An SD card not showing up is rarely a dead card. Most likely, the card itself works properly, but there is something wrong somewhere between it and your PC: a dirty contact point, a bad microSD adapter, a Windows update that ruined your SD card reader driver, or a card that just never got a drive letter from Windows.
None of these issues affect the pictures on the card and most of them can be fixed in a couple of minutes. Do not rush to alter any settings before taking a look at the test described below. This test will help you to figure out which party is to blame and go right into fixing.
The 30 Second Check: Card or Computer?
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Test
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If the card shows up
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If it still does not show up
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Try another USB port or slot on the same computer
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The first port or slot is the problem
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Move on to the next test
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Try a different card reader
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The original reader is faulty or needs a driver
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Move on to the next test
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Try another computer, camera or phone
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Your computer's settings or drivers are the cause (Fixes 3 to 5)
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The card is the likely cause (Fixes 6 to 9)
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No second computer at home? A camera or phone that takes the same card works just as well for this test.
What Your Symptom Means
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What you see
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Likely cause
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Start with
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The card does not appear anywhere, on any device
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Dirty contacts, a bad adapter or a failed card
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Fixes 1, 2 and 9
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It appears in Disk Management but not in File Explorer
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No drive letter assigned
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Fix 3
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The reader light works but nothing appears on any card
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A reader driver problem
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Fix 4
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It appears on a Mac in Disk Utility but not in Finder
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Finder settings, or the card is not mounted
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Fix 5
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It appears but asks to be formatted, or shows as RAW
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File system errors
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Fixes 7 and 8
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It appears with the wrong capacity, such as 32GB on a 256GB card
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A counterfeit card or a damaged partition
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Fix 9
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Pay close attention to that last row. Fake cards are sold with a modified controller that reports far more space than the flash chips inside can hold, so a "256GB" card might really store 32GB. Anything written past the real limit is gone.
Fix 1: Reseat and Clean the Card
Start here because it costs nothing. You'd be surprised how often a card is just sitting a millimeter off, or has a thin layer of pocket lint on its contacts that the reader can't get past.
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If the card shows up anywhere at all, eject it properly first. After that you can switch off the camera or phone, or pull the reader out of the USB port.
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Hold the card under a desk lamp and look closely at the gold strips. Dirt is easy to spot, and corrosion usually shows up as a dull green or dark patch.
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Wipe the contacts with a dry, lint free cloth. Oily marks come off with a cotton swab and a little isopropyl alcohol, as long as you let the card dry before putting it back.
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Push the card in straight until it clicks.
With a microSD card, pull it out of its adapter and seat it again too. Bent or burned contacts are a different story. Cleaning will not fix them, so skip ahead to Fix 9. Digiera also supplies a wide range of memory cards and you can compare capacities across Digiera's SD and microSD cards.
Fix 2: Check the Adapter and Lock Switch
Cheap microSD adapters wear out. Their thin inner contacts loosen after a few hundred insertions, and the card inside then drops in and out of view. Try a different adapter before anything else, since that swap takes seconds.
Check the lock switch on the side of a full size card or adapter while you have it in your hand. Most computers still list a locked card. Some cameras and phones refuse to mount it at all, though, until the switch is pushed up toward the contacts.
Fix 3: Give the Card a Drive Letter
Here's a quirk of Windows that catches a lot of people out. The card can be connected and fully readable, yet File Explorer won't list it because Windows forgot to give it a letter like E or F. Adding the letter yourself leaves every file in place.
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Hit Windows + X. A menu pops up beside the Start button, and Disk Management is about halfway down.
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Look along the bottom half of the window for a disk whose size matches your card. It's often tagged Removable.
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Right click the card's volume and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
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Click Add, or Change if a letter already exists. Pick any unused letter and click OK.
Microsoft describes the same process in Microsoft's guide to changing a drive letter. A card that shows as Unallocated is a different case, because it has no partition at all. New Simple Volume will make it usable again, but that wizard formats the card, so only run it after you have given up on the files.
Fix 4: Update or Reinstall the Card Reader Driver
Suppose no card shows up in your laptop's built in slot, even one that works fine in a camera. That pattern usually means the reader's driver broke, and a recent Windows update is a common trigger.
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Right click Start and open Device Manager.
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The reader hides in different places depending on the laptop. We've seen it under Memory technology devices on some machines and under Universal Serial Bus controllers on others, and the name tends to include Realtek or Genesys.
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Once you've found it, right click and pick Update driver. Let Windows search for one automatically.
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If Windows says you already have the best driver, right click it again, choose Uninstall device and restart. The driver comes back on its own during startup.
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As a last step, download the newest card reader driver from your laptop maker's support page.
In the meantime, a plain USB card reader from any electronics shop will usually read the card straight away, so you don't have to wait on drivers to get your photos off.
