As a Mac users, I bet you guys are quite familiar with this USB not showing up on Mac issue. You plug in your USB flash drive to Mac, but you cannot find it on Finder or disk utility. Why? Quite a lot reasons such as system error, improper operation or RAW disk may lead Mac computer fail to detect USB drive or other external hard drives on Mac like Mac superdrive, NAS drive etc. If you have such a problem, relax and follow this post to fix USB not showing up on Mac with ease.
USB Won't Show up on Mac? Use Your iPhone as USB Drive!
What to do if you plug in your USB to Mac computer, but it doesn't show up on your Mac. MacX MediaTrans allows you to mount your iPhone as USB drive to save everything, photo, video, ibook, pdf, music, dmg, document, app and any other files.
[Tips] How to Fix USB Not Showing Up on Macbook Pro/Air, iMac etc.
Provided that your USB flash drive not showing up on your Mac computer, there are a great many tips to fix it, namely checking the USB insertion, try another USB drive, checking Mac settings, going disk utility, restarting your Mac and so on. Here we'd like to go into details to attach your USB to MacOS and make it recognized by Macbook Pro/Air, iMac etc.
1. Check for Basic Errors
Before you go further to fix USB or external hard drive not showing up on Mac issue, first check that the USB flash drive is properly plugged in. Usually your USB cable or port is not working but you don't aware it. You can change A USB port to have a try.
2. Try Another USB Drive
Try another USB to check whether the USB itself makes it not showing up on Mac. If you don't have any other USB, MacX MediaTrans helps you use your iPhone as a flash drive. If you find it on your Mac Finder after you plug in it to you Mac computer with a USB cable, it means it's a matter of USB that Mac not detecting USB drive.
Additionally, MacX MediaTrans is not only an touchstone of for USB not showing up on Mac in this aspect, it also enables you to mount iPhone as drive to save videos, music, photos, documents, dmg, PDF, or any files so that you are never bothered with seeking for USB drive here and there.
Free download MacX MediaTrans to have a try!
3. Check Mac Settings
Sometimes your Mac cannot detect USB drive because it's set be unacceptable for external hard drives. To make it accessible, you can open the Finder and select Preference, and make sure the box next to External disk has been checked.
4. Reboot Your Mac
USB flash drive won't show up on Mac issue might also be originated from some open programs. And there are times that you close the program, but it still running in the background. So rebooting your Mac comes to an straightforward way to see if it was an open program or app stopping your USB being detected.
5. Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility to see if the USB flash drive is listed there. Just open Spotlight by pressing command+space bar and type disk utility and press Enter. Once the program is open, look for the USB whether it's visible there or not.
If the USB is listed, check below the Disk Utility for its Volume. Click on it if it's there and choose Mount. If the external drive is already mounted, you'll see the option 'Unmount' instead.
If the Volume is not listed, then your Mac won't be able to access the external drive and the option 'Mount' would be grayed out.
You may also interested in: How to Partition A Hard Drive on macOS
6. First Aid
Another way to fix USB not showing up on Mac problem is First Aid. It means Restore and Erase, This will detect your USB flash drive for any errors and repairs it if needed. Restore lets you wipe the drive of its content and substitute that with another drive's Volume. And finally, Erase will wipe the entire data from the drive and is an irreversible process. If you don't want the data stored on the drive go-ahead the procedure.
To do that, you can click First Aid tab and then click Run. If there are any errors, you'll see the option Repair Disk. On the contrary, if your Mac fails to repair the USB drive, it means that the drive must have been formatted from a file system, which MacOS cannot recognize or the USB drive is really broken.
After you have fixed USB not showing up on Mac problem, you can backup Mac to USB external drive, copy videos, music, photos, documents to USB, transfer large files such as DVD to hard drive etc. so as to free up more space on Mac and speed up your Mac computer. BTW, it's noticeable that if you're willing to move DVD movies to USB hard drive, MacX DVD Ripper Pro is highly suggested to rip DVD to hard drive in MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV etc., regardless of the DVD copy protections.
