iMac won't recognize USB / external drive

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Level 1

4 points

iMac won't recognize USB / external drive

My iMac won't recognize my external flash drive anymore. I have gone through all the checks in Preferences to ensure External Disks are checked. I ran First Aid in Disk Utility already. Tried all USB ports, restarted and shut down multiple times. Did all software updates. In System Information, under USB, the flash drive occasionally shows up there, but not always. Anyone know what else I can do to get my iMac to recognize external drives/USB Flash Drive?

iMac Pro

Posted on Aug 22, 2020 3:22 PM

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Answer 1

Ronasara

Level 6

15,013 points

Aug 22, 2020 3:31 PM in response to BuckyMac

I can only suggest two things to try. Can you plug it into a different USB connecter? If so, same problem? I would buy another inexpensive flash drive and confirm that the Mac sees it properly - in both connecters. That way, you have first confirmed that your USB drive(s) are ok. I'm sorry to report that flash drives do eventually fail and it sounds like this is what's happening. I have had this experience, myself.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

82,060 points

Aug 22, 2020 3:29 PM in response to BuckyMac

I would suspect that, that flash drive is failing and I would try a different flashdrive or a more reliable external drive.

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iMac won't recognize USB / external drive

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