Written by
Connie Yang
Summary: If your external hard drive is not showing up on Mac Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, etc., follow this post to make it visible and accessible. Download iBoysoft Data Recovery to recover files from the corrupted external hard drive ASAP to avoid permanent data loss.
Usually, the connected external hard drive appears on the Mac desktop or at least on the Finder sidebar under "Locations." However, it doesn't.
Why is the external hard drive not showing up on Mac? It may result from hidden settings, incorrect connections, system errors, password protection, previous incorrect unplugging, or an unrecognized or incompatible file system.
Don't worry. Follow our step-by-step guide to troubleshooting, then you can access your external drive again. To make the repair process simpler, first go to Disk Utility (the built-in disk management program that lists all your connected disks) to quickly identify the culprits of the issue.
| Scenario | Problem | Solution |
| The external hard drive shows up in Disk Utility and is mounted correctly | The external disks are not set to display on the desktop or Finder | Open Finder, select Finder > Settings > General, Sidebar |
| The external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility | The connection issues, macOS disk repair interference, or hardware damage make Mac doesn't recognize the external drive | 1. Reconnect the external drive, try different USB port and cable 2. Ensure the USB cable has sufficient power (if it's a desktop disk) 3. Go to System Information > USB to check if the disk shows up there, if yes, force quit fsck in Activity Monitor 4. Take the external disk to a repair center |
| The external hard drive appears in Disk Utility but is greyed out (labeled Not Mounted) | 1. The encrypted drive hasn't been unlocked or macOS fails to correctly mount it 2. The disk has tiny file system errors 3. Hardware interference 4. Third-party software issue 5. The external drive is seriously corrupted | 1. Disk Utility > the Mount button 2. Use Terminal to force eject the drive and reconnect 3. Disk Utility > First Aid 4. Reset NVRAM by restarting Mac and pressing Option-Command-P-R for 20 seconds 5. Enter Safe Mode 6. Didk Utility > the Erase button to reformat the disk |
Notably, formatting the external drive will erase all data. It is necessary to rescue your files before proceeding. Otherwise, permanent data loss will happen. iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can help recover files from your unmountable external hard drive. Download it to get back the files now!
How to fix the external hard drive not showing up on Mac
Since various reasons can lead to external SSDs, HDDs, or USB flash drives not showing up on your Mac, we'll present complete troubleshooting methods in this part. They cover everything—from simple checks to advanced fixes—to help you resolve the issue.
Of course, if you've already identified the possible cause based on the analysis above, feel free to jump straight to the solution that best fits your situation!
Fix 1. Edit the Finder Preferences
The Kingston, Maxtor, WD Element, Seagate, or Lacie external hard drive is not showing up on your Mac sometimes because you are not set up to do so.
So, first, I suggest you check whether you've set the external disks to show up on the Mac desktop or in Finder. If not, just adjust the settings.
- Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab and select "External disks" to make Mac external hard drives show on the desktop.
- Go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and make sure the "External disks" under "Locations" is ticked. Then your external hard drive will appear in a Finder window.
- Go to Desktop/Finder and check if your external hard drive appears.
If not, download and install the data recovery app on your Mac (I've tried it), and then check if your external hard drive is showing up within the data recovery software.
If your external hard drive is showing up in the data recovery software, follow the wizard to recover data and then format the external hard drive after the data recovery is complete.
If your external hard drive is not showing up even within the special recovery environment, send it to an expert for evaluation after exhausting any possible solutions below.
If these steps and software help you out of trouble, why don't you share them to help others?
Fix 2. Reconnect the external drive & restart the Mac
If the connection fails, your Mac won't detect the external hard drive, let alone recognize it and show up.
Therefore, if you can't find the external hard drive on your Mac, reconnect the external hard drive to make sure the connection is good and let macOS re-detect the drive. Personally, my external drive was visible after a reconnection.
- Unplug the external hard drive and wait a moment.
- Restart your Mac
- Slowly and deliberately, plug the external hard drive into your Mac.
Now, check if it shows up in your Finder this time. If not, try the next solution.
Fix 3. Try a different USB cable and port
Usually, you need to use USB cables and ports to connect external drives to your Mac. A defective USB cable and port will make a short circuit, blocking the external drive from establishing a connection with your Mac. Thus, the external hard drive is not showing up on your Mac.
Hence, I suggest you do a thorough check on the USB cable and port if you've used them for years. Let me help you do this check:
- Connect the external hard drive to another USB port as a comparison test.
- Try another compatible USB cable to reconnect your external hard disk (if the issue persists).
