The problem of a nonconducting sphere moving slowly through a current‐carrying, incompressible, viscous fluid is re‐examined by taking fluid inertia into consideration. Stokes and Oseen expansions appropriate for flow near and far from the sphere are constructed and matched properly. The result shows that a standing eddy first appears behind the sphere at a Reynolds number Re = 24(3+4Rh)−1,Rhbeing the magnetic pressure number. The effect of current is to hasten flow separation and to enlarge the reverse‐flow region. The drag of the sphere is found to be 1 + Re (3 +Rh)/8 times the Stokes value.