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Heyy All, (sorry if this is in the wrong section!!!!)
I have a couple of questions.. I wanted to partition my SD card so that apps2sd would work. Here are the steps i took:
Did a nandroid backup
I copied all information from SD card to my computer
rebooted phone into recovery
chose partition SD card - Then upgraded ext2 to ext3
copied and pasted all files back onto the SD card
nandroid restored
in recovery I am able to access all files on the SD card but when i reboot my phone an icon comes up in the notification bar that looks like a SD card with an exclamation point with the error "Blank SD card or unsupported file system"
Can anyone tell me how to fix this? or why my files are no longer on the SD card when I reboot my phone?
Thank you all very much!
You must be running a Froyo-based ROM, which with the "normal" way of partitioning through any kind of recovery, Froyo doesn't recognize the FAT32 partition. You're going to have to search the Eris Dev forum for a thread by Conap called something like "Using old Apps2SD with Froyo".
FYI, no offense if you already know this, but did you know that Froyo's built-in Apps2SD doesn't require partitioning at all, although it has different limitations than the "old" style Apps2SD.
here's a link to the thread that roirraW "edor" ehT is referencing:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=811548
good luck and let us know if you need any other help!
Awesome thank you very much guys!!.. I actually figured it out thought. I just reformatted the card and got rid of the extension. Put all of my files back on and its as good as new!.. Thanks again
I have a problem with my SD card, not sure if partitioning will do anything for it, perhaps mine is corupted some how.
Running KF37, on Sunday my Eris froze up, any apps I had on my SD where unable to open or recognized. My phone was very slow and would not respond very well. I took my SD card out and plugged it into my computer and it would not open (I can't remember the error message) said something like "no contents" . After about an hour I was able to open my SD card and everything was there, so I backed it up. I placed it back in my phone and I still could not get my apps to work, those that are Apps2SD.
Due to the phone freezing up and the battery being extremely hot I had it replaced.
The new Eris, I flashed the latest Nonsensikal, it restored all my apps, but would not allow me to move them to SD. When I went under "manage apps" to list all my apps it showed "computing" instead of their file size. It would fail to move to SD every time. Then I would get a FC of the launcher and only have a black screen with no acess, I could at least see my notification bar and pull that down but that was all I could do on the phone...a reflash of Nonsensikal had no effect to fix this.
So, last night I install KF38, no FC's but I still can't move apps to SD, they fail each time.
I delete everything off my card, reformate it but it doesn't help.
I partitioned it (for the first time...not sure if I didn't it right but I beleive I followed the instructions) and I still can not get Apps2SD.
Any thoughts?
Romparoo said:
I have a problem with my SD card, not sure if partitioning will do anything for it, perhaps mine is corupted some how.
Running KF37, on Sunday my Eris froze up, any apps I had on my SD where unable to open or recognized. My phone was very slow and would not respond very well. I took my SD card out and plugged it into my computer and it would not open (I can't remember the error message) said something like "no contents" . After about an hour I was able to open my SD card and everything was there, so I backed it up. I placed it back in my phone and I still could not get my apps to work, those that are Apps2SD.
Due to the phone freezing up and the battery being extremely hot I had it replaced.
The new Eris, I flashed the latest Nonsensikal, it restored all my apps, but would not allow me to move them to SD. When I went under "manage apps" to list all my apps it showed "computing" instead of their file size. It would fail to move to SD every time. Then I would get a FC of the launcher and only have a black screen with no acess, I could at least see my notification bar and pull that down but that was all I could do on the phone...a reflash of Nonsensikal had no effect to fix this.
So, last night I install KF38, no FC's but I still can't move apps to SD, they fail each time.
I delete everything off my card, reformate it but it doesn't help.
I partitioned it (for the first time...not sure if I didn't it right but I beleive I followed the instructions) and I still can not get Apps2SD.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, most of the time with Froyo ROMs you don't want to partition the SD card. If you do there's a special way to get it to work with Froyo, but the only reason you would want to partition it is for advanced reasons and nothing having to do with getting Froyo-native Apps2SD working.
Have you gone into Menu/Settings/CyanogenMod settings/Application settings and checked "Allow application moving"?
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
Have you gone into Menu/Settings/CyanogenMod settings/Application settings and checked "Allow application moving"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding
Yes, this is not the issue, though I wish it were. I have been running the Froyo rom's for a very long time.
