External Hard Drive disappeared on Finder, still shows on Desktop and opens to Finder

I have two external drives connected to my iMac. Recently, only one appears in Finder.


I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro, so there is no PRAM, etc to reset.


The drive appears on my desktop, and I can click on it and a Finder window appears. I can navigate the drive normally, open files, etc.


The drive also is recognized in Disk Utility.


I have tried pulling com.apple.finder.plist out of Library, and this has not worked.


My problem is that apparently, a lot of apps I use (e.g., Lightroom, Photoshop) use Finder or an API to show files, so I can't get access to the almost 2TB of files on that drive in these applications.


Thanks for any help!

Mac mini, macOS 13.5

Posted on Jul 4, 2024 7:48 AM

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Posted on Jul 4, 2024 10:49 AM

The Desktop is a window in Finder.

If it is missing in the SideBar, you can add it back in Finder Settings > Sidebar or just drag it into the Sidebar.

If you would like to see it someplace else, please explain.

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External Hard Drive disappeared on Finder, still shows on Desktop and opens to Finder

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