Several users have reported a scenario wherein their camera or smartphone SD card displayed the “storage full” message even when they knew it wasn’t. Further, when they connected the card to the computer, they could access only a few files saved on it.
Are you too facing such an issue? Does your SD card say it’s full when you know it’s actually not? What’s the solution to fix this SD card issue? We’ll discover the answers to all these questions in this article. But before that, let’s quickly cover a few basics.
SD cards, as we all know, are tiny storage mediums widely appreciated because of their modest size and cheap price. However, like any other storage device, SD cards aren’t perfect either. Many times, users report storage problems (like the one mentioned above) with their SD cards, memory cards, and flash drives. Needless to say, such issues prevent them from accessing the complete storage on their devices. But despite all the trouble, what’s good is that it’s very simple to overcome these problems with the help of a few easy fixes. Join us as we explore the fixes to resolve the issue, starting with an insight on what causes such an error in the first place.
Reasons for the “SD card says it’s full but it’s not" Error
There are not many known reasons responsible for this error, but we’ve tried to identify the most prominent ones.
- There are invisible or hidden files on the SD card which are causing it to “appear” full with no visible files
- The SD card is not correctly formatted
- The device you are using to read the SD card is damaged
- The files on the SD card are corrupted
- The SD card is infected with virus
Solutions to Fix the Error
We've mentioned some of the main reasons for this error. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the most effective solutions for fixing it.
Solution 1: Use Command Prompt
Many seemingly challenging issues can be fixed quickly with the help of Windows command prompt. You can try fixing the SD card full error using the command prompt. Here are the steps to be followed:
- Click on the Windows button, type "CMD" in the search bar, and hit Enter.
- The command prompt window will appear on screen. In it, type the following command and hit Enter:
attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:*.*
Note: Replace ‘g:’ with your SD card driver letter.
- When the process is finished, return to Windows Explorer and access the SD card to see if the issue is fixed.
Solution 2: Attach the camera/phone to the PC directly
Connecting the camera or phone that holds the SD card directly to your computer could also automatically resolve the issue. This way your camera or phone operates as a temporary card reader. This may allow you to view all the files on your card.
Solution 3: Try to access the SD card files directly
In a majority of cases, photos and movies are automatically saved to a folder named DCIM inside a camera's SD card. Therefore, you can try to access the files directly from the DCIM folder.
Note: G:\DCIM is the path for this folder and G: represents the SD card drive letter, which may be different for your SD card.
Solution 4: Unhide hidden folders and files
Whenever a virus infects a memory card, it may auto-run some commands and hides all the files on the card. As a result, you’re not able to see the files and the memory card appears to be full. A simple process can help you unhide such automatically hidden files. Here are the steps:
- Connect your SD card to the computer.
- Open the Start menu on your PC and search for the Control Panel.
- Once the control panel is open, look for Appearance and Personalization option and click on it.
- Then navigate to the Folder option and open it.
- Tap on the View option and check the box next to Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
- Finally click on the Apply button.
If none of the solutions listed above have worked, there might be an issue with your SD card. To resolve it, you might need to format the card.
Solution 5: Format the SD card correctly
Formatting is used as a sure-shot remedy to resolve all kinds of storage device-related issues. If the SD card is empty but claims it's full, this might be due to an improper file system. Therefore, it's best to reformat it. But before you do, keep in mind that formatting the card will result in erasure of all data from it.
Steps to format the card:
- Connect the SD card to the computer.
- Next, locate the card in Windows File Explorer.
- After you’ve located the SD card, right-click on it and select the Format option. A dialog box will open. In it, check the box next to the Quick Format option.
- Set the file system format as NTFS and click on the Format button.
At this point, ideally your SD card should have reset to its default state. You should be able to utilize its full capacity now. But if you’re still stuck, don’t worry; we still have 2 solid solutions you can try out.
Solution 6: Restore the SD card with command prompt
The command prompt can even restore an SD card's default capacity. Here’s how you can use the Windows command prompt to restore your SD card:
- Click the Windows button, type CMD in the search bar, and hit Enter.
- The command prompt window will appear on screen. In it, type the following command and hit Enter:
diskpart
- Type list disk as the next command and press Enter. This will display the list of all the disks attached to your computer.
- Now type the next command select disc#. This can be used to select the SD card.
- Next type clean and press Enter. This will erase the SD card, thereby deleting all the data on it.
- Now you can use the create partition main command to create a new partition on the card. When the command finishes processing, type the command format fs=fat32 fast to format the newly created partition to FAT32.
- Finally, go to Windows Explorer and see if the SD card has been restored to its original capacity.
Solution 7: Recover files using a photo recovery software
If all the above solutions have not worked out for you, it’s highly suggested that you recover files from the card using an efficient photo recovery tool, such as Stellar Photo Recovery. The tool is powerful enough to pull out files from a storage device even after formatting.
The tool can scan and recover files from high-speed SD cards rapidly. It is capable of recovering different kinds of multimedia files, such as videos, photos, and music files, irrespective of the file format. JPEG, PNG, DNG, CR2, CR3, HEIC, HEVC, MOV, MP4, and AVI are some of the formats supported by the software.
Here’s how you can use Stellar Photo Recovery:
- Insert the SD card into your computer. Then head over to Stellar Photo Recovery’s official webpage and download the software’s setup file.
- Once the software is downloaded, install it using the proprietary setup wizard. Post installation, launch the tool.
- A user-friendly interface will greet you. All the drives and external storages connected to your computer will be listed here.
- Select the device (in this case your SD card).
- Toggle on the Deep Scan button and click on the Scan button. The scan can take up to a few minutes, depending on the capacity of the SD card.
- Once the scanning finishes, preview the recoverable photos, videos, and audio files.
- Select the files you wish to recover and save it to the desired location by clicking on the Recover button.
In Conclusion
We’ve mentioned above some practical, tried and tested solutions to fix the "SD card says it's full but it's not" error. You can use one of the solutions to fix the issue. However, if you don't want to risk losing your crucial files from the SD card, use Stellar Photo Recovery software right away.
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