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    Photo Recovery

    How to Recover Deleted or Lost Music Files From SD Card


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      Hip-hop, Jazz, Rock & Roll or Blue, your favourite music collection is on your SD card let's say your Android SD card and you never fail to carry it on-the-go. But imagine this, one day suddenly you found that you are unable to access any of those songs on your SD card. An error message pops up when you try to access them! Only a music buff can feel the pain of losing his or her precious song collections. From MP3, WAV, to RPS and OGG, no matter what your file format is, there are ways you can use to get back lost or deleted music files from the SD card. It is not a permanent data loss situation unless you have not made these mistakes:

      • Added or saved any new music file to the concerned SD card because it may overwrite the original data and you will be no longer able to recover the songs.
      • Formatted the corrupt SD card, as this will result in complete loss of your songs on the SD card.
      Ensure you do not do these above blunders when your SD card shows some error as they can make your music files recovery very difficult or cause permanent loss of your audio files.

      Lost Music Files? 

      Read on to know different fixes for various SD card issues that you can try yourself to recover your music or audio collection from the SD card:

      Problem 1: Your device does not read SD card

      Sometimes the device may not read an SD card, in this situation try the below ways to recover music files: Fix 1 - Use an external card reader It is possible that your system’s built-in memory card reader is not working properly. To rule out this possibility, if you have another SD card, try to access that in your system. If you are able to access the new memory card, the problem is with your SD card having the music files and not the built-in card reader. If the new memory card also does not work, then try using an external card reader to recover your music files while to repair or replace your built-in memory card reader, visit an authorized service centre. Fix 2: Reinstall the driver If the system does not recognize your SD card, you can try to reinstall the driver using below steps:
      • Go to My Computer/ This PC and right click on it.
      • Click on Manage.
      • Click on Device Manager in the left pane.
      • Double-click Disk Drives from the list.
      • Right-click on the name of your removable drive.
      • Click Uninstall.
      • Click Ok.
      • Disconnect your SD card.
      • Restart your system.
      • Reconnect your SD card, the system will detect it now.
      Fix 3: Assign a new drive letter Whenever you plug in your SD card, Windows assign a drive letter to the device automatically. Sometimes, the SD card letter doesn’t show up in the list of drives or a message ‘Please insert the disk into drive E:’ appears. This means that the drive letter assigned to the SD card is already used by another device. So here is how to recover music files by assigning a new drive letter step-by-step:
      • Connect the SD card from which you want to recover your music files.
      • Open the Run dialogue box using Windows+R key.
      • Type msc and hit Enter.
      • A list appears in the left pane of the window, under Storage tab. choose Disk Management.
      • On the right pane of the window right-click the drive you want to assign a letter.
      • Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
      • A dialog box will appear, click on Change.
      • Check-in Assign following drive letter.
      • Choose the letter you want to give from the drop box.
      • Click OK.
      • Close Computer Management.

      Problem 2:  You can read your music files but unable to save them

      Fix 1: Unlock your SD card

      In such a case, the possibility is that your card is write-protected. On the left side of SD card, there is a lock-switch. Slide it to the upward position to unlock it. This will enable write-protection. Now you will be able to open, modify or delete the music files on the SD card.Recover SanDisk SDHC Card

      Figure 1: Illustrates slide lock of the SD card

      Problem 3: Errors like ‘SD card is damaged. Try reformatting it’ appear

      Fix 1: Perform Chkdsk To fix a corrupt SD card, you can perform Chkdsk (check disk) by following the below steps:
      • Go to Windows Start option.
      • Type cmd in the Search box.
      • Right-click cmd and select the Run as Administrator.
      • A command prompt opens, type chkdsk < SD card drive letter>:/f (e.g., chkdsk E: /f).
      • Hit Enter.

      Problem 4: Tried all above fixes, none recovered your music files from the SD card!

