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PS Vita memory card issue

Tjamato88

Member
So I picked up my Vita today to play and when I turned it on I got a message saying that my memory card had been unexpectedly removed from the system. I rebooted but now my Vita doesn't recognize the memory card at all.

I swapped cards and put a 16GB in it and it detected that no problem but I'm hoping someone here can help me out because the broken on is a 64GB card and I'll be pretty pissed if it's done for.

Any help?
 

Xenoflare

Member
Unfortunately the 64gb card seems to fail the most, I had to reformat twice since my saves are being corrupted and apparently it's a sign of it dying
 

HotHamBoy

Member
Unfortunately the 64gb card seems to fail the most, I had to reformat twice since my saves are being corrupted and apparently it's a sign of it dying

Noooooooooo.
I never take mine out. Is that good?

I'll have to make sure all my saves are backed up to the cloud...
 

Tjamato88

Member
I tried reformatting but it doesn't seem to detect it even after that. It's hard to tell if it actually formatted it though since it doesn't show up I can't see if the data is wiped or not.
 

Hesh

Member
Something similar happened to one of my Vita cards a few months back where it stopped reading. Try powering off your Vita, insert the card into the slot and keep it pushed in, don't let go to trigger the lock. Now power on your Vita and see if it reads your card, if it does, once it's finished loading release the card in the slot so it locks into place and continue on your merry way. Hopefully you don't have to reformat it like I didn't.
 

blahness

Member
Just saved my 64gb card doing something similar. Started getting errors randomly when launching games or during loading screens within them. I shut down my vita, removed memory card, turned it back on, turned it off, reinsert memory card, and power back on a few times. This caused most of my game bubbles to disappear and in content manager all of my consumed space ended up as System Use. I then ended up doing a database rebuild about 3 or 4 times before everything came back. Once things were back, I performed a format on the card and I haven had a problem at all in the past few months.

I do have a 32gb card that was not recognized at all by the vita and I ended up recovering that one after repetedly booting into safe mode and attempting to rebuild the database and reformat. It took several tries to even have the vita recognize the card, but now it sits in my ps tv working fine!. My suggestion is to not give up and keep trying to recover and reformat.
 

Tjamato88

Member
Cool thanks for the advice. I've been trying all morning to see if I can get it to work but nothing so far. It's pretty disappointing since that was all my games and saves :(
 

Tjamato88

Member
I've called it I think my 64GB card is done. I tried to rebuild the database, reformat the card and restore the system but nothing has worked so far.

I need to find someone else that has a Vita so I can try it in their system to see if another system might revive it then I could upload all my saves to the cloud. I might go over to GameStop and see if they'll let me try it out on one of their Vitas.
 
Had something like this happen to me after I accidentally dropped my Vita from a meter above the ground. I think the system is getting confused about whether the memory card is inserted.

I will also say removing and inserting the memory card helped. I didn't reformat the card. I just started the system with the memory card removed, then turned it off, reinserted the memory card and powered the system back on. It sometimes takes a few times, but it fixed the issue the couple I had it.
 

Nheco

Member
So I picked up my Vita today to play and when I turned it on I got a message saying that my memory card had been unexpectedly removed from the system. I rebooted but now my Vita doesn't recognize the memory card at all.

I swapped cards and put a 16GB in it and it detected that no problem but I'm hoping someone here can help me out because the broken on is a 64GB card and I'll be pretty pissed if it's done for.

Any help?

Sorry to bring bad news to you, but my 64gb card died past week in similar fashion. It appears that Vita Cards get less reliable the bigger it gets.

I just bought a 16gb card and now I carry just the stuff I'm playing or planning to play in a near future.
 

Tjamato88

Member
Had something like this happen to me after I accidentally dropped my Vita from a meter above the ground. I think the system is getting confused about whether the memory card is inserted.

