Why is my SD card write protected?

Justsomeguy0217

Commendable
Jul 22, 2016
1
0
1,510
I'm trying to update a game on my 3ds, but I can't because the SD card is write protected.
I slid the slider thingy up, but it's still write protected.

Please help.
 
Solution
There are a number of things that can go wrong with SD cards and SD card readers in devices. You have to determine which problem you have by doing a little testing.

Test # 1) Can another console or computer read the SD card?
If so, the problem may be with your console, or its card reader. It could still be something about this particular SD card though, and it would be worth moving the file(s) to another card and trying that one in your console.

Test # 2) Card type (I'm not familiar with 3DS consoles but, if you are certain you are using the right SD card type, you can skip this one.
For starters, there are different types and sizes of SD cards, and some devices only read certain types. The quickest way to rule out the...

shooting star

Commendable
Aug 28, 2016
1
0
1,520
There are a number of things that can go wrong with SD cards and SD card readers in devices. You have to determine which problem you have by doing a little testing.

Test # 1) Can another console or computer read the SD card?
If so, the problem may be with your console, or its card reader. It could still be something about this particular SD card though, and it would be worth moving the file(s) to another card and trying that one in your console.

Test # 2) Card type (I'm not familiar with 3DS consoles but, if you are certain you are using the right SD card type, you can skip this one.
For starters, there are different types and sizes of SD cards, and some devices only read certain types. The quickest way to rule out the possibility that you are using the wrong kind of card is to get another card of the same type and size (e.g. SDHC 16 GB, SDXC 128 GB, etc.) and see if your 3DS can read them successfully (there might be no files on them, but you can see or format them, or at least the console doesn't complain about "no media" or "write-protected." If similar cards give you the same message(s), try older or smaller cards (old to new: SD, SDHC, SDXC).

■If none of the cards you try succeed, your 3DS probably has a card reader problem
■If some of them work, your card reader is at least somewhat functional - see if you can move the game update to one of the working cards using a computer, and then try to update the game with that card

As you can see, what you want to determine is if any cards work in the console, and of course, if your SD card is readable on any other device.

Once you are sure that you have the right kind of card for the console, and it is readable by other devices, there are a couple of things that you can try that might "hack" around this problem.

Hack The SD Card

First, to explain what the "slider thingy" is doing. There is a bendable metal strip on the inside edge of the card reader that has a bump on its end. When the card slider is in the unprotected position, the bump will rest on top of the slider, and the metal strip is supposed to bend back and touch another metal contact to close (enable) the card write circuit. Years ago [urlExt=http://www.getflashmemory.info/hack-why-is-my-sd-card-write-protected/]these folks[/urlExt] these folks posted a nice little illustration of what that looks like.

Second, you must realize that here is no "perfect," so everything that is mass produced falls within sizes (tolerances) that the designers decided were acceptable. In your case this applies to both the width of the card reader slot, the card itself, and even the slider thingy. You may simply have the widest acceptable card reader slot, the narrowest acceptable SD card, the thinnest acceptable slider, and even the smallest acceptable bump on the metal strip! In this "perfect storm" your SD card may simply not be wide enough to bend the metal strip far enough to touch the other contact.

If that is the case, there is a neat little hack you can try that works much of the time. Simply put the slider in the unlocked position (toward the side of the card with the metal contacts), and then take a small piece of tape (I like Scotch Magic Tape, it lasts longer without getting gooey) and put it over the slider. Just wrap it around that one edge a little bit, not around the whole card. This will make the slider just a little bit "taller," and it will push the metal strip just a little bit farther towards the contact it needs to touch.

I recently went a little farther with this for my Canon camera, all of which seem to be prone to having this problem. I got real precise and put a tiny bead of two-part epoxy on the outside edge of the slider. It worked great, and it won't peel off inside of my camera or smear tape glue in there. During the glue job I put the slider in the center of the slot so I didn't accidentally glue it to one side or the other. Now that I think about it, I should have just glued it to the unprotected side. Who write protects their SD cards?

Hack The Card Reader

Of course, anything you do inside of any part of your console will probably void your warranty. You may also make your problems worse, or cause new problems. Being aware of that, there is one thing that I've seen in various forums that some intrepid do-it-yourselfers have claimed to have done successfully. Remember the bendable metal strip that gets pushed by the SD slider? They claim that it can get bent up or down in the slot, so that it doesn't line up with the contact, and therefore doesn't make contact when it gets pushed back by the slider on the SD card. The repair process they describe is simply using something like a toothpick to bend the metal strip back to center. Just to be clear, they are not pulling it out into the card slot or pushing it out of the side of the slot; they are bending it up or down so that when you look down the side of the slot it is centered between the top and bottom of the slot.

I know this is coming a bit late for your question, but I hope it provides some help for you and others who search this subject in the future.

All the best
 
Solution