How To Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

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Generally, when you connect an external hard drive on your Mac, it shows up on the desktop. To make it easier for you to locate, the drive also shows up in Finder, under Devices. This is due to the fact that Apple treats them as a separate computer device. But if your external hard drive is not showing up on Mac, it might create a problem. Hence, we are here with the possible reasons and their solutions.

Read on to find out all about the external hard drive not showing up on Mac.

Why Is My Mac Not Reading Any External Hard Drive?

The foremost reason for the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac will be that maybe there is a loose connection. So make sure you recheck your connections, ports and USB cable and reconnect to try again.

Once you are done with the physical examination and do not find any discrepancy in it that will leave possible reason. This might be some corrupted data present on your Mac which is dismissing the external hard drive.

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What Do I Do If My External Hard Drive Is Not Detected On Mac?

As we have recognized the problem of an external hard drive not showing up on Mac, let’s find solutions to it. With the solutions listed below you can fix your issue.

1. Check cables: If your HDMI or USB cable of the external hard drive is not connected properly or is physically damaged this will result in not showing up on Mac. Therefore you need to check the cables and the connections properly when using external hard drive with a Mac.

2. Check Port: Just like the point above, port needs to be checked as well to make a connection. This could be a hardware issue and a potential damage will result in Mac not recognizing external hard drive.

3. Reboot Mac: Sometimes an application running on the system can cause hindrance in the opening of external hard drive. Therefore, you must try to reboot your device and try again. This resolves the issue for many as you can connect the external hard drive before running other programs.

4. Incorrectly formatted drive: Check whether the external hard drive is meant to be connected on Mac or not. To do so, go to the top toolbar and open Apple on the desktop and select About this Mac and go to Storage. Here you can get information on what kind of USB hard drives are supported with your Mac.

5. Reset NVRAM: Non-volatile Random-Access Memory is a type of RAM which works after the power is turned off. Thus making it a way to make the external hard drive appear on your Mac. To use this connect your external hard drive and then follow the method. Restart your Mac and immediately press Option, Command, P and R key for 20 seconds. This gives Mac a command as if it has started again and thus it will allow the external hard drive to appear on Mac.

6. Open Disk Utility: It is possible for an external hard drive not showing up on Mac on the desktop. Go to System Preferences and check disk utility and then you can look for the external hard drive in here. In other methods, you can also use the Spotlight to find the external hard drive which might be showing here but not on desktop.

7. Check Finder Preferences: It is possible that you might have changed the settings on your Mac and that is the reason for external hard drive not showing up on Mac. Open Finder from the Dock click on Preferences, here you can check if the hard drive is not to appear on the desktop.

If so, please change it by checking the mark box in front of it.

Wrapping up:

Using external hard drives and this issue of mac not recognizing external hard drives can trouble us. With the method aforementioned you can resolve this issue and make use of your external hard drive with Mac. If none of these work for you, it could be a faulty external hard drive and you might want to try to open it with another computer.

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