Storage card disappears when I hook up to data cable

[DaPeeps]

Originally Posted by vestaviajag

That encryption idea has nothing to do with my situation, but I appreciate the effort.

For some ungodly reason, my phone won't recognize my storage card. It will play music off of it when i connect it to my car stereo and use the "disk drive" option, it will allow my PC to see the storage card with the "disk drive" option. It will use activesync properly, and everything else works.

But the phone, when in activesync or unplugged, won't recognize the storage card. I really don't want to do a hard reset, or have this happen again. Can anyone give me any insight to what is going on, or any help? I would GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!!

You're sure encryption has nothing to do with it?

This is a well known and documented but little understood problem. The general consensus is that if you unplug or plug in a USB cable while anything is accessing the SD card, this problem can happen. Alot of times, if you check the card , you will find it has a single file with a .menc extension. This means that the phone has encrypted all the info on the phone (edit...I meant on the SD card) and it will not be viewable by any other device, and the only way out is a long an painful data restoration process that will allow you to recover most of the data off the card in chunks. Its really quite a pain in the ***...its happened to me once and to my roomate once. Since then, I make it a point not to plug in or unplug a USB cable unless I am POSITIVE that the card is not being accessed by the phone.

So....if you are listening to music on the SD card via the phone, and dont exit the music program before unpluggin the USB cable (or in your case, stop playing the music on your stereo, turn off the stereo, then disconnect the USB cable) then this could randomly happen to you at any time.

The encryption may be a part of your problem...otherwise, you might want to check your card itself...maybe test it with another card?

[vestaviajag]

Originally Posted by DaPeeps

You're sure encryption has nothing to do with it?

This is a well known and documented but little understood problem. The general consensus is that if you unplug or plug in a USB cable while anything is accessing the SD card, this problem can happen. Alot of times, if you check the card , you will find it has a single file with a .menc extension. This means that the phone has encrypted all the info on the phone and it will not be viewable by any other device, and the only way out is a long an painful data restoration process that will allow you to recover most of the data off the card in chunks. Its really quite a pain in the ***...its happened to me once and to my roomate once. Since then, I make it a point not to plug in or unplug a USB cable unless I am POSITIVE that the card is not being accessed by the phone.

So....if you are listening to music on the SD card via the phone, and dont exit the music program before unpluggin the USB cable (or in your case, stop playing the music on your stereo, turn off the stereo, then disconnect the USB cable) then this could randomly happen to you at any time.

The encryption may be a part of your problem...otherwise, you might want to check your card itself...maybe test it with another card?

What the hell!?!? You were right. This is bullshark!

How do I go about getting that off my SD card? I assume it wouldn't be as easy as just deleting that file... cause that would make NO sense what so ever. I have had a 6700, 6800, and some really old PDA that used a card, and I have never heard of this before.

Now what do I do?

(In my fit of rage, and general madness, I really do appreciate that explanation. It was excellent and was very clear and extensive. Thank you)

[stanglifemike]

OK, this is weird. With my current ROM, I now have a Internet Sharing option too(along with A/S and Disk Drive). Last night I chose Internet Sharing(ICS) and now I no longer get the popup asking me which I want . How do I get that to come back?? Right now it goes straight to ICS.

[DaPeeps]

Originally Posted by stanglifemike

OK, this is weird. With my current ROM, I now have a Internet Sharing option too(along with A/S and Disk Drive). Last night I chose Internet Sharing(ICS) and now I no longer get the popup asking me which I want . How do I get that to come back?? Right now it goes straight to ICS.

Start>>Settings>>Connections>>USB2PC

Edit: Also, make sure internet connection sharing is disconnected. Also, try a soft reset. Try plugging it into A PC, wait till it detects the USB connections...then use the Windows option to "Safley remove this hardware", then pull out the USB cable when the PC says its ok to do so (you should ALWAYS disconnect every USB device like this, just FYI). Finally..if all else fails...you can try installing the cab version of it and iut should overwrite the old one and startup like new again.

[DaPeeps]

Originally Posted by vestaviajag

What the hell!?!? You were right. This is bullshark!

How do I go about getting that off my SD card? I assume it wouldn't be as easy as just deleting that file... cause that would make NO sense what so ever. I have had a 6700, 6800, and some really old PDA that used a card, and I have never heard of this before.

Now what do I do?

(In my fit of rage, and general madness, I really do appreciate that explanation. It was excellent and was very clear and extensive. Thank you)

Go here and download this program : http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/smar...htm?language=1


Install it on your PC and stick the SD card into your computer with a microsd adapter. If you dont have one, you CAN mount the card using the phone...but it takes ALOT longer to do it this way. The process takes a long time as it is....

