SD card not showing up? Solutions are here!

You connect your SD card to the computer, but it not showing up. What to do?

Read the best methods!

The best methods for dealing with an SD card not showing up:

Here is listed 5 methods and each of them is good. Select the most suitable method for you!

Clean the adapter and SD card from dust.

Method 1. Dusting and Cleaning Adapter and SD Card

Often, due to prolonged careless use of an SD card, there may be contamination of the card or adapter. On the other hand, if you have not used them for a long time and they are collecting dusting on the shelf like an abandoned toy, it hurts the performance of the SD card and card reader too.

Both situations may lead to a breakdown of contact between them and, as a result, the SD card does not show up.

So, the number one method is: try to clean the adapter and SD card.

Carefully wipe all components of the SD card. If you see dirty spots that can’t be removed with a dry cloth, wet the cloth (it must be almost dry!) with water or, better yet, with alcohol. Do not scratch the SD card! Be gentle with the cleaning.

To clean the adapter, you can just use your breath or you can use compressed air to gently clean out the card reader.

After that, reconnect the SD card to the adapter. The problem should disappear. If this does not happen, do not worry; there are a few other good options.

Method 2. Update or Reinstall SD Card Driver

Another quite common cause for the SD card not appearing are outdated drivers. So first check your drivers to see if they are working correctly.

To do this, follow these steps: Open the Device Manager and find your card reader there. If there are any problems with it, then you will see a yellow sign next to it; most likely, the card reader needs to be updated.

Here is what you need to do: connect the SD card to the computer, then go to Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Disk Drivers. Now you need to select the SD card. Click on it with the right mouse button, select “Uninstall” from the list provided, then select “Scan for hardware changes”. This procedure will launch the driver update process.

Restart the computer; the SD card should be recognized by the computer. If this method did not help, proceed to the next method.

Method 3. Check SD Card with Another Adapter or Computer

Try connecting your micro SD card that is not showing up to another computer. If the SD card works on another computer, then most likely the previous PC has a faulty card reader or the computer itself is incompatible with the SD card.

If the memory card is not showing up on another computer, it is probably damaged. For complete accuracy, you can find another card reader and try connecting a memory card to it. Maybe you are lucky this time.

If it does not help, proceed to method 4.

Method 4. Change the SD Card Letter

Sometimes, the SD card is not showing up because no drive letter is assigned. Depending on the version of the operating system, the drive letter may be created automatically, or you will receive the error message “Please insert the disk into a removable disk”. That means you must assign a drive letter yourself.

This can be done as follows: Right-click on the Start button. From the list, select Disk Management.

Choose your SD card by right-clicking on it. Select "Change drive letter and path." Now click on the Edit button. Re-assign a drive letter and click OK. If the memory card is without a drive letter, you need to click on the Add button.

It may be that this method did not help you or for some reason failed to do so and SD card is still not showing up; do not be discouraged. The following method will definitely work for you.

Method 5. SD card still not showing up? Try DiskInternals Partition Recovery

If the SD card is still not showing up, you can use the software tool DiskInternals Partition Recovery.

Its main difference from other applications is the presence of several data recovery modes: “reader”, “uneraser” or “recovery”. And if the SD card is not showing up on your computer, you can use the reader mode, where you can open and read disks like in the File Explorer.

No additional skills are needed; just download the free trial version of this software and you will get assistance to open SD, SDHC or just micro SD cards that are not showing up. Choosing this method, you do not need to think about data integrity; there are no risks for your photos, excel files, videos, music, documents, etc.

Good luck!

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