Does your Mac not recognize a USB drive? Is the USB flash drive not showing up on Mac after inserting it in the USB port? Find solutions here. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac when you want to recover data from a USB drive not recognized.
On a Mac with Apple silicon: Press and hold the power button until you see 'Loading startup options.' If you're using a Mac Mini, wait for the system indicator light to turn amber. When you see the available startup disks, select one, then click the Up arrow (on Mac) or Continue button (on Mac with Apple silicon.). Within disk utility, the partition icon is grayed out. If I mouse over it, it reads: 'Disks with Master Boot Record Partition Maps cannot be partitioned'. The history on this drive: It is a 2 TB Seagate external hard drive that the Mac store reformatted for me to use with Time Machine.
Mac Won't Recognize USB, What Should You Do?
Commonly, when you insert a USB drive in the USB port on a Mac computer, the drive will soon appear on the desktop or hide in the Finder, letting you access, view, and manage data on it. Did you come across the situation that no matter how many times you try to connect the USB drive with a Mac computer, the USB drive is not showing up anywhere? Why this time Mac won't recognize a connected USB you may wonder. Though not a usual thing, the issue of an external hard drive or flash drive not showing up on Mac happens sometimes. What should you do in this circumstance? What are the effective solutions to make your USB drive show up again?
This page basically covers all the possible fixes for USB not showing up on Mac, which also applies to the similar issues of other storage devices like an external hard drive not showing up on Mac, flash drive not showing up on Mac, SD card not showing up on Mac, etc. Take a quick glance at the main content and directly jump to the part you're most interested in.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Fix 1~4. Some basic check and change settings | 1. Change the connection way 2. Change settings for desktop 3. Change settings for Finder 4. Check system information..Full steps |
Fix 5~8. Repair corrupted USB drive | 1. Reset USB ports 2. Repair in Disk Utility 3. Repair with the terminal 4. Reformat USB drive..Full steps |
Fix 9~10. macOS troubleshooting and manual repair | 1. update macOS and firmware 2. Manual repair service..Full steps |
10 Fixes for USB Not Showing Up on Mac
The reasons behind the problem of a USB device not showing up are various, including the USB port is not working, USB drive corruption, virus infection, macOS faulty, etc. So, to figure out the effective solutions for your own case, you need to take time to have some basic check, exclude the irrelevant issues, identify the potential risk, and finally solve it!
- Important
- As losing the access to data is the most direct impact of Mac not detecting a USB drive, you might need to perform USB data recovery on Mac.
Fix 1. Change the USB-to-Mac connection way
Have you tried to restart your Mac once or twice? Before taking further measures, don't forget the most efficient way to tackle commonplace hardware glitches that arises from time to time. If this operating system restarting fails to solve the current problem, move on to check the physical connectivity issue step by step.
Step 1. Plug the USB drive out from the not working USB port and change to the other USB port. Try all the available USB ports on your Mac.
Step 2. Did you use a USB connection cable or a USB-C adapter? If yes, take the USB drive out, and directly plug it in the USB port.
Step 3. Is there the other Mac computer available to you? If yes, try to connect the USB drive to this computer. Is it showing up normally?
Step 4. For SD card owners, the common way to connect an SD card to a Mac needs a card reader. If changing the USB ports did not work, try to change a card reader for a new round of tests.
The four steps of troubleshooting a USB drive not showing up on Mac are very basic, however, quite helpful in most cases. Each step can help us exclude the issues of a bad/loose connection, a not working USB port, a lack of power, and other superficial phenomenons.
Fix 2. Change settings for Mac detecting an external hard disk on the desktop
Occasionally, your Mac has already recognized the USB flash drive but not shown it on the desktop. Thus, you should go to Finder > Preferences > General and make sure the 'External disks' option is ticked. Then you'll see the USB flash drive showing up on Mac desktop.
Fix 3. Change settings for Mac recognize an external hard disk in the Finder
Finder is the other access for us to check a connected external drive on Mac. If your flash drive or external hard drive is not showing up there, go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar, and under Locations, you need to tick the option 'External disks'. By selecting this option, we can make sure that the connected external USB hard drive or flash drive will normally show up in the Finder.
