If the SD card works with your device (e.g., can see pictures on the camera) but doesn't work with your computer, it's safe to assume the computer card reader has problems. A temporary workaround would be to connect the camera, phone, or another device to the computer using a USB cable with the SD card in the device. So, I've tried all combinations of sticks. Any two sticks will work, in any two slots. Meaning, stick 1 and 3 in slot 0 and 2, stick 2 and 4 in slot 1 and 3, and so on. You get the idea. In my head this would indicate that the memory should be fine? I've also clocked the memory both at XMP 2666 and at 2133. I have an iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) that has a 4-pole TRRS headphone/headset combo port. On OS X any headset works nicely (e.g. The Apple iPhone headset with microphone). On Windows 7 64bit with BootCamp 5.1, the same headset on the same combo port does not work with the driver as delivered by Apple with BootCamp 5.1 (more precise: 5.1.5640.

Summary :

Does your SD card reader fail to work when you insert an SD card to it? Why does this happen? How to fix this issue? In this post, MiniTool shows you 4 solutions to SD card reader not working.

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SD Card Reader Not Working Windows 10

Windows 10 is quite an excellent Windows operating system and many Windows users have chosen to upgrade their system to Windows 10. However, lots of users reported their SD card reader not working on Windows 10.

Hey, my laptop came with Windows 8, but I bought an SSD and downloaded Windows 10 for it. It has a built-in SD card reader but my SD card won’t show up.tom’sHARDWARE forum

“Why is my SD card reader not working” may be the most concerned question for these new Windows 10 users. The culprits behind this issue are various, but the most possible factors are a poor connection between SD card and SD card reader, missing SD card driver, and SD card infected with virus.

For most computer issues, you can try restarting your computer to see if the issue has been fixed successfully. So, when running into SD card reader not working on Windows 10, you can try restarting your computer first.

Before restarting your computer, disconnect the external card reader if you are using it to read your SD card and then reconnect it after restarting. See if your SD card reader can work well. If not, you can try the following solutions.

Solutions to SD Card Reader Not Working Windows 10

After learning about the possible factors that lead to SD card reader stopped working on laptop, you can try the following solutions one by one when the built-in SD card reader or the external SD card reader is not working.

  1. Check the hardware issues.
  2. Run Windows Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.
  3. Assign a new drive letter to SD card.
  4. Update SD card reader driver.
  5. Clean up virus or malware on SD card.

Fix 1: Check the Hardware Issues

When SD card reader stopped working on Windows 10, you should check the following hardware, including the SD card, SD card reader, the USB cable, etc.

Check the SD card reader

You should make sure that the used SD card reader is compatible with your current operating system (Windows 10). Older readers might be unable to work with the newer operating system.

Apart from the incompatibility between the older reader and the current operating system, the incompatibility between memory card format and the older reader can also lead to SD card reader not working.

Some older memory card reader is unable to recognize the SDHC and SDXC memory card format. Is your SD card reader too old? If yes, you may need to buy a new one and make sure it is compatible with the SDHC or SDXC format or your current operating system (Windows 10).

Check the USB cable

Excluding the above factors, you should check whether the USB cable leads to SD card reader not working if you are using the external SD card reader. To do that, you just need to try to replace the current USB cable with a different one.

Check the SD card

Check whether the gold finger (transmitting signals) on the SD card turns black. If yes, it means that the gold finger has been oxidized and you need to use an eraser to erase the oxide layer.

Then, check if the SD card gets corrupted. If you unplugged SD card while the card was being read, leading to a loss of electrical power to the card, the card may be corrupted. To repair the corrupted, you can read the post Fix Corrupted SD Card with Professional SD Card Repair Tools.

Check the USB port

SD card not working can also be ascribable to the USB port if you are using the external SD card reader. As we know, the external SD card reader needs power through the USB connection when it connects to your computer. However, when the USB port on your computer doesn’t carry enough electrical current to power the reader, the latter will not work.

Therefore, try a different USB port on your computer to see if the SD card reader not working issue could be fixed.

After excluding all the above hardware issues, you can try the following fixes if your SD card reader still does not work.

Fix 2: Run Windows Hardware Devices Troubleshooter

Maybe some potential device issues lead to SD card reader not working on Windows 10. If that is in case, please run the built-in Windows tool – Hardware and Devices troubleshooter. This tool will quickly figure out the device issues.

How to run this tool? Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Insert the SD card into the card reader. Connect the reader to the Windows 10 computer if it is an external SD card reader.

Step 2: Hit the Windows icon and then click the Settings icon from the menu.

Step 3: On the Settings window, click Update & Security.

