SD Card Issues with M11/M11M Since Firmware 2.0.2

[hdmesa]

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11 hours ago, lct said:

I know but it works fpr me and it does so for 10+ years with all my cameras and SD cards.

I think they meant that if you want to give people the advice to use SD Formatter application to help resolve SD card issues on the M11/M11M, the quick format is only a half measure regardless of your experience. If someone has an SD card with one or more bad sectors, only the overwrite format will map those out. 

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[lct]

20 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I think they meant that if you want to give people the advice to use SD Formatter application to help resolve SD card issues on the M11/M11M, the quick format is only a half measure regardless of your experience [...]

I'm not trying to give technical advices i'm not competent for, i'm just stating facts as they are, letting readers decide what they want to do. It does no harm to do a quick format in SD Card Formatter and LUF members will see by themselves if it is of any help for them the same way as it is and has always been for me.

[hdmesa]

4 hours ago, lct said:

I'm not trying to give technical advices i'm not competent for, i'm just stating facts as they are, letting readers decide what they want to do. It does no harm to do a quick format in SD Card Formatter and LUF members will see by themselves if it is of any help for them the same way as it is and has always been for me.

I'm not saying there's no benefit to using SD Formatter to do a quick format, I just want to be sure people know that there could be additional benefits to doing the overwrite format at least every so often. And if they're going to take the time to use SD Formatter, they might as well do the overwrite format at least the first time. It only takes two or three minutes depending on the size of the SD card.

[lct]

25 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I'm not saying there's no benefit to using SD Formatter to do a quick format, I just want to be sure people know that there could be additional benefits to doing the overwrite format at least every so often. And if they're going to take the time to use SD Formatter, they might as well do the overwrite format at least the first time. It only takes two or three minutes depending on the size of the SD card.

It takes longer for me but i don't need the overwrite format so far. I have no freeze issues though and i don't give any advice to anybody so to each his or her own. BTW i have retrieved a comparo i used to do 10 years ago on my M240 and M8.2. See the link below. I did no overwrite with SD Card Formatter then as i did not need it either.

 

[hdmesa]

2 minutes ago, lct said:

It takes longer for me but i don't need the overwrite format so far. I have no freeze issues though and i don't give any advice to anybody so to each his or her own. BTW i have retrieved a comparo i used to do 10 years ago on my M240 and M8.2. See the link below. I did no overwrite with SD Card Formatter then as i did not need it either.

 

Overwriting to reorganize the file structure might make a bigger difference on a 256gb card over the smaller older cards. In any case, saying "I never have done X because I never needed to do X and have been fine" sounds just like the people that tell you they don't need to use SD formatter at all 🫣

[lct]

2 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

Overwriting to reorganize the file structure might make a bigger difference on a 256gb card over the smaller older cards. In any case, saying "I never have done X because I never needed to do X and have been fine" sounds just like the people that tell you they don't need to use SD formatter at all 🫣

If they don't need it, why would they use SD Card Formatter?

[hdmesa]

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2 minutes ago, lct said:

If they don't need it, why would they use SD Card Formatter?

SD Formatter is the bell you ring constantly to all who need and don't need alike. Why would you ask me?

[lct]

Seems like your logic is too hard to follow for my old brain so i sugest we agree to differ on this point.

[jdlaing]

SD Formatter didn’t do a thing that a regular hard formatter did using a computer. I think formatting in camera is a must to set the card up to be recognized by the camera so it knows where to deposit the image files. Right out of the package, and formatted in camera, I have never had a problem with an SD card. Using a card that was formatted in a different camera and not hard formatting in a computer was the only problem I had.

[marchyman]

21 hours ago, jdlaing said:

I think formatting in camera is a must to set the card up to be recognized by the camera so it knows where to deposit the image files.

Not a must.  Insert a blank, formatted elsewhere card into your camera and the appropriate folders and files will be created by the camera.  An in camera format is not necessary for that reason.  This has been true on each of the 8-10 digital cameras I've owned.  

