6 Solutions To Fix SD Card Says It’s Full But It’s Not [2023]

While I was looking for SD card errors, I found that there are many users who want the solutions on how to fix “SD card says it’s full but it’s not” or “Camera memory card is full but nothing on it” or Android “external SD card full but no files”.

So, in this post I am going to provide some effective solutions that will help you to solve SD card says it is full but it’s not without losing any data.

Besides, you will get the best SD card recovery tool to restore the deleted or access the data from the SD card. You can download this tool from the below-given button.

Why Does My SD Card Say Full When It’s Not?

When your camera or phone’s SD card says it’s full, you may get surprised why the card shows full when it is empty.

Well, the possible reasons could be:

• It might be possible that files on SD card are hidden or invisible and hence the SD card shows full but no files.
• The SD memory card not formatted properly or correctly.
• Your camera or phone goes wrong.

As per the possible reasons, the ways to fix the “Camera says card is full but nothing on it” or “SD card is empty but says it is full” is clear.

So, now the question is – How to fix the issue of “SD card says it’s full but its not”?

Well, you don’t need to get worried about it. Just Relax! And follow the solutions mentioned to fix/troubleshoot the problem of “SD card says it’s full but it’s not”.

How To Fix SD Card Says It’s Full But It’s Not?

Below I have listed some of the effective and proven methods that will help you to solve SD card says it’s full but no files show up.

So here we go!

Solution #1: Use CMD Command To Fix SD Card Is Full But No Files On It

Connect your SD card to your Windows PC with the use of a card reader.

• On PC, click “Start”, type “CMD” in the search bar, and hit ENTER.

• The command prompt window will open. Now simply type the following command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.*

• Here you have to replace drive letter g with your SD card drive letter name.

Once, the process gets completed, go back to Windows Explorer and open the SD card and you will see that all your files reappear.

Solution #2: Directly Access The SD Card Files

In the camera’s SD card the photos and videos are stored in a folder called DCIM by default. So, if you can try to access the files directly from the DCIM folder. The path for this is G:\DCIM. Here G: represent the SD card drive letter name.

You May Also Read: How To Fix Slow Micro SD Card (Full Guide 2021)

Solution #3:  Connect The Camera/Phone Directly To Computer

Directly connect your camera or phone with card inserted within the device to the computer. This way your camera or phone act as the card reader and it would be possible that you may see all the files.

Solution #4: Show Hidden Files On The Camera/Phone SD Card

Sometimes when the virus infects the card, it itself autorun the command making all the files hidden in the memory card. Hence, you see that memory card is all space being used.

But you can fix it by showing the hidden files on the camera or phone SD card.

Follow the below steps:

• Connect your card to PC.
• On PC, click Start> Control Panel> Appearance and personalization> Folder Option.
• Tap on “View” tab and then checkmark “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and click on “Apply”.

So, those were some effective solutions that you can follow to solve SD card says full but it’s not error.

Solution #5: Format SD Card Properly

Most of the time, it happens that formatting is used to fix SD card errors or disk-related issues. So, if the SD card is empty but says it is full is caused due to the incorrect file system issue then it is better to reformat the SD card to its normal state. Remember that doing so will cause data loss present in the SD card after you format memory card.

So, it is a good option to backup your media files on another storage media, in case even if you get SD card says it’s full but it’s not error, you can restore the files from the backup option. But, if you forget to keep a backup of your crucial files before formatting you can use the best SD card recovery tool.

Here, you can go through the steps to know how to format SD card in easy ways in Disk Management and Windows Explorer individually.

In Disk Management

First of all, you have to enter Disk Management, you have to find the SD card and then choose Format option from the right-click menu.

Next, you have to make some settings for the formatting and then click the option ‘ÓK’ to continue the operation in the small pop-up window.

In Windows Explorer

Firstly, you have to right-click the SD card and then choose Format option.

Next, you have to choose the allocation and the file system, input a volume label and then check Quick Format option and then lastly press the button ‘Start’.

