icon for USB storage missing from desktop

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Level 3

896 points

icon for USB storage missing from desktop

When I put a flash drive into a USB port or a SD card into the SD port on my MacBook Pro, often no icon shows up either on my desktop or in a finder window. If I then remove the drive or SD card, however, I get admonished about ejecting it first. A workaround is to open Terminal and look at /Volumes; I can always see the drive or SD card this way and access it. About This Mac, when asked about storage, will also find the drive or SD card; and this has the further effect of making its icon show up finally on my desktop. I have never seen anything like this in Mac OS X, even in Cheetah. Is there something with the Yosemite UI?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Dec 21, 2014 8:28 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

742,655 points

Dec 21, 2014 8:31 PM in response to mahippos

Choose Preferences from the Finder menu, click on General, and check the settings.

(118634)

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Answer 2

mahippos Author

Level 3

896 points

Dec 21, 2014 10:02 PM in response to Niel

Interesting, but there is no option for flash drives and SD cards, and the box for external disks is checked. I never had missing icons until a few weeks ago, and this is the first time I have looked at preferences for the Finder. Thanks.

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Answer 3

leroydouglas

Level 10

199,956 points

Dec 21, 2014 10:22 PM in response to mahippos

Flash drives in USB ports and SD cards are considered external disk.

How about in the Finder sidebar? Finder>Preferences>Sidebar>External Disk

you can restart or relaunch your Finder from the Dock, hold the control option keys and click>Relaunch

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Answer 4

mahippos Author

Level 3

896 points

Feb 9, 2015 12:15 PM in response to mahippos

I'm using a flash drive mainly for backup. The missing desktop icon problem seems to be just with a particular PNY 16Gbyte stick. When I first put it into a USB port, it does not show up, but I can access it from Terminal, and it shows up when I go to About This Mac via the Apple menu. Then when I make another file directory with a shell command on the flash drive, its icon finally appears on my desktop.

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