Sandisk 3.0 USB Flash drive not showing up under My Computer after Windows 10 Anniversary update I just upgraded to the Windows 10 Anniversary update. After this update, whenever I plug in the my Sandisk 3.0 Extreme Flash drive, it does not show up and there is no reaction (new folder).
- Sandisk Not Working
- Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up Mac
- Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up
- Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up Iphone
- If your drive IS partitioned and it is still not showing up, make sure you've set a drive letter on it so you can access it in Windows. Normally this happens automatically, but sometimes a drive letter can be accidentally unset. Without the drive letter, your USB device may not show and be accessible in Windows.
- If your SD card doesn't show up in Windows 10 File System, but in Disk Management, check whether there is a drive letter for the card. Follow the steps below to add a drive letter: Step 1. Right click 'My Computer' and select 'Disk Management'.
By Nicole Sioni
It's a rare problem, but it could happen to you: You plug your USB drive into your computer, and nothing happens. You know the drive is good, but for some reason, it isn't being recognized by your computer. Is it user error or a hardware issue? Is there something wrong with the software? Did you make a common USB mistake? And what can you do to fix it?
Luckily we have the answers to your flash drive woes at Premium USB.
Why Isn't My Computer Recognizing My USB?
There can be several different reasons why your USB device isn't being recognized. Before you throw out what could be a perfectly good USB drive or call tech support to look at your computer, investigate each of these possibilities. Over half of them can be fixed on your own with a little time and effort!
Reasons why your computer isn't recognizing your USB device include:
- There is a problem with the USB driver
- The USB drive isn't properly formatted
- The USB drive is dead
- There's a problem with the USB port
If it turns out the problem lies with the port, then you'll want to read our guide on why USB ports stop working.
Plug It In
The first step is to make sure that the problem isn't rooted in your computer's hardware. Plug the drive into your computer to see if Windows detects the drive. Open up the Disk Management tool: you can do this by pressing R and the Windows Key together. That will make the Run dialog box pop up. Type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box and then press Enter.
Look for your external drive in the Disk Management window when it pops up. It SHOULD show up here. Even if the drive isn't properly formatted or doesn't have any partitions, it should still appear in Disk Management.
If you do see the drive in this window, you can skip ahead to the section on formatting so you can set up your flash drive to be recognized and accessed by your computer. If it doesn't show up, then it's time to do some more tests.
Double-Check The Drive
If your drive isn't showing up in Disk Management, there's a good chance you're dealing with a hardware problem. The question is: is it the drive or the port? Narrow down the culprit by testing your flash drive on a different port. If your computer only has one port, try your device out on another computer and see if it's recognized. If you have another flash drive, try plugging it into your computer to see if that new drive shows up in the system.
If your computer fails to recognize either flash drive, there's a good chance you've got problems with your port and should pop over to our why USB ports stop working article for tips on how to solve those problems. If the flash drive doesn't show up at all on other computers, there's a good chance that the drive itself is damaged or compromised. But don't throw the drive away just yet!
Sandisk Not Working
Driver's Ed
One of the things that can cause a communication breakdown between your drive and the computer is a problem with the drivers. A USB driver is a file that allows a hardware device (like your flash drive) to communicate with the operating system of a computer. If a driver is missing, out of date, or corrupted, your computer won't be able to 'talk' to your drive and may not be able to recognize it.
Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up Mac
You can use Device Manager to check the status of your USB driver. Open a Run dialog box and type in devmgmt.msc. This will bring up the Device Manager window. Check to see if the USB drive is listed in the devices.
See if there's a yellow exclamation mark next to your flash drive in Device Manager. The yellow exclamation mark is an indicator that there is a problem with the driver. Right-click on the device to bring up its Properties window.
There should be an error message in the properties explaining why your driver isn't working. Sometimes these messages can be hard to make sense of. This is where Google is your friend. Run the error message through a search, and you should be able to figure out what the issue is.
If it turns out the issue is that the driver is bad, missing, or out of date, it's a fairly easy fix. Go to the device manufacturer's website and see if they have a driver you can download that's compatible with your OS. You can also try using the Update Driver button in the manager to see if your system can do the legwork for you.
You can also use the Roll Back Driver or Uninstall functions. Sometimes an update or change to your computer can mess up your driver so the Roll Back can help course-correct. The benefits of doing an Uninstall (or going the whole hog with a full-on System Restore) is that Windows will hopefully reinstall and properly configure the correct driver when it comes back on and you reconnect your USB drive.