Fix 5: Check Finder and Disk Utility on a Mac
On a Mac, the card is often there the whole time. Finder just isn't set up to show it.
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In Finder, open the Finder menu at the top left of the screen and go to Settings. The Sidebar tab is the second one along.
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Tick External disks under Locations.
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If the card is still missing, open Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities.
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Disk Utility only shows volumes by default, which is easy to miss. Click View > Show All Devices so it lists the card itself.
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If the card's name looks faded, macOS has spotted it but hasn't mounted it. Click the volume, then click Mount in the toolbar.
If Disk Utility shows nothing at all, we'd restart the Mac and plug in a different reader before going any further.
Fix 6: Test the Card in a Camera or Phone
Your camera has its own card slot and its own reader chip, so it's a fair test that doesn't depend on the computer at all. When the photos play back on the camera's screen, the card is probably fine, and it's worth copying everything off right then over the USB cable or the camera's app.
Older gear can trip you up here. Plenty of cameras sold before about 2010 only read SDHC cards, which top out at 32GB, so a brand new 64GB SDXC card will look blank or unreadable in them even though nothing is wrong with it.
Fix 7: Repair Errors With chkdsk or First Aid
You plug the card in and Windows pops up a box saying the disk needs formatting. Or the card shows in the sidebar, but double clicking it does nothing. Either way, the file system on the card is damaged, and you don't need any extra software to try a repair.
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On Windows, right click Start and open Terminal (Admin).
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Type chkdsk E: /f. Swap E for whatever letter your card has, then press Enter and let it finish.
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Mac users can do the same thing from Disk Utility. Show all devices, pick the card, and press First Aid followed by Run.
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Back up before you repair
Repair tools sometimes delete damaged files while they fix the file system. The slower chkdsk E: /r scan reads every sector and can run for hours on a large card, so save it until your photos are backed up. chkdsk will not run on a card that shows as RAW.
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Apple explains the Mac side in more detail in Apple's First Aid guide.
Fix 8: Format the Card
Formatting wipes the card clean. That's exactly why we left it for near the end of the list, even though a fresh format sorts out most of the software faults behind a card that won't appear. Get your files off first, unless you've already decided you can live without them.
If you can, do the format inside the camera or phone you'll actually use the card in. The device then sets up the folders it wants to see. On a computer, cards of 64GB and up should be formatted as exFAT, and anything 32GB or smaller as FAT32.
Fix 9: Decide the Card Is Dead
There comes a point where another hour of troubleshooting is worth less than a new card. Any of these signs tells you the card has failed:
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It never appears in Disk Management or Disk Utility, on any computer or reader.
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The capacity stays far from the label even after a format.
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Formatting fails or stops halfway.
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You can see a crack in the case, a bend in the card, or scorched contacts.
Irreplaceable files change the plan. Put the card somewhere safe and stop plugging it in, then talk to a professional data recovery lab, because every extra attempt at home can make their job harder. If the files aren't that important, just replace the card, and buy it from an official store so you don't end up with a fake.
For cameras with full size slots, we make the Digiera LSU100 UHS-II SD card. Phones, drones and action cameras take the Digiera LT100 microSD card.
FAQs
Why is my SD card not showing up on my computer?
Nine times out of ten it's something small. The contacts might be dirty, the adapter could be worn out, or Windows may simply not have given the card a drive letter. Plug it into another reader on another computer and within a minute you will know whose side it was.
Why does the SD card reader of my laptop not work?
If the reader has stopped functioning, the driver will most likely be to blame, and it will break just after a Windows update. It can be reinstalled through Device Manager. In case Windows says that it has the latest driver, the manufacturer’s website for your laptop will have the right one.
How can I resolve the issue of SD card not being recognized by Windows 11?
First of all, check Disk Management. If it is there but doesn’t have any drive letter, assigning one will solve your issue in less than a minute. If it is not there, you have got yourself a hardware problem, so reinsert the card, use another reader, and update the reader driver.
Why does my SD card not appear on my Mac?
Probably Finder is hiding it from you. Click on Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and enable External disks. Nope? Fire up Disk Utility, enable Show All Devices, and mount your card via Disk Utility.
Why does my SD card have incorrect capacity?
Definitely a fake. If your 256GB SD card claims only 32GB, and your cheap SD card claims 2TB, then your card is definitely a fake. But it could be the result of the corrupted partition as well. Test for the capacity, and if the SD card doesn't pass the test, junk it and buy a real card.
Is there any way I can recover my pictures if my SD card does not get detected?
Yes, there is, provided that the SD card gets detected by something else, whether it is your camera, your phone, or even your Disk Management.
How can I tell if my SD card is dead?
Your SD card is considered dead once it does not get detected by any computer or by any card reader. The same applies to cards that cannot be formatted or those that return incorrect size after formatting. In case there is visible damage to the outer shell or contacts of the card, then you have your answer.
