How To Fix SD Memory Card Not Working In Car Stereo

If you have either a factory or aftermarket car stereo with a SD card reader slot, you can transfer your music files onto a little card and pop it in. This means that you don't have to face the problems with listening to a CD such as skipping from going over bumps or scratches. Also an SD card can be used for navigation to provide the maps date for the headunit. 

1) Now if your SD memory card is not working in your car stereo, you need to ensure that you are using the correct format. This has to be to FAT 32 any other one will simply not be able to get picked up. So recheck yours, if its different reformat your SD to the correct formatting using your computer. If your car stereo is still not reading the SD card then you might need to relook at this problem and troubleshoot on a larger scale.

2) Reset the car stereo. Most have a small reset button found at the back of the panel. If you push this down with something small such as a pin or the end of a paper clip, then it will reset the CD player back to factory settings. We have seen this feature on many Pioneer, Sony, JVC, Alpine and Kenwood car stereos.

3) Clean the memory card. Eject it from the SD card slot on the car stereo. Get a soft cloth and wipe down the connectors and blow inside the card slot. Followed by reinserting it back into the card slot. Restart the car stereo that is not reading the SD card and reattempt playing music from it.

4) Card could be faulty. Try it on your computer using a memory card reader or your friends stereo, if it is also unreadable then its damaged or faulty. This can happen due to cheap build quality, if you are after something that is always relibale then Sandisk is the way to go.
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1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your helpful comments.
    After much experimenting, I eventually succeeded, but only after trial and error.
    The criteria appear to be as follows:
    1. Use an SD disc that is limited to 32GB max.
    2. Format the disc via Fat32; not NFTS
    3.Record music via MP3 and not wav. Re: other formats I don't know, as I've not experimented with these (yet!) and
    4. 'Loading' in the car player often takes some minutes to complete.
    5. My car is an Audi Q5. The system may vary between manufacturers??
    I hope this helps:)

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