Jun 01, 2015 Same problem; external WD “My Book” 4TB disk drive. Ejects itself when computer is idle or asleep. Unplugging and re-plugging USB doesn’t do it; have to unplug the drive’s power AND USB to remount. I am running Yosemite (10.10.5) on a mid-2012 MBP. I had hoped upgrading to El Cap would fix this. Sounds like maybe not. Oct 12, 2019 I can confirm that WD Security is installable AND does work on MacOS Catalina on MacBook Pro (late 2014) models! Install WD security and run the app. When prompted, plugin your Passport. It will then prompt you to enter your Passport password. From there, you’ll be greeted with options to update your security settings which include options to (1) remove your password, (2) set a new password, (3) add auto-unlock to your computer, and a few other items. Helps you create a bootable USB drive for macOS Catalina which will work with older Macs, not officially supported by the operating system. Firmware updater for updating Western Digital My Book Duo, My Book for Mac, My Book, and My Passpo. Dec 7th 2017, 22:26 GMT. OS X 10.9 or later. Every journey needs a passport. The My Passport™ for Mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your on-the-go lifestyle. Compatible with USB-C™ and USB-A, the My Passport for Mac drive comes equipped to connect with today's latest technology. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, there’s space to store, organize, and share all the. List of all WD firmware and software available for download.
Summary: It's a definite guide to fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive without data loss. It troubleshoots why the external hard drive is not recognized by macOS and how to access it in such situations. You can also download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to get files off when Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive.
Whether you are using MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac, inevitably, the Mac can't recognize the external hard drive that you plug into.
Don't know how to make Mac recognize the external hard drive again? No worries.
Because after reading this post, you can:
According to different situations, this passage will show you solutions to fix 'Mac doesn't recognize external hard drive' issue accordingly.
Overview of macOS Recognizing An External Hard Drive
When your Seagate, WD my passport, Toshiba or other external hard drive is not recognized by Mac, the first thing is to know which part of the recognition process goes wrong.
So let's take a closer look at how macOS recognizes an external hard drive.
Step 1: The external hard drive is connected to your Mac.
Plugging the external hard drive into a computer will establish the hardware connection, which would supply the external hard drive with power source and data transferring capability. Visually, you can see the external hard drive lighting on and hear it spinning.
Step 2: macOS detects the external hard drive.
After the connection, the Mac would detect that a new storage device is plugged in. It's going to tell the device's type and manufacturer information, which will help macOS know how to load and read this external hard drive.
Step 3: macOS reads the external hard drive.
After recognizing the hardware information of the external hard drive, the Mac will call other system components to read the external hard drive’s type and partition information. If the hard drive is readable by the Mac, a visible disk icon would be formed consequently.
Step 4: macOS recognizes the files in the external hard drive.
Once Mac successfully reads the partition information of the external hard drive, it will go further by calling related programs to recognize the file system of each partition on the external hard drive. A recognized file system will let macOS know how and where your data is stored on the external hard drive, so that it can mount this external hard drive for use.
Step 5: Mac shows the external hard drive for users.
Going so far, macOS has recognized the external hard drive. Meanwhile, other programs get notified that there is a new volume available. But to make it convenient for users to access the data on the drive, it will check the system preferences and decide if users want to automatically mount and show the external hard drive on the desktop and in the finder.
Amazing, right? You probably never know the details. Your Mac has done so many works to recognize an external storage device, while you just simply plug the external drive into the USB port.
However, if one or more steps above fail, the external hard drive would not be recognized by Mac successfully. You can't access it. In this case, we need to know why Mac doesn't recognize your external hard drive.
Namely, we need to check these things:
Now, let's check them one by one.
First of all, Check the Connections
Don't assume this is unnecessary. It turns out that most of the time, Mac doesn't recognize external hard drives, USB flash drives, pen drives, SD cards, etc. just because the drive is not properly connected.
Since a good connection is a basic condition for secondary hard drives working on the Mac, we need to try these things step by step.
1. Make sure the external hard drive is supplied with power.
Usually, when the external hard drive is supplied with power, the light of the external hard drive is on and blinking. If not, try to check if the external hard drive needs to be externally plugged into the wall outlet. It happens most for some external desktop hard drives like WD Elements and Seagate Desktop devices that don't use USB ports as the power source.
2. Try to re-plug the external hard drive.
This works when you have a drive mounted but your operating system goes to sleep later. Mac won't recognize the external hard drive after the USB port is powered off. When your Mac wakes up again, the drive may not have come out of its slumber. You can reconnect the external hard drive to make it work again.
3. Try another USB port to connect the external hard drive.
Portable hard drives like My Passport and iomega use USB port both for power and data supply. So, if the USB port is loose, damaged, lack of power, or dusty, the connected external hard drive won't be recognized by Mac. You need to change another slot to connect your drive.
4. Try to plug the external hard drive into the USB port slowly.
Strange though, some users notice that the external hard drive would be recognized and work well when they plug it in exceptionally slowly. It may because the USB port is out of shape and unstable. The tricks also work for other storage devices, including thumb drive, USB flash drive, etc.
