Macbook Pro Not Recognizing External Hard Drive

Mac or MacBook Doesn't recognize External Drives. Troubleshooting tips

Macs like most other computers are well working hardware which includes all the newest technologies, unfortunately sometimes hardware and software miscommunicate and causes issues in proper work. There is a lot of cases when you can fix their communication by your own just following some easy tips. For example external drives are widely used invention which nowadays helps a lot of people save money while trying to expand their drives or data storage without a high-priced upgrades. Also it helps to share large size files in a much easier way. Unfortunately in some cases Macs encounter problems while trying to detect some recently plugged in devices. You may face this issue any time you try to connect your external device, even if it worked well several times before.

If your Mac cannot recognize an external hard drive, you can try the below solution: 1) Check the connection - Check if the hard drive is properly plugged in. You can try it by connecting it to different USB cable and port. 2) Check Western Digital hard drive in the Finder and Desktop. Follow the steps from the wizard to run the troubleshooter. Method 2: I would suggest you to update the drivers for the external drive from device manager and see if it shows in device manager. A) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard. B) Click on “Device Manager”. 1 Physical Connectivity Issues. 2 Insufficient Power. 3 Failure to Previously Eject a Drive. 4 Update Your Mac’s OS and Firmware. 5 Faulty System Configuration. Recovering Data From a Corrupted or Crashed Flash Drive. One of the most attractive features of USB drives is the convenience with which they can be used. If your Mac won’t recognize external hard drive after High Sierra update, the possible reason is that your drivers for external hard drive are not up to date. You can visit the related website to download and install the latest drivers for your drive.

There are plenty of reasons why this may happen. Probably the most frequent is that we disconnect them straight from the port without ejecting in our operating system first, this results in our drives being still in the run mode while they are out of use. Also the connector or wires might be broken, frayed or worn. Sometimes it's a power or connection problems, sometimes errors in the system preferences. There are cases, when you had well working plugged in device, but once your computer went to sleep with connected external drive, after waking up drive is no longer available. Here we describe the most popular issues and tips how to solve them. Before we start the troubleshooting work, first try to reconnect you external device several times, quite often it helps to solve this problem.

Table of Contents:

It is recommended to run a free scan with Malwarebytes - a tool to detect malware and fix computer errors. You will need to purchase the full version to remove infections and eliminate computer errors. Free trial available.

Connections rules

Its really quick and convenient just to plug in and out your devices, usually this task for your mac is to easy, but there are cases when it couldn't recognize your device or drive. Even manufacturers declare it is an plug-and-play. However this work most cases but not all. The best way is to follow recommendations how to connect devices to Mac.

The most reliable path to connect external drives is following these steps.

• Turn on your mac device
• Connect usb cable into computer then to device
• Turn on your external drive.

The super slow plug in

A lot of people declares that their usb flash drives works only when they connect them to computer very slow. If they try plug it in a usual way devices can't detect the drives. Only a slow connections allows to detect them and this case appears in any manufacturer computer, doesn't matter its an apple or windows operating system.

Eject in a safe way

As it was mentioned wrong unplugging could be a reason for your issue with external drive. Your friend might tell that he never ejects his drive, but there always are a chance that this time will be lucky one and after unplugging your drive will be no more detectable. Always perform a safe remove, which you can do in a very easy way. Just right click on your external drive and select Eject device or if u prefer you can just drag your device to Trash which is going to replace to eject symbol while you drag on. This will turn down your device from any tasks and will ensure that it will be available next time you connect it.

If you can put it on it doesn't matter it fits

Just like in most cases, this rule is valid there. If your connection is dirty or loose it may cause a problems to detect and mount your drive. For that reason you should ensure is your hub clean and connection is tight. Check your cable's condition, if it's damaged, frayed or worn may also be a problem while your mac trying to detect or mount your device. Also these reason may cause an disconnection issues. What is more additional hubs can help you to connect but also there is a possibility it cause an connection issue, so you should try connect directly without any additional hubs.

