The Last Straw - Android has ruined my vacation

Today, I have given up on Android and regret having made the decision to switch to it from iOS in the first place. I am not supposed to post anything new in this blog until I got back home from my vacation but the recent turn of events is just too frustrating not to share. 

Ever since I used my first iPhone, I have always relied on my smartphone as my main camera during vacation trips. I felt that with the significant improvements in smartphone camera quality carrying a dedicated digital point and shoot camera became unnecessary. When I switched from my iPhone to the Galaxy Note 2, I expected the Note 2 to functions as my main/ day to day camera as well.

I went on this trip with my Galaxy Note 2 prepped for heavy picture taking and video recording. The Note 2 only came with 16GB of internal memory so I decided to buy an external micro SD card (32GB) to make sure I had enough memory to store all the pictures and videos I planned to take. Everything was set. I was even able to use my SD card to store my music and movies and it worked perfectly. Then I started taking pictures. 

My Son's Graduation down the drain

The first time I ever took a lot of pictures and videos with my Galaxy Note 2 was during my son's graduation 3 weeks ago. It was a very special day and I wanted to capture every moment. The phone's camera worked great and the pictures and videos stored in my SD Card without a hitch. I was even able to access the media files from my SD card when I posted some photos on Instagram and Facebook. Then suddenly, without any warning I started getting an error message on my phone saying my "SD Card was damaged" and had to be reformatted. I did not install any new apps before I started getting this error message nor did I tweak any of the phones settings. I did a power cycle, battery pull, manually mounted the SD card but nothing happened. I removed and re-inserted the SD Card but it still gave me the same error message. I connected the phone to my macbook thru a USB cable but it would not recognize the device as an external storage. It forces me to access the device content only through its proprietary Android File Transfer Software w/c does not recognize the SD Card inside the phone. I went into settings and storage and it looks like the phone does not even recognize the SD Card is inside. I completed this process at least 3 times but nothing worked. Eventually I was forced to re-format my SD card and resign to the fact that all those pictures I took of my Son's graduation is lost forever. After reformatting it, I was able to start using the SD Card again. 

My Vacation with family and my son lost in deep water.

To celebrate my son's graduation, I took him on a vacation trip to El Nido and Puerto Princesa Palawan. This is a place in the Philippines where you see the most beautiful beaches and lagoons. It is also home to one of the Worlds 7 Wonders of Nature (The Under Ground River). My Son and I went on that trip with my wife and the whole family, so it was a very fun trip. We had a great time enjoying the white sand beaches, fresh seafood, and each other's company. On that trip I also used my Galaxy Note 2 as my camera. I took close to 100 pictures and a few videos of this trip. Things went well, photos and videos stored and was accessible. I was able to access the media files on the SD Card too as I was able to post some pictures on Instagram and Facebook. After the trip, I started noticing something weird on the phone. Every time I wake it up from sleep mode, I see some process running in the notification bar involving the SD Card. First it say something like "SD Card removed", then "preparing to insert SD Card", then "Reading SD Card", and finally "SD Card inserted". It completes the whole process every time I bring the phone out from sleep mode. First time I noticed this I started to panic. I immediately checked if the Photos and Videos were still in my SD Card and they were. It kept doing this for 2-3 days and then it stopped. I checked the photos and videos again to be sure and they were still there. I was not able to transfer my photos and videos to a laptop right away because I did not bring my macbook with me to Palawan for safety reasons. The day after I arrived back in Davao City I saw the dreaded error message again telling me that my "SD Card is damaged". Seeing this again, I wanted to throw my phone on the floor and smash it to pieces. 

This was the last straw. Prior to this happening I have put up with the phone constantly lagging on me. Recently I have noticed it freeze a lot after taking it out of sleep mode. I have had to do a forced restart on this phone at least twice a day now and this phone is not even 4 months old. I have updated to the most recent software version and have not rooted my Android. I stopped using custom themes and just stuck with the stock UI to make sure the phone stopped freezing and lagging but the performance degradation only got worse. 

I have not reformatted the SD Card yet. I plan on buying the most expensive micro SD Card reader I can find in hopes of being able to salvage the photos and videos that way. I read multiple forum posts about this problem and I am surprised how prevalent it is. I know Android fanboys will say the problem is with my SD Card and not the phone. I say two things to you: i. People using different SD Card manufacturers and storage capacity have experienced the same issue and ii. The phone was telling me the SD Card has been removed every time I took the phone out of Sleep Mode even though the SD Card was never physically removed. 

This is by far the most frustrating experience I have had with a phone. I can stand performance issues because it can be fixed but when things like photos and videos are lost due to the phone having issues is unacceptable. 

I have tried to love and learn Android. I did my best to deal with its quirks but this is too much. I bought an old iPhone 4S with me on this trip as a back-up phone. I will be switching to that today and once I get back to Canada I will be picking up an iPhone 5 and going back to the iOS ecosystem w/c is by far the most solid and reliable. 

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