utility.

5) Complete scan.

6) Unmount the card from computer

7 put it back in the phone

8) power the phone back up.

Tada! All my apps are working again.

Ann154

Flyinseamnky wrote:
I had the same problem. So the simple fix I found:
1) Turn off your phone.
2) pull out your microSD card.
3) put the microSD card in either an adapter, or reader.
4) at this point my computer automatically launched the auto-scan/repair utility.
5) Complete scan.
6) Unmount the card from computer
7 put it back in the phone
8) power the phone back up.
Tada! All my apps are working again.

Okay I tried this. My computer didn't automatically launch the repair utility. I manually had it scan the SD card for errors and fix them. The computer didn't find any. When I ejected the SD card from the card reader and reinserted it into the phone, the same issue with reading the SD card remained.

Ann154

As it turns out, the method for fixing most SD card issues also works for this particular case.

I safely removed the SD card from the phone and inserted it into a card reader on my computer.
I copied the contents of the SD card to a folder on my computer. It was also a great opportunity to backup the SD card.
I ejected the SD card from the card reader and remounted the SD card in the phone.
From the phone, I reformatted the SD card.
Using a Samsung USB cable from another phone, I connected the phone to the computer and began to copy the contents from the folder I created earlier to the Phone's external storage (SD card).
When the file were finished copying, I properly disconnected the phone from the computer.
I checked the Gallery and the Google Music apps and my media (music files and pictures) on the SD card was being found by those applications.

dkreiner

I did not want to reformat so here is what I did:

I took my micro sd card out of my phone plugged into my computer and I saw that everything is still on it. Then I copied everything to back it up just in case. After that I put it back in my phone, restarted my phone, and everything started working again and my phone recognized my sd card. I never had any problems with chargers so I don't know how to help you with that except to say that's still a software problem to some degree.

Ann154

I had checked my SD card on the phone after copying over the contents with the SD card reader. It still didn't populate the gallery correctly.

I have reformatted my SD card and switched SD cards a number of times with this phone and others in the last four years owning Android devices. It doesn't bother me to reformat the SD card as a part of the process. In fact I would prefer it to eliminate any chance of a stray bad sector on the SD card continuing to cause issues.

If it worked out for you, great, but sometimes skipping a step can lead to issues down the road.