Flash drive not showing on Mac

Question

Level 1

4 points

Flash drive not showing on Mac

I was uploading documents to 2 of my flash drives today, when they were accidentally not properly ejected. The flash drives are connected to a USB-C to USB adapter, so it is very easy for them to detach/wiggle off. Ever since they were “not ejected properly” the flash drives do not appear on my Mac. When I plug them in nothing pops up, but other flash drives work. I checked my Finder preferences and I have it set so that external drives would pop up on my desktop. They also do not appear on Disk Utility.

I inserted the flash drives onto my family computer (just a normal desktop computer) and I had no problem viewing my documents. I just cannot see the flash drives on my Mac.

One of these flash drives is brand new, so I’m not sure why this is happening. My MacBook Pro 2017 just updated to the newest macOS a few days ago (Ventura 13.6.1).

Any help would be great! Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Dec 1, 2023 8:15 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 4, 2023 3:32 AM in response to claudia927

FAT32 is a file system format that is widely used for external storage devices like USB flash drives and SD cards. While FAT32 is a compatible and widely supported file system, there are some limitations and compatibility issues with macOS.

One of the main limitations is related to file size. FAT32 has a maximum file size limit of 4 gigabytes. This means that if you have a file larger than 4 GB and try to copy it to a FAT32-formatted volume, the file system will not support it.

Additionally, macOS has some restrictions when it comes to writing to FAT32 volumes. While it can read from FAT32 without any issues, writing to a FAT32 volume can be problematic. macOS can write to FAT32, but there are limitations such as the inability to create files larger than 4 GB, which can be an inconvenience when dealing with large files common in video editing, software development, and other fields.

Another potential issue is that FAT32 doesn't support certain macOS-specific file attributes and features. For example, it may not fully support resource forks and extended attributes, which are used by some macOS applications to store additional information about files.

macOS prefers file systems like HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) or APFS (Apple File System), as these are specifically designed and optimized for use with Apple's operating system. If you need to use an external storage device with both macOS and Windows systems, it might be worth considering exFAT, which has larger file size support and better compatibility with both operating systems compared to FAT32. However, keep in mind that exFAT is not as robust as HFS+ or APFS for macOS-specific features.

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Answer 2

Dec 2, 2023 9:14 AM in response to claudia927

Is the family computer Mac or Windows? I suspect the flash drive might be formatted for Windows which is why the Mac won't recognise it.

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Answer 3

Ronasara

Level 6

15,519 points

Dec 2, 2023 10:31 AM in response to claudia927

Since Disk Utility can't see the drive you can't use it to do a repair. If the family computer is a Mac I would insert the drive into it and use Disk Utility to reformat the drive.

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Answer 4

claudia927 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 3, 2023 4:58 PM in response to The_Knowledge_Seeker

The family computer is Windows. My laptop is a Mac. When I bought the flash drive last week and plugged it into my laptop, I could see it. But the next day, I was not able to. Not sure what happened since I can see it on the family Windows desktop.

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Answer 5

claudia927 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 3, 2023 5:12 PM in response to Old Toad

The first 2 pictures are the properties for one of my drives (PNY 128GB USB 3.0) that is having this problem, and the last 2 pictures are for my other drive (PNY 128GB USB 3.1) that is having the same problem. I was able to see this info when I had my drives plugged into my family Windows computer (can’t see the drives on my Mac).

I’m not sure what any of this means, so any input would be helpful! I saw in your comment you mentioned something about FAT32 and I saw that in the images.

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Answer 6

claudia927 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 4, 2023 9:49 AM in response to The_Knowledge_Seeker

Thank you for this explanation! What do you think would explain how these 2 flash drives were initially compatible/working with my Mac, and now they’re not. Nothing changed in terms of what files were added to them.

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