topic Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd in XPERIA archive

Xperia Z 64GB microsd

BGood — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:37:45 GMT

Does anyone know if Sony's spec for the microSD card, "up to 32 GB" means that a 64 GB won't work? Or does it mean that it hasn't yet been tested? I know my Samsung Galaxy SII says the exact same thing, and I've been running a 64 GB microSD for 6 months without a hitch. I really like the looks/specs of this phone, but I'm not sure I could go back to 32 GB of external storage. Thoughts?

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

Uliwooly — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:39:24 GMT

it supposed to be compatible with 32GB

http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/phones/xperia-z/specifications/#tabs

Memory

RAM: 2GB
Flash memory: Up to 16 GB
Expansion slot: microSD card, up to 32 GB

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

BGood — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:08:42 GMT

Thanks, but I saw the official specs before I posted. I'm trying to determine if Sony simply has not yet tested any 64 GB microSD cards with this phone yet. Or if they tested and it didn't work. As I said in my first post, with my Samsung Galaxy SII, the specs say only that it supports "up to 32 GB" and yet it works fine with 64 GB.

Obviously, until someone gets this model, we cannot know for sure, BUT perhaps someone with another Xperia model has experience with a 64 GB card?

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

Matthias1 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:54:19 GMT

64GB cards are officially not compatible.

Although if you format it in FAT32, a 64GB SD card will work just as good as any other. Just keep in mind that the max filesize will be 4GB in that format

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?s=aff274d9c767dd01b3eb102df2e0ab53&t=1606905&page=3

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

zzzzperia — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:52:12 GMT

just bought a 64Gb Sandisk micro SDXC and works fine.

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

kyle69 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:37:02 GMT

I have Xperia Z with Sandisk MircoSD 64GB it's OK !

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

tw8 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:39:13 GMT

If the 64GB card is not recognised in it's factory format state, reformat in phone then works a treat. Running class 10 64gb card without issues, (SanDisk micro SDXC).

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

MattiasA — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:10:45 GMT

I have a Samsung SD-card 64GB in my XZ and it works fine, very fast card too.

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

gregoryopera — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:45:00 GMT

I was just having a look on Developer World and was quite surprised to see that the Xperia Z and the Xperia Tablet Z are virtually identical with regards to their hardware and software... I was expecting them to be similar, but they are quite literally almost identical.

Anyway to get to the point, according to the Xperia Tablet Z overview/features page, the "Maki" (Japanese) and "Windy" (Wi-Fi) versions of the Xperia Tablet Z are compatible with SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity)(only up to 64GB, however - the format specification supports up to 2TB), whilst the "Gina Rex Tina (mobile) versions are only compatible with SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), which has a 32GB maximum as part of the SDHC specification.

Therefore in theory (key word "theory"), the "official" 32GB limit on the Xperia Z is software-based... Or put another way, theoretically, Sony could up the "official" support up to 64GB by only making the applicable changes to the firmware!

Of course this is all just in theory (unless I have a look at the firmware coding myself, which I am totally not doing!), but it is however, interesting stuff...

Edit 1: Apparently SDXC memory cards are pre-formatted with the "exFAT" filesystem, which is not widely used by alternative operating systems and most electrical devices - this would likely explain why many users have had success once the 64GB SDXC memory card has been formatted in the Xperia Z directly...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#SDXC

Edit 2: I had a look at the 32GB SDHC memory card in my Xperia Advance/Go - which was formatted in the Xperia Advance/Go itself - and it is using the "FAT32" filesystem, suggesting that I'm probably right in my assumption above... Which means that in theory, if a SDXC memory card is formatted with the FAT32 filesystem, it should (theoretically) work fine in the Xperia Z.

I should also point-out that some users have also suggested that the design of SanDisk memory cards may also be causing issues - in case you've never used a SanDisk microSD memory card, they are considerably thinner than microSD memory cards from most other manufacturers, and some have suggested that the SanDisk memory cards may be losing contact with the pins inside the memory card slot (which makes a lot of sense, if you think about it)... To back this up somewhat, most (not all, but most) of the Xperia Z users experiencing problems with 64GB memory cards seem to be using SanDisk memory cards.

Message was edited by: gregoryopera - Additional comments and relevant information.

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

GeoffH — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:16:00 GMT

I did a little research on this memory issue and Sony devices are not the only ones to be having issues - also not that according to Sandisk - 2/3 of memory sold online are fakes - you can download software to test

I am still waiting on my 64gb card to arrive - if it has problems it will be going back

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

gregoryopera — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:01:08 GMT

The most common fault with "fake" memory cards is that they may not have the capcity or the speeds which was advertised...

Speed is difficult to verify for the everyday user, but storage capcity is quite easy to identify - if it has less than what you are supposed to be getting, then it's a fake.

In a small number of cases - such as with regards to Sony's proprietry memory cards (Memory Stick/Pro/Duo/Pro Duo/etc...) - the applicable security/copyright protection standards are not met (this happened to me when I bought a Memory Stick Pro Duo off eBay) and they may not work with all devices or content - not many memory cards have this problem however, in fact the only example I can think of is Sony's "Memory Stick" range and the memory cards still work, they just won't work with anything considered "secure" content (purchased music, games, purchased videos, etc...).

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

EckLiv — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 01:36:37 GMT

May or may not be related\responsible for the fault, but I had a scandisk 32Gb memory card in my new xperia m4 aqua & it worked perfectly. I then upgraded to a scandisk 64Gb memory card & now the phone power cycles up to 30 times a day. Both memory cards are FAT32 Formatted (by PC).
Sorry if this muddies the water further but thought it might be relevant.

Re: Xperia Z 64GB microsd

rgledhill — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 18:47:31 GMT

(Cross-posted from another thread as it's relevant here too)

For the record, I appeared to have the same problem - Sony Xperia ZZ3 Compact, 64GB SD card, and it wouldn't show all the files in Windows Explorer (but would if I looked at the SD card using a separate reader), and the phone got hot and ran the battery flat very quickly.

I tried formatting it as FAT32 but it made no difference. I cleared the stored data and cache with the Data Manager which temporarily stopped it overheating but wouldn't show any files! So I bought a 32GB SD card... same problem!

In the end I FINALLY tracked it down to a file on there that the Media Storage task was having problems with. Basically it didn't like a .m4a file; it seems this file confused it when it tried to see what file type it was (in this case AAC encoded music file) and got stuck on this file forever.

So... if you want to fix the problem, I recommend copying your files to the SD card using your phone and a USB cable (not an SD card reader) as it will pick up any incompatible files and check you want to copy them over. If you do choose to then you might have problems. Maybe if you remove any .m4a files on there it will start working.

Anyhow I now happily have my Xperia Z3 Compact running with a (genuine) SanDisk 64GB SD card and no more overheating!

Hope this helps

Richard