Step 4: Select Troubleshoot from the left pane of the new window and then find and click Hardware and Devices from the right pane and click the Run the troubleshooter button.

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When the tool finishes its work, please see if SD card reader not working has been solved.

Fix 3: Change Drive Letter to SD Card

SD card reader not working can be ascribed to the driver letter confit. For example, the SD card has a drive letter that is D, while the CD/DVD on the computer also uses the same letter.

If the drive letter conflict is the reason for this issue, you can try changing a drive letter to the SD card.

To finish this fix, you can try the Windows built-in tools (Disk Management and Diskaprt) and a third-party program (MiniTool Partition Wizard).

Here I would like to show you how to change drive letter to SD card with MiniTool Partition Wizard. Apart from this function, this program can also help you restore partition on SD card, format 256GB micro SD card to FAT32, and erase an SD card with ease.

If you want to use Disk Management or Diskpart to complete this changing, you can click here.

Step 1: Download the free program by clicking the above downloadable button and then install it and launch it to get its main interface.

Step 2: The SD card will be displayed on Disk Map. Highlight the SD card and then select the Change Drive Letter feature from the left pane. Or right-click the card and select Change Letter.

Step 3: Choose a drive letter that has not been used by other drives from the list. Then, click OK to confirm.

Step 4: Click the Apply button to execute the changes. It will just take a few seconds.

After changing the drive letter to the SD card, check whether the SD card reader still fails to work.

Fix 4: Update SD Card Reader Driver

The fourth reason for “SD card reader stopped working on Windows 10” is that the device driver is outdated, missing or incompatible.

To check whether the device driver is the culprit behind this issue, you can open Device Manager by typing Device Manager in the Cortana’s search bar and selecting the best-matched result.

On the Device Manager window, expand the two places: Disk Drives or Universal Serial Bus controls to see if there is a yellow triangle mark.

If you see a yellow triangle on SD card, it means that your SD card driver goes wrong and you need to replace it with a good one. If not, it means your SD card driver is normal and you can try the following fix to get rid of SD card reader not working.

To update the problematic device driver, you can right-click the target device driver and then select Uninstall device and the Uninstall button. After that, right-click Disk drives and then click Scan for hardware changes to refresh the device driver.

Once the device driver has been updated, you can check whether your computer can detect the SD card reader.

Fix 5: Clean up Virus or Malware on SD Card

If you have tried all the above fixes and you still cannot see your SD card on your computer when you put it into the SD card reader, it is possible that your SD card has been hidden or encrypted on your computer by virus or malware.

Why has your SD card been attacked by virus or malware? The possible reasons include:

  • You have connected your SD card to a virus-infected system.
  • You have transferred virus-infected files to the memory card.
  • You have explored malicious website while using the SD card.

When your SD card gets attacked by virus or malware, you may run into the following situations (including SD card reader not working).

  • Files saved in SD card turn into the hidden state.
  • The SD card performance becomes sluggish.
  • Files miss from the SD card.
  • You cannot copy files on the SD card (click here to know more reasons for copy and paste not working).
  • You will see error code when accessing the SD card.
Tip: Virus attack is an annoying problem that might happen anywhere and anytime. To keep your data on SD card safe, you need to back up your SD card and scan for virus regularly.

To clean up the virus or malware on your SD card, you need to utilize Command Prompt.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt by pressing Windows + R and typing cmd on the Run window.

Step 2: On the Command Prompt window, type attrib -h -r -s /s /d #:*.* (# means the drive letter of the SD card) and then hit the Enter key to run this command.

After executing this command, your SD card should appear on your computer.

We Want Your Voice

This article comes to an end. Hope all the mentioned fixes can help you solve the issue ‘SD card reader not working’. If you have some doubts when carrying out the above fixes, please do not hesitate to let us know by sending an email to via [email protected] and we will replay to you as soon as possible.

If you have other feasible solutions to the SD card reader not working, please leave them in the following comment zone to help other users who run into the same issue.

SD Card Reader Not Working FAQ

The possible reasons for card reader not working are:

  1. The reader is incompatible with your operating system or memory card.
  2. The drive letter conflicts with other drives.
  3. The driver of card reader is outdated or missing.
  4. Your card gets virus attack.
  1. The connection between the SD card and your computer is poor due to the damaged USB port, USB cable, and card reader.
  2. Your Sd card has been write-protected.
  3. The drive letter of your SD card is missing.
  4. The driver of SD card is corrupted.
  5. The partition on SD card is missing.
  6. Your SD card is corrupted.
  1. Check the SD card health by using the CHKDSK command or MiniTool Partition Wizard.
  2. Reassign a drive letter to the SD card.
  3. Update the SD card driver.
  4. Remove the write protection of the SD card.
To recover the data from the corrupted SD card with ease, you can utilize MiniTool Partition Wizard. The detailed steps are list in the post Hard Drive Recovery - Recover Lost Data and Restore Lost Partitions.

