I have an imac, OS Ventura. I have a USB with files on it, but when I plug it into my computer I don't see any of the files...The folder is empty. Is there anyway to recover these files?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13
Disconnect all other devices from the Mac and connect the drive directly to the Mac. It is known that some third party connected devices can interfere with accessing an external drive (especially a Wacom tablet).
Some external devices are also not compatible with M1/M2 Apple Silicon Macs (especially older devices).
Try booting into Safe Mode to see whether you can access the USB drive, but if the USB drive is using the NTFS file system and you installed the manufacturer's proprietary software, then you may not be able to access an NTFS volume because that third party software will override settings for macOS to use its built-in NTFS read-only driver. If other third party software is interfering with the normal operation of macOS, then Safe Mode may help.
What file system is on this USB drive? What system formatted this USB drive? What is the exact make & model of the USB drive? Exact model of your Mac (click Apple menu and select "About This Mac")?
As you can see we need a lot more details.
Disconnect all other devices from the Mac and connect the drive directly to the Mac. It is known that some third party connected devices can interfere with accessing an external drive (especially a Wacom tablet).
Some external devices are also not compatible with M1/M2 Apple Silicon Macs (especially older devices).
Try booting into Safe Mode to see whether you can access the USB drive, but if the USB drive is using the NTFS file system and you installed the manufacturer's proprietary software, then you may not be able to access an NTFS volume because that third party software will override settings for macOS to use its built-in NTFS read-only driver. If other third party software is interfering with the normal operation of macOS, then Safe Mode may help.
What file system is on this USB drive? What system formatted this USB drive? What is the exact make & model of the USB drive? Exact model of your Mac (click Apple menu and select "About This Mac")?
As you can see we need a lot more details.
Hi elizabethfromnew market.
Re: The folder is empty.
Wondering if the USB drive is formatted to be compatible with MacOS.
(The files may be there yet if the drive is not compatible, no files can be transferred.)
Here's Apple Support's article:
Connect and use other storage devices with Mac – Apple Support
(NB: says a USB Drive needs to be properly "ejected" after use.)
File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac – Apple Support
How to: Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac – Apple Support
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Re: Is there anyway to recover these files?
Eg: If they happen to be Windows files on a drive formatted for PC,
the files would likely be available on a PC.
Otherwise, sorry. I don't know of a way.
(There are commercial data recovery services but have no experience with those.)
All the best :-)
I took all my jpg files from my imac OS High Sierra, and put them on my thumb drive. Before I deleted the files from my old imac, I opened the thumb drive and made sure I could access all the files on there, and I could. And then all of a sudden I couldn't access the files. I got a new imac, tried opening the thumb drive on there, and I can't even see any files at all.
The manufacturer is Generic, I don't know the model #
How to recover lost files from a UBS drive on iMac?
