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Has anyone successfully gotten a 128gb card to work?

4459594
over 2 years ago

I've now used several different micro SD cards that are class 10 or better and 128gb, and none of them work. The camera continually has a flashing yellow LED for the camera status, and the Edge computer states there is a formatting issue with the sd card. I've successfully gotten smaller cards to work (32gb, 16gb).

Has anyone here actually gotten a 128gb card to work in the unit?

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I have. I had the same problem as you when I put the fresh card in. I had to use a PC to delete the card partition and create a new one, formatted as exFAT using Disk Management. Then when I re-inserted the card in the camera I got a message on the phone app telling me the card needed formatting, so I let it do that and all seems to be good now.

    I'd also suggest not only using Class 10 (or better) cards, but also using cards that are specifically for CCTV/dashcam use (e.g. SanDisk High Endurance) as these are specifically designed for constant streamed recording and overwriting, which 'normal' cards (including the crap one supplied with the camera) don't tend to like.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to NeilJonesOnline

    The status LED is flashing yellow

    If the device status LED flashes yellow while the taillight is on, the device is in demo mode. When the device is in demo mode, artificial data is generated for demonstration only.

    To exit demo mode, select an option:

    • Turn the device off, and turn it back on.

    • Hold both buttons for 10 seconds to reset the device.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I am using a Sandisk Extreme 64 GB card that came with my GoPro Hero10. I don't really see a need for a larger card. If it fills up the camera starts recoding over the oldest video. 64GB is enough for about 5 hrs of 1080/30 video.

    The Varia formats the card as Fat32. I would have thought it would use ExFat, but it didn't.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to NeilJonesOnline

    I use the Sandisk Extreme Class 10 cards. The read/write performance of the High Endurance cards is half that of the Extreme, and that might be an issue if you want to record 2.7/4k video (like with a GoPro). The High Endurance cards are just designed to last a lot longer with constant rewrites/overwrites, but the cards are cheap enough that I'll just replace the faster Extreme if it starts giving me problems. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to aweatherall

    The OP says it's the *camera* status light which is flashing yellow, not the device status light. From the manual:

    Flashing yellow There is a problem with the memory card.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to aweatherall

    This is the camera status mode LED.

  • +1 over 2 years ago in reply to NeilJonesOnline

    It's even simpler than that. Turns out the only formatting that works (despite Garmin's docs pointing to Windows/Mac formatting tools) is to pair the app and format. 

    Let me be clear: The only way to format a card is with the Varia App.

    As for the card class, I'm actually using the same card I had in an Fly6 from Cycliq that ran for four years (~12,000 miles) of riding and commuting. I've still had no issues with the card. When it craps out, I'll look at the high endurance cards.

  • +1 over 2 years ago in reply to DeanWette

    I hear what you're saying but I don't think performance of the High Endurance cards is going to be an issue - I use one with my car dashcam which records 4K from the front camera and 2.7K from the rear simultaneously, and that's never dropped a frame. Personally, I'll always go for the endurance cards as I'll only review my footage if anything ever happened (plus every 6-months or so when I reformat it), so I think (hope!) with the endurance cards there's less likelihood that I'll find the card's got corrupted at some point in between times.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to NeilJonesOnline

    I just reformat my card on a regular basis. If it is corrupted I'll know it then. I have used non-endurance cards on Cycliq Fly6 and Fly12 for years (and I ride about 6k miles/year), and while I ended up having issues with Cycliq hardware, I never had an issue reading video on.a card.

    Your recommendation may be great, but probably not necessary to replace if one already has working Class 10 cards. At least in my case it seems to be a solution looking for a problem. If I buy a card for a house cam that records 24/7 that's what those are good for.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 4459594

    I'm not sure that this is entirely correct, at least for brand new cards. I put a straight-out-of-the-packet 128GB card in my Varia and, like the OP, got the flashing yellow camera status light. I went into the app (iOS) to try and format it, but the Format button was greyed-out and had no effect. It was only when I re-partititioned and formatted the card on a PC and re-inserted it into the Varia that the Format button became active in the app and I was able to format the card. So yes, I did have to format the card via the app as you say, but it seems it first has to be in a format that the Varia likes, which may need to be done on a PC prior to first use.