I will also say removing and inserting the memory card helped. I didn't reformat the card. I just started the system with the memory card removed, then turned it off, reinserted the memory card and powered the system back on. It sometimes takes a few times, but it fixed the issue the couple I had it.

I'll keep trying that but so nothing has worked. I'm annoyed I fucked up and didn't have my save data auto-uploading so any saves I have on the cloud are from a year ago :cries:
 

Tjamato88

Member
Sorry to bring bad news to you, but my 64gb card died past week in similar fashion. It appears that Vita Cards get less reliable the bigger it gets.

I just bought a 16gb card and now I carry just the stuff I'm playing or planning to play in a near future.

Yeah I've seen that info online which sucks. It's been awhile since I bought it too so I don't think Amazon will refund me or anything.
 
I can chip in too: Went from an 8GB (launch) to 16GB (2014) to 64GB card (2016) and I've been getting frequent error codes with certain games - including ones I freshly installed on the 64GB card.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted was particularly bad - during gameplay my Vita basically had a fatal error BSOD-style screen where it just randomly went black and showed a primitive low-res, text-only console window style shutdown progress metre. Haven't had it since but I do sometimes get errors where I get sent back to the home screen in a game.
 

scraz

Member
The card that came with my borderlands 2 pack was erroring out like crazy from day one and had to return the whole thing from amazon. Since then it has bean fine and i'm using a 16gb.
 

Ogawa-san

Member
Another owner of a corrupted 64GB card checking in. After wasting too many hours trying to make it work again, I gave up and threw it away. My previous card, a 16GB one that I bought with the Vita, still works fine and never had any issues.

Sorry to be a debbie downer OP, just trying to save you some time and (extra) frustration.
 

Nheco

Member
I can chip in too: Went from an 8GB (launch) to 16GB (2014) to 64GB card (2016) and I've been getting frequent error codes with certain games - including ones I freshly installed on the 64GB card.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted was particularly bad - during gameplay my Vita basically had a fatal error BSOD-style screen where it just randomly went black and showed a primitive low-res, text-only console window style shutdown progress metre. Haven't had it since but I do sometimes get errors where I get sent back to the home screen in a game.

Me too. My 64gb card used to show messages that some games are corrupted out of the box. It didn't bother me much, It wasn't very often, and since I keep my saves sinc'ed I just delete it and download it again. But last Friday, my vita has shown an error message that the card shouldn't be removed and blah blah. It was completely dead.

It's a shame that something so overpriced has such a shitty quality.

Now I have an 8 GB that come with the Vita itself on my PS TV: working fine, nerver had any error. Also, my "new" 16 gb (I bought an used one), works like a charm.
 

Tjamato88

Member
Thankfully I got an awesome Amazon customer service rep and they agreed to refund it for me even though I bought it almost two years ago.
 

Glix

Member
Nice about the amazon rep!

Did you try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser? Old trick that sometimes works.

Edit - I've never had any issues with either of my 64gbs
 

EmiPrime

Member
I need a second Vita memory card (for my PSTV) and this topic has scared me away from getting anything bigger than 16GB. So thanks for that OP, glad Amazon came through for you too.
 

Tjamato88

Member
Nice about the amazon rep!

Did you try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser? Old trick that sometimes works.

Edit - I've never had any issues with either of my 64gbs

I have not. I might try that and see if it fixes the issue. Amazon has 64GB cards still but they're going for $20 more than I paid.

I really wish Sony would drop the prices on the memory cards and the Vita handheld.
 
Same thing happened to my 64. Went back to my 32 that I had since launch and it is still going strong. Convinced there is an issue with the 64 and I am not willing to spend that money again. I really don't need anything larger than 32.
 

Nheco

Member
I have not. I might try that and see if it fixes the issue. Amazon has 64GB cards still but they're going for $20 more than I paid.

I really wish Sony would drop the prices on the memory cards and the Vita handheld.

Unfortunately Sony doesn't give a fuck to Vita anymore.
 

Tjamato88

Member
This has definitely taught me that I need to make sure to back up my saves all the time.

