Home > Questions

Why Does My Formatting of the SD Card to FAT 32 Fail on My Mac?

I'm trying to format a micro sd card as FAT 32 but every time I try it formats it as FAT 16. This is for a 3d printer that only reads FAT 32. I tried the FAT 16 but the printer did not read the sd card.

Best Answered by

Vain Rowe

Answered on Monday, April 29, 2024

Hi there, when you format a drive to FAT on Mac, your operating system determines whether it is FAT 16 or FAT 32 based on its size. You have no access to decide if it is FAT 16 or FAT 32 during the formatting process.

In order to make your printer read the SD card, you're suggested to format the SD card on Windows computer so that you can format it to FAT32 or if you install Windows on Mac, that also works. 

Or, you can change your SD card to an external hard drive with larger size for your printer.