Mac Mini M2 Pro Satechi Dock SD Cards not reading

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Mac Mini M2 Pro Satechi Dock SD Cards not reading

Good day all,

I am the proud owner of a wonderful M2 Pro Mac Mini having just upgraded from my 12+ year old Mac Pro.

To compliment my Mac Mini and for ease of access, I purchased the "TYPE-C ALUMINUM STAND & HUB FOR MAC MINI" by Satechi. It's been highly recommended by previous M1 Mac Mini users and provides me with one of the most useful features, an SD Card Reader.

However, I'm very sad to say, that for some reason, every feature of this dock seems to work with my Mac Mini with the exception of said card reader.

The card reader works fine on an M2 MacBook Air, so I know for certain that the dock itself is absolutely fine.

I have tried everything possible to resolve it. What's also interesting, is that within System Information, it clearly shows the card reader and the fact a card is present as you can see in the screen shot.

But under no circumstances will this card mount, even if I try to list via Disk Utility or Terminal.

AppleCare have not provided much explanation as to why this would be and as I've said, the dock functions fine with the M2 MacBook Air, so this is an M2 Pro Mac Mini + Satechi Dock issue.

I've raised a ticket with the manufacturer, but I also wanted to both share my experience here, as well as to seek possible solutions. My next step is to purchase a USB-C hub and connect through that, just in case it's being fussy with the controller.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. This Mac Mini is about 99% perfect for what I need.

Mac mini, macOS 13.2

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 5:51 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 2, 2023 7:22 AM in response to Community User

There are several posts in the Community about external storage device issues with Ventura 13.2. I would suggest you look through recent posts. Your issue may not be an isolated case.

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Answer 2

Feb 2, 2023 9:27 AM in response to SteveOHutch

Thanks Steve! Yeah, the very odd issue here was the fact that it worked perfectly fine on the M2 MacBook Air.

I'm pleased to say that I have spent quite a bit of time on this today and have found an "temporary" solution.

Temporary Solution:

I took my Mac Mini M2 Pro to the local authorised reseller from which I purchased it, and was able to achieve the exact same behaviour in their store, as I had experienced. Connecting it to their display model Mac Mini M2 Pro, resulted in the SD card reader not mounting... Totally identical situation.

We tried it on 3 other Macs in their store, including a MacBook Pro with M2 Pro processor, and it mounted just fine. So therefore, we can say that this issue seems to be specific to either the Mac Mini M2 Pro or the entire M2 Mac Mini product line (they didn't have just the M2 Mac Mini to try it out on).

Then, I decided to purchase a USB-C HUB from a store in the same mall.

https://www.hama.com/00135756/hama-usb-3-1-type-c-hub-13-aluminium-2x-usb-a-usb-c-hdmi-bus-powered?srcLang=27&targetLang=1

I have no idea why I thought introducing a hub between the Mac Mini and the dock would make a difference, other than it's likely using a different USB controller, but I am pleased to say that it worked immediately.

All functionality of the Satechi dock is working, including of course, the SD card reader.

You can see the device tree below, and now the 64GB memory card has been allocated an identifier and has mounted successfully.

The hub is not powered externally, it's running entirely off the bus, but has "solved" the issue until Apple or Satechi find a solution to have this working without something in between.

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Mac Mini M2 Pro Satechi Dock SD Cards not reading

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