5. Try another USB cable to connect the external hard drive.
In case the cable is broken, you can try another USB cable to connect the external hard drive to your Mac. And if it's an SD card that is not showing up on Mac, try another card reader. Don't worry if you don't have one right now, you can skip and check other things first.
6. Try another USB hub or USB-C adapter. https://inkpowerful404.weebly.com/blog/norton-security-for-mac-yosemite.
Some MacBook after 2015 uses Thunderbolt 3 while some older ones use Thunderbolt 2. This results in incompatibility between different Thunderbolt ports. Thus, if the unrecognized external hard drive is a Type C drive, you can try to access it via another Mac. Instead, if it's a standard USB-A external hard drive and you connect it to Thunderbolt 3 port via USB-C adapter, you can try another USB hub or even another adapter. Sometimes, such adaption makes data transferring unstable.
7. Try to reboot your Mac.
Possibly, you improperly ejected the external hard drive the last time you use it on the Mac. As a result, Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive this time. It's because macOS would think the USB port is still taken by the unsafely ejected one.
Second, Check if the external hard drive is recognized in System Information
The System Information app provides detailed specifications and other information about your Mac. In some versions of OS X, this app is called System Profiler. So, if the connections are good, you can check whether the connected external hard drive is detected in System Information or not.
Step 1: Choose Apple menu > About This Mac.
Step 2: Click the System Report button to see more details provided by the System Information.
Step 3: Find and click the USB option under the Hardware section.
Step 4: Check if the external hard drive is recognized here or not.
If you can find the USB external hard drive in System Information, it means macOS has detected this drive. But why you can't access and open this external hard drive on the desktop and in the Finder? You need to go further and check more things.
Then Check if Mac is Set to Display External Hard Drives
Usually, the external hard drive will be automatically mounted by Mac. Then you can see it on the desktop or in Finder in seconds. But this time, the external hard drive is not showing up on your Mac. Does this mean the external hard drive is not recognized by Mac? Probably not. On the contrary, you need to check if the mounted external hard drive is allowed to show up.
Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences >Sidebar.
Step 2: Select External disks under Locations to list your external hard drive in the Finder sidebar.
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Step 3: Shift to the General tab.
Step 4: Check External disks under 'Show these items on the desktop'. Then your connected external hard drive will appear in Finder and on the desktop.
Chances are that Mac won't recognize the external hard drive still. It means it's not the Mac device's fault. Then we should throw light on the external hard drive itself.
Third, Check if Mac Recognizes the Partitions of the External Hard Drive
Any storage devices, including HDD and SSD, need to be partitioned. It makes sure that each section can be managed separately. And partition table or partition map records the necessary partition information of the external hard drive.
Mac won't read the external hard drive further once the partition table is damaged, lost, or corrupted. Fortunately, you can check this in Disk Utility.
Solution 1: Check the external hard drive in Disk Utility
Disk Utility is a built-in disk repair tool on your Mac. It can manage, erase, check, and repair disks efficiently. It's free and powerful. So, continue reading and check if Mac is reading the disk's partitions.
Step 1: Click Launchpad, find the Other folder and open it. Here, you can see and launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices'.
Step 3: If you can see volumes of the external hard drive in the left sidebar, be it lighted or greyed, select the name of the unrecognized external hard drive.
Step 4: Click on the First Aid button in the top center and click Run.
Tips: If it's a WD external hard drive that is not recognized by Mac, you can check if it is encrypted by WD Security. If so, simply unlock it with WD Discovery and access the external hard drive again.
But if you can't see any partitions or volumes, or you run First Aid to repair the external hard drive but fail, then the partition information is not recognized by Mac. You need to move to the next solution in this situation.
Solution 2: Reformat the unrecognized external hard drive
If First Aid is unable to repair the unrecognized external hard drive, the disk might be corrupted too seriously to be repaired. Under this circumstance, the only solution is to erase this external hard drive in Disk Utility and assign new partition schemes.
Warning: Reformatting will wipe your data off the unrecognizable external hard drive. So, before you follow the steps below, make sure you have a copy of backups. If you don't have any backup in hand, you can also recover lost data from the unrecognized external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Select the unrecognized external hard drive on the left.
Step 3: Click the Erase at the top of the Disk Utility window.
Step 4: Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase.
Tips: Click here to learn the differences between GUID, Master Boot Record, Apple Partition Map if you don't know to choose which partition scheme in Disk Utility.
How to Prevent Data Loss When Mac Doesn't Recognize External Hard Drives?
When the external hard drive is not working normally, the first concern for most users is the important data on the drive. However, if you have tried possible solutions but Mac just doesn't recognize the external hard drive still, how can you access your data?
Pulse secure for mac el capitan. The good news is, you can recover lost data from this unrecognizable external hard drive with free Mac data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best hard drive data recovery software. It can recover lost data from the external hard drives when it's not recognized, not readable, not working or not showing up on Mac. Moreover, this data recovery software can recover lost data from formatted, corrupted, and unmounted external hard drives. It supports data recovery from APFS, HFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT32 formatted hard drives.
This program works with macOS 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.7 (Lion).
