- How Do You Read An Sd Card On A Mac Free
- How Do You Read An Sd Card On A Mac Computer
- Sd Card Formatter
Try Another USB Port or Change Adapter/Card Reader. This is by far the easiest fix you can try. If the card is 2 GB or less than 2 GB, you can format it to FAT but if the card is more than 2 GB, you have to format it to FAT 32 file system. Insert the SD card into the SD card slot. Now, Click on the Windows Key +E on the keyboard to open Windows File Explorer.
Step 1: Simply put your SD card into the SD slot and let the computer read it. The SD slot of a typical Mac should be able to access standard 4MB- 2GB standard SD cards, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) 4MB-32GB cards, 4GB-2TB SDXC, MMC (MultiMedia Cards), and UHS-II (up to 2TB) cards, but the last one only works on iMac Pro.
Nov 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
In a way, don't you think SD cards are somewhat more important than hard drives? Think about it..
Phones are obviously indispensable assets in our lives, and the majority of them are compatible with SD cards. We carry phones everywhere and rely on them more than we do on computers, don't we? Matter of fact, the number of phone apps easily trumps that of system apps, and that is more than telling enough.
So, when errors stop your SD card from functioning, that just means you're in a world of trouble. But you can prevent this from happening or fix memory card with a few steps.
Part 1: How to Check SD Card for Errors on Mac
Do you know what's worse than finding out your SD card is corrupt? Realizing that you could have checked for errors and fixed them, curtailing any possible instance of the SD card becoming corrupt. But no one can blame you for neither having the foresight nor knowledge to do this.
To be better prepared against next time, the smart thing to do would be to know how to check your SD card for errors. The best tool at your disposal to do this is Terminal, which is native to your Mac.
1. Insert the SD card into your Mac.
2. Open up your Applications folder and click on 'Terminal' to launch it.
3. Type in this command in the Terminal: cd /Volumes
4. Press 'Enter/Return.' Your Mac's Terminal window should look like the image below.
5. Type in this command: ls
6. Press 'Enter/Return'. A list of all the disks connected to your Mac will be opened up.
7. This is where you select your SD card and check for any errors. Type this command in your Terminal: diskutil verifyVolume [drive identifier] (substitute the 'drive identifier' with the name of the SD card).
8. Press 'Enter/Return'. A test will be carried out where you will be shown the state of the SD card. If successful, you will see results similar to the one on the image below.
9. But if the results give you an error like this, 'The volume [volume tested] was found corrupt and needs to be repaired', then your SD card has errors. (The 'volume tested' is your SD card).
Depending on the results your Mac's Terminal gives you, you can now decide on the next action to take.
Part 2: The Symptoms of SD Card Errors on Mac
Much like a disease, your SD card exhibits symptoms of damage before it finally ceases to function. Some of these symptoms should be quite obvious, but others might not be too apparent. You might not even realize they are symptoms until it's too late.
So, here's what you're going to do: As soon as you see any of the signs below, copy all your files out of the SD card in the event that it crashes or becomes corrupted. It might already be too late for you to do this, but you can still try. That way, at least you know your files are safe, and you only have to contend with fixing the SD card or purchasing a new one. Mac ilife 13.
The most glaring symptoms of a corrupt SD card are:
- Inability to See Photos – This is one of the most common warning signs that your SD card is faulty. You can put in as many photos as you want in the SD card, but slot it into your Mac and you won't see a single one them. It's like they disappeared without rhyme or reason.
- Inability to Access Files – When you slot the suspect SD into your Mac, you will be able to view its root directory and even see its folders and sub-folders. But when it comes to accessing the files within these folders, it's a different story. Click on them and you will be faced with this error message: cannot read from the device.
- Inability to Copy Data – Can you view the files in the SD card when it's being read by an external device like a digital camera? And when you put that same SD card into your Mac, are you able to see the folders and files inside them? If the answer is yes, don't be too quick in thinking your card is fine. Try to copy the files out of the SD card… What happens? You guessed it: Error messages galore, particularly CRC (cyclic redundancy check) errors.
- Inability to Delete Files – If for any reason, you attempt to delete photos, videos, audio or any other file type from your SD card, you will get an error message that informs you the SD card is corrupt or there's a memory card error.
- Inability to Access the SD Card – This is another glaring problem. Insert your SD card into your Mac and what do you see? Nothing. External devices like phones or cameras might be able to detect the SD card but nothing of the sort happens when you insert it into your Mac. Your system simply doesn't detect the SD card. This is a blatant warning sign that your SD card is corrupt.
Part 3: Common Solutions to SD Card Errors on Mac
The problems which plague SD cards are many, but so are their solutions. Some of the errors require unique approaches to being fixed but the end goal is to make sure your SD card is fully functional once more.
