Summary: This post shows how to access a WD hard drive that's not recognized by Mac. To avoid data loss when fixing the unrecognized WD external hard drive, you can recover lost data from the WD hard drive for free with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- Mac Doesn't Recognize External Drive
- Mac Won't Recognize External Drive
- Pc Won't Recognize External Hard Drive
- External Drive Won't Mount Mac
Just like Seagate external hard drive not recognized on Mac, WD hard drive not recognized is a question frequently asked by Mac users in Apple related forums. It happens to WD My passport, WD My Book, WD Elements and Easystore, etc.
If you are one of those who are wondering:
- Why Mac won't recognize my WD hard drive?
- How can I make the WD hard drive detected and work on Mac again?
- Can I fix this issue without losing my important data?
I just installed macOS 10.14 Mojave system on my macbook pro retina display. The system is gorgeous and everything works perfect, until today, I found a problem: when I plug in my external hard drive (Mac format) to my laptop, the system just cannot recognize it and the external hard drive just doesn't show on 'Lacations' in my Finder. Storage devices (such as external hard drives) can also be available on your network. Additionally, you can insert flash memory cards from your camera or other device in the SDXC card slot in your Mac. If your Mac doesn't have a card slot, you can access the data on the flash memory card using a connected card reader.
- As of last night, El Capitan no longer recognizes my (relatively new) USB external 3tb Seagate drive, even though it does recognize my older 1tb Seagate drive. When I check under 'About This Mac' it sees the drive enclosure, a Newer Technology Ministack, but not the drive.
- If the hard drive still isn't playing ball, the next step is First Aid. Run First Aid on an external hard drive. Mac's built-in First Aid tool is designed to verify and repair a range of issues related to corrupted files and apps, startup issues, and, crucially, external hard drive problems.
You are in the right place to make the WD hard drive recognized by:
- 1. Trying six quick checks and fixes
- 2. Checking if Finder allows connected external hard drive showing up
- 3. Updating related WD Apps with WD Discovery for Mac
- 4. Checking if the WD hard drive is password locked
- 5. Repairing the unrecognized WD hard drive with First Aid
- 6. Use WD Drive Utilities to check the unrecognized WD hard drives
- 7. Reformatting the WD hard drives when it's not working
First, See How Mac Recognizes a WD External Hard Drive
The process of Mac recognizing an external hard drive is a little complicated even though you can't see it. Specifically, when you plug a WD hard drive into a Mac computer, macOS would be notified. Then macOS will call all related hardware and software to read, recognize, and show this hard drive on the Desktop and in Finder, so that finally you can access your data on the drive on your Mac computer.
So, we usually simplify this process in 4 steps:
- The WD hard drive is supplied with power, so that Mac can detect this storage device.
- macOS reads partition information of the WD hard drive.
- macOS recognizes the file system of each volume.
- Users access data on the WD hard drive.
However, if any part of this process goes wrong, hard drive problems like Mac won't recognize your WD hard drive would occur. As a consequence, you can't access, copy, write to or transfer data stored on it.
Now, Fix WD hard drive not recognized issue on Mac
So, based on the process of Mac recognizing a WD hard drive, we need a thorough check to know which part makes the WD hard drive not working on Mac, and then fix it.
1. Try Quick fixes when WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac
A proper connection is the most basic condition that Mac can access the WD hard drive. Or else the external hard drive would not even show up in Disk Utility. When your Mac can't recognize an external hard drive, you can always do the following quick fixes at the very beginning.
- Make sure the WD hard drive is externally plugged into a wall outlet if it's a WD desktop hard drive like WD Elements Desktop and My Cloud.
- Connect the WD hard drive directly to the computer and do not use a USB Hub.
- Try a different USB cable and port for power and data supply, especially if the My Passport external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility.
- Try a different USB-C adapter to connect the WD hard drive if your Mac only has the Thunderbolt 3 port.
- Try to connect the WD hard drive with a different Mac computer to check if the WD hard drive can be recognized on that Mac.
- Try to plug the WD hard drive in to a Windows PC to check if the file system of the WD hard drive is not compatible with Mac.
The WD hard drive lights on but is not recognized by Mac still?
