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microSD Memory Card for Cell Phone
Update! Click here for the best prices on micro SD cards.
Be sure to select a card size that your phone supports.Many cell phones sold these days tout such features as music players and video recorders. But unfortunately, the amount of storage memory built in to the phones themselves is often insufficient to support these features. The LG VX-8300 comes with a generous 28mb included, which is enough to store several hundred camera phone pictures at medium resolution. But if you're planning on using the phone to listen to songs, or watch movies, you'll want to upgrade. 28mb can only store a handful of media files, maybe a dozen at best.
A 512mb flash memory card will allow you to store 100-200 songs, and a 1GB card will allow you to store twice that. This amount of memory will turn your cell phone into a music player that surpasses even the iPod Shuffle in most respects.
The LG-VX8300 and many other cell phones use the microSD (aka Transflash) format of flash memory card for additional data storage. (NOTE: microSD is a different format than miniSD and regular SD. Only microSD will work in your VX8300.) These cards can be bought for much less than you'd think. A SanDisk 1GB microSD card costs only 39.99 on Amazon, and a SanDisk 512mb microSD card costs only 22.49. These prices are significantly less than what I myself paid just a couple months ago. Both of these microSD cards include an adapter to allow them to fit into regular SD card slots...
The next issue is how to transfer data from your computer to your new microSD card. If you don't want to buy an expensive Verizon USB cable, pick up an SD card reader. At 7.95, they don't come much cheaper than the SanDisk 5-in-1 card reader. Insert the microSD card into the SD adapter, insert the SD adapter into the card reader, and plug the card reader into your USB port. It's a lot easier than it sounds, and it instantly appears as a drive on your PC.
posted by Andy Moskowitz at 9:15 PM
73 Comments:
Your blog is very helpful to new computer users like me.
I do have a question that I was hoping you could help me out on - once the MicroSD card is in the phone, how do you remove it? I have poor eyesight and don't want to damage the card, but I can't seem to figure out how to get it out of the phone now that I've put it in there. I put it in mine to play around but now want to add it to my wife's identical phone (who listens to more music than I do).
Press in on it further and it should click and pop out.
Does a 2gig card work? I heard it does but formats as 1 gig.
You can use a 2 gig card, but you will have to format it on a pc and copy the directory to the card.
my_flix
my_mp3
my_music
my_pix
my_sounds
If you do format the card from the phone. You will have two partition of 1 gig each. Windows XP cannot re-partition a removable drive.
You will need to get a program call CompuApps SwissKnife V3 to re-format the card.
Thanks for the instructions.
When you format on the computer a 2GB MicroSD drive for use in the VX8300 using CompuAdds Swissknife v3, should you format it as FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS?
It's one of the FATs.
If I copy data to my card is Verizon going to do something stupid like charge we data rates for the data I transfer?
No, Verizon won't charge you for putting anything on your microSD card.
Has anyone successfully gotten a 2gb card to use the full 2gb on a LG8300 using CompuAdds Swissknife v3?
Read "You can use a 2 gig card, but you will have to format it on a pc and copy the directory to the card.
"
My card doesn't click no matter how I press on it, so it will not come out of the phone. Any ideas?
You really gotta get your finger in there. Maybe try a pencil eraser? If nothing works, take it to a Verizon store.
I'd like to save ringtones to my card, however once I MMS them to myself and click on "Save as ringtone" it automatically defaults to my phone memory. These are big files too, so I don't want to clutter my phone's 12 megs up with them. Is there a way to fix this and direct ringtones to card memory?
You may have liste this already, but while trying to format the microSD card in the phone: Settings & Tools/ Memory/ Card Memory/ Options/ Format Card: it asks for what looks like a four digit "lock key"
Could you tell me what this is? I saw no lock code listed in either the microSD packaging or the phone's manual.
Thanks, and great blog.
Tom: Ringtones must be in the internal memory. That's just the way it is.
Anonymous: The lock code is probably the last four digits of your phone number. If not, you could try zeros.
Hey, great blog! If anyone is looking to save a little bit of money on microSD cards, head on over to Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010170068+1053118914&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=68
They have 512MB cards as low as $15.49 and 1GB cards starting at $34.99. Newegg is a great site, I have ordered many things from them in the past(DVD Burner, Hard Drives, Graphics Card) and never had a problem.
