Problem with Samsung Galaxy Note 3: No SD Card Found

[bhavikvas]

Hi,

I am having this problem for the past few days and am not able to use my Spotify account on my Note 3.

This is the error message when i start Spotify:

No SD Card Found

We found no place to stroe our data, please check that you have a working SD card and free space.

Your kind advice is needed.

Thanks guys

[Peter__]

Do you have an SD card in the device? What kind of SD card is it?

[bhavikvas]

I do have an SD Card in the device.

Its a Sandisk 64GB High Speed Card

[Joe]

Are you trying to install spotify or was it already installed?

[bhavikvas]

it was already installed

[Joe]

Can you try the following:

• Back up any data you have on your external SD card (other than any spotify folder)
• Uninstall spotify
• Format the SD card in the Note
• Remove the SD card
• Install spotify but don't launch it
• Reinsert the SD card
• Run spotify and play a track which should recreate the cache folders on the SD card

It's a bit long-winded for which I apologise but we've had a few reports of this from Note 3 owners recently and this might help pin the issue down and, hopefully, get you going again.

[fredd26]

Hi, I have the same problem as above mate. I did exactly what you said with install/uninstall and format tricks, but it didn't help. Spotify launched only with the removed sd card, and from my observations:

1. spotify on my note3 works only without sd card
2. each time the card is inserted, spotify crashes, only a white screen with a green circle. Everytime cards off, app restart - and it works.

I have a premium account, but I cant use it, and on my previous phone (SGS3) spotify worked flawlessly, with the same SD card.

Already format the SD card, and even tried 3 other cards, the application still doesn't work.

Any suggestions? advice? maybe someone already running spotify on note3

thanks for any help

[Joe]

Seeing quite a few Note 3 owners having issues with spotify and the external SD card. Going to think about how best to collect information but thankes for trying the steps I posted - that was really helpful.

Can you just confirm that installing spotify with the SD card removed and using it, to make sure the cache is created in internal storage, then reinserting the external SD card does allow you to use spotify without any errors and leaves the external SD card available for use by other apps?

[fredd26]

Exactly as you wrote. I also did a few other tests , so I'll describe what I've tried so far, maybe it will help someone.

1. remove the sd card - install spotify - run the application in order to create a local file on the phone memory, log in, and then insert the SD card .

Result : spotify works, can be off and on without removing the sd card , the only problem is that playlists are saved in the phone's internal memory, not in sd card. And YES, sd card is available for all other applications and fully functional for whole phone.

2. do everything as in 1, then i cut the file "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui" from the phone's internal memory and move it to the sd card in exactly the same directory layout (Android / data ). I thought it succeeds in this way to redirect the save path, if spotify could not find the sd card, now pointed out to him the whole path info, so if can only recognize sd card it should find files.

Result : spotify starts up, but you need to log in again to your account, so as you can guess, spotify creates again a new folder in the phone's internal memory, completely ignoring the sd card.

3. I did all the steps 1 and 2 but this time after throwing files from the internal memory, i cleaned the cache and the local files with the app manager, and you'll never guess what happened 🙂 NO GO!!! after restart spotify, familiar window again appears showing me "no sd card", so after that, i do exactly what I described in 1, and its alive again.

anyway,continue looking for solutions 🙂

BTW, my note3 is running on stock 4.4.2, not rooted, still virgin :), so maybe the kitkat is the problem? on my previous SGS3 and SGS2 i use 4.1.2, and spotify works as it should, no problems at all.

cheers!

[fredd26 · Accepted solution]

I think I found a solution, and certainly found a solution for my NOTE 3 🙂
Now I have spotify on internal memory, but my offline playlists are stored on the SD card 🙂

After installing spotify, in the "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui", i found 2 folders "Users", 1 is in the "files" and another in "spotifycache", so I suspect the second is responsible for offline content.

Here's the trick:

1. remove the SD card, install spotify, start and log in, insert the SD card.

This solves the problem of installing spotify. Before the next step, quit Spotify, go to the App Manager, find Spotify, and kill the app manualy for sure. Important ! do not clear the application data or cache.

2. On the phone's internal memory find "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui" (should be in Android / data ), copy and paste to the SD card.

(If you do not have folder Android / data on the card, create it , the files on the card must have the same path)

3. Now go back to the phone memory to Android / data / com.spotify.mobile.android.ui - you should see 2 files and 2 folders: spotifycache, Users, orbit.settings, prefs. Delete the folder "spotifycache".

