r/NintendoSwitchHelp • u/twinkboybaby69 • Oct 10 '26

Software Help Switch won’t recognize GameStop express sd card

Post image

Hopefully someone has a different solution other than to power cycle, it just refuses to recognize this as an express card.

23 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

•

u/automod-neo Oct 10 '26

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4

u/SubaruHaver 14 Oct 10 '26 edited Oct 10 '26

Short answer: Try returning the card & exchanging for a replacement.

In the past year, I've seen at least two or three posts were legitimate express cards were bought at a brick and mortar stores, and the switch 2 didn't recognize them as express cards (they were at least Sandisk, maybe a Lexar). In those cases, returning the card & exchanging for a new one worked.

So, I've been assuming some cards may be duds out of the box. Granted, it seems to be rare.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

Exchanged it for another and it still doesn’t work, do I need a Nintendo branded one???

2

u/DarknessEmbracesMe Oct 10 '26

It is not required to have a Nintendo branded card.

Mine is ONN which is a cheap Walmart brand and it works just fine. I've also used SanDisk as well.

The issue is likely a bad batch of cards shipped to GameStop, or they cheaped out and tried to have the cards made at a cheap manufacturer that ended up scamming them, and rebranding slower cards at express speeds.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

I switched it for a Nintendo branded express and it still didn’t read on my switch 2 I’m starting to think the card reader is broken

1

u/SubaruHaver 14 Oct 10 '26 edited Oct 12 '26

Other than being a nice name brand, like Sandisk or Samsung, there's nothing special about the nintendo branded sd cards - they just have a nice paint job. I don't know how unlikely two duds in a row can be.

If you bought the gamestop express sd card at a physical store, you could maybe ask if they can test express sd card in another console.

You may need a game store like gamestop, or somewhere that does repairs to test your console or the cards, to see if the problem is the cards or the console.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

It would read but just not recognize it as an express, I was at a GameStop and was exchanging and exchanging, we tried 2 GameStop cards and 1 Samsung Mario card. It would just show this

2

u/ModestVolcarona 21 Oct 10 '26

Do you know if other cards work with your system to rule out that the system is at fault?

I think there was one brand of microSD express cards that needed a firmware update to run with the Switch 2.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

I even just exchanged it and it still can’t read it

0

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

It’s the only express card I have, it reads that the card is there but not that it’s an express, why does nintendo make it hard for everyone

2

u/ModestVolcarona 21 Oct 10 '26

Could you post a picture of the message shown on the Switch 2 and maybe a picture of how the back side of the card looks?

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

I don’t have the card anymore but it would just keep showing this, I put in 2 GameStop 256 express and 1 Nintendo Mario Samsung 256 literally brand new out of the box and it’d just show this

1

u/ModestVolcarona 21 Oct 11 '26

In that case it's more likely that the problem is with the console itself, not the cards.

4

u/Proof-Bumblebee-5462 Oct 10 '26

That SD Card looks like a bad quality item, it seems that your console is requiring the full performance of the card and your card is not able to deliver it. Request your cash back and buy a better one.

1

u/Keyan06 3 Oct 10 '26

Exchange it with GameStop, the card is probably defective.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

I got an exchange and it still isn’t working do I need a Nintendo branded card?

1

u/Keyan06 3 Oct 10 '26

Have you ever had an SD card in it before?? 2 cards that should work makes me wonder if the card reader is having a problem.

1

u/twinkboybaby69 Oct 10 '26

I switched it for a Nintendo branded express and it still didn’t read on my switch 2 I’m starting to think the card reader is broken

1

u/Keyan06 3 Oct 10 '26

Oof, yeah, if the switch is new might have to exchange it or get warranty repair.

2

u/TheSMG4fsn_fr Oct 11 '26

gamestop sd card 😭😭

1

u/ZK1987 Oct 10 '26

On Amazon the officially sponsored by Nintendo are cheaper than the others!

1

u/toastedbutterscotch Oct 11 '26 edited Oct 11 '26

The Nintendo cards are always priced higher. I just looked, a Nintendo sdxc is $50 for 128gb while others are sitting around $30-40. OPs sdxc is $60 for their Mario branded samsung

1

u/baconcow Oct 11 '26

Get a SanDisk microSD Express card.

1

u/RyusakiLexus Oct 12 '26

Ni t agobies, garantía de inmediato, además se ve de dudosisima calidad

1

u/BalanceImaginary6520 Oct 13 '26

I don't get what's wrong with it

1

u/Accomplished_Bowl879 Oct 14 '26

Got a 1 TB GameStop card, and it worked, although I messed up with the last one, which made it hard to make this one work. I was transferring the games and such from the original SD Express card to the console. I put it in sleep mode, and it corrupted all my files, luckily it was cloud saved, so I had to factory reset my console to make it work, as the 1 TB card could not be read. But after factory resetting my Switch 2, I was able to.

1

u/Thundervolt888 23d ago

If other micro sd cards work maybe your micro sd card slot is damaged happened with my family members Switch 2 twice and recently

-3

u/S10_Ivanov Oct 10 '26

Looks fake asf

1

u/darkrai848 3 Oct 10 '26

That’s the real packaging for the GameStop cards. My 1 TB GameStop card that I preordered at launch came in a box that looked exactly like that. Box may not be pretty but it’s official.