SD card reader not working on high sierra

Yes I know it seems that way but it's good to check. I've seen a great many hardware problems that coincidentally showed just after an update. It could also be a firmware problem, which are now bundled with the OS updates. Firmware problems wouldn't be fixed by reinstalling the software. So it's best to check all possibilities and be patient. If it's dire, get an external reader or connect your camera directly via USB and use Image Capture for now, until you figure out what's wrong.

One of the first things I tried was connecting the camera via usb -- no dice. Same problem, it doesn't see it. For now, my workaround is opening it on my windows computer, saving the photos on a usb stick, then plugging that into the Mac Mini. Klugey, but it works until Apple gets this thing fixed. As you can see from the comments, a lot of us are experiencing this issue, especially with mid 2010 Minis. Everything worked fine forever, then High Sierra and -- no card reader function.

Yeah it sounds like it's a problem specific to Minis of that period. I have a 2011 Mini that I haven't updated yet. I don't need the card reader on it so I think I'll go ahead and do the update so I can if I can duplicate this problem. I would still bet it's a firmware problem, not system software. I've heard of bundled firmware updates failing without warning during OS updates, so I'm guessing that's what happened. Success may depend on what system you had running before the update.

For posterity, you could check your firmware version in System Info (Boot ROM version) and post it here so others can compare what they're running and whether there's been an update.

Apple Menu > About This Mac then click on System Report. The first pane (Hardware) should show "Boot ROM version" toward the bottom. While you're there, check which "Model Identifier" is listed (toward the top of that pane).

btw- If you connect the camera via USB, many applications won't recognize it unless it's mounted as mass storage. Most cameras don't do this anymore, only P2P, so you have to use Image Capture to see the camera.

I have the same problem and I reset SMC and still no SD's mounted. I also checked my System Report and it says that there is no internal SD card reader. I have a early 2013 MacBook Pro Retina 15". Whats your suggestion?

I tried that, but when i Boot with Command+R, it still does not recognize my SDHC in Disk Utility. In system information, it tells me that I do not have an internal SD reader, although I do. Is that software issue? This is a real pain, because I still use SD's quite a bit even though a lot of ppl dont.....

I had similar symptoms both after initially installing High Sierra, and after the 10.13.2 Update. There was no response to plugging any cards into the reader (including the Transcend JetDrive which is what was there when I Updated). In my case, the System Report said "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers". Multiple Restarts didn't fix anything. However, the card reader re-appeared after a full Shutdown, unplugging all USB devices, and powering back on.

Michail_d, I had this issue as well, but absolutely nothing I tried fixed it. Recently my SSD and motherboard both went bad at the same time. One Apple advisor told me that he has seen Macs do this lots of times, slowly go bad one component at a time. I had my MacBook fixed and it works like a dream.... but if a restart fixed yours, thats great!!

Same issues here. I’ve been dealing with it for about a few months after installing Sierra. I thought maybe something was wrong with the card so I purchased a brand new one to find out that it’s still not reading.

In order to get the photos off of my camera, I have to use Camera Connect by Canon to get them to my phone and put them on my iCloud to get to my MacBook. It’s a very annoying, unnecessary process. Not sure why Apple hasn’t tried fixing this issue.

I just installed High Sierra and could kick myself. I can now talk to Siri, but I can't access my SD card. Yet, when I remove it, I get that message about improper removal. It shows up in the disk utility, but I still can't find a way to access the card's contents.

I have Mac mini (Mid 2010) too.

I wanted to downgrade to 10.12.6 but realized sd reader is not working now.

apparently, apple has something against sdcards, probably they're trying to force users to use icloud.

I have been benchmarking all my apple devices with all versions of OSes.

when I upgraded from Yosemite to Sierra, computer speed actually increased (all my other apple computers too).

I was amazed, this was against what everyone was saying about Apple doing forced obsolescence etc.

I though that it was probably a mistake that apple forgot to slow the os down to force people to buy newer stuff.

then I upgraded to high sierra, now computer is even slower than Yosemite. so, well done apple.

I really hope the bootrom update won't cause a problem to downgrade to sierra.

We don't know that it's damaging card readers, and since there HARDWARE, how could they?

I do know, that after the install, it took extra care for me to insert MY CARD and have it seen, just

as other OS's have done the same.

I do know, that insertion of card firmly or just shy of it fully seated can cure the unfound card.

ok, I downgraded my Mac mini (Mid 2010) to 10.12.6.

Now the sdcard is working.

Also the benchmark shows proper speed, not like how it was in 10.13.1

however, there is another problem now. the write speed is slow now.

initially internal ssd write speed was ~104MB/s

after upgrading to high sierra, write speed became ~14.7MB/s

after 10.12.6 clean install write speed became ~33.4MB/s

maybe it's because of the updated EFI/bootrom.

I will try to downgrade and post the result here.

Having the same issue. I have a MacBook Pro 2017 with only the 4 USB 3.0 ports and have to use a SanDisk Extreme Pro reader with the SanDisk card. Purchased the reader from the Apple store the same day as I purchased the computer. Everything worked fine. Until late September. Has not worked since. Truly thought that Apple would have come out with a fix, so did not worry about it until today when I wanted to send an Xmas photo to family - NOT HAPPENING NOW!!

Was pleased to fine that Apple Care was open and spent just over and hour total between a couple of calls (of course they wanted me to install High Sierra as that was sure to fix the problem NOT). Got pushed up to a level two who said it must be corrupted cards, as under system info the card reader was showing, but it still might be the card reader?! So tried it on my sons (same model computer) and still not working.

My neighbor has an older MBP running 10.13.2 but had the direct SD card port. Tried it and well all the cards and my old card reader worked, so not the card readers and not the cards!

So what is it?? Any suggestions?? SO frustrated !!!

I can view my SD Photos in Apple Photos this will read the SD card, but will only save them to photos. I like to save my photos to back up to an external drive, so need a fix for this. My photo files are too large and expensive to save to the cloud. I would like to have access to my photos, please mac developers fix this issue.