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[D10S]

 I've tried getting help on the PONO site and thru a support ticket to no avail.
Hoping someone may have an answer or had the same issues.

So I just got a new SanDisk 200gb micro SD card for my Pono. I had been having an issue with a 128gb SanDisk card that I just sent to SanDisk for a new one as I assumed I had a bad disk.
 
But the new card did the same thing the moment I put it into the PONO. The screen started to spin the volume bar came on and it sounds from artists to albums to settings etc. untill it goes to a black screen and I have to pull the card and reboot.
 
This card had no files on it yet, straight outta the package. Same thing the other 128gb  card started to do.
 
I do have another 128gb card that works just fine along with a few 64gb cards that work fine.
 
So now I have no ideas what the cause is. Do I spend time putting all my music onto the 200gb card when it may not even work?
 
I am at a loss as to what is causing this. Any suggestions?

[blgentry]

Sounds like maybe the Pono can't read the format of the card.  Try formatting the card as ExFAT and try it again in the Pono.  If that won't work, maybe try formatting it as "MSDOS" FAT (which is really FAT32, but I'm not sure what Windows calls this format these days.)

Good luck,

Brian.

[D10S]

The card is/was ExFat. I use a Mac.
Also the 128gb card that I used for a year also won't play all of a sudden. I erased and reformatted that card to no avail.

[JimH]

Did you try a Google search for similar problems? 

[D10S]

I have tried. Nothing I can find. The card(s) show up and test out fine on my Mac. Just not on the PONO.
Makes no sense to me.

[Magic_Randy]

I've tried getting help on the PONO site and thru a support ticket to no avail.
Hoping someone may have an answer or had the same issues.

So I just got a new SanDisk 200gb micro SD card for my Pono. I had been having an issue with a 128gb SanDisk card that I just sent to SanDisk for a new one as I assumed I had a bad disk.
 
But the new card did the same thing the moment I put it into the PONO. The screen started to spin the volume bar came on and it sounds from artists to albums to settings etc. untill it goes to a black screen and I have to pull the card and reboot.
 
This card had no files on it yet, straight outta the package. Same thing the other 128gb  card started to do.
 
I do have another 128gb card that works just fine along with a few 64gb cards that work fine.
 
So now I have no ideas what the cause is. Do I spend time putting all my music onto the 200gb card when it may not even work?
 
I am at a loss as to what is causing this. Any suggestions?

I use a 200gb MicroSD on my Pono Players (3 of them) with no problem. I also have a Mac. But before using my MicoSD cards I formatted them with a free tool called SDFormatter. This is a tool suggested by users on the Pono forum. They said you should not format the MicroSD cards you are using using the Mac tools.

You can google SDFormatter to find the download site. Use the site from SD Association which is the provider of the software.

[D10S]

I've used the program. First, like I said the one 128gb card I used for over a year and it worked fine. Then all of a sudden it started acting up as described above.
After trying several things I did eventually use that program to erase and reformat the card and the didn't help.
The new card came formatted, but I will try to format it again and see what happens.
The card that went bad first started to give me bad file errors each time I added new albums. Even though the files seemed fine. So I'd have to delete the album file as deleting the individual song file didn't seem to work.
So I thought that may have been the root of my problem until this brand new card with no files on it didn't even work.

[D10S]

So I formatted the brand new SanDisk 200gb card on my Mac, this time in FAT32. Loaded a couple audio files.

Same issue.

I also loaded a 64gb disc that always worked fine. Now it does not. Acts like the 200gb does.

The 128gb disc works just fine.

Makes no sense to me that one card works just fine. The others are suddenly not.

[JimH]

What might have changed?

[Magic_Randy]

So I formatted the brand new SanDisk 200gb card on my Mac, this time in FAT32. Loaded a couple audio files.

Same issue.

I also loaded a 64gb disc that always worked fine. Now it does not. Acts like the 200gb does.

The 128gb disc works just fine.

Makes no sense to me that one card works just fine. The others are suddenly not.

Are the cards that work unchanged?

I'm just guessing, but it sounds like you have a hardware problem. The Pono Player maintains a cache of 3 cards (internal + 2 MicroSD) so that it does not have to scan when a new card is inserted. If you change a card or add an additional card, it causes a scan of the music.  If my theory is correct, the MIcroSD cards that work are unchanged and are not causing the scanning. New cards or changed cards cause scanning and expose a hardware issue.

[D10S]

Makes sense. I did not realize the internal HD counted as one card. The second then would be the one working. The third being the 128gb that would not load that I sent to SanDisk. Now the new 200gb or any other card becomes the new third card that needs to scan.

So can I assume that the cards are then OK? What can a bad or corrupt file do to the player? Or is that unrelated?

The 128gb that went bad did so after I added new files, after scanning I did get error message of bad file.

I assume that if I add files to the "good" card and the player scans it may stop playing that card as well? Could the same happen to the player if I deleted and added new files?

[D10S]

I noticed on my PONO HAD some odd files. Can anyone explain. Could this be an issue?

[Magic_Randy]

I checked my Pono Player and I have none of those extra files. They are probably related to the errors you are having.

