Topic: I'm having a strange problem with a brand new micro SD card I just got for my switch.

I don't know if it's the card or the switch that is causing the issue but all the sudden my downloads start failing to finish. Almost immediately and no matter how many times I attempted i kept getting this error. I checked for corrupted data and found nothing. The only way i could get the downloads to finish was by reformatting the card.

The card is a 1 Terrabyte Sandisk that i bought because I was sick of constantly swapping SD cards to play different games. After so many downloads the problem keeps popping up again. The download bar has a flashing X and stops within seconds of me attempting the download.

Any idea how i can fix this or what's causing it?

@Truegamer79 If formatting the card with the Switch didn't solve it, then something else is going on, and you may want to contact Nintendo support.

Do you get an error code? You can plug error codes into the Nintendo Support page search bar. Most codes can be explained that way, and have directions, if needed.

Nintendo support search/contact page
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/contact

When my 2 year old 64gb Samsung micro sd card failed on my phone. The phone would freeze when trying to do jobs with big files, like recording hd video, or trying to watch video files. (which sounds similar to your scenario). I thought my phone was glitching, but it turned out to be the failing card. I could still take pictures, and transfer smaller picture files, though. The problem was reproducible when I plugged the card into the pc - it would fail/freeze if I tried to save or move larger mp4 video files, or multiple picture files. Anyway, my card was toast.

If it's your card, you may want to return it or exchange it.

I'm pretty sure it has to be the SD card. I have 5 other cards I tested and none of them are having this issue. Everything downloads just fine. I may have screwed up buying the new card from ebay. I was reading something about fake cards that Don't actually have as much space as advertised. Maybe I'll have to order another one and be more careful where I buy from.

@Truegamer79 Yeah, I'd stay away from ebay. Return that card.

As far as I know, there's only one place you can reliably buy micro sd cards for the best prices. It's Amazon.

Follow these three rules to land legit cards on Amazon at the best prices.
1) Only order a big brand names like Sandisk, Samsung (or if you trust another big name brand, ok.)
2) Only order a card that is shipped AND sold by Amazon. Stay away from third party sellers to be safe.
3) Only order from an Amazon page that has thousands, or tens of thousands+ positive reviews.

If you follow those rules, you should be ok.

This one follows the rules. Here you go: Sandisk 1TB U1 micro SD. Currently on sale for $125, that's the best price I've ever seen. Before today, I have NEVER seen them below $165-$180. I doubt that $125 sale price will last past today. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-MicroSDXC-Memory-Adapter...

There's also a U3 speed 1tb Sandisk for $165. The Switch hardware can only utilize U1 card speeds. So there's no advantage gained using a U3 card in the switch, but if you wanted a faster, more future-proof card, you can go U3 (in case you think you might use the card for something else later in the future)(Otherwise, you can ignore the U3 cards for the Switch).

@WoomyNNYes

Thanks for the tips! I got me another SD card ordered and this time from Amazon. Hopefully it goes well now. As much as I'd love a 1 terrabyte i don't think I'm quite loaded enough to be dropping over a hundred dollars on one. It was rather infuriating the way that first SD card I bought was acting. My switch was having major fits with games refusing to download and getting corrupted files left and right. I don't know what i was thinking buying from eBay. I guess i was trying to go as cheap as possible and I got what I paid for. Lesson learned I suppose.

@Truegamer79 Normally, when people have gotten bogus cards, the issue is the card doesn't have the advertised capacity. For example, you buy a bogus 256gb card (for a too good to be true price), and that card will read & display the advertised 256gb capacity in your pc, but true capacity could be 32gb. Once you hit the true capacity, all downloads will mysteriously fail.

@WoomyNNYes
That sounds exactly like what was happening.

@Truegamer79
Yes, I've run into this in the past too.
A Samsung brand microSD card I'd bought on Amazon turned out to be a counterfeit sold by someone on the Amazon marketplace. When I went to fill it with data using my PC, data would disappear as I kept loading it, and quickly realised that it was a very low capacity microSD card falsely reporting that it was high capacity.

Always be very careful about where you buy microSD cards from, even if it's on Amazon.
Make sure you check who you're buying from when shopping on Amazon, it can often be a marketplace seller rather than Amazon or the brand manufacturer directly.

I'm guessing the 1TB microSD card you ordered had a "too good to be true" price?
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08HCPTMJG
Right now you can get a genuine 1TB microSD for $125, and it's had a historic low price of $109.99.
It's not a high performance microSD mind you, but Nintendo Switch only supports up to UHS-1 (104MB/s) speed anyway, so this particular microSD is very well suited to the Switch.
This is something to keep in mind when shopping for microSD cards for a variety of devices.

@RupeeClock

Yeah that price was too good to be true. It was like 15 dollars. I should have known. I'm not too savy on what is a reasonable price for these cards is.

Another tip.
If it sounds too good to be true then it is. But also report it to Amazon that the seller is selling fake SD cards to prevent others buyers from that trap as well.