Sony A9 firmware 5.0 warning

Potential Sony A9 firmware 5.0 issue

Last year, I had three different instances with my A7riii where the memory card would become totally unresponsive. It often occurred while I was rating the images. The card could no longer be recognized by the camera or by my computer. The card could not even be re-formatted. In one instance, Sony was able to recover the data for me. Sony updated their firmware in late 2018, specifically citing memory card issues, and the problem did not reoccur. 

The Sony A9 firmware 5.0 added the ability to rate images. I was testing it out. In card slot 1, I had a Sony USH-II 300mbs card. 

And then this:

Sony A9 cannot recognize card

Whether I’m simply unlucky or it’s a freak occurrence, seems like a pretty major coincidence that this problem would happen again, just as I’m testing the new A9 firmware.

Once again, I cannot recover the data on the camera or on my computer. The card has become entirely unrecognized.

Please leave a comment below if this has happened to you as well. I’ll contact Sony if I’m not alone. For now, I’d suggest avoiding the rating function and make sure to write backups to the second card slot.