Wait! Do you allow your Mac to show the recognized WD hard drive in the Finder and Desktop?
2. Show the WD hard drive in the Finder and Desktop
Sometimes, you think WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac because the WD external hard drive isn't showing up on Mac, neither in Finder nor on the desktop. However, the fact is that the WD hard drive is detected by macOS but it is not set to show up on Mac.
In this case, you can show the WD hard drive by changing the preferences:
- Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General, make sure the 'External disks' option is ticked. This will make the recognized WD hard drive show up on the Desktop.
- Step 2: Select Sidebar tab on the top, make sure the 'External disks' option under Locations is also ticked.
The WD hard drive is not working on Mac still?
Well, it seems that Mac really can't recognize the WD hard drive. We need to take advantage of some tools for further check.
3. Update incompatible WD Apps with WD Discovery for Mac
WD Discovery is a desktop software for Mac and Windows for delivering WD software, updates and notifications for WD external hard drives.
When WD hard drive is not recognized, you can download WD Discovery for Mac to update WD Drive Utilities, WD Security, WD Backup, etc. Possibly, your Mac doesn't recognize the WD hard drive because the WD software is not compatible with your macOS.
4. Check if the WD hard drive is password locked
If you are using WD hard drives like My Book Drive and it is not recognized by Mac now, you can check if the hard drive is password protected. macOS can't read the partition information and mount the volumes if the WD hard drive is password locked. You can download and install WD Security to unlock the WD hard drive if a password has been set to protect the hard drive.
The WD hard drive is not encrypted? Then the reason for Mac not recognizing the WD hard drive is that macOS fails to access the partition and file system information. It could be a problem when WD external hard drive used on PS4 extended drive but not recognized.
5. Repair the unrecognized WD hard drive in Disk Utility
Disk Utility is a built-in disk management and repair tool on Mac computers. When a WD hard drive is not recognized or not working due to inner disk errors, you can try to repair the unrecognizable WD hard drive with Disk Utility.
Note: If the WD hard drive is recognzied in in Disk Utility but not mounted, you can select the Mount option first then the WD hard drive will be mounted on the Desktop.
- Step 1: Go to Applications > Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Click 'View' and choose 'Show All Devices'.
- Step 3: Select the unrecognized WD hard drive from the sidebar.
- Step 4: Click on First Aid on the top. Wait while First Aid verifying and fixing possible errors of the WD hard drive.
If First Aid can't repair the external hard drive, or Disk Utility doesn't recognize the volumes of the drive, probably, the WD hard drive could be corrupted caused by bad sectors.
6. Use WD Drive Utilities when WD hard drives not working on Mac
WD Drive Utilities for Mac is a specialized utility for WD hard drives to run drive diagnostics (fix potential drive failures, slow disk performance, and bad sectors), Manage RAID configuration (For RAID supported models), Erase and format WD hard drives, etc.
If a WD hard drive won't work normally on a Mac due to bad sectors or other parameter errors, you can download WD Drive Utilities for Mac to have a diagnosis of what happens to your hard drive.
- Step 1: Install WD Drive Utilities on your Mac and then launch it.
- Step 2: Plug the unrecognizable WD hard drive into the Mac.
- Step 3: Click on 'Diagnose' and choose 'Run Quick Drive Test' to check the WD drive completely.
7. Fix the unrecognized WD hard drive by reformatting
If the unrecognizable WD hard drive can't be repaired by WD Drive Utilities, the file system of the WD hard drive might be seriously damaged or corrupted. In this case, you have to reformat or erase this WD hard drive. Before that, it's necessary to recover lost data from unrecognized WD hard drive with free hard drive data recovery software for Mac, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, to avoid data loss.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is professional in external hard drive data recovery on Mac. It supports Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, and hard drives of other manufacturers. This data recovery software can recover lost data when hard drive is unrecognized, unmountable, unreadable, corrupted on Mac. Besides, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can recover lost data from Macintosh hard drive, USB drives, Pen drives, SD cards, memory cards, CF cards as well as other storage devices.