Nov 16, 2020 • Filed to: SD Card Solutions • Proven solutions

If it is your first time experiencing your SD card not showing up on your Mac, you are probably panic-stricken. My advice, relax and read on.

The SD card errors can result from minor factors, such as dust, any other substance coating the contact points, or imperfect insertion into the slot. These are usually the first areas to address before you even get worried.

There are also other causes surrounding the issue of your SD card not showing up on Mac. How can we fix this issue? Or How to solve the device not support the SD card? Let’s together find the solutions.

Imac

First. Check and Open SD Card on Mac

So, you have your SD card at hand, and you are stuck as the SD is not reading. Well, first things first, check on the following:

Step 1. Examine your SD card physically.

Check that there is no damage, i.e., scratches on the shiny contact points or greasy coatings of any kind like food substances, dust or mud.

Clean your SD card with a clean and soft dry cloth. Do it thoroughly, especially on the corners around the contact points. However, don’t use water or lick the fabric with saliva. The moisture can destroy it when you insert it to the device.

Step 2. Insert the SD card to the Mac computer.

To avoid write protection, make sure the switch on the side is on.

The slot is usually thin and wide. To embed, make sure the contact points are facing down, and they should go in first.

Push in the SD card on your Mac. You will hear a sound produced if it is insecure. It holds the card so that it doesn’t slip out.

Step 3. Go to disk utility to check if Mac detects it.

For that, type disk utility in the spotlight. Click on the icon on the right or go through /applications/utilities/.

If you’d like to see it on the desktop, change preferences on Finder Preferences. Under the General tab, select External disks. Do the same under the sidebar tab.

After the steps, you can now open the SD card and access the contents through the Finder app. Enter into the SD card folder. On the right pane, contents get displayed.

However, if the above processes don’t work for you and your SD card is not reading, take a look at the next part.

Second. Fix SD Card Not Showing Up or Reading on Mac

Like every other advanced piece of technology, the SD card is bound to be affected by inevitable glitches in one way or another.

In reality, many technical reasons are associated with your SD card not showing up on your Mac.

Damage to the SD card reader slot.

It can be very frustrating because the damage might be too small even to notice. So how would you know? You can try inserting your SD card into another machine and see if it responds.

The operating system errors.

If your OS prevents your SD card from being recognized, reinstall it and try restarting your Mac. It should generally solve the issue for you.

Viral infection of the SD card

A virus can most likely affect your SD card if you share it with several people, especially Windows users with no virus protection. Viruses are dangerous.

An unsupported SD card format.

Your SD card should conform to SD 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x standards for it to work. To investigate this, check out your SD card’s manufacturer website. There are also file systems that your macOS version might not support.

The Corruption of your SD card firmware.

If your SD card gets corrupted, how would you know? You can check if your SD card has the signs as follows.

  • A black screen appears, displaying the error 'SD card is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable'.
  • Most of the contents in your SD card are missing.
  • An error message 'Read/Write error on SD card' appears. You can't open any folders.
  • Materials on your SD card are visible, but you can’t copy them.
  • When you are trying to access your images or files, an error message 'memory card error' pops up.
  • The SD card has been recognized, but is blank on your computer, even though you had data stored in it.

Considering the issues mentioned above, how can you repair a corrupted SD card or perform any other fix? Looking at some of the possible solutions, they include:

Method 1. Restarting your Mac

There are three ways of doing so:

Step 1. Click on the Apple icon and choosing to restart on its menu.

Step 2. Press the Power button and on the dialog box that appears, click on 'Restart'.

Step 3. Simultaneously hold on Control + Command + Eject/Power button. It is the most reliable option, as it’s not dependent on the OS.

After that, try inserting your SD card once again. With this method, most people can find their SD card recognized on Mac now. If not, you need other solutions.

Method 2. Mounting your SD card in Disk utility

Even after modifying your Mac preferences, your SD card might still not be visible on the desktop. It means it’s only visible from the disk utility, thus not mounted.

Step 1. You can access Disk Utility through the spotlight. Simply type it on the search box or use the shortcut command + space.

Step 2. On the left pane, select your SD card. The right side of the screen will display the details.

Step 3. On the top sections towards the right is the mount option. If mounted, there will be an option of unmounting. Click on it to mount your SD card.

