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SD Card not Showing up on Mobile Phone, How to Fix It?

Hey guys, I connect an SD card to my mobile phone, but my phone can see no SD card there. Can anyone tell me why is my SD card not showing up on my phone? And any solutions, please?

Best Answered by

Vain Rowe

Answered on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

SD card not showing up on the mobile phone can be caused by kinds of reasons, for example, poor connection, file system incompatibility, SD card corruption, and so on. Under here, you can check the connection, format the SD card to give it a compatible file system, or repair your SD card. 

When it comes to checking the connection, there are various approaches. You can bridge the SD card and your mobile phone with an alternative SD card adapter or reader, or you can insert the SD card into other devices to test if the SD card shows up, or you can connect another SD card to check if your mobile phone can read any other storage media.

If you ensure that there is nothing wrong with the connection, then let's focus on the file system compatibility. Mobile phone is able to recognize FAT32, Ext3, and Ext4 file system formats. If your SD card is formatted as non-FAT32, non-Ext3, or Ext4, then it's likely not showing up on your phone. You can format your SD card on Windows to give it a phone-compatible file system.

Before formatting your SD card, make sure you have made a full backup of all files and documents on it. Formatting will wipe out all the things on a hard drive.

Step 1: Double-click 'My Computer' (or 'This Computer') on the desktop to open it.

Step 2: Select your SD card shown on the panel and right-click it.    

Step 3: Click the Format... option, and then a Format panel will pop up.

Step 4: Select FAT32 in the file system box, and click Start. Then, wait for your SD card to be formatted.

If the SD card file system can be recognized by your phone but still not showing up, I guess you should run CHKDSK to repair your hard drive instead.

Step 1: Type 'cmd' in the Search Box and the Command Prompt will pop up. Then, right-click it and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type the command as below (You can also use parameter /r, and e: means your drive letter) and press Enter.

chkdsk /f e:

Step 3: Waiting for the CHKDSK stages to finish.

Hope my answer can help you out of trouble!

Also read:

SD Card Not Showing up in Windows, Fixes & Causes[2022]

How to Fix SD Card not Showing up, Reading or Recognizing on Mac?