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I have 3 micro sd cards and 3 sd cards which are working perfectly in windows but are not detecting in the new Macbook pro m1

I have used so many things , like i have restarted the computer, tried to rename the sd cards but the system is not letting me rename it, tried the first aid, tried to erase the disk but unable to do so on all of my sd cards, tried resetting the smc.


I even went to the Apple service centre. Firstly they tried my cards on the new Apple m1 macbook pro , it didn't worked on them as well. Than they tried this on other macs and the cards were detected.


Than they asked for 2 days of time for them to discuss this issue with the technical team.


Can someone please assist me on this issue.


Cards that i am using

sandisk microsd 128 gb extreme

samsung 64 gb micro sd

sandisk ultra sd card

lexor platinim 32 gb

(all are i perfectly working condition in windows)


unable to rename


unable to erase




This shows in the card reader section in new apple macbook m1



all the devices are named as mass storage device


Can someone please help me?


Posted on Apr 5, 2021 6:55 AM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2021 10:19 PM

What information is shown if you click on the parent USB 3.1 bus line just above the line you have highlighted. Does it provide any extra information?


You can try seeing if Windows will report the USB controller used by the adapter, but unfortunately I've never had any luck using Windows to get this information. Linux may be better and easier to acquire this information unless you search the manufacturer's documentation or data sheet for that product for the information. You definitely need to use a different brand of adapter, but many adapters will use the same USB controller.


The brands I personally like to use are Plugable, StarTech, and Anker sine many times they will also list the USB controller used in the product. OWC is another acceptable vendor as they have supported Apple products for years and have good customer service, although I have heard reports that some users may have issues with some OWC devices on an M1 Mac. Unfortunately I haven't read any good detailed information about the issue as I've only gleamed snippets from a few users that have posted some technical details from their own limited tests here on these forums. I'm sure there are a few other brands that are good quality, but these are the ones I'm personally familiar with. The majority of products out there today are just cheap no name brands which tend to be of very poor quality and performance.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2021 10:19 PM in response to lalitbss

What information is shown if you click on the parent USB 3.1 bus line just above the line you have highlighted. Does it provide any extra information?


You can try seeing if Windows will report the USB controller used by the adapter, but unfortunately I've never had any luck using Windows to get this information. Linux may be better and easier to acquire this information unless you search the manufacturer's documentation or data sheet for that product for the information. You definitely need to use a different brand of adapter, but many adapters will use the same USB controller.


The brands I personally like to use are Plugable, StarTech, and Anker sine many times they will also list the USB controller used in the product. OWC is another acceptable vendor as they have supported Apple products for years and have good customer service, although I have heard reports that some users may have issues with some OWC devices on an M1 Mac. Unfortunately I haven't read any good detailed information about the issue as I've only gleamed snippets from a few users that have posted some technical details from their own limited tests here on these forums. I'm sure there are a few other brands that are good quality, but these are the ones I'm personally familiar with. The majority of products out there today are just cheap no name brands which tend to be of very poor quality and performance.

Apr 6, 2021 8:24 PM in response to HWTech

This is what is see in the system reports



I have tried two different adapters for connecting the cards, still no luck.


I will try the thunderbolt USB-C to SD Card Reader. The Apple service centre here in delhi is so pathetic, i told them that it might be the issue of the adapters and they should check with that. They simply told me they didn't had those connectors.


Anyways thanks for the reply.


Also can you recommend me some decent third party usb-c to card readers adapters.

Apr 5, 2021 10:16 PM in response to lalitbss

There are reports that M1 Macs have compatibility issues with certain USB chipsets used with USB peripherals. Sometimes you don't see any external drive and other times you see some files & folder on a drive. I did see reports that JMicron USB controllers were reported to have issues, but I haven't seen anything about the issue for months. Personally I have several USB devices which use an ASMedia USB controller chip that seem to work just fine with my M1 Mac although I really haven't used the new laptop very much.


Even with the Intel Macs I've had issues erasing drives. Sometimes you must try erasing the drive a second time immediately after you receive the first error message. Disk Utility is a terrible app and it is getting worse as it should never require multiple attempts to erase a drive like this.


I personally like to erase the whole physical drive instead of just the partition/volume so a new partition table is created. Unfortunately Disk Utility now hides the physical drive from view beginning with macOS 10.13. To erase the physical drive you must click "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Then erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled) if the drive will only be used with macOS, otherwise erase it as GUID partition and exFAT if you will share the drive with Windows.


In rare cases sometimes you must write zeroes to the beginning of the drive so the drive appears "blank" to macOS and Disk Utility since macOS and Disk Utility sometimes get confused if the beginning of the drive is configured in a way Apple doesn't expect. You may need to write zeroes to the beginning of the drive using Windows or Linux (or maybe partition and formatting with Windows or Linux will be sufficient) to allow Disk Utility to then properly erase the drive. You should always have Disk Utility erase the drive as the last step since other operating systems may format the drive in a way that macOS won't recognize (macOS is slightly deficient here).

Apr 6, 2021 8:05 PM in response to lalitbss

HWTech wrote:

There are reports that M1 Macs have compatibility issues with certain USB chipsets used with USB peripherals.

Sometimes you must try erasing the drive a second time immediately after you receive the first error message.

Unless you have a bad cable or adapter for the Mac (different items for Windows PC?) or possibly a bad port(s) on the MBPro, then this is all I have for you. Try using a different adapter for the SD cards which uses a different USB chipset. You can look in the System Profiler. Click on "USB" on the left pane and click each USB item on the upper right pane until you locate your SD Card reader to see if it shows the USB chipset used with the adapter. You can access the System Profiler by Option-clicking the Apple menu and selecting the first option.

I have 3 micro sd cards and 3 sd cards which are working perfectly in windows but are not detecting in the new Macbook pro m1

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