As I tried to explain, life was going great for me and my Eris until Sunday when the little guy froze up and became very laggy. At that point my apps that were on my SD card no longer worked, and when I removed my SD card and plugged it into my computer it would not open for about an hour or so, I got an error message, something like "no content" or something like that.
I did not do anything to my SD card (other than copied the contents to my computer) when I plugged it into my new Eris. I still could not move apps to the SD.
Which at that point I thought that perhaps something happened to it and that I might need to partition it, which I did through recovery, but still no luck.
I am trying to do it via the thread link from this thread via gscripts and connecting it to my pc, but I can't seem to figure it out correctly.
I am not sure why apps wont work or move to the SD. I don't think it is corrupt or damaged because I can access everything on the card, save on it, play music from it, pictures, ect.
I don't want to use a different SD, I bought this 16GB Class 6 only for my phone and I use about 11GB so far.
Eagerly Waiting....
Thanks again.
Romparoo said:
Thanks for responding
Yes, this is not the issue, though I wish it were. I have been running the Froyo rom's for a very long time.
As I tried to explain, life was going great for me and my Eris until Sunday when the little guy froze up and became very laggy. At that point my apps that were on my SD card no longer worked, and when I removed my SD card and plugged it into my computer it would not open for about an hour or so, I got an error message, something like "no content" or something like that.
I did not do anything to my SD card (other than copied the contents to my computer) when I plugged it into my new Eris. I still could not move apps to the SD.
Which at that point I thought that perhaps something happened to it and that I might need to partition it, which I did through recovery, but still no luck.
I am trying to do it via the thread link from this thread via gscripts and connecting it to my pc, but I can't seem to figure it out correctly.
I am not sure why apps wont work or move to the SD. I don't think it is corrupt or damaged because I can access everything on the card, save on it, play music from it, pictures, ect.
I don't want to use a different SD, I bought this 16GB Class 6 only for my phone and I use about 11GB so far.
Eagerly Waiting....
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, since you said you weren't sure if you partitioned it right, did you choose "0" for the Ext2 and also for the Swap size? That's how you should normally do for use with a Froyo ROM.
I wish I had a Class 6 16GB to play with.
The only GScripts I can think of related to partitions are for if you partition your SD card some other way other than recovery, which is what would be necessary in order to arrange and access the partitions in a way that Froyo can deal with.
After repartitioning your SD card, can you use a Micro SD to USB adapter (not through the phone) to access the contents okay?
If you can but still can't on the phone, then your phone probably is damaged and needs replaced.
I am pretty sure it is the phone, and not my SD card. I tried 3 other SD's and none of them allowed me Apps2SD.
I did get it partitioned finally But that did not help my problem
I am going to try and reflash a ROM and see if that helps, I doubt it at this point.
I am able to flash in recovery but for some reason I can not install apps via Astro that are stored on the SD. I can access content on card but no app access...bizarre
I just unrooted and flashed flashback 2.1 (no sense to continue to root when this phone is going back in a couple days).
As for a replacement, it will be here Monday. Believe it or not, this new replacement, which was a brand new Eris in the box, I activated Wednesday night overheats as well Yesterday I picked it up off my desk and the back was very hot (just like it's predecessor on Sunday) and the awake time was more than 100%. So Asurion is sending yet again another Eris, this will be my 6 Eris. So I will see how this replacement goes.
As for the Eris, I called Verizon about Asurion who did offer me 2 alternatives to the Eris, the LG Vortex and the Moto Devour (not comparable IMO), the tech rep at Verizon I spoke with agree with me that both alternatives are not comparable and that I should have been given the option for the Incredible since it is the next version after the Eris in my same manufacture line. So I called Asurion back who then asked me to call Monday when my Eris arrives so they can verify with a higher supervisor to ship me out the Incredible. If I do end up with the Incredible I hope there are some good ROMS for it.
Romparoo said:
I am pretty sure it is the phone, and not my SD card. I tried 3 other SD's and none of them allowed me Apps2SD.
I did get it partitioned finally But that did not help my problem
I am going to try and reflash a ROM and see if that helps, I doubt it at this point.
I am able to flash in recovery but for some reason I can not install apps via Astro that are stored on the SD. I can access content on card but no app access...bizarre
I just unrooted and flashed flashback 2.1 (no sense to continue to root when this phone is going back in a couple days).
