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My SD card slot on the latest MacBook (Mid 2012) won't mount my SD card. The SD card doesn't appear in Finder, Disk Utility, Image Capture or anywhere. I know it's not a software problem, because nothing changed before and after. How do I fix it?

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  • I can't post a new answer because of the protected status of the question. For me, blowing into the slot didn't work. I spoke to Apple support who suggested resetting NVRAM and SMC, and this does seem to have helped. In particular, it seems to be the SMC reset that helped. – PeterT Dec 11 '16 at 16:15
  • @PeterT Please make an edit to the main answer with your details - I will approve that addition if someone else doesn't do it before I see the edit. – bmike♦ Dec 13 '16 at 18:09
  • Actually, I think I was just lucky the first time I tried after the SMC reset. The problem was always intermittent, and I guess likely more related to dust etc after all. – PeterT Dec 13 '16 at 19:17
  • @PeterT You have to blow really hard. Trust me. It works. – Andremoniy Oct 15 '17 at 14:19
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    @Andremoniy had a bit of a double take when that notification appeared on my phone; looked like spam out of context :)... Anyway, it works now, I don't know what fixed it. – PeterT Oct 15 '17 at 14:24
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I blew hard in the SD card hub. Now it is working fine.

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    Wow. That worked! I guess we're back to the days of the NES. – hepcat72 Oct 17 '15 at 13:36
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    Are you freakin' kidding me? How the heck did this work... I can confirm that this fixed the issue... – megamaiku Aug 17 '17 at 7:42
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    what the hell, can't believe am upvoting this 😂 – Paschalis Feb 22 '18 at 11:19
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    Can confirm this works – Michael Mason Mar 31 '18 at 9:43
  • Hahaha! This worked. Guess we have to keep an eye on dust build up with the card readers. Worked a treat on my iMac. Thanks. – Gareth Daine Jan 30 '19 at 12:56
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This thread says that there's a switch in the SD card slot that detects when a card is inserted, and it can get clogged by dust or jammed or something. If you play around with a toothpick (or anything that fits in that hole), it'll fix your problem. Toggling that switch helps.

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  • So your issue is fixed? – demure May 24 '13 at 15:38
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    Yeah. I only commented because it was a hard bug to find, and much prefer Stack Exchange over some random forum. – Scott May 24 '13 at 20:22
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for me sticking the SD card in and pulling it a bit out again ( just a few mm ) seems to get it mounted. There's even a video that explains how to put it in and pull it out a bit here

But I find that putting it in under an angle works better: Sticking the card in under a angle with the cut off corner against the top of the SD slot and then pushing the card in seems to get it mounted every time.

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    +1 for sticking it in under and angle: works reliable up to this point. – 0x6d64 Jan 6 '15 at 17:13
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    -1 for how ridiculous it is that you pay a premium for this hardware and then have to stuff like that – charlesreid1 Jul 27 '15 at 6:47
  • I wiggled the card while it’s in the slot and it appeared on the desktop. Great! – pointum Nov 8 '19 at 18:55
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My Mac book stop seeing the cards, I used a can of air to clean out the reader and it works fine now.

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  • Blowing compressed air into the SD slot on 2 of my MacBook Pros solved the problem. Thanks for that tip. I had tried everything else. – user84965 Jul 14 '14 at 0:59
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Maybe some dust is stuck in the card slot. To remove, gently blow into the slot and try to insert the card again.

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  • Could you be slightly more specific. – dan Feb 2 '14 at 15:54

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