3 Quick Ways to Permanently Remove Write Protection from an SD Card

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Try these tips on Macs and PCs to remove write protection from your card

Written by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: July 17, 2024 Fact Checked

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Removing Physical Write Protection

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Removing Write Protection with Windows

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Removing Write Protection with a Mac

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

This wikiHow article teaches you how to remove the "Read Only" status from an SD card so that you can place files on it. Virtually all SD cards have physical locks that can be toggled to enable (or disable) write protection. If your SD card is locked down due to digital write protection, you can use a Windows or Mac computer to remove the write protection. A card that doesn't remove lock protection after the Window or Mac steps indicates a damaged SD Card that you should replace.

Quickly Turn Off Write Protection on SD Card

Most, if not all, SD Cards have a physical switch that enables and disables write protection. To get rid of the read-only status on it, make sure the switch is up. When the switch is down, write protection is on and you can only read what's on the SD Card.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Removing Physical Write Protection

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1
Position the SD card. Place the SD card on a flat surface with the label facing upward. This helps you find the lock switch for the card.
- If you are using a micro- or mini-SD card, insert it into an SD card adapter, and place the adapter label-up on a flat surface.
2
Locate the lock switch. It should be on the upper-left side of the SD card.
- The lock switch is typically a small white or silver tab that protrudes from the left side of the SD card.
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3
Slide the switch upward to unlock the card. If the lock switch is down, sliding it upward will unlock the card, allowing you to save and edit data.^{[1]
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- If the switch was already in the unlocked position or this didn't resolve your issue, continue to the next step.
Your SD card should also have a smaller notch on the right edge. This notch can prevent certain card readers and other devices from writing to the card, even when the card is unlocked.
5
Cover the right notch with a small piece of transparent tape. The tape you use to cover the notch should be just large enough to cover it—don't use too much tape, or else it could prevent the SD card from seating properly.^{[2]
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- If the unlock switch keeps falling down, you can use another small piece of tape to keep it in the unlocked position.
- If you still can't write to the card after covering the notch with tape, try inserting it into a computer and checking for digital write protection. Read on to learn how on Windows and macOS.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Removing Write Protection with Windows

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You'll need to be on an administrator account in order to open the Disk Partition tool, which is what you'll use to remove the write protection from your SD card.
2
Plug the SD card into your computer. If your computer has an SD card reader, the card should slide label-up and gold connectors-first into the reader.
- If your PC doesn't have a card reader, you'll need a USB SD card adapter to do this.
Press Windows key + S to activate the Windows search bar, and then type command prompt. Click Command Prompt in the search results to open it now.
You'll be asked if you want to allow the app to make changes.
The prompt in the Command Prompt window should now say "DISKPART."
This displays a list of disks connected to your PC.
7
Determine your SD card's number. You can find your SD card by looking for a number of megabytes or gigabytes that correlates with your SD card's storage in the "Size" column; the number to the right of "Disk" on the far-left side of this value is your SD card's number.
- For example, if you see that the storage size for Disk 3 mirrors your SD card's remaining space, your SD card's number is "3".
- The top disk (Disk 0) will always be your computer's built-in hard drive.
8
Select your SD card. Type in select disk number where "number" is replaced by the SD card's number, then press Enter. This tells Disk Partition to apply the next command to your SD card.
- For example, if your SD card is labeled as "Disk 3" in the list of computer disks, you'd type select disk 3 here.
You should see a line of text that reads "Disk attributes cleared successfully" appear in the window below your cursor, signifying that your SD card is no longer write-protected.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Removing Write Protection with a Mac

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1
Plug your SD card into your Mac. Attach your SD card adapter to one of your Mac's USB or USB-C ports, then plug the SD card itself into the adapter.
- If you have an older Mac, your Mac may have an SD card slot on its right side. If so, you can plug the SD card label side-up and gold connectors-first into the slot.
2
Look for a read-only file. In some cases, having one read-only file can cause the whole SD card to lock down until the file is switched to "Read and Write" mode. You can check a file's status by clicking it, clicking File, clicking Get Info, and looking at the "Sharing & Permissions" heading.
- If your file is read-only, change it to "Read and Write" status to see if that removes your SD card's digital write protection.
Click the magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, or press Command + space bar to activate Spotlight search.
Type disk utility into the search bar, then double-click Disk Utility in the search results.
Click your SD card's name in the upper-left side of the Disk Utility window.
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Click First Aid. It's a tab near the top of the Disk Utility window. Doing so will prompt First Aid to begin running on your SD card.
- If prompted, follow any on-screen instructions while First Aid runs.
If your SD card is locked down due to an error, the error will be fixed by First Aid.

Community Q&A

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Question

Why does my SD card tell me it is write protected if it is set to unlocked?

Community Answer

Your SD card must have been encrypted using a password on a mobile device or software.

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Question

I tried method two and the SD card wasn't showing up on my computer management screen. There's no physical lock, so without an adapter, I can't use method one either. What else can I try?

Community Answer

Try the following: 1. Click Start > type “regedit” and open “Registry Editor”. 2. Now follow the below path after opening registry editor :- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/StorageDevicePolicies. 3. Now you will see “Write Protection” option. Double click on that and set the value data to ‘0’. After setting the value data to ‘0’ again try copying or formatting your sd card. After performing the above step you are still not able to format your sd card then continue to next step. Open Command Prompt and type diskpart and press Enter key. After opening diskpart type “list disk” and again press Enter button. Now type “select disk 1”.

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How can you tell if it is working?

Community Answer

Try to recycle a photo. If it works, write protection is off. If you can't delete a picture, write protection is on. After write protection is off, take the photo from the recycle bin and put it back in the SD card. Keep in mind this was only tested on Windows.

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Once you've removed write protection from your SD card, you can format your SD card to remove all of its files and restore it to its original state.

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If you're fairly certain that your SD Card isn't old enough to need replacing, run a malware scan on it to see if malware or a virus is preventing your card from writing.

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Backup or recover the files from a write-locked SD Card. You'll at least be able to recover what's on your SD card even if you can't save new data to it.

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Warnings

In some cases, the lock switch on your SD card may become loose and slide into the locked position when you insert the card into a computer or device. If this happens, you may need to either glue the switch in place or replace the SD card.

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