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microSD USB Reader

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This is an awesome little microSD USB reader. Just slide your microSD card into the inside of the USB connector, then stick this into a USB port and the card's contents will pop up on your computer. Very sneaky - we love it! This little guy is great for pulling data logs off microSD media. This reader also includes an indicator LED which will light up if a microSD card is present. This device is completely plug-and-play, so no drivers needed.

Note: The microSD card is sold separately.

  • TF/microSD/microSDHC Card High-Speed Reader
  • USB Interface
  • Removable Cap
  • Keychain Lanyard

microSD USB Reader Product Help and Resources

SD Cards and Writing Images

June 4, 2015

How to upload images to an SD card for Raspberry Pi, PCDuino, or your favorite SBC.

Comments

Looking for answers to technical questions?

We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.

  • Member #587428 / about 10 years ago / 2

    RobertC you've stated it's SDXC, but the specs above only say SDHC. Are you sure it's SDXC capable? thanks

  • Skerpy_D / about 10 years ago / 1

    When will this come back in stock? I back ordered one and I hope it gets here soon.

  • zshift / about 10 years ago / 1

    This is awesomely tiny.

  • Member #260321 / about 10 years ago / 1

    What capacity & class will this handle? Some SD readers only go up to 2GB, others max out at 32GB.

  • Member #469299 / about 10 years ago / 1

    When plugged into the computer, can I write to the micro SD card, or, as the description strongly suggests, this is a read-only solution?

  • LightManCA / about 10 years ago / 1

    Wow I'll have to include that in my next order!

Customer Reviews

3.2 out of 5

Based on 12 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

2 of 2 found this helpful:

Fun while it lasted!

Died within a few hours.

Sorry to hear that. If you contact our Tech Support team at techsupport@sparkfun.com, they should be able to help you out.

3 of 3 found this helpful:

Fragile and Inconvenient

A gentle pull on the string broke the plastic strip holding it in. I wouldn't trust this on a keychain. The MicroSD card is exceedingly difficult to remove from the reader. I had to use a pair of tweezers to get it out. No problem to read/write data to/from the MicroSD, but I'll be looking to replace this soon, and going back to using my camera as a MicroSD card reader for now.

2 of 2 found this helpful:

Could be better documented

I ordered this because my usual "Reader" wasn't available and I needed to write an OS to a uSD for a Raspberry Pi 4B (which I'd also ordered). Maybe my 65+ yr old brain isn't working as well, but I had trouble figuring out how to put the uSD into it. Fortunately the 6 year old video showed that. I might have given it 5 stars if there had been something directly on the webpage, like a picture of someone putting the card into it. I shoud also note that after the write/verify (using Etcher) for an ~4GB image (onto a 64GB card), which took ~20 minutes, the Reader and card were hot. (It was plugged into a hub, as my MacBook Pro only has two USB ports, and one has to be used for the power supply.)

1 of 1 found this helpful:

a wonder of science

it does everything I wanted, and more, and it looks good while it's at it. even the LED is a very pretty purple color that makes me dream of distant amazing places with strange creatures from another time. And I like it.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Gets hot and smells burnt

When I take the micro sd-card out of my voice recorder and put it in the USB reader and insert it in the usb-port it gets very hot and even smells burnt???

4 of 5 found this helpful:

Well, It's Small

The piece of plastic holding the string to the main part of the dongle broke off the very first time that I tried to use the string to pull the device out of the USB port. Because the device is so small, it's very difficult to remove from the USB port without the string. If you have other things plugged into the ports next to this dongle (horizontal port configuration), it can basically be impossible to remove this device without the string. I ended up wrapping the string around the inside lip of the main part of the device. The string isn't too thick to cause contact problems with the USB port, but the cap doesn't go on right against the main part of the device any more. This device might be fantastic if you intend to leave it in place as mass storage, but since I need to remove it frequently, I should have gotten something slightly larger. I wouldn't trust the strength of that plastic on a keychain, and certainly wouldn't leave an SD card in it on my keychain.

TLDR: String broke off, thing is too small to get out of the USB port. Recommended if you're going to leave it in place.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Thank you for the feedback.

Worked once

Worked once and then the next time I plugged it in it overheated and disabled my usb port.

Sorry to hear that the device you had purchased defected in this way. I you want to fill out a return ticket we can get this sorted: https://www.sparkfun.com/returns

Convenient!

Often I don't have a computer with an SD card slot handy, let alone an SD-to-micro adapter. This reader allows me to read/write to microSD on any device with a standard USB slot. I love that it's small enough to stash anywhere, but be warned: without thinking, I attempted to remove the reader by pulling the lanyard which snapped the tiny plastic lug (the reason for 4 out of 5 stars). Now I'm forced to remove it correctly but I can no longer hang it from a keychain and so must be careful not to misplace it. Still worth every penny!

a great idea & solution

Great item for such a small footprint. Handy. The most convenient microSD reader ever.

It works, but is difficult getting the card in/out

Since there isn't a push-in/push-out mechanism on this reader, you have to just use your fingernail to get the card out. But it works ok.

Compact, Convenient, Compatible

This unit worked well out of the box - no issues with usage on Mac & Windows platforms. I found this much more convenient for moving files between computers as I often work with units that don’t have SD slots. Definitely a recommended item!

Inexpensive and it works fine.

The key ring strap broke right away, but the inexpensive micro reader/writer works fine. The led light shows the activity in progress. Excellent solution for the price.