7 Solutions: SD Card Is Blank or Has Unsupported File System
- Notification: Blank SD Card
- Why SD Card Is Blank or Has Unsupported File System
- 7 Solutions to Remove the Blank SD Card Error
- Summary
- Related Articles
- User Comments
Content:
Notification: Blank SD Card
Q:
"Samsung galaxy android mobile failed to display the micro SD card.
Instead it displaying the 'Blank SD card' notification message and asked to format the SD card. But when I try to format the micro SD card nothing happens.
I am unable to access my files stored on the SD card. Please help me to resolve this issue."
--YouTube
In recent years, SD card is gaining great popularity in all areas, people use it to transfer working paper, to save photos in camera, to expand the internal storage of Android, to create boot media, etc. Nevertheless, during the usage of SD card, we may encounter all kinds of SD card issues, such as dead SD card, photos saved in SD card gone, SD card won't mount…
And the one we are covering today is probably the one you are searching for (image attached):
"Blank SD card SD card is blank or has unsupported file system."
From what we have found on the network, this problem is very irritating, nothing stops it from happening repeatedly. Thus, we are going through the main causes as well as the solutions for you as reference.
Why SD Card Is Blank or Has Unsupported File System
Why SD card is blank or has unsupported system in Android phones like Samsung Galaxy S5? Generally speaking, a mobile phone memory card can become blank or has an unsupported file system due to many reasons: virus infection, rude extraction, logical damages, RAW file system, and more. And when you suffer from this issue, you may need to think over these points:
- Did you remove the SD card without turning off your cell phone last time?
- Did you use this phone SD card on a strange or unsafe computer?
- Did you use this phone SD card on other operating system (say from BlackBerry and back to Samsung)?
- Did you extract this SD card off from your computer or laptop without using "Safely remove hardware" tool?
If so, that's perhaps why you get this blank SD card error. In the course of future use, to avoid such memory card error, please properly use it on your phone, computer or other devices and be sure to safely remove your phone SD card. Of course, in case of unexpected data loss issues, important SD card data backups are also supposed to be made on safe locations all the time.
SHARE ON TWITTER
"SD card is blank" doesn't mean it's really blank or doesn't contain any file. It automatically means something is wrong- the phone has already detected that a micro SD card is mounted but it cannot read the card or can't recognize the file system. Therefore, blank SD card can still be read and opened by the phone after it is fixed.
7 Solutions to Remove the Blank SD Card Error
In this part, we will go through 7 solutions towards this irritating issue. Before you carry out any rescue, please make sure that the SD card itself is in sound condition and can be detected by your computer. (There were users who think the card is simply undetected by the phone. Well, that's totally wrong because if that's the case, the phone won't return this error at all.) Only in this way, there is necessity and possibility to fix this micro SD card.
Solution 1: Try rebooting the phone
Although the operating system requires you to format the blank SD card, DON'T format it at once, try other solutions instead. And first of all, a reboot should always be the first trying.
Step 1: Turn off the phone.
Step 2: Reboot the phone to see if SD card starts working again.
Solution 2: Repeatedly insert and pull out the SD card
Take your chance to try inserting and taking out the blank SD card for many times, by these attempts your phone may finally read the SD card.
Solution 3: Run Chkdsk to fix errors
A user from Androidcentral declares that he had fixed this error by using CHKDSK, maybe this way is also helpful to you. Please follow the steps below:
Step 1: Connect blank SD card with PC via card reader and make sure it is detected by the machine.
Step 2: Run CMD as administrator, and input chkdsk n: /f(n is the drive letter of the blank SD card) to fix errors.
Step 3: Put the SD card back to phone and check whether the card works fine after that.
Solution 4: Check hidden files on SD card
Check the blank SD card on your computer and see if it contains some hidden files. Sometimes SD card is carried with some "specialty files" that need to be deleted. And this is easy to do:
Step 1: Connect blank SD card with PC via card reader and make sure it is detected by the machine.
Step 2: Run control folders to bring out the File Explorer Options.
Step 3: Turn to the View tab.
Step 4: Check Show hidden files, folders and drives and save the changes.
Step 5: Delete the "specialty files" in the blank SD card if there is any.
Solution 5<The Key Point>: Format SD card AFTER data rescue
Watch the video to know how I solved the blank SD card error.
If all solutions in the former part fail, unfortunately you might need to format it as you are asked to. In addition, when going from one manufacturer to another, you generally need to reformat the SD card. Still there are users who encounter this kind of situation: even the computer was asking to format the card to be able to use it - really shocking.
