14" and 16" M1 Pro SD Card Slot Problems

[karl-os]

I have a MacBook Pro 16". Tested my SD card on new Monterey 12.1 beta 3. The issue is still not fixed:

"The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “P1002419.JPG” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)"

 

[AirNelson]

Same issue here, 16" M1 Max. Consistently getting slower read and write speeds compared to my 2019 27" iMac when using blackmagic disk speed tests on half of my cards. Super frustrating !

 

[kinglevel]

Had a call with support some minutes ago. They were very nice, pretty impressed by the good technical feedback he had.

Still looking for clues of what it can be.

I have also tried 4 equal cards: Sandisk extreme 32GB 90Mb/s.
2 of them work, and 2 does not in the Macbook 14" M1.

When i use a usb dongle they all work.

I have no other Macs in this house, but they work on Manjaro/Arch and windows 10.

The 2 faulty ones does not show up in any kinds of logs or console messages, like they are ghosts not plugged in. (boo)

Does anyone have good keywords that we can use in the console when looking for these kinds of attachments, mounts, IO and device stuff?

The internal sdreader seems to be attached on the board like this: apcie@90000000/pci-bridge1@pcie-sdreader@0

Quite weird since they are all equally formated etc...
Could be driver or hardware related stuff. Lets hope not for the last.

 

[Jwpyle3]

I only tried one, and it worked fine (Nikon camera). My only regret is that the SD card reader isn't one of those spring popped ones, where the card could fit all the way in. Then you could add a 1TB card like a second drive for media.

I had one the first MacBook Air's that had the SD slot and wished was also spring loaded. I remember buying a
Transcend 128GB JetDrive (like a ½ length SD card) that fit almost flush with the side of the computer. There were different versions for each model of MacBook. It was great, but I don't think they make them anymore.

 

[wilberforce]

Had a call with support some minutes ago. They were very nice, pretty impressed by the good technical feedback he had.

Still looking for clues of what it can be.

I have also tried 4 equal cards: Sandisk extreme 32GB 90Mb/s.
2 of them work, and 2 does not in the Macbook 14" M1.

Good info, thank you.
My "bad" cards will all mount, and will write fast, but will not read. (Or read extremely slowly, then often have a read error.)

So here's another thing: one of my cards that has stubbornly and repeatedly failed to read, and got 0.0 MB/s read speed on blackmagic with "read error," suddenly started working fine. I don't know what I did to "fix" it. Then later, it wasn't working again.
Great. An intermittent problem. The best kind. Never acts up when you take it the repair shop, and always acts up immediately before a deadline or the data is critical.

 

[guitar_solo645]

I have this issue also and experiencing some weird issues. I find that using 1 particular card then jams the rest of them up from being used, to the point where all cards will not mount at all. If I reboot my machine and do not use the "dodgy" card, the other ones work as expected. It feels like this is software related, but I spoke with Apple Support and they aren't sure if this is hardware or software. I only have a limited number of days to return the item with my retailer (not Apple!), so I'm really nervous about next steps!

 

[wilberforce]

I have this issue also and experiencing some weird issues. I find that using 1 particular card then jams the rest of them up from being used, to the point where all cards will not mount at all. If I reboot my machine and do not use the "dodgy" card, the other ones work as expected. It feels like this is software related, but I spoke with Apple Support and they aren't sure if this is hardware or software. I only have a limited number of days to return the item with my retailer (not Apple!), so I'm really nervous about next steps!

Yes, it's a dilemma. I also felt it was software, so did not return it, but then one poster (Post #68) has said exchanging it solved the problem. But now it is too late for me to return it, and no guarantee that a replacement (which will likely take a month) will be any better.
On the other hand it is not critical: just use cards that you know work, and have a dongle for backup, until the problem is diagnosed and the solution (software or hardware) is figured out. Hopefully.

 

[KDLM]

I'm having a potentially much worse problem. I have eight (8) SanDisk 128 GB Extreme Pro SD cards. I use them with eight different Panasonic Lumix G7 cameras. I shoot 4K video with the cameras, offload the cards to my MBP using ShotPutPro (a program that verifies offloads). I've been doing this for years with no problems and have transferred hundreds of terabytes of data from these cards in this way.

