6 Ways to Remove SD Card Write Protected

Nowadays, we use lots of memory cards and USB pen drives that come with write protection switches. These switches prevent you from copying or transferring files to your device. SD cards have a physical lock to enable and disable the write protection. Digital write protection often lock the SD card and doesn’t allow you to add files to it. Moreover, you will be unable to delete or format files on the SD card.

Therefore, we will be discussing how to remove SD card write protection quickly. Then, you will be able to place the required files on the SD card of your device. Relax as this problem is not that critical as it seems to be. Hence, you can get rid of it by investing a couple of minutes in this article.

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Different Ways to Fix SD Card Write Protected Issue

We have categorised the SD card write protected issue into six methods. So, you can use the one that seems to be the most convenient and easy for you. So, let us figure out this issue in the latter part of this article.

Method 1: Remove Write Protection On Micro SD Card USB

This method will help you if the memory card of your device is refusing to be formatted and you are receiving the SD card write protected error. This method will work even if there is no type of write protection switch for your device. Carefully follow the steps given below to fix remove the write protected feature from the SD card.

Step 1: Check the Lock of the SD Card

Generally, SD cards and USB drives carry a lock that prevents users from formatting files. Hence, inspect whether the SD card has a lock or not. If a lock is available, then move the lock to the opposite direction to unlock the write protection feature.

Step 2: Scan SD Card Using Antivirus Or USB Write Protect Feature

In most of the cases, viruses, Trojans, or other mischievous programs enter your PC or device and corrupt the memory card. Thus, you need to scan the SD card with antivirus for removing the malicious program if any.

To scan the SD card, you first need to install an antivirus and run it on your PC. The security software scans the SD card and detects if it contains any harmful files. Then, let the software remove the malicious programs from the infected files, if any.

After the process is completed, try to copy files to the SD card or format the existing files. You won’t face an error if the problem has been solved by this method.

Method 2: Remove Write Protect Feature in Flash Drive on a Windows PC

You will need to enter the system registry in order to find out the glitches in it. So, open the Registry Editor and fix the issue by the following steps:

Go to the Start menu, type ‘regedit’ into the search box and press ‘Enter.’
As the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the ‘KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/StorageDevicePoliciesÂ’ path.
Search for the ‘Write Protection’ option and double-click on it.
Then, set the ‘Value Data’ to ‘0’ and click the ‘Apply’ button to save the changes.
Now, see whether you can copy files or format the files present on the SD card.

Method 3: Open Diskpart Utility for Removing the SD Card Write Protected Feature

Click the Start menu, type ‘cmd’ in it and press ‘Enter’ to open the Command Prompt.
Select Command Prompt (Admin) and type ‘diskpart’ in the command line.
Hit the ‘Enter’ key to open the Diskpart and enter ‘list disk’ in it.
Then, type ‘select disk 1’ in the Diskpart Utility and press ‘Enter.’
Select your SD card and type ‘attributes disk clear read-only’ inside the Diskpart Utility.
After that, type ‘exit’ in the Diskpart utility and press ‘Enter’ to close this program.
Now, close the Command Prompt window as well.
Finally, right-click on the SD card and choose the ‘Format’ option to format the files on your SD card.

If you fail to format the SD card, then proceed to the next method. SD Card Write Protected

Method 4: Remove the Physical Write Protection

At the first step, place the SD card on a flat surface and locate its lock switch. Those who are using micro or mini SD card can insert it into the card adaptor with its label in the upward direction. Try to locate the lock switch on the upper left side of the SD card.

It is a small white or silver tab that stretches from the left side of the SD card. Slide the toggle of the lock switch towards the bottom of the SD card. It disables the write protection feature of the SD card so that you can add files and data to the SD card.

Method 5: Remove the Digital Write Protection on Windows

Make sure that you have administrator access before applying this method. Otherwise, you won’t be able to open the Disk Partition tool and turn off the SD card write protected feature. Now insert the SD card into your PC so that the SD card reader can read it.

If your PC lacks an SD card reader, then use a USB or SD card adaptor. In that case, follow these given steps to solve the SD card write protected issue.

Right-click on the Start menu and open Command Prompt.
If you cannot find the Command Prompt, then open it from the Windows search bar.
Select Command Prompt (Admin) to continue with this method.
Type ‘Disk Partition’ in the Command Prompt and press ‘Enter’ on the keyboard.
Click ‘Yes’ on the resulting popup to confirm the action.
The Disk Partition window appears along with the list of disks installed on your PC.
Type ‘list disk’ on the Disk Partition windows and press ‘Enter’ again.
As prompted, provide your SD card number and click the ‘OK’ button.
If you don’t know your SD card number, then navigate to the ‘Size’ column at the right of the ‘Disk’ menu and note down the number of megabytes or gigabytes. This gigabytes or megabytes resembles the number of your SD card.
If the storage size for Disk 3 resembles the remaining space on the SD card, then 3 is the SD card number.
Don’t forget that Disk 0 i.e., the top disk is the built-in hard drive of your PC.
Go to the ‘Number’ filed which contain the SD card number.
Then type in ‘select disk number’ in that filed and press ‘Enter’ to allow Disk Partition to apply the next command.
Check the disk number in the list of computer’s disk and enter that one only.
Type ‘attributes disk clear read only’ on the Disk Partition window and press ‘Enter’ to clear the ‘raed only’ attribute.
You will receive a confirmation message when the disk attributes have been cleared successfully.
Now, try to copy, format or delete files as the SD card is no longer write protected.

Method 6: Remove SD Card Write Protection on Mac

Place the underlying SD card into the SD card adapter and then plug the adapter to one of the USB port of Mac. Older models of Mac contains an SD card slot on its right side.
Click on a file and select ‘Get Info’ to verify whether it is a read-only file or not. If it is a read-only file, then it may lock down the entire SD card until you switch the file to ‘Read and Write’ mode.
Also, check the sharing permission for every file in order to continue.
If the file reads a ‘read-only’ status, then change it to the ‘Read and Write’ status.
Press Windows key and ‘S’ at the same time to make the search bar visible.
Now, search for Disk Utility and double-click Disk Utility from the search results to open it.
Select the name of the SD card your device is using on the Disk Utility window.
Select the ‘First Aid’ tab from the navigation pane of the Disk Utility window to run this built-in tool.
Follow the on-screen wizards to allow the First Aid to scan the SD card.
If this tool finds that an error is locking the SD card, then it deals with it automatically.

Hope, this article has offered enough guidance on how to disable SD card write protected feature. We have tested these solutions before mentioning them in this article. Thus, you are going to find them useful in your case.

For further assistance, we always welcome you to leave feedback in the comment section below. If you feel that the article is useful, then mention the same as well in the comment section.