To format a card, simply place it in your computer and when it pops up on your desktop or explorer window, right-click and select “format”.Īs long as you are using the same computer to format the card as you will to copy the pictures over once they’re taken, then you can probably stick with the default settings.
Even cards that have been working fine sometimes need to be formatted.įormatting is essentially just wiping the card clean of any previous data or file system that was on it previously and replacing it with a new system. You may have a trail camera that can perform this operation on the card once it’s inserted, but it’s more likely that you’ll need to do this with your computer before putting it in the camera. If you’ve verified that the type of card you’re using is correct, then the next step would be formatting the card.īrand-new SD cards often need to be formatted before they can be used. You can check the documentation for your camera and it should specify what types of cards it is compatible with. A lot of cameras can use either type of card, but some are limited to SDHC, so if you’ve put a higher capacity card in, it won’t work. The trouble is that SD cards with a capacity of more than 32 GB are SDXC cards, while cards with 32 GB or less are SDHC cards. Wrong Type of SD Cardįor a trail camera, you are likely using an SD card with at least 32 GB of capacity, and maybe much more than that. There are a few things you can check with your SD card to see if it may be the culprit. Luckily, all of these issues are easy to fix, so before you get on the line with customer service, make sure you’ve gone through these possible problems and resolved them.
Most of the time, if your trail camera is not taking pictures, the problem will fall into one of three categories: an issue with the SD card, an issue with the battery, or an issue with camera placement or settings. Then we’ll briefly go over what issues can cause bad pictures. In this article, we’re going to go over nine of the most common problems that prevent trail cameras from taking pictures entirely. It can be incredibly frustrating to go out to your trail camera after it’s been up for a while only to discover that it hasn’t taken any pictures, it stopped taking pictures after a short period of time, or is taking pictures that don’t show you what you want to see.