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SDC / Every card, and where it came from / Nintendo Switch, Switch 2 and Steam Deck

Switch · Switch 2 · 2016-0247 · microSD Express · Album · Steam Deck · ext4 · SteamOS

Nintendo Switch, Switch 2 and Steam Deck card recovery. What on the card is yours, what the console can download again, and what Windows refuses to show.

A games console's card is two things at once. Part of it is the console's: game downloads and updates, written in a form only that console can open and available again from your account whenever you want them. Part of it is yours: on a Switch, the album of screenshots and video captures, ordinary JPEG and MP4 files any computer can read; on a Steam Deck, whatever you put there beyond the Steam library, emulator saves and ROMs and your own files. When the console says the card cannot be read, offers to format it, or throws error 2016-0247, it is the second part that needs recovering, and the first part that it is safe to let go. Nintendo's support page for 2016-0247 says that once formatted, the information on the microSD card cannot be recovered, which is true of the console and not always true of the bench. A Switch 2 complicates it with microSD Express, an NVMe card in a microSD shape; a Steam Deck complicates it by formatting its card as ext4, a Linux file system Windows does not show, so that a perfectly good card put in a Windows machine is reported as needing a format. A card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; a card none sees is £299 + VAT; a microSD Express card whose controller has failed is SSD work from £449 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Take the card out and leave it out. Do not format it, however politely the computer or the camera asks. Do not run chkdsk, First Aid, a repair tool or a recovery program that offers to fix the card. Do not keep trying it in reader after reader, and do not put it back in the camera to see. A card that reads a little tonight may not read at all tomorrow; whatever is on it is recovered from an image, and the image comes first.

Console card symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
Switch error 2016-0247The console cannot read the card. The album is usually intact. Say no to the format.Do not delay
Console says the card could not be read, offers a formatThe file system, or a worn card. Say no.Do not delay
Steam Deck card shows as unformatted on WindowsIt is ext4. Windows cannot see it; nothing is wrong.Everyday job
Switch 2 stopped reading the card after an updateA firmware handshake. The album is intact.Everyday job
Games show as corrupted, album fineThe console's encrypted part. Redownload them; the album is yours.Everyday job
Not detected anywhereController failed. Monolith work, or NVMe work on a Switch 2 card.Everyday job
Packing it and posting it: take the card out of the device and leave it out; do not format, do not run a repair, and do not keep trying readers. Put the card in a small anti-static bag or a card case, tape that to a piece of card so it cannot shake loose, and post it in a padded envelope or a small box; a snapped microSD travels with every piece. Send the adapter or the reader only if the card has never worked without it. Use a tracked service and insure it for what the pictures are worth, and know that the posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the envelope is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the envelope in at one of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What is inside, what fails, and what the bench has to do.

What is yours on a Switch cardThe Nintendo folder on the card holds an Album folder of screenshots and captures as plain JPEG and MP4, and a Contents folder of game data encrypted to the console. Saves are not on the card at all; they live in the console's own storage and in Nintendo's cloud for subscribers. So a recovery is a recovery of the album, and the games are a download.
Error 2016-0247Nintendo's support article for the code says the console could not read the card, usually while downloading software, and walks through reinserting, updating and formatting. The format is the step to refuse until the album is off the card. It is the lower band, and a computer reader usually shows the album before the bench is needed.
The Steam Deck's ext4 cardSteamOS formats a card as ext4, a Linux file system, and a Windows machine shows it as needing a format. It needs nothing. Any Linux machine, or a free ext4 driver on Windows, reads it, and a damaged one is rebuilt on the image like any other. The Steam library on it downloads again; the emulator saves, ROMs and personal files do not, and those are the job.
Switch 2 and microSD ExpressThe Switch 2 takes only microSD Express, an NVMe card in a microSD shape. Owners reported cards the console stopped reading after a system update in early 2026. The album is readable in an ordinary reader at UHS-I speed, and a card whose controller has failed is SSD work, priced with CFexpress.

What you see, and what is usually behind it.

