Note (September 2026): Earlier versions of this article said Disk Utility is opened from System Preferences; it is actually in Applications > Utilities, and the steps below have been corrected to match Apple’s current instructions.
If an external drive is not showing on a Mac, check the cable, port and power first, then open Finder > Settings and turn on External disks for the desktop and sidebar. If the drive still does not appear, open Disk Utility, choose View > Show All Devices, mount the volume and run First Aid.
Key Takeaways
- Most external drives that do not show on a Mac have a cable, port, power or Finder-setting problem, not lost data.
- Finder can hide mounted drives: turn on External disks in Finder > Settings under General (desktop) and Sidebar (Locations).
- Disk Utility is in Applications > Utilities, not in System Preferences; use View > Show All Devices to see every drive.
- First Aid runs from the last volume upward to the device itself; if it cannot repair errors, erasing is the next step and deletes data.
- A drive formatted as NTFS on Windows can be read by macOS but not written to by default.
If your external hard drive on Mac is unreachable, the cause is usually something you can check yourself: a loose or faulty cable or port, a Finder setting that hides external disks, a volume that did not mount, or a drive formatted in a file system macOS cannot fully use. Less often, the drive’s file system has errors, which Disk Utility’s First Aid can check and try to repair.
In other words, if you just know how to Fix Mac that doesn’t recognize external hard drive issues, most cases can be worked through with the built-in macOS checks below.
Most people just start panicking when they come across such an issue but believe it or not, there’s nothing to panic about. If files do go missing, third-party Mac data recovery software such as iBoysoft exists, but results vary and recovery is never guaranteed, so stop saving new data to the drive until the problem is solved. The practical approach is to work through the checks in order, starting with the simplest ones.
Another misconception about this problem is that people think that their files are now gone from their external hard drive. That is often not the case: a drive that does not show up may still hold all of its files, but macOS cannot access them until the connection, setting or volume problem is fixed.
Why Isn’t the External Drive Showing on Mac?
An external hard drive, SSD or flash drive that does not show on a Mac usually has a connection, power, setting or mounting problem. Start with these quick physical checks before changing any settings.
- Check if the drive is properly plugged in or not.
- Check if the USB connector is damaged.
- Also Check if the cable is frayed or if there are exposed wires.
- Try using a different USB cable.
- Connect the hard drive to a different USB port.
- Try your drive in another Mac if available.
- Reboot your Mac.
If none of these physical checks help, work through the software fixes below in order.
1] Changing the Finder settings
A common reason a connected drive seems to be missing is that Finder is set to hide external disks, even though macOS has already mounted the drive. To check the Finder settings:
- Open a Finder Window.
- Choose Finder > Settings (Finder > Preferences in older macOS versions), then click General.
- Select External disks to show connected drives on the desktop, then click Sidebar and select External disks under Locations to show them in the Finder sidebar.
This is the quickest fix to try when the drive is connected but you cannot see it on the desktop or in Finder.
2] Mounting an external hard drive
If Finder settings are not the problem, the drive’s volume may not be mounted, and you can mount it manually in Disk Utility. For this, you need to connect the hard drives and then follow these instructions carefully.
Open Disk Utility, which is in the Utilities folder inside Applications, and choose View > Show All Devices.
Check whether the external disk is listed in the Disk Utility sidebar. If it does not appear at all, Apple advises shutting down the Mac, unplugging nonessential devices and checking the drive’s cable, connections and power; a drive that still does not appear may need service.
If the drive is listed, select its volume and click the Mount button. Once mounted, the volume becomes available in the Finder.
3] Running First Aid on the hard drive
If the volume will not mount, or mounts but behaves oddly, run First Aid on the external hard drive.
Disk Utility’s First Aid checks a storage device for errors and tries to repair them, including problems related to corrupted files and data. It works on external drives as well as the Mac’s internal disk, so it is worth running before you consider erasing anything.
Open Disk Utility, choose View > Show All Devices, and select the last volume listed under the external drive. Click First Aid and follow the prompts, then repeat for each volume and container above it and finally for the device itself. If First Aid finds errors it cannot repair, Apple’s advice is to erase (format) the disk, which deletes its contents, so copy or recover important files first.
These steps solve many cases of an external drive not showing on a Mac; if none of them work, the drive, its enclosure or the Mac’s port may need service.
