Wii u sd card says its write locked

[Ninjaxtr]

I tried downloading aroma on my wii u but for some reason it says that its write locked. I changed the switch to unlocked and it didnt work, I booted up tiramisu and the sd card does work. I even cleaned the wii u sd card slot in case that was an issue but it still didn't work. I tried putting tape on the SD card, and changed some of the file directory, none of it working at all. The sd card is formatted fat32 btw. Is there a fix for this

[Maschell]

Try to back the data and reformat the sd card

[Ninjaxtr]

Try to back the data and reformat the sd card

I tried doing this but it didnt work

[Lithresh]

Same problem here. Tried reformatting the SD card to fat32 several times. Mii Maker is able to save images without any problems, so no apparent hardware issue. Still, auto-boot settings get reset everytime I reboot the console and the same red banner appears when inside Aroma. Only base and payload directories on the card, no homebrew directory, no secondary CFW. I'm using a brand new 128GB Samsung Evo Select microSDXC inside the dedicated Samsung adapter.

Edit: Just tried again with a 16GB microSDHC inside a different adapter. Checked the file layout twice to make sure it is identical to the one mentioned in the guide. Same issue. Saving in Mii Maker works fine, Aroma just won't cooperate.

[Maschell]

Try to format the sd card with a different tool. The guide recommends guiformat

[Lithresh]

Try to format the sd card with a different tool. The guide recommends guiformat

That is what I used. I followed the entire guide word for word. I only run into issues at the autobooting / finalizing stage because of the write to SD card issue. Up to that point everything works completely fine.

Update 1: I've tried three different formatting tools: guiformat (both quick and full format), MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate 12.8 and AOMEI Partition Assistant 10.6.0. None of them report any issues formatting to FAT32, and all of them, including Windows Explorer, correctly recognize the file system as FAT32. Saving in Mii Maker still works perfectly everytime, but Aroma continues to refuse.

Update 2: Other things I've tried:

• made a smaller partition on the same card (32 GB), formatted again and put the Aroma files on there to see if it's an issue with storage space (again) -> issue remains
• moved save data from internal storage to SD card and back again in the Wii menu -> works
• disconnected my USB hard drive and rebooted into Aroma -> issue remains
• tried to install apps through the HB Appstore to see if the issue might be limited to autoboot settings -> pressing A to install just does nothing

Update 3: Bought a 32 GB SanDisk SDHC (which is formatted to FAT32 natively), just to see if there might be a tiny fraction of a chance that both the other SD cards' firmwares are incompatible with Aroma for some reason or that I have two faulty adapters. Formatted it again for good measure using guiformat. And yet, I'm right where I was before. Absolutely nothing changes.

I'm seriously running out of ideas now. Could this be an issue with my console? If so, how would you explain the fact that everything else works? Could it be that something got messed up during the install process? Then how might I be able to fix it?

[Lithresh]

FIXED

Here's what worked for me (not sure which exact step did the trick, so everything I didn't do before is marked in italic):

1. Deleted everything from the SanDisk SDHC.

2. Reformatted to FAT32 (32 kb) using guiformat (quick format).

3. Redownloaded all payload (EnvironmentLoader, Nanddumper & fw.img loader) and base Aroma (Base-Aroma) files from aroma.foryour.cafe.

4. Created an empty wiiu folder on the SD card.

5. Extracted both wiiu folders from the aroma-beta-22.zip and the environmentloader+wiiu-nanddumper-payload+fw_img_loader.zip onto the SD card using 7-Zip instead of Windows Explorer.

My best guess is that some of my files did get messed up during installation, as I backed them up only after I successfully installed PayLoader. On the other hand, I've had issues with Windows Explorer extractions before. Maybe something went wrong there.

In any case, using the steps above fixed the issue completely.

[Maschell]

Then I would also guess that extrating the .zip with windows explorer might be the problem (on Windows 11?).

