External drives in Monterey

Whenever you connect an external drive to your mac, the storage drive may not show up on Desktop, Finder or even on Disk Utility due to various reasons:

1. USB connectivity problem

2. MacOS preference settings

3. Partition map damage

4. Device incompatibility

5. Physical damage on a drive

However, to fix the issue, you can try the below methods:

1. Check the USB connectivity

2. Enable visibility of external hard drive

3. Update macOS

4. Repair external hard drive by using Disk Utility

5. Repair external hard drive by using Terminal

6. Erase the external hard drive

7. If none of the above works, then the drive needs replacement

Hope it helps!

What was the problem exactly?

Did they not show on the desktop? That is a preference setting in Finder. Did they not even show in Disk Utility? Or they did but failed to mount?

FWIW, I work with external drives all the time and never had a problem, so I would genuinely like to know; it may help others.

Make sure that the drive is formatted with a file structure that Apple can read/write. A lot of USB drives are by default formatted NTFS which is not an Apple format. NTFS is a Windows file structure.

Another common reason for drives seemingly not available after an upgrade to the MacOS is firmware or third party disk tools (most drive manufacturers offer them and encourage their use) that need to be upgraded to be used with Monterey. If the macOS previous is old enough, the new version of the third party disk tools might not be installable because it is not compatible with the old MacOS. But then after upgrading, the old disk tools software no longer works and upgrading it from the manufacturer's web site is needed to be able to use the external drives. This is a hassle and is why many recommend against those third party tools. Other problems can result from anti-virus tools and "cleaning" software tools.

Maybe none of the above applies to you. It might be worth tracking down the issue, however, because Mojave is a fairly old MacOS and eventually will lack compatibility with newer software. Many of use multiple external drives in Monterey from multiple manufacturers and don't see these issues, so often the problem is a result of something that was installed that is no longer compatible. This can be determined by running Etrecheck, a free download, and posting the results here under Additional text button below.

anitafromfitzroy north wrote:

It does seem Monterey does have issues with external drives, maybe even port issues because an internet search showed lots of people with similar problems after upgrading.

At least on some installations. Most of us have had no issues at all. Some with the new M1 Mac have reported similar issues.

You did have the Finder's preferences set to show external drives, right?

Hi There

The most important is you get back your stuffs :)

I've read couple times that some USB Hub have problems with Monterey. so I do not know if you tested without it?