How to Check SD Card Health on Mac

If you’ve noticed your SD card has slowed down, throws errors, or some files have gone missing or become inaccessible, it’s time for a health check. With macOS tools and a few third-party apps, you can catch these issues early, protect your data, and maybe even fix the problem. Our team has helped many Mac users find the best ways to check SD card health on Mac, and now we want to share it with you.

Basic macOS Tools to Check SD Card Health on Mac

Let’s start with the basics. macOS offers built-in tools that provide an easy way to check SD card health without any extra software. Disk Utility and Terminal each provide different methods to detect errors, verify storage capacity, and even make basic repairs when necessary.

Option 1: Use Disk Utility for Quick SD Card Health Check on Mac

Disk Utility is everybody’s go-to tool for a fast SD card health check on Mac, and we aren’t an exception. This basic tool is the first place people look when they want to check up on their internal or external storage devices. With its “First Aid” feature, Disk Utility scans your SD card for file system errors and can fix many common issues on the spot. Here’s how to use it:

1. Insert the SD card into your Mac’s card reader, or use an external adapter if needed. Make sure it shows up on your desktop or in Finder.
2. Open Disk Utility with Spotlight (press Command + Space), type “Disk Utility,” and select it from the results.
3. In Disk Utility’s sidebar, find your SD card listed under “External” devices and click on it to view its details.
4. With the SD card selected, click the “First Aid” button at the top of the window. When prompted, choose “Run” to start the scan. Disk Utility will check for file system errors and attempt to repair them automatically.
5. After the scan, Disk Utility shows a report with any repairs made and any unresolved issues.

If everything is fine, you’ll see a green checkmark confirming the card’s health. If not, you’ll see error messages in the log with specific problems that need attention.

Option 2: Test SD Card using Mac Terminal

As an alternative, you can run error checks in Terminal for a more in-depth look at your SD card’s health. We get it—Terminal isn’t for everyone. The next methods and apps we’ll cover use regular, easy-to-use interfaces. But sometimes, Terminal is necessary if Disk Utility doesn’t give you what you need. These command-line tools can uncover hidden issues and offer a deeper level of diagnostics for your SD card when other options fall short. Here’s how to use Terminal for diagnostics:

1. Press Command + Space, type “Terminal,” and hit Enter to launch the Terminal application.
2. Type diskutil list and press Enter. This command will show a list of all storage devices connected to your Mac.
3. Locate your SD card in the list and note its identifier, which should look like /dev/disk2 or something similar. Double-check that you have the correct identifier.
4. Type diskutil verifyVolume [disk identifier] (replace [disk identifier] with your SD card’s identifier) and press Enter. This command checks for file system errors on your SD card and will report any issues it finds.
5. For a more extensive check, type diskutil verifyDisk [disk identifier] and press Enter. This command checks across all partitions of the SD card and identifies bad blocks or deeper logical issues that could affect performance or stability.
6. If Terminal displays “OK,” your SD card passed the check without issues. If errors appear, Terminal will show specific messages that indicate what’s wrong and may require further action.

If Terminal isn’t able to fix the issues, it’s often recommended to format the SD card to resolve any logical problems. Our team confirms that formatting usually fixes these issues, and the SD card can work as if nothing happened afterward. But what if you’ve got important photos or videos on it that you can’t access because of errors? We’ve seen this situation plenty of times, and we want to show you what can be done in the next section. After all, the data on the SD card is often far more valuable than the card itself.

How to Recover Data from a Problematic SD Card

Even if your SD card throws errors when you attempt to access it, specialized SD data recovery tools can often retrieve data directly from the card. We’ll demonstrate how to do it with one of the most capable SD data recovery apps: Disk Drill. Here’s how to get data off a problematic SD card:

1. Head to the official Disk Drill site to download and install the app on your Mac.
2. Insert your SD card into the card reader; make sure it shows up in Disk Utility.
3. Launch Disk Drill. In the “Storage Devices” section, find and select your SD card.
4. Create a disk image for extra safety (recommended). Use Disk Drill’s “Byte-to-Byte Backup” feature to create a disk image of your SD card. This lets you work with a copy of the card, and not stress the SD card that might be too fragile for extensive scans.
5. Start a scan on the SD card or, if you created a disk image, click on “Attach disk image” at the bottom of the screen to add it. Then, click the “Search for lost data” button to begin the scan. Disk Drill will look for all recoverable files.
6. While Disk Drill scans your SD card, you can click “Review found items” to see what has already been discovered. You’ll see a list of files, which will continue to grow as the scan progresses. If needed, you can pause the scan at any time. In the list, you’ll find both existing files and files that were deleted or lost due to corruption, with recovery chances displayed next to each file. Recovery chances are typically marked as High, Average, or Low. If you’re only interested in existing files, their recovery chances will generally display as “High.”
7. Select all the files you want to recover, then click the “Recover” button at the bottom. You’ll see a preview for each file, so you can confirm exactly what you’re bringing back. Be aware that to recover files after a scan, you’ll need the PRO version. The free Basic version allows for scans and previews but can’t recover files without the upgrade to PRO.

