How To Fix Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Not Recognizing micro SD Card

The #Samsung #Galaxy #Note9 is the latest model in the Note series of devices which was released earlier this year. This phone uses an Aluminum frame with Gorilla glass on both the front and back. It sport a large 6.4 inch Super AMOLED display that not only works with touch input but with a stylus as well. Under the hood is the powerful Snapdragon 845 processor which when combined with 8GB of RAM allows the device to run any app smoothly. Although this is a solid performing phone there are instances when certain issues can occur which we will be addressing today. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the Galaxy Note 9 not recognizing micro SD card issue.

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How To Fix Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Not Recognizing micro SD Card

Problem: My Note 9 doesn’t recognize the SD card. I did everything suggested. I restarted the phone and remove the SD card. The SD card is fine. I was able to copy all the files to my computer. The phone still says there’s no SD card inserted. There was a system update. Could that be the problem? Is there anything I can do?

Solution: Before troubleshooting this issue it’s best to make sure that your phone is running on the latest software version. If an update is available then I suggest that you download and install it in your phone.

Check if the micro SD card works on another device

The first thing that you will need to do in this case is to eliminate the possibility of the problem being caused by a defective micro SD card. Remove the card from your phone then check if it works on another device ( a phone or a computer). Since you already did this and verified that the card indeed works then the problem is most likely originating on the phone side.

Clean the SIM / micro SD card slot

If the SIM card / micro SD card slot has dirt or debris inside then this can prevent the phone from reading the micro SD. Clean this slot using a can of compressed air then check if the issue still occurs.

Try using a new micro SD Card

To check if the problem is caused with compatibility issues with the current micro SD card that you are using it’s best to get a new micro SD card and see if this works on your phone.

Perform a soft reset

When you do a soft reset the phone software will be refreshed and will usually fix this kind of problem if is is caused by a software glitch. To do a soft reset press both the volume down and power keys at the same time and hold them down together for 10 seconds. You may feel your phone vibrating at some point but only release both keys if the screen turns on.

Check if the problem occurs in Safe Mode

There are instances when an app you downloaded can cause this problem. To check if this is what’s causing the problem you will need to start the phone in Safe Mode as only the pre-installed apps are allowed to run in this mode.

• Turn the phone off.
• Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the screen.
• When SAMSUNG appears on the screen, release the Power key.
• Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
• Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
• When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.

If the micro SD card can be recognized in this mode then the problem could be caused by an app you downloaded. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.

Wipe the cache partition of the phone

There are cases when the phone will develop a corrupt cached data. When this happens certain issues will occur on the device such as the one you are experiencing right now. To eliminate this possibility you will have to wipe the cache partition of the phone from the recovery mode.

• Turn off the phone.
• 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 three keys.
• An ‘Installing system update’ message will show for 30 – 60 seconds before the Android system recovery menu options appear.
• Press the Volume down key several times to highlight wipe cache partition.
• Press Power key to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight yes, them and press the Power key to select.
• When the wipe cache partition is complete, Reboot system now is highlighted.
• Press the Power key to restart the device.

Perform a factory reset

Since you mentioned that the issue occurred right after a software update then this could be caused by old software data that has not been completely removed during the update process. When this happens it will cause a conflict with the new software version resulting in issues such as this. To remove this old data you will have to perform a factory reset. Make sure to backup your phone data before doing the reset.

• Turn off the phone.
• Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
• 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).
• 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.

In case the above steps fails to fix the problem then there’s a possibility that this is already caused by a faulty hardware component. The best thing to do right now is to bring the phone to a service center and have it checked.