Media Player and Galley not recognizing anything from the external SD card - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Firstly, let me begin by stating that I have in fact searched far and wide for the genesis of this issue across the far reaches of the internet and this forum alone. So if somehow I missed it by an inch, please inform me and I sincerely apologize.
Now, the issue I'm having is horrendously relative (if not identical) to this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=801651
I was running stock 2.1 on my Captivate rooted with z4root. I also installed the necessary files for One Click Lag Fix, but promptly uninstalled them when I came to the conclusion that I was just going to flash Perception 8. And so I did. I followed the guides, etc, to installing ROM Manager and Clockwork Recovery and was successful in all of it. However, my stock media player and even Winamp does not detect the files on my external micro SD card. It won't even display the pictures in the gallery. Also, the files still do display in the native and third party file managers. The only thing I have not tried yet is reformatting the card because like I stated before, I scanned quite a few forums about this issue and that was the most unsuccessful method to fixing this issue. I also searched my entire phone (Using Root Explorer and the like) for the .nomedia file and found several in various places and deleted all of them. Yet, to no avail. So my next move will be in fact to reformat the card and see if that works.
If I could obtain any insight from you knowledgeable lads, I would greatly appreciate it.
~Raines

Adam Raines said:
Firstly, let me begin by stating that I have in fact searched far and wide for the genesis of this issue across the far reaches of the internet and this forum alone. So if somehow I missed it by an inch, please inform me and I sincerely apologize.
Now, the issue I'm having is horrendously relative (if not identical) to this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=801651
I was running stock 2.1 on my Captivate rooted with z4root. I also installed the necessary files for One Click Lag Fix, but promptly uninstalled them when I came to the conclusion that I was just going to flash Perception 8. And so I did. I followed the guides, etc, to installing ROM Manager and Clockwork Recovery and was successful in all of it. However, my stock media player and even Winamp does not detect the files on my external micro SD card. It won't even display the pictures in the gallery. Also, the files still do display in the native and third party file managers. The only thing I have not tried yet is reformatting the card because like I stated before, I scanned quite a few forums about this issue and that was the most unsuccessful method to fixing this issue. I also searched my entire phone (Using Root Explorer and the like) for the .nomedia file and found several in various places and deleted all of them. Yet, to no avail. So my next move will be in fact to reformat the card and see if that works.
If I could obtain any insight from you knowledgeable lads, I would greatly appreciate it.
~Raines
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an issue once like this. Rebooting the phone did the trick.

I've rebooted about three or four times now I think with no success. Thank you though. I do sincerely appreciate you taking the time to respond. I don't like to post on forums too much anymore due to the insane amount of heat you get for not following their stipulations and guidelines right off the bat even when all you missed was something incredibly simple.

Adam Raines said:
I've rebooted about three or four times now I think with no success. Thank you though. I do sincerely appreciate you taking the time to respond. I don't like to post on forums too much anymore due to the insane amount of heat you get for not following their stipulations and guidelines right off the bat even when all you missed was something incredibly simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried unmounting both the external and internal sd cards and then remounting them. it worked for me. hopefully that helps.

So apparently I have to post eight times before I'm allowed to show images. Nevertheless, I thought I should take screen caps of the weird stuff.
This one is of how the music player is literally detecting multiple file paths with the same location:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/SephirothSnake89/snap20101213_181753.png
And here is a display of the multiple location:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/SephirothSnake89/snap20101213_181807.png
img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/SephirothSnake89/snap20101213_181821.png
Also, I cannot unmount the internal SD from any normal option in my phone. I'm beginning to think that all of my data should have been wiped when I flashed the ROM to begin with. But all of my internal SD card files were still intact. I just formatted the card and I'm about to reupload music, etc, to it.

Not using perception atm but I have seen this occur after flashing a rom, perhaps a bad flash as it is not a problem mentioned in that thread or try another rom

So, I went ahead and formatted the external SD card through the phone and it does in fact work again. However, I'm still having the issue of it replicating the file location for media within the music players. I tested it by deleting a song and now when I click on the other duplicate title it states:
The file does not exist.
Also, I have the widespread issue of Froyo not supporting WMA tags which sucks, but I'll manage my way around that I suppose. Figures the only thing I bar trying is the thing that works. Nevertheless, my qualms with the duplication of filepath still exist.
Any ideas?

