Last updated on January 31st, 2022 at 11:04 am
An SD card is very useful and is a common way to backup your personal or professional data. But you have to maintain your SD card, like, don’t insert your SD card on any untrusted computer. There could be an issue of malware.
However, if you insert your SD card into your desktop or laptop’s USB port and get an error that says, “SD Card Won’t Read,” Then, what will you do? Generally, in this situation, you will be unable to access your data. But don’t panic. Keep reading. You will get a solution.
This SD card read and write problem can occur on any device. It can be your Android phone, desktop or laptop, camera, etc. Due to this error, you will be unable to access any of the data (photos, videos, files, documents, etc.) on that SD card.
6 ways to Fix SD Card Won’t Read
First, you need to troubleshoot the SD card and find out what the problem is. Is the problem with hardware or software? Check all of the hardware connections (card reader, USB cable, etc.) properly. Then check out the system-related fixes, like driver updates, reboots, formatting, etc. Follow the below step-by-step process to fix the error in a light way.
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1. Test your SD card reader.
This error can occur because of a problem with your card reader (external) or even the in-built card reader of your desktop, laptop, or other device. If the problem with the card reader is quite severe (in the event of damage), you will need to change the card reader.
Follow the below steps to check if your card reader is damaged or not.
- Use another card reader (external) and now check if your desktop or laptop is able to read the SD card or not. If so, then the external card reader has a problem. You need to replace it.
- Insert the card reader (external) into another computer. If it works, then you need to fix the built-in card reader.
2. Restart or reboot your device.
Sometimes desktops, laptops, or phones go through an error that can be fixed with a restart or reboot. First, you need to unplug the card reader from the PC and restart. After restarting, you need to insert the SD card, and you may now get the solution.
3. Choose a different USB port and insert the card reader.
Some card readers do not work properly on every USB port. So, it can be a reason for the error. In a laptop or PC, there are multiple ports on the front panel and back panel. Insert the card reader into a different port and this time there is a chance to solve the error.
4. Set your computer or phone to idle or rest mode.
Sometimes the SD card is not recognised in the drive list under “This PC” or “My Computer”. Generally, it happens because of the limited memory of the computer.
To fix this error, you need to close all the programs and put your PC to rest or idle for a while. After that, insert the SD card into the slot on your PC and now your PC will be able to read the SD card and you can access the files on it.
If you are using a phone, then apply the same method. In this case, you can get the solution to the error that the SD card won’t read.
5. Switch off the writing protection.
If somehow you have turned on the write protection of the SD card, then you will not be able to do any editing (like: opening, copying, saving, etc.) with the SD card on any media.
At that time, check the write protection. If it’s turned on, turn it off. After that, you will be able to access your SD card and the error will be fixed.
6. SD card format.
After applying all the above mentioned methods, if you are still unable to fix the SD card’s read and write errors, then you need to format the SD card.
However, before formatting, you can attempt to recover data using a data recovery tool.If you search on Google, you will find a lot of data recovery tools. You can use any of them to recover your data, and then start formatting your SD card.
I feel that there is no need to tell you how to format an SD card on a PC or mobile.
As we used to backup our necessary details on an SD card, the error “SD card won’t read” is a great problem. If you have followed the above methods, there is a 100% chance that your error will be fixed.
Most of the time, you need to format an SD card, and before that, you need to recover data. If you don’t have any necessary things on the SD card, just format it, and after that, the SD card will be fixed automatically. But don’t take the other methods lightly.