How to Format an SD Card on Mac [with Terminal & Disk Utility]

SD cards are common external storage devices, most commonly inserted into digital devices such as cameras, cell phones, and game consoles. There are many types of SD cards, including SD, SDHC, and SDXC.

When choosing an SD card, you need to pay attention to which type of SD card is more suitable for your device. Portability is one of the biggest advantages of SD cards, but unfortunately, unrecognized or unusable SD cards always happen.

When an SD card is malfunctioning or cannot be read and used properly, such as an SD card becoming RAW, an SD card not showing up on Mac, etc., the most effective way is to format an SD card on Mac.

Preparations Before Formatting an SD Card on Mac

Formatting an SD card will wipe all data on it. So if you have essential data on the SD card, you should back up it before formatting it. Read on to learn how to back up essential data on an SD card.

💾Back Up Data Before Formatting an SD Card on Mac

To avoid losing data after formatting the SD card on Mac, you can mack a backup of the SD card data on iCloud or Time Machine. Besides, you can cut and paste files on Mac from the SD card to other hard drives. Soppuse the SD card is corrupted or damaged that you can't access data on it, don't worry; the second method can solve this problem.

🏆Recover Data Before Formatting a Corrupted SD Card on Mac

Suppose you have some important data on your problematic SD card that you haven't backed up. In that case, we recommend you use the professional data recovery software EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to recover the SD card that doesn't work correctly.

It also can recover data from the RAW SD card on Mac before formatting it. This professional and trusted SD card recovery software for Mac offers the ability of corrupted SD card recovery on Mac with 3 steps:

Step 1. Select the SD card

• Correctly connect your memory card to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.
• Go to "SD Card Recovery", find your Canon/Nikon/Go Pro/DJI/Sony SD card, and click "Search for lost files".

Note: Before data recovery, you'd better click "Disk Backup" from the left sidebar to create a backup of your SD card to avoid further data loss. After backing up the SD card, the software can recover data from your SD card backup, and you can remove the SD card and use it again.

Step 2. Filter lost SD card data

After the scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results. Find wanted photos, videos, and other files.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

Preview the SD card data and select the wanted files. Then, click the "Recover" button. Don't save the recoverable files to the SD card itself in case of data overwriting.

After SD card recovery on Mac using the EaseUS recovery software, this article will show you how to format an SD card on Mac using the built-in Disk Utility application. Let's get started with the SD formatting process.

How to Format SD Card on Mac Using Disk Utility

Formatting an SD card on Mac will use a built-in application Disk Utility Mac, and here is a video about how to format an SD card on Mac using Disk Utility:

• 00:25 - Connect your SD card to your Mac
• 00:40 - Open Disk Utility
• 01:12 - Choose the file format and rename the SD card

Please note that if you are unsure if your Mac supports an SD card slot instead of a card reader, you can find the answer on Apple's official website.

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And check out the steps below to format an SD card on your Mac:

Step 1. Connect your SD card to your Mac.

In this part, if your Mac has an SD card slot, which is on the side of your Mac generally, you can directly insert an SD card into your Mac. Use a card reader if your Mac doesn't have an SD card slot.

Step 2. Navigate to "Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility" and open "Disk Utility". Or you can open Disk Utility on Mac Startup.

Step 3. Find the SD card on the left panel, select it, and click "Erase".

Step 4. Choose the new file system format of the SD card in the "Format" tab. Rename the SD card if you want.

The most common format types of SD cards are FAT and exFAT, and both of them are compatible with cameras. For example, choose exFAT if your SD card is 64 GB or larger, and choose MS-DOS if your SD card is 32 GB or smaller. Other options like NTFS or Mac OS Extended (HFS+) are commonly used on hard drives on Mac.

Step 5. Click "Erase" again to confirm, wait until the formatting process is finished, and then you can use the SD card normally.

The formatting time depends on the capacity size of the SD card, the type of new format selected, and the speed of the card reader. Not sure which format to choose? The article below can help you determine what format suits you!

How to Format SD Card on Mac Using Terminal

Apart from using Disk Utility, you can use the Mac Terminal command to format an SD card to FAT32 or other formats. Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Open Terminal from Finder or Spotlight search box.

Step 2. Connect the SD card to your Mac, and type diskutil list to view all the storage.

Step 3. Select the SD card from the storage list.

Step 4. Enter the command sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT 32 SDCARD MBRFormat/dev/disk2. This command will format your SD card on Mac. It also can format USB flash drives to FAT32 on Mac.

Conclusion

Suppose your SD card is corrupted or becomes in RAW format, and you must format it to make it workable again. Formatting an SD card on Mac will use a built-in program called Disk Utility, which can erase, repair, and unmount an external hard drive on your Mac.

Before formatting the corrupted SD card, you can recover essential data from it using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Besides, you can also recover the formatted SD card on Mac using the EaseUS recovery tool, as long as the data is not overwritten.

Format SD Card on Mac FAQs

Here are questions people frequently ask when they search for how to format an SD card on Mac:

1. Why can't I format my SD card on my Mac?

One of the main reasons that an SD card can't be formatted on your Mac is that the permission of a file on the SD card is "Read-only", which will lead to the whole SD card as write-protected. To format the SD card, you should change its permission to "Read and Write".

2. How do I format an SD card on my Mac?

You should use Disk Utility to format your SD card; follow the steps:

Step 1. Connect your SD card to your Mac.

Step 2. Navigate to "Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility" and open "Disk Utility".

Step 3. Find the SD card on the left panel, select it, and click "Erase".

Step 4. Choose the new file system format of the SD card in the "Format" tab. Rename the SD card if you want.

Step 5. Click "Erase" again to confirm, and wait until the formatting process is finished.

3. How do I get my Mac to read my SD card?

If your Mac does not detect the SD card, you can try these methods to make your Mac read your SD card:

• Check the connections and restart your Mac.
• Check Finder and desktop preferences.
• Check if the SD card is locked or damaged.
• Check if the SD card reader is not working.
• Mount SD card in Disk Utility.