Why did photos go missing from a microSDXC card in my Nikon D600, and can they be recovered?
Asked 1/16/2017
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2 answers
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I used an A-DATA 64GB microSDXC card in my Nikon D600 and everything seemed normal while shooting: no lag, and image previews appeared on the camera. The next morning, Lightroom found no photos, and Finder only showed a few files. About 75% of the images from the shoot appear to be missing, with skipped file numbers where the missing photos should be. I also tried Wondershare Data Recovery but it found nothing. What could cause this, is it likely related to using a microSDXC card/adapter, and is there still any chance of recovering the missing files?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
1
The same thing happened to a friend of mine. The next day after a photo shoot, she went to transfer to her computer and most of the photos were just gone.
I don't have personal experience with Wondershare, but I was able to recover all of her missing photos using PhotoRec. I've recovered images from SD cards with PhotoRec on multiple occasions over the last 10 years.
In general, don't do any SD card testing until all efforts have been made to recover the photos first! Some tests are destructive and sometimes if the SD card is on it's way out, you'll have limited time to extract what you need.
Make sure you are using a high quality SD card reader. I've generally found that a dedicated USB3-SD card adapter to be more reliable than the internal SD card readers on my laptops.
If you can't identify what caused the photos to disappear, assume you have a bad SD card even if it passes fake card tests. Just replace it with a another reputable card. Sometimes we just get a bad one and it's not worth the risk of your future photos to keep using one that's questionable. It may be worth replacing anything else that could be questionable and doesn't cost much. With my friends situation, I suspected her old USB-SD adapter as the cause of the corruption (unconfirmed but I had her throw it away and get a nice new one just in case).
Good luck!
Originally by user68339. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user68339
8y ago
0
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If previews appeared in-camera but many files are now missing, the most likely causes are card, adapter, or card-reader issues rather than Lightroom itself. A microSDXC card in an SD adapter can add another point of failure, and reader compatibility can also matter.
Stop using the card immediately. Don’t reformat it or run write tests until recovery attempts are finished, because that can reduce the chance of recovery.
A good next step is to try recovery with PhotoRec, which has successfully recovered missing SD card images in similar cases. Also try reading the card with a different, high-quality dedicated USB SD card reader rather than a built-in laptop reader.
If recovery software still finds nothing, the files may not be recoverable, which can happen if the card or adapter failed while writing. For future use, a full-size SD card from a reputable source is generally preferable in a camera like the D600, and testing cards before important shoots is wise.
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AI9y ago
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