topic Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues in Z Series

SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 02:09:17 GMT

Hello all,

I bought my Xperia Z2 probably 2-3 months ago and I have to say I do love this phone.

However I have come across a few issues that seems to be, not so common as I cannot find any solutions online (Which is why I'm here).

I am having 2 issues:

1st Issue:

SD Card Issue, this is a funny one as I have not been able to identify what actually causes this issue. Now this all started (or when I started to realise the issue) when I changed some settings in the Camera App. I saw that it was saving photos to "Internal Storage" and since I specifically bought a new SD card for the Xperia Z2, I wanted to store photos on the SD card instead.

So I changed it to SD Card Storage and all is well (At least, that is what I thought).

After taking some photos one day, I got home and wanted to preview them, in the photos app and Album (Sony's Photo Previewer) it shows that the photo is corrupted or missing (Depending on which app I'm using). This really annoyed me as the photos I took seems to be all lost and corrupted. So I tried to use a file explorer (Including File Commander) to find the actual file and open it, but it seems to have the same problem. I get this grey background with a picture of a mountain with like a thunderbolt sign (Broken sign).

Following this, I have also tried to copy some video files onto the SD card and it has been giving me troubles too. I tried to copy videos onto the SD card in 2 ways, first way is to take the SD card out, connect it to a SD card reader and plug that into the computer. After it finished copying onto the SD card, the files would just disappear (I use computers a lot and this was very surprising and new to me... It's like the SD card deleted the files right after it was copied, or maybe even 'hid' the files).

So since that method didn't work I thought I would try putting the SD card back into the phone and connect the phone to the computer then use Sony's MediaGO (Computer App) to transfer the videos and it sort of worked this time. I copied 14 videos over and only the first 2 videos are working, the others are all "Media is missing" or of some sort. I checked the video's format and they are all either .avi or .mp4 which I don't think is a problem as the first 2 videos are in .avi so surely other .avi videos would work too? Guess not...

So it seems like I am having troubles with Video and Photos on the SD card as music is working 100% fine. Used Media GO to copy the music on and it's all working wonderfully.

Some of you might suggest formatting the SD Card, I will say I have... I have tried the above methods before formatting AND after formatting (Formatting using Xperia Z2, or shall I say "erase").

The SD card I have is Sandisk's 64GB Ultra (I bought this to anticipate 4K or at least 1080p video recordings).

If the issue here is SD Card compatibility and I was silly enough to not have seen that prior, then I would gladly admit it's my fault and be happy that the solution would simply mean to buy another SD card.

But that said, I highly doubt that would be the issue due to the fact that the SD card is made for performance (Not the best performance as the Extreme and Extreme Pro range are a lot better) and the card is new.

2nd Issue:

Now this issue is not as bad as the first issue, it's something to do with the sound. I understand the phone has 3 sound controls, one for the Ringtone for when you get a notification or/and phone call, one for Media and one for Alarm.

What I do is I have the Ringtone volume sitting at around 50% and Media will be dependent as I change it when I open an app but the issue I've been having is this:

If I open an app (Mainly games that has sound/music) and I change the Media volume to say 70% or even 20%, whenever I get a notification whilst in-app the notification volume seems to be at 100% no matter what I do with the media volume. This is weird as my default Ringtone/Notification volume is sitting very low at around 50% or even if I change it to 20%.

What am I missing here? Any thoughts?

With the above 2 issues, last resort would be to factory reset my phone but will be willing to do it if there's a high chance of the issue getting fixed.

Your thoughts will be greatly received as right now I'm just lost and not sure what to do with the issues. I'm slowly getting the feeling that I should just give up on the phone and use it for phone calls, music and forget about the whole photo/video taking which is very sad as I love the phone's photo/video taking features.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

_alexdon_ — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:49:09 GMT

About your first problem,I think you should address it to a staff member.

