My iMac won't recognize SD Card

[Richard Wasserman]

I just bought my first digital camera—I know welcome to the 20th century. I am using an iMac that is about 2 years old or so, without a built-in SD slot, running OS 10.6.8 and I cannot get it to recognize a SanDisk 8gb SDHC card. I am using an external card reader which lights up, but I can't find it anywhere on my computer, it's not on the desktop or in Utillities. I have tried restarting with and without the card in the reader. I have zapped the PRAM. I don't quite know what else to do except start screaming—which may or may not help. I've searched the web and this seems to be a somewhat common problem, and I've tried much of what other people said helped them, but no luck. Any ideas????

[Robert Skeoch]

Put the card back into the camera. plug the camera into the mac. Turn it on.
It should show up on the desktop.
-rob

[ROL]

I don't know about the efficacy of your iMac's SD slot, but if all you're genuinely interested in is reading from the camera's card, you can try to do what I have to do with my no SD slot, non–Intel iMac G5 (10.4) doorstopper. Leave the card in the camera, connect to the computer with a USB cable. The camera should mount on your desktop, as any other drive would, after a few moments. Drag the files (raw and/or JPG) over to your iMac's hard drive, brown and serve.



P.S. DAMN, Rob beat me to it. Just ignore everything I've said.

[Richard Wasserman]

It does not show up on the desktop. Instead it opened Bridge-Photo Downloader, and I got the message "This device does not contain any supported media". I am trying to update firmware and need to copy a file to the SD card.



Put the card back into the camera. plug the camera into the mac. Turn it on.
It should show up on the desktop.
-rob

[Peter Mounier]

I might be stating the obvious, but make sure your Finder prefs say show Cds, Dvds and iPods on Desktop.

Peter

[Light Guru]

it's not on the desktop or in Utillities.

Does it show up in the Finde? If you open iPhoto does it see it there?

[Richard Wasserman]

Already checked that, thanks.
I might be stating the obvious, but make sure your Finder prefs say show Cds, Dvds and iPods on Desktop.

Peter

[Richard Wasserman]

No to both



Does it show up in the Finder? If you open iPhoto does it see it there?

[RickV]

Check that your card reader firmware is SDHC compatible. Some older (and current cheaper) readers are only SD capable. Check if there's a firmware upgrade available. I had the same problem, and with no firmware upgrade available I simply bought another cheap SDHC capable reader on ebay.

[Richard Wasserman]

Well, I just tried again for about the 1000th time and it worked perfectly. This makes no sense to me as I didn't change anything, but I suppose I shouldn't complain. I upgraded the camera's firmware and I'm happy, at least until I need to do this again.

Thanks to all for your suggestions!