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SD card needs to be formatted every time?

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ben ob

ben ob

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Loving and hating my new Ricoh GR iii. The two hour battery life, for example, I very hate. But the unbelievably sharp images shot from the hip with one hand are to die for

Latest in the hate section is the following issue which I wonder if anyone can suggest a solution to. I shoot with a 64gb card in. Sometimes I like to take the card out and stick it in the Mac and have a little look at what I've shot without importing it. And then the next time I head out, I put the card back in the camera. But with this GR iii, each time I put the card back in, despite having formatted it in the Ricoh the time before, it tells me it's not formatted. So I have to either not shoot until I can transfer the images off, or reformat and lose everything on the card.

Help!
 
That is strange. I know my II doesn't do it. Hopefully someone else can help out here. Curious if you have tried a second card?

--
"Open the pod bay doors HAL"
 
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It is curious indeed

Will try a second card

And meanwhile hopefully the resident genii will come to my aid

--
...and you can come up and see my etchings here ---> www.benowenbrowne.com
 
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I see the logic. But it's still a strange hack and I'll have to remember, and I'm also not going to be able to do anything other than read.

I've got three brands of camera and regularly move cards between them. There's never been an issue before. I have a feeling it's going to drive me absolutely mad
 
I’ve often found in the past that Macs like to put spurious files on removable drives so this could be affecting the Ricoh file system. Are you using a recent version of MacOS?
 
My GR2 does this sometimes. Usually switching the camera off and removing card AND battery and putting them back in solves it.
 
ben ob said:
Loving and hating my new Ricoh GR iii. The two hour battery life, for example, I very hate. But the unbelievably sharp images shot from the hip with one hand are to die for

Latest in the hate section is the following issue which I wonder if anyone can suggest a solution to. I shoot with a 64gb card in. Sometimes I like to take the card out and stick it in the Mac and have a little look at what I've shot without importing it. And then the next time I head out, I put the card back in the camera. But with this GR iii, each time I put the card back in, despite having formatted it in the Ricoh the time before, it tells me it's not formatted. So I have to either not shoot until I can transfer the images off, or reformat and lose everything on the card.

Help!
Click to expand...
 
ben ob said:
Loving and hating my new Ricoh GR iii. The two hour battery life, for example, I very hate. But the unbelievably sharp images shot from the hip with one hand are to die for

Latest in the hate section is the following issue which I wonder if anyone can suggest a solution to. I shoot with a 64gb card in. Sometimes I like to take the card out and stick it in the Mac and have a little look at what I've shot without importing it. And then the next time I head out, I put the card back in the camera. But with this GR iii, each time I put the card back in, despite having formatted it in the Ricoh the time before, it tells me it's not formatted. So I have to either not shoot until I can transfer the images off, or reformat and lose everything on the card.

Help!
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure I could add a file to my SD card and out it back in the GR2 without any problems. And yes – I just confirmed this.

Question. What is your Mac doing to the card, whilst it has it mounted? Have you got any unusual software utilities installed?

Question. To rule everything else out, have you tried removing the SD card, NOT putting in your Mac and then putting it back in the GR3?

--
'I don't take photographs, I delete them.'
Tungsten Nordstein, 2909
 
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You really should lock your SD card before putting it into you Mac to prevent any kind of modification. It’s a little tab on the side of the SD. Put that tab to the lock position. There is a lock icon.
 
I never have and don't get any problems.

one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
 
Tungsten Nordstein said:
one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
tungsten : that's the point

i don't enjoy ANY of the faffing around that my ricoh seems to require of me

it's MEANT to be the super-speedy street cam that you have with you always

in your pocket, ready to shoot

but then you get a message saying "card not formatted" as you go to take a shot

or the battery dies during a two hour walk round the town

it all makes me VERY SAD
 
"it is clear that Mac is F**king up the SD card"

but my 6d doesn't think so and nor does my a7iii
 
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
I never have and don't get any problems.

one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
You should remember to unlock it to put into the camera :-)

that is better than the entire card is not readable losing a the photos. It is clear that Mac is F**king up the SD card.
Click to expand...
I dont think it is clear what is happening, and you are not going to lose the photos as in this case they have just been transferred to the Mac. It's only after that the camera cannot read the card.

I'm not going to go to the trouble of locking the card when it goes into the mac. I've done it this way for 10 years. :)

--
'I don't take photographs, I delete them.'
Tungsten Nordstein, 2909
 
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ben ob said:
ben ob said:
one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
tungsten : that's the point
i don't enjoy ANY of the faffing around that my ricoh seems to require of me
it's MEANT to be the super-speedy street cam that you have with you always
in your pocket, ready to shoot
but then you get a message saying "card not formatted" as you go to take a shot
or the battery dies during a two hour walk round the town
it all makes me VERY SAD
Click to expand...
Can I ask - are you letting the Mac erase the files after it copies them over? If so, try turning that off, perhaps?

