How to fix Galaxy Note8 storage issues: can’t read or write to SD card, “Server storage full” error

Many #GalaxyNote8 owners have contacted us about storage issues and SD card problems. This  troubleshooting guide should answer some of them.

Problem #1: Galaxy Note8 “Server storage full” error keeps showing up

“Server storage full” keeps coming up in my Top notification panel. i try to click in on it But it does nothing. i have went through cleared all my cache deleted files Uninstalled apps put in a memory card everything it still keeps coming up. What can i do? I can’t even find anything like that in my phone. Please help Thank u. — Fallon Schmitt

Solution: Hi Fallon. The reason why you can’t find server storage in your phone is the fact that it’s most probably linked to one of the apps you’re using. That app may be using a remote server to store stuff like photos, videos, documents, etc and the allocated storage space for your account may have reached its limit. The “Server storage full” error you’re getting is not specific and does not tell us anything about the nature of your app it’s connected to so you must find out that out for yourself. Are you positive that this is the only message in the error? Or is there any other indication that might pinpoint which of your apps has reached its upload limit?

Try to go over your list of apps and identify those that regularly upload something. You should start with apps that offer free or paid upload privileges like Dropbox and see if any of them is causing the error.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note8 can’t read or write to SD card

Hello! Last night I had been taking pictures and video with my Galaxy Note8. I have a Transcend Premium 300x 64 GB micro SD installed to which I have the camera set to save images and videos. At one point during the night the camera was throwing an error when attempting to take photos and videos saying “Video failed” or something along those lines. After power cycling the phone, I went back into gallery and could no longer view photos that had already been taken. While in the gallery, out of no where the number of images started to decrease rapidly until it deleted all images and albums, both on the phone and on the SD card (I had some memes and stupid things still saved to the phone). I have reseated the SD card, no difference. I have placed it in my wife’s phone (also an Note8), no difference. At present I am backing up my wife’s phone and am going to swap cards and see what happens. At present both phones SEE the card, but my phone won’t write to it or even allow it as a selectable storage device. Not sure yet what her phone will do, if anything. I have a micro reader on my work PC I am going to try. What I’m getting to this – Any ideas how this could’ve happened and do you think the SD card would be readable even by some bigger data recovery company/solution? Thanks! — Chris

Solution: Hi Chris. The first troubleshooting step that you want to do right now is to see whether or not the bug that caused the deletion lies on the phone or not is to insert another known working SD card. If you don’t have one at the moment, don’t do anything until you can do this step. If your Note8 can read and write on the second SD card normally, then that means the problem must be in the first SD card. To see if the bug is temporary, make sure to format it again with these steps:

1. Insert the SD card in question to your Note8.
2. Open Settings app.
3. Tap Device maintenance.
4. Tap Storage.
5. Tap SD card.
6. Tap Storage settings.
7. Tap SD card.
8. Tap Format.

Factory reset your Note8

If your Note8 won’t read from or write to your second SD card, the best thing that you can do is to factory reset it. We don’t know the full history of your device to be able to identify where the issue is coming from so hopefully, factory reset will return the default behavior of your device to its normal way of managing an SD card.

To factory reset your Note8:

1. Create a backup of your personal data.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note8 SD card showing incorrect file size

Hi. Recently replaced my Note8 after my last one was lost at sea, bought a 128gb micro sd to go with it and had nothing but trouble (file partitions I could not remove no matter what, Note8 couldn’t copy etc). I replaced the card with a different brand, uploaded music and photos via laptop, and the Note8 recognised it, and saved photos onto it fine.

Last night however I attempted to copy files onto the sd card via the Note8 connected to my laptop (just a single mp3). This caused the computer program to crash multiple times. The mp3 copied fine to the Note8 internal storage, just not to the sd card. Today despite multiple reboots the Note8 can only read 7 GB of the near 60GB music on there, and all my photos have disappeared. That said, in the storage settings section, it recognises that 60gb+ of the sd card has been used. I have yet to check the card out on the laptop as I am missing the adapter but I did unmount the card then replace it to no effect (except now it only recognises 4gb of data rather than the original, erroneous 7!) What can be done? Is this new phone causing the faults? Could it be the music files? My laptop has no issues with any of the original files. Any advice would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Mark Glass

Solution: Hi Mark. Either one of these two possibilities may be causing your problem:

• your Note8’s file management system is not working properly, or
• the SD card is corrupted or buggy

To know which of these is the real cause, try to reformat the SD card just like what we tell Chris above and see what happens. If your newly reformatted card won’t work like it should, then go ahead with factory reset.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note8 keeps saying storage full, default Verizon ringtones and alerts are missing

My phone started acting strange then I received a message stating storage full. I noticed all of my tones (ringrone, text alert, email alert, etc) have changed back to Verizon default tones and the ones I had previously have completely disappeared. The ones that have disappeared are factory tones that came preloaded on the phone. I have deleted apps and pics/videos to free up a lot of space, I did soft reset, cleared cache, reset app settings everything that I can possibly do and the tones are still missing. This did happen 2 months ago as well and I ended up doing a big factory reset and that still didn’t work. After many hours on the phone with verizon techs no one could help. I went to a Verizon store and the guy pressed a few buttons and it all started working. This was literally less than a 5-sec fix!! That guy is no longer there and NO one can figure this out. Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. This is a Samsung Galaxy Note8. — Pchilds

Solution: Hi Pchilds. Unfortunately, we don’t work for Verizon and we’re not exactly experts when it comes to Verizon devices and how software on such devices are setup. Try to reset all app preferences and see if that will re-enable possibly disabled apps or services. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Tap Reset app preferences.
5. Restart your device and check for the bug.

Should resetting app preferences won’t help, you can also boot your Note8 to safe mode. If the missing ringtones and alerts are still in the phone tucked in by unknown factors for some reason, you should be able access them again. Safe mode blocks third party apps and services so if one of your downloaded apps is hiding them, you should know it.

To boot your Note8 to safe mode:

1. With your Note8 off press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
2. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
3. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
4. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
5. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
6. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
7. Try to find the tones and alerts you’re missing and see if you can use them.

If the ringtones and alerts return on safe mode but again disappears when you restart your phone, that’s a clear sign that one of your apps must be causing it.

To know which app is causing a problem, follow these steps:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your Note8 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

 

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