MicroSDcard seems to have abnormal expansion capacity
I am using sandisk 128gb xc1 card format with fat32 type.
I am facing an issue after the fw upgrade where the card has stopped working and tapo app shows an error saying MicroSD card seems to have abnormal expansion capacity. Card was working fine earlier.
I have tried everything that is discussed earlier in the community pages like hwtest, reformat, reinsert, even tried to format 32gb only but I have wasted enough time. I can see 256 placeholder files are created on the card but no recording.
I am of the opinion that there is definitely and issue with the FW.
Would appreciate any kind of help here.
Thanks
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What's the H2testw test result? Can you share a picture here?
Please note that all the capacity needs to be tested, if only part of the capacity is verified, it can't tell whether the SD card is an expansion card or not.
How to Verify Fake Micro SD Cards
Expanded SD cards may operate initially but are prone to malfunction over time, particularly in security cameras, which demand high-endurance SD cards for frequent read and write operations.
Furthermore, when inserting an SD card into the Tapo camera, it undergoes a formatting process in FAT32 format and generates index files to store video data. This process reads and writes the entire space of the SD card and checks whether it is valid. If an expanded card is used, it will not be formatted successfully and will not work properly on the camera.
More troubleshooting suggestions for What should I do if the SD card cannot be formatted/recognized?
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What's the H2testw test result? Can you share a picture here?
Please note that all the capacity needs to be tested, if only part of the capacity is verified, it can't tell whether the SD card is an expansion card or not.
How to Verify Fake Micro SD Cards
Expanded SD cards may operate initially but are prone to malfunction over time, particularly in security cameras, which demand high-endurance SD cards for frequent read and write operations.
Furthermore, when inserting an SD card into the Tapo camera, it undergoes a formatting process in FAT32 format and generates index files to store video data. This process reads and writes the entire space of the SD card and checks whether it is valid. If an expanded card is used, it will not be formatted successfully and will not work properly on the camera.
More troubleshooting suggestions for What should I do if the SD card cannot be formatted/recognized?
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Hi @Wayne-TP
Below is the result from H2testw
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 1.01 MByte/s
Reading speed: 2.86 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
I formatted the card with FAT32 for 56 GB by creating a partition (actual card size 128GB). H2testw and chkdsk tools run fine.
Tapo app keeps showing the error asking to initialize first and then throws error about abnormal expansion asking to format. Format takes forever and the cycle repeats. This card was initially working and stopped working after the FW upgrade which makes me think may be its something other than the card.
Wayne-TP wrote
What's the H2testw test result? Can you share a picture here?
Please note that all the capacity needs to be tested, if only part of the capacity is verified, it can't tell whether the SD card is an expansion card or not.
How to Verify Fake Micro SD Cards
Expanded SD cards may operate initially but are prone to malfunction over time, particularly in security cameras, which demand high-endurance SD cards for frequent read and write operations.
Furthermore, when inserting an SD card into the Tapo camera, it undergoes a formatting process in FAT32 format and generates index files to store video data. This process reads and writes the entire space of the SD card and checks whether it is valid. If an expanded card is used, it will not be formatted successfully and will not work properly on the camera.
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Camera has to read the entire space on the SD card, partitioning may cause interference. And there is no need to format the card to FAT32 in advance; the camera will do it once the SD card is inserted.
Please try to delete the partition and reformat the SD card.
Note: When formatting the SD card on the computer, please un-check the default “Quick” option so it can mask out bad cells.
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Hi @Wayne-TP
Thank you for the response. So it appears that if the CARD is 128 GB with real capacity of 64 GB and fake capacity of 64 GB then we can not use the card with Tapo. Ideally if 64 GB is good then it should allow using the same for data and ignore non relevant sectors.
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As a security camera, the data stored on the SD card is crucial. Using expanded SD cards can easily lead to data read or write errors. For example, if the stored file exceeds the actual capacity, the files may become inaccessible or lost.
Furthermore, these cards are often unreliable and have a high danger of being damaged.
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@upl74 I have the same issue. All 6 of my cameras now report the same issue suddenly (they were all working fine until recently). The Alert says 'This microSD card seems to have an abnormal expansion......'
If I click on Format microSD Card then I just get 'Failed to format your SD Card. Please try again later'.
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@Wayne-TP What cant be explained is why did the card work fine for a few days without issues and developed this problem only later. Is Tapo doing something to the card that it goes bad. I inserted 3rd card which worked fine and started giving expansion error. Have bought 4th one and its working fine. Will update if 4th one also goes bad in a few days.
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Hi, did the last card work?
I'm having the same problems, if I replace this card I'll also be on my 4th card.
How do I know I know if my cards will be usable?
I have some tech knowledge, but get easily confused lol
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@Ms11 I'm having the same issue. I have 2 cameras, both came up with the same error message on the same day about a week or two ago. I'm also suspecting that it is the Capo FW update that has something to do with it. Has anyone been in contact with Capo, or does anyone have an update?
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