I don't know of any reason where an in camera format is necessary.  That may be nothing more than ignorance on my part.

[t00l1024]

A week later after using a Sony TOUGH SF-G64T... No issues. M11M with FW 2.0.2

I now have more SD cards and card space than I can fill. This is a good problem to have.

[jdlaing]

3 hours ago, marchyman said:

Not a must.  Insert a blank, formatted elsewhere card into your camera and the appropriate folders and files will be created by the camera.  An in camera format is not necessary for that reason.  This has been true on each of the 8-10 digital cameras I've owned.  

I don't know of any reason where an in camera format is necessary.  That may be nothing more than ignorance on my part.

I believe they won’t be created unless you format with the camera.

[lct]

Cards (quick) formatted with SD Card Formatter can work perfectly with no further formatting in the camera.

[bkphoto]

Good thing every camera ships with a format feature…

[Stevejack]

I've had a really bizarre issue and I'm hoping someone can let me know what happened here...

So given the corrupt DNGs I have been getting with my SD cards, I have been using IN=SD , so recording DNG files to both the internal drive and the SD card. 

Today I turned on the camera, composed, got my exposure right, and then took a shot of my daughter. It must have been a good 15 seconds after turning the camera on before I took the shot as I was taking my time.  She moved right after that exposure, and I took two more shots, but the first was the keeper.  I then reviewed the shots on the back of the camera and they were all looking good.

I copied the files form the SD card onto my hard drive and imported them into Lightroom, Lo and behold I get the corrupt DNG issue for the first shot that I took (it's always the first shot!).

Ok, so it's the same old issue.

No worries, I know what to do - so I format the SD card in the camera. Then I copied the files from the internal drive onto the SD card. Once this was done, I went to find the corrupted file but it wasn't there. 

Hmmm. Ok, so with the SD card out of the camera I start going through the files on the internal drive on the camera using the LCD screen. The image I want is no longer there. It was there when I reviewed the shots immediately after taking the photographs, but it's no longer on the internal drive. All the other shots are there, but the corrupt image is no longer showing. 

I thought that recording files to the internal drive and copying the files across to the SD card would solve the issue. But the file must have somehow been corrupted on the internal drive as well. That's the only thing I can think of. 

[lct]

8 hours ago, bkphoto said:

Good thing every camera ships with a format feature…

Depends on cameras. I've got no issues with my M8.2 for instance but i could not recover some damaged pic files out of non-Sony cards with my Sony A7s mod. No such issue with my M240 but startup times were 2 sec. too slow. I fixed those issues with SD Card Formatter and since then i format all my cards with it before inserting them in any camera. YMMV.

[Edax]

Today I made MAJOR progress in analysing and finding a fix for the corrupt .DNG on SD file issue that plagued me since installing FW2.0.2 on November 29th.

The fix that seems to work for me so far: “do not put an SD card in the M11(-P) that contains the hidden .fseventsd folder that is re-created by MacOS every time immediately after the card is inserted into the Mac SD reader”.

This can be done in multiple ways:

1. Get rid of your Macs and switch to Windows. No .fseventsd folder. No I am not going this route myself.
2. Always reformat a card before putting it into the M11 (Not what I want in my workflow).
3. Switch the write-protect tab to locked before putting the SD card into the Mac, and switch it to unlocked before putting the card back into the camera. Not exactly nice: easy to forget and these tabs will malfunction one day (as already happened to one of my Sandisk cards).
4. Directly after putting the file into the Mac, open the SD card with Finder, switch (if not already into that mode) to hidden files view mode (shift-command + “.”), and delete the .fseventsd directory. This is what I am going to do myself until Leica supplies us with .fseventsd - agnostic firmware.
5. Write a smart automation that deletes the directory on card insert and post it here.

 

[andybarton]

That hidden folder (or the Spotlight one) might be why I am having a bit of a mare with an external SD USB stick being read by my car.

I have deleted both and will see whether that makes a difference. Thank you.

