Format PICC on Mifare DESFire card makes it useless?

Question

I am working on Mifare DESFire 4k tags on android, using the IsoDep and DESFire native commands. When I send a PICC Format command to the card, I get a TagLostException and after that the tag is no longer detectable using any software on Android. Is this the expected behavior? Is there a way to get the tag to behave as it did before the format?

Answer 1

Try increasing the transceive time-out before sending the format command, using setTimeout() , to some large value (a couple of seconds). Formatting a DESFire tag takes some time. I had the same experience with the TagLostException, but have never ruined a tag...

Answer 2

I rather agree with NFC guy. It's very rare to ruin a tag when formatting PICC but no so uncommon to receive TagLostException when operating with tag due to Android code (known bug/issue), Sometimes tag stops responding, but it should return to live after some time.