What to Do When Your Mac Doesn’t Recognize an External Drive

Connecting an external hard drive and not seeing it appear on your Mac can be a real headache. Fortunately, most of the time the issue has a simple fix. Here are the most common reasons this happens and what you can do about it.

1. Check the cable and port

First, rule out the obvious. A faulty cable or USB/USB-C port can prevent your Mac from recognizing the device. Try another cable or connect the drive to a different port. You can also test the drive on another computer.

2. Look in Disk Utility

Even if the drive doesn’t show up in Finder, it may still be recognized by macOS. Open the Disk Utility app (Applications > Utilities) and check the sidebar. If the drive appears but is grayed out, click “Mount”.

3.Check the drive format

Some drives are formatted in NTFS (Windows format), which macOS can read but not write to. If the drive isn’t showing, it could be due to an unsupported format. In Disk Utility, you can view and reformat the drive if needed—just make sure to back up your data first.

4. Review permissions

If the drive shows up but you can’t access the files, permissions may be the issue. Right-click the drive, select “Get Info”, and check the “Sharing & Permissions” section. Make sure you have read and write access.

5. Disable energy-saving settings

Your Mac may be turning off USB ports to save energy. Go to System Preferences > Battery and disable the option to put external drives to sleep.

6. Restart your Mac

Sometimes a simple restart can clear system-level issues that block devices from being detected.

Still not working?

Your drive may be damaged or your system might need further inspection. At iProX, we can help you assess the problem, recover data, or get the drive working again.