RIP P4G, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Steins;Gate and a bunch of other save game progress :(
 

Tjamato88

Member
You guys, I just ordered my 64 gig card. Stop freaking me out!

I had no problems with it and no errors or anything. I hadn't touched my Vita in a few weeks and when I went to check on it I got an error message and the memory card just stopped working.

Definitely back up your saves regularly and if you get any warning signs return it ASAP.
 
Premium price for a shitty product.
My 32GB card is dying after 1 year and a half of use. Good thing I still have a 8GB card and have everything backed up. Doubt I would ever want to buy another vita memory card though.
 
Me too. My 64gb card used to show messages that some games are corrupted out of the box. It didn't bother me much, It wasn't very often, and since I keep my saves sinc'ed I just delete it and download it again. But last Friday, my vita has shown an error message that the card shouldn't be removed and blah blah. It was completely dead.

It's a shame that something so overpriced has such a shitty quality.

Now I have an 8 GB that come with the Vita itself on my PS TV: working fine, nerver had any error. Also, my "new" 16 gb (I bought an used one), works like a charm.

Yeah, it's really disappointing, the icing on a rather bad cake (to restrain my language...) -- the Vita memory cards don't have the performance to match their price. The corruption issues just round off the disappointing read and write speed. The high speed Memory Stick Pro Duo I got for my PSP has faster read/write performance...

I don't have PS Plus so cloud saves aren't an option for me, but I think I'll pick up a month's subscription and back up saves of all the games I know I'll never play again like the Atelier RPGs and some earlier stuff that I haven't touched in years. It's a shame I went mostly digital on Vita a few years ago, as locally backing up saves for digital games involves backing up the entire game...
 

Intel_89

Member
Premium price for a shitty product.
My 32GB card is dying after 1 year and a half of use. Good thing I still have a 8GB card and have everything backed up. Doubt I would ever want to buy another vita memory card though.

What's wrong with your 32gb one? I bought a 32gb after selling my 16 one and it's still kicking as of today but with these malfunctioning stories I'm getting a bit scared, I should've probably kept that 16gb card as a backup.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
Unfortunately the 64gb card seems to fail the most, I had to reformat twice since my saves are being corrupted and apparently it's a sign of it dying

Man I am so glad that I never brought the 64GB card as I would have been so pissed off and would have sworn off Sony's products as I already have past Sony products breaking down on me.
 
64 GB is definitely prone to corruption, back from the vita thread almost every single memory card that failed was 64gb. I never got one because I kept seeing reports. Imo 32GB is the best to stop at: Doesnt fail near as much and price. Mutiple 32GBs is the only real solution for Vita imo
 

Animekatt

Member
My 64gb card just came in the mail today. It's so disappointing to see the high failure rate for such an expensive item. I always back up my saves to the cloud, so I'll be good on that front.
 

mollipen

Member
*reada thread*

Maybe I'll get a second 32GB card just as back-up... wait they're still HOW MUCH?!

Good Christ Sony.
 

Skyline Owl

Neo Member
My 32GB Sony SD Card (not Vita) did the same thing in my 3DS after about a year and a half. Started to error every once in a while, and then was extremely slow to load anything on it, then it died.

Luckily I buy physical for my 3DS games so I only lost a couple saves and just had to re-download my stuff from the store. Losing them all would have been terrible. =(

It would seem Sony's SD cards might not be terribly reliable.
 

EmiPrime

Member
*reada thread*

Maybe I'll get a second 32GB card just as back-up... wait they're still HOW MUCH?!

Good Christ Sony.

You think it's bad where you are, in the UK all Vita memory cards have been discontinued for over a year. If you don't want to import you have to buy second hand or from resellers at a massive markup.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
My 32GB Sony SD Card (not Vita) did the same thing in my 3DS after about a year and a half. Started to error every once in a while, and then was extremely slow to load anything on it, then it died.