Fix 4. Check the USB drive in System Information
When you cannot find the USB drive on the desktop or in the Finder, try to look for it in the System Information section, which is usually a hidden place for average Mac users.
Step 1. Go to Applications > Utilities > System Information.
Step 2. Check if the system detects the USB drive. Click 'USB' on the left panel, and you can also check the USB flash drive information.
Fix 5. Reset USB ports on Mac to detect a USB drive
Step 1. Restart Mac computer, press the Command +Option+P+R keys until the Apple logo appears.
Step 2. Press Command+Option+Esc keys to close all applications that are not responding.
Step 3. Plug the USB which is not showing up to your Mac computer. If it doesn't show up, click Apple icon and select 'Sleep'.
Step 4. Wake up the computer after a few seconds by pressing any key.
Step 5. Shut down the Mac, unplug the power cord, reattach it after 15 seconds.
If this doesn't work, we should suspect the corruption issue at this moment. Don't give up and try to do some repair by yourself.
Fix 6. Repair USB flash drive with First Aid if it doesn't show up
Step 1. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Step 2. Select USB flash drive on the left panel of Disk Utility, and click 'First Aid' at the top toolbar and click 'Run'. Disk Utility will repair any errors on the drive automatically.
Step 3. Select the USB drive and click 'Unmount' at the top toolbar, unplug the USB and plug it back in 10-15 seconds.
Fix 7. Check and fix errors in a not recognized USB with Terminal
Step 1. Open Terminal in Utilities, type:diskutil list and press Return.
Step 2. Find the disk number of your USB flash drive, type: diskutil info disk2 and press Return. (Replace 2 with the disk number of your USB flash drive.)
Step 3. Type: diskutil eject disk 2 and press Return.
Step 4. Type: diskutil list and press Return.When the USB disappear from the Terminal list, close the window.
Step 5. Close Terminal and open Console to inspect your drive errors.
Usb Partition Tool Free
Step 6. Click 'Errors and Faults' to check if there are any errors.
Step 7. Reconnect your USB flash drive back to Mac, if no error shows up, your USB flash drive is safe.
Fix 8. Save data and reformat the not showing USB drive
Disk reformatting basically solves many hard drive issues, including the not showing up USB, particularly the time when you are able to see the USB icon but files are not showing. USB drive showing empty makes no sense, so you have to reformat the disk and make it usable again.
Note that reformatting will erase data. As long as the data matters, you need to follow the standard procedure to ensure zero data loss. [1] Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, the professional Mac data recovery software, to perform a full USB drive data recovery. [2] Reformat the USB drive in Disk Utility.
To format the USB drive in Disk Utility:
Step 1. Go to Utilities and open Disk Utility.
Step 2. Select the not showing up USB flash drive in the Disk Utility sidebar.
Step 3. Click Erase on the top.
Step 4. Finish the necessary information (name, format, and scheme) to format the USB flash drive.
Fix 9. Update your macOS and firmware
Did your Mac's OS keep updating all the time? Chances are that your Mac won't recognize a USB drive, especially after a macOS update. This time, take a close look at the settings whether your Mac is up-to-date. Equally, firmware updates address a variety of hardware issues and the functionality of the USB ports could well be one of them. So, keep your software and firmware up to date will likely make the USB drive show up as normal again.
Fix 10. Send the USB drive to a repair center
Nowadays even the branded USB flash drives are not expensive. If you've tried all the suggested troubleshooting methods, the USB drive is still not showing up on Mac, you have to accept the truth that it's severely damaged and beyond your ability to repair it.
Mac won't recognize a badly damaged flash drive or external hard drive since there is no way to show it up, even temporarily, which makes the data recovery difficult. The last chance for you to rescue data is to send the broken USB drive to a specialized data recovery service center nearby, and let the professionals try their best. You need to prepare for the manual data recovery cost, which is noticeably higher than the software data recovery. Hence, always try the cost-effective plan of using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to scan the USB drive for the first attempt.
Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.
Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.
Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.
USB Has Two Partitions Issue
'I have a 16GB Kingston flash drive that has been accidentally partitioned. The USB drive split into two parts, and now my USB has 2 partitions, with 7.3GB each. I've tried to delete one partition or combine the two partitions into one with Disk Management, but all failed. How can I work out the problem?'
