How to copy photos from an SD card to a Mac without the Photos app

An SD card shows up in Finder like any other drive, so you can open it, go into its DCIM folder, and drag the photos to a folder on your Mac. Because the card is a separate drive, that drag copies rather than moves, and the card stays untouched. Image Capture, which comes with every Mac, does the same job with thumbnails and a choice of destination, and either way you can stop Photos from opening each time you insert the card.

Finding the photos on the card

Insert the card into the Mac’s SD slot or a card reader. It appears in the Finder sidebar under Locations, usually with a name the camera gave it. If Finder is set to show external disks on the desktop, an icon appears there too.

Open the card and you will find a folder called DCIM. Inside it are one or more numbered folders, often starting at 100, and inside those are the photos. Depending on the camera you will see:

• JPEG or HEIF files, the everyday pictures.
• Raw files, if the camera is set to shoot raw. They share a number with the matching JPEG but have a different extension chosen by the camera maker.
• Video files, either in the same numbered folders or in a separate folder at the top level of the card.

If the card does not appear at all, open Finder > Settings > Sidebar and make sure External disks is checked. Then open Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities: if the card is listed there but grayed out, select it and click Mount. The lock switch on the side of a full-size SD card only blocks writing, so a locked card can still be copied from.

Method one: copy with Finder

1. Make a folder on the Mac for this batch. In Pictures, press Shift-Command-N and give it a name you will recognize later, such as 2026-09-30 Coast walk.
2. Open the numbered folder on the card, and press Command-A to select everything, or pick just the files you want.
3. Drag the selection onto your new folder. A green plus sign on the pointer confirms it is a copy.
4. Wait for the progress indicator to finish before you do anything else with the card.

Holding Command while you drag between drives turns the copy into a move, which deletes the files from the card as they arrive. It is better not to. Copy first, check the copies, and clear the card later. Copy, move, or alias when you drag a file on a Mac explains the badges and modifier keys.

To check the copy, choose View > Show Status Bar in both windows. Select all in each and compare the item counts at the bottom. If they match, you have everything.

Method two: use Image Capture

Image Capture is in the Applications folder. It shows thumbnails straight from the card, which makes picking a few photos easier than reading file names.

1. Open Image Capture with the card inserted.
2. Select the card under Devices in the sidebar. Its photos appear as a list or grid.
3. Use the Import To menu at the bottom of the window to choose a destination folder.
4. Click Import All, or select some thumbnails and click Import.

Depending on the device, you may also see a Delete after import option. Many photographers leave it off, check the copies on the Mac, and then format the card in the camera, which is the cleanest way to empty it.

Stop Photos opening every time you insert the card

If Photos jumps up the moment a card goes in, you can switch that off for the card’s device.

• In Photos: on the import screen for the card, uncheck Open Photos for this device.
• In Image Capture: with the card selected, look in the lower-left of the window for the setting that controls what opens when this device connects, and choose No application.

The setting follows the device, so if you use several cards or readers, you may need to do it once for each.

Ejecting the card properly

Before you pull the card out, eject it. Click the eject button next to its name in the Finder sidebar, Control-click its icon and choose Eject, or drag its icon to the Trash, which turns into an eject symbol while you drag. Wait until the card disappears from the sidebar.

If macOS says the card could not be ejected because it is in use, close any Image Capture or Preview windows showing its photos and try again. Pulling a card out without ejecting can leave half-written files, and macOS will warn that the disk was not ejected properly. The same care applies to any removable drive; how to copy files to a USB drive on a Mac covers the other direction.

Sorting the keepers once they are on the Mac

Copying is the easy part. The next job is usually picking a handful of photos to send, edit or file, while the rest wait for later.

Ledge is a good fit for that pass. Work from the copy on your Mac, not the card. As you go through the folder, drag each keeper up to the notch at the top of the screen and let go; it lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there. When you have your selection, open the shelf with Option-Space or a click on the notch and send each photo where it belongs.

Dropped on a chat app, a photo uploads as a file. Dropped on an editing app, the app gets the image file itself. Dropped on a Finder folder such as Selects, the file itself moves into it, which is why it matters that you started from the Mac copy and left the card alone until the copies were checked. Ledge has no account and no cloud, so your photos stay on the Mac. If they are going into an album next, how to add photos from Finder to an album in Photos picks up from here.

Questions

Why is there more than one file for each photo?

The camera is probably saving both a raw file and a JPEG. Keep both if you edit raw files; otherwise the JPEGs alone are enough for sharing.

If I delete photos from the card on the Mac, is the space freed?

Not straight away. Files deleted from a removable drive go to a hidden Trash folder on that drive, and the space comes back only when you empty the Trash while the card is still connected. Formatting the card in the camera avoids this.

Is it safe to edit photos directly on the card?

It works, but it is risky. Cards get pulled out, lost and reformatted. Copy to the Mac first and edit the copies.