SDC / Whatever it is saying now / GoPro SD ERR and NO SD

GoPro · HERO · SD ERR · NO SD · SD card error · V30 · A2 · counterfeit · back up before you proceed · clip cut short

GoPro SD ERR and NO SD. GoPro's own page says to back up before the format. Here is how, when the camera will not let you.

A GoPro shows SD ERR when it has a card it cannot use and NO SD when it cannot see one, and the camera's support page for the two says that the camera cannot properly communicate with the SD card. Its remedy is to format the card in the camera, and it says first, in its own words, that to prevent loss of footage you should back up any pictures and videos before you proceed, because the format wipes the SD card clean of all data. That is the whole of the advice this page adds to: do the backing up first, by every means, and only then let anyone format anything. Behind SD ERR are four usual causes. A card the camera is too fast for, which errors on write at high bitrates; a counterfeit, which works until the real flash is full; a card worn out by years of use, which errors on write or locks itself read-only; and tables torn when the battery died mid-clip, which is the commonest and the most recoverable. NO SD on a card that is plainly in the slot is dirty or damaged contacts, a card not seated, or a card whose controller has failed. 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 is doing, and what each cause leaves on the card.

A GoPro writes video at tens of megabytes a second, and it needs a card that can keep up without pausing; the camera's own list of recommended cards is a list of cards that do. A card that cannot, or a card that claims a speed class it does not meet, makes the camera wait, and the camera eventually stops the recording and reports an error. The footage up to the stop is on the card and the last clip is cut short. A counterfeit does the same when its real flash runs out, and a worn card does the same when its spare blocks do. In each case the footage that was written is there and the bench reads it, and in each case the card is not the card to use again.

The commonest cause is the battery. A GoPro that dies mid-clip, or a card pulled while the camera is still writing, leaves the exFAT tables inconsistent, and the camera reports SD ERR on the next start because it cannot mount what it finds. The clip that was being written has no index and will not play even once it is found; it is rebuilt on the bench from a reference clip from the same camera at the same settings. The rest of the card is usually untouched. The camera may itself offer to repair the last file when it next starts, and on a card that reads cleanly that offer is fine to accept; on a card that is slow or dropping out it is one more write.

NO SD on a card that is in the slot is a card the camera cannot see: contacts dirty from a wet housing, a card not quite seated, or a controller that has failed. A computer reader is the test. If it shows the card, the camera's slot or the contacts are the fault; if it shows nothing, the card's flash is read through its test pads, and it is monolith work.

GoPro's page lists the format as the fix because, for the camera, it is: a fresh file system on a card that works. For the footage it is the end. Put the card in a reader on a computer first; if the computer reads it, copy everything and let the camera have its format afterwards. If the computer offers to format it too, send it, and the format can wait until the files are home.

What it says, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →

What you see	The usual reason	Where that leaves you
SD ERR; computer reads the card	The camera's slot, or the card too slow	Copy everything; use the recommended card next
SD ERR; computer offers to format	Torn tables after a dead battery	Image; rebuild; the last clip from a reference
SD ERR; files vanish past a point	Counterfeit	The real flash recovered
SD ERR; the card is read-only	Worn out; end-of-life lock	Copy off now; image in passes if slow
NO SD; computer sees nothing	Controller failed	Test pads on the monolith

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 camera, the resolution and frame rate, and send a reference clip from the same settings if you have one on another card; it is how a cut clip is rebuilt.
Say where the card was bought. SD ERR on a marketplace card under a big name is usually a counterfeit.
Try the computer before the format. GoPro's page says the same.

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-2026-0721JOB LOGGED ✓

A GoPro HERO 12's 512GB card bought online under a SanDisk Extreme label, which showed SD ERR two days into a cycling tour and turned out to have thirty-two gigabytes of flash inside it

The card identified at 512GB and failed every write past the thirty-second gigabyte; it was a counterfeit. The real flash was imaged, the exFAT volume rebuilt on the image for the region that existed, and the clips recovered from it with the last one rebuilt from a reference. Everything the camera had written past the real flash had never been stored, and the owner was told so with the first day's footage in hand.

2 days of 7 recovered: everything the card really held3 days here, and back by post

Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

Take the card out and try it in a reader on a computer
Copy everything if the computer reads it, then let the camera format
Send a reference clip at the same settings
Say where the card was bought

What sets us back

Formatting in the camera before backing up
Letting the camera repair a file on a card that reads badly
Using the card again on the next day of the trip
Running a video repair tool on the original

Questions answered before you commit.

My GoPro says SD ERR. GoPro's page says to format. Should I?

Not until the footage is off it. GoPro's page itself says to back up first. Put the card in a computer; if it reads, copy everything, then format. If the computer offers to format too, send the card.

The last clip will not play. Is it gone?

No. The camera died before it wrote the clip's index. It is rebuilt from a reference clip from the same camera at the same settings, on the image.

The card says NO SD even though it is in. Why?

The camera cannot see it: dirty contacts, a card not seated, or a failed controller. A computer reader tells you which; if nothing sees it, the flash is read through its test pads.

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.

Drone, GoPro and action camera cards →RAW, 0 bytes, or the wrong capacity →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. Until that list reaches you, leave the card in its bag and format nothing.

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