The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros are reportedly having issues with the SD card reader slot. Though the comeback of the slot was one of the highlights of the device, it is plagued with varied issues. Some users are now complaining about slow transfer speeds, inaccessible files, and even crashes.

MacRumors reported that its readers listed a wide range of issues in its discussion thread. One reader mentioned the inconsistency of the SD card reader, with it throwing an error at random times. However, external card readers seemed to work just fine, indicating that the issue lies in the MacBook Pro’s SD card reader.

In some cases, it was reported that the internal SD card reader took several minutes to access files. Sometimes it would even cause Finder to crash. Issues with formatting were ruled out, with many users reformatting and testing the cards, to no avail.

One user tried a systematic approach and reported the findings:

I tried many cards, and could find no pattern of brand, size, type, format, age. Seems to be completely random. The only thing that is consistent is that if a card works, it always works, and if a card does not work properly, it never works properly. Reformatting, even to all other possible formats, makes no difference. Sandisk, Sony, Samsung, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, UHS-I, UHS-II, micro-SD, FAT32, exFAT, makes no difference. 100% of my cards work perfectly via a dongle.

There’s still no consensus on the issue, since the problems with the SD card reader appear varied. However, multiple MacBook Pro users have reported that using an SD card reader over USB-C works, even if the SD card slot does not. It is to be noted that most of the reports were pertaining to older SD cards, and also with certain 128GB cards.

It is reported that Apple is aware of the issue and is planning to roll out a fix in a future software update. The solution seems dicey since it has not been determined if it is a hardware or software issue. For now, it seems that the only workaround is to use an SD card reader dongle. However, this is far from the optimal solution.

Just last month, many 16-inch MacBook Pro users reported problems with MagSafe charging.

Are you facing any issues with your MacBook Pro SD card reader? Let us know in the comments.