That 1 TB card for $14? Check it.
Fake cards report far more space than they have and quietly lose whatever goes past it. Quick Check finds out in about a minute, without erasing what's on the card. It tests USB drives and SSDs too.
Shown testing one of Check's built-in simulated fake cards.
A fake card works perfectly until it fills past its real size. After that, new photos still appear on the card but are really lost, and some fakes write over earlier photos instead. There's no error either way. You usually find out when you get home. A one-minute check on day one avoids that.
Four tests
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Quick Check
Is the capacity real? Writes small test blocks across the card or drive, reads them back, then puts your data back. About a minute.
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Health Scan
Reads every block to find unreadable or slow areas. Read-only, so it's safe with photos on the card.
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Full Test
Tests every block for true capacity, bad areas and the speed it really sustains: an SD speed class for cards, MB/s for drives. Erases the card or drive, after you type a confirmation.
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Wipe
After you type a confirmation, erases everything, then runs Recover's scanner over the card to prove no file can be brought back, and gives you a certificate.
What you get
A plain verdict
Genuine, fake or failing, with what to do next. No charts you have to interpret.
A report to send the seller
Save the result as a PDF. Useful evidence for a refund on a fake card.
Real speed, not the label's
Full Test measures the speed a card or drive holds up from start to finish. Cards get an SD speed class.
Proof of erasure
Wipe's certificate shows the card was overwritten and that recovery found nothing.
Format for your camera
Puts a card back into the format cameras expect after Check is done with it, once you type a confirmation.
Cards and drives
SD SDHC SDXC microSD CF CFexpress USB drives SSDs
Questions
Does Quick Check erase my card?
No. It saves what's in each small spot it tests, writes a test pattern, reads it back, and puts the original data back. Keep the card inserted until it finishes. If you'd rather not write to the card at all, Health Scan only reads.
How can a card lie about its size?
Counterfeit cards have their controller reprogrammed to report a bigger capacity than the memory inside. Most throw away anything written beyond the real size, while the card's file list, which sits in the real memory, still updates: the files look fine but read back as zeros or junk. Some instead wrap around and overwrite the start of the card. Quick Check writes markers across the whole claimed range and checks which ones come back, so it catches both kinds.
Does it work on USB drives and SSDs?
Yes. Fake-capacity USB sticks and "portable SSDs" are common, and Quick Check catches them the same way it catches fake cards. Drives get their real sustained write speed instead of an SD speed class.
Why is Check free?
Because everyone with a camera should test new cards, and we'd rather you met Shutterkit when nothing has gone wrong yet. Wipe is free too.
Can Check damage a card?
Full Test, Wipe and Format erase the card, and each one asks you to type a confirmation first, with an option to back the card up before it starts. Check won't write to your Mac's internal drives, a disk holding macOS or a disk image. Quick Check runs on drives that claim up to 64 TB, which catches the common fake "16 TB" drives. Erasing is limited to 4 TB, except for a drive Quick Check has just shown to be fake. Right before writing, it re-checks that the disk is still the card you picked.
My card failed. What now?
Copy anything you still need off it straight away. If files are already missing, Shutterkit Recover can often bring them back. Then stop using the card for anything important.
Test your cards before the next shoot.
Check is free, Wipe included.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Apple silicon and Intel.