SD card, a non-volatile memory card, is widely used to store pictures, videos, applications and other media files in portable devices, like mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders and so on. As SD card is very important, we are going to talk about how to keep SD card secure and how to decrypt SD card in the following paragraphs.

Owing to its small and lightweight features, SD card has been popular since it was developed in 1999. It is no doubt that you benefit a lot when using SD card. But cases of SD card corruption and data loss happens frequently.

Therefore, you need to take some precautions to keep data in SD card safe in daily use. Here are some common ways to follow on basis of your needs.

1. 1. Use it correctly to avoid physical damage. As SD card is easy to broken, you should use it carefully and keep it away from water, heavy stuff, fire and strike. Once it is physically damaged, you will lose the data permanently.
2. Keep it in a safe place. Except for avoiding physical damage, you’d better place your SD card to a secure place, especially when there are valuable and personal files in it.
3. Enable write-protection on SD card. This will protect data in SD card from being modified or deleted. Of course, you can remove write-protection easily as you need.
4. Encrypt SD card. This is another technical method to protect data from wrong operation. You can read it only after being authorized.

Part 1. Encrypt SD Card in Different Devices

If you don’t want your SD card to be accessed by other people, you can encrypt it to add an extra security for it.

Once the SD card is encrypted, all data on it will be locked. Nobody can read the data unless they have the password. What’s more, even though the SD card is removed and then lost, data on it will not be read or changed.

Pay attention: If your device used to encrypt the SD card is reset to factory default settings, it will be impossible to read the encrypted SD card anymore.

How to Encrypt SD Card on Windows 10

Step 1: Connect SD card to Windows 10 with a card reader.

Step 2: Open File Explorer and click This PC.

Step 3: On the Devices and drives map, right click the target SD card and select Turn on BitLocker option.

Step 4: Choose a method to unlock the drive. Two options: use a password to unlock the drive and use my smart card to unlock the drive. Here, I choose the first one to go on..

cd encrypt

Step 5: In the pop-up window, you need to choose a way to back up your recovery key, with which you can use to access your drive when you forget the password or miss the smart card. Here, I choose Save to a file and then click Next. You can choose a suitable one based on your situation.

Step 6: Then you should choose Encrypt used disk space only or Encrypt entire drive > Compatible mode > Start encrypting > restart computer to save the changes.

After your computer being restarted, you’ll find you need enter password to access the SD card.

How to Encrypt SD Card on Android

Here, we take Samsung device as an example to encrypt SD card on Android phone.

Step 1: Enter Settings > tap Lock screen and Security > select Encrypt SD card.

Step 2: Enter password to continue. The device will begin the encryption process. The duration depends on the volume of saved data. Please be patient.

Tip: If the way to encrypt SD card on your device is reset to factory default settings, do not accept it because you will never read the encrypted SD card in this way.

Part 2. How to Decrypt SD Card

Also, there are different ways to decrypt SD card in different situations. Let’s see how to do it.

To decrypt an encrypted SD card, here are different ways you can take in different situations.

If you’re using the mobile device and you have the password, you can decrypt SD card on the same device easily without data loss.

If you have lost the password or you are unable to use the mobile device, you can decrypt it on computer. In this way, all the data in the SD card will be erased but you can use the decrypted SD card as a new storage device.

More detailed information is listed below, and you can choose one method according to your situation.

Case 1: Decrypt SD Card with Password on Android

If you’re using the same Android device and you have the password, you can decrypt SD card easily without any data loss.

1. 1. Navigate to Settings > Lock screen and security > Decrypt SD card.
2. Enter the password (or pattern and PIN if needed). Then, just wait the decryption to finish.

Case 2: Decrypt SD Card with Command Prompt

If you can’t remember the password or miss the Android phone, you can decrypt the SD card on Windows 10 with Command Prompt.

It may be a challenge if you don’t have experience using it. So, please follow the steps below to finish the task.

Step 1: Connect the SD card to Windows 10 computer via a card reader.

Step 2: Press Win + R keys together to open Run window. Type cmd and click OK to launch Command Prompt.

Step 3: Type diskpart in Command Prompt window and press Enter.

Step 4: Type the following commands one by one: List disk > Select disk * (* stands for the disk number of the target encrypted SD card) > Clean. * stands for the disk number of the target encrypted SD card. Remember to press Enter after each command.

decrypt cd card

Step 5: After the process ends, put in create partition primary and format fs=fat32 commands.

When all steps are finished, you can exit Command Prompt. Just check if your SD card is decrypted.

Case 3: Decrypt SD Card with MiniTool

Another method to decrypt SD card on Windows 10 is to use a third-party partition manager. MiniTool Partition Wizard – is a wonderful and practical assistant to help you manage your computer disk and partition better.

Here is an easy way to decrypt SD card with this partition manager. Let’s see the detailed steps.

This is an alternative way of using Command Prompt, and it is easier to operate. You can achieve

Step 1: Download and install Partition Wizard on your Windows 10.

Step 2: Connect the encrypted SD card computer. Launch the program to get the main interface.

Step 3: Find the target SD card. Right click it and hit Wipe Disk.

dycrpty sd card

Step 4: You need to select a wiping method.

Step 5: Click Apply to execute the changes.

Step 6: You can create new partitions by right clicking the unallocated space.

Step 7: Specify the File System, Drive Letter and other information for the new partition. Click OK and Apply make the changes effective.

create new partition

Now your encrypted SD card is unlocked and you can use it to store data again.

Conclusion

Above all, this post introduces some useful tips and methods to protect the data in SD card and show you detailed guides on how to decrypt SD card in different situations. Now, you can have a try to protect data on SD card.