SD card not recognized: how to fix it

SD cards are great for portability: they are small cards that fit into computers, tablets, phones, cameras and many other devices.

If your memory card is still not recognized, the fault may be physical and every new attempt counts. Before trying again, see how SD card recovery works, starting with a free diagnosis.

They are often used in phones and other mobile devices to expand storage capacity. But, like any other storage device, they can fail.

What should you do when your SD card stops working? What could be causing the error? Can you fix it without losing the data stored on it? Here are the most common causes and some solutions.

01Why isn’t my SD card showing up?

There are several reasons why an SD card may not show up when you insert it into a computer, phone or camera, such as:

Poor contact between the SD card and the computer

For the SD card to be read correctly, the contact between the card and the device (computer, phone or camera) has to be good.

If the contact fails, the problem may be in the card or in the device itself, so you need to find out which of the two is at fault.

Poor contact can also be caused by dirt building up on the SD card’s metal contacts.

Your SD card has no drive letter

Every storage drive on a Windows computer has a letter, such as C:, D: or E:. Because of a formatting error or a conflict with another drive, the SD card may not get a letter, and Windows won’t show it.

The SD card’s file system is not recognized or is corrupted

The file system organizes the raw data on the card so that the operating system can read it. If the file system isn’t compatible with the system you’re using, the card may not be recognized. A corrupted file system is another common cause of errors when reading the card.

The device driver is out of date

If the drivers installed on your computer are out of date, it may have trouble reading the data on the SD card.

The SD card is infected with a virus

Many viruses and other malware target storage devices such as SD cards. If your card shows read errors, an infection could be the cause.

Badly scratched contacts

The card’s contacts are essential for the data to be read. If they are scratched or otherwise damaged, the card won’t be read correctly.

The format isn’t recognized

For a storage device to be recognized, it has to be formatted with a file system the operating system can read. If the SD card uses a format the system doesn’t recognize, it won’t show up – and the system may offer to format it. Don’t accept if you need the data: formatting erases the card.

Read more: How to fix the “hard disk not detected” error

02What to do when your microSD card isn’t recognized

Even if your computer or phone doesn’t recognize your SD card, there’s no need to panic. There are several ways to repair the card and make it accessible again – often without losing any data.

Here are some ways to fix SD card problems:

Test your SD card on another PC or with another card reader

If you suspect poor contact between the SD card and the computer, try the card in another computer. If it’s read correctly there, the problem is probably the card reader in the first computer.

In that case, there’s nothing wrong with the card. What you need is a technician to repair or replace the computer’s card reader so that it can read SD cards again.

You can also test the card with a USB SD card reader: insert the card into the reader and plug it into one of the computer’s USB ports. If the card is read this way, the problem lies with the computer’s built-in SD card slot.

Assign a drive letter to the SD card in Disk Management

If the card has no drive letter and therefore doesn’t appear in File Explorer, you can assign one as follows:

1. Press the Windows + R keys at the same time to open the “Run” dialog box;
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Disk Management;
3. Find the partition that corresponds to the SD card and right-click it;
4. Select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”;
5. In the window that opens, click “Add” to assign a drive letter to the SD card.

Use CHKDSK to repair the SD card’s file system

If the card has a drive letter but Windows can’t open it, you can try the built-in Windows tool CHKDSK. Bear in mind that CHKDSK writes to the card and may remove damaged entries: if the data matters to you, recover it first.

1. In File Explorer, right-click “This PC”;
2. Select “Manage”;
3. Click “Disk Management”;
4. Check that the SD card appears in the list of drives and note its drive letter. If it appears, open Command Prompt as administrator and go to step 5 (if it doesn’t appear at all, CHKDSK can’t help);
5. Press the Windows + R keys at the same time to open the “Run” dialog box;
6. Type chkdsk D: /f, replacing “D” with your SD card’s drive letter, and press Enter;
7. If the card is formatted with NTFS, you can type chkdsk D: /f /offlinescanandfix instead and press Enter.

CHKDSK will then try to fix the file system errors that are preventing the system from opening the SD card.

Update the SD card driver

If, in Device Manager, you see a yellow exclamation mark next to the SD card reader, the problem is probably the driver.

To fix it, right-click the SD card reader, select “Uninstall device” and then click “Action > Scan for hardware changes” so that Windows reinstalls the driver.

Remove viruses or malware

A virus can hide the files on an SD card from Windows or even encrypt them. To deal with it, use an antivirus to remove the virus or malware from both the computer and the card.

Then you can try to make the hidden files visible again with these steps:

1. Connect the SD card to the computer;
2. Open the Start menu and type cmd in the search bar;
3. In the results, right-click “Command Prompt” (cmd.exe) and select “Run as administrator”;
4. Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d X:\*.*, replacing “X” with your SD card’s drive letter – for example, attrib -h -r -s /s /d F:\*.* – and press Enter.

Recover the data and format the SD card to reuse it

Finally, if none of the options above worked, you can try to recover the data from the SD card with data recovery software and only then format the card. Save the recovered files to another drive, never to the card itself.

Programs you can use to try to recover data from an SD card include EaseUS and Wondershare Recoverit. They are simple solutions you can try at home, but success isn’t assured, especially with the free versions.

Read more: How data recovery works

03Conclusion

Repairing an SD card can be easy or difficult, depending on the case. If you’ve already tried to recover the data from an SD card without success, or even after formatting it, that doesn’t mean all is lost. You can still turn to a professional service, such as Bot, to recover the data for you.

As well as hard drives, SSDs and other storage devices, Bot has extensive experience in memory card recovery, and more than 200,000 cases in total. And we collect your device free of charge (islands not included), or you can drop it off at our reception points in Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and Braga.

Bot uses up-to-date, safe technology to preserve the integrity of your device throughout the recovery.

As well as a free standard diagnosis and a quote within 48 hours, you can reach us with any questions on our social networks, with 24/7 support.

Don’t wait: start your data recovery with us now!