Called Apple Care and they could not help after one hour of various resets.
Also, found this not helpful:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/if-a-usb-device-doesnt-work-mchlp1641/mac
Anyone else have a solution?
Thank you.
iMac Pro
Which Mac do you have? Your profile says an iMac Pro but most people who chose that don't actually have one. As far as your issue, it's highly unusual that no USB drive, flash or otherwise works. Are you plugging them into your Mac or in a USB hub?
I don't know if it was suggested but you could try resetting the SMC.
Which Mac do you have? Your profile says an iMac Pro but most people who chose that don't actually have one. As far as your issue, it's highly unusual that no USB drive, flash or otherwise works. Are you plugging them into your Mac or in a USB hub?
I don't know if it was suggested but you could try resetting the SMC.
Essentially on one side you will see a port towards the back of the machine, and a port closer to the front of the machine.
One of them is powered, the other is not. The powered port can take devices that get powered by the computer.
The one that is not, must take the wall charger or devices that get their own charge from another source.
a brody wrote:
One of them is powered, the other is not. The powered port can take devices that get powered by the computer.
Where do you see one is powered and one is not btw?
USB-C to regular USB may not work if you are plugged in the wrong USB-C port.
Note for one USB-C device that uses the computer's power to work it can only be plugged in either the front or back port while the other one is the port for the power. If the first instance doesn't work, try swapping which port is connected.
The side with two ports when present is limited which device is powered by the computer. If you just have one port on either side of the keyboard, I suspect the left side is strictly for the charger and self-charged USB devices, but have not had a chance to test.
Underpowered USB ports have been a hallmark of Macs since the early days of USB. One port has more power than the others. Just because the specs don't say it, doesn't mean it isn't there.
What becomes even messier is low power mode from waking up from sleep of a closed lid. Many scenarios there are USB devices that simply won't recognize until a reboot. Although given what PearlGreatPrice has experienced, I don't think that's the issue here.
Okay, I think resetting the SMC corrected the problem, which probably was a power problem to the USB ports. (I think that I had tried them all.) I have two on each side. My Mac is a 15 inch with "3.1 GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7" with 16 GB RAM. I need to be aware of which ports are powered - didn't know that and most helpful to know. Thanks everyone. Good work here. Best ~
Knowing what drive you are referring to might halp. :)
It's always possible the drive has failed. Do you have access to another Mac you can try it with?
I have two new hard drives I've tried (OWC mercury elite pro mini and WD easystore), but more importantly, I can't get two new flashdrives (or an old one) to be seen anywhere.
Thanks for your replies. I have a 2017 MacBook Pro. I'm plugging the USBs and hard drives right into the Mac. I reset "safe mode" and NVRAM and I'll try the SMC now.
You're welcome. FWIW, you can't "reset" Safe Mode although you can boot into Safe Mode.
Post back with the result.
PearlGreatPrice wrote:
I have a 2017 MacBook Pro.
Which one? There are three, a 13" with two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports and a 13" & 15" with four.
I didn't ask. But, the two with four ports?
FWIW, all four ports are identical. The SMC reset is what worked.
USB / external hard drive not recognized on desktop or finder or system report or disc utility after updating to Catalina 10.15.3
