In fact, Mac allows you to format a 64GB SD card to FAT32 on Mac or one with a larger capacity like 128GB. So you may be concerned about how to format 64GB SD card to FAT32 on Mac. If you are familiar with Windows PC, you know that it doesn't let users to format an SD larger than 32GB to FAT32. If your SD card is 32GB or smaller and you don't plan to store any file larger than 4GB, choose MS-DOS (FAT), the Disk Utility version of FAT32. But FAT32 is more compatible than ExFAT, especially for some old devices such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.Īs a rule of thumb, unless you are formatting an SD card for a device that only accepts FAT32, regardless of intending to format the SD card on Mac for camera or the like, you should follow this: Since SD or micro SD cards are mainly used for portable devices, FAT32 and ExFAT are the top choices due to their excellent compatibility across platforms.ĮxFAT is more advanced than FAT32 with speed improvement at reading and writing data to a drive. Should you format SD card to FAT32 on Mac?īefore getting to the details about formatting SD cards to FAT32 on Mac, let's discuss whether FAT32 is the best file system you should choose. Step 4: Input a new name, and choose MS-DOS (FAT)/FAT32 for a card size of 32GB or less otherwise, choose ExFAT.Step 3: Select your card and click Erase.

Step 2: Open Disk Utility, the Mac version of Windows Disk Management.

Step 1: Insert the SD card into your Mac.

If you are in a hurry, here is the quick summary of how to format an SD card on Mac for camera and other devices: Whatever the reason is, let's get to the details of how to format an SD card on MacBook Pro and other Mac models.

needing to clear an SD card for disk space.

making it ready for another operating system.

preparing it to be used for the first time.You may fall into one of the cases below: Although many SD cards or micro SD cards come with a file system, sometimes you need to reformat the SD card on Mac to serve other purposes.

Mac disk utility format scheme exfat