SD Card Problems

Any of you ever have a card that was working perfectly fine before just up and say it needs formatting and can't read the pictures? I had two cameras on same property do this and I am trying to figure out if that is normal or were they tampered with. I just found it odd that it had never happened before and suddenly two in same area during same time.

And is there a free site that allows for recover or could I save pictures to computer somehow then format?

hoppie,

My first question to you is , did you remove the cards with the camera still turned on??? If so, that could easily be your problem. I had that problem one time and lost approximately 600 + photos from one week of activity. I ultimately was talking with a technician at Wildgame Innovations and they told me to always cut the camera off before installing a new card and also cut if off before removing the used card as well. They don't publish that fact but he agreed that most all trail cam manufacturers should include that warning in their instructions.

I also upload photos directly to my computer from at least 12 cameras most every week. I then go through the process of erasing the previous photos on each card and complete the formatting process before I put them back (empty) in the bag for the next week.

I am amazed at the consistency of the number of total photos on these 12 cameras during the past several weeks now.

Starting with last week and working backwards each week, the totals were as follows: 3866, 3335, 3311, 3315, 3003, and 3178. I expect these numbers to drop drastically now as the gun season approaches.


As to the reference of finding a website that you can recover potentially lost photos, I know that it can be done and there have been several threads relating to that fairly recently. Maybe do a search for "photo recovery" etc and you might find some of those older threads as a reference. Hopefully, others might help you in that regard as well.

I have found that "Recuva" works best for recovering items from SD Cards.

Do a search for "free sd card recovery tool" in google or bing and you will find many different ones. I just had to recover a lot of pictures from a card last Thursday night. I can't recall the app I used but it was free and recovered all of the files. A good bit of the tools I found would only do 1gb free without wanting you to pay. Of course, they don't tell you that until you install it and attempt the recovery. I kept looking and found one. It can be done.

Active Undelete has a free version of software that I've used a few times to recover files from an SD card.

Make sure you power off the camera before removing the card (that can cause this issue). Did you format the card, from the camera settings menu, prior to installing the card? Are you using a good quality SD card (SanDisk)?

Eagle Eye is correct best practice is to have the camera turned off when removing cards.

Great advice.

Also check the lock on the SD card. Most have a small toggle switch on the side. Make sure its not in the locked position.

I do the quick formatt on all cards after I download them

You should always turn camera off before pulling card!

You should always keep same sd card with same brand of
camera!

You should always format the sd card before reinstalling into the camera!

Some cameras you can format the card in the trail camera!

In our experience not knowing better at the time. We switched sd cards between different brand of cameras and everything would stop working. We now only run the Browning Strike Force and plan on buying more in the near future to add to our arsenal. The Strike Force has format capability and suggest formatting EVERYTIME you reinstall the sd card. We also use a 10 class sd card. Makes everything run smoother and helps camera run at top speed. If you don't know about the classes Of sd cards I think there is 4-10 rating the higher the number means the card can process the pictures or video to the memory faster so the camera is not waiting on the card to load the pictures to the card. Also we buy from trailcamerapro they have a two year warranty on all their cameras that they sell.

One thing I haven't heard mentioned is using a small pocket camera to view your pics in the field. Don't do it. Moultrie specifically says that doing so can effect the card and make it un-viewable.

I had some issues with a Moultrie D555i. They recommended that when I format the SD card, to do the "Full" format from a PC desktop/laptop. Not a MAC.

When you right click on the removable device and select "Format", the "Quick Format" check box will more than likely be automatically checked. Un-check that box and then click format. It will take around 15 minutes. Then, once the card is in the camera, I have the camera format the card. This is much faster. Seconds. No more card or camera issues. Pain in the keister but I'm getting lots of pics now!

This solved the problem with my camera and I also had a card or two that the cameras didn't recognize. Fixed that.