SDC / Whatever it is saying now / Canon Err 02: card cannot be accessed

Canon · Err 02 · Err 04 · Err 10 · card cannot be accessed · reinsert/change card · format card with camera · EOS · R5 · R6 · 5D · 90D

Canon Err 02: card cannot be accessed. The camera's words, the camera's offer, and why the offer is the thing to refuse.

Canon's EOS bodies put it on the rear screen in two lines: Err 02, and Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change card or format card with camera. Canon's own guide to its error codes groups it with Err 04 and Err 10 as card-related, and in the same breath notes that all images and data will be erased during reformatting. The camera is saying that it could not read the card's file tables, or could not talk to the card at all, and offering the only cure it has. The first cause, by a wide margin, is a write interrupted when the battery died or the card was pulled, which leaves the tables inconsistent and the photographs intact behind them; the second is a card the camera is not seeing properly through dirty contacts, a worn slot or a bent CompactFlash pin; the third is a card that has failed. Nikon says its card cannot be used and may be damaged, Sony that it cannot recognise the card and asks whether to format, Fujifilm that there is a card error, and each means the same three things. A card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; a card none sees is £299 + 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
0800 6890668

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.

What the camera tried, and what the three options would do.

When an EOS body starts, or when a card goes in, the camera reads the card's identity, mounts its file system, and finds the DCIM folder it will write to. Err 02 is raised when that fails: the card answered but its tables could not be read, or the card did not answer in time. A camera is less tolerant than a computer; a card a laptop will mount with a complaint may be a card the camera rejects outright, so the first thing to learn is what a computer reader shows. If the computer offers to format it too, the tables are torn; if the computer reads it cleanly, the fault is between the card and the camera.

The three options on the screen are the camera's, not yours. Reinsert powers the card again and asks again; it is harmless once, and a weak card is powered and asked each time. Change card gets the camera shooting on another card and leaves this one alone, which is the right thing for the camera and fine for the card. Format card with camera rewrites the file system, and Canon's note on its own error page says what that does to the images. Most Canon bodies' format is a quick one that leaves the data area alone, and a low-level format option on some bodies goes further; neither should be run on a card whose photographs are wanted. The bench rebuilds the tables on an image instead, and the files come back with their names where the entries survived and with their own dates where they did not.

The physical causes deserve a look before the card is blamed. SD contacts pick up grime and a wipe with a dry cloth restores a card the camera rejected; CompactFlash slots carry fifty pins and a bent one errors every card, and the camera needs a repair while the card is usually fine; a card with a cracked shell can still read on the bench. A card that errors in two bodies and a reader has failed, and its flash is read directly, through chips on a board or the test pads of a monolith.

Other makers word it their own way. Nikon's bodies report that the memory card cannot be used and may be damaged, and show CHA or CHR on the top plate; Sony's say they cannot recognise the memory card and ask whether to format; Fujifilm's show a card error; Panasonic's and OM System's say the same in fewer words. Each is the same fault with the same three causes and the same offer, and the offer is refused the same way.

What it says, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →

What you see	The usual reason	Where that leaves you
Err 02; a computer offers to format too	Torn tables	Image; rebuild on the image
Err 02; a computer reads the card	Contacts, slot, or the camera	Copy the files from the computer; clean the contacts
Err 02 on every card	The slot, or a bent CF pin	The camera needs a repair; the cards are fine
Err 02; no reader sees the card	The card has failed	Chip-off, or test pads
Err 02 after a format was accepted	Tables rewritten	Carve from the image; usually most of it

From the envelope arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →

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

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

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

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

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

From the bench

Say the body and the exact wording, or photograph the screen. Err 02, 04 and 10 are not identical.
Say whether the card was formatted in the camera, and whether the low-level option was ticked on bodies that have it.
Say whether a computer reads it. It decides whether the camera or the card is the fault.

1 in 3 cards that arrive here were formatted, repaired or rescanned by their owner first; nearly all of those would have been the lower band untouched.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDC-2026-0720JOB LOGGED ✓

A Canon EOS R6's 128GB SDXC card that threw Err 02 at a graduation ceremony after the battery died mid-burst, with the parents' only photographs of the walk across the stage

The photographer changed cards and kept shooting, and did not format. The card was imaged on the bench; the exFAT directory for the day's folder had been torn at the burst. The directory was rebuilt on the image from the surviving entries, the last burst of CR3 files carved by signature and dated from their own metadata, and every frame opened.

100% of the frames recovered2 days here, and back by post

Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

Change card, and keep this one out
Try it in a reader on a computer, and say what it showed
Wipe the contacts with a dry cloth if the computer reads it
Send it tracked; the first look is free

What sets us back

Formatting in the camera to clear the error
Reinserting it a dozen times
Straightening a bent CompactFlash pin yourself
Running a repair tool on the card

Questions answered before you commit.

My Canon says Err 02. Should I format the card like it says?

Not before the photographs are off it. Canon's own note says all images and data will be erased during reformatting. Change card, keep shooting, and send this one. It is usually the lower band.

Is Err 02 the card or the camera?

A computer reader tells you. If it reads the card cleanly, the fault is between the card and the camera: contacts, the slot, or a bent CompactFlash pin. If it offers to format, the tables are torn and the card is the job.

My Nikon or Sony says something similar. Is it the same?

Yes. Nikon's card cannot be used, Sony's cannot recognise the memory card, Fujifilm's card error: the same three causes and the same offer, refused the same way.

What does it cost?

£149 + VAT if a reader still sees the card after the free look; £299 + VAT if none does. Fixed in writing, and on most jobs no data means no bill.

Where this usually leads.

You need to format the disk →CompactFlash →SD, SDHC and SDXC →Formatted, or deleted by mistake →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. Until that list reaches you, leave the card in its bag and format nothing.

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