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Music Files Not Showing Up on USB Drive, How to Fix

I am moving MP3s from a downloaded folder on my MacBook Air to my 256G USB drive, but cannot move all of the songs into the folder in the USB. Only 8GB of pieces of music can be moved. When I try to add them to the USB again, it says that the songs are already there and either to skip. I can't replace the song. I initially tried to just click replace all, but I found my different songs of the same name weren't showing up anyway. It says that my songs are in the folder on my USB. When I add them in one by one, I can see them be added and then disappear. Any help would be much appreciated.

Best Answered by

Connie Yang

Answered on Monday, April 29, 2024

Try to reconnect the USB drive to your Mac. Then, check if the missing music files are showing up on the USB drive. If not, move them again to your USB.

If this doesn't work, empty the Trash on your Mac. Maybe you ignore that deleting files from the USB won't release the space these files occupy until you empty the Trash. In technical, the deleted files are still stored on the USB drive and are located in the Trashes folder there.

So, although your USB drive has 256GB of capacity, if you use it over the years and never empty the Trash, it is inevitable that your Mac will say the USB drive is full but it isn't.

Also, your USB drive may have some errors, so you face such trouble. Go to Disk Utility to run First Aid to check and repair it. If First Aid can't make it back to normal for adding the music files, you have to reformat it and then move the files again.

Hope my tips can give you some help. Best wishes.