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aledco Author

Level 1

7 points

MacBook Pro won't read Sandisk SDHC cards since Lion 10.7.1 update

Hi all, just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I know there are dozens of posts about SD cards not working with MacBook pros, but mine seems to have started when I installed the latest Lion update.

I have a high-end 13" early 2011 MBP and the cards I'm having trouble with are all Sandisk 4GB SDHC. Two are 'Extreme III's" and one is an Extreme II. The card reader is showing up in System Profiler, and a really old 2GB Sandisk card gets read fine, so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the MBP hardware.

Similarly, I can read the cards fine via a USB adapter, so it's not the cards that are causing the problem.

I had successfully imported photos from the cards before upgrading to Lion, and also before installing the 10.7.1 update. So, it looks like the problem may be linked with the update, but this is purely an educated guess.

I've tried resetting the SMC to no avail.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 13" 2011

Posted on Aug 20, 2011 4:46 AM

127 replies

Dec 22, 2014 1:55 AM in response to Supritha

Fixed my MBP mid 2014 15".

Card would mount.

Items were able to be seen.

Some/Most of the items were damaged.

Damaged files could not be transferred.

Could run verify disk.

Could not run repair disk.

Thank you for helping me fix an issue i spent about 3 hours trying on different MBP and PC's, also reformatting the card in a GoPro.

Jan 10, 2015 2:48 PM in response to aledco

Hello,

I solved my problem. I don't advise you to do what I did unless, everything fails. This could break your sd card.

I simply inserted 1 mm of the card and then quickly inserted and removed several times in a row.

I might have done it 10 times. I did it like zack,zack, zack. The last time, I inserted all the way in and left it there.

Problems solved. I can now insert any SD card normally and it will read.

Feb 8, 2015 5:31 PM in response to aledco

Anyone tried insert the card with the lock pin in lock position??? This is the only way that i can read my Transcend SDHC 16GB Class10.

I have another Transcend Card 4GB class 4 that works fine.

Feb 13, 2015 6:27 PM in response to willmow

It works for me, thank you very much!!

Mar 6, 2015 10:14 AM in response to ShelaghD-B

This worked for me & my mac book pro, Cheerz.

Was very helpful.

jb233

Level 1

4 points

Mar 7, 2015 9:24 AM in response to berkant

After trying alcohol, canned air, updating os etc. without success, I tried your (berkant) method: pull up Finder preferences, uncheck and recheck "External Disks", remove & replace SD card. Worked instantly. Apple is getting sloppy with software, or too rushed.

Thanks for the suggestion. Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011, OSX 10.10.2

Mar 23, 2015 7:16 AM in response to Supritha

I have a 2012 Macbook Pro and in the utilities file I have no XQuarzt to go to, as you recommend in your solution with the card reader problem. closest thing is X11 which appears to be an old open platform. can you help?

_Slavi_

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2015 1:12 PM in response to Supritha

yep 🙂

May 9, 2015 8:28 PM in response to _Slavi_

What worked for me was simply pressing as hard as I could on the SanDisk. When I did, it worked! (Nothing else I tried made any difference.)

Zolja

Level 1

0 points

May 31, 2015 10:14 AM in response to aledco

Suffering from the same problem with my mid-2012 Macbook Pro. Haven't found any solutions suggested in this thread to work for me.

Macbook Air late-2011 recognizes just fine the microSD. In Finder, in photos, through GoPro Studio while GoPro mounted, in Aperture, etc..

Macbook Pro is just lagging..

Jun 28, 2015 11:25 AM in response to jb233

The solution in this video actually helped me. Just wrap some paper with alcohol around an SDHC-card and put in and pull it out 3 times. It does work! 🙂

Aug 23, 2015 3:04 PM in response to Zolja

open up your finder. in the search type in X11 it will pop up an app with a thumb nail saying X11. click on it and it will open something up saying mac does no longer come with this blah blah blah and it will bring you to the apple website. it has a link to the quarts website where you can download it. so click on the link it shows you and like i said it brings you to the quarts website. it has a link to download it. it will pop up in your download bar section the top right of your screen. once its done downloading double click on it to pop up the instal. you'll have to agree to license and crap like everything else and keep hitting next till it finally installs. then you will have to log out and log back in to make it your defualt it bitterly tells you what to do step by step/ hope this help=] if it did clic helpful so i can get my rank up p[lease

Aug 24, 2015 4:20 PM in response to Supritha

Hi Supritha,

I've tried following your instructions, but it won't seem to update. I'm not exactly sure why my SDHC card has decided to stop working (it's been fine in the past).

And helpful anecdotes would be great.

Thanks!

Aug 25, 2015 12:19 PM in response to ibejohn818

Just removed it, blew carefully, reinserted - and it worked.

The older problems above may have been resolved - they had me considering more drastic measures when the solution was quite simple. Try the simple stuff first.

Sep 26, 2015 12:34 PM in response to aledco

Surprising to me, inserting the card not quite all the way worked. I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, but I've had 4 SD cards read perfectly and then stop working (though other SD cards still are read fine). Mine wasn't related to an update though. EVERY single time, it has been that the card was in my MacBook, and either iPhoto froze or I just forgot to properly eject the card, and after I did that 2 times, it stops being able to read it. I don't know if this will help anyone solve this issue, but that's where my problem occurs.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

MacBook Pro won't read Sandisk SDHC cards since Lion 10.7.1 update