Describe yours to us →
What you see What is usually behind it What the bench does
2016-0247Card unreadable to the consoleCopy the album on a computer; image and rebuild if it will not read
Could not be read; format?File system or wearSay no; image; rebuild the album
Unformatted on Windows (Steam Deck)ext4Read on Linux; nothing wrong
Switch 2 stopped reading after updateFirmware handshakeAlbum at UHS-I in a reader; NVMe work if nothing reads
Not detectedController failedTest pads on microSD; NVMe tools on microSD Express

From the envelope arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the envelope and a number on the card the day it is opened, with both sides photographed. The card goes into a reader on a hardware imager that controls how long each read may take, never a laptop slot, and what it presents is read first: its capacity, its identity registers, its file system. That decides whether it is a card a reader can see with a fault in the data, or a card whose controller has stopped, and which band it falls in. The first look is free, and you can stop there owing nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo formats, no repairs, nothing written
02

Imaged, sector by sector, before anything else

A card that answers at all is imaged in full on hardware that limits every read and retries on its own terms, weak areas last, with a map kept of what could not be read. A card that is slow, that drops out, or that has locked itself read-only is imaged the same way, in short passes with the power cycled between them. Nothing is written to the card at any stage, and every later step happens on the image.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastNothing written to the card
03

The flash read through the test pads when the controller has stopped

A card no reader sees is a monolith job. The coating is removed to expose the internal test pads, the pinout is matched against a database or mapped by hand, a needle adapter is fitted, and the raw flash is read out around the dead controller. The scrambling, the error-correction layout and the page and block order are then solved in software, and a virtual image of the card assembled from the raw dump.

Pinout, needles, raw dumpDescrambled and reassembled in software
04

The file system rebuilt, or the files carved, on the image

On the image, the FAT or exFAT tables are rebuilt where they are damaged and read where they are not, deleted entries are brought back, and where the tables are gone the photographs and video are carved out by their own signatures. Video files cut short by a dead battery are rebuilt from a reference clip from the same camera. Every photograph is opened before it goes on the list; a file that will not open is not counted.

Tables rebuilt, or files carvedEvery file opened before it is listed
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not, and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. The files go home on fresh media with the card, tracked, with the postage paid here, and your case stays open until you have opened them yourself.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

What arrives most often

  • Try the card in a reader on a computer first. A Switch album is plain files, and most of the time the computer shows them when the console will not.
  • Say which console and, for a Switch 2, the system version.
  • Say what was on a Steam Deck card beyond the Steam library. That is what cannot be downloaded again.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDC-2026-0709JOB LOGGED ✓

A Switch's 512GB SanDisk card throwing 2016-0247 on every boot, with four years of captures in the album and a console that would do nothing but offer a format

The card read in a reader on the bench with its exFAT volume damaged at the root; the Album folder's entries were intact further down. The volume was rebuilt on the image and the album copied out whole, every capture opened. The owner redownloaded the games onto a new card.

100% of the album recovered2 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Say no to the console's format
  • Try the card in a reader on a computer
  • Note the console and the error code
  • Send the card, not the console

What sets us back

  • Formatting on the console to clear the error
  • Formatting a Steam Deck card because Windows asked
  • Buying a new card and binning this one
  • Running a repair tool on it

Questions answered before you commit.

The Switch shows 2016-0247. Are my screenshots gone?

Usually not. Put the card in a reader on a computer and look in Nintendo/Album; the files are plain JPEG and MP4. If the computer cannot read it either, send it, and it is the lower band.

Can you recover the games?

They are encrypted to the console and come back from your Nintendo account; they are not the job. The album is.

Windows says my Steam Deck card needs formatting. Does it?

No. The Deck formats cards as ext4, which Windows cannot show. Read it on Linux or with an ext4 driver, and format nothing.

What does it cost?

£149 + VAT if a reader still sees the card after the free look; £299 + VAT if none does; a Switch 2 microSD Express card whose controller has failed is SSD work from £449 + VAT. Fixed in writing.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

Nintendo Switch error 2016-0247 →SD Express and microSD Express →You need to format the disk →microSD →SanDisk →

Nothing gets worse while the card is out of the device.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the card in its bag and format nothing.

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Price my jobPacking and posting