Home > Questions

What to do when the USB drive mounts but is not visible in Finder?

When I plug a USB storage device into my MacBook Pro, it mounts and is displayed in the Finder. The next time I plug in, Disk Utility shows it as mounted, but it doesn't show up in Finder. This has happened with more than one USB flash drive. What's going on and what should I do to fix this?

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Anna Yuan

Anna Yuan

Answered on Monday, July 10, 2023

Since your USB flash drive is mounted in Disk Utility, you can open Disk Utility and right-click on the USB disk name that's showing in the Disk Utility sidebar. From the context menu, select "Show in Finder". This will open a new Finder Window demonstrating all your files in this USB drive. 

Check if you can read-write all these USB files, if yes, the USB drive should be hidden in Mac Finder. To unveil a hidden external USB drive in Mac Finder, simply launch Mac Finder and go to its sidebar. Put the mouse cursor on Locations, and when the "Show" button appears, click on it. This will show all the hidden disks on your Mac including your USB drive.

But if you can't read-write these USB files, it's probably because your USB flash drive may be corrupted. Try using Disk Utility First Aid to repair it and then check if the problem still exists. If First Aid failed to fix the USB flash drive not showing up on the Mac issue, the last resort you can try is to reformat it.

But reformatting will erase all data on the flash drive! If you keep some important files on it, you'd better recover them from the USB drive with a data recovery tool first, here we recommend iBoysoft Data Recovery - a professional USB drive data recovery software.

It's very simple to recover data from a USB flash drive that's not showing up in Mac Finder with the help of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. You only need to install and launch it. And then use its "Search for Lost Data" function to find all files on it and click Recover to get the important ones back.

After successfully recovering data from a USB flash drive that's not showing up in Finder, it is time to format the USB drive on Mac. After the reformatting process is finished, insert the USB flash drive again, it should show up in Mac Finder correctly.

People Also Ask

Read More Questions

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

SD Karten Dateien werden nicht angezeigt

Wie behebt man, dass SD-Kartendateien unter Windows und Mac nicht angezeigt werden?

Manchmal stecken Sie eine SD-Karte in Ihren Computer und stellen fest, dass die SD-Kartendateien nicht angezeigt werden. Keine Sorge, in diesem Artikel werden alle möglichen Gründe aufgelistet und Lös

Tarjeta SD no reconocida por Mac

Solución: la tarjeta SD no se muestra, se lee, se reconoce en Mac

Guía de solución de problemas y reparación paso a paso para Mac que no lee la tarjeta SD, Mac que no reconoce la tarjeta SD, la tarjeta SD no se muestra en Mac o en el Utilidad de disco.

recuperacion de datos mac

no startup disk mac

How to Fix No Startup Disk on Mac and Recover Lost Data?

When you encounter no startup disk on your Mac, you couldn’t access the drive data. Read this post to know how to fix no startup disk on Mac and recover lost data.

How to Tips