Andy - regarding the comment about formatting the 2GB card: "You can use a 2 gig card, but you will have to format it on a pc and copy the directory to the card".
I'm good with the formatting part but what do you mean by "copying the directory to the card"?
Someone else said that. I actually don't know anything about using a 2gig microSD card. But I assume they meant that you'll have to copy the VX8300 directory structure to the card yourself, meaning, create the directories my_flix, my_pix, etc.
Got my 2GB microSD card today from VZW. Opened the package, put the microSD card in the SD adapter, put that in a card reader and attached it to one of my computer’s USB ports. It showed up already formatted as a 2GB FAT removable disk.
I then manually created the following 5 folders using Windows Explorer:
my_flix
my_mp3
my_music
my_pix
my_sounds
I then disconnected from the PC and put the microSD card into the phone. Went to SETTINGS & TOOLS 8.3 to check the memory on the card. This is what it displayed:
TOTAL USED -990688 KB
AVAILABLE 1983200 KB
Note that the AVAILABLE is correct at 2GB but the TOTAL USED shows a negative number (in this case about -1GB) when in fact I had not used any of the card (except for a small amount to create the 5 folders).
I then plugged back in to my PC and copied (using Windows Explorer) about 1.7 GB of mp3 files (417 songs) into the my_mp3 folder. The goal was to see if the phone could “see” more than 1GB on a 2GB card.
Went again to SETTINGS & TOOLS 8.3 to check the memory on the card. This is what it displayed:
TOTAL USED 711104 KB
AVAILABLE 281408 KB
As before the AVAILABLE is correct (with about .3GB remaining in this case) but the TOTAL USED is not correct. In fact, it appears the TOTAL USED is about 1GB less than what is really used. I suspect this is due to some ‘hard code’ somewhere on the phone which never expected to see a card capacity greater than 1GB.
I then went to GET IT NOW 1.8 to see if all 417 songs were “visible” to the phone. The only way I know to verify this (without actually counting them) was to PLAY one song and then check the upper right corner of the display where is shows “n/y” where “n” is the number of the song playing and “y” is the total songs. In this case, “y” was equal to 417 so I was satisfied that they all made it and the phone could see them.
Interesting, so it does "see" and play all 2GB, just doesn't display the correct amount of space used. Well, my card arrives Thursday and i'll let you know if i have any porblems or if i need help. Thanks.
I got the micro sd 1gb card for the lg vx8300 and wanted to know if and how to put the music from Itunes on it so I can have it in my phone. I have formated the card in my phone and when i put it in my computer the catagories come up, but I dont know how to transfer the music. Also, can the songs be used for ringtones, or do I have to get the USB cord and work through BitPim??? Please explain... Thanks for all help in advance!
VZ Navigator? Yes, it is compatible. Glad you like the blog.
I had been phone shopping for the last couple weeks due to my old carrier changinh it's pay by the minute charges. I ended up going with Verizon because I got in with my kids' faminly paln. I got the LG VX8300 after much research. Being a noob though I can only answer the one question about the Navigation. They turned that on for free for 30 days and just for grins I used it on the way home. It's amazing! It tells you well ahead of your upcoming turn which way to turn and names the street. When I reached my house it said, "Look to your right now, you have reached your designation." It was right on the money and accurate down to the foot. It costs $2.99 per day (great for one day trips) or $9.99 per month. Air Time does apply while using the feature. It is really a great feature and since a GPS unit costs a couple hundred bucks, it's a good value too.
Daddio
No problem, I've removed the duplicates.
You should be able to just drag and drop songs onto the card, but make sure you put them in the right directory: my_music for WMA and my_mp3 for MP3s, if you've enabled MP3 playback. If your computer is saying your card is locked, make sure that the sliding lock switch on the side of your card (and perhaps card adapter, as well) are slid to the unlocked position. Also try skipping media player and dragging the songs directly into the right directories on your card through Windows. I hope one of these suggestions helps.
Heres my problem, I format the card in the phone then remove it from the phone and put music on the card in the proper folder then I remove it from the comuter and place it in the phone. I go to the memory menu and look at the data usage for the micro sd card and is says 0 for available space and it says 0 for total space. It's like it reformatted itself once I placed it back into the phone, what's going on?
