SD Card Slot Disappears After Sleep (Gone Until Reboot)

see my latest post in Re: MacBook Pro Retina Bootcamp USB set address failed

Do people who are now experiencing set address failed also have slow startup manager? Do any of the suggested fixes work for you?

What about people who are only experiencing the original problem of sd-card not waking from sleep - Do you also experience slow startup manager? Also my guess is if you are only experiencing the latter you are not on windows 10 - correct?

LonerT you said here: Re: MacBook Pro Retina Bootcamp USB set address failed

> Does the behavior change if you use Hibernate instead of Sleep? I have a Broadcom SCSI driver, so I do not see the same issues.

I've had some success experimenting with hibernating after upgrading to the latest Sierra (previously I had bad experiences prior to Sierra and Win10 Anniversary) and I do need to investigate whether that option is safe and liveable these days. What does the Broadcom driver give you that my 'apple' driver does not?

Indeed after the Sierra firmware update, we are now back to the original situation that the card slot disappears after sleep. The vendor ID on my card reader says it is an apple device so I don't understand why posters here have discussed other vendors?

I updated my bug post with apple, and once again requested a response. It has now been 6 months with no response

The Broadcom driver is a SCSI driver, unlike the Apple version. It has been stable from day 1. Hibernate probes hardware and rebuilds the hardware tables again. There is a downside to Hibernate, which can result in duplicate instances of the same hardware, so it would be wise to test and verify.

My 2013 (6,2) MacBook Air 8gb, 500gb SSD behaves this way: My SD card does get restored properly from 'hibernate' but never from 'sleep' mode. And since I have to hit the power button to wake it up from hibernate I find that simply having it do a shutdown works for me. It takes about 10 seconds to wake from hibernate. It takes about 15 seconds to boot from a shutdown.

I would rather be using Sleep mode if it worked. It wakes the computer in around 5-7 seconds - albeit without the SD drive. In fact I used Sleep mode routinely when I wasn't as dependent on the contents of my 512gb SD card. But these days the SD card is fundamental to many of the tasks I perform.

It would be splendid if Apple could evolve an SD driver for Bootcamp that would find, wake and restore the SD card during wake-up from sleep mode. This would seem doable - but only if someone at Apple cares about those of us who want or need to run Windows on our Apple hardware. Personally, I wouldn't even own this MacBook Air if not for the Bootcamp capability. I typically only boot to Siera OS so I can backup (using WinClone) my Windows 10 partition image.

I would LOVE to be proved wrong but Apple would have to be in a fairly benevolent mode to fix this for us.

I have this problem intermittently on my MacBook Pro (2015). The SD card will sometimes be gone on wake from sleep, with a notification that it wasn't properly unmounted. I can get it to reappear by restarting.

I only use the SD card for Time Machine backups, and one thing I've noticed is that if I remember to check that there's no TM activity before sleeping, the SD card returns on wake. It's only when I forget to check that I sometimes get the problem.

I'm wondering, therefore, if the disappearance of the SD card is caused by read/write activity being interrupted by sleep. If so, disabling background activity on the SD card (Spotlight indexing, backups, virus checks, etc) might be a fix.

You can disable Spotlight's background indexing for a specific volume using the Privacy tab in System Prefs -> Spotlight.

A volume can be excluded from TM backups using the Options settings in System Prefs -> Time Machine.

If you have other backup, antivirus or diagnostic software that may be running on the SD card in the background, you'll need to configure that, too, in order to test the theory.

There is no solution. Only work-arounds.

To the best of my knowledge, if you only use the Mac OS you will not see this disappearing SD Slot problem. BUT - if you utilize Bootcamp to run Windows (any version) and you allow your computer to go into "SLEEP MODE" while using Windows (when you close the lid or just let it time out) - then you WILL encounter this problem.

When s Mac running Windows in Bootcamp goes into sleep mode, the Bootcamp SD Slot goes dormant and cannot be waked up without a power off/on of the machine - which will restore the SD Slot. And for most folks a simple restart of Windows will restore the SD Slot, probably because it goes through the full boot-up process.

Workarounds;

You can utilize the Hybernate mode (instead of SLEEP mode) and never see the problem. The difference involves the fact that Hybernate involves a full power off of the computer whereas the SLEEP mode leaves the power on (albeit in a low power state.) Or you can use a full SHUTDOWN in lieu of SLEEP mode. In this case the SD Slot is fully functional upon reboot of the WIndows OS.

In my case I had always preferred to use the SLEEP mode because it is quicker to wake up. But once I started using the SD Card slot extensively while in Windows, I had to change to either SHUTDOWN or HYBERNATE to ensure that the SD card would be functional when I needed it.

This problem has existed for over 3 years. Apple has seemingly acknowledged it as a problem on occassion, but has yet to ever bother with a fix. I suspect it relates to the fact that this problem only affects users who run Windows on their Macs. And why would Apple bother to fix something that they disapprove of in the first place. <sarcasm detected!>

cyongsak-

Are you by any chance using the power button to wake up from your test of sleep mode? If so then you aren't really in SLEEP mode...