As for a replacement, it will be here Monday. Believe it or not, this new replacement, which was a brand new Eris in the box, I activated Wednesday night overheats as well Yesterday I picked it up off my desk and the back was very hot (just like it's predecessor on Sunday) and the awake time was more than 100%. So Asurion is sending yet again another Eris, this will be my 6 Eris. So I will see how this replacement goes.
As for the Eris, I called Verizon about Asurion who did offer me 2 alternatives to the Eris, the LG Vortex and the Moto Devour (not comparable IMO), the tech rep at Verizon I spoke with agree with me that both alternatives are not comparable and that I should have been given the option for the Incredible since it is the next version after the Eris in my same manufacture line. So I called Asurion back who then asked me to call Monday when my Eris arrives so they can verify with a higher supervisor to ship me out the Incredible. If I do end up with the Incredible I hope there are some good ROMS for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry to hear about your rotten luck and that we weren't able to solve it. We'll be sorry to lose another Eris user but I hope they get you the Incredible. I haven't looked but I'm sure the Incredible has some comparable ROMs available for it. It certainly doesn't hurt that it's more powerful.
Good luck!
Well, my son's mother had just sold me her extra vibrant, which included the 2gb sd card that came with it. But before she did that, she moved all her pictures and movies onto her own vibrant. That same day, before she could move all those pictures and videos onto an brand new sd card, she accidentally dropped her phone and the screen got destroyed, as in it won't turn on and is just black now.
Ordinarily we wouldn't have cared because she was going to send in that phone anyways and cancel her contract, unfortunately the pictures and videos she moved onto the phone's memory were of our first and only son, about a years worth. When he was born we didn't have a camera or camcorder, so the phone camera was our only way of capturing those early days, so they are extremely precious to us.
I'm sure it's just the screen that is broken, not the rest of the phone, so if there is any way to FORCE MOUNT the phone to my computer, please shed some light to that.
Or if I could do it through ADB using the PUSH/PULL commands, which I'm sure I could, I just need some instruction on how to do that. I'd want to pull the whole picture/video directory onto my desktop or something along those lines.
I have a PC and a MAC which I could use, so PLEASE! if there is any way I could recover those pictures/videos, please help out and let me know.
Thank you A LOT in advance
Liquid602 said:
Well, my son's mother had just sold me her extra vibrant, which included the 2gb sd card that came with it. But before she did that, she moved all her pictures and movies onto her own vibrant. That same day, before she could move all those pictures and videos onto an brand new sd card, she accidentally dropped her phone and the screen got destroyed, as in it won't turn on and is just black now.
Ordinarily we wouldn't have cared because she was going to send in that phone anyways and cancel her contract, unfortunately the pictures and videos she moved onto the phone's memory were of our first and only son, about a years worth. When he was born we didn't have a camera or camcorder, so the phone camera was our only way of capturing those early days, so they are extremely precious to us.
I'm sure it's just the screen that is broken, not the rest of the phone, so if there is any way to FORCE MOUNT the phone to my computer, please shed some light to that.
Or if I could do it through ADB using the PUSH/PULL commands, which I'm sure I could, I just need some instruction on how to do that. I'd want to pull the whole picture/video directory onto my desktop or something along those lines.
I have a PC and a MAC which I could use, so PLEASE! if there is any way I could recover those pictures/videos, please help out and let me know.
Thank you A LOT in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So from reading this the precious pictures are NOT on your external sd card (the small black card) or internal sd card, the one you can pull out. If the pics and vids are on either of those you can just take them out and buy a device where you can just plug those cards into your computer. Otherwise just get the screen replaced... I'm sure a Tmobile or even maybe a Best Buy store at a mall could replace the screen for a small fee so you can get your pics back.
OR, I'm pretty sure a tmobile store has some special equipment to extract data from your phone.. Just gotta ask!
you're correct,
she moved them from the SD card to the phone's memory when she sold me the phone. She dropped the phone before she could move them back to a fresh SD card.
The thing with that is, she was going to send in that phone because it had a small defect, (I bought the extra phone which came from the insurance or whatever because she was going to cancel the contract with the 200$ i gave her the new phone and start up a new contract), so we have until Wednesday to recover the pictures, because she has to send in the phone then.
