for some reason my external drives won't mount when i connect them to my iMac. i can hear them running but they don't show up on the desktop, on Disk Utility or on the storage section of About this Mac. what gives? i am only using the drives to hold mp3 and mp4 files. a little help please. thanks, Paul
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
To my knowledge, there are no USB3/Thunderbolt drives. It's either a Thunderbolt drive, or a USB drive.
What year/model is your Mac? Is this a Thunderbolt2 interface? Are you using the proper Thunderbolt2 cable?
In addition have you looked in Finder - Preferences to see if they supposed to be shown. Finally have you double checked Disk Utility to see if the drives are mounting?
the thunderbolt ports were working and show up un the system report of About This Mac. i have a 27" late 2015 i5 unit running OS 10.15.7. the cables work on my other Macs!
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
What type of drives are being connected, what is the model of the external drives, and how are they connected to your Mac?
Jack
yes! rebooted the Mac. tried different cables. they work fine with my older iMac and MacBook Air. my USB 3 Drives all show up.
Buffalo USB3/ Thunderbolt drives. they show up when using the USB interface! very odd.
There are USB3/TB drives. I have two different ones. They can be connected to a USB3 port and will run at USB3 speeds or connect to TB port and they will run at TB speeds. Very handy.
External drives won't mount when I connect them to my iMac
