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Nov 2020 MacBook Air (external HD won't connect)

Lastest MacBook Air release running Big Sur


External Toshiba 1TB HD connected via USB-C adapter from USB


HD formatted to exFat

Hard drive will not show in finder.

Will sometimes show in about/storage but no info shown other than it is a 1TB drive

Will sometimes come up in disk manager but is grayed out and disk repair has only worked once. When it worked the disk immediately disconnected and I was back at square one.

Status light on the HD will keep flashing.


Tried resetting the SMC but to no avail


HD and USB-C adapter work fine on other devices

Tried wiping and reformatting in windows but it didn't fix anything.

Hard drive was previously used without issue on my 2017 MacBook Air


See a lot of issues with this when searching google but no one seems to have a solid answer and from my searching it appears to be a bug with Big Sur.



MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 3, 2020 7:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 5, 2020 8:59 AM

Update that makes no sense.


My USB-C adapter allows my WD external to work fine but not the hard drive I have been trying.


My USB-C adapter I have sitting from a samsung phone allows the hard drive that wasn't working to work.


So something about the combination of that adapter and that drive doesn't adequately communicate with Big Sur.


NO IDEA WHY but I guess I figured out the issue... or at least a way to get around the problem.


If this somehow helped you please let me know with a response.

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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 5, 2020 8:59 AM in response to capitalmetal

Update that makes no sense.


My USB-C adapter allows my WD external to work fine but not the hard drive I have been trying.


My USB-C adapter I have sitting from a samsung phone allows the hard drive that wasn't working to work.


So something about the combination of that adapter and that drive doesn't adequately communicate with Big Sur.


NO IDEA WHY but I guess I figured out the issue... or at least a way to get around the problem.


If this somehow helped you please let me know with a response.

Nov 2020 MacBook Air (external HD won't connect)

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