Sometimes, the smartphones or tablets fails to read the SD Card and displays blank SD Card message and

prompts to format the device. Even after formatting the SD Card, nothing changes, and it still shows the
same message. The following error message is displayed on the screen saying that:

“SD card is blank or has unsupported file system.”

SD Cards have become one of the most preferred media to store data digitally, to transfer data from one
machine to another as well as when it is required to expand the internal storage of Android
smartphones. There can be several issues with the memory cards to incorporate and most of them occur
due to the corrupt RAW file system, virus infection, logical damages or inappropriate extractions.

This happens when:

The card is removed from the device without turning off the device

The device is used on different platform or unauthenticated machine

The card is being removed from the computer without selecting Safely remove hardware option

To fix error “SD card is blank or has unsupported file system”, it is important to determine the actual
reasons responsible for the error message. However, there are few workaround procedures that can be
executed to bring memory card to accessible mode.

Methods to Fix Blank SD Card Error Manually

Fix #1: Run CHKDSK on SD Card

Run CHKDSK to fix blank SD card error message by following the given steps:

Run cmd as administrator and type chkdsk G: /f

Note: G is the drive letter assigned to SD Card

Before executing CHKDSK, make sure that the SD Card is connected to the computer or laptop and is
detected by the machine. After the procedure completes, insert the memory card back to the phone to
check if it is working fine.
Fix #2: Restart the device

To reboot the device, turn OFF the device and then Restart the device to ensure if the SD Card starts
working. This may fix the SD Card Error

Fix #3: Show Hidden Files

Test the blank SD card to check if any hidden files exist within it. The probability is that there may be
some files stored on the SD card that is creating an issue and needs to be deleted. To do this, follow the
below steps —

Connect the SD Card to the computer or laptop via card reader and check if it is detected by the machine

Next, open Control Panel and click on Programs

Under Programs, click on Appearance and Personalization in the left pane

Next, click on the File Explorer Options from the right pane and click on the View tab

Select the radio button associated with Show hidden files, folders, and drives

Click on Apply and then OK to save changes

Note: The procedure mentioned above applies to Windows 10 and may slightly vary in other versions of
Windows operating system.

Fix #4: Insert the SD Card into the Phone

Attempt to insert the SD Card a few times into the smartphone. If lucky, then the phone may be able to
read the card and blank SD Card issue may be rectified.

Fix #5: Connect the SD Card to Any other Machine

Try to connect the SD Card to some other device to check if it works or not. Alternatively, try connecting
the card using another card reader. It is probable that there may be some issue with the USB port or the
card reader device due to which the SD card is displayed as blank.

You may certainly not want to lose your important Photos and Videos
If all of the above-mentioned procedures fail to gain access to the data stored on the SD Card, then you
can try employing an alternate solution to prevent data from permanent loss. Stellar Photo Recovery
tool is an efficient way to retrieve images and other multimedia contents from damaged storage media
such as SD Cards, hard drives, USB drives, etc.

Before initiating the recovery process, it is required to connect the blank SD card to the computer. The
functional procedure of the Photo Recovery Software is quite simple and defined as follows:

Photo Recovery

photo recovery mac

Run Stellar Photo Recovery software

On the home screen of the software – Select What to Recover and Click Next.

Next, select the SD Card from where you want to recover. Click Scan to start the scanning process

A dialog box of ‘Scanning Completed Successfully!’ displays the scan results – number of files found and
size of the data. In the left-pane of main window, all the recovered data is listed. You can preview them in
the right pane.

Note: If you do not see the required photos in the list, opt for Deep Scanoption at the bottom.

Click Recover. You can also choose to recover only the selective photos and videos – select that you
need, right click, and click Recover.

In the dialog box, specify the location to save the image files. Click Save. All the photos and videos get
saved at the specified location Click Save. All the photos get saved at the specified location.

Conclusion

Although there are some manual procedures available to bring the SD Card to workable mode, but if
these methods fail to rectify major issues and leads to permanent data loss then, in the absence of
efficient built-in recovery utility, the only way to retrieve access to images is via employing a photo
recovery software.