I found some interesting quirks when using Windows media player 10 to synchronize wma's to the phone.
First, WMP copies the album artwork and places it in the phone memory "my_music" folder, even when synchronizing the wma's themselves to the card's "my_music" folder. The album art is then displayed in "manage music" when selecting or playing the album.
Second, on successive synchronizations WMP again copies ALL songs, not just the differences as is done with most players. In addition, I found things like duplicated artwork in the phone's "my_music" folder, some with default 32767 file sizes (larger than the actual file), and some duplicate/renamed wma files in the card's my_music folder after the second and successive syncs.
The only way I found to clean that up is to use bitpim to delete all the artwork files in the phone's "my_music" folder, delete all the content from the card's my_music folder, then resync.
Having the album art displayed during play is nice, but that's about the only benefit I can see to using WMP for synchronization. In all other ways, simply putting files in my_music via the card reader seems the best way. YMMV.
I have a 2GB micro SD card and am playing MP3s, but I find that although the phone can "see" more than 1GB (as an anonymous user posted above), it will not play any MP3s that were saved after 1GB of space had already been used. When it tries to play a song that was saved after 1GB was reached it says "This File Type Is Not Supported." All of my MP3s were created the same way; they are definitely not different. The card memory usage reading is as the anonymous user posted above. As long as the amount used is negative, it plays everything, but when it goes positive, then any song added after that point it won't play. I added them one at a time to be sure.
I wonder if the anonymous user who posted the comments above has been able to play every song above 1GB. Every observation he made is correct, but based on my experience, I think his conclusion is wrong.
Does anyone know of a way around this? I haven't yet upgraded to V2. Does anyone know if that allows you to play more than 1GB?
When I put songs in my sounds folder on my microsd card they don't show up in my sounds on my phone. is there a certain file type that they have to be for it to work?
the blogs on this website are amazing! however i have one question. can i put
the songs on memory card just by connecting the phone to my computer and then drag them on card using bitpim? or there is no way i can do without card reader? thank you
I purchased vx8300 with Verizon Music Essentials kit and 1 gig card. I do not have a reader. Can I use the USB cable from kit to my computer to drag files to card. What is the best way to move mp3 files to the card. Do I need to create folders in advance. Thanks. Great site!
I had a 2 gb memory card, and half the mp3's said, FILE TYPE NOT SUPPORTED. upgraded software to version 3 and all is good. songs are now part of 'my music'. the cool equalizer is gone, tho. no big deal. glad verizon/lg is supporting the phone.
Hi
Can someone let me know if I can have a ringtone for LG VX8300 off the MicroSD card.
I have a microSD 512 for my vx8300 when i put it in my phone it seems to heat the phone up like it is running something. It ends up draining the battery. Also i cant format the card on the phone to use it? Any advice guys?
i have a micro sd card and i want to put music onto my phone. i copy mp3 files onto the card (into my_music) and then put the card into the phone, but it says there is nothing there. i put it back into the computer and the files ARE there. is this due to having the wrong file format for the songs?
The discussion have been useful, thank you.
It would be my pleasure to receive an answer as to "How can one make MOTOROLA SLVR aka L7 access an 2GB microSD card?"
Any help in this reference would be highly appreciated.
Thank you
Just want to say thank you, your blog is very helpful. Much better than the info in the phones manual.
Ive read some of the blog and maybe someone else has run into this problem but Im not seeing it here. well here goes I bought a sandisk 2 gb micro sd with SD adapter. I slid it in the phone just to see if it would recognize the card good so far...
I saw that it had a negative amount of space and a positive and it would've added to 2 gb but I was thinking the phone would format so the negative would go away and it did along with the space it had. I only can use 1 gig on my phone the other gig disappeared and further yet my card reader on my laptop does not recognize the card it sees that there is a drive and that there but it is unrecognizable. Please help me get my other gig back if at all possible. Im using a lg vx8300 from verizon.
Joe: The best solution to your problem would be to take your phone to a Verizon store and have them upgrade the firmware to Version 03. This upgrade supports 2gb microSD cards.
