There are plenty of reasons that may lead to the memory card not recognized error. I categorize these causes into two categories: card not recognized by the computer, card not read by your external digital media (such as cell phone, camera etc). And then I'll show you how to fix different kinds of errors errors.
Note: if your memory card is showing card locked error, see this post for solution. Also, this softwarehow guide is worth further exploring.
Memory card cannot be recognized by my computer…
Symptoms 1: the card is working fine on the cell phone but when using a card reader to connect it to my computer, won't be detected.
How to Fix: the problem should be the card reader, you have two options. One is to change a new card reader and reconnect it to the computer; The other is to directly connect your cell phone to your computer via a USB cable.
Symptoms 2: have a digital camera (with memory card inside), you try to connect it to your computer via a USB cable. Nothing detected (neither the camera nor the memory card).
How to Fix: Try taking the memory card out of your camera and loading it into a card reader, then insert the card reader to your computer. See if it will be detected.
Symptoms 3: my memory card is corrupted (not read properly when connected to my computer), how can I recover the data saved on it?
How to Fix: first of all, use a data recovery program to recover data as much as possible. Freeware such as Pandora Recovery or Recuva works great in my testing. If you are using a Mac, turn to this post for a list of 100% free Mac data recovery software. After you recover the data, then format the card.
Symptoms 4: when plug the memory card into my computer, it shows "the drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now".
How to Fix: there are many possible reasons for this, see this post fix format error disk in drive are not formatted for more. Most of the time, using this freeware called HP USB Disk Formatting Tool would help.
Memory card not recognized by my cell phone or camera…
Symptoms 1: my SD card is new and works fine when connected with my computer, but when insert into my digital camera it cannot be detected. Nor can I access media files from the card.
How to Fix: Since there is no problem with either the card or your digital camera, I'd suggest you read the user manual of your digital camera and read the information about supported SD memory card, pay attention to the maximum SD card volume part as usually the camera manufacturer has a volume limitation to supported external SD card. For example, if it clams only SD card with 2GB maximum space are allowed. If your new SD card is 4 GB or larger, then your digital camera won’t be compatible with it. The only way is to change another card less than 2GB and transfer the files on the previous card to the newer one.
Symptoms 2: insert the memory card to my cellphone but the phone refuses to read it.
How to Fix: you must be using an old phone or old types of phone, try power off the phone and restart again. Usually the card will be detected again.
Symptoms 3: formatted the memory card on my computer and then put it in my cellphone, it won't let me to access.
How to Fix: your cell phone may not be compatible with your memory card file system (FAT, e.g.). Better reformat the card via your cellphone by using its own format function. Then you should be able to re-access it again.
There should be more "memory card not recognized" problems out there, if you accidentally meet similar ones or have new situations and this post didn't help you out. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.
Hi, this is well-written blog by far.
ReplyDeleteMy problem falls under the category, "Memory card not recognized by my cell phone or camera."
I'm using a dlsr, canon 60d. I have 2 SD kingston 8GB card. One of them works fine but the other, when inserted into the camera it says 'can't read card' thus i am not able to store photos or format it in my camera itself. However, my laptop is able to read the SD card. I formatted the SD card in there but it still doesn't work. Please help, thank you.
what if i insert the memory card to my cellphone but the phone cant read it, and i turned it off and it still dosent work. what do i do??? any suggestions?
ReplyDeletewhen i insert my card reader in my computer it does not show it ,what to do please help me ??
ReplyDeleteit has important data in it !!
Very informative tutorial with step by step guide. Thanks for posting it here.
ReplyDeleteLiked the tutorial. Very useful for the person who has lost his photos from memory card and struggling to recover it.
ReplyDeletemy phone cannot recognized my memory card and the when i tried to reformat it ..still failed
ReplyDeleteI HAVE A 8GB SANDISK MICRO SD CARD IT IS NOT DETECTED IN MY PHONE AND ALSO IN MY PC WHAT TO PLZ SUGGEST...
