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Canon Vixia HF-R800 "Cannot Record"

ZenGeekDad
Contributor

My Canon Vixia HF-R800 is unable to record to a new top-brand micro-SD card (64 GB).

 

(This is just to provide a record of it.  I doubt anyone has a fix.  But, feel free to prove me wrong!)

 

Details:

 

Camcorder = Canon Vixia HF-R800.  Relatively new (<1 yr old) / very light use / never abused (I'm a middle-aged video hobbiest and am very fussy with my gear; this is a spare camera for me; used for maybe 6 shoots).

 

Camcorder has recorded trouble-free to prior SD cards -- e.g., to a PNY 32 GB Class 10 / UHS-1 / V90 / "95MB/s R/W".

 

The currently-failing SD card is a Sandisk Ultra, 64 GB micro SD XC-I (class 10 / UHS 1).  This SD card works flawlessly in ever other camera I use it in (Canon XC15, Nikon D7200, Panasonix TM700, GoPro Hero5), and works fine with my PC.

 

I initialized this failing SD card in the Canon HF-R800.  (Home icon on touch screen > Other Settings [screwdriver & hammer] > wrench tab at far right > Initialize (4th up from bottom) > Initialize (button at bottom of screen) > Complete Initialization (bottom button of scrren again).  This did not help.

 

I also tried wiping the card in my PC, by doing a standard format (as opposed to a Quick Format), then trying as is, and when that failed to allow the Canon Vixia to record to it, then repeating the Complete Initialization in the Canon HF-R800.  Again, no luck.

 

I've repeated the in-Canon HF-R800 Complete Initialization a couple-few times, just to give it every chance to work.  No luck.

 

I've confirmed the Canon HF-R800 currently records just fine to another 64 GB micro SD card (in this case, a Samsung Closs 10 / UHS-1 claiming 48 MB/s R/W).

 

Note: Canon's 1st-level monitors / staff here might try to claim this problem is due to using a poor SD card.  But that doesn't wash.  Sandisk is about as reliable a brand as they come.  And that Sandisk SD card is working just fine in every other camera and device I own.

 

I'm not trying to gain anything here.  Just sharing my experience.  That way, if a lot of this sort of experience gets posted, we can start to sort out the patterns, and make more informed buying decisions.

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Yes-ssss!

 

I bought a Samsung microSD adaptor. At first disappointed because I still could not transfer files while the card was inside the camcorder. Still received the error message that files weren't detected.

 

Then, I thought I'd remove it and see what happened when I used it in my card reader (plugged into my computer). I was able to play the video WITH audio in my Media Player, copy the vid files from the microSD card into my hard drive, and then load it into my editor.

 

THANK YOU all so much for sharing all of your experiences with this problem! The video that was stored on this microSD card was extremely important on a few levels. Am so happy that, with your help, they weren't lost.

View solution in original post

34 REPLIES 34


@Richard wrote:

... Important: Your camcorder does not support memory cards using the UHS-I, UHS-II or UHS-III standards.


Can you please double check your product info on that?   Reasons I am confused by your statement:

 

  1. UHS-1 came out in 2010.  Canon Vixia HF-R800 came out in 2017.  Camcorders singularly drove the development and commercialization of UHS SD cards.  So it's hard to believe Canon wasn't caught up with UHS-1 seven years later.
  2. The HF-R800 manual says nothing about UHS-1 cards being incompatible.  I've searched it.  If I missed it, please post the manual's page number.
  3. The HF-R800 manual says to use class 6 or class 10 cards.  For some time now, it has been very hard to find class 10 cards that are not also UHS-1.  Recommending class 10 cards, but being incompatible with UHS-1 seems like exceedingly unfortunate product design.
  4. Over the past year, my HF-R800 has recorded many hours on two different UHS-1 SD cards.  In fact, it is happily test-recording me typing this entry right now, to a UHS-1 card.

Note: By UHS-1, I mean the card has both the number "1" inside a "U" and has the roman I after the SDXC logo:

micro-sd-callout_288x221_us.jpg

 

wawite
Apprentice

Hello, I have 2 Canon Vixia HF-R800 and had the same issue with both, I many kinds of cards and some would work and some did not at varios times. I was able to determine that if I formatted the cards with my Canon EOS Rebel T6 then all my card worked whatever the card, Samung, Sandisk, Cheap 256gig cards from china did not matter. 

 

So if you have a Canon EOS Rebel T6 or I would assume similar camera you should see the same results I got after formatting.

Wawite, thanks for adding to the experience set here.

__________________________________

 

Hello, I have 2 Canon Vixia HF-R800 and had the same issue with both, I many kinds of cards and some would work and some did not at varios times. I was able to determine that if I formatted the cards with my Canon EOS Rebel T6 then all my card worked whatever the card, Samung, Sandisk, Cheap 256gig cards from china did not matter. 

 

So if you have a Canon EOS Rebel T6 or I would assume similar camera you should see the same results I got after formatting.

__________________________________

 

Just so readers are clear, are you saying:

  • this about micro SD cards used via an adapter (in a Canon HF-R800)?
  • Or are you saying this about standard (full sized) SD cards?

If the former, then it's interesting - but surprising - to learn that the adapter sensitivity can be overcome by what device formats the card.  (I did not see that effect in my testing, but FWIW I didn't have an EOS Rebel T6 to try.)

 

But if the latter, then it's less surprising, and more of a related but distinct pointer to the community: that is, of another issue to be aware of, and how to fix it.

 

Either way, thanks for the post, and please reply to clarify which of these two experience sets you are reporting.

wawite
Apprentice
I have the micro SD cards and that's what I formatted and as I said it didn't matter what adapter I used nor did it matter what version of micro SD card so long as it was reformatted in the Canon Rebel it would then work in the Canon HF-R800.

wawite
Apprentice
As a thought if you want to test it take your card to Best buy pop it in one of their display cameras and format it and then you could try it for free.
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