While I'd be most interested to know that something has been done by Apple to remedy the "lost SD card" when awakening from "SLEEP" mode I've got to say that yours is the only report I've seen to suggest it has been fixed.

On my Macbook Air (mid-2013) the SD card slot disappears every time it is waked up from SLEEP mode. And by waked up I mean when I hit the ENTER key to light up the screen...

A restart, hybernate, or a shutdown/startup will restore the SD card slot. But a SLEEP/WAKEUP does not.

If your computer is truly in SLEEP mode, you will be able to wake up your computer using the ENTER key. But if your restart process involves use of the POWER key then you aren't really in SLEEP mode. Can you clarify if you can wake it up using only the ENTER key - and subsequently access the SD Card?

Just to be clear - having the screen timeout and go dark to save power is not the same as SLEEP mode.

Curious minds are hoping you have found the cure! 🙂

Sounds great. I am encouraged that maybe Apple has found a fix.

My Macbook Air mid 2013 running the latest High Sierra OS. And the latest Fall Creators Windows 10. I don't use Parallels or Fusion - just boot either into Bootcamp or MacintoshHD.

Are you running as a dual boot (either Bootcamp or MacintoshHD) or are you running Windows (possibly with a Bootcamp partition) via Parallels or Fusion as a virtual machine? IOW, is Mac OS running in the background while you are in Windows?

For the past year I was on the Windows Preview build program and tried dozens of Windows incremental updates.

Currently on the Fall Creators build (1709) ver 16299.15 with all updates. On the Mac OS side I upgraded to High Sierra about two weeks ago. The only Windows feature that doesn't seem to work is the restart assistant in bootcamp. It cannot see the Mac OS - requiring me to reboot using the Option key to select the Mac OS.

I tried SLEEP mode again today. Set the "what happens when I close the lid" option to SLEEP. Closed the lid, waited a few minutes. Opened the lid and it came back to life promptly enough. But the SD Slot w/512gb card disappeared totally. A reboot brought it back.

I've solved this problem on my MacBook pro 13" 2015 with Windows 10 1709.

1. Install Windows 10 normally(DO NOT install any driver).

2. Locate the Boot Camp directory, it should contains two folders: $WinPEDriver$ and BootCamp.

3. Delete these files/folders:

\BootCamp\Drivers\AMD

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\.DS_Store

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleDisplayInstaller64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleODDInstaller64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleRemoteInstaller64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleSDCardReader64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleWirelessMouse64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleWirelessTrackpad64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\BCDriverMerge.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Atheros

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomBluetooth64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomCardReader64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomComController64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomEthernet64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomWirelessLegacy64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Broadcom\BroadcomWirelessWin7x64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus\CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Intel\IntelEthernetInstaller64.exe

\BootCamp\Drivers\Marvell

\BootCamp\Drivers\NVidia

\BootCamp\Drivers\RealTek

\BootCamp\Drivers\.DS_Store

\BootCamp\BootCamp.xml

4. Lanuch the \BootCamp\Setup.exe to install drivers, reboot computer.

I don't exactly know which driver caused the issue, but now it works.

You should have an Apple (not Broadcom) SD Card Controller on a 2015 MBP. None of the other listed drivers have any bearding on the SD Card issue. If FCU 1709 fixes device discovery issue(s), it should address the SD card issue.

I have had the same issue on Windows 7 and now with the fresh install I just did on Windows 10 on my late 2013 Mac Book Pro Retina 15" (11,2). Apple please fix this issue with a new SD card driver! Btw I don't have this issue on any other computer (Microsoft Surface, Dell XPS etc.)!

Apple needs to fix two problems that relate to using Boot Camp on the Macbook Air and Pro models - specifically when Boot Camp is implemented in dual boot mode.

1. Correct the problem related to not detecting the presence of the SD Card Slot when waking the computer from SLEEP MODE. How hard could this possibly be!???

2. Create an APFS driver for Windows 7 and 10 so that the Boot Camp Control Panel in Windows will be able to access the MacintoshHD drive partition on High Sierra versions of Mac OS. This update would allow users to operate seamlessly between Windows and Mac OS - as it was designed to do.

The frustrating part of this is that BOTH of these issues appear to be quite simple for Apple to correct. But apparently they resist doing so because it solely benefits users of Windows on their Apple computers. They ought to realize that they are driving Windows users (like me and so many others) away from buying Apple computers. My next computer will likely be a Dell XPS 13 or HP Spectre 2in1 13". VERY similar form factor to the Macbook Air - but at least I won't have to depend on Apple to keep my Windows environment fully functional. And I can opt for a touch screen!

Apple has failed to address issue #1 for over three years - telling users suffering this problem to just reboot their computers to wake up the SD card slot. This essentially makes using the SLEEP mode unsatisfactory for many of us.

It is increasingly obvious to me that Apple believes that this non-support for Windows users on Macbook computers is somehow justified. I could not disagree more!