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Why are my mounted external disks not showing in Finder?

When I connect a USB disk, it's not showing in the Finder sidebar. Most of my web searches point me to Finder settings, which I have already configured. (I have "External disks" checked in the Finder settings.) If I open Disk Utility, I do see the disk mounted. I've been getting by with the command line, but it concerns me that something is wrong, and I would prefer to fix it, if possible. Also, once I had a disk corrupted after connecting it to this machine, and I wonder if that was related to this issue and really don't want it to happen again. I'm running macOS 10.15.7, and this issue has been present for the past three or four Catalina minor versions. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Jessica Shee

Jessica Shee

Answered on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Since your external disks have no problem mounting and showing in Disk Utility, not seeing them in Finder is likely a configuration issue.

You've mentioned that you have External disks checked in Finder. Is it set to show external drives in Finder and on the desktop? Here's how it should be configured:

  1. Open Finder, then click Finder > Preferences from the top-left menu bar.
  2. In the General tab, make sure External disks are ticked under Show these items on the desktop.
  3. Click the Sidebar tab > Locations, and ensure External disks are checked.

If your disk still doesn't appear in Finder or the desktop, you likely have accidentally hidden the sidebar or toolbar.

  1. Open Finder and click the Finder menu at the top.
  2. Click View > Show Sidebar & Show Toolbar.

Related reading: Finder Sidebar Icons are Missing, How to Restore Them

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