I just realized that mac's don't have memory card readers and that is a problem for me. Do memory card readers need to be Mac specific or can I just use the cheapest one I can find?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Card readers for Mac
- Thread starter DELTAsnake
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
just make sure it's usb. I use a cheap one and I've never had a problem with it. With the card readers you don't need to worry if the camera is supported by osx.
Ive just found out that all card readers do not work. My new mac is having trouble reading my SDHC Cards under OSx
Yeah, I have the same experience. My SanDisk MicroMate SDHC reader often doesn't work. Sometimes it does, though. In Windows, it just works. Really weird. In Mac OS X, the connection of often dropped unexpectedly. Very annoying. So no, not all card readers work.
The one I ended up getting shouldn't have any trouble working because it has the OS X compatible logo on the box, and it only cost $12au.
That's weird, I never have an issue with my SDHC cards, under OSX. I've yet to find any USB device that doesn't cooperate with my iMac.
Don
WTF?
In other news, I've connected zillions of USB card readers to my Mac from about 10 different brands, all worked. I totally STOLE a 21-in-one FireWire/USB card reader from my uncle. The box mentioned NOTHING about Mac compatibility but its MemoryStick Duo, SDHC and CompactFlash slots work purrrfectly. Haven't yet tried a xD card yet, but who the f*** uses those?
It works.
This was recommenced on TWIP a year or so back and I have to say it has worked quickly and flawlessly for me.
SanDisk USB 2.0 Reader
This was recommenced on TWIP a year or so back and I have to say it has worked quickly and flawlessly for me.
SanDisk USB 2.0 Reader
Well I have been and bought another SDHC card reader and still no luck reading my cards. They all read my old SD cards but not the SDHC ones, very strange.
The USB ports are fine as everything else I plug into them works with no problems.
Am I doing something wrong ?
The USB ports are fine as everything else I plug into them works with no problems.
Am I doing something wrong ?
The reason that some readers (most, in fact) work with Macs and some (a few) don't, is that the ones that don't have small bugs in their firmware that makes them not fully compliant with the Mass Storage class driver on the Mac. Lazy manufacturers only test the devices on Windows, so they thrash out the bugs that affect working with Windows, but do not test on Macs so do not find the bugs that cause them not to work with Macs. I have bought many USB flash readers in my time and most have worked great, but a few have not worked reliably - apparently losing connection during long copies for example.
Same for me. Can't get my Macbook to even see the 4GB SDHC card I just got. I've tried 3 different card readers and the camera via the USB cable.
My first guess would be that you've found an SD card reader, rather than an SDHC card reader. The physical cards look essentially identical, but the SDHC cards are *not* backward compatible.
SDHC readers will read SD cards, but SD readers will not read SDHC cards.
This may be the problem. I was going crazy trying to read an SDHC card in a reader until I finally figured out the reader itself wasn't rated for the cards.
I personally use a Sony version that I got cheap from Office Depot. I like it because it looks like brushed aluminium and looks all mac-ish.
I've had problems with the SD MicroMate with both SDHC and SD cards. I have to use the reader in my HP AOI.
However, I did not have problems with a MS/MSPro MicroMate.
I shoot a lot of RAW images using 8GB CF cards. Though not the cheapest option, I have found the SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader to be very fast and reliable. www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(2015)-SDDRX4-CF-901-SanDisk_Extreme_FireWire_Reader.aspx
I would think that the camera, which had no problem using the SDHC card to store images during regular use would be able to read the card using the USB cable connected to my Macbook. Sadly, that wasn't the case.
Guess I'll need to look for a new card reader.
Exactly.
I have only come across one card reader that didn't work with my Mac, and it was my professor's. We needed to read a CF card from an oscilloscope, and the reader was a really cheap, dodgy looking thing.
^^^Factual error.
Ok, that's pretty strange.
What type of camera is it? I've never heard of a camera that didn't connect with a Mac properly. If iPhoto doesn't recognise it, have you tried Image Capture? It should be installed on your Mac in the Applications folder.
Canon Powershot A470Ok, that's pretty strange.
What type of camera is it? I've never heard of a camera that didn't connect with a Mac properly. If iPhoto doesn't recognise it, have you tried Image Capture? It should be installed on your Mac in the Applications folder.
I don't use iPhoto, so I didn't try it.
I just tried Image Capture and it did see the photos on the camera and could download them to my Macbook.
Still kind of strange that it doesn't show up on the desktop like all the other memory cards do.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me about Image Capture.