Having an external drive is the smartest and safest option, as you can carry it everywhere you go. It allows you to store a copious amount of data and make it available whenever needed. Some unfortunate Mac or MacBook users are encountering an issue related to their external drive, their Mac and MacBook are not able to detect the external drive.

There might be more than one reason behind the issue, and it can be annoying especially when you want the data located in the external drive urgently. If you’re victimized with the same consequences, you’re on the right post. Go through the explanatory guide that we’ve managed to provide you to fix the External Drives Not Detecting issue on Mac Or MacBook. Without further delay, let’s get started.

External Drives Not Detecting issue on Mac Or MacBook

The most common reason behind the issue is that the external drive does not receive enough power from the port. Here’s some workaround that will help you to resolve the issue.

1. Perform a Restart

If your Mac or MacBook is unable to detect the external drive, performing a complete restart is the major thing you can do. Just restart your device normally, and try to mount the external device to your Mac or MacBook.

2. Avoid using HUB

Plenty of users have mentioned on the Apple forums and community that, hubs of the older version do not work in macOS.

• Just turn on the Mac or MacBook.
• Plug the external drive to Mac using a USB cable directly into Mac’s port.
• Turn on the external drive when the USB is connected.

3. Insufficient Power Supply

Ensure that the external drive that you’re using is receiving sufficient power. If your power supply is available to your device, then try to plug the drive directly into a power source, the external drive will mount itself when sufficient power is received. You also use the USB port as a power source or USB hub.

4. Check Your Settings

Incorrect settings might be the culprit here, make sure you’ve the same settings given below:

• Visit Finder > Preferences.
• Under General and Sidebar tabs, check the “Show these items on the desktop” section.

• Tick Hard disks and others as shown in the image above.
• Now, try connecting the external drive to your device.

5. Run Disk Utility and Check Format

Check if you see external drive in the Disk Utility:

• Visit Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• If your external drive is visible but not mounted, then select the mount option.
• Now, your external drive must detect to your Mac.

Additionally,

• Click on the Apple logo located at the top left corner.
• Select About This Mac.
• Click on the Storage tab to check if the drive is visible.
• If it won’t show, then go back to Disk Utilities and select the external drive from the left sidebar.
• Choose First Aid or verify disk.
• This method will detect errors and tries to fix them.

If your external drive is visible in Disk Utility, but don’t mount. Then changing the format should fix the issue. It should be listed in NTFS format. If you want to format the drive then format the drive with the help of erase function from Disk Utility in exFAt, FAT, APFS (if your MacOS supports.