Luckily I buy physical for my 3DS games so I only lost a couple saves and just had to re-download my stuff from the store. Losing them all would have been terrible. =(

It would seem Sony's SD cards might not be terribly reliable.

Sony's products tend not to have great build quality as I had a;

-Sony PS1 memory card stopped working and would prevent the controller from working when plugged in memory card 2 slot.

-PS1 and PS2 controllers wires would get twisted and the pin connector would fall off causing it to shut off at times.

-Sony radio CD player didn't work not long after I brought it so my parents had to get it replaced.

-My folk's Sony Bravia developed a line of dead pixels and the damn thing wasn't even 10 years old as my Dad brought it in 2008, the last TV we had prior lasted a lot longer than the Bravia did.

-My Dad's Sony Vaio laptops would repeatedly shut down when it got hot.
 
What's wrong with your 32gb one? I bought a 32gb after selling my 16 one and it's still kicking as of today but with these malfunctioning stories I'm getting a bit scared, I should've probably kept that 16gb card as a backup.

It stuck at loading screen + a lot of corrupted data error. After reformatting the card, no error so far but it's still extremely slow at loading.
 

Skyzard

Banned
Wake up, check time on my ps vita - "don't remove memory card while in use"

...ok I didn't, I haven't touched the memory card in months or even years.

Nadda. Uses vita's internal memory instead. Won't show up at all. Other cards do.

64GB

Gone, lasted 4 years, barely ever swapped it out.

Should have taken these reports more seriously. Pretty sure I have another 32 lying around somewhere but to buy one now is crazy expensive.

FFS.

Back up your stuff if you're on 64GB card guys. Hopefully it doesn't but the day might come for you. Save games and PSM titles.

----never had henkaku on my 64, or the vita that uses the 64.
 
Noooooooooo.
I never take mine out. Is that good?

I'll have to make sure all my saves are backed up to the cloud...

Had some problems with my 64gb card...it came when I messed around with henkaku...could not start certain games I had preciously bought, installed and played. Had to format the card twice. Been working fine since that time. When the card breaks (hopefully in 5 years from now if ever) I guess I move on to Switch :p
 
I was going to make a whole new thread, but I decided just to post in this topic instead.

My 32 GB card died. Can't get it to read, can't get it to format, as for as it knows, it is a useless piece of plastic that conveniently fits in the memory card slot.

I have had it. Vita is dead to me. I have had my fun times (Tearaway, Frobisher says, Danganronpa, Hatsune Miku and more) but the memory card prices, the failure rate, and how it is a pain in the ass to backup your saves if you don't have PS Plus or card the game physically signals to me that I need to just get rid of my Vita.

In the end, the Vita had great games, but Sony just bungled the memory card situation so hard that it ruined the system for me.
 
Sorry to hear about that, TheShampion. I'd be gutted if I lost everything.

Does anyone know what causes these higher-capacity memory cards to eventually die? Is it heavy write operations?

My 64GB card is still going, but I do worry that I'll lose all my saves one day, and I don't have PS Plus to back them up. If it starts displaying errors is that a cue to do a save backup immediately?
 
I also recently found out that my 64GB card is acting weird. I turned it on for the first time in a few months and there was .... like one game on the card. I had previously had all 10 screens filled up. I haven't messed with trying to fix it. Thinking of selling the whole damn thing. I only bought a few dedicated games for it. Mostly I had PS+ freebies and indies that were on sale. But I actually had a lot of PS1 games I never got around to playing.

Might sell my OLED and get a used slim with a cheaper card and only keep a few games on it. I did enjoy using it as a remote play device on my PS4 but I don't even do much of that any more.
 
Colin Moriarty just tweeted yesterday that he turned his Vita on for the first time since February and all the files were gone. Not a good sign for Vita memory storage in the long term.
 

DrKelpo

Banned
good lord... I opened the thread to possibly help op out, but now I am reading all those horror stories about corrupt memory cards :<
 
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