Your SD card uses specific file systems like FAT32 and exFAT to manage the data that you store inside it. Sometimes, it might use another file system that your camera or phone cannot recognize. With that, you might get an error that reads, “SD card is blank or has unsupported file system.”
Your files are not necessarily lost, though. They might still be inside your SD card but are unreadable on your device. You can still recover them with the right tools at hand, and that’s exactly what we’ll teach you in the following sections.
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Removing your SD card without properly ejecting it, virus attacks, and physical damage can cause this issue. This error might also happen due to less obviousmore advanced reasons, including the following:
The most efficient way to recover data from a blank SD card is to use a data recovery software program. One of the most proven and tested on the market is Disk Drill. Its user interface is suitable even for novice users, and it also boasts fast recovery rates, backup tools, and secure vaults.
On Windows, the free version of Disk Drill can recover SD card data up to 500 MB. Meanwhile, Disk Drill for Mac, while paid-only, can directly scan your SD card while it’s inserted into your phone.
To recover your blank SD card using Disk Drill, simply follow the steps outlined below:
At this point, you should be able to access the recovered files from your target location. Now that you’ve recovered your files and stored them in a safe location, let’s fix your SD card so you can use it again.
Once you’ve recovered the files, you can try a few things to get your SD card working again. We’ll walk you through ways in which you can fix your blank SD card in order of preference.
A device may not be able to read your SD card for several reasons, for instance, an incompatible file system. To make sure this isn’t the case, try your card on other devices to see if the card works on them.
The files on your SD card may not appear if they are hidden. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to view hidden files on your PC.
Note : The illustrations are made using Windows 11. If you use a different operating system or version of Windows, the steps may slightly differ.
If your SD card has filesystem errors or has bad sectors, your devices may have a hard time reading the SD card. The Chkdsk utility is a built-in Windows utility that you can use to fix filesystem errors or bad sectors caused by physical damage to get your SD card working again.
Let the utility complete the process. If it finds problems, it will try to fix them automatically.
If none of the previous methods worked for you, you’ll need to format your SD card. A full SD card can also result in errors, and a format will help eliminate those errors right away.
Either way, formatting shouldn’t be a big problem once you’ve recovered all the files from your SD card. Follow these steps to format your SD card on your PC:
If the SD card is already on your smartphone, you don’t need to remove it. You don’t need a PC for formatting, you can do it with your phone too. You can fix an unsupported SD card without a computer using your Android device, though you won’t be able to change its filesystem.
We’ll walk you through how you can format your SD card on an Android device. However, note that the process may differ slightly based on the Android UI you’re using.
In most cases, you’ll be able to recover the files on your SD card if you only recently started getting the “SD card is blank or has unsupported filesystem” error. Before you discard your SD card thinking the SD card went blank, consider using an SD card recovery tool and see if you can get the files back.
Sometimes, devices can’t read an unsupported SD card without formatting it to a compatible filesystem. Once you’ve recovered the files, you should try and format the SD card to a filesystem that’s compatible with all your devices.
To check whether the SD card really uses an unsupported file system, try inserting it on another device. If it works, the problem might be compatibility with your phone. Otherwise, go to the Settings app on your phone and find the option to format your SD card.
To recover data from a broken Android SD card, use data recovery software programs like Disk Drill. If it’s physically broken — the flash memory chip is cracked or divided — there’s nothing else that you can do, even if you try professional data recovery services.
If your SD card has an unsupported file system, use data recovery software like Disk Drill. Alternatively, try connecting your SD card to your computer and looking for hidden files, which may be the reason it appears blank.