I had been offloading them using my 2017 MBP and an attached OWC/Macsales TB3 dock. I just got the new 16" MBP fully maxed out on all specs (M1 Max, 64GB, 8TB, etc.).

Sometimes I have to insert the same card several times to get it to mount. Then, when I'm offloading with ShotPutPro, I'm getting error messages on offload about one out of every ten times I offload a card. For reference, I can't recall ever having even a single error before using this new MBP. Statistically speaking, this is an undeniably relevant difference. I had literally hundreds (or more) of trouble-free offloads on my 2017 MBP, and now I have problems with around 1 in 10 with my new MBP. Strangely, when I look at the offloaded files on a supposedly failed offload, they seem to be fine.

FAR WORSE IS THIS PROBLEM: Now some of my Lumix G7 cameras are shutting off while recording and I'm getting messages that the card can't keep up with the write speed. This had never happened before, and now it has happened three times in the past two weeks. I have verified that it has happened with at least two different cards and two different G7 cameras. I should emphasize that I never format the cards in my MBP. I always format in the cameras after offloading each shoot. As a result, I don't know how this could be related to the MBP, but, given that it has never happened before and now is happening multiple times, it seems like more than a coincidence. The only guess I can come up with is that maybe my MBP is somehow damaging these cards?

 

[Fomalhaut]

I'm having a potentially much worse problem. I have eight (8) SanDisk 128 GB Extreme Pro SD cards. I use them with eight different Panasonic Lumix G7 cameras. I shoot 4K video with the cameras, offload the cards to my MBP using ShotPutPro (a program that verifies offloads). I've been doing this for years with no problems and have transferred hundreds of terabytes of data from these cards in this way.

I had been offloading them using my 2017 MBP and an attached OWC/Macsales TB3 dock. I just got the new 16" MBP fully maxed out on all specs (M1 Max, 64GB, 8TB, etc.).

Sometimes I have to insert the same card several times to get it to mount. Then, when I'm offloading with ShotPutPro, I'm getting error messages on offload about one out of every ten times I offload a card. For reference, I can't recall ever having even a single error before using this new MBP. Statistically speaking, this is an undeniably relevant difference. I had literally hundreds (or more) trouble-free offloads on my 2017 MBP, and now I have problems with 1 in 10 with my new MBP. Strangely, when I look at the offloaded files on a supposedly failed offload, they seem to be fine.

FAR WORSE IS THIS PROBLEM: Now some of my Lumix G7 cameras are shutting off while recording and I'm getting messages that the card can't keep up with the write speed. This had never happened before, and now it has happened three times in the past two weeks. I have verified that it has happened with at least two different cards and two different G7 cameras. I should emphasize that I never format the cards in my MBP. I always format in the cameras after offloading each shoot. As a result, I don't know how this could be related to the MBP, but, given that it has never happened before and now is happening multiple times, it seems like more than a coincidence. The only guess I can come up with is that maybe my MBP is somehow damaging these cards?

This is a very troubling report. If the MBP card reader is actually corrupting the cards, or even damaging them permanently, it would be a huge issue for Apple with claims for damaged cards, some of which are quite expensive (over $200).

Can we see an "SD-gate" on the horizon I wonder?

I think there may be some SD-card diagnostic tools out there (form SanDisk?) that can verify the physical state of the card.

 

[KDLM]

This is a very troubling report. If the MBP card reader is actually corrupting the cards, or even damaging them permanently, it would be a huge issue for Apple with claims for damaged cards, some of which are quite expensive (over $200).

Can we see an "SD-gate" on the horizon I wonder?

I think there may be some SD-card diagnostic tools out there (form SanDisk?) that can verify the physical state of the card.

I must emphasize that I don't know if this is happening, but it would be a massive coincidence, wouldn't it? Right now I just tried to offload the same SanDisk Extreme Pro 128 GB card twice with ShotPutPro and it failed both times. I finally got it to eject, and now I'm using the SD card slot on my OWC TB3 dock. It seems to be working fine.