Go through the most common yet effective solutions outlined below to fix your SD card and guarantee the safety of your files and data.
Insert the SD Card Properly
1. Yeah, it does seem unlikely that you would insert your SD card the wrong way in, but no one is above making mistakes.
2. So, when you slot the SD card in your Mac, make sure the metal contacts are facing down and pointing towards your Mac.
Alt: insert-the-sd-card-properly
Insert the SD Card into Another Mac
1. The issue might lay with the SD card itself. Maybe the card is even dead but you don't realize it. Get another Mac and put it into it and see what happens.
2. If it works, then there could be something wrong with your Mac's port or the system itself. This is where Apple's support comes in handy.
Make Sure the SD Card is Not BitLocker Encrypted
1. BitLocker is developed by Microsoft Windows so if it is used to encrypt and protect your SD card, macOS obviously won't recognize it.
2. To be sure of this, insert your SD card into a Windows PC and if it is detected, simply use that PC to decrypt the SD card. You can now easily use it on your Mac.
Try Another SD Card Reader
1. If your primary way of connecting your SD card to your Mac is via a card reader, then the reader might be damaged.
2. Get another card reader from a friend and see if that doesn't solve the problem. If it does, hop on to Amazon and buy a new reader for yourself. There are many models and variants out there that are all compatible with your Mac. And you can easily find one that's within your budget and preference.
Part 4: How to Fix SD Card Not Reading on Mac
When your SD displays this read/write error, it means your Mac won't be able to access the data in it, even though it detects the card when you insert it into the Mac.
The most probable cause of this error is bad sectors on the SD card, which could be a consequence of improper ejection of the SD card from a device. Sometimes, the SD could also be write-protected; other times, its entire file system might be corrupt and just becomes RAW.
Whatever the cause, it's time you learned how to fix this error. Once more, you can choose any of the options below. The severity of how corrupt your SD card is will determine which solution will work best for you, so pay heed to all of them.
Show SD Card on Desktop
If you didn't know, you can alter your Mac's settings to show or hide external drives. Surprised? You should be. Every day, there seems to be something new you learn about computers, isn't there? Anyway, to fix it, do this.
1. Open Finder.
2. Go to 'Preferences.'
3. Navigate to 'General.'
4. If the 'External Disks' option beneath 'Locations' isn't ticked, tick it. Your SD card now has permission to show up on your Mac's desktop.
Repair Via First Aid
Time and time again, First Aid has proven to be a lifesaver for both external and internal hard drives. It can do the same for your SD card too. Among other functions, the tool checks for file system errors and attempts to fix them.
1. Open up 'Applications.'
2. Go to 'Utilities.'
3. Navigate to 'Disk Utilities.'
4. Select the unreadable SD card to be scanned and repaired.
5. Click on the 'First Aid' button at the top.
6. Click on 'Run.' The tool will then repair your SD card.
Format the SD Card
Formatting the SD card should be an option to consider only after you've exhausted all other options. It's usually a solution if the SD card is seriously damaged. Your data may still be in the card but with recovery software like Recoverit at your disposal, you should not be too worried about the said files.
1. Open up 'Disk Utility' from 'Utilities.'
2. Click on 'View' located on the menu bar.
3. Choose 'Show All Devices.'
4. Click on the unreadable SD card (it should be on the left side of the window).
5. Click on 'Erase,' located atop the window of Disk Utility. That's all.
Repair Shop
When all else fails, the only thing you can do is let the professionals take over. No software can fix hardware damage to your SD card so you can only take it for repairs.
It's doubtful if a physically damaged SD card can be fixed, though. You're better off purchasing a new one
Part 5: How to Recover Data from Corrupted SD Card on
No one wants to see that dreaded 'cannot read from device' or any other error anytime they insert their SD card into their Mac. And yet, the chances are, this will most likely happen. Either because of software issues or mishandling your SD card, it could end up getting corrupt. Recoverit Mac Data Recovery will make sure that's not the end of the road for the data in your SD card, though. This software has proven it is adept at recovering data from damaged or corrupt hard drives, and it's just as effective in recovering data from SD cards too. Take advantage of its powerful features and recover your data by doing this:
Step 1: Choose a Location
- Insert the corrupt SD card into your Mac.
- Open up Recoverit and choose the SD card to be scanned. It will be under the 'External Devices' category.
- Click the 'Start' button.
Step 2: Scan the Location
- The scan will start. When it's done, a window will show a clean preview of the lost data in the SD card. You can select and deselect from a number of filters during the scan to make it faster.
You can use 'File Type' or 'File Path' to determine how your search is carried out, saving you time. Stopping or pausing the scan before it completes it's also a nice little feature you can take advantage of.
Step 3: Preview & Recover Data
- A window will open up where you will see a preview of the lost files that are to be recovered. Select them.
