SD Card Issues

[Shoemaker]

Hi,

I would like to know if any other people using the XZ1 Compact (+Android 8.0) experience funky behaviour regarding their sd card in apps like Spotify, Netflix, Google Play Music, ...?

For example: Spotify doesnt even recognize the sd card. So downloads just hit the phones storage with no option to select the sd card. Netflix has the identical issue; I can only select internal. Google Play Music lets me at least choose the SD card in their settings but the moment I pick the sd card option the app just crashes.

Amazon Music displays the sd card but with a capacity of 0.0 GB (even though it was formatted a second ago). 

Things like the camera app saves the data to the sd card as expected when I changed the setting.

What is going on here? Is this a known issue? Anyone else experiencing this behaviour?

Byebye

Michael

[Profyler1]

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@Imase wrote:

Hi, I have a little problem with my sd card too. I have a SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC Class 10, previously used in a Z3 compact, I reformatted it before installing in the XZ1 compact. I put the sd card in the phone before using it for the first time, and than I formatted it again in the XZ1 compact.  

I set the camera app to save videos and pics directly on the sd card, but when I end recording a video it often says that sd card is not available. The video is actually saved on the sd card, but the app cannot display the little preview on the bottom, and after that at times I can't use the app to take other pictures or videos because it says that the sd card cannot be found. I have to restart the camera app, and at times the error pops up again before recording or taking pictures.

Is anyone else having the same issue?

I have no problem saving videos from Netflix directly to the sd card, or listening to music I saved in it, so I think it could be a problem of the camera app. 

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No problem here mate.

Recorded several videos and pics with the camera app. try another sd card, maybe yours is dying..

[Imase]

I'll try to format it another time, 

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@Profyler1 wrote:

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@Imase wrote:

Hi, I have a little problem with my sd card too. I have a SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC Class 10, previously used in a Z3 compact, I reformatted it before installing in the XZ1 compact. I put the sd card in the phone before using it for the first time, and than I formatted it again in the XZ1 compact.  

I set the camera app to save videos and pics directly on the sd card, but when I end recording a video it often says that sd card is not available. The video is actually saved on the sd card, but the app cannot display the little preview on the bottom, and after that at times I can't use the app to take other pictures or videos because it says that the sd card cannot be found. I have to restart the camera app, and at times the error pops up again before recording or taking pictures.

Is anyone else having the same issue?

I have no problem saving videos from Netflix directly to the sd card, or listening to music I saved in it, so I think it could be a problem of the camera app. 

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No problem here mate.

Recorded several videos and pics with the camera app. try another sd card, maybe yours is dying..

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I'll try to format the sd card another time, if that doesn't fix it I'll buy a new one, hoping it's not the phone

[Trondari]

On both the XZ1 Compacts that I have there are issues with using the SD card. I can use it when taking pictures or when manually copying files to it, but other apps cannot use it.

This is a bug that Sony should fix.

This is with two different SD cards (Samsung microSDHC PRO 32GB) that I've used in other Xperia phones.

In the HERE WeGo map app: When I try selecting the SD Card for maps storage I get "Memory Access Error: Your device won't allow the app to store anything on the installed memory card".

In Google Maps I can select the SD Card for storing offline maps, but this fails by Maps just hanging at 0% during download and reports error after a timeout.

The app A1 SD Bench gives errorrs.

[ghackett]

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@Shoemaker wrote:

What I've done so far:

• Set the storage permission manually
• Reformat within the phone settings (multiple times)
• Uninstalling - Wiping App Data - Reinstalling
• (Re-)Partition the sd card with exFat (I use a SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC Class 10, U1, A1, FFP)

The usual stuff which did not solve anything.

Initial setup was, that I've got the phone brand new and let it boot up without the SD card then do the setup bits. Then insert the brand new sd card and let it format thru the phone. Enable sd card encryption. Which lead to the situation mentioned above (card is not recognized at all)

What I've done now is to factory reset the phone with the sd card inserted and boot and setup the phone with the sd card in place this time. Then format it again thru the phone (I have not activated sd card encryption yet) and all of a sudden spotify, netflix, ... work with the sd card just as expected.