Related

att TILT erased all my data on the SD Card

Hi All
I had stored all my data and some apps on my 4gb Sandisk SD card and all of a sudden all the data from the card is gone. I notice error messages of applications like google map etc that i had installed on the Sd card when they were trying to run they could no longer see the files. IS there a fix for this problem? I see i n other places they decribe a lengthy procedure including buying some softwares for restoring data, however if i do that i think the data can vanish anytime again. I also see others complaining about this,, please let me know if there is any other easy way to restore data, and how can i permanently fix the problem? does att help??
Put the card in your computer, see if you can run a disk check on it.
I've had my SD card 'look blank' or not even show up on the Tilt three times since I've owned it and all three times I did a filesystem check and it found errors. Once corrected, the card was fine again.
Yeah, you need to find out a little more information as to what is going on.
First off figure out if it is the phone or the card that is the problem.
Remove the card and find some other way of reading it. It could be something as simple as a bad connection on the terminal pins. Maybe clean them or see if they are bent out of place.
Maybe the card has bad sectors. Doing what khaystsus said will help you find that out.
At any rate, there are alot of things that could cause the same problems so a little more investigation and information is needed for anyone to help you any further.
Mikeb32078 said:
Yeah, you need to find out a little more information as to what is going on.
First off figure out if it is the phone or the card that is the problem.
Remove the card and find some other way of reading it. It could be something as simple as a bad connection on the terminal pins. Maybe clean them or see if they are bent out of place.
Maybe the card has bad sectors. Doing what khaystsus said will help you find that out.
At any rate, there are alot of things that could cause the same problems so a little more investigation and information is needed for anyone to help you any further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will try with the computer, ,but this is not a isolated problem if you do a search in google, you will see very many people complaining of the same thing.
examples
http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=cingular&thread.id=95047
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/.../thread/8f3276df-9444-4098-b0f4-6155582a2765/
Of course this is not an isolated problem -- this can happen on any WM phone. given the right conditions
It happened several times on my old ETEN.
One culprit is if you run the tweak to store your IE cache files on the card instead of internal memory -- this has been known to corrupt the card.
Other things can happen also -- which is why I backup my card at least once a week.
srimoorthy said:
Thanks I will try with the computer, ,but this is not a isolated problem if you do a search in google, you will see very many people complaining of the same thing.
examples
http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=cingular&thread.id=95047
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/.../thread/8f3276df-9444-4098-b0f4-6155582a2765/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you run a checkdisk on the card yet? What were the results?
No not yet, did nt get much of a chance yesterday going to do it today if i am able to find my card reader !

Contents of the storage card dissappeared!

