Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac’s treat them the same way as another computer. However, sometimes, an external drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then.
Step 2 If the external drive is not there, make sure that USB cable is properly plugged in the external hard drive and the port. Step 3 Sometimes, the drive is connected but not mounted. To mount a drive, open Disk Utility and look for the drive in the list.
And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all. Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too.
Let’s take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents. How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why an external hard or flash drive isn’t making an appearance. Start with the basics: • Check whether the drive is properly plugged in. It sounds obvious, but since this relies on a wire - either a USB cable or HDMI cable - if it’s not connected properly then it won’t appear on your desktop. • Faulty cable.
Assuming it’s plugged in correctly, not wobbly or loose, the cable could be at fault. Try connecting the same device with a different cable. • Damaged USB or flash drive port.
It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. If you’ve got another port, try connecting the device to that one. • Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue.
Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS’s memory and starts it up fresh. • Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices.
If you’ve got a PC or laptop, it’s worth connecting and seeing if you can access the files through another device. The best way to look for an incorrectly formatted drive is to go to Apple (in the top toolbar menu) > About This Mac > Storage. See if the external drive shows up here.
For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report. • Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn’t showing its icon on the desktop screen.