There are plenty of SD data recovery software options out there, but we specifically chose Disk Drill because it offers a lot of additional features that are incredibly useful—not just for SD cards, but for other types of storage, too:

• Byte-to-Byte Backup option.
• S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring to track key health indicators, to detect early signs of SD card wear. We’ll cover S.M.A.R.T. in more detail in the next section.
• A duplicate finder to identify and remove duplicate files to free up valuable space on your SD card and other storage.
• Clean Up tool to manage and clear unnecessary files to keep your storage organized.

How to Use S.M.A.R.T. to Assess SD Card Health

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a system that helps predict the reliability and health of storage devices. While not all SD cards support S.M.A.R.T., those that do, provide useful information about their condition, like data on read/write error rates, temperature, and overall lifespan.

There are many apps available for SD card S.M.A.R.T. health check. Some popular options include:

• DriveDx
• GSmartControl
• Smartmontools

All these apps are super easy to use—just download and open them, and they will display the S.M.A.R.T. status of your device. But since we already mentioned that apps like Disk Drill include S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, let’s check your SD card health on Mac with Disk Drill:

1. In Disk Drill, find the “S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring” section. You should see this option in the main interface once your SD card is connected.
2. If it’s not already active, turn on S.M.A.R.T. monitoring for your SD card. This lets the app start tracking key health indicators.
3. Disk Drill will show various S.M.A.R.T. attributes, such as:
   • Read Error Rate: This indicates how often read errors occur.
   • Write Error Rate: This shows the number of write errors.
   • Temperature: This monitors the current operating temperature of the SD card.
   • Remaining Life: This gives an estimate of how long the SD card is likely to last.

Each attribute will usually have a status indicator (like “OK,” “Warning,” or “Failing”), which makes it easy to assess your SD card’s health. If you see any warnings or failure messages, back up your data right away and consider replacing the card.

Additional Apps to Test SD Card Speed and Integrity on Mac

Here, we want to list some of our favorite apps that allow you to test your SD card’s performance. These tools can help you measure read and write speeds, as well as assess the overall integrity of your SD card. Here are a few popular options:

1. AJA System Test

AJA System Test is a versatile tool that enables you to assess the performance of your storage devices, including SD cards. It measures both read and write speeds. Here’s how to use AJA System Test to check your SD card’s speed:

1. Visit the Mac App Store to download AJA System Test. Follow the installation instructions to set it up on your Mac.
2. Open the AJA System Test application. When it launches, click on “Target Disk” on the left side of the interface and select your SD card from the list of available drives.
3. Then click the big green “Start” button to begin the test. AJA System Test will perform read and write operations on your SD card, displaying the results in real-time.
4. After the test is completed, AJA System Test will provide a detailed report on the read and write speeds of your SD card.

When you test your SD card with applications like AJA System Test, expect different results based on your card’s speed class. For example, a Class 10 card should show a minimum write speed of 10MB/s, while a U3 card can reach a minimum of 30MB/s.

Here’s a small table that outlines the expected speeds based on the different speed classes of SD and microSD cards:

2. F3XSwift

Another very useful app that we often use is F3XSwift, a free and open-source tool specifically designed to combat flash fraud. The market has many counterfeit memory cards and USB flash drives that are cheap and claim to offer large capacities, but in reality, they often cannot hold much data at all. These fraudulent devices may appear legitimate, but they can lead to significant data loss and frustration.

This is why this app was created—to help users verify the actual capacity and integrity of their SD card on a Mac. Here’s how to use it:

1. Visit the official GitHub page to download F3XSwift. The app is free and does not require installation—simply download the executable file.
2. Launch the F3XSwift application. The interface will be simple, it just shows connected storage devices.
3. Choose your SD card from the list of available devices in the app.
4. Click the “Test” button to begin the read/write test. F3XSwift will write data to the SD card and then read it back to verify the integrity of the stored data.
5. After the test is complete, F3XSwift will display the results, with both the read and write speeds. You’ll also see if the test was successful, which indicates that your SD card is working properly.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, SD cards are quite sturdy and can last 10 years or more, with a write cycle limit usually around 100,000. In our experience, as long as you don’t play football with it, your SD card should have a long life. The biggest issues usually arise from logical problems rather than physical damage.

We’ve shown you the apps and tools we often use to check SD card health on Mac and recover files from it if needed. Usually, these methods are enough, but there are cases where the SD card is too damaged to even perform tests on it. In those extreme situations, it might be best for you to call in the professionals.

If you have something important on your SD card that you can’t retrieve normally, professional data recovery services have the equipment to tackle even the toughest situations. Just keep in mind that the prices for these services can be pretty high. It’s always a good idea to prioritize data safety and regularly back up your files to avoid the need for recovery in the first place.