Plugging into your USB drive with several gigabytes of storage only to see two or multiple partitions pop up in the Windows File Explorer? You may ask, can a USB drive have multiple partitions? Yes, as long as you meet the following two conditions, you can create two or more partitions on the USB.
1. Make sure your computer is running Windows 8.1 and later that supports the recognition of multiple USB flash drive partitions.
2. Your USB is generated by a specific vendor and supports the creation of multiple partitions.
Multiple partitions on one USB drive lead to a lot of unnecessary memory consumption, and it's really inconvenient. Facing this issue, you can't resolve it by simply reformatting as you can only reformat each individual partition instead of the whole disk drive. Then, it leaves you with two options to troubleshoot: one is deleting partitions on the USB drive, and the other is merging USB partitions. First, we will show you two ways to delete a partition on the USB drive with Diskpart and easy partition management software. Move to check details.
How to Unpartition a USB Drive in Windows 10 with Diskpart
Sometimes, the 'Delete Volume' option in Windows 10 Disk Management greys out, which prevents users from deleting partitions. At this moment, you can turn to the Diskpart utility to help you out. Do as the guide instructs. Later, there should be a single partition on the USB flash drive.
Note: Deleting partitions with files saved before will cause data loss. Hence, back up your important files in advance.
Step 1. Press Windows + R simultaneously, type cmd, click 'OK' to open an elevated command prompt.
Step 2. Type diskpart and hit enter.
Step 3. Type list disk. Soon diskpart will list all the hard drives on your computer, including your USB flash drive that is connecting with the computer. Assuming that your USB flash drive is drive G:.
Usb Partition Fix
Step 4. Type select disk G and hit enter.
Step 5. If there are one more partitions on the flash drive and you wish to delete some of them, now type list partition and hit enter. There should list all the partitions, numbered as 0, 1, 2..
Step 6. Type select partition 0 and hit enter.
Step 7. Type delete partition and hit enter.
Step 8. Repeat step 6 and step 7 to delete partition 1 or 2..
Step 9. After deleting all the target partitions, type create partition primary, Ftp code editor mac. and hit enter. How to screenshot in mac laptop.
Step 10. Exit the command prompt. You can go back to the computer and follow the wizard to format the partition.
Use an Easier Partition Manager to Delete a Partition on a USB Drive
Don't have confidence in using Command Prompt well? Some people with a little technical background may try to avoid using diskpart utility because of the complex operation. More importantly, they're afraid of making trouble with wrong commands and doing damage to their hard drive data. Apart from human factors, you might encounter an error called 'diskpart cannot delete a partition on removable media' from time to time, which makes you give up the Dispart. In all these cases, how do you remove all partitions from a USB drive/SD card easily? It is a wise choice to choose an easy-to-use partition management software as a workaround.
EaseUS Partition Master, much more powerful than Diskpart and Disk Management in Windows 10, provides a wide range of disk organization functions and enables you to delete partition, format partition, hide partition, wipe partition, clone/copy partition, combine/merge partitions effortlessly. It goes fully compatible with Windows 10 and has advanced partition management features that are unavailable in diskpart utility, such as migrate OS to HDD/SSD.
Video Tutorial - How to Partition Hard Drive
Now, download and use this partition manager to remove partitions from the USB drive without effort.
- Notice:
- 1. Connect your SD card, USB or external hard drive to PC before the deletion.
- 2. Save important data from the external storage device to another secure location in advance.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master on your PC
On the main interface, right-click on the partition of the SD card, USB or external hard drive and select 'Delete'.
Step 2: Confirm the deletion
Click 'OK' to confirm that you need to delete the partition on the selected device.
Step 3: Keep changes
Click the 'Execute Operation' button at the top corner and save all changes by clicking 'Apply'.
If you delete one or more partitions and keep the one with data, you can extend the partition with space left after deletion. While If you delete all the partitions, you can directly create a partition on your USB drive.
How to Merge Partitions on USB Flash Drive in Windows 10
- Notice:
- This method is only applicable when you have successfully created several partitions on your USB drive. To be exact, all the partitions should have drive letters and are normally accessible. If your USB drive shows only one partition in the File Explorer, you can just choose to delete the partitions instead of merging them.
