[JuiciPatties]

Hi guys,

I hope you can help me with this problem.

This morning I wanted to take a picture while waiting for the train. When I took the z10 out of the holster and attempted to launch the camera (pretty sure it was through the lock screen but can't remember with certainty), I saw this error message pop up quickly. It looked like it said something about failure to switch camera issue, but it happened so fast, I didn't catch it. The phone then rebooted on its own. When it rebooted, I was able to access the camera normally and take the picture I wanted to (or so I thought). When I got home from work tonight, I wanted to take a look at the picture. However, all the pictures on the media card where not there (when picking the "pictures" icon on BB). I shut off the phone, removed the media card and inserted into the card reader of my laptop. I can see the files are there (including the pic I took today) but I am not able to view them on my laptop. Any idea what happened? Seems to have locked my media card, if I was to guess.

In windows explorer, I do see 2 files, which I don't recall being there before, but I may have just not noticed. They are in the root directory and are as follows:
1) .crypt_keystore; and,
2) system_crypt_file.

Any ideas what caused this? And is there a way I can access my pictures again? The latter is more important as you can imagine as there are a lot of sentimental reasons I would like to access them.

[FF22]

Whether or not you can read them, I'd suggest copying them off the card to the laptop if possible.

Do you normally encrypt your sdcard? With the card out, try restarting your system again:

Try a restart:

Press and HOLD both Vol Up/Down buttons. Keep holding while the screen goes fully black (ignore the SCREENSHOT), keep holding through the Black/White logo and when the Colored Logo shows up, release those buttons.

If you have the STL100-1 variant the volume button reset method doesn't work. In that case, Press and HOLD the Power On Button until you see the LOGO as above

Then see if you can read the card. I guess, something could have gone wrong when it was writing the file and its directory/index and that corrupted the card. There are tools that can recover data from sd cards but if it was BB encrypted - that won't work.

[JuiciPatties]

Thanks F2, I appreciate the input and assistance.

My media card is always encrypted as I'm connected to my employer's BES and it forces the encryption. This is going to be very upsetting if I can't get the pictures off there. Had family visiting for the holidays and they just left on the weekend. Sigh ...

Let me try the reset and hope that unlocks it

[nah.uhh]

Thanks F2, I appreciate the input and assistance.

My media card is always encrypted as I'm connected to my employer's BES and it forces the encryption. This is going to be very upsetting if I can't get the pictures off there. Had family visiting for the holidays and they just left on the weekend. Sigh ...

Let me try the reset and hope that unlocks it

I'm wondering what os version you are running?
Type myver to find out.

I remember this (launching camera from lock screen + media card encryption = media card death) being a known issue on some versions of 10.1. I never experienced it myself so I can't tell you if it can be fixed

[JuiciPatties]

... Then see if you can read the card. I guess, something could have gone wrong when it was writing the file and its directory/index and that corrupted the card. There are tools that can recover data from sd cards but if it was BB encrypted - that won't work.

OK ... so here is a weird thing. When using the BB, I am able to see the pictures through file manager. However, when I go through the "pictures" app, it does not show any of those pictures. I have no idea why though. Almost like the whole media card is not mapped to the pictures app; or rather the entire media card is not seen by it.

And of the latest camera pictures I have taken (from last night and this morning), they are actually not showing as thumbnails within the file manager. It is greyed out. But I can open them and see the picture. I still not cannot open any of the pictures by using the card reader on my laptop. I'm having a little more hope now that I am able to see it in File Manager, but I would like to be able to see them through the picture app and transfer them to my computer.

I'm wondering what os version you are running?
Type myver to find out. ...

I'm on a z10 on the big blue carrier in Canada. I don't know where to type "myver" but in the settings, I can see that I am on OS Version 10.2.0.1791 (software release 10.2.0.424).

Thanks for your help guys. Much appreciated.

[FF22]

Sounds like the OS get bunged up. I don't know how encryption works on the card. If you connect the z10 to the computer via usb or using wifi sharing, can you simply copy photos off the card to your computer? If you can, do that now - that way the photos are saved. If you canNOT merely copy, then you can try UNencrypting the card and trying to copy those files off.

Once the files are safely backed up and you can see the images on the computer, then you might want to copy any other data off. Then reformat the card (all data from it gone). See if it seems to work. But backup regularly incase there is a recurring issue.

You might also want to reload the OS using the BBLink Software. And I don't know much about that OS so I don't know if it has issues.

Let's see if anyone else has suggestions.

Good luck with getting the photos visible on another computer/laptop.

[paper_monkey]

Sounds like the OS get bunged up. I don't know how encryption works on the card. If you connect the z10 to the computer via usb or using wifi sharing, can you simply copy photos off the card to your computer? If you can, do that now - that way the photos are saved. If you canNOT merely copy, then you can try UNencrypting the card and trying to copy those files off.

Once the files are safely backed up and you can see the images on the computer, then you might want to copy any other data off. Then reformat the card (all data from it gone). See if it seems to work. But backup regularly incase there is a recurring issue.

You might also want to reload the OS using the BBLink Software. And I don't know much about that OS so I don't know if it has issues.

Let's see if anyone else has suggestions.

Good luck with getting the photos visible on another computer/laptop.

