How to View Pictures from SD Card on Mac [2022 Ultimate Guide] - Qiling  

How to View Pictures from SD Card on Macbook


camera sd card

Q1: What are devices using SD card?

Q2: How to access and view files from an SD card?

connect sd card to mac

Q3: What's the problem with checking SD card photos/videos on Mac?

Today's topic is about how to view pictures from an SD card on Mac, like a Macbook Air and Macbook Pro.  According to the three questions in the beginning, we learned that there are still many devices are using an SD card to store data, and connecting an SD card to Mac seems to be simple and operable. Despite that, you can still face the problem of not being able to access the SD card data due to the connection issue or SD card issue. Next, we'll guide you through several common issues and fixes of SD card not showing up on Mac.

Mac SD Card Photo & Video Recovery Software

How to Connect SD Card to Mac and Make It Visible

#1. First, check the SD card slot on either side. Make sure that the lock switch is turned off. Otherwise, your SD card will be recognized as read only, which will prevent you from making changes to the card.

check the lock switch on sd card

#2. Then check if your Mac has an SD card slot that lets you directly insert the SD card into the slot for connection. 

These Mac models have an SD card slot:

For devices that don't have the SD card slot, you need to prepare a USB-C to SD card reader for connection. 

usb-c to sd card reader mac

How to Fix SD Card Not Showing up on Mac

#3. The SD card disk icon is not showing up on the macOS desktop as normal. This problem can be the reason for the system settings, or it's because the SD card has been corrupted. Both troubles have a solution. Let's move on.

Fix 1. Show "external hard disk" in Disk Utility:

show sd card on mac by turning on finder preferences setting

Fix 2. Repair a corrupted SD card with First Aid:

run first aid to fix sd card corruption issue

How to Recover Missing Photos and Videos from SD Card on Mac

#4. SD card is connected and recognized, but photos and videos are missing. This can be a headache thing for most camera users. Once you're caught up in this situation, to be able to view pictures from the SD card, you need to perform SD card recovery with the help of Deep Data Recovery for Mac.

Step 1. Launch Deep Data Recovery for Mac, and insert your camera SD card to your Mac computer.

camera data recovery step1

Step 2. On the left panel, click "Camera Data Recovery". The software will automatically pre-scan your SD card and detect the camera model. If not, click the drop-down menu to choose the brand of your camera. Click "Scan" to start.

camera data recovery step2

Step 3. Deep Data Recovery will scan and list all the lost photos and videos on your SD card.

camera data recovery step3

Step 4. Choose and preview the photo or video you want to recover. Click the "Recover" button. Choose a recovery location to save the recovered file. Please don't save it to its original destination, it may occur overwriting and cause more data loss.

To Sum up, This is the General Method to Open and View SD Card on Mac...

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