ashleyvzqz

Q: Why won't my Mac Book Pro recognize my Flash Drive?

So I have never experienced this problem before. My flash drives always appeared on my desktop, then one afternoon, my usual flash drive was not showing up on my MacBook, so I assumed it was the flash drive and not my computer. Since that day, I haven't really used a flash drive for anything until today when I tried to save a few photographs on a different flash drive this time. I plugged in the flash drive in both usb ports and still nothing. I cannot find my flash drive anywhere! I checked all my system preferences and everything seems to be right so why am I still having this issue? I don't have a problem when i plug in my ipod or ipad, and I can't find my flash drive in Disk Utilities either.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 14, 2013 9:42 AM

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Q: Why won't my Mac Book Pro recognize my Flash Drive?

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  • by TeresaCreech,

    TeresaCreech TeresaCreech Jul 16, 2014 10:58 AM in response to BillPennock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 16, 2014 10:58 AM in response to BillPennock

    I had not had any trouble with USB drives until this morning. I renamed my flash drive. From that point on I could not access the drive from Finder. The name didn't show up in the lefthand column.

     

    When I removed the flash drive I received the usual warning about ejecting properly. So, the Mac knew about the drive.

     

    I did a search in "all my files" for a filename I knew existed on the flash drive. Sure enough, the search found the file. From here I was able to get to the drive.

     

    It's a roundabout way to do it, but I can get to my drive so I'm happy for the time being.

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by Mboi77,

    Mboi77 Mboi77 Jul 20, 2014 11:05 AM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 20, 2014 11:05 AM in response to ashleyvzqz

    I have the same problem, in my case is because all my USB Drives are in NTFS format, I found a solution (a pay solution) with this: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/download.html

    The have a trial version, I hope works for you

  • by KellyMcB,

    KellyMcB KellyMcB Jul 28, 2014 7:29 AM in response to TeresaCreech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2014 7:29 AM in response to TeresaCreech

    This may be overly simple, but did you try flipping the flash drive over? I just had this problem and I had the drive plugged in upside down.

  • by Seabeethree,Helpful

    Seabeethree Seabeethree Sep 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to ashleyvzqz

    Me too. And it's reasonably specific.

     

    I have a 64 GB Kingston Data Traveler with USB 3.0 and a WD 1TB, USB 2 powered drive; both have been set up with HFS and are encrypted. They're not detected by direct insertion to an iMac USB port (or via USB 2 or 3 hub). A 2 GB flash drive set up identically mounts automatically so I guess it's something to do with the drive size or power requirements?

     

    Finder's Preferences 'External Devices'  and Disk Utility's 'Automatically open read-only images' are both checked/ticked.

     

    I can mount the drives with Disk Utility, where  I -- as expected -- get the window asking for the pass but it seems a bit daft with a nice new iMac.

     

    If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear from you!

  • by 80srobot,

    80srobot 80srobot Oct 13, 2014 9:03 AM in response to synepdx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2014 9:03 AM in response to synepdx

    Thank you. This solution worked perfectly for me.

  • by kingdomscribe,

    kingdomscribe kingdomscribe Nov 2, 2014 7:34 AM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2014 7:34 AM in response to ashleyvzqz

    I'm not sure if you are still having problems with this issue, but I found a solution. I bought a Targus 4-Port Hub from Walmart. This is what it looks like.

     

    0001117.jpeg

  • by nejad,

    nejad nejad Nov 14, 2014 12:15 PM in response to synepdx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 14, 2014 12:15 PM in response to synepdx

    Thank you,

    After several hours of reading useless threads your solution worked.

    Since my flash drive is fairly new I recon my MBP usb drive may need a cleanup

  • by nejad,

    nejad nejad Nov 18, 2014 2:19 AM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2014 2:19 AM in response to ashleyvzqz

    The problem is not Apple as some suggested, it is simply USB 2 and USB 3 compatibility.

    This problem appears mostly with older computers that have USB 2 ports and users trying to connect newer USB 3 storage devices.

     

    Try connecting your flash drive through to a good quality USB hub that might do the trick if didn't work you need to check and see if your device is USB 2/ USB 3 compatible, if it is then contact manufacturer of the flash drive and report it as a fault  (if still under warrantee)

  • by swaneymj,

    swaneymj swaneymj Nov 29, 2014 10:10 AM in response to kingdomscribe
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2014 10:10 AM in response to kingdomscribe

    I never would have thought of this, but it worked for me with a "cheapo" hub I had sitting in a drawer from long ago.

    Thanks

  • by PaigeAdams3,

    PaigeAdams3 PaigeAdams3 Dec 1, 2014 12:09 PM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2014 12:09 PM in response to ashleyvzqz

    I'm having the same problem as well.  I have never had a problem with external flash drives before until recently I plugged mine in and it said that it was unreadable or something of the like.  I figured that it was the flash drive because it's kinda old and cheap.  I dug out an older flash drive that I have used with the computer before and tried that.  When I inserted the flash drive into the USB port, nothing happened.  I have been into Disk Utilities to make sure that the "automatically open read-only images" has been checked and I checked my Finder preferences to see if external disks was checked as well.  I have just upgraded to the new OS X Yosemite and my computer is an iMac (mid-2007) version 10.10.

  • by nytcrwlr70,

    nytcrwlr70 nytcrwlr70 Jan 15, 2015 6:48 PM in response to PaigeAdams3
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 15, 2015 6:48 PM in response to PaigeAdams3

    Oddly enough, I had the exact same problem with my NTFS-formatted USB drive. But after slowly sliding the USB drive in place, it recognized the USB drive. Weird.

  • by martibohl,

    martibohl martibohl Feb 9, 2015 6:06 AM in response to ashleyvzqz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2015 6:06 AM in response to ashleyvzqz

    I have had this problem in the past.  I saw somewhere (sorry I don't still have the thread) that if the flash drive is too powerful, Mac will protect itself from letting it connect.  I worked around the issue by using a USB hub as the middleman between the flash drive and Mac.

  • by MichiganMacMan,

    MichiganMacMan MichiganMacMan Feb 11, 2015 7:54 AM in response to synepdx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 11, 2015 7:54 AM in response to synepdx

    I tried the "slow" insert technique and it worked! Why I can't explain but thanks for the discovery!!!

  • by Dr Sharif,

    Dr Sharif Dr Sharif Mar 1, 2015 11:13 AM in response to MichiganMacMan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 1, 2015 11:13 AM in response to MichiganMacMan

    The slow insertion technique for my USB 3.0 Corsair Survivor worked on my mid-2014 MBP running Yosemite 10.10.2!

     

    EDIT: It was FAT-32 formatted not NTFS like most are having issue with so I can read/write.

  • by dvd_lakeside,

    dvd_lakeside dvd_lakeside Mar 23, 2015 2:13 PM in response to synepdx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 23, 2015 2:13 PM in response to synepdx

    wow -- this really is the solution for me as well, synepdx -- very weird!  But I'm with some of the others -- seriously can not believe such an expensive computer has problems like this -- never had this on any other device unless the flash drive went bad.  Thanks for contributing, synepdx!!

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