Let's say you've tried out all these different options with your driver and it's still not recognizing your USB device. At this point, you may be looking at partitioning problem, which means it's time to reformat your drive.
Reformatting Your USB Device
You can use Windows Disk Management to fix any partition issues you have with the drive. The partitions in your flash drives are allocated spaces for data storage. Partitions divide up huge chunks of data into more manageable chunks. Sometimes a flash drive will lack partitions or have too many of them, which can create issues when it's trying to connect with your computer. Your computer can't use an unpartitioned flash drive.
Using Disk Management, you can right-click inside the unpartitioned drive. Select 'New Simple Volume' and use the wizard to create a new partition.
If your drive IS partitioned and it is still not showing up, make sure you've set a drive letter on it so you can access it in Windows. Normally this happens automatically, but sometimes a drive letter can be accidentally unset. Without the drive letter, your USB device may not show and be accessible in Windows.
To assign a USB drive letter, right-click on the removable drive and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'. All you have to do at this point is select a letter for your drive and you should be set!
Let's say you do all that and you're STILL having trouble. It could mean that the drive is partitioned with the wrong file system. Windows can't read a flash drive that's been formatted with Linux or Mac file systems. This is a pretty easy fix: Simply right-click on the partition of your drive and select 'Format'.
An important thing to keep in mind about formatting: Formatting your USB drive WILL erase any data you have on it. Make sure you safely backup or store your data elsewhere before you reformat. If, for example, you have a Mac formatted drive, backup the data onto a Mac device before formatting your flash drive for Windows.
In Conclusion
There are all sorts of reasons why your computer may not be able to recognize your USB. If this happens, don't panic: Just follow the steps we've outlined and nine times out of ten that should solve your recognition problems. If you try all this and it doesn't work, you may have a dud drive on your hands.
Got any questions or comments about your own USB issues? Premium would love to hear about them, so send us a message.
Summary: Don't know how to fix when USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac? Try these 4 solutions in this page and use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data necessarily.
- Table of contents
- 1. Why the USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac?
- 2. How to fix/repair 'USB flash drive not mounting' issue on Mac?
- 3. How to recover lost data from unmounted/unrecognizable USB flash drives?
When I plugged in my USB flash drive on macOS High Sierra, I can't see it in Finder or on the Desktop. So, I went to Disk Utility, it was there. But the USB flash drive was grayed out in Disk Utility and I could not mount it. How can I fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac?
It is user-friendly that Mac will automatically mount the inserted USB flash drives. However, if the USB flash drive is not mounted on Mac, you will lose access to the USB flash drive as well as to the data stored on it. But don't worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix 'USB flash drive not mounting on Mac' without data loss even if external hard drive is not showing up on Mac.
Why the USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac?
What makes the hard drive not working problems like USB flash drive unmounted on Mac can be various. This is because that this external drive is connected to the Mac computer through USB cable, USB port and many other components. The possible reasons for this issue include:
Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up
- Faulty connections like broken cable and wobbly USB port
- File system errors, volume header corruptions, etc. in the USB flash drive
- Disk Utility failure, log file corruption, OS malfunction on this Mac
- Physical damage and other factors
How to fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac?
No matter what results in unmountable USB flash drive, it's urgent to fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac. Here are 4 solutions to this unmounted USB flash drive issue according to different causes, you can check them one by one.
Solution 1: Check the USB flash drive in System Information
If you plug this USB flash drive into your Mac computer but get no sign that this drive is mounting on Mac, you can check System Information to see if this USB flash drive is showing up.
Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up Iphone
- Step 1: Go to Utilities and choose System Information.
- Step 2: Double-click on its icon to open it and choose USB in the left sidebar.
- Step 3: Check if your USB flash drive is detected by the system in the right box.
If your USB flash drive is not showing up in the right box, you can try to re-plug it, or change another USB port and cable to connect it. Family feud official website.
Solution 2: Check the Finder Preferences
Sometimes, you just can't find the USB flash drive in Finder and on the desktop, but actually, it is mounted on your Mac and just not showing up. Check the Finder Preferences and see if it will appear.
- Step 1: Click Finder and choose Preferences in the top menu bar.
- Step 2: Check External Disks in General tab so that the USB flash drive can be shown on the desktop.
- Step 3: Go to Sidebar and check External disks so that they can be located in Finder.
Solution 3: Check and repair this USB flash drive with Disk Utility
If you still can't access your USB flash drive thereafter, you can go to Disk Utility which is a built-in utility to fix disk problems. Hp easy scan help. If it is greyed out in Disk Utility, you can manually mount this USB flash drive.