Check your second issue in safe mode,try to use a default app in safe mode and see if the same occurs:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/FAQ/How-to-boot-your-phone-into-safe-mode/m-p/348008

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 13:27:46 GMT

Hello alexdon,

Thank you for your suggestions I'll try the safe mode over the weekend and let you know how it goes. In terms of my first issue, when you aid speak to a staff member do you mean in the forums or in an actual store? I bought the phone online so I don't think there's a physical Sony store around me.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

_alexdon_ — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:51:02 GMT

See here:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Welcome/Community-users/m-p/634967

Choose one of the guys,they can help you as they are well prepared.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 22:44:54 GMT

Hello alexdon,

Thank you for your suggestions, I will contact the staff. Once I get a solution I will post it here

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Rickard — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 07:18:33 GMT

This sounds like a bad SD-card (either defect or fake) as it also happens when you use a card reader. I recommend that you connect it to your computer again using the card reader and test it with a software like http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtml

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:22:29 GMT

Hello Rickard,

Thank you for the link, I have started the test and 10 minutes into the test the speed for writing dropped. Anyways I only managed to get through in writing 8GB of data then I gave up. I then started to verify that 8GB of data that was written on the SD Card.

I have to say, it does seem like that SD Card is defective

Thank you for providing the link, what I will do now is get another SD Card and see if the problem is still there.

If the problem goes away I would consider my 1st issue being solved

However I am still not sure about my 2nd issue as this is not related to the SD card. Even without the SD card in the phone I seem to be experiencing this problem.

It's frustrating sometimes as if I'm trying to keep the volume down and play a game I can't because any notifications that comes through will be at 100% volume.

Perhaps there's a setting I'm missing?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Rickard — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 10:19:09 GMT

Not sure what could cause it. I tested it here in my Z2 but the notification volume is low for me.
Have you tried updating the phone? Does it happen in all games and with all notifications?

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:02:44 GMT

It's somehow fixed, I guess it fixed itself or perhaps there was an update that indirectly fixed it?

Anyways if I come across the issue again I will let you know.

I'm still waiting on my SD card so will definitely let you know what the issue was.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

mjpunkaroo — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:41:29 GMT

Hi there. I have this same problem too. I have had it with my Sony Xperia z1 and z2 with different sd cards. I take photos, sometimes I transfer them to the sd card due to memory issues and sometimes I don't transfer them anywhere. Next time I look, mountain with lightening bolts, media not found. And it also deletes in from my Google cloud, sony memories and Microsoft one drive. It is really frustrating as I am losing all my photos and my google music playlists. I love this phone but as it is my second sony that is doing the same thing I am getting frustrated! Losing all my memories **bleep**! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

mjpunkaroo — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:44:05 GMT

Hi! Just to add. I used to store my photos straight from my camera onto my phone. And they got lost. Now I store them straight to the sd card, and the media still gets lost. Thanks!

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:48:11 GMT

Hey there all,

So I'm back, took me a while but I have been busy so couldn't get around to buy a new SD card and test it.

I got an SD card yesterday, I got the SD Sandisk 64GB Ultra and plugged it in my phone.

Unfortunately the error I was having came back...

I don't think it's the SD card considering this happened to 2 brand new SD cards... I have a third one but I'm not very keen to test it out as it might damage that SD card too and they are quite expensive.

Rickard, what would you recommend I do now?

What I did was, opened the new SD card packaging, put the card into the phone and when into Settings > Storage and then Erase SD card. Once it has been erased I tried to copy videos onto it via File Commander. I copied the video from my home NAS which I mounted as a remote share (Which can be found under Storage too, at the very bottom).

After the videos have finished copying, a few worked and a few didn't work.

What I decided to do then is to change the camera settings to have the photos saved to my SD card instead from now on. After doing that I took some photos (Without connecting to Wifi, to ensure Photos app doesn't upload it). Then at the end of the day, the photos were all corrupted.

As you can see below the ones that have been successfully uploaded those were the ones I took when connected to the Wifi as it would immediately upload the photos after I have taken them.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Rickard — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:18:18 GMT

Sorry to hear that you're still having issues with a new SD card

Did you buy these cards from a known and reputable dealer? It sounds a bit like fake SD cards to me. The software i mentioned earlier will be able to show if an SD-card is fake or broken.