While I am very unhappy with my MBP's SD card slot not working properly, this would just be annoying if it were not for the fact that it seems as though my new MBP may be damaging my SD cards. I can't have my Lumix G7 cameras randomly stop recording due to write errors during shoots. That is a massive problem. I may have to go ahead and spend $250 on eight new 128 GB cards and just never use the SD slot in my MBP again.

I don't understand how things like this happen. Doesn't Apple give products out to a number of people to fully test them? I can tell you that if this is only related to the internal SD card slot, then I will simply act like that slot isn't there until Apple has a known fix. I'm not going into the Genius Bar with this. I don't want an exchange when there is a strong likelihood that the replacement would have the same problem. I'm just hoping that this is a software fix, or, if it is a hardware issue, they can just replace something in my existing MBP.

 

[wilberforce]

I'm having a potentially much worse problem. I have eight (8) SanDisk 128 GB Extreme Pro SD cards. I use them with eight different Panasonic Lumix G7 cameras. I shoot 4K video with the cameras, offload the cards to my MBP using ShotPutPro (a program that verifies offloads). I've been doing this for years with no problems and have transferred hundreds of terabytes of data from these cards in this way.

I had been offloading them using my 2017 MBP and an attached OWC/Macsales TB3 dock. I just got the new 16" MBP fully maxed out on all specs (M1 Max, 64GB, 8TB, etc.).

Sometimes I have to insert the same card several times to get it to mount. Then, when I'm offloading with ShotPutPro, I'm getting error messages on offload about one out of every ten times I offload a card. For reference, I can't recall ever having even a single error before using this new MBP. Statistically speaking, this is an undeniably relevant difference. I had literally hundreds (or more) of trouble-free offloads on my 2017 MBP, and now I have problems with around 1 in 10 with my new MBP. Strangely, when I look at the offloaded files on a supposedly failed offload, they seem to be fine.

FAR WORSE IS THIS PROBLEM: Now some of my Lumix G7 cameras are shutting off while recording and I'm getting messages that the card can't keep up with the write speed. This had never happened before, and now it has happened three times in the past two weeks. I have verified that it has happened with at least two different cards and two different G7 cameras. I should emphasize that I never format the cards in my MBP. I always format in the cameras after offloading each shoot. As a result, I don't know how this could be related to the MBP, but, given that it has never happened before and now is happening multiple times, it seems like more than a coincidence. The only guess I can come up with is that maybe my MBP is somehow damaging these cards?

Thanks for the warning. I suggest use a UHS-II dongle and reformat the cards and test with Blackmagic disk speed test. This one works well:

Verbatim USB C Pocket Card Reader

Verbatim’s Pocket Card Reader features a modern compact design that makes transferring your digital photos fast and easy. This multi functional reader supports a wide variety of memory card formats including compatibility with SD Memory Stick and MMC interfaces. With it’s integrated USB cable the...

www.amazon.com

Watch out: most hubs are only UHS-I, but conceal that fact

 

[wilberforce]

nvm, red herring

 

[Jl006p]

SD slot works for me but it's definitely not reading/writing at the speeds my card is capable of.
When I used my external usb-c to SD card reader I'm getting faster read/write speeds.

I thought this was suppose to be a USH-ii card reader?

 

[wilberforce]

SD slot works for me but it's definitely not reading/writing at the speeds my card is capable of.
When I used my external usb-c to SD card reader I'm getting faster read/write speeds.

I thought this was suppose to be a USH-ii card reader?

Yes it is, when it has a card in it that it likes. 250 MB/s read

 

[Jl006p]

Yes it is, when it has a card in it that it likes. 250 MB/s

I'll try my Sony tough card tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[kinglevel]

Grabbing my popcorn while the KDLM guy writes and Apple nervously reads this in secrecy

 

[kinglevel]

Got of the phone again with support..

I have now given them a couple of systemlogs that has recorded the insertion, mount and unmount of some of the 4 cards, (Sandisk Extreme 32Gb 90Mb/s..)

They now have some possibility to investigate it better.

But from my own small investigation in the logs from yesterday... it might be a dead end, if we are unlucky...

If they somehow cant follow this up from my logs, they were very keen into getting all my cards and laptop for a more detailed investigation.

Witch is ok for me since i have plenty of other computers to use in the near future for my work... (Taking one for the team...)

