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14" and 16" M1 Pro SD Card Slot Problems
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This sounds like very promising news. It will be interesting to see whether other people have the same experience when they install 12.2.
When is 12.2 due for general release BTW?
12.1 resolved SD card reading issues on my mbp14. it reads them all quite quickly now, even the 64gb and 256gb ones. YMMV obvs.
My 14” SD card transfers were very fast until today, and now it has slowed to a crawl.
Running MacOS 12.1
Running MacOS 12.1
I don't know when MacOS 12.1 came out. Everything was working fine 1 week ago when I last uploaded photos. I tried several SD cards from different cameras and they were all painfully slow to access .
Whilst this is annoying for you, it does indicate that the problem is software based, and therefore has a possibility of being fixed by future releases.
I had no change at all when updating to 12.1. Still had the same cards working, and the same cards not working. Not disputing your experience, just pointing out that there does not seem to be any consistency for one person/machine to the next.
SanDisk 64GB Extreme Pro SD working for me on a new 16'' Pro but I havent tried others. My initial reaction was that transfer speeds seemed a little slow but it does seem to copy files faster than the SD on my old 2013 MBP. Hope everyone's issues get worked out with 12.2.
I just received my new 16 M1Pro Mac (after returning my 14" back in November, my faulty SD card didn't work with 12.1 but the latest beta I installed fixed it. It's not the case with all my cards though, still...
Should I return it and get a cheap Lenovo PC with an SD card reader ? I'm afraid they won't fix the issue. And so far there's no way of knowing the hardware isn't totally at fault, right ?
Should I return it and get a cheap Lenovo PC with an SD card reader ? I'm afraid they won't fix the issue. And so far there's no way of knowing the hardware isn't totally at fault, right ?
Instead of getting rid of your Macintosh laptop and getting a Lenovo Windows machine... why not get an external card reader for your Mac?
I know it sucks that the SD card readers in these new Macbooks have problems... but switching to an entirely different platform seems a little extreme.
🤣
Bruh I ain't buying a 3k laptop if it misses a port I'm have to use daily haha
I'm waiting to get back to Apple for years now. Didn't bc of the butterfly keyboards, then the upcoming 14" refresh, and now this. At least the Lenovo costs 1/3 of the price
I've just got my MBP14, and tried out the SD slot with my fastest card, which is this one:
With my SanDisk UHS-II dongle I get 240MB/s write and about 260MB/s read
In the Mac's SD slot I get 165MB/s both read & write.
Not *terrible*, but not great either. At least it was able to read and write without issue.
I tried my M1 Mini with the SanDisk dongle (very similar) and also via a CalDigit TB3+ doc that supposedly has a UHS-II SD reader - this was much slower with about 50MB/s write and 90MB/s read, similar to a UHS-I card. This suggests that compatibility between readers & cards may not just be a problem that only Apple has....
I'll try with some other cards. Out of interest I tried an old Transcend Jetdrive Line 360 (128GB) that I used with a 2013 MBP15. Reads were OK (for UHS-I) at about 92MB/s but writes were very slow at 8MB/s. I can't remember how fast it was in other machines (nothing great that I recall), and because of its form-factor, the only place I can use is with the new MBP. Oh well, it might be useful for a backup of some sort where write speed is not an issue.
I'll view the SD card on the Mac as a useful feature, and to be fair, I only offload an SD card once or twice a day when filming so this is unlikely to be a huge time penalty. I'm more likely to offload the SD card sooner if I don't have to pull out the dongle from the bag or find it in a drawer. But if I had to transfer a lot footage or photos on a regular basis I would opt for the fastest dongle I could find.
With my SanDisk UHS-II dongle I get 240MB/s write and about 260MB/s read
In the Mac's SD slot I get 165MB/s both read & write.
Not *terrible*, but not great either. At least it was able to read and write without issue.
I tried my M1 Mini with the SanDisk dongle (very similar) and also via a CalDigit TB3+ doc that supposedly has a UHS-II SD reader - this was much slower with about 50MB/s write and 90MB/s read, similar to a UHS-I card. This suggests that compatibility between readers & cards may not just be a problem that only Apple has....
I'll try with some other cards. Out of interest I tried an old Transcend Jetdrive Line 360 (128GB) that I used with a 2013 MBP15. Reads were OK (for UHS-I) at about 92MB/s but writes were very slow at 8MB/s. I can't remember how fast it was in other machines (nothing great that I recall), and because of its form-factor, the only place I can use is with the new MBP. Oh well, it might be useful for a backup of some sort where write speed is not an issue.
I'll view the SD card on the Mac as a useful feature, and to be fair, I only offload an SD card once or twice a day when filming so this is unlikely to be a huge time penalty. I'm more likely to offload the SD card sooner if I don't have to pull out the dongle from the bag or find it in a drawer. But if I had to transfer a lot footage or photos on a regular basis I would opt for the fastest dongle I could find.
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Last night a 64GB Sandisk extreme SD card that was fine last week, now crashes the Finder, and hard crashes the whole machine, such that multiple restarts are required to have a functioning Finder.
But… 32gb and 256gb sandisk SD cards work fine. So I think I need to put this down as a bad card.
I also found the caldigit ts3+ a bit slow reading cards but at least it read them under 12.0. Unfortunately I have for now had to ditch it because it stops my iPhone syncing. Weird.