- Check the health of the USB hub or USB-C adapter if you use it.
If the external hard drive still does not show up on your Mac, it means that the Mac's USB port, the USB hub or adapter, or the drive is damaged. You can connect your external drive to a different Mac for verification.
Fix 4. Ensure the hard drive cable has sufficient power
Some desktop external hard drives like Seagate Backup Plus and WD Elements Desktop require electricity to light up, spin, and transfer data. Lacking enough power can lead to the Mac not recognizing the external hard drive.
So, check if they are externally connected to a power socket with its provided power adaptor.
I have to alert you of one matter. If you are working on MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models, do not go in low-power mode. External hard drives can't work correctly when the USB ports do not have enough power.
Fix 5. Check if the external drive is encrypted
Perhaps you've encrypted the external disk with a password before but accidentally ignored the pop-up unlocking box. Therefore, your encrypted external hard drive isn't mounting and showing up on the Mac desktop or Finder.
To access the invisible encrypted external disk, follow these steps:
- Go to Disk Utility.
- Click the Mount button to let the pop-up window appear again.
- Enter your password to access the drive.
Or you can reconnect the drive to your Mac and enter the password to unlock it.
Fix 6. Check the format compatibility of the drive
Disk Utility displays all the internal and external hard drives detected by your Mac and their basic info. You can open Disk Utility (Finder > Applications > Utilities) to check the format of the external hard drive.
If your external hard drive is formatted with NTFS, continue reading: NTFS External Hard Drives Not Mounting/Working on Mac (Sonoma/Ventura)
Besides, if the external hard drive is formatted with an unrecognizable file system, like Linux EXT3 and EXT4, the only solution is to reformat it. Reformatting the drive can make it compatible with your Mac. Remember to back up your data before erasing the external disk.
Be cautious! If your Mac uses macOS 10.12 Sierra or earlier, but the external hard drive is the latest APFS (Apple File System) formatted, this could also result in the Mac not recognizing an external hard drive. You are advised to reformat the drive to Mac OS Extended (HFS+) or update your macOS to support APFS.
Note: If your external fusion drive is not showing up on Mac, you can check if it is recognized as two separate drives by macOS in Disk Utility.
Fix 7. Manually mount the external hard drive
If the external hard drive shows up in Disk Utility but is not mounted (greyed out), it shows that the drive may have some errors or the system failed to auto-mount it.
I have some remediation for you when the OS fails to mount the external disk. That is, mount it manually in Disk Utility:
- Expand the View option in the Disk Utility toolbar and choose Show All Devices.
- Select the external hard drive that is not mounted on your Mac.
- Choose Mount at the top menu bar.
After the drive is mounted, you can go to Finder to access it.
Fix 8. Run First Aid to check the external drive
If this external hard drive is not mounting on Mac even with Disk Utility's Mount action, the drive may be corrupted or have some directory structure issues.
Or, sometimes, you may see no partition showing up in Disk Utility but only the manufacturer's name, like WD or Seagate, appearing. That means the partition table (A unit of data describing the partition information on the hard disk) is damaged or lost.
As a result, macOS is unable to recognize the external hard drive. In this situation, you should run First Aid in Disk Utility to see if it can be repaired.
- Open Disk Utility.
- Choose the grayed-out external disk from the left sidebar.
- Click the First Aid button on the top and then choose Run to confirm this operation.
Fix 9. Reformat your external hard drive
If the external hard drive is not showing up after the force-eject from the Mac or 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
For me, I've ever received the "file system exit code is 8 error" message. I made my external drive workable after a reformat.
So, if you are also in the same situation, to fix the external hard drive that's not recognized on Mac, you have to reformat it and assign a fresh file format to the drive. Remember to recover your critical data in advance because reformatting a drive will wipe all data from the hard drive!
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a powerful tool for hard drive data recovery, SD card recovery, and USB drive recovery. It's also capable of recovering data from unreadable, unmountable, corrupted, and formatted drives.
To recover data and reformat the corrupted/unmounted external hard drive:
Step 1: Download, install, and open iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
Step 2: Select the unrecognizable/unmounted external hard drive listed in the main interface and click Search for Lost Data to search files on it.
Step 3: 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.
Step 4: After successful recovery, open Disk Utility and locate the external hard drive from the left sidebar.
Step 5: Select the external disk and click the Erase button.
Step 6: Give 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.
Fix 10. Force quit fsck in Activity Monitor
If the external hard drive doesn't show up even in Mac Disk Utility, check if the Mac has detected and recognized its hardware information in System Information.
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > System Information > USB.
- Check the external hard drive information.
If you see the external hard drive showing up there but not in Disk Utility, the hard drive may be under repair by macOS. This is a rare issue that a user asks for help on Reddit: external hard drive not showing up on Mac.
But don't worry, I have found the solution to it. You just go and check the drive in the Mac Task Manager - Activity Monitor.
- Click the Launchpad and find the Other folder. Find and open Activity Monitor there.
- Search in Activity Monitor to see if there is any process named "fsck_hfs" or something similar. (If your external hard drive is exFAT formatted, then it should be "fsck_exfat".)
- Select that task and click the X button at the upper left to force quit it. Then, the external hard drive should show up on the desktop of your Mac.
If the parameters of the external hard drive are not recognized correctly or are not recognized at all, the external hard drive is damaged. You can go to a local repair center for help.
Fix 11. Use Terminal
Terminal is a built-in command-line interface (CLI) application that allows you to interact with macOS using commands. When macOS fails to automatically detect, recognize, mount, and show the external disk, try to use Terminal to see if macOS recognizes it at a lower system level.
- Open Terminal from Launchpad > Other.
- Enter diskutil list to list all the connected disks and extract their basic info.
- Check if it shows like /dev/disk_ (external, physical) from the list of disks. Here disk_ stands by the disk's identifier.
- Enter diskutil eject disk_ to force eject the drive. Replace disk_ with the external drive's identifier
After that, unplug the external drive and then reconnect it to check if macOS recognizes it this time.
Fix 12. Reset NVRAM
Nevertheless, what if the external hard drive is not showing up in Mac's Disk Utility at all? There could be some hardware-related problems that make the external hard drive not show up on Mac.
Don't worry! You can check for and repair those problems by resetting NVRAM. NVRAM retains certain information while the power is turned off on your computer.
If you experience issues related to these retained settings, resetting NVRAM clears hardware-related settings that may affect external drives. Then, the Mac can recognize the external hard drive again.
- Shut down or reboot your Mac.
- Immediately press these four keys in a sequence: Command + Option + P + R.
- Hold the keys for at least 20 seconds, and after you hear the second chime, release the buttons.
- After releasing the keys, your Mac will restart, and hopefully, your drive will show up.
Fix 13. Boot your Mac in Safe Mode
Perhaps you think this way is useless, but it is not. That's why I point it out here. Chances are that some programs are preventing your external hard drive from being mounted to your Mac. Those incompatible programs could be a USB security app, an encryption program, or any antivirus software that you installed recently.
In this case, you can try to boot into Mac Safe Mode, which only runs essential macOS items.
If Mac recognizes and shows the external drive in Safe Mode, uninstall the apps you've installed recently, as they block the appearance of the external disk. If Mac does not show the external hard drive yet, move to the next fix.
Fix 14. 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.
If it can show up and work, it indicates this unrecognizable external hard drive is defective. You can send it to your local repair center in most cases for an upfront quote.
Share these quick checks to let more people know how to fix an external hard drive that is not detected, showing up, or recognized on the Mac.
Why is my external hard drive not showing up on the Mac
If your external hard drive isn't showing up on your Mac, it means your Mac isn't recognizing it. In most cases, connection issues are the main culprit. However, other common reasons could also trigger the problem.
To make troubleshooting easier, 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.
Reddit discussions on external hard drives not showing up on Mac
An external hard drive not showing up on a Mac is a common issue. Various reasons can result in it, and the solutions are not the sole; just see what users discuss on Reddit.
If you've tried multiple workarounds but still cannot make the external drive visible on your Mac, you can follow the solutions in this post.
External Hard Drive not showing up on mac
by u/Gentle_Kenneth_ in techsupport
If the issue goes on, you can contact the Apple support team for more help or discuss it with our tech experts in the iBoysoft forums!
Final thoughts on external hard drive not showing up on Mac
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 (Launchpad > Other) for further diagnosis. The built-in Disk Utility program lists all the connected external drives that are recognized by macOS. It can help you judge whether the drive has a connection or a hardware issue.
If the drive shows up in Disk Utility and is mounted, follow the fixes I mentioned above to make it visible on your Mac desktop or Finder.
If the drive displays in Disk Utility but is not mounted, click the Mount button in Disk Utility's toolbar to manually mount it. If it cannot be mounted, rescue your files from the drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac and then reformat it.
If the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility, your Mac doesn't recognize the external drive. It is necessary to check the connections and hardware issues.
