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External hard drive showing up on Desktop but not in my app?

My external hard drive shows up in Disk Utility and on the desktop, but when I open an application the hard drive is not showing, therefore to access those files, I have to drag them to the desktop... a royal headache. Using MacBook Air 2020 iOS 12.2.1 500 GB storage. The hard drive is Seagate Backup Plus 4 TB, APFS-encrypted. How do I get my files on the hard drive to show up within the application?

Best Answered by

Amanda Wong

Answered on Monday, April 29, 2024

It seems that the app is not permitted to access the files and folders on the external hard drive given that after you move the items from the hard drive to your Desktop, you can access them within the app normally.

If an external HDD, SSD, and USB flash drive shows up in Disk Utility and the Desktop, it means the drive is detected by your Mac. If you can access the files and folders in the drive from Desktop and Finder, but can't see the drive on certain apps, the problem could be a permission issue

Here is how to allow app access to removable volumes on Mac:

  1. Head to the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
  2. Scroll down the sidebar and choose Privacy & Security.
  3. Click Files & Folders on the right pane.
  4. Find the target app and click it to show the options.
  5. Tick Removable Volumes to enable it to be accessed by the app.
  6. If there is no Removable Volumes option, back to Full Disk Access to enable it for the app.