ReplyDeleteMy cellphone is Samsung Champ GT-C3303k its also been a year since I used it.I always play music in it like im actually making it a mp3 gadget and so my phone cannot detect mt 4gb memory but actually it's inserted and I actually already restart my phone and put out and put in my memory but it still doesnt detect my memory card.Please Help me or give tips to detect my memory card just any suggestions or tips anything that can help me fix my phone from not detecting my memory card..Thanks
ReplyDeleteMy cellphone is Samsung Champ GT-C3303k its also been a year since I used it.I always play music in it like im actually making it a mp3 gadget and so my phone cannot detect my 4gb memory but actually it's inserted and I actually already restart my phone and put out and put in my memory but it still doesnt detect my memory card.Please Help me or give tips to detect my memory card just any suggestions or tips anything that can help me fix my phone from not detecting my memory card..Thanks
ReplyDeleteI have a Canon sureshot A1000IS my camera works fine and i can view pics on it no problem when i try to upload pics to my home computer either directly from the camera or through a card reader it recognizes either device but wont upload the pics ie microsoft camera and scanner wizard and other programs dont get the data. works fine on my office computer though. what would the issue be with my windows software? and any ideas how to fix?
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDeleteits Julian
i like the discussion u guys r having,,and i too hv some problem to share but its lil diffrnt,,my mobile micro sd card not showing in my samsung mobile since i send some files to it,,but!! it is working every where else xcept my phone, in other mobiles,my pc,and even other sd cards are working with my mobile phone.. what to do ?
My problem falls on the Memory card cannot be recognized by computer. The memory card can be read on my cellphone, but whenever I try to connect it through the card reader or USB cable, it never works. It used to work but then out of nowhere the computer stopped reading my memory card. The computer reads other memory cards though. PLEASE HELP. :(
ReplyDeletehello....
ReplyDeletethis is an interesting blog but my problem is bit different.
i have samsung metro.my 4gb transcend sd card was working perfectly but after transferring some files from my pc,my phone does not read THE DATA the card but my card runs perfectly well in my pc.my card takes new data from the phone but on switching of the phone the data is not visible again in mobile.but can be visible through pc.
please help me...
many thanks. :)
Hi I have Sony cybershot camera. It has 4 GB memory card with more than 100 photos. When I connected to my PC, with data cable it was not detected, after that the card is not detected in the camera nor in PC. It always gives a message "Please insert the card". I tried using data adapter.Whe n I ran some recovery tool over it, The card was not detected by that tool as well. Can you please suggest me what should I do. I cannot afford to loose that data. Please help.
ReplyDeletei formet the memory card via my computer. the memory card show in my computer.but not show in my cell phone. please help me to solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteif you formatted your memory card via my computer,all files have been deleted.Maybe your mem. card have an old files,or the files that is not compatible in your device.my problem is gone by the help of this site,maybe you dont read the instructions.....
DeleteMy problem is my microsd card is not work in my mobile and i put it in computer its work fine but suddenly it doesn't works on computer itself how to fix this.I want to backup my datas.
ReplyDeleteMy memory card does not show up on my computer either on my cell phone but when I put the card in another phone the files show up. What can be done to fix this?
ReplyDeleteMy memory card can be detected but the problem is,old files can't be read. And the thing is when you look up the properties of the memory card,it shows the space used of the old files. What's wrong and how could I fix it? Help!
ReplyDeletemy memory card is recognized bu my phone, until one day it won't recognize by my phone.! help.!!!
ReplyDeletemy memory card is show to mobile phone but is not show a computer so kindly solve this problem.
ReplyDeletei m copying files from pc to sd card using the card reader after sometimes eject the sd card from pc proper way to use it .again sd card connected to pc the pc show the following do u want format the disk before use it .after sometimes i m inserted into the sd card to mobiles not supported .pls help me some important files are having in my sd card
ReplyDeletesd card has blank and unsupported
ReplyDeleteI need help pls. My memory card is an 8GB and it was working fine until my dog bite the card reader where the memory card is inserted. Card reader is fine I have tried to use it with a different memory card and its still working. Basically the memory card of mine wont read, METALS ARE OK no damaged but it keeps on saying on ''pls insert a disk, etc.'' on thmy laptop.. So what I tried is to insert my memory card to my digicam to check if itt will read but my digicam keeps on shutting down if you turn it on. (digicam is working with other memory card) . So, I went to the next step which is to try insert it to my cellphone but still nothing.. like i need to insert one where there is inside already but it wont read. I hope someone could help me.. I badly need my mmc all my files are there. I just started to upload some of my files online lately just to have a back up. It would be a big help if someone can help me with my memory card.
ReplyDelete