 

[DavidQPR]

Tried transferring 7GB of files to a Kingston 64GB SDXC 1 and it always failed just right after starting the transfer with an error message code 100060: "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred."

Although my micro-sd Sandisk card in an adapter is working fine.

This could very well be a software bug.

Yep, same problem, same error code

 

[Richdj]

An update from me -
been on with support all week theyve done various log captures awaiting an update from them .

My angel bird cards formatted in Canon C300 mkii cinema camera all work fine - read ok and can transfer but not writing or reading at nominal speeds - reformatted on on laptop in mac os and it gave better reults.

My San disc cards seem to be intermittent particualry micro SD in card slot ..
Same card works perfectly in a external reader .

When they dont work the SD card is seeing them but they dont pop up on the desktop - if they do eventiually often cant do a lot with them and when I eject it crashes finder.

 

[Fomalhaut]

An update from me -
been on with support all week theyve done various log captures awaiting an update from them .

My angel bird cards formatted in Canon C300 mkii cinema camera all work fine - read ok and can transfer but not writing or reading at nominal speeds .
My San disc cards seem to be intermittent particualry micro SD in card slot , also EX fat worse than MAc journalled.
Same card works perfectly in a external reader .

When they dont work the SD card is seeing them but they dont pop up on the desktop - if they do often cant do a lot with them and when I eject it crashes finder.

I can imagine that SD cards formatted as journaled HFS+ or APFS would be a problem for quite a few cameras. Many seem to expect exFAT formatting.

Has anyone seen this kind of hit-and-miss performance with SD cards before? I can only recall a single failure in one micro-SD card (which may have been a fake SanDisk) and have used dozens over the last 15+ in at least 10 different devices.

This is definitely making me want to delay purchase until the cause has been determined. Obviously, if it's a hardware issue in some computers, it would be a big hassle to have to test every single card rigorously before deciding whether the machine passes your own QA tests.

Any other forums reporting this issue?

 

[Hammie]

What cards are the issues? It could be related to the card reader compatibility and the cards.

I tested about 10 of my 20+ cards ranging from 256MB to 64GB. All of them are UHS-I or lower. I know the reader supports UHS-II cards, but none of my cameras support them so I don't own any.

This could be the reason that you external reader reads it fine and the internal one doesn't.

Just a thought.

 

[Hammie]

Another thought. Are you using the HDMI port at the same time? The HDMI and SD card reader share the same thunderbolt bus. This is why there are only three thunderbolt ports, but the SoC has 4 thunderbolt buses.

 

[Richdj]

What cards are the issues? It could be related to the card reader compatibility and the cards.

I tested about 10 of my 20+ cards ranging from 256MB to 64GB. All of them are UHS-I or lower. I know the reader supports UHS-II cards, but none of my cameras support them so I don't own any.

This could be the reason that you external reader reads it fine and the internal one doesn't.

Just a thought.

for me
San disc Ultra V10 SDXC 1 64GB
and Samsung Evo SDXC1 128GB are worst 2
My Angel bird cards are 300mbps SDXCii V90 card one works well / one not until I reformatted it in laptop but I then need to reformat it in camersa for it to work

 

[wilberforce]

What cards are the issues? It could be related to the card reader compatibility and the cards.

I tested about 10 of my 20+ cards ranging from 256MB to 64GB. All of them are UHS-I or lower. I know the reader supports UHS-II cards, but none of my cameras support them so I don't own any.

This could be the reason that you external reader reads it fine and the internal one doesn't.

Just a thought.

I have all kinds of cards and tried all kinds of formats: Sandisk, Sony, Samsung, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, UHS-I, UHS-II, Micro-SD, FAT32, exFAT, HFS+, and can discern no pattern of which work and which don't. Even two apparently identical cards behave differently. All work perfectly via a dongle or in another (Intel) Mac. If I could figure out for sure what type/brand/format of card works, I would know what to buy in the future.

 

[wilberforce]

Another thought. Are you using the HDMI port at the same time? The HDMI and SD card reader share the same thunderbolt bus. This is why there are only three thunderbolt ports, but the SoC has 4 thunderbolt buses.

No, not using HDMI. Thanks for the thought