4. Run spotify, download the offline playlist. A message can jump, something about "playlists desynchronization, but do not worry, it's a good sign :). The message disappears and if spotify start up, it means that you succeeded. Thats it.

To make sure it worked for u, check again directory "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui" on the internal phone memory, there should be no change so you should only see only folder Users and 2 prefs files. But on the SD card in the folder "spotifycache / storage / " should be your playlists offline ( just check the directory modification hour in file manager) .

I do not know if it will work on other phones, but maybe it is worth to try.

cheers!

P.S  One more thing i found during my searching 🙂 After copying the directory "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui" on the sd card, first I tried to clear the data from the app manager and as it turned out, both folder was removed, from the internal memory and SD card, both folders "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui" disappeared. So on clear installation, spotify sees sd card and sd isn't a problem, just don't want to install it on any data.

[Joe]

Hmmm it seems that there are security changes in android 4.4.2 which are causing these problems. I'm pointing others experiencing this to your excellent post. Thanks 🙂

[vh]

I have the same problem, and I have Android 4.3. The thing is that it also goes for Wimp, but My Files or Astro File Manager sees the files without any trouble, so the cards are fine, and the app-installs probably ditto. It worked fine until yesterday btw.This must have to do with some external sd_card issue with Samsung.  But who to address? Hoping for a sulution soon, I use both apps offline.

[vh]

I'm in touch with Samsung Support. Will revert if they come up with a solution.

[jonlambert77]

Great work to find that work around. I am having the same issues but on my Samsung SG4.

I uploaded 4.4.2 the other day. Since then all I get is the white screen. This is obviously a KitKat issue and needs to be resolved by the people that we pay the big bucks to ie Android and Spotify. Come on guys, this is what your paid for - stop making the consumer do all the bench testing and fault finding for you.

Apart from that - guys on the forum you are all awesome. Some great solutions and I know you have all put in a great deal of time and effort in an attempt to resolve these and other issues. As a user - thank you

[shevdog]

I had the same issue with my Note 3 prior and after the Kit Kat (4.4.2) update.  I am currently running 4.4.2 (stock/unrooted) on my Note 3.  I tried these steps last night and so far they have worked:

1. Uninstall the Spotify app
2. Shut down the Note 3
3. Remove the external SD card
4. Power on the Note 3
5. Install the Spotify app
6. Log into your Spotify app and try downloading a play list
7. Shutdown the Note 3
8. Insert the external SD card
9. Power on the Note 3 and continue using the Spotify app

If you are encountering the same issue, try these step and confirm whether they are working for you or not.

-Shawn

[bulabone]

This issue just started last week for me, im rooted running Jelly Beans build 6 ROM Android 4.3.  Ive been running this ROM since last year.. so the issue would have to be from some updated app either from spotify or a conflicting app. 

Tired the above steps from Shawn, did not help

[Joe]

Those steps basically relocate the spotify cache into internal storage. You can achieve the same by deleting the cache, removing the external SD card, restarting spotify and streaming a track.

Once you have done that, spotify will not care whether you have an external SD card or not.

The android forums are full of threads on this error and I don't think anyone has pinned down the problem as there are so many variables:- cheap cards, defective cards, oxidised or damaged contacts as well as possibly software and firmware issues. If you really want the spotify cache on your external SD card, all I can sugget is to try reformating it in the phone or trying a different card.

And folk were surprised when Google decided not to support external SD cards in their Nexus range!

[shevdog]

Since you are rooted, take a look at the steps outlines by Mitten here:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/How-to-store-offline-music-on-the-external-SD-card-on-a...

Also making note that I have not had a reoccurrence of this issue since I installed Spotify with my external micro SD card removed.

[squarebomb]

This problem started with the last update from Spotify.  Happened on both my S4 and Note 3.  The fix is simple.  Uninstall Spotify and re-install.  Done.  I didn't even have any SD card on my S4 to remove and format so that step is not necessary.  I hope Spotify fixes the issue soon.  

[squix]

Since 4.4.2 install I had the blank screen of spotify saying can not find the sd card. It did work anyway, until two days ago when all data got erased. I have tried all the steps in this and other threads to get spotify to save on the sd card, without success. Downloaded playlists only store data on internal memory!

Running SGS4, newly formatted samsung 64gb sdxc card.