Attention:
Recover data from blank SD card before formatting!
Needless to say, you know what you will get after formatting - a blank SD card in real sense, you cannot find anything original without the help of some professional SD card data recovery software. Therefore, in order to take your photos, videos, messages, files and the like out with ease, you'd better not rush to format this SD card with an unsupported file system error. Merely wait till you do have rescued everything back.!
So the first part here is how to rescue data on blank SD card. Please read on.
If files on SD card show on computer, then you can simply copy these files to a safe location first, and then carry out SD card formatting. However, if SD card has unsupported file system, you should give priority to recover blank SD card before carrying out formatting. At this time, MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition is of great help, which is able to run on all Windows personal operating systems. (Scan & recover in Windows PC, and only scan in Windows Server.)
Recommended: How To Recover Deleted Photos From SD Card Quickly?
Before you do:
- Download this data recovery software and install it to computer.
- Connect the blank SD card to computer successfully.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery and select "Damaged Partition Recovery".
Step 2: Pick this blank SD card out and scan this card to find all possible original data.
Step 3: Unfold the tree structure Power Data Recovery found for you and check for each folder to find your lost data by preview and data information. Also you can employ "Type" or "Filter" to help you.
Step 4: Click "Save" to choose a safe location to restore all wanted information back.
Note:
Free MiniTool Power Data Recovery is developed for user experience and can recover up to 1GB data on Windows PC. If you have got more to recover, please upgrade to paid editions.
Note:
If the controller of the card is dead, no software will be able to retrieve the data from the storage card. What you can do is to send the card to a data recovery company that will try to recover the files from the flash chip directly.
Now it's time to format the blank SD card.
As long as the SD card is not seriously damaged by some really complicated issues, you can immediately go on using it to store or transfer your data after that formatting. Instead of finding the location to unmount SD card and then carry out formatting in Android phone, the easiest way to do formatting is by using a computer. The only thing you need is still an SD card reader. You can format SD card to FAT32 file system under Windows Explorer, Windows Disk Management and Partition Wizard Free.
The most significant difference among using these three utilities is that the former two prevent users to format SD card larger than 32 GB to FAT32 while the third one is able to. After the formatting, insert the SD card and power on the phone. The device should then pick it up.
①: Use Windows Explorer
Step 1: Connect blank SD card with PC via card reader and make sure it is detected by the machine.
Step 2: Open My Computer/This PC, under Devices and Drives you can find the SD card.
Step 3: Format it into FAT32.
②: Use Disk Management to format:
Step 1: Connect blank SD card with PC via card reader and make sure it is detected by the machine. Step 2: Run compmgmt.msc, and you will see the Computer Management window. Under Storage, click Disk Management.
Step 3: Find the disk that represents your SD card. Right click on its partition and select Format… Choose FAT32 as the destination file system by dropping down the box.
③: Use Partition Wizard to format:
Step 1:Connect blank SD card with PC via card reader and make sure it is detected by the machine.
Step 2:Download, install and run MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
Step 3:Find the disk that represents your SD card. Then click on its partition and select "Format Partition".
Step 4: Finally press "Apply" to execute all changes.
Solution 6: Replace SD card with another one
Sometimes when you format the card it shows "SD card unsupported try new one". In this case replace the SD card deserves a trying. You may try this procedure with one of your small storage cards and see if the phone can detect or read it. See the following example:
Q:
"I have a new 32 GB SD card. My Hisense tablet recognizes it when I put it there, but when I put it in my Alcatel One Touch Mega it says blank card. When I format it says erasing card and then does nothing but say blank or unsupported files. My 4GB SD card works fine in the phone, mounts and stores, but the new 32 GB will not work in the phone, but computer and tablet read it fine. I have formatted it multiple times and even downloaded SD formatter and used that as well. Nothing. Has anyone figured out this problem? Any help is appreciated."
--from Tomsguide
If NOT, try the other cards and if it keeps bearing the same result, then it's the phone that has an issue, probably the firmware. Why? Since the phone can detect that there's a card mounted on it but couldn't read it, it's not a hardware issue but firmware. Check if there's an available update, if YES, go for it.
Solution 7: Contact the manufacture
If formatting or changing SD card is not helping at all, call the manufacture of your phone to get help. Maybe Android phones need to fix this issue by making an update for their OS to support all kinds of micro SD types, or maybe all they want is to force users to buy their own branded micro SD card. It's hard to tell.