I have just bought a VX8300 and i need some help with uploading songs onto my phone. I also need help as to what accessories i have to buy and from where?
Recently purchased the LG VX-8300, and added the 1 GByte memory. I began by adding both WMA and Flix (GP2) files, using the Sandisk USB adapter, directly to the 1 GB card. In any case, both the music files and videos stall, after playing for various time periods. They may run for 10 seconds, then stall, or 10 minutes. I'm going to exchange the phone (and possibly the memory card), in an attempt to get things working properly. I also noticed that I have version T83VZV01 (rather than 2 to 3). So, that also will need to be addressed.
However, I did setup the MP3 capability, which includes an Equalizer, with my software version. I was amazed at the performance, with the MP3 and Equalizer. However, my phone continued to stall out, regardless of song, or length of play time.
Any ideas for a solution (following my exchange), would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the Blog opportunity!
I recently got my 2gb microSD in the mail. I went right ahead and started adding songs to it via the usb cord to my laptop. I had a lot of problems including a few errors with Windows Media Player but eventually got the songs on there.
Only 1GB of songs show up on the library. Whenever you add more than 1gb and you start your phone's music up it displays "delting from library".
Now that i have read this blog i tried to reformat my microSD in a card reader, and it will only display 1GB. I have deleted everything and reformatted, yet it still displays only 1GB on the card. It is as if i lost 1GB somewhere along the lines. How do i get it back and make it work properly?
Oh...and as a sidenote, my video stopped being able to record somewhere along the way, showing the error: "Recode Start Error"
You probably have the old firmware. (The beginning of this article tells you how to check.) Ask a Verizon store if they'll upgrade your phone, because the new version should support your 2gb card.
Thanks Andy for the help and contribution to this great blog:) Im learning a lot. I just upgraded to firmware 3 and now the 2 gb card is recognized fully by the phone. My PC still doesnt recognize it though. Do you or anyone else think the swissknife program will recognize it? When I put the card and adapter in a SD reader the computer doesnt recognize it. Im getting a new card reader direct from San Disk maybe this will work. I decided to buy the music essentials kit the one with the USB cable. Ive tried to use it and it seems to limit me from creating folders, adding videos, pics, or anything else other than synching music to the phone. If it does send it to the phone will not recognize it being there. I wonder if I have gotten the wrong kit that has been modified only to send music. I wanted to transfer data back and forth but it seems I cant get the phone to recognize the data. Anyway thanks again for all the posts and help Ive been glad I can learn more about this phone.
1ST thanks for your blog very helpful to me and as i see to others. my question refers back to the mp3's i have many mp3's that were exctracted with diffenrt programs exp...old winamp, winmedia, realplayer, musicmatch, stripper, anyways i have put the mp3's on my micro card in the proper folder but the phone does not see content by the way i have lg8300 with kigston micro sd 1gb so i read that some mp3's differ. so which ripper/exctracter does one use for correct type??? when itry to use the mp3 player it gives me player error is this normal??"when it can't read the mp3 files???" rduran7915@yahoo.com for any suggestions
and thank you agian
I just bought a 512mb card for my phone. I can't get the phone to format the card. It keeps telling me formatting failed. The phone also says the card memory is 0 used, 0 available. Even though I just got my phone 10/10/06, it is running firmware Version 01. Should I just take it to a store and have them deal with it?
What are the main differences between firmware versions 01 and 03? Specifically with regard to mp3 playback? I read that the service menu where you enable mp3 support is inaccessible after the upgrade? Can you then not play mp3s and only play wma? Or does v03 by default support mp3? If it does in fact support mp3 does it give added support by using the "My Music" section instead of the "My MP3s" section and allow you to sort by genre, artist, album, create playlists, etc? Are there any drawbacks to v03? Thank you.
Great Blog, I too would love to see an answer to the last question with regard to software upgrade and increased mp3 capabilities or possible loss of mp3 playing capabilities.
I just bought a 512mb SanDisk microSD card with an SD adapter. I put the microSD into the adapter and put it into my computer and transfered music to the card and then i put the card back into the phone and the song is on the phone but it wont play. Do I need to buy Verizon music software package or what? Please help! Thank you!
I am back again and this site is wonderful!
