Ext HDDs randomly won't mount/show up in MacOS

[lifereinspired]

Hi,

I'm still fairly new to MacOS and trying to learn my way around. I have several external hard disc drives and for some reason, they don't all mount/appear in MacOS. I'm not sure what to do about it or how to get them to appear.

They are all formatted exFAT so they can easily be read across OSs. The other odd thing is that isn't always the same ones that show up or don't and they are plugged into different powered hubs. There appears to be no rhyme or reason that I can see as to why they don't show up.

I've purchased a new powered USB 3.0 hub but I had the same issue. Many showed up, a couple didn't. Reboot and different ones don't show up. Is there a limit as to how many drives will appear or some other reason? I'm completely lost as to why this would be happening.

Any help would be amazing. Thanks so much in advance!



In fact, I think I actually had MacOS do the formatting for most of them (I recently switched from NTFS to exFAT not too many months ago.

 

[colourfastt]

Hi,

I'm still fairly new to MacOS and trying to learn my way around. I have several external hard disc drives and for some reason, they don't all mount/appear in MacOS. I'm not sure what to do about it or how to get them to appear.

They are all formatted exFAT so they can easily be read across OSs. The other odd thing is that isn't always the same ones that show up or don't and they are plugged into different powered hubs. There appears to be no rhyme or reason that I can see as to why they don't show up.

I've purchased a new powered USB 3.0 hub but I had the same issue. Many showed up, a couple didn't. Reboot and different ones don't show up. Is there a limit as to how many drives will appear or some other reason? I'm completely lost as to why this would be happening.

Any help would be amazing. Thanks so much in advance!



In fact, I think I actually had MacOS do the formatting for most of them (I recently switched from NTFS to exFAT not too many months ago.

This is far from a new problem; I haven't been able to get any of my external HDDs to mount since (I think) Sierra. The odd thing is, though, thumb drives (USB sticks) mount normally.

Also, in all the years people have been making threads about this on MR, no one has been able to come up with a solution.

 

[chabig]

I'm still fairly new to MacOS and trying to learn my way around. I have several external hard disc drives and for some reason, they don't all mount/appear in MacOS. I'm not sure what to do about it or how to get them to appear.

Sometimes it takes a while for my external drive to appear on my Mini. If they don't, I open Disk Utility and they'll usually mount automatically after it opens.

 

[lifereinspired]

Sometimes it takes a while for my external drive to appear on my Mini. If they don't, I open Disk Utility and they'll usually mount automatically after it opens.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work for me (opening Disk Utility). When they don't show up, they're generally now available in Disk Utility. Sometimes, I'll notice that the drives will eventually show up in the system - no rhyme or reason - and it can be anywhere from minutes, to hours, to days - or never. And the drives that don't show up vary - so it isn't like there's an issue with the format.

It's driving me crazy. How can they not mount regularly? They do in various Linux distros and in Windows. I can't figure this out. How can there not be a fix for years? This is basic. I can't imagine so many creatives who use Mac for the incredible software would be happy not having the ability to have their creative files available on their Mac.

 

[lifereinspired]

This is far from a new problem; I haven't been able to get any of my external HDDs to mount since (I think) Sierra. The odd thing is, though, thumb drives (USB sticks) mount normally.

Also, in all the years people have been making threads about this on MR, no one has been able to come up with a solution.

This is really depressing. I'm just not sure what to do. I'm completely shocked that Apple has let this go when it's such a basic necessity.

 

[eelpout]

have a similar problem on a Mac Mini (2019). I have two spinner drives that when connected directly to the USB-C ports on the back won't be woken from sleep when the Mac boots, have to power cycle them to be recognized. If I connect them to a USB hub, then it all just works on a reboot. The problem is then, the drives won't sleep. Pretty silly. This Mac is still running Mojave though, maybe that doesn't help.

I'm guessing it's something either in the drives or the enclosures. Maybe I'll have to get some enclosures from a Mac happy company like Macally rather than a generic and see if that helps.

 

[HDFan]

I'm guessing it's something either in the drives or the enclosures.

I'm guessing an enclosure issue as well.

I'm completely shocked that Apple has let this go when it's such a basic necessity.

Likely not an Apple Problem. I would talk with your drive/enclosure vendor.