What to do if your SD card is not detected by your Sony Xperia L2 [Troubleshooting Guide]

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SD card errors emerged among the most common problems encountered by smartphone owners, particularly with Android devices. Some issues are tied to hardware damage while many are attributed to software glitches. Tackled in this post is a pertinent issue transpiring on the Sony Xperia L2 smartphone. Read on to find out what to do if one day you will just find out that your Xperia L2 handset cannot read or detect the SD card.

Before you start troubleshooting your device software, verify and ensure that the SD card you’re using is supported or compatible with your Sony Xperia L2. The type of SD card supported by the Xperia L2 is microSD card. For more details on SD card compatibility, visit the official Sony website or contact Sony Support department. Also make sure that the SD card slot is clean and not damaged.

Before we proceed, if you’re looking for a solution to a problem with your phone, try to browse through our troubleshooting pages to see if we support your device. If your phone is in the list of our supported devices, then go to the troubleshooting page and look for similar problems. Feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. Don’t worry it’s free. But if you still need our help, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

First solution: Reboot your phone.

If the SD card you are using is the same SD card you’ve been using before without any flaws until this time, then probably it’s just a random glitch. In this case, the problem can easily be rectified by a device restart. That said, reboot your Xperia L2 with these steps:

  1. Press and hold down the Power key for a few seconds until the menu opens.
  2. Tap Restart from the menu options. Doing so will trigger the device to restart automatically.

This won’t affect any data you’ve stored on the internal memory of your device therefore, you don’t need to create backup. After your phone reboots successfully, try to access the SD card and see if it’s already recognized.

Second solution: Remove and reinstall the SD card on your phone.

Another possible reason as to why your Xperia L2 is unable to read or detect your SD card is probably because the SD card is loose or dislodged. This is possible if you happen to drop your device by accident before. To rule this out, you can remove and then reseat the SD card on your device. But before you do so, be sure to unmount the SD card from your Xperia phone to prevent causing any damage to the card or device itself. Then proceed with these steps:

  1. Turn your phone off.
  2. Gently drag out the SIM/SD card tray.
  3. Remove the microSD card from the slot and check for any visible signs of damage like scratches or dents. If there’s none, then place it back into the SD card slot in the correct orientation.
  4. Gently push the tray back into the slot until it fits and locks into place.

When everything is secured, turn your phone on and try to access the SD card and see if the problem is fixed.

Third solution: Clear cache from your phone’s system partition.

Corrupted data on your phone system might also cause conflict and somehow could halt the device from reading external devices including the SD card. If that is the case, then you will likely be able to fix the problem by clearing cache from your phone’s system partition. Cache refers to temporary data stored in apps or system folders of your device. When any of these temporary files crashes, other functions and services are likewise affected. This is when performance issues would start to occur and you would just notice your device is going rogue. Should this be the underlying cause, try to wipe cache partition on your Xperia L2 with these steps:

  1. Power off your device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously for a few seconds.
  3. When the Sony Xperia L2 logo appears, release both buttons. The Recovery screen will then appear shortly.
  4. Press the Volume Down button to scroll to and highlight wipe cache partition option.
  5. Then press the Power button to confirm selection.
  6. Wait until the phone has finished wiping cache partition and highlights the Restart option.
  7. Press the Power button to confirm restart.

Let your device finish rebooting and then test to see if it’s already able to read your SD card.

Fourth solution: Format SD card.

Formatting the SD card can be the key to fixing the problem if it’s caused by corrupted data stored on the SD card or the SD card itself. When you format the SD card, everything in it will be deleted thus any errant data will likewise be cleared. There are two ways for you to format SD card — either through your phone settings or using a computer. If your device is responding normally or not frozen, you can format the SD card quickly through your Xperia L2 settings menu. Just follow these steps:

  1. Tap to open Settings app.
  2. Tap Storage & memory.
  3. Tap the menu icon or three vertical dots to view more options.
  4. Tap Advanced.
  5. Tap Storage.
  6. Select SD card.
  7. Tap the menu icon (three dots) to continue.
  8. Tap Storage settings.
  9. Tap Format.
  10. Then select the option to Erase & Format. All content on the memory card will then be deleted.

Alternatively, you can format the SD card using your computer with these steps:

  1. Back up your SD card data, if possible.
  2. Connect your SD card to your computer with the sd card adapter.
  3. Navigate to This PC directory and view hard drives and external storage media.
  4. Right-click on your SD card and then select the option to Format.
  5. Under File System, click the dropdown arrow and select FAT32 from the given options.
  6. Check the box to select Quick Format under Format options.
  7. Click the Start button to begin SD card formatting.

When the SD card is successfully formatted, try mounting it again on your Xperia L2 and see if it is already detected.

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Other options

Reset your device (factory data reset/master reset). A master reset might be the key to fixing the problem if it’s attributed to a more complex system error from within your phone system. This however should only be considered last resort given that this results to data loss. Should you wish to proceed with a master reset, be sure to back up all your critical data stored on the internal memory. You can keep your SD card inside the slot to erase it as well during the system reset. Doing so will clear any corrupted data or broken SD card segments that might have caused conflict.

Replace SD card with a new one that is compatible or supported by Sony Xperia L2. Your SD card might have been fried or busted. To rule this out, get a new compatible SD card to mount then see if your Sony Xperia L2 will be able to detect the new card. If it still failed to detect the new SD card even if it’s supported or compatible with your device, then your device may require service. It’s possible that the SD card slot has acquired some sort of physical or liquid damage and therefore, it’s not working. This denotes a need for a Sony technician’s aid to check and repair any damage to your phone.

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