I am using a microsd card 1gb, my pc has a built in card reader. I can see the folders and such but after converting a video clip to 3gp I try to sned it to the card (though the output states for it to go the f: drive my flix) and it starts to trnsfer then tells me card is not ready. It is not locked, and I can copy pics over to it, but wma and sgp files state the same error. Is there something wrong with the card, or my formatting of it?
Thank you for any help.
I have a much simpler question (I'll get to these complicated ones later!). I put the micro card into the adapter, but I can't get it out. The lock is not on, and the usual method of pushing it until it pops doesn't work. How do I get it back out of the adapter??!
(Great blog)
I cant get my phone to play any music. I have done every thing this forum has said to do and I keep getting "PLAYER ERROR" Music is not available. Or if I try the front buttons I get "No songs found in memory". I have a 1 gid micro SD card with adapter. I have formated it. Changed the the MP3 file on the phone and did the MP3 enable thing. What am I missing?
YESSSS everyone. finally i got everything work out on my LG VX8300.
to be sum up for new one
1. download bitpim program to enable your connection between your pc and VX8300 via bluetooth.
2. try to detect your phone by bitpim. this could be confusing a little bit but try to play on it.
3. once it connected. you transfer everything through bitpim and send data to your phone.
4. problem on mp3 is that if you bought your phone and didn't open the v.cast service since the first day. the mp3 mode will be disabled on your phone. so you have to enable it yourself first by
4.1 From main screen press OK and then the number 0 seven times (you’ll see a series of question marks disappear).
4.2 choose #11 (Music Setting). 4.3 Finally, choose Enable mp3.
by this method, you can even use the front bottons on your phone (play, rw, ff)
5. continue enjoying your phone.
btw. if you bought the microsd card, i was warned about the limit of the capacity of the microsd card that can b used with this phone is 1G capacity. So please baware of that. and also you have to format the card first by your phone. go to the setting&tools->memory->card mem->options->format
the lockcode is normally the last 4 digits of your phone no.
one more thing, i just bought the 1G kingston microsd for about 14$ after rebate and google checkout from buy.com :) hope you guys enjoy
If I want to synchronize files from PC to phone, can I use any USB cable? I heard I MUST buy LG specific music package to make it work, and it may cost $30 more??
please advice. thanks...
HI UMM CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO PUT FLIX ON MY 512 MINI SD.
How can i record a video, email it and then delte it - i have tried calling cust tech support and they tell me it cant be done, it's stored and cant be deleted - verizon lg8300
Hi, for some reason, the album art quit displaying on my phone, is this a windows media player problem or the phone?
Hi, great info here! I just want some clarification so I don't go out and buy more unnecessary accessories to get my music on my LG 8300. I bought the phone and got the music "essentials" kit (USB, software, headphones). I was very disappointed to learn that with the software and USB I could load a whopping 3-4 songs into my phone's 28 Mbs of internal memory.
So I need a microSD, got it, nice scam so far. Cha-ching! (How much would it cost LG to put a 256 Mb or 512 Mb card in? $1.50?)
Now, I have the USB, the software to synch. I'm sure there are others out there like me. So, can someone please confirm the following?
-All I need is a microSD/transflash card.
-If I stick to 1 gb, I keep things easy and simple.
-I put the card in phone (if 1 gb)
-Format the card, using the phone settings (last 4 digits of phone number if lock id requested)
-I set the memory settings to store music on the card.
If I use my USB from this point am I good to go? Assuming the new card is just an internal drive for my music files now? And I should never need to take it out.
Do I need a USB reader/writer? Or is that only for 2 Gb microSDs that need folders added?
I can get a 1 gb card on ebay for about $10-20. Should I need anything else (since I already have the USB)? I don't want to get the card and still need other items. I don't want other items I don't need if I just need the card.
Thanks in advance.
Hi, I posted the previous message claiming I could get a 1 gb micro sd card on ebay for $10-20. This may be true after the x-mas rush but these are hot items right now (it's December 18th, 2006). I limited my search to SanDisk only. This may be good or bad, others claim they write faster, but I wanted to play it safe and this is what my Verizon store offers. Because I'm cheap, I settled for a OEM SanDisk 512 mb micro SD card and got one for $11 ($15 with shipping). You'll pay around $34 for the same kit at Staples.