Quick Troubleshooting Table
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing happens when the drive is plugged in | Cable, port, hub or power problem | Try another cable and port, connect directly without a hub, and check the drive’s power supply |
| Drive appears in Disk Utility but not in Finder | Finder settings or an unmounted volume | Turn on External disks in Finder settings, or click Mount in Disk Utility |
| Drive will not mount or shows errors | File system errors | Run First Aid in Disk Utility on each volume, container and the device |
| Drive mounts but files cannot be saved | Windows NTFS format, which macOS reads but does not write by default | Copy files off, then reformat as ExFAT if the drive must work on both Mac and Windows |
| Drive is missing from Disk Utility and System Information | Hardware fault in the drive, enclosure, cable or port | Test on another computer; contact the drive maker or a repair service |
How Do You Check Whether the Mac Detects the Drive at All?
System Information shows whether macOS sees the drive’s hardware, even when it does not mount. According to Apple’s Mac User Guide, choose Apple menu > About This Mac, click System Report, and look for the device under Hardware in the list on the left. Holding the Option key and choosing Apple menu > System Information opens the same app directly.
If the drive is listed there but not in Finder, the problem is a setting, mounting or file system issue that the steps above can address. If it is not listed at all, the Mac is not detecting the hardware, which points to the cable, port, power or the drive itself.
Apple’s USB troubleshooting checklist
- Make sure the device is turned on and its cables are properly connected, and try another port.
- Install the latest software for the device from the manufacturer’s website, if it needs any.
- Connect a drive without its own power supply directly to the Mac or to a powered hub, and match hub speeds to the device (USB 3 with USB 3, USB 2 with USB 2).
- Disconnect other USB devices except the keyboard and mouse to isolate the problem.
- Quit and reopen any app using the drive, then restart the Mac.
Which Drive Formats Work on a Mac?
The file system a drive uses decides whether a Mac can read it, write to it, or both. Apple’s Disk Utility User Guide lists four formats Disk Utility can create:
| Format | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| APFS (Apple File System) | Macs only | The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later |
| Mac OS Extended | Older Macs | The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier |
| ExFAT | Sharing with Windows | Apple recommends it for Windows volumes over 32 GB |
| MS-DOS (FAT) | Sharing with Windows | Apple recommends it for Windows volumes of 32 GB or less |
NTFS, the usual Windows format, is not on that list. According to Wikipedia’s NTFS article, macOS includes read-only NTFS support; native write support exists but is not activated by default, and user reports describe it as unstable. A drive formatted on a Windows PC may therefore appear on a Mac but refuse to save files.
Reformatting a drive in Disk Utility erases everything on it. Copy the files to another location first.
How to Protect Your Data Before Repairing a Drive
- Back up first. Apple advises having a current backup before running First Aid, in case damaged files need to be recovered. Read more on why backing up data matters.
- Do not erase in a hurry. Erasing or reformatting is the last step, after First Aid has failed and important files have been copied off.
- Stop writing to a failing drive. Saving new files can overwrite data you may still want to recover. See how data recovery software is used and a Windows example of recovering a formatted hard drive.
- Know when to stop. A drive that is missing from System Information on more than one computer points to a hardware fault; a professional repair or recovery service is safer than repeated attempts.
For other Mac issues, see these common MacBook problems and fixes, and for partitioning drives on Windows, this guide to disk management with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my external hard drive not showing up on my Mac?
An external hard drive usually fails to show on a Mac because of a loose cable, a faulty port or hub, too little power, Finder settings that hide external disks, or a volume that did not mount. File system errors and unsupported formats are other possible causes.
Where is Disk Utility on a Mac?
Disk Utility is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. It can also be opened from macOS Recovery. It is not part of System Preferences or System Settings.
How do I mount an external drive manually on a Mac?
Open Disk Utility, choose View > Show All Devices, select the drive’s volume in the sidebar and click Mount. The volume then becomes available in the Finder.
Will First Aid delete my files?
First Aid checks and repairs a drive rather than erasing it, but Apple recommends a current backup before running it. If First Aid cannot repair the errors, the next step Apple suggests is erasing the disk, which does delete its contents.
Why can my Mac read my drive but not save files to it?
The drive is probably formatted as NTFS, a Windows file system that macOS reads but does not write to by default. Copying the files off and reformatting the drive as ExFAT makes it usable on both Mac and Windows.
What if the drive does not appear in Disk Utility either?
If the drive is missing from Disk Utility, Apple suggests shutting down the Mac, unplugging nonessential devices and checking the drive’s cable, connections and power. If it still does not appear, the Mac or the drive may need service.
