Galaxy S7 SD card issue, missing photos in SD card, Smart Switch in creating backup, other issues

Today we bring you #GalaxyS7 solutions that involve storage-related issues as well as one uncommon texting issue. We hope you’ll find our suggestions helpful.

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.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy S7 SD card issue, missing photos in SD card, Smart Switch in creating backup

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 and I have a microSD card that I have had through my last 3 phones. I keep all of my photos on this card categorized by which phone they came from. Now today the photos from my first two phones are still on the card but the photos from my most recent phone and the current photos from the S7 (5oo+ photos) are now gone! I’ve had the phone for a few months now and never had an issue but the phone is always asking me to transfer media from the SD card and no matter how many times I swipe it away it comes back. And now to top it off more than half of my photos are gone (I had my most recent phone the longest) Help!!! — Sherri

Solution: Hi Sherri. An SD card works or not. A device can either read or detect it or not at all. If the problem is the SD card itself, ALL your photos and files should have been gone by now. That only a select set of files are missing is caused by something entirely different and definitely not an SD card malfunction or failure. If you can’t find those files somewhere in your phone’s internal storage, they’re most likely gone at this time. We’re sorry but there’s nothing much that we can do to help. If you think those missing files are worth a few hundred dollars, you can try to look for a good company that specializes in data recovery. They may or may not be able to recover your files. You can use Google to find some reputable companies in your area.

If you want to look for the files in your phone by yourself, we suggest that you use your phone’s file browser app, usually named My Files, so you can check every accessible folder. Other than that, it’s up to you to remember where you most likely saved those files, if they were even saved at all.

To minimize problems with an SD card, make sure that you reformat it using your S7 or the phone that you want to use it with. Also, be sure to create a backup of your files in another storage device like a computer to prevent this incident from repeating itself. Remember, storage devices including your phone’s internal storage and SD card are not immune to failure. In fact, any of them can fail anytime. If you have a lot of irreplaceable digital memories, make at least 2 copies of them in separate devices.

If you have a computer, you can install Samsung Smart Switch to it and use it to store image of your phone’s internal storage. Once you’ve installed Smart Switch to your computer, you can follow the steps below on how to create a backup of your files to your computer:

1. Open the Smart Switch app on your PC or Mac.
2. Connect your Android device to your computer via USB cable.
3. Make sure your phone is unlocked.
4. On the Smart Switch app click on MORE at the top right.
5. Click Preferences.
6. Click Backup items tab. In this tab, you will be able to customize what items to copy and keep as back up. All items are selected by default by if you want to speed up the copying process, you may want to select the important boxes only.
7. Once you’ve selected what items to include in your backup, click OK. Otherwise, simply click Cancel.
8. Click Backup.
9. Tap Allow on your phone if Smart Switch asks for permission.
10. Once the backup is complete, you get a breakdown of all the data that was successfully backed up. Click OK to finish.

IMPORTANT: Smart Switch app comes pre-installed in a Galaxy S7. To use it, follow these steps:

Tap [Settings] > [Cloud and accounts] > [Smart Switch] to open Smart Switch Mobile.

Problem 2: Galaxy S7 edge can’t send SMS to 5-digit number format

I have the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and i cannot send messages to 5-digit numbers. I have contacted samsung customer support and they said that the S7 does not have a feature to limit this. However when i first sent a messages i received an alert that i might incur charges and mistakenly i pressed to disable it. Is there no other way to reset this? Would really appreciate your help! — Alexia

Solution: Hi Alexia. Your S7 should be able to send a message to any number format as long as your carrier supports the messaging app you’re using and the number format itself. We are not aware ourselves of any limitation that can prevent your phone from sending SMS to a particular number format so what you must do is get confirmation from your carrier that they also support it. As far as device troubleshooting is concerned, the most that you can do is to reset the messaging app’s settings to defaults. Here’s how:

1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
3. Once in there, look for the application and tap it.
4. 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.
5. You should now clearly see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons for the application. Tap Clear Data.

Problem 3: Galaxy S7 edge takes up a lot of storage space

Having a lot of problems with ghost data. The storage doesn’t add up to how much should actually be there. Is there a simple way to fix this without having to root my phone? I have a Samsung galaxy S7 edge. — Angela

Solution: Hi Angela. The breakdown that shows your phone’s storage usage under Settings>Device maintenance>Storage can sometimes be inaccurate. Sometimes, the change in remaining storage space won’t be reflected immediately so be sure to restart the device after clearing something. This way, the system is refreshed and gives you a more accurate reading.

If you want to make more available space in your phone’s internal storage, we suggest that you move non-system critical stuff like photos, videos, music, documents, other apps, etc. to the secondary storage device like an SD card. Keep in mind that not all apps can be moved to the SD card so you’ll still eventually have to use internal storage for those.  

Of course, you can also create a backup of your files to another device via Smart Switch so please check our suggestion for Sherri above.

Problem 4: Galaxy S7 can’t open a particular backup file

Please help. I have a Galaxy S7. The phone has been acting up…slow, freeze etc. This may seem stupid to you but my dog passed away and the only memories I have of him are in a file that says it was backed up, has what looks to be a Chrome icon on the GRAY file and I can’t view anything…it says “could not be viewed” or “can not view.” I don’t know WHERE it backed up to because about the same time I backed up everything my laptop died and was whipped to factory state. Is there any way I can fix this issue and see my dog again? — Susan Andrade

Solution: Hi Susan. There are a lot of file formats that your phone can open but if you’re getting an error that seem to indicate that your device is unable to read a file, then that may be a sign that it lacks the appropriate app to open it, or that the file itself is corrupt or unreadable. To see what type of file you’re dealing with, browse it using My Files app, then check the file details by doing the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Tap the appropriate category or storage where the file is located.
3. Once you see the list of your files, tap and hold the file you’re having a problem with.
4. Tap the MORE icon at the upper right hand side.
5. Tap Details.
6. Check the file extension under Name. The file extension follows the dot like a .pdf or .xml, etc.

Once you’ve identified the file type or file format, you should then be able to know what app you need to install to open it. If the file extension is not common, do a Google search to find out how to open it in your S7.

If you think it’s a Chrome file, simply install Google Chrome app and see if it opens it.

 

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