Why won't my Mac Book Pro recognize my Flash Drive?

Your slow insertion suggestion worked, but it is frustrating that a virtually new iMac should have this issue.

Go to Disc Utility > Preferences > Check Automaticaly open read-only images

Problem solved! 😮

That worked. Thank you.

I'm having the same problem. It had worked fine for the past 18months and then suddenly I can't read or even find my flash drive, let alone any files on it 😟

Yes - me too. This problem started after updating to the latest software on both my home and work MacBooks.

same problem here Lynne - my flash drive does show up in Disk Utilities but I cannot access the check or repair options at all.

I have the same problem, I can see the flash drive in Disk Utility, but not my devices. So I went to Disk Utility Preferences, I checked all the boxes, and that didn't help.

So then I clicked on the flash drive in Disk Utility and clicked Verify or Repair. This would make the flash drive show up for a second in my Finder then go away again.

Now I think I found a way to help. In Disk Utility when you have your flash drive selected, at the top it has all these options:

Click 'Mount' and this should make the flash drive show up in your Finder.

Brilliant! Thank you.

ashleyvzqz wrote:

Like I mentioned previously, I went through all the preferences and EVERYTHING is right,

And yet the drive is formatted incorrectly, as NTFS. Try formatting it correctly, for a Mac

HEREis the problem, and its explains a little bit as to why. Now HERE is the fix it driver. Now here come the tricky part. The driver is not a plug and play .DMG... SOO all you have to do is download and right click the DMG and click on open with disk utility. The application will show up and you will see the DMG just chilling there. Right click again on The DMG and click Covert "such n' such file.DMG", Then changed "Compressed" to "Read/Write" save to wherever is most convenient. Finally we click on the NEW FILE we created. A window will open up right click on "USB Mass Storage Install" open with Terminal. The terminal will do everything for you. Close out of terminal then restart your computer. Then you should have a no bull**** fix for USB issues. sorry for the long post but this fixed things for me.

Your answer does sound crazy. But it worked!!! I've spent a lot of time surfing Google for help. I was ready to make an Apple One To One appointment to fix this. In one last gesture of desperation, I inserted my flash drive v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Amen and THANK YOU!!!

Mac does not recognize or use NTSB directly! Only windows! The USB drive I have is NTSB due to file size over 4gb per file. I used the Paragon NTSB converter available here. It seems the computer does not handle NTSB in the OSX operating system. The program converts it and works!

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/eshop.html?affChecked=1

cost me $19.99 but under volumes I could click and mount the drive and it worked with no problem!

Hope this helps someone? $19.99 was cheap vs. losing family photos and drive content!!!

My new Imac was not recognizing my external drives. When I used my hub (2.0 only) all was fine.

When I plugged the drives directly to the iMac SLOWLY the drives were recognized.

I am glad all is OK. What a strange fix but glad I found this thread.

Don

I have a similar problem with a Macbook air 2.1

I bought an Adata 32gb USB thumb drive, and like someone said in the thread it work about 3 times then stopped.

I thought it was the macbook port but other usb devices work in that port including another 4gb thumb drive and a AC powered external drive.

The adata 32gb drive also works in all my other macs (mac pro 5.1 and macbook pro )

So im thinking its the speed of the bus + the size of the thumb drive. In any case Im stumped too

I removed my USB hub and removed my beta El Capitan version.

All is OK now.

Thanks for replies.

Don