How to fix corrupted Galaxy S8 videos in SD card, camera settings won’t open, other issues

Welcome to another #GalaxyS8 troubleshooting article for the day. This post answers some questions regarding Galaxy S8 camera and memory issues. We try to be concise as possible so if you think your own issue does not resemble any of the cases mentioned below, let us know.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem 1: How to fix corrupted Galaxy S8 videos in SD card

So i have had my Samsung S8 for almost 4 months. On the 30th of December I took some videos and as I wanted to look at them 5 mins later all I found was a grey background with a explanation mark. I thought maybe they will turn up after some time but then as I took pics on new year eve and on new year the same thing happened. Those pictures and videos were automatically saved to my SD card. Which has been in the phone since day 1 I have already tried deleting the gallery cache and the phone cache; I rebooted my phone almost 3 times ; I even tried it off and on again. I even went to the safe mode. But nothing seems to work. — Precious

Solution: Hi Precious. Unreadable or corrupted files are often indicated by a gray background and/or exclamation mark. If you have some of them, consider moving said files to a computer or to another device to see if they can be opened. If still not, you’re out of luck.

Verify that SD card is working

Files become unreadable if the storage device they’re stored on is damaged or defective so the first troubleshooting step that you want to do is to see if this is SD card-related. To do that, remove the SD card from your device and let the phone save a video to the internal storage device. Be sure to turn the phone off first before unplugging the SD card. Then, once the phone is done creating a short video and saving it to the internal storage device, check if the file can be accessed normally. If it’s not corrupted and works fine, then you just isolated the problem to the SD card. Make sure that you reformat it using your S8 before using it again.

For reference, here are the steps on how to format an SD card in a Galaxy S8:

Open Settings app.
Tap Device maintenance.
Tap Storage.
Tap More settings icon (three-dot icon).
Tap Storage settings.
Tap SD card.
Tap Format.
Select FORMAT.

Clear Camera app data

However, if your camera app continues to create corrupted video files, even when using the internal storage device, make sure that you wipe the cache and data of the said app. Here’s how:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to Apps.
Once in there, look for the camera application and tap it.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data button for the application. Tap Clear Data button.

Reset camera settings

Should clearing the camera app’s data won’t help, you must then ensure to return the camera settings back to their defaults by doing below:

Open the camera app.
Select Settings icon (the cog or gear at the top).
Scroll down and tap Reset settings.

Wipe the phone with factory reset

If the troubleshooting steps above won’t help at all, quickly return all software settings back to their defaults with a factory reset. Factory state software is generally free from bugs and definitely won’t create corrupted video files. If there’s an unknown operating system glitch that causes created videos to be corrupted, factory reset should address it.

To factory reset your S8, follow these steps:

Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem 2: Galaxy S8 camera settings won’t open

Hi. I’ve been having issues trying to access the camera settings on my Samsung S8. I know there’s two ways to access the settings menu but I can’t access either one. I click on the wheel cog for settings, the settings screen opens and then closes right away. Please help! — Louise

Solution: Hi Louise. You’re right, there are two ways to access camera app settings menu.

Access camera app settings within the app itself:

Open camera app.
Tap cog/gear icon at the top.

Access camera app settings via Settings app:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap Camera.
Scroll down to More settings and tap it.

If you can’t do any of them, try to clear all cached data by following the steps below:

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
Note These instructions apply to Standard mode only.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings Settings icon > Storage Storage icon.
Tap Cached data.
Tap CLEAR.

If camera settings won’t open still, that’s probably due to an operating system glitch. To fix the problem you must do a factory reset. Refer to the steps below on how to do it.

Problem 3: Galaxy S8 can’t reduce resolution of photos

I read your article on how to use the camera, but did not see how to change the picture’s resolution. When I just need to send an informational pic for work, I often can only attach one pic or sometimes can’t even attach one in a text or in an email. I’ve had multiple time-sensitive work emails bounce back unsent because the pics are too large, and when they do send, I’ve gotten complaints. Is there a way to set the camera to lower res or to shrink existing pics with the camera or gallery? — Michele Nordahl

Solution: Hi Michele. While you can reduce the size of pictures taken by your camera under camera app settings, there’s no way to reduce the current file size of pictures already taken and stored in the Gallery. In general, carriers involved in sending and receiving messages are the ones that can reduce the file size of photos so they can be transmitted via their system. This is the reason why some photos may appear scaled all the way down when sent as MMS or attachments. If you’re having trouble sending multiple high-resolution photos, we suggest that you use other platforms like Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, etc. Such popular services have high tolerance when it comes to file sizes.

If you’re having trouble with your work email being unable to send or receive email with multiple high resolution photos, talk to your IT department for support.

Problem 4: Galaxy S8 missing photos after moving them to PC

I bought a mini SD card and put in my Samsung Galaxy S8. Then I took almost 2000 photos with the phone and stored the photos directly on the card. I then connected my phone to the PC via USB and in Windows Explorer created different folders on the SD card. I then moved the photos into the appropriate folders by dragging and dropping, but now all these photos are gone. Just disappeared. No message was given that something is wrong or that I can’t do it. The SD is not corrupt, and I tried restarting the phone as well inserting the SD directly into the PC but they’re still gone. Can you please help. — Daleen de Lange

Solution: Hi Daleen. If you accidentally dragged the files to a different folder or deleted them by mistake, you can always undo your previous action pressing CTRL + Z. If you already tried that before contacting us, we don’t think there’s any more that we can suggest for you. We’re not sure what happened exactly so it’s up to you to figure it out. Perhaps you accidentally hit the delete button and then performed another task afterward. Remember, Windows Undo feature (CTRL+Z) is application specific. For example, when you are in Microsoft Word program, pressing the shortcut will undo the last edit. Pressing the same shortcut again undoes the next edit and so on. If you were performing the file transfer in Windows File Explorer program, make sure that you select the program first before undoing.

If nothing comes out positive with the help of Undo feature, consider using recovery software to scan your drives and recover the missing files.