Some other people had reported similar problem. The Console returns for any interaction with the wiiu directory on the sd card the error "no permission" (which afaik doesn't make any sense on the FAT32) . In this case the Mii Maker can still write to the SD Card, because it's writing to a different directory.

Maybe it should get added to the guide, at least into the troubleshooting section?

Thanks for investing the time in doing this further research :)

[Lithresh]

Thank you for sharing your perspective! :) It never occurred to me that Mii Maker working despite the issue indicated that the wiiu directory or some of the files within it were the most likely culprits. But now that you’ve explained it, it makes total sense.

Yes, I’m using Windows 11. I’ve tried researching similar issues with Windows Explorer before but couldn’t find anything conclusive, other than the possibility of it being a RAM-related issue—which other programs, like 7-Zip, seem to have protective measures against. I guess I’ll stick even more firmly with 7-Zip from now on.

I think this would make a reasonable addition to the guide, especially since the video tutorial on how to extract files onto the SD card implicitly "advertises" using Windows Explorer.

[Lithresh]

Quick follow-up:

Yesterday, after I had previously installed some homebrew, CFW for the vWii, and a few Wii backups on the SD card, I attempted to transfer all my files to a larger 512 GB SD card (to make more space for Wii backups). Again, I formatted the new SD card to FAT32 using guiformat and then simply copied everything over. No ZIP extractions via Windows Explorer involved.

After inserting the SD card back into my Wii U, I encountered the same old issue again.

And again, after trying every other troubleshooting method I could think of, redownloading the base files and payloads turned out to be the only solution.

So, perhaps faulty extraction wasn't the issue after all(?). It seems that simply moving files around can also cause problems.

[whattthechuck3]

I’ve been having this issue, too. I’ll give this a shot. Just to verify, you didn’t need to reinstall anything on the WiiU right? Just re-do the SD card, yeah?

[Grayda]

I had this issue, but in my instance it was actually the physical switch on my SD card. It's silly, I know, but I was able to write to the card in Windows which threw me for a loop.

Side note, according to the SD Card specs, it's basically up to the card host whether or not it wants to honour that switch, and I guess Windows and / or my USB SD card reader ignored the lock switch, but the Wii U doesn't.

Not saying this is your issue, but it's something to double check in case it is.

[Lithresh]

I’ve been having this issue, too. I’ll give this a shot. Just to verify, you didn’t need to reinstall anything on the WiiU right? Just re-do the SD card, yeah?

Yes, at least in my case, I didn’t need to reinstall anything on the Wii U itself. As I mentioned, I reached this step in the guide without any issues. Assuming you’ve followed the guide correctly up to that point and everything works fine except for writing data to the wiiu folder (e.g., updating autoboot settings, installing apps from the HB Appstore), you should be good by backing up all your data except for the payload and Aroma base files, wiping the SD card, and simply redoing the entire SD Preparation section to create a fresh wiiu folder. Then, just restore your backup to the SD card, and everything should work. Good luck!

[whattthechuck3]

Update:

Totally worked for me, too!! Thanks!!

[VitoItalianGamer]

Just put the switch in the up position.

[rcschaff82]

My son just ran across this issue. What I found was windows set's the files on the sd card as Readonly and Archivable. Simply open command prompt, and type " attrib -s -h -a -r /d /s E:*.* " where E: is your sd cards drive letter.

[ItsNotKian]

Quick follow-up:

Yesterday, after I had previously installed some homebrew, CFW for the vWii, and a few Wii backups on the SD card, I attempted to transfer all my files to a larger 512 GB SD card (to make more space for Wii backups). Again, I formatted the new SD card to FAT32 using guiformat and then simply copied everything over. No ZIP extractions via Windows Explorer involved.

After inserting the SD card back into my Wii U, I encountered the same old issue again.

And again, after trying every other troubleshooting method I could think of, redownloading the base files and payloads turned out to be the only solution.

So, perhaps faulty extraction wasn't the issue after all(?). It seems that simply moving files around can also cause problems.

This worked for me thank you! I dont understand still on how it worked but it did