Tutorial to recover lost data from unrecognizable WD hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
Step 1. Download, install, and restart your Mac. Then launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
To recover your important photos, videos, music, documents, emails from this unrecognizable WD hard drive, you can free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
Step 2. Scan for lost data on the WD hard drive.
When the data recovery software is launched, you will see your unrecognizable WD hard drive in the interface. You need to select this corrupted WD hard drive and then click the 'Scan' button to scan for data on this drive.
Step 3. Preview and recover files.
When WD hard drive is corrupted, you can't access your data on this drive. But you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to preview the data on the drive, which will help you make sure your files are not corrupted before you finally click 'Recover' to recover them.
Tutorial to reformatting WD hard drive that is not recognized by Mac
- 1. Go to Disk Utility and select the unrecognized WD hard drive from the sidebar.
- 2. Click on Erase on the top.
- 3. Follow the instructions to finish the reformatting process.
After reformatting WD hard drive process finished, you will hopefully see the WD hard drive recognized and showing up on Mac correctly.
However, if the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility at all, the great chance is that the WD hard drive is physically broken. As a result, Mac can't read and recognize it. In this case, we advise you to check if the serial number of the WD hard drive is still in warranty so that you can ask for a repair or replacement service.
WD provides no-limited warranty unless your WD hard drive was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller like Amazon. So, if your WD hard drive is dead for disk corruption, please free free to contact their support team for warranty status review and product replacement.
Conclusion
In the issue of WD hard drive not recognized, be it on Mac or Windows, data rescue should come first. This is also important when USB flash drives, SD card, or other external hard drives that are not showing up on Mac.
You can recover data from the unrecognized hard drive with free data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. Then, you can fix the error in different ways without worrying about data loss.
Summary: It's a definite guide to fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive without data loss. It troubleshoots why the external hard drive is not recognized by macOS and how to access it in such situations. You can also download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to get files off when Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive.
Whether you are using MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac, inevitably, the Mac can't recognize the external hard drive that you plug into.
Don't know how to make Mac recognize the external hard drive again? No worries.
Because after reading this post, you can:
- Learn how Mac accesses an external drive.
- Know why macOS doesn't recognize the external hard drive.
- Make external hard drive recognized by Mac again.
- Avoid data loss when the external hard drive is not working on Mac
According to different situations, this passage will show you solutions to fix 'Mac doesn't recognize external hard drive' issue accordingly.
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Overview of macOS Recognizing An External Hard Drive
When your Seagate, WD my passport, Toshiba or other external hard drive is not recognized by Mac, the first thing is to know which part of the recognition process goes wrong.
So let's take a closer look at how macOS recognizes an external hard drive.
Step 1: The external hard drive is connected to your Mac.
Plugging the external hard drive into a computer will establish the hardware connection, which would supply the external hard drive with power source and data transferring capability. Visually, you can see the external hard drive lighting on and hear it spinning.
Step 2: macOS detects the external hard drive.
After the connection, the Mac would detect that a new storage device is plugged in. It's going to tell the device's type and manufacturer information, which will help macOS know how to load and read this external hard drive.
Step 3: macOS reads the external hard drive.
After recognizing the hardware information of the external hard drive, the Mac will call other system components to read the external hard drive's type and partition information. If the hard drive is readable by the Mac, a visible disk icon would be formed consequently.
Step 4: macOS recognizes the files in the external hard drive.
Once Mac successfully reads the partition information of the external hard drive, it will go further by calling related programs to recognize the file system of each partition on the external hard drive. A recognized file system will let macOS know how and where your data is stored on the external hard drive, so that it can mount this external hard drive for use.
Step 5: Mac shows the external hard drive for users. Alchemy synth mac.
Going so far, macOS has recognized the external hard drive. Meanwhile, other programs get notified that there is a new volume available. But to make it convenient for users to access the data on the drive, it will check the system preferences and decide if users want to automatically mount and show the external hard drive on the desktop and in the finder.
Amazing, right? You probably never know the details. Your Mac has done so many works to recognize an external storage device, while you just simply plug the external drive into the USB port.
However, if one or more steps above fail, the external hard drive would not be recognized by Mac successfully. You can't access it. In this case, we need to know why Mac doesn't recognize your external hard drive.
