N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Hi there,

I've seen folks with similar problems, but didn't want to resurrect a long-dead thread. I'm having real difficulty and would be very grateful for any help anyone can provide.

My N900 doesn't seem to be recognising MicroSD cards properly. The card does not appear in the file manager or in any application save/open dialogues.

In X Terminal I can see a directory called /media/mmc1 - am I right in thinking that this is the Micro SD card? I experimented by cp-ing a random file from the phone to this directory and it seemed to work just fine.

Any advice is appreciated!

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

have you been connecting your phone to a pc recently?
if that so, that might be the cause, and i still have no solution till now except rebooting. any idea would be helpful :p

(i for once, can successfully disconnect my n900 properly from mass storage mode using either mad developer or pc connectivity, but failed to remember how did i do it :D)

or if someone can show how to mount sd card (or internal memory) manually in file manager, that'd be great too

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

/media/mmc1 is a directory that is used as a mount point.
When your phone recognises that an SD card has been plugged in, it sets everything up so that you can access the card using /media/mmc1.
Since your phone isn't recognising that you're plugging in a card, /media/mmc1 is just another directory, so copying to it will work (provided you have the right permissions).

As they've said above, chkdisk / fsck your memory card and try again - you'll probably need to do this outside of the n900.
If that fails, reformat the card.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Thanks for this, folks.

Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I don't have an SD card reader for my computer. Can I connect my phone to my Xubuntu box and access the memory card from there?

The phone is automatically mounted at /media/Nokia N900 but all I seem to have access to is the MyDocs directory.

Thanks!

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

To format mmc on device:

Then reinsert SD.

This WILL delete all data on your card!

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Thanks vi_, but when I try that I get:

umount: cannot unmount /dev/mmcblk1p1: No such file or directory

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

I suspect you have a bad sd card. Was it working at all? I had similar issue and in the end card was defective. Try using it in another device.

p.s. Cards on N900 usually die from copying/cutting large files from memory card to phone and vice versa

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

I don't have anything else to try the card in, I'm afraid. Will pick up a replacement and see whether it works.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Check that the tiny magnet hasn't come off the inside of the back cover, this is what normaly happens.

If you don't know where to look, does the camera work? or in XTerm typeand open the back cover without pressing to many buttons, you should see some mmc stuff appear on the screen.

or

Try entering these commands in XTerm, you might have to be root

Make the card appear in the file manager:

Code:

---

gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/internal-mmc-device-present true
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/mmc-cover-open false
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/internal-mmc-cover-open false
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/mmc-device-present true

---

and disappear:

Code:

---

gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/internal-mmc-device-present false
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/mmc-cover-open true
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/internal-mmc-cover-open true
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /system/osso/af/mmc-device-present false

---

If that doesn't work something else is wrong!

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

@JonWW: Great call.. You can also load the hardware tester app in the devel repository to check that.

@owenglasgow: The error from the umount command is ok, it just means the file system wasn't already mounted. You can ignore it. Use the second command to try formatting the card.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Thanks JonWW, looks like something else is wrong!

On opening the back cover I see:

No corresponding "true" values when I replace the cover, though. Should that be the case?

The card still doesn't appear in the file manager after using gconftool-2.

@JonWW: Thanks, but getting similar output:

I suspect my SD card is faulty after all...

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

lshal -m outputs
Open backcover with MMCClose backcover with MMCOpen backcover without MMCClose backcover without MMCFrom your output I would say you have lost the tiny magnet from the back cover as hal isn't reporting the removal/replacement of the back cover.

Having just re-checked the gconftool commands, they work fine with the backcover on but don't work when the cover is off. I found these long ago and thought they worked, maybe they did in PR1.2
Sorry about that.

If I were you I'd get on ebay and buy a new backcover.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

when i wrote the appear code in the xterminal i was able to c the memory card in the filemanager.. but i want to know y my n900 didnt detect the mmc earlier...?

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

It seems that the kernel code checking the back cover and disabling the mmc is here:

http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source...t/omap_hsmmc.c

Does someone more knowledgable than me can give a hint if there is a kernel boot parameter or some other way to fake the kernel into assuming the cover is closed?

On one of my n900s the sensor is broken (magnet still there, gconf hack does not work).

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

I fixed mine with a tiny (about 2x3 mm) cut from a flexible sheet magnet like one of those used on fridge magnets. You may need to experiment a little with the position and orientation (polarity). Turning the magnet one way triggered a flood of messages from lshal while turning it the other way did not.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

I tried the gconf script on my N900 and it still isnt detecting the card.Actually ,even the magnet is in its place and yet I count mount my sd card or use it.
Also,another weird problem is that my phone WON'T BOOT with the sdcard in it,and if I do insert the sdcard after booting,then it wont get detected.I have tried this with multiple memory cards....

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Man this issue was driving me crazy, sd card worked find through several card readers on my pc, checkdisk turned up no errors, re-partitioned and formatted, etc.

Finally i found this thread, and realized i had the old cover from my backup n900 on my main unit, and the magnet was missing. Swapped out back covers, and problem solved.

Thanks :)

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

I have exactly the same problems. A few months ago I accidentally dropped my N900 in a hurry and since that moment the Camera app opens up on random moments. At first I wasn't aware that it had started just after I dropped it, but the next weekend when I was trying to boot Nemo on my N900, after hours of trying and thinking about why it wouldn't boot (I kept getting kernel panics due to a missing rootfs, which is on the SD card) I finally realized that the drop must have caused the problems. I checked my back cover and phone and all magnets are perfectly in place, I tried various strong magnets but nothing helped: it kept reporting that the back cover was open while it was mounted. I also think my 'magnet sensor' is broken.

I just tried the gconf commands, but it didn't have any effect, the SD card didn't show up in the file manager. I also ran the some commands another time as root, but that didn't work either.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

superpelican, did you solve your issue? I just posted here:

and I noticed that the thread is in "general talk" forum, so I duplicate, sorry for that:

2 days ago my n900 lived through giant impact (over 2 meters on concrete). I immidietley put it back together turned on and everything seemed to be working just fine. Today I tried to refresh swap (Through Flopswap) and noticed that there are no swaps available except the 768mb built-in partition. It came to me and I tired to put camera cover on open position and nothing happed. I thought, yeah, the magnet fell of and as it turns out - it did.

I replaced whole back cover (Got few spare ones). So now I got the camera working properly but still no card detection. Checked the microsd itself - working fine. Tired my n900 with another card from my n800 tablet - no detection.

In /dev/ there is no other partitions excluding nokia's ones.

What could have happend? Did I somehow killed sd card slot?

I took a quick look at my n900 hardware parts and also compared it with fully working motherboard from another n900. Couldn't find any broken parts or so, everything is all right and my eyes are good for sure :)

I would like to know that is there any chance that this drop of my phone could appear as software mix-up, instead of real hardware failure? I'm going to re-flash my device, just need to know that it iis worth it.

Re: N900 doesn't recognise MicroSD card
 

Dropped my phone recently and didn't notice at first, but the sd card wasn't mounting. I check it on another computer no problems, but nothing worked.

Until I was reminded by this thread that the cover has a magnet in it that could effect the sd card. Tried one of my backup covers and thank goodness it worked. Check the dropped one and sure enough it was missing the magnet.

So my solution was to take one of those magnet sticker type of materials, which have one side with adhesive and stuck a small piece to the spot where it was missing ... but on the inside!

This is my last fully working n900 at the moment so I was very nervous. But thankfully back to 100%.

As always love this forum.

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