- Click 'Recover'. It's a black button located below and to the right. All your data will be recovered.
- Take note of this: Don't save the recovered data in the same SD card you just finished scanning. Look for any location in your Mac or an external drive and save the data there.
You don't need any more proof as to why Recoverit Mac Data Recovery is patronized by many, do you? It's easy to use but devastatingly effective.
All you need to do is select the SD card, scan it, preview your data, and recover it.
Closing Words
It would be folly to say you don't need an SD card anymore because modern devices come with large internal storage. Be that as it may, no internal storage can have as much capacity to store data as the largest SD card.
How Do You Read An Sd Card On A Mac Free
Since SD cards are necessary, and the risk of them getting corrupt is real, it won't be amiss to have a tool you can use to recover any data you lose. Recoverit Mac Data Recovery is this very tool.
There are many data recovery software all claiming bragging rights over how powerful they are, but Recoverit blows the competition out of the water.
Summary :
SD card is widely used in daily life, but do you really understand it? An overview of SD card, the methods to conduct SD card speed test on Windows PC/Android/Mac all the contents in this post. You are able to know which one is the fastest SD card by testing the SD cards by yourself with the given methods in MiniTool.
Quick Navigation :
An Overview of SD Card
Basics of SD card like its definition, features, application, category and others will be introduced in this part. So, if you're not very clear about those or eager to know the related details, you shouldn't miss this part.
About SD Card
SD card (Secure Digital) is a new generation of memory device based on semiconductor flash memory. It is a portable device, a proprietary non-volatile memory card format developed by SD Card Association. The SD card is widely used in portable devices such as digital camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), media player, etc.
-image from westerndigital.com
In 2000, these companies (Matsushita &Toshiba of Japan and SanDisDisk of the United States) launched the SD Association (Secure Digital Association), which has a strong lineup and attracted a large number of vendors. These vendors include IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, and others.
Driven by these leading manufacturers, SD cards have become the most widely used memory card in consumer digital devices. The SD card is a multi-functional memory card with large capacity, high performance, security and other characteristics.
It even has a password authentication function (SDMI specification) for data copyright protection than the MMC card, and the read/write speed is 4 times faster than the MMC card, up to 2M / second.
How Do You Read An Sd Card On A Mac Computer
To know how to format and clone the SD card, read the next two articles:
SD Card Category
SD, SDHC, SDXC, SDUC are four primary card categories in the market. They have different features but with the same function – data storage. Next, I will explain them briefly one by one.
- SD: The second generation of Secure Digital (SDSC or Secure Digital Standard Capacity) cards was developed to improve the MultiMediaCard (MMC) standard, which keeps improving but in different directions. The Secure Digital changes the design of MMC in multiple ways from shape, thickness, capacity, transfer speed to content protection.
- SDHC: The Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) format was released in January 2006. It is defined in SD specification 2.0 version to support cards with 32 GiB (34,359,738,368 bytes) capacity at most. The SDHC trademark license is to ensure compatibility. The 2.0 version introduces the high-speed bus mode for both SDHC and SDSC. SDHC host devices only accept the older SD cards. However, the old host devices cannot recognize SDHC and SDXC cards though certain devices can do this by upgrading firmware.
- SDXC: The Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) format was released in January 2009. It is defined in the SD Specification version 3.01 and supports cards up to 2 TiB (2199023255552 bytes), while the SDHC card in the SD 2.0 specification is limited to 32 GiB. You may be interested in this post: SDHC VS SDXC – Which One Is Better for You?
- SDUC: The Secure Digital Extra-large Capacity (SDUC) format, described in the SD 7.0 specification, was announced in June 2018. It supports cards up to 128 TiB (140,737,488,355 328 bytes) at speeds up to 985 MB / s, regardless of form factor.
Micro or full size or interface type, including UHS-I, UHS-II, UHS-III or SD Express. SD Express interface can also be used with SDHC and SDXC cards.
Having known their respective features, you can choose a suitable card based on your demand. In this way, you will have a great experience on your devices.
If you would like to find a free partition tool for SD card, this post may be a wonderful reference for you: Best Free Partition Tool for SD Card – MiniTool Partition Wizard
Why and How to Test SD Card Speed
SD cards are applied in various applications ranging from cameras to phone, dashcams, and the Nintendo Switch. Whether the speed of SD card important? Obviously, the answer is absolute 'Yes'.
You may see some SD card speed rankings on the Internet, but the fact that the fastest SD card must be the most suitable one you need is not always true. Price and availability are also important. Besides, whether your camera can make full use of SD card speed matters too.
In most cases, you can put a high-speed SD card into a slower camera, but it is not always available. What's worse, you may sometimes buy a fake SD card or it doesn't have the capacity and the speed as it claims.
