Q: The SD card reader won't import images to the iPad. I purchase 10 months ago, and haven't had a problem with it until today. How do I remedy this problem? I'm about the go out of town and prefer not a travel with my laptop.

you use the camera connector kit for that?

Have you tried to give your device a reset? Sometimes that helps with glitches. Hold down the sleep and home keys, past when you see the red power down slider and until you see the silver apple. Let it reboot and try again.

ALso, the card reader will only see files that are formatted correctly. If you just took the images from your computer and put them onto the card, then it won't work. They have to follow a strict naming convention. There has to be a folder named DCIM on the card and then all those images have to have a file name of exactly 8 characters, DSC_3857 for example. Your camera makes this naming structure but if you manually put the photos on that card you may not have replicated it.

Is this a card you've used before? If it's a new card and is empty then the iPad won't read it. Also if it's SDXC it won't read those either (XC cards use a file structure that the iPad can't decipher)

As far as i know, the camera connection kit can only read photos that were directly written on it from the digital camera, so no photos that we transferred from a computer to the SD card. Even photos that were written on the SD card from the digital camera, then transferred to a computer and transferred back to the SD card can't be read by the camera kit.

Does that information help ?

You can put images on the card and have them read. I've done it. I've even done it with limited USB drives. The key is to follow the naming convention.

DCIM folder, all files within it with 8 character names

you can also use it with mp4 files and some other movie types. The key is the folder structure and name.

Are you seeing the photo thumbnails on your iPad but they just won't import?

Try a different SD card & see if it works.

Try this  - Reset the iPad by holding down on the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons. (This is equivalent to rebooting your computer.)

 Cheers, Tom

Thank you!!!!  I had a similar problem and this workaround was perfect.

Such a shame that the ipad only accepts photos named with an 8-character name! I just purchased my ipad, and love using it to display my photos. But I have renamed all my computer archive of photos (1000's of them) with very explicit names which facilitate word searches. For instance, I might name one "Tom John Mike July 4 beach party.jpg". As such, it is instantly findable in a program such as Picasa. How can I replicate this functionality in the ipad?

David

How can I replicate this functionality in the ipad?

You can't directly as IOS will not support the long file names. About all you can do is organize the image files into separate folders. You cannot use sub-folders as only the top level folder is supported. Images in the sub-folders will appear as if they were in the top level folder.

I used the DCIM folder my camera setup on the SD card and loaded my photos into it creating 8 character names of my choosing and was able to download the photos to my IPad with no problems.