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LaCie External Hard Drive Not Showing Up After Big Sur Upgrade

Since upgrading from macOS 10.15.6 to macOS 11.4, my LaCie external USB hard drive ("Hard Drive Design by F.A. Porsche USB 2") will not show up on my 2020 iMac. It also will not show up in Disk Utility or in System Information under USB. I have tried multiple USB cables, multiple USB ports, another power cable, another outlet, resetting the Mac's PRAM/NVRAM and SMC, and multiple user accounts - nothing works. I have reformatted the drive multiple times. The drive DOES however connect and mount just fine on any Mac running macOS 10.15.6 or LOWER.


Anyone experiencing this issue or have any tips to get my Big Sur iMac to "see" the drive?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jun 5, 2021 7:29 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 30, 2021 12:39 PM

Hey I'm having the same issue. Have you found a resolution?

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4 replies

Jun 6, 2021 1:44 PM in response to Wengro

Hi Wengro,

Thanks for reaching out using Apple Support Communities. Here to help.

We understand you're having trouble getting an external hard drive to be detected by your iMac.


The link below includes specific support for your model of external drive. There may be some tips in the FAQ relevant for this issue. You can also click to connect with LaCie support, as they may have more information regarding troubleshooting and compatibility for this model and the version of MacOS you are running.


Hard Drive Design by F.A. Porsche - LaCie Support


Hope this helps! Take care for now.

Jun 6, 2021 4:56 PM in response to i_rina

Thank you for the reply, i_rina!


Unfortunately I have already been to that page - and all over LaCie's support pages. I found this page and followed all of the instructions, but still had no luck getting the drive to show up on my Big Sur (Intel) iMac.


I also found this page, which has me thinking that because my Porsche drive is USB 2.0, and at this point getting quite old, it is simply no longer supported under Big Sur. Oh well! Luckily I just got a super speedy new external SSD for my backups/extra storage.


But since I'm the type who needs to know exactly what's going on (and make sure I'm not missing something) when it comes to these technical issues, I have contacted LaCie/Seagate's customer support and told them about the issue.


I will report back after they respond to me and we figure out exactly what's up!

Jun 30, 2021 3:43 PM in response to Wengro

Wengro wrote:

Thank you for the reply, i_rina!

Unfortunately I have already been to that page - and all over LaCie's support pages. I found this page and followed all of the instructions, but still had no luck getting the drive to show up on my Big Sur (Intel) iMac.

I also found this page, which has me thinking that because my Porsche drive is USB 2.0, and at this point getting quite old, it is simply no longer supported under Big Sur. Oh well! Luckily I just got a super speedy new external SSD for my backups/extra storage.

But since I'm the type who needs to know exactly what's going on (and make sure I'm not missing something) when it comes to these technical issues, I have contacted LaCie/Seagate's customer support and told them about the issue.

I will report back after they respond to me and we figure out exactly what's up!

Are you using any LaCie custom software or firmware utilities/tools associated with their drives? Often these utilities are used for security locks, password protection, backups, or configuration of the drive. The reason I ask is that often these utilities, and any firmware associated with them, have to be updated to work with a newer version of the MacOS. I noticed that on LaCie's site some software tools are not supported under Big Sur. USB 2 drives must date back 10 years or even more! Is the drive bus powered? If so, if its hardware is wearing out, it might be on the edge and even slight differences in power delivery from the MacOS update might affect it. On one of the Macs that can mount it, consider testing it with DriveDX, which is a free download.


USB 2 drives should work on Big Sur if generically formatted (without custom firmware).

LaCie External Hard Drive Not Showing Up After Big Sur Upgrade

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