And thats a good idea, I'll stop by tomorrow at a t-mobile store and check,
but if i could still do it tonight that would be awesome!
Liquid602 said:
you're correct,
she moved them from the SD card to the phone's memory when she sold me the phone. She dropped the phone before she could move them back to a fresh SD card.
The thing with that is, she was going to send in that phone because it had a small defect, (I bought the extra phone which came from the insurance or whatever because she was going to cancel the contract with the 200$ i gave her the new phone and start up a new contract), so we have until Wednesday to recover the pictures, because she has to send in the phone then.
And thats a good idea, I'll stop by tomorrow at a t-mobile store and check,
but if i could still do it tonight that would be awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm is the screen shattered or just black? also when you cut the phone on does it ring and stuff? if the digitizer still works then you can just press home,so that you know your at the home screen. then connect the it to the computer. then make the gesture that pulls the notification bar, then connect your vibrant as well so that you can tell what part of the screen needs to be touched on her vibrant to mount the sd to the computer. that should work. i had a psp with a cracked screen but i was still able to navigate because i knew where everything was by heart lol.
shattered and black lol, and i believe she told me it doesn't ring anymore, i'd have to ask her in the morning. But yeah thats the first thing I tried when i went over today to try and fix it, which is why I'm thinking using the ABD commands in the only way to do it now
Liquid602 said:
shattered and black lol, and i believe she told me it doesn't ring anymore, i'd have to ask her in the morning. But yeah thats the first thing I tried when i went over today to try and fix it, which is why I'm thinking using the ABD commands in the only way to do it now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to enable USB debugging if it wasn't done previously to use ADB.
I hope you recover your pics. If worst comes to worst you will need to repair the phone.
lqaddict said:
You need to enable USB debugging if it wasn't done previously to use ADB.
I hope you recover your pics. If worst comes to worst you will need to repair the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea you might as well get it repaired. Those pics are priceless
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Liquid602 said:
Well, my son's mother had just sold me her extra vibrant, which included the 2gb sd card that came with it. But before she did that, she moved all her pictures and movies onto her own vibrant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my attempt. When she moved those pics and vids from the 2g card they don't permanently erase so you could still use recovery software to get those pics/vids off the card again.
I'll bet that's cheaper than repairing the phone too.
Drewstein said:
Here's my attempt. When she moved those pics and vids from the 2g card they don't permanently erase so you could still use recovery software to get those pics/vids off the card again.
I'll bet that's cheaper than repairing the phone too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a bad idea and worth a shot. I have had great success pulling files from a hard drive with pin 1 missing and a corrupt fat table, using Easy Recovery Pro. That (windows based) app is also very useful for retrieving deleted files, as long as the source wasn't formatted. As far as using adb, usb debugging would have to be enabled as previously mentioned. Also, if the phone doesn't ring, are you able to tell if it actually turns on? Without power and usb debugging, adb is useless.
On the off chance, does she backup her pics with Lookout?
Good luck getting your files back.
Ginger Clone's of the World Unite! Via the XDA App
You can try android commander. Its worth a shot. I had a similar situation before I knew about odin my phone was in a continuous boot loop and couldn't mount the sd card, I used android commander to pull some pictures that needed for my work. I just had to make sure it the device was recognized through adb. Good luck.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Just a thought, why don't you use the screen from your Vibrant and put it on hers. That will A.confirm it's the screen and B. get your pictures.
+1 on android commander if you don't want to do the hardware swap. If your phone is actually coming on just no screen it will pick it up. Wait, don't you have to be in debugging mode for that though?
Seems your best bet is the hardware swap.
So, like the title says, I accidently formatted my SD card today not even 20 min into having my phone. For some reason I thought I had put my other 8GB card into the phone, and when I went to look, sure enough the phone had the Class 4 card in it. What were/are the contents of the SD card. Am I missing anything I didn't have before? Did I delete my movies?
You shouldn't have any problems, I started mine with a blank 16 gig from the first boot of the phone and I have no problems and nothing is missing.
Sent from my EVO 3D using XDA Premium App
heathmcabee said:
So, like the title says, I accidently formatted my SD card today not even 20 min into having my phone. For some reason I thought I had put my other 8GB card into the phone, and when I went to look, sure enough the phone had the Class 4 card in it. What were/are the contents of the SD card. Am I missing anything I didn't have before? Did I delete my movies?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was some sample music and the Green Hornet 3D movie. I wiped mine as well, but copied the contents to my computer hard drive first. If you want a copy, you can send me your empty card and I'll fill 'er up for you.
