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Macbook Air usb3 not working!

I just got my mac book air, my usb3 external HDD is not getting detected. It was working fine with my old mac book pro. Any solutions?

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 16, 2012 6:06 PM

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81 replies

Jun 29, 2012 2:41 PM in response to karthikfromcharlotte

I have a mid-2012 Air (120gb SSD/8gb RAM) and have had mixed experiences with USB 3 external HDDs.


I am using a WD 750GB external HDD partitioned for Time Machine and "mobile" backups of files, software etc = all good, no problems on USB 3 port on Air.


I also have a WD 3TB Caviar Green HDD in a mains-powered enclosure - sweet drive, quiet etc but the USB 3 port on the Air doesn't have the power to drive the WD drive (even with main supply). To access/use the 3TB drive, I have to connect it through a mains-powered USB hub.


Without the hub, I can hear the drive spinning up/spinning down and am unable to copy files to/from Air. Connected through powered USB hub, all is good.


any thoughts? anyone else with similar experiences?

Jul 5, 2012 10:26 AM in response to EJW Tas

This is not universally true. I have a brand new MBA and it mounts and backs up fine to an external USB hard drive (a WD Passport Essential). It may be true that the MBA has problems with some external drives, perhaps having to do with current limitations. I had a similar issue with my 2010 MBA; I had to use a powered USB hub if I wanted to use BOTH an external drive and the ethernet adapter (unpowered wouldn't work).

Also, there are lots of reports about problems with the Toshiba drives long before the new MBA was announced.

Jul 9, 2012 4:26 PM in response to karthikfromcharlotte

Went to a client's today and tried to grab a 48GB database file from an external Toshiba USB 3 drive.

My brand-new macbook air couldn't read it. I don't want to point fingers at Apple,but when a harddrive works on any other machine but the MBAir, it's NOT the drive's problem it's my problem because I have an Apple


It's really embarassing to have this happen directly in front of a client with a brand new machine. Of course they all use PC's and I can see why...


User uploaded file

Jul 9, 2012 4:33 PM in response to karthikfromcharlotte

I went to the apple store for genius appointment, And you know what, I tried my drive in all of the Macs available there, Macbook air, pro and also the iMacs, none of them detected my usb3 , and the worst part is apple dint have a USB3 available to test out and rule out that its problem with my USB3,


Mine usb3 is working fine with my OLD Mac PRO 2010. :-( I love my new Air , hope apple would come out with a solution,


Will this be a legal issue for apple - Apple advertised that the new MBA has usb 3 ports

Jul 17, 2012 11:54 AM in response to karthikfromcharlotte

Regarding the problems with USB 3 and external storage: Is there something weird going on with USB 3 on-board interfaces?


I was able to fiddle with an ASUS 1225B 11.6" notebook with the AMD CPU. I could not get the front left-side USB 3 port to recognize any of 6 different Kensington or HP USB thumb drives of different models and capacity. The rear USB 3 port was fine. The front port had no problem with a Logitech wired USB mouse.


Has anybody had problems with any of the USB 3 ports recognizing an external thumb drive?

Macbook Air usb3 not working!

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