Namely, we need to check these things:
- Is your external hard drive properly connected for data transferring and power supply?
- Is your Mac set to show up mounted external drives on the Finder and desktop?
- Does Mac read and recognize the partition information of this hard drive?
- Does Mac recognize the file system of the external hard drive successfully?
Now, let's check them one by one.
First of all, Check the Connections
Don't assume this is unnecessary. It turns out that most of the time, Mac doesn't recognize external hard drives, USB flash drives, pen drives, SD cards, etc. just because the drive is not properly connected.
Since a good connection is a basic condition for secondary hard drives working on the Mac, we need to try these things step by step.
1. Make sure the external hard drive is supplied with power.
Usually, when the external hard drive is supplied with power, the light of the external hard drive is on and blinking. If not, try to check if the external hard drive needs to be externally plugged into the wall outlet. It happens most for some external desktop hard drives like WD Elements and Seagate Desktop devices that don't use USB ports as the power source.
2. Try to re-plug the external hard drive.
This works when you have a drive mounted but your operating system goes to sleep later. Mac won't recognize the external hard drive after the USB port is powered off. When your Mac wakes up again, the drive may not have come out of its slumber. You can reconnect the external hard drive to make it work again.
3. Try another USB port to connect the external hard drive.
Portable hard drives like My Passport and iomega use USB port both for power and data supply. So, if the USB port is loose, damaged, lack of power, or dusty, the connected external hard drive won't be recognized by Mac. You need to change another slot to connect your drive.
4. Try to plug the external hard drive into the USB port slowly.
Strange though, some users notice that the external hard drive would be recognized and work well when they plug it in exceptionally slowly. It may because the USB port is out of shape and unstable. The tricks also work for other storage devices, including thumb drive, USB flash drive, etc.
5. Try another USB cable to connect the external hard drive.
In case the cable is broken, you can try another USB cable to connect the external hard drive to your Mac. And if it's an SD card that is not showing up on Mac, try another card reader. Don't worry if you don't have one right now, you can skip and check other things first.
6. Try another USB hub or USB-C adapter.
Some MacBook after 2015 uses Thunderbolt 3 while some older ones use Thunderbolt 2. This results in incompatibility between different Thunderbolt ports. Thus, if the unrecognized external hard drive is a Type C drive, you can try to access it via another Mac. Instead, if it's a standard USB-A external hard drive and you connect it to Thunderbolt 3 port via USB-C adapter, you can try another USB hub or even another adapter. Sometimes, such adaption makes data transferring unstable.
7. Try to reboot your Mac.
Possibly, you improperly ejected the external hard drive the last time you use it on the Mac. As a result, Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive this time. It's because macOS would think the USB port is still taken by the unsafely ejected one.
Second, Check if the external hard drive is recognized in System Information
The System Information app provides detailed specifications and other information about your Mac. In some versions of OS X, this app is called System Profiler. So, if the connections are good, you can check whether the connected external hard drive is detected in System Information or not.
- 1. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac.
- 2. Click the System Report button to see more details provided by the System Information.
- 3. Find and click the USB option under the Hardware section.
- 4. Check if the external hard drive is recognized here or not.
If you can find the USB external hard drive in System Information, it means macOS has detected this drive. But why you can't access and open this external hard drive on the desktop and in the Finder? You need to go further and check more things.
Then Check if Mac is Set to Display External Hard Drives
Usually, the external hard drive will be automatically mounted by Mac. Then you can see it on the desktop or in Finder in seconds. But this time, the external hard drive is not showing up on your Mac. Does this mean the external hard drive is not recognized by Mac? Probably not. On the contrary, you need to check if the mounted external hard drive is allowed to show up.
- 1. Go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar.
- 2. Select External disks under Locations to list your external hard drive in the Finder sidebar.
- 3. Shift to the General tab.
- 4. Check External disks under 'Show these items on the desktop'. Then your connected external hard drive will appear in Finder and on the desktop.
Chances are that Mac won't recognize the external hard drive still. It means it's not the Mac device's fault. Then we should throw light on the external hard drive itself.