Anyway I think the SD card issue is generally getting better not worse…
But… 32gb and 256gb sandisk SD cards work fine. So I think I need to put this down as a bad card.
I also found the caldigit ts3+ a bit slow reading cards but at least it read them under 12.0. Unfortunately I have for now had to ditch it because it stops my iPhone syncing. Weird.
Anyway I think the SD card issue is generally getting better not worse…
I took my 14" MBP into Genius bar because I discovered the HDMI port was not working, and he confirmed that the logic board needs to be replaced.
I also showed him the issue with the SD card slot. He said that according to their records an HDMI port failure is correlated with an SD card slot fault.
It will be interesting to find out if the logic board replacement also fixes my SD card slot issues. I expect it back in about a week.
I suggest if you have an SD card slot issue, check your HDMI port is working OK if you have not already done so.
I also showed him the issue with the SD card slot. He said that according to their records an HDMI port failure is correlated with an SD card slot fault.
It will be interesting to find out if the logic board replacement also fixes my SD card slot issues. I expect it back in about a week.
I suggest if you have an SD card slot issue, check your HDMI port is working OK if you have not already done so.
I have been having intermittent issues with the SD Card slot on my Macbook Pro 14. I have a 400GB Micro SD card formatted in EXFAT that I use on my Sony camera. When I connect it to my Macbook using a full size SD card adapter, it takes a long time to mount (about 10 seconds) and then I have issues transferring files. Sometimes files will transfer slowly, other times they just fail with error code 100060. I looked up the code and it said to do a Safe Boot and test. Same issue in Safe Boot. The problem is solved when I use a generic external USB-C adapter. No issues at all, even with the full size SD card adapter. Mounting is quick (3 seconds) and I am able to transfer files normally. I tested the HDMI port and it works fine. Even when it does work, file transfers can be super slow (19 seconds vs 40 seconds for a ~2GB file). Something to note, with smaller size cards, file transfers speeds are similar. Not sure what is happening here, but I will wait until the next update to test once again. If not, I guess I will be talking with Apple Support as this might be a hardware issue with my laptop.
I am happy to say
Slow mounting.
Slow start of copying.
Error message in Finder.
Beach ball in Lightroom.
All fixed in 12.2
I leave the speed tests to others. For my use this is great!
Slow mounting.
Slow start of copying.
Error message in Finder.
Beach ball in Lightroom.
All fixed in 12.2
I leave the speed tests to others. For my use this is great!
Just tried my other SD cards, which are all SanDisk Extreme 64GB, or cheap Toshiba Exceria 64GB.
All mount quickly and seem to copy OK.
The Sandisk SDs read at about 70-80MB/s which is probably normal for UHS-I. No hangs or other issues.
The Toshibas were slower at about 40MB/s (I can't remember whether they're better with a dongle, but will test this) and mounted OK. However, they did have issues with initially opening files directly from the SD, or previewing images with the space-bar. The first previews took about 20 seconds or more to open. After this, things were OK.
In general, I'm happy that I don't have any obvious issues with the SD reader other than pretty unexciting speeds, but everything appears to work as it should.
I'm running macOS 12.1 BTW. I'll rerun the tests under 12.2 when it becomes available.
All mount quickly and seem to copy OK.
The Sandisk SDs read at about 70-80MB/s which is probably normal for UHS-I. No hangs or other issues.
The Toshibas were slower at about 40MB/s (I can't remember whether they're better with a dongle, but will test this) and mounted OK. However, they did have issues with initially opening files directly from the SD, or previewing images with the space-bar. The first previews took about 20 seconds or more to open. After this, things were OK.
In general, I'm happy that I don't have any obvious issues with the SD reader other than pretty unexciting speeds, but everything appears to work as it should.
I'm running macOS 12.1 BTW. I'll rerun the tests under 12.2 when it becomes available.
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Yes. See my post above #269
My HDMI port worked fine on 12.1, so this is still good advice if you still get the slowdowns/beachball/errors.
Two more positive reports on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253328461?answerId=256757482022&login=true&page=4 One of the 3 reports there is me 
I got my 14" MBP back after the logic board was replaced (because of a faulty HDMI port) and now my SD cards appear to work normally in the SD slot.
However, they preinstalled Monterey 12.2 on the logic board, so I cannot tell if the change in hardware or change in software fixed my SD card slot issue.
Either way, it seems to be fixed! Have not yet tested all my cards, but I am optimistic.
However, they preinstalled Monterey 12.2 on the logic board, so I cannot tell if the change in hardware or change in software fixed my SD card slot issue.
Either way, it seems to be fixed! Have not yet tested all my cards, but I am optimistic.
New update 12.2 fixed that for me.
I had this issue only with 128GB cards. All my other cards 64GB 32GB and 16GB worked just fine.
I ve just updated to 12.2 and transferring and reading from my 128GB cards is fine! Thank GOD it was so frustrating.
For the record, and if that makes sense to anybody, all SD Cards are Sandisk extreme Pro.
I had this issue only with 128GB cards. All my other cards 64GB 32GB and 16GB worked just fine.
I ve just updated to 12.2 and transferring and reading from my 128GB cards is fine! Thank GOD it was so frustrating.
For the record, and if that makes sense to anybody, all SD Cards are Sandisk extreme Pro.