      Fix 1 – Use a Recovery Software solution After trying all above fixes, if still, you are unable to recover your music collection from the SD card it’s time for getting a recovery software. Recovery software such as Stellar Photo Recovery Software can help you get back your seemingly lost music files from damaged/corrupted / inaccessible SD cards (Mini, Micro, SDHC and SDXC).  Stellar Photo Recovery Software is designed to recover music files even after accidental formatting or deletions from the SD card. The software is skilled in recovering audio files like MP3, RPS, OGG, WMA and many more. You need to download, install, and run the Stellar Photo Recovery Software on your system. Connect your problem SD card using a card reader or you can directly connect your device which has the problem SD card. Ensure a different drive is present to save the recovered audio files and follow the below steps or watch this video:
      1. Launch Stellar Photo Recovery Software.
      2. On the home screen of the software - ‘Select What to Recover’. Click Next.
      3. Next, select the location from where you want to recover. Click Scan to start the scanning process.
      4. 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 the main window, all the recovered data is listed. You can preview them in the right pane. Note: If you do not see the required music files in the list, opt for Deep Scan option at the bottom.
      5. Click Recover. You can also choose to recover only the selective files – select music files that you need, right click, and click Recover.
      6. In the dialog box, specify the location to save the image files. Click Save. All the music files get saved at the specified location.
      Tips to protect your music on SD card

      Conclusion

      SD cards help us to store and carry lots of music files on the go. But it is also true, that audio loss from an SD card can happen anytime due to virus infection, corruption, accidental deletion, formatting etc. In such a scenario a highly recommended and tested third-party recovery tool - Stellar Photo Recovery software works best. Do-it-yourself interface, 100% safe download, and guaranteed audio files recovery make Stellar Photo Recovery software a popular choice among music lovers using SD cards. To be rest assured, you can evaluate yourself the Stellar Photo Recovery software performance by first downloading a free trial version here. Surely you would love its capabilities to recover lost audio or other multimedia file types.

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      For any query, feel free to comment below or contact our customer support via phone, email or live chat.

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      About The Author

      Sumona Chatterjee linkdin

      Sumona is a tech blogger, avid photographer, & technogeek with vast experience in writing about media file recovery tips and tutorials. She has over 10 years of experience in media file recovery/media file repair technology. She is passionate about Photography, Creative Designing, Music, and Exploring lesser-known destinations.

      22 comments

      1. I had deleted all my old music audio file couple of weeks ago from my Compact flash card. I used your software and it worked!

      2. Hi, I have been a videographer, since last 10 years of experience. I had a couple of marriage video files, got corrupt during the video shoot, unable to fetch sound in those video files on my camera SD card. May I know this software will work on these video files to get back audio?

        1. Dear, if you have not re-formatted or overwritten the data on your camera SD card. Our Stellar Photo Recovery software able to get back audio on your lost video files. Thank You!

      3. I had the same issue with my Android phone. When phone memory shows message “not enough space need to delete some files” then I deleted some music files. Now I want to get back my music data. Any idea?

        1. Hello Ted,

          Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery

          If you save your files on your SD card on your Phone. Our software has the capability to retrieve the data. But if your data in your android phone internal memory use another software Stellar Android data recovery help to get back your music file. Thanks

      4. I recently dropped my Android Phone, I had a couple of photos and music files on my SD card. I wanted to keep SD card data on my PC. When I had plug SD card into SD card reader on my PC. It shows error “unable to see the content of the SD card”. Then I found your blog on the Internet and I used your software. It’s work great! Thanks.

      5. Hi, I recently purchased SanDisk micro SD card 16 GB for storage my photos, videos, audio files. Unfortunately, it’s deleted. There is any possibility to recover my data?

        1. Hello Carolin,

          Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery

          Please try below recommendation

          If you don’t overwrite the data or no other tool recovery tool is used then it may possible to recover the data. Please try to download our software demo version and see the preview, after that you may purchase our software.

      6. I am bookmarking this because I think this is exactly what one of my clients needs but I’m too tired to do it now. Thanks for posting!

        1. Hello Team TechGeek,

          We really feel glad that you like our post. Further, please don’t forget to follow us on twitter and other social channels.

        1. Hello Joveth,
          The reason behind the file format is not supported on your Window Media Player. You can change the file format or download the required codec to play the file.

      7. Yes, sure I agree with you. A few days back I lost my Jazz music collection from SD card. Your post was valuable for me. Thanks for writing!

      8. I had purchased Panasonic SD Card 64GB last year, In it, I had 500MB of audio songs but when I plugged it to my PC. Show the message your SD card is formatted. Then I search on google “how to handle SD Card formatting errors or accidental deletion.” Now find your blog, and I used this software. It’s working fine. Thank you!

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