Method 3. Perform a First Aid check on your SD card

The First Aid check on Disk Utility is complete when you suspect something could be wrong with your SD card or any other external disk plugged in on your Mac.

Step 1. Go to Disk Utility.

Step 2. Select your SD card from the left pane.

Step 3. On the top options, First Aid is on the far left, click on it.

Step 4. Disk Utility performs a check on the partitions to verify its contents.

If the SD is going to fail, Disk Utility will inform you, and you should perform a backup before it’s too late.

Method 4. Repair your SD card

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Perform a repair on your SD card if it did not mount successfully.

Step 1. Through Applications > Utilities open Disk Utilities.

Step 2. Select your SD card from the sidebar.

Step 3. On the details pane, click on the First Aid at the top and wait for the repair process until it completes.

Step 4. When complete, a drop-down sheet displays detailed information. Select the Repair Disk option on the bottom right.

In some cases, Disk Utility might fail to repair your SD card. In such a case, it will warn you of failure so you can make a backup.

Method 5. Repair Disk Permissions

As from MacOS X Yosemite and earlier, you can perform a repair of disk permissions on your start-up disk. You should do this because your internal hard disk permissions could in some ways be hindering your SD card from reading.

Step 1. Launch Disk Utility and select your Hard Disk from the sidebar.

Step 2. On the details pane, click on First Aid.

Step 3. Under the drop-down sheet, on the left bottom side, click on 'Repair Disk Permissions'.

Method 6. Format your SD card

The option to format your SD card certainly sounds scary. However, do not be dismayed. Formatting your device, even though you may not have been able to perform a backup, is not the end for you. The article later addresses a means to recover files.

Step 1. Go to the Utility Disk. After selecting your drive, click on 'Erase' at the top.

Step 2. Disk Utility will choose a format for you. You can also select your preference, depending on how you plan to use the SD card.

Step 3. You are required to name the drive. Let it be a memorable name.

Step 4. On the security options, move the slider to where it is least secure to allow you to recover any lost files. It is also the fastest way of performing the erase.

After that, click on the erase button on the bottom right. When erasing is complete, you can now make the recovery of your files.

Third. Learn What SD Card for Mac Is and How It Works?

If you are still wondering how the SD card works, then you are in the right place. The SD card is a nifty little device that can pack a tone of storage capacities of more than 1 TB.

With an SD card adapter used together with a microSD card, it gives you the flexibility to also access files it may have from any other source.

But what does SD stand for? It stands for Secure Digital, a standard that describes non-volatile memory. Mac computers come with the SD card slot, also known as Secure Digital or Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) card slot through which you can insert your SD card.

So, there are formats and standards discussed above. Also, the SD card slot has its measures such as:

  • The SDXC standard that supports 4GB to 2TB in capacity.
  • MMC standard.
  • The UHS-II standard supports up to 2TB that’s only available to iMac pro.
  • The SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard supporting 4 to 32 GB.
  • The average SD supports 4MB to 2GB.

You can use these cards with adapters that conform to the specified physical standard.

All these storage media use specified file systems for them to store data. File systems store data in a breakdown of various clusters, depending on the type of file system.

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The most known file system is the FAT32 format. It is available up to 32GB in capacity. For media that exceeds this, uses the exFAT file system. Cards of smaller sizes utilize the FAT16 file system.

Last. Recover Lost Data from SD Card on Mac

In this case, formatting is one method of restoring your SD card functionality, but you probably can't view the files or have no backup and thus data gets lost. Here Recoverit comes in.

Recoverit Data Recovery software is an efficient software in the recovery of files from your SD card on Mac.

  • With precision, it lets you select the file format types as you like.
  • Preview files before you save a batch of data onto the desired location.
  • When scanning for images, it offers a sneak preview of images, videos, and documents in a larger window.
  • The files you recover are usually intact. Also, it can retrieve raw data.
  • Recovered files come with their original names and paths.

Step 1. Find and select your SD card from the Mac drives displayed on the screen.

Step 2. Click on Start for the software to begin scanning files.

Step 3. The preview window helps you get a sneak peek of your data. You can choose your preferred files if you don't want to recover everything. Finally, press the Recover button on the bottom right of the interface.

You also have the option of doing a deep scan of the files at the bottom.

The process of troubleshooting an SD card can seem tedious, but it is enriching. Furthermore, the steps might seem much at first as this article goes out of its way to give extra details, but the information will always be useful in the longer run.

In case files are not visible on your SD card, don’t panic if you have no backups. It is a common characteristic of an SD card that can’t read data. Just follow the instructions, and an option to recover lost files will be available.

Lastly, if this article has been of any help to you, please don’t forget to share it widely with everyone.

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