Yesterday when I attempted to play some games that were installed on the storage card, the links under Programs/Games no longer worked. Turns out the data on the storage card got wiped out.
The file explorer and Total commander both show only one folder in the storage card. Its called WMDRM. And there is one file in that folder called B1DA8AC498FF588D471330048DEFE8FA02D6350B.hds. Other than that the storage card seems empty.
But the funny thing is, the Memory app under settings shows that 700 MB of data on the storage card is in use. Also, under Windows Explorer, when I try to browse the contents of the phone, I can see ~700 megs of data being used on the storage card (check attached image.)
Can someone explain to me whats going on? Is all my data lost? Is there a way to recover it?
Thanks in advance
Did you get the problem resolved yet
If not just reply and I could help you out
hidden files?
This actually happend to me recently. In my case I somehow, and I still have no idea how, checked the box to hide the files. It drove me nuts for about 20 minutes until I figured it out. as soon as I unchecked the box, everthing reappeared.
This has happened on my sons phone twice.. One time I magically fixed it by copying somethign back that "dissappeared" and once that file was "Back" everything else reappeared as well... Not sure what is going on.. and ideas?
ashoooo said:
Is all my data lost? Is there a way to recover it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try reading the memory cards contents by using the USB reader that came with it. I have a Sandisk 6 GB card that kept on doing this but since retiring that to out of phone duties with its card reader and using my 16 GB Sandisk card in my TyTN II, all is now well. What card is it that you have?
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure though so make sure your memory card is fully backed up in future.
Flying Kiwi said:
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software./QUOTE]
Which software do you recommend? I've been trawling the search results, but either I'm simply using the wrong search terms, or I simply can't see the wood for the trees. I have a similar issue - my 8Gb card is showing as empty, despite apparently having 2.5Gb in use. And this statistic is reported both on my phone and a colleagues, as well as two different PCs when using a card reader.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
R3dF1v3 said:
Flying Kiwi said:
If you search the forum you'll see this is a relatively common problem and people have been able to recover files in this way using specialist file recovery software./QUOTE]
Which software do you recommend? I've been trawling the search results, but either I'm simply using the wrong search terms, or I simply can't see the wood for the trees. I have a similar issue - my 8Gb card is showing as empty, despite apparently having 2.5Gb in use. And this statistic is reported both on my phone and a colleagues, as well as two different PCs when using a card reader.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Bump*
Any ideas, anyone?
Thanks.
Thanks, guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rola_electronics, thanks for the offer.
Everybody, thanks for your replies, guys.
When right clicking on the card, and selecting properties, it only showed like 5 files, but 700 megs in use. I had to reformat my card. Hard reset my phone (but that was because my phone was starting to get sluggish) reinstall everything.
But after a couple of weeks, it happened again (2 days ago.) I was playing Astraware sudoku, when the battery died. On recharging and rebooting, the card was fuxor3d again. Had to delete everything on it, and reinstall stuff again.
As for the suggestion of copying a new file and deleting it again for contents to reappear, I noticed that when I copied a file and deleted it, a ton of temporary files appeared on it. I deleted them manally later.
Kiwi, my card is Sandisk 6GB microSD.
rola_electronics, thanks for the offer.
Everybody, thanks for your replies, guys.
When right clicking on the card, and selecting properties, it only showed like 5 files, but 700 megs in use. I had to reformat my card. Hard reset my phone (but that was because my phone was starting to get sluggish) reinstall everything.
But after a couple of weeks, it happened again (2 days ago.) I was playing Astraware sudoku, when the battery died. On recharging and rebooting, the card was fuxor3d again. Had to delete everything on it, and reinstall stuff again.
As for the suggestion of copying a new file and deleting it again for contents to reappear, I noticed that when I copied a file and deleted it, a ton of temporary files appeared on it. I deleted them manally later.
Kiwi, my card is Sandisk 6GB microSD.
I'm not sure what ROMs you are using, but I know there have been issues with some that have the SD Power Management enabed. There are threads kicking around about it. You can disable it with Advanced Config.
Good luck
I'm using ATT stock, minus the bloatware (with the soft reset just before config trick)
your card -could- so to speak, dying. Do you have another one handy? Try using it for a while if you do and see what happens.
FWIW my ROM was the same as the one I'm still using (HTC standard throughout) and I've made no configuration changes associated with the microSD card other than swapping the 6 GB Sandisk with a 16 GB Sandisk. I've not used advanced config or similar and it's a plain 'as from the factory' setup. I strongly suspect this is associated with the card or at least a compatibility issue between the card and phone. Although power related issues may contribute to the likelyhood of problems in some cases, that wasn't the case with me.
When I did loose the card contents, I wasn't able to recover them using any software (I've read here that others had some luck however - though I don't recall what software they used). I had all my crucial files backed up and just low level erased the card in its USB reader using the HDD Wipe tool from the HDD Guru website (Sandisks own utility to perform these functions was not free - unlike every other HDD manufacturer I know of that does provide free HDD utility software to work with its drives, hence why I found the HDD Guru tool). I then formatted the card in Windows and restored my files from backup using Win XP Professionals native drive backup program. It was good as new (but did the same thing about 3 times in total before I became fed up with it and swapped out the card). I would suggest that those considering the purchase of a card to use with the TyTN II be wary of (at least some) Sandisk 6 GB microSDHC cards.
Thanks for your responses, Kiwi and kaiserII101.
Kiwi, what app do you recommend to backup the SD card?
If it gets corrupted again, can I just reformat it, and restore the backed up files (file copy)?
ashoooo said:
Kiwi, what app do you recommend to backup the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in my post above I just used the native backup and restore app built into Windows XP and used the card reader so the card showed as a drive and backed up everything. I'm using Win 7 now but haven't checked out all its similar options yet. The answer to your second question is yes (from within the app). Have a read of the Windows help relating to the backup/restore program. Not sure what it's called under Vista but I suspect something similar will be there built into the software. Otherwise you can simply copy all the files and folders across to a dedicated folder on your PC and if you prefer, just zip them up into a backup archive using something like Winzip.
Thank you Kiwi. The Win 7 app is also called "Backup and Restore".
So, if simple file copy suffices, I guess I'm just going to do that. Thanks for your help again.
I'd go for the backup - restore option
ashoooo said:
The Win 7 app is also called "Backup and Restore".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put that into my Win 7 search box and found it but haven't used it yet - it looks like it does the same sort of thing the Win XP app did though so that will do it fine and it'll be much easier than having to copy files over and zipping them up manually.
So, if simple file copy suffices, I guess I'm just going to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll depend what kinds of files you have and if they're not all straightforward things like mp3s, avi files or jpgs etc then you may run into problems if file attributes are changed by copying them directly. I think your best bet is to play it safe and use the backup - restore utility and just backup the whole card. It's usually easier and results in less space being used on the backup media because the files are automatically compressed (depending on configuration choices).

