formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac

Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac how to#
Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac install#
Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac mac#

You’ll get a popup warning you that you’re about to delete everything on the card. If you see something like 1TB instead, you’ve selected the wrong drive from the list.įrom the list of functions at the top, choose Erase. Make sure that it matches what you expect-that is, if you’re inserting a 64GB SD card, make sure the capacity is showing as 64GB or close to it. If you click on it, you’ll see how much storage it is. If it hasn’t been formatted before, it might have a name like “NO NAME” or “UNTITLED”. The SD card should show up in the External section. So it will show your Mac’s internal drive as well as external drives.

Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac mac#

On the left side of Disk Utility’s screen is a list of the various drives in your Mac and connected to it. Or you can use Spotlight (the magnifying glass icon at the top right of your screen) to search for it by clicking on the icon and then typing “disk utility”. You can find it in your Applications folder under the Utilities subfolder (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).

Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac install#

Open Disk Utility Appĭisk Utility is part of the macOS operating system, so you don’t need to download or install it. Another alternative is that some cameras can function as a memory card reader when connected to a computer, but that depends on the specific model-not all cameras can do this. If your Mac doesn’t have a built-in SD card slot, you can use a memory card reader that plugs into the computer’s USB port. If you’re using a microSD card, put the microSD card into an SD adapter cartridge (it probably came with one) first, and then put that into the SD slot on your computer. If you have one of those, you can insert the SD card directly into that. Before starting, make sure you’ve saved any data you want to keep from the card, because formatting the card will delete all of the data on it.

Formatting sandisk micro sd card for mac how to#

Some even have a low-level formatting option, which is a more thorough (but also slower) process.īut if you want to go ahead and use format your SD card on your Mac, here’s how to do it. All cameras have a “format card” function (sometimes it’s called something similar). That way, the camera can set it up how it wants and expects it to be, and it reduces the risk of filesystem issues interrupting your shooting. The good news is that you don’t have to download some expensive app to do it-everything you need is already there as part of the Mac operating system.įirst, though, I should point out that if you’re using your SD card in a camera, it’s best practice to format the card in the camera itself.

Connect your SD card to your Mac using a SD memory card reader.

And I’ve also included an alternative approach using the SD Association’s SD card formatting app that provides a risk-free way of setting the card up properly. So here’s a guide on how to format SD and microSD cards on Mac.įirst is the quick version after that is a more detailed step-by-step guide. To keep it compliant with SD Association specs, which minimizes the risk of your camera having problems with it, it’s important to choose the correct filesystem to format it with. Before you can use an SD or microSD card, it has to be formatted (many come pre-formatted out of the box).