Help with reading an external memory stick

[4purplepawz]

Hi all, a few years ago I made the best decision to move to Mac. I absolutely love my Macbook and have had far less issues than I used to have with a PC.
I am trying to convince my husband to move over to this side, however I am stuck with showing him how awesome they are as the Macbook won't read his action camera.
I have plugged it in my macbook and it is greyed out, so I try to mount it, no luck. I formatted it and it showed. When we went to record on the camera it said it didn't support that type and had to format it before use. It did that, and now I'm back to square one where I can't read it.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this going?
Thanks

 

[ferrarr]

Need more specifics regarding camera model? What format does the camera require?

 

[4purplepawz]

Hi, it is a ThiEYE i60+ and without formatting it again, I can't remember what format it requires. I have taken a screenshot if it helps.

 

[chscag]

It appears the camera was formatted as FAT-16. Probably should be formatted to FAT-32 but without knowing what format the camera requires, it's hard to determine.

 

[ferrarr]

The camera manufacturer certainly doesn't offer much support?

ThiEYE Supports

Your screenshot, shows the card/disk is formatted as MS-DOS (FAT16), so the Mac (as far as I know) should be able to read from & write to the card/disk. Are you plugging the card/disk into the card reader slot, or are you plugging the camera into your MB?

 

[4purplepawz]

The camera manufacturer certainly doesn't offer much support?

ThiEYE Supports

Your screenshot, shows the card/disk is formatted as MS-DOS (FAT16), so the Mac (as far as I know) should be able to read from & write to the card/disk. Are you plugging the card/disk into the card reader slot, or are you plugging the camera into your MB?

Hi, I’m plugging the camera in via USB, my MacBook only has USB-C.
I also have a MacBook with a card reader and that doesn’t work either.

 

[chscag]

It's probably because your camera uses a proprietary format. Neither FAT-16 nor FAT-32 is likely going to work. Most modern cameras support a FAT-32 format but FAT-16 will also work for smaller memories. The internal memory for your camera probably has to be formatted by the camera itself otherwise it probably won't work to store photos. And, the camera format is not compatible with macOS.

I had the same problem with some older Sony Flip phones. They were only recognized by Windows and not macOS. Sony did have some special software for some of their older model phones that worked for the Mac.

 

[4purplepawz]

It's probably because your camera uses a proprietary format. Neither FAT-16 nor FAT-32 is likely going to work. Most modern cameras support a FAT-32 format but FAT-16 will also work for smaller memories. The internal memory for your camera probably has to be formatted by the camera itself otherwise it probably won't work to store photos. And, the camera format is not compatible with macOS.

I had the same problem with some older Sony Flip phones. They were only recognized by Windows and not macOS. Sony did have some special software for some of their older model phones that worked for the Mac.

Thank you do you know if there is a way to get our MacBooks to read it?

 

[chscag]

Thank you do you know if there is a way to get our MacBooks to read it?

Only if "ThiEYE" issues special software for the Mac to read it. As I mentioned above, I had the same problem with older Sony Flip phones. The only way my Mac would recognize it was special software downloaded from Sony. I suggest contacting the ThiEYE support and ask them if there is a way the camera can be read on your Mac.

 

[krs]

Two possibilities worth trying I think, not that I know anything about this camera, but checking a bit on the net.

1. If you have an iphone, download the app ... ThiEYE on the App Store
Then it seems one can download the video to the iphone (via WiFi maybe?) and then from the iphone to the Mac

or

2. If Windows detects the video on the memory stick, psrtition a section of the MacBook hard drive to install Windows and read the memory that way.

 

[MacInWin]

Or use a product like Parallels or Virtual Box to run Windows on the Mac without having to reboot.

 

[MacInWin]

You didn't say which Mac you have, but you mentioned USB-C. Can you give us more information on that? Do you have any accessories for card reading for USB-C? If so, the card in the camera is a microSD, which can be put in a carrier to fit into a standard SD card slot just fine. You might be able to mount the card instead of the camera.

 

[4purplepawz]

Two possibilities worth trying I think, not that I know anything about this camera, but checking a bit on the net.

1. If you have an iphone, download the app ... ThiEYE on the App Store
Then it seems one can download the video to the iphone (via WiFi maybe?) and then from the iphone to the Mac

or

2. If Windows detects the video on the memory stick, psrtition a section of the MacBook hard drive to install Windows and read the memory that way.

Haha your option 2 sounds way too complicated for me haha, but thanks heaps, I'll try the 1st option.

 

[4purplepawz]

You didn't say which Mac you have, but you mentioned USB-C. Can you give us more information on that? Do you have any accessories for card reading for USB-C? If so, the card in the camera is a microSD, which can be put in a carrier to fit into a standard SD card slot just fine. You might be able to mount the card instead of the camera.

We have 2 macbook pros and a macbook air, none of them can read the camera plugged in. The USB-C is on the newest macbook pro, which has 3 USB-C slots only. I have the adaptor for usb but no card reader.

 

[krs]

I have an older Minolta X50 camera which also uses a proprietary format, but the Mac can read that when I plug the camera SD card into the Mac - either using the SD card slot if the Mac has one or an SD to USB adapter.
One thing up front - you need to format the card in your camera; formatting it in the Mac won't let it work in the camera.
That's the case for my camera and it would be the same for yours

I see from your screen shot that the Mac at least recognizes the card.
It also looks as if the "mount" option at the top right in Disk Utility is available, ie not greyed out.
Did you try mounting it that way since the card won't mount when you plug it in.

 

[chscag]

Note that she said the camera could be "seen" when the card was formatted to FAT, but then it was not recognized by the camera. Indicating that the camera uses a proprietary format for the card which means that even a SD card reader may be of no use.

 

[krs]

It depends what the screen shot in post #3 is.
I assumed it was the screen shot of the camera SD card as formatted by the camera
I know it says MS-DOS (FAT16) in Disk Utility, but that is exactly what I get when I use Disk Utility when I check the SD disk on my Minolta which also uses a proprietary format and wont work with the SD formatted by the Mac.
In my case, the Mac "thinks" it's formatted in MS-DOS, Disk Utility actually says MS-DOS (FAT) and I can open the folder and the images and also copy all images to the Mac.
I thought the OP's situation might be similar.

If the screen shot however is that of the SD card formatted by the Mac in MS-DOS, that is sort of meaningless infiguring out how to read the card.

I should add that in all my years using a Mac, and this goes back to OS 6, I don't ever remember not being able to read an SD card of any format (unless it was corrupted of course)

 

[Rod]

I have one of these ThiEye devices and the method of getting the images onto the Mac is a simple one. ThiEYE App
There is also an app for the Mac Book Pro from the App Store called "The Action Camera Toolbox" which can be used for a host of action cameras. Action Camera Toolbox on the Mac App Store
This You tube clip shows the model I have and how to connect to it via WiFi YouTube