Strange issue on Kaiser

Hey all. I've been using my AT&T Kaiser for a while now using eOS 4.888 Fre WMo 6.1 after having some wicked slowdown issues with the stock HTC rom. Well, I turn my phone on to tomtom this morning and I get an error: could not find maps.
Turns out I go into my storage card folder, and most of the folders are renamed with characters and foldernames that should not exist! For example: "¦¦
Éq¦.ü" and "ê¦"+8 .LíX" when they used to be things like Skype and Tools. Even files on the card are subject to a similar issue. However folders like DCIM, and Program Files are left untouched. (possibly because they are in use)
Windows or total commander cannot enter the folders, and I get blank for filer results underneath. Nor has removing the card and doing a soft reset on the phone, the folders are actually renamed to this non-standard names.
Has anybody seen this before? Is this indicative of a bad SDHC? (I am using a Kingston 4gb) or a virus, or a bad rom install? Searching for keywords has yielded no results.
Any suggestions guys?
Did you flash without removing your card?
No, I pulled the card like the instructions said. My flash was done weeks ago just before the new year.
Flash memory is easily corruptible could have been taking the card out while being read or just happened...
What you mention with the funky characters has been mentioned before.
Anyway copy the data you can save pictures etc to computer and format the card a good tool http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/
I don't like that just happened option, but I suppose such is the nature of the medium. You're sure this is pretty much a corruption issue and nothing else, say bad programming?
Definitely sounds like it's corrupted somehow. While "just happens" can be used to cover all bases, it's usually because the card has been placed near some unseen hazardous source (magnets in speakers, microwave radiation... just a couple of generic off the top of my head). Could also be that there was an electrical spike when your phone was plugged in. Unfortunately there are loads of other reasons and you'll probably never know why.
I have 2GB noname card, and I had the same problem. Few hours ago my card died definitelly.. So the only way is to buy some good card to avoid this problem

SD doesn't always detect and issues installing apps

Guys, I've been searching for the last couple of weeks for solutions to what I believe is a unique problem with N1, so here I am ...
Basic details of NI:
Mod: Cyanogen 6.0.0
Kernel: 2.6.34.5
Baseband: 5.08
Build: FRF91
Issue number 1: Intermittent detection of SDcard.
A few weeks ago the N1 was not detecting my SDcard. I searched the web and tried a number of solutions. What has worked for me is to shut down, reseat the SDcard and hope for the best. Sometimes this would work after a couple of attempts other times I'd try this over days...
So I decide to buy a new card. Kingston 16gb SDHC. I format this for FAT32 copy my files across and pop it in. It gets detected, but once again intermittently, though it is detected after a shutdown and reseat more often than the previous card.
Now here is the uniqueness of my issue which I haven't been able to find in other places.
Even is the card is detected by the system and loads all the applications that are installed on it, if I go to 'manage applications' and select an application the 'total', 'application' and 'data' fields under storage show "computing..." and this doesn't change no mater how long I leave it. This is also the case for 'cache'.
Also, if I go to 'sd card and phone storage' it show the total space and available space no problems, but if I try to unmount it stalls then crashes out of settings.
I have no trouble reading either card on my Windows 7 machine.
Does anyone have any ideas on this particular issue?
Issue number 2 is that I can't update my apps ... it always gets stuck on 'installing ...'. I suspect however that if I sort out issue 1, issue 2 will also be solved.
Any help is much appreciated, as I'm rather at my wits end...
Ok, so an update on this. I've done a bit more reading, and discovered that my problem isn't so unique after all. Have tried a number of things, but nothing has worked perfectly for me yet.
I've wiped the card, reformated and the phone now detects it.
When I copy across all the files again the card stops being detected again.
So then I delete everything but the .android_secure folder and it still doesn't detect.
Does anyone know what app could be causing this?
I've seen some success by formatting the SD with a specific PC based program. Formatting from the phone gives mixed results.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the name, so you'll have to search...
If I remember, I'll post back...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Try SD Formatter.
http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
So after tinkering around with this issue a little bit, I ended up deleting the .android_secure folder.
After this everything seemed to work again. I could install apps and the card was being detected just fine.
Now, a couple of weeks later, I am having the same issues and it is again driving me nuts.
Does anyone have an idea of what the app is that is causing this problem?
I have the same problem since yesterday!
Btw I have rooted stock Froyo FRG83D, locked bootloader.
I think the app I installed yesterday was SetCPU. I don't know if the problem appeared because of that..
My apps installed on the SD Card are not recognized but I can see my photos in the Gallery which are stored on the SD Card as well! WTH!
Also I cannot install anything from the market..
Any solutions anyone?!?
I think what is screwing up the apps is using CM's ability to move apps to the SD card.
I have reinstalled all the apps using Titanium and have only moved those that you can natively. Will see how this goes.

