How to Fix a Locked SD Card 

it's 2021 and you still saving people.. bro.. thank you! I was in a middle of a shoot when my SD card broken. And this tips just fix it like a miracle!

Never thought it would be so easy and would actually work. Many thanks bro.

Just keep in mind it's not always a faulty lock switch. The switch on my Sandisk is fine and unlocked, yet the card gives that 'write protected' message when trying to copy to it or to format it.

Dude you are Awesome! This is why you gotta love RU-vid! I’ve called the Geek squad, Apple etc. I have tons of 3D printed items on my SD card and apparently I must of accidentally broke the lock tab on the card and didn’t even know it. Tried your little tape trick and the problem was solved of course after I ordered two new cards! Oh well I still need them! Thanks for this very helpful tip!

I thought I might have to discard a brand new SD card! Thanks! The switch seemed to be working mechanically, but somehow remained locked regardless of the switch position.

THANK YOU 🙌 Quick and easy, right to the point.

Man, you are the hero we don’t deserve! Thank you my guy

You’re a lifesaver!!! This happened to me twice and I went out and bought a new memory card in which I still had memory on the other, this hack definitely worked. Thank you so much.

that’s a like and follow for being so quick and straight to the point keep it ip

After watching people fussing with pieces of plastic and scissors or matchsticks and dangerous blade cutters this is so refreshingly simple. Thanks, we need you.

omg thanks man i was so sad because i didn't want to get rid of this sd card because it has all of my nintendo 3ds stuff, you literally saved so much nostalgia for me, thanks.

Wow, I just fixed a 7 years old Sd card that also missed that small switch. Although, as I always tried to take care of it very much, it should not have become corrupted. I never pushed it or anything. It even had its own case when it was not in my camera. Thanks a lot!!!

Wow, this is brilliant. Thank you so much. So simple and effective. Worked instantly.

I did a photoshoot earlier Today... Noticed when I want to store images the SD lock is complete off. I contemplated how will I explain client what happened to their pictures. Lucky for me I've got to your video on RU-vid.... That's my lifeline. Thank you so much. I managed to get all my pictures.

Thanks,my camera has been down for a week because of a locked card and now its working like new,thanks again!!

I truly appreciate this upload!! Your vid saved me $700 on a new cam not even thinking it was the SD card 😩💗

bro ur a legend

Thank you so much.. I thought i was going to have to buy a new one‼

Wow, so simple, first time I ever encountered that, thank you!

Thank you so much for the info... I was mortified when we tried to use my camera (sd card) for my bday and didn't work. I thought I lost all of my old pictures. You are a life saver.. yay it worked. Thank you again

Oh my GOd, so simple! thanks! thanks for posting and make it the video to the point and short with the RIGHT solution.

Thank you! How did I not remember we used to do this with old cassette tapes (and VHS)?

Thank you for getting straight to the point

Great Video, straight to the point. Thank YOU

Thanks man, the switch in my sd card got stuck IN my camera and this really helped me out. You earned a sub!!! :)

This video is a life saver. Needed to record my RU-vid video and suddenly I see that my card is locked. Still gonna purchase some back up thou just because.

This ended up sort of doing the trick. IMPORTANT tip for those of you out there, there's probably a notch on the other side, tape that too if you can't get it working. If it's still not working...more tape. Otherwise do the Diskpart CMD or Regedit methods you already found on Google. If none of those work then you're SOL. SD cards aren't too expensive anyways, and its not like you lost data because you can still copy of it even if its read-only.

You earned yourself a sub my guy. I did the tape trick and it totally fixed the issue!!!! THANKYOU!

Very helpful. Thank you so much!!

PERFECT video. so easy, so simple, so short. Thank you for this! Helped me a ton

THANK YOU! I was literally freaking out like I have to buy a new one now 😫

Wow! Thank you, this has fixed my zoom h6 sd card from locking itself! thank you!

You just saved my fiancé so much heartache after I found this video. Absolute legend

Thank you so much bro, such a simple fix but it helped alot.

Thank you so much!! You taught me something new today!! 😀😃

This worked like a charm!! Just tape is over the lock switch on the card

Great advice, thank you!!

Bro. You are the GOAT. I’m on my way to film at the Texans stadium and my memory card completely locked up on me

Thanks a lot man! Saved our 128gb card when the switch broke off!

Sorry I know this video is old but thank you so much, everywhere online was telling me to flip the switch but it wasn’t working lol, saved my day, tysm x

Great tip! This came in CLUTCH! Thanks 1,000,000!!!!

THANK YOU! I just spent an hour following various tutorials and nothing worked... I put a piece of tape over the missing lock button and BOOM my SD card formatted. YAY!!!!

Wow! Your're the tops fella! - although I had to paste two layers of tape before my camera operated again. Anyways, 5 years after you first supplied this camera rescuing advise a big, big "Ta-ever-so-Ta" meaning a whole lotta thanx from the UK 💋

Like the old vhs cassette trick tape over where the tab was 👌 brilliant

Man, I can't believe it worked. Thank you so so so much, my champion! Thank god I was almost giving up.

holy crap you actually saved me i had photos and videos from childhood years I kept on a single SD card I kept in a ziplock bag in a safe for years thinking at some point I could access it against cause the lock was broken to realise I just needed tape?? i actually feel stupid now thank you so much :o

Thanks a lot for the tutorial, helped a lot!👌🏼

Another question though if it does work would I be able to use it to record videos because I need the card that a big size SD card to be able to record videos and it won't let me record videos and keeps saying it's locked but I keep unlocking and locking it again and it's not working maybe it will help

Bruh in 2023 this hack still works. Totally amazing,. This is the easiest quickiest best solution when locked error comes up. thanks but as you mention, definitely have a back up sd card.

Man, you're a wizard! Thank you!

well, i needed help on how to get the card out of the packaging it is in after the end of your vid.

It worked! Thanks a million. Before this I had literally tried to pry open the card to find a switch on the inside - to my chagrin, there was no such switch... Tape solves a lot of things.

It works! i was struggling with my SD card since it used to automatically get locked when i insert into my HP Laptop. putting a small piece of tape worked for me! Thanks a lot! :)

This worked like a charm Thanks for posting this .

Really good video Ty, I'm late to sd world, what is the locking switch besides what you mentioned? because I was able to access, write, delete files on it, but when I flipped the switch it gave me no other option but format/deleted everything, but also in the middle of viewing mp4 files on another sdcard it just all sudden couldn't read the files while locked, almost like a signal got sent to it, or maybe it was slow to react to the lock setting.

yoo thanks bro that was a really clever solution!

Saved my LIFE! Thank you!!!

Thank you very much. One of my cameras reads all SD cards as locked when they are not. The tape works.

Thank you! Recovered my 32GB SD.

omg thanks u just saved my life 😨❤❤❤

So helpful! Worked instantly

Thank you SO MUCH for this! May God bless you for sharing this information. :)

you made my day so much easier ,thaaaaaank youuuuuuu

The best solution to this problem ! It works perfectly !!! Thank you !

Nagyon köszönöm, hasznos volt, ujra tudok fényképezni.

you are truly one of the good ones

bro thanks so much almost no one knows that I'm into photography and one day i was using a card reader to get stuff off onto my computer and tried to delete stuff. It said its locked and i am so thankful i found this because my card costa lot of money

Just fixed mine, a great tip 👍🏾

Thanks dude! This helped a lot.

It works! Thank you for the tip ❤

Thank you so much ! subscribed !

Great advice. Make another video now on how to get a stuck and scotch tight card out of your camcoder. Thanks

No words bro... From India Namaste 🙏

Thank you so much bro... Its really worked

Much thanks,,, my slide protection was always sliding down, a simple piece of tape go figure. I even tried a hot glue gun,,, to keep the tab in place,, that only caused tiny bits of glue to end up in the device,,and slightly muddied the receiver. I am glad I didn't F up the receiver to much. So that didn't work,, but your tape method saved the day. thanks

Great and Easy Fix. Thanks mate.

Legend aahe tumhi bhauuu

This hack is weirdly worked... thanks bro

2021 STILL WORKS THANK U

Thanks for the info..........very helpful

Great. Thank you brother for this. 🙏

WOW! That simple! You are Great!!!

Yess, you brilliant man. Thank you!!

Thank you so much Bro. Really helpful.

I think I have a bigger problem. I have done what you recommend and charged three cards but still shows that the cards are locked. Any Ideas what it could be?

Hi, I have a similar issue with my memory card but it has a little switch on it. At first, it said memory card locked so I unlocked it, I still couldn't film anything because it did nothing, I switched it back on the locked position and the same thing happened. I thought something was wrong with the camera (Canon digital Ixus 65) but when I inserted it in my main camera (Canon Powershot A620) I did the same stuff and it still doesn't work. It's in my laptop now and doesn't even show up when I put it in. I've bought this memory card today (Kioxia 16GB) for 10$. I've tried putting 1 layer of tape it didn't work so I tried 1 more still nothing and with the 3rd layer it can't fit into the memory card slot.

Thanks very much. It worked!

Thank you. Answered my question.

Thank you, so easy when you know how!!

Thank you for this helpful video. My sd card lock switch was loose and slips to lock position when inserted to its camera slot. This solution solved it.

This just saved me a lot of grief.

I still have the grey lock part but its saying this same thing and the tape thing is not working for me. Any other suggestions?

It actually worked. Thank you.

Wow this amazing! It worked for me!! Thank you so much!!!

I have a problem..I have a 64gb onn. sd memory card that shows on my camera the memory card is locked. But sadly the switch is not locked, the switch is unlocked. The switch is not broken. I tried the 30 sec rule. The card still does not show data. What do I need to do?

Thanks so much for this . Your video saves me ...

THANKS SOOOO MUCH, I'VE NEEDED IT FOR MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

You just saved my life😅 Thank you very much

THIS IS AMAZING ty so much. I tried formatting it, tried erasing with the command prompt, and nothing would work. The lock is there and is on the right side, it just wouldn't unlock, but this worked easily, thank you!!!

THANK YOU YOU SAVED MY LIFE