How to Fix 'SD Card Keeps Disappearing/Disconnecting' Error in PC

David Darlington

Jan 15, 2024 • Filed to: Support • Proven solutions

If your SD card keeps disconnecting or disappearing after connecting it your computer, you can follow provided steps below to fix this tricky issue:

1. Remove and reinsert SD card to Windows PC

When the SD card disconnects or disappears randomly, you can retry to insert the card to the computer again to see if it’s stable to be read.

2. Change SD card reader and reconnect to your PC

If the SD card reader is not working properly, your SD card, of course, won’t be able to show up on the computer.

3. Insert SD card to another computer to see if it shows up

Another way is to insert your SD card to another computer to see if it shows up stably or not.

After these three steps, if your SD card shows up and can be re-accessed, the problem gets resolved then. If the issue still reserves, continue with the following steps to get rid of the problem on your SD card now.

4. Disable PC from turning off Mass Storage Device

When the computer turns off the Mass Storage Device, your SD card won’t be able to show up correctly. Here are the steps to disable this feature:

• Press Windows + X to bring up a menu, and choose Device Manager from the list.
• Go to Universal Serial Bus Controller > USB Mass Storage Device.
• Click the Power Management tab and uncheck the box in front of Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. 
• Click OK then save the changes.

After this, check if your SD card can be detected in Disk Management.

• If yes and you can directly open the SD card, your job is done then.
• If yes but you can’t access data, continue with the next step.

5. Change SD card drive letter, restore data and format SD card to NTFS

If your SD card can be detected by the Disk Management, but it is still inaccessible, try below tricks and make things alright:

Change SD card drive letter

• Keep your SD card connected to your PC.
• Enter Disk Management and right-click on your SD card, select "Change drive letter..."
• Rename your SD card and click OK to save all changes.