Member Avatar for lewashby

I'm having trouble mounting my android's micro sd card. When I run lsusb I see the entry for the card

lsusb - > Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 2.0 multicard reader

I have also validated that the device is sdf.

me@mothership ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sdf /home/me/Desktop/mnt/
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdf,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so.

Any ideas? Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

Dani AI

Generated

A couple of common culprits fit the error you are seeing: trying to access the disk node instead of a partition, missing exFAT support, or the card being encrypted because Android set it up as "Use as internal storage" (adoptable storage). Before attempting any fixes, confirm what you actually have.

Run these to discover the partition(s), filesystem, and any kernel clues right after plugging the reader in:

lsblk -f
sudo blkid /dev/sdf*
dmesg | tail -n 50

What to do based on the output:

  • If you see a partition like sdf1 with FSTYPE shown as exfat but mounting still fails and the logs mention "unknown filesystem type 'exfat'", add exFAT support for your distro (e.g., exfatprogs or the exfat FUSE package). Then retry.
  • If there is a partition but FSTYPE is blank/unknown and you set the card up in Android as "internal," it is encrypted and tied to that phone. You will not be able to mount it on Linux; copy files off the phone over MTP, then in Android reformat the card as "portable" storage if you want a PC-mountable card. Note: reformatting erases data.
  • If the kernel log shows I/O or read errors, avoid writes. Image the card first, then investigate: ddrescue to clone, testdisk to locate a lost partition. Only after a good backup consider repairs.
  • As noted, reader/card size mismatches still bite people. If the card is 64GB+ (SDXC), verify your USB reader actually supports it and try another reader or port if in doubt.

Tip: when testing mounts, use read-only first to protect data: sudo mount -o ro <device-partition> <dir>.

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

I've never seen this happen. We must have had dozens of Android devices since 2009. Maybe the card is bad or needs a fresh format.

PS. Adding this with edit. Now I do recall when I tried to pop the 64GB card into an Android that only supported up 32GB. It didn't work. Maybe others have stories to add.

Edited by rproffitt because: Clarifying
Member Avatar for rubberman

Try running fsck on the partition of the sd card. Unfortunately, most use FAT file systems, so you may need to use fsck.fat to fix it.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Do you see /dev/sdf1 in /dev? If so, that is the partition that you need to mount, not /dev/sdf. IE: mount /dev/sdf1 /home/me/Desktop/mnt/

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