My guess is that the problem is hardware related and not the MicroSD cards. I'd also guess that if you change the contents of one of the MicroSD cards that is working, it will no longer work.

[D10S]

Do I dare delete those files? Not sure if that could repair anything, or make things worse and damage the player itself.

[JimH]

I wouldn't be afraid to delete a tmp file.

[D10S]

I assume they were probably created from the file errors I was getting from the files I loaded on the SD cards.

[D10S]

Backed up the suspect files from the PONO. Erased them from the PONO.
Loaded the brand new 200gb card, same issue. Loaded a different 64gv card, same issue. Loaded the 128gb card, loaded just fine.

So it seems when the PONO goes into scanning mode, even with an empty new card, it goes into this crazy mode where it will not load the card and then goes to black and requires either a reboot or the card to be removed.

[JWLaviguer]

Backed up the suspect files from the PONO. Erased them from the PONO.
Loaded the brand new 200gb card, same issue. Loaded a different 64gv card, same issue. Loaded the 128gb card, loaded just fine.

So it seems when the PONO goes into scanning mode, even with an empty new card, it goes into this crazy mode where it will not load the card and then goes to black and requires either a reboot or the card to be removed.

I never did use the 64gb microSD card the player came with; I went from a 128, to a 200, now a 256gb card, and have never had a problem with any of them.  Sounds very frustrating, what you're going through, and I wish you luck!

[D10S]

So I just tried loading a 64gb card that has music on it that has played fine in the past.
Once I put the card in it won't even get to the scanning mode, it immediately begins spinning the screen and then goes to black. Just like with the 200gb card and the others I've tried to load.
I put the good 128gb card back in, it scans for a second and then loads just fine.
I've been listening to it most of the day, the files on the PONO and the SD card all play and sound fine.
It just will not allow me to load any cards other than the one 128gb card.
I hate to mess with that one or the PONO as they both seem to work OK.

[JimH]

Are you running antivirus software?

[D10S]

I have an iMac with Avast.

[D10S]

Are you running antivirus software?

Are you thinking a virus may be the cause? Or the anti virus software is causing an issue?

[JimH]

Antivirus.

[D10S]

Antivirus.

Maybe. How would it have affected the brand new 200gb card that I tried to load right out of the package?
Or has the antivirus done something to the actual PONO player? Why would the one 128gb card play OK? It too has been plugged into the iMac?

[D10S]

Antivirus.

I may have found a person on the PONO site who had the same issue. PONO replaced a board on the player to fix it.

[JimH]

Maybe. How would it have affected the brand new 200gb card that I tried to load right out of the package?
Or has the antivirus done something to the actual PONO player? Why would the one 128gb card play OK? It too has been plugged into the iMac?

I can't explain other than to say that, any time the computer is reading files, AV software can be a source of problems.  You could read the Antivirus thread (linked from Weird Problems in my signature) to see examples.

[blgentry]

It's rather unlikely that anti-virus on a Mac is causing your issue.  But we know from lots of experience that AV software on PCs causes all kinds of strange problems that you'd never expect.  It's quite surprising.

Generally speaking AV software on a Mac is a complete waste of time, money, and effort.  No one I know that uses Macs uses AV software. Because the threat surface is so incredibly small that hackers mostly don't bother.  Plus the OS is so superior in it's construction that it makes virus and trojan production for Macs extremely difficult and technical compared to windows.  Anyway, do what you want, but AV for Mac is largely dismissed by those in the know.

Your issue is probably related to disk formatting (as I indicated above), or to some other issue like this "internal board" problem that you've referenced.

Good luck!

Brian.

[l8mdl]

Could be counterfeit cards. There are programs on the net to check if they are. Contact Samsung - they've always been responsive to my queries.

[D10S]

I have a few Mac's that I use professionally to edit TV programs and films. Avast is mostly an adblocker for browsers. I used my iMac for music.
The cards were all purchased via B&H, Amazon and Adorama.

[D10S]

Things are leading me to believe the problem is related to the cache in the PONO.

First each card that needs to send the PONO into scanning mode becomes an issue. The one card that does not causes no issue.

Second, I have deleted files from the PONO and the once good card. After deleting them I always make sure to empty the trash on mac before ejecting the player and card. Afterwards the player shows that the album file still is on the player and card, but they don't play. If I plug back into the Mac via the PONO or even just the card in the reader slot it shows that files do not exist on the card or player.

So is the players cache not clearing properly and is seeing files that have been deleted. Ghost files if you want to call them that.

The only thing I don't get is the newly formatted 200gb card with no files on it. Should that one need to scan if there are no files on it? Shouldn't it just load up?

[D10S]

Still waiting for a reply from PONO to fix my player.

 I hoped the issue may have been firmware related and that someone would have come up with a simple fix for me. But I have exhausted all the possibilities that I can come up with. When a brand new card right out of the package even fails to load then I am truly stumped. Unless using PMV on previous downloads has corrupted something internal like the cache or memory and all my cards except one are being rejected by the player. I have tried 5 different cards at this point. ALL of them previously worked in the player prior to PMV. The new 200gb card is the exception. I never got that one to work, but the issue had already started before I got that card. Hopefully someone at PONO can find me a fix soon. I'd love to get back to listening to ALL my music on my Pono. Still the best device I own to hear quality audio.

