SD card lost its write protect nub - What would you do?

[Darmok N Jalad]

So one of my SD cards lost its write protect slider, which basically means nothing can write to it since it now will appear to be "locked." It reminds me of the old floppy and cassette days where if the little tab was gone, recording over the tape would not work...unless you just put a piece of tape over that spot to simulate the tab being present.

I'm sure I'm not the first to have this happen, and it's a 128GB card, so I'd hate to just abandon it, along with the notion of wasting/throwing away something over such a trivial issue. I thought about the tape trick, but I didn't want to run into any issues in my camera card slot. I really don't care to ever have the card "write protected," so even a permanent solution is good with me. Anyone else run into this and have a suggestion?

 

[relic]

So one of my SD cards lost its write protect slider, which basically means nothing can write to it since it now will appear to be "locked." It reminds me of the old floppy and cassette days where if the little tab was gone, recording over the tape would not work...unless you just put a piece of tape over that spot to simulate the tab being present.

I'm sure I'm not the first to have this happen, and it's a 128GB card, so I'd hate to just abandon it, along with the notion of wasting/throwing away something over such a trivial issue. I thought about the tape trick, but I didn't want to run into any issues in my camera card slot. I really don't care to ever have the card "write protected," so even a permanent solution is good with me. Anyone else run into this and have a suggestion?

I would check with the manufacturer if it is under warranty,

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Looks like it has a lifetime warranty, though I don't know if they'd pull the "normal wear and tear" card on me. I guess I'll ask.

 

[fransglans]

I tape my cards, no worries here. And IF my camera brakes. Then wohoo, finally a legit reason to buy a new one if my wife is asking

 

[RichardC]

I glue the write protect tabs in place now with a drop of superglue as soon as they start to loosen.

I had two SanDisk cards where they loosened so much that the tabs shifted to locked position upon insertion to the SD slot in my camera.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Yeah, it does seem to be a design issue, and it seems like the newer models are even flimsier than I remember. I'd almost rather they came without the locks at all and take the responsibility of file management myself. If I'm that worried, my G9 has dual slots.

 

[Brownie]

Sony Tough cards don't have them.

 

[Bushboy]

Wow. Who would have thought....
I’ve never used the lock.

 

[Phil.H]

I glue the write protect tabs in place now with a drop of superglue as soon as they start to loosen.

I had two SanDisk cards where they loosened so much that the tabs shifted to locked position upon insertion to the SD slot in my camera.

I've done that with three of my cards. I tried a bit of tape on one first but it was quite tight in the card slot.

 

[pake]

I've fixed one or two cards with missing slider with glue. I guess one could use glue as a preventive measure as well.

 

[RAH]

I don't suppose you could somehow remove the slider from some old, much smaller card and insert it onto your 128GB card?

 

[John M Flores]

I have a sudden urge to make a mixtape...

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I don't suppose you could somehow remove the slider from some old, much smaller card and insert it onto your 128GB card?

I’m afraid that might leave me with 2 nubless SD cards. I can’t even tell what happened, since I never even noticed the thing fall off.

 

[RichardC]

I’m afraid that might leave me with 2 nubless SD cards. I can’t even tell what happened, since I never even noticed the thing fall off.

Why not just cut a sliver of plastic and glue it in place?

If you cut it slightly oversize, you could trim it with a razor once the glue had set. Progressively trim more and more off (or file it away) until you can write to the card.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I have a sudden urge to make a mixtape...

It was the poor man's Napster if you recorded straight off the radio.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

I used MicroSD cards for quite a long time for this reason, it doesn't happen often but if it happens to a high capacity and or speed card that's a lot of money out the window. These days MicroSD can be as big and almost as fast...if the numb on the adapter breaks then replace the adapter. Another advantage for MicroSD is that you can just plopp them in a tablet of phone (if it supports it).

That's being said I did go back to full SD because I wanted the UHS-II speed so I can get better recovery time when using Pro Capture and HHHR on my Big Oly.
Somewhat frustrating that I have to delegate RAW for slot 1 and JPEG for slot 2 so I am using a 512GB MicroSD in slot 2 and 256GB SD in slot 1.

As to how to fix a card is close to very hard because that nub has 2 positions of ground (neutral) or VCC position (for write protection). While the write protection command is an honor base system where all card readers must adhere to the wrote protection status and refuse to write on the card (technically they can still write to the card but they chose not to via firmware from the SDs request of being read only) you could use the right voltage to reset the SD card status but it's not very advisable given now sensitive to voltage NAND Slash memory is.
Your only hope would be to try to stick the nub back in and pray to the unholy ghost of Halloween it works.. Chance of that work is guaranteed to be almost slim to non.

 

[Brownie]

I used MicroSD cards for quite a long time for this reason, it doesn't happen often but if it happens to a high capacity and or speed card that's a lot of money out the window. These days MicroSD can be as big and almost as fast...if the numb on the adapter breaks then replace the adapter. Another advantage for MicroSD is that you can just plopp them in a tablet of phone (if it supports it).

That's being said I did go back to full SD because I wanted the UHS-II speed so I can get better recovery time when using Pro Capture and HHHR on my Big Oly.
Somewhat frustrating that I have to delegate RAW for slot 1 and JPEG for slot 2 so I am using a 512GB MicroSD in slot 2 and 256GB SD in slot 1.

As to how to fix a card is close to very hard because that nub has 2 positions of ground (neutral) or VCC position (for write protection). While the write protection command is an honor base system where all card readers must adhere to the wrote protection status and refuse to write on the card (technically they can still write to the card but they chose not to via firmware from the SDs request of being read only) you could use the right voltage to reset the SD card status but it's not very advisable given now sensitive to voltage NAND Slash memory is.
Your only hope would be to try to stick the nub back in and pray to the unholy ghost of Halloween it works.. Chance of that work is guaranteed to be almost slim to non.

Good grief! How many photos do you capture before you delete them? My camera is set up sequentially with 2-64G cards. If card #1 fills they go to Card #2. I have taken photos in the thousands, RAW and jpeg, and the camera never had to move to card #2, they all stayed on Card #1.

 

[Michael Meissner]

Good grief! How many photos do you capture before you delete them? My camera is set up sequentially with 2-64G cards. If card #1 fills they go to Card #2. I have taken photos in the thousands, RAW and jpeg, and the camera never had to move to card #2, they all stayed on Card #1.

I am not the original poster, but if you shoot video, you can quickly fill any card. On my G85, I think I calculated that if I shot at 4K, I would fill a 128G card in about 1.75 hours. I normally shoot 1080p, and there I can record at least 10+ hours on a 128G card.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Good grief! How many photos do you capture before you delete them? My camera is set up sequentially with 2-64G cards. If card #1 fills they go to Card #2. I have taken photos in the thousands, RAW and jpeg, and the camera never had to move to card #2, they all stayed on Card #1.

While 256GB can store over 10.000 RAW images at an average of 24 MB you will get less adding JPEGs, HHHR, and HR images. Luckily I don't shoot video (but given that 4K has a high bitrate that takes up a lot of space quickly).

Flash storage will degrade quicker the more filled up they are (that's why higher capacity flash storage has a longer write/hours span of usage) because all of the flash storage cells have a limit of how many times you can put voltage in it to write a byte (1 or 0). At 128GB you have twice as many cells of a 64GB which can recycle how many times you can write on it two times and it goes up the larger the SD card is.

At 256GB I have more than enough for up to a week of imaging shooting .... the 512GB one is just because I had an opportunity to get multiple large MicroSD cards at a very good price.

 

[pdk42]

Cut a small piece of plastic (e.g. from an old credit card) the size of the notch and then glue it in.

Or throw it away and get a Sony Tough card as a replacement. Can't recommend them enough.