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[LBJ2]

2 hours ago, Edax said:

Today I made MAJOR progress in analysing and finding a fix for the corrupt .DNG on SD file issue that plagued me since installing FW2.0.2 on November 29th.

The fix that seems to work for me so far: “do not put an SD card in the M11(-P) that contains the hidden .fseventsd folder that is re-created by MacOS every time immediately after the card is inserted into the Mac SD reader”.

This can be done in multiple ways:

1. Get rid of your Macs and switch to Windows. No .fseventsd folder. No I am not going this route myself.
2. Always reformat a card before putting it into the M11 (Not what I want in my workflow).
3. Switch the write-protect tab to locked before putting the SD card into the Mac, and switch it to unlocked before putting the card back into the camera. Not exactly nice: easy to forget and these tabs will malfunction one day (as already happened to one of my Sandisk cards).
4. Directly after putting the file into the Mac, open the SD card with Finder, switch (if not already into that mode) to hidden files view mode (shift-command + “.”), and delete the .fseventsd directory. This is what I am going to do myself until Leica supplies us with .fseventsd - agnostic firmware.
5. Write a smart automation that deletes the directory on card insert and post it here.

 

Interesting. Thank you for posting. Hopefully you emailed this information to Leica support.

First time I am reading this .fseventsd file and took a look. This file is on all my SD and CFExpress Type A cards I use for for both by Sony and Leica M11, SL2 cameras.

FWIW, I do not or have ever had SD card issues with my M11 to date always using on macOS computer. I also use Sony cards which some on this forum seem to think can be an issue. I do see the .fseventhsd folder on my SD cards in the Finder, but again no issues to date. See below for the potential of card corruption issues as you seem to have experienced. BTW, what Mac computer and macOS system are you using? I'm on an M1 Mac macOS Sonoma 14.3.1 

"What’s there to clean on an SD card? ( This article is from a 3rd Party App called Clean My Mac) 

After connecting your card to a Mac, you may have noticed some of these files on it:

.DS_Store

.Spotlight-V100

.TemporaryItems

.fseventsd

What are they? These are files that macOS creates as it works with your SD card. .DS_Store, for example, stores different folder data for the Finder, such as how the icons are positioned. .fseventsd is a log file the system writes when files are deleted or modified. So, at some point, they were useful to your Mac, but not anymore — and they are certainly useless to you. Even worse, they can corrupt your memory card’s performance and cause your camera to lag.

But the most annoying thing about these files is that they are hard to get rid of manually. Formatting the SD card helps, but if you don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater and delete your own files along with the junk — an SD cleaner app is the way out."

https://macpaw.com/how-to/clean-sd-card-without-formatting#:~:text=What are they%3F,files are deleted or modified.

[Edax]

1 hour ago, LBJ2 said:

Interesting. Thank you for posting. Hopefully you emailed this information to Leica support.

First time I am reading this .fseventsd file and took a look. This file is on all my SD and CFExpress Type A cards I use for for both by Sony and Leica M11, SL2 cameras.

FWIW, I do not or have ever had SD card issues with my M11 to date always using on macOS computer. I also use Sony cards which some on this forum seem to think can be an issue. I do see the .fseventhsd folder on my SD cards in the Finder, but again no issues to date. See below for the potential of card corruption issues as you seem to have experienced. BTW, what Mac computer and macOS system are you using? I'm on an M1 Mac macOS Sonoma 14.3.1 

I am also on MacOS Sonoma 14.3.1 on both my M1 MBP and M1 Mac Studio.

Getting corrupted .DNG's started within 5 minutes after installing FW 2.0.2; very easy to reproduce by cycling through "take pictures, card into computer, card back to camera, take pictures, card into computer....". With the fix, which is in the meantime automated by a utility called BlueHarvest, I simply cannot get corrupted .DNG's anymore. Not in IN=SD, not in DNG+JPG only on SD, ...

Let's see if it holds for a week or so, after that I will contact the mothership support.

 

Edited February 26, 2024 by Edax