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Solution #6: Restore SD Card To Its Full Capacity Using CMD Option

Command prompt is actually capable of several things regarding computer administration but if you don’t know, it is also capable to restore the SD card to its original capacity. Follow the steps below to restore SD card to its full capacity:

• First of all, you have to open the command prompt as an administrator on the Windows PC by simply clicking the ‘Start’ option and then type there ‘cmd’ followed by a right-click.
• Now you have to type there ‘diskpart’ in the command prompt and then hit Enter.
• Next, you can type there list disk command, it will then display the list of all the disks connected to the computer and then press Enter after writing the command.
• After this, you can run the command ‘select disk#’ to select the USB disk you want to restore.
• Next, you can then type the command ‘clean’ and then hit on Enter.

• Now, you can show the Diskpart succeeded in cleaning the disk and then make a new partition on the USB drive using the ‘create partition primary’ command.
• After this, in the final step type, the command ‘format fs=fat32 quick’, which will format the freshly created partition to FAT32 file.

After this, you can go to ‘Windows Explorer’ and then check if the SD card is restored to full capacity.

Note: Follow the solutions you want to. But whatever you do, do not format your memory card. Immediately stop using it and do not try to add any new data to it. Because formatting card will erase all data from it and adding new data will overwrite the existing files on it.

Now the question arises – what if all the above solutions fail? How can I recover photos and videos from cameras or my phone’s SD card?

Well, let’s find out the ultimate solutions to recover inaccessible data from SD card that says it’s full but it’s not.

Ultimate Solution: Recover Files From SD Card That Show Full But No Files

Expert Tip: When you get an error “SD card is full but nothing on it”, then you can’t access the data stored within it. So it is highly recommended that you must try SD Card Recovery Tool to retrieve files from SD card showing full but it is not.

If you don’t have a backup or copy of your SD card files, then in such case it is recommended to try this utility to recover files from SD card that says full but it is not. It has the ability to retrieve all sorts of data including photos, videos, and audio files from SD memory card.

With the help of SD Card Recovery tool, you can:

• Extract files from SD card that says it’s full but it is not or SD card full but can’t see files.
• Efficiently recover digital media files such as photos/pictures/images, videos and audio files.
• Support SD memory cards of all types such as SD, micro SD, mini SD, xD picture card, CF card, TF card, etc that says full but nothing on it.
• Support memory card used in the digital camera, camcorders, Android phone, etc

The best part about this SD card recovery tool is that it is available for both Windows and Mac computers.

* Free version of the program only scans and previews recoverable objects.

So, just download this software on your PC and follow its easy steps to retrieve inaccessible photo and video files from all camera SD cards such as Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, etc.

Step 1: Select Desired Location

Firstly, select the drive, external media or volume from which you want to recover deleted media files. After selecting, click on 'Scan'.

Step 2: Preview Recovered Media Files

Next, you can preview the recoverable media files after the scanning process is completed.

Step 3: Recover Media Files

Lastly, you can select the images, audio, video files you want to restore and click on 'Recover' option to save them at the location you want.

Useful Tip: After you successfully recover files from SD card, you must format the card to re-use it again without any issue.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why Does My Nikon Camera SAY Card Is Full?

There could be numerous reasons behind the Nikon camera new SD card says full error. The root causes behind such type of error is SD card isn’t formatted properly, your card might attack by virus, there's an issue in your digital device whether it is camera or phone, etc.

What Do I Do When My SD Card Is Full?

When your SD card says that it is full, apply the below troubleshooting tricks and get rid of this issue:

1. Use CMD Command
2. Insert SD card into another device
3. Directly Access The SD Card Files
4. Format SD Card
5. Use DiskPart command

How Do You Clear A Full SD Card?

If your SD card still full after deleting then you should format your memory card. To do so, you need to connect your memory card using a card reader. After that go to My computer/This PC and find your SD card. Make right tap on it and select the ‘Format’ option. Then choose a file system (NTFS) to and check on Quick Format box >> also tap on ‘Start’ to begin the formatting process.

Conclusion

So, those were some successful and proven solutions that can help you to solve the “SD card says it’s full but it’s not” issue.

Thus, if you do not want to take risk of losing your important and valuable photos, videos, and audio files from the SD card, then you must immediately try SD Card Recovery Tool.

However, you can also take some preventions to avoid memory or SD card errors.