Can't help with the battery problem.
 
Tungsten Nordstein said:
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
I never have and don't get any problems.

one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
You should remember to unlock it to put into the camera :-)

that is better than the entire card is not readable losing a the photos. It is clear that Mac is F**king up the SD card.
Click to expand...
I dont think it is clear what is happening, and you are not going to lose the photos as in this case they have just been transferred to the Mac. It's only after that the camera cannot read the card.

I'm not going to go to the trouble of locking the card when it goes into the mac. I've done it this way for 10 years. :)
Click to expand...
 
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
I never have and don't get any problems.

one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
You should remember to unlock it to put into the camera :-)

that is better than the entire card is not readable losing a the photos. It is clear that Mac is F**king up the SD card.
Click to expand...
I dont think it is clear what is happening, and you are not going to lose the photos as in this case they have just been transferred to the Mac. It's only after that the camera cannot read the card.

I'm not going to go to the trouble of locking the card when it goes into the mac. I've done it this way for 10 years. :)
Click to expand...
If op just try one time to lock up the card then put it in to Mac to transfer files, after that, take it out to unlock it put it back to the camera. If it doesn’t not have the need formatting problem at that point, we can say locking prevented the Mac modify the card. It is just the process of elimination to pin point the cause of the problem. If the camera still complain about the formatting, then probably the camera has issue.

I certainly did not suggest everyone to lock the SD as regular practice. Although, I had done couple times myself. As a way to find the root of the problem, I highly recommend to try this. Only a few minutes to try it rather than debating over the forum endlessly. :-)
Click to expand...
Yes I agree - it s good idea to try that. I also suggested removing the card from the GR3 and then putting it back in to see what effect that had, but your suggestion is better.

I've got a hunch the Mac might be messing up the SD card's directory tree whilst it erases the already transferred files. But I may be wrong.

--
'I don't take photographs, I delete them.'
Tungsten Nordstein, 2909
 
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Tungsten Nordstein said:
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
nixon2020 said:
Tungsten Nordstein said:
I never have and don't get any problems.

one think that I don't enjoy is trying to take a photo and realising the card is locked. :)
Click to expand...
You should remember to unlock it to put into the camera :-)

that is better than the entire card is not readable losing a the photos. It is clear that Mac is F**king up the SD card.
Click to expand...
I dont think it is clear what is happening, and you are not going to lose the photos as in this case they have just been transferred to the Mac. It's only after that the camera cannot read the card.

I'm not going to go to the trouble of locking the card when it goes into the mac. I've done it this way for 10 years. :)
Click to expand...
If op just try one time to lock up the card then put it in to Mac to transfer files, after that, take it out to unlock it put it back to the camera. If it doesn’t not have the need formatting problem at that point, we can say locking prevented the Mac modify the card. It is just the process of elimination to pin point the cause of the problem. If the camera still complain about the formatting, then probably the camera has issue.

I certainly did not suggest everyone to lock the SD as regular practice. Although, I had done couple times myself. As a way to find the root of the problem, I highly recommend to try this. Only a few minutes to try it rather than debating over the forum endlessly. :-)
Click to expand...
Yes I agree - it s good idea to try that. I also suggested removing the card from the GR3 and then putting it back in to see what effect that had, but your suggestion is better.

I've got a hunch the Mac might be messing up the SD card's directory tree whilst it erases the already transferred files. But I may be wrong.
Click to expand...
Normally, the Mac should not try write anything to the SD since it is a strictly a read operation. If we can conclude it is not the camera causing the issue through this experiment, the next question would be why the Mac did try to modify the SD card file format. At that point, it would be worth awhile to scan for virus and malware. That is what I would do. However, if it is the camera problem, then this GR III is under warrantee. Got to get it fixed hopefully for free.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible that this particular SD card itself has problem.
 
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thank you all

(i) locking the card DOES work

but (ii) i don't want to have to lock the card because it means i can't act freely with cards like i always have before, grabbing them from one camera, sticking them in another, copying a few files off, deleting to make space on the hoof etc etc

or to put it another way, i don't want ANOTHER thing to think about

i haven't had time to do more thorough testing than this so far (and i also haven't checked to see if maybe this is a situation caused by it being a JESSOPS card rather than a proper sandisk ;) - though i can't imagine it will be) but i will report back when i have.

appreciating the forbearance and interest thus far

--

...and you can come up and see my etchings here ---> www.benowenbrowne.com
 
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