- Step 1: Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Click on View option and choose 'Show all devices'.
- Step 3: Click on the name of your USB flash drive.
- Step 4: Select Mount in the upper menu bar.
If the Mount button is greyed out and you can't mount this USB flash drive manually, then there could be some disk errors. Fortunately, you can use First Aid in Disk Utility to repair this unmountable USB flash drive.
- Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Choose the grayed-out USB flash drive.
- Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Solution 4: Fix the unmountable USB flash drive by reformatting
However, if Disk Utility fails to repair this external drive because of serious file system corruption, you can only fix this by reformatting. The thing you need to keep in mind is that reformatting will erase all files on this USB flash drive, which means, you need to make sure an existing file backup. Or you can recover lost data from the unmountable USB flash drive before you fix the USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac by reformatting.
Sandisk Usb Not Showing Up Iphone
- Step 1: Go to Utilities and choose System Information.
- Step 2: Double-click on its icon to open it and choose USB in the left sidebar.
- Step 3: Check if your USB flash drive is detected by the system in the right box.
If your USB flash drive is not showing up in the right box, you can try to re-plug it, or change another USB port and cable to connect it. Family feud official website.
Solution 2: Check the Finder Preferences
Sometimes, you just can't find the USB flash drive in Finder and on the desktop, but actually, it is mounted on your Mac and just not showing up. Check the Finder Preferences and see if it will appear.
- Step 1: Click Finder and choose Preferences in the top menu bar.
- Step 2: Check External Disks in General tab so that the USB flash drive can be shown on the desktop.
- Step 3: Go to Sidebar and check External disks so that they can be located in Finder.
Solution 3: Check and repair this USB flash drive with Disk Utility
If you still can't access your USB flash drive thereafter, you can go to Disk Utility which is a built-in utility to fix disk problems. Hp easy scan help. If it is greyed out in Disk Utility, you can manually mount this USB flash drive.
- Step 1: Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Click on View option and choose 'Show all devices'.
- Step 3: Click on the name of your USB flash drive.
- Step 4: Select Mount in the upper menu bar.
If the Mount button is greyed out and you can't mount this USB flash drive manually, then there could be some disk errors. Fortunately, you can use First Aid in Disk Utility to repair this unmountable USB flash drive.
- Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Choose the grayed-out USB flash drive.
- Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Solution 4: Fix the unmountable USB flash drive by reformatting
However, if Disk Utility fails to repair this external drive because of serious file system corruption, you can only fix this by reformatting. The thing you need to keep in mind is that reformatting will erase all files on this USB flash drive, which means, you need to make sure an existing file backup. Or you can recover lost data from the unmountable USB flash drive before you fix the USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac by reformatting.
How to recover lost data from unmounted/unrecognizable USB flash drives?
Can't open the unmountable USB flash drive but don't want to lose data? You can still get your files back with USB flash drive data recovery software before you reformat this drive.
As one of the most professional USB data recovery software, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended. It can recover lost data from unmountable, unreadable, and corrupted USB flash drive, recover deleted/lost files from emptied Mac trash. Moreover, this software performs well in recovering data from hard drives, external hard drives, flash drives, USB sticks, SD cards, and other storage devices. Data recovery is allowed on macOS 10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable USB flash drive with Mac data recovery software
- Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
- Step 2: Connect your USB flash drive to the Mac and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- Step 3: Select the unmountable USB flash drive and click 'Next' button to scan all lost files.
- Step 4: Preview the scanning results by double-clicking, choose files that you want to recover, and click 'Recover' button to get lost data back.
Note: In case you lose the recovered files again in the next reformatting step, you'd better save these files to another reliable drive.
Step 2: Reformatting this USB flash drive without data loss
After recovering data from this unmountable USB flash drive, you can reformat this USB flash drive without worrying about losing anything important.
- Step 1: Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Click the icon of unmountable USB flash drive on the left part of the window.
- Step 3: Click the Erase button on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- Step 4: Complete the related information(name, format, scheme), then click Erase button.
When the process finished successfully, your USB flash drive will be mountable on the Mac computer again. But the case is, no matter how powerful USB flash drive data recovery software is, the best way to recover files from external drives is to recover them from backups. So, remember to duplicate your files this time.
You may also want to know:
HSD not mounting or seen in Disk Utility? Tutorial to fix SD card not mounting on Mac and recover lost data from unmountable SD card on macOS.
