If your external hard drive isn't showing up on your Mac, it can be a frustrating experience, especially when important files are at stake. Whether it's a USB, external SSD, or HDD, the issue could stem from a variety of causes, ranging from simple connection problems to more serious hardware failures.
Rather than overwhelming you with endless troubleshooting steps, this guide focuses on a situation-based approach to help you quickly identify the problem and decide what to do next.
I'll break down the process into 3 fixing paths based on your situation, with a Stop-Loss Rule to protect your data from further risk. Follow these steps to know when to act, when to stop, and how to recover your files safely.
Identify your situation first (Necessary)
This step helps you avoid any improper operations that cause further corruption on the external drive or reduce the rate of rescuing your important files from it. Also, stop you from trying unnecessary solutions like entering Safe Mode, using Terminal, and resetting NVRAM.
1. Go to Disk Utility
👉 Why do this: An external drive may not appear in Finder or the desktop due to hidden settings, file system issues, or other reasons, but that doesn't mean the drive is truly undetected by macOS.
Disk Utility is a built-in tool to help us check whether a hard disk is detected and recognized by macOS. It enables us to conduct disk fixing, making it visible on the Mac.
Steps:
- Open "Spotlight Search" (press Command - Space), enter "Disk Utility," and press "Enter" to open it.
- Click "View" > "Show All Devices" to view a list of all hard drives and their corresponding volumes.
- Check if your external hard drive shows up in the sidebar.
2. Check in System Information
👉 Why do this: System Information is a built-in macOS utility that shows low-level hardware details and confirms which devices the system can detect at the port level. When an external drive doesn't show in Disk Utility, System Information is a tool that helps you ultimately confirm whether the Mac has not detected the disk.
Steps:
- Open "System Information" from Spotlight Search.
- In the Hardware section, click on "USB," "Thunderbolt," or "SATA" (selecting by your hardware connection interface) to see if the Mac sees the external drive.
3. Decide your fixing path
👉 Why do this: After checking, you'll know exactly what's going on with your external drive on your Mac. From there, you can follow the right solution path for your situation and avoid wasting time on unnecessary steps, which may bring nagative affects on your drive and data.
- External hard drive shows up in Disk Utility → Fixing path 1
- External hard drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility, but in System Information → Fixing path 2
- External hard drive does not appear in Disk Utility or System Information → Fixing path 3
Fixing Path 1: The external drive shows in Disk Utility
In the Disk Utility, you may find your external drive shows in a different state, including mounted and unmounted (greyed out). You can take actions based on its specific condition, enabling the external drive to be visible in Finder and your desktop.
Adjust Finder settings (if the external drive is mounted normally)
If your Kingston, Maxtor, WD Element, Seagate, or LaCie external hard drive isn't showing up on your Mac desktop or in Finder, but appears mounted in Disk Utility, it's due to your Finder settings - the external disks are set to be hidden. Just modify them to make the drive visible again.
- Open Finder, click "Finder" on the menu bar, and select "Settings."
- Click "General" and select "External disks" to enable external hard drives to show on the desktop.
- Click "Sidebar" and tick the "External disks" option under "Locations" to let external disks appear on the Finder sidebar.
After that, go to the desktop or Finder and check if your external hard drive appears.
Manually mount the external drive (if it is not mounted or greyed out)
Perhaps you've set a password for the external drive, but ignore the unlocking box when you connect the drive to your Mac. Or there are temporary macOS or disk file system errors, making the external drive fail to be automatically mounted.
Hence, the external hard drive is labeled "Not Mounted" or greyed out in Disk Utility and won't show up on the desktop or Finder.
To resolve it, use the Mount option in Disk Utility to mount the external drive manually:
- Go to Disk Utility (from Launchpad > Other).
- Click the View option on the Disk Utility toolbar and choose "Show All Devices."
- Select the partition on the external drive and click the Mount button.
- Enter your password if asked.
Run First Aid (if the unmounted external drive can't be manually mounted)
If this external hard drive is not mounting on Mac, even with Disk Utility's Mount button, the drive is probably corrupted or has some directory structure issues. As a result, macOS can't recognize the external hard drive and show it up.
In this situation, try to run First Aid in Disk Utility to see if it can repair the corrupted external hard drive.
- Open Disk Utility.
- Choose the external disk (note: not the volume on it) from the left sidebar.
Note: Choose the whole external hard drive rather than the unmounted volume on it. First Aid can't check an unmounted volume only. - Click the First Aid button and then choose "Run" to confirm this operation.
Recover data & reformat the external hard drive
If First Aid fails to repair the external hard drive, it means that the drive has serious file system errors. You probably receive some error reports after running First Aid, such as:
⚠️ file system check exit code is 8
I received "file system exit code is 8 error" when running First Aid to check my unmountable external drive. Luckily, I made the external drive workable after a reformat.
So, to fix the external hard drive that's not recognized on a Mac, you can reformat it and assign a fresh file format to the drive. Remember to recover your data in advance because reformatting a drive will wipe all data from it!