Power issues

Some cases when you face and issue with your external drive, is caused by lacking of power. Some devices often have their own power source, and while receiving enough power they mounts on its own. If your external drive doesn't have own power supply try plug it in a different usb port if it still not working try use and self-powered USB hub. Quite often case when macs doesn't provide enough power into built-in USB hubs, so additional self-powered hubs helps to solve this issue. Alternatively you can try plug in your power cable into computer and reconnect your drive.

Check your settings

If none of those check works mentioned above could help, begin a bit more complicated solutions. Before starting a troubleshooting steps, check the base mac system preferences. Open your Finder then locate for Preferences. Under both General and Sidebar tabs search for the section Show these item on the desktop (or sidebar). Ensure that External Disks and Hard Drives have a check mark in the box. If you found them disabled, click on the white box to enable icons on desktop.

Run Disk Utility

Launch Disk Utility and look up if your external drive is visible here. To open up your Disk Utility go to Applications then open Utilities and there look for Disk Utility. If your drive appears here but shows its not mounted, select the mount option in top-middle, which should mount that drive. To ensure click on the Apple logo in your screen's top left corner and select About This Mac. Inside select the Storage tab and search for your drive. If you can't find it there, come back to Disk Utility and select your external drive from sidebar. Then click on First Aid or verify(repair) disk. This option should find and solve your drives issues.

Check your external drive format

If disk utility tools couldn't solve your problems you should check format of your drive. Ensure that it isn't listed as NTFS format, otherwise perform a reformat using the erase function in Disk Utility, the new format you should choose is exFAT, Fat or Mac OS Extended.

Use terminal to solve your issue

First you should check if you mac detects your drive is plugged in. To do this open About this Mac and storage tab. For more detailed information choose System Report in Overview tab. In sidebar select USB from hardware section. There you will find all devices connected via usb which your mac detects. If you found your external drive connected in system report but you can't reach it, try disconnect it and remount using Terminal. To open terminal in applications window select Utilities then Terminal. Write down command diskutil list in the terminal. Terminal should display you basic information about all available drives and volumes connected to your mac. In the list search for section labeled /dev/disk_ (external/physical). The disk_ part is the physical disk identifier in a operating system, and the underscore is a number or digit assigned to this drive. Write down whole line including the number or digits which goes after word disk. If your drive has several partitions an letter s follows the disk identifier. The number after letter s is a count of the partition.

Once you got your external drive name in terminal you can use another command diskutil info disk_, ensure you entered your drive symbol instead of underscore. This command opens up detailed information about the drive, including its manufacturer name, its size and is it removable, and more facts.
Furthermore you're sure your disk is viable in system, use Terminal to eject it by using command diskutil eject disk_. Don't forget to replace underscore with your disk identifier symbol. After executing ejection command, check is it really removed by typing diskutil list command again. When you're sure your drive is ejected, disconnect it physically from your computer. This should fix your issues.

Reset NVRAM

NVRAM (non-volatile random-access memory) is small part of your Macs memory that stores certain settings in a location where macOS can access. In this memory is stored information like your computer’s speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and any recent kernel panic reports. To reset the NVRAM shutdown your Mac. Turn it on and after loading chime hold down together Option, Command, P and R buttons. Keep holding this combination at least 20 seconds. This should make a view like your computer is restarting and if you hear start up chime again release the buttons.

Does your MacBook shuts down when you plug in your external drive?

You might face this issue when your drive draws too much power from an usb port. Your Mac's SMC shuts down the computer to protect itself. If it happens frequently, try connect your external drive to its own power source if its supplied. In case it's impossible for drives like thumb drives, connect it to another usb port or change the cable you're using. If none of those options available, try reset your Macs SMC.

Resetting SMC

If the battery is integrated:

Shut down your mac and unplug the power adapter. Hold down Shift, Control and Option buttons together with power button for 10 seconds. Then release all buttons and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.

If the battery is removable:

Shut down your mac, unplug power adapter and remove battery. Press and hold power button for 5 seconds. Replace the battery and and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.