If you suspect that the phone is somehow damaging the cards i recommend that you contact a service location to have the phone checked. For more information about how to submit your phone for repair and where, contact your local support team.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Kuanyu24 — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:18:52 GMT

Thank you for the reply Rickard, what I'll do is to test it with my camera's SD card which I know works as I've been using that card for the past year.
If the card still corrupts then I'll take it into the service location you mentioned and see what can be done.

Thank you again for your help. I'll keep you updated with my progress.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Alonk — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 09:21:58 GMT

Hi all,

Same thing happend to my new phone Xperia M5, also not worked properly with SanDisk micro SD 64 GB. I also tried to plugged the same micro SD to my friend's phone and worked just fine.

Can somebody PLS HELP US....

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

DGJ1992 — Sun, 13 Dec 2015 07:05:59 GMT

I am having the exact same problem as issue number 1. I have tried 3 different memory cards now and they work stellar at first then just seem to give up. I'm worried this is a problem with the Xperia. I have a z3, and it seems to just corrupt the cards over time? Photos and videos both go corrupt. It's a hit and miss whether music tracks play when put on. A video file I transfer to the phone will play instantly, but not when I put them on SD Card.

What's the deal?

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Licona — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 02:45:05 GMT

I have the Xperia Z2 and I had the same problems 2 SD card brand new different maker get damaged completly after try to transfer photos to SD card from internal storage, I just lost applications that I tried to move to SD card I had to reinstall all of them, a friend of mine has the Xperia Z3 and also got the same problem, the big issue is that a bunch of very apreciated photos were lost in an unrecoverable way, SD cards are not the problem, looks like the Software is not stronger enough to handle the process to save data on the SD cards.

who is working for the solution? if you look on the web many people has this concern.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

ebessop — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 20:08:15 GMT

Having same issue with my M5. Not SD card issue, tried 3 different cards which work in other phones but m5 deleted pictures and then corrupt card on all 3 tries. Did hard and soft rest but that didn't stove problem. Sony needs to have a fix cause it's been happening with older phones as well.

Re: SD Card Issues and Sound Issues

Hellowyn — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 05:26:21 GMT

I have same issue as you on the first one... And it's not the SD card because I have tried 4 SD cards and it's always the same problem.... I would add to it that in my case when I transfer apps from phone to card app disappeared from the phone but it still consider as if the app was taking space in my internal memory and the app become unusable I need to reinstall from scratch even though it's stored in my card... And the card unmount itself too... It's the third Xperia Z2 I purchase and all three did the same so I really think it's the phone not the SD card

I, too have SD Card Issues

Saher92 — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 13:25:49 GMT

I have a Sony Xperia z2.

I have tried Google'ing my problem, however I havent arrived at a solution.

So, the problem is that I dont use my phone on any other mode other than Airplane.I use this phone for the sole purpose of using the Voice Recorder. The phone seemed to be working absolutely fine till I realised that the memory storage was running out as the recordings were being saved on the Internal memory.

For which I bought a 32GB Transcend SD Card. After inseting the SD card, it failed to recognise. I went to the settings and to the Storage option, which showed that there was an SD Card in the device, so I decided to move the data FROM the internal memory TO the SD Card.

Afterwhich the internal memory didnt increase back to 16GB (the internal memory didn't clear out despite all data being moved to the card), It stayed at 11 GB only available. I decided to use the recorder the next day,as usual.

Again, it all seemed normal however when i wanted to STOP the recording at the end of the day, I noticed that there was NO stop button(infact it said Start Recording while running the recording , the Big red Button in the center wasnt working either. There was no recording stored and I lost a whole days recording. I decided to shift the Voice Recorder back to the device and unmounted the card (since it obviously didnt work when i unmounted the card and the app was stored on the card), strangely the phone started heating up in the center (the back pannel) all of a sudden. This has never happned before.

My main concern is the phones inability to fuction normally with an SD card inserted.

Kindly help me at the earliest

Thanks.