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a professional and Apple-trusted tool for external hard drive data recovery, USB drive recovery, and SD card recovery. It supports recovering data from unreadable, unmountable, corrupted, and formatted hard drives.
Here's how:
- Download, install, and open iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
- Select the unrecognizable or unmounted external hard drive listed in the main interface and click Search for Lost Data to search for files on it.
- After scanning, sort the scanned files by different parameters, preview the search results, choose the files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
- After successful recovery, open Disk Utility and locate the external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- Select the external disk and click the Erase button.
- Type a name for the drive, choose a format, and set the GUID Partition Map as the scheme.
If you want your drive to be compatible with Windows PC and Mac, exFAT is probably the best option. Then click Erase to finish reformatting.
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Fixing Path 2: The external drive only shows in System Information
If your external hard drive is not showing up in Mac Disk Utility but appears in System Information, it means:
✅ The USB/Thunderbolt controller is detected
❌ The storage device is not fully enumerated as a disk
This can be triggered by Disk Utility UI issues, connection issues, or low-level hardware failure.
In this case, follow these practical ways to troubleshoot and fix it
Rule out Disk Utility UI issues (rarely but not never)
- Open Disk Utility.
- Click "View" → "Show All Devices."
- Quit Disk Utility and reopen it.
Power-cycle the drive properly (not just unplugging)
macOS sometimes detects the USB bridge but fails disk initialization.
Do this exactly:
- Shut down your Mac.
- Disconnect the external drive.
If the drive has its own power:
Turn it off
Wait 30–60 seconds - Start the Mac
- Plug the drive back in after login
This forces a fresh device enumeration instead of a hot-plug retry.
Check the connections (this fixes many cases)
Even if the external drive shows in System Information, a weak or failing connection can block disk registration and make the external hard drive not show up on the Mac desktop, Finder, and Disk Utility.
Try reconnecting the external drive:
- A different cable (especially USB-C ↔ USB-A)
- A different port
- Directly connect to the port on the Mac if possible, no hubs or adapters
- Change to a different USB hub or adapter
Fixing Path 3: The external hard drive doesn't show up anywhere on the Mac
If the external hard drive neither appears in Disk Utility nor in System Information, it indicates that:
⚠️ There are connection issues
⚠️ Or the drive has a hardware problem
In this case, firstly, check the connection.
Check your disk connections
- Unplug the external drive, reconnect it to another port.
- If you use a USB hub, try directly connecting the drive to the port on the Mac with a capable cable.
- Try a different cable.
Send the external drive for repair
If your external drive is not showing up on your Mac yet after trying the above checks and fixes, connect a different external hard drive to your Mac. Or, connect the drive to another Mac.
This is to confirm if this unrecognizable external hard drive has hardware issues. When it does, you can send it to your local repair center for an upfront quote and repair appointment.
Why is my external hard drive not showing up on the Mac
For a disk to appear on a Mac, it needs to go through a process of being properly connected, detected, recognized, and then mounted. If any process goes wrong, the external hard drive will not show up on the Mac.
To help you know the problem clearly and avoid it in the future, I've compiled a list of potential causes here.
- You accidentally hide the external drive on your Mac.
- The USB cable is broken.
- The USB port malfunctioned.
- The USB adapter is not working properly.
- The external hard disk is formatted with a macOS-unsupported file system.
- The file system of the external hard drive is corrupted.
- The drive is under repair and recognized by macOS.
- Third-party apps interfere with the drive from being properly recognized.
- The external drive has hardware issues.
My final thoughts
When the external hard drive is not showing up on your Mac desktop or the Finder sidebar, I suggest you go directly to Disk Utility and System Information for further diagnosis, rather than directly doing risky operations like restarting your Mac or reconnecting the drive.
The built-in Disk Utility program lists all the connected external drives that are recognized by macOS, while System Information shows the disks that have been detected by the system at the port level. They can help you judge whether the drive has a connection or a hardware issue first, avoiding you do futile fixes.
Related article:
The external hard drive is not showing up after the force ejection from the Mac
FAQs
- QHow do I force my Mac to recognize an external hard drive?
-
A
If your Mac doesn’t detect the external hard drive or show it up, you can try these tricks:
1. Check the connections. Reconnect the external hard drive to another USB port on your Mac or change a USB cable.
2. Restart your Mac to exclude temporary errors blocking your external drive's recognition.
3. Check if your external hard drive appears in Disk Utility ( Launchpad > Other). If it is not mounted, manually mount it. You can also run First Aid to check and repair errors on it.
4. Send to repair if the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility after checking connections.
- QHow do I get my external hard drive to show up on my Mac?
-
A
First, you need to open Finder. Move to the top menu bar and click Finder > Preferences. Then, tick on the External disks option under the General tab on the Finder Preferences window.
- QWhat do I do when my external hard drive is not detected?
-
A
First, you should check the connections, including the external hard drive, USB cable, and ports. Then, try to replug the external hard drive and restart your Mac, update the disk driver, check the disk file system, reformat the external hard drive, or apply for a repair.