I would definitely connect it to Link and do a full backup. I would also try to use Box/Dropbox to get the photos to a secure 'off site' location so that you know you have them then try reformatting the card as suggested and possibly even a full security wipe, reinstall on the device.

Are you BYOD or once you get the pictures backed up can you hand it off to IT to wipe and re-set?

[darkangle1224]

OK ... so here is a weird thing. When using the BB, I am able to see the pictures through file manager. However, when I go through the "pictures" app, it does not show any of those pictures. I have no idea why though. Almost like the whole media card is not mapped to the pictures app; or rather the entire media card is not seen by it.

How much free space do you have in your internal storage? You might need to free up some space if you're using close to 16GB

Posted via CB10

[nah.uhh]

I would definitely connect it to Link and do a full backup. I would also try to use Box/Dropbox to get the photos to a secure 'off site' location so that you know you have them then try reformatting the card as suggested and possibly even a full security wipe, reinstall on the device.

Are you BYOD or once you get the pictures backed up can you hand it off to IT to wipe and re-set?

A full backup doesn't include the media card encryption key or media card files.
I'd suggest you try to copy and paste the files onto your computer, either via link or via windows explorer. If the photos are not viewable on the pc, try to copy and paste them (using the on device file manager) from the media card to the device storage, it's possible the device will unencrypt them

[FF22]

Unencryption is one of my questions. I would hope that if you copy a file from the card to another location (off the device), it would unencrypt and then copy so that the file is useable on the other platform. But I've never dealt with how the BB handles this issue.

[JuiciPatties]

I guess I will try and transfer when I get home tonight. I just remember that doing this in the past was a slow and painful process. It spent a long time on "discovering" and once it started, it was like the speed was spiking and transferring one at a time, as opposed to in bulk. The transfer rate would start at zero, then jump up and then go back to zero. Then it would do it again, presumably on the next file. It took forever to transfer.

But anyway, I will suffer through it if I can save my pictures. I just hope that it works and completes successfully.

How much free space do you have in your internal storage? You might need to free up some space if you're using close to 16GB

How does the amount of free space impact things? I think you are on to something as I do not have much free space on the internal memory. I have used about 15.7 out of 16GB. I'm curious why this impacted my ability to launch the camera and then corrupt the media card.

The other thing I also noticed is that the past 4-5 times that I actually tried to backup my z10, it actually failed. I thought the issue was with my laptop, but now I'm starting to wonder if it is actually the amount of available space.

Please let me know.

[darkangle1224]

How does the amount of free space impact things? I think you are on to something as I do not have much free space on the internal memory. I have used about 15.7 out of 16GB. I'm curious why this impacted my ability to launch the camera and then corrupt the media card.

If I had to take a guess, displaying images in photo is not a priority when resources are low. you probably download all the apps from the 25 days of Christmas didn't you? I did the same and it took me awhile to debug that issue, I wasn't able to find anything around the forums on it. Just make sure to delete your apps one at a time instead of multiple apps at the same time to delete them properly, that solution was found somewhere in the forums.

Posted via CB10

[FF22]

It might be taking a long time since each image has to be UNencrypted. And if memory space (that is processing space) is very low it might be straining for resources to do that processing.

Let us know how it goes and good luck

[JuiciPatties]

Thanks guys. I didn't have a chance to transfer the files to my laptop. Work issues got in the way. However, this morning I did delete a couple of apps and I now have 14.9GB of 16GB used. Is there a guideline as to what the ideal amount of free space should be? and at what point does it start impacting phone performance? Just curious.

I will attempt the transfer tonight or on the weekend. Blackberry needs to start making phones with higher internal memory (or at least give us choice like they did with the playbook). I'm sure there are lots of complaints on this. 16GB seems really low when you have a whole bunch of apps (and will get worse if you have access to and are installing android apps).

[FF22]

I have no idea about a good memory cushion. What you say is probably right - it should perform even it it gets crowded but that's the ideal world.

Hopefully, you can get those photos off - Imagine WORK interfering with life!!!

[JuiciPatties]

Ha ha ... yes, work continues to interfere with life. Been working this weekend as well. However, I did let the phone sit there and just transfer everything from the media card to my laptop. I think it worked fine.

But i still seem to have the issue of backing up my device. I've tried numerous times. Each time is taking well over an hour (I check in now and then to see the progress) and none of them complete successfully. Somewhere in the process, the backup fails. I've tried over and over again, and have no clue why it is failing. I've backed it up before with the same laptop and didn't have any problems. Any ideas why?

[lnichols]

I've had issues with the camera and the memory card. Usually I have to reboot the Z10 and the card is readable again by the Z10. Happens less than it used to.

Posted via CB10

[FF22]

Ha ha ... yes, work continues to interfere with life. Been working this weekend as well. However, I did let the phone sit there and just transfer everything from the media card to my laptop. I think it worked fine.

But i still seem to have the issue of backing up my device. I've tried numerous times. Each time is taking well over an hour (I check in now and then to see the progress) and none of them complete successfully. Somewhere in the process, the backup fails. I've tried over and over again, and have no clue why it is failing. I've backed it up before with the same laptop and didn't have any problems. Any ideas why?

Are you backing up MEDIA? That can take a long time depending on amount/size. I don't back up any media using Link, I do it manually.

Link is not the best or most robust software. Folks seem to think the newest version is a tad better.