[D10S]

Since I started having issues with my PONO playing my SD cards recently I am wondering if the issue has to do with the internal memory or cache. Only one of my 6 SD cards will load. That one is I believe, the only one still stored in the players cache. Whenever I load any of the other cards the moment it goes into scanning the player goes crazy, screen spins and flashes then goes black. Only plays when I put in the one cached card or no card.
 
I seem to recall you could clean the cache by changing the theme back and forth or something like that. I worry however if I do that will I then make my only playable card unplayable? Can anyone tell me how the cache clean works again?
 
All of these issues began after using PMV. Before then ALL my cards played just fine. Not sure if it is related or not.

[D10S]

I tested 10 cards on my PC. I ran a check for errors on each card, only one of the ten had any errors. 8 of the ten are cards that had played just fine on my Pono till the beginning of the year. The other two are brand new cards which had not been used yet. I reformatted both of those on the PC. Neither had errors and worked fine on the PC, but neither would load on the Pono. Even without any files on them.

Same with the other 8 cards, none would load on the Pono. I did play audio files on all the cards just fine on the PC. However, I did notice one thing odd. Any files I added to those cards after 2017, most likely using the PMV, those files did not play, some even had duplicate files that would not play. So I deleted those, but the cards still did not play on the PONO. So either the PMV or my iMac did corrupt some files since the start of 2017. However, the SD cards that had no files on them or had no bad files also did not load onto the player.

[JimH]

I want to complement you on your patience and persistence in trying to solve this problem?

Do you have a friend who has a Pono Player?  You could send a card to try.  That might give you a clue.

Can you do a factory reset on the player?

[D10S]

Thanks. I do have a card with music being sent to me to see if it will load. Frustrating
Issue to diagnose.
If I could find a way to clear the cache it might help.

[D10S]

The card I received would still not load onto the PONO. Good news, it did not send the PONO into a crash. But the PONO could not read the card.

[l8mdl]

Report that directly to Phil Baker at Pono using the email he published yesterday on the Pono blog (where you posted today!).

[JWLaviguer]

I tested 10 cards on my PC. I ran a check for errors on each card, only one of the ten had any errors. 8 of the ten are cards that had played just fine on my Pono till the beginning of the year. The other two are brand new cards which had not been used yet. I reformatted both of those on the PC. Neither had errors and worked fine on the PC, but neither would load on the Pono. Even without any files on them.

Same with the other 8 cards, none would load on the Pono. I did play audio files on all the cards just fine on the PC. However, I did notice one thing odd. Any files I added to those cards after 2017, most likely using the PMV, those files did not play, some even had duplicate files that would not play. So I deleted those, but the cards still did not play on the PONO. So either the PMV or my iMac did corrupt some files since the start of 2017. However, the SD cards that had no files on them or had no bad files also did not load onto the player.

I think the fact that you reformatted the cards on your PC is the issue here.  All microSD cards I've purchased work in the Pono straight out of the box.  You shouldn't have to format/reformat these cards at all.  Unfortunately, the Pono player does not have a card format option, so those cards you reformatted will not work on Pono until Pono releases a Pono formatting tool.

[blgentry]

I think the fact that you reformatted the cards on your PC is the issue here.  All microSD cards I've purchased work in the Pono straight out of the box.  You shouldn't have to format/reformat these cards at all.  Unfortunately, the Pono player does not have a card format option, so those cards you reformatted will not work on Pono until Pono releases a Pono formatting tool.

No, that can't be it.  "Straight out of the box" SD cards are formatted as FAT32 or ExFAT.

Brian.

[bob]

One of our test Pono players just stopped working with the microSD cards.
It seems to be either something blew on the main board or there is an issue with the SDCard contacts.

On another topic, does anyone know what the real maximum size card the Pono Player supports?

[JimH]

128GB ?

[PoNoSucks.com]

This has nuthin' to do with nuthin', maybe, just my .02
I also have a Fiio X1 which accepts the same Micro SD cards, BUT NOT THE SAME SIZE, as PoNo.
I started out w/ 64gb cards like everyone else and quickly outgrew them. And grew tired of card swapping. so I migrated to 3 Sandisk 200 gb cards. Never had a failure and they are the real deal, Not Knockoffs. long story longer, My trouble started when I inserted a 200gb card into the Fiio. Fiio X1, I learned the hard way, supports a max 128gb card. weird thing is the 200 worked, until I re-inserted it into PoNo. poof! wiped. Irretrievable. could Not reformat, re-load, NADA, DOA. Luckily Sandisk has a lifetime warranty. ya gotta jump thru some hoops (Magnifier for Iphone REALLY comes in handy for reading the serial # on a micro SD) after several weeks of waiting, and several days of side loading, all was good. I had heard if I would've returned via AMAZON (point of purchase) hoops would've been fewer, and wait time reduced. OFW. live and learn. The Fiio only gets the 64gbs from now on  

[l8mdl]

128GB ?

I use a 200gb SanDisk card and others have reported it will take a 256gb without problems.