Me 2 anyone have the 2d and 3d sample photos that came with the phone I can download
I didn't reformat my card but I have a feeling the girl at Radio Shack who was setting up my phone my have. I spent all day trying to figure out why The Green Hornet wouldn't play, finally figured out it wasn't there. I don't have that or any of the sample pics that are supposed to be on there. The thing that sucks is that the movie has DRM and I'm sure it would be illegal for someone to post a download link on here or something. That is one of the reasons I might try and have the phone replaced tomorrow. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get everything I paid for. Even if I were to simply watch it once and delete it, that's my choice.
erikivy said:
There was some sample music and the Green Hornet 3D movie. I wiped mine as well, but copied the contents to my computer hard drive first. If you want a copy, you can send me your empty card and I'll fill 'er up for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
erikivy,
I'm in a similar boat and I would LOVE for you to hook with up with the original files! Can I mail you a. 4.7GB DVD to get them? I only have one SD card and can't be without it.
Wouldn't it being licensed make it okay to upload...can't play it without the license, right? If anyone does UL it or put in their dropbox or something, I would appreciate a link...I too formatted the card (as well as hard resetting) the minute I got the phone in my grubby hands....
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
awenthol said:
Wouldn't it being licensed make it okay to upload...can't play it without the license, right? If anyone does UL it or put in their dropbox or something, I would appreciate a link...I too formatted the card (as well as hard resetting) the minute I got the phone in my grubby hands....
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone here already put it in a dropbox. Dropbox shut the link down because of too much activity (not because of content). If anyone wants to upload it again, I'd suggest something like filedropper.com.
mwalt2 said:
Someone here already put it in a dropbox. Dropbox shut the link down because of too much activity (not because of content). If anyone wants to upload it again, I'd suggest something like filedropper.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is being worked on as we are posting about it ..have a link to the sample 3d pics.zip in another thread the full sdcard zip is 1.90 GB ..that possibly will be upped soon as well.. patience ...
ScrapSilicon said:
it is being worked on as we are posting about it ..have a link to the sample 3d pics.zip in another thread the full sdcard zip is 1.90 GB ..that possibly will be upped soon as well.. patience ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1140089
Hi, I'm not too sure why I can't get the avatar movie to play any more but before I go any furthur let me explain what happened, and here goes....... it started yesterday when restored my phone to have a few settings brought back, and then I made a video of my son spelling and counting so after ending the video and played it fir him to see I saw that the avatar movie file as well as the trailer went missing so I check the available space on my SD card and my fears were realized (file deleted some how) so I did the next best thing
And that was to try and recover the file with any file recovery tool I could find online so after finding a good one ( atleast that's what the cute girl on youtube said) I recovered the avatar .dcf file (and I know about DRM protection) and I placed it back on the sd card along with the trailer but as the subject of this post said it just "wont play" and since I got this phone about a month now I've never watch the movie on my device only showed off how cool it looked so am desperate guys please for any advice how to fix this issue please I await any response and thnx
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Please I'm really desperate for a response so I can know if am out of luck or something can be done to amend/fix the problem please
Just go to a tmobile store and tell them....they will trade you your sd card for one that still has avatar on it.....if they have one....usually they do...your not the first to have done this....I did it when the vibrant first came out and they were very helpful
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
thank you very much
you can always follow the instructions in the sticky on how to odin back to stock if they cant get it to you at the store, it will have avatar on it.
Always Back up!
One thing to remember is to always have a backup of all items you put in computer even with it being on an SD card, you could copy the two files on the SD card and then you would be all set.
With that said, you will need to do this especially it you plan on modding your phone. Gaining root on your phone or boot loading it may actually remove items on your internal SD card as well. I do not know of the extent of your being on this site, but make sure you back up and make sure you read everything explicitly.
I do hope you are able to get your copy of Avatar back. Just do yourself a favor and put a copy on your desktop. One last thing you could do is in preferences of your camera/camcorder there is a setting where you can put the files you make on your internal SD instead.
sincerely
draigons
Did you try this yet?
Avatar Fix!
