I can't see the files I transferred to a USB drive from my MacBook Pro.

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Level 1

4 points

I can't see the files I transferred to a USB drive from my MacBook Pro.

My hard drive on my MacBook Pro (Mojave 10.14.6) is full, so I bought 2 64-GB USB drives (Memorex FAT32 formatted) to store some of my bigger files (video and audio, in particular). I plugged one of the USB drives in, could see it in my Finder, and dragged about 21 GB of video files (all in a single folder) to the USB drive. They took about 30 min to transfer, and I waited until it said it was finished.

Now, when I click on the USB drive in the Finder, there are no folders or files visible. Get Info shows the 21 GB of files on the drive, and if I try to transfer the same batch of files, it says they're already on there ... but they don't show up.

I have already read a bunch of Q&A's and articles on this issue (seems to be a common one!). I tried showing hidden files (no change) and adding the line to Terminal to show files (no change).

The files are on the USB drive, but I can't see them (and hence, can't access them). How do I fix this so that I can see and access the contents of the drive?

P.S. I have not yet deleted the files from my MacBook, so I still have them, but I am down to less than 5GB left on the laptop and really need to store some files elsewhere.

Sue

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 8, 2021 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,396 points

Apr 10, 2021 10:03 PM in response to suzanjackson

Don't store the only copy of those files on a USB stick. The quality of USB sticks is extremely poor and tend to silently corrupt files with bit errors. If you want to store files on an external drive, then use a standard external hard drive or SSD, but even then make sure to have a backup of any important and unique data stored on those external drives as well as the laptop's internal drive.

Also FAT32 is not an ideal file system for storing your files. If the external drives will only be used with macOS, then erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). If the external drives will be shared with Windows, then erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and exFAT. Unfortunately Disk Utility now defaults to hiding the physical drive from view beginning with macOS 10.13 so you must now first click "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility.

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Answer 2

Jaym_8

Community Specialist

Apr 10, 2021 9:19 AM in response to suzanjackson

Hi suzanjackson,

We understand you're unable to view files saved on an external hard drive. We're happy to help.

So it looks like you already listed the problem. You have the disk formatted in the "FAT32" format. This is a Microsoft Windows format which will not work with a Mac. You can connect and access a disk in this format on a Mac for saving items, however they will not be viewable on a Mac, only on a Windows PC.

To correct your problem, you would need to reformat that disk in the Apple File System "APSF" format in order to have full functionality with a Mac.

You can use these steps to reformat the disk: Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

You can find more info on how different file formats work with Mac here: File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

Take care!

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I can't see the files I transferred to a USB drive from my MacBook Pro.

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