Some users report issues with built-in SD card readers on 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks

As nifty as the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks might be, there might be some bugs with the SD card readers.

In a long complaint thread, MacRumors readers have detailed the issues that they’re having with some SD cards, and there seems to be little consistency between reports and affected SD cards. Some SD cards crash and can’t be accessed, while some have unusually slow transfer speeds. 

Per reader “Wildc^t“:

Same issues with 14″ M1 Pro. Just seems to be super flakey and inconsistent. Half the time it’ll recognize the card successfully (though it takes anywhere from 30s to 1m) and half the time it’ll throw an error. These are all Sandisk Ultra cards, both XC and HC, that were formatted in my camera. I tried reformatting them w/ the MBP and that didn’t seem to make a difference. All my cards work as expected in my 3 other USB card readers.

In some situations, there’s an error message when attempting to use the SD card. In other cases, the Finder will crash or the SD card will take several minutes to become accessible.

Given the thread, the card’s formatting doesn’t appear to be the central issue, though it could be a factor. Other readers have reported that using a USB-C SD card reader can work when the built-in SD card reader fails:

I tried many cards, and could find no pattern of brand, size, type, format, age. Seems to be completely random. The only thing that is consistent is that if a card works, it always works, and if a card does not work properly it never works properly. Reformatting, even to all other possible formats, makes no difference. Sandisk, Sony, Samsung, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, UHS-I, UHS-II, micro-SD, FAT32, exFAT, makes no difference. 100% of my cards work perfectly via a dongle.

Some readers who reached out to Apple for help were informed that the company is aware of the issue, and that a fix is en route via a future software update, although it’s unknown if this is due to a hardware or software issue. Other readers stated that Apple replaced their MacBook Pro notebooks and did not continue to have issues with the new machines.

Many of the reports are about older SD cards and there may be a particular issue with some 128GB cards, but for the most part, complaints are all over the place in terms of SD card brand, speed, and capacity.

One user reported that the current macOS Monterey 12.1 beta resolved the issue, while another user reported that the issue remained under the beta.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via MacRumors and Reddit