This evening my phone has told me that my micro sd card is damaged.
Do they have a life span? I’ve probably had this one 18 months.
It’s a Sandisk and bought from Argos so should be legit.
Which brand should last the longest?

Had mine for 6 years, it’s outlasted 4 phones.

They have a limited number of write cycles so will die at some point. 6 months sounds a bit short but it does depend on how heavily the card is used.

I’ve had 2 legit Sandisk ones die on me under warranty. They replace them easily enough if you’ve got proof of purchase. It’s definitly not unheard of.

I have had android phones kill micro sd cards. Sandusky warranty is very good.

Just spoke to argos oline and they said to take it back.
According to SanDisk it has a 5 year guarantee.
Will always buy from a proper shop and not a mystery man on the net.
The card was 11 months old.
Is there am easy way to back a card up?
Luckily all my photos and music are saved by Google.

I have to semi regularly reformat mine. I think a picture file gets corrupted and then android decides the whole thing is bad and ejects it. Once reformatted with the bad file removed it’s good for a few months. Makes me think its android rather than the card that’s the issue. As above a legit sandisk card (64gb).

I backup my phone card every 3 months by plugging it into laptop and just copying the whole card to a folder. Low tech but simple.

I tried one in my Moto G3 & it ‘broke’ within 3 days. Sent it back to 7day shop & got refunded.

I pressed the format button as I assumed it was all lost and I didn’t want argos to have my pictures.
Then it started working again!

This is why I don’t like using a phone that relies on vulnerable removable media for storage. My phone gets regular backups, all the music is in iTunes and and the phone just gets random tracks dragged onto it from there, or occasionally a few tracks downloaded, while photos automatically get backed up into the cloud so they’re accessible elsewhere.
Should anything happen to the phone a new one gets restored from the last backup, with nothing lost, I’ve had issues with cards in the past, and the ones I use in my camera get used once, photos copied off and when full they’re retired and not used again, and a new card started.
32 and 64Gb cards are so cheap they’re pretty much a consumable these days, and are there as a backup if need be.

If formatting is like with a hard disk then what happens is that areas of the card that have died are marked so they aren’t used. So yes your card will work againm. If it happens again soon though maybe something is dying faster than usual and you should return it

Will back it up tonight and swap tomorrow.