Anyways, I've noticed this thread has slowed down and the techy isn't responding lately. If I don't here from him, I'll post a follow up letting others now how things worked out with my previous post and adding only the micro sd card.
So, in summary for those in a similar situation, I have:
a) LG VX8300
b) music essential kit ($29 at time of phone purchase/upgrade from Verizon)
c) 512 micro sd ($15)
I got music on the phone from my pc just fine using the kit and its included software and USB. That gave me space for 3-4 songs (be warned and spread the word about this, it is unexceptable to sell these phones with such little storage space available).
I'll let you know if I get 10x's that (200-300) successfully with the card purchase only. Perhaps I'll try a 1 gb again, after x-mas, and after I prove I don't need additional accessories to get this working.
What a pain. For future reference, ask if the phone comes with a card and if so, how big is it.
-Chris
i put music from my computer onto a mini sd card and when i put the card in my phone the songs dont show up...iwut do i have to do?
For those of you who are getting a PLAYER ERROR after you've successfully saved your songs to the microSD card.. I just finally figured it out what I was doing wrong. When you rip your songs to the microSD card, DO NOT use folders to organize the songs from each album. The music player will not recongize the folders and I think that's what was throwing the error. All I had to was copy those songs to the microSD card without using folders and the player worked like a charm! Hope this helps!
PS - EXCELLENT BLOG! I WAS ON IT ALL NIGHT : )
is ther anyway to transfer songs from my computer to my phone using bluetooth?
As a Mac user, I was initially disappointed with compatibility of the LG 8300.
This blog has helped tremendously.
I now am able to transfer music and pictures to my LG 8300 using my HP Photosmart 3310 color printer.
Summary
-Confirm the lock setting on the micro card adapter is off.
-Enable mp3 usage by pressing OK and the 0 (zero) seven times. Go to setting #11 and enable the mp3 player
-Create a folder called my_mp3 on your card and add songs. Do not use subdirectories.
-Insert card and dance!
Best of luck!
Just to make it simple, can you please tell me what accessories I need to put wma or mp3 songs on phone & to use the songs for ringtones? This is a little confusing to me and if somebody could help me, that would be wonderful. Thanks so much.
Ok, so it seems that we can all agree that upgrading to V3 wil enable you to play MP3s on a 2gig card. However on the blog for getting free mobile web, there was a post saying that the with the new firmware, you can no longer get free mobile web as well as no longer being able to add ringtones through bitpim. Does anyone know if this is true?
Hey,
I just got this phone, and so far LOVE it!!! I only have one question...how the heck can i set an mp3 file as my ringtone WITHOUT having to send it as a text/email...i have the USB to the computer...the things is i CANNOT text anything to or from the phone (blocked). I have a song in mind...if there is ANY way to do this, please post back, i would be eternally grateful :-)
I TAKE MY ? BACK!!! bitpim works wonders, but i have one question, i stored some video on my 1gb microSD...how can i get it onto the computer using the same method as i stated earlier (without texting or emailing). I tried it and it turned it into some wonky format that was 0.0kb (somewhere the file went corrupt) please help!!! and bitpim is the file i am using thanks!!!
PS. addon to that!!! i do not have a media card reader...so if there is anyway to do it without it i would be much appreciative, but if there isn't can you tell me how to do it from there. THANKS EVERYONE!!!
PS this blog is WONDERFUL!!!
Good deal on 1gb microSD cards here. I just bought one.
http://www.supermediastore.com/micro-sd-card-microsd-trans-flash-memory-card.html
is there any way to backup my contact list onto my microSD memory card? Thanks!
ok hers my wquestion once you put a file from your phone to your removable memory(microSD) is there a way to put it back on your cell phone be it picture video or w/e?
lock code is last four of your phone #.
lock code is last four of your phone #
HELP!
I've followed all the instructions on this blog and still get player error. Do I need to be signed up for Vcast service or something before I can play the mp3's I have on the card?
I can see them, but I can't play them.
Thanks!
I've enjoyed responding to your hundreds of comments, but I've finally decided to disable comment posting now that I've created a better alternative. Please use the VX8300 forums for any further questions, where they'll me answered by me, or any number of other helpful VX8300 users.
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