I no longer have the Avatar movie on my phone - when I first bought this phone I also bought a 16 gb sdhc card and put the 2gb card it came with away. I don't see what the big deal is with this movie but if you must have it do what I've done with other movies - rent a blu-ray and rip it to 720p wmv. If you don't have a blu-ray drive on your PC there are gazillions of blu-ray rips available if you learn how to search.
Same quality, NO DRM crap, can be freely copied, will play on your vibrant regardless of ROM and will play on a big screen using video-out cable, unlike the Avatar movie that came with our Vibrants.
DRM sux.
Phrack said:
I no longer have the Avatar movie on my phone - when I first bought this phone I also bought a 16 gb sdhc card and put the 2gb card it came with away. I don't see what the big deal is with this movie but if you must have it do what I've done with other movies - rent a blu-ray and rip it to 720p wmv. If you don't have a blu-ray drive on your PC there are gazillions of blu-ray rips available if you learn how to search.
Same quality, NO DRM crap, can be freely copied, will play on your vibrant regardless of ROM and will play on a big screen using video-out cable, unlike the Avatar movie that came with our Vibrants.
DRM sux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats what i did
i got my phone off ebay and the guy must have mixed the cards up or something and it was on the card i got
i just use it to show off
derek210 said:
you can always follow the instructions in the sticky on how to odin back to stock if they cant get it to you at the store, it will have avatar on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect, an Odin will not restore the 1.7gb Avatar movie file. It will restore the apk shortcut link to the movie, but NOT the movie itself.
As for the OP, sorry you had to learn the lesson to always backup your storage cards (or remove the external one) the hard way. I flashed a kernel to my phone, while I was at work, that nuked my internal storage and wiped my /data (so all my apps were gone). Luckily I had backed up my camera folder to my external card and took it out, or I'd have lost all my pictures and videos.
As for the file recovery software, good idea, except in practice I have never been able to recover a usable file from a flash-based storage. I've tried at least a dozen different tools and none of them worked to produce a working file.
If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it. Avatar isn't a very good movie and is encoded badly, imo (ton's of dithering artifacts, macroblocking) so nothing of real value is actually lost.
Odin back to stock ? are sure this will work because I'm not so sure avatar is in it
derek210 said:
you can always follow the instructions in the sticky on how to odin back to stock if they cant get it to you at the store, it will have avatar on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no it won't..... avatar is placed on the external SD.... you would only get the shortcut back if you odin back to stock.
you can't expect to get that file back..... its protected. regardless of where you got it from. personally i would just get it from a torrent or something. legally.... just try and see if tmobile will trade you a card that has is on it.
I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy S9 + in April, replacing my Samsung Galaxy S5. I was using a 32 Gig SanDisk SD card which I encrypted in the S5. I decrypted the SD card in the S5 and inserted it into the new S9+. No problems, it was recognized and I could read/write to it.
2 weeks ago, I decided to encrypt the SD card in the S9+. I went into Security, and Encrypt SD Card. A short while later, the phone displayed a message that my SD card was now encrypted. Nice! I re started the phone, etc...
The next day, I decided to verify the encryption. I removed the SD card and popped it into my laptop. (phone not connected in any way to the computer) I was shocked that I could read all the data! I put it back into the phone and sure enough, the phone said that the SD card was encrypted.
I then re formatted the SD card in my laptop, tried again encrypting it in the phone. Phone displayed that it was now encrypted, but NO, I could still read the data from my laptop. I even tried from a different laptop. I have restored the phone back to factory defaults maybe 5 times, testing the encryption, still each time the phone says the SD card is encrypted, but it is still readable from any computer.
I drove to the T-Mobile Store and let them know. They verified that I did everything correctly, but said I needed to call Samsung. Samsung sent me to see the Samsung rep in a Best Buy about 40 minutes from my house. Not pleased, but I went. The rep had no answer for me. Said I needed to go back to T-Mobile to get a new phone.
I called Samsung again. They asked me what kind of SD card I was using. I said it was a SanDisk, but it is working fine, I could read and write to it. He insisted that Samsung suggests the Samsung EVO Class 10 SD cards.
So I went out and purchased a Samsung EVO Class 10 64 Gig SD card. Again, restored the phone to default, encrypted the card, but still readable from my laptop!
I went back to T-Mobile and demanded a new phone. It was a real battle because it has been 45 days or so. They wanted to send my NEW phone out for "repair". Not going to happen, give me a new phone. They did.
