Member Avatar for mrsajjadmemon

hy guys please help me .. i have 16gb micro sdcard in my indriod cell phone. when i am formatting the card it shows an error "sd card read only cannot format " . what should i do to uncheck readonly property.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by cguan_77

Dani AI

Generated

Short expert summary with practical steps and cautions.

The error message reported by usually means the card or host has been prevented from writing: common root causes are a full-size SD adapter left in the locked position (see comments from and ), the phone or PC mounting the filesystem read-only after detecting corruption, or an internal card controller that has switched the card to permanent read-only because of hardware wear. Compatibility (older phones that predate SDHC) and counterfeit cards can also produce similar symptoms; and touched on these possibilities.

Recommended diagnostic sequence (least invasive first):

  1. Remove the microSD and test it in a known-good USB card reader or a different full-size adapter.
  2. If the PC sees the card but it is read-only, run a filesystem check to repair errors: for example, from an elevated Windows shell run chkdsk E: /f (replace E: with the drive letter).
  3. If repair does not help, clear device attributes with diskpart, verifying the correct disk number first. Example (run Diskpart as Administrator):
diskpart
list disk
select disk X          <-- verify X is the card
attributes disk clear readonly
clean                  <-- WARNING: deletes partitions
create partition primary
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
  1. If Windows still cannot format, try the official SD-formatting tools or a Linux live-USB to zero and re-partition the card. For a 16GB card use FAT32 for best Android compatibility.

Final notes and cautions: copying important files first is preferable; clean and full formats destroy all data. If a card remains write‑protected after these steps it is almost certainly failed (or firmware-locked) and should be replaced. If the card was previously used as Android Adoptable/Encrypted storage, its contents will not be readable after removal without the original device. Tools such as H2testw or f3 can detect counterfeit/cards that misreport capacity.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for shdwmage

Check the side of the card for a physical switch. It will slide up and down. Most often this is in the wrong position if you cannot modify the disk.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Regular SD cards have a slider that can write-protect the device, but I don't think micro-sd cards have one of those (mine don't). In any case, SD cards over 8GB need to be supported by SD-HC (or newer) controllers. It may be that your phone doesn't support SD-HC (high capacity) devices. SD-HC can deal with devices with over 8GB (up to 32GB) of capacity. You would need SD-XC for more than that.

Member Avatar for Kelly Burby

Chek the SD card for a physical switch it may be on the wrong position.

Member Avatar for Member #1102190

the above solutions might work...check it.. if they dont...folow the following..

  1. Connect ur phn to the PC via Data Cable and enable Mass Storage, the memory card should appear in My Computer
  2. Right-click on the SD card icon and select Properties.
  3. there should appear some checkboxes that change the SD card property...like hidden, read only etc.
  4. Uncheck the Read-only checkbox..
  5. Click Apply and then OK..

After completeing the above steps, try formating ur card... it should work..

Member Avatar for cguan_77

try using a network adapter for your micro sd card, or check with a reader.

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