External hard drive won't appear on Macbook

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External hard drive won't appear on Macbook

This has happened on and off with a number of my external hard drives -- no matter which port, which dongle, etc, I use, the hard drive just doesn't show up. They are all Seagate drives specifically formatted according to Apple's instructions. Cannot be found in Finder, Disk Utility, or System Report. Occasionally, if I just leave it plugged in, it will magically show up after 20-60 minutes, but this is an intolerable workflow-breaker.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Aug 4, 2025 10:20 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 4, 2025 10:39 AM in response to ssmcm0

ssmcm0 wrote:

This has happened on and off with a number of my external hard drives -- no matter which port, which dongle, etc, I use, the hard drive just doesn't show up. They are all Seagate drives specifically formatted according to Apple's instructions. Cannot be found in Finder, Disk Utility, or System Report. Occasionally, if I just leave it plugged in, it will magically show up after 20-60 minutes, but this is an intolerable workflow-breaker.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.4

Do you have Locations open in the Finder sidebar..?

move your mouse to the right side and click to spin the caret open

Checked items in Finder>Settings>Sidebar for External disk?

Finder>Settings>General>External disk

The current stable release of Sequoia including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 15.6

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

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