Files and folders vanished?

[Hogweed]

I’ve been using Poweramp happily on my HTC One X+ for maybe a year. I decided I needed a better phone, and got a Samsung S4. Most of them only come with 16GB, but you can put cards in very cheaply, so I got a Kingston 64GB SD.

 

After an entire day of experimenting, I concluded that the card was faulty, as things seemed to keep disappearing from it – music and photos. I got a refund, and decided to buy a Samsung card this time. It seems to be much more stable, but… I copied my entire music library to it (maybe 30GB), and now can’t see half the albums in Poweramp.

 

Here’s the odd things:

 

1. I can see the albums in ES File Explorer on the phone. I’m using Folder View in Poweramp, but the list of albums only goes as far as “E” (it’s alphabetical).
2. The entire bunch of folders were simply dragged and dropped from my HTC to my laptop, then to the Samsung. Nothing modified.
3. I can’t see anything after “E” in the Google Music Player either.
4. If I connect the phone via USB to my laptop, I can not only see all the files A-Z, I can play them on the laptop from the phone, so they’re there.

 

My money’s on the phone being faulty, but can’t understand why ES File Explorer can see them, but the music apps can’t…

 

Any thoughts very much appreciated!

 

 

[andrewilley]

How many files are in a single folder? Sometimes if you put too many at one level you can have problems. I would have said to check the Poweramp Settings > Folders and Library > Music Folders list, but if Google Music has the same issues then that's not likely to be the cause.

Andre

[Hogweed]

How many files are in a single folder? Sometimes if you put too many at one level you can have problems. I would have said to check the Poweramp Settings > Folders and Library > Music Folders list, but if Google Music has the same issues then that's not likely to be the cause.

Andre

Each folder is an album, so typically 10-15 tracks (mp3 files). But I've changed them all very little since Poweramp was playing them fine in the HTC... maybe added 2 or 3 new albums.

[dvhttn]

Not sure how much this helps but I also have an S4 (running a custom ROM at Android 6.0.1 but was also fine at 4.x and 5.x) with 16GB and a 64GB Samsung SDCard. I also 'drag and drop' my MP3 collection from Windows (XP Pro  - usually putting the card into a card reader as it's a lot faster for me with my ancient hardware ... :-(  ). I have 43.9GB of files, split into 551 folders each of which is a seperate album/collection. So basically the same as you except that I have tagged all my files so I don't use 'folder view'.

 

How is your sdcard formatted? I have mine formatted as fat32 and that seems to have solved a few problems with regards to 'seeing files' on - particularly with Android 6.

 

Worth a shot if nothing else works.

 

Dave

[Hogweed]

Not sure how much this helps but I also have an S4 (running a custom ROM at Android 6.0.1 but was also fine at 4.x and 5.x) with 16GB and a 64GB Samsung SDCard. I also 'drag and drop' my MP3 collection from Windows (XP Pro  - usually putting the card into a card reader as it's a lot faster for me with my ancient hardware ... :-(  ). I have 43.9GB of files, split into 551 folders each of which is a seperate album/collection. So basically the same as you except that I have tagged all my files so I don't use 'folder view'.

 

How is your sdcard formatted? I have mine formatted as fat32 and that seems to have solved a few problems with regards to 'seeing files' on - particularly with Android 6.

 

Worth a shot if nothing else works.

 

Dave

 

Cheers… have since discovered that the S4 has major problems working with 64GB cards in general. Samsung and dedicated S4 forums are full of posts about it.

 

If yours works fine with one, lucky you – I’d say you're in a minority.

 

My card is formatted as exFat – no FAT32 option on my computer (did that go after XP?). I guess there’s probably a command line option to force it, but I can’t remember.

 

I’m trying to get a refund on the phone as I bought it specifically because it could take a 64GB card – without that, it’s useless to me. If I fail, I’ll sell it.

 

Going to revert to my trusty HTC One X+ - it has 64GB internally without having to use a card. It works fine – I was only going to upgrade because it can be a little slow at times.

[dvhttn]

Nope, not in the minority. If the phone supports more than 32GB it means it supports the sdxc standard. They go from 32GB to 2TB. Obviously we don't have 2TB cards yet so what happens is the manufacturers support the largest "available" at launch. With the S4 it was 64GB. At the moment you'll find most say 128GB. So, the phone will support more than 64 ....

 

Back to formatting ... I use XP Pro and by default it won't format fat32 on more than 32GB. But look for 'fat32format.exe' on the interwebs plus 'guiformat' (same web site? I forget) and you're away. Seems phones and sdcard formatting can be an issue but formatting as fat32 seems to sure a few problems , even a few on early(ish) versions of marshmallow.

 

Dave

[Hogweed]

Nope, not in the minority. If the phone supports more than 32GB it means it supports the sdxc standard. They go from 32GB to 2TB. Obviously we don't have 2TB cards yet so what happens is the manufacturers support the largest "available" at launch. With the S4 it was 64GB. At the moment you'll find most say 128GB. So, the phone will support more than 64 ....

 

Back to formatting ... I use XP Pro and by default it won't format fat32 on more than 32GB. But look for 'fat32format.exe' on the interwebs plus 'guiformat' (same web site? I forget) and you're away. Seems phones and sdcard formatting can be an issue but formatting as fat32 seems to sure a few problems , even a few on early(ish) versions of marshmallow.

 

Dave

Yeah… I know it’s supposed to. But the consensus on dedicated forums is that generally the S4 has big problems going over 32GB.

 

It’s kind of you try and help me, but I’ve spent nearly 2 weeks now on this, and I’d never trust the phone now, whatever happens. It’s got to go!

 

Cheers