Third, Check if Mac Recognizes the Partitions of the External Hard Drive
Any storage devices, including HDD and SSD, need to be partitioned. It makes sure that each section can be managed separately. And partition table or partition map records the necessary partition information of the external hard drive.
Mac won't read the external hard drive further once the partition table is damaged, lost, or corrupted. Fortunately, you can check this in Disk Utility.
Solution 1: Check the external hard drive in Disk Utility
Disk Utility is a built-in disk repair tool on your Mac. It can manage, erase, check, and repair disks efficiently. It's free and powerful. So, continue reading and check if Mac is reading the disk's partitions.
- 1. Click Launchpad, find the Other folder and open it. Here, you can see and launch Disk Utility.
- 2. Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices'.
- 3. If you can see volumes of the external hard drive in the left sidebar, be it lighted or greyed, select the name of the unrecognized external hard drive.
- 4. Click on the First Aid button in the top center and click Run.
Tips: If it's a WD external hard drive that is not recognized by Mac, you can check if it is encrypted by WD Security. If so, simply unlock it with WD Discovery and access the external hard drive again.
But if you can't see any partitions or volumes, or you run First Aid to repair the external hard drive but fail, then the partition information is not recognized by Mac. You need to move to the next solution in this situation.
Solution 2: Reformat the unrecognized external hard drive
If First Aid is unable to repair the unrecognized external hard drive, the disk might be corrupted too seriously to be repaired. Under this circumstance, the only solution is to erase this external hard drive in Disk Utility and assign new partition schemes.
Warning: Reformatting will wipe your data off the unrecognizable external hard drive. So, before you follow the steps below, make sure you have a copy of backups. If you don't have any backup in hand, you can also recover lost data from the unrecognized external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 1. Launch Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the unrecognized external hard drive on the left.
- 3. Click the Erase at the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase.
Tips: Click here to learn the differences between GUID, Master Boot Record, Apple Partition Map if you don't know to choose which partition scheme in Disk Utility.
How to Prevent Data Loss When Mac Doesn't Recognize External Hard Drives?
When the external hard drive is not working normally, the first concern for most users is the important data on the drive. However, if you have tried possible solutions but Mac just doesn't recognize the external hard drive still, how can you access your data?
The good news is, you can recover lost data from this unrecognizable external hard drive with free Mac data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best hard drive data recovery software. It can recover lost data from the external hard drives when it's not recognized, not readable, not working or not showing up on Mac. Moreover, this data recovery software can recover lost data from formatted, corrupted, and unmounted external hard drives. It supports data recovery from APFS, HFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT32 formatted hard drives.
This program works with macOS Big Sur 11, macOS 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.7 (Lion).
Step 1: Install and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
After downloading and launching this Mac data recovery software, you can connect the unrecognized external hard drive to your Mac. Later, you can check if the drive is detected and show up in this software.
Step 2: Select the unrecognized external hard drive to scan for lost data.
If you can find the unrecognized external hard drive in the list, click on it. And then choose Scan to search for data on this hard drive.
Step 3: Preview the searching results and recover the target ones.
As we mentioned before, you can't access and view your important data on the unrecognized external hard drive. But with the assistance of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, you get a chance to check the condition of your data by using its Preview feature. Simply filter the scanning result, select the data to preview, and click 'Recover' to get them back.
Last, Check if Mac Has Recognized the File System of the External HDD
The file system manages how your data is stored on the external hard drive. If your partition map seems to be OK, the next thing we need to confirm is that if Mac has recognized the file system of each partition.
So, just go to Finder > Go > Utilities > Disk Utility. You can check if you can see the partition and file system of the USB external hard drive there.
You can see if the file system is NTFS in the right column. You can't write to Windows NTFS on Mac but only read. Probably, you assume that Mac doesn't recognize the NTFS external hard drive because you can't access or open the files. In this case, you can simply solve this problem with an NTFS for Mac software. Or if you don't have important data, you can reformat it as FAT32, exFAT, or APFS (If you can macOS supports it) in Disk Utility.
If it is not NTFS but any other recognizable file system, you can fix the Mac not recognizing external hard drive issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Manually mount the external hard drive if it's greyed out in Disk Utility
Chances are that Mac has recognized the external hard drive, but for some reason, Mac fails to automatically mount it. So, if you can see the volumes of the external hard drive with correct disk information (name, file system, storage capacity, etc.), try to force mount the external hard drive in Disk Utility.
