EOS Rebel T7, "no images" on screen error

[SraPerez43]

I have been working all day on my Rebel T7, trying to figure out why my camera says "no images". Purchased 8 mths ago, I have tried EVERYTHING. I transferred images to my Mac from an old SD card, clicked "delete after import". I did not realise it deleted off my card as well (Its fine they saved to my Mac). Next, I put an SD card that I've used since 5/2025-current day & now that one won't show any pics on my Canon camera. It was fine until today. I then tried to export pics BACK onto both of those cards to test them (the old and current card), inserted in my camera & neither will show pics on my camera as before! I have researched & even used tips from Canon Chat. I decided to buy a new SDXC today (reg. size, video, 10# 64gb). I formatted in my Mac & Canon. Yes, I am able take NEW pictures on the 2 old SD's and the newly purchased just fine. Yes, I am able to download them to my Mac (NOT clicking "delete after..."). I am also able to EXPORT from Mac to SD on ANY of the 3 SD cards, yet NONE of the photos will show on my Canon Camera AFTER I export back into the card...I have exported to the exact files DCIM & 100 Canon, I have formatted 2 of the 3, I have checked my settings, and finally cleared settings and it STILL will not show photos that are NOT edited that I took this very moment and downloaded to my Mac & back onto my SD. PLEASE help I know it's confusing but I have NO idea what happened from yesterday to today. 

[March411]

@SraPerez43 I believe this may resolve the challenge for any images that have not been modified in any way.

Next time you shoot add an image or two into your sub-folder under the DCIM directory on the SD Card. It has to be the file folder with images in it, in the example above the 100CANON sub-folder. Check if you can see them in camera please.

[kvbarkley]

This could also be an obscure Mac thing. Macs put hidden files that start with "." when it writes to a disk. These "dot files" contain meta data (like the file icon and where to put it on the screen). There are ways to see these - plugging into a PC is probably the easiest - but you might just want to run dot-clean to remove them:

https://ss64.com/mac/dot_clean.html

[ebiggs1]

"I have had cases where a camera has not allowed copying files from a computer to the in-camera SD card."

Almost a solid fact, it was not the camera stopping you.

[ebiggs1]

"...  pics back on an SD card to free up space on my Mac."

Understand completely. but I might suggest you get some thumb sticks instead of SD for photo storage. When I was in full wedding photographer mode I delivered the photos ot my clients on thumb sticks. The big advantage is they are useable almost anywhere since most all computers had a USB slot but a lot don't have SD slots.

BTW, not necessarily subject matter but It was a big hurdle for me since in the beginning to switch to DVD and later to thumbsticks because I made beautiful wedding albums for the couple. Oh, well, things change.

[shadowsports]

@SraPerez43,

You're getting advice from some extremely knowledgeable folks.  Key takeaway... copying files back and forth to an SD card is not recommended.  It becomes even more complex if you are using subfolders. I'm not saying it can't be done but you may experience unexpected behavior if done improperly.  The storage media in your camera should not be used as a repository for long-term storage.  Use your phone for that. It's backed up to the cloud and also gives you the ability to share and post photos easily.  

[Waddizzle]

"Copying files back onto a camera is not advisable under any circumstance. Cameras don't like that.“

Correct. It doesn’t work. Stop trying.

Is the card still in the camera when you try to write files to it? That doesn’t work, either.

The advice to stick to only using SDHC cards, 32 GB or smaller, is sound advice. Some camera models just don’t work well with the higher capacity SDXC cards.