If you have data on every partition, it is recommended that you merge the two or multiple partitions instead of deleting for data security. Then, how to merge USB partitions in Windows 10 without deleting? Let EaseUS Partition Master help you to make it. It supports combining two adjacent partitions with ease.
Step 1. Open Terminal in Utilities, type:diskutil list and press Return.
Step 2. Find the disk number of your USB flash drive, type: diskutil info disk2 and press Return. (Replace 2 with the disk number of your USB flash drive.)
Step 3. Type: diskutil eject disk 2 and press Return.
Step 4. Type: diskutil list and press Return.When the USB disappear from the Terminal list, close the window.
Step 5. Close Terminal and open Console to inspect your drive errors.
Usb Partition Tool Free
Step 6. Click 'Errors and Faults' to check if there are any errors.
Step 7. Reconnect your USB flash drive back to Mac, if no error shows up, your USB flash drive is safe.
Fix 8. Save data and reformat the not showing USB drive
Disk reformatting basically solves many hard drive issues, including the not showing up USB, particularly the time when you are able to see the USB icon but files are not showing. USB drive showing empty makes no sense, so you have to reformat the disk and make it usable again.
Note that reformatting will erase data. As long as the data matters, you need to follow the standard procedure to ensure zero data loss. [1] Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, the professional Mac data recovery software, to perform a full USB drive data recovery. [2] Reformat the USB drive in Disk Utility.
To format the USB drive in Disk Utility:
Step 1. Go to Utilities and open Disk Utility.
Step 2. Select the not showing up USB flash drive in the Disk Utility sidebar.
Step 3. Click Erase on the top.
Step 4. Finish the necessary information (name, format, and scheme) to format the USB flash drive.
Fix 9. Update your macOS and firmware
Did your Mac's OS keep updating all the time? Chances are that your Mac won't recognize a USB drive, especially after a macOS update. This time, take a close look at the settings whether your Mac is up-to-date. Equally, firmware updates address a variety of hardware issues and the functionality of the USB ports could well be one of them. So, keep your software and firmware up to date will likely make the USB drive show up as normal again.
Fix 10. Send the USB drive to a repair center
Nowadays even the branded USB flash drives are not expensive. If you've tried all the suggested troubleshooting methods, the USB drive is still not showing up on Mac, you have to accept the truth that it's severely damaged and beyond your ability to repair it.
Mac won't recognize a badly damaged flash drive or external hard drive since there is no way to show it up, even temporarily, which makes the data recovery difficult. The last chance for you to rescue data is to send the broken USB drive to a specialized data recovery service center nearby, and let the professionals try their best. You need to prepare for the manual data recovery cost, which is noticeably higher than the software data recovery. Hence, always try the cost-effective plan of using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to scan the USB drive for the first attempt.
Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.
Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.
Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.
USB Has Two Partitions Issue
'I have a 16GB Kingston flash drive that has been accidentally partitioned. The USB drive split into two parts, and now my USB has 2 partitions, with 7.3GB each. I've tried to delete one partition or combine the two partitions into one with Disk Management, but all failed. How can I work out the problem?'
Plugging into your USB drive with several gigabytes of storage only to see two or multiple partitions pop up in the Windows File Explorer? You may ask, can a USB drive have multiple partitions? Yes, as long as you meet the following two conditions, you can create two or more partitions on the USB.
1. Make sure your computer is running Windows 8.1 and later that supports the recognition of multiple USB flash drive partitions.
2. Your USB is generated by a specific vendor and supports the creation of multiple partitions.
Multiple partitions on one USB drive lead to a lot of unnecessary memory consumption, and it's really inconvenient. Facing this issue, you can't resolve it by simply reformatting as you can only reformat each individual partition instead of the whole disk drive. Then, it leaves you with two options to troubleshoot: one is deleting partitions on the USB drive, and the other is merging USB partitions. First, we will show you two ways to delete a partition on the USB drive with Diskpart and easy partition management software. Move to check details.
How to Unpartition a USB Drive in Windows 10 with Diskpart
Sometimes, the 'Delete Volume' option in Windows 10 Disk Management greys out, which prevents users from deleting partitions. At this moment, you can turn to the Diskpart utility to help you out. Do as the guide instructs. Later, there should be a single partition on the USB flash drive.
