MBP won't read microSD card with adapter

Adam,

Apple is not going to help you. You might get some help from the website of the adapter's manufacturer, in the form of a driver for the adapter.

Evidently, the adapter has a bridge that uses unconventional standards, and it is not supported by anything that exists in OS X by default. And, it is not that unusual that 2 different adapters are similarly un-supported, since separate manufacturers will often use the same internal components, in this case the bridge controller chip. Your only possible solution at this point will be to get an appropriate OS X driver from the website of either the manufacturer of the adapter, or the manufacturer of the controller chip (if you can determine who makes the chip).

Scott

Have you tried opening Disk Utility and try viewing it there? What format does it say that it is?
Is adapter USB? Which site of your MBP is it plugged in to?
Does it show up in system profiler?
sj

Let me see if I have this straight...

Griffin 5 in 1 reader - w/adapter and microSD inserted - doesn't work

SanDisk Mobile Mate USB w/adapter and microSD inserted - doesn't work

Griffin shows up in System Profiler when there is no card inserted? or when there is? I thought you said it didn't show up.

Griffin shows up in Disk utility? When Card is inserted?

Have you tried the readers with another type of card that does not use that adapter?

If the card works in friends computer, it sounds like the adapter is the problem, and you should take it up with the vendor you got it from.
sj

I know this may sound like a strange solution, but I was having same bit of trouble with my SD reader. What I found that worked, is setting the power level to either "Normal" or "Better Performance". I found it wasn't working when set to "Better Battery Life".

Go figure. Give it a try... it might have just been my reader.

HTH

Adam Leslie wrote:
My MBP won't recognize/read/mount a microSD card when I put it in an adapter and then a card reader. Is there anything I can do to make it see the card?

I had the same trouble with a 2GB Sandisk MMSD card. The reader read all other media, older but not the newer 2GB card. I saw a post where someone mentioned that the firmware on my reader was probably too old and I needed to get a newer reader to resolve the issue.

I got a new one and was able to read the card. Is your reader a newer one? Mine was like a year old...

William

I've got an old reader from Target and now I'm starting to eye it warily. For a while it was mounting the microSD properly. (It, along with its cute little SD adapter, are made by SanDisk itself, so it's off the suspects list for now. Plus, it's brand new.) Now it's not. Firmware, eh?

I am also having similar issues. My evidence is here:

--Griffin ExpressCard/34 5-in-1 card reader
--Reads several Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo + adapter fine
--Reads standard SD cards fine
--Will not read any MicroSD card with PNY MicroSD > SD Adapter
--The microSD Cards read/write fine in the cell phone

--The MicroSD card will not be recognized by the MBP for several minutes. Then a "disk needs to be initialized" dialog appears.
--The disk cannot be erased or reformatted in Disk Utility.app, as it gives a I/O error.

'Reads' means it mounts fine as FAT32 volume and read/writes. This is on a new I/O board.

Leads me to suspect the adapter, as well. I will try another brand of adapter to see if that remedies the issue.

A quick update for the interested:

Punch line: turns out it was the MicroSD>SD adapter!

--PNY microSD adapter + any microSD card did not work
--SanDisk microSD adapter + PNY microSD card DID work
--SanDisk adapter + SanDisk 2 GB card DID work (in the phone too!)

Could have been a one-off dud. Who knows!

I'm having the same problems as well. I recently just purchased the 8 GB MicroSD and when I put it into my MobileMate SD adaptor, my Powerbook doesn't recognize it at all. However, when I put my 1 GB MiniSD into the MobileMate and then into my computer, the computer recognizes the MiniSD. Is it the adaptor, the MicroSD, or the computer that is the problem?

My situation i similar to what's been described but as far as I can tell the adapter is not the culprit...

What I have:
- An 8in1 unbranded USB2 card reader that works fine with my Compact Flash cards
- a 128Mb microSD card that came with my Nokia 6300 phone
- a 2Gb SanDisk microSD card which came with its own adapter.

What works:
- both cards work fine in the phone
- both cards work fine, through the adapter and the reader, on my work pc
- the 128mb card works fine, through the adapter and the reader, on my Mac

What does NOT work:
- the 2GB card on the Mac.
It never appears in the finder.
It never shows up in disk utility, not even after 5, 10 or even 30 minutes...

I have tried different formatting options, both on the cellphone and on the pc, but it did not help.

I tried SanDisk support but their answer was:
"Since the card works in other devices and computers, the adapters are good, and the card reader works, it appears to be an issue with your computer. Please contact Apple for further support with this issue".

Any further help or clue?

Scott is right. Although the Griffin is plug and play, the adapter is not. Let us know what you find out on the manufacturer's site.
sj