But the good news is that you can test SD card speed with some free tools like MiniTool Partition Wizard, HD Tach, Crystal DiskMark, etc.
The following part will introduce SD card speed test on Windows PC/Android/Mac. So, if you would like to know the details of SD card benchmark, please read carefully.
SD Card Speed Test on Windows PC
SD card speed test on Windows PC is very easy through the Disk Benchmark feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard. You are able to test the transfer speeds under various disk access no matter in sequential or random.
Insert the SD card in your computer, then begin to test its speed with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to get its main interface, and then click on the Disk Benchmark feature in the toolbar.
Step 2: Select the drive letter of your SD card. Before clicking the Start button, you can set parameters on the Disk Benchmark window according to your demand. After that, click Start to continue the process.
Step 3: Wait for a while, all the results will show you in a chart form. Then you can check and analyze all the speed test results displayed in the chart.
Compare the test results with the speed printed on the SD card to see whether they have obvious difference. This is a great way to check whether it is a counterfeit SD card.
You may have an interest in this post: Hard Drive/SSD Speed Test with Best Free Disk Benchmark Software - MiniTool
SD Card Speed Test on Android
You wonder SD card speed test Android after knowing how to test its speed on PC. Don't hurry! This section will tell you how to test SD card speed on Android.
Certainly, you need to download an SD card speed test tool like A 1 SD Bench or SD Card Test to check your SD card speed. All of them are free SD card test software.
After starting up the program, choose some parameters as you like on the applications to start the operation. Then, you will get all the results you want to obtain.
SD Card Speed Test on Mac
SD card speed test on Mac is also available through some software, such as NovaBench, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. If you follow the instruction, you can acquire the SD card speed results.
NovaBench is a free SD card speed test tool for Mac operating system. It enables you to measure the read& write speed of disk and check the memory transfer speed, CPU, GPU speed and others.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test is also a free disk test software applied for Mac operating system. It's easy to use and has a high speed.
SD Card Speed Rating
After testing multiple SD cards, you may find their speeds are various. So, here comes the need of SD card rating. The speed rating enables you to classify SD cards' speed clearly.
The SD Association has two UHS speed gratings, UHS speed grade 1 and UHS speed grade 3. UHS speed grade 1 supports a minimum write speed of 10MB / s, while UHS speed grade 3 supports a minimum write speed of 30MB / s. The UHS speed grade is usually represented by 1 or 3 inside the U symbol.
According to previous experience, cameras with 4K capabilities usually at least need a UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) class SD.
What you need to know is that the UHS Speed Level is different from the UHS BUS Speed. The UHS bus speed is expressed in Roman numerals I, II or III and represents the theoretical maximum read and write speed. However, unlike UHS speed grades, these are not sustained speeds.
Though the minimum speed is very important for the normal operation of the device (GoPro cameras often require UHS Speed Class 3), the maximum speed should not impact the operation of the device, but may shorten the time required to download material from the SD card.
In general, a UHS Speed Rating SD card is enough. The higher UHS Speed card could be expensive and not necessary.
Memory card manufacturers usually measure the speed of their cards in megabytes per second or MB/s (or MBps, both in uppercase letter 'B'). However, the video recording bit rate is usually measured in megabits per second or Mb / s (or Mbps, lowercase letter 'b'). They are not the same.
A byte has 8 bits, so from megabits per second to megabytes per second, you multiply by 8. So 80MB / s is the same as 640Mb / s. This is a convenient conversion calculator.
To sum up, there are three points you need to pay attention to:
- Make sure your card shows a 'UHS Speed Class of 3' indicating the card with a minimum read & write speed of 30 MB/ second.
- The SD card is formatted as FAT32 (32GB or smaller) or exFAT (larger than 32 GB)
- You can use the given methods to confirm your SD card speed, because the counterfeit SD card is also available even it doesn't achieve the speed printed on the card.
Conclusion
Sd Card Formatter
Read here, you may have a clear understanding of SD card speed test on Windows PC/Android/MAC and some additional information about SD card. If you want to do the SD card speed test, just choose a suitable one from the given methods according to your situation.
With some free tools like MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can do the SD card benchmark easily. In this way, finding a suitable SD card for your device would be rather simple.
If you have any good idea about SD card speed test, you can share with us. We would appreciate it if you leave any suggestion or comment by sending an email to [email protected].
SD Card Speed Test FAQ
The speed class rating (Class 2, 4, 6 and 10) of SD cards is set based on the standardization of data transfer speeds by the SD Card Association (SDA). The specific speed class rating has its own data transfer speed.
- Class 2: the minimum write speed is 2MB/s or higher.
- Class 4: the minimum write speed is 4MB/s or higher.
- Class 6: the minimum write speed is 6MB/s or higher.
- Class 10: the minimum write speed is 10MB/s or higher.