Note: Deleting partitions with files saved before will cause data loss. Hence, back up your important files in advance.
Step 1. Press Windows + R simultaneously, type cmd, click 'OK' to open an elevated command prompt.
Step 2. Type diskpart and hit enter.
Step 3. Type list disk. Soon diskpart will list all the hard drives on your computer, including your USB flash drive that is connecting with the computer. Assuming that your USB flash drive is drive G:.
Usb Partition Fix
Step 4. Type select disk G and hit enter.
Step 5. If there are one more partitions on the flash drive and you wish to delete some of them, now type list partition and hit enter. There should list all the partitions, numbered as 0, 1, 2..
Step 6. Type select partition 0 and hit enter.
Step 7. Type delete partition and hit enter.
Step 8. Repeat step 6 and step 7 to delete partition 1 or 2..
Step 9. After deleting all the target partitions, type create partition primary, Ftp code editor mac. and hit enter. How to screenshot in mac laptop.
Step 10. Exit the command prompt. You can go back to the computer and follow the wizard to format the partition.
Use an Easier Partition Manager to Delete a Partition on a USB Drive
Don't have confidence in using Command Prompt well? Some people with a little technical background may try to avoid using diskpart utility because of the complex operation. More importantly, they're afraid of making trouble with wrong commands and doing damage to their hard drive data. Apart from human factors, you might encounter an error called 'diskpart cannot delete a partition on removable media' from time to time, which makes you give up the Dispart. In all these cases, how do you remove all partitions from a USB drive/SD card easily? It is a wise choice to choose an easy-to-use partition management software as a workaround.
EaseUS Partition Master, much more powerful than Diskpart and Disk Management in Windows 10, provides a wide range of disk organization functions and enables you to delete partition, format partition, hide partition, wipe partition, clone/copy partition, combine/merge partitions effortlessly. It goes fully compatible with Windows 10 and has advanced partition management features that are unavailable in diskpart utility, such as migrate OS to HDD/SSD.
Video Tutorial - How to Partition Hard Drive
Now, download and use this partition manager to remove partitions from the USB drive without effort.
- Notice:
- 1. Connect your SD card, USB or external hard drive to PC before the deletion.
- 2. Save important data from the external storage device to another secure location in advance.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master on your PC
On the main interface, right-click on the partition of the SD card, USB or external hard drive and select 'Delete'.
Step 2: Confirm the deletion
Click 'OK' to confirm that you need to delete the partition on the selected device.
Step 3: Keep changes
Click the 'Execute Operation' button at the top corner and save all changes by clicking 'Apply'.
If you delete one or more partitions and keep the one with data, you can extend the partition with space left after deletion. While If you delete all the partitions, you can directly create a partition on your USB drive.
How to Merge Partitions on USB Flash Drive in Windows 10
- Notice:
- This method is only applicable when you have successfully created several partitions on your USB drive. To be exact, all the partitions should have drive letters and are normally accessible. If your USB drive shows only one partition in the File Explorer, you can just choose to delete the partitions instead of merging them.
If you have data on every partition, it is recommended that you merge the two or multiple partitions instead of deleting for data security. Then, how to merge USB partitions in Windows 10 without deleting? Let EaseUS Partition Master help you to make it. It supports combining two adjacent partitions with ease.
Step 1: Install and launch EaseUS Partition Master on your PC
Right-click on the partition which you want to add space to and keep on the hard drive, and select 'Merge'.
Step 2: Select partitions to merge
1. Select one partition next to the former selected partition.
2. And click 'OK' to continue.
Step 3: Merge partitions
1. Click the 'Execute Operation' button at the top and then click 'Apply'.
2. The program will merge space and add files from the second partition to the first partition.
Conclusions
When you happen to meet the USB has two or multiple partitions on your USB drive and want to keep only one, you can selectively delete or merge partitions. But whichever way you choose, we believe that EaseUS Partition Master is your best partition management tool because of its ease-to-use feature and perfect functions, as you can see from the above tutorials. Therefore, give it a try, and you won't be disappointed.