SD Card Reader SUPER Slow in 2021 M1Pro MBP 16"

If Apple felt there were more than a very small number of MacBook Pro with a problem, they would have issued a recall (they have not).

That leaves the possibility of a sample defect (an issue with your sample of the product). To determine whether that is the case, you can make an Appointment at the Genius Bar at an Apple owned store for an evaluation, free. Apple Authorized Service Providers can also evaluate your MacBook Pro, but they may charge an evaluation fee.

Hi folks

Is there hope? I installed Monterey 12.2 yesterday and have just copied several UHS-I cards (which always gave me problems, unlike UHS-II, which always worked) into the card reader. I'm on card #10 right now, so far it's all worked flawlessly, no hangs in the finder, etc. This would not have worked before, I'm sure. Problem solved? That would be really nice!

Christian

Hi Christian,

A quick test on Monterey 12.2 gives the same promising results as you saw. I used my same card that has some times worked, sometimes not and got the following results.

Copying in the Finder, two tries separated by eject/remove/reinsert, SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro (UHS-1, speed class 3) gave:

3.25GB/100 files mixed CR3 RAW and video - 38 seconds

2.72GB/100 files CR3 RAW - 31 seconds

The card is rated at 95MB/s read speed so roughly a GB in 10.5 seconds. On that basis, the reader can't go much faster. I was also able to Quicklook files on the card in sensible times, this has totally failed in the past. So I'm optimistic but will reserve judgement because I got here with 12.1 too.

I am also having this issue but even with my hi-speed cards (170/s+). The older cards crash the newer cards are slow and unstable.

Did a comparison to my 2015 MBP and it's a night and day difference, my new 2021 mac card reader is transferring at 11kb/s!?

Compared to a USB-c SD reader no matter the card or speed it flies. This is definitely an issue with the new macs and they need to address it.

I added to this thread about ten days ago. Had an SD card that just made my 14" MBP go bonkers. Wouldn't show up in finder, couldn't eject or read. Finally got it to read and it said the download would take about 40 mins for some very small files. Spend time on the phone with Apple, got to tier 2 tec (disconnected twice) and they said they'd had no similar reports in spite of this active thread. Used an external reader and the files downloaded in less than ten seconds.

Upgraded OS to 2.2 last night and just inserted the same SD that I'd had the issues with. It showed up on the desktop and finder in a flash and downloaded just as fast.

I guess Apple solved the problem they allegedly never had. Good work for a job not done.

The Monterey 12.2 update has given me sensible performance. I did a couple of tests (detailed earlier) and achieved about 86MB/s on a card that was previously hopeless (very slow, gave errors, gave up). The 86MB/s compares to the card's theoretical maximum read speed of 95MB/s so I think the reader is going about as fast as possible in my case. I understand that the reader does not support UHS III cards very new cards will not perform at maximum speed.

I'm still reserving judgement because Monterey 12.1 initially gave a good result and then became erratic but this could well be fixed for me.

Cards formatted on Canon R series don't work on the SD slot of my 14" mbp M1Pro. Whats the deal Apple? Update this useless machine. Could have stayed on my old Intel MacBook with stupid dongles. Slow = unusable.

Just noticed my os is 12.1... I'll try 12.2

Hi. I have the same slow data reading from SD card at my new MACBook Pro 16, 2021. SD card is SanDisk Ultra 80MB/s; 64 GB. I reported now this problem to Apple through link above (Product Feed back...)> The message reception was confirmed, but there will be no personal reply... Apple Team will think about this problem... I want to believe, the problem will be solved soon... and not on the account of users... The device is "high level unit" and expensive and should provide perfect performance. Thanks

Same problem here. Took the plunge and changed my old windows laptop to a MacBook Pro and find the card reader is rubbish! All my cards are SanDisk Extreme, 90 mb’s, UHS speed class 3, and speed class 10. Never had any issues downloading before with an external card reader, but didn’t expect that I would still need to use it on my new machine.

Updating macOS to Monterey 12.2.1 seems to have solved the problem for most people here (worked for me). It seems that some new machines are still being supplied with an older version that is very hit and miss.

The built in card reader was one of the things I was most excited about with the new macbook. To think that they messed this up so badly, just makes me so angry! It was so easy to do this right. And yet they failed.

Have you updated to the latest version of macOS? The 12.2 (and later) version seems to have fixed it for most people, me included.

I do agree that it’s pretty poor that it was released in such an unreliable form though.

Have you checked if you’re on the latest version of macOS? I had the same problem but after updating it now works fine. They should be shipped with the latest version though as it’s not a good reflection on Apple.

I've got the same problem macbook pro 14 2021 ... with sandisk extreme pro V30 64GB very slow compared to ma imac 27 2017 where its instant... if card reader used its OK

Not so. Mainly because I have newer and older cards and they are all slow. But if I plug them into a dongle they work fine. Something needs to be updated