Put the new SD card into the phone, encrypted it, took it out and tested it on my laptop, ALL DATA STILL READABLE!
I called Samsung again, (3rd call) After much discussion, the woman called their support service center. She came back and said that they are getting reports of this and that they are working on an update and it will be released in the future. I asked when??? She could not tell me. And when it is released, how soon will it roll out to T-Mobile users?
She could not tell me. She transferred me to another tech. He asked me to send it in for repair. I told him I did not want to do that, it was a brand new phone, both of them! I asked him to call the service center. He did and came back and said it was not a common issue and my phone needed to be repaired.
!??? I said that I have two brand new phones, right out of the box, 45 days apart, and I just happened to get the two phones with this problem?
He then said that I needed to send my new phone to a 3rd party vendor, that is not even a Samsung company. ( "u break, we fix" or something like that ) Then gave their phone number so I can call, get an appointment, call them for a shipping label etc. I was shocked!!!
*** To ANYONE that has an SD Card that you "think" is encrypted, test it! Take it out of your phone and see if you can read the data from a computer. If it is readable, call Samsung, or your other phone manufacture. This is not an isolated case. I just by sure luck did not get the only two Samsung S9 + phones with this problem, 45 days apart!
I said to Samsung, can you imagine how Samsung is opening themselves up to liability? There are thousands and thousands of people (probably) who have SD cards in their phones, that their phone says is encrypted, but it's really not!
I have a brand new S9+, that I can't trust to use it.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Please also post your message to the phone boards so hopefully they will take notice.
You might want to try that again. In a previous test I did, the whole card isn't encrypted, but the files themselves were. You can still see the directory structure and such, but try and open a JPG or MP3 file on the card and it won't work. Each file is hashed in some way that it can't be read in any useful way by the computer.
did test as suggested...
Averix said:
You might want to try that again. In a previous test I did, the whole card isn't encrypted, but the files themselves were. You can still see the directory structure and such, but try and open a JPG or MP3 file on the card and it won't work. Each file is hashed in some way that it can't be read in any useful way by the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took your suggestion and can confirm that I could not actually open any "file". Though I could see the complete file structure, folders and subfolders, and individual filenames. But I could not open any files.
It shocks me that NO one from T-Mobile or Samsung suggested looking into this.
While this is of some comfort, I still feel that this is a huge security and privacy issue. After reading your reply, (by the way, a huge thank you) I saw this:
---snip---
General-purpose file systems with encryption
Unlike cryptographic file systems or full disk encryption, general-purpose file systems that include filesystem-level encryption do not typically encrypt file system metadata, such as the directory structure, file names, sizes or modification timestamps. This can be problematic if the metadata itself needs to be kept confidential. In other words, if files are stored with identifying file names, anyone who has access to the physical disk can know which documents are stored on the disk, although not the contents of the documents.
---snip---
This is probably what Samsung is doing. Again, I still feel that this is a huge security and privacy issue.
Thank you again…
I agree this revelation is a bit disturbing.
ingenious247 said:
I agree this revelation is a bit disturbing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mentioned in my reply that the the fact that a file in a folder was not readable was of some comfort. I have thought about it a lot today and I have to say it is NOT of any comfort. The fact that any encrypted drive or file is readable is not acceptable or secure. Imagine this, if you are like me, I end up taking pictures or scanning receipts and saving them to my phones memory card.
Why not, it's encrypted and secure!
What if a Samsung Galaxy S9+ was stolen or lost, OR if someone at work or even a family member took a phone and popped out the sd card and put it in their computer, imagine what they may find just by looking at the folder and file names? They do NOT have to open the actual end file to find out so much about you?
What if your "encrypted sd card" file structure was like this:
Medical > Cancer Screening > Test Results > MakingAWill.doc
Local Funeral Homes.htm
Survivor Benefits. pdf
Does it really matter that you can't open or read "MakingAWill.doc" or "Local Funeral Homes.htm" ???
No! What good is a so called encrypted drive if you can just pop out the sd card and view all the folder and file names? Where is the security!???
Has anyone else tested this and verified their sd card / expanded memory encryption? If so, could you please post your results? Can you read the file and folder names / file system?
Samsung REALLY needs to address this. This is a huge privacy and security issue.