- 1. Open Disk Utility.
- 2. Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices'.
- 3. Right-click on the volume that you want to access, not the external hard drive this time.
- 4. Choose Mount in the context menu.
If nothing happens or macOS reports some errors, keep reading. You can repair the unrecognized external hard drive with First Aid.
Solution 2: Repair the external hard drive with First Aid if you can't mount it
If you can't mount the external hard drive in Disk Utility, the drive might have some file system corruptions. But don't be panic when you hear 'corruption', you still have solutions when Mac can't recognize the external hard drive's file system.
- 1. Launch Disk Utility as you did before.
- 2. Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices' in the context menu.
- 3. Select the corrupted volume in the list, not the name of the external hard drive.
- 4. Click on the First Aid button in the top center and then click Run.
If you run First Aid successfully, go to check if the external hard drive is recognized by Mac. If it fails, you need to expand the 'Show Details' option to see more information. Also, if you received an error like 'file system check exit code is 8', ' invalid b tree node size', or other messages, the file system of the external hard drive might be seriously corrupted and can't be repaired.
Read further and check what you can do.
Solution 3: Recover lost data and reformat the corrupted external hard drive
Mac Doesn't Recognize External Drive
What if First Aid fails to repair the corrupted file system? Well, in this case, we strongly recommend you to recover your important data from the unrecognized external hard drive. It helps especially if you don't have backups. And then you can fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive by reformatting.
- 1. Recover lost data from this unrecognized external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 2. Launch Disk Utility and select the unrecognized partitions of the external hard drive.
- 3. Click the Erase at the top.
- 4. Fill in the name and format you want to use, and then click Erase to reformat.
After these operations, your external hard drive should be recognized by Mac again. But if the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, unfortunately, your external hard drive has hardware problems. You could either contact the support team of the hard drive manufacturer for product repair and replacement. Or you can send the unrecognizable external hard drive to a local disk repair service for help.
Conclusion
As you can see, Mac needs to do a lot of work to recognize an external hard drive. If any step fails, the external hard drive won't be recognized by Mac. Thus, we offer some additional tips to help you beyond this issue.
Bonus tips:
When you access your external hard drive through Mac, Windows, or other types of computer, remember:
- Do not eject the external hard drive when it is transferring data.
- Always safely eject the external drives when you remove it from the Mac.
- Take good care of the external hard drive and keep it away from unfavorable environmental.
Mac Won't Recognize External Drive
Let us know if this guide helps when your Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive!
Pc Won't Recognize External Hard Drive
Mac not recognizing external hard drive FAQ
🔎 How to access external hard drives on Mac?
- 1. Connect the external hard drive to your Mac via USB port.
- 2. macOS detects the external hard drive and show device's type and manufacturer information.
- 3. Read the external hard drive's type and partition information in Disk Utility.
- 4. Access the files on the external hard drive in Finder after they're showing up.
- 5. Eject the external hard drive on desktop after you use it.
🔎 How to fix if my external hard drive is not detected by Mac?
- 1. Make sure the external hard drive is supplied with power.
- 2. Try to re-plug the external hard drive if Mac doesn't detect this external HDD.
- 3. Try another USB port to connect the external hard drive.
- 4. Try to plug the external hard drive into the USB port slowly.
- 5. Try another USB cable to connect the external hard drive.
- 6. Try another USB hub or USB-C adapter.
🔎 What do I do if my external hard drive is not recognized in Disk Utility?
External Drive Won't Mount Mac
- 1. Check if the external hard drive is recognized in System Information.
- 2. Make sure the external hard drive is initialized and formatted correctly.
- 3. Manually mount the external hard drive if it is not mounted in Disk Utility.
- 4. Repair the external hard drive with First Aid in Disk Utility.
- 5. Reformat the unrecognized external hard drive.
🔎 How do I recover files from an external hard drive that won't mount?
- 1. Install and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
- 2. Select the unrecognized external hard drive to scan for lost data.
- 3. Preview the searching results and recover the target data with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