Anyway..install it, open it..and select it to scan your card.....again..it WILL take an hour or more to scan it. When its done...it will come up with chunks of data. Most of your folders should show up...so you may see a folder called Music, but if you go in it..it will say unknown data or something like that. Its fine..just recover those files (it might just let you copy them out..im not sure how...I cant remember) and you will get your data back. The program will let you click on the files to see what they are if I remember correctly.

I am sorry I cant be more descriptive because its been a while since I had to use it...but it works great.....I think it might prompt you to pay but dont worry...the free version works just fine. You should be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly...most of it is pretty self explanatory.

Once all your data is off and recovered to your PC hard drive.....format the card and recopy all data back to it. Keep a backup on your PC of your SD card....I started doing that after this happened to me LOL....much easier than recovering it!

Good luck...lemme know if you have any questions.

[vestaviajag]

Originally Posted by DaPeeps

Go here and download this program : http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/smar...htm?language=1


Install it on your PC and stick the SD card into your computer with a microsd adapter. If you dont have one, you CAN mount the card using the phone...but it takes ALOT longer to do it this way. The process takes a long time as it is....

Anyway..install it, open it..and select it to scan your card.....again..it WILL take an hour or more to scan it. When its done...it will come up with chunks of data. Most of your folders should show up...so you may see a folder called Music, but if you go in it..it will say unknown data or something like that. Its fine..just recover those files (it might just let you copy them out..im not sure how...I cant remember) and you will get your data back. The program will let you click on the files to see what they are if I remember correctly.

I am sorry I cant be more descriptive because its been a while since I had to use it...but it works great.....I think it might prompt you to pay but dont worry...the free version works just fine. You should be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly...most of it is pretty self explanatory.

Once all your data is off and recovered to your PC hard drive.....format the card and recopy all data back to it. Keep a backup on your PC of your SD card....I started doing that after this happened to me LOL....much easier than recovering it!

Good luck...lemme know if you have any questions.

I'm trying that now.

I thought I had fixed it by just taking the important stuff off, formatting the card, then replacing it. That actually worked... for a few, but then that .menc file showed back up.

I'll report back to see how well that this works. Thanks for the advice!

[gator2k83]

go to start>settings> bottom tab that says system > Encryption. Its an icon that looks like an sd card with a padlock on it. Click on that and uncheck the encrypt files when placed on storage card.


That will disable the encryption and the .menc file from showing up on your phone.

Use the phone hooked up to the pc and copy the contents of your phones sd card to the computer. Faster if you are in disk drive mode vs active sync.

Go back into the phone settings make sure the encrypt files when placed on storage card is still unchecked. Format the card to fat32 default settings if its larger then 2gb, quick format works. Format to fat default settings if it is under 2gb.

Copy the files back to the storage card. Now any new files put on the storage card will not be encrypted and you can go along as normal like you did on the mogul and apache. + be able to read all the files in other devices or a card reader on your pc.

[vestaviajag]

Originally Posted by gator2k83

go to start>settings> bottom tab that says system > Encryption. Its an icon that looks like an sd card with a padlock on it. Click on that and uncheck the encrypt files when placed on storage card.


That will disable the encryption and the .menc file from showing up on your phone.

Use the phone hooked up to the pc and copy the contents of your phones sd card to the computer. Faster if you are in disk drive mode vs active sync.

Go back into the phone settings make sure the encrypt files when placed on storage card is still unchecked. Format the card to fat32 default settings if its larger then 2gb, quick format works. Format to fat default settings if it is under 2gb.

Copy the files back to the storage card. Now any new files put on the storage card will not be encrypted and you can go along as normal like you did on the mogul and apache. + be able to read all the files in other devices or a card reader on your pc.

I'm so confused. That encryption thing in the phone has ALWAYS been disabled, and it seems to happen only when I disconnect it from my car stereo without going in and changing the connection type from Disk Drive to Active Sync.

I don't get why this keeps happening, it's getting frustrating to keep formatting and replacing all those files... I don't have time for that sh!t every day, ya know.

How can I fix this permanently???

[Wingzfan]

Theres a REALLY simple fix when your card goes missing. Open the back cover, pop the card so its not fully inserted and push it back in. Works for me everytime.

[Runamok81]

Bump for this Issue!

Re-inserting the card does not work. The card is no longer recognized by any device other than the Kenwood Head Unit.

I have a Kenwood Excelon with a USB port, and have the same issue!

I have been scouring the internet, and have LOTS of people complaining about this issue. The quick fix seems to be reformatting, but if your storing 8GBs of music on your phone, this is not acceptable. Plus, I have to re-install ALL my important info/apps that were on the SD card.

I remember in one odd situation, I re-partitioned and got some data back with a partition editor.

I guess we have an answer with the .menc file.