Internal sd card reader not working on mid 2010 mac mini after high sierra update

Hi,

Thanks for replying to my question.

I believe what is going on is a low level system failure to see this card reader on this model "Mid 2010" Mac Mini.

I took out the SD Card from this machine and placed it in my Late 2014 Mac Mini that is upgraded to High Sierra and it sees the card just fine as a MAC OS Extended Card with data intact.

When I updated this Mid 2010 machine initially I had the card installed seeing how it was used daily to backup the OS. (Never thought to remove it)

These home automation machines are just loaded with the basic OS install and patches and the Indigo Version 7 app and the 128 GB card is more than enough for backing up all the files used.

So... trouble shoot this system What I did this time was I reinstalled the "High Sierra OS" with the card removed so there would be no conflict of a card reader having media that was MAC OS Extended.

Result..... card reader is still not listed in the system report.

I then went ahead rebooted cmd R and asked to back up from a Time capsule backup " With card reinstalled No reader is seen"

I then went ahead rebooted cmd R and erased the OS SSD drive back to MAC OS Extended and reinstalled the original OS For this machine via internet install that version is "Lion"

Once complete and logged in I restarted the machine and then preformed another cmd R and reinstalled my os from a time machine backup that could now be seen from the card reader and all is good.

So at this point in time I will be keeping the two Mid 2010 MAC Mini machines that run my home and shop automation at Sierra level.

I will continue to use the third Mac Mini Mid 2010 as is (With High Sierra installed) but without a card reader being seen.

This is just a machine used out in the shop to surf the internet for technical info and watch videos while working / playing around.

Luckily it too has a recent time machine backup at Sierra level that I could go back to if other things start to crop up otherwise I will wait it out and see if any point releases might fix this problem.

That then leaves me with the Mid 2014 Mac Mini that has been update with High Sierra where all the bits and pieces appear to work.

At lastly, I also have 2 Late 2011 MacBook Pro 17" machines with SSD'd maxed out RAM installed running Sierra.

I upgraded my personal machine and appears to work fine.

It has an Express Card 3/4 slot where I run an adapter to see SD Cards this appears to be working just fine.

My wife's machine has been left back at Sierra for now.

Well again thanks for replying hopefully some one at apple will see this conversation and pass it on to someone who might be able resolve the problem.

For now I'm going to sit tight......

Regards,

Dennis

Thanks for the suggestions.

Applied the SMC reset and the SD Card reader appeared in the system report!

Thanks,

I then inserted the SD card that was formatted in MAC OS Extended format and still not seen.

I even tried to see it using disk utils no-joy.

I then removed media and preformed the NVRAM reset.

SD Card reader still seen in Sys report just fine now.

But no media seen when reinserted.

Again tried with disk utils no-joy again...

Brought media back to Late 2014 Mac Mini to verify with High Sierra and it can be seen just fine here.

We are a little closer ...

Thanks,

Well here is my latest follow up to my attempt to get this High Sierra install to work with this Mid 2010 Mac Mini.

I went out to the shop with a couple of additional SD cards and attempted to get the internal reader and subsequent disk utility tool to see them.

Again no luck with any combination.

And then to add insult to injury I installed the 10.10.3 Supplemental update 1.0
and upon reboot the card reader was not listed in the system report
under >About the Mac > System Report >Card Reader.

And of course the media could not be seen,

I then had to shut down and do an SMC reset ( An SMC reset on a desktop is just shutting down the device and removing the power cord for 30 seconds and then plugging it back in and restarting the device) upon completion of this reset the card reader is now listed but again no media can be seen at finder level or via disk utility app.

So I am no better off than before.

Hopefully we get an apple support person to stumble upon this conversation and move it up the food chain to an engineering group that will look into this problem.

That is all for now.

Hi glad to see someone else is experiencing this issue and not just me….

As you see I just update my latest efforts in a post to the other person who has been reading this thread.

After seeing your post I went back out to this older machine in my shop and took along a couple more cards and a SanDisk USB Card Card Reader to see if this Mac Mini could see all the same cards that could not be seen via the internal card reader.

Well I took all these cards Mac and Fat 32 formatted and used the USB reader to see if the installed Mac OS would see them on this Mid 2010 Mac Mini.

The answer…

All is fine the reader displays them just fine at finder level and also via the Disk Utility app.

So as I stead in my previous post I feel the is an os level problem that has been over looked by the engineers via all the Beta testing that has supposedly been going on.

Hopefully we get an apple support person to stumble upon this conversation and move it up the food chain to an engineering group that will look into this problem.

Again thanks fo letting me know that you too have experienced this problem.

Hi Gabriel-am,

Thanks so much for posting your information that you too, are experiencing this same problem.

Hopefully someone at Apple will be reviewing these threads and will let the OSX development team know there is a problem.

Again thanks for letting all of us in this thread and hopefully Apple, know there is something wrong.

Dennis

Hi,

Thanks for replying that you too are have this problem.

Also thanks for reporting it to Apple.

Unfortunately I have never recieved a reply from them regarding this issue.

In my report to them I refenerenced this link to provide additional information.

I was hoping tha with these point releases they would address this issue.

But so far I see no improvment,

After each point release the card reader is not seen until an SMC is done and then same problem.

So for now I have chosen to use a SanDisk USB Card Reader in a USB port to continue to back up until apple addresses and fixes this problem.

Regards,