macOS BigSur 11.4 - Native Photos App - Crashes when using SD card

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Level 1

8 points

macOS BigSur 11.4 - Native Photos App - Crashes when using SD card

Hi all,

I'm new to Apple Macs so forgive me if I can't answer everything (usually as I haven't worked out how to get the information).

I own a MacBook Air M1, 16GB Ram and 512GB NVMe and my DLSR is a Sony A6400. I am using RAW+JPEG files (saves both to the SD card) - writing to a SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB SDXC.

Whenever I connect my SD card up to my SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-II USB-C Card Reader, I can use Finder to view the videos and open the photos manually, but if I open the Photos application, about 80% of the time, the application will crash or if it opens, and I click on the drive, it then crashes. If I click on Reopen Application on the crash prompt, it 100% then opens fine and I can import in the media.

Once imported, there are zero crashes when opening the Photos app and accessing the RAW/JPEG files in the library.

I am 99% certain it is that the Photos app doesn't like RAW as if I change the camera to only save JPEG, no crashes happen at all.

Is this a known issue? Any work arounds - or any other software I could use for importing those files?

Thanks

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 20, 2021 8:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,861 points

Jul 21, 2021 4:07 AM in response to WildWayz

The only other thing I can think of that is worth trying is a different memory card.

Failing that, there may be a specific bug which you should, if possible, report to apple here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

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Answer 2

WildWayz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 21, 2021 2:35 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Just tried copying the files to the Mac first then import them into photos.

So, I did the following:

Closed Photos App
Connected SD Reader
Inserted SD Card
Opened Finder
Copied from SD Card to Documents
Unmounted SD Card
Removed SD Card Reader
Opened Photos App
Imported Photos

All worked fine.

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Answer 3

WildWayz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 21, 2021 1:09 AM in response to TonyCollinet

This is the error that I get. It seems to be when I connect the SD card reader up, put an SD card into it. Open Photos, then click on the SD card - it then crashes - so before I import the media.

macOS BigSur Photos Crash - Pastebin.com

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Answer 4

Jul 21, 2021 1:17 AM in response to WildWayz

Sorry, personally I don't speak crashlog. Perhaps someone else can decipher it.

I've ready of compatibility between M1 macs and some USB chipsets. This might be relevant. Do you have (or can borrow) another reader you can try?

In the meantime - have you tried first copying the images to a folder on your mac using finder?

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,813 points

Jul 21, 2021 1:56 AM in response to WildWayz

Is your SD card very full?

Try to import using a different, nearly empty card. I noticed that Photos is likely to crash, if it has to prepare thousands of RAW files for browsing to select for importing at once, it may be a memory leak.

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Answer 6

WildWayz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 21, 2021 2:05 AM in response to léonie

Morning

Thanks for the reply. The card is near empty - Never more than 40 photos on it (just an amateur - I take photos off often, in case of a card failure).

JPEG is about 22MB a file, RAW is about 26MB a file.

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Answer 7

WildWayz Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 21, 2021 2:07 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I'll try that now - but I am sure it will work. Seems to be based around when the SD Card reader is connected to the card. Once it doesn't crash, if I eject the card with the Photos app open, take photos and insert the card in, it seems to be fine.

I have also tried it with a UGREEN USB-C Dock which has an SD card reader (UHS-I reader, not like the SanDisk UHS-II reader) - does the same.

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Answer 8

Jul 20, 2021 9:24 AM in response to WildWayz

As a test, try copying the files to a folder on your mac first, and then try importing from there.

Does the photos app crash then?

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Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

194,813 points

Jul 21, 2021 4:41 AM in response to WildWayz

You could also try a different USB port for the card reader.

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macOS BigSur 11.4 - Native Photos App - Crashes when using SD card

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