Step 1: Install and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
After downloading and launching this Mac data recovery software, you can connect the unrecognized external hard drive to your Mac. Later, you can check if the drive is detected and show up in this software.
Step 2: Select the unrecognized external hard drive to scan for lost data.
If you can find the unrecognized external hard drive in the list, click on it. And then choose Scan to search for data on this hard drive.
Step 3: Preview the searching results and recover the target ones.
As we mentioned before, you can't access and view your important data on the unrecognized external hard drive. But with the assistance of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, you get a chance to check the condition of your data by using its Preview feature. Simply filter the scanning result, select the data to preview, and click 'Recover' to get them back.
Last, Check if Mac Has Recognized the File System of the External HDD
The file system manages how your data is stored on the external hard drive. If your partition map seems to be OK, the next thing we need to confirm is that if Mac has recognized the file system of each partition.
So, just go to Finder > Go > Utilities > Disk Utility. You can check if you can see the partition and file system of the USB external hard drive there.
You can see if the file system is NTFS in the right column. You can't write to Windows NTFS on Mac but only read. Probably, you assume that Mac doesn't recognize the NTFS external hard drive because you can't access or open the files. In this case, you can simply solve this problem with an NTFS for Mac driver. Or if you don't have important data, you can reformat it as FAT32, exFAT, or APFS (If you can macOS supports it) in Disk Utility.
If it is not NTFS but any other recognizable file system, you can fix the Mac not recognizing external hard drive issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Manually mount the external hard drive if it's greyed out in Disk UtilityUpdate Wd My Book Driver For Mac Catalina 2017
Chances are that Mac has recognized the external hard drive, but for some reason, Mac fails to automatically mount it. So, if you can see the volumes of the external hard drive with correct disk information (name, file system, storage capacity, etc.), try to force mount the external hard drive in Disk Utility.
Step 1: Open Disk Utility.
Step 2: Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices'.
Step 3: Right-click on the volume that you want to access, not the external hard drive this time.
Step 4: Choose Mount in the context menu.
If nothing happens or macOS reports some errors, keep reading. You can repair the unrecognized external hard drive with First Aid.
Solution 2: Repair the external hard drive with First Aid if you can't mount it
If you can't mount the external hard drive in Disk Utility, the drive might have some file system corruptions. But don't be panic when you hear 'corruption', you still have solutions when Mac can’t recognize the external hard drive's file system.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility as you did before.
Step 2: Click View option at the upper left, and then choose 'Show All Devices' in the context menu.
Step 3: Select the corrupted volume in the list, not the name of the external hard drive.
Step 4: Click on the First Aid button in the top center and then click Run. https://inkpowerful404.weebly.com/blog/best-pdf-editor-for-mac-mojave.
If you run First Aid successfully, go to check if the external hard drive is recognized by Mac. If it fails, you need to expand the 'Show Details' option to see more information. Also, if you received an error like 'file system check exit code is 8', 'invalid b tree node size', or other messages, the file system of the external hard drive might be seriously corrupted and can't be repaired.
Read further and check what you can do.
Solution 3: Recover lost data and reformat the corrupted external hard drive
What if First Aid fails to repair the corrupted file system? Well, in this case, we strongly recommend you to recover your important data from the unrecognized external hard drive. It helps especially if you don't have backups. And then you can fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive by reformatting.
Step 1: Recover lost data from this unrecognized external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 2: Launch Disk Utility and select the unrecognized partitions of the external hard drive.
Step 3: Click the Erase at the top.
Step 4: Fill in the name and format you want to use, and then click Erase to reformat.
After these operations, your external hard drive should be recognized by Mac again. But if the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, unfortunately, your external hard drive has hardware problems. You could either contact the support team of the hard drive manufacturer for product repair and replacement. Or you can send the unrecognizable external hard drive to a local disk repair service for help.
Conclusion
As you can see, Mac needs to do a lot of work to recognize an external hard drive. If any step fails, the external hard drive won't be recognized by Mac. Thus, we offer some additional tips to help you beyond this issue.
Bonus tips:
When you access your external hard drive through Mac, Windows, or other types of computer, remember:
Let us know if this guide helps when your Mac doesn't recognize the external hard drive!
Mac not recognizing external hard drive FAQ
? How to access external hard drives on Mac?
? How to fix if my external hard drive is not detected by Mac?
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? What do I do if my external hard drive is not recognized in Disk Utility?
? How do I recover files from an external hard drive that won't mount?
Get a data lifeguard for Mac
Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead.
Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac’s treat them the same way as another computer.
However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all.
Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let’s take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents.
How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac
Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn’t making an appearance.
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Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac
Start with the basics:
Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn’t visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.
How to show connected devices in Finder
In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.
How to add cloud storages to Finder
You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.
Repair the failed external drives with First Aid
If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.
To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:
If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive.
How to recover data from a crashed drive
Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.
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An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive
Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:
Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren’t complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.
A few more tips on getting your files back
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Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove:
For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.
What’s your file format? One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you’re having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.
How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac
The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.
If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don’t have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.
Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE:
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And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.
Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.
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Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.
To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.
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