100s of files disappeared from internal storage after using USB flash drive

I recently connected a USB flash drive (the SanDisk ultra dual drive with both A and C plugs that slide out of each end). It was having issues, as it would appear in FX file manager initially but then suddenly disappear. My phone told me via the notification area that the device had been removed improperly (which it hadn't) and that I should restart the phone. After a while, I did so, and as the phone was shutting down I removed the USB flash drive. Not sure if I should have left it in during the reboot tbh but what's done is done.
Anyways, after the phone started back up, I noticed that one of the folders in the root of my internal storage (a temporary folder to which I had been transferring files to from the USB drive) had disappeared. Odd, I thought, so I checked others, and found my Downloads, Music and Movies folders all empty, and my Documents, Pictures and Videos folders empty except only one subfolder or file. All of these folders had been full of files previously. Thankfully the photos in DCIM don't seem to have been affected (though I can't be sure of this as I don't know exactly what was in there in the first place).
If the external USB device has somehow been able to cause something like this, it'll be the first time I've seen anything like it in the whole time I've been using computers (more than 30 years). I would understand if the files on the external device had gone missing, as that's the device the phone reported the issue with. But for my completely unrelated files to disappear from internal storage? I have no idea how it happened.
If anyone has any advice on how I might get these files back and find out how they disappeared, I would be extremely grateful. I feel I can't trust my phone now...
Specifically, if anyone knows a file recovery app that works and can be trusted and won't put malware on my phone, that would be great
I haven't found one for the phone directly, but for the USB you could Recuva on Windows, which I have used with some success. This assumes that the deletes were not followed by wipes.
I would guess there is malware at play here, because this doesn't usually just happen. Or a mistake with copy vs move, and a bad USB stick as well... though with the 30 years of experience you have I would think these are VERY unlikely.
I realize it's too late to mention this, but I STRONGLY recommend backups, so you're not trying to recover deleted data like this. Of course, that doesn't help you today... but in the future, please setup a backup system to protect such files. For photos, for example, Google Photos is a great simple way to keep those backed up....
Thanks for the reply. Given the seemingly systematic deletion of files, I also suspect malware, though I haven't installed any new apps recently that weren't from reputable sources. Maybe an older malware app somehow triggered yesterday - who knows?
I've been hesitant to install a file recovery app on my phone, as I suspect most of them are clones/don't work/contain malware/only exist to prey on the vulnerable and make ad revenue.
Thankfully my photos are triple-backed up to various cloud services, including Google Photos (for sharing) and OneDrive (which retains the original filenames so that I can separate WhatsApp etc photos from my camera photos). The other files were backed up to iDrive until January, when I switched to a new iDrive account and forgot to transfer the backups. Losing those is more an inconvenience, nothing serious - for example I noticed this morning that my alarm sound had reverted to the (unpleasant) default and it is annoying to have to search and hand-pick a new bunch of alarm tones again.
I used to back up my entire internal storage regularly with FolderSync to a microSD card but nowadays I use dual sim cards so the microSD has been removed. I also used to have auto backups set up with SyncMe over wifi, but this seemed to stop working when I installed android 12.
I had become somewhat complacent about my safeguarding my files recently, and this is a stark reminder of how important regular backups are.
If anyone has advice on trustworthy file recovery apps, I'd love to hear from you.
Glad to hear you have backups... phew!
Sorry I don't have any leads on phone-apps for data recovery. But I am interested in seeing what others say as well...

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