So perhaps one of you, who experience the same thing, might want try out if this is reproduceable.

• Keep the sd card in the phone
• Factory reset (I did it via the Xperia companion desktop software)
• Boot it up again
• Format SD Card

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Registered here just to say thank you for figuring this out. I was about to start the return process on my new XZ1 Compact, but factory resetting with the SD card in place totally solved the issue. 

Hope sony can fix this absurd bug before I need to upgrade my SD card.

[Snapples]

Interesting.

How is it possible to format the sd-card inside the phone?
I can't find any such option, like it existed in any other version of Android I used before.

[ghackett]

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@Snapples wrote:

Interesting.

How is it possible to format the sd-card inside the phone?
I can't find any such option, like it existed in any other version of Android I used before.

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Two ways to get there

(1) goto settings -> storage -> tap on SD card -> 3 dots menu (top right) -> Storage Settings -> Format

(2) goto the "Files" app -> hamburger menu (top left) -> tap sd card -> 3 dots menu -> Storage settings -> format.

The trick to fixing the bug however, is doing a full factory reset of your phone with the SD card inside already. Unsure if the last step of formatting the sd card is necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

[Snapples]

Thanks.

Yea, just formatting the sd-card didn't fix anything.

I'm hesitant of factory-resetting since there's no proper way of backing up my app settings, tho...

[Shoemaker]

I still think this is a bug of android 8 + sony side(?)

Permissions of unknown devices set plain wrong (insert sd card after setup process vs known devices during setup process) just feels whack to me. But I'm somewhat apple-esque and don't want to dig into the insides of android.

If my device was rooted you could just set chmod the sdcard to 777 or something open and it would probably be the remedy. I just take it as an early adaptor pain of 8.0. For now everything just works and I'm very happy with the device .

For now: Factory reset the phone with the sdcard in place when you start the setup process again. This is known to work if you encounter this crap.

Cheers

M

[locoF]

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@Shoemaker wrote:

What I've done so far:

• Set the storage permission manually
• Reformat within the phone settings (multiple times)
• Uninstalling - Wiping App Data - Reinstalling
• (Re-)Partition the sd card with exFat (I use a SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC Class 10, U1, A1, FFP)

The usual stuff which did not solve anything.

Initial setup was, that I've got the phone brand new and let it boot up without the SD card then do the setup bits. Then insert the brand new sd card and let it format thru the phone. Enable sd card encryption. Which lead to the situation mentioned above (card is not recognized at all)

What I've done now is to factory reset the phone with the sd card inserted and boot and setup the phone with the sd card in place this time. Then format it again thru the phone (I have not activated sd card encryption yet) and all of a sudden spotify, netflix, ... work with the sd card just as expected.

So perhaps one of you, who experience the same thing, might want try out if this is reproduceable.

• Keep the sd card in the phone
• Factory reset (I did it via the Xperia companion desktop software)
• Boot it up again
• Format SD Card

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I also registered just to say thanks for this answer and to write out some of the issues I had because of this bug to maybe help some people google the solution more efficiently.

I had Google Play Music suddenly become unable to play any music with SD card chosen as storage location in settings. Changing to internal fixed playback, but trying to choose SD card again crashed the app every time. Podcast Addict app could not download to SD card saying to check if the folder exists, is accessible and writeable, or sometimes saying that the card is mounted in read-only mode.

I tried checking for FAT errors in Windows, formatting the card both on PC and on the phone, and your way was the only one that helped.

[pseudonym]

Had a similar (the same?) problem once, the camera apparently switched on its own accord to saving photos and videos to the internal memory, (and I'm not talking about the Burst Mode). I'm not sure if it was that time or another  that the file manager that I use, MiX, was suddenly unable to see the SD card. In any case, a reboot solved the problem.