External hard drive wont show up on mac

This is usually a problem with drivers or hardware. If the drive shows up here, but not in Windows Explorer, you might have to assign a drive letter to the disk. Normally, Windows does this automatically, but sometimes because of other connected devices, your external hard drive will be recognized, but not have any drive letter assigned to it.

Pick a letter for your drive and you should be good to go. On Macs, the drive should automatically appear on the desktop. If not, go to Disk Utility and check to see if it appears under the heading External.

If the drive is showing here, but not on the OS X desktop, then click First Aid to try and repair the drive. If the drive is not showing up in Disk Management or Disk Utility at all, you have some other type of problem.

Scroll down to the Not Showing Up section below. You can get Windows to do it, but you have to purchase third-party software. The only other option is to format the hard drive and use the FAT32 format for the best compatibility. If you see this message, it just means that Windows does not recognize the file system on the drive.

Make sure you connect the drive to the appropriate operating system and backup any data that you might need before performing a format. The legacy format that is most compatible is FAT32, but it limits you to only 4 GB for max file size. You can read my previous post on how to format an external hard drive using FAT Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too.

How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac

Why an external disk drive is not showing up? Try connecting the same device with a different cable. It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. Sometimes, if a disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue.

Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Not every drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices.

See if the external drive shows up here. For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices.

First Things First

To do this, shut down or restart your Mac, switch it back on and immediately press these four keys together for at least 20 seconds: Option, Command, P, and R. Your Mac not recognizing an external hard drive can be cause for panic. Fortunately, there are ways and means of getting the hard drive back up and running. One of the most common reasons for Mac not recognizing external hard drives is due to the system not being set up to display hard drives on the desktop.

Connect your hard drive and follow these instructions:. If First Aid is successful in repairing any faults, your hard drive should be available to mount.

How recent is the problem? If a flash drive not showing up on Mac was completely fine a few days earlier there could be an app causing conflict. You can delete apps using the Launchpad or by dragging them to the Trash, but neither method is recommended in this situation. You see, while an app might appear to be deleted, associated files will be left on your system — files that could be preventing access to your external hard drive.