How do you unlock the photo card?
Why does my camera say "Card Locked" or "Write Protected"?
The basics. In
the same way that the recordings on audio cassettes and VHS tapes
could be protected by breaking off the little tab on the back corner,
the material on a memory card can be protected against being
overwritten. Instead of a tab to break off, write protection is done by
a tiny slider on the edge of the card (opposite the cut corner). Before
the camera will take pictures, it's necessary that this slider on
the card operates a microswitch in the camera, which it will only do if
it's NOT in
the 'lock' position. The slider actually does nothing inside the card,
which is why I don't
call it a 'switch' even though it seems like one. Its only purpose is
to be detected by the microswitch in the camera's slot, and it's the
camera that takes care of the write protection, not the card.
Diagnosis. Obviously
the first thing to do is to check that the slider is
NOT in the lock position. If
the camera is giving you this error in the unlock position, it means
that the slider has
failed to operate the microswitch, or that the microswitch itself is
faulty, or possibly that there's some file system error with the card.
To diganose the problem, it would be really helpful if you could try
two or more different memory cards in the camera and see if just one,
or all of them exhibit the problem.
If only one memory card
exhibits the problem: In this case, it's clearly something to do
with the memory card. Is the slider worn, bent or missing? A missing
slider will write protect the card in the same way that sliding it to
the 'lock' position will. There's another possibility. I've recently
discovered that some
cameras which use
xD-Picture cards also give this error even
though those cards don't even have lock sliders!
Furthermore, some users have reported fixing this error by reformatting
the card. Therefore, I feel it's also possible that your error may be
fixed by reformatting. Before
you do this, make sure that you've copied all you want off the card
and then use the camera's 'format' function to reformat the card. I
advise using the camera for the format function because this guarantees
the correct file system. If you use your computer to format it, you may
easily get the wrong one. However if you need to do it this way, see
which file system is currently in use on the drive before you start. Go
to "My Computer" and right click on the drive which is the memory card,
and choose
"Properties". Examples
of filesystems are "FAT" (probably FAT16), "FAT32" and NTFS; to make
sure your reformat is successful, ensure you use the same filesystem as
before.
If some memory cards work,
and others don't, or the same cards sometimes work but only sometimes:
The slider is really tiny, so it's possible that the number of people
reporting this error is caused by lack of precision in manufacturing
sizes. It must be hard to make a microswitch that can feel such a small
thing. Does a better brand of card work? Can
you bear to simply stick to the better brands, or the ones that work
most reliably? As
a remedy of last resort, you could try wrapping a small strip of
sticky tape over the slider to increase its thickness, but I think this
is a risky solution. There's a risk that the tape will
come off in the slot and cause even more problems, or that the tape
will be so thick that the card will jam in the slot and you'll have
trouble getting it out.
If all of your memory cards
behave in the same way: In this case, it's clearly something to
do with the camera. It could be that the microswitch is broken, or
there's some software error. Although it's less likely, let's cover the
software error first; please find the 'system reset' function in your
settings menu and use it to clear everything. Any good? If not, try the
sticky tape solution in the last paragraph in the hope that it's a
size/fit problem with operating the microswitch, but if that fails
we're out of options really, beyond a repair of that microswitch.