Inspect your external drive via Console

In times of trouble, Console might be really useful app which displays list of log and error information that helps you or the service provider to troubleshoot problems of your Mac. However Console can't fix your issues, but information displayed in it might help find a solution. Let's check your what's going when you plug in your device via Console. First open up a Console, which can be done by accessing Applications then selecting Utilities and finally a Console. In opened window select Error and Faults tab. Then connect your external device and look for a changes in console. If it detects your device or if displays an error about it. In case no changes in console appear the problem is not your usb device.

Video Showing how to troubleshoot external HDD detection problems:

Get a data lifeguard for Mac

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 hard drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. 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 a USB flash drive isn’t making an appearance.

Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac

Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac

Start with the basics:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a USB 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.
5. Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every external 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.
6. 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. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices. You should be able to access your drive that way, and, in the Finder menu under Preferences > General, you can check External Drives to ensure that from now on it shows up on your desktop too.
7. Reset NVRAM. 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. It should look as though your Mac has started again; if it has, release the keys when you hear the second startup chime. Hopefully, the hard drive has shown up now.
8. Check Apple’s Disk Utility to see if an external drive is showing up. Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu.

Macbook Hard Drive Replacement

Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn’t visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.

How to show connected devices in Finder

1. Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma).
2. From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop.

In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.

How to add cloud storages to Finder

You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.

Repair the failed external drives with First Aid

If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.

To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:

1. Open Disk Utility. You can searching for it using Spotlight Search or via Finder > Application > Utility
2. Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics.

If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive.

How to recover data from a crashed drive

Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.

Get a file recovery app

With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.

An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive

Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:

1. Connect your drive to the Mac.
2. Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. iPhoto, Words)
3. Launch Disk Drill.
4. Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. If, however, you still don’t see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs.
5. To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click Extras next to the drive or drive partition or file, then select Remount Volume As Read Only. A padlock will appear, protecting the drive during the process.
6. Now click Rebuild (or Recover) next to the file(s) you are trying to recover. Once the scan is finished - it may take some time if the files are large - a list of files will appeal.
7. Next, click Mount Found Items as Disk button on the bottom-left below the scan results.
8. Disk Drill “strongly suggest saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.”
9. A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac.
10. Open the files to ensure they have been recovered properly and safely eject the external drive.

Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren’t complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.

A few more tips on getting your files back

Internal Hard Drive For Macbook

1. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as Disk Drill and iStat Menus come with a S.M.A.R.T. (also known as Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status monitor. If a SMART check reports errors, then it could mean the hard drive is at risk of failing completely. Within Disk Utility and Disk Drill, there are several solutions for this: Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. If neither work, it’s recommended that you backup all of the data from the disk, erase, then run a SMART check again. The external hard drive should show up as Verified.
2. Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information.
3. Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with.
4. CleanMyMac, another useful app available from Setapp, can help you identify external hard drive errors and repair them. It is an essential tool worth trying when you’re having external hard drive difficulties.

Try all these apps for free

Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!

Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove:

• Shut down and unplug the power adapter
• Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. Do this for 10 seconds
• Release all keys
• Plug the power adapter back in and switch your Mac back on

For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.

What’s your file format? One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you’re having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.

How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac

The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.

If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don’t have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.

Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE:

1. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module.
2. Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility’s debug menu and see all partitions: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
3. Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility.
4. In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point.
5. Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
6. For write support, use the command: fuse-ext2 -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint

And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.

Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.

• Once in the Terminal, type in the command diskutil list
• A list with information about volumes and drives should appear
• Look for a section labelled /dev/disk_ (external, physical)
• Make a note of the whole line after the word disk
• Now put the following command into the Terminal diskutil info disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it
• Eject using the Terminal by entering the command diskutil eject disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Physically remove the disk from you Mac
• Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it

Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.

To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

Sign Up

Macbook Pro Not Recognizing External Hard Drive

Mac Not Recognizing External Drive

Macbook Pro Not Recognizing External Hard Drive