SD Card Not Showing Up on Windows 11? Fix it!

Although SD cards are becoming less popular, many people continue to use them to store photographs and other types of data. There is usually a specific slot for these, or you may use an external card reader to see your data on a PC.

Now, Windows 11 is in the limelight, more and more users are exploring this new OS. However, some of them find that when they try to access data on the SD card, SD card not showing up on Windows 11 computer.

Why is my SD card not showing up on Windows 11?

If the SD card from your phone or camera does not appear in the card reader of your Windows 11 PC, you are unable to view or transfer files from it. It's quite annoying. Why is my SD card not recognized? How does this happen?

Here are some probable causes for your SD card not appearing in Windows 11:

·Your SD card reader is not correctly plugged into your computer.
·The external SD card has been tampered with.
·The pins on the built-in SD card reader are damaged.
·The SD card in use is corrupt.
·A virus or malware has invaded the SD card.
·You are not using the most recent device driver.
·Your computer lacks proper drivers.
·The SD card's drive letter is gone.
·The Write Protection switch is not turned off.
·The presence of faulty sectors on your computer.
·The SD card you're using has been physically damaged.
…

How to fix the SD card not showing up in Windows 11?

Although the list doesn’t include all reasons, it covers the most. After we know the possible causes, let’s solve the SD card not recognized in Windows 11 problem now.

1. Clean SD card and re-insert or try it on another PC

The dust would cause a weak connection, and even if your Windows 11 PC can read the SD card normally, you would encounter other issues. If your SD card is dirty and includes dust or tiny particles, it will not be detected by your PC. To resolve this, we recommend cleaning the SD card's pins and the SD card reader's pins before reconnecting the card.

And if your Micro SD card is not detected by your PC, your PC may not support the SD card's interface. Therefore, we recommend inserting or using it with another PC to see whether it identifies your card.

2. Disable Write Protection

SD cards contain a Write Protection feature that allows you to read the data on them but not make any changes to them. However, if something goes wrong here, the SD card not showing up will happen in Windows 11.

It is preferable to deactivate Write Protection in this case. To do so, locate a switch in the corner and turn it to the off or unlock position, depending on whether the SD card is locked or unlocked.

3. Update to the latest drivers

Step 1. Open the Start menu and search for Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand the Disk Drives option.

Step 3. Right-click your SD card. If it is not recognized by your PC, it will have a yellow exclamation mark and choose “Update drivers”.

Step 4. Select “Search automatically for drivers”. And then restart your PC.

4. Change the drive letter of the SD card

Step 1. Right-click on the “Start” and select “Disk Management”.

Step 2. Right-click on your SD card and choose Change Drive Letter and Path.

Step 3. Select a drive letter and click “OK” and close the Disk Management tool.

5. Reinstall the Universal Serial Bus controllers

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys on the Keyboard. Type “devmgmt.msc” in the Open text box.

Step 2. Expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers" from Device Manager.

Step 3. Right-click on the drivers and select "Uninstall". Click on OK on Confirm device uninstall prompt.

Step 4. Restart the computer, and the drivers will get automatically installed on your Windows 11.

6. Diagnose SD card issues and Troubleshoot

Step 1. Open "Control Panel" as instructed in the first method, and select "Troubleshoot".

Step 2. Select "Hardware and Sound", and next "Hardware and Devices", click “Run the troubleshooter”.

7. Employ a third-party partition manager to check and reformat the SD card

If the built-in tools and settings are all failed, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, a free disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP users. To fix the SD card not showing up on Windows 11 computer, you can choose the “Surface Test”, and “Check Partition” features, and if you need, you can run the “Format Partition” feature to reformat your SD card to a suitable file system (This tool supports NTFS/FAT32/Ext2/3/4/exFAT).

Opt.1. Check Partition

Step 1. Download the freeware. Install and launch it. Click the SD card, then select "Test"> “Disk Surface Test” in the top of the interface.

Step 1. Tick “Quick Check” and click “Start” to check whether there are any bad sectors on the disk.

Opt. 2. Format Partition

If you need to format your SD card to an Ext or exFAT file system, this tool can help you. And some users report their computers can’t format a Micro SD card larger than 32GB to FAT32 on Windows 11, this can also be solved with this tool.

Step 1. Install and run it. Right-click the partition that needs to be formatted to FAT32 and choose “Format Partition”. 

Step 2. It will pop up a small window, choose FAT32 among displayed file systems and click “OK”. You are allowed to change the cluster size of this partition and add a partition label to it.

Step 3. Return to the main interface. Confirm your operation and click “Apply”>“Proceed” to commit it.

To sum up

If you’re in trouble with the SD card not showing up on Windows 11 issue, hope this post will help you solve the problem. AOMEI Partition Assistant can offer more solutions when built-in tools can’t help you. It has many other useful functions like cloning/wiping disk, creating/deleting/resizing/moving partition.

And if you choose the Professional Edition, you can unlock more practical features like file system convertor, app mover, etc.