Topic: SD card problems

Hi 👋

I have an SDXC 64GB card in my Nintendo Switch.

To start with everything downloaded fine.

Now, randomly, sometimes when I download it stops midways through giving me a different error code every time.

If I then turn my switch off, and then back on again it downloads with no issues.

FYI I have never had a problem loading software from the SD card.

Thanks in advance 🙏

@LittleFonzy Test it by removing the SD card and just downloading to the Switch's internal storage for a while.

If that works OK then try putting in a different SD card and see how that goes.

If that works OK then put the original SD card back in. If the problem arises again then you can be fairly confident that it's just that SD card that's the problem. So then you just replace it.

If that is a off brand then expect some issues so if that is a name brand then you should contact their warranty ASAP to fix it. If that is already happening then consider yourself warned and get a new card and copy/move the data over to that one.

However, what constitutes as "off brand" can vary greatly. I usually get either PNY or Sandisk micro SD cards, depending on which brand costs less at the time for a given size. My 3DS XL wont a red Sandisk adapter but it accepts a black one. It also recognizes a PNY micro SD to SD adapter. I don't know about a New 3DS yet either way yet.

The 3DS also doesn't recognize a PNY micro SD card but will recognize a Sandisk one it seems.

My Switch on the other hand seems to recognize PNY micro SD cards, but not Sandisk ones.

All very strange eh? Well thanks to your response I have a branded SD card now prepped and ready to go tonight!! Wish me luck

@LittleFonzy Hope it works. In case you were planning on doing that, I would advise you to not throw away that other card yet, though. Years ago, I've read that not all manufacturers stick to the same type of formatting and/or allocation unit size (determined size of individual data blocks on a card or hard drive), which can potentially impact read or write behavior in devices that might not be able to handle those correctly.

So, ever since I've learned about that, I've always pre-formatted SD cards and external drives before using them, regardless of them already being formatted or not, and I've never had any issues on any device ever since.

Now, there's of course always the option to format the card in the Switch itself, before you put anything on there, but there are also professional freeware formatting programs, that have the most compatible allocation unit size set by default, while still offering more than enough options for people that know what they're doing.

Here are the two programs that I've been using, ever since I used SD cards in the Wii and DSi, and
external hard drives on the Wii, Xbox 360 and Xbox One:

First up, is a program simply titled FAT32 format.
You can read about it and download it on either one of these two pages:
https://fat32-format.en.softonic.com/
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

And the other program I use, is FAT32 Formatter. Slight difference in name and user interface,
but basically has the same functions, and that program can be downloaded from either one of these links:
https://fat32formatter.en.softonic.com/
https://www.filecluster.com/downloads/Fat32Formatter.html

Alternatively, you could also use this official tool, specifically meant for SD Cards:
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html

Anyway, hope everything works out for you, and perhaps you can also still use that other SD Card in another device, if it still doesn't work in the Switch.

I really can't believe how helpful you guys are!! I got a 64GB SD XC by Samsung and this is working perfect, with insanely quick download speeds! I will refer back to this for sure and not throw away the other SD Card. Thanks.

@LittleFonzy You're welcome. You might wanna use that reply button, next time you want to let people know you replied to them, though...

(and just to be clear: you can reply to multiple people in one comment)

Ahh, I’m quite new here thanks @ThanosReXXX (have I done it right?)

@LittleFonzy No worries. Just thought I'd give you a heads up. And yes, it worked.