Music Missing from SD Card: How to Restore Lost Music Files

Music files can disappear from an SD card for several reasons, including accidental deletion, file system errors, or disk formatting. Sometimes, songs are still stored on the card but do not appear in File Explorer or a music player. In other cases, the files may have been deleted.

If music is missing from your SD card, the first step is to determine whether the files are hidden due to misconfigured settings. If not, use data recovery software to scan the card for lost songs.

How to Recover Music Files From SD Card

Method 1. Show Hidden Songs

If songs are not showing up on your SD card, they may be hidden rather than deleted. Follow these steps to show hidden files in Windows:

1. Insert the SD card into your computer and open File Explorer.
2. Click View in the top menu.
3. Select Show > Hidden items. Now you can open the SD card and check whether the missing music files appear. If the songs are visible, copy them to another safe location.

Method 2. Recover Deleted Music Files

If you accidentally deleted music files or cannot find them after checking for hidden files, data recovery software may help. Stop using the SD card and avoid saving new files to it, because new data may overwrite deleted songs and reduce the chances of recovery. MiniTool Power Data Recovery works great on music recovery, PDF file recovery, Outlook email recovery, MP4 video recovery, and almost all other types of data recovery.  

Furthermore, this tool supports restoring files from a variety of data storage media, including SD cards, memory cards, USB drives, HDDs, SSDs, CDs/DVDs, and more.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery provides a free edition and multiple personal/business editions to satisfy various needs. For the first time, you can download the free edition and use it to recover 1 GB of music files for free.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Steps of using MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover deleted music files from SD card:

Step 1. Remove the SD card from your mobile phone or other devices, and then connect the card to your computer via a card reader.

Step 2. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery to go to its main interface. Under Logical Drives, pick out the partition that stands for your SD card, and then click on the Scan button to start to detect all deleted or lost files on the SD card. The SD card should be marked with a USB icon.

How long it takes to complete the scan depends on the drive capacity, the amount of data, and the disk condition. For the best scanning results, it is recommended that you wait patiently until the scan is automatically completed.

Step 3. Once the full scan is completed, you can start to locate and tick the files you want to recover. During this process, the following features built into this software will be of great help.

Type: This option displays found files by file type and data format. To recover music files, you need to expand the Audio & Video category to locate the desired data.

• Filter: This feature allows you to filter files by type, file modification date, file size, and file category.
• Search: This feature is used to help you search for a specific file. If you remember the file name of the deleted music file, you can type the name in the search box and press Enter to get it displayed. Note that some of the deleted files may lose their original names due to file system corruption or other reasons.

This software enables you to preview audio files in various formats, including MP3, WAV, WMA, M4B, and more. You can directly double-click on a file to preview it.

Step 4. Click the Save button in the preview window and choose a safe location to recover the music directly. Alternatively, you can exit the preview window and tick all files on the scan results window first. Then click Save and select a path to recover all required files at once.

That’s all we want to talk about how to recover music from SD card.

How Do I Fix Error “This Memory Card Cannot Be Used” With Ease

Here you can see how to fix “This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged. Insert another card” without damaging the original data.

Read More

Solutions – Fix Corrupted SD Card on Windows

Here are some common solutions to help you repair a corrupted SD card so you can use it to store files again.

Solution 1. Check the SD Card for File System Errors

Windows has a built-in disk error-checking tool in File Explorer that helps detect and repair file system errors. You can run it to repair your SD card.

Step 1. Open File Explorer by pressing the Windows + E key combination.

Step 2. In the This PC section, right-click the corrupted SD card and choose Properties.

Step 3. In the new window, go to the Tools tab, and then click the Check button under the Error checking section.

Solution 2. Update Disk Driver

Sometimes SD card not working is caused by damaged or outdated disk drivers. In this case, updating or reinstalling the driver is an effective solution.

Step 1. Right-click the Start button and choose Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand the Disk drives category.

Step 3. Right-click the SD card and choose Update driver or Uninstall device. Then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the update or uninstall process. If you opt to uninstall the driver, you need to restart your computer and then the most appropriate driver should be installed automatically.

Solution 3. Format the SD Card

Formatting the SD card is always one of the most effective ways to address disk errors. You have many options to format a drive, such as using File Explorer, Disk Management, or professional disk management software.

Here MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended due to its powerful disk management features. You can use it to format a disk for free. Read this tutorial to get details: How to Format Corrupted SD Card (Best 3 Ways).

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Suggestions – Prevent SD Card Corruption & Protect Data

In addition to telling you the ways to restore files from SD cards, we also think it’s necessary to let you know the suggestions on how to prevent SD cards and effectively protect data on them. These tips will keep you away from SD card data loss as much as possible.

How to Prevent SD Card Corruption

• Always leave space left on the card.
• Don’t use the SD card when the battery is low.
• Keep SD cards in an appropriate environment.
• Format the new SD card ASAP in the original device.
• Remember to eject the card safely every time you move it.
• Stop using the card immediately when you receive an error message.
• Choose a high-quality card and card reader/adapter when you need to connect it to a computer/other devices.

How to Protect SD Card Data

• Set password for SD card.
• Encrypt SD card when necessary.
• Enable write protection on the card.
• Always keep the SD card in a safe location.
• Try your best to avoid any physical damage to the card.
• If you master well these tips about protecting data on SD cards, there won’t be so many people asking how to recover data from SD cards.

Conclusion

To sum up, music files can disappear from an SD card because they are hidden, accidentally deleted, or affected by file system errors. If your songs are missing, first check for hidden files. If they have been deleted, use MiniTool recovery software to scan the SD card for recoverable music.

And remember, you are expected to protect your SD card properly in order to get away from SD card data loss as much as possible.

If you need any help with MiniTool Power Data Recovery, please feel free to send an email to the support team via [email protected]. We will provide you with detailed help as soon as possible.