How to Format an SD Card for Your Camera

After a while, the SD card in your camera may become filled with photos and videos, its file system may become corrupted, or the SD card may get infected with a virus. It's easy to fix these issues when you know how to format an SD card to remove the files and start with a fresh SD card for your camera.

How to Format a Camera SD Card

The most efficient way to format the camera SD card is with your camera. The camera’s formatting process minimizes the chance of errors.

1. Back up the files on the SD card to your computer or cloud storage service.

2. Make sure the camera battery is fully charged.

3. Turn off the camera and insert the SD card into the proper slot.

4. Turn on the camera.

5. On the camera, select Menu.

6. In the camera display, select the Setup menu and choose Format, Format Memory Card, or something similar.

7. On the camera, select OK.

8. Wait while the camera formats the SD card. It may take a few minutes to format the card.

9. When the SD card is formatted, turn off the camera.

How to Format the SD Card in Your Android

Many Android phones, tablets, and cameras have a microSD card. If the SD card shows signs of problems, format the SD card with your Android device.

1. Go to Settings > Device care.

2. Tap Storage.

3. Tap Advanced.

4. Under Portable storage, select your SD card.

5. Tap Format.

6. Tap Format SD card.

How to Reformat SD Card Using Windows

When you want to reformat an SD card to change the file system type, insert the SD card into your Windows computer and perform a high-level format.

1. Insert the SD card into the SD card slot on your PC or laptop.

2. Open Windows File Explorer.

3. In the Folder pane, select This PC.

   In older versions of Windows, select My Computer.

4. Select the SD card.

5. Select Manage.

6. Select Format.

7. In the Format SD Card dialog box, select the File System dropdown arrow and choose FAT32.

8. Either select the Quick Format checkbox if you’ve formatted the SD card before, or clear the Quick Format checkbox to format the SD Card for the first time.

9. Select Start.

10. In the Warning dialog box, select OK.

11. Select OK.

How to Format an SD Card on Mac

1. Insert the SD card into the SD card slot.

2. Open Finder.

3. Click Go and choose Utilities.

4. Double-click Disk Utility.

5. Select the SD card.

6. Click the Erase tab.

7. Click the Format dropdown arrow and choose ExFat to format the SD Card so it works on Windows and Mac.

8. In the Erase dialog box, click Erase.

When to Format and When to Reformat

In everyday terms, format and reformat mean the same things. The difference is "format" refers to the first time an SD card is formatted, while "reformat" refers to the subsequent times the SD card is formatted.

In technology terms, format and reformat have slightly different meanings.

SD cards, like all types of removable disks and other media, need to be formatted before they'll work as a form of storage. This formatting process creates a file system, or directory structure, to store files. When the SD card is formatted a second time, the formatting uses the same file system but deletes the files.

SD cards are reformatted to change the type of file system used by the card. For example, an SD card from a Windows PC needs to be reformatted to work on a Mac computer. 

Here’s when you should consider formatting or reformatting an SD card:

• If you take a lot of pictures and regularly delete or transfer these images to your computer, format the SD card once a month or so. Regular formatting keeps your SD card operating at peak performance and reduces the chance of your files becoming corrupted.
• If you encounter a problem or receive an error message when using the SD card, the SD card may have a corrupted file system or a computer virus. Format the SD card to restore it to its original state.
• If you want to give the SD card to someone else, format it twice and be sure your files cannot be recovered. Format the SD card, fill it with public domain images, and format it again. Or reformat the SD card if the other person uses a different operating system.