SD card not recognized

[charlie]

I have a Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC1 32GB card that I have been using in a D800 without problems for a few years now. As of yesterday my D800 does not recognize that it is installed. It doesn't claim that it's a corrupted, just doesn't even see it and acts as though no memory card is installed. Sure memory cards fail, but what seems odd is that it still works properly in multiple memory card readers as well as the SD port on my Macbook.

I tried another SD card in the D800 and it is recognized so the D800 seems to be working properly. I also tried the SD card in question in a Lumix camera and it does not work in there either. Formatted it using my computer and still nothing.

Why would the card work in a reader but not in a camera?

[Frank Fremerey]

all contacts clean and clear?

[elsa hoffmann]

Good thing is stopped recognising it BEFORE storing photos on there..
In SA (I believe) you have a life time guarantee on the cards - hopefully you can get it swapped out.

[charlie]

All contacts are clean.

The photos remained on the card fully accessible from both a Mac & Windows machine via card reader, its just the camera can not see it.

I'll look into the lifetime guarantee here, thanks for the heads up.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

SD cards are notoriously delicate and fragile. Perhaps it has been impacted in a way that broke or intermittently short-circuited something inside?

I have had a couple of similar experiences even with high-end cards and the dealer replaced the failing cards without any discussion.

[Akira]

Some of my hardware (cameras, MacBook Air or PC) with SD card slots have failed to recognize perfectly working SD cards (regardless of the brands, Sundisk, Toshiba or Samsung).  After inserting/removing a couple of times, they recognized the card again and worked with them as if nothing had happened.

Have you tried inserting/removing the card?  It could be a temporary contact failure or a temporary software glitch.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Nikon just released a firmware update for D500 that dealt with stubborn or ill-behaving SD cards. OK, the camera in question here is D800, but it is only fair to assume other models might encounter similar issues.

[Akira]

Nikon just released a firmware update for D500 that dealt with stubborn or ill-behaving SD cards. OK, the camera in question here is D800, but it is only fair to assume other models might encounter similar issues.

I have experienced similar problem with my D7000, but the procedure described in my previous post solved the problem.

[charlie]

I've removed and inserted it several times.
It is not only the D800 though, my little Lumix LX-5 does not recognize it either.

Two cameras do not recognize it has been installed.
3 memory card readers do recognize it on both Mac and PC. 

It would appear as though the Extreme Pro series of cards does have a lifetime warranty and I have submitted an RMA for it.

[Akira]

I see.  Well there are some inscrutable glitches in the digital world...

If your data remain intact and you can have the card replaced under warranty, that's good.

[Matthew Currie]

I have had one card do the same on the D3200.  Other cards work fine all the time, but this one claims periodically not to be formatted.  A couple of reinsertions always made it work again at least for a while, but I abandoned it as too dangerous to use in the camera.  It works fine with a computer card reader.  I'd suspect the camera of getting glitchy if it did it with any other cards but it never does.  A low grade mystery.

[Frank Fremerey]

I currently have a Sandisk Ultra 48MB/s speed grade that seems to be write protected.

I can only read it in my smart phone, I cannot write it, format it, repartition it in ANY APPARATUS (neither camera, computer or smart phone, neither Windows, Linux or Android).

If the camera cannot read or write it ... What is the partition table, what is the files system?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

File system is a special version of exFAT (Linux speak) or FAT32 (Windows lingo).

Do a low-level formatting via a card reader as a last resort. If you can force the card to oblige.

[Akira]

I currently have a Sandisk Ultra 48MB/s speed grade that seems to be write protected.

I can only read it in my smart phone, I cannot write it, format it, repartition it in ANY APPARATUS (neither camera, computer or smart phone, neither Windows, Linux or Android).

Frank, did you check the setting of the write protection switch on the SD card (although I suppose you already know about it)?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Find the little sliding tab, push it to the non-locked position, and add a drop of superglue.

Sometimes the tab becomes loose so as to switch position on its own volition when the card is inserted into the camera.