HTC Desire — problems writing to SD Card — #HTC

As mentioned in a previous blog post I have ordered a HTC Desire and have received it a couple of weeks ago.

The HTC Desire is a great phone and I am very happy with it except for one minor issue I have with it.  There is a intermittent problem writing to the SD Card.  Here is the error message, for example when you want to take a picture or use the camcorder.

Unable to save file to SD card due to insuffucient file permissions.

Also when you send something to the phone via Bluethooth when the phone cannot write to the SD Card, nothing happens.  No error message that the file cannot be written to the SD Card.

Switching the phone off and the on again solve the problem for a while.  That while can be anything from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. I have Googled and it seems that it is a known problem with the HTC Desire and also the new HTC Evo.  Most people have the view that it is due to inferior SD Cards that HTC uses.  Mine has a Sandisk SD Card in so do not know whether that is true.  I have also read that HTC is working on a patch for the Evo, not sure whether the Desire will get an update.

One suggestion is to reformat the SD Card which I will try sometime.  Since it is a normal FAT filesystem, I will just put the card in a Card Reader and use my Linux desktop, copy everything off the card as backup, reformat the card again as FAT and then copy everything back onto it.  Maybe what I should try first is to see if I can use a spare SD Card, format it and copy everything over to it and see if the spare have the same issue.

If anybody have some advice on what they think, please feel free to comment.

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15 Responses to “HTC Desire — problems writing to SD Card — #HTC”

  1. Herman says:

    mmm had something similar on this “wonderful” WM6. Reboot is also the only thing to resolve it, but fortunately it does not happen that frequently. Can the HTC take ext* partitions iso FAT? Might be worthwhile trying that.

    Have you tried the forums and wiki on http://www.xda-developers.com/
    I have found them to be the best resource for HTC queries.

  2. admin says:

    Thanks Peter .. will have a look …

    Herman, yes it can take EXT and I might just format it to EXT .. not that I will mount the SD Card ever on a Windows machine.

  3. […] to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginIn a previous post I mentioned that my HTC Desire has intermittent problems writing to the SD […]

  4. […] Maybe it should be formated in FAT mode rather than FAT32 ? Can this be done? Have a look here: HTC Desire — problems writing to SD Card — #HTC | The technical side It must be an HTC problem rather than a problem with dozens of various SD […]

  5. I have the desire HD, similar problem but kept failing to recognise SD card (scandisk).
    Re formatted, ok for 2 weeks then same problem. Now isn’t even recognised by pc?

  6. Having the same problem, formatting doesn’t help, problem returns after random period. Very very frustrating, hope HTC will fix this issue soon! (HTC Desire – Android 2.2 FroYo)

  7. laszlo says:

    i have the same problem with htc desire. cannot copy file to sd card connected via usb cable. do i have to use original cable from htc or it is ok using the nokia cable.

  8. admin says:

    You will need the HTC cable en make sure the card is enabled as a drive on your phone.

  9. Muqaddar says:

    I have htc HD Desire.I am also having same problem regarding with my SD Card. My SD Card is also not recognized. it gives msg that SD Card unexpectedly removed. i hv not formatted it, it does not even come with the computer. sd card shows in computer that it is empty. plz guide me in this issue. n tell me how to save data, how to formate n what else should i do? thanx

  10. kc says:

    hallo all,
    I have had no problems with my HTC Desire till now.. have the latest software 2.29.405.5

    suddenly this afternoon:
    – cannot take pictures: file permission issue
    – cannot find “privacy” under settings, so can’t back up data
    – suddenly cannot view some of my pictures ” mounted read only ”
    – in settings, sd & phone storage it says sd card space available at 542mb: read only,
    – phone will not format sd card
    – cannot delete anything from sd card whilst viewing contents from pc ubuntu 10.10

    sd card is Sandisk 4 GB

    any help please, I use my HTC extensively for my business!

  11. Andre says:

    There seems to be random problems with the sandisk cards.
    Others report that going to a (for example) a kingston class 10 card solved the problem…

  12. cynthia says:

    My Htc desire will not read my sd card. It says removed sd card please insert a new one. I have tried everything, i think its the phone and not the sd card, but i dont know. Does anyone know how to solve this problem.

  13. Golam Robbani says:

    There is a problem in my phone (Desire S), suddenly there was a notification in my phone that “SD card blank or has unsupported filesystem” then when click in that notification it sohows a dialoge box which call me to format the SD card & when I go for format it then an another message shows in phone that is “External media in unknown state” after that I removed the SD card from my phone. After that I do the Factory data reset and then 3 day latter again I put the SD card in phone, at that time the phone was supporting the SD card, but after 2 hours it shows the same problem again. Again I do the Factory data reset but this time there is no result, So what can I do now.

  14. […] HTC Desire — problems writing to SD Card — #HTC | The … – There is a intermittent problem writing to the SD Card. Here is the error message, for example when you want to take a picture or use the camcorder. … – in settings, sd & phone storage it says sd card space available at 542mb: read only, […]

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