Home > Questions

Why Does My Mac Recognize exFAT External Drive Slow After Being Plugged In?

I frequently need to move files between my Mac book and my PC. This has been the case for about 7 years now. In that time, I have had 3 Exfat formatted hard drives, two mac books, and 3 PC's. Every Exfat formatted hard drive can be read with in a few seconds if not instantly on ANY PC I plug them into. However, EVERY mac I plug those external hard drives into, it takes 45 mins (I timed it) for both my 2013 Macbook Air and my brand new Mackbook Pro (that is about a month old) to register that the external hard drive is plugged in. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Vain Rowe

Vain Rowe

Answered on Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Quite frankly, Mac reads external hard drives with non-Apple file systems slower than the drive formatted with the Apple file system. So it seems normal that your Macs take so long to register the drive after being plugged in. Besides, provided that you got two external hard drives for data backup, you can format one drive to the Mac file system and remain the other one as exFAT formatted, of course.

Finally, files saved on an exFAT external hard drive can be moved onto the Mac-formatted drive and vice versa. If you stop the drive reading&writing work and properly eject it on your Mac before the disconnection, there are few possibilities that you get any disk corruption (neglecting the truth that all drives are going to corrupt after long use)

People Also Ask

Read More Questions

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

rm command lines on Mac

Gather All rm Command Lines To Delete File With Mac Terminal

This post is a summary guiding you to know all rm command lines and shed light on how to use rm command lines to delete files or folders on a macOS computers.

Wiki Tips

Le Centre de notification se fige après la mise à niveau vers Sonoma

Fix Notification Center Freezing after Upgrading to Sonoma

Si votre Centre de Notification se fige après la mise à niveau vers macOS Sonoma, suivez les solutions de contournement décrites dans ce message pour résoudre ce problème.

how to show or hide file name extensions on Mac

[New] How To Display (Hide) File Extensions On Mac?

This article aims to teach you how to display or hide the file extensions on your computer running macOS Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, and other earlier macOS versions.

News Tips