Symptoms

SD cards cause many different problems:

1. Prevent the camera from coming up at all.
2. Prevent the screen from coming up (green light comes on but not the screen).
3. Prevent the camera from passing the Hello test.
4. Prevent the camera from taking/sending a manual photo.
5. Prevent the camera from completing an OTA (Over-The-The Air) firmware update.
6. Prevent the camera from completing a settings update.
7. Cause the camera to send status reports but no photos.
8. Cause the camera to send the wrong HD photo or video when requested.
9. Cause the camera not to send an HD photo or video at all, although the app command history reports the command complete although you didn't receive the requested HD photo or video.
10. Cause commands to stack up.

The first four occur when you have the camera in hand and can be resolved by formatting or replacing the SD card. See SD card information and recommendations for more information on SD cards.

The last five affect the camera in the field. They're bad enough when the camera is close enough that's it's not too inconvenient to go to it to fix the problem, but they can be really serious when you can't get to your camera easily.

Here's an example of the wrong HD photo and video being sent. To diagnose this problem, see this link below.

Diagnosing the problem

Look at the SD card information on the status report page in the app

If the camera is sending status reports, but not photos, check the SD card information on the status report. In this screen shot, the total amount of space (used + free) is a few MB, not GB as it should be.

This camera shows a negative number for bytes used, which indicates a possible/probable SD card problem.

This camera shows a really large negative number used and a very large (impossible) number free.

Look at the photo numbers on the portal

If the problem is that you are getting the wrong HD photo or video, check the numbers on the picture file names on the portal.

Using a browser, log in to your account at my.spartancamera.com. On the Camera Management page, click on any thumbnail for the camera so you can view the thumbnails for that camera.

These are the images on the portal. Note that all the pictures are numbered 1. The thumbnail of the deer grazing is there and so is a high res image, but the high res image is the 9 AM event photo, no deer. On the portal, both the thumbnail and high res photo are available, but on the app, the HD photo replaces the thumbnail.

Here is another couple of example of duplicate photo numbers. Duplicate photo numbers mean that the camera is unable to write the latest image to the card.

Look at the Command History on the portal

If the problem is that the Command History on the app is showing that your request is complete but you didn't get the HD photo or video, check the Command history on the portal.

Using a browser, log in to your account at my.spartancamera.com. On the Camera Management page, click on the down arrowhead to the right of Command History for the camera so you can view the command history for that camera.

This screen shot from the portal shows that a video request on 12-29-2019 at 9:02:05 PM failed after 3 tries. This can be an indication of a bad SD card. (The messages about the missing image and video file are because the SD card was formatted so those files were erased from the card. This might also happen if the camera is taking a lot of pictures in a short time and older files are overwritten and no longer available.)