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Drive Not Showing in Finder

Disk Utility or System Information already knows the disk is there. Finder is just not putting it where you look. That’s a settings problem, or the volume never mounted.

About 6 minutes · Tick the steps as you go

1. Desktop and sidebar are not the same switch

Finder Settings has a General tab for icons on the desktop, and a Sidebar tab for the list on the left. External disks can be on in one place and off in the other. I still tick the wrong one first when I’m in a hurry.

Finder > Settings > General: External disks (and Hard disks if you also want internal volumes on the desktop). Sidebar tab: External disks under Locations. If you use iCloud Drive or a lot of tags, scroll the sidebar. Locations sit below Favorites and are easy to miss on a small window.

2. Look in Computer, not only the desktop

Go > Computer is the plain inventory: internals, externals, network shares. If the drive is there, Finder isn’t broken — the desktop view is just picky.

Go > Computer, or Shift-Command-C. If you see the volume, drag it into the sidebar under Locations. Click the desktop once and press Command-R if icons feel stale after plugging in.

Time Machine volumes and some encrypted disks stay quiet until you unlock them. If you get a password prompt in Disk Utility, that’s the volume — Finder will follow after it mounts.

3. Mount it if Finder is waiting on Disk Utility

A volume can exist and still be unmounted. Finder has nothing to draw until that volume is mounted. Grey name in Disk Utility is the usual tell.

Open Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices. Select the volume (not the outer device) and click Mount. If Mount is dimmed or fails, skip the rest of this page and use External Drive Won’t Mount.

4. Hidden extras people trip on

Multiple desktops, Stage Manager, and a second display will hide an icon that actually landed on another Space. I’ve spent a minute looking at the wrong desktop more than once.

Also check Get Info on the volume after it appears. If the format is NTFS, Finder may show it and still refuse to write. That’s a different page: Drive Detected but Not Working.

Apple’s pages, if you want them: See devices connected to your Mac

I wrote these lists from the same public Mac Help and Disk Utility notes everyone can read — in my own words, with the order I